Guelph Olympic Distance Triathlon/Duathlon 2014

One day, Garima said... “I need to do at least 1 real triathlon before Toronto Triathlon Festival and redeem my triathlete status! I'm not a wannabe triathlete like you duathletes!!"

..and so she signed up for Guelph Lake Oly Tri (1.5km swim, 40 km bike, 10km Run). 

My plan was just to accompany her to the race and be a supportive husband and cheering squad having done the Welland Half 1 week before this…and I was also planning on doing the Tour De Waterloo (133 km road cycling race) the next day. However, I got suckered in to signing up for the Guelph race on the day of the race, as well!

And thus, our weekend was again bombarded with race festivities!

Garima’s Race:

Swim : 1500 m

OK, so I know my swimming is horrible, but I just wanted to NOT get pummeled by the AG that starts after me. So I started at the back, and tried to get my rhythm set in early.

I tried to keep swimming front crawl as much as possible, but could only manage it a few minutes at a time.

However, the next wave did catch me, and I did get kicked/punched…however, I didn’t go down without a fight. I delivered a good few kicks of my own (breast stroke, baby! Yeah, you top AG guys didn’t see that one coming!! Haha…) and made it out of the water alive and looking forward to the bike and run.

Bike : 40 kms

Its very hard to judge on the bike if you are passing other competitors in your AG or not, but I kept on pushing it hard.

 

There were a few hills that caught me by surprise and a section of the road which was completely crap. Like...shuddering potholes for a good 5-6 kms! Ugh. 

My legs felt reasonably good today, so I just tried to drink regularly to prevent overheating like I tend to.

Run 2 : 10kms

I was expecting this run to be bad, because Sunny reminded me that it has a few rolling hills. My goal was just to push and keep my form in check, to make sure my hamstring/shin pain doesn’t tighten up my legs. After all, running a little slower is better than walking the latter part of the run!

I wanted to settle into a pace, but every time I did, I would see a girl in my AG up ahead and made sure to catch them.

This run and the start/finish is held in the Guelph Lake Conservation Area, which is open to families. Turns out there was a family with a barbeque going right next to the run course. It was so tempting to just stop running, enjoy a good burger and sit down. I’m sure the smell and the thought stayed in my head for the remainder of the run!

Overall, the run went OK considering it was constantly up or down. Thinking back to a month ago where I could barely run for 5 mins without pain, its big progress!  

Man, I want to feel like I did running last year while training for Ottawa Duathlon WC. It felt so free and unrestricted!

Anyway, I’m happy with my race. Obviously my swimming is horrible, but today my bike/run made up for it. For the first time in a competitive triathlon race, I came 3^rd in my AG!! Yayyyyyyyy! I gained all the time on the girls in my AG purely on the bike and run!

Total time:              2:46:53

Overall rank:           222^nd (of 381 people)

AG:                        3^rd (of 14 in my AG)

Moreover, I was faster by almost 20 mins from 2 years ago!!

Parichit’s Race:

Needless to say, I didn’t have high expectations from myself for this race, so I didn’t really have the motivation to push hard. Apart from that, my left quad still had some lingering of the strain I got before Welland (although much better by now), so the run also wasn’t going to be easy.

Since I was full of excuses anyway, I thought I’d at least try an experiment:

          I bought some Rotor Q-rings (oval chainrings) for my crank and had long been thinking of giving them a try. Based on things I’ve read online and people’s opinions, it generally takes a month or so for the muscles to get used to the different motion. Being the smartass I am, I took risk thinking, “...If they work during a race, they work!” So I put them on.

Run 1 : 2 km

Its 2 km! There’s no time to do anything here anyway. It was over soon enough by cruising through in 7.5 mins

Bike : 40 kms

After my usual pathetic transition, I chugged onto the bike course. My first priority in these few kms is to bring my HR down and not go out too hard.

Just after a few mins, I realized that these oval rings were wreaking havoc on my quads (or so I wanted to believe!). It felt like a lot more pain than the power I was putting out.

5 kms later, a familiar arch nemesis from last year’s races: Adam Foley, zoomed by me. Ah crap. He’s in my AG, so I really wanted to hang on to him.

