Still moving up the learning curve at IMC - 3rd finish, 10th place
Last year I was a spectator at Ironman Canada, and as exciting as it was to see what they call the “wave” at the swim start, and my dear friends finishing their first IM ever, I was really happy to be lining up myself again.
Race morning came quick after a training-wise very relaxed week of taper. The forecast for the day was a dream-come-true….around 20 degrees and hardly any wind. But, never trust the weatherman…First though, he was right!
Lining up for the swim start, I felt pretty calm. Actually, I am usually pretty happy once I get to the line…it’s all the time leading up to the race that I don’t really like that much at times…the waiting for the much anticipated. The gun went off, and as usual I had just one thought in my head: HAMMER! Now, my “hammering” is probably what Tereza Macel’s (and other fish-like swimmers’) race pace is for the whole distance. But, my hope is, that once the group thins out, I get passed through a little bit until I find the feet I can stick to. It’s a good plan, I think , unless, you gasp for air in the midst of this competitive group (because really you are going too fast) and manage to breath in a whole flush of water instead. Well, that pretty much brought me to a stand still within a second. Ignoring the slight trace of panic and trying to get some air, while hanging in vertical position, I could see a bunch of arms flying away from me. Even though I am an optimist, I had to realize pretty quickly, that there was no way for me to get back to this group. I was on my own. Hmmm. I remembered all these longer swims out at Summerside with my “beeper, and tried to get into that same rhythm. It worked pretty good, and the swim seemed to pass by pretty quick. Exiting the water I didn’t peak at my watch, an obvious decision to avoid any unnecessary frustration, thinking that I can’t change the swim for what it was and just have to go and bike now!
I love going through T1. I usually say that it is the best feeling run all day ! Maybe it’s a bit silly, but I always try to have a really fast transition and be right there with the world’s best. Well, thanks to my very efficient wetsuit stripper I managed to put the day’s third fastest transition time down…out of 2,700 people. One area of excellence :-)!
Racing at Great White North, or how I got myself a cute moose...
Last Sunday I started for the third time at the Great White North triathlon, the biggest local race. Having come third, then second, I wanted to win. But so did my competition. I woke up on race morning excited and a bit nervous, knowing that it will be a good race with Kristina and Tanya, both previous winners. Also, having seen at Oliver how close the women’s field is getting these days, you never know who else will be going in for the win.Arriving at the race site I went through my usual pre-race procedure, talked to a bunch of friends racing or volunteering, and then took a little quiet time just listening to my tunes to get me ready for the race. I like to “talk” to my legs and ask them if they have any idea of what I am going do to them today ;-)...I think it’s pretty funny that you are sitting there pre- race totally relaxed, with nothing hurting, but knowing that in four and a half hours everything will feel just toast.
The swim start came sudden. I didn’t hear a countdown or gun; just saw the big guys next to me start running...oh, oh, there we go. Literally closing my eyes I just put my head down and tried to hammer the first 400m. All I thought was that I need to go hard and get some feed to not lose too many minutes to Kristina, and whoever else swims like a fish. I never looked up, just trusted that the other “first-row-standers” are good swimmers who will tunnel me in the right direction. They did :-)! Out of breath, and with a bit more room to swim I tried to get into a manageable rhythm, focusing on my stroke. I was swimming the remainder of loop one next to another female, but then was able to close the gap to two guys in front of me while running around the turn-around buoy. Swimming in a draft made loop two feel way better. Into T1, I was happy to check-off the swim, and getting onto my bike. Even though I push myself in the swim I always feel like my race starts in T1. Still working on the swimming though :-).
Train in Spain - Another great year with the Canadians in Mallorca
For the fourth time Kevin, Kate and myself made our way to Spain to hold our 4th Annual Train in Spain Camp in Mallorca. As a well-known cycling Mecca in Europe the island offers all a cyclist wants – most of all great switchbacks to ride up. REAL switchbacks, not like back home in Canada, where there might be a corner every half-kilometer if you’re lucky...Just take a look at an 11km climb (Sa Calobra) that’s nicknamed “The Snake”…and you see what I mean. No wonder, I keep mentioning that I miss corners when riding back home in huge rectangular laps for hours and hours.
