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.

Racine 70.3: Frigid Water Temperatures, High Winds, and many Unknowns

As many of you know by now it was a bit a rough month heading into Racine 70.3 in Wisconsin (about 1.5 hours north of Chicago along Lake Michigan). After the disappointment and immense amount of pain experienced at Wisconsin 70.3 from hip, hamstring, and problems in the extreme 42 degree C heat, the struggles continued getting hit by a car a few days after the race on a training ride in Thornhill. I had got hit only about half a kilometer from home. Physically I wasn’t too bad; I had minor scrapes and cuts on my ankles and elbows, a very badly sprained wrist (which two weeks later was still really sore but x-rays showed no fractures), and had a headache for about 3 days. Physically I wasn’t broken, but my beautiful girl Elektra was badly damaged. The frame, fork, front wheel, and front brake were all damaged; there was no coming back for her. I built that bike piece by piece over the last 2 years, with who knows how many hours researching various components to put onto the bike, days worth of training in the pain cave on her, and then hours and hours of cleaning and maintaining her to look and ride like she was brand new day after day. A couple days post crash I trained a little on Esperanza, my loyal road bike who is 6 years old and in perfect condition still, and then my coach contacted a fellow local triathlete who happened to have a Cervelo P5, which was not currently being used, in my size (48cm frame) and she very kindly and generously let me burrow the bike until I figured things out with mine as well as her deep zipp 808 front wheel. I can’t thank Jennifer enough for letting me burrow the bike, and to Sheryl, my swim coach, for contacting her and organizing this. It helped reduce so much stress worrying if I would have any bike to race in Racine, or in Welland a few weeks earlier, and also having a bike with a power meter so I could continue my training as normal.

A few weeks before Racine, I competed in the Aquabike at the Rose City Triathlon in Welland, where I dominated the competition with a solid swim, and then the fastest bike split in the entire field, including the pros, averaging 42.5km/hr for the 56km bike course. The next day I heard from insurance that they were going to pay entirely for the cost of the replacement which I was so happy at since the replacement cost was going to be steep. Given that I couldn’t get some of the components on the bike to be the same since they were no longer available, and finding a frame in a 48cm size is very challenging, especially just as a frameset (paying for just the frame of the bike not the wheel and components – very few bike stores sell only framesets), I was needing to do some serious research which consumed pretty much every afternoon and evening after training. I called every Cervelo dealer across North America trying to find a replacement frame, and also looking at a couple other brands such as Felt, which I really like, and Trek. Finally one store came through giving me a big discount (due to the circumstances of being in a crash) on a 48cm frameset for a Cervelo P5-3. I also purchased a Zipp 454 for my front wheel, and because we were preparing to shell out a huge chunk of money for the replacement ourselves prior to insurance coming through, we (my Dad and I) purchased SRAM Etap (wireless gear shifting) for bike. For Elektra I was intending on upgrading to SRAM etap next year, but since the frame was going to be a super-bike frame and being built from scratch, I figured let’s just go ahead and really make it a real super-bike with the etap. As the bike components started to be delivered my wrist starting feeling better and my swimming started coming back and was just rolling through my swim workouts. Eventually, the frame and chain rings that were delayed in transit came in only 9 days prior to Racine, and I got fitted to the bike only the Tuesday of Race Week. EnduroSport did an unbelievable job fitting the bike to me, making my new position very low, aggressive, and yet still comfortable, and the build itself was amazing. Venus is her name, and she is unbelievable, an absolute through and through superbike (go over to give me a follow on Instagram at frank.sorbara92 to see the beauty). I still wasn’t entirely sure if I would race the bike in Racine since I was starting to feel comfortable on Jennifer’s bike after a 190km bike two weeks before Racine, and I had not even rode the new bike outside (feeling comfortable on a trainer in a fit is different then comfortable pushing race watts outside on the open road). Even though on my ride on Wednesday the fit felt significantly different form what I was used to in terms of how low I was and also how my body now sat on the saddle (and it was also a new saddle with a slightly different shape), looking at the bike, and getting a little sense of how fast it really was, there was no way I was going to go without it. I decided to race on it and boy was it a good idea. After a ride on the Friday on the course in Racine the bike was starting to feel pretty good underneath me, and by Saturday it felt incredible in my pre-race workout (3x4minutes at 6 W/kg on 1:30 rest, followed by 3x90s at 7.6W/kg with 3:30 rest to really open up the legs).

