Welland Long Course triathlon 2018

First triathlon of the year!

The story starts Friday night, with me being generally laid back and lazy and tossing all my shit together at the last minute. What a change from when Welland was my first ever tri a few years ago and I was Prepared and Ready and Organized. Now I'm all 'Whatevs, I'm sure it'll all work itself out'.

Spoiler: I kind of fucked myself over on this one. But that's getting ahead of myself.

Gear was all eventually located and organized, pulled the bike off the trainer, changed the tire, all looked good, oops it's too late to do a test ride, whatever I'm sure it's fine.

(ominous music plays)

Up early Saturday, hit the road by 6 or so, drove through absolute pouring rain and arrived at the Flatwater center at 7:15. I was having serious conversations with myself about the general wisdom of riding a bike in that kind of ridiculous rain, but somehow? In Welland it wasn't raining at all.

Checked the weather radar on my phone and sure enough, it looked like all the heavy rain was staying to the north and we were going to be clear for the race. Whew! And with the heavy cloud cover, that meant it wasn't feeling super hot out and there didn't seem to be any wind, which could set things up for quite the fast day.

I forgot to take another picture after I unpacked. Trust me, I set it up properly.

Kit picked up, set up, etc, etc. Checked the wheels on the bike and on the first spin the rear wheel seemed to be sticking on something but on a second spin it was fine so I didn't mess with it.

(ominous music intensifies)

Said hello to various friends, and somehow the time just disappeared like it always does pre-race at triathlons, and then I was working myself into my wetsuit and heading for the start. Where I promptly managed to cut the bottom of my foot getting into the canal (likely a zebra mussel, those little buggers are sharp - pro tip, get off your feet as quickly as possible to avoid sharp rocks/shells!).

Can you find me in this picture? I'm in there, I promise! #whereswaldo

There I am! Chatting with Phaedra while Fab tries to put on his wetsuit.

It was a long wait between waves this year to spread things out, which was nice, but now that I'm moving back into the old people's waves that meant we didn't start until 15 minutes after the first wave. And the canal was a little colder than I expected so my hands and feet were getting chilly waiting! But soon enough it was go time.

Swim: 41:05
Overall: 161/346
Gender: 60/141
Age group: 13/28

Little slower than I'd have liked to see, but part of that is the run up to get to the timing mat. My watch was almost bang on 40 minutes when I got out of the water. So right around 2:00/100m like usual. However, I took this swim completely relaxed and easy. I found my way to the guidewire early in the swim and stuck to it like glue, so there was no extraneous distance, and I kept the effort feeling very easy. And after 2,000m I wasn't tired at all and easily felt like I could have continued on at that pace indefinitely.

So no time improvement there over previous swims on that course, but I'm super happy with how it felt and it seems like a good sign for the Ironman in August.

T1: 3:11

Ooof. ugly transition. I mean it does include stairs, but there was also a struggle with the wetsuit and dropping my bike on the ground and then the REALLY long run out to the timing mats. Pretty much a gong show.

Bike: 1:49:48
Overall: 195/346
Gender: 62/141
Age Group: 12/28

So this started well, got up to speed quickly, started passing people...

But something felt off. I couldn't put my finger on it but I could tell something was wrong. And then about 8k in I started to hear a sort of thumping noise coming from the rear tire. So I pulled to the side of the road, got off, and tried spinning the tire to see what was going on...

And it blew like a gunshot. Blew clean off the rim, although not before I noticed that the damn tire bead wasn't seated properly before it went.

Damn it. Flat tire and it was my own fault for not being thorough checking over the bike pre-race.

I had a moment of feeling sorry for myself, then womaned up and got out my flat kit and worked through changing out the tube. I didn't rush it but tried to be methodical and careful because I only had the one spare tube, so if I fucked it up my race would be done.

Strava says the tire change took almost 9 minutes, which isn't terrible for a tube change. It felt like longer (so many people passed me during that time! but it was really nice how many of them asked me if I needed anything or needed help). Got back going again, cautiously at first and then when everything felt fine, I brought the speed back up and started working my way through the field again, mostly aiming to see if I could bring my average speed back up over 30 km/hr even with the flat. I had a few moments of 'aw man, this is such a waste of a great ride' because I was flying and feeling great - and I did end up with an overall speed for the bike of 30.6 km/hr, even including the stopped time. What's crazy is my final bike time? Only 2 minutes slower than my time from the last time I did the long course! So pretty happy with how I managed to salvage things on the bike overall.