The group was as big as never before, and lots of fun. Everything worked out great in terms of cycling groups. With Dieter, Oli, Emanuel, Marcel and Gottfried we had 5 strong and reliable Germans to lead our way on the nicest routes available, ensuring that nobody gets left behind. Depending on the group, most rides included a coffee-stop of some sort (sometimes cake ;-)!) to refuel for the rest of the ride. The highlight for many was the 140km ride along the coast (the “Coast Classic”), where we get shuttled to the south of the island and then make our way back (UP) to the north…climbing more than 3,000m along the way. For many the 14km climb up Puig the Major was an exciting challenge that needed to be celebrated. With 3 birthdays as well we found many reasons to celebrate, and sit together with a good glass of wine, or beer, or Sangria.
…at least on the bike. After completing my first week of outdoor riding in 2010 during the ABA Camp in Penticton, I am now on a plane to Spain. Mallorca is calling….can’t wait to revisit “THE SNAKE”, conquer the “Puig de Mayor” and try to convince people to go for hill repeats (always do that, but without success it seems)…
Anyway, Penticton was so much fun, not only because of the great cycling possibilities out there, and the opportunity to focus on training without juggling it with work and everything else in life, but also because of the great bunch of people on this trip. There was lots of laughter, some ice cream treats, three wine-tastings (makes for a smiley run right after ;-)), a 10min. ice-bath in the biggest tub out there (see picture – that was 5degree “warm” lake Okanagan), a windy track running session, that felt like pushing a car on one side of the track and being pushed by one on the other side, some partner-yoga ;-), special movie nights for cycling enthusiasts (e.g. the movie “Overcome” about team CSC)…and some cold, snowy challenging moments on the bike, which are good to have sometimes to toughen you up…The only disappointment was that we didn’t finish our Ironman Loop on the last day…we came 100km short, and had to turn around ¾ up Richter’s pass due to rain that turned into snow that turned into hail, that made even the cars stop. BUT, Chantell, Greg, Masa, Cam and I made up for it on the dance floor. Dancing for 100km can be quite a workout and mentally challenging as well. We had to overcome fatigue, ensure proper hydration and just stay focussed on the goal….we did! For sure I have the ABA Camp 2011 on my things to do next year!
After a couple easy days (at least cycling-wise), Spain will be another great time to make sure I am getting in shape for my races this year. As always I am excited about another training camp!
First Ironman Race in Mexico, ever. And a good one in many ways: location, organization, spectators and my own personal race.There were definitely a couple funny things in Mexico – e.g. speed bumps on the road were smoothened out by putting more concrete down the day prior to the race; people got timeslots for the transition setup, which nobody really seemed to care about; the swim course got changed in our favor, so we had to swim less against, and more with the current. But now to my race...When we arrived at the transition area on race morning it was pitch black. The couple floodlights they had were in the pro-area (lucky me ;-)!), but for Jason and Nathalie it was hard to know for sure if they taped the gel onto their own bike or onto the neighbor’s J! But, it got light, and it was a beautiful calm morning. The Ocean was basically flat, not the kind of whirlpool we experienced during our practice swim two days prior. (The official practice swim was actually cancelled, but as late risers we missed that announcement and thought we better try this out, so we are prepared in case race day is gonna turn out that rough).
There were about 50 pros on the start, and I had three goals for the swim:
1] Get some feet (who wants to swim on your own for an hour in the big blue)
2] Don’t get the feet of #49, haha…
3] Swim “pretty”…as apparently I am actually swimming faster, when I am trying to look like a swimmer and not like I am wrestling with the water.
The last two weeks leading up to this race had been really, really busy with moving out of the house, buying a new place, getting some hours in at work, applying for a new job, and of course with training. I made sure that I didn’t skip any of the latter, even when it meant a couple short nights. But on Sunday at the Longhorn, 70.3 Austin all the work paid off. I placed 8th in the women’s field.
