Bala Falls Triathlon

Mid-summer triathlons are always challenging due to the warmer weather, but this one was held right as Ontario was about to begin a week long heat wave.  Making matters even more interesting, was the geographic location of Bala (in the southern region of the Muskokas) with its rolling hills and roads exposed to the sun.  Fortunately we had a early start, 8:30am, and anticipated finish time of 10:30am, so we’d be racing before the heat of the day really set in.  However, at the start time it was 25C already. It was going to be a hot one.    

This was my first time racing this course (MSC Bala Falls http://www.multisportcanada.com/balafalls/) so I was trying to get as much background info on the course as I could before heading up.  I found a nice course outline with training tips on YouTube with Ignition Fitness from a couple years ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G33LYs0uy4.  I’m no stranger to squats and lunges, thus felt fairly confident in the ability of my legs to get me up and over those famous Muskoka hills.  

The transition zone (TZ) was set up on the grass next to the shore of Moon River in Jaspen Park, and after setting up my gear, I headed down to the water to do my usual 5min warm up swim.  The water was so warm (~23C), wetsuits weren’t really needed but most triathletes prefer to race in them for the slight speed advantage, so I wore mine as usual.  I’m glad I did, as I had my personal best 750m swim time of the season 15:37 (pacing 2:04/100m). That’s almost half a minute faster than the Welland swim in the canal current!  

On a high from the swim, I ran into transition and got ready to ride with Ruby.  Before racking my bike that morning I had the good sense to give my bike a pre-race check up.  I pumped extra air into the tires, checked the brakes and made sure the tires were spinning smoothly on their axis’.  There would be no repeat of the Belwood fiasco.  And my Ruby rode true.  I was then less concerned with mechanics, and more concerned about the hills at this point, but as I began the numerous climbs and descents I actually found myself enjoying the course much more than the fast and flat terrains of Welland and Wasaga that I had chosen in previous years. I have fairly strong legs & glutes, and practiced climbing Sunnybrook Hill many many times for just this occasion.  Not to mention the geography was simply beautiful you couldn’t help but enjoy yourself on the ride.  I ended up with a 30km time of 1:06:40 (pacing 27km/h), not my fastest ride, and still one of the slower riders in my AG, but I was happy in the moment, and felt positive going into T2, which I did in under a minute (0:58). 

The run course was tough. I have to admit. I’m a pretty strong runner but the steep hills and exposed sun along the 7.5km stretch of Muskoka Rd 169 we ran along was as much a mental test as it was physically grueling. I had enough sense to bring a hat and wear it, and as I passed each aid station I poured one cup of water over my head and drank the H.E.E.D. to keep me going.  Mercifully, there were 2 small side roads we had to run out and back on, and they were shaded by trees, but those were only ~2km of the run, while the majority of the run course (5.5km) was full on sun, and I’m sure the air temp was at least 28C by then.  I knew I was pacing slower than usual (5:17/km), but that’s the nature of the environmental conditions taking their toll I suppose.  By this point in the run, I had passed the racer in my AG (with Bib 104) who passed me on the bike course and I knew I just had to keep on running. I was stronger than her I told myself.  

I typically get pretty pumped up on the run, its my favourite part of the race by far, so although I was suffering I didn’t let it mentally grind me down.  I began passing several other runners at that point, one of whom in a red tri suit was walking the last km.  I remembered what it felt like to be walking that last km, and the regret that it always brought, and since the guy wasn’t in my AG race category I decided to help him out.  I turned to him and said “Come on, no walking! Don’t you know these race times stay on the internet forever?!”  And that lit the spark in him.  “OK!” He began running again, and the personal trainer in me took over.  “What’s your name?” It wasn’t on his bib, he must have registered that morning.  “Brad” he blurted out.  “OK Brad, come on, you’re going to finish this strong!”. Run run run. “Come on Brad, let’s kill this hill”.  While it might have seemed I was helping him out more so during this last hill climb, I find this pep talk helps me out tremendously as well.  It pumps me up, and it felt like as we got closer to the finish line the crowds started feeding from the energy as well, bursting into cheers as we ran by.  “We’re almost there!”  With that I let my finishing kick take over and finally crossed that line, 4 seconds ahead of my short lived running buddy.  After regrouping we high fived and he gave me a sincere thanks for the push.  

