Well, a couple of weeks ago I headed up to Parry Sound for a good solid week of training! I took the week off work specifically for this and I put in some good hours. I logged about 26hrs of training in five days so not too bad! I rode my bike everyday which was awesome! I logged about 8km of open water swimming, 482km of biking, and 50km of running! I did another big training day where after an early morning run interval workout I did a 6hr ride and followed that up with a 20km run. And this time as oppose to previous years, I felt pretty good on the run. Maybe it was the coke and peanut butter Gu gel I had before the run but I did not fall apart and ran at about race pace. I think I may want to try a bit faster run pace for race day but if I run what I did on that day I would be pleased. I also had the opportunity to participate in the Thursday night Nacho tri club time trial. I had pretty tired legs by the time Thursday rolled around but I was interested to see what I can do! I was the fifth person to start with my friend/rival since IM Cozumel ;) right behind me! I gave it all I had on the bike and almost PB'd the bike portion. Last year I PB'd wearing an aerohelmet and using a disc wheel. This time I was just in my regular training gear and was just 5 seconds off my best time! Woohoo! I averaged 34.8km/hr on the bike over 16.3km! The run was a sufferfest but I'll take it! haha! Thank you sooooo much once again to the Bialkowski family for welcoming me into your home and allowing me to train in beautiful scenery and some hills! ;)
The swim in Lake Ontario was actually not that bad. The water appeared to be clean and it was not cold at all. The swim course itself was a bit of an awkward shape as we had to get around the marina but not that bad. I tried to go hard at the beginning once again but found myself having to get settled before I could push the pace. I managed to find some feet and drafted off another girl for pretty much the whole swim. We ended up swimming into the slower male swimmers from the previous waves and had to manoeuvre around them. I swam a 24:57 for the 1500m swim and that placed me in 5th in my age group.
Got onto the bike course and we had to run up a concrete ramp to get to the bike mount which was a bridge overlooking Lakeshore Dr. It was a pretty steep ramp and not the greatest for running in bike cleats. If anything, it was a bit slippery and we had to be a bit careful. One day I will learn how to do the fancy bike mount and dismounts. Got on the bike and I just went for it! I was using my disc wheel and wearing my aerohelmet and I felt FAST! And because I was using all this gear I felt like I had to prove that I deserve to be using it so I worked hard to stay fast! Lol! I was passing lots of guys on the first part of the bike and I am pretty sure I made some of them unhappy as they passed me back only for me to pass them again! Lol! It was a lot of fun riding on the Gardiner and the DVP! The roads are in good condition and it was smooth sailing. The course itself wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. I did have to work hard to maintain my speed and although the trip home was more of a downhill, we had a bit of a head and crosswind so there was really no free speed. I did have a slower second half along with a couple of tight turns we had to make. I rode the 40km in 1:10:34 which was the 6th fastest time in my age group and a 34 kph average! My best in a race! Mind you, I started my bike computer once I hit the mount line and I actually had a faster split of 34.8kph but the chip time included the run up and down the ramp to transition.
I started the run wondering how much my legs had left. I essentially hammered the bike and wasn't sure if I could put in a decent run. The run course was pretty flat with one little hill and I really should have managed to put in a faster run if I paced the bike a bit better and if I wasn't coming off a big training week. However, all things considered, I am pleased with the run. I pushed my pace as much as I could and had some good kilometer splits. I completed the run in 53:44 for a 5:22min/km pace. Almost a run PB for an olympic distance race.
Total time was 2:31:43 for a new olympic distance PB! Woohoo!!!! I came in 8th in my age group. As one of the guys told me later in an email, I laid the smack down on the bike! Haha!
Last week was my last hard week of training and I did another 160km ride to Lake Simcoe and back! It was a pretty good ride as well! Here are a couple of pics from that ride:
I logged about 15hrs last week and now I am heading into my TAPER!!!!! I have one more long run to do and then it's all easy workouts after that! Less than 2 weeks away from the big show!!!! OMG!!!!!
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