Monday, December 31, 2012

December Update: Southerly Change

I'm back down under after two years away. It is great to be back! I'm loving the sun, the open roads and, above all, catching up with everyone.
It was a bit of a nightmare getting here, though. I was supposed to leave on December 11th from Ottawa however it wasn't to be. Foolishly, I did not obtain an ESTA. I arrived at the airport on the 11th and wasn't able to leave! It was truly, truly heartbreaking. After a lot of stress, more money and a few extra days I was on my way on the 16th.
It was a rough few days off the plane with a decent shot of jet lag set in. I managed to settle in OK and got stuck into some good training with mate Jeremy. We nailed some good key sessions in the Christmas week and tallied 22-odd hours for the final week of 2012!

I've backdated this post so I'll get busy soon with a few more updates.



Here are a few shots from the 'workout of the week' (150km long ride + 30min run at HIM pace off the bike)




Saturday, December 1, 2012

Movember Mileage

Movember was a great training month, for me, all things considered (by 'all things', I really mean the weather).
It was another month of base and conditioning work with the odd race for fun. I had another great swim month with some killer workouts - longer and harder swims than I've ever done - and I think it's paying off. We'll see. I think I can get closer to the first guys out of the water - or within a few minutes - in local events, which will make things easier. I'm sick of Short Course (25m) pools though - I am really looking forward to hitting the Olympic pools at home!
On the bike I tried to a lot of aerobic miles as well as a lot of sweet spot work. Without TrainerRoad, I'm not sure I would have survived 27 hours on the trainer in one month! Nothing overly long (in terms of an Ironman build) but lots of steady consistent work. I'll worry about 4-6hr rides in January and February - now is the time to just maintain and be consistent, harden the legs up a bit and get ready for the onslaught.
Run mileage has been very steady indeed. I averaged about 70km a week. I think the only thing that will change between now and Melbourne Ironman will be the specificity of the long run, the introduction of some structured tempo/threshold runs, and key runs off the bike. But for the most part, the formula will be the same.
Happy training!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Recipe: Java Protein Balls

Here's a super-simple recipe for a high-protein hunger-killing and amazingly tasty snack. The 'base' of this recipe can be used and flavoured in a number of ways to suit your taste - I'll explain as we go on.

What you'll need:

  • 2 cups almonds
  • 1 cup pitted dates or figs (pre-chop these up or give them a whiz in the blender prior to mixing)
  • 1/2 cup ground flax seed
  • 3 'scoops' (about 1/2 cup) of protein powder 
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup espresso coffee 
  • 2-3 tbsp of agave nectar or honey (optional)
  • Few tbsp's of hemp seed or chia seed (optional)
  • Shredded coconut, or oats or something of a similar nature, to roll the balls in.
  • A blender or food processor
'Dry Mix'

Put the almonds in the food processor and blend until you have an almond meal/flour consistency. Add dates, flax seed, protein powder in the food processor and mix until blended. Add the coffee, vanilla and agave and mix. 
Ready to make some tasty balls!

Make small balls (an inch diameter or so) and roll in coconut. Place them in an air-tight container, separating layers with parchment paper. Store in the freezer. Take them out and throw a few in your lunch box for snacks or eat them after a workout for a quick snack. 

You can use the base - almonds, dates, flax seed, protein powder + 1/2 cup liquid - with almost any variety of other ingredients to make different types of balls. For example, try adding some lemon zest, dried cranberries and cranberry juice. Or, raisins, chopped walnuts, cinnamon and apple juice.

Enjoy!



Monday, November 19, 2012

Race Report: Fat-Ass Trail Run a.k.a The One That Got Away

Our good friend JP invited us down to Frankford to run the Batawa Fat-Ass Trail Run this weekend. A weekend chez les Pellerins and a fun trail run wasn't hard to accept! Initially, we were signed up for the 7.5km run (i.e. one short painful loop over and around a ski-hill), but after a few beers Saturday evening, a little smacktalk and a phone call from M-P meant we were all-of-a-sudden running the 17.5km (i.e. one short painful loop + one longer and slippery loop in the mud). Why not, right?
Heading up the first ski hill.

