Muskoka Sprint Race Report
750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run
June 17, 2006, 4pm
Huntsville, Ont
sunny and hot 30C+, humidex 38C+
SW wind

Ah, another hot day for me to be racing!  Wonderful!  Not! But I was 
feeling fresh and alert and energized, despite the 4hr drive in the 
morning to get to Huntsville.  Most importantly, I was feeling very 
relaxed, a feeling I'd had since last night.  I got down to the race 
site early, ~1:30pm, with my friend Andy Fong.  picked out a good, 
easily seen transition spot, and went through registration and did 
some general setup tasks until 2pm, when Andy and I took our shirts to 
get autographs and pictures with Lisa Bentley, and then repeat with 
Simon Whitfield.  Simon didn't have a good pen for signing t-shirts, 
so I pulled out mine, and he kept it for the lines of people who were 
gathering.  I didn't get it back.  No matter.  Then I changed and put 
my contacts in (the left one irritated me, but I decided not to try 
adjusting it, trusting that it would sort itself out).  Then I went 
and ate a gel and walked the transition, and then did my full setup, 
using my checklist to remind me of all tasks (body marking is the only 
thing the list reminded me to do).  

My plan was as follows: WU 10mins swim; swim steady, focus on my form 
and try to stay out of packs, 15-18mins; smooth T1, keep the HR down; 
bike hard, esp the downhills, take gel (~150cals) at about 1/3 and 2/3 
of the bike course, drink all the eload in my aero bottle (~700ml), 
and dowse myself with water on the uphills when I had a chance to 
situp out of the aero position, sub 40mins if possible; quick T2; 
start the run patient and find my legs, then as hard as I could to the 
end, 24-25mins, aiming for a ~1:25 total finishing time.  And most 
importatly, beat all my split times from the first time I did this 
race, in 2000: swim - 23:46; T1 - 5:06; bike - 54:31; T2 - 0:53; run - 
25:31; total time - 1:49:45.  

I had a quick chat with my coach Jane - she was encouraging, and I 
told her how relaxed I felt - and at 3:25pm ran for the train to take 
me down to the swim start.  I missed it, so, waiting for the next 
train, I visualized and stretched and generally did more relaxing.  
The 3:35pm train down was crammed full, and once I got down to the 
swim start, the whole grass and beach was full of people, and many 
were in the water.  I easily got into my wet-suit, two ladies zipped 
me up, and then, at 3:50pm, I got into the water for my warm-up swim.  
The water felt good, not too cold or warm, but mirky, so you couldn't 
see very far in it.  I swam out to the first buoy and back, just under 
10mins, and even that distance felt far.  Then I sat on the dock and 
waited the few minutes for my wave to start. My left eye was still 
irritated with the contace lense.  No matter, I could live with it.  
Anyways, too late to do anything about it now.

4pm the first wave went off, and I was in the second wave.  I got 
myself up, and at the back of the line of swimmers.  The horn went 
off, and we were off!  I soon found myself in the middle of the 
swimmers, but with room to swim ok.  I felt good, and I settled into 
my stoke.  The first buoy came up quickly, and there was congestion 
around the buoy, but I was surprised that there was no real thrashing, 
as people seemed to be respecting each other and now trying to crawl 
over each other.  So I sited ahead, and settled down.  My arms felt 
the wetsuite a bit, but it did not bother me.  I soon noticed that I 
was passing swimmers both in my wave (yellow caps) and in the previous 
wave (red caps), and no-one was passing me.  The field was spread out 
and we worked our way up the river, and I was to the right, and yet 
keeping as straight a line as I could.  We rounded the bend, and I saw 
I was in direct straight line through the last two buoys marking the 
channel, whereas everyone else was off to my left.  I was happy to be 
taking the direct line.  A glance at my watch showed my time as 
9:something - I thought maybe a 15min time was possible.  I soon 
realized why everyone was off to the left - I ran into a bank of reeds 
- and a kayaker was across my pathh, so I had to veer a little left.  I 
stayed steady, although my arms were just starting to feel a little 
tired, and I soon approached the final buoy and turn for the beach.  
My watch was now reading 16mins something.  Good swim.  I came to the 
exit, and, where others around me were standing and wading in, I swam 
until my hands touched bottom, then I stood.