T2: 1:48

Not my best transition, but I've done worse. I wasn't super pumped about running 15k, but I was feeling good so it was time to see what I could do on the run.

Run: 1:18:17
Total race time: 3:54:07.7
Overall: 176/346
Gender: 57/141
Age group: 10/28

What the hell? I moved up places from the bike on the run?! Since when has that ever happened?

So my entire approach to the run was to ignore my watch and just wing it; run by feel, not worry about the pace. And that's what I did. The run course this year was changed to a double out and back we did twice, which I really enjoyed because I got to see all my friends multiple times (and make sure everyone knew I GOT A FLAT and that's why I'm so far back, because god forbid anyone think I just biked slower than usual. Ah, the bruised ego.) My right foot was hurting a bit and I thought I was getting a blister, but eventually remembered how I'd cut my foot right at the start and sure enough post race it was obvious that the sore spot was the cut. But it wasn't anything I couldn't power through, so that's what I did.

Giving Michelle and Melissa thumbs up (I believe right after I complained that THIS ISN'T FUN AT ALL. WHEN DOES IT GET FUN.)

I ran and complained to everyone I knew (and some I didn't), walked briefly and drank water and coke at the aid stations, and crammed my tri suit pockets full of Endurance tap because that shit is expensive, yo. I only looked at my watch occasionally to check the distance (the course markings were clearly way off, and sure enough the actual distance ended up being 14.5 k rather than 15, but really, no one was complaining about the course being a little short). So I had no idea I was reeling off splits like this:

5:13
5:25
5:23
5:26
5:27
5:30
5:33
5:33
5:21
5:22
5:23
5:24
5:25
5:22
5:21 (half km)

I NEGATIVE SPLIT THE RUN. By 8 seconds. But it still counts. I'm not sure I've ever had a triathlon run over 5k that was that consistent before.

I'm smiling, sort of. Mostly enjoying all the compliments on the tri suit. I race mostly for the compliments, after all. (pic via Michelle)

Finisher pic! On the run I hadn't looked at the total race time at all, and then the finish line clock was of course 15 minutes fast but my brain didn't process that - so when I hit my watch and saw my total finish time I almost fell over. I was assuming I was well over 4 hours, so 3:54 was a very pleasant shock!

I'm not even sure how to handle the fact that for once the run was the best part of my day. I even passed multiple women in my age group (including catching and passing some girls who passed me early in the run and reeling them back in)! That means I've now had a surprisingly good half marathon and 5k this spring, and a shockingly good long course run. Very very happy with how I've chosen to approach my run training right now because it certainly seems to be working for me.

With Mary, Kris, and Fab post race, super happy because I had just finished and realized I still PBd the course even with the flat. In fact I PBd by something like 8 minutes, so without the flat, wow, that would have been a massive improvement! (OK so the last time I had done the sprint the day before and it was approximately 8 billion degrees out, but still. I'll take it)

With Fab, who also had a great and redemptive race and was also in a supremely good mood post race. The training is working!

Sweet finisher hats

Overall, the awesomeness of the run is my main takeaway here. I've moved on from the tire mistake, I feel really good about my running, I learned a lesson, the training is working, and now it's on to IMMT!

Ironman training week 25 - recovery part II

Been a long time since I had such a low weekly total for # of hours (I think I'd have to go back to December), but I did do a race, and the next 5-6 weeks shit gets crazy before I get into the taper (aiiieeee), so another down week seemed like a pretty good idea.

Swim: 9000m
Bike: 111k (3:42)
Run: 35k

Really low week on the bike and the run, but I think that will pay off in the bigger picture. The build plan was tiring and I think taking an extra week of recovery was the right choice.

Monday: 2150m swim

I swam on Monday? Why did I swim on Monday? Probably weather related to avoid a lunch run Tuesday? I have no memory of this but it seems like the most likely explanation.

