Well That Was...Interesting: Edmonton ITU Race Report

Alright I just want to state this right away before going into details; that race was awful. To sum up how I felt after finishing it, I need some assistance from Ron Burgundy.

Thanks Ron.

Ok, so now the details.

First off, this has been kind of an insane week here in Alberta. To my friends who live elsewhere, you may be aware that a good chunk of the province is under water. I know we've made the national news in New Zealand, as my one Kiwi friend informed me. So its obviously pretty bad. Actually our weather has been nothing but insane in 2013 so far.

Edmonton has been spared from the flooding, despite our river rising higher than it has been in 30 some years. We're fortunate to have a deep river valley, so when the waters rise it doesn't flood the city, but it does flood the trail systems - so the ITU race course had to be changed at the last minute to avoid the flood waters.

Calgary, Canmore, Banff, High River, Black Diamond, and other more southern communities were not so lucky. Initial estimates are at 5 Billion in damages for the city of Calgary alone and High River is now a legit lake. The entire town will essentially have to be cleaned up and large parts of it re-built.

Anyways, I mention this because we had a number of Calgary triathletes staying at the tri-shack this weekend for the race here. One individual staying with us had to be rescued by the army in monster trucks because the flood waters rose before he could get out of his apartment building. What's it like rescuing a triathlete from rising flood waters you may wonder? Well he was pretty typical - he insisted that they save his bike too. Because if he was going to be evacuated, he might as well still head to Edmonton to race.

This lead to some joking through the weekend that our house had become somewhat of a refuge camp and laughing at one rather amusing meme poking fun at the Flames' hockey standings.

In all seriousness though, the flooding has been brutal - its a once in a lifetime event and I am glad all my friends to the south are safe, even though many of their possessions may not be.

With our Calgary friends in our house safe and sound, we began preparing for one of the biggest races of the year. It was pretty standard, eat, sleep, race prep at the site, eat more, eat again, eat another time, nap, and eat. Did I mention eat? When you do an endurance sport, its pretty much imperative you get as much food in your system as you can the days leading up to the race. This means eating whenever you feel the slightest twinge of hunger. You burn off a ton of energy during an Olympic distance triathlon. I find I typically lose about 5-7 pounds during one race. Some of it is water loss, but a decent chunk of it is simply depleted energy reserves. So going into a race without a full stomach is just plain punch-through-the-face stupid and stating that you are hungry leading up to a race usually elicits this type of reaction:

Aside from the fact our tri shack swelled to 9 individuals and 17 bikes, the weekend was relatively unremarkable leading to race day. Saturday I volunteered for the Kids of Steel event, working body marking and later the mount line out of transition. Watching kids as young as 4 complete their first triathlon was adorable. Out of all 300 kids, I only saw one set of tears - the rest were all grins. Kids just love activity, and I think sports like triathlon are a great way to introduce them to a range of physical activity and develop muscles all around the body. And I only dealt with one psycho parent yelling that the course wasn't long enough (their children, crazy lady!). But by far the best site was this inspiring little guy who isn't letting a little misfortune stop him:

Then Sunday was upon us. Our race start time was 10:15am - perfect. Almost my ideal time of day for starting a race. And the weather was beautiful, one of the rare days this summer where it hasn't been raining.

I don't really want to talk about the race, so I'm going to give a brief over-view before ending on some take-aways.

The swim involved water. Water is wet. So I can say that I got wet during the swim, a wet suit and some arm flailing was involved, and at some point it ended. A key to the swim is remembering to breath. Oxygen is your friend. No one ever won a triathlon swim by doing a 1500m dead man's float. Also, your loved ones generally prefer it if you finish the race alive. And life guards hate fetching dead bodies, touching dead things is gross.

Next came one of the longest transitions in existence, basically a 400m run with a wesuit banging around your legs to get to the bike. (Bikes, as you know, are necessary for the second stage of a triathlon.) Running half out of a wet suit is a strange sensation - you feel kind of like you have a four year old clinging to each leg for a ride while hitting your thighs with pool noodles. So in a way, triathlon is preparing me for the physical demands of parenting.

