Guelph Lake I - Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I seeded myself near the front, even though I'm not the fastest swimmer. Since the mens 35-39 and 40-44 were going out together I figured this was going to be a bit ugly, so I wanted to start fast and see if I could avoid some of the scrum.

Seemed too work reaonsably well, except I knocked my goggles as soon as we hit the water and they started to fill up. I just kept going trying to avoid the mad mess, and once I had a bit of room I adjusted and got the water out, but they kept leaking a bit for the remainder of the swim.

For some reason this year they started the two most competitive AG's further back in the field, and we ran into a wall of swimmers from the prior waves after a few minutes. Defintely a lot of avoiding people and trying not to get kicked by those doing the breaststroke.

Nothing really. Happy with my time considering it includes one of the longest runs to transition straight up a hill.

Not bad, maybe could have saved a few seconds but things went reasonably well.

Things did not go as well as I had hoped on the bike. I was looking to target around 238 watts on the bike (95% CP), but finished with 207 watts. As soon as I got on the bike my HR was 172, which is quite high, but also normal for me after the swim and T1. I paid attention to my watts and focused on going as fast as I could. At least I thought I was focusing on my watts - I kept glancing at my current watts on a regular basis but I wasn't looking at my average watts. This would have told me a very different story about how I was doing.

I was passing a lot of slower riders from earlier waves, but no-one really from my wave which based on my final time isn't surprising. I felt like I was riding pretty solid, and my watts weren't terrible on the way out, but I kept feeling thirsty and I wonder if that had to do with the heat a bit.

I was chasing my traininig partner who's a strong swimmer, but I thought I could put time into him on the run. But when we passed each other I realized I was way back, and figured I was down almost 2.5 minutes 1/2 way on the bike. That was a bit deflating since I knew right then I couldn't make up that time.

Things fell apart on the ride back, but I didn't really realize it. I thought I was still pushing the pace, but my watts fell way off. I also started to stitch, which is fine while I'm on the bike but means I'm going to have a lot of trouble on the run.

Pay attention to average watts. I suck at RPE, and I have this awesome tool that would have told me to "try" and push harder. I ended up racing at the same overall watts 207, as two races last year even though my CP/FTP is much higher this year.

Not sure why but I was fumbling around with things here and couldn't get it together, I think I was dreading what was about to take place on the run.

I had expectations based on my recent HM time to be able to run around a 4:10/km pace. I barely managed a 5:10 for the first km. I started the run and my stomach was just in severe pain + my back had seized up a bit. I knew it would be tight coming off the bike, I didn't expect this.

As soon as I felt that stitch on the bike I knew this was what I was in for on the run, and it didn't disappoint. I told myself I wasn't going to walk no matter how much I wanted to do, but I did stop at the first drink station to stretch my back for a moment and that helped a little. I then kept hobbling along and slowly picked up the pace as the stitch started to subside, but it never really left this time - in the past it's gone after a few km.

The run was physically tough, but mentally I was disheartened. I had hopes of top 5 or better at this race, and I knew these were all gone, and that made it hard to push on. I was done and I knew it.

Lots - too much pain from the stitch to say I can handle them, I simply have to find a way to prevent them from happening.

Walked around a bit, found the family who had done an awesome job cheering me on.


A lot. I had some high goals coming into the race, and didn't even come close. Two key takeaways are that I need to use the PM better, and I need to find a solution to the stitches that tend to develop during the ride and then cripple me on the run.




Great venue, great race - too bad the first/last sections of the course can't be repaved because they are not good. Otherwise really recommend this race.