Florida Adventures (NDT Camp and Sarasota ITU CC)

This was supposed to be a training camp post…in February…but I will combine it in to a race report and then it’s two for one!

I am not a big fan of winter. I get cold and sad and it feels like the world is closing in.

Last year I was very fortunate to miss a lot of winter as I attended strategically placed camps in the worst months. By the time that I got home to Guelph the snow had melted and warm breezes flowed through town. I was training outside again before I knew it.

This year I was highly encouraged by my coach to take classes during the winter semester, which would leave me grounded in Guelph and therefore no chance for two-month escapes to summery places. I decided to stay in school and become smarter (I think that is how it works) but I was very fortunate to be a part of the Triathlon Canada National Team camp in Clermont, Florida that took place during reading week.

 

I was very excited to head down to Florida in February and see all of my triathlon buddies and get in some super training too.

We arrived safely in Clermont and were picked up by taxi driver / high performance manager Drew. It was a short drive to the Swiss Ski School where we stayed for the next two weeks.

We were also very fortunate to be graced with the presence of amazing run coach Bobby McGee who taught us some useful drills and tricks and who was unmatched in his skill at riding small pink bikes around the golf course.

Sara McLarty kicked our butt in the pool and in the open water for two weeks, and I have never met someone so enthusiastic and charismatic who knew the right thing to say when the going got tough.

The support staff at the camp worked tirelessly to make everything smooth and the camp really could not have happened without them. I have to thank the coaches Craig, Carolyn, Alan, and Kevin. Libby and Drew worked out logistics and kept things rolling from day to day.

Camp video by the amazing Coates!!  - http://vimeo.com/60913691

After the camp I was not very excited to come home to the snow and cold but pilots tend not to listen to you when you tell them to turn the plane around. I was only in Guelph for a short bout before heading back to Florida to race the Sarasota ITU Pan American Cup.

Sarasota was my first race of the season and I was pretty anxious to shake out the legs and just see where I was at from my base training from the previous months. I arrived a couple days early and scored an awesome hotel with Amélie Kretz and Domi Jamnicky...both had stayed in Florida and I almost didn’t recognize them due to their extreme tans.

Amélie and I had some pretty fun adventures the day before the race that included an unplanned 90min ride and two trips to the race site to try and get all of our precomp done. We were also almost eaten by alligators.

When race day came I was excited but also a bit distracted as I was trying to complete an essay that was due the next evening. I had written a lot of it but in a (rare) bout of foolishness I had left my textbook in the airport lounge in Toronto while on route to Sarasota. Luckily, super coach CT had picked it up for me when he flew out the next day so I was scrambling to put more words on paper. In the end I guess it was good to have something to focus on so that I wasn’t too fixated or stressed about the race. I am usually the most nervous for the first race of the season. (NOTE: got that essay done on time and didn’t even have to pull an all-nighter)

There was a bit more scrambling around when I got to the race site as I had some malfunctions with my race wheel cassette, but in the end everything worked out and I was pretty calm when I lined up for the start.

I ended up being far right on the start pontoon and I didn’t have too many fast swimmers around me until…Sara McLarty strutted down the pontoon and stood next to me. I was so happy (I did a little dance) because I knew I would either get dragged along with her, or she would shoot off like a rocket and I would have a bit of clear sailing until the first buoy.

When the swim started I put my head down and just told myself to take super fast strokes and stare at McLarty’s hip. I stayed there for a little bit (meaning all of about 75m) and then I looked up and saw that I was in second place! This lasted for about 3 seconds before the storm of flailing arms descended upon me and McLarty kept on accelerating. I got caught up in the fray and watched McLarty motor away to an eventual 55 second lead out of the water. Man I want to swim like that some day.

When I got out on the bike I had some catching up to do as I had a little disagreement with my wetsuit in T1. I caught up to four girls and we made an eventual pack of six. Our bike pack worked well together for about three laps before everyone decided that was enough effort for today and sat up to save their legs. It was very frustrating to watch two very small packs in front stay away from our big pack of six but I didn’t have a ton of confidence in where my legs were at so I wasn’t as aggressive on the bike as I usually am.

Off the bike I had a decent T2 and only had a bit of accelerating to do to catch two girls that had shot off in front. Kretz, Frintova, and I ended up running together for most of the run and the race finished in a sprint (yay) where I just couldn’t get my legs turning fast enough.

I was happy with the execution of the race and now have some good focus on things that I need to tweak going into the season. 

A huge thanks to coach Craig for coming down to the race and also to Amélie’s parents for helping us out with bags, bikes, boxes, and everything in between.

