On Sunday August 5th, 2007 I had the opportunity to race Canadian Nationals in Drummondville Quebec. The week prior to the race I