***Have no regrets, always run it like you mean it!!***   

I posted a run time of 39:41.  Not my fastest 7.5km run time, but considering the heat, humidity and hills it wasn’t so bad.  Overall my finishing time for the 750m swim, 30km bike, 7.5km hilly run course was 2:05:02 (just 8 seconds slower than my Welland race time last month).  Finishing 7th in my AG, back in the top ten again.  Not so bad for my first Muskoka race experience.  

Perhaps the Ironman 70.3 Muskoka race next July isn’t such a crazy idea after all.... 

Belwood Triathlon 2015

The next race on my schedule was held on July 11 at the Belwood Lake Conservation Area. 

MSC Belwood Triathlon http://www.multisportcanada.com/belwood/ 

This is a race I had a really great performance at last year, with an overall time of 2:00:55.  And I was looking forward to racing it again, hoping to finally complete a sub 2hr race in this distance category – 750m swim, 30km bike, 7.5km run.  

The weather was a beautiful – sunny and a little humid, but the 8:30am start time meant that we got going before the real heat of the day hit so it wasn’t so bad.  The swim was in Belwood Lake, with the local Ospreys soaring overhead.  The water temp was quite warm, probably close to 20C, but most triathletes chose to swim in their wetsuits still, typically for the speed advantage.  I paced 2:13/100m in this swim, taking a total of 16:38 for the 750m swim.  Not my fastest swim time this year, but being such a short portion of the race I felt I had plenty of opportunity to make up for the slight time deficit. 

Unfortunately, this would not come to be, as I encountered some mechanical problems on my bike. The bike portion started out OK, but after the first 5km I began to notice a dragging resistance on the bike.  I wasn’t sure what it was, I tried to listen for the sound to isolate where the problem was, fiddle with the brakes to make sure they weren’t catching.  As it turned out, my rear tire wasn’t quite sitting properly, and was rubbing on the frame.  It got progressively worse on the course.  I ended up fighting the bike the entire ride and couldn’t properly fix the tire until after the race ended.  This resulted in my worst bike ride at a triathlon, ever.  I barely paced 21km/h on this course, taking a pitiful 1:25:27 to finish the 30km, which was significantly slower than my past performances.  

After the atrocious bike ride, I was eager to make up time on the run, which is my strongest discipline.  Fueled by the knowledge that I was now in last place in my age group, I gave the run everything I had left. Pausing briefly, to have a couple gulps of HEED on the 7.5km run, I began speeding down the Elora-Cataract trail.  I really enjoyed the run here last year, it was shaded, woody and a softer gravel trail. I posted a really good run here last year and I was determined to go even faster this year, and I did.  I set a blistering pace of 4:29/km (almost as fast as my Yonge St 10km pace of 4:27/km) and began passing other runners who were beginning to fade at this point in the race. I began scanning other runners for the age group marking on the calf muscle and felt a slight sense of relief as I began to pass some other late runners in my age group. 

I managed to pass 4 other runners in the last few km of the run, safely rising out of what would have been my ‘last place of shame‘, into 11th place.  Amazingly, I posted the fastest race time of all the women in my age group (33:42), even faster than the woman who won our group (35:49).   Apparently, I need to tap into this fear of failure in order to bang out my best triathlon run times.  At least I can be proud of this run performance. 

I learned a hard lesson at Belwood this year.  I will have to pay closer attention to my bike maintenance in the future, and will be double checking my bike before every race from now on. I’m obviously disappointed in my overall race performance (with a finishing time of 2:19:03), but will take away the value of the lesson learned, and of course, my great run time.  