The highlight of the weekend was getting to spend some time with Amélie and her famille and hitting up froyo not once but TWICE on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale.

Anyways the plan now is to finish exams, get ready for San Diego WTS, get the snow to leave Guelph, and start working the tan again.

Thanks for reading!

Link to results - http://www.triathlon.org/results/result/2013_sarasota_itu_triathlon_pan_american_cup/8964

All dressed up at the Gryphon Varsity Athletic Banquet!

A Look Back at 2012

I had no idea what to expect my first year of U23. 

Last year I was sad to graduate from the junior ranks and was a bit apprehensive...not quite knowing how I would handle the new longer distance or the different level of racing or the unknown competition. 

But this year has been a great adventure and I owe a lot to everyone who has been a part of it. 

January.

Camp in Maui. Absolutely amazing. 

I got to hang out with the Canadian Dev team girls, as well as super triathletes Paula Findlay and Samantha McGlone. I did a ton of riding and took in the island. 

I have to thank coach Patrick Kelly for the amazing support on this trip. He accepted the solo mission to coach eight girls for a month and I really enjoyed working with him and getting to know him. I came back from the camp refreshed and tanned, happy to continue training in the snow and cold in Guelph. 

Pictures stolen from PK and Alex Coates.

Biking biking biking biking.

February.

Not much happened in February...I returned home to Guelph and there was snow. I had a great week of training over reading week with my RTC mates and was starting to get glimpses of good technique in the pool. It was also the month where I had a most wonderful slip on the ice whilst carrying my bike home and it cost me two weeks of training and a race.

Reunited with the varsity girls after two months away

March.

In early March I left for Clermont, Florida to race my first sprint Continental Cup. Unfortunately I wasn't in top form and my knee was swollen and bruised from my fall in February. I had a poor showing in the race but it fuelled my motivation to train and I came back swinging after giving my knee some time to heal. 

The University of Guelph athletic banquet was later in the month and gave me an opportunity to dress up and see the whole team.

April.

In April I felt like things were starting to come together and I ran a fun 5km in Jordan Station to get my Triathlon Canada World Cup standard. Teammate Jason Wilson had a fast run, confidently breaking 15min and then going out to do another workout afterwards! 

Later in April I travelled with some of the RTC crew to Mazatlan, Mexico for our first Olympic distance triathlon of the season. The race was hot and the swim was confusing but in the end I ended up with a podium finish. 

May.

Altitude! The RTC packed up and shipped off to Arizona for a month to train in Flagstaff and Sedona. The training was difficult in the beginning and I struggled with my swimming the entire time. We had some great quality runs and I loved the dry hot heat. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the whole RTC gang as well as a couple of pretty cool people from across Canada. I was lucky to share a room with the gorgeous French girls - killer Amélie Kretz, magnificent Manon Letourneau, and sassy Sarah-Anne Brault. 

June.

June started off right with the birth of A-P and Thida's baby girl Arielle, the youngest member of the RTC. Arielle has already been out to watch some time trials and she will be hitting the pool in no time. This kid is going to run before she can walk.

The camp in May was capped off with a race in Dallas, Texas. We flew over to Dallas and did a bit of training before tapering off for the race. I still remember my very first swim in Dallas. We swam in a long course pool that was covered by a dome. When we started our swim it was lightly raining outside but it soon turned in to thunder and lightening and we were forced to get out of the pool halfway through our warm-up.  I was so disappointed because when I jumped in and started my first 50m I felt like I did not have to breathe the entire time. I was a fish. Flip turns were a breeze and I didn’t come up gasping for air. I was swimming again!

Just before the race, Tristan Woodfine crashed on his bike and fractured his elbow. It was a low speed crash so the rest of him was ok, but he was unable to race and the fracture cost him pretty much his whole season. It was so hard for all of us to see him hurt as he had been incredibly strong in training and we were all ready for him to rip it up.

The race ended up being a bit warm. There were a fair number of people that weren’t able to finish and my feet were completely destroyed after the 10km run on the hot blacktop. 

Manon soaking me with sparkling apple cider.

July.

After Dallas I returned home for one of my best training blocks all year. I put in a ton of work and had a blast training with the boys as the other RTC girls, Domi and Dorelle, were representing Canada in the World University Championships in Chinese Taipei.

