Quick Woodstock Recap

Last Sunday was the start of local racing in Ontario with the MultiSport Canada Recharge With Milk Woodstock triathlon. This is one of my local favourites and John Salt always puts on a great race. Woodstock was one of the first triathlons I did and I have been back every year since (this year made 4 in a row). Over the years it has undergone some changes in the distance, but I still use it as an excellent way to see where my fitness is at the start of the season. Last year I won the race and the distance was 750m swim, 30k bike. and 7.5k run where I had to run down Mark Linseman. This year it was your traditional sprint distance of 750m, 20k, 5k, and I was hoping to repeat.

Pre Race
The weekend before Angela Quick and I competed at the American Triple T triathlon. Most of you will have read the few reports I did from Ohio, but for those that didn't it was 4 races, 3 days, 140+ miles, and everything was up or down hills. The fatigue from Triple T hit me hard on Friday and I thought I was going to drown in the pool and walk up the hills on my bike. Feeling so tired I did the minimum Cliff asked of me and took Friday and Saturday easy to try and rest up for Sunday. Woodstock was just another race on the schedule so we didn't plan on going in fresh and tapered.

Sunday came and I woke up nice and early to prepare, but I felt like I just didn't have enough time to pack and I was forgetting something. I usually do forget something, but this time I was in the clear and off to Woodstock.

 Warm up
Arrived to the race site a little later than usual, but luckily Angela saved me a spot on the rack right near the front, and I didn't have to worry about all kinds of stuff in my way. I threw my wetsuit over the rack to mark my spot and out on the bike I went. My legs didn't feel super snappy but a lot better than I felt on Friday and Saturday. After racking the bike it was off for a quick run. The best part about a run warm up is you can usually find a bathroom that not many people use and avoid the line up of nervous people that only want to make you nervous, and don't they no wetsuits are the best places to pee (especially when the water is cold). I finished up with some mobility drills and a quick dip and soon it was race time.

Swim
Any race Derek Quick shows up to is going to be a fast swim. I tried to get out fast and get on some feet, but I was unsuccessful. I was able to find a nice rhythm though and just focused on minimizing my loses in the swim. I am going to assume the swim was the same as last year and therefore I was just over 40s faster. Awesome.

Transition 1
Rather uneventful, but I did decide to lead the crowd in the YMCA dance as I ran past.

Bike
I was ready to hammer this thing. I managed to catch one of the younger guys in the first couple kilometres, but kept my focus on the small pack that looked to be just up the road. Distance is rather deceiving on the bike because a group can look so close, but you just can't close the cap. I managed to reel in Buddy Green at the turn around and Derek a bit after that. The front group of three was hammering and managed to put a little bit more time into me.

Transition 2
I never played baseball as a kid, but I would always hear about guys sliding into second while watching SportsCenter. So for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to try sliding in to second transition. What actually happened was a combination of many factors that led to disaster. Physics made me it's biatch. When I was getting ready to dismount the foot that had all my weight on it twisted causing my shoe to come unclipped. I felt my shoe drop and tried to save it but I couldn't get my back foot down fast enough. Based on the road rash and what I think happened I must have rolled on the ground then slid. I popped up quickly and off to transition I ran just hoping that I didn't scratch my baby.

Run
Leaving transition I was 4th place and 50s down on the leader. I took a deep breath told myself I had been here before and it was time to leave it on the course. No excuses about being tired from Triple T yada yada just do the work and pull them in. Heading on to the dam I had caught one and the other two were in my sites. I was like a hunter stalking his prey. I came up on Ben Sayles to take the lead just after the turn around. He was looking like he was running well so I put in a surge to try and prevent him from coming with me. From here on I ran scared. I love the feeling of running scared. In my head it  was something like don't look back, you know they are coming, just keep going, there is the finish, you got this, ahhhhh its over. I love the look on my parents face when I round that turn in first place. Sometimes I think they are happier than I am.

Post Race
After the race I was pretty sore from the crash. My ankle and hip were a bit bloody and my hand had a nice puff to it. Monday at work Jeff recommended I go for X-rays and the good news is that it came back as no fracture in my hand. I have managed to swim, bike, and run since the race with just a little bit of pain so I shouldn't need any time off.

A lot of people have been asking what is next for me and to be honest I am not sure. The next big one is Duathlon Worlds the beginning of August, but for June and July who knows. I have tossed around the idea of doing the half at Welland just to get a half over with, and I would also like to run a 5K on the track because I am feeling fit and would like to run a pb. I will have to sit down with Cliff and discuss what is next for me.

