Because the weather was so cold outside, the water felt quite warm. Considering it was freezing last year, I wasn't about to complain. Because the conditions were so windy the water had some chop to it, especially the last 200M.

I seeded myself near the front and to the outside, hoping to miss some of the washing machine effect, but not fall too far back right at the beginning. Unfortunately, things didn't work out so well and I got beat up quite a bit until the field started to thin out.

I hadn't gotten out in the wetsuit since last year, and I forgot that it takes more effort since the rubber does restrict you a bit, which means I was starting to fatigue about 1/2 way through the swim. NOt much you can do at that point, exept tough it out and keep going.

The last 200M was painful, as I got caught by the wave behind me, and the water conditions were at their worst heading back to shore. Needless to say it took a lot longer than I wanted. But considering the conditions I'm not going to lose sleep over it. The goal this year is to be able to get down to a 2:00min pace in open water similiar to what I can do in the pool.

Do a few OWS in the wetsuit prior to the first race of the year.

First time having the shoes clipped into the bike, and I had practised this the day before. I don't know if I'd do this again at Milton because the trnasition area is a parking lot with a lot of pebbles meaning I ran a little slower than people who took the time to put their shoes on. I took longer in transition because I chose to wear a wind vest on the bike leg because it was so cold. I happily gave up some time to do this.

Not much

This is where the race kind of fell apart. I don't bother checking my swim time after I gte out of the water, since I shouldn't lose more than a couple of minutes in the worst case scenario - however, you can lose all sorts of time on the bike (which I did).

Within the first 5km you hit 6th line hill, 1.3km at about 10% grade. At 6' and 160lbs I'm pretty light and going up hills is typically where I can pass people (going down, not so much). Unfortunately, this hill turned into a disaster, because I discovered very quickly that I had no legs. I was pushing a small gear, but struggling to get my legs to go round. Normally mu HR spikes on this hill because I push my pace and keep the cadence high - this time, I was struggling to maintain 37 rpms. I was not a happy camper and considered getting off the bike, turning around and heading back to transition.

Fortunately, I didn't quit, even though I watched helplessly as masses of people passed me up that hill - the people I was supposed to pass!! Anyway, my legs got me through the bike leg, but not the way I intended.

One of the key things I realized after my ride, was that I was paying much attention to my Garmin or iBike - both which would have told to me push harder (if I could have). My power was way below what it should have been, and my HR looked like a flat line for the whole bike leg.

Things didn't go well, but there was always the run left.

As soon as I got off the bike, I realized that the legs were not likely going to cooperate for the run.

The run did not start as planned. I went out running well over 5:00min/km for the first 3 km and the legs and stomach wouldn't cooperate. Luckily the legs came back for the downhill portion on the way back, and I made up some places. But this seems to always be the case - I need to try and make up what I've lost on the swim and run.

Nothing really, just found the food tent and walked around a bit.


I'm not sure if the swim took me out of me that expected, but I just didn't have the legs for the bike, and then ran into more issues (stomach and legs) on the run.

Hopefully I'll figure this out before Guelph in 3 weeks.


Even though I didn't get the result I was hoping for + the fact I had some issues on the day, I still really liked the race. Great participation, tough but fair course.

They just need to order some warmer weather.