2018 Guelph Lake I Review

With less then 24 hrs before my 1^st sprint triathlon my nerves began to kick in. My sister and dad arrived at my house the night before. My sister Stacey would be joining me in the race, while Julie, our girls and my dad would be cheering us on from the sidelines.

We decided to arrive at the race early to get settled and prep ourselves before the start. As we parked our cars, we realized we weren’t the only competitors with the same idea.  This wasn’t like the ultramarathons I’ve been used to running over the last 10 years.  This race would have more competitors than any other ultra-race I’d competed in. We brought our bikes and gear to the transition area and went to check-in. Guelph Lake Triathlon was well organized. As a first timer, it was easy to navigate: Look up your race number on a board, pick up your race bib and swag, get your arms and legs marked up with age and race number and then head back to the transition area to do some final prep work and warm up.

Stacey and I were on opposite ends of the transition area, so it took a bit of time to find each other before heading down to the water. The transition area was on top of a hill, over looking the water, which had the swim course marked with buoys. Walking down the hill we could see swimmers warming up by completing the actual whole swim course (750m). As a non-swimmer, I was quite amazed that these racers were going that far in the water before the race. With our wetsuits, swim cap and goggles on, we had a little time to have a swim warmup ourselves.

I was in the 2^nd wave of swimmers and Stacey was in the 4^th wave. This helps to spread out the competitors. Once my wave began, I took in some water at 25-50 meters and couldn’t really regain composure. Then halfway through the swim, my goggles fogged up. So I stopped mid swim, took them off to wipe them clean and then put them back on. Not an easy task for me and something I definitely need to practice, just in case it happens again. I swam the majority of the swim on my back, which I was not proud of. But I did make it out of the water and up the hill to transition. Out of the water, I had a strong feeling of relief, I survived the swim. Off to the next discipline!

At my bike, I noticed I was the last to make it out of the transition area out of the guys that were using the same bike rack. I quickly got out of my wetsuit and put my bike shoes on. Once on the bike (outside of the transition area) I knew things would only start to go better as the race went on. It would be a 20km bike ride, on an out and back course. The 1^st 5km of road was extremely bumpy, but overall an easy bike ride. I felt confident on the bike and passed a lot of riders. I went hard, but kept a little left in the tank for the run.

After making it through the 2^nd transition quickly, I started to get into a rhythm. Running is by far my best discipline in a triathlon. I picked a quick steady pace and just ran. It was a 5km run, so I knew it would be fast. There were a few small hills, but nothing that wasn’t runnable. Checking my GPS watch halfway through the run, I could see that I was going to have a fast run and I just needed to enjoy the rest of the race.  The last 100 meters of the run was all downhill, which makes for a nice easy finish. 1:36:19 for my 1^st sprint triathlon. Not bad, but lots of room for improvement.

Overall the 2018 Guelph Lake Sprint Triathlon was a lot of fun. It was well organized, the weather was amazing and volunteers were great. I can’t wait to compete there again next year! 

I want to Thank my wife, Julie and my girls, Emilia and Michela for helping me train for my 1^st sprint triathlon. You made training enjoyable!

Let The Training Begin!

I heard a line in a movie recently that stuck with me, “If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now”.  This leads into my swimming ability - I definitely feel comfortable riding a bike and running has always been a big part of my life. However, until recently I was only a leisure swimmer, and not a good one (to put this in perspective, 25 meters was a challenge). That didn’t discourage me though, if there was ever a time in my life to learn how to swim properly, it was now.

I needed a plan to transition from an endurance runner to an endurance triathlete. With some research on the web, devouring triathlon books, and talking with a few triathletes, my goal for 2018 was to complete a sprint triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) in the early summer and then an Olympic distance triathlon (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) in late summer.

I was very fortunate to be given a hand-me-down road bike from my good buddy Alan. It was more than I needed to get going. I started off biking in my basement with a bike trainer. I had a perfect set up, with the bike in front of a TV. It kept me occupied while I put in the hours. Training started off slow. The first few weeks I didn’t bike longer then 45 minutes working my way up a little further then the first race distance.

At this time, I continued my running 5 to 10 Kilometers a couple of times a week. Early on in training, no matter how fast or hard my run was, it was by far the most enjoyable workout. Biking was harder, I had to acclimatize to sitting in 1 position for an extended period of time and……… swimming sucked!

I started my pool swimming in March, 15 weeks before the race. The first swim was 125m long, with a break after every 25m. The rest breaks didn’t last seconds, they lasted minutes. I didn’t even track time, because I knew this was going to be a struggle. I was so tired by the end, I got out of the pool and left. That was all I did for my first swim. The second swim didn’t look pretty, but I made it 500m. It took a long time! I knew something needed to change in order to get better at swimming. I obviously didn’t grow up taking swimming lessons and needed to fill in the knowledge and technique gaps. I began researching proper swim techniques and watching youtube videos. That’s when I realized that proper swimming technique included exhaling into the water. It was a game changer. Exhaling into the water felt awkward at first, but the more laps I put in, the easier it got.

For the 12 weeks leading up to the sprint triathlon in June, I followed a training program I found online. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/kpdocshare/Training_Plans/Train_For_Your_First_Tri.pdf

I’m sorry these blog posts aren’t in real time yet. I started posting late and am trying to catch up before my next race. I want to give a race review for the sprint triathlon that I completed, so stay tuned! Once I catch up, I will try blogging at least once a week.

*In case you’re wondering, the quote from the beginning of the blog is from Master Shifu…..Kung Fu Panda 3 (I watched it with my girls!)

From ultra running, to ultra triathlons!

It’s been awhile since I’ve last blogged, more then 5 years to be exact. A lot has changed since then. Julie (my wife) and I had beautiful twin girls, my career had changed to a fulltime firefighter and we moved to a new city.  At times, it seemed like every day presented a new challenge. The endless hugs, snuggles and giggles made it worth it. We were not prepared, and are still adjusting to the endless amount of energy these girls have. They are constantly moving, exploring and imagining. Who knows, they may take after their old man and complete in endurance sports.

The end of 2017 was a turning point. Just before they turned 3 they started sleeping through most of the night, and Julie and I were able to start getting regular amounts of sleep ourselves. This allowed me to refocus on training. At the time, I was already running 5-10 Km 1-2 x/week. In October 2017 I started some interval training to increase my lactic threshold. Again, nothing crazy only a couple of short hard runs and a couple of short easy runs a week. My goal was to start longer runs in December to prepare for a few 100mile races I had in mind for 2018.

I went to sign up for Cruel Jewel 100mile race in December and the race was sold out. I was disappointed at the time, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. A few days later a replay of the 2017 Ironman World Championship was on TV and I watched the whole broadcast (an edited version of the entire race). An Ironman consists of 3.8 Km swim, 180 Km bike ride and a 42 Km run. As a kid I watched the World Ironman Championship on TV a few times and always imagined competing in this race. I was hooked! It was also then that I remember reading a book a few years back on Rich Roll, called Finding Ultra. Rich was a guy who went from being an out of shape 40-year-old to completing a race called Ultraman. A 3-day multisport race consisting of Day 1: 10km swim and a 145km Bike ride, Day 2: 276km Bike ride, Day 3: 84km run.

In a matter of a week, I went from hoping to run two different 100mile races, to focusing on triathlons for 2018. The goal now was to train and compete in shorter races and work my way up to longer distances, so that eventually I can complete both the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, along with Ultraman World Championship, which also takes place in Hawaii. Two very extremely hard races to get into, as well as complete, but there’s nothing like a good challenge!