Thursday, August 31, 2017

ITU World Championship Analysis/Strategy Part 2

In my very recent last post, I gave sort of a play-by-play of the events at the ITU World Championships in Penticton, where I was crowned the overall World Champion for the AG Race. I gave a little detail on my inner thoughts throughout the race, but I thought it would be a good addition to speak a little bit about the strategy that lead to that result. If you look at the results I recorded from the race the first two legs of they race were solid but not earth shattering. My swim was pretty good and put me in contention out of the water, and my bike was pretty good again leaving me in contention for the win coming off the bike. However, when you look a little more detailed into the numbers I managed, neither the swim or the bike, really showcased what I believe I'm truly capable of but still lead to the overall win by a good margin against some of the best in the world. Here's what I mean:

The Swim: 

I swam 42:57 for the 3km swim. That is around a 1:25/100m average, and around 3:45 slower than I swam about 5 weeks earlier in an open 3km swim race. That is about 7 seconds per 100 slower than that previous swim. Granted that 3km swim race didn't have a 120km bike, or 30km run afterwards, and it was largely impacted by the conditions on the day where for the middle 750m I was essentially unable to sight, and had no idea if I was actually going the right direction or not thanks to the blinding sunlight but still I could definitely swim faster.

The Bike: 

I biked the 120km route with 3600ft in 3:07 which is 38.5km/hr. This is 7 minutes slower than my initial goal time of 3 hrs but I gave myself a 10 minute window of anywhere between 2:55 and 3:05. When I put that goal time together months ago I didn't take into account however the very technical descent after the big climb on McClean Creek where it would be hard to fully make up for the time lost on the climb, and I didn't account for the technical section coming into the finish of lap 1, 2, and 3 near the transition. In this section there were a number of hairpin turns and one full 180 degree turn which slowed the speed significantly. Still if you look at the power it was around 10-15 W less than I planned (10 W less than what my goal was, and 15 less that I figured I could push on a perfect day). Yes, the power was hampered by 2 long descents, done two times each, where my goal power would've been a stretch to sustain but less power is less power. The descents of course would've had a huge impact on the average power, but the normalized power would not have been so heavily impacted and it too was less than the goal. And that goal power wasn't one that I just pulled out of nowhere, it was based on my power in Racine (I took about 15 W off my Racine power since this is 30km longer), and 120km training rides where I've held similar if not higher numbers. In fact, I had a training ride on June 3rd where I rode 119km in 3 hours flat with 2000ft gain and my power was 23 W higher than it was in Penticton. If you extended that training ride out to 120km it would be a 3:01:32 time which is 5:30 faster than my time on Sunday - and that is in training ride, and on a Cervelo P2 not a P5 with Sram etap, a ceramic speed UFO chain, and a Zipp 454 NSW upfront to compliment the Revolver Aysmm disc in the rear.

So with those numbers in mind, how then did I manage a win in a World Championship race. Initially even though I won, when I looked at the numbers, I'm not going to lie, I felt a little disappointed that I could for sure have gone harder on the bike and harder in the swim. But here's the thing even though the training I did going into Penticton indicates that no doubt I could have gone faster on the swim and the bike, by no means does it take away from my performance on Sunday, and it doesn't mean that all that training was useless. The way I look at it is that because I pushed 23 watts less on the bike than I did on that 120km training ride and swam 7 seconds slower by 100 than I'm capable of it meant that going into the run I had that much more energy than all my competitors, and won the race by putting massive chunks of time into every one of them on the run. Basically I built the swim pace, and bike pace/power up to such a high point in training that on race day I was able to swim and ride at a lower percentage of what I could do but that lower pace/power was still high enough thanks to the incredibly hard training to get me off the bike in contention for the win, and then run my opponents legs off. Also their is the pretty obvious fact that on that 120km training ride, and multiple other long hard rides I never ran 30km immediately after them. So really who knows what would happen if on that great June 3rd ride I tried to run 30km right afterwards. Actually I could answer that question because in Wisconsin 70.3 only a week after, I tried to bike a similar effort and then on the 21.1km run off the bike, I was getting medical attention 8km into the race, had to walk through a the aid stations, and couldn't see straight thanks to extreme glycogen depletion/dehydration and it was difficult to see through all the tears of pain in my eyes.

