Category Archives: Swim

Swim Across the Lake

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This Swim Across the Lake event is awesome. I’m totally doing it next year. The goodie bag was awesome. The organization was awesome. The beach towel you get for finishing is awesome. The food and coffee afterwards was awesome. Hanging with Kathryn was awesome. Figuring out our swim heat mistakes at the last minute was awesome. The swimming was awesome. Calm deep blue water. That’s at least half a dozen “awesomes” already. The only thing that wasn’t awesome was getting up at 5am to head off to the races two days in a row. But even that wasn’t too bad.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that my swim time was awesome…
33:53 for 2.1km = 1:37/100m

Canada Day Swim

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“Here for a good time (not a long time)” is today’s Canada Day swim theme song. Except I need to change the words… to “and a long time”. I had a good time at today’s race but I was slow. Nothing went wrong. I just couldn’t go any faster.  I felt more like this,

… and not at all like this:

I’m feeling tired and discouraged but hopefully a nap and a visit with my niece / goddaughter this evening will fix me right up.

Getting outdoors

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I seem to be immune to the triathlon bug this year. You know the bug – the one hits for weeks or even months after you sign up for some race that scares the pants off you. Not that I’m cured, I do forsee that this bug will hit again in the future. It’s just that I’m seeing that there’s more to this sport than just an obsession with training & racing.

I’m finding other equally rewarding ways to stay involved. For example, this weekend I volunteered at a water station at the Ladner Half marathon. It was great to see everyone out there! As a bonus, we were stationed way out on the country farm roads right beside a self serve farmers kiosk with beautiful purple, yellow and orange tomatoes.

I’ve also been using my bike as a way of traveling lately. Commuting is a great way to get in the training, even if you don’t have a big race that scares the pants off you.

My all time favorite motivator for getting out there is being outdoors. With no racing bug to focus the speed and distance, I’ve been enjoying the settings even more. I have really appreciated my favorite trails and especially the swims in Boundary Bay. Getting outdoors is what it’s all about!

The 5 min Head Start

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I got this nice email today from one of my best tri buddies.

What a great swim race. Well done.

Thanks, best tri buddy, it WAS awesome.  I forgot about the 5 min head start that the boys got – so I thought my time was 1:10.  When I saw it was 1:05 (later in the afternoon when I checked the results online) I was really excited.  Were you there for the awards?  I was wondering if I got a ribbon.  I would be proud of that ribbon.  It’s 8 min faster then the last time I swam the Canada Day swim.  Woo hoo!

Second Half of Oliver Race Report

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The first half of my Oliver race report is here…

Race Day morning started really early. 4:30am or 5am or something ridiculous like that. I’m not a fan of the early wakeup. Since it was so early, we decided that it was a dumb idea for Torbin to come with me to the start. It’s tough being a spectator – because you can’t go anywhere I go – and I basically just hang out with my triathlon friend and/or focus on the race. So his plan was to sleep in and then come see me later in the afternoon. Good plan, worked out well, especially since I know that his support is there every day!

Ok, so now we’re at the swim start. I’m a different swimmer now. Much faster, so I wanted to get a spot near the front. I was in the first row… but way out on the side. The strategy worked well. As you can see from the picture, it still was a bit crazy but I was way more comfortable. I like the new one loop course. My time was 34:03 (last year 34:54) – Hmmm, maybe I was a little too comfortable and probably should have gone faster. Oh well, no biggee, it was comfortable. 48358-209-014f

After the swim, we had a 500m-650m run to transition. It wasn’t too bad… kind of a nice opportunity to get your head back from the swim and get ready for transition. There was one bike gone from my rack, and this helped me to think, “OK, race starts Continue reading →

The beauty of a 25 yard pool

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I’m Canadian, eh! Which means my pools are 25 meters. Not 22.86 meters. I mean who else in the world – other than you crazy Americans – makes something 22.86 units long. Swimming in the shorty pool does however make you feel like a rock star. I can swim 1:20′s no problem. I knew there was something up when I was still swimming 1:25s by the end of the set. Smile.