Unfortunately, we were hearing from the race organizers that the water temperature was going to be very cold, and the swim would now be wetsuit mandatory. On Friday the water temperature was 57 F, and by Saturday morning it was 54 F. If the water dropped below 53, the swim would likely be cancelled. On Saturday I got into the water in my wetsuit to do a pre-race loosening up swim, but after three strokes my face went numb, I got a major “brain-freeze” feeling, and my hands went numb. I stopped swimming, and tried again, but three strokes more and my face, head, and hands became numb and barely useable. I kept trying to swim on and off for about an hour, but I was unable to go longer than about 20 seconds before I needed to stop due to the extreme cold. Going from feeling very confident on the bike, and swim to now being unsure if I would be able to race at all. Yes I was extremely nervous about the swim, but more so I was nervous about the bike since after the attempted swim on Saturday it took a good 30 minutes in the car with the heat on to stop shaking, so I was worried that maybe even if I could get through the swim, my body would be in real danger of getting hypothermia on the bike (it was also going to be very windy and a cool day so coming out of the water could have been a real issue). But the night before the race, after I purchased a thermal cap to wear on my head during the swim to stay warm I got psyched up and ready for the swim. I watched a bunch of videos and read a lot of articles on dealing with a cold swim, and thought that with these strategies in place, a thermal cap, and adrenaline pumping through, I’d be good. And after putting so many hours in the pool, and feeling really powerful in the water the last week it would be very disappointing if the swim was cancelled.

On the way to set up transition on race morning, after not hearing anything the night before about the swim’s situation, a volunteer told us the swim was cancelled since the water was now measuring in the high 40s!! Don’t get me wrong I fully understand the swim being cancelled in those sorts of conditions, and also looking at the water it look very rough with whitecaps, but I was very upset at how they went about cancelling the swim. Ironman didn’t communicate this information well at all, so poorly in fact that at about 6:45am (the swim would’ve started at 7) a competitor nearby me, was putting on his wetsuit getting ready for the swim until I had to tell him myself that it was cancelled. In the entire time we were in transition from 5:45 in the morning until the race start the announcer said only about 2 or 3 times that the swim was in fact cancelled. Also, the other part that really bugged me about the how they cancelled the swim, was that I found out at breakfast on Monday morning from another competitor that apparently the Coast Guard issued a statement on Saturday that said that for Sunday morning with very strong rip tides (a type of current that if your caught in essentially takes you far out to sea and is life threatening), very strong currents, high waves, and winds, that the water at this part of Lake Michigan posed and I quote “Life threatening conditions, and is unsafe for swimming.” So my problem is that if the race organizers were aware that the swim was not only 49 degrees F which is life threateningly cold in its own right (see the chart below),

but then also had strong rip tides, and high waves the night before, why would Ironman not have sent out an email, or posted something on Twitter well in advance of the race that the swim was going to be cancelled. I asked this question on race morning, and after some thought I figured out the answer to my own question. If Ironman posted something say Saturday afternoon that the swim was cancelled, maybe 50% of the competitors would potentially pull out of the race because it’s not really a triathlon without the swim, and they could potentially just sign up for a 70.3 say in Ohio a couple weeks later instead. However, if you cancel the swim on race morning only an hour before the race, than instead of 50% maybe dropping out, now only say 10-15% drop out of the race. An hour before the race, people, including myself, may just think well I already woke up at 3:30am to be here on time (so the hard part is done) may as well just race.

The frustrations with Ironman’s organization continued with how they handled converting the swim-bike-run to a bike-run. Let me first explain how they were intending on doing the swim. More and more events are now doing what is called a rolling start to the swim. This means similar to running road races, you self-seed yourself into “corrals.” So everyone intending on swimming under 27 minutes goes first, then 27-30 minutes, 30-35, etc. I think the reason events are being organized like this is that it is a way to draw more people to the sport, which is great, because the swim is usually the thing in triathlon that deters most people from participating. The mass start is very intimidating, since it is mayhem at the start with people of many different abilities all swimming at the same time. With a rolling start A: less people enter the water at a time meaning there is more space to navigate, and B: you can swim in packs with people of similar ability to yourself so not only can you draft off one another, but also for many it is reassuring to look up when sighting in the open water and see a group of people nearby, instead of swimming all by yourself in a big lake for anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour. For the race now being a bike-run with a time-trial style start you would think it would be intelligent to now start the bike leg with a rolling (self-seeded) start as well. So for example, people intending on biking 2:00-2:15 go first, then 2:15-2:25, and so on. Instead, race organizers decided to do the start by bib number so every couple seconds they sent two riders going from bibs 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, all the way up to the 3000s. I was bib 795, so this meant I would have 794 people start ahead of me on the bike from people intending on biking 3 hours for the 90km, to 5 hours+. This made for an extremely chaotic, and downright dangerous ride. Also a ride where with so many people starting at once, you would have large groups blatantly drafting with one another, and spread wide across the road making it almost impossible to pass.

