2016 Calgary 70.3 Race Report

Swag from Calgary 70.3

Another edition of Calgary 70.3 is now in the books and it was, well, as good as one could expect. It’s been a slow year for me due to military exercises that had limited my training in Apr-Jun. However, going into Calgary 70.3 I was pretty confident that I could put a decent race together. I knew I was most definitely not in the same form as I was last year, but I’ve continued to remind myself to set realistic expectations and then focus on executing at my current fitness level. The focus for this year is really Ironman Arizona so I’ve reminded myself to stay patient, stay focused, and the bike power and running speed will come back. And the swimming, well, despite the gains over the winter, seemed to have disappeared compliments of the field time.

Claudia, the kids and I headed down to Calgary late Friday afternoon so that I could complete athlete check-in and not have to make a trip to Grey Eagle Casino (host hotel for the expo) on Saturday morning. I’ve always been a big fan of getting my activation workouts in early on Saturday and then checking in my kit as soon as possible. Athlete check-in was a breeze and it was great seeing Calli Stromner, the GM for Triathlon Alberta, at the expo. This year they decided to give the All World Athletes (AWA) special swim caps. I politely asked the volunteer if I could have a “normal” cap as I prefer to just blend in. I think the whole AWA thing is really a marketing ploy by WTC to get athletes to race more. The only perk of AWA (AWA Gold) that I really like is early registration to one race a year – that’s how I scored a slot to Ironman Arizona for this fall. The only other perk is the breakfasts at the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 Championships. 

Anyways, enough of the ramblings. Saturday morning I met up with a friend Dave Woodruff who had flown in from Tucson to race Calgary 70.3. For those that follow my blog, it was Dave who graciously opened his home to me in January for my training camp. It was also great to see Nicole, Dave’s significant other. Unfortunately, Dave had been suffering from a chest cold the last ten days or so. It ended up in him not being able to finish the race on Sunday. Definitely a bummer, given all the training he had put in, and the travel to Canada. Dave and I did a quick bike/run brick and then a quick swim. Following our activation workout, Dave and Nicole headed back to the Grey Eagle Casino while I checked in my bike and run gear. Note: I left my run gear with my bike as I presumed that was what we were supposed to do…the volunteers didn’t tell me otherwise. So when I showed up on Sunday morning I was shocked to see my bag still there. Long story short Michelle, one of the race captains, sorted it out for me.

Saturday Morning: Heading to bike check-in.

Sunday morning came quickly and as per normal my sleep wasn’t overly great. I woke up shortly after 0400hrs and made my breakfast of eggs, a bagel with jam, and of course coffee. Claudia woke the kids up shortly before 0500hrs and we were off to Auburn Bay. We arrived there shortly after 0540hrs and I quickly finished up my preparations on my bike (tires pumped, extra latex tube, drinks, gel bottle, Garmin Edge 500 started, etc.) Setup went without incident except for the initial shock of my T2 bag still being in T1. Calgary 70.3 has two separate transitions: T1 is at Auburn Bay and T2 is at Glenmore Reservoir. 

The race kicked off at 0645 and after the Pro men, Pro women, and teams started it was the M30-44 started at 0650. The swim was very uneventful and it was a vast improvement over the disaster in 2015. The only issue I had with the swim was that having the teams start only a minute in front of us meant having to swim around a few athletes early in the swim. The swim course was probably about 100-150m short though at the time I did not realize this. I was happy to see 00:30:XX on my watch as I exited the swim. Actual time was 31:08. I was expecting a 32-33min swim so given the course was short by ~100m my time made sense. Definitely not fast, but I’ll take it.

Out of T1 and onto the bike.

Through transition and onto my stealth steed Argon 18 E-118. I knew my bike fitness was nowhere near what it was last year. I had resided myself to go a bit more by feel and then check periodically to see where my power numbers were at least to say I couldn’t hold anywhere near what I held last year. I passed quite a few athletes on the bike and was unfortunately passed by 3-4 people on the bike. I knew it was unlikely going in that I could bike a 2:15 (like I did last year) but figured a sub 2:20 was possible. After the first hour my average power was about 225W but once I made the turn and started heading back into Calgary the numbers started to drop. Bike time 2:17:41 (about the same as 2014). Average Power 213W, Normalized Power 220W. Note: For reference sake I held 235W (avg) and 240W (normalized) last year. Clearly I’ve got some work to do on the bike this year. 

Enjoying the run!

