Detroit U25 Elite: End of the Season

For the last race of the season I decided to race the Detroit USAT U25 Elite Development race. I did the same race last year and after a performance that almost made me quit the sport I was pretty eager for some revenge (Last year's post here).

I drove down to Detroit on Friday with my cousin. Traffic was good and we had no trouble at the border so we got there with plenty of time before the pre-race briefing. I did my prep workouts before leaving London so I didn't have to worry about the storm that was in the forecast. Otherwise a pretty relaxed night; we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, hung out in the hotel hot tub and got some sleep.

Race Day:
The goal was to get there about 75-90 minutes before the race and I think we got there around 7:30 which is right about the 75 minute mark (race start at 8:45). I guess the race officials just walked around the transition and checked the gear because we weren't required to wait in line or anything. We also didn't have any proof we'd been to the pre-race briefing now that I think about it so maybe they were just more relaxed overall since the Saturday races were only the F1 youth and EDR races (Paralympic and Age group races were Sunday). I struggled calibrating my power meter which is always annoying so I just hoped it would work before the race so I can get some data to look at afterwards. After a short bike warm up I realized I was going to be short on time again so I rushed around getting my race markings and chip, and set up my transition. I got in the water in time for a very short warm up, but luckily I was feeling good and I don't think I needed much more of a warm up anyway.

Swim (10:27 - 14th)
They changed the swim to a loop course this year with an in water start (about waist high) which I think I prefer over a point to point because it doesn't feel as long. The water was also incredibly calm compared to last year where the chop and current were huge factors. Once the race got going, fists were flying! Definitely the roughest swim start I've ever had. I've gotten a few hits in the first 50m or so in previous races, but I was taking fists to the face for at least 150m with these guys. Not to mention the non-stop feet slapping. Once I got to the first turn it seemed to spread out a bit more, I was able to pass a few guys taking the fastest line into the first turn and I got on local athlete Andrew Taylor's feet for the rest of the swim. It felt hard, but very relaxed. I fell off just slightly coming out of the water though, but I was relaxed so I was ready for the sprint through transition.

Swim Start

T1 (0:23 - 9th)
Like I said, hard run through transition, but I had no issues, no wetsuit to worry about and although I still came out of transition a few seconds back there were only 4 guys ahead and they hadn't had time to get organized so I got one foot in and pulled them back before the first turn.

Bike (~26:50 , Note:18km)
My bike and T2 split got messed up, but my pack was about 26:50 so that's where that number is from. We started off with a group of 5 and although Andrew did a good job of organizing a paceline a couple stronger guys pulled the chase pack up, which was about 20 seconds down, halfway through the 2nd lap (of 3). The pace slowed a little after this and all organization fell apart. I definitely didn't have the strongest pulls but I felt like I pulled pretty frequently and covered more moves than some of the others who I think were just saving energy for the run. My plan was just to come off the bike with these guys though so I didn't mind. Hopefully I will be fit enough to put in some attacks of my own next time.

I think this was the whole group coming out of the transition area
on lap 2. I'm in the blue on the far left

T2 (~30+)
Coming into transition the majority of the group fell back taking their feet out of their shoes so I was positioned well, in the front of the pack, coming into T2. Unfortunately I had some major struggles with my left shoe and came out of T2 last.

Trouble in T2

Run (19:27 - 21st)
For a small fraction of time I was ready to put in a hard start to try and catch the group but when I realized how hard I was going and they were still getting away I just settled into my own pace. There were still guys coming in who-knows-how far behind us and there was 5km to run. There were a couple guys up the road who seemed to be running a similar pace so I just tried to hold the gap. I was slowly closing on a fellow Canadian when he got a 10 second penalty so I put it a surge in and didn't look back. After that, I could see the youngest guy in the field (16 years old) walking up ahead with his hand on his stomach, but he started running again so I knew I had to gap him before he could get rid of his cramp because he was running faster than I was. I was able to execute this as well and I got passed by one guy who ran a 16:10, but I was able to run into the finish clear of anyone which is always nice.

Coming into the finish

Overall (57:38 - 14th out of 27)
Last year I came 26 of 28, with the two behind me being DQ's. I was also over 2 minutes behind the 25th finisher. This year I accomplished more than I could have hoped for. I made a bike pack, I stayed in the pack, I didn't blow up, I even passed  some guys on the run and ran a Tri 5k PB. The entire race I felt alert and ready to respond to whatever was thrown at me. A great way to end the season and put some positive reinforcement the past year of hard work.

Afterthoughts:
I just want to start by thanking all my family and friends, everyone who accommodated me at races or who provided transportation, and of course my coach Alex VanderLinden who's helped me through a tough year and worked with my difficult schedule.

I was initially hoping to race at either Multisport Canada Wasaga or Lakeside, but after struggling with some motivation in training over the past month I decided to take some time off, enjoy the rest of the summer, get ready for school and rejuvenate myself for a good fall of base-building. There are a lot of things that I think weren't ideal last season and it'll be important to address them right off the get go to give myself as much time as possible to get it right.
I typically don't post on this blog during the off-season, but if I hear otherwise from anyone who reads this I would consider doing a monthly (or even bi-weekly by popular demand) updates. If that sounds interesting leave a comment or message me on Facebook!

Thanks for following and
Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

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

Rust-Buster: Multisport Canada Woodstock

Yesterday I started off the season with a sprint tri in Woodstock, just like last year. This year however the race date got pushed back and so the water was much warmer. As usual, a decent amount of speedsters showed up to start off the season. My attitude going into this race reflected pretty well in my results as you'll see later. I knew I wasn't going to be physically ready for some tough racing even though technically my body was very well tapered, and there was definitely a mental effect from not having done any hard training (or any training at all really) in over a month. During the week my workouts were a little slow to start although I could tell I hadn't lost too much fitness.

Pre-Race:

There were a lot of familiar faces at the race so I spent a little time chatting, but I made sure to remember my chip this time! I went for a short bike for the warm-up and was planning on doing a longer swim warm-up but I took longer than I anticipated getting my transition ready. I still managed to get a decent enough swim warm-up though and was glad to find out how warm the water really was.

