Race Preview/Report- Guelph Lake Weekend (Try-a-Tri)

Race Preview
The first race I will be doing in the 2012 season is a Try-a-tri. I have had a brutal last month of training which is annoying, mainly because of studying, injuries, and a week out of town. So I'm in rough shape going into this race.... It's the exact same race as last year so I won't get too into it - http://anthonyngtriathlonadventure.blogspot.ca/2011/09/race-preview-anthony-vs-guelph-lake-ii.html

Race Report
The race went pretty bad compared to last season. I was about a minute slower than last year which is quite a lot considering its such a short race.
Final Results

So I had a rough swim because of an anxiety problem about 100m in. I'm not sure why, I'm just having trouble AGAIN getting comfortable in the swim portion.

The bike wasn't great either, but it was kind of expected considering the last month of training I've had

The first half of the run was probably the worst I've ever had, the lack of brick training is probably the reason. But the second half was okay.

All in all it wasn't the best, and I'm a little disappointed. The race had A LOT of people so the medals went 5 deep, so I did end up taking home some hardware with a 5th place medal..

I probably sound a little more bummed out than I should be is because.. I popped my ankle playing basketball yesterday and its really f'n annoying because I was planning on having a serious month of training (because of the awful last month) before my Toronto Triathlon Festival (Simon Whitfield is racing in this one) race that I've been super excited to do....It isn't TOO painful right now, so I'm thinking it was just some scar tissue that popped..but I'll still get it checked out. I definitely can't run or anything yet so its really just a piss off...

update on training - hills hills hills

Start to the seasons been going quite good. I have a training schedule and stuff now which is nice...sometimes it sucks haha but you HAVE TO do it, it's suppose to be a grind. Wheres the fun if it was easy? What REALLY excites me is that I feel like I'm already in better form (swimming and maybe running wise) than I was at my peak last season, and I still have a few months to go b4 the first race. Especially with the swimming too, which was my worst of the three last season, I guess it also has the most room to grow though.

I think the main reason for a quick improvement is because of the interval training i've incorporated into my workouts. Last year I would just run/bike/swim the distance at a moderate pace. This year I'm doing more intensity related workouts to improve speed. I'll usually either do ladder runs, repeats, or hills.

Ladders being something like - hard100, easy100, hard 200, easy 200, hard 400, easy 400, etc....and back down.

The repeats will go something like - 400m sprints followed by a minute rest and over and over again.

and

There's a hill near my place thats pretty great for both biking and running. Today I decided to spoil myself just a little bit and do some bike hills followed by running hills and it surprisingly felt quite good which is one of the reasons why I feel I'm already in decent form.

LAWRENCE HILL


Putting down the bike and changing into running shoes



About 1/4 way up

 

Near the top



TYR Catalyst Swim Paddles

So last week I decided to pick up a pair of swim paddles. After looking online and seeing different reviews I decided to get the TYR Catalyst paddles (about $25.00). They're funky lookin' things as you can see below, but they do the job. I went with the medium red pair, but looking back I definitely should have bought the small yellow pair. I feel like this pair is a bit too advanced for me seeing as I'm still a new swimmer and they have quite a bit of resistance. I'm hoping that I don't get any shoulder problems because that's usually the result of using paddles that are too big for you if you don't have a consistently proper stroke.

A buddy of mine also recently bought the FINIS Freestyler paddles and these ones don't have as much resistance but they do a good job in making sure your hands are in the proper position during your stroke. If you don't have a proper stroke, the paddle will slip around your hand or even come off so its pretty helpful.

i'm baaaa-ackk

It's been about 5.5 months since my last race of the 2011 season. I hadn't done much training at all since then UNTIL the start of february and am starting to get back into decent shape. I started swimming 3 times a week and running twice just to get back into the groove of things.

Come March I plan on having a full training schedule...which means getting up at 530-6 to swim/bike...fun fun fun! Hopefully the snow goes away soon so I can bring out the bike, because indoor biking just isn't the same.

Some exciting news though. I registered for a race (sprint tri) I really wanted to do ever since it was announced. The city of Toronto is going to shut down parts of the DVP/Gardiner for an international race. The race is hosted by Triathlon Canada, the International Triathlon Union, and also our very own Simon Whitfield (who's actually competing too which makes the race WAY cooler than it already is - he's going to be in the sprint tri as a pre-olympic prep race). It's a dream come true being in the same race as the man who is the reason why I started triathlon in the first place

(see if you want to hear about why/how i got started http://anthonyngtriathlonadventure.blogspot.com/2011/05/carrying-out-young-boys-dream.html).

It's friggen crazy amazing, everytime I think about racing in the same race I can't help but smile.

pretty sick video of a "Day in the Life" of Simon Whitfield

so start registering
http://www.torontotriathlonfestival.com/

Other cool articles about the race:
http://lavamagazine.com/news/whitfield-to-headline-inaugural-toronto-triathlon-festival/#.T0U7EjKEC8M.facebook

http://thestar.blogs.com/olympics/2012/02/that-guy-you-see-running-on-dvp-might-be-simon-whitfield.html#.T0U5LEcQpZ8.facebook