HURONIA

Give-It-a-Tri: 400m/10k/2.75k

The first race of the day for me was the Give-It-a-Tri. As I have done in the past few years, I would finish the give it a tri in just enough time to move my bike, change my chip, and put on my wet suit to get into the water for the sprint start (which starts 1 hour after the give it a tri start).

Unfortunately I had a bad sleep the night before the race and ended up not feeling too well leading up to the race, thinking back on it now I may have also been dehydrated. This combined with training through the race lead to me dropping out of the sprint after the bike.

Swim:

The swim went fairly well for me, I started fast since it was only 400m, I knew I could keep pushing hard until the end and would have to if I wanted to win. I was in first up until the first buoy where a few swimmers past me but I kept on their heels for the most part until the end of the swim. 

Bike:

Unknowingly I beat one of the people ahead of me out of transition and began my race to catch up to the competitors in front of me. Feeling the effects of a bad sleep I found it hard to focus and push hard however I managed to pull ahead of one person on the large hill near the start. I tried to bump up my effort level and slowly got more into the groove. As I came up near the turnaround I thought I saw first place about 2k in front of me and knew I had to push hard to catch up. I passed one more person just past halfway on the bike and pushed hard to catch who I thought was in first (which was me at this point). I managed to get a strong lead by the end of the bike (still thinking I was in second) and raced through transition to catch up to first place (which was me).

Run:

Not hearing my brother who was cheering me on letting me know I was in first, I pushed hard hoping to see a glance of first place on the looped course. Still looking for first I kept chasing down more runners, all of whom were in the Kids of Steel races. After chasing hard for two laps, my third lap I knew I was soundly in second place with no hope of catching first, and no danger of being caught. I slowed down and finished my last lap comfortably so I could do the sprint afterwards. As I came through the finish line it was announced I was first place which was a pleasant surprise after spending most of the race thinking I was in second.

At this point I was not feeling great and decided that for the sprint I would be taking it easy and using it as more of a brick workout.

Sprint: 750m/20k/Nope

Swim 2:

My second swim went beautifully, I didn't push myself and just tried to work on my form, and staying cooled down in the water. I managed to stay away from any other swimmers while still following a straight line which made the swim much nicer as well.

Bike 2:

I was not feeling to great by the time the first large hill was done, but I tried to keep a strong pace and see if I began to feel any better. Just past halfway was when I knew nothing was going to improve, and I slowed down significantly. I finished the bike off, went to grab a chocolate milk, relaxed and cheered on the rest of my family as they finished the race.

I was glad that I did well in the give it a tri, and feel like it was a good training weekend overall. Even though I couldn't do the run portion of the sprint, it was by no means a major set back training wise or confidence wise. Everyone is going to have some bad training days and bad race days, this just happened to be one for me. I'm looking forward to MultiSport Canada's triathlon in Gravenhurst where hopefully I can do a little better.