Toronto Tri Festival Report

TORONTO TRIATHLON FESTIVAL 2014

This weekend was the Triathlon/Duathlon National Championships at Toronto Triathlon Festival. This is a unique event that takes place in downtown Toronto over closed roads and highways!

Pre-Race:

As we loomed closer to race day, the weather gods were not looking to be in a good mood. With predicted thunderstorms, 20 mm of rain, 30-40 km/hr wind gusts and a bone chilling 13C-15C water temperatures, we really just wanted to 'accidentally' sleep in, and miss the race!!

Garima's Race

Swim:

Simplest way to describe this swim would be: COLD.

I had been so nervous about this swim for the entire week before the race and nearly had a panic attack one day before when the organizers allowed us to "check out" and learn the swim course.

Another reason to be scared was that the organizers couldn't allow warm ups in the water before the start due to logistical reasons, so we basically had to jump straight into cold water. Ohh that sharp, constricting feeling in your lungs as you begin to hyperventilate when you hit the water...

The night before the race, me and Sunny googled some tactics on how to handle cold water swims in triathlon. Promptly, I decided to put on double swim caps and pour a bottle of cold water on my head right before jumping in water to ease the shock.

Well, it sort of worked. Once the gun went off, lots of people panicked and pulled out of the race within the first few hundred meters...the water was choppy, and the waves+wetsuit in combination were lifting my legs out of the water with buoyancy. You may think thats a good thing, but when you do 80% of the swimming in breast stroke, you kinda need the legs inside the water...not flapping about in the air!!

So, it was slow. But it got over...eventually.

T1:

Man, I was glad to be out of that lake. Fun part begins...biking! yay!

Bike:

Getting onto the bike, I had to weave a bit for the first few kms because of slower athletes around me. Once onto the Gardiner highway, I tried to settle in a rhythm. Then, all of a sudden, I hit a NASTY bump. 

It hit me so bad that my water bottle flew outside the cage and I lost it. My wheels made such a noise that I honestly thought for a second that I broke them. After getting my bearings in the next few seconds, I found out my aerobars had tilted down with the impact. Then, 1 second later, I see the familiar figure of Sunny stranded at the side of the road, with a bike mechanic next to him trying to fix flats. I yelled "Good luck Sunny!" (or...sucker!! :D) and carried on once I realized he was OK.

T2:

I decided to remove my shoes before going down the crazy steep ramp from the dismount line to the transition to save me from falling on my ass!

Run:

Last year's run was torture, I remember...we had just gotten back from a friend's wedding the night before and the sumptuous meal was still sloshing around in my belly during the whole run! 

This year, I had a basic goal: dont blow up! I got through the first 5 km quickly without much hassle and then started counting down the time till the end! 

I finished the run OK in 51 mins...gave me an overall time of 2:55. Could be better, but then I had a fun day and we finished in one piece despite the rainy weather!!

Parichit's Race:

Run 1:

After being drenched in the rain and losing all hope of a good warmup before the start, I toed the line with some of the big names in Ontario duathlon: Jesse Bauer, Larry Bradley, Richard Eyram, Daryl Flacks, ...and stupid-fast cyclist David Frake (yes, he can run just as fast,too!) to name a few. I had no dreams of an overall podium, just trying to podium for my age group. 

As we zoomed off at the sound of the horn, I did well not to start too hard and settle into my own pace. I found myself running with Darren Cooney for at least 8 of these 10 kms. It was good company and kept my pace in check. Apart from the fact that it was a hard 10k, my legs seemed good today...no sign of that lingering quad strain, either!

Run 1 was done in 39'ish minutes and I believe I was in the top 15 or so.

T1:

 

Due to the wet weather, I decided not to mount my shoes while biking, mainly because the ground was wet and my socks would get all muddy/dirty...potentially getting into my shoes and ruining it. So I was a bit slower here at about 1.5 mins. No harm done. 

Bike:

As soon as I started biking, I realized my sunglasses were completely fogged up due to the mist from the rain all morning. This was a new one to me. It took a good 2-3 mins before I could see properly through them. Good thing I knew the course and had to be generally careful here because of the narrow roads.