The first 7.5km went well and I led a pack of 5 (including myself) guys around the 7.5km loop. I was working hard and it was going well. I think there were only one or two 7.5km guys ahead of us.

 Onto the 10km loop and my legs started to slacken off, and I lost that 'punch'. The cadence dropped and it quickly became a slog fest to hold onto the back of the guys. Eventually, after sliding my way through puddles and bogs, the experienced trail running guys dropped me and my 5lb water-logged shoes. The 'It-was-a-good-idea-at-the-time-long-run' on Friday evening was catching up to me pretty quick.
A little later on...

I kept on slogging along and dropped the pace off as I was running solo and thought I was no longer in contention for the podium. I headed onto what I thought was an out-and-back section of the 10km race loop. Lots of 10km folks were coming back along the trail, and I kept my right accordingly. Little did I know it wasn't an out and back but a 'lollipop' which went onto a single-track section to loop back. Yeah, I missed that turn. My bad. It's a racer's responsibility to know the course. I ran into a couple of volunteers and they stopped me to tell me the news. We chatted briefly and I turned around to chug it back into the race site. I ended up crossing the line 1st from the 17.5km racers. Those studs who dropped me like a sack of potatoes were running the 25km (i.e. one short painful loop + one longer and slippery loop in the mud + another short painful loop).

JP crossed the line a few minutes later and it turns out he did the exact same thing as me. We went and saw Sportstats and DQ'd ourselves. Turns out we ran the same distance, just missed climbing a ridge on that loop section. A shame as I had a good lead over 2nd place.
It was fun all the same and I had plenty of mud to show for my efforts!

Unfortunately, Audrey found herself in a similar position (leading, or close to it) but fell and hurt her knee. She had to stop for ~5minutes then got back up and limped on, to finish 5th in a gutsy race.


Monday, November 5, 2012

Race Report: Cookie Run 10k

My second 10km road-race of the year (and, well, ever) was this past Saturday morning. I'd been in the trenches with a cough-cold for a few days so I was pleased with the outcome: 37:28, m20-29 win and 3rd (officially? There were two other guys who finished up in the top 3 but I'm not sure if they were indeed registered) overall.
It was a cool morning and the 5km and 10km race run by Run Ottawa Club lined up together for a 10am start on the campus of the National Research Council here in Ottawa. I took off in the first km on a ~3:30/km pace, straight up the hill. That gassed me quick and the next 1.5kms or so into the steady headwind really got the HR up despite taking the pace back a knotch down to ~3:40 for km's 2 and 3. With the downhill, I clocked 3:31 for the 4th km. The 5th, 6th and 7th km's were awful. The poor pacing (and probably the cough medication) really caught up to me I ran 3:52/3:59:3:59 and lost a tonne of time to Martin Lamontagne-Lacasse (Québec stud who finished 4th at Ironman Mont-Tremblant this year) as I was totally gassed heading into the wind and up the hill again.
Crossing the 5km for the first lap, however, I noticed the clock read 18:10 or so, which constitutes an unofficial PB. I'll take it.
I managed to regain control in the last few km's clocking 3:40, 3:33, and 3:42 to bring it home for the PB.
A lesson in pacing, to be sure! With the correct pacing and a bit better health (no cold) I think sub-37 wouldn't be too far off. We'll see next time, I suppose!
The prize purse!

UO Triathlon crushed it! We must have had at least 15 folks line up for the race. We had three of us in the Top-10 for the 10km race, a top-10 woman in the 10km and a number of AG placings in the 5km race.

