Orillia triathlon 2011

I signed up for the Orillia race this year, with some slight reservations. I have done this race twice in the past, and will admit that it isn't my favourite race. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that there is a large dock located to the left of the swim course which makes it difficult to swim out to the first buoy, especially if you are swimming in a triangle. The large dock blocks the pathway to the first buoy especially if you are swimming, keeping the buoys on the left. I warned people near me to watch the dock because it is easy to get pressed up against it with all the kicking and splashing that goes on during the first minute of the race. The second reason is that the bike course is very difficult, it is hilly and full of twists and turns. I don't mind the hills but the sharp turns make the course quite tricky. It is the type of course that you can't bike at full speed either you risk having a crash. Nevertheless, the timing of this race was appealing to me so I signed up for it.
The morning of the race it was quite gloomy, in fact it threatened rain the whole way there. Luckily I left in plenty of time for the race, which wasn't a great plan because it actually started to rain right before the beginning of the race, so there was a bit of standing around in the rain. Unfortunately in all the hubub of finding a place to park, I accidently locked my keys in the car. It was a good thing I had removed all my equipment from the car before doing so. I decided to deal with the problem after the race, which of course probably didn't put me into the right frame of mind.

When the horn went off for the swim, I will admit I didn't go out slow. I actually ended up gulping a large amount of water, probably because I got splashed in the face by the person on my left. From now on I will most likely start out from the far left to avoid this happening in the future. I managed to cough out the water but it took me awhile to get my breathing under control after that. The next thing that went wrong is that I had someone grab me and use me and under person as a platform from which to spring up and over. I looked up and saw that this was a women from my wave. I couldn't believe that this behaviour occurred in a beginner race. Not Cool. This person's competitive maneover didn't pay off for her in the end, which I will discuss later. I was a little concerned because the other person was a weaker swimmer than I and heard one of the kayakers try to help them as they were trying to recover from the incident. I felt bad for the person, as it will probably be their last tri after something like that happening. I also had a bit of difficulty in the swim because I had trouble sighting. There didn't seem to be anyone to follow, and in the past I have always relyied on following other people to know where I am going. This swim, even though it beat me up quite a bit taught me a couple of valuable lessons. One being that I must start in the right position at the beginning of the race, so that I am swimming on the outside line, not the inside line during the swim portion. The other that I need to practice sighting. Now that I am a stronger swimmer, I am finding myself one of the people who is leading the pack and I need to learn how to sight as I swim. This was never a skill I needed in the past but I do now.
The transition from the swim course went quite well, except that the run up was again tacked on to the swim time, which doesn't give you an accurate swim time per 100m. When this happens it makes your swim in a sprint seem slower than it is. In this course my time was 9:04, which was the second place time in my age category.

The transition to the bike was long and awkward. I had a lot of difficulty running fast in my bike shoes, because the pavement was slippery from the rain. Once I was on the bike everything was fine. I biked fairly aggressively, except for the fact that it was a technical course and there were a lot of cars on it. The pavement was also slick from the rain. My bike time ended up being just over 22min which was also a second place time for my age category.
The transition to the run was difficult because it was long and there were quite a few people blocking me as I was running with my bike. Once I was able to get around everyone I picked up the pace, dropped off my bike and slipped on my running shoes as quickly as possible. I ran as fast as I could even though I had bike leg. I used the high turnover strategy to shake the bike leg off the best that I could. After about 2K the running seemed easy. I ended up rolling over the finishing line with a 3rd place running time of 12:29.

My overall time was 47:31 which was good enough to land me a first place finish in my age category. It turned out that the women who tried to push me under the water to get ahead is a weaker triathlete even though she appears to be a stronger swimmer. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be aggressive. I personally don't understand why you need to ruin another person's swim to get ahead. Next time I will steer clear of the buoys that is for sure. I just hope that other person won't give up tris as a result of some other idiot's actions! Thanks Subaru for another great race!

Training summer 2011

For the last two weeks of my training period for this season, I have been enjoying the terrain of the Haliburton Highlands. This terrain is definately not for the weak-hearted. Even though the air is clean and the country side is breathtaking, the terrain is relentlessly hilly. This is great for me because my spring training routes contain no hills. I have been on vacation in Haliburton and my legs are screaming obsenities at me as I try to put in my regular mileage.