There were really rough roads between 5-10 km, and 30-35 km, which really upset any rhythm, but apart from that, the bike ride was OK. Unexpectedly slow, but nothing devastating.

Oval rings artificially inflate power numbers by anywhere from 5%-10%, so I got 217W AP/ 229NP.  Considering the ~7.5% inflation, it brings the average down to 200W. As usual, this is nearly the same as my 90 km Welland ride (195W AP), but for only 40 km.

I must stop doing these short distance races so I can stop knowing how much I suck at them! :D

At the dismount line, the guy behind me bumped my rear wheel while I was getting off, so I launched my bottle, which I had to get back. Another few seconds down the drain.

Run 2 : 10 kms

After an unusually quick T2, I set off on the run and there was no notion of quad pain, which is a good sign. I wanted to break 40 mins, but I forgot that this course completely rolling in nature, with some gravel/trail type terrain thrown in. Slowly, I made up ground on Adam, and passed him around 5 km in, although I was far from a 4:00 min/km pace.

I saw that the next person in the Duathlon was 2 mins up on me, so I tried to claw back as much time as possible. As expected, after the 7 km mark, my legs actually began to open up and feel better. Dang…only 3 km of real estate left. Emptied the tank and finished in a run time of 41:20.

The weather today was awesome, albeit slightly hot…and not a lot of wind to speak of (10-15 km/hr?). I realized I enjoyed this race quite a bit, despite the result. Well, except for the crap bumpy road in between!

I did this race after 2 years, so was pleasantly surprised to note an improvement of 5 mins (mainly due to better position/equipment on the bike, and a slightly better run!).

Total time:              2:01:45

Overall rank:           10^th (of 55 people)

AG:                        1^st  (of 6 in my AG)

Stay tuned for next day’s report from the Tour De Waterloo!

Back to Toronto on a sunny sunny afternoon...

Welland Duathlon 2014 (Bike-Run)

Welland Duathlon 2014 (Bike-Run)

Pre-Race:

So in the past few weeks, my quads (left one in particular) have been feeling particularly heavy regardless of how much rest I give them. I've been taking it easy but in Binbrook duathlon last week, I could tell that something was up when during the opening 5 kms, I started getting really tight quads restricting my stride. 

Anyway...I followed the mantra during race week, taking it easy. I got a light massage on Wednesday but the tiredness didn't dissipate. I tried doing a quick taper type workout on Thursday (5 km run at LT, 15 min bike, 3-4 km quick run off the bike). I warmed up, stretched right but once I began running, I couldn't do it. My left quad tightened up so bad after 10 mins that I began noticeably limping. There was no pain, just a lot of tightness. I abandoned my workout and seriously considered pulling out of this Welland race.

Next day, I made an "emergency" appointment for a massage with Tracey Elliott, who is familiar with my ailments. This turned out to be very helpful, as she was able to remove some fatigue and focus on my left quad. 

On the plus side, Enterprise gave me a Mercedes to rent for the weekend! I was pretty surprised myself, when I was able to fit 2 bikes, kit, spare wheels, and even groceries in the back with the seats folded down!

Race Morning:

After the massage, I iced a lot in the last 2 days but changed my mental race strategy. I decided NOT to push my limits, take it easy on the bike, and stop running/start walking at the first sight of this familiar tightness in my quads. Now, I just needed to ensure I was smart enough to realize when to do that! :D 

Drove over to Welland eating my mega PBJ Bagel on the way!

Warm-up:

In an act of a true duathlete, I started out my warm-up running along the run course, and did around 5 kms of “warming up” (albeit more defiantly than smartly!). Threw in a little bit of form drills and a bit of stretching towards the end.

Yes, I know that that is “too long” to be warming up for! This kinda fit in with making sure I took it easy on the bike in the beginning.

Bike:

Like last year, we had a TT type start to this race. Every one left in a sequence of 15s in order of our bib numbers. I was one of the first ones to go.