Race:

Swim (11:11 - 1:29/100m):
As I mentioned before I hadn't put to much into this race mentally and it was pretty obvious at the start since the gun went off while Alex and I were basically in mid-conversation. I tried jumping on his feet as usual and maybe made it about 100m before the choppy waves stole my breath and he got away a few seconds earlier than he would have in calm waters. I tried bridging over to the larger pack to our left and they dropped me before getting to the first turn as well. So, as usual, I ended up swimming solo and with about <200m left to go Kristen Marchant passed me and put about 10 seconds into me before transition.

T1 (46 seconds):
I was a little inefficient and I certainly wasn't sprinting out of the water, but it wasn't terrible. Took my cap and goggles off before I should have, and I struggled a little with the wetsuit around my ankles (during which time I should've put my helmet on). No trouble getting the shoes on though.

Bike out - Basically the only picture I wasn't making a face in

Bike (36:58 - 32.46km/h):
Seeing the splits of my competitors it is easy to say my bike was underwhelming, but I'm neither happy nor mad about this split. I felt something was off before I even got my feet in my shoes so I certainly don't think this was my best possible split for the day, but I also don't have a split from last year to compare to and considering a lot of people said it was windy out, and I'm still out there hammering a road bike without aerobars, I really don't have much to say on the matter. I tried hopping on some wheels (legal distance of course) a few times, but couldn't manage. All I can hope is that the split was sub-par for what is to come in the rest of the season.

T2 (41 seconds):
Definitely some room for improvement here as well. I noticed when I went to get ready for a flying dismount that I had zero confidence since I'm still getting used to my new bike and haven't practiced it once yet. Regardless, I slowed down quite a lot but still managed what I will call a "crawling dismount" since I had the courage from never having trouble with flying dismounts before. Again, some small mistakes cost me some time (ie. fiddling with my race bib), but overall not terribly slow.

Bike In - See what I'm sayin'??

Run (20:17 - 4:03/km):
I came out of transition with another athlete and I tried to hold a steady pace for at least the first km hoping he would drop back, but he managed to inch ahead before the 1km marker. I kept him in my sights the whole time, but it was disappointing to find out later that the fight for 3rd male 20-24 was between him and I. The run is where the lack of mental preparation I mentioned came in. I held a pace I knew would get me to the line without blowing up, but not at a pace that was pushing my limits and that's likely what lost me a medal (although no one was in front of my fellow M20-24 either so maybe he was on cruise as well). I felt like had I needed to I could've kept the pace up for another 5km. This time however I am pleased with the split because although I don't have a split to compare from last year, I remember feeling like absolute s**t. At the same time, being able to run near sub 20 at the effort I gave and given the course tells me my run legs are still there and just need to be woken up.

Run - How about another one. Just for yolks.

Overall (1:09:53 - 30th OA, 4th M20-24):
All in all a pretty mediocre race, as was my attitude going in. I didn't expect anything special, and nothing special happened. I'm happy to walk away with a PB of over a minute though and having lost to some individuals who I would've liked to beat has got me motivated to get back into training full gear.

Finish - I thought looking at the camera would make for a better picture.
 I didn't hurt anyone. I swear!

Next up:

I'm hoping to race at the Toronto Triathlon Festival (TTF) again in 2 weeks. It's a nice fast course and although getting around the race site and Toronto itself is a little troublesome I usually don't regret going. I'm trying to figure out the details of how I am getting there and whether or not I can get into the U23 draft legal race so I can get my a** handed to me like in Detroit. If I manage to get in I'll probably post a quick update.

Until next time,
Matt M

Graduation and 2015 Race Season

Seeing as it's been a while since my last post and my memory is probably equivalent to that of a smart goldfish at best I'll try my best to recap the semester and then jump right into what's going on now.
Things were pretty hectic with my thesis and final design project for my 4th and final year of undergraduate engineering. I also had slightly more class than first semester so training ended up being quite irregular. All that said, I managed to get through. I've officially got my iron ring and will be doing my convocation in a little over a week. I've also confirmed that I'll be returning to the University of Western Ontario for a graduate degree in biomedical engineering with a biomechanics specialization, and I managed to get a job as a research assistant in London which means I'll be closer to all the racing action this summer.
Training had been going pretty well coming out of exams. Although I was in sort of a slump in the pool, I had a huge 5k pb on the road, and bike numbers were promising. Unfortunately, in terms of training, I'm just coming back from a 25 day trip around Europe during which I only ran about 4 times and went on one leisurely bike tour, so it will be interesting to see how quickly I can get back into shape without getting injured.
Did I mention I'm racing Woodstock a week from now? Yup. Couldn't help myself. It just worked out for travel and since it's a rust buster anyway performance isn't priority. As for the rest of the season, the only race I have planned is the Timmins Heart of Gold Triathlon, which is exciting since I didn't do it last year. I'd like to do TTF, maybe Guelph Lake, and the Detroit draft legal I did last year, but it will all depend on my financial state (I'm broke after that trip), and travel and accommodations as the summer progresses.
Regardless, I'm excited to see what this summer has in store and to move onto the next stage in my life.

Until next time,
Matt M

And so begins the new year

Hey all. It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been somewhat busy with school and training, but the only reason I haven’t posted is because I haven’t felt the need or want to write about anything. Something happened during my ride today that made me want to write so I decided I would fill in the timeline between my last post and this one.

After my last race, which was Lakeside in September, we started my off-season pretty much immediately. Alex forced me to take 2 weeks completely off, which of course I only lasted about a week and a half before he gave in and let me start with some short easy workouts. The weather was still tolerable so I tried to get out and ride as much as possible since I knew the focus going into the next season had to be the bike. With a generous early graduation gift from my grandparents, I struck a deal with friend and fellow triathlete Chris Balestrini and bought a brand new road bike and my first set of race wheels. Having the least amount of class hours since I started University and having less training hours than I’d had during the summer, I had a lot of free time and I allowed myself to fall into a rut that I’m often a victim of, which is laziness in its most devastating form. I was falling behind in my school work (which really was only my thesis research), I was sitting around watching a lot of YouTube and in general I just let a lot of things slip through the cracks.