Once we hit the Gardiner, I just stuck behind Darren, totally intending to pace off him (legally riding behind!) and if I had a good day, potentially pass him on the way back. My bubble was about to explode though.

Out of nowhere, I went through a giant puddle and managed to hit just the perfect spot to hear my spare kit (in a bottle behind my saddle) fly away and land on the road. Oh well, I thought, I still have my "Pit Stop" sealant bottle, I thought. Then a second later, I hear a familiar grinding/rattling/whipping sound. I knew I had a flat. Darn.  

I got off the bike and quickly got my "Pit stop can out, I didn't see any debris on the tire, so I wanted to use the can and repair the flat as quickly as possible. It didn't work. Then the mechanical support crew showed up (I was very happy here...only waited maybe 1 minute before they came!). As the crew  tried to help me, I realized my front tire was also flat. So I had a double flat.*insert curses here*.

Anyway, the crew tried to use my spare tube by taking off the valve extender from my existing tube and in the process, somehow that tube also flatted. It probably already had a flat from being stuffed not-so-gently into my spare kit, so I learnt another lesson there! Now with 3 flats, the crew pulled out their own spare tubes...which didn't have a removable valve core to put my valve extenders on (because my wheels had a 80 mm deep rim)...so they could install it, but wouldnt be able to inflate it. 

I had spent about 4-5 mins on the side of the road by now and Garima came zooming by, wishing me good luck. 

My race was over, so I started walking back...picking up my spare kit along the way! I then went and sat next to a girl who had crashed on the SAME pothole and was quitting the race, with some first aid to her injuries and the race official next to her. I sat down and we waited for the sag wagon...it would be the first time I abandoned a race. I looked around and saw so many spilled bottles, gels, flasks...even Garima's bottle!!

I realized she had to wait until her significant other finished his race, so she would stick around for a few hours anyway. I then had a strange idea to ask this stranger for her wheels in exchange for mine, so I could continue the race. It was selfish, but this girl happily obliged. I exchanged my zipp wheels for her stock wheels and was back in business!

I thanked her and was back on my bike pedaling away!

2 mins later, I found out that my aerobars are tilted down and messed up, so I had to flag the neutral support again to fix these for me. OK, NOW i'm back in business. 

Obviously, I was out of the race. I had waited at the side of the road for 40-45 mins (based on the time I would usually ride, for this distance). I then took it easy for the remaining part of the bike, passing a few of the people and generally just riding hard enough to keep the engine running. Rest was pretty boring....the way back had a lot more headwind that made me unwillingly work. 

T2:

Coming off this prolonged ride, I really only had one goal: manage to do a flying dismount as I had been practising the week of the race so I can be confident that I can do these in a race!

Success! Was able to nail the flying dismount! I then proceeded to a leisurely transition, where I had enough time to try and figure out if I was last or not! I jogged out, fully planning on taking it easy on the run.

Run:

I started out at a nice relaxed pace and was soon passed by the sprint distance triathlon leader. A lot of people were confusing me as the 2nd place in the sprint race because I was running much faster relative to the remaining olympic distance participants on course. Although I made clear to the lead runner support cyclist that I was not competing in the sprint distance, I didn't mind the extra support and cheering! :)

So I did the first 2 kms in about 9 mins...and then I saw Garima on her way back when I was around 2 km into the run, and upon calculating the time difference, I gauged she was about 3.5-4 mins ahead of me. Suddenly something got into me and I decided to try and catch her so we could finish together.

For this idiotic reason, I then proceeded to run the next 3 km crazy fast (I was so well rested from that bike ride!) in about 10.5 mins but I underestimated Garima's speed and she finished ahead of me by around 30s! Crap...effort wasted!! At least I still managed to come under 20 mins for that run, though.

Post-Race

After the re-fueling, rain was pouring like mad again upon us. we took shelter and spectated the overall and AG awards....I exchanged some post-race endorphins with Garima, and Riddhi.  

 Also met up with Tyler Chuang:  A real fast talent in the EFPS/3SIXTY5 Cycling team! Only 20 years old and grabbing podiums everywhere!

Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out how to get my wheels back from the girl who helped me out. Once we walked over back to transition, I found her already working on my bike to take her wheels back and give me mine. I thanked her as profusely as I could for enabling me to continue my race. 

This is why I love this sport...she had no reason to help me as we were both stranded on the side of the road, but I selfishly asked her, and she obliged. I reached out to her even after i got home, just to express my gratitude...honestly.

Now we had a new conundrum, I needed to repair my tubes so we could bike home or else I'd have to walk for 5 km. So then I sat in the high heat for a good 1 hour replacing tubes (thanks to D'Ornellas bike shop for the emergency bike support, tubes, valve extenders and being so accommodating!!).

Meanwhile, Riddhi ate some HERO burgers (= most awesome post-race meal, ever...even at 10am!) and took a little nap:

Thanks Riddhi for some of the action pics! 

Clearly the hardest working of the lot.

We reached home at around 2:30 pm...just in time to enjoy the FIFA World Cup final game of Germany vs. Argentina!! 

Like I said after Powerman Zofingen: being stubborn is key!

Peterborough Half Iron Weekend!

Peterborough is the 2^nd half iron distance race in the calendar of events offered by the Subaru Triathlon Series (the first being Welland MSC a few weeks ago). I always find it interesting how different the atmosphere in Subaru races is, versus the MSC series. It almost attracts a different type of athlete!

The day before the race, we had another visitor:

Yes! Riddhi is back in Toronto visiting us for a month during her summer vacay! Yayy! I went to get her at the airport and all of us hung around the entire day. She was jetlagged, but still had enough energy to wander around Eaton centre to do some shopping with Garima. *sigh* Women.

Anyway, back to the race… I have a mixed opinion about this event…having done it in pouring rain last year, the tough terrain course was somehow tamed in the cool weather and almost didn’t seem as hard as it had been hyped up to be. This year, the hot and windy conditions that this race is better known for, were in the cards.

Due to a mix of laziness, poor planning and just not caring, I only got about 5 mins to really warm up before the race started. It was nearly not enough as I felt sluggish for a good part of the first 30 mins of the race!

Run 1:

2 kms again…nothing worth mentioning…too short for a warm up or for gaining any time on other people (that didn’t hold back one guy who took off a minute faster than anyone else, though!)

I really wish they’d make this more like a real Duathlon with at least a 5 km run, but I guess I should be counting my stars and stay happy that I at least have a Duathlon option at all! Finished this part in 6:40 (was slightly shorter than 2 km!)

T1:

I was 3^rd coming into transition. The person in the lead apparently couldn’t find his bike, so I saw him running towards me searching for his bike. Strange. Now I was ahead of him.

T1 was otherwise quick, no issues like last year where I fumbled a lot with my watch!

Bike:

Starting off on the bike ride, I went through the first 2 turns to get out onto Ashburnham road. In almost a comical repeat of last year, within 1 km my front speedfill bottle between the aerobars attempted to fly off my bike. This was very unexpected because I had made sure to have it nicely secured, with my iPod computer band mounted on top. The iPod band had also slipped away.

Anyway, somehow it caught my attention in the nick of time and I literally was able to catch it by the straw, while it flew away. I then spent a good minute or two soft pedaling making sure it was fully secured before getting on with the bike ride. There was no way I’d make it through this ride without a nutrition bottle! Phew. That was a close one.

Even more eerily similar to last year, within the first 5 kms, my speed sensor broke. Yes, BROKE. No GPS  since this Timex watch once again decided to be fidgety in the morning. Awesome, no speed data for the rest of the ride.

Broken Garmin Speed Sensor...

I settled into my groove and was happy that the rough roads from last year throughout the ride were only restricted to the first 10 kms this year since the course had completely changed. The out and back section had some big rolling hills, but we had tailwind going out so they were not very noticeable…well, until I found out that AGAIN, I couldn’t shift to my lower chainring in the front! That really pissed me off because I had made sure the shifting worked fine in T2, and the day before the race!! Aaargh!! The hills weren’t so bad that I’d be crawling up them, but I definitely did not want to be standing up pedaling at 60 RPM on my 52/25 gear! On one occasion, the chain did magically shift to the small ring but then I was not able to shift it back up to the big one on the downhill for 1 km or so.

I reached the 45 km mark in roughly 1:14  (37 km/hr pace in the 10 km/hr tailwind) After the turnaround, the I found myself getting increasingly frustrated by the inability to change my front gear. Then a bulb popped in my head. The damn Q-rings probably don’t have  a good slip  track along the rings to allow me to  change gears under torque. Sure enough, as soon as I reduced the pressure on the pedals for a second, they shifted. Turns out nothing was wrong with the shifting at all, I just hadn’t learnt how to shift using these contraptions! Dumb.

There were not that many people ahead of me and the way back felt very long into the headwind, which had seemed to have picked up A LOT  more in the last 30 kms, becoming gusty at times (don’t you just love it when this happens?).

Somehow related to the wind, around 70 km, I hit a real bad spot. My focus just died, my quads started cramping, I found myself standing up to pedal more and more. I couldn’t grasp why it would happen but I must have messed up my nutrition or pacing. When I looked at my Normalized Power, it said 217W, while my average watts were 203W. That’s a 7% variance…no wonder my quads felt trashed. I suck a lot more when I vary power on  hills. For the next 10 km, I hated being on the road, pedaling away seemingly nowhere. I lost the two-three people who were close to me and lost a good chunk of time in this section. I was worried about the quad cramping and wanted it to subside before the run.

Mercifully, between 80 km and 90 km, my nutrition +rest must have kicked in and I was able to push again, but my overall power had dropped by  5W! I ended up at 199W in the end, but more importantly, not feeling like death!

90 km Bike Time: 2:39 (34.0 km/hr)

AP/NP: 199W AP / 214W NP

Total climbing: ~2400 ft

T2:

I’ve been practicing for a flying dismount earlier last week and although I was not able to execute it fully at the end of the bike ride, I did at least manage to get my feet out of my shoes while riding so I can save some time in T2! This way at least I can stop giving away podium places in transitions!! About damn time I practiced them!

After changing into my run shoes, I was like: WHERE IS MY RUN NUTRITION BOTTLE?! 

Did someone seriously take my bottle?!  I was truly mad  for an instant.  I couldn’t believe it. Then I realized I had a spare Gatorade bottle on my bike from the last aid station. Phew…Gatorade is not ideal and way too sugary, but its better than being dehydrated. I grabbed it and off I went.

Run 2:

Once I started running proper, I tried to find my rhythm. Its always hard in the first few kms but in this course, the first 4 kms are almost all on grass and semi-paved trails…lots of unsure footing. The grass seems to take all the spring out of your step! I held back as much as reasonably possible and settled into a 4:15 min/km pace.

Then I got to the mind-numbing 16km out and back section on a straight section on Ashburnham road again.

 Relentless rolling hills, lots of ups and downs, not one kilometer of flat roads!

This time I was having a new problem. I couldn’t breathe deep enough. It’s weird that just when you think you’ve figured out all the ways long distance racing can go wrong, you find another one. At first, it just felt a little tight around my chest. I thought it was the HR strap, so I adjusted it…but then it just got worse. Usually I fold  my top up to my chest so as to cool off better, but today doing that made me feel more uncomfortable around my chest. I concentrated on deep stomach breathing, which helped but was hard to focus on consistently. I found myself taking a lot shorter, shallower breaths without realizing.

Meanwhile, Garima and Riddhi kept themselves entertained:

 

Anyway, at least I ran with a Gatorade bottle. I just kept my hydration in check in the hot weather and didn’t push the run too too much because I knew after the turnaround that the first place was way up ahead and the third place was way back. I’ve been lacking that aggression/killer instinct in races these days to really push and get my best result out of me. 
Motivation after 4 hours to push yourself to the limit comes hard when it isn’t necessary! :D

In the last 2 kms, the 2^nd place overall female in the triathlon started chasing me down. I don’t care about getting “chicked” but I sure like someone running with me to edge me on! So these 2 kms hurt, but I was able to manage some fast closing minutes.