The swim route is fairly benign, as it is all open water swimming in a small lake, however the bike route feels like one is biking on roller coaster, you are either climbing up a steep hill, or coasting down at speeds of over 50 km/hr. It can be quite the challenge especially if you have run earlier on the same route. I will admit some of the hills have got me into walking which is not something I am used to on my flat spring training routes. It is humbling and makes me aware of just how much more base building I need to do before my big race. As all Ontarians know Haliburton is considered cottage country and most visit to relax and rest. And sometimes partake in a little recreational activity. My friend Nat is one of those people.

She will often go out biking with me, and in the past we have been caught out biking in some interesting situations, like large thunderstorms. We even once had to be rescued. This year we have been lucky though and we got in two good cycling days. Although I think she is ready for physio now because the cycling routes have put her in the pavement. Other than that though it has been a great two weeks. Normally I spend more time in Haliburton, but this year it is only for a short period and then I am back to my normal training grounds. One last swim and then I return. See you next year Haliburton county, thanks for some great weather this year!

Bracebridge tri relay. 2011

It was an incredibly sunny and hot day at Annie Williams Park on August 6, 2011. I had to pick Tara up quite early (7am) to get there to register in time for the race. When I arrived at Tara's aunt's place, she was ready to go with bells on. It took us about an hour to get there and we had no traffic. Once we got into Bracebridge I wasn't exactly sure where the park and we ended up following someone who was also going to the race. Turns out he didn't know where he was going either, and we ended up making a wrong turn. It wasn't that complicated to find the park after all, and we were more than an hour early. Tara and I weren't allowed to register until Natalie arrived so we were left to wait for her in the transition zone. We started to panick around 8:45am when Natalie still hadn't arrived. The reason we panicked a bit was only because I needed to get our team's timing chip so that I could get ready for the swim. Other than that it wouldn't have been a problem. Finally at about 8:50am, 10 minutes before the start of the race, I went back to the registration desk and asked if we could our timing chip and the women reluctantly let us have our chip. In the meantime I sent Tara to get my cell phone which was in the car to see if Natalie had left a message. We found out that Natalie had left a message and she was running late. Natalie arrived just in time for the start of the race and Tara and I were once again relaxed.

I got my wetsuit on and went down to the river to warmup for the race. Interestingly, Bracebridge this year was a time trail race for sprint tri national championships, so instead of doing mass wave starts they let each person go on their own 5s apart. I was the third last to go and there were 290 people in the sprint tri in total so it took awhile to finally get to me.

It was strange starting by yourself because it was difficult to tell where you are going. In fact other than passing the odd person, most of the time I felt like I was swimming by myself. I found sighting very difficult and I actually wound up in the middle of the river halfway through the race. One of the kayakers was yelling at me as I was swimming in center of the river, and finally when she was able to get my attention, I redirected myself to swim near the shore. This wasn't good either because I ended up almost hitting a dock a few minutes later. I ducked so that I could swim under the dock which was fine but I am sure that swimming in this zig zag direction was not good for my overall time. I finally exited the swim with a time of around 15 minutes. The swim distance was 750m and it had a small transition tacked onto to the end of the swim and my official time for the swim leg was 15:31s. The switch of the timing chip to Natalie went very smoothly. Before long she was off and biking on the 20km bike trail leaving Tara and I together in the transition area.

Tara had to wait again while Natalie was on the bike course, because Tara was doing the last leg of the tri which was a 5K run. The Bracebridge tri has a really good 5K course. It is fairly flat and it is an out and back course. For this reason I decided run the run course in order to practise my pacing for 5K and 10K courses. It was a great idea because while Tara was waiting for Natalie to return from the bike course I got an opportunity to run the course twice. By this point in the day it was pretty hot and by the time I finished the second loop of the run I was ready to jump in the river to cool off. So I did.

I passed Tara on the run course and cheered her on. She looked fairly "fresh" compared to the other athletes. She ended up finishing the run loop in 24:56s.

And Natalie finished her ride in 49:31s. Overall our team did really well, we finished 4th out of 8 teams and missed the podium by about 1:35s.

This result was much better than expected since our Kushog Lake relay team came in last place last year. After the race, Tara's mom took some pictures of us.

We were just about to collect our bags when a women came over and grabbed Tara's bag and started to leave. Both Tara and I started to chase after her and the women was stunned when we tried to grab the bag away from her. She said: "this is my bag." Tara and I were both confused when we started to realize we both thought the bag in question belonged to our team and we had accidently placed all of Natalie's belongings in this mystery women's bag. Items included car keys, money, event Tshirt and a water bottle. We were horrified when we realized that it was lucky the women hadn't returned earlier and taken her bag before we had realized the mistake. What an adventure! All and all though I think we had a great time and I think Kushog Lake will be back in full force in the future! Thanks again MSC for another great triathlon event. See you next year when Kushog Lake returns for another shot at the podium.

