My name is Matthew Mahaffy and this is my blog. This is kind of my introduction to anyone who may want to follow my journey to attempt to become a pro triathlete so I apologize for the lengthy post.
I am currently 19 years old and am in my 2nd year of studies for mechanical engineering at The University of Western Ontario (recently changed to Western University). The reason I created this blog is to keep track of my progress in training to become a processional triathlete. This is mainly intended for myself, but just in case anyone else happens to stumble upon this blog (whether accidentally or on purpose) I figure I should give a background of my journey in sport. If you would only like to read about my recent experiences skip to the last few paragraphs as this post will cover everything, briefly, from growing up around sport as a kid.
I have been involved in sports since quite a young age. The friends I've made and the experience I've gained growing up around sports have been crucial to who I am today. I have never been a talented athlete, but have always enjoyed sports just the same. I've played hockey, soccer (or football), made several attempts at basketball, ran cross-country and track and field, and have swam competitively. My main sport had always been swimming growing up.
I mentioned earlier that I want to become a pro triathlete so I will talk about my swim/run background.
I always enjoyed taking swimming lessons as a kid and being that the lessons were run by the local club, the next logical step was to join the swim team. I began swimming with the Timmins Marlins Swim Club (TMSC) when I was about 9 or 10 years old (don't quote me on that) and swam with them until I graduated high school, with the exception of grade 9. The reason I did not swim in grade 9 is because I was given the ultimatum of staying in swimming or playing hockey, which I'd also been doing for a few years. I chose hockey because all my friends were doing it, typical high school logic, but I quickly realized that I'd made the wrong decision. Getting back into the pool after a full year off was rough but with the help of my coach, Tracy McCartney, I was able to gain some flexibility along with some new found strength I'd been gaining through puberty. I began to do quite well relatively quickly, much to my own surprise, even though I'd been off for a year. Like I mentioned earlier, I've never been particularly talented and before I took a year off in grade 9, I couldn't even keep up with other guys near my age and younger. Coming back to swimming, I only had one goal in mind and that was to get in shape and catch up to the other guys on the team. I wanted to contribute to the team's success. I put the time and the effort in and I was able to work my way up to one of the faster freestyle sprinters on the team.
As for running, I started a bit later than I started swimming. I pretty much began running in elementary school because my school was quite good at promoting the cross country team and everyone was doing it. I was always nervous about joining because I wasn't good but my friends encouraged me to join with them and I'm glad they did. I was right about me not being very good but I really enjoyed it. I was in the same situation going into high school. I was extremely intimidated by the fact all the best runners from the elementary schools around the city would be joining, but once again my friends convinced me to join and I've been great friends with every guy on that team ever since. I was never the worst on the cross country team and being that my high school has a great history in cross country running, the coaches really knew how to improve their athletes without driving them into the ground. Because I was slower I was always left behind while my friends went the the provincial championships (OFSAA) every year and at the end of the grade 11 season I told myself I was going to do everything I could to make that team of 5 that got to represent our school at OFSAA. They'd won 4th in grade 9, 2nd in grade 10 and 3rd in grade 11 and I wanted to be a part of that. I built up my mileage during the summer, as opposed to running 2-3 times total in the weeks leading into the season, and I seen massive improvements. I went from a 30+mins pb on our local 6.9km course to a 28min pb with only that summer mileage. I was really looking forward to see if I was going to have a shot at making the team, but unfortunately I got a minor ankle sprain during a really muddy race in North Bay and was never able to run at 100% until the end of the season. Luckily, all my hard work and dedication, which began in grade 9, paid off and the coaches allowed me to go to OFSAA as an alternate even though there were clearly other, faster runners who could have taken my spot. Our team didn't get the gold they wanted but they did manage to grab a silver and I was allowed to get on the podium with my friends and receive a medal of my own. To this day, it is still one of the most cherished things I own. I went to University the following year, but I would like to mention that my friends stayed for grade 13 and managed to snag that elusive gold medal that they'd worked so hard for.
I did say I'd done some track and field but it was during peak swim season so it was always just for fun. I did long jump, triple jump, high jump, hurdles and a couple 1500m throughout all of high school and I have to say, it gave me a real appreciation for all the track athletes out there.
Now for the reason I created this blog: triathlon. In grade 10 a couple of friends on my cross country team - Marc-Antoine Nadon who is a fantastic mountain biker and currently competes on the international level, and Colin Allard who was a very talented cross-country running growing up - had planned to do the local Heart of Gold triathlon as a relay and were looking for a swimmer, as their previous swimmer had to cancel. I agreed and that is kind of where it began. I never swam during the summer before, but these guys believed we had a good chance of winning the men's relay so I figured I would train a few times before doing my very first open water race. Swimming open water was much tougher than I thought. It was 2 laps where you had to exit the water after the 1st lap and that gave me bad cramps. We managed to come second to a team of adults. The runner on that team was actually a sponsored Brooks runner and Colin's uncle but it was still very close. The following year the swim club had taken over the role of managing the triathlon which made it a lot easier for people who were lacking a swimmer to find one. I ended up swimming for an older man and a young lady and although they were not in it to win it, I still enjoyed it. We just missed the podium for the co-ed team relay and although I didn't expect to make the podium I was kind of disappointed. After some thought, I decided that before going away to University I wanted to do the entire triathlon myself, so I did. I bought a bike, got a cheap race suit and competed by myself the following year. I severely under trained for this over 1 hour race. I'd barely done over 20km on my bike before the race and had never done any sort of brick workouts. I died during the bike and had to walk several time on the run, which I hadn't done in any race since entering high school. To my defence, it was about 30 degrees Celsius outside but no excuse is a good excuse. I was glad I was able to finish and I think the attention I got from friends and acquaintances really contributed to my future love for the sport.
Jump forward about a month (from July to end of August) and now I am in London, Ontario for a training camp for the Western Mustangs swim team, one of the top ranked in the province. I struggled the first few days but got the hang of it near the end of the week. To my disappointment, even though I felt like I was in the best shape I'd ever been, it just wasn't enough and I failed to even make the training team. I never tried out for cross country because I knew I didn't stand a chance. Struggling to adapt to all my new free time, which didn't last long once I realized what I'd gotten myself into by choosing engineering, I decided to try and find a club to join. I almost didn't find anything of interest but as clubs week came to a close I noticed there was a triathlon club. I knew I would be able to continued running and swimming with other individuals who have a passion for sport and I could do it at my own leisure, which was very appealing after 3 years of swimming 2hours a day during the weekdays. It took some time to get use to spin classes but I loved the triathlon club. Wanting to get back into shape as quickly as possible after quite some time off, I gave 100% at every workout I went to, which soon turned out to be a bad decision. I ended up having some knee and hip injuries which kept me on and off training for the majority of the year. As April came around, there was a triathlon, against other university clubs, in Kingston and being that I was finally free of injury, I thought it would be fun and a good challenge to take another go at a triathlon race. Much to everyone's surprise, it was not very nice out on race day. It rained, was below 10 degrees Celsuis, had heavy winds and no sun was to be found. After finishing that race, completely frozen and exhausted, I had to ask: "What is so special about this sport that has me coming back for more when both of my race my experiences so far have been so difficult and miserable?" And not being able to think of anything logical, I simply decided that perhaps I'd found my sport. I wanted to perform better and realized that I knew nothing about this new sport so I decided to get a coach. I found my first coach online and he gave me workouts to train for my 2nd Timmins Heart of Gold triathlon, which I happened to have unfinished business with, having been the first race I walked in 4 years of competition. My coach's workouts were hard and I drove myself into the ground, injuring myself again, this time some shin pain. We managed to keep me healthy enough to compete and I shaved 7mins off my time from they year before (2011) although my run suffered due to the lack of training. I realized this wasn't the coach for me as they were more focused in developing elite athletes so I said my thanks and cut off all ties there. I did about a month of easy training on my own before looking for a new coach. A friend and quite talented triathlete named Devin Wittig had a coach who happened to be closer to home and was more focused on developing all types of athletes, so I got in touch with him and we went from there.
It is now mid August and knowing of my recent injury history, my new coach decided it was best we address my injury before my next race in September, the Lakeside Triathlon, which is a part of the Multisport Series. Things went well during the 5 weeks leading up to this race and I killed it. I under estimated the wind on the bike but I dug deep on the run and had the best run of my life. I ran just over a 20min 5k which was only 20secs off my 5km road race pb in May of the same year.
We are now back into the school year and into the winter season. Because I never really had a large race season I didn't need to take a rest period so we worked on my base for the next few months. Things were going well, I had my longest run ever of 19km. A few days after that 19km run my shin started acting up worse than ever. I got some professional advice and was told to take a minimum of 6weeks off of running. I was able to continue swimming and biking, but not being able to run was quite devastating. I finally began to understand that listening to my body's aches and pains and dealing with them properly was going to be a huge factor if I ever wanted to have a chance at going pro. I am currently nearing, what I believe, is the end of my walk-run program after taking 2 months off of running and am getting into quite good swim and bike shape. As the weather warms up I will be able to get out and test my new strength on the roads and in the winds. I was lucky enough to get out for a nice long 2hr ride two weeks ago and held a pace similar to my race pace at the Triathlon I did in Kingston last April. This coming weekend I will be participating at the Ontario Swimming Masters Provincial Championships conveniently located here in London, Ontario. I will be racing in all the freestyle events, from the 50m to the 1500m. I've never actually competed in an 800m or 1500m before so it should be interesting to see where I stand since shifting my focus to triathlon.
I apologize again for the long post but if you've made it this far congratulations! All of the posts from here on out will be training/racing related, perhaps with the occasional school related post, and will be much MUCH shorter. Also, every time I previously mentioned that I raced a triathlon, I am specifically talking about sprint triathlons.
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