Canmore Sprint Report

Six days after my first triathlon I found myself in race mode again. I definately was not as nervous about this one, pretty gald about that. The night before can't say that I slept great ....again. My wife was pretty restless and I couldnt get to sleep. Then I woke up at 4:30 to hear her coughing and vomiting. She was quit miserable and obviously not going to be coming out to Canmore with me. However I did question if I would be going at this point. I made sure that she would be ok before I went and she assured me that she would be. After a quick shower I checked with her and gave me the thumbs up. But damn I am running behind!

I had decided the day before to take my wife's car instead of my Jeep and had already loaded it up. I hopped in and turned on the tunes and thought "gawwww forgot my ipod". I like music to get me motivated and it was going to be a "long" drive. But then the music came on and it was my new "Daughtry" CD that she had bought for me...whew this will do just fine, lol. I am not going to publicly admit to how fast I drove...but I did, as the saying goes, "drive it like I stole it".

T1 setup was quick and then up to the Nordic center for the pre-race meeting and T2 set up. And then after that it was the long wait until my wave started. The race briefing was at 7:15 and I started at 10:15...ughhhh. I went down to the lake to watch the other heats and headed into T1 for one last check of my gear. I looked over and thought I recognized a gentleman a few bikes down. Can't miss that moustache....Keith! I had never met him before and knew him from blogging, but the stache is a give away!

THE SWIM

Fast forward a couple hours and its my time to start. Water felt a bit cold which made me cranky, lol. I was far less nevrvous about the swim this time. It was going to be my longest open water swim to date but I did 750m last week and knew I could do the extra 250. My sighting was much better this time, I didnt have to correct nearly as much. I just kept thinking about my techique and keeping to my plan. I didnt want to try to push the pace but rather do the distance comfortably. Another good thing this time was that I didnt care about contact in the water....its part of open water swimming that WILL happen. I felt better as the swim went on and at the finish thought I could have kept going.

SWIM TIME - Time 26:47 Pace 3:35 (74th/97)

THE BIKE

T1 was a bit faster than my last tri. One thing I might try doing is going sockless. Putting on my socks consumed the most time by far. I was glad to get out on the bike...have I ever said how much I enjoy the bike ;)? Off the bat I was feeling strong and started to pass alot of people. Thie course had much more elevation change than coral springs. On the hills I really put in the effort to get up them quickly and make some gains. I was a bit frustrated when people were riding 2 and sometimes 3 across going up them. I just made sure that no cars were coming and went around them. The volunteers on the bike course were awesome, very vocal! I liked the added challenge of the short hills this time.

BIKE TIME - Time 52:46 Avg Speed 22.7 (25th/97)

THE RUN

T2 was super quick this time and then I headed to the run. I felt surprisingly good off the bike this time but that only lasted a short period, lol. My legs felt tired and I didnt get them back until 3.5km into the run. Unfortunately it was only a 5km run :(. I wonder if the elevation change was a factor, I am geussing it was. One of the voluteers said "you're doing great, keep going!!". I replied "I have to, got no choice" and she said "Sure you do, you can lie down here" The woman next to me says " I sweat to God if you do I will too", lol. I had a good laugh there.

RUN TIME - Time 30:22 Pace 6:05 (41st/97)

Nutrition - 1 Serving GU chomps before the swim with water. On the bike 1L gatorade and some water. The run was GU chomps and water/HEED sports drink.

Overall- Position 35 of 97. I knew I would be a bit longer time due to the longer swim and more challenging course. I had a really fund day. I still would have liked to have had a better run I think but I will take it. I don't think doing 2 sprints in 6 days hurt me, I rather enjoyed it :). I am looking forward to Olympic distance in August!