I started around 8 or so, and quickly was passing masses of competitors, shouting “on your left” non-stop. Some moved over nicely, others were completely ignorant and just kept on riding right in the middle of the road as I screamed at them to move after asking nicely a few times (in Ironman if you cross the centre line of the road it is an automatic DQ). I was needing to brake harshly at times as I caught up to groups of people, and then throw in 600W surges to get around cleanly (you have to make passes within a short amount of time to avoid penalties). This type of riding continued for the first 30 minutes of the bike and my speed suffered, but my legs did feel full of energy. The bike course is incredibly bumpy, I thought Wisconsin 70.3 were the worst roads I ever rode on and these were even worse. The roads were so rough the bumps launched one of my water bottles clear out of the cage (at the time I was unaware of this). The roads are so bumpy that the day before the race during my pre-race workout the bumps actually knocked one of my aerobar pads loose, and shook the bolts so hard in my aerobars that it through the alignment of the entire front end of the bike completely off (with the fork straight the aerobars where pointed to about the 2 o’clock position). Luckily a bike store, called Erik’s Bike and Ski Shop nicely, for no charge, fixed the front end at about 6pm the night before the race, and one of the employees actually came to the race and cheered his friend who was competing and myself on. Back in the race, finally after about 30 minutes of constant surges and saying on your left like a broken record player, the competitors started to spread out somewhat, and I just rode inches to the left of the centre line passing person after person. My power was bang on now what I wanted (just about 5 W/kg) and the speed was coming back. I averaged 48 km/hr for about 15 minutes as soon as I got free of the massive groups of people and felt great.

The bike felt magnificent. I stayed extremely disciplined on the bike as we turned into a strong headwind and kept my power steady. I didn’t get worried and panic that my speed dropped a little going into the wind. That I think is the biggest advantage of having a power meter. If I didn’t have one, when the speed dropped I may have started pushing a lot more power to keep the speed up but that would burn a lot of matches, and would cost you dearly late in the bike and on the run. Kept chugging along passing people, seeing some absolutely obvious drafting – a guy the next morning actually admitted to me that he and about 12 other guys got in a group and were taking turns pulling on the front and rode the entire course together like a Peloton in the Tour de France. Only one of them was DQ’ed! How is that fair - I have no clue. Why is drafting only a 1-minute penalty when it can save you 10 minutes at least over 90 km I don’t know. Ironman really needs to step it up when it comes to enforcing rules out on the bike course. I fully understand that their priority is that the pro race is fair, but they also need to be assertive at enforcing the rules for age-groupers. Yes, we aren’t currently racing for 50000$ cash, but for people like me who are trying to earn their professional status, it is imperative that the rules are enforced since I’m still competing against the other Age-groupers. In the World Championships for example if I come Top 3 in my Age Group I automatically qualify for professional status. So the pro race is important to monitor for sure with all that money on the line, but there is also a lot on the line for some of the Age-Groupers as well. But anyways thier obvious cheating didn’t affect me this time around since I was passing these groups of drafters, who had started around 20 minutes before me, like they were standing still. The way Venus can just walk away from people is unreal - it also helps being in a super slippery position, and pushing 5 W/kg ;).  My goal for the bike was around and hopefully under 2:10. The first 30 minutes really cost me a lot of speed, and having to brake hard at times hurt a lot, but the power still ended up being a new 70.3 PB, and the time was 2:10:59 which is also a big PB for the 90km – it’s a 41.5km/hr average. Considering I figured to have lost anywhere from 2-3 minutes having to weave around people I was still very happy with the bike, and thrilled with how well I paced it especially on the segments into the wind where with how good my legs were feeling I probably could have really hammered, but I stayed smart and stuck to my game plan.