Once I had reached my bike, stripped as quickly as possible, and put on my helmet (safety first!), I was off to the mount line. At the mount line, is very important to get on the bike. Do not keep running with the bike. If you don't get on the bike at the mount line and try running 40km with a bike, you are going to have a bad time. Also people may look at you funny, and no one likes getting funny looks. Or at least I am assuming, given some of the death glares I have gotten while accidentally staring at some bizarre people on public transit. Seriously lady, if you don't want someone staring at you strangely perhaps you shouldn't duct tape a salad bowl to your head as a hat. Unless you live in Whoville, then it is acceptable. But I digress.

25km into the bike, something happened. I had no idea what, but suddenly there was shooting pains down my back, right hip, and right leg. As an athlete, I'm used to pain - we've all heard the slogan 'No pain, no gain!'. But this was different, it was pain I could barely handle, barely fight through, and I am so glad I had sunglasses so that no one could see I was crying. Yes, I am secure enough with my masculinity to admit I was crying by the end of the bike - not upset tears, but "I'm in so much pain I feel like I'm dying" tears. The tears continued for the run.

My T2 was fast, maybe because by that point I just wanted it to end.

The run was hell. I have never hurt like that before, and I was having troubles with my leg. Legs are useful for running, and are a key component to moving a human body forward. So when they are not working, running becomes challenging. Should you wish to try out for the department of silly walks, having two functional legs may not be necessary - but for an olympic distance race, it is kind of handy to have both working well.

Finally, the finish chute. I crossed the line, staggered to my parents and grandparents, then realized I could barely stand. Whatever had happened, I could barely support my body with my right leg. My hip, back, and leg were just screaming at me. I went to the athletes village, found some water, and just laid down. I essentially have been laying down since, aside from sitting at work. Crossing the finish line Sunday was the last time I did any activity.

It turns out, the problem is a nerve pinch. Basically, I pinched off a nerve in my lumbar region while cycling, which caused spasms down my right side and a loss of sensitivity in my leg. Essentially it meant the muscles of my right leg were not getting a proper signal from my brain to fire. I got some help to relieve some of the pressure on the nerve so I could walk, and have been on pain killers since until the inflamation goes down. The probable cause - a combination of weak core and possibly an improper bike fit.

So once the pain has fully receded, I essentially have to do as much core as possible every day and get my bike fit checked out. Without a properly supported back, this will likely happen again while cycling.

The worst part of the race was missing out on a qualifying spot for Team Canada. Essentially every one of my friends, my roomies, and my team mates got a spot. I felt frustrated and alone and bitterly disappointed and for some reason, like a bad person.

I spent most of Sunday alone, I needed some time to myself. Fortunately my entire group of friends is athletes as well and have all been in my boat - they totally understood that I needed time to myself and just let me be until later in the day.

I would probably still be in a funk if it weren't for the amazing people I am surrounded by. My one Calgary tri friend told me following my race, "Don't you dare beat yourself up over your race. Things happen that are outside of our control. It says nothing about your fitness. Your a good athlete and a good friend."

And he's right, not every race goes well. Sometimes shit happens. The best I can do is correct what went wrong, work with physio to make sure it doesn't happen again, and look to the future.

So now I might as well announce, I'll be heading to Nationals in Toronto and racing the Sprint race on July 21st so I have another shot at making the 2014 Worlds Team. Although until this year, I have never raced anything but Olympic - I have decided to do the Sprint at Nationals just in case something goes wrong with my back again - I know my back can handle a sprint distance race. I would rather be on Team Canada for a Sprint distance (despite making it for Olympic distance the past two years) than not at all.

Now, I am recovering and about to head off on a much needed vacation with my dad.

Talk to you later everyone! And remember, do your core! You never know when a weak stomach may damage your back!

Cheers!

Bryan

I Won a Bear: Chinook Race Report

Whoosh! The time is just flying by between races lately. What's even more suprising is how fast my body is bouncing back and recovering post race. Previously races left me feeling about as coordinated and energetic as a corpse with two fossilized left feet after a severe infection of gangrene.

This year I am finding I can race, continue training, and be fully recovered within 1-2 days after a race. I'm not sure what has changed, but I'll take it!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, pause game, Bryan. You don't know why your handling racing better and recovering faster? Seriously? You're getting fitter, that's why - so stop fishing for compliments and get on with your race report!

Okay! Okay! I'll get on with the report random voice in my head. Jeesh!

Chinook Triathlon Festival is in Calgary, so this blog will encompass the whole weekend as it all felt like part of the race. So just warning you to go to the bathroom now, as this may be a long post, although I have no idea given as I am not done writing it yet.

With gas hovering around $1.25 per litre lately, we selected my car (the good old fuel efficient Honda Fit) as our mode of transportation. So on Friday we loaded up and took off to Cow-town: four bros, four bikes, four sets of clothes and racing gear, and one hatchback pushing the limits of what its tiny 4 cylinder, 1.5 L engine could handle.

Oh and there was tunes. Epic tunes. Its a bro trip, it wouldn't be complete without tunes like this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VWH13hJQWY

Our mate and his folks put us up in Calgary for the weekend, which was super nice of them. Especially since last time he stayed with us he filled my futon with grass somehow.

We were up early Saturday and took off to Lake Midnapore. While the twins were getting ready for their olympic race start, I put on my wetsuit to get in some race prep for my sprint Sunday as this was my first open water swim of the season. Its always good to shake those cobwebs out!

Of course donning a wetsuit leads to some awkward poses.

Random laughing.

Yeah...I have no words for this except, "Hi mom! Aren't you proud of us?"



Its all made hilariously more awkward by the fact you coat the inside of your suit in oil to assist in a fast strip out of the water. Which makes us all slimier than an eel at a slug orgy. Trust me, if there is one beneficial thing to dating a triathlete its the fact that we can undress very, very fast.

After the warm-up swim, we watched the twins race - which is always exciting, given how fast they are getting. It was exciting to watch them go 2:03, finishing (as always) within less than a minute of each other. I have so much respect and admiration for them, and seeing what they have done this past year training with the Academy makes me so excited for what my own future with our squad holds!

Following the races, it was time for the bike orientation for my race course. Which would have been uneventful, had it not been for a crash* on the course during the bike orientation. While everyone was okay, my roomie's bike was not and is currently out of commission until repairs are complete.

*This time, the crash did not involve me.

Saturday evening we went out for a team dinner, which was great for two reasons:

1) I finally got to eat some ribs, which as I mentioned last week I have been randomly craving.

2) We got to watch our coach's 19 month old daughter chow down on ribs like a ginger viking mimicking a ravenous venus fly trap.

The boys who raced headed out to celebrate, while I headed off to bed. Despite going to bed early, I barely slept - so I was really groggy for race day Sunday.

This was the earliest race start of the season for me, 7:30am. Transition check-in opened at 6:00am. Although it was kind of nice, as I was tired and after getting transition ready it was already time to warm-up and prepare for race start - it was good I didn't have any time to lounge around and think of bed.

Suddenly, I was on the beach start line and the horn blasted. Utterly bewildered that I was now starting a race when I barely remembered warm-up occuring, I charged into the shallow waters of Sikome Lake. When the water hit my knees, I dove in and started swimming. Mistake number one - this was a shallow lake, I could have dolphin dived much further than I did. Nevertheless I soon found myself in the lead pack. Once I realized that fact, I got excited. Really excited. I have never been in the lead pack during the swim before, it was better than Christmas! The adrenaline kept me on their heels until the beach turn-around. I lost them entering the water out of the turn-around, again due to lack of dolphin diving. It was during the second half of the swim I remembered how annoying I find wetsuits. I really don't like them, you do feel faster - but its like wearing a corset for your arms and shoulders! I find it very tiring to swim with one, if given a choice I'll always pick wetsuit free swimming.

Despite losing ground on first, others lost ground on me and I entered T1 in second place. I managed to have the 4th fastest transition time and held onto second place entering the bike.