We did an in house prediction comp where you had to predict your time going in, the winners who ran as close to their prediction as possible took home the dough. I guestimated 37:30 that morning and took home a $25 gift certificate from Euro-Sports.ca




Wednesday, October 31, 2012

October Training Update

After a rather ordinary September, October proved to be a very good month consistency wise. I'm back into a nice rythym of base training and enjoying it thoroughly.
Goals were as follows:
- Enjoy it
- Cruise
- Swim lots
- Run lots
- Bike steady
- Nail some strength and plyo work

I nailed a great swim month (for me; not for a fish) with some great workouts. I'm feeling good in the water and thinking a 1hr swim is on the cards for IM Melbourne in about 5 months. We'll see.
I'm really pleased to have been able to nail four back-to-back 60km weeks on the run. I've only done one long run in there (not including the Half Mara), and will start picking up those next month. Run form is feeling good despite carrying an extra kilo or two at the moment.
I haven't been doing a lot of riding outdoors given the low light levels and the relatively ordinary weather. I have snuck a few good rides in on the weekends when weather was cooperative. Most of the riding, however, has been on the trainer using TrainerRoad.com. I love this program. I'll write a blog one day about why, but for the moment, just know that the hard work done in winter = the results in summer and TrainerRoad makes it really easy to put those hard yards in.

Fall Colours in Gatineau Park  on a ride last week. Too nice.


Saturday, October 20, 2012

Race Report: 9 Run Run 1/2 Marathon

First road race since the spring and the first half-marathon in 12 months in the bank! Ideal conditions greeted us this morning for the 9 Run Run road-races - a local race which supports Do It for Daron, an organisation supporting and promoting awareness of youth mental health.

Going into the race I had no finite expectations. I just wanted to gauge my fitness and have fun. The second ever - and most recent - half-marathon I ran was 2011's Army Run where I nabbed a PB of 1:27:51. A year of consistency later, I wanted to throw my cards down again and see if I had improved without really any specific training whatsoever. Well, I'm happy to say that I did. I took about 4:30 off my 2011 time, with an official split of 1:23:23 and 6th overall from 552 finishers.

Josh and I coming back into town
The course was good. The first few km's were fast and the front boys took off quick. We settled into a solid pace around 3:50 until 5-6kms where the constant +1-2% false flat and ~25km/h headwind broke the group pretty well by the ~10-11km marker when we turned north and began the way back. By that point, I was working pretty hard and still losing time - my average pace blew out to 3:59 by 10km. Thank [insert preferred deity here] that a Euro-Sports guy came up beside me  and towed me along the second half of that straight - picked me right up! I dropped said Euro-Sports guy and his mate at the turn and headed off solo in pursuit of a few guys running ~1 minute ahead.

Insert Josh Mintha. Dude was pacing this race like a pro, splitting 20/40 for the 5/10km's. He came up and we exchanged a few words before setting in to a solid pace. Josh did most of the pacing (for which I was really grateful!) and we began passing a tonne of walkers from the 10km race along. At this point I was feeling much better and working less (thanks, tailwind!) than before - and the pace was better!

We were ticking off the km's on our way back into town and I was trying to appreciate the scenery along the trail and made sure I thanked the volunteers and small crowds. Not sure what happened to Josh, but he hit some kind of wall at ~19kms and dropped off. I ran 'er in for the finish and he followed about a :45 later.

Beautiful morning and a fun local event! Thanks Aug for the cheering and congrats to Marie-Noelle on the PB in the 10km race! :)


Bringing.....

...it home



Beautiful trailness..