Penticton was an incredible learning experience because it really showed me how critical the balance is between the 3 disciplines, and that you need to be so smart with how you use your energy. The fact is that at the end of the race you don't get any award for how fast your swim was (well in Ironman's you get a award from Roka but that's not my point), or how much power you were able to push on the bike. Really it doesn't matter. But what does matter is knowing how to divide your available energy so that you cross the line completely empty and in the fastest time possible. I figured on this day in Penticton, that my best chance of winning the World Championship was to ride a little more conservative and a time that left me in contention but most of all to make sure that I was able to run to my potential. If for example I biked that 5 minutes faster, than who knows I may have been walking during the latter stages of the run, instead of running close to a perfect even split race running a 59:46 opening 15km and following that up with a 1:01:09 final 15km. Having said all this I'm not by any means saying that this is the recipe to win every race, and I'm just going to replicate this strategy over and over throughout my upcoming pro career. No, instead I need to work hard to find that balance of how hard can I swim and bike, and then still run well. Now that after this race I have much more confidence in my running legs, perhaps I can go harder on the bike in upcoming races, since in Penticton there was a lot of uncertainty of whether or not my legs would hold up at all for 30km. I had done one single 30km training run leading into Penticton where I ran first thing in the morning not having biked before, and was in a world of pain even though I only ran 2:07 which is 6 minutes slower than Penticton. So that run despite making it the distance, having not biked before, and being in that much pain throughout the second half didn't exactly leave me feeling super confident in my run legs. All of this learning about the balance between the three disciplines especially the bike and run will come with experience. Remember most of my racing has been Aquabikes to this point and in my entire triathlon career stretching back a "whole 2 years" I've now ran off the bike in a race situation 7 times, and three of those are in sprint/olympic distances. So there is lots of time and experience to gain in the future for sure. And this will continue in Chattanooga for the 70.3 Ironman World Championships where my gameplan will look very different than Penticton. Essentially thanks to having the pressure off of getting my pro card, I'm just going to go for it and race very aggressively from the start. My focus will be the bike where I will try to push about 10 W more than I did in Racine, and if that's too much it's too much, chalk it up as a learning experience and in the future I'll know that is too aggressive of a power plan. But if it works, and now that I have much more confidence in my run legs, then I back the bike up with a solid run and achieve a smoking fast time.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

ITU Worlds Penticton Long Course Recap


This past weekend as you know was the World Championship for Long Course Triathlon in  Penticton, BC. Going into the race I knew this would be the biggest challenge that I've ever taken on taking into account both the immense distance of the race and the number of major injuries that I've had all year and in the weeks leading into the race post Racine 70.3. My Mom and stepdad Keith arrived in Penticton on Tuesday, and we all were immediately surprised at the look of the Okanagan landscape. In our minds we imagined that the Okanagan was lush and green, being known for its wine and food, but it turns out it is actually categorized as a desert region. In fact in Penticton it hadn't rained in more than 40 days when we arrived. The landscape though was definitely striking with its beautiful and massive lake and large foothills at the water's edge on either side of the lake.  

The very first day in Penticton, my first run was less than inspiring struggling in the immense heat, and finding it hard to breathe with the smoke in the air from nearby forest fires. On Wednesday things got a little worse when standing in the parking lot of the hotel (which was fantastic being right on the water and at the race start) my rear disc wheel got a puncture. I kept my cool (sort of) and we all hunted for a solution. I figured if I got a new tubular I could get it glued in time for the race - it takes about 3 days to properly glue on a tubular tire since you need to apply multiple layers of glue and let each layer dry for about 8 hours before applying the next layer and then after the fourth layer and mounting the tire you need to wait about 36 hours to let the cement glue completely dry. Luckily we found a bike store in town called the Bike Barn which was very close to the hotel who had just one high performance tubular tire left in stock. I also purchased a very cheap aluminum wheel to use with the bike for training in the interim while I prepared the disc. Unfortunately the wheel was very heavy and it jumbled up my gear shifting which really affected the performance of the bike for my training rides. In fact on my first ride training ride I was only able to use three gears without the bike making a racket which made cresting the huge climbs on the course quite a challenge. The problem was that while I could easily index the rear derailleur for a mechanical groupset such as Shimano Ultegra on my road bike using the barrel adjuster, I'm not familiar with how to adjust the wireless etap and I haven't learned since getting the bike a short while ago since with a wireless system like etap once the derailleur is set in place there are no cables that could stretch so unless the derailleur is hit by something in a crash or something you should never have to index the gears on it. On this bike though now that their was a different wheel it meant the gears were off and the performance was poor. 


