Welland Triathlon - Sprint Distance - Triathlon

I felt really good about this swim given the lack of swimming/down time over the past month due to overuse injury that came out full force in May/June, but started as early at March due to the high volume of swimming. Didn't swim most of winter and started up again in Feb and by June have swum the same volume as entire last year.

Realized I was using my shoulders/arm for the pull (in my efforts to have a better reach) instead of lats and have only had 2 swims changing the technique but it feels right, and good.

Pacing was consistent for entire distance. Didn't feel like I was tiring anytime during the distance.

Nothing. Swam according to plan today. Still easing back into volume/intensity to see how shoulder/arm responds. Still have severe aching at night unless I ice and use Myomed.

Was breathing pretty easy, and since it all felt good, plan to push harder in next race.

There is a 425 meter run up from swim exit back to transition. I took my wetsuit off as soon as I had it down to waist while running. Run up took 2:45. So my T1 time (1:14) was faster than most but my run up was slower by that amount.

Nothing.

Have not biked much this season and no intensity work yet so wasn't expecting much from this race. Just hoping that it wasn't going to have seriously deteriorated over last year. Had to think about running off the bike (because of run down time in June due to ankle overuse injury) yet wanted to push somewhat on the bike, so decided to use small ring in front for the 15km into the headwind and keep the cadence high and not burn out legs, then switched to big ring at the turn around and pushed harder on the last 15km. Able to keep the speed at 31-32 entire 15km and some segments at 33-34, but not the advantage I was looking for. Did have a negative split with bike speed up by over 2km/hr.



For this race nothing - followed my plan.

T2 was good, but not super fast - more methodical, not having raced since last September and just wanting to get things right. Also took time to grab a pair of sock and stick in back on tri suit in case I had problems with shoes on run and needed the socks. Took a few extra seconds to wolf down some chews.

Replaced laces with e-z laces last night and they worked well getting my shoes on easily

Just move a bit quicker. My T2's used to be just under a minute so need to get back to that.

I knew this wasn't going to be a fast run, and not sure if I could even run the distance because of the ankle injury in May/June and all the downtime, plus new inserts in the shoes and not having tested them running. Did test them walking for 45 minutes. Plus the left hip was feeling tight/weird off the early morning bike w/u.

Goal was to just put in the best effort possible and hopefully be able to finish it and finish it safely.

Although my legs felt like they weighed about 300 lbs each, the running actually felt OK. Saw my first km was a pace of 7:07 so knew it would be slow but since I usually get faster, would be happy with that. However, I got slower. It was so hot, feeling like 30* at 9:00 a.m. and 36 by the time we were running.

Around 2.5 km could feel both arches forming blisters and carried on till about 3km where I sat down and took time to check out feet and put the socks on. Took a bit to get rolling again, so this added even more time, but the feet felt better.

This was the LONGEST 7.5km ever. I couldn't believe it when the 5km sign finally came up. Felt like I had run 10km. Had the helpers throw water on my head, front and back through every water station. Never stopped to drink - had my own small hand bottle that is strapped to hand so you don't have to hold it. Works well.

Ken was waiting for me at the 6.5km mark and ran the rest of the way back with me. He said I looked strong and had good form.

Since I knew I wasn't going to have the pace today, decided to focus on keeping up form at least.

Again, knew what the run would be, so really not much except probably shouldn't have run with the new inserts on race day and for such a long distance.

Walking around.


Lack of bike volume plus no training yet this season with intensity. All basically foundation work. Plus almost 4 weeks down time in both running and swimming. Really lost alot of aerobic fitness with the lack of running.


This is a good race. Swimming in the canal/recreational waterway is good and clean. Flat course is nice, but can be windy.