I walked out of the water to fight down the dizziness I knew would hit 
me.  Mandy saw me and gave me an encouraging shout, and I started a 
slow jog up to transition.  My HR soared into the 180's, despite my 
slow pace.  I got my wetsuit off down to my waist, and my swim cap, 
goggles, and nose plug in my hand.  Into transistion I easily found my 
bike, slid my wetsuit off easily, sunglasses, helmet on, and away I 
went.  Good transition.

I was onto the bike without stopping, and I got my feet into my shoes 
on the downhill, but I saw that the tongue of my right shoe had come 
out (as it often does in practice).  With no time to fix it before the 
hill up onto Brunel I just did the shoe up, and climbed the hilll.  
Then, on the ensuing flat and downhill, I got the shoe sorted out, and 
then settled into the the bike ride.  The first wind hit me, hot and 
not cooling in any way, and I knew the ride was going to be tough and 
punishing.  My HR was high, my stomach was unsettled - I actually spat 
out some chunks - and my quads were burning a bit.  The Muskoka bike 
course is a tough, unforgiving up-and-down hilly course.  So I stayed 
in the aero position and worked my gears and worked the hills, trying 
not to push too hard on the uphills, and really letting go on the 
downhills.  I gently sipped on my eload, and poured water over me (and 
not in me) when a steep uphill allowed me to sit upright.  I passed 
the 5km mark, and soon afterwards I took the first 1/2 of my gel.  It 
was too soon, and I brought up a bit more, but the stomach started to 
settle after that.  A long uphill had me in lowest gear and my heart 
racing.  I was passing quite and few people, and few were passing me.  
I played a bit of tag with a couple of guys, one of them a 16 year old 
relay rider, whom I eventually left behind.  I had little difficulty 
avoiding any drafting issues.  The 10km turn around seemed to take a 
long time to come, and I was happy when it did.  My happiness 
increased on the ride home.  There were more downhills than uphills.  
The big hill was great!  I noticed that it was crowded with riders 
coming slowly up, often 2 and 3 deep, as I shot down at 71.1km/h.  
Yeeee haaaaa!  The bumps at the bottem had me bouncing in my aerobars, 
but I had no problems keeping control.  The next big hill I got over 
50km/h, and I grinning and shouted my pleasure to some spectators half 
way down that hill.  I took the rest of my gel just before the 15km 
mark, and I soon reached the bottom of my eload.  Good, nutrition plan 
executed!  The last 5km the road was fairly empty, and I was moving 
preaty well.  On a couple of downhills I shot past some riders as the 
next uphill started and they didn't maintain their momentum as well as 
I did.  My stomach felt good, my quads had stopped burning and I felt 
good.  As I approached the turn down to transiton, I saw that my ride 
time was great, way until the 40mins I was targetting.  A hard right, 
which I took fast and down the hill, passing one more rider and I made 
my way up the chute to transition.   An awesome ride.

I felt lonely in the chute.  There was spectators cheering, but I am 
used to there being more competitors around me.  My friend Andrew 
Armstrong was the T-line official, and he waved me to dismount, and I 
ran into the transition zone.  Mandy yelled "Annnddrrrreewwww" and I 
grinned and replied "2 down, 1 to go!".  The transition zone was just 
about empty, only one other competitor just heading out, and VERY FEW 
bikes!  Only one bike anywheres close to me on my rack!  Wow!  Have I 
had THAT good of a ride?  I racked my bike, helmet off, shoes on 
easily, I made sure the shoes were adjusted correctly, I grabbed my 
hat, and off I ran.  I saw 55:something on my watch, so I was smiling 
and thinking of a sub-1:20 finishing time.

The smile and the positive mood were quickly squashed.  My legs felt 
dead and rubbery.  No problem, I knew that if I stayed patient and  
didn't push them too hard, I knew they would come around.  But worse, 
far worse, was the stitch that immediately sprang up on my right side. 
 I couldn't breath, and I couldn't generate any push or drive to my 
legs.  And the pain got worse, especially on the uphills and downhills 
(which was the whole run course, and it had no flats).  By the 
turnaround just before the beach, I barely moving and was just gasping 
for breath, so I stopped and walked.  I thought of stopping and 
standing, but I thought "That is death to my race, keep moving 
forwards". I tried to massage the stitch, and it was as hard as rock.  
I got going again, but barely a shuffle.  The downhills were just 
torture, as the shock of my feet hitting the ground just zapped the 
stitch.  I just couldn't breath.  I walked again on the next hill, and 
I could get no breath to run up it.  But I kept moving forwards.  I 
reached the water station and the crowds of spectators.  I took water, 
drank some and poured more over my head.  It was hot, but I didn't 
feel affected my it.  This was just a nice chance to walk, take deep 
breaths, and try to relieve the stitch.  I got running again, slowly, 
as I took the hill up to Brunel.  Can't breath.  Pain.  The route 
continued uphill and down, and I struggled to just keep moving 
forwards.  Gone were any thoughts of a time goal.  I was just 
concentrating on moving forwards.  I walked on another steep uphill,  
and then again on the following downhill as the pain got too much.  I 
had never experienced anything like this before, and so didn't know 
how to relieve it, if possible.  So I concentrated on just moving 
forwards.  

