Toronto Triathlon Festival

I finished the TTF on Sunday and although the trip might have been more enjoyable with some friends, it was definitely an awesome experience. We stayed at the Westin hotel, which was gorgeous, ate at the old spaghetti factory Saturday night for dinner and got to experience the sports expo they had going on. This, all on the side of a great race course. It wasn't a very spectator friendly race in terms of the transition, swim and bike, but the run course, especially the finish, allowed for loads of spectators. It was really cool riding on the Gardiner and getting to see the junior elites go in the other direction in their respective packs. I only wish I could've drafted. The wind on the way out was brutal, but the course was flat and basically and out and back so I was still able to enjoy hammering the way home. I guess I'm kind of all over the place in this blog so here is a quick recap.

There was no swim warm up and the bike warm up would have only been possible on the busy streets of Toronto so I stuck to a short ~15min run WU with drills and a couple strides. Since there was so many people, the race started in waves and once we got into the water we had to sit there and tread water for 4 mins before starting. Treading water wasn't so much of a concern as the temperature though. It was absolutely freezing!! Even the quebecois in front of me were freezing their feet off so bad that some violent vocabulary came out (can't say I wasn't ready to scream some out myself). For the first time in a race, right after the gun I found myself behind a large group of people and they quickly got away. I wasn't used to sighting with so many people in front of me and since my goggles fogged up (probably because the lake was so cold) I was a little all over the place. My swim was alright and I'm satisfied with it since it didn't feel very fast. The transition came up onto some metal stairs and then into the large parking lot. I had a little trouble with my helmet since the strap was flipped around so I lost about 10-15 seconds there. Otherwise, it went well considering how long we had to run with the bike (and uphill too!). One issue that I keep having is my damn shoe strap coming out of the loop and me having to fix it on the bike! It happens almost every time so I really need to get that figured out. Like I mentioned, the bike was hard on the way out, but much better on the way back because of the wind. I got passed by a ton of people though so I definitely need to get back on the bike and build my strength back. After a second long transition (less problems this time around), I went out onto the run feeling much MUCH better than I did in Timmins. I came out of transition just behind a few guys but I didn't want to blow up so I just settled into my pace and kept the legs moving. I'm not sure if I slowed down or if some faster guys came up behind me, but I got caught by 2 guys at the turnaround so I decided to hang on to their feet for as long as I could. It ended up working pretty well because we caught one guy, then dropped another who we were running with and we ended up only being 2, but the remaining guy had slightly more speed so he slowly dropped me. Near the end I worked hard to catch this guy in a bright green shirt and ended up out kicking another guys down the finishing chute. I also ended up puking immediately after crossing the line but it was worth it to know I gave 100%. I finished with an overall time of 1:14:28 (or was it 29) and was very pleased with the time considering my fitness. My place however was very disappointing. I was hoping to make world's but I can 13th in my AG and 123 overall which is ok, but the race ended up being much faster then expected.

Guess that wasn't really "quick" was it? Oh well, those were my thoughts on the weekend. My knee started acting up again (go figure after increasing mileage AND training through a race to race 2 weekends in a row), but it isn't too bad yet and I have chiro tomorrow to get things sorted out. Now I finally have some time to focus on proper building and get this injury straightened out. That's all I've got for now and possibly for another little while so,

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

And the ghost is clear!

Yes, I said ghost. My knee injury has been haunting me since I was still at school and it is finally gone! I had another chiropractor appointment today after work and the doc said he couldn't find any signs of scar tissue. He said that if anything feels off, to go see him right away so we can prevent any future damage, but from here on in it's back to the grind. Coming off that injury smarter, I think I now know the importance of properly building a base, listening to your body and going easy when you need to. I have a long build ahead of me but I also have a full year to do so and I am looking forward to the days ahead. A couple months from now I will be back in school and injury free and it will be like nothing happened (besides a loss of fitness of course). I am racing in Toronto this weekend, which I am super pumped and nervous for, but the training is going to have to stay on the easy side to make sure I don't over do it. I basically trained through the Timmins Triathlon and realized that I am completely out of shape, which the results showed, so I will have to be patient. Can't express how excited I am to be fit to train again and I couldn't have done it without the help of Dr. Mike Poplovic (hope I spelled that right) from Timmins Chiropractic and without the support from my family, friends and of course, my coach Buddy Green. Hopefully, now that I can finally get back into the swing of things I will update this blog more often.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

And so it begins...