As soon as my turn came, I trotted off the transition timing mat towards the mount line. There was chaos in front of me…triathletes completely bunched up to mount their bikes. So I walked my bike a few feet further to mount. Now, 2 of these triathletes decided to waver in front of me after mounting…slowly moving, blocking the left lane. I know it’s a long race and lots of bumpy sections in this first few kms, plus I was trying to keep my adrenaline in check, so I let them settle down before I passed them ~200 m later. Around the 5 km mark, 2 guys, who left after me, passed me.

I looked at their bib numbers only to realize I had just lost 45s in the first few kms because of the slow mount and ramping up speed.*FACEPALM*

Rest of the bike was pretty uneventful. This course is FLAT. No chance to coast. There are a few sections next to the water which are really great to ride through and I normally look forward to this part of the course. This day, however, the wind was just confusing. It seemed like we had headwind/crosswind most of the way and only tailwind in the first 15 kms or so. I only got out of my aero position for a few seconds at a time (to drink, at aid stations, etc.) but got noticeably slower every time.

My quads hurt right from the beginning and kept protesting throughout the ride. My left leg was full of complaints today: adductors, ITB, soleus, all just not comfortable. Usually, if you’re tapered, its easy to go out too hard when you don’t feel the fatigue. I didn’t have that problem! I was tired right from the start.

Oh well, I’m good at pacing, so I kept my calm and did well to slowly increasing my power throughout the ride. 

I stuck to my nutrition plan, and gobbled down 2 L’Arabars and 2 gels, along with almost 3 bottles of water and 1 super concentrated Gatorade. Flushed them down with 1 salt tablet towards the end.  At the turnaround near 60 kms, I gauged that the other 2 athletes were approximately 1-2 mins up the road (plus the lag in starting time), but their lead was not growing as we neared the end.

Very little variance!

In the first half, I averaged just around 193W AP/ 195W NP. In the second half, it was about 199W AP / 201W NP. Funny thing is that in my Binbrook race last weekend, I also put out only 197W AP for a 30 km ride, so my power in Welland for 90 kms was the same, if not slightly higher! 

I hate the way this works!

Actual bike time: 2:31:15 (36.0 km/hr...measured 90.78 kms)

Official bike time: 2:32:20 (35.5 km/hr)

Transition:

Got off the bike and clippety-clappety jogged to the transition area with my bike shoes on. Like every year, I haven’t bothered to practice flying mounts/dismounts. Thanks in part to living in downtown with no space nearby (and generally being lazy)!

I wanted to apply some moisturizing cream on my calves, which seemingly prevents me from cramping (magnesium!!), or at least, in my head they do! So this wasted a few seconds but gave me some peace of mind. Grabbed my run nutrition bottle (lesson learnt finally as a result of overheating/bonking at 16-17 kms into the run for 3 years in a row in this race!) and darted off.

Time: 1:20

Surprisingly, this was the fastest transition in the Bike-Run event. And I thought *I* was lazy in transitions.

Run:

My legs feel funny.

That was my first thought as I got onto the first few hundred meters of the run course. Now, I’ve done plenty of long distance brick sessions to know what “good legs” after a long bike ride feel like, and what “bad legs” feel like. This was a bit of a new feeling today….somewhere in between!

After the first turnaround just 500m into the race, I had overtaken one of the two guys ahead of me. The person now in the lead was approximately 40 seconds up. Not too bad, I thought. To win, I’d need to be at least 45s ahead of him at the finish, which meant I needed to make up 85 seconds in 21.1 kms. Time to get to work.

However, by the 2 km mark, I saw him walking up ahead. I know where that road leads. I felt a bit bad for him because it clearly meant he either pushed too much on the bike or didn’t pay attention to nutrition, generally speaking. So I passed him barely 10 mins into the run and I was now in the lead!  There’s a small hill with another turnaround at the 3 km mark, where I was able to gauge that I had already put in about 40s into the 2^nd place.

Going down that hill, the funny feeling in my legs wasn’t going away. I began to get numb feet. What the hell? Quads still hurt, but this was weird. I slowed down a touch, kept my cool and tried to keep negative thoughts of the pre-race strains away from my mind. Patience. The numbness went away in the next 2kms or so.