2012 vs. 2011



Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Slow September

After knocking out Esprit, I pulled up a little in my hip/lower back. This was a bit of a niggle which had been around since the previous weekend and I figured it was simply due to sleeping awkwardly on a crappy futon, or in the car. Nevertheless, the Monday following Esprit I went on my routine 60 minute run and midway I was really struggling. Pain was pretty bad and my gait had turned to crap to compensate. I limped home and went to bed.
The next few days were awful. A lot of pain walking and I struggled to put any weight on my right leg without feeling really uncomfortable. I decided to rest up and see what happened. After a week with little improvement, I was getting pretty stressed (read: depressed from lack of exercise and having grave fears about how bad it could be) and images of Paula Findlay at the Games were running through my mind.
The pain subsided - for the most part - after 8 or 9 days of no biking or running. I went to see a doctor on the Thursday in the second week (at which point there was almost no pain) and he said I likely strained a muscle in my lower back, and eliminated any hip problem (Paula, at this point, ran out of my mind).
''No exercise whilst it hurts', was the good doctors advice, 'it could take two to four weeks''. ARRGH! A month without running would be awful. Considering that prior to this hip/back thing, the longest period without running in the previous year, was 3 days - after not even two weeks I was already going pretty mental!
In the end, I heeded his advice and attempted a 25 minute easy run/walk on the treadmill at a slight incline exactly two weeks later (after having no pain for 4-5 days). It went really well - no pain! I was back! I ended up doing a 55km week of running that week and it all went by without any pain. Problem was, I had gotten a shitty old cough-cold which was going around the office. Uhhkk.
The end result of everything, was a pretty lame month of training. On the positive side, it was rest for the mind. In hindsight, I did enjoy coming home and just cooking or resting up.

October is here and I'm settling into a good routine. Swim volume is up and bike volume is down, as a consequence of the seasons and the daylight and things are rolling along well!
Best,
Steve


Saturday, September 22, 2012

Counting down

Well, it's approaching the end of September and autumn is in full swing - it's wet, cold and getting darker by the way (.."but the leaves are soo pretty!" - Losers who drive around to see leaves).

As a result, that means time is flying and before I know it I'll be packed up and headed down-under. 10 weeks to go.

It also means it's six months away to possibly the most crazy day I'll go through in 2013 - Ironman Melbourne!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Media

A few months ago Jean-Phillipe Reid  - journalist at Le Courrier du Saguenay, and partner of Audrey's cousin - approached us to do a quick piece for the paper. We were happy to answer a few questions and voila the result which went out the local readership of the paper in Audrey's hometown. 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Long Time, No Race: Esprit Olympique Race Report

Going strong (and getting stronger) for the last 28 years, the Montreal Esprit triathlon festival is a classic here. Known for a super-fast course and a great organisational team lead by Danny McCann, I had been looking forward to this race for a while - especially after missing out due to a field camp last year. Because of our move back to Australia - and the financial demands that will entail - and the fact I'd be back racing in January I decided to forget about racing Pocono Mountains 70.3. I was a bit sad to take it off the schedule, but it just makes more sense at the moment. So, Esprit would by my last triathlon for the season and I trained for it accordingly. 

Going into the race, I had come off a pretty consistent build including lots of threshold work. I knew I had the legs to lay down a fast bike and a fast run (for me). It didn't quite work out how I planned, but it was a fun weekend all the same. 


The Race

Swim: 27:01. Shithouse. Why? Probably had something to do with the the >45km/h wind hammering in from the south and creating a solid amount of chop and turning a normally glassy rowing basing into a washing machine. Getting out the water I had no idea how it went. It felt slow, but then again, it was supposed to be a fast course so would that have compensated for the conditions? I guess it didn't. For comparison, my mate J-P did this same race last year with a 22:53 swim split (which included missing out on swimming on some fast feet and losing his goggles at one point). Fast forward to 2012 and J-P swam 27:25, about 4:30 slower. So yeah, I suppose I'll take 27:01. 