Thank you Riddhi for the great pics!

21.1 km Run time: 1:35

Overall: 4 h23 mins

Duathlon rank: 2^nd

Post-Race:
The run 3 weeks ago in Welland was A LOT more painful. The run in Peterborough was harder in terms of effort, weather and terrain, but not as painful on the legs as in Welland.

After the race in Welland, I could barely walk to the chocolate milk tent. Today, I was tired, but got to my usual self in a few minutes. We even went to Yorkdale mall and spent walking 2 hours before reaching home at night!! 

…this tells me that it looks like im finally digging myself out of the weird fatigue hole I put myself in since mid-May. Funny how this is the 3^rd year in a row when this has happened despite lots of changes to the training routine.

The conditions and course today were completely different from last year (at least on the bike) so I judge my improvement on my relative position to others. I’m pretty happy with the race I had today:

·         My bike ride was the 30^th fastest this year ( was 45^th fastest last year)

·         My 2^nd run was the 15^th fastest (was 23^rd last year)  

Next race is Toronto Triathlon Festival (Olympic distance!). Stay tuned!

Keep pedaling.

.

Tour De Waterloo!

Our first cycling race of this year! and Garima's first ever cycling race!!

Parichit's Race

I had the option of registering for the Tour De Waterloo or the Centurion Horseshoe Valley. The Centurion course is beautiful and hilly but having done that race last year (in mad rain and missing the start!) I went for experiencing a different route instead. 

My original plan for this weekend was to do a long cycling race, and not get dropped from the lead pack. Having decided to do the Guelph Lake Duathlon the day before, my legs didn’t really feel like signing up for a 75 mile at Centurion or the 133 k distance at Waterloo. So I opted for the medium distance (76 km).

I dragged Garima along with me on Sunday in case she wanted to go for a bike ride in the area or sign up for the short distance (46 km) race. The problem was that she doesn’t own a road bike, only a TT/Triathlon bike, which is generally not allowed in road races. Once we got to the race venue and asked the race organizers for their consent, Garima went ahead to register for the 46 km race (I did get a sticker shock of paying $125 on the day of the race for her, which was a flat fee regardless of the race distance. Ouch. Planning would be a better alternative next year!).

Her race started first and before she left, I gave her a few tips: do as little work on the front as possible, sprint after turning, and do whatever you can to stay with a group!

My race mantra was more or less the same!

As my race started, I made sure to have the bike in the small ring up front because I knew we climb up a steep section in the first few hundred meters. Good move as people tried sprinting up even in the first neutral 2 km!

Once the neutral zone was over, the pace immediately shot up. I did my best to stay in the group but my legs were not ready to wake up just yet!! My HR shot up into the 160’s just to stay with the pack and my legs felt awkwardly heavy. I was beginning to doubt this back-to-back race strategy (I’ve heard some people rest between such things. Who knew?)

Anyway, I hung on…I tried to keep Adam (a friend from other Duathlon races and who also raced Guelph the day before), in sight…but he was way up ahead. Needless to say, this pace was hard (~43/44 km/hr, I think?) and the group was too big. It was full of people fresh with energy and pushing it on. There was too much of an accordion effect at every turn and I wanted to move up as much as I could, to minimize all the corner sprinting. In one small kicker of a hill, I shifted to my small ring and after the hill was over, I wasn’t able to shift back up. That lost me quite a few seconds and when it eventually did shift, I redlined for a good 2-3 minutes to catch up again.

I kept drinking regularly whenever I could see clearly up ahead amidst butts and calves, and ate a L’arabar around 40-45 mins into the race. Then a funny thing happened after 30 kms…my legs woke up! It seems my legs only get into their groove after I have my first dose of big carbs during ANY race.

Quite a few corners...

By that point, I had caught up with Adam and still within the lead pack. Corner sprints came easy now, no problems. HR dropped down to a sensible 130-140 BPM and I stuck on. Lots of rolling hills later, I found myself within the lead group whittled down to about 30 people. Adam got dropped somewhere in between when the leaders put in a sneaky effort on a false flat to thin out the group and I lost company. I was now surrounded by team jerseys and people working for their teammates. I was one of the few loners that didn’t belong to a cycling team. It sped up a few times but it never felt like it got out of whack where I would breathe hard consistently. Probably upper Zone 2’ish/ Zone 3 effort.

Scared of dropping my chain, I never shifted back to the small ring (ever since the incident in the beginning!) and nearly got dropped on a steep little hill, which came on unexpectedly hard. Hard thing with road races is that you need to keep up the tempo and sprint right after cresting a hill because that’s where you lose the most time (learnt this very soon!) if you want to stay in the group.

Rolling terrain but steady speed!

The first time I looked at my average speed, it said 38.4 km/hr after the first 55 kms and I couldn’t believe it. From then on, it became harder as people started ramping up speed. I misjudged one turn and ended up on a really rough side of the road just 2 km from the finish, mostly potholes and gravel, which had me putting another solid effort to bridge back up.

In the home stretch with less than 1 km to go, I was bang in the middle of the pack and trying to move up to the front. Although I have never done this in reality before, I have seen in plenty of cycling races to know how to make sure you’re in the front to avoid any mishaps or miss the chance to sprint at the finish.

I should have probably studied the last corners of the course better…but didn’t anticipate to be going for the winning sprint, so in the last turn, I screwed up. I got boxed in while turning by 2 guys on either side, and had to brake for an extra few split seconds. By this point, the finish line was only ~300m ahead. I maxed out my gears and cadence to sprint and catch up, but it was far too late. I lost all of my 3 seconds to the leaders in that last corner. Damn. I would probably not have won anyway, but it would have been nice to have at least contested the finish!

After the finish, I was far from exhausted. My average HR was 144 BPM, which is less than even my 90 km Welland Bike ride last weekend. I was well hydrated, my legs were fine and could have probably gone on for a good number of extra kms. Tells me I should’ve worked harder! Well, at least I met my goal of doing as little work as possible and finishing with the lead pack!

Discounting the neutral zone, we averaged 39.1 km/hr over ~2,000 ft climbing through rolling terrain. I didn’t feel like we actually climbed that much, though...the computer may be wrong, who knows. The whole thing was over in 1h58min and my official rank was 26 (first bunch of 30 people within 3 seconds).

Met up with Garima and then got some surprising news from her. Read on!

Garima’s 46 km Race

After all the madness in Guelph triathlon on Saturday, Parichit started prepping for Tour de Waterloo which was his main race for the weekend. He had asked me if I was interested in doing it during the week when he registered but I made a silly face with a "...are you serious?? I'm gonna be dead after the Guelph Olympic tri!".

Anyhow, on Sunday morning I made an impulsive decision to pack my bike along and try doing the shorter distance (40 km). The main reasons behind this change of heart was that I was feeling pretty good after the Guelph race and the fact that I didn't want to sit idle while Parichit was racing the 76 km bike race. I am not exactly a patient spectator and I usually can't sit still in one place for too long. So we showed up in Waterloo where I registered for the 40 km race. Parichit was giving me instructions on what to expect in a cycling race, i.e. drafting (w00t w00t....finally I get to ride just along and let others do the work!).

My race started first and I was pretty nervous about being surrounded by all these cyclists (who were not very appreciative of my triathlon bike...sorry guys..I only got one bike!). As per Parichit's instructions I pedaled my way to the front riders. 5 of us broke away pretty early and I was able to stay with them for a bit. But then 3 of the guys just took off on a uphill (man I need to improve riding uphill), leaving me and another guy behind. After a few minutes I asked him if he wanted to share the load so we took turns being in front. A third person caught up to us and decided to stick with which was great. The three of us rode the rest of the race together taking turns in drafting behind each other. One of the guys was very familiar with the race course and was almost giving us a tour guide...I have never been in a race where I was able to chat while racing...this was becoming even more fun! When we were very close to the finish one of the spectators yelled "First Girl!" and I realized she was right. 

So I finished my first cycling race with a humble podium spot as 1st female and 6th overall! A great ending to an amazing day...why can't all my races by so awesome? :D     

...Saw some mad bikes here!