Now, this run course has about 4 kms to get to the “Merritt Island”, where you do 2 loops of the Island path (each loop roughly 7.5 kms each) and then run 1.5 kms to the finish. After reaching the turnaround at the far point of the island in the first loop (about 10 kms into the run), my legs finally started to feel like remembering how to run! Finally, I could get into a rhythm! (This is the longest that the “jello legs” feeling has stayed with me after a bike ride...usually, it only takes about 15-20 mins!) .

My quads now hurt more than I remember during any brick session, but I still had to keep myself in check and hold back the urge to open up my stride so I don’t blow up and spend all my pennies too soon. This felt like excessive tiredness, not any unusual pain, so I kept my pace in check, remembered my pre-race mental plan and slowed at any sign of increased discomfort in my left quad. I didn't have to worry about winning the race now, so it was just a matter of minimizing damage.

By now, my traps were getting tired. Its my sign of dehydration. Gulped down water at every aid station and kept sipping from my run nutrition bottle throughout the last 10 kms. For the past 3 years doing this race at Welland, I’ve maintained a solid 4:15-4:20 min/km pace for the first 16 kms, and then on the home stretch, I completely fall apart due to either dehydration, calf heart attacks, back pain, general fatigue,side stitches, dizziness…you name it. But this year, I was determined to not let that happen. 

I had enough of a lead to play it conservative till 16 kms, so I just increased my tempo a little bit towards the end so I could finish strong. I also didn’t want to dig too deep because of the recovery time my quads would need. Oddly, all this did was increase my HR, because my pace didn’t get any faster!

However, the 21 km mark seemed a bit too far. About a kilometer from the finish, I was asked to go over a timing mat. OK, weird, but I thought this way the Sportstats people would be aware of who is going to be coming across the finish in a few minutes.

I saw Garima cheering for me a few minutes later. I high-fived her and enjoyed my way to the finish line. Thanks to Mike Cheliak for the awesome photos!

Run time: 1:32:20 (4:23 min/km)

 Post-Race

After I gather my bearings and remember that I can’t just lie down at the finish line, I hobble over and the race director, John Salt, comes up to me to congratulate on the finish and inform me that the timing mat ~1 km ago was the final official timing mat!! 

The course ended up being longer than 21.1 kms (closer to 22 kms!) so the MSC guys decided to put up a timing mat at the right distance instead of the finish line. I had suspected the longer run while I was on Merritt island, but I thought those just might be markers in the wrong place.

I ended up being 8 mins ahead of the 2nd place, but both the 2nd and 3rd place finishers were absent from the awards ceremony. So I was a loner on the podium.

Although I didn't mind running the extra distance, and I had enough of a lead against 2^nd place…I’m sure some people may have been disgruntled to find that the time they made up trying to sprint to the line, didn't count! Or worse, that someone running right next to them at that timing chip actually beat them to a podium spot! There will always be complaints. But kudos to the MSC/Sportstats for reacting very fast and coming up with a plan to make sure the right distance gets timed.

A familiar face: Roger Hospedales grabbed me for an interview, which you can find at:

Then I realized I couldn't walk much: my quads would just not allow it. So I grabbed a carton of Chocolate milk, put on the Compression Boots they offer to athletes, and just lay down on a beach chair looking like a pro!

Next two days, my glutes, hamstrings, shins and calves don’t hurt at all. But my quads beg for mercy and my Achilles/Tibialis Posterior muscles hurt a lot. Time for some R&R!

Big thanks to my usual partner in-crime: Garima. Although she did not do the race (too long and too boring, she says!), she did go out and do the 90 km bike ride on her own, after obtaining consent from the race officials. She did amazingly well and averaged 33.0 km/hr for the whole ride! Woah, I need to get on HER program! 

Also, a shout out to Tracey Elliot (BodyTrace) for urgently accommodating me in the week before the race for a massage session that took out some fatigue from my legs and helped my left quad recover enough to participate in this race. Thanks Tracey!

Next up is Guelph Duathlon/Triathlon next Saturday and possibly Centurion C75 or a charity ride on Sunday. Check back next week for more!