T1 + Bike + T2: 1:02:40. A PB bike split (well, sort of, it was ~39km) of sub-60min (my Garmin's average was 40.3km/s before heading into the dismount chute. The wind played havoc and helper at the same time. On the straight heading North that tail wind meant I was able to scoot along at 50-56km/h comfortably. On the other half of the course, however, it was a different story. I worked hard to maintain ~33-36km/h for the most part on that section. The course was REALLY congested, also. It was pretty chaotic, also, with people riding willy-nilly all over the place. In principle, we were supposed to ride on the left (laps were counter clockwise around the circuit) and pass on the right. In reality, there were people left, right and centre meandering along at a multitude of speeds. As a result, it was difficult to maintain a clean line and it took a lot of concentration not to get cleaned up by somebody wobbling all over with the heavy winds.


 Finishing another lap:




Run: 40:54. My first +40minute split of the year! Dissappointed - very. I was running really well going into this and I thought a high 36 or low 37 minute split was on the cards. After about 1.5km into the headwind I could feel a slight stomach cramp (a stitch, really) coming on. Damn. By 3km it was bad and I was reduced to stop a few times to massage it out. I passed after the first 5km and the race clock read 7:03:XX. It stayed until ~6km. My diaphram relaxed and the stictch dissapated, alowing me to really get into my stride for the last ~3-4km. I reckon I ran those last few km's at around ~3:35-3:40 pace - easily - I was flying with the tail wind. The race clock at the end read 7:20:XX. The last 4.7km (the distance of the second lap) then - I estimate - took ~17 minutes and change, putting my first lap at a pedestrian ~23 minutes and change. 

In the end, my day was good for a 2:10:35, about 8 minutes back of the winner and good for 19th out of 548 participants. A super hard day (average finished time was 10 minutes slower than 2011) in terms of conditions - on the swim, particularly - but a fun event all the same. Everyone from our group that went felt pretty well the same way - fun, but bullshit hard.   


Credit where it's due:

Congrats to Audrey on finishing first in her Age Group! Audrey was looking forward to this race, too, if only because it meant she didn't need to feel obliged to train any longer this year! She ended up nailing a solid swim, a very good bike split, and - as always - a strong run to put the nail in the coffin. Secretly, I don't think she's done with triathlon - despite what she might say!
These photos are evidence!


Welcome back to triathlon, J-P! 12 months without racing (a tri) meant J-P was simply throwing his cards down and seeing where they landed. A solid swim [relative to the rest of the field] and a 8th best bike split had him easily ahead off me as we rolled into T2. Unfortunately J-P's run legs - well to be precise, his run feet - didn't show up and J-P ran to the line for a 2:17 with some nasty blisters. Eric nailed his first Olympic race - on next to no training, if you don't mind - and crushed some m20-24 dreams with a barnstorming 2:19. Genetics and a huge engine, I guess! Laura nailed 5th in her AG and the Innes boys nailed another strong race - despite Stefan's fall he displayed fine BAMF qualities and kept on trucking. Not to mention that Olivier nailed a PB in the Sprint race - Congrats! Good job everyone!! 

Thanks guys for a great weekend!


Videos:
RDI: Braver le vent          TVA: Des milliers de participants au triathlon Esprit de Montréal
See at about 0:28 below to see our wave in the water - yikes!
Triathlon Esprit Montreal 2012 from Productions Nouvelle Image on Vimeo.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Impressions of New York City

We visited the Big Apple with Audrey's family in late August. What a city. There are a number of adjectives one could use to describe this place. What's the first word that comes to your mind?

Big.

Unbalanced.

Contrast.

Up.

Dizzying.

Parklife.

Bright.

Money.

Character.

History.

Memory.

Identity.

Tall.

Complex.

Juxtaposition.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Race Report: Toronto Triathlon Festival

Short Version: 2:08:40 (PB) 7th in AG. Audrey nailed a PB too (2:30:16). A great weekend.


I signed Audrey and I up for this race earlier this year after hearing about the inaugural race through various press releases going around in February. The opportunity to race in downtown Toronto in a unique urban environment along some of the busiest roadways in Canada - (the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway) which were completely closed for us – was too good to pass up. Added to this was the fact I had never visited Canada’s largest urban milieu in the five plus years I’ve been here (I know, I know...). It didn’t take much convincing on Audrey’s part – I just had to mention we’d be cycling on a closed expressway and she was in.

