I'll jump right into this post right from where I left off in my last. So Guelph Lake was a heck of a day and really took a long while to sink in to think about what exactly I was feeling after the race. While I've had some great performances this year, it was definitely my biggest, and one that changed my mindset from thinking I'm a runner dabbling in triathlon, to I'm an elite triathlete, and believing that I can go far in the sport. Following the race, I had two weeks to go until the Provincial Championship in Welland for the Barrelman Half-Iron distance. Earlier in the summer I was intending on doing the full half-ironman and making my debut in that distance, but with the recurring running injuries which lessened my run mileage significantly, I decided that doing the Swim/Bike (which was also serving as the Provincial Aquabike championships) was the way to go. I had lots of great competition in the division, including a few elites, and the field for the swim bike would be much bigger than usual since it was the last triathlon in Ontario of the year and many people after already having a long season didn't feel like slogging out another Half-Ironman. So the race would be a 2km swim, following by a 90 km bike finishing in Niagara Falls. In the couple of weeks before the race, I didn't do much running at all, mostly water running, and a bunch of bike workouts. Despite having the amazing bike leg in Guelph, I was feeling pretty insecure on the bike for doing a 90 km distance at a good pace. I had been seeing some of the workouts that my competitors had been completing and they were doing a lot more long sustained efforts, and long rides in general in the 3-5 hour range. For me on the other hand I had not done a long ride over 100 km since August 20 (and that was only 110km in 3:10 up to Lake Simcoe and back). I wouldn't have time in the proceeding weeks with work to throw in another long ride, and didn't want to make the mistake of stressing myself out so much to do a billion workouts before the race that I end up burning out and not performing well at all come race day. So I focused on short and a little more intense efforts, and then one epic sustained 2 hour effort on the trainer at my target wattage exactly one week out from the race. It was the most critical workout, and I can say now that the race is over that it was what made the difference 100%. Without this workout I may have not even raced since with the illness only a couple weeks before, I was still feeling a little out of sync and out of rhythm with my training. Even with this workout there was definitely a change in my mindset and strategy: while at the beginning of the season, my intention in the water was to keep my deficit to as little as possible, with the help of my amazing coach, I now feel swimming has become one of my strengths and I can use it to put time into my competitors. In the weeks leading into the race, I was having some truly epic, pb setting swims which I won't divulge out do to them being her intellectual property. Going into the race my main competition were two other very strong cyclists, one who was the UltraMan World Champion, and the other who competes regularly at the 6 hour Time Trial World Championships and has finished 2nd there. For these two 90 km at a high pace would be a walk in the park, not to mention the fact that this was a pancake flat course where absolute wattage would be the more important number compared to W/kg***. For these two they are both much bigger, and taller guys than me, and would have no issue pumping out some huge wattage numbers. If it was a hilly course it would be in my favour since I can produce more W/kg than most people in which case my light frame gives me the edge going uphill. So my mindset in this case was simple, put as much time as humanely possible into both of them during the swim and hang on to whatever lead I had. One issue would also be that there wave started a couple minutes after mine so I would not be able to tell where there were in relation to me unless they came right up alongside me, which given my headstart would mean I was losing.
***Training Terminology and Tips: For those not familiar with cycling lingo let me break down a couple key concepts when it comes to training. When you pedal you produce power with each pedalstroke. Power, measured in watts, is the combination of force multiplied by velocity meaning to increase the amount of power you produce you can either pedal at the same cadence (revolutions per minute) and change into a higher gear, or stay in the same gear and increase your cadence (pedal faster). When you measure your power two metrics are the absolute power and the power/kg. So if two people are producing an absolute power of 300 W, but one is 60 kg versus 80 kg, the 60 kg person is producing 5 W/kg, whereas the 80 kg individual is producing only 3.75 W/kg. Now W/Kg is often thought of as the most important metric in cycling. Most professional cyclist in the Tour de France for example could sustain 5 W/kg for around an hour, and to win the tour de france it is estimated that you need to be able to sustain 5.9-6.0 W/kg for 30-40 minutes at a time, 3-4 times per stage (in the high altitude mountains). In other words you need to be an aerobic monster, or pay good enough doctors to make you one ;). While its true W/kg is a crucial value, the higher your number the faster you can climb mountains since the lighter you are the less weight you need to hull up the side of a mountain, it really depends on what terrain your racing. For example if a course is dead flat it 300 W is 300 W whether you are 56 kg or 80 kg. My latest FTP suggests that I could sustain 5.5 W/kg for one hour, however the fact that I'm 56 kg means while 5.5 W/kg is a big number it is only 308 W, a number some elite cyclists like those in this race could take apart on a flat course.