Binbrook duathlon 2014

Binbrook duathlon kicked off our 2014 multisport season. I was planning on doing to the triathlon, but changed my mind last minute and decided to do a duathlon instead (mostly because of my lack of swim training). This race would be my 3rd race at Binbrook and was extra special since my mom was here to cheer me and Parichit. She was visiting us from India and got to see us race a day before she flew back.

Pre Race
We had our traditional subway sandwich for dinner the night before the race, while my mom enjoyed some sushi. Unfortunately, we ended up staying pretty late which meant some serious lack of sleep (4 hours!).

Race morning was chaotic as usual with everyone trying to get ready, eat some breakfast, pack last minute stuff, perform race morning rituals (stretching) etc. The three of us got ready in record time and made our way to Binbrook. My mom has seen us race before, but she always seems to enjoy MSC races due to family involvement, spectators and volunteers who make these races a great family event. Parichit and I did some make-do run warmup and made out way to the duathlon start.

Run - 5km
The run includes some trail/grass in the first km or so of the race. My legs not being used to this running started complaining pretty soon. The sun, which felt comfortable during the warm-up, was now starting the feel extremely hot!

Thanks to my body's inability to perspire like normal people I had to keep splashing water on myself to keep cool. I wasnt feeling as good as usual on the run, but this was something I was expecting due to lesser training (we were busy with the wedding and vacation in Jan, and I dont mind skipping training for that :) ) and shin splints. Anywhoo, I finally finished the run after about 26 min and ended back to the transition area with my mom cheering!!!

Parichit finished the run in 21 mins (the runs were actually closer to 5.3 kms) but told me later that his left quad was seizing up just 2 kms into the race, which was forcing him to slow down. This was probably a sign of things to come...hmmm!

Bike - 30 km

This is a flat and fast bike course and I was hoping for some great speed on this course. Although its deceptive because it does have a few rolling hills.

I was able to maintain a steady pace during the bike portion and was overtaking some of the triathletes (great moral boost!). I wasn't going as fast as last year which was a bit of a disappointment but then again it only means more room for improvement :D (talk about glass half full). The bike route was nice and scenic going through the conservation area, there was not too much wind, which was great! After the halfway turnaround, I saw a few bikes held up behind a giant truck and I became one of those stuck behind the truck. This was a frustrating yet comical scene since we were all afraid of overtaking this monster and didnt want to collide with the oncoming bikes n the process of overtaking. I finally saw my chance and managed to go past the truck "safely". The ride back to transition was steady and smooth..

Meanwhile, Parichit got really frustrated with a group of 3 triathletes, who clearly and very intentionally, kept drafting each other right from the start. It was near impossible for him to lose them, despite 10-15 good surges to drop them..they just kept coming back. Apparently, one of them was shameless enough to even say "Your turn" to the other two, after he was redlining, and even cramping up. If he had been alone, there would be no way to keep up that speed. Parichit was able to drop them right at the end while getting close to transition. He didnt have a good ride due to constant slowing down and speeding up, but thats what it is.

(Apparently, he was far from being the only one that complained of blatant drafting and there were plenty of people DQ'd at the end of the race!)

Run- 5km      

From experience I was expecting the second run to be more painful than the first due to the beating the legs endure after the first 2 parts of the duathlon. At this point, 5km seems like 15km.

My legs didn't want to listen to my brain who was telling them they have done this before and can do it again. After the first km or so the running legs started coming back, I was almost back in the rhythm (I wouldn't call the run musical though!). Once again I was splashing water at every aid station (thanks a ton to the volunteers!!!) I felt alot better after the turnaround since I could tell myself I'm coming home! The run ended with my flashing a great smile, Parichit and mom waiting for me at the finish line. The day ended with a even sweeter ending when I found out I was first overall amongst women in duathlon :D

Parichit finished 4th overall and 2nd in his AG with a time of 1:34. According to him, his left quad felt very tight throughout the race and only "switched on" 2k from the finish...resulting in his 2nd run being identical in time to his first run!

Special thanks to MSC for organizing a great race and Mom + Mike Cheliak for all the photos!

  

Spring Running 2014!

