Great local race, even better friends

For the second year in a row, the Sioux Narrows Paradise Triathlon in Sioux Narrows, Ontario, organized a great race.  Dwayne and his crew of volunteers really outdid themselves!  Last year was the first year for this race, which usually brings lessons on how to improve it for the next race season.  It really showed that the organizers listened to suggestions, and I think everyone had a great time.

With it being one of the hottest days of racing, unfortunately some people weren't quite ready for the heat.  Dehydration and heat stroke were problems for some.  The volunteers and EMS crews were quick to respond, and thankfully there were no significant problems out there that they couldn't handle. I heard of a few things that happened at the race, and with the theme of lessons learned, I want to give people a few tips that are beyond the typical checklist of what you need for a race.  As I said in my last post, racing strong is one thing, racing smart is another.

Flat tires.  Anyone who has experienced these know how much a pain they are.  Even worse during a race.  You need to know how to change a tire on your own, and you need to have the necessary supplies with you.  Go to your local bike shop and get a quick lesson.  Many triathlon clubs organize these kinds of clinics.  Or you can even watch a youtube video and change your own tire as you watch.     But you MUST be able to change one on the side of the road during the race.  No one else can help you.

Water, electrolytes, and how much to hydrate.  There are many different formulae out there about how much to drink, what to drink, and when to drink it.  The biggest thing is that you should well hydrated before the race even starts.  You can look back through some old posts, but the end is that you should be peeing light yellow the evening before the race.  As for the race itself, it depends on your distance.  You can look up many different strategies, but the minimum should be 500ml of a sports drink per hour.  You need the electrolytes!  Of course, you may have your own tabs, gels, etc., but I'm just talking about the bare minimum to keep you going.  Hydrate in the days leading up to the race, no alcohol in the days just before a race, and aim for a minimum of 500ml per hour of some type of fluid with electrolytes.  You may still experience problems - everyone will at one point - but you want to do whatever you can to minimize them.

And most of all, have fun.  The group of people you train and race with are the people that will support you through the race.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  The triathlon community is a wonderful group of supportive individuals with similar goals.  Enjoy the race but enjoy the people more.

Ironman Canada - valuable lessons learned

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything on my blog.  Training for an Ironman tends to eat into any spare time that a person might have.  I raced Ironman Canada on July 27th, and the six weeks leading up to the race consisted of training, training, eating, training some more, eating some more, sleeping, and spending the rest of the time with my family.  Thank goodness that my family was so supportive and understanding.  I wouldn't have been able to do half of what I did if they weren't.

So let me talk about the race for a bit.  The location in Whistler, BC, was great.  Great scenery, great organizers, great town.  Everything started on time and I didn't notice any hiccups or issues.  As far as the overall race itself went, I would recommend this one to anyone who wanted a bit of a challenge.  But I would really like to talk about the personal lessons I learned at this race.

I had a great swim, and put out the best time I could have hoped for.  I got a nice kick to the head early on, saw a few stars, but managed to keep moving along.  The bike was another story.  I have Di2 shifters that are good for about 5000km until you need to recharge the battery.  I brought my charger along, however thought that this was not likely necessary and that I would be fine.  I was wrong.  With about 40km left, my battery died.  I had low gears only and while this was fine for the climb, going downhill meant my cadence was extremely high and I couldn't really get enough speed on the downhill to assist with the next uphill.  On one downhill, gravity took over and I ended up catching up to a female racer.  As I caught up to her, the officials gave me a red card for drafting and told me I had a 4 minute penalty.  I said OK, and keep cursing my bike.  My brain left me for a while, and I failed to report to the penalty tent.  I went on to do my run.  The run itself was slower than I had wanted, but with all the extra cadence at the end of the bike, my hip flexors started to bother me and slowed me down.  So I finished the run, heard the infamous words telling me that "you are an Ironman" and went to the athletes tent.   I was speaking with another athlete about our respective race, and when I told him about my bike and my red card, he said that if I didn't go to the penalty tent, I might be DQ'ed.  I quickly tried to find an official to talk about this, and unfortunately found out that yes, I was disqualified.  All that training, the travel, the time.... and I know that many people have been supportive and trying to get me to see that I finished the race and had a medal, that I heard those words..... but it still really bothered me that my times would not be official.  I can't describe the feeling, but let's just say I have only myself to blame for all of these misfortunes and that I personally need to get this black cloud out of my head.

With the blessing of my wife and coach, I am doing Ironman Lake Tahoe in about 6 weeks.

Is this the smartest thing to do?  No.  My body is beat up and tired.  But for my own mental well-being, I have to finish this race season with an Ironman race with a time.  I'm not shooting for a PR and I'm not expecting brilliance at this race.  But I am expecting that anything that is within my control will be as it should.  We will see what happens in Lake Tahoe, but I know that the lessons I learned in Whistler will make me a much smarter racer.