Onto the run. I hadn’t taken a single stride since Wisconsin 70.3, so I really had no clue what was going to happen here. My plan was to be extremely conservative and patient. I didn’t want to make the mistake of letting the excitement from the bike carry over to run, and start out so quickly that I implode. When I was marathon-ing I read a lot of running books to learn about what makes the elites elite. How the best got to the top, and stay there. Just like with running, I’m a student to the sport of triathlon, and try to learn as much as I can about strategy, and various methodologies from reading. I figure in your spare time after training your body physically, why not learn a little more about the mental side of the sport, or different strategies that can just add that extra layer to your performances. My latest book called Triathlon 2.0: Data-Driven Performance Training, discusses how field studies from Kona (Ironman World Championships) show how critical the pacing of that first mile off the bike is to your overall run performance in that even for the pro men and women if they run that first mile off the bike only 20 seconds per mile faster than they intend on realistically running, odds are they will be walking at some point in the race. Furthermore, odds are that if you walk at one point in the race, you will likely walk multiple times during the race (it becomes an out). So with that in mind, the game plan was stay relaxed until about 15-16km and then just bring it home as hard as my legs allow. I started out running about 4:00-4:06/km pace, and it felt very easy.

I could feel my hamstring doing its usual thing (feeling like it could pull on me) but just kept the strides nice and quick to take off some of the strain on the hamstring. Overall though it felt super chilled. I was not breathing hard at all, and was really staying quite relaxed. Even though it felt so easy at this point, I stuck to my pace plan. I knew that at some point the lack of running, and therefore run specific endurance would come into play, and that the hip could potentially go at any point. So I just kept the pace where it was. At about 16km, what I predicted would happen happened, and I was so glad that I stuck to my pace plan early on because now the calves, and quads really started biting bad but I was already at 16km with only 5 to go. My whole body was now in real trouble, and in a lot of pain. Not in my hip, but just the whole body in general was feeling the lack of running. Downhills became a real test to stay even upright, because my legs were feeling like bambi’s that they could give out any moment. I gritted my teeth, and just kept repeating and saying to myself “I got this.” I made it to 19km with the pace still solid, the 20^th kilometer was the only rough kilometer of the run, but then managed to actually have a half-decent kick to line. Sure I was limping as I kicked but it was still a solid finish. I was so incredibly happy how smart I played it on the run being so disciplined to stick to the plan early on. Sure I could have potentially gone quicker on the run (I ran 1:28 so 4:12/km average for the 21.1km) if early on I pushed the pace a little when 4:00/km pace was feeling really relaxed, but there is also a chance that had I done that either I wouldn’t have finished at all, or if instead of the legs started to bite at 16km they started to go at 10km, and in that case the time would have been much slower. Also, the pace I selected and stuck to didn’t hurt the hip at all, and didn’t cause the hamstring to completely pull on me. If I pushed the pace early there is possibility that in addition to the quads, calves, and back going due to the lack of run-specific endurance that I would’ve also had to deal with the hip and hamstring like I did in Wisconsin 70.3. Overall, I think this was my smartest race I have ever executed. It was a bike PB, and a run PB (in 70.3), and if I add my usual swim onto the race would’ve been around a 4:06-7 half-ironman, which would be a 9-10 minute PB for the 70.3 distance. The time in the end didn’t end up getting me my pro-card automatically since the Winner Sam Appleton from Australia just had a remarkable day. A day where if you add his normal swim time onto his overall bike-run time it would be very close to if not breaking the world record over the 70.3. His performance on that day, would win any 70.3 anywhere in the world against any competition in my opinion. However, even if I didn’t get the card on this day, my bike was fantastic (and swim is feeling very good as well), and I’m confident that I can come top-3 in the Age-Group at the World Championships in either ITU Worlds at Penticton, or Ironman Worlds in Chattanooga now that I know the hip can stay intact with a little running. So that’s what I’m going to do, run a little maybe 3 times per week just to gain a little run-specific endurance and rip it in World’s now that I know the hip is strong enough to withstand running. With even just a little run training I am confident that I can take a huge amount of time off what I ran especially knowing that 4:00/km pace off a sizzling bike felt so easy, and didn’t cause any further damage to the hip. Knowing that, and just having that confidence that the hip will hold up will help me confidently push that pace in World’s and get that pro card.

Thank you so much to all my supporters and sponsors: Skechers Performance Division, Infinit Nutrition, Rudy Project, Revolver Wheels, Zone3 and Compressport. For now it’s trying to recover from the race this week likely by Saturday I’ll do my first big big workout back, and then putting in some major league training up until ITU Worlds August 27^th. Before then I have another Aquabike race in Kingston, where I’m defending champion, so I’ll be looking to defend that title. This time may be a little tougher since I’ll be training right through the race, since with Penticton on the horizon in about 6 weeks I don’t won’t to waste time with a second taper.

Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin: Two Dropped Chains, Two Wrong Turns, One minor crash, and a whole lot of Hurt

This past weekend was my first race of the year at Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin in Madison, WI. I hadn’t raced in about 7 and half months, but during that time had made major gains in the swim and bike. If you’ve been following along with my posts leading into the race, you’ll know that I’ve been dealing with a 2.5 month stretch of significant running-related injuries, that have made my running extremely inconsistent, not running for weeks at time, doing a run, then having to take another couple weeks off, and so on. The most significant injury is a right hip injury that I have had on and off since September 2014, and next weekend I have an MRI to determine if I have a labral tear in the hip, and if it will require surgery to repair. A very close second though in terms of severity is a left hamstring problem that I’ve been dealing with for 7.5 months. In my last post, I talked about having still not reached a decision to whether I would run or not in the weekend’s race. Even on the morning of the race I had still not made a decision.

My Dad and I arrived in Madison late Thursday night, and to be perfectly honest ever since going through horrendous rush hour traffic in Chicago on the road trip here, everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. Friday morning we headed over to get race kit and check-in. I was planning on swimming in the lake to see what it what like, and get some more time in the wetsuit and open water (after doing only my first open water swim on Wednesday). While putting up great swim times in the pool is great, it just isn’t the same as being in the open water. So after getting the kit we headed down to the lake where the seaweed that was taller then the height of the water was been cut by some machines, and further out into the lake there were just too many boats (speed boats and fishing boats with lines in the water) that it would be way too dangerous to swim. So after waiting around to see if there was any decent spot to hop into the water and splash around for a bit, I decided to just go over to a pool. Unfortunately the pool we drove all the way to was private for only those who lived in the neighbouring community (and the “manager” who was about 12 told me she couldn’t make an exception). We then spent most of the rest of the afternoon looking for a pool that was open to swim in. Eventually we found one, but most of the day was gone by that point. I was also intending on driving the bike course that day but didn’t get a chance to, so I would have to do that Saturday. On Saturday things really started getting crazy. Headed out to drive the first third of the bike course, ride the middle third, and then drive the final third. On Saturday it was stupid hot and windy, blowing the car around the road, and being a lightweight rider with a 60mm wheel on the front and disc on the back (although the disc really has no effect on stability in wind) I was very nervous the whole first third of the course. It took a long time to drive the first third because to no fault of my Dad, who was driving, there were just so many turns and blind intersections that we went the wrong way a number of times. Not to mention the fact the roads were so rough it was practically shaking the car to pieces, so I couldn’t even imagine what this would do on Sunday to my beautiful girl Elektra. Eventually I found a spot to get out and start riding, but it took so long to even set the bike up with the wind blowing the bike around even as it was just stationary there at the side of the road. Eventually I started biking, but stopped after only 5 minutes because the wind made it too dangerous not to mention I was biking the middle third, which was the very technical part of the course with hairpin turns, 90 degree turns halfway down steep hills, and more rough roads. I was so angry after that I didn’t even want to see the rest of the course because this was too demoralizing, and still had to get in my pre-race bike before having to check in the bike to transition before 5. So went back to the hotel, biked on the trainer had pretty good normal pre-race workout, but just at the end of the workout the bike started making just an awful sound that didn’t go away. Went over to the race, was going to grease up the bike but the grease got so hot in the car, and with the strong wind almost none of the grease actually made it onto the chain. The day’s woes continued later at dinner at the Olive garden where I hoped to have something similar to my normal pre-race meal but the Olive garden has really slimmed down there menu so made for not a great dinner at all.