5K Highland Yard Charity Race: July 29th.

The race was an event held in Minden Ontario, on July 29th at 6:00pm. We arrived at the race about an hour early. I found out just after I arrived that this is the last year they will be running this race. This is unfortunate because I was really happy when I found out there was a race up in Haliburton because it meant that I could also visit my mom at the same time. The charity run is an AMICI group organized race to raise money to allow underprivedged kids to go to summer camp. The event was started in 1971, and has been running with much success since that time. Although this year is supposedly the last year it will be running, I am hopeful that another charity will take over this excellent event.

We arrived at my mom's just before we had to leave. It was great because we had enough time to unpack our stuff for our two weeks holidays and still had time to get a quick snack before we had to leave for the race. My husband came with me which was great, because he was able to get a shot of me running as well as some shots of the race site.

I started at the front of the pack when the horn went off, only because it was a walk/run and I wasn't sure where to place myself based on the experience of the other runners in the group. Although several people passed me early in the race, my starting place was fine because after the first 300m noone passed me. If your starting position is good, this is exactly what should happen.

I started out a bit fast in the beginning, and even though I felt fine, I had to force myself to slow down. I ended up getting a bad cramp which may have been a result of going out to fast. I also wondered if maybe I had too many snacks and/or drank too much water before the start of the race. I tried really hard to run out the cramp using good breathing but it remained with me for the whole 5K. It wasn't good because it interferred with my ability to run. I did the best I could though and tried to keep up with the pack.

The first three kilometers were fairly straight forward but the last two were fairly grueling. There were some tough hills that were a bit relentless. I am not a big fan of racing when there are hills, but nevertheless I perservered. When I rounded the corner and saw the last 400m stretch before the finish I was feeling a bit tired but I was able to maintain a reasonable strong pace to the finish. I tripped over the finishing mat and managed to cross the line with a time of 26 min and 3 sec.

My time was a bit faster than I expected considering that I had a bad cramp and that I don't run 5K that fast in training. I ended up winning 3rd place in my age group (W40-49). My finish was 3/16 for my age group and 16/63 for my gender place. I was absolutely thrilled with the results because it was my first medal in a road race. This is an excellent accomplishment for me because I consider running to be a weakness. The prize for winning 3rd place was a water bottle, which was great because I needed a new one which would fit in my bike holder, so I was also very happy about that.

What a great race! I hope to do this one again in the future so I am hoping that another charity organization will pick this race up again for next year. Because it is a great purpose for a charity race and I was glad to be a part of it.

Summer 2011 Training: Working in the city and mountain biking?!

     I was hired to work on a writing project for the ministry of education and it required me to stay in York Region for two weeks.  Training down there was quite a challenge.  Where I was staying and working had limited options for places to do some serious biking/swimming/running.  I also had a challenge training around my working hours.  The first week was the most difficult because I was on a heavy training schedule that consisted of 20 hours of training.  I ended up having to get up every morning at 5:15am and going to the Markham YMCA where I either swam or participated in a spin class from 6-7am.  Then after work I went to a local high school track and ran 9km.  I wasn't able to get all my weekly biking mileage done this way and it forced me to try to get it all in on the weekend, between my two working weeks.  I was really exhaused after the weekend because I had to swim 2K, run 12K and bike 95K all in two days.  When I went back to the city for the second week, I could barely keep my eyes open driving back on the Sunday night.  The nice thing about the second week was that it was my rest week.  I timed it well, except for the fact that our work was cut short two days and I ended up heading back up North two days early.  I didn't entirely rest though, I will admit to cheating a little on my rest week, as my friend Richard introduced me to my first mountain biking experience.  Who knew there was a beginner mountain biking trail located in the heart of Newmarket! 

     We started our journey by leaving Richard's house and connecting with the local walking trail in his residential area, located behind the upper Canada mall between Yonge and Bathurst.

When we started out it was a bit busy, there were a lot of cars and people in the neighbourhood.  This was a bit of a challenge for me because I had clipless road bike pedals and shoes.  And as anyone knows who uses them, the reaction time is slower because you have to clip out of your pedals before stepping down.  It can be a recipe for disaster if you are hit by someone who isn't paying attention to where they are going.  For this reason I spent the first 30 minutes of our trip feeling extremely anxious as I was riding.  Luckily Richard lead the way, giving me hand signals and making me aware of possible danger.  This helped me extend my reaction time if necessary.  Once we reached the main trail which was near the Tannery, I felt much more relaxed.  This was because all we encountered from then on were other bikers and a few pedestrians, who were very respectful of our presence on the trail. 

