Although sponsors are everything, you can’t really swim,
bike or run fast at a race if you can’t get there and that’s exactly why I want
to start off by thanking my teammate, Oliver Blecher and his mother Louise for
driving me to Quebec from Hamilton.
I’ve had a lot of ups and downs the past 11 months, which
caused me to miss many training and racing opportunities. After dislocating my
shoulder in January, my coach Barrie Shepley and I decided to start my season
yesterday, on July 12th, instead of racing earlier on when I would
have been unprepared to race.
I ended off my last blog post with the Caledon Kid’s of
Steel update. Since then I have been training very hard. Up until the past few
weeks I had still been experiencing some shoulder discomfort in the pool. My
swim coach at McMaster, Andrew Cole, and I came up with a plan to only swim
3000m (vs. 5000 up to 6000 per practice normally) per practice for a few
weeks. Two weeks before this race I was
finally able to do all of our practices in the pool, and starting to feel good
in the open water.
In the past month I also raced a 5km race on the track at
the McMaster Track. I ran a 30 second PB, with a time of 16:06.76 and was very
pleased with this result. That same night Oliver Blecher moved into my house
and we started training [beating the crap out of each other] leading into the
race in Quebec.
I want to thank Caledon Hills Cycling for setting me up on
one of their Cervelo S5’s, because my new frame still hadn’t arrived a week out
from the race.
The race in Quebec was a lot of fun. I haven’t seen a lot of
the guys I was racing since Canada Games and it was great to catch up with
them! The swim was a non-wetsuit swim, so unfortunately I didn’t get to wear my
Nineteen Wetsuit! I really was unsure of where my fitness was relative to the
rest of the country in the water, but fortunately I came out in lead pack, and
I really can’t ask for anything more! With a fast T1, I hopped onto my Cervelo
bike and rode fast for the first few kilometers. Then the pace slowed to a
“pedestrian” pace. I always seem to spend too much time at the front so I
decided to pull through but spend some time drafting this race. It ended up
working out well because it allowed me to get a little bit of a jump into
transition with another guy. I had another fast transition; putting on my
Saucony A5’s and ran out of transition up the grueling hill. I really didn’t feel as good as I was
expecting on the run, but I think it was just the lack of racing this year.
Putting the three together, I ended up with 11th place in the nation
today. I’m very pleased with the result and cannot wait for Magog to come!!
Just before I finish, I want to congratulate my two teammates, Oliver Blecher and Kirsten Vargara for finishing 5th and 2nd respectively.
Thanks to Radical Edge, Caledon Hills Cycling, Nineteen Wetsuits, Aberdeen
Subaru, Triathlon New Brunswick, Human Performance Centre and the C3 High Performance
team for supporting me throughout the season and today!!
