Getting there: Drove left Fredericton at 6:15am, 2hours 12min drive, 10am start, KOS before the Olympic started.
Conditions: Windy as usual, choppy water that bothered some people, wind from various directions, it did not favour the out or the back ride
Race preparation: Tri-NB had a large number of new bike racks at this race (enough for everyone). Bikes were supported by wheels only. The bikes on the rack I was on were in a bad orientation, because my handle bars were touching the bike next to me. Bikes should have alternated sides to avoid this problem. The briefing confirmed that the course was the same as it has been the past few years that I have done it. I ate one Cliff Bar about 15 minutes before the start of the race
Notes:Swim: The water was fairly choppy with the wind today and I got a mouthful of water or two, but it did not bother me too much. In fact I think rough swim conditions give me an advantage over weaker swimmers who are bothered by the occasional mouthful of water. The start was in waist deep water and the lead swimmers raced about 50m to turn around the first buoy and then a long swim to the next buoy and short distance to the third buoy and back the first buoy to finish the triangle which had to be repeated to make 1500m. I found that again I had breathing problems early in the race, but I think I know the reason for it now To get ahead and away from the crowd I sprit between 100m and 200m and then I try to set a steady even pace for the rest of the swim. I usually feel that my chest tightens and I have a hard time catching my breath. At this point at it feels like my suit is squeezing my chest. Normally after a 200m swim sprint I would stop and stand up to rest, but now I have to recover while I�m swimming. This year more than other years I may be trying to improve my swim position by getting out in front of the pack, so this problem may be showing itself more than in the past. To deal with this issue I think I will try training for this eventuality. I will put my suit on and sprint 150m to 200m and then slow down to an even pace. I will try this several times a session perhaps at Killarney Lake.
Another issue I had during this swim was that after turning the third buoy and returning to the first buoy, we were all swimming into the sun and it was very difficult to find the buoy which was darken with the angle of the sun and it was against a dark treed background. I think most swimmers had this same problem. At one point I was way off track and I think I was swimming toward the buoy that was on shore. I lost couple of positions at this point and maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute off my time. On the second time swimming this route I took a chance a followed some other swimmers and I stayed on a much better tract. At one point I even did breast stroke to find the buoy which I normally don�t have to do. If I can�t find the buoy, I should slow down and try find the buoy so I don�t waste even more time. My swim time was fairly average at 23:39 (1:43) and my placing was good at 5th.
Notes:Transition #1: I half a Cliff Bar at this time and I sat down to take my suit off and put my shoes on. I noticed that my shoe was loose while I was running to the bike start line, so I stopped to tighten them at the line. Next time I buy shoes I will definitely get shoes that are easier to put on. I�m not sure if I should practice putting my shoes on the clips and slipping them on while I ride, I don�t think I have good enough balance and I would probably crash trying to do it. This transition in general takes me about 2 minutes, and I think I should practice it standing up to see if I can do it any faster.
Bike: The wind was from various directions and there are some rolling hills, but mostly the course is flat. I found out early in the bike section that I had no water in my handle bar water bottle. I found out later that mum had dropped my bike and picked it up quickly while I was at the registration table. She didn�t think any water had spilled out, but all of it had. I had a second water bottle on my bike with 50/50 water and grape juice which was fine, and I drank it all during the ride. I find that grape juice works very well for me in races. It tastes good and it doesn�t bother my stomach one bit. I remember last year at this race I did not drink all my water on the bike ride and I think I was dehydrated by the end of the race. Last year was the only time I felt that I my fall over at the finish line so I took some water and leaned against a fence.
I tried to keep my cadence higher during this race as I have been practicing lately, but it may have lowered my speed at some points, because I was sometimes in the wrong gear. Maybe I�m just not practiced at it yet or maybe I need a different gear setup or maybe I need to ride in the top ring.
This was my second ride on my new slanted seat post and it seemed to work OK, because no more saddle sore than before. I am not sure if there is any improvement with the new seat, so I will monitor how I feel in the saddle and if I�m biking any better. The bike ride was fairly standard with lots of people passing me, but I�m not sure if I had a real good bike time or not. My bike time and run time were not recorded on the time sheet or the results website. Mike (the timer) says I probably didn�t cross the timing mat returning on my bike, but I am 95% sure that I did cross the mat. I think I did not reset my computer after I did a practice run before the race and my final time on my computer was 1:29:08. If I assume I had 10 minutes on my meter that would make my ride about 1:19:00 or so, which is not great considering last year I did the bike in 1:16:01.
Notes:Transition #2: Running through transition, there were other people standing in the way so I yelled coming through and they scattered. I must have been pretty grumpy by that point, because upon reaching my transition spot I found that all of the bike slots filled with other bikes and I yelled again �someone took my spot.� A race official (Paul Lavoie) came over and said he would take care of my bike, so I gave it to him and started putting my running shoes on. Paul started to put the bike in a spot several places away from where I should have been. I told that was the wrong spot and to just put the bike on the edge of transition against a tree. I didn�t want my bike to be in someone else�s spot. I think these new bike racks are going to take a little getting used to for some folks. This problem may be, because the inexperienced sprint racers were mixed in with the Olympic racers. It doesn�t seem to happen when the race transition areas are separated. I put my shoes on with no socks and ate the rest of my Cliff Bar as I started the run. I forgot my watch, because it was not where I had left it in my running shoe.
Run: I felt the wind at times and there were only a couple of rolling hills. I started moderately hard and held that pace for most of the first 5km lap. I�m not sure when it happened, but I started picking up the pack and picking off slower runners. No other runners passed me today. At about the 8 km mark I finally caught an Olympic runner who had passed me on the bike like I was standing still and now it was a bit satisfying to pass her late in the run. By this time with 2 km left to go I was running hard and I am fairly sure I did negative splits for the run halves. I think I�m developing a bit of a killer instinct on the runs and it feels �good.� I didn�t leave much on the run course and I was rewarded with a personal best. I beat last years Sackville time by about 30 seconds, but I think the swim was short last year. I think by judging my time against last weeks Shediac time, that it would be more accurate to say that I beat that time by about 1 minute.
After: Minutes after I was done with the race I grabbed some food and walked into the lake. I waded out waist deep and stood there for about 10 minutes. I normally don�t have a problem with soreness after my races unless they are very new or very strenuous. Since the lake was there and it was quite cold I thought I would give the cold treatment a try. I felt fine the next morning. I don�t know if the soaking had an effect or not, but I ran fairly hard on Sunday morning and did not soak after and I was sore on Monday.
Notes:Observations and lessons learned: I thought today that these Olympic races are beginning to feel like sprints used to feel to me, because I am going hard most of the time. Probably the extra training I have done for the long distance race in St George has helped in this regard.
Swim: