Season Recap And Canada Games

First of all I want to thank everyone that has helped me in some way with words of encouragement when I was bummed after a bad race to constant support throughout the pursuit. I had a relatively mediocre season with more downs than ups. However I did learn a lot, more than I have learned in a lifetime.

Sherbrooke was a really cool experience. The set up is very similar to the Olympics with a high security athlete's village and the volunteers where amazing. In the individual race I had a bad start which lead to missing lead pack even after I swam as hard as I could. After a good T1 I rode as hard a I could to catch lead pack but it just wasn't enough. I ended up in a small chase pack, I tried to get us going with constant attacks but I just couldn't make up such a large gap alone or with a small pack. I ended up running ok but after pushing so hard on the bike it became difficult!

Later in the week we had a team event. This consisted of a 250m swim, 6.6km bike and a mile run and then tagging the next team member to go. Essentially it was a sprint done by three people. I went first and fortunately (or maybe not so much) all the other fastest guys on their teams went first. It meant the short swim was messy. It was compared to a boxing match by Tyler and everyone thought it was violent! But it was very fun. I actually had a good swim and just narrowly missed lead pack. I ending up riding away from Rob and Russell just because I knew they'd out run me by a lot! At the end of the team event I was in a lot of pain but I had more fun than I've ever had.

The mixed relay was similar in distance but with two guys and two girls. I went fourth. I swam hard and tried for the fastest bike split. I didn't quite get it but I rode my heart out, which is what I wanted to do. The run wasn't that fast but the price had to be payed for after that bike ride! And we ended up being the first atlantic province!

I took another look at my season goals the other day. I didn't reach any of the outcome goals that I wanted to but I did learn more this season about my body, racing and just how tough you really have to be to race at the level I'm racing at. I know that next year I can do a lot more to achieve my goals that I set for myself because I've been through a lot this year. This season is over. My rest is over. Now it's time to run, and to run fast. Here's to next year!

Pushing big watts in the individual race