So that's exactly what I did. Despite a really rocky opening 100m where I was tossed, kicked, and pushed around in the water, I put together a PB setting swim and the second fastest swim of the day in the field including all the professionals in the half-iron field: 27:22 for 2km (1:21/100m). I had no clue I could swim that fast, and this would set me up beautifully for the bike with a big lead. That swim was more than 1:30 faster than a couple months before on the same exact swim course in Welland. Then onto the bike. My intention for the race was to push 240+W and keep the power as consistent as possible. First 10 km I pushed 262 W, then settled in and rolled along at 242 W for a while. As we entered the loop section of the course on the most western end of the course, for those of us out front we hit a major storm, torrential rain, wind, and some hail. It was brutal for a little while, and then strangely as soon as we made the turn around back towards Welland it was sunny again. Going into the race like I previously mentioned I hadn't been on a long ride in a while, and I had not been outside at all on my bike since Guelph so I wasn't sure how staying in my aero position for so long would go. Oddly though, I managed to stay in my aerobars non-stop for pretty much the entire race except to grab a bottle at the bottle exchange and on a couple turns. I passed 40 km at 59:42 which is a PB for me over that distance, and then the average speed only went up from there then next 5km splits the average speed was 42.7 kph, 41.1, 42.5, 42.2, 41.3 and I actually managed on the last 5km to average 44 kph and 245 W. For the entire ride I averaged exactly 241 W the exact same wattage that I average on the 2 hour ride the weekend before, and completed the 90 km course in 2:09:48 for 41.6 kph average. I won by 2 minutes thanks to my swim, and am officially Provincial Aquabike Champion. It was a perfect complete race without any flaws. I felt strong in the water, and strong on the bike, and afterwards still felt pretty good to jog over to the tent to get my medals, and finishing memorabilia.
After the race with the latest couple of wins, I set out to find another sponsor, specifically a nutrition sponsor. I've always valued my nutrition so highly, and with my next big race the National Championships in Miami in the Half-Ironman distance (2 km swim, 90 km bike, 21.1 km run) coming soon on November 13, my coach has stressed that narrowing down my race-day nutrition will be critical given the distance of the race. This is the type of distance where you can't out-train your nutrition, and if you fuel poorly during the race, you will be left wobbling and seeing stars on the side of the road watching your competitors fly by. So with her recommendations and lots of research I sent out a few emails, and I am now officially sponsored by Infinit Nutrition. I'm so stoked to work with this company given there highly scientifically based approach, and being able to work with the company one on one to develop a custom nutrition blend specific to my needs. I've already had a nutrition consult with my coach and with Infinit and we've develop my own blend where we upped the carbohydrate content and sodium content to match my sweat rate, upped the amino acids, added a tiny amount of protein to help kickstart recovery early on, and gave it my own flavour. The companies post-workout formulas are incredible too with a Repair mix for highly strenous sessions with a 4:1 ratio of Carb to protein, and rescue mix for more strength based effort with a 2:1 ratio, a straight whey protein isolate mix to up the protein content of some everyday meals, or add into smoothies or what not, and a night-time mix to wake up recovered for the next day's work. So next up all my focus is on Miami. I will post soon about how my training is going, and how my nutrition is coming along.
Thanks again to my Sponsors Skechers Performance for the help this year, Sheryl my amazing swim coach for helping me swim faster than I literally ever imagined, and Infinit Nutrition who I am super excited to work with in the future.