Anyways onto the race. Sunday morning I still didn’t know whether I’d be running or not. Fully loaded on anti-inflammatories, we got to the race and my grand test of the hip was a tiny 15 meter slow jog to and from the car, and said that I would give it go.  A thorough test for sure. Set up transition and then went over to the water to get my awesome Vanquish wetsuit on and ready for the warm-up swim which would be happening 6:30 to 6:45 (the race would start at 7). Suit on and ready to get in, 6:30 came around and we weren’t allowed yet into the water, 6:35, 6:40, 6:45 still no, and the warm-up swim was then cancelled. Why? Well the ambulance wasn’t at the race yet so they couldn’t let people into the water. So there everyone is standing around for about 40 minutes in wetsuits sweating like crazy, and would not get any chance to loosen up the arms, get the wetsuit wet, and make sure the goggles had a good seal. If you’ve never been in wetsuit it gets very hot in it since your wearing a thick black rubber (neoprene) full-length suit, so there is by design not much breathability. Plus being a day were it was 33 feeling 42 with humidity, before the race even started there was sweat literally dripping off my face and could feel it going down my back, and rest of my body. More so then just being frustrating standing completely stationary for 40 minutes, it’s pretty darn tough to go from standing around to swimming flat out. With zero countdown, the cannon went off and what made not getting warm-up even harder on the body was that the water was very (like 3ft) shallow for the first 100 meters or so which meant instead of swimming you were dolphin diving for a while. If you don’t know what dolphin diving is it’s basically a version of butterfly. You do a butterfly stroke and as you arms go into the pull phase of the stroke, you grab the ground underneath you and leap frog forwards into the next stroke. It’s tiring, and especially so doing butterfly with arms that aren’t really ready to start going that hard. I realize that all the competitors need to endure the same challenges the racecourse itself throws at them, but I’m just describing my experience with it being someone who has dual goals to both finish on the podium and number goals as well (certain powers, certain paces for swim and run, etc.). So we started going and once I finally started swimming and was a little bit back from the two leaders. My problem was that I made big mistake in that I didn’t know how far we would have to dolphin dive before hand, whereas the couple lead guys who I was chatting with before the race said they had gone for swims in the lake either the day before, or they lived in Madison so knew the lake very well. Because of this, for me at the start I would do a couple dives and then try to start swimming thinking that surely the water would start getting deep, it didn’t, then would come up to do another couple dives, then try and swim but still to shallow, and so on, wasting a lot of time. So the leaders quickly distanced themselves from me, and swam pretty much start to finish solo. My goal for

the race was under 26 minutes for the swim - I was 26:36. I only really started getting into the groove halfway through the swim when I could just feel my arms finally starting to open up and speed up the cadence. The last half I averaged about 1:17/100m (which would be a 1000m PB for me), and the last 5 minutes was a 1:15/100m average which significantly closed the gap between the leaders and me. The first half was pretty slow, so overall it was a 1:21/100m average (about 2 seconds per 100 slower than I wanted). Got out, ran the billion miles to Transition – it was an entire 3.5 minute run from the water over to transition, I passed 2 guys ahead of me during the run to T1 but that long of a run was frustrating (I think I was 5^th or 6^th out of the water). This made me start the bike already not in a great mood because I knew I was almost a minute slower than I planned in the water, and then T1 with the 3.5 minute run just to the bike, took about 3 minutes longer than I planned.

I have almost zero picture in aero since all the photographers
were mid-way up hills.

We started out the bike, and can you believe that here in an Ironman branded race we started the first few miles on a narrow twisty bike path, which get this wasn’t even closed to the public, so there were people on bikes coming the other way, and walkers going along it, with me coming through on a TT bike at 40+ kilometers per hour. It made trying to overtake the 3 leaders ahead of me pretty tough just to maneuver around them and trying to get a spot where the path stayed straight for a half-decent stretch of time. I made it around 3^rd and 2^nd, and then a little bit later overcooked it on a turn that I didn’t see coming up on the narrow little path. I went off the path onto the gravel and into the grass, somehow stayed upright, and bunny hopped the bike back onto the path – something I’ve never done on Elektra. Finally got off the death trap of a bike path and onto the super bumpy road – which almost seemed like a relief at this point. Was now within sight of 1^st overall, caught up to him on a hill, and went past soon after. Was now leading an Ironman race and that

was pretty cool feeling with two motorbikes now near me. Although I was winning and the 2^nd place guy was now out of sight, I kept seeing my overall average speed to that point (on my main screen for races (there are four screens total) all I have is Overall time, Overall Average Speed, 3s Avg Power, and Avg Power) saying average 37 or so, but my power was much higher than I was planning to that point, so I kept thinking that the speed would maybe come back in the second half of the bike where the wind would not be hurting as much – it was a strong and gusty SW wind. However, the lack of rhythm that the course provided having to do turn after turn, big bump after bump, and really zero stretches where you could just “relax” and stare at your power in your aero position was very frustrating. It was just a very poorly set up even with regards to the aid stations placement with one of them right before a good size turn that made it almost impossible to grab anything especially given the last area where you could throw the trash from the station was only a couple meters after it. Normally I would grab the bottle from the station then empty it into my front bottle on the bike and then toss the empty one maybe 25 meters after the station, but here it was pretty much at the station that you would need to toss the bottle almost immediately. So at that second aid station I got no fluids, and the frustration continued to build, even though I was still leading the race at this point about halfway into the bike. Soon after that a rider came up past me, and right after that when I was about 80-90% up a hill my chain fell off the front chain rings. Do you know how difficult it is to start going again from a stop on a steep hill. I had to put every muscle fibre in my right leg to push as hard as it could to get going again. After the little stop to get the chain back on, the gap grew a little up to the rider in first. Two wrong turns later at poorly marked intersections where there seem to be pylons just all over the place, and one more dropped chain this time cresting over a hill, the lead to 1^st was now significant. Mile 40-50 I found particularly challenging mentally, since I thought in the final quarter of the bike the speed would start to come back up but the hills and turns just didn’t stop. Still though, I was firmly in second at this point. However we then got to the ultimate frustration of the bike course: the final 2 miles. Not a word of a lie, and I’m not exaggerating this part at all. In a race on a time trial bike, we entered into a parking lot rode through it onto a sidewalk (ya I said a sidewalk) then a complete u-turn to underneath a bridge back onto another bike path, a complete 90 degree turn on the very narrow bike path (with a little fence on your right being the barrier between this tiny path and

