Tri-ing to stay young!

It’s been a while since my last blog. A wedding and the start of 2 months of home renos have given me the excuses that I needed to avoid blogs and training. Unfortunately I have less than 2 months till the big day in Penticton so.
I did my first swim in two weeks today. 4.5Km at just under 3Min/100M. Not fast but enough to beat the Penticton cut-off.
Following is a blog from a friend from Calgary who is training for Penticton next year:

On June 15th, Wasa Lake Olympic Triathlon was the start of my journey to the Sylvan Lake Half Ironman. Although it was meant to be a training race and I wasn’t really prepared for it, there were a few good things that happened that I was very happy with.
Wasa was only two weeks after the Oliver Half Ironman. The first week after Oliver, I felt pretty good with a little period of fatigue from Thursday to Saturday. My training volumes were low for the first week. On Sunday of the first week, I began to bounce back and my energy levels began to get back to their normal levels. This was a huge improvement from 2007. Back then, it took me almost 2 weeks to recover from a half Ironman. The second week consisted of race prep for Wasa, but nothing too serious.
I arrived at Wasa Lake on Friday, June 13th at about 11:00 am. I did an easy run and then went in for a short swim in the lake. The water was cold like it was last year, but it was still nothing compared to Cultus !! My ears were feeling the cold a bit, so I decided to wear a neoprene cap to protect them. I practiced water entries and exits and general calmness in the water as I was swimming. I also practiced more frequent sighting to try to keep on course better than I did at Oliver.
The weather was good leading up to the race, except for a small storm on Friday night.
This year I stayed right on location at the Wasa Lake Motel which was on the opposite end of the lake from transition. It was a nice, quiet place with good management, spacious rooms with large kitchenettes and a small farm with cats, dogs, chickens and el pacas…..a great place for a race focus. Relaxation was a new concept that was introduced into my training blocks. This whole motel thing really seemed to play along with that concept. I slept soundly for almost 12 hours on Friday night…just to show you how relaxed I was.
On Saturday, I trained in the morning with a short bike ride and swim. At 2:30 pm, Sharon and I headed to Cranbrook for the package pickup and pre-race meeting. Once again, the room at the Prestige Inn was a packed solid with athletes.
I woke up at 5:00 am to have breakfast and realized that it was only + 3 deg C. But it was calm for a change and the sun was starting to come up at about 6:00 am. I got into transition at about 6:15 am and positioned myself so that I was near the middle of the transition area. I got body-marked at 6:45 am and got my wetsuit on at about 7:30 am.
That morning I had realized that my heart rate monitor wasn’t working. In training, Coach Sara had taught me how to train by feel without a heart rate monitor. I was really glad she did because I was about to do my first triathlon without a heart rate monitor.
I met up with one of my friends; Joanne. Like last year, she was apprehensive of the swim at Wasa. Last year, she panicked and it cost her about 20 minutes. I spent about 15 minutes with her and got her to calm down. I was about to find out later that by talking to Joanne, I was not only calming her down but I was also helping myself to relax as well.
All 400 of us went in the water for a 10-minute warm-up and then exited the water to sing Oh Canada. At 8:45 am, we hit the water. I kept calm and stuck to single sided breathing, even though bodies were crashing all around me. I got about halfway to the first buoy and felt myself getting into a rhythm with bilateral breathing. I sighted about every 8 strokes and it seemed to keep me on course a lot better than Oliver. As I came in for the first 750m lap, I encountered people doing backstroke and breaststroke. I pulled over to the side and picked up the pace to get by them. I exited the water after the first lap and felt a little funny…as if my energy level was going down. I jogged back into the water and started out slowly on the second lap, waiting for my second wind to kick in. After about 100 meters, I felt my rhythm and energy level coming back and I got into bilateral breathing again. I started to pick up the pace and since there was really no one else around, I had lots of free water to myself. It was a good swim. I kept moving despite some difficulties which was key to getting a good time.
I exited the water and ran to my bike in transition. I quickly took off my wetsuit and got on my bike clothes, remembering to put on my race number this year. In 2007, that was one of the things that I forgot to do. It was amazing how the sun had already warmed up things in just 1 hour !! So much for jackets, full gloves and armies. A tank top and tri shorts were going to work just fine.
I got onto Highway # 93 and started heading to the pulp mill. Even though it was slightly uphill and into a breeze, I averaged about 28 kph. The ride was really feeling good and I was keeping a steady pace. I started passing people on a regular basis as I headed to the pulp mill. I got to the pulp mill at the turnaround and thought that the headwind would be on my back. However, as I turned around, the headwind got in front of me again. On positive side, my new found friends called tri bars that I had recently installed on my road bike really helped me in this situation, as I had discovered about 2 months prior. Also, the trip back to the transition area was now going downhill. My average speed now was 35 to 38 kph. Unbelievable !! Was I dreaming ?? Near the end of the ride, I had realized that I had only drunk about half of my profile bottle for the entire ride. Hopefully I wasn’t going to pay for this later.
I got to transition with a huge smile on my face. My bike time was 1:17 (not including transition times), a new record for me. An average speed of 31 kph and an overall bike placement of 253 / 348. My best ride in my three-year triathlon career !!
I racked my bike and quickly got my run gear on. I began running down the pathways and felt stiffness in my quads, but I battled on. This was pretty much the reverse of Oliver. At Oliver, I had tired bike legs and good running legs. At Wasa, it was the other way around. The sun was feeling warm at about 23 deg C. Most of us Calgarians weren’t used to this type of weather. I could hardly wait to run through the campground where there was some shade. I stopped briefly at each of the aid stations for Gatorade and water. I ran down the back trail at the campground and got to about km 5, where I started to feel some energy level problems. I quickly took a gel and by km 6 or 7, I started to feel revived again. By km 8, the stiffness was starting to come out of my legs and I was starting to speed up. I crossed the finish line, smiling once again.
My final time was 3:04:28.4 with an overall placement of 302 / 348. This was slightly slower than last year. However, I finished strong and I was very happy with some of my individual accomplishments.
Shortly after I finished, Joanne came in at about 3:18. She had made a 45 minute improvement over 2007. Like me, she had lost weight, which had helped her on the run and bike. As well, she had gotten rid of her open water fear and had improved her fitness level over the winter months. She was well on her way to making a huge improvement at the Stony Half Ironman as well. I was very proud of her accomplishments.
Coach Sara, Chris, Catherine and Chris were at the finish line again to greet me. I think it is so great to have your coach at your races and sometimes even race in them with you. Coach Sara had been at the Police Half Marathon, Oliver Half Ironman and Wasa Lake Olympic. It was both inspiring and uplifting to have her there.
I later found out that Coach Sara and Catherine were top 5 female podium finishers. Also, Chris was 2nd in his age group. I was happy for all of them.
At Wasa I saw an improved swim, a tremendous bike split, excellent recovery from a half Ironman previous and was able to do an entire triathlon without a heart rate monitor. There were a few times where energy levels were an issue, but because I had done some runs and rides by feel, I knew my rates of exertion well enough that I was able to adjust pace according to how I felt and make the recovery.
These are things that I can now take with me to Sylvan and continue to improve on them. Sometimes it isn’t about the final time, but some of the individual things that you accomplish along the way to get there. Coach Sara has continued to provide me with excellent coaching and training blocks. Wasa was just another example of how well I have been responding to it !!
The excitement of 2008 continues and the Sylvan Lake Half Ironman is up next on Saturday, July 26th.
All the best to athletes doing the Coeur d’Alene Ironman and Chinook Half Ironman this weekend !!!
Kerry