Moving into November and December, school deadlines were fast approaching, I’d started to think about my future after graduation (Masters, work, etc.), I had scholarship deadlines, my emotions were all over the place, and in the end I just couldn’t handle it all. I basically stopped doing any spin workouts in December, I stopped making it to morning swims, and felt like I was just hanging on by a thread. Only two months earlier I woke up every day happy and very grateful for the life I had and now I found myself feeling depressed whenever I was by myself. It took a lot to get through, but having a good support group around me (friends, family) and knowing that I could start fresh once Christmas vacation came around helped me. I know myself as someone who doesn’t give up easily so I knew it was just something I had to wait out and fight through.

Coming back from vacation (which I enjoyably spent with family in the Dominican Republic), I felt mentally refreshed. I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do since I only got small amounts of running done over the vacation and I had mentally written off any training I did in December, even though I actually still got in all my run and swim training. The first week was a bit of a struggle. I would die after the swim warm ups and I only made it to 45 minutes in my first ride, but it is starting to come together again. Other than a cold that I’m dealing with right now I’m more consistent. Last week was my biggest week since last February and most importantly I’m enjoying it all. Bringing this post around full circle, the reason I decided to write this blog today was because of my bike workout today. It was fairly tough and being sick didn’t make it any easier, but during the cool down I found myself smiling uncontrollably. I had a moment of clarity where I realized how much my perspective on life had turned around in such a short time, and I was really appreciative of the simple fact that I can enjoy the sport. I can only hope that everyone in the sport has similar moments of clarity, because there is simply nothing like it.

Until next time,

Matt Mahaffy

Last race of the season

To end off the season, I completed my second olympic distance race at the Lakeside Triathlon which is part of the Multisport Canada triathlon series. I had originally planned to race at Wasaga Beach the weekend before, but after some misunderstanding with how I was to get to the race I decided to swap it for Lakeside, which is less than an hour away from London. After more complications with making travel arrangements I was finally able to hitch a ride with James Schneider from the triathlon club. It was pretty cramped in his small truck, but we managed.

Pre Race:

We got to Lakeside with a little over an hour to race start. After picking up my race kit, chip and getting body marked (glad to say I only made that mistake on the season opener), I went right into transition to get set up. Alex was already in transition and I had asked him the day before for some arm warmers seeing as it was below 15 Celsius so I went over chatted a bit then we went our separate ways and didn't talk again until on the start line. I got about 10 minutes of run warmup in, put my wetsuit on, and rushed to the washroom. By the time I had finally got into the water there was probably less than 10 mins left and the race director, Chris Pickering, was already running everyone through the swim course. I probably only got 100 or 200 meters of warm up in, but I wasn't worried considering the length of the race.

Race:

Swim (19:58 - 3rd OA):

I lined up beside Alex on the start line and stayed with him for as long as I could. I didn't find it too hard to stay with him, but I didn't want to burn out so I went from drafting on his hip to drafting on his feet pretty quickly. Going around the first turn I don't know what happened, but he and Michael Murray all of the sudden seemed to have a significant gap. Luckily there was still another athlete with me, I think it was Andrew Taylor, and I drafted on him for the majority of the swim. Coming around the same buoy where Alex had dropped me (lap 2), it looked like Andrew must have gotten disoriented or something as he went a little past the buoy and looked like he got stood up (at this point we were weaving in and out of the other waves of athletes). As soon as I saw him stop I decided to put a little surge in and try and break away. I don't remember feeling him drafting, as he definitely would have when I was drafting (I smacked his feet too many times to count, I actually kind of felt bad), but he ended up only 5 seconds back out of the water. I also noticed what looked like Alex 20-30 seconds ahead on the exit of the swim and it turns out it was! It seems like the gap he got at the start didn't grow very much. I felt good on the swim, but I didn't realize I swam much better than I did in Toronto.  I had no issues with my goggles the entire time as well, which was a bonus. This was probably my best swim of the season (or at least felt like it) even though I think the course was short some meters.

T1 (0:51 - 4th OA but 10-20 seconds slower than the leaders)

I didn't have to kill myself in an all-out sprint out of the water this time! I tried to put the arm warmers on, but they were giving me some trouble and I wasn't that cold so I decided against.

Bike (1:12:22 - 36th OA)

I wanted to get as close as I could to sub 1:10 on the bike. That is about what I split in Toronto and since the transitions were much shorter I knew that if I could match my bike split I would have a good shot at a PB (goal time of sub 2:15, elite standard for Multisport Canada). Coming in on the 35 km mark I was only 10 seconds back of 1:10 pace, but as I was told beforehand, the last 5km was a killer. Nothing but sharp rolling hills, combined with a headwind killed my chances of hitting the goal time. That being said the majority of the ride went pretty well . There were certain points at which I felt good and kept thinking to myself that I should just try and hold 240W average, but I knew that was asking too much and so I tried to keep it down at around 220W. It started in the 215 range , but by the end I managed to get it up to 219. I did find myself looking at my wattage way too much in this race though so although I felt good I need to focus more on feel and less on numbers. 

A little bit of math

Knowing that my bike is easily my weakest of the 3 disciplines, I was interested to see how I would've placed if my bike would have been closer to everyone else. I took the average bike split of the top 20 finishers and found it to be about 1:06:30. Myself and the 20th place finisher were the only 2 in the top 20 to have a split over 1:10. Had I had an average bike split consistent with the other top finishers, I would have taken off about 6 mins which would have put me at 2:11, good enough for 8th in this race. I'd also like to point out that the current top 8 consists of: 3 male age groupers, 3 male elites, 1 female elite, and 1 male pro.

