Woodstock Triathlon

All my posts lately have been race reports, but next weekend in Leamington will be my last of three tris in three weeks. After that I will have a couple weeks off of racing before I gear up for a strong end of season finish.

Overall I had a great race at Woodstock, but I still have some small things that need to be worked on. I was second overall, and won my age group in a time of 1:30:00. However, the winner was about four minutes ahead.

Swim - 750m 11:53 (1:35 pace)
The swim went well, and I was able to get some open water ahead of me and get in to a rhythm. I was 6th out of the water compared to last years 42nd. I was a couple seconds per hundred meters faster than Knoxville, but the race was half the distance. I felt strong and controlled the whole way.

Bike - 30k 50:52 (35.4 kmh)
On the bike I had the 5th fastest bike split but still remained in 6th place because I only passed one person, and one person passed me. I felt like I had no power in my legs during the bike. This could be due to a number of reasons as it was really windy and a pretty hilly course (for southwestern Ontario). By this point the leader already had a five minute advantage over me, but the rest were within a couple minutes. I knew I was going to have to have a big run if I wanted to catch them.

Run - 7.6k 25:50 (3:24/km)
I'm not sure if not having legs on the bike helped my run, but I had my best triathlon run to date. I felt absolutely amazing. The Woodstock course is a hard one to make up time because you cannot really see anyone ahead of you due to the twists and turns. Luckily I was able to keep catching glimpses of the people ahead. I knew I was reeling them in, but they were strong runners. I caught the first guy about a kilometer in, then about 4k, and finally the last one at about 6k (the other person ahead of me started in the wave after me so I didn't actually no he was ahead). When I caught Cliff with 1.6k to go I could not drop him, so I went into my bag of track tactics. When we hit the windy stretch going across the dam I dropped the pace immediately, and he moved to the front. I sat right on his heels, and with about 450 to go I made my final move. Cliff is strong runner so I just made sure to focus ahead and not slow down.

Overall it was an excellent performance, and I was able to show some people just how hard I have been working. This weekend is Leamington Sprint Provincials so it should be another tough race. I have to thank my grandparents for letting me stay at their house for the weekend, and my parents once again being there to cheer me on and support me. Once again Multisport Canada put on an excellent race, and I have enjoyed all their races I have done.

I am off to the pool. Have a good day everyone.
Peace