PRE-RACE

We arrived late Friday evening after driving down from Ottawa (about 5 hours’ drive) and settled in into our cosy private hostel room to log some valuable sleep time.



On Saturday morning after breaky and much needed caffeine kick, we headed over to the Westin Harbour Castle for a mandatory race briefing with Steve Fleck and Travis McKenzie  (guys who I'm sure did more than simply announce) and kit pick-up. Having a mandatory briefing the day before the race was important for the race organisers to ensure everybody was on the same page given the complexities of running an inaugural endurance event in downtown Toronto. (Side note: Despite the fact all athletes were briefed and athlete guides distributed prior to the weekend, I am sure Travis and Steve can testify to the amount of questions they were given on race morning re: info which was gone over in the briefing and the athlete guide – I was near the announcers in transition and heard some of the questions coming up repeatedly). It was a bit crammed as we made our way in to pick up the kits. Ideally, we would have had a third room for kit pick-ups, separating it from the expo. In our experience, it wasn’t too bad given we were already downtown and had nothing else to tend to on Saturday but I can empathise with athletes who had to commute into town for it, potentially taking up an entire day. Volunteers were all pretty well drilled and the process was pretty smooth, though, so they did do their best to keep it going smoothly. 


We spent the rest of the day checking out stuff in downtown Toronto. We enjoyed wandering up Yonge St, where we grabbed lunch and some more coffee, before heading back down to the waterfront were we jumped on a boat to check out the Toronto Islands for the afternoon. It was really crowded out there, but nice all the same – especially fun was renting a quadricycle to tear around on (Audrey couldn’t stop giggling!) - take a look at the video of me figuring out that it only had rear brake and consequently lent itself to a skid attempt.

We headed back to our room and dumped a bunch of stuff before heading up Spadina Ave to Chinatown to grab some Phô from the famed Phô Hung Restaurant (I ordered the Phô house special which came with a bunch of sea creatures and some gnarly meat; I tried them all and came nowhere near being able to finish it).

RACE DAY

Alarm off at 4:30am Sunday morning and we roll out of bed having slept OK on the shitty pillows. Downstairs to brew some coffee and eat some breaky before getting all our gear packed in the car so we didn’t have to rush back to check out of the room after the race.
At 5:30am we rolled out from our hostel and rode the short 10 minutes or so down to the race site. The transition zone was well placed right at the swim start/exit; the only “inconvenience” was running up and down a steep ramp to a footbridge across the road to get down to the highway onramp. We leisurely set up our gear.

I pulled my wetty on and wandered down to the swim start for 6:45. As we were ushered into a line for a timely swim start, a guy behind me came through the crowd to the front where I was. “Excuse me”, he said, politely getting by me. That was Simon Whitfield. He, Paula Findlay and Co. got ready to start their ‘demonstration’ event, taking off amid laughter as Simon joked around on the start line – it was awesome these guys took time to come out and do a training run on the course for everyone amidst the London prep. We were quickly in the water where I got the privilege of about a 50m warm up and a nice pee before heading into the large group for the 7am start.


Swim: 23:26   Knowing there were a few National Age Group spots up for grabs I expected there to be a lot of studs at this race hence I started back in the second/third row for the swim. In hindsight, I should have started in the quasi-front row as in the first 200m I had to dodge quite a number of slower guys. By the first can it was pretty open water with a number of guys around. We went through the 12 turns and bends zigzagging through the West Channel of Ontario Place, coming out of the Lake Ontario waters and up the stairs into T1. Please with this swim as I wasn’t sure how the more technical course would go (I tend to suck at turning around the buoys, and well, other things).

T1:  1:23  Slowwwwww. It took me forever to get my wetty off. I’m going to be taking some scissors to my wetsuit ankles and hopefully spending a bit more time in the suit to get it worn in more.

