This year I've really pushed the distance of my training and racing, so I've sacrificed a lot of speed on shorter courses. Thankfully, this was a long course, so I was hoping to do pretty good! After my horrible running display in Gravenhurst, I was really eager to redeem myself. I attended Kevin's speed work the Wednesday before to get myself mentally prepped to run fast, and by Friday, my adrenaline was pumping and I was feeling really really good about the 13KM run in this course. I also mentally prepped for all aspects of the race, where as in other races this year that I didn't perform well in, I was only focussing on 1 maybe 2 aspects of the race.
I had been checking the weather all week because humidity in combination with dehydration lead to my faltering in Gravenhurst. It was looking to be a perfect race day with 23 and sunny and NO HUMIDITY! I woke up early, drove up to Huntsville,, and got myself settled in around 6:45. I was able to do a light 750m, go to the washroom a couple of times, top up the hydration levels, and then head to the swim start.
This was a 2km swim, and if I hadn't done to Baydog Across the bay swim a few weeks earlier, I would have been crapping my pants because it would have been the longest I had continuously swam. But, I did swim from Minets to Johnson's beach, so I was feeling pretty good about the swim. I was in the first wave, the horn sounded, and I was off!
After taking 2 hard hits by the same swimmer to the goggles and the ribs, I opened up some space by picking up my pace and finding some open water. Once I made the first turn, I got off track, and despite my best efforts, could not get straightened out to the next buoy. Thankfully, another swimmer was in the same predicament, and I 'grabbed his toes' until the next turn. All in all, a great swim and about 3 minutes faster than I had expected.
I was feeling really good about the bike, as I always do. I knew that this would be a hilly course, but also some good flats to pick up speed. I was averaging 33km/h to the turn around, and was feeling great because the ride bike would have been predominantly down hill. I went to the small ring up a very steep hill before the t/a and as I was changing to the big ring, the wire snapped and I lost the big ring! I had to ride the last 27km in the small ring, cranking up the cadence to keep the speed over 30. It was disheartening as I felt my race was over and wouldn't meet my goals. However, I had a lot of time left on the bike to think about this situation, and eventually came to the realization that there was nothing I could do about it but suck it up and still do the best that I could. I did, and averaged 31km/h on the bike. Respectable considering.
Onto the run. I had been fooling around with different hydration techniques, and really focussed on how my body was reacting to the hydration techniques that I was using. For instance, too much Gatorade meant severe pain and cramps. Therefore, I predominantly drank water on the bike, and had 6oz water/2oz gatorade in my fuel belt for the run. This seemed to help, as well as drinking water whenever I was thirsty. I didn't push myself too hard on the run, fearing that I might bonk at any step, and there were some steep hills on the 2 loop course. But, I ran continuously and finished with a 5:15 pace (5:22 according to the stats, but I stopped to pee so that doesn't count!). I felt really good about the run, which really helped me in my training and future races. If I had had a bad race here, I don't know what I would do mentally for Muskoka 70.3.
All in all, I didn't "race" this race. I treated it as 3 separate training sessions. This really helped me mentally as it kept me focussed and I didn't over do it. I had a great day, and can't wait to move on to my last 2 sprint races (Barrie and Orillia) before I tackle Muskoka 70.3.
NOTE: did the Muskoka 70.3 bike course over the August long weekend. Great course. First 60KM are good. Smooth, rolling, fast. The last 30KM are killer hills. Thankfully, I am now aware of this as I will adequately prep myself so that I can complete the 21.1KM run after that hilly bike course. Should be fun!
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