     We choose to head north on the trail which ended up to be a really great idea.  The scenery was beautiful.  For example part of the trail followed the Holland River, in fact, this section was where I enjoyed my first mountain biking experience, as the trail gradually went from being paved to crushed gravel, to hard packed dirt and eventually a narrow dirt track.  Even though it was rough and a bit technical in spots, it was well worth the effort.

     Richard and I set out quite late on our biking adventure because we both had to work that day.  So we were a bit concerned about making it back before sunset.  We did stop to take a few pictures however, and as a result Richard was able to get some great shots with interesting lighting.

     On the way back, it seemed to be less busy.  There were less cars driving on the back streets and fewer pedestrians.  We stopped to take one last photo on a bridge that crossed the Holland River before we got back on the gravel trail which would take us back to the Tannery.

     I am really glad that Richard talked me into going biking after work on the Wednesday because it left me with a sense of hope.  I couldn't imagine living in York Region and not having access to a good biking trail.  I guess I am spoiled with where I live because there are all these interconnecting bike trails for serious bikers.  And a serious biker can go a couple hundred km on these trails with almost no interruption caused by traffic.  I will admit that I am not used to being a nervous biker, and until this experience I never saw a need to upgrade my comfort bike to a more sturdy trail bike with something other than road bike shoes to wear on my feet.  A couple of days later I found myself in a bike store wondering if I should upgrade my bike to a more appropriate training bike.  I am not sure yet if it is the right decision for me, but it did put the thought in my mind.  I guess I have my friend Richard to thank for opening my eyes to a new bike experience!  Thanks so much for sharing one of the best features of York Region to me, I look forward to biking again with you in the future.

Guelph lake sprint triathlon 2011

     My first tri of the season.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I love the Guelph lake site, as long as the event is held at the first beach it is an absolutely glorious race to participate in.  One year it was held at the back beach and we found it difficult to get out of the park after the race. 

     The race started at 10am and it was a warm sunny day.  I got there in plenty of time, and I actually had time to practise the swim.  There were 375 participants in this race; tris in Ontario have become quite popular in the last few years, and as well as being popular they have always become quite competitive.  For example, even though this was a short sprint level race, the girl who won in my AG just finished Ironman Florida last season.  This is just an example of how competitive the field for tris has become in Ontario recently; there were 47 women alone in my age category.  This just shows the growth in popularity of tris over the last few years in Ontario. 

     I was in the last wave, and there were four waves of nearly 100 people in each wave.  We started about 9 minutes after the actual start of the race.  The swim was fine although I swallowed some water and had difficulty breathing for about a minute until the water in my lungs cleared out.  I finished first in my AG in the swim with an 8:54 for 375m.  I believe some of the first transition might have been tacked onto the swim time, because it seemed like it took me a really long time to get to the transition area, which was very far away from the beach. 

     After the swim we had to run up a large hill to get to the transition area which was about 300m from the beach.  Unfortunately I haven’t done a tri for awhile and I forgot to set my stuff up properly which cost me some time.  My bike helmet was done up and so were my bike shoes.  This cost me about 20s in the transition area, which turned out to be a costly mistake. I felt like one of the three stooges trying to get my bike stuff on.  One I got my stuff on the rest was easy.   

     The bike course was fairly challenging.  It was really congested and I found it difficult to go really fast, because you had to be careful passing people.  There were also cars on the course.  It was a good thing that there was no yellow line, because I had to pass about 100 people once on the bike course.  It was almost impossible to pass in some cases, and I am pretty if there had been a yellow line, I would have been DQ'd.  Another challenge with the bike course, was that the first 1km we had to endure several speed bumps just to get out of the park.  This was also a problem because it was just too dangerous to go fast.  I don't know if the challenge of the bike course affected my race time, because my bike split seemed a bit slow.  21:49 for 10K.  I did bike the day before the race, so lack of adequate rest, may have also contributed to a slower than usual bike split. 

     Once I got to the transition area, I had more difficulty with my gear.  I couldn't get my race belt and my running shoes on.  I ended up focusing on just putting my shoes on and leaving my belt to put on once I was on the course.  The run was fairly hilly.  I ended up running the 2.5K in 13:44 which wasn't the best time in my AG, but it was a good time for me in a tri. 