Throughout the week though I spent a good amount of time learning the technical bike course and by Friday had the winding technical descent down and memorized so much so that on the final go of the descent (on Friday I rode the climb leading to it and the descent three times over) I was able to go without braking at all and able to somewhat confidently pedal down the descent and even get up and hammer out of the saddle before one of the sharp hairpin turns. Unfortunately out on that ride my eyes were burning throughout from the smoke and when I returned to the room my eyes were completely bloodshot. Swimming throughout the week was okay it was nice to be able to train in the lake and the lake was a perfect temperature for swimming, but my stroke didn't feel particularly good. I find if I'm out of the pool for too long, swimming in a lake for multiple days in a row, my stroke looses some of its power. Running was okay, was having some hamstring issues as usual and my legs just felt pretty achy in general. So overall, I would say training in the five days leading into the race didn't leave me feeling super strong and confident but tried to stay positive and thought the training didn't really matter at this point anyways as the hay was already in the barn. I did though have quite a good run workout on the Friday and a great pre race day of training on the Saturday with a fantastic hard high intensity bike workout (the same bike workout I do the day before every race) a good short brick off the bike, and moderate paced 1500m lake swim. On Friday though disaster struck. I went down to the bike mechanic van outside the hotel to get the cassette from the aluminum wheel transferred back over to the disc but found out that the glue hadn't taken at all. I think it was a combo of trying to speed the process of gluing up too much, and not having good light in the hotel room to be able to even see how much glue I was applying (which obviously wasn't enough). After panicking for a little bit my mom and Keith ripped over to the Pasta Dinner that was happening at the time to see if anyone would have a spare wheel and speak to Triathlon Canada to see if they could help, as both me and my brother called almost every bike store on the west coast to see if they had something I could use. We found a couple things that could possibly work pretty far away in Vancouver and Seattle but really when it comes down to it after riding the Revolver Disc and knowing how good and fast it is, I couldn't imagine riding anything else on race day. So I wanted to give the gluing one more shot, and figured if now at 7:30pm on Friday night I took the tire off slathered the wheel and tire again with glue and remounted the tire, that the tire could potential be ready for Sunday morning. I definitely would not be able to test the disc out or warmup my race day super chain (Ceramic Speed UFO chain which saves 2-5 Watts), or test the gears to see if they worked well under high torques, but if it meant I could ride the Revolver Disc it would be worth the effort. So I glued the tire back on, and then me and Keith mustered up the strength of ten men to stretch the tubular onto the rim to set it in place (If you have ever tried mounting a non-pre-stretched tubular tire onto the rim I recommend you make sure to hydrate before and throughout, maybe take a HotShot, and finish off with some Infinit Repair to recover from the hard effort). On Saturday took the bike over to the Bike Barn where the people there where incredibly helpful and I really can't thank all the mechanics, and employees like Andre there enough for helping me get the bike ready for Sunday's Race. They changed the cassette over to the disc, checked my gluing job which they said was absolutely perfect and no doubt safe for riding (my Mom still wasn't entirely convinced wanting to maybe wrap me all up in bubble wrap, and then wrap the disc in duct tape lol), and install the super UFO chain. They did an incredible job re-indexing the gears and even did the labour for free in exchange of me returning the aluminum wheel to them, so in the end it didn't cost anything. Now it was time to quickly run over to bike check in, get the bike into transition, and then shift all my focus to Sunday. I did a good 1.5 hour long session in the Normatec Recovery Boots, which left my legs feeling nice and loose, pounded down a massive plate of pasta, had a pre-nightime advil to build up the anti-inflammatories into the bloodstream, and then laid down for a few hours before waking up at 3:30am to get it going on race day. 

