.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Edmonton BG World Cup race report



On Sunday I competed in the Edmonton BG World Cup Triathlon (Olympic Distance).

Mike Healy was also at this event but I didn't see him afterwards to see how his race went. You were looking strong on the run mate!

This was a huge day of racing and not just for the Pros.

The day also consisted of The Pan Am Junior Championships, Olympic and Sprint Triathlons and a 5 mile road race all in celebration of the 10th and final year of Edmonton as the host city.

There were lots of qualifying spots available for the World Championships in both the Olympic and Sprint distances so many folks brought their "A game".

But first, on a personal training note, let me say that tapering is tough.. not so much physically but I never fully appreciated the emotional and mental aspects one "endures" when experiencing a proper taper.

I was feeling great the week leading up to the race and thought many a time "oh I'll just go for a quick spin or I want to ride with my friends tomorrow"... stick with the plan!!...

"My" plan called for no activity 4 days pre race aside from stretching... lots and lots of stretching... and some core work. I wanted to come into this event with my legs fully fresh and my body fully rested.

I've never done this before... a long taper like this... and honestly it wasn't even a "proper" taper as many training programs call for.. but I wanted to listen to my body and it was telling me to rest and stretch.

As it turned out I was very happy that I did listen.

I've never done an Olympic distance Triathlon before and honestly didn't know what to expect in the way of time so I sort of "guessed" at some time goals where I hoped to hit.

Thinking about it in the days leading up to the race I would have been extremely happy with a time of 3:15:00 'ish .

Considering my lack of swimming and questionable run fitness but my strengths on the bike, I felt this was a realistic goal.

No pressure though.. this race was really about celebrating life and my journey coming full circle.

That said, what I achieved yesterday went beyond my wildest expectations.

Pre-race:
Up at 4am, ate and spent about 60 min stretching. By 6:30am I had made my way to the venue and was setting up in transition.

The Pan Am Junior Championship went at 7am so that was a great distraction and before I knew, it was time to wriggle into my wetsuit and make my way to the beach.

Swim:
Because of my shoulder tendonitis injury I was quite worried about the swim. I hadn't done any "serious" training in the pool since February and any pool time I managed to log in the past 10 weeks was relegated to just doing TI drills and working on my balance in the water etc.

Obviously resting the shoulder paid off because aside from the typical "human washing machine" of arms and elbows to the head I enjoyed a wonderful swim, no shoulder pain and posted my fastest 1500m split ever!

Swim 1500m: 00:28:13 (PB)

T1: is teh suck!
Need to try and improve this time.. spent several min limping the 200m from the beach to transition (will need to see if I can wear sandals or something next time I have to walk this far.. my left foot was in spasm after this)

T1 : ~ 7 min :(

Bike:
I really wanted to lay the hammer down on the bike course as that's been my primary focus of training since April. I logged over 1000 km in May on the bike and know that right now I'm enjoying the best bike fitness of my life. Joining the Speed Theory Cycling Team has also helped with my confidence and handling skills and I just knew today would be a great day!

And it was...

I laid it down on the bike course and posted my fastest 40km split ever!

Bike 40 km: 1:08:00 (PB)

Mental note: I probably didn't need to carry the extra water bottle.

So a bottle of H20 and Gatorade looks to be enough for me.

T2:
no worries, off the bike and on the run course in short order

Run:
This was the leg that worried me the most.

During my LSD runs this spring I was working on taking in Gatorade and gels. Even bought a fancy schmancy fuel belt and wore it yesterday.

My run plan called for water and Gatorade at 10 min intervals respectively then a gel at the 30 min mark.

I also stuck to my 10 and 1 plan. Run 10 min, walk 1 min.. REGARDLESS of how I feel!!

Again this worked out really well as I posted my fastest (ever... even before my accident) 10km split!!

Run 10 km: 1:04:12 (PB)

At the end of the day what I achieved went beyond my wildest dreams.

2:47:44

On top of it all, I had the incredible honour of qualifying in my category (AWAD) for the National Age Group team and will be representing Canada at the Triathlon World Championships this September in Hamburg.... and (from what the ATA people were saying yesterday) the 2008 World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver next June!

All told it was an incredible experience and I'm looking forward to firing it up on the bike with the team the rest of this summer!

cheers

edit added:

Thanks for the worlds of encouragement guys!

Last week, in lieu of the race, the Edmonton Journal did a story on some of the disabled athletes competing including my friend Kim Wedgerfield (Last year she instilled in me the idea that I could "tri" again) and myself.

Please click on the link to view the article.


http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=89e98291-9df9-4d41-81de-119fb3031b0f&k=82698







7 comments:

RobWoolley said...

Way to go Pete! That is spectacular. I will be watching Hamburg and Van and cheering you on!

Trev said...

Wow, that is rad. Way to go.

That is a great bike time for that course, you totally have every reason to be proud of yourself.

Trev

Anonymous said...

Congrats Pete! Way to represent!

A-Train

Anonymous said...

Nice work Pete!

Sounds like maybe tapering might be the way to go. My first tri (in about 5 years) was the Arbour Lake hypotherm-a-thon suffer fest from the previous weekend. I think Edmonton sounds like a better event... I heard this is the last one - correct?

Matt.

Captain Kirk said...

Pete,

Great write-up! It was like I was there with you. Congrats on all the PB's.

Chewy said...

Good work pete! You'll like Hamburg Worlds, it is a totally flat course.

BTW, good job at winning the Prestige Half Trev. Great bike time 2:17:29.

http://www.winningtime.ca/2007_prestige/oall.txt

Anonymous said...

Great report Pete. You looked like you were having a blast! I went straight for the showers after the race and then joined the confusion in the ATA tent for the Worlds sign up. I still don't know if I got a slot in Vancouver '08. I passed on Hamburg.

I watched both the elite races - Kirsten Sweetland is something to watch, very stealthy on the bike, never exposing herself to the front and a fantastic runner, just beaten in a sprint finish. She must weigh about 95 lbs and half that weight is in her hands - no kidding she was born with paddles at the end of her arms. If she can stay injury free she will have a great future in the sport. Also hope she has a good coach.

Full Calendar