Race: Welland Duathlon & Triathlon (GT 12.9)
Date: Sunday June 28, 2009.
Location: Welland Arena – Welland, Ontario
Description: Duathlon (5 km, 30 km, 5 km) // GT12.9 (400 m swim, 10 km bike, 2.5 km run)
Sport: Duathlon & Triathlon
Website: www.hsbctriathlon.com
Since IM Lake Placid is just about one month away, it is crunch time as far as big week training is concerned. This week I headed into these races with a little more than 15 hrs under my belt. That may not be big for most but that is fairly big for me.
With the forecast for rain, I packed up my trusty road bike with clip on bars and no bike computer, and an old pair of Mizuno Elixirs that I can’t let go of. Unlike the second day at Lakeside, the forecasted rain did indeed come. However, it actually felt great, as it served to keep conditions cool and ideal for racing. You did have to be careful out on the bike though as there are few turns and train tracks to go over.
Duathlon – Run 5 km, Bike 30 Km, Run 5 Km
12th overall in 1:39:15. Second in the men 40-44 category.
1st run – 24:45
Bike – 48:59 (5th best)
2nd run – 24:00 – yeah, negative split!
My goal for today was to average both runs at better than 5:00/km pace, and to blast the heck out of that bike despite not having my TT machine. Mission accomplished on both. I can’t believe I negative split the second run. I had lots left but I treat these races as my speedwork for my Ironman racing and I rather save that quality effort for my A races. The bike at Welland is flat and fast, but that also means you are hammering hard to whole way, there is no time to relax. Gord Avann and I played tag quite a few times during the ride and that constant trading of the lead certainly helped in maintaining that fast pace and forgetting some of the pain.
GT 12.9 – Swim 400m, Bike 10 Km, Run 2.5 Km
9th overall in 45:12. Third in men 40-44.
Swim – 12:47 (super long run from water to transition)
Bike – 18:13 (3rd best)
2nd run – 11:54
This race featured a time trial start, with racers starting every 3 seconds from each other in the water. It is a cool format, but I prefer to see the race unfold in real time in front of me. That way I know who to catch and who is trying to catch me. Basically, I’m a wuss that doesn’t like racing hard from start to finish, which is what the TT format calls for. My swim was horrible, plain and simple. This probably has something to do with my racing earlier and then hustling down to the water because my swim training indicates I am much faster than what I am doing. Like the Du, I got on the bike and hammered my way past a lot of people. Onto the run, I pushed to hard and just tried not to slow down. I was satisfied once again that I was able to run at sub 5:00/km pace on tired legs. This was a main focus for this weekend, and I am glad that I was able to perform fairly well on fatigued legs. Just one more week of big volume and it will be time to ramp it down for Lake Placid.
Once again shout outs go to Multisport Canada for putting on another perfect race, and to my fellow teammates flying the Team Running Free colours in fine style: Gord Avann, Ken Cheung, and Peter Geering. Sorry if I left out anyone. See you at Gravenhurst.