Sunday morning (3:30am) was pretty cool to start, and the winds were calm. The swim would be wetsuit legal which I was thrilled at since I could unleash the Zone3 Vanquish. I was incredibly nervous before this race, probably more nervous than I ever have been. But after my pre-game rituals of watching Ryan Hall's Boston Marathon Run Workout video, which I have done before every road race so that I can visualize that stride throughout the entire run, and since starting triathlon watching Sun Yang 1500m Freestyle Race from Worlds a couple year's ago to visualize during the swim, I was ready to go. The pro wave went off at 6:20am, then the pro women about 5 minutes later, then the Paratriathletes, and then me and the rest of those in the 18-49 Age groups at 6:35am. Sheryl let me know on Friday during her race that the start was frantic and chaotic, and this start lived up to that. It was by far the most aggressive swim start I've ever been a part of, getting kicked, punched and wacked from all angles. It took a long time to navigate around the masses to get some room to swim, and by about 500m I was completely on my own. I felt pretty good but then as I approached the first turn bouy to go east the sun crested the hills in the east and I got completely blinded by the sun. I had to start breathing to my left to not look straight into it, but once we turned east there was no way to avoid looking into it when you where sighting straight ahead to see where the next bouy was. I got totally thrown off course because I literally could not see a thing, but eventually saw some splashing to my left and went over there to catch up to those swimmers.
Turns out they were the female pros who started about 10 minutes before. I stayed there for a little just until I could see the next bouy and then finally made the turn south back to shore (another 1200m). Now the sun was to my left so I could breathe to the right as I normally would and cranked the pace back up again. The thing is on the west to east section of the swim, my pace dropped significantly since psychologically it is very hard to swim all out when you are not entirely sure if you are going the right direction. But in the last 1000m I started ripping knowing that I need to try to make up time lost both at  the start of chaotic swim, and in that last section. I was completely solo again and it stayed that way all the way until the finish of the swim. I would say in the entire swim I was completely solo for 2600 out of the 3000 meters. One day I will get someone to draft of I hope. I got out of the water not sure where I was entirely in the field, but felt pretty good with the swim. It was about 3 minute slower than I anticipated but I think that was heavily influenced by the blinding section for the middle 750meters. The first 1500m I swam 20 minutes flat which is pretty much bang on what I wanted (1:20/100m), but the middle 750 across into the sun I swam 1:30 average and that hurt the time significantly. Still got out of the water feeling pretty energetic and ready to get after the bike. 

The bike was broken up into three sections. First there was an flat out and back to the north on Hwy 97, then two loops around Skaha Lake which would be very hilly at the southern part of the lake with two major climbs and a very technical descent. On the out and back I got into a good rhythm pretty quickly. In fact it was the most "relaxed" I've felt at the start of the bike. Not that I was chilling but that in most of my races I get very anxious to start hammering, and my breathing tends to get out of control early in the bike before settling. This time I was quickly on my goal power of 4.7 W/kg, at about 265 W and on the out and back of 25km I averaged 42.3 km/hr. I did take the u-turn at the turnaround quite gingerly because in my head I was still thinking a little bit about the freshly glued tubular, but tried to quickly forget about it since I knew I couldn't take the upcoming technical descents so cautiously.
I started my first loop feeling pretty good, but also knowing I lost quite a bit of time on the way to start the second loop with a competitor in front of me who would not move over to the side for me to pass. This slowed me up quite a bit, but angrily put the hammer down after he finally gave me a sliver of space to make the pass. After that flew down the road on the east side of Skaha and reached the 40km in a "within race" PB for 40km of 55:42. The first climb of McClean creek I was so pumped that my climbing legs felt fantastic. I felt super comfortable spinning quickly up the climb at around 315W, and then went what I thought was fast down the technical descent until an Australian competitor and French competitor flew past me. On the following climb, (the biggest on the course) up 97 North on the west side of Skaha, I flew past and seemingly just walked away from both the Aussie, and Frenchmen pushing 343 W or 6 W/kg up the long climb. Again though on the long descent both the Aussie and Frenchmen passed me. The second loop was pretty much a carbon copy of the first. I ripped up and past both the Aussie and Frenchmen on the McClean Creek climb and then even though I tried to be even more aggressive not touching the brakes once and even getting up out of the saddle to pedal on the descent it didn't matter both competitors past me once again. But on the climb up 97 again past both of them with nearly identical power as the first time up the climb, however this time only the Frenchmen past me on the descent, and I stayed clear of the Aussie. Into transition, I was somewhat pleased by my bike even though it was roughly 5 minutes slower than I wanted (I biked 3:07 for the 120km with more 3600ft of elevation gain which is 38.5km/hr, sportstats has it at 3:09 but that included the run up to the mounting line, and the run from the dismount line to the transition mat). I was not blown away by the power I managed to push on the flats, but was very happy that I was able to get off the bike with still a pretty solid time, and with my legs feeling relatively fresh (well not fresh but as good as they can probably feel post 120km bike and 3km swim), and that my nutrition on the bike was so well handled. Looking at the numbers it looks like I consumed approximately 6L of fluids on the bike (almost 2L per hour) and an absolutely mind blowing (in other words no clue how I didn't throw up or feel sick) 500 grams of carbohydrates (about 165 grams per hour!!). I don't know how I was able to handle so much because that is about double what I have trained with, but going into the run it meant I had essentially carb loaded again for the run.