And then it was on to the run…my favourite. I just reminded myself that this was supposed to be a training race and to have fun. I put the hammer down; no I actually eased into a pace that I thought felt right and worked into it. I felt like I was running somewhere between 3:55-4:05, but didn’t really want to check as I knew I’d be frustrated knowing that I was running slower than last year. So I just reminded myself to push and to accept the pace that resulted. At around 10km I saw my buddy Les Friesen coming back the other way and he gave me a high five. Les and I have been running into each other at Calgary 70.3 since 2009 (he’s from Steinbach, MB) and I think this was the first year where we actually aren’t in the same division – as he said, “we can now cheer for each other”. Anyways, that gave me a little motivation knowing that he was having a good race. At just before the turn-around Caitlin Snow (Female Pro) passed me. I was shocked at the cadence she was running – probably 95-100 (left or right foot strikes per minute). I had never seen anyone run with that type of quick cadence before. She was running fast and I knew there was no point trying to run with her, but I decided to use her as some motivation to keep my effort up and to pace off her. Just before the climb up out of Glenmore Reservoir I could feel my quads starting to tighten up…I was concerned that they’d lock-up on the hill but thankfully they held out and then it was just 4kms more of slugging to the finish. Final run time was 1:25:05. It was about two and a half minutes slower than 2014 and 2015, but so be it. Shoes – Brooks Pure Connect – Camo Edition (unfortunately Brooks has discontinued the Connect series so I’ll be looking elsewhere for ~7oz racing shoe for HIM and IMs)

M30-34 Podium: L to R - 1st Dave, 2nd me, 3rd Drew

Final time 4:17:56. 22^nd Overall, 8^th Amateur, 2^nd M30-34. I was pretty happy with the race. I figured if all went perfectly I could go 4:15, but realistically felt like 4:20 was were I should be at. And the good news is I punched my ticket to the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, TN.

A Solid Week of Cycling in Tucson

Enjoying the fantastic weather in Tucson!

So following my marathon in Phoenix I figured I would take the opportunity to put in a solid week of base cycling in Tucson. Seeing as the objective of the week was to put in some Base cycling I elected to travel with my Argon 18 Gallium Pro. If I was in a build portion of my season then I would have probably opted for my Argon 18 E-118. Tucson is a fantastic area for cycling and it is where many Professional Triathletes and Cyclist spend a portion of their off-season. The coolest part of Tucson is there are cyclists literally everywhere. You could literally ride with a different group every day of the week.

I headed to Tucson on Monday afternoon and was thankful to be able to spend the week at Dave Woodruff’s pad.

My accomodations for the week! Tough Life!!!

Here is a quick run-down of the week.

Monday

Squaw Peak Climb with Jonathan Coffen (1:00)

Easy Swim at Oro Valley Aquatic Centre  (0:30)

Tuesday

No drop hill ride with Oro Valley Cycle + 2hrs of easy riding heading up towards Twin Peaks. (4:20)

Easy/steady Swim at Paloma Country Club (0:50)

Wednesday

Easy ride with Leo Carillo - Oro Valley to Saddlebrooke Community (1:50)

Fast swim at Oro Valley Aquatic Centre (1:00)

Steady ride out Tanque Verde to Redington Road (nice little hill climb with switch-backs at the end) (1:30)

Thursday

Mount Lemon Ride – Road from Dave’s to about mile 12 on the climb (3:00)

Easy 2km Swim at Paloma Country Club (0:35)

Another 3+hr ride to Pistol Hill and included a loop of Saguaro National Park – Cactus Trail Loop (3:20)

Friday

Gates Pass Ride (4:10)

Saturday

Twin Peaks with Dave W. (3:30) I was considering riding the “Shootout” all week but given how sore my legs were I wasn’t convinced I wanted to suffer through a hard ride. In retrospect the legs actually felt good for the first time all week.

Dave W on his way down from Twin Peaks.

Total trg for the week…

Swim – 4 swims, 9.8km, 3hr

Bike – 7 rides, 622km, 22hrs, 7,900m elevation gained (25,000ft)

Run - 0

Other – 1 x 1hr hike to Squaw Peak

Total 26hrs.

A special word of thanks to Dave Woodruff for opening up his home to this crazy Canuck.  And now it’s time to get back to the daily routine and the “normal” weekly schedule.

Rock n’Roll Arizona Marathon – 2016 Race Report

Gear all set for the RnR Arizona Marathon: (Compressport Visor - 2012 Kona Edition, Rudy Project Agon, CF Singlet, Brooks Shorts, Compressport ForQuad, Compressport R2 Sleeves - Cdn Army Run Edition, Compressport Racing Socks V2 Fluo, and Brooks Pure Connect 2s)

So in order to start getting myself back in race shape for 2016 I decide that I needed an early season race to get me motivated. I selected the RnR Arizona Marathon due to the typical ideal temperatures, the relatively flat course, and the fact that John and Sue Coffen lived in Phoenix. John and I had finished the 2012 IM Coeur d’Alene race together and have remained in touch ever since. 