    
     My final time was 48:16 which was my fastest time for this distance race.  I ended up placing 2/47 in my age group, 20s behind the leader.  I felt pretty good about my results considering that the leader in my AG is an Ironman athlete.  Probably with better transitions, and a better bike split I would probably be able to do better in the next race, although this is a good result for a field that seems pretty competitive.  I asked one of the athlete's near by to take a photo of me near the swim start. 

     Thanks to the WTC, subaru triathlon series for a great start to the 2011 tri season!  Will not see you next year, but maybe the year after!

Easter seals 10K run 2011

On Sunday May 29th, 2011 I ran my first 10K road race.  It was a charity event founded by Joe Persechini to raise money for the Easter Seals foundation.   Easter Seals is an organization which helps raise money for kids with disabilities.  It helps families buy things like wheel chairs and other equipment which is needed to help kids with disabilities.  The organization also raises money to help them attend special functions across Ontario.  Special functions such as summer camps for kids with disabilities.  The 10K run is one of three events, including a 5K run and walk. 

It was a cloudy day, but good for running.  It had been raining in the morning, and the race was set to start at 8:15am.  So by the time the horn went off, it was still fairly cool and running was comfortable in the early morning weather. 

I was very excited about this race.  Even though I was not well trained for a 10K length, I knew I would be able to finish it.  I had a basic strategy that would probably help me get to the finish without having to walk.  My goal time was 1:05:00.  This was my fastest training time, however this was done on a "dead flat" course with no hills or turns.  Unfortunately by the time this race came along I had only run 10K 3 times in training and my times were:  1:07:15, 1:05:00 and 1:16:21. 

I was also using new shoes for this race, and I wasn't really convinced that I would be able to meet my goal time with these shoes.  My new shoes are a "barefoot" shoe and I had only used them on pavement once, and it resulted in a time of 1:16:21.  Although, I don't think the slow time had anything to do with the shoes because I had also run 1:05:00 on a flat, crushed gravel trail with the same shoes.  What I was nervous about was running faster on pavement; with these shoes it is almost as if you are running completely barefoot. 

After the horn went off, I started my watch and we were off.  The first 2K was a series of twists and turns through the mall parking lot which wasn't a lot of fun.  Everyone was a little cramped and I had to fight to keep within my first split pace range.  I had only ever done two road races before, and they were both 5Ks.  I remember this being a problem with these races as well.  I didn't see many other people looking at their watches, so I didn't get the impression that there were a lot of experienced runners in the crowd.  It was either that or I had started in the wrong position based on what my finishing time was.  Later I learned that the 5K race and the 10K race started at the same time, which explained a little bit of the chaos. 

The race was well marked, although it was more grueling than I thought it was going to be.  There were four very large, long hills that the 10K runners had to climb.  The race was also only one way which means the runners didn't get the benefit of the downhill on the way back.  The hills caused me problems sticking with my split times.  I ended up abandoning the strategy of looking at my watch and using RPE to try to monitor my effort.  One of the downfalls of running in a new race, is not knowing the course and planning your efforts accordingly.    I was lucky I still had gas in the tank by the third split, and even though my feet hurt, I was able to step on the gas and roll through the finish with a time of 1:01:39. 

Of course right after the race I had to get some caffeine into me as soon as possible.  I quickly ravished a piece of watermelon and made my way over to Starbucks to get a cup of tea.  By the time I arrived back at the finish line I was able to meet up with my friend Richard, who was waiting for me on his bike.

With the exception of the fact that I probably was in the wrong starting position when the race began, I feel I had a successful race.  I beat my goal time by 3min 21sec and was surprized by this because the course was so difficult.  I attribute this to the fact that I managed to adhere to my split pace range strategy using RPE (thankyou Trifuel members!)  Overall I finished 6/23 in my age category of W40-44.  There were 353 people in the 10K and about another 200 in the 5K, and we all started at the same time so it was a fairly large event for a charity race.  After the race my feet hurt quite bit, so I think I might look into buying another pair of shoes to use for races on pavement.  I noticed most of the people wearing normal running shoes but there were a few that had on marathon minimalist runners.  I was the only one who had on barefoot shoes, which didn't surprize me because the Newmarket running store doesn't carry them. 

I am looking foward to my next road race which will either be another 5K or 10K in July or a half marathon in October.  We'll see what happens.  Thank you Joe Persechini for a great Sunday race!