the river underneath the bridge) up to the other side of the bridge, then a u-turn about 50 meters before the dismount line. I haven’t looked at the stats completely yet but that last mile my average speed must have been close to running speed – I guess maybe a way to get your head more mentally prepared for the upcoming change in speed. Really it was the worst designed, and just downright dangerous bike course I have ever seen. So dangerous that I forgot to even mention that out on course the road just ended and turned to gravel for a little, because that wasn’t even significant compared to everything else it had wrong with it. Ended up doing the bike in 2:23 (37.7 km/hr) that was 2^nd fastest on the day, I was intending on doing 2:14, and what was frustrating was that I have had so many rides with a faster average speed than that. Again the power was good and pretty much where I expected it to be but given the hilliness and with so many turns the average power was much lower than the normalized power, which indicates that the power was not that steady (variability index was 1.10 which is very high). Power that is so variable also does a number on your legs, since the very high power surges after a turn or up a steep hill use about 100% carbohydrate, whereas at a steadier tempo power you will use a mix of carbohydrate and fat (at the intensity I’m going at it will still be a much higher proportion of carbohydrate than fat at even a steady power, but with surges the balance will be almost 100% favored to carbohydrates as the energy source).

After that craziness of a dismount into transition 2, ran into transition, and I guess everything that I had in my pockets (HotShot for cramping, and my salt tablets) flew out, I wouldn’t expect anything else with how this day was going. Started out the run in second place a couple minutes back from first. After doing that huge 15 meter run to test the hip out I really had know no clue what was going to happen. Went through the first kilometer in 3:43, and was trying to hold myself back but my legs were just kind of rolling along. They didn’t feel great obviously after such a physically and mentally taxing bike (having think about so many things: gears, braking, lines to turns on the narrow path, etc), but the speed was better than I anticipated. 2^nd kilometer went by about 3:49 or so, and then got to first aid station, and boom hamstring is gone. I thought it would hold out at least for a little longer and was just so unbelievably upset and thought that was the end of the race there at only the run’s first aid station. I was at the side of the road hunched over, with a volunteer who happened to be a doctor who was giving me some attention trying to not only pump me up to keep grinding, but also pouring ice down my shirt in the back to try to cool me down since already in the 42 degree heat I was starting to melt. The amount of sweat dripping off was just unbelievable; I have never been sweating so much in my life. After about 5 minutes of crying there in pain at the side of the road got up and went after the few racers who went by me when I was down doing a couple more 3:50 kilometers. I got to the fourth mile aid station, and then the hip joined the hamstring in the misery, and after going up one of the hills I felt like my heart and head was going to explode. I got a massive headache, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I think in addition to obviously the extreme heat, the extra effort of having to now drag my broken hip and hamstring along just amplified the heat’s impact and was really suffering. I dropped down to the ground at that aid station in unbelievable pain, and suffering badly from heat exhaustion. Again despite the horrible setup of the bike course, and poor organization of the swim warmup or lack thereof, I need to really thank the volunteers’ cause they came over immediately to help me out. I was balling my eyes out and just totally defeated, took my chip off and was saying I’m done. I continued to sweat profusely long after I stopped, and then they called for the medical team. I was on the ground on my back for almost 25 minutes total. The medical team there measured my heart rate over 200, and in addition to the obvious problem I was having with the heat, the hip was just pulsating in pain. After a little while longer my head was feeling better after having bags worth of ice poured on me and drinking what seemed like gallons of Gatorade, and water. I got up and said I would try to just walk for a bit, and just started running. The first kilometer after feeling pretty much dead at the side of road for almost 25 minutes was a 3:49, the second around 3:55, third around 3:55, so many people had passed me when I was out of it on the ground, and then was picking people off one by one. The hamstring still hurt, the hip was still in shambles, my calves were now starting to hurt (remember I haven’t really run in almost two months and was now running in racing flats which was a lot to ask of my calves), but I kind of

