Woodstock Race Recap

Well my blog has resurected from the dead with the start of a new triathlon season. I am not sure what I am all going to write about, but I will at least try to keep you updated with race reports and results.

Last weekend was the kickoff to the MultiSport Canada Recharge With Milk Triathlon Series in Woodstock, ON. I will start off by saying that Woodstock is by far one of my favourite courses, maybe it is because I have won here twice or maybe it is that the course is awesome (smooth swim, rolling bike on well paved roads, and a run along a nice crushed gravel path). Like always John and crew especially behind the scenes man Mr. Pickering put on a great race like always.

I feel bad for everyone that skipped out on the race fearin bad weather because the tri gods were on our side this year and everything was perfect. Especially compared to TTT that saw air temperatures under 5 at the start of the races.

Now to the race details (results can be found here)

Pre Race

Here is where I get to set up all my awesome excuses! 2 weekends ago Angela and I headed down to Southern Ohio to once again compete in the American Triple T to settle some unfinished business with results and tough courses. We had an awesome race and won a close battle in the co-ed team division, and with Raleigh 70.3 this weekend Woodstock was squeezed in the middle I wasn't sure how the body would react.

Swim (10:05 ~1s faster than last year)

My swimming has been a major focus all winter and I have to thank coach Ken Fitzpatrick and Paul Midgley, and the Western Swim team for allowing me to swim with them all winter and really pushing my swimming to a new level, every race I have felt confident getting into the water that I will be one of the first out. At TTT I had the fastest swim split in all 4 races and felt good coming into the race this weekend.

I figured everyone would be trying to get on the fast feet of Derek Quick and Ben Sayles so to avoid the hustle and bustle I started on the other side hoping to get on to the fast feet once everything calmed down. Looking back on a race you never really know if you made the right decisions, I missed the leaders feet, but ended up right behind two other and was pulled the rest of the way. Could I have had a quicker swim with a different start strategy who knows?

I ended up 5th out of the water in 10:05, and closer to the lead swimmer than I had been in the past. I was only 1s faster than last year, but the joy (pain) of triathlon is that it is near impossible to compare results year to year. Comparing myself to the competition I was faster than I had been previously, but once again you never know what they have been doing.

After a speedy T1 I was onto the bike in 2nd with the leader in my sights.

Bike (32:00 ~36s faster than last year)

The bike for me has always been a bit of a weakness and something that is going to become more of a focus now that my swim is where it needs to be.

With Ben in my sights and the fear of fellow ambassador teammates and super bike runners Lionel and Cody behind I was on a mission. In hindsight I went out a little bit hard (~253w for the first 5k), before fading to an avg of ~233w (Strava file here I cut the first and last little bit where there was a lot of coasting dealing with shoes etc).

The last 10k were absolutely brutal, and I came off the bike in 6th with Jeff Scull and Garrick Loewen just ahead of me.

Run (17:40 ~16s slower than last year)

Well the run is what it is. I came out of transition a bit back of Jeff, and in typical fashion took the first km out fast and caught him by the dam. Kids reading this blog here is a tip know who you are racing, chasing a guy who has run sub 15 numerous times and even heard he has run sub 14, even if he isn't in top form you might be going out a little quick. We exchanged leads a couple times but after the turn around he finally started pulling away from me for good. With about 2k to go and the realization that I was going to end up 5th I eased off the pace a bit and decided it was better to save my legs for Raleigh instead of pushing it home and increasing fatigue.

Next up is Raleigh 70.3, and I hope my legs come around there. The A race for the first part of the season is Syracuse 70.3 so I won't be doing a full taper until then. The goal is to get in that lead pack on the swim, hang on during the bike, and when people start to suffer in the heat pick em off 1 by 1 on the run.

Special thanks to Mom and Dad for their support, 2XU for making awesome wetsuits and apparel, MultiSport Canada for putting on awesome races that attract some of the best triathletes, and everyone that was out there cheering. I love doing local races and see so many familiar faces.