T2 (0:43 - 4th OA, much closer, only 10 seconds slower than the fastest split)

Went well. Came off the bike beside an older male who was slower on the dismount so I was a little rushed to get off the bike and run ahead of him. The turn into transition was more of me dragging my bike than it was rolling it. My feet were also frozen. I hadn't noticed or felt this on the bike at all so getting my feet in my shoes was probably slightly comical to any onlookers.

Run (43:51 - 16th OA)

I felt great on the run and for the first 6km I was fighting off another gentleman. When he came by I tried to stay on him, but it just seemed like he picked up the pace too much for me to hang on. Maybe I slowed down though. Coming off the bike I thought I was in about 8th so when I got passed I was just fighting to not lose anymore ground. A top 10 was sounding pretty good to me. I got passed by one more guy at around 8km, but he was absolutely flying so I knew there was no chance of catching him. I tried catching the next guy ahead of me, but I just couldn't real him in. Turns out I was only running 1sec/km faster than he was. Near the end I was coming up on one final runner and I tried to make a move, but when I did he seemed to notice (even though I was behind him) and something was coming up from my stomach so I decided to sit back... For a second. Of course I kicked going down the finish chute. My stomach didn't approve, but I don't like being out finished, and at least I gained another position! Not. He was in a relay team. It just goes to show how good I really felt though, having puked just across the line and then walking it off feeling great. The entire run I felt very relaxed: light breathing, good cadence, but I was really pounding on the rough, packed, washboard road and my body definitely felt it in my shins at the end of the race. Probably also the best run I've had of the season, although the time was disappointing. Looking at it another way though, I was only 4 mins behind a tired Alex on the run.

Overall (2:17:43 - 12th OA, 1st AG)

It may have only been 4 seconds, but it's still a PB! And that makes me 2 for 2 in AG, olympic distance wins. It's only a matter of time before I'm fighting for the OA wins.

A look back on a broken spirit

Last Thursday, after my final official day of summer work, I traveled to London in preparation for the most important race in my triathlon "career" so far. My 'A'-race this season was the Detroit Triathlon U25 Elite Development, Draft-Legal Race (EDR). My very first, and almost my last, draft legal race attempted.


Race lead up:
I headed into the race, not in bad shape, but with a lack of health and fitness that went into the TTF. I had been slightly sick in the week before the race and just wasn't finding myself getting the extra sleep I needed to recover. On top of this, my shin problem had been getting increasingly worse up to the point where I had to stop my weekly speed workouts and seriously cut back on the lengths and efforts of my runs. I even ended up running on my treadmill for the extra cushion (treadmill in August? Blasphemy!). Luckily, I was able to get it to the point where I could at least race on it and not ruin my entire season.

After flying to Toronto, I took the Robert Q to London where I stayed at my cousin's place for the night. Detroit is only about 3 hours away from London, accounting for time to cross the border, and the pre-race briefing did not start until 5:30pm so I got to sleep in before leaving London. Personally, I find the sleep I get two nights before the race is just as, if not more important than the sleep I get the night before. I don't find there is any increase in fatigue after one night of lack of sleep, which can be very likely when you aren't sleeping in your own bed, when you are nervous, and so on. Luckily this wasn't the case for me and I got a regular nights sleep the night before.
After getting to the briefing early to hear Barb Lindquist talk about her experience and give her advice, I sat through the briefing, checked out the course on my bike, found some food and went to bed.


Race Day:
My nerves weren't through the roof race morning but I was as nervous as I'd ever been for a race. This would be the first time I was racing to compete and not just to improve on time or to follow a specific race plan. I had my typical breakfast, did a run warm up at the race site and just took in everything that was going on. We (my uncle and I) got there pretty early for good parking so there was no rush for anything.

Swim (10:08 - 11th):
The plan for the swim was to get out hard, find some feet, and hold on for dear life. I have confidence in my swimming ability, but I haven't been swimming as much and as consistently as would have been required to be near the front so I knew it wouldn't be easy. It was a beach start and I chose a bad position. There was a pretty nasty current, once you got into the deeper water (which wasn't until halfway to the first buoy), which pulled you to the left of the buoy and you need to make a left turn (going around the right side, keeping it to your left). I knew about the current before hand, but I didn't really think it through much, or know any better. It was my first time racing in such a big current after all. I also misjudged how long the shallow section was, starting to swim a few dolphin dives too early. I did manage to get on some feet for a short period of time though and although I thought I was well back, it turns out I was in about 8th or 9th into the first turn. Once into the current (with the current), it was nice not having to worry too much about the line, but the water was still quite choppy. I think I probably had a little advantage here, being more comfortable in the water. One thing I started to notice near the end, was that I was having a hard time exhaling enough air to take in a "full" breath when my head was out of the water. Coming into shore I got passed by another guy, who I stuck with for a bit, but who ended up about 10 seconds up on me by the time we got out of transition. For the rest of the race, I was no man's land, as per usual. My final failure to execute on the swim was on the exit. As with the start, it was fairly shallow for quite a distance, but it was deep enough that you couldn't really run either. The best option would have been 3 to 5 dolphin dives (maybe more), but I did two and tried to run which lost me a bit of time.

T1 (0:26 - tied for 22nd):
Alex said this would be the fastest I've ever ran. I think the picture is self explanatory. Getting onto the bike however, I failed at a semi-flying mount. I got up and over, although at a relatively slow speed, but my right foot slipped off the pedal (which I later found out cut me a little).

Is this hard enough Alex?

Bike (30:28 - 28th/last):
Alex has been doing his best to get me some race simulation for draft-legal racing and I've definitely worked my butt off on the bike, but nothing could have prepared me for this, other than racing itself. Being a development race, there weren't any distinctive packs, mostly just groups of 2-6 people. I think my uncle said the biggest "pack" he saw was 6 people (of which I was 1 at the time). I came out of transition too far back to catch anyone so I made sure to get a little ways out, get my shoes on, and go hard enough to not have the next group of guys come flying by before I could hop on a wheel. The entire race I was on and off wheels, rarely getting any chance at all to catch my breath (really hadn't since coming out of the water). I hung on to each group for anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 mins, even getting a chance to take a pull and get a little rest in one group of 3. By the end, I was at least 2 gears down from where I had started (no power meter), the final group had long passed and were now 30+ seconds ahead and I had buried the needle well beyond the red line. It was somewhere near here, on the bike, where I couldn't help but think: "This isn't fun anymore. Even in the slightest." I was getting my ass handed to me and I couldn't do a single thing about it. The only ones behind me now were a few age group athletes who were doing draft legal. I was out of my league.