Transition 1 was slow with how they set up the transition area having to run all over the place, and transition 2 was pretty much the same. But got out onto the run feeling pretty good. The legs were the usual brick type feeling but by about 2km was into my normal rhythm and was settling down. Just like I planned ahead into the race, I kept repeating over and over in my head to relax, relax, relax, and to stay relaxed for as long as possible and my body listened. I kept my cool, and wasn't too concerned with the heat. To be honest after Wisconsin this year the fact that it was 33 here in Penticton when I started the run, didn't seem very hot compared to the 42 degrees and humidity that there was in Wisconsin. By about 5km my hamstring was doing its normal thing, but I worked through it like I did in training over the last 5 weeks. I reached 5km in 19 minutes (3:50/km), and at 8km I reached a critical point in my race. I caught up to Robbie Chalfant who I caught up to at almost exactly 8km in the 70.3 Miami last November. In November last year, I had caught up to him but within the next kilometer he dropped me hard, and from there on the final 10km was a death march. This time I caught up to him and was feeling already much better. We made the turn out onto the second lap as we could hear the announcer say that these are our two leading Age group racers out on the course. That pumped me up so much.
Then I said over to Robbie to try to run to together for as long as we can. But about 1km into the second lap my legs which were pretty much in autopilot mode just floating along, kicked it up into another gear and Robbie wasnt able to stay with me. It was not one of those devastating Mo Farah type kicks or anything more of a Eluid Kipchoge gradual and methodical rev up in the pace. What was a few meters, quickly turned to 10, and 20, and soon, 200m ahead in a very short period of time. This was the turning point of my race because at that point I knew I had reached that next level. This was a guy who just 10 months ago whipped me in Miami by 16 minutes, and now I was pulling away from him. I couldn't believe it, but for just a moment thought maybe I was digging my own grave here injecting such a push in pace at only 12km into the run. But my legs felt full of energy, and kept repeating to myself to stay relaxed and just keep knocking the miles off. I reached the 20km with a big lead for the Overall Championship, and I've always said that I'm a much better front runner than I am trying to chase someone down. I feed so much adrenaline off of it, and get this running scared mentality which just makes me push harder and harder. My fueling on the run was not very good at all (really only had one gel from one of the aid stations, and a little water) but I guess my fueling on the bike was now carrying me through the run. At about 24km my legs starting to waver, and I wasn't so much an injured type feeling, but instead very similar to how my legs have felt nearing the end of marathons where they feel like your running through quicksand, and every stride feels like a huge test of strength. But this late in the game I just get telling myself "you got this, don't you dare f'in give up."
My pace stayed pretty strong only now getting into the 4:10s but stayed focused and knowing every step was getting me closer to the world title. I reached 29km, and my eyes filled with tears of happiness and pride. I grabbed the Canada flag on the way to the line, and let all my emotion out. I was the World Champion, and with that now a Professional Triathlete. I worked my butt off for this race and status, and there were so many instances the last few months were I didn't even think Penticton was going to be possible. In June when I found out my MRI results, I thought my season was over, then I got hit by car which destroyed my beautiful bike Elektra and hurt my confidence out on the road even more, not too mention a concussion, and a small break in my hand. I thought I made the biggest mistake of my life choosing to pursue this dream, and not take my Physiotherapy exam last November, or in June. The thing was though it wasn't that I ever doubted my ability, it was that I thought my injuries were going to prevent me from ever showing my ability and that made me even more sad and upset. But that adversity in the end made me even stronger and just added fuel to fire burning inside, and makes this victory even sweeter. And it was in the end how the race unfolded that made it even more satisfying.
5:58 is the actual time (6:17 is from when the pros started)
The fact that my swim was good not fantastic (thanks to the blinding sun), then the bike was good not fantastic, but that I won this race with my run. The thing that has been the biggest wildcard for the last 4 years of racing and especially last 2 years in triathlon. And I could not have done any of this with my incredible support team of: my Mom who was in the car with me on the way back from reviewing the results of the MRI with the Sports Medicine doctor, a car ride with alot of tears, but also telling me that she believes in me and supports my decision to pursue my dream 100%, and throughout the entire journey has supported me so much and done so much to get me to the finish line in Penticton. My Dad who has been there every step of the way to help me in any and every way possible, and put up with my insanity/temper tantrums on so many occasions. Keith who has believed in me from the start and had no doubt that I would achieve my dream. Sheryl who has been so much more than just my swim coach, giving so much emotional support, motivating me, and being there every step of the way to help with whatever.  And to my brother and sister for all their support and best wishes. And then at the race I need to thank the Bike Barn for being so helpful to get my bike ready in time for race day, and giving some reassurance that everything would work out. And to my sponsors throughout: Harry Walker at Revolver Wheels - the disc is truly magnificent, Zone3 for the super fast wetsuit, Rudy Project for my very comfortable/fast training road helmet the Boost and then the Wing57 for racing, Skechers Performance Canada for my fast light training and racing shoes, Compressport Canada for keeping my legs feel fresh throughout racing and training with your compression apparel, and Infinit Nutrition Canada for fueling me throughout my training and racing. This World Championship is just the start for me and there will be so much more to come in the future from Frank the Tank. Next up is the 70.3 World Championships where I will go after it hard like I always do and back this performance in Penticton up with another.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