I’m already looking forward to MSC Bala Falls Triathlon (July 26) as an opportunity to redeem myself on the bike course and place myself back up on the leader board with no less than a top ten finish.  

Buttermilk Plays Mid-season Classic Tournament

The mid-season classic tournament was held at Sunnybrook Park this weekend, July 4-5. This is an annual tournament held by the Toronto Ultimate Club - http://www.tuc.org/events/midseason/2015 

My Tuesday night league team, Buttermilk, entered into the competitive division of this tournament this year along with seven other teams forming 2 pools of 4 (Pool 1: Naptime, TBA, Nor’easters Want the Conch, Buttermilk; Pool 2: Savage Tribe, The Big Kahunas, Magnitude, The Fifth Element).  There were also intermediate and recreational divisions playing in the same tournament, but in their respective playing pools.

Buttermilk had a really great day on Saturday. We swept our pool with a 3-0 record at the end of the day.  Game one was a close call, going all the way to time-cap (90min) with a 12-11 victory over Naptime.  Game two was a more solid victory 15-10 over team TBA (yes, that was their team name). Game three was also a success, 15-12 over Nor-easters Want the Conch.   We were definitely gelling as a team and grooving to tunes DJ’ed by yours truly including Benny Benassi - Satisfaction, Survivor - Eye of the Tiger, and Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam, along the sideline.  You couldn’t help but feel great when running to those tunes. 

Playoffs began Sunday morning, and the pools crossed over according to seedings established in the Saturday round-robin play.  Buttermilk played a very intense game against The Big Kahunas, going point for point up to halftime.  It was our toughest opponent of the weekend.  We were up 14-13 when we failed to complete an endzone pass that would have won the game for us. The Big Kahunas were able to regain possession and worked it up the field to tie it up 14-14 just as the horn went.  That meant we had to play it out at universe point for the win. Unfortunately for us, the Big Kahunas came out with their strong defensive line, forced a turnover and capitalized on the turn with a big upfield huck, winning the game 14-15.  It was a disappointing loss to a very competitive team.  We fought hard, but its always hard to suck up the first loss of a tourney especially when it was just within our grasp!  

We still had two consolation games to play that afternoon, so we picked ourselves up, dusted off our cleats, and went to face our next opponents.  

Perhaps we felt we still had something to prove, and we went into our next game vs Magnitude thinking about the win we should’ve just had.  This was another close game 10-9, but we managed to secure the win at time-cap.  A sense of relief overcame us as we heard the horn blow.  By this time, it was obvious we were all beginning to feel the effects of fatigue setting in, and the weather was getting really hot and humid at this point.  With a humidex approaching 30C, players were having to don their hats, sunscreen and increase their hydration with water, ice and gatorade, but still the heat was taking its toll on the team. 

The final game was against The Fifth Element. Whether it was fatigue, heat or the unfortunate choice of Maroon 5 by the Sunday DJ (sorry, I’m just not a fan...), we struggled to play at our usual form in this last game, ending the day with our second loss of the tournament, a disappointing 5-15.  It felt like our hearts were just not in that last game.  But that’s OK, you can’t win them all, and it was just a consolation game at the end of the day.  

Overall, we went 4-2 at the weekend tournament, so despite the couple losses on Sunday, we finished with a winning record and we should be proud of that.  It was great practice for our team to get out and a play a full weekend tournament, especially since league playoffs will be done in a similar format to this in early September.   

Now go get some rest and I’ll see you all again Tuesday evening you sexy goats!!     

Six Things Mentally Strong People Do

Developing and measuring physical strength can be easier than testing mental strength.  However, both mental and physical strength are equally important for overcoming challenges to meet your fitness goals.  Here are a list of 6 things mentally strong people do. Do these habits apply to you?  Are there areas in your mental game you need to address?