After two days of acclimatizing to the “heat” (ok, no Texan would consider this weather warm right now, but any Edmontonian will J), spending some time with Mike and Steph (my great homestay) and their triathlon friends, taking a look at the course (during which I fell asleep in the car…oops) and getting everything ready, it was time to race. Race morning was a beautiful, calm morning, with a bit of overcast (meaning it wouldn’t be that hot – am I ever lucky with the weather ;-)!). Mike, who was also racing, drove me out there at 5am, so I had plenty of time to set everything up. With ten minutes to my wave start at 7.30 am, it was still pitch dark, and I started to wonder how anybody will be able to see the buoys. Literally five minutes later the sun rose up, just in time for us to find our way in the swim.
The swim start was fast as usual, but not very aggressive. There was enough space for everybody. My goal was to go out as hard as I can to get onto some feet and not swim all by myself, again. It kind of worked for the first 200m, then the guy I was trying to hang onto was getting too fast for me. I re-oriented myself and started to swim next to another female athlete. All I can say is that it seemed to me like two “troubled” swimmers found each other….I kept bumping into her, or she into me, who knows. So, I went behind her, thinking that maybe drafting in her feet would be easier (easier to do, and easier feeling-wise). Didn’t work out that well. She was swimming off the course, so here I go again…taking my own line. The whole way back we swam quasi parallel to each other, me along the buoys and her a bit (10-15m) out to the side. However, I could still see a bunch of arms swinging out of the water not too far ahead of me, so I knew it is not as bad as in Coeur d’Alene, where I saw nobody anymore. Overall, I guess my swim was as good as it is these days. So, after fighting with some green in the last 50min, I exited the water, got stripped from my wetsuit, shoved all my swim stuff into my bag (everybody had to), ran to the mounting line, and hopped onto my bike, happily passing one girl right there already.
After a little break after IM Coeur d’Alene, and a couple hard weekends training with everybody that was peaking for IM Canada (and thus feeling slow and out of shape ;-)!), I finally felt like my old “fitter” ;-) self again in the week leading up to the Provincial ITT and the Xterra Alberta. The ITT was held on Saturday in Calgary on a new, still closed Highway. The course promised to be fast, and while at it, it felt that way and also looked promising on my Powermeter….However, as the Highway was still unfinished, and had a couple big bumps (which I DIDN'T jump over), my back tire gave out with a big “bang” at km 32 of the race….just as I was getting excited to push through the last, slightly downward + tailwind section of the race. Well, well…there it went my chances to win another TT-Medal. At least I have a good power-number now to train with.
New day, new luck…at the Xterra Alberta in Canmore the next day: 1km swim, 20km Mountain-biking and 7km trail running – all in the Nordic centre. Since my expectations for this race were quite low (considering my chicken-like behaviour on a mountain bike, and not knowing how much I would feel the 32km TT-effort) I went into this race rather relaxed and with the attitude of “having fun”. The “fun” started in the swim, when after ca. 400m I noticed that I was surprisingly leading the swim. Oh, oh….this won’t happen that soon again I thought, and thus pushed to make sure I maintain in this position – once first out of the water, haha! Felt good. Also, first out on my Mountain bike….I realized that it is pretty hard to push uphill, when you just swam as fast as possible. Shortly after that I missed the right trail, and when coming back onto the course saw Nanci, a really strong athlete and great mountain biker, ahead of me. So, I decided to try and follow her, and to do exactly what she is doing :-)! This strategy worked quite well on the uphill, but as soon as it went down….phhuuuhh, where did they go??? Hmmm….back to me just wanting to have fun today, and to improve my Mountain bike skills (really the main reason for signing up for this was tricking myself into riding faster downhill than I usually would want to :-))….and fun I had, even though I probably hopped off my bike more often than any other top10 finisher. Whatever though…I saw other competitors riding their lungs out, but not moving faster than me running and pushing my bike. Felt kinda bad about that. Will practice more ;-)! In the end, about 5 or 6 women passed me on the bike, not as bad as I had expected. Heading out onto the run I wanted to try to stay optimistic about passing people back..you never know. Managed to do this once only, as the mountain bike chicks had put quite a substantial gap between me and themselves. So, in the end, I was happy to have clocked the fastest run, and finish 5th female. Xterra I am coming back. I liked it because it seems more playful, sometimes harder than a regular tri, sometimes easier ;-)! And, Canmore is always worth a trip.