The Timmins Heart of Gold Triathlon. It was my first full triathlon and it was 3 years ago today. I was doing my workouts on my own time and coming up with them myself. I'd just bought a road bike and a race suit and was hardly in shape to do well, but I did it. I finished the hardest race I'd ever done and as awful as it felt, I was addicted.

I've done a few tris since then and although some might begin to consider me as experienced, I beg to differ. Today was just as hot as it was 3 years ago and no easier. Because of my injury I've been training so little that I just wasn't ready. To put it into perspective, this week was the first week in about a month that I've done the full required distance (20k bike and 5k run). I should mention that these distances were in workouts earlier in the week. Unfortunately, this reflected largely in the results. My swim seemed to have gone well. I think I came out of the water 2nd or 3rd (as an individual) in a time around 11 or 12 minutes. Pretty good for someone who has been swimming easy once a week for a month and a half. Now the bike. The bike felt decent and although I knew I wasn't going to have the strength for the hills and the wind I still did alright. My lead on the swim was enough to stay near the front on the bike, only being passed by 3 or 4 people the entire bike. I finished the bike in just over 40mins (course is about 21km) so I was happy with that as my goal was to sub 40mins for 20km. Now the run.... No ifs, ands, or buts about it, I was completely out of shape and not ready in any way for the run. The sun definitely made me feel like I was in hell, but I don't think it affected my horrible performance. I ran somewhere around 27mins for the run, putting me at a total time of 1 hour and 22mins which is the slowest race I've done to date. Slower even than my first ever triathlon which was 1 hour and 20mins. As disappointed and discourage as I am, I'm still hanging on by a thread and that thread is the knowledge that there was nothing I could have done to have a better race.

I'm supposed to be racing in Toronto next weekend for the Toronto Triathlon Festival and things aren't looking so good as far as my chances for qualifying for worlds. That being said, I've got to remember that my focus at the time of signing up for that race wasn't only to qualify, but to act as motivation for what's to come. I have a long, hard road ahead of me and it isn't going to be easy. Even as I sit here defeated, my focus hasn't changed since the past few months. It won't be about getting faster for Toronto next week, for Lakeside in September or even for any races within the next year, it's about coming back 100% healthy, and be fitter and stronger than ever. Sometimes life gets you down and no matter how hard you try, failure seems to be the only result, but in life, in all walks of life, there is only one group of people who succeed, and those are the ones who never give up.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

Injury update

Its been a little while since I last posted. I kind of had my head in the ditch lately, as you might have noticed from the end of my last post. To start with the good news. The foot issue seems as though it was just some bad luck. It went away after a few days of rest and I was back running again. Bad news is I am basically back to square one, volume and intensity wise. I'm pretty sure a good portion of my fitness is still there but my knee has now been giving me more trouble on my bike and swim and none on my run. That being said toady will be my 5th day off in a row, as the chiropractor suggested, and tomorrow I'm going to start off with an easy 10-15mins run.