Tuesday: 8k run; TR Jobs -2

The sunrises all week were OMG

Early morning run, mostly focused on taking a good picture for instagram, because that is my key priority, really.

Repeated last week's trainer ride in the evening because it was a good workout without being hugely taxing. I debated getting my FTP test done here, but why do today what you can put off until next week. Let your future self deal with that nonsense.

Wednesday: 12k run; 2700m swim

No really, the sunrises were crazy all week. Almost makes the 4:45 alarm worthwhile. Almost.

Went to the gym to swim in the evening. I wonder if the morning front desk lady missed me since I switched all my swimming around last week!

Thursday: TR Mont Albert +1

Solstice sunrise with kid #2

Did NOT get up and run, but my younger daughter was really into the idea of getting up to watch the solstice sunrise, so that's what we did! It was a little tiring for both of us (and surprisingly cold down by the lake) but it's something I'm really glad we did. Hopefully that'll be a nice memory for her.

In the evening I was kind of undecided about what workout to do, so picked the Thursday race week workout from one of the half ironman plans on the theory it would set me up nicely for a good bike Saturday (I did look at the race week workouts from the full distance plans, but ugh I am not ready for those yet). Can't complain about how it felt.

Then the kid wanted to go watch the sunset, too, so we bookended the day with Mother Nature showing off. That may be a new tradition for us, at least until she turns into a teenager who doesn't acknowledge the existence of things like 'mornings' (her sister's response to the invitation to join us was a look that could have curdled milk).

Friday: rest

Cause Saturday was RACE DAY!

Also, panic buying all the gels

Saturday: Welland long course triathlon - race report to come

Mixed bag on this race with it being mostly positive and one bigass error I made. Sometimes you learn your lesson about not prepping your bike at the last minute the hard way...

Sunday: 2100m swim

Was a little sore after Saturday's adventures (nothing too serious, but enough to know I worked hard!) so after a swim to loosen up I spent the rest of the day doing light housekeeping and laundry and baking brownies and such. The weather didn't cooperate for the long ride I had planned and doing it on the trainer seemed like the least appealing idea of all time, so I went with a bit more rest, which I'm now pretty happy I did. Rested up and ready to take on the last 8 weeks of training!

Ironman training week 24 - recovery

Much needed recovery week this week. And due to starting my plan a week early to allow for potential issues (mostly I was worried about getting sick), I now have a free week in my schedule I have to figure out, which is really a good problem to have. Next week I'll start the specialty plan for the final push to Tremblant, so this week is about a little more recovery and maintenance. And then doing my first tri of the season on Saturday!

Swim: 7400m
Bike: 154 km
Run: 43 km

A down week but still 12 and a half hours of training. Yeah, this whole thing is really dumb. As I told the girls this morning, for the fall I'm just going to train for 5ks.

(probably not)

(but that's a bit appealing right now)

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 2100m swim; TR Jobs -2

Just a girl in her paincave with a mini crockpot lurking over her shoulder.

Nothing too exciting. With it being recovery the Trainerroad workout was only 4 intervals long, which felt super manageable. Still a good workout, though.

Wednesday: 8.5k run

This felt like a slog. I was really glad I wasn't doing any sort of mid week long run this week! I didn't even stop to take any pictures!

Thursday: 2750m swim; TR Sill + 8.5k brick run

Bricks = freezies. Or creamsicles, which the kids had all finished, which was quite the DISASTER.

Technically wasn't supposed to do a brick but it got all hot and garbage and no way I was going to try and run at lunch. Then the run felt kind of amazing so I was really glad I did it!

Friday: 10.5k run

Managed to get like 10 good pics out of 20 seconds of video. Gotta love a nice sunrise.

Another great feeling run, which is unusual at 5:30 in the morning! Extra pep in the step is always nice to have.