So ...about more frequent updates. Yeah. 

The news in this report is already kinda 1 month old, but here it is anyway!

We usually kick off our sporting season with a few running races in the spring. This year, there was 1 exception: no motivation!

Anyway, both of us sort of got real bad case of flu for most of March 2014, so we expected to suffer a little bit and err on the side of getting more rest than planned.

But first, Garima's mom arrived in town to visit us for 2 months! W00t! She generally keeps active and accompanied us to the gym on most days, too!

Also, Garima's dad visited us for 10 days, so, it was like a little family reunion. More on that in a separate post!

Anyway, onto ze races! 

Yonge Street 10k

First up was Yonge Street 10k. My 3rd year doing this race and just like last year, it was way too cold for April. Like 2C cold.

After the repeated frustration of missing the 38 min mark by a few seconds over my last 6 attempts at this distance, I didnt expect much this year because of the lack of training we've had. Garima was in the same boat, as her shin splints were back, with a vengeance..and they prevented her from ever getting into a rhythm once she started running.

With some blind luck and good pacing strategy though, I pulled off a 37:40!! Yay PB!

Garima didnt have a great race due to her shins, but she toughed it out in 49:30, however, noting that its 3 mins off her time last year. More work to do. Somehow I had folded into telling her that if I broke 38 mins, i'd run the next 10k with her...so the Sporting Life 10k in May was written off my race calendar.

Me:
Overall Rank: 133 (out of 4067)
M25-29 Rank: 25 (out of 309)

Garima:
Overall Rank: 1329 (out of 4067)
M25-29 Rank: 86 (out of 763)

Goodlife Marathon 2014

Being a wise-crack, I thought this year, it might be prudent to race the half marathon instead of the full mary because I've run roughly half the volume as last year.

My goal was to maintain a 4:00 min/km pace for a goal time between 1:24 and 1:25. Everything was on track till about 15km in!

There was a fierce headwind (>40-50 km/hr!!) in the last 6 km towards the finish and that definitely put me in the hurt locker. Significantly slowed down...part, part mentally, part physically...but so did everyone else.

Finish was a 1:26. Pretty good considering I actually passed ~10 people in these last hard 5 km, so I didnt blow up despite having some sections where I averaged ~4:40 min/km!!!

Result:
Overall Rank: 38 (out of 4067)
M25-29 Rank: 7 (out of 309)

Sporting Life 10k 2014

So, since I promised Garima to run with her in Sporting Life 10k if I did well in the TYS 10k (which I did!)...we decided to run together in this one.

However, I decided to run to the start line (~8k) as a warm up to the race while Garima took the TTC. Then as I was running up to the start line, I never saw her bus go my me (or ANY BUS going in that direction), which left me perplexed and afraid that Garima didnt know where to get off.

I decided to wait for her at an intermediate stop 1 mile from the start line (don't ask why...!), while it turned out that she kept waiting for me at the start line!

Eventually, I ran to the start after the race already began! Garima's wave was scheduled to start 5 mins after the leaders but seeing 5,000 people coming at me flooding the sidewalks was scary!

In the end, I reached the start line after Garima had already started! When I glanced at her going the other way, I knew she was pissed and I was in trouble!!
By the time I reached the start line, all the 3rd wave had also started. This now meant I had at least 10,000 people ahead of me. I then had to SPRINT for the next 3 km, zig-zagging across the runners to catch up with Garima, which I covered in less than10 mins! I was pretty winded when I found her (don't know how I found her midst of 10,000 people!!)

Once I caught her, we were able to keep a smooth pace and I could motivate her to finish strong!

Then we got some really cool medals! Kudos to the organizers for coming up with such a great design:

Then we found Mommy and took some pics and enjoyed the sunshine:

Me:

Overall Rank: 1043 (out of 21751)
M25-29 Rank: 174 (out of 309)
(having that first 3 km in <10 mins, put my chip time for first 5k way faster than my overall time!)

Garima: 
Overall Rank: 1946 (out of 21751)
M25-29 Rank: 110 (out of 3022)



Yippee!

Up next was Binbrook Duathlon and Ride For Heart!