I flew into Phoenix on Friday the 15^th to allow myself a couple days to acclimatize to the slightly warmer weather. Spending the weekend with John, Sue, and there kids was a blast. They made me feel like a member of the family and I even got to go and watch Jake (their oldest son) soccer tournament. 

Race member was a breeze. John dropped me off right near the start around 0700 hrs. There were no lines for gear check and the Brooks VIP porta potties meant no line-up for the rest room. The race start at 0750hrs and the weather was nearly perfect with the temperature hovering around 6 degrees C with a slight breeze out of the East. 

The race started right on schedule and I quickly settled into a good pace. There were a few other athletes looking to run a ~2:40 so I was thankful for some early company. The opening couple kilometers were run at a little slower than my goal race pace. At around 5km into the race I decided I would bridge the gap up to Brian Folts who I knew from last year’s results had run a sub 2:40. I ran the next ten or so kilometers with Brian. There were a couple more athletes a little ways up the road so for whatever reason I decided I would bridge the gap (in hind sight this was probably a bad move). 

Over the next several kilometers I successfully bridged the gap and proceed to run with Tom Clarke.

I wasn’t feeling great and shortly after seeing John and Chris (a friend of John’s) for the second time around the 30km mark Tom was slowly able to pull away. With about 9km remaining my legs were really starting to hurt and I knew I needed to dig deep. It was at this point that I was planning on taking my second Gu Gel, but it had unfortunately fallen out of my shorts earlier in the race. I opted for a Glukos Energy Gel at the next aid station. I knew if I could hold on and run 4:00/km I still had a sub 2:40. Everything was fine until I made the left turn onto East Van Buren street with 5km to go. It was a slight uphill and to make it worse we had a headwind.  My pace immediately dropped and despite my best efforts I could barely hold 4:16/km.

In the closing kilometer I watched as both Andrew (finished 7^th) and Brian Folts (finished 6^th) passed me.  Clearly they had both paced the race better than I had. I finished 8^th OA and  2^nd in M30-34 with a time of 2:41:09. I was a little disappointed to not go sub 2:40 but I guess I will have to save that for next time. My splits were 1:18:49 (first half) and 1:22:20 (second half).

Post Race Recovery Ride wih John.

The next morning John tool me for a little hike up Squaw Peak. My legs certainly didn't enjoy the hike, but the view was awesome.

Looking out towards Phoenix

John explaining the laydown.

Afterwards I looked up the trail....and this is what it said.

Trail #300 - Summit Trail
Length: 1.2 miles
Elevation: 2,608 ft. - 1,400 ft. (hikers gain more than 1,200 feet in elevation on this trail)
Hiking trail only
Difficulty: Extremely Strenuous and Difficult. Long rocky segments with possible drops and exposure.


And now I am in Tucson for the week (instead of recovering) riding all the awesome routes.

Looking forward to 2016!

Well 2015 was most certainly not what I had envisioned, but looking back it was a great learning experience.  Totals for the year were Swim 347km (110hrs), Bike 6851km (219hrs), and Run 2315km (166hrs). The numbers are a little lower compared to 2014 due to not racing Ironman and focusing more on short course in 2015. 

As I turn the page to 2016, I am excited to set out on another year of training and racing. Besides training and racing, I’ll be the race director for the St Albert Road Race in April, continue as the Long Course Triathlon Coordinator for the Canadian Armed Forces, and continue to coach a select few athletes towards their goals in 2016.

As for my goals:

#1 – Go sub 9hrs at Ironman Arizona (S 59:59, B 4:50, R 2:59)

#2 – Go sub 4:10 at Calgary 70.3 (S 28:30, B 2:15, R 1:20)

#3 – Upgrade to CAT 4 at the Tour of Bowness

My volume goals for 2016 will be Swim 780km, Bike 10,000km, Run 3000km. With the exception of the swim these are similar numbers to what I’ve done in past years racing Ironman. 

I think I’ve finally convinced myself that I need to spend more time in the pool. I just finished a solid month of swimming in December: 31 swims in 31 days for 84km swum during that period of time.

I've been mixing it up a little this winter with some Fat Biking. The kids love being pulled around in the pulk (I'll post a couple articles later this winter on my pulk/attachments and the kids Charge Cooker 20" and 24" Fat Bikes.)