Sunday 24 August 2014

A hectic August!



So it has been a bit of a hectic past three weeks. It started with being the Bike Course Captain for the STARRT Triathlon in St Albert on 10 Aug, then it was racing in the Apple Triathlon in Kelowna on 17 Aug, and it was capped off with running the Edm ½ Marathon this morning. Oh, and besides all that there was the normal work and training routine. 

Medals from a busy month! (L to R: St Albert Triathlon 25th Anniversary Medal, Apple Triathlon 3rd Place Medal (M30-34), Edm 1/2 Marathon finisher medal, Edm 1/2 Marthon M30-39 1st place medal)


The 25th Edition of the St. Albert Triathlon (put on by STARRT) was awesome. The race director, James Dean, pours his heart and soul into the race and it clearly shows. I was happy to be able to contribute in a small way and look after the bike course for James. As a token of apprecation the race director gave each of his captains a commemorative 25th Anniversary medal as a souvenir.

The Apple Triathlon was a great opportunity to visit family, my Aunt and Uncle in West Kelowna, put some quality training in, and test my fitness. It is a great race and the race director and his team put on a first class race. It was the first time that I went into a race just looking to have fun. No pressure, just have a solid couple hours of training and enjoy the opportunity to race. I had a good race with splits of 24:17, 1:02:38, and 36:21 and an overall time of 2:05:58. Biggest take away from the race was solid bike power output on all four laps of the bike course. My effort on the day was good enough for 4th OA, and 3rd in 30-34. And as a positive note I claimed a spot to the 2015 ITU World Championships in Chicago. 
Exiting the swim in Kelowna!

Heading to the finish!

And then this morning I ran the Edm ½ Marathon. I had put in a very solid week of trg which was capped off with a hard HIM/IM brick on Friday. I knew I would be carrying a little fatigue into the half-marathon but had intended to use the race as a gauge for my fitness. The race seems to draw a strong field so I figured it was a good way to put a hard tempo run in before the 70.3 WC. I had a very solid opening 10km, and then had to mentally battle to hold it together on the back half as I battled the fatigue from a hard week of trg. I was happy with a 1:14:11 which was just off my PB of 1:13:42 from last year, and significantly better than my result at Ottawa Race Wknd in May. I was 12th OA, 2nd Amatuer, and 1st in M30-39.

Glad to be through that but the next few weeks won’t be much different. Volunteering at the ITU World Championship in Edm next weekend (Fri, Sun, Mon) as a bike course Marshall. Yes, I’m selfish I didn’t volunteer Saturday as I need a big trg day - Ironman Race Sim. Then it’s off to Mont Tremblant for the Ironman 70.3 WC, then a trip to Borden, ON for a two week course, to Ottawa on the 21st for the Army Run and then it’ll be back home for just shy of two weeks before heading to Kona! Thankfully my wife is gracious enough to put up with the ridiculous schedule. Yes, I admitted it – I might have gotten a tad obsessive this year.