That one, time I was in a pack

T2 (0:23 - tied for 4th):
Coming into transition I knew I had to see what I had on the run. The race was still far from over and for all I knew a second wind was coming. I got in and out of here as fast as I could and just tried to stick to race simulation, which was go out above race pace. I think the only reason I managed such a fast transition was that I came off the bike fast and alone which gave me a little breathing room. In all honesty though, the dismount was probably a little excessive on the speed side.

Run (21:28 - last by a mile):
I tried going out hard as planned. Everything was stiff, muscles were sore, breathing was near impossible and I found out the definition of blowing up the hard way. If you picture blowing up literally, I felt like I blew up so hard that any trace that I'd ever existed blew up with me. I was done. I'd had enough of the race. I'd had enough of competitive racing. I felt like I was running nearly 6 min/km. My first race beat me to the ground and damn near kept me there. The only thing I could think of at this point was: "Run until you find someone with a radio so they can contact the race director that I had dropped out." The first turn came, along with the first volunteer. No radio in sight. I guess I'll crawl to the next one. Again, no radio in sight. The race leader is starting to lap me now. A quick pat on the back as he goes by. Awfully sportsman like. The next one comes by: "Keep it up." My breath is slowly coming back to me. I run by some spectators, somehow thinking that the approaching mess of an athlete was in third. I wish. Almost done the first lap, I start getting some energy back. Thoughts of quitting long gone, I'm ready to finish now. I go by the penalty box and thank god I didn't get a penalty. The third place finisher now passes me as he sprints through transition and down the finish. He must've thought he was sprinting for third. All of the sudden I'm back where I started, but with the energy I would expect to be able to run with at the end of a race. I've caught my breath, I've loosened up, and now I'm finding my rhythm. I can finish this. I don't have to DNF. I'm going to finish. For the rest of the run I just kept it strong. I got passed by another age grouper, but it didn't matter anymore. In 2.5km, I went from quitting competitive sport and the race, to running strong and finishing. I look at the clock coming into transition and see that I'm going to be under 1:03:00. I cross at 1:02:55. The nightmare's over.


Post Race:
After keeping the vomit down with some water at the finish I walked around the finish area for a bit. Still too tired for food. I ended up meeting the other Canadian in the race, Gallacher Patterson. We chatted for a bit about the race and then I walked around with my uncle watching the few EDR women, watching the age groupers, grabbing food and the like. I went for a cool down (which I don't usually do) and after 2 mins of jogging in the rough, uneven grass, I roll my ankle for the second time during the week. Fantastic. Maybe it was a sign. No more cool downs for me!

Got that right

This was a huge learning experience for me, and, although it seemed like the end of the world at the time, for the most part it was pretty positive. A lot of reflection went into this race, but I decided I'm not going to give up yet. If I was really meant to give up, why didn't any of the volunteers have radios? What about the encouragement from the other athletes? Not only on the run, but during the bike, trying to get me to push and work together. The performance felt awful and even though I set a PB by eight and a half minutes, the course was 100% flat by my standards, on both the run and bike, and I'm fairly sure that both courses were short to some extent. I didn't get to bring out the run fitness I've built up over the past few months either so I've only got one shot left at my next race in Lakeside. It will be another Olympic but this is where I set my sprint PB two years ago so hopefully I turn up in good health and can do so once again.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

My first AG win

Pre-Race

I drove down to this race with my mom again. My dad was supposed to join, but he ended up having to work. We left Friday after work and then stayed at my cousin's place in Sudbury for the night. We don't visit them all that often so we stayed up a little late and didn't leave till around 10:30 the next morning, which was really the latest we could leave since I had to get to Toronto before 4 for pre-race briefings. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't get there for a swim (TTF officials had opened the swim course from 11am-1pm on Saturday). For training on Saturday I just did a quick run at Centennial Park which happened to be just across the street from my hotel. It brought back some good memories seeing as that is where I got to watch high school cross country teammates get silver at OFSAA. I went out for dinner with my mom and uncle (who came to watch the race) afterwards and then went to bed early.

Transition opened at 5:30 on Sunday, so it was up early, have breakfast, and right to Ontario Place (race site). I made sure to familiarize myself with the course as much as possible. There wasn't much I could do about the full run and bike, but I made sure to take note of the run out/swim in since it was slightly modified from last year. I also ran along the swim course during my warm up since they changed the swim to a long, out-and-back type loop. Although the race prep went smoothly for the most part, I did run into some trouble. First off, it started raining about 15-20 mins before race start. I hadn't thought of bringing a towel which meant that now all of my stuff in transition was wet AND I still had to put my wetsuit on. I had some bodyglide so worst case scenario I was just going to use the whole stick. I wasn't really crunched for time for my wave but since the first wave was starting they rushed us out of transition, but I made out ok with the wetsuit. The main problem was that I forgot my race suit at the hotel. Luckily, I actually thought about it as soon as we got to race site so I sent my mom back immediately and was able to get it in time. Now onto the main event!

MY FIRST OLYMPIC DISTANCE!

Swim (22:08, 6th OA, 1st AG):
This year I was in the 4th wave. They still made the waves 4 minutes apart, but they only forced us to get into the water a minute before we had to leave which was nice since the water was still freezing this year (even with the wetsuit). I thought I'd picked a good spot on the line to start, but looking back I don't think I took the shortest line. I also ended up picking the slow side, which became apparent when after about 20 seconds of seeing nobody, everyone from the left side suddenly came into view. I eventually worked my way through most of them though, finishing with the 6th fastest swim and 3rd fastest in my heat (down by 2 mins). Of course this meant I never really got to draft at all and spent most of the swim weaving between people who couldn't hold a line. It was fun passing so many people though and most likely the reason the swim felt relatively short compared to my expectations.