ITU World Champs: Penticton Preview

With Penticton now less than 2 weeks away thought I do a little post on how the build has been going, what my preliminary gameplan looks like, and give some details about the challenge at hand. This year the ITU World Championships will be held in Penticton, BC. It is the first ever Multisport Festival of its kind to be held where not only will you have the Long Course Championships (my race) competed for on the Sunday August 27th, but there are also many other world titles up for grabs throughout the week such as the duathlon, the aquabike, the cross triathlon, aquathlon, etc. My race, the long course, features a 3km open water swim, followed by a 120km bike through the hilly Okanagan Valley, finishing with a 30km run in the heat of the day. A long day to say the least. Since Racine and the surgeon telling me that running would be painful but I could do so without causing more damage to my hip, I started running again. The mileage hasn't been huge, but it's been respectable considering on top of the running mileage there is 25km per week in the pool, and upwards of 550km of biking. So the run mileage in my first full week back of the running was 50km, the next week 66km, and then 62km this past week. My running has really only been focused on one thing, and that is trying to build my run specific muscular endurance. In the two races this year where I've run off half-marathons off the bike (Wisconsin, and Racine) while the injuries that I had going into both races (hip and hamstring) have slowed my run splits and made running in general quite painful, during both races it was other things that crept up over the course of the races that became just as much of a problem to deal with. In both races, by about 13-14km in the runs my calves were shredded to pieces, my back and knees began to ache and both left me in a heap post-race needing to take more than half a week to even begin to walk normally again. In fact, after the run in Racine, I have never in my entire racing career been more sore immediately post race, and in the days after the race. Even after my very first marathon where a curb or a speedbump seemed like a mountain to overcome, it was nothing to how my legs and entire body really felt after Racine. So my main goal with my running has not been to gain speed, or improve my threshold, or anything like that, it has simply been to get time in on my feet to get my legs used to the impact of running once again. The calves were slightly better in Racine then they were in Wisconsin thanks to the fact that to try to simulate running before the race I spent a good month skipping like a maniac. I had worked slowly up to skipping for an entire hour, and I do believe that really helped carry me to the finish line in Racine. Not only was it good for simulating the impact but it also did allow for a solid aerobic workout. I would  do speed sets where I would skip really fast for around a minute, 30 seconds slow, and repeat and with these was actually able to get my heart rate into the 170s. While skipping was a great substitute before, it is still slightly different to running in that you don't get that same leg extension prior to ground impact which just amplifies the impact forces (skipping is entirely vertical, running is obviously not), so I felt I needed to start running. Also from a psychological standpoint I wanted to get in some half-decent running before Penticton to help with my confidence as well as mindset going into the race and on the bike. The last three 70.3s that I've raced, I've spent the final little bit of the bike, and the entire lead-up to the race not being sure what to expect, and that just stressed me out to no end and made me race scared (instead of being hungry and chasing for the podium).

