Summer Time

Exams are finally done. . . and I am already bored. This next week is 100% focus on Rev3 Knoxville. I am feeling ready to race, and with only a couple more workouts to fine tune some things not much is going to change. I am hitting the road Thursday morning and will be arriving in Knoxville Thursday evening. This will give me lots of time to settle in. Friday I am going to be riding the course in the morning, and then picking up my packet. This should allow Saturday to be as relaxing and unstressful as possible with a little swim run in the morning arnd the pro meeting in the afternoon.

It is only fitting that Knoxville be my pro debut as this is really where the story started. Knoxville is the city where I first fell in love with running when I joined the Knoxville Track Club. It wasn't  my first tri, but it was the first tri when I really had this whole turning pro idea in my head. Lots of good memories have been made in the Knoxville area, and I hope to add another one to that list this weekend.

Photo shoot and stuff

So as everyone who follows my blog knows Rev3 Knoxville is approaching very fast. I am starting to shit my pants. It is very hard to focus on exams when all I think about is going out to hit the next workout. The last week in the pool felt terrible, but now that the posse, Chris and Angela, is back from Easter break I seem to be hitting the stroke again (and doing everything I can to hang-on). Training hours got cut back slightly as we are being cautious with my IT Band so I feel like a giant ball of energy just waiting to crush every workout. I guess you could say training is going very well, and I am significantly faster than last year, but I am still nervous I am going to embarrass myself against the big boys.

On a positive note Rev3 has been amazing. I suggest to all triathlete to look into attending one of their races because they are absolutely wonderful, and elites you they make you a poster for your transition spot. Because you need to look fast to be fast, and my cousin Brandon Vandecaveye is such an awesome photographer we set up a sweet little photo shoot. Here are a couple of the pictures he took.

To check out more of Brandon's awesome work here is a link to his blog: http://brandondavidphotography.ca/

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The last 2 weeks I raced three races and experienced everything I could from the good, the bad, and the ugly. Last weekend I raced at the Ontario masters swimming championships and Queen's spring fling. This weekend was the McFarland Rollens Downtown 5k.

The Good

The good included the 2 pbs. I set a 10s pb (5:05) in the 400m free and a 25s pb (16:01) in the 5k. The 5k was from this time last year on the same course so it is awesome to see such improvements, especially after taking 3 weeks off for my it band. This time last year I swam 5:35 for the 400 free so to be about 25s faster in both events is awesome. I have to thank Cliff (http://www.transitionpointtraining.com/) and Ken Fitzpatrick for all their help.

The Bad

In the bad category I would have to place my DNF at the Queen's Spring Fling. I thought I could get away with wearing just the trisuit (which is awesome) and arm warmers, but I froze. After about 3k on the bike I started to loose feeling in my fingers and by the time I was on the home stretch I couldn't shift or brake without pain. I made it to t2, but it took me probably 4 minutes to try and get my running shoes on. After about 400m my body was shutting down and there was no way for me to finish. Luckily my parents were there and quickly got me in the car with blankets to warm me up, half an hour later I stopped shivering. 

The Ugly

This is the heading that most of the racing fits into. I will start with Masters. In the 100m free I missed the wall completely on my flip turn. Thankfully there are no walls in triathlon. I am not even going to describe the 100IM and 100 back, but picture me doing either of those events and you know why it is here. Spring fling wasn't to ugly just cold, I did however swim an extra 50m so we can put my lack of counting skill in the ugly column. The ugly at the downtown 5k was that my shoe came undone 1500m into the race.

So many mistakes in these two weekends I feel like there is nothing left to go wrong in Knoxville. I hope everyone has had some excellent results in the unofficial kickoff of the racing season. Hope to see you guys at some races, don't be shy.