Swim exit - Didn't come out dizzy this year!

T1 (1:37, 16th OA):
Last year coming out of the water I remember being dizzy and disoriented, most likely due to the fact that I  swam in the frigid water without a wetsuit. Luckily this year the same didn't happen. I was able to get my wetsuit off my feet without using my hands for my first time, which is an accomplishment on its own. I had cut about half an inch off my wetsuit earlier in the week, but I don't think it made much of an impact. I wasted a bit of time deciding not to wear sunglasses of any kind (I went to put them on and they were wet so I couldn't see). It was the right choice though.  The run into transition was a little long but not nearly as bad as in Cambridge and since my spot was close to the swim in/run out there wasn't much to complain about.

Bike (1:10:19, 133rd OA, 4th AG):

I think the rain at stopped by the time I got onto the bike although it didn't matter much since everything was wet anyways. I had no trouble getting my feet into my shoes and took off with a headwind that made me feel like Bradley Wiggins (I wish). There were certain points on the way out were I was definitely averaging around 40k/h for a several minutes, even managing to get above 50km/h on a couple descents. I thought I crossed 20km in 32 mins but I realized after the race that the turn around wasn't quite 20km since it wasn't a perfect out-and-back. On the way back the wind was a monster and I quickly realized I had forgot any calories on the bike. I don't quite feel like I needed it, but I don't know how I would have felt had I taken some. Maybe the run would've been a bit faster. Coming back into T2 I had a guy chasing me which was good incentive to get out of my shoes and keep speed right up to the end.

T2 (1:17, 10th OA):
T2 went well. It is always hard running down that hill with the bike but other than being a little slow on the race belt, I got out of there so fast that when I got out of transition I was wondering if I'd forgotten anything!

T2 Out - Off for my first 10k race ever

Run (42:28, 53rd OA, 3rd AG):
Finally, the run. I knew the run was going to be long, but not that long. There were basically markers at the ~2km mark (sprint turn around), the 2.5km mark, 5 km mark, 6 km mark, and 8 km mark. When I hit 2.5km, I thought I was between 3 and 4 and as I got more tired it just seemed more and more hopeless. I didn't feel like I was running slow (especially for the first ~4km), but it felt like I was running at a tempo-like pace/effort (hard, but a little comfortable in terms of breathing/cardio). My legs were so sore though that all I could do to keep pace was to keep the arms swinging so I would keep my cadence up. It seemed to work to some extent since my time wasn't all that terrible. Certainly ended up at the better end of my expectations from during the race. Actually got to pass a few people which was nice. The worst part was coming around the last building. I was somewhat alone for the last ~1km (other than watching Jesse Bauer run by from the duathlon) but in the last 400m I seen a guy creeping up on me so I knew I couldn't just let him go by. I put in the extra effort to stay ahead and almost puked across the line (again). The medics let me sit down for a couple minutes though and I was able to hold it in. I'm a little disappointed it was slower than my pace on the much harder 6km cross country course at the Cambridge Tri, but I wasn't expecting much out of my first olympic distance race.

Overall (2:17:47, 38th OA, 1st AG):

I finally got my first win. I may not have crossed the line first overall, but an age group win is better than anything I've had before, so I know it is a step in the right direction. I "only" got chicked by 4 girls (one of which was 20-24...), but mainly because of the difference in bike splits. If you cut my overall time in half it is about 1:08:53, which is about 5 and a half minutes faster than my sprint time at TTF2013. Not only that, but this "cut" time is even faster than my all time sprint PB. It may have been one of the easiest courses out there, but I definitely think it was perfect for my first olympic distance. A definite confidence booster. Can't say I'm looking forward to Wasaga yet though. Next up, Detroit!

Podium - My first, but not my last

 

Swim workout - July 2nd

This is just a random post, but I was so excited about my swim workout today I figured I'd just leave this here.

I had a short easy run a few hours earlier and did the following swim workout:

4x250 100s/25scull

8x50 on 50 1 build 1 ez 2 fast

2x300 as 200 fast (400 pace) 100 ez on 4:45

8x50 on 50 1 build 2 ez 1 fasat

400 ppp fast

300 ch

Here are my quick thoughts.

I. Killed. It. I. Am. So. PUMPED! For only a couple 200s those were hella hard, but I surprised myself and I am so damn excited. I started the workout feeling sluggish, finished the WU with sore arms. A little out of breath after the 50s (short rest), but I went for it on the 200s and I killed it. I really wanted to go 2:25 (since my 400 is 4:49 or something), but I don't know if I've ever done a 200 that fast in practice. Not in a few years anyway. With that being said I told myself to be happy with 2:30s. I did the first one in 2:25 spot on and was completely dead. Went all out. I ended up with about 30" of actual rest after the easy 100 and did it again. I went 2:26/27. There's all out, then there is whatever that was. It didn't necessarily feel smooth, but hot damn did that get me going. At least the equivalent of race effort. At least! And then, to finish off, I managed to do the pull in 5:30 (not amazing but still ok!). Sometimes the workouts beat me, sometimes I beat them, but sometimes it's both, and damn does it feel good.

Race #2 - Subaru Series Cambridge Triathlon

I headed down to Cambridge for my second race of the season, once again staying at a cousin's place, but this time traveling down with my mom. All of the preparation leading up to the race went well other than some sore, aching shoulders that I think was caused by the increase in shoveling I've been having to do at work. Just look at is as making me stronger I suppose. Going into this race, my main goal was to get as close to 1:30:00 as I could (splits of about 11/55/24 mins for the swim/bike/run respectively). I knew it was a little optimistic considering I always exclude the transitions, but it was a good goal to have in mind.

