Shawnigan Race Report - Finally

Ok, I'm finally getting around to doing the Shawnigan Olympic Race Report. A week ago today, we completed the first open water swim race of the year. It was great day, the weather was awesome, and a lot of the PT gang was racing.

Swim

1500m, 2 lap swim. Well, it did not go as planned. I ended up positioning myself in a terrible spot and did not get on any feet for the first lap of the swim. Add to this the fact that my sighting was absolutely horrible and it made for a long first lap. The second lap was a little better but the lines I chose were not the best. Getting around the buoys wasn't great either as I didn't keep my line and got knocked out of position a couple of times. I exited the water and had a bit of trouble getting to the zipper to get the wetsuit off. Overall, it was pretty frustrating and a lot slower than planned.

T1

Considering how long it took me to get the suit off, it was not horrible. I ended up losing one of my shoes off the bike as I was getting on due to trying to avoid the number of cyclists that were at the mount line.

Bike

44k - 2 loops of Shawnigan Lake. The bike course was pretty great. The roads were not awesome but the course was scenic and rolling terrain. I don't really have too much to say about the bike. I tried to maintain a constant pace throughout and make sure to push it when I could

T2

Went really well. Dismount was quick and I was able to get on the run in less that 1min.

Run

10k on a crusher dust trail. My nemesis. Got off pretty good but the cadence was not the best. Shoulders were pretty tight. Only past by a couple of people and managed to catch one of them at the line.

Overall

In general, the race served it's purpose. It was a good training evolution. I know I need to work on the open-water swimming and running (in the last 3 events, I have had the slowest run from my position to number 1 - obviously this is a weak spot). Rode the bike home after the race which was good. Aside from that, there is the Vitoria 1/2 Ironman in a couple of weeks so we'll see how that goes.
Until then, it is off to some run testing with Coach Noa, an open-water swim and a long run. Sundays are great. The weather is awesome so the it should be a great training day.

Ciao for now. M

Hectic Times

Well, it seems as if we have been running around a lot lately and haven't had much time to do anything. A bit of an update....we got a house (our first). It's been a great experience and a headache all at the same time. Here is a pic of the kitchen minus the appliances that we just purchased last week.



We'll put some more photos up once we are actually there with our stuff in the house. Considering, we live in a 1300 sqft townhouse and are going to a 1900 sqft house (with a pretty much finished basement), there might not be much in there.

Aside from the house, we've been trying to take care of all the stuff around here in preparation for moving. That has been more time consuming than we thought. When you add all the training that we've been doing (& work I guess) there does not seem to be much time for anything else.

We've done 2 races in the last 3 or so weeks. The Sooke Spring Sprint Tri and the Shawnigan Lake Olympic Tri. They went ok with lots of learning. I think we know where we need to work. We'll post a race report in the coming days.

Here's a pic of Coach Noa and some of the gang at Sooke.



Lastly, we've managed to get some open water swimming in prior to the Shawnigan Lake Tri and it has been cold. Good thing for wetsuits.



Until next time. M

My Friend

It's taken me many days to sit down and write this blog entry and even now I don't know what to say to make any of this okay. We, her friends and family, were and still are devastated by the news that Michelle is no longer with us but we are trying to seek happiness in the many wonderful memories we had together. I first met Michelle at the Recruiting Center in Toronto and we became fast friends in first year at RMC while playing varsity soccer together. Despite moving miles away, we managed to always stay in touch and I was a better person for having known her. I feel blessed to have been a part of her repatriation, the Highway of Heroes, the visitation, her funeral and her burial - I will take these moments in time with me for the rest of my life and seek comfort in the fact that we were able to celebrate her life and hopefully inspire people to be as thoughtful and brilliant as she was. A