In terms, of how it has been going, I'd say better than I anticipated by a long shot, but by no means running at the high level that I know I can. The right hip is not an issue at all, but the hamstring is still a major obstacle to run through, and since it got strained in Racine around 14km my left hip flexor has been an issue especially on a hill of any kind. But I'm dealing with things, and powering through. The hamstring is barely noticeable during a straight up run, but if I'm running off the bike it's an issue. That being said I'm sort of learning how to deal with it with some stride alterations and mental distractions. I think at this point since the hamstring has been an issue for almost 10 months, there is for sure a neuro aspect to it. Essentially, I think my brain is very accustomed at this point to sending pain signals to the hamstring and that connection is so strong, as soon as I think about my hamstring mid-run it starts hurting almost instantly. In fact, not a word of a lie, when I'm watching a triathlon race like a replay of the World Championships from previous years during an indoor training ride to give some inspiration, after the athletes dismount the bike, I switch to the next race video because watching people run literally makes my hamstring hurt. Because of all this, my strategies the last few weeks have been to try not to let a little thought of the hamstring cross my mind when I'm running, and if I do start thinking about it when it starts hurting then I try to focus on something else, so I'll start trying to do a slightly different breathing pattern, or trying to run hitting each crack in the sidewalk with every footstrike (anything to try to distract me). Basically if the feeling in the hamstring becomes unavoidable I try to find some way to deal with it. When I was running earlier this year with this same issue, when the hamstring started hurting I would starting running on the grass along the sidewalk because the hamstring would never hurt running on grass or gravel. But now I'm avoiding doing that as much as possible (unless I really need to) because I know that in a race situation there will not always be a grassy shoulder to run along, so I need to come up with realistic strategies to put in place if the hamstring issue comes up during a race. Other than that it feels good to get out running again. The stride feels totally different to how I ran a few years ago, but the feeling I get when I'm out running is the same. It was also very reassuring when just last Friday I ran a 30km training run, and other than the hip flexor that was screaming by the end of it, my body was pretty good, and had enough in the tank to bike and swim afterwards. It was also nice that mentally the 30km didn't feel as long and daunting as I thought it might with the extended break due to injuries this year and lack of run mileage. I think the bike does really help with that side of things. Since a normal long bike ride may be anywhere from 4-5 hrs, the thought of running for 2 hours for the 30km actually seemed pretty short in comparison. On the biking front, things are looking good. I've done a number of very specific simulation type workouts practicing my power plan, but still keeping a good amount of high-end threshold work. Swimming has been a little inconsistent. Not from a frequency perspective of getting in the pool, but in terms of how I've been feeling when swimming. I'll have a couple days in a row where I feel like Michael Phelps, then a couple where it seems like I forgot how to swim. For example, I competed in the Embrace Open Water 3km Swim a few weeks ago where I swam 39:10 for the 3km (that also got me the win) which works out to 1:18/100m average. So I'll have that swim and then a few days later feel like I'm sprinting to swim just a single 1:20 100m. A day after that, I'll purposely try to swim very easy and I'll dip under 1:20s. Swimming is a weird thing. And I think just like running, alot of the speed in swimming comes from the mindset you have going into each workout. With swimming, the harder I try to swim, the slower I seem to go, while if I try to swim easy and relaxed the pace is much quicker. Also on the swimming front, I competed in the K-Town Triathlon - Aquabike a couple weekends ago where I won by over 20 minutes, thanks to having the 2nd fastest bike split in the entire field in all the events (including beating all of the professionals) on the beast of a new bike - the new name is Victoria (I played around with a couple names but I'm settled now on Victoria for the royalty it represents, and also that victor"y" is in the name). The bike was pretty solid despite going into the race carrying the most fatigue I ever have (my TSB [training stress balance] on trainingpeaks was negative 45 which is the most negative [most fatigued] I have been in the last two years), but the swim was the worst of my career. Mostly the conditions played the major role in my swim performance with the fact it was the choppiest water with the biggest waves (white caps) I have ever swam in, but still I lost more then  minute to some competitors that I beat by more than a minute about a month before in Welland - competitors that also had to deal with the same conditions. Granted maybe it's just they have more experience swimming in those conditions, but still the stroke didn't feel very good from the start, and that threw my rhythm off swimming for almost half a week post-race. But as I'm writing this post over a couple days, just last night I had my best swim in months with a massive main set of 30x100 on 1:25 where I averaged 1:17-1:18, followed immediately by 16x50 on 45 averaging 37-38 seconds. It was amazing and I felt in control start to finish - let's just hope that rhythm continues all the way to race day on the 27th.