Bike: 1:05:08  Good split. I was hoping for something in the 1:04-1:08 range in this unknown and rapid looking course, and I got it. As I was busily navigating the no pass zone and skipping over the edges of the curb out onto the road, I had my head down messing around with getting my feet in my shoes. Mistake. My only bottle, mounted horizontally between my aerobars, shot off and skittled away. Shit. I didn’t stop, telling myself something like “Well, you already lost a bunch of time in T1, let it go and we’ll manage it”. Probably not the smartest self-counsel given the forecast was for +32 degrees and a lot of humidity – I should have stopped and grabbed it. After going through the second no-pass zone and onto the Gardiner Expressway, I settled in and took a good look around at the CN Tower and the Toronto skyline to my left, and views of Lake Ontario to my right, as we pedalled eastbound. I told myself “Scrub it mate, it’s a training race, you didn’t taper or rest or build so just take it easy we’ll grab water in T2. It’ll be right”. Not two minutes later, a pair of race marshals rolled up beside me abord a motorbike. “Hey, you want your bottle?” Holy crap – “YES!” What a champion! 

Game on.

Thanks Ernies Video for the image.
With renewed vigour I put my head down and got into it. At the 10km point my average speed was north of 40km/h and I was having a ball. There were a number of steady false-flats on the way up the DVP to the turn-around at Eglinton and me and another guy traded passes (he was stronger on the downhills, me on the inclines) every once in a while. The way back into T2 was tougher than I anticipated – even with the net elevation loss – as there was a steady but strong breeze coming in off the Lake making us work.
Made it back to T2, having skipped nervously down the ramp with bike in hand.



(In my defense, it says 39.91km because I didn't hit start until I had mounted my bike and got up to speed a bit)

T2: 0:39

Run: 38:05   Good run. Not stellar, but good. Legs weren’t too sprite for the back half and I was outsprinted by two guys who shot up behind me in the finish chute.

Of all things to be mentioned in the briefing, the fact we were supposed to run on the left side of the cones wasn’t. Not a big issue my any means for those of us in the first wave who were off the front early on – we were running on the right until an official leading the 1st place male came back towards us - but potentially troublesome for those coming along after as if conflicted with the general flow of the public traffic on the path, resulting in many confused path users. Other than that, the course was great! It allowed me to get a nice perspective of the waterfront. It was nice running back to the finish line with the crowds and the skyline in the backdrop.

I went a but to early on my way to the line and was chased down by two guys  who pipped me, just! Turns out on the day there were four guys who went 2:08:40 and three of them were m25-29 - an AG where a little over a minute separates 5th from 10th. Tight!




Courtesy of Nick



Post-Race: First job was to get in some water! Once I stopped I figured out it was actually pretty warm. I got myself a long massage/chiro session (like 30mins) from a nice bloke who smashed my legs more than the race! We went and grabbed lunch - fixing up that pizza craving I had - and then went and did our final touristy thing and visited the CN Tower, a must!




Other stuff: In my opinion, this event ticked all the boxes for a unique urban triathlon. It was smoothly run, the volunteers were well drilled and, frankly superb – my dropped-bottle experience showcased nature of the organisers. Being an inaugural event run in the heart of one of North America’s largest cities, small glitches and bumps were to be expected. We came to this event prepared to be a little patient and to simply try and enjoy the weekend. I’m thoroughly glad we gambled on this race instead of something like Muskoka 5150 or Magog where the rest of Quebec and Ontario studs were. Oh yeah, and this was a PB in my 4th Oly race.


To Jeff Chong and his team, Travis McKenzie, Steve Fleck, officials and, of course, the volunteers and other athletes – chapeau!

Oh yeah, and I made it onto TV - that's me running out of T1 with my bike about a minute into the clip (#20) http://www.ctvolympics.ca/videos/watch/urban-triathlon.html