Saturday: 99k bike; 2700m open water swim

98.8k with @fabbrasca (because I will run around a parking lot to get an even number, but biking? Oh hell no). Considering our general lack of enthusiasm it ended up being a really nice ride. Also enjoying doing a “short” ride because there’s some long ass ones coming up in July. #immt2018 #ironmantraining #triathlontraining

A post shared by Emma I (@egrrrl) on Jun 16, 2018 at 8:16am PDT

Fab was supposed to do a 3 hour ride and I was supposed to do 4, so we split the difference and did 3:30. Also, I should have mapped it at 102 km because what was supposed to be 100 even was a km short, and I am not going to ride around a parking lot for a km to even out a bike ride. It was a nice ride overall, especially given neither of us was really enthusiastic about doing it. I think we are thinking ahead to the long ones we have coming up...

This girl! I've been following Krista on instagram for a while as she trains for Placid and we finally managed to get together for a workout. She inspires me so much and it turns out she's super cool and funny and awesome in person, too. 

Then in the evening I met up with Krista to try swimming at Christie Lake for the first time, as an alternate to Gullivers. It has advantages (as a conservation area, the water is actually tested for e coli, the staff are a lot friendly and happier to see you, real bathrooms) and disadvantages (more expensive if you don't buy a pass, the swim area is about 350m long so it's real easy to talk yourself into a shorter swim than planned - with Gullivers you are kind of locked in to a 1 km long loop once you get started). The water was super murky, but that's kind of expected this time of year anywhere other than Lake O. I'd happily swim there again and would probably pick it over Gullivers for any swim where I wasn't planning to bike after (the exit being onto Dundas/Hwy 5 makes it, IMO, not a great location for a brick, although it has lots of trails so it would be much better than Gullivers for running after swimming).

Strike a pose. Ignore the fact the tri suit feels a lot like you aren't wearing anything at all...

The swim felt good, but the real good news was my new tri suit felt great under the wetsuit. So it'll be getting a full try out at Welland on Saturday.

The scenery is prettier at Christie than gulliver's, too.

Sunday: 15k run

Up early before the whole 'feels like 43 degrees' thing could set in. Drank a good liter and a half on this 15k and was still 2 pounds lighter at the end. hot weather running is the worst.

Things you see on long runs that are very confusing. But Y tho?

so, pretty solid, and feeling a lot more rested today than I have for a while. Gotta rejig the schedule a bit this week because it's RACE WEEK! Back to Welland this weekend for another crack at the long course. Aiming to go under 4 hours this time, although so far the weather looks like it'll be raining so that's not super ideal. But lots of time for that to change...

Ironman training weeks 22 & 23 - including Moon in June 5k

A little bit of catch up - my heart wasn't in doing a recap last week so just a brief summary of week 22 to keep things complete.

Just about done the build plan now, which means I have to figure out what to do with the extra week in my schedule, and get ready for the Welland long course tri!

Week 22

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 2650m swim; Mt Hale +3
Wednesday: 16k run; 3000m swim
Thursday: 8k run; Picket Guard
Friday: 2100m swim; Petit
Saturday: 20k long run; Moon in June 5k
Sunday: 75k ride + 6k brick run

Just under 15 hours total on the week.

Moon in June was fun. I've done that race a few times now and it's a late start time (8 pm) which is kind of difficult to deal with (do you eat dinner?!), but the course is really nice for a 5k. A slight downhill to start, about 2k of very gradual uphill, and then the last km is downhill to the finish for a nice assist on your final push.

Trying and failing to get artsy photo of bib pre-race.

With the husband, who ran his first race in over a year and a half and kicked my butt. Both looking pretty fit if I do say so myself :)

Start line

Total time: 25:01 (chiptime: 24:56)
Place: 98/600
Gender: 37/427
Age group: 7/66
Splits:  4:53/5:04/5:02/4:54/4:47

Really, super happy with that. Considering I'd done a 20k long run in the morning, and didn't bother doing any sort of warmup before the race, going sub 25 minutes felt like a solid accomplishment, and I was pleased with the pacing. It felt tough but doable, and I even felt like I got a bit of a second wind around the 3 1/2 km mark and was able to push a little harder.

and there's medals now! It's silly but it makes me more eager to come back - I like getting a memento from a race, what can I say.

Week 23

Last big week of the build plan. Let's get to it.