So that's how the training is going what about a little bit more about the task at hand. The swim is a 3km swim and should be pretty predictable. It is a straight up 3km swim (no loops) in the Okanagon Lake which should have some pretty flat/calm water. I have not had a race yet in my career where I've had a pack to draft off of so the hope is that since this is a world championship with some of the best in the world competing I should have a few other swimmers also looking for sub a 40 minute 3km swim. 40 minutes and below (just below like 39:30) would be perfect. My number one priority/goal for the race is finishing in the Top 3 in my age-category which will earn me my professional license to compete next season, my second priority goal would be to win the category outright, and third goal which would be a good challenge considering the incredibly elite of the elites and world record holders such as favourite Lionel Sanders (the best 70.3 athlete in the world by far), Andy Potts, Paul Ambrose, Josh Amberger, Cody Beals, Jeff Symonds, Matt Leito and so on,  a Top 20 finish would be amazing. Looking at my first two goals the swim and bike will be where I need to inflict the damage. The swim I should be able to put on good size gap into my category, and then out on the bike course I will make my competitions legs crumble so that there solid run legs (couple of them including two of the Americans and one of the Brazilians are seriously fast runners) have nothing left in them to chase me down. The bike course does suit me. It is hilly, very hilly. With four monster climbs (see the elevation graph below).










But this type of course will suit me very well with my very high power to weight ratio. I have practiced doing this type of a ride numerous time holding a steady power, then amping up to climbing power, right back to steady, and then amping up again and repeating. Hard to replicate exactly with zero hills of this length and elevation gain in York Region but I've done the best I can to replicate it on the indoor trainer doing repeated 8 - 10 minute long efforts at climbing power with decent stretches out of the saddle (I used to never go out of the saddle when climbing but now for some reason I really enjoy dancing on the pedals like Alberto Contador) and instead of true recovering between efforts, been "recovering" at my normal flat road racing watts. My mindset on the bike will be to not only stay patient and focused like I did in Racine, but also to try to put time into my main competitors with each and every pedal stroke up those climbs. A good bike for me would be around the 3 hours mark (but keeping plans flexible as it says in my book I just finished Triathlon 2.0 on the bike make your plan plus or minus 5 minute so anywhere from 2:55 to 3:05 would be solid). Out on the run course it is an out and back 7.5km stretch so 7.5km out, 7.5 back twice over for 30km. I've run low 1:40 30kms before, in a straight out run but that's not what I'm hoping for in Penticton. The gameplan is 4 minute kilometers for a 2 hour run, that would be my ideal day. Now stuff happens and plans are flexible, but the number one thing in order for me to execute this gameplan on the run course, is to be smart with my nutrition/hydration on the bike so that there isn't a physiological leash on my run performance, but also that mentally I start the run as relaxed as possible and stay relaxed for as long as possible. In Racine, the reason I was able to run so well (well not in the sense that it was a world class time but well considering that I hadn't run a single stride in 2 months going into the race and had just had an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon days before the race and  still ran a 1:28 half-marathon off a hard 90km bike) was that I stayed relaxed. And really for me this starts from the second I see the dismount line on the bike. I need to keep my heart rate down, and go through transition not slowly but focused and calm. I find even on my training brick runs off the bike I have a tendency of getting so anxious to get the run going that my hands are shaking as I put on my shoes, my heart feels like it is in my throat, and my chest is pounding even though physically I'm not really doing anything that would warrant such a high spike in heart rate. In Racine, I went through transition quickly, yet at the same time I didn't rush, and I didn't try to move at lightspeed when doing simple things like putting my bib belt on, taking my HotShot for cramping, and putting my shoes on. I tried just deep breathing staying calm, and starting the run with a clear head, relaxed, and focused. In fact I got so relaxed that at 10km into that run I think my heart rate was actually going down beneath what my heart rate normally would be during a cooldown. So that's essentially the mindset for the run, start relaxed, stayed relaxed for as long as possible, let the pace happen on its own, keep the cadence quick yet smooth, take nutrition and drink on at every aid station, and stay in the moment and focused. Take each lap, each kilometer on its own and just repeat over and over in my head relax, relax, relax, and remember you were born to run this is your strength, this is just as much your weapon as that beast of a bike Victoria.

So for now that's the plan, and what's been going on until this point. For all those going out to the ITU world's in Penticton I'll cya there. For those at home, the live results will be on sportstats.ca on race day August 27th.