From here on out is basically going to be training based on feel. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to do any real workouts for the remainder of the summer.  I might race the Timmins Triathlon and use it as a little warm up and race it easy, but I still plan on racing in the Toronto Triathlon Festival since I've already signed up. I'm not sure my fitness will qualify me for world's in Edmonton next year, but I'm definitely going to give it my best shot. The rest of the summer will probably be spent just building a proper base. Being that I've more or less dropped my expectations for this season I should have plenty of time to get things right this year. It's extremely early to be building a base, but who knows, maybe I will make a breakthrough come Indoor Track season and I will be able to race for Western. Highly doubtful though considering I hardly even did track in high school. Speaking of Western, I spoke with Guy Schultz about the standards they look for when making the cross country team and I will be no where near those standards come September so I am going to have to push my cross country goals back another year.

Work has been going alright so far, but I've definitely decided that the mining industry isn't for me. All the general skills and knowledge I'm gaining this summer will come in handy later, but something about mining just seems to put me to sleep.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

More problems....

So this week I took it easy. My knee was definitely tender from the work done at the chiropractor's. I did 1500m easy swim on Wednesday, 1000m easy swim and biked to and from the pool on Friday and today (Sunday) I went for a 20min easy jog. My knee bothered me a little during the swims and yesterday during the day, but today during the run it felt good and nothing really noticeable after the run so far. The thing concerning me the most right now is my foot. During my run, at the 10min mark, the ball of my foot started to hurt, kind of like I had a rock in it. I thought maybe it was just cramping or something so I stopped for a second, but it didn't seem to go away so I made sure to tread lightly and run on the soft stuff on the way back. It has only gotten worse since the run and it is kind of scaring me because I know a lot of people end up getting diagnosed with stress fractures or something similar when they have foot problems. Luckily I have a chiro appointment tomorrow so hopefully he could see if anything is wrong. Why can't my body just cooperate. All I want to do is race.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

Chiropractor appointment

I had a chiro appointment today just after work. I actually had to leave about 30mins early. I went to Timmins Chiropractic and seen Dr. Michael Popovic (I hope I spelled that right) and it was great. He seemed to narrow it down to a muscle strain (I believe he called it tendinopathy) where it attaches to the tendon. He got to work right away, no messing around, and he seemed determined to get me back to training/racing ASAP. For now he said to start off with some easy in the pool just to get moving and then see if I can do some easy running. I didn't think to ask about the biking because I didn't realize he hadn't mentioned anything about biking until I got home. I made another appointment for Monday so hopefully things go well and I can be racing by the end of the month! Not going to get my hopes up though. I realistically think I probably won't race until Timmins, which is really cutting it close for Toronto. I may decide to do some sort of time trial. Maybe take a trip down to Sudbury. More info to come.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

Making waves

I wasn't planning on making a post today, but my swim went so well I had to share. I got in around 3:30, as usual, since I work until 3. I was able to get in about 1100m warmup before starting the main set. The main set was 10x50/5x100/2x200/1x400/rest 2min/1x400/2x200/5x100/10x50 on :45 base. I've been waiting for a set like this for a while, but lately we've only been doing speed work in the pool. Going into the set I felt like I was ready to nail it, but that quickly turned around. I started off by holding 40s on the 50m, 1:20s on the 100m, 2:45s on the 200m and 5:35 on the 400m. I was killing the set, but I was beginning to realize that keeping the same effort level was starting to mean holding slower times. I tried ramping up the effort as much as I could, but I knew I still had half the set to go. Of course I was slower for the second half, but not as bad as I expected. I went 5:40 on the second 400, which was really tough and from then on it became about how determined I was to finish this set. I knew if I could get through this set that I was in good shape for the summer so I really gave everything today. The second set of 200m were 2:50, and the 100m 1:25. I had the hardest part done, now it was just a matter of finishing strong. The 50m were so short that counting down was enough to keep me going strong until the end. I held around 41s for the last set of 50m and boy was my body burning up. My head is still warm as I type this. Fair enough to say, finishing a 3600m set on 45s base felt great. I am now confident that I can reach the goals that I set out in terms of swimming for the summer so now it's just a matter of keeping that swim fitness and getting my legs back to 100% so I can focus on my bike run which still require loads of work. That's all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with updates from the chiropractor.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy