Niagara Triathlon

Couple weekends ago, I competed in the Niagara Sprint Triathlon (Swim/Bike). The race included a 750m swim in Lake Ontario, and a 25km bike which included an incredibly steep 2km up the escarpment. The hill was slightly shorter than the one in the Milton Tri earlier in June, however it was much steeper. Going into the race my swimming was continuing to improve and my goal for the swim would be 10:30 which would equate to 1:24/100m. My wave was the third wave to go. In hindsight, I wish before the race I had asked to go into the elite category who would go first, however I started two groups back, which would mean needing to meander through the water passing people, and having to significantly slow down at the turns to get around people. I felt my goal time was reasonable considering the times I had been hitting in the week leading into the race, however, I failed to take into account the effect of swimming in a big lake like Lake Ontario, were the water would be much more choppy than both a pool, and Guliver's Lake, where I have been swimming on a pretty regular basis, which is only 1km the whole way around. In the previous 4 races, I have averaged 70, 72, 72, and 74 strokes per minute respectively, however this race owing to the choppy water averaged 78 stroke per minute, which may not sound significant, but for the first 5:30 of the swim my stroke rate was in the 80s and topped out at 96 stroke per minute ---THAT's my hand entering the water every 0.625 seconds which is very quick for me at least. Even though the overall average isn't probably hugely different from the previous swims, this one in the water just felt like the only way I could move forward was to spin my arms as quickly as possible, and didn't feel like each stroke was taking me very far. This will definitely be something I will look to work on in the coming months: being able to sustain a high stroke rate to make up for the choppy water conditions, but at the same time maintaining a good catch and pull in the water. In any case, I managed to finish the swim in 10:58 seconds which is slower than I wanted, but I was content with it. What I will say is that after the last two days' swims that time is in need of some serious revision. Yesterday I averaged approximately 1:20/100m for 22 100s, will minimal recovery (in some cases leaving on 1:25 [less than 5 second recovery]), and today I did 4 800s and did 2 of the 800s in 11:25 with what I would consider an easy perceived rating of exertion (in other words on a scale of 1-10, 10 represented all out effort, I would rate this around a 6). As 750m that pace time equates to approximately 10:30 for the 750m, and I did that twice. So I'm still feeling very optimistic for the future.

Next was onto the bike, which I where I feel most comfortable. My fixed power meter (brand new spider) was not yet installed on my bike so once again I would be going entirely by feel. This was not optimal considering the hill we were about to face very early on in the race, since helping with pacing up a climb is probably one of a power meters best contributions. Nevertheless, I stormed out of transition and immediately hit the gas. The first 4 minutes before the hill I averaged 43 km/hr. Once I got to the hill the pace significantly dropped, averaging 23 km/hr for the next 4 minutes, however considering many of my competitors were having to walk their bikes up the hill (it was really that steep), I was pretty happy with the effort. I did feel like I probably didn't get my gear selection quite right for that climb, feeling that I could probably have been in a bigger gear - that is another aspect a power meter can help with since it also measures cadence, and my cadence was likely well into the 110 RPM range, which is probably too high. I will say despite the indoor trainer being the best training aid I've ever purchased, the only drawback to it is that you don't get to practice gear selection as regularly. Half way up the climb I considered going up a couple gears, but at that point I was on the steepest part of the climb, and thought that changing gears under this amount of tension could spell disaster so I stuck to it in the gear I had chosen, and got up it nicely. Was putting exhausted  for the next 20-30 seconds, but was right back at a high pace quickly. The final 20 kilometres of the race I averaged 42.4 km/hr with a few good stretches in the 50s. I had figured on the downhill back to the start (it was an out and back course so you would go down the same hill you went up) I could make up the time I lost going up the hill to get my overall average above 40 km/hr however the twists and turns in the descent, and a car going up the hill in the middle of the road which forced me to grab my brakes hard and do a pretty significant fishtail to avoid it, meant that it was difficult to blast my way down the hill and get that average above 40. Nonetheless, managed to complete the 25 km bike in 38:50 for an average of 39 km/hr. Overall I won the race by more than 10 minutes, and in all the day's race including the full Sprint Triathlon I had the second fastest bike split, and fifth fastest swim, so it was a pretty good day.

Next up is the K-Town (Kingston) Long Course Triathlon (Swim/Bike). This one will hopefully draw out some good competition, and will be a good test with a 2 km swim, and a 56 km bike. In the Welland Tri which had the exact same race distance my time for the whole race was 1:55:19, so that will be the time to beat. However, I am realizing that times in Triathlon are very difficult to compare for a number of reasons. One, weather plays a much more significant role than in running race, due to the effect on both the water, and the major effect that wind has on the bike. Also, all races have different transition set-ups, and locations of the timing mats, and locations for mount/dismount lines for the bike leg. For instance, in Guelph the timing mat for the swim was about a 200m run up the beach to the entrance of the transition area. In Niagara, the timing mat was right at the exit of the water. In Welland, you had to go up a flight of stairs to the transition, and then run your bike approximately 200 m out to the road to where you could mount your bike. So it's very difficult to measure improvement by time, however, this week I will have a fully functioning power meter on my bike (it is beauty) therefore it will help judge how good I am really getting on the bike, and then serve as a comparator for future races.