I have no race photos from Chinook yet, so instead I'll enter a picture of me leaving T1 at the St. Albert triathlon last weekend so I can show off my snazzy new ETA uniform. Trust me, Chinook Bryan looked just as good as St. Albert Bryan. (So call me maybe?)

The bike course was challenging. It was 4 laps of a 5km loop with a huge climb, a huge descent, several very sharp turns, a 180 degree turn, and a chicane by the transition/lap count area. For a cyclist like myself, who has the leg strength but lacks technical skills - it was brutal and daunting. This is honestly how I imagined the bike portion would go:

Fortunately, I did manage to survive but I had one of the slowest 20km bike times I've ever posted (although suprisingly not that much slower than first as I only lost a minute on him during the bike). I also lost two places and slipped to fourth.

The run was a flat course, although none of us ran all that fast on it - I think the challenging bike course was to blame for this. I held my place during the run, which was a first for me, and crossed the finish line pleased. The two lads who'd passed me during the bike were in a different age group, which placed me second in my age category and fourth overall - my best ranking in any race to date! WOOHOO!

Plus, I won a bear! (This race did not hand out medals).

INTERJECT CELEBRATORY DANCE PARTY TIME!!!

After my sprint race finished, we got to watch the juniors. This was an awesome way to end the day.

The Junior Elite women was an exciting race to watch. It was exciting because my one team-mate needed to gain some serious points during this race in order to make Team Alberta. She came out of the water 60 seconds down on first, and then just crushed everyone in the bike - entering T2 30 seconds ahead of 2nd place. Her run was equally as impressive, and it was so exciting to watch her enter the finish chute with such a huge lead - knowing that she had earned the points she needed to. As exciting as it was for us to watch, it musn't have been anything compared to what she was feeling and I think this photo of her entering the finishing stretch says it all.

Why mention another's success on my own blog and race report you may wonder? Because while triathlon is an individual sport, being in a training group is about more than just yourself. We all celebrate each other's accomplishments. We are just as much a team as any soccer or football club. Its exciting to train together and encourage each other and watch each other set and achieve such great goals. Its an infectious environment, and one that the ETA excels at delivering.

Congratulations to all my team mates who came home from Chinook with cash and awards in hand! It was a great weekend for us all, and our results clearly speak volumes for the quality of coaching we are receiving.

Well that was uncharacteristically mushy of me.

Oh well, I blame a distracted mind. A few more days of race prep and then the last competition of this racing block occurs. At the end of this weekend, we will know if we've made the first cut for the 2014 Triathlon Canada Age Group Team! Wish us luck!

Ta ta for now! Stay thirsty my friends.*

*I have no idea what this means, I saw it on one of those weird black boxes that have moving pictures trapped inside them.

Bryan

Draft Legal is a Blast: St. Albert U25 Race Report

This race represented the start of a 3 week long racing block, so Coach instructed us all to take the day before (Saturday) as complete rest.

Let me re-iterate this. A group of young people who train 4 hours a day and are often hyper enough to still do other activities was told to rest. Completely. What is this madness?

In short, we were going crazy by 9am. After race package pick-up, my one team-mate and I went to chill at the pool. Its REALLY hard to be around water when you can't do a swim work out. So we flopped in the water, well actually he did under water dancing. Then I got an epic Speedo sunburn.

By the end of the day, most of the team was at the tri shack (the name of the place where my two team-mates and I live) lying around and laughing. At nothing. Its funny when you have so much pent up energy just how funny everything is. I laughed so hard I snorted. Can't remember over what, may have been our one friend pretending to be a snake on the ground or another team-mate having giggle fits while staring at the fish tank. I mean FISH! They SWIM! LOOK IT BLEW A BUBBLE! Man you can't write better comedy than that!

Suffice to say, we were rested and ready to go for race day.

This race was my first draft legal race and my first sprint* race. I was nervous, and excited.

*For my non-tri relatives and friends reading this, a sprint race is 750m swim, ~20km bike, and 5km run. My race distance of choice is Olympic, exactly double a sprint race.