felt like I just came back from the dead, and was running angry. Eventually I got up to the guy who was ahead of me in 1^st off the bike, who was now having his own struggles in the heat and was reduced to walking, and he could not believe it when I came streaking by at 3:50 something per kilometer pace. Can’t remember exactly what he said but it basically “how are you running right now, amazing man.” I ran those last 9 miles (14.5km) in a world of pain in my hip, and hamstring feeling like it could completely tear on me at any moment, plus now with the calves going, and then the ridiculous 42 degree heat, it was just something I never ever want to go through ever again in my life. Continued to pass one person after another and actually had the 5^th or 6^th fastest second half of the run in the field, after being dead to the world for almost 25 minutes. The race ended on a massive steep hill, I would say similar in size to the final hill at the Spring Run-off in High Park, and despite the garbage time raised my arms up at the end, because of what I went through to get to the finish line.

After the race, and the pitiful post-race food of some white bread with a slice of cheap cheese on it, and some sprite or coke – no muscle milk, no chocolate milk, no Gatorade, absolutely nothing to do anything for recovery, I felt just emotionally and physically broken. I trained my absolute butt off the last half a year; only to have my run legs break down yet again. Like I said in my last post this sport I’m in now will just expose any weakness or injury you are carrying. I feel just like although my swim is very strong right now, and the power on the bike (which was like 40 watts higher then in Miami) was good enough that if the course wasn’t so poorly organized it would be a very fast bike split, the swim and bike don’t mean that much if my body falls to pieces with a little running. Although the run kilometer splits before and after the 4^th mile aid station’s collapse were solid, with a 25-minute stop the damage in the time was done.  I can sit here and say oh well if I didn’t have almost 30 minutes in stops I would have won the race by like 3 minutes, remember I was in second off the bike, and after the first 2 kilometers I was significantly closing the gap on 1^st. However, that isn’t how racing works, there is no well if this or that happened then I would have finish here or here. If you stopped at an aid station, if you had to go to the bathroom, if you made a wrong turn, the time is the time. I started this post the morning after the race, and I am now finishing it on the Wednesday after, and I’m glad to finish it now rather than the morning after. Initially, I was going to write how I want to completely forget the race essentially say F$%$ it and move on. While, I can still say F$$# it to the time and forget that because based on my number and abilities on the swim and bike, and as a runner I know I’m capable of being a sub-4 70.3 guy, I don’t want to forget everything about the race. Initially, I wanted to say I don’t even want to talk about what transpired on the run cause emotionally it is very difficult to go back to that place (I was crying on and off for basically 4 hours post-race), but I’m going to think about it in a slightly different way and say what I did on the run showed true perseverance, and toughness. Yes, weeping like a baby at the side of the road isn’t tough, but with the medical crew there offering me a ride back to start, to grab my chip off the grass on the side of the road, put it back around my ankle, knowing full well that this was going hurt beyond belief, took so much strength and grit. I knew it wasn’t going to be a good time after having stopped for so long, but I also knew I have never DNF’ed a race before, and I never will. Once you do it once, it becomes an option in the future. You can almost say that putting the chip back on, and proceeding to grind out 14.5 kms with tears of pain in my eyes the whole way, took more strength then finishing in 4:05-7 like I had planned. So in the end, I do want to remember that moment of saying I’m not done. I do want to remember the other racers looking at me in disbelief as I came streaking past after being completely dead a little while before. I want to remember seeing the 13-mile sign and for the first time in the race saying to myself “Frank the Tank.”

Next up is Racine 70.3, maybe with the Rose City Swim-Bike between now and then. I want to thank my sponsors for there support this season - Revolver Wheels (the disc was great leading to second fastest bike split), Rudy Project (the Wing57 was so comfortable on the bike), Infinit Nurtition (didn't feel "bonky" all race and the Repair came in handy after with the poor post-race meal provided), Skechers (the GoRun5s made for a fast transition, and did well draining the sweat/water with the 42 degree day meaning no blisters/chafing), Zone3 (the vanquish was great and the swim was in the top 5 fastest on the day), and Compressport (the V2.1 came in especially handy the day after the race). I promise my next race will be a much better. Almost forgot one good thing that did come out of the race, was because I finished 4th in the AG, I got a spot and accepted it already to race the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, TN in September. So that's two world championships in one year.