Here’s the pre-race workout from Coach Tracey:
Warm Up:
200 choice
2 x (100 kk, 100 as 25 drill/75 swim, 2 x 50 stroke count descend 2nd 50 by 2 strokes)
Main:
6 x (100 fast on 2:00 then 50 very easy on 1:00)
Cool Down:
100 non free choice
100 kk
100 pull
2000m total*
*crazy conversion factor required

Team Impact Training Camp

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Last Thursday I headed up to Penticton for this “Performance” training camp. It was a very good experience, well run, and quality workouts with great people.

On Friday, I did my own workout in the Penticton pool. OMG, it’s hot in that pool. I guess the old fogies won’t get in if they don’t keep it practically tropical.

Saturday the camp started with a time trial of the Oliver bike course. I drove down with “exactly on time” Calvin so we arrived just in time for my 9:24 start time and his 9:28 start time (riders were sent off every two minutes to simulate race situations). My goal was to ride hard – as close as possible to race effort. Before starting each rider had to weigh in. I have to admit it was a bit tense at the start (simulated race feel worked) so I’m glad that we didn’t spend much time hanging about.

On the course, I rode hard trying to keep the effort up to >155HR. I drank 3 full bottles of gatorade and ate 4 gels. My time Continue reading →

Bests and Worsts at the Delta Triathlon

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The best thing about the Delta triathlon was volunteering for the kids race.  I took the kids on the pre-race bike tours of the race course on Friday night.  I also got up at 5:30am on race day to be a bike course marshall.  My favorite thing was chatting with my new friend Jason.  He’s in Grade 4.  We became friends on Friday night.  On Saturday morning, I cheered for him on the bike course and he took his hands off the handbars so that he could turn around with his biggest smile and wave crazily at his new friend/fan.  On his second time past me, he was a super serious bike racer going as fast as he could.  I was proud of him – and had a little chuckle as he recovered from this serious racing with a “Whoah” and a little swerve.  My second favorite thing was talking to my new friend Wendell (also in Grade 4) who was telling me that he was going to be really good because he can change from his pyjamas to his clothes really fast.  [Big Smiles!]  The kids race was awesome.  If you haven’t volunteered at a kids race before, you should.  It’s a hoot!

The worst thing about the Delta triathlon was putting in a personal best race effort that should have placed me 5th place overall – and then getting DQ’d because an error. (A volunteer pulled me out of the swim 4 laps too early. I said “Are you sure?” and they said “Yes, Go!”) I had two ambitious goals for Delta, 1) beating the 1:10 mark and, 2) placing well in the overall standings.  Given the opportunity, I would have met my time goal.  So, I’m going to call it a PB.  As for standings, I will just have to wait to Oliver to prove that I can make an impact in the overall placings of these races.  I’m better at longer distances anyways, so watch out in Oliver everyone! I plan to, “Bring it on!”

swim 7:04 (475m)*
bike 36:08
run 21:33
overall 1:04:44 + ~5min* = 1:09:44
*extrapolated to 700m = 10:25 + 1.5 min to exit = ~12min

Here’s what I’ve learned from this gaff. I was confused, but I followed the instructions. That was the wrong choice in the end. But it’s hard to think fast on your feet when you are trying to put it all out there during a race. You’re on auto-pilot with not even enough time to put a shirt on or do up your laces. How are you supposed to have the presence of mind to stop and have a conversation with some random volunteer who is telling you to do the wrong thing? I’m not sure how you do it, but that’s what you’ve got to do. I guess this is just what you learn as you become a more experienced racer. I’m reminded of the pro-racers at Oliver who went off course on the run course a couple years back because the volunteers hadn’t put down the cone at the turn around point yet. Maybe it’s just that these things happen, and you can’t ever really be ready for them. I wonder what the pros would say? Me, I say we should all practice our clothes to pyjamas transitions more often. [chuckle]