Us old fart U25's were slated to start at 11:25am, however numbering and transition check-in closed by 8:30am (although it was a really soft 8:30am at this race). I was set-up and ready to go by 8:15am - as I tend to prefer being ready earlier rather than later when I am nervous.

Oh did I mention I was nervous? I don't think I did. I was nervous. And excited. But more nervous, I think. The two emotions were quickly confusing me by merging into one feeling, which I'm dubbing 'nervited' and which my intestines interpreted as "ABANDON SHIP" - the upside of which was my dropping down to race weight in the last few hours before start time.

Finally it came time to warm up and I got to put on my brand new tri-suit! I felt sleeker than seal! Wait, that's a bad comparison. Seals have a ton of blubber, and I don't want to be fat. Let's go with dolphin.

Okay, so there I was feeling sleek as a dolphin and ready for the race. Our swim was a 25m pool and 2 per lane (yay for 2 man draft chains). The swim went by quickly, or it felt like it went by quickly. After seeing the results afterwards I realize the quick swim was a result of it being half the distance I'm used to racing, not speed - as I have definitely swam 750m faster than that before.

I charged out of the pool into cool and overcast weather towards transition, looking for my multi-colored towel. I never actually use a towel in transition - I just lay it under my bike. Since I don't race with my glasses and lack contacts (I mean you want me to touch my eyeballs? No thank you!), I often sometimes have troubles identifying exactly where my transition spot is - despite pacing it out countless times before hand. But with my funky looking towel beconing to me, I make a bee-line for my transition area every time.

I finally feel like I'm getting this transition thing down. Sunday were my fastest transitions yet - finally getting the coordination to put on and take off my shoes while on the bike course has helped significantly.

The bike was the best part of the race. Oh man. Draft legal. Its like crack. Except it involves bikes and speed and yelling commands and lactic pain. So nothing like crack. But I'm pretty sure my brain thought it was on crack - something to do with adrenaline and dopamine during racing. Regardless, the experience was definitely addicting like crack - I can't wait until I race like that again.*

*This blogger does not condone the use of crack or any related street drugs. Remember kids, crack ain't whack - better do track!

It took me a while to join a bike group out of T1, but once we formed a chase pack things really got going. Lots of yelling back and forth. I felt like I was heading into battle. So much strategy! The best part of the bike for me was when my team-mate and I got a good rhythm going and took turns pulling*. I couldn't quite keep the pace line into turns yet, and on the last lap I fell off the pack going into a turn and never made up the ground again. I had a great bike though and know what I need to work on for next time (turns and endurance).

*Non-tri people - pulling is when your leading the bike pack. Much like geese flying in formation, the leader breaks the air making it easier for people behind. Pulling is hard work and drafting or 'sucking the wheel' is easy, hence why the pulling position is rotated continuously during a race and anyone who doesn't take a turn wearing themselves out in front often gets yelled at for being essentially a free-loader.

The run went by fast. 5km is short. I know sprint friends may find that statement funny, but for me 5km felt too short. It felt like I was finally into a good running rhythm when all of the sudden the finish shute materialized out of nowhere in front of me.

Well not actually. I mean I knew the finish line was coming, obviously, my brain just kept telling me it was far too soon to see the arch. Its too used to its 10km runs I guess. Normally in my 10km runs I negative split; the second 5km is almost always faster than the first 5km. So I feel like my average run time would have been quicker had the run been longer - given as I was still gaining speed when it was time to finish.

I finished dead last, which was roughly what I was expecting given the field I was competing with. But I had a massive personal best. The best guesses for my sprint speed from last summer was 1:15. Sunday I went 1:04:22. Still a long ways to go before I can call myself 'decent', but I was very pleased with my improvement. Its all thanks to the great training environment at the Academy!

Also, I didn't have a flat tire. Its amazing how much faster you can bike when your tires are inflated!

Well, that's all for now folks. Time to spend a week on technique training and recovery before racing again this weekend in Chinook!

Side note - I'm randomly craving ribs.

PS - Sorry for the lack of race photos, I don't have any (yet) from this competition.

Cheers!

Bryan