Aftera daylong road trip with my friend Noni (who turned out to be the loudest cheerleader on race day ;-)) fromEdmonton all the way down South to Coeur d’Alene, we arrived at our homestay with the Barnes’ family – true Ironman-enthusiasts: 18-year old Sam getting ready for his first IM, Dave being the Medical Director for the race, Linda and uncle Jim volunteering and cheering all day.
The weather was perfect for athletes coming from Alberta, but, according to the announcer, it must have been a “nasty day” for people from California ;-)! I was just happy to not face a heat record on race day…17 degrees sounded great to me. Prior to the race my worries about a potentially too hot day for my taste, had actually turned into concerns right in the other direction, when they told us at the pro-meeting, that it might actually be wise to take cover in case of a mountain hailstorm! Whaaat??? Just imagining how bad the weather would have to be for any of the pros to really actually stop racing, and look for cover made me fantasize about tennis ball-sized hailstones coming down :-)!
Lake Half Ironman - why again do I live in Edmonton?
When I left Edmonton to fly to Victoria on another chilly day in May (8 degrees) I joked to my girlfriends that I wouldn’t come back unless we have at least 15 degrees. Once I stepped outside the Victoria airport and had to wait for a shuttle, I was truly asking myself how come I live in Edmonton by choice, when there are such beautiful, green and sunny places on Earth? And, those roads….they are sooo smooth, no big pot holes. I want to bike here... (I will come back to that first impression…).
My homestay at the Hendersons made this trip so much more enjoyable. They took good care of me and made me feel at home.The day prior to race day I drove out to Shawnigan Lake to check-in, and to drive the racecourse. Good thing I did, as I was surprised about a) how much up and down the course was and b) how much the roads reminded me of Edmonton. There it went, my anticipation of a smooth bike on race day. Out of all roads I have seen during my 4-day stay on Vancouver Island, the racecourse was the roughest by far. Too bad, but at least the course was very beautiful – 4 times around the lake (I know, no time to look at the scenery while racing ;-)!).
First Performance Test at the Aerobic Power Time Trial
Last weekend was a big weekend for Aerobic Power, as Coach Kevin put on his first club time trial for the Alberta Bicycle Association. Lots of APTSlers came out to try their first time trial, and it felt great to warm up as a team. The warm up felt hard, but it usually does not feel that great on a stationary bike. Alone the ride from the trainer to the starting line made me feel way better. Just the fact that when I rode over some rough stretches of road my new Storck/Zip-wheels made such a loud noise that everybody stared at me made me a bit nervous. I was hoping nothing would fall off in the time trial. Anyway, all nervousness about falling off tires was gone as I was on the smooth road pushing hard (my wheels were quite). I was the first of women A to start, right after Kris. That was good, as I rather chase than being chased. And I knew that she would be way stronger than the other two women A behind me, so I could look forward. Last woman on the start was Tara Whitten - our Canadian star at elite track cycling. It was clear that she was up for the win. I was just hoping that she wouldn’t catch me. And she didn’t :-)! Anyway, having Kris infront of me I could always tell if I am ahead of her or not. That helped a lot and I crossed the finish line 5sec faster than her. Mission accomplished. After the individiual time trials we (Chris, Adam and I) also had a team TT. Our "Team Awesome" (that name was Adam's idea I guess??), was unfortunately not sticking to its name in terms of speed. Poor Chris was totally toast. We tried all team race formations there are, some worked better than others, so at least we got a good practice ride. And we still had an "awesome" time as a team. So, we hopefully get to try this again.
Yesterday I raced the Longhorn 70.3 Austin, TX. A weather-wise perfect day (not very hot or humid, a bit of wind) turned out to be great overall. After coming out of the water in 15th spot I managed to bike and run up to 8th place, and with that fulfilled my goal of placing top 10. It was a great experience, still looking at and learning from the big names, and just really enjoying to race with / against them. A more detailed description of the race in my report.
Thanks to Tom Keogh, Sheila Findley, Noni Herchen, Andy Trevoy, Dwayne Gibbs, Mia Clarke, Jim Greenough, and all my other friends and family for supporting me in my quest to become a better triathlete! Thanks for believing in me, too!
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