Coming down the hill to the big crowd of the spectators, and the end 
of the first loop of the run, I saw Andy and my coach Jane.  This was 
my lowest momemt - they were seeing me at my worst!  I was close to 
tears.  Jane, seeing me in bad trouble, leaned towards me and said 
"Focus Andrew.  Relax".  Ok, Jane, thanks.  relax and focus.  I can do 
that.  I took water at the station, walking for only a short time, and 
then I started running again.  Focus.  I focused on my form, and 
concentrated on driving my legs, even without the help of good breaths 
and my chest helping the driving.  Relax, I can finish this.  My pace 
picked up a bit and graduated from a shuffle to a jog.  The stitch now 
grew across my chest, but decreased its intensity, so that I could 
manage it, and keep running.  I made the turn around and kept running. 
 Focus.  Relax.  I kept running, not fast, but it was running.  Back 
through the water station, I took nothing.  I saw Jane, waiting for 
me, and I told here "I am strong", and I kept running.  My legs were 
by now feeling better, with jump, with with little breath to push 
with, I couldn't push the pace much. Up the steep hills, it was 
difficult, but I kept running.  I passed the 4km marker, and saw my 
watching saying 1:20:something.  I thought, maybe I can still have a 
1:25 finishing time.  The last steep hills were tough, but I did not 
walk.  Focus.  I kept running.  Down the last hill towards the finish 
line, and I saw my watch 1:25:4x and counting fast.  I picked up the 
pace.  Can I do it?!?  I surged across the line and stopped my watch - 
1:26:02 - damn it!

I slowly caught my breath and Jane and Andy, Mandy and Russ came by, 
and we talked it out.  Tough day, but I finished!

Thank you for a great trip to Huntsville with Andy and Mandy and Russ.
Congrats to Russ and Andy for their great races in the long course on
sunday.  Thank you Jane for your timely words and advice and help with 
talking this race through.

good, what went well
====================
- baby powder in bike and running  shoes is a big help!
- transistions were perfect, not rrushed, nothing forgotten, and yet 
were quick;
- only run split time from 2000 raace not achieved, other 5 splits all 
beaten quite handily;
- good swim;
- great bike - worked the hills annd the gears, stayed aero and kept my 
momentum;
- I was relaxed pre-race;

lessons, need to improve
========================
- stitch caused by doing the bike  too hard for the conditions with a 
nutrition plan that was too rushed.  I was asking my body to absorb 
~300 calories of gel and ~700ml of eload in approx 20mins of bike 
time, while I was cycling quite hard, and my body couldn't do it.  
Although I did not get a sloshing feeling, my guts couldn't work at 
that high intensity, and they rebelled; I need to learn to work out a 
better nutrition plan for a sprint race;
- left contact lense was actually  torn, and it irritated me the whole 
race;
- try to learn more about the swimm course ahead of time - reeds, 
current;
- learn to fix the shoe problem inn training - keep the tongue up;
- situp on the hills more - hands  on hoods/handlebars;
- attention to detail pre-race - ccontact lenses, course knowledge;


Stats:
======

swim 16:46 (officially 17:46), 150/455 overall, 16/35 M35-39, HR 164avg
T1 1:58  (officially 0:58), 5/35 M35-39, HR 182 avg
bike  36:34, 32.8km/h, 50/455 overall, 6/35 M35-39
T2 0:41, tied 4/35 M35-39, HR 181 avg
run 30:05, 218/455 overall, 17/35 M35-39, HR 168 avg, 181 @ finish

1:26:02 official time
106/455 overall
10/35  Men 35-39