Ecc Kats Triathlon

[ROW]

I raced my 4th triathlon yesterday of my season. I raced the indoor triathlon in Hamilton, Clermont EDR, and then dnfed the next day in Clermont. My training has been very good since then. February till early April I was having some knee problems. I had to take 5 days off of running and it still persisted. Somehow it just went away and i'm fine now. Early April my training started to ramp up again after my small knee problem. I was consistenly 25-30km in the pool a week, up to 300km of cycling a week and slowly getting up to 50km per week of running. I actually have built up to 70km per week of running since then. I started to put together great workouts in every sport and good brick workouts. (bike to run) Even though my bricks were good, I did not expect to run this fast this weekend.

The Ecc Kats Triathlon takes place in downtown Buffalo and I thought it would be a good rust buster to get my 2nd part of the season going. I trained through this race by putting in some decent miles on the bike and kept my average week of swimming. I ended up hitting my highest mileage ever this week coming in at 70km for running. I felt tired but strong enough to put together a good race.

My girlfriend, my good friend Bryan and I left Beamsville around 4:40am on Sunday so we could arrive before 6am and also because we may have some problems getting there. Of course there were some small hiccups but we got there right before 6. Bryan and I were racing while Erin spectated, she won't be racing till Welland in June. We got out bibs, set up everything and went for an easy run and ride. Eventually it was getting close to race time so Bryan and I went to the pool and got in a couple hundred meters of warm up.


Swim 5:58 (400 lcm +200ishm run)
The swim took place in a 50 meter pool. The race was set up as a time trial start. Since my 400 seed time was 4:40 I was bib 1 so I started 1st and 2nd bib started adjacent to me. You would swim up one side of the lane and down the other and then under the rope and up and down again until you hit 400m. The next wave went 30 seconds behind. I was able to have a very good swim and touched the wall in high 4:50's and I was able to not exert myself too much. I actually had the 3rd fastest swim. The fastest was 8 seconds up on me who was 3rd overall and a past college swimmer. The 2nd was the eventual winner. I got to transition feeling good and ready to go.

Bike: 36:02 23km 38ishkm per hour
The bike leg consisted of many turns and pot holes making it a pretty technical course. I actually got directed the wrong way by a police officer but luckily I turned around and got back on course. I lost probably close to 30 seconds on this course because of mishaps like this. The course wasn't well marked and the police officers were not very good at directing. I was able to put out a very consistent effort but my legs felt heavy and I was worried about riding too hard. I put my head down and kept on pushing though. At the first turn around it looked like I had about 1:30 on the guy who started 1:00 behind me so I kept pushing. Later in the bike there was no one in sight, and other than the eventual winner, I had a 3 minute lead on the next guy.

Run: 20:53 (5.31km but I ran closer to 5.45ish so 3:55 per km officially but really 3:50 per km)
Running has something I have struggled a lot with. My run still isn't there in a triathlon, but it is a huge improvement. I ran a lot of times close to 4:20 per km and my best run was 19:40 at worlds in 2012. My consistent mileage this year has really helped me improve. I went out steady but my legs felt weirdly fine, so increased the pace. Coming back to end the 2nd loop the lead cyclist lead me the wrong way. She felt really bad and quickly realized she did and I got back on course. I must have ran a bit over 100 meters extra on the run. The 2nd loop my hip tightened up a bit which has been a huge issue running off the bike but it was a lot better in then in the past. My pace slowed a bit but I felt fine. My legs weren't burning, my breathing was under control. My hip was just holding back my mobility. I crossed the line 1st and 4 minutes ahead of anyone else. I thought I had the win, even the race director did. A late entry by a really fast guy ended up knocking me down to 2nd.

At the first the results were screwed up. I was 4th and 2 guys were ahead of me. They accepted the overall awards which is awful. They should know they did not finish that high up. I finished in 1:03:50, These guys actually finished 10 minutes back of me. I was kind of scepticle. At the awards I stood on the 20-24 podium, even though I should have been on the overall podium and my friend Bryan should have won 20-24. One of the guys who falsely podiumed is actually a race director with a race next weekend in Buffalo so i'm pretty ashamed a race director accepted an award he didn't deserve. End of rant.

After the race Bryan and I biked home from the race to put in extra mileage. It was just under 60km and quite the experience cycling over the border.

Overall it was a very good result for training through and I am really excited to get the season going.

[Spirit Unleashed]

Nice job. Sucks about the results.

[Ken B]

Nice job. Sucks about the results.

Ditto! Good luck for the rest of the season!!

[Habs4ever]

I love that you road your bikes home after, and the across the border no less!

[ROW]

I love that you road your bikes home after, and the across the border no less!

Thanks everyone!

Sunday is usually my long ride day where I ride 120km. So I had to get some significant mileage in. By biking over the border and racing I got in about 85-90km so it worked out!

[Robinandamelia]

Congrats on a great race, but sorry to hear about the results being messed up!! Good luck with the rest of the season.

[Jwolf]

Nice race. How did they eventually sort out the results?

[ROW]

Nice race. How did they eventually sort out the results?

They figured out that two people went at the wrong time for the swim and adjusted the results when they went online. I got 3 free entries to a buffalo 5km this weekend because of that. I feel bad for the people in my age group that got knocked off the podium because I should have been on the overall podium not the 20-24 podium.