It seemed like the World Cup in Edmonton came so soon and even before the race I was feeling like my legs were not quite where they needed to be. I had really pushed to do a lot of training in the weeks before the race and it left me flat for Edmonton. I had a mediocre swim, a good bike, and then a very bad run. I spent the evening after the race sick but recovered quickly and wanting to put in some more hard work. The absolute best part of Edmonton was seeing Big Alexander Hinton crush the field and cruise through into second on the run with an impressive performance. I was so proud.

Even though I was chomping at the bit after the race, Craig was smart and held me back, which lead to a great performance at U23 Nationals in Magog. I was glad that I was tapered and rested because Ellen Pennock was flying.

August.

After some mid-season down time I came back to a pretty rough week of training where I just felt "off" and it took me a while to start feeling like myself again. Jason and I drove down to Windsor to race a non-drafting triathlon. I threw the TT bars on my bike and jumped into my race suit for a fun and well organized event. We were very fortunate to get a home stay from the Rivelis family and I have to thank them once again for letting us use their wonderful home.

Alexander and I travelled to Stockholm for the World Sprint Championships and it was a fast event that I can’t say I was really happy with but I learned a ton and got a taste of the fast-paced WCS racing. The best part was getting to race with Alexander, Andrew Yorke, and Lauren Campbell in the team relay event.

September.

September is a blur. It went by so fast. I started school early in the month (yay…) and was slowly working away at my courses. Slowly being the important word, as I had zero motivation to do school work and just wanted to concentrate on the World Champs. The one thing that makes September stand out was getting to run a couple workouts a week with the varsity cross-country team. I can’t even imagine getting through those hard runs without them and it made me really look forward to running hard and pushing the limits.

Derek Quick and I left on a rainy day in Guelph to drive over to Buffalo, NY for the last Continental Cup of the season. I’m sure that anyone in the car with us would have gone crazy with our constant chatter but having Derek with me made the drive enjoyable.

Buffalo was a get-in-get out type of race and we didn’t really taper going into it and it took me longer than I expected to recover afterwards. I was intelligent enough to push Craig to let me race a cross-country event in London the next weekend, and I found out after about 500m into the race that my legs were still a little fried. I didn’t race my best but I got to hang out with the team and throw on my spikes.

In September we were joined by Amélie who came to train with us and took over my basement for a few weeks. It was a good change and kept me on my toes. She is a speedy little thing.

In September we also got to watch Tyler Bredschnider gut it out solo on a windy day at a local track and improve his 5km PB by over 30 seconds. Watch out for this guy.

October.

I know October was quite the eventful month. My parents, sister, and aunt came to see me during Thanksgiving and I was feeling charged up and ready to go. We left early for Auckland and stayed in a most beautiful bed and breakfast in Clevedon. Then I raced Worlds and made the trek back to Canada.

When I flew home from Auckland everything kind of came crashing down on me. I had two midterms within the first week, two tests, and a bunch of assignments. I felt a bit overwhelmed. Luckily I got everything completed and was ready to throw on my spikes for the OUA Cross Country Championships.

OUA’s was a great experience and I can’t emphasize how much I love running with the varsity cross-country team. I spent the first few days back in Guelph adjusting to the time change and slept through the entire night for the first time the night before the race. The meet was a short bus ride away and the course was slightly hilly. All of the girls and guys raced well and the Gryphon teams placed first overall for the 8^th and 9^th consecutive years in a row.

November.

Perhaps one of my biggest highlights from the year was getting to race the CIS cross-country championships in London, Ontario. Triathlon Worlds was like the main meal of the year…we worked hard to prepare for it and it took a long time to get it just right. After racing and seeing the hard work pay off I was pretty much satisfied. But CIS was like dessert. It seems like a guilty indulgence because you have already completed one season but then your Mom tells you that, yes, you can have a couple cookies after dinner and you start bouncing in your seat because its not every day that you get to eat dessert.

The race was fast and over before I knew it. Gryphon women went 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 for a decent score and we kind of won the team overall championships for the 8^th year in a row. The men did almost as well as us girls and won the team championships for the 7^th consecutive year.

The last few weeks of November were spent doing what I do worst. Down time.

I also had my wisdom teeth removed which was quite a painful experience and I didn't particularly enjoy it although I can't say that I remember much from the day.

The photo I sent to my parents...it wasn't quite that bad. 

I begged Craig to let me train again and I think I annoyed him enough that he let me back in the pool.

December.

I got through exams ok at the beginning of the month and then drove back home only to fly off the next day to Florida. I am now enjoying a small training block with Amélie and am looking forward to settling back in to the routine of train, eat, sleep...with maybe a little bit of school.

Excited for 2013.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of this great year and as always...

Thanks for reading!