Airdrie Triathlon Race Report
First race of the season! I always like to start off my race season with a local, low pressure race to dust off the cobwebs - to remind my body what it feels like to race again and get all of the silly mistakes over with. Lets dive in - shall we?
Going into this race I was not in the best state. I found out a week ago that I was (finally) accepted into the Masters of Science in Physiotherapy program at the UofA. Stay tuned for a longer post focusing just on this news. For now - long story short - I was placed into the Augustana campus and I’ve spent the last week figuring out where I’m going to live and creating a budget (school is expensive - like really, really expensive). I managed to put together a rough expenses sheet on Friday and it is not looking so good. There is a good chance I won’t be able to afford to race triathlons in 2019 and 2020. On the bright side I still plan on training and having a huge build for the 2021 season aka the comeback of the century (Coach Kyle - I’m putting you in charge of this). So mentally I have been a bit of a mess the past week. I also ended up working a 1-9pm shift at the golf course last night in the lounge (probably not the smartest move for my legs). Being an adult is rough. I have so much respect for all the athletes out there who balance training with school/work and minimal/no financial assistance. Enough of me rambling. Onto the race!
Airdrie Sprint Triathlon - 750m pool swim, 20km bike, 5km run
The Swim
The swim was set up so that there were four people in a lane and as soon as one athlete finished another one was slotted in. They also seeded us so that the slower athletes went first - so I ended up being the very last athlete to hop in. As soon as the Sprint athletes went the Try a Tri athletes were supposed to start. Thankfully Sharon talked to the swim rep and made sure no athletes were put into our lanes - it would have been extremely unfair to place beginner/nervous athletes into lanes with faster/more aggressive athletes. Unfortunately I still had to deal with the 3 older ladies in my lane. I’m pretty sure I ended up passing all of them every 50m. It was a bit difficult as they seemed to be swimming closer to the middle of the pool and I got whacked a couple times. Finally around 500-600m they all finished and I had the lane to myself. I’ve been struggling with my swim all season and this race was no different. I felt smooth but not powerful in the water.
Time: 10:40 - basically the same time I swam last year (so at least I’m not getting slower)
The Bike
I decided to use my new Liv Envie rather than my TT. I really wanted to test out Olive in a race and see just how fast I could go. Looking back I probably should have used my TT - it was super windy and the course was an out and back with a square circle back to transition. Oh well - Olive is still pretty fun to ride. I felt super good right away - little did I know this was mostly because I had a huge tail wind. As soon as I turned onto the highway I felt the major crosswind - just strong enough to make me go semi deaf. The bike was pretty uneventful - I tried to bike strong and made sure not to give up gears when it wasn’t needed. I struggled a bit on the turn arounds (my bike skills need work) but powered up the (somewhat baby) hills. Twenty kilometres went by pretty quick - except when I got to twenty on my watch I wasn’t near the transition yet. I had been lied to - deceived. I don’t mind long bike rides but I would at least like to know going into it. The course ended up being 21.5km, with my 20km split being 35minutes (which I am content with - not satisfied, content).
The Run
Going into the run I was pretty excited. I had such a roller coaster of a winter with my running but for the past couple weeks it has been feeling really good. My easy/long runs have felt effortless and I have been hitting all of my targets on interval days. Today’s run was alright. I started off feeling relatively good - but told myself to to reign it in a bit, no sense in blowing up. The run was 2 laps of a 2.5km loop around the lake (? body of sketchy looking water). It was relatively flat with two fairly short hills and a bunch of turns. The first lap went by fairly quickly. I started the second lap feeling like I was missing that extra oomph (not really sure how else to describe it). My mind started to wander a bit and I started thinking about how this could be my last season racing for a bit and how I have all this (internal) pressure to do really well this season. After a couple of minutes I was able to snap myself out of this downward spiral and focused on having a quick cadence and actually enjoying myself. Looking back I probably should have started to accelerate a bit sooner than when I actually did - it’s hard to push yourself when there is no one in front of you to chase. I ran across the finish lane, grinning over Richelle’s comments over the speakerphone (here comes one of the strongest triathletes in Alberta and the country). I had made the decision before the run to not look at my pace but rather just go by feel as this race was basically just a practice run. Based on my watch I ran a 20:59 for 5km. Not exactly the 20min I had hoped for… The results for this race are super confusing. Based off of last year’s official results I ran a 21:30, but based off my watch my 5km time last year was 23 flat. So comparing watch times I definitely improved (step in the right direction). On the bright side my race pace for sprint distance and olympic distance are basically the exact same - so I’m feeling pretty good about the next couple weeks before heading out to Wasa.