If you made it this far thanks for reading, and I hope the pictures spiced things up a bit. Thanks to MySportsShooter, Donna Quick, and my dad for the pictures.

Triple T Finale

OUCH!! That's all she wrote.

I will post more tonight or tomorrow morning.

Olympic Number 1

So after checking the results from the super sprint I was 3rd overall and We think Angela was in the top 3. The results are a bit confusing because each division has a number code based on junior, master, etc. So we aren't sure where we are in the coed overall but we are leading the coed junior.

So on to today's race. That course was tough. Swim went well and exited the water in 6th, Ang had an awesome swim and came into transition right behind me despite starting about a minute back. I got out of transition quickly and moved into 4th within the first kilometre or so. From then on I didn't see a single person the rest of the day.

From what I have heard this is when the real racing starts. The warmup is over and the people that went to hard in the first two races start to pay. I'm a bit tired, but don't think I over did it. Hopefully Ang can pull me up the hills and through the water.

The next races is a bike swim run olympic distance where the teams can draft off of each other. Since I am number 5 Ang gets to move up and start with me. We aren't sure where the next coed team is starting so were going to have to race fftf (fast from the front) and just keep pushing to end. The time trial format is difficult because I could see it being easy to let up if you think you have a lead but someone could have started fifteen minutes behind you.

I will try to write a recap of the afternoon race before or after we go for dinner. Thanks everyone back home for the support.

Triple T Super Sprint

I think the super sprint might be my calling. About 25 minutes of torture, and it is all over. The course for the super sprint was a funky triangle 250m swim, a 6k bike where you go down hill for about 500m uphill for 2.5k, 250m down 250 up, and a 1500m downhill, followed by a 1 mile run.

The start was delayed for 25 minutes because they were worried about a storm moving in. It started to rain a bit, but not enough to notice.

The swim was a time trial start with 3 guys going off every 3 seconds. My plan for the super sprint was to go hard from the gun because I should have enough time to recover before the rest of the races. You could dolphin dive for about the first 10m before you made a sharp right hand turn to start the triangle. I managed to catch the 3rd place guy before the first buoy and was up to the leaders by the second buoy. After that it was a 3 or 4 wide drag race for the exit. I managed to come out of the water first which is a really strange feeling.

I exited t1 still in the lead and it was off on the bike. All I wanted to do was get to the top of the hill asap and could recover on the way down. I got caught by one guy right at the bottom and another at the top. I repassed the last guy on the downhill where I "recovered" going 70kmh.

The run was uneventful as the gap between everyone stayed about the same. I think because it was such a low cadence grind up the hill on the bike my legs just did not want to turn over. I crossed the finish line second, but with the time trial start we are not sure if I was 2nd or not.

Angela had a really good race as well passing a lot of people on the swim bike and run. There is a chance she was the first girl overall, but we are waiting to see the results in the morning. Hugh and Amanda had great races also, but Hugh thought he might have been a bit slower than last year or the swim longer.

You can't win the race in the super sprint, but you can lose it. We all finished and are in good spirits heading into the double olympic tomorrow.

Triple T pre race

It is now 2.5 hours until the start of one of the most epic races in triathlon, American Triple T. Triple T is not just your run of the mill triathlon, it is 3 of them and a fourth that makes you swim in between the bike and the run. The races can be done as a team or individual, so Angela Quick and I decided that we would enter the event as a team. Hugh Pindur and Amanda Worden-Rogers are also down with us this morning with a strong London showing. In the team format the first to races (super sprint and regular Oly) the add your times together, and the last two races (bike/swim/run Oly and a half iron) we must start and finish together.

I am going to try and update this throughout the weekend so if people to check in on how we are doing this might be the best place. We are in back country Ohio and I am not sure how fast they will get results up online.

This morning we went to check out the course. Did a short bike on the super sprint and half course followed by a run on the run course. The course is beautiful! Lots of climbs, lots of descents, and lots of turns. This should make the bike go by quickly especially on the two loop half. I only ran about 7k of the 10k run course, but it seems like you go up hill for 4k, down for 1k, then come back. The hardest part of the run might be keeping your momentum on the downhills and not breaking. Coming down the one section I was running the fast I have run since high school (according to garmin) and I still felt like I was breaking a bit.

The weather here is hot and humid and with that comes dense morning fog and a high chance of thunderstorms. Here's to hoping everything goes smooth. The biggest challenge for me is going to be my nutrition. I'm so used to having a lot of recovery time between races and often skimp on the in race calories (Knoxville I had one gel and a couple sips of water).

Hopefully I can update everyone regularly.

Cheers!