Swim (10:56): I really enjoyed the swim course. The swim was one loop, out around a couple of islands and back, and the water was pretty warm. I hadn't expected there to be too many fast swimmers and I was right. I stayed as far left as I could on the start line since I was able to seethe first two buoys line up. In my head, this meant I chose the straightest possible line to the first turn. Ben Sayles had moved over to the far right, but I had no intention of trying to follow him so I didn't worry about it too much. Once the gun went off, he went ahead as expected, although close enough that I could have jumped on his feet had I wanted to. I decided not to because I knew it would take a lot out of me and I wouldn't stay there for long. Luckily, there was another swimmer near him that I decided to draft off of. I jumped on his feet for about 200m, but eventually I just kept swimming into his feet so I put in a little extra effort to pass and put him behind and swam the rest trying to keep Ben in my sights. I think I came out about 40-50 seconds down but by the time I ran to transition (where the timing mat was) I had just been passed by Blair Morgan from McMaster and Ben had about a 1 min lead.

Swim exit - Myself in front with Blair close behind

T1 (0:53): The run to transition really hurt and I once again had some trouble getting my wetsuit unzipped but the run was long enough that I figured it out. I got snagged on my chip taking my wetsuit off, but otherwise it went well.

Bike (56:22): This defintiely did not start well. As per usual, I always forget to do something with my shoes, whether its put the straps in the loop or loosen the velcro. This time it was the latter. By the time I undid my shoes, got my feet in and tied them up, I probably lost the better part of a minute and got passed by a couple athletes (of many). The bike course was great. It started with a nasty ~10% grade hill, but was quickly followed by some fast, quick, winding rollers. It was unfortunate that this section of road was roughed up, otherwise I would have flew through it (some people seemed hesitant in this area, particularly on the way back). The rest of the course was nice rolling hills on some pretty smooth road and was quite enjoyable to ride on. In terms of the race, I didn't start getting passed until I think about 12-13km in, but by the end I was back in 20 something spot. In terms of power on the bike, I averaged about what I had hoped, but the time wasn't quite as fast as I'd hoped. I'm thinking it may be time to start thinking a little more aero.

T2 (0:36): Another smooth transition. Coming back into the park, we were a group of about 6 or 7 athletes and most of them seemed very hesitant and nervous about dismounting at speed so I stayed behind and off to the side and passed them on the flying dismount (avoiding a loose shoe in the process). The short amount of cruising getting back into the park re-energized me and I was able to get out onto the run course feeling fairly refreshed. I did fumble with me race bib a little though.

Run (24:58): Three for three for a great looking course. The run was 100% cross country, with the typical 50m stretch of pavement. The course was all grass or wood chips or gravel which was so nice to run on. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing any hard work out in the trails. I noticed this because I had a definite lack of strength on the hills, a lack of technical running on the downhills, and a difficulty recovering from both. Right out of transition I chased down a girl who had passed me late on the bike. I caught her about 200m into the run and was feeling good so I took off and slowly increased the gap up until the 2km mark. At this point I was hurting quite a bit and knew I couldn't hold it for 6km so I eased off a bit. She caught back up by the 3km mark, I tried to stay with her, but in the end I let her get away. I managed to pass 3 or 4 people and only be passed by 1. I also didn't have to fight for a sprint finish which I was so thankful for. You can only dig for a sprint so often.

Finish - No need for a sprint finish today

Overall - 2nd AG20-24 - 20th OA (1:33:42): At the end of the day, I am happy with what came out of the race. Much happier than at Woodstock. No panicking to get everything ready, no forgetting my chip or power meter, I felt good on the run, and the bike and swim both felt like improvements.

Podium - First AG podium that had more than 3 participants!

Thanks for the support Dan (photo creds for the swim and finish pictures)

Now I know that I'm lacking strength on the run and I have tons of room to get faster on the bike. Up next is my very first Olympic distance race. I'm nervous, but I know TTF is a fairly flat and easy course and I'm ready to give it a shot.

Until next time,
Matt Mahaffy

Switching coaches, the off-season, and a fresh beginning

Guess who's back... ?

As I mentioned when I last left off, it has been a little while. Or a long while, but who's keeping track? Since I haven't updated this blog since last summer I'll start by filling in the blanks in the time gap then I'll move onto where I am now.

End of summer recap

After having my last race at Toronto Triathlon Festival (TTF), I didn't do any other in-season races. I'm not sure if I had mentioned this but I was still considering doing Lakeside at the time, but as I was still dealing with injury I ended up deciding against. I still went to the race for the weekend and worked as a crew member on the run course. It was a good experience, hard work, and really early mornings. Sounds like tri training without the swim-bike-run. Although I didn't race I made some quick cash over the weekend and got to watch the races so I can't complain. 

Now you might ask, "But Lakeside is in September, what happened from TTF in July, to Lakeside in September?" Only one thing happened, but it deserves a mention. I decided that Buddy Green's coaching wasn't quite suited for me and come August I was back to training solo. In this period of time I did some training on my own, based on how I was feeling and what I felt my injury(ies?) could tolerate and after a couple of weeks I started looking around the London community for a new coach. That is when I spoke to Alex Vanderlinden about being coached by Cliff. I chatted with Cliff, and he with Alex, and next thing I knew September had rolled around and I became Alex's first (as far as I'm aware) athlete. With Coach Alex ready to roll, a new house and housemates, and a new school year at my feet, I was ready to do things differently.

Off-season recap

In school, I worked my butt off over first semester to finish with a 90+ avg, and slowly faded throughout second semester although still finishing strong, managing to get 80+ for second semester (and with only one mark below 80 the entire year!).

In terms of training, there was a lot of changes that had to be made throughout the first few months to adjust to my seemingly unfix-able, constantly injured legs. The main goal of the off-season training though was to get my swim to a higher level so I can come out in or near the front pack in draft legal races. Oh right, I forgot to mention, I've decided I want to make an attempt at racing draft legal. At the moment it seems like it would be the most enjoyable form of racing (for me), but more on that later. Back to the training. I swam with the Purple Coached Fitness coached by Ken Fitzpatrick again in the mornings, and as the winter progressed started adding some extra days with the Triathlon Club and even getting in some swims with Coach Alex himself (who was now training with the varsity team rather than the morning swim group). We managed to get me through the winter in decent shape, with the fewest (or maybe shortest) setbacks to date. I was even able to race TriOntario's Indoor Provincial championships with a few club members. Good times were had.

As I did last year, I raced the Masters Swimming Provincial championships which was in Windsor this year. I was lucky enough to be taken into the Vanderlinden household (along with Alex and Angela Quick of course) for the weekend and couldn't express their gracious hospitality in words, so a big thank you to them. The weekend went well, with me going under 4:50 in the 400, under 20 mins in the 1500 and almost breaking 10 in the 800 (it was at the end of the meet). PBs across the distance board is what I like to see. 

Immediately following the meet was the final exams period so training took a back seat while I crammed my skull to bursting with formulas and problem solving methods. 

Jumping ahead to May, I have had no luck with finding a summer job in London so I'm stuck moving back to Timmins basically working as a garbage man. On the bright side, I get to see my best friends in person rather than through a computer screen.

The Now

Training has been ramped up, injuries have been put to rest (or at least into a coma) and race season has begun. Right now I am in the beginning of a run block Alex seems to have planned for me. I have had to chance to do multiple speed workouts so far, including two on the track and I could hardly be more excited. I should be able to post a potential race schedule somewhere on the side of the page but in case I can't I'm looking at the following: Woodstock Sprint (May), ?? (June), TTF Olympic (July), Detroit Sprint Triathlon - U25 Elite Development Draft Legal Race (August), Wasaga Beach Olympic (Sept)

Multisport Canada Recharge with Milk Series: Woodstock Sprint Triathlon

First race of the season. I'd love to say this is a rust breaker, but it is really more of a 'breaking in the new shoes' kind of deal. Other than a cold I caught the previous weekend (long weekend), I was going into this race with some solid, nearly uninterrupted, non-injury riddled training. It's almost as though I was racing in a new body. I took the Friday afternoon off to drive down to London with my dad, did a short open water swim with Angela on Saturday morning, along with a short brick later in the day. The wetsuit felt comfortable and wasn't a pain to put on or take off, but my arms were a little fatigued (I hadn't swam in 9 days). I tested a few things out with elastics on the bike and gave one attempt at a flying mount (which failed with my suit catching the saddle). On race day me and my Dad left my cousins place early to head for Woodstock. We got there at around 7:40 am (race start at 9 am), I grabbed my stuff and headed for transition. I looked around for Alex, but he disappeared pretty quick and we had already discussed race warm-up so I figured I should leave him alone since he was racing as well. In short, my race morning prep was miserable, unorganized and sloppy, even from a rookie's standards. I forgot to get my race chip and body markings, didn't wear my Garmin or put my PowerTap on my bike and instead of getting in the water ~45 mins before race start, I didn't get in until ~15 mins to race start. The water was at 61F which wasn't terribly cold, but getting a few minutes of warm up in the water definitely made the water feel comfortable. 

     Swim (~11mins): The swim went pretty well. I got off to a quick and pretty effortless start and stayed with Alex for what felt like at least 150m, and when he pulled ahead Angela happened to come swimming up the side so I jumped on her feet for the next 200-250m (up until the first turn). From then on I tried my best to stay on someone's feet but by the end I think I was swimming just in front of the chase pack but all alone in No Man's Land just as Alex had anticipated. I was also having some trouble sighting the actual buoys so I was sighting on other swimmers which I don't particularly like. I definitely need some more work sighting at speed. 

     Transition 1 (swim-bike): Coming out of the water I wasn't falling all over the place as usual but I also wasn't sprinting out of the water so maybe that helped. For a couple seconds I forgot about the wetsuit and once I realized it had to come off, I fumbled with the velcro for a bit. Once I got the zipper down, taking the suit off wasn't actually as tough as I had anticipated.

     Bike (~38mins): Being one of the first (top 20) swimmers out of the water, I got passed quite a bit on the bike, but I felt like I was doing well for myself. At first I was biking with two girls, one of which I thought was Angela, but found out wasn't her when she went by after the turn-around. The big thing I regret about the ride was not jumping onto Meghan Lamers wheel when she went by a couple minutes before the turn-around. I knew from indoor provincials we were similar in ability on the bike and run so I wanted to come off the bike with her and have someone to push me on the run. I let her go by and by the time I had realized the girls I was with weren't chasing her it was too late. After the turn I took off in an attempt to catch her but she was too far so I basically just tried to maintained the gap she had on me (which kept growing but only slightly now). Overall I felt like I was probably a little too conservative at the start of the bike, and although I am disappointed with the time, I'm satisfied with the effort I put in.

     Transition 2 (bike-run): I grabbed the mesh running cap I got in the goody back, slipped my shoes on and was out in another fairly smooth transition.

     Run (~21-22mins): There were a couple other guys who I came out of transition with. I went relatively hard for the first ~1km as usual and dropped one of them but the other got away. Personally, although this is typically a course I might like running on due to all the crushed gravel, I did not enjoy it at all. Right from the grassy start, it just seemed to sap away at my energy more than it should have. All of the short hills and soft terrain took a lot out of me and I just didn't have the energy to go faster. I used water at all the aid stations to cool me off with the third station (of 4) being for an attempt at getting a small drink of water for my dry mouth. After what I feel like was a sub par run, I crossed the finish only to find out that I totally forgot to get my chip. They were able to get my overall time manually, but this meant no splits and for a while I felt embarrassed, ashamed, frustrated and like the entire race was a waste of time.

     Post Race: As I settled down and got some food I accepted that I made mistakes and there was nothing I could do but learn from them. Looking back now, I am just so grateful I was even able to race injury free and nearly 100% healthy. I still have much to learn and tons of hard work to put in, but I'm ready to fight the good fight and can't wait to see how to summer unfolds. 

As I was texting Alex after the race he told me to get hungry. With a grin on my face (thinking myself clever), I quickly responded with "I'm starving."

For anyone who read this all the way through, I bow my head. Much appreciated. Hopefully I won't have any posts this ridiculously long from here on. Even I want to say TLDR.

Until next time,

Matt Mahaffy