Bluewater Triathlon

For my first Olympic of the season I decided to race the Bluewater Triathlon. I had heard good things from some friends who have raced it in the past and the course is a little short so I thought it would be a good way to get some longer racing in. Unfortunately I kind of messed up the timing of my warmup which started the day off kind of rough. We drove up on race morning which wasn’t too bad, but they had a race briefing at around 7:45 (during which time I was setting up my transition) which I suppose I didn’t absolutely have to stay for, but at 8 they already started sending all the Olympic athletes over to the swim start since it was about 1km down the road. The problem is the race didn’t start until 8:30, and the men not until 8:46 so I didn’t join them. Long story short, my warm up was running to the start in my wetsuit (which I almost forgot my cap and goggles) followed by about 3-4 minutes of swimming.

Swim (17:38 – 1st OA, ~1100m?)

They have the swim marked as 1500m, but I’ve been told it is about 1100m which actually makes me kind of disappointed in my swim time. It was a beach start and they had like a flag or something I think we were supposed to start at but not everyone was near it so I figured we could just keep going down the beach. I kept walking to get the shortest line to the first turn and although nobody followed quite as far nobody stopped me so I started with a clear conscience, some clear water, and less meters to swim. I got out to the front immediately and just kind of swam alone the whole way. It was weird leading a race in the water as I felt like I might not have been pushing my hardest, but the view was absolutely gorgeous. The water was extremely calm, the sun just high enough not to blind me in my tinted goggles and the swim was point to point so I just got to swim in one straight line admiring the boats, canoes, the shore, just taking everything in. Coming out of the water I didn’t really know where the exit was, but I managed to get one of the volunteers in a boat to point me in the right direction by staring him down as I swam. There was also a run up the beach, up some stairs (which I also turned the wrong direction when I got to the top), and down the run path a little bit before getting to transition.

T1 (0:43 – 4th OA)

Once again, not a great transition. I think that’s 0/4. I went to go pull my suit off and ended up catching my chip so I got stuck and confused for a second before I realized what happened. At that point I think two relays got out ahead of me and I was kind of frustrated so I hurried out and to try and catch them quickly.

Bike (1:07:58 – ~13th OA)

Right from the start I could tell my legs were a little rough from not tapering at all for the first time this season, as well as from not warming up at all. I heard the course was flat and easy though so I just kept my head down, stayed in the drops for as long as possible and did my best to stay around my goal power. It’s always fun having other groups start ahead. Although I got passed by a few men a little earlier than I’d hoped I was still really motivated since I was passing so many women. I also got to see and cheer some friends out on the course which is cool too. I came a few watts short of my goal, but I can’t really complain about the time and it was a full 40k as well which I hadn’t really given Alex too much heads up so we probably didn’t do much Olympic distance training.

I started noticing how big of a difference being aero is last year when I did the MSC Lakeside Olympic distance with clip on aero bars, and in this race I did really well to stay in the drops nearly the entire ride. I still have a ways to go in terms of fitness, but I feel like I’m finally starting to close the gap on the bike.

T2 (NT)

I guess my chip stopped working during T2 because I didn’t get a time for T2 or the run, but I got one for the bike. T2 went pretty well other than having to slow down a lot waiting for an athlete from the women’s race to dismount (speed bumps and such scare people). Safety first!

Run (~44:15 - ~5th OA)

I came out of transition just behind another male triathlete so my first goal was to stay relaxed and chase him down. There was a short section before the long out and back and I caught him just before the turn for that section, which was about 1km I think. For the first time in a race I felt like I might potentially have a shot for the win or top 3 if the other guys didn’t get too much of a gap on the bike and didn’t have anything special on the run. I didn’t realize this until after I died, but I wasn’t racing my own “comfortable” race for once. I was racing to win and although it backfired I am really proud of what I attempted to do and the mentality I had until my blow up. 

What ended up happening is I went through the first km in about 4 minutes which was kind of the goal, but I knew it was hot out (took at least 2 cups per aid station) so I was just trying to stay in control of my breathing. I ended up just crushing the first 5km like I couldn’t believe, coming through somewhere around 19:50-20:00 which is as fast as I have ever ran off the bike (albeit on slightly harder courses with better weather). I lost mentally at some point before the 5km mark though. The heat, lack of specific run training, and the ambitious pace caught up to me. I couldn’t control my effort anymore, around 4km, and with the largest gap between aid stations being from the 3km mark to the 6km mark (and back to the 8km) all I could think about was hold my pace until the next aid station. I came pretty close, coming into the aid station around 23:xx (not quite the 6km mark), but I stopped dead in my tracks. I drank a cup and a half, stood under the hose that was at this particular aid station, and shoved some ice down my suit, spending about a full 30 seconds at the aid station (yes I timed it). The next station was the same. They didn’t have 2 cups ready so I even stopped and waited for them. I ended up bombing the last 2km so badly I wanted to walk hence the 24 minute second 5km split.

Overall (2:11:11 – 5th OA/2nd M20-29)

At the end of the day though it was nice seeing so many familiar faces on the bike and run course, high fiving everyone and enjoying the food and the sunshine after the race. Shout out to Jaime who had to tough the drive home while everyone else complained. This race is definitely one of my favourites to date and hopefully one day I’ll come back and win overall.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Even if I had taken some I left my phone at the race so I’m s*&^ out of luck.

Until next time,

Matt M

First Overall Win!! - Timmins Heart of Gold Triathlon

I took a trip home to spend some time with family and friends, and to race in our local Heart of Gold triathlon. I had originally planned on going up on race weekend and staying for the week following to visit, but I'd been getting pretty lonely working in London and I had the opportunity to go up early so I took it. On to the race report!

Swim (Including T1 - 10:37)

I knew that I would be one of the faster swimmers in this race. In the past I've only gotten beat by the local swimmers who usually do the relays but I never did the race in very good shape. It was a running start, I got out front fast and I got some good dolphin dives in but I couldn't quite hold onto the feet of the top swimmer. I ended up swimming pulling a relay swimmer along and I came out in second, only about 30 seconds down.

Swim Start - Can you guess who the swimmers are?
(Hint: It's the ones in the race suits)

T1
I had a pretty bad T1. I ran pretty slow up to transition and I once again struggled to get my wetsuit off. I also chickened out on the flying mount again so I really need to start practicing both those things.

T1 - Might have been a bad transition, but look at that form

Bike(33:54)
Before the bike I decided to try out bestbikesplit.com since I knew this wasn't an easy course and I figured I would need a good bike to have a good chance for the overall win. I don't like using watches or power meters in races because I believe in learning to race by feel but I definitely think it helped put together a solid bike. I knew what effort I should go on the tough hills so I didn't overdo it and I made sure to keep pushing power on most of the downhills. For the first time in the bike portion of the race I passed the guys in front of me, and within about 5 minutes too (one was the top swimmer, the other was a relay biker). I never got passed after that. I actually ended up having the second fastest non-relay bike split of the day by only 5 seconds (3rd fastest including relays).

T2
I had a great T2. Zero mistakes and I got my shoes on properly this time. I still got blisters though.

T2 - Heading out for 2 laps of heat and suffering

Run (Including T2 - 21:05)
Knowing how poorly I ran at this race in the past, I knew this is where I could lose it. In the past I'd ran the course in 26+ minutes. It's pretty notorious for being hot on race day and there is very little shade. That being said there are still 3 aid stations per lap and one even had a volunteer with a hose. With all that being said, I came off the bike feeling as good as I have all season and when I found out I had about 4 minutes on the guy who thought might run me down I knew something crazy would have to happen for me to lose. However, I was still ahead of the first place relay team and I wanted some personal revenge on this course for having such terrible runs in the past so I kept the pace going and I got beat by the first place relay's runner about 400-500m from the line. Considering he runs in the NCAA I had no intention of trying to outrun him.

Run Lap 2 - "Both feet off the ground!!! There's proof you were flying...as if you needed any."
Great comment Diane!

Overall - 1st Overall - 1:05:37
In the end I had the second fastest swim split, second fastest bike split, and fastest run of the day allowing me to take home my first Overall win by a margin of about 5.5 minutes. I had a huge support team of family and friends come to watch the race since they were all in town for my dad's 50th birthday, and I couldn't be happier to have had my first win back home.
All photo creds to my mom's cousin Diane. Thanks for the great pictures!

Podium - It's 1-1 now Dan.
Work on that swim and we'll have a final showdown sometime in the future!

Next up I will be racing the slightly short olympic distance Bluewater triathlon. I was initially planning on racing the Subaru Niagara race, but plans got changed and I think it was for the best. I was feeling slightly fatigued, but I feel like had I raced all 3 weekends I would've been totally burnt out.

Until Next Time,
Matt M


Bonus pic:

I'm not sure if I made a creepy face or not, but my grandpa was killing me with that intense gaze.
I just had to look away

Toronto Triathlon Festival

About a week and a half ago I did a sprint race in Toronto, and since I'm just getting around to it now I've got a few additional updates.

Toronto Triathlon Festival

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it to this race since about a week before the race I still didn't have a ride or a place to stay. I also didn't have my draft legal card which I needed if I was planning on racing draft legal. I was able to get both a ride and a place to stay from a friend though so I figured even if I didn't get my drafting certification on time I could at least race age group. I did manage to get certified in time though so here's the race report.

Swim (10:13)
We were only 16 male junior/u23/elites combined so we all started at the same time. Some pretty big local names were there including the Forbes twins, Johnny Rasmussen, Miles Zagar, and there was also Gaspar Riveros who races on the pro international circuit for Chile. I thought I started out pretty well, staying on feet until about the 300m or 400m mark, but eventually I fell off the back and was about 30seconds from swimmers in either direction. I felt like I had a good swim, but it's unfortunate that I didn't make any packs on the bike.

T1 (1:23)
Not the fastest of transitions. I got caught with my suit around my ankles again, but I saved a bit of time by getting my helmet on before the suit was off. I also wasn't particularly rushed as I didn't see anyone in transition and the guy behind me wasn't very close.

Bike (31:23)
Like I said, unfortunately I didn't make any packs and I wasn't closing any gaps to the guys up ahead so I basically had to TT it. Since the goal going in was to forget about the run and just try to hang on for dear life on the bike I put all my effort into going for a solid bike split. It isn't quite the same when you are riding solo though. For the last about 5km Itamar Zilberman managed to catch up from his deficit on the swim so we tried to work together, which I think was good because it allowed me to recover, if only slightly, enough to go into the run feeling good.

T2 (1:05)
No need to mess around with a wetsuit now, but my shoes were trouble this time around. Coming into transition I noticed I had a little gap on Itamar, which I assume formed when he took his feet out of his shoes or something, so I took advantage to try and get out of T2 first. I wasn't sure what his run was like but I thought we were of similar abilities so I wanted a headstart on him.

Run (19:52)
I tried to put out a hard first km or so to discourage Itamar from latching on, but turns out he was actually quite a bit better on the run than I thought and he went by before I settled into my actual pace. I put out a solid effort. I knew the lead girl was coming up and I didn't want them to catch me (or beat me on time for that matter) so I still had motivation even though I was running solo. I was kind of hoping for a slightly faster run considering this is only about 20 seconds faster than Woodstock and this is a much easier course, but I'll take what I can get.

Overall (1:03:54 - 11th male/12th overall)
In the end I didn't place horribly. Only Dominika Jamnicky beat me for girls and a few guys DNF'd with flats and injuries and stuff and I beat a few juniors as well. I'm disappointed I didn't get to test out some drafting on the bike, but I still think that considering I've still only been back from Europe for 3 weeks I had a really good race so I'm happy with the result.

Then and Now
For anyone still reading this is just an overview of the race lead up and the past week or so of training. Ever since I've come back from Europe I've had a nagging in my foot so I didn't actually do anything more than easy runs leading into the race. I also wiped out for the first time this year on my bike on my way to school the Wednesday before the race so I went in with a bit of road rash (not that I feel it had any effect during the race).
As usual I didn't really ease off coming back from the race. I've gotten back into the pool more often and with more mileage than perhaps I was doing in April, and I did my first road race and crit with some local cyclists. I'm 2 for 2 in getting dropped so far, but hopefully as I learn some race tactics and gain experience I'll be able to stay with the rest of them until the end. I also finally got the parts for my powertap so I'm back to training with power and can finally use my race wheels. Things are still coming along slower than I'd like in the pool, but I've only been back for a month now and I've already put in my biggest training week of 2015 so hopefully I don't over exert myself and can put together a couple solid race in the later portion of the season. My next race will be a quieter race up in Timmins which I think I have a shot at winning so I'm really looking forward to it.

Until Next Time,
Matt M