Had no difficulties breathing and was actually quite relaxed after doing a 20 minute w/u (where I was a bit anxious about swimming w/o the wetsuit).

Made a last minute decision not to wear wetsuit - it was SO hot and the thoughts of putting it on and taking it off just didn't appeal to me. Ken agreed - so despite 98% of people wearing wetsuits, we didn't, knowing I would lose about 3 minutes on the swim.

Also talked to coach Christine Mclean (winner of my age group, ALWAYS) and said I wasn't concerned with time or placing on the swim or in the race, so she suggested I go ahead. After the w/u almost ran back and got it because I could feel the difference in 'speed' and I started getting anxious about swimming out into the lake so far w/o a wetsuit for security. That made me stick to my decision, needing to build confidence in my ability to swim w/o a wetsuit. AND the lake was full of weeds, that continued to get stuck on arms and legs. Didn't freak me out - just annoying.

Time on the official clock includes a 30 second stop/restart to clear glasses on turn of last buoy and a 1 min 20 second run up the beach to timing mat. Wasn't as easy treading water and trying to clear googles and getting them back on as when I do it with a wetsuit, but I did OK.

If I want to be competitive with the group, need to wear wetsuit.

See notes on bike segment. My T1 was good, although still not as good as Christine McLean who had a wet suit on. I took the time to wipe the mud and wet off my feet. Did not want to cycle with crap in my shoes. I did run from bike to mount line. We were at the furthest end of T1 - a long run to mount line.

Put elastics on shoes so left shoe doesn't get caught on ground.

47 min actual biking time - MAJOR screw up with shoes, at bike mount that is about 20 feet from start of climbing. Lost 1min 30". Another screw up on dismount. Too dangerous (for me) to get feet out of shoes on steep decline so just got off with shoes on and then couldn't run in them, so stopped to take them off and tried to carry them and run with bike - all this BEFORE crossing the timing mat.

CRAZY Hard Bike - Climbing for 1st 5km. 2 short, steep climbs initially - one immediately out of transition and then at 1.4km and then the 2km climb (Collingwood type hill) started at the 2km mark. That wasn't the end of it. Happy with the 24km avg at turn around thinking I would make up at least 2km/hr on return - had to work for every km and the so-called fast downhill consisted of about 1.5km.

And, didn't have the legs today - took too many days recovery...at least that's what I think (Ken felt the same) Hips/sacariliac started to get tight yesterday and think 3 days off without some kind of vigorous hip action is too long - need to keep the blood flowing.


Not take so many recovery days before event. I'm generally very strong on hilly courses, so don't really have an answer as to why slower on this one other than guessing about too many recovery days, and possibly using too much energy swimming w/o a wetsuit and all the kicking.

After the fiasco dismount, and trying to carry shoes and push bike, ended up walking to my spot in transition. I wasn't racing this event, so didn't mind about the extra time.

Took time to wipe off wet and dirty feet and dry between toes, puts socks on and then shoes. Really wanted to have a good run with no issues with the feet, so took extra time.

Not sure. That's a really tough dismount right at the bottom of the hill. Wanted to be safe - so will have to think on that one. If I am racing the course, I would just plainly move quicker. Don't think any race would be important enough for me to want to run with wet, dirty feet and end up with blisters or sores.

Have no idea why I thought this was supposed to be an easy run. Probably hardest one I have ever done. Maybe 100 meters flat to start, then a little climb, flat for 30 seconds, then ran up the same steep incline we started with on the bike. Don't understand what the commentator meant, cause it doesn't make sense but he said the run was a net uphill.

However, this was a REALLy good run for me. I'm sure, had it been a flat course, I would have hit my 6:15 goal. The first km of climbing killed the pace.

Legs didn't feel like bricks, good turnover and standing tall with good steady pace. However, I didn't really start to get into it until 3km where pace picked up and seemed to have really settled into a rythym. Need to get this by 1km for these short races.


Nothing.

Just walking around. Although I worked hard, don't find the sprint races take alot out of me.


I knew the bike was a challenging course with Muskoka and Collingwood type hills but for some reason thought the run was flat. NOT. Had to run up the same steep hill we biked on. The hilly bike course didn't make much difference to the 'elite' athletes who race the hills on a regular basis but for the average folks like us, bike speed was on average 3km slower.

The lake was nice enough, but Ken didn't really like it - very weedy which got caught on our arms and legs and Ken actually hit a log with his hand when swimming. It was so hot, and this was just a training race where we didn't care about our swim time or our final time, that we decided to swim without the wetsuit. Was a bit intimidating when 150 of 160 athletes DID wear wetsuits, but we stuck to our decision. Unfortunately it really does make you slower - Ken by 4 minutes, me by 3 minutes. And when it only takes me 25 seconds to get it off by the time I'm in transition, if I want to 'place', I need to wear the wetsuit to be competitive with the others.

The other thing I noticed about having no wetsuit (while I was on the bike) is that you use more energy swimming with no wetsuit. I had forgotten that aspect. I didn't have my normal 'jump' on the bike. OK, but I could tell I was a bit off. Thought it was because we took too many recovery days before this race - 3 whole days, but could also have been all the kicking and energy used in the swim. 3 days off before a race is definitely too much time though - 2 seems perfect.

On the bike, actually thought of not running - had to work so hard on the bike I figured there is no way I could run that course w/o hurting myself but in the end I actually had a really good run and at the 3km mark was running faster with a great rhythm. Had no issues with feet, legs, hips, etc.

It's really different this year, doing races for the purpose of training and not 'winning' and with the intent of building slowly so that we will be at our peak in September and keep our bodies in good condition. It takes so much pressure off and we find we are really enjoying the events and the big bonus (so far) is coming away pain free and not really feeling like we had just been in a race. Not saying we don't work hard - wouldn't be any point to that. Kind of a fine line between pushing hard enough to get better but still be able to train the following 2 weeks for the next race.



Based on all I had read and heard about this event, I was expecting a bit more. The beach area is OK, nothing great, really. Not that pretty and lots of weeds in the water.

Bike course is challenging which is good, but not particularly beautiful scenery. Can't really see much with the roads all enclosed with the trees which does help protect against the wind. Road condition was good.

Run too, was OK, but nothing really special or appealing about it.

Would probably do it again sometime just to see if I have improved my run after a hard bike, and wear a wetsuit to see the difference.