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 2700m swim; 8k lunch run; Dicks +1

One thing with Ironman training is time management. I am fortunate enough to be able to go out on my lunch break to get in workouts (when it's not ungodly hot out), and that I have a very short commute so my evenings and mornings have more time available. With that, and having kids who are old enough to not need to be supervised 24/7, I've been able to find a lot of time in my day.

File under: pic angles that didn't really work out well

Still, three workout days are tough. This was a tiring one with the big threshold workout in the evening. 5x8minutes over FTP ends with some suffering, especially the last interval. but I got it all done and was happy I pushed through it.

Wednesday: 16k run

I think this is from this run. I'm wearing a hydration pack so most likely. Eh let's just go with it.

Very early start to get this one in. The whole theme of this week was early starts, which has caught up with me a bit as I write this today. Definitely going to bed early tonight!

Thursday: 2800m swim; Polar Bear + 8k run

Trying to finish before sundown

Ah the 2 hour bike tempo ride followed by the 45 minute run. That's a WEEKEND workout Trainerroad, you jerks! Stop making me do this stuff on a Thursday!

Brick = frozen treat, obviously. Creamsicles for the win! Also, treats must match the outfit, I guess.

Friday: Lazy Mountain

That ride lived up to the Trainerroad name. Average heart rate of 109? I think I hit that standing up from my desk. Very very easy spin but I was glad to have an easy one knowing the two big workouts on the schedule for the weekend.

Saturday: 27k run

Up early to get this in before Jeff's funeral. Solo. Long. But surprisingly pleasant. There's such a mental component to the longer runs. Set out to run 20, and I start to feel tired at 15. Set out to run 27 and I didn't really start to feel it until 23 or so. All in the brain if you've got the base to run those distances.

Later in the morning I went to Waterdown for the funeral service.

Preparing for the memorial procession

Jeff's family requested an escort of cyclists, and it was really moving. Someone counted and it was over a hundred who made the trip from the funeral home to the church for the reception after the service. It was beautiful and touching. It's still a little hard to accept what happened, to be honest, but seeing everyone put some smiles on our faces in among the tears.

Sunday: 145k bike

Sunday morning I met up with Fab and we rode to Danielle's house to join a group ride of people who knew Jeff (some who had come in from out of province). Between the tailwind and hanging on to the wheel of the ultra strong cyclist Ted, I managed to pick up a solid QOM on a segment with over a hundred other female riders on it, which was pretty satisfying.

(I give it a week before I get the 'you lost your crown email')

Plus there were fritters!

Photo courtesy Ted

Fritters courtesy Stephen

I didn't manage to find the time to get in a third swim for the week, but overall, happy with that as a peak week! However, with all the very early mornings, I am looking forward to a week of recovery and a cut back in the hours. I feel like I need it this week in order to be ready for what looks like a still pretty solid weekend of workouts.

And then, prep for Welland!

Sometimes there are no good words

This was a difficult week, but it wasn't due to the workouts, which all went fine.

This picture is from a few years ago, when I helped as a lead cyclist at the Road to Hope for the first time. The guy on the end (left side) with the cowbell is Jeff.

I didn't know Jeff super well, but I saw him at Gulliver's a lot for team swims, rode with him a bit on at least one of the Brian Smith charity rides, and had one very memorable long ride with him, Laurence, and Fab while we were training for Muskoka/Barrelman two years ago. Laurence always liked to call Jeff Big Diesel - if you didn't grab his wheel and hang on, you were going to be left in the dust watching him vanish over the horizon. After the ride, when I griped I'd just barely missed out on a couple of Strava QOMs, Jeff immediately said we'd ride again soon and he'd help me get them. That ride never ended up happening, but that was just sort of the challenge Jeff was always ready to tackle. He'd probably have been able to pull me on his fat bike and pull it off!

On Monday last week we started to hear there'd been an accident on the 7 days in May charity ride, and at least one rider was in critical condition in hospital.

It soon became clear that rider was Jeff. On Friday, he passed away due to his injuries.

It's hard to know what to say about it all. A completely senseless tragedy caused by an impatient, careless driver. Jeff was planning to do IMMT this summer, and there's going to be a big empty space there that no one can fill.

RIP, Jeff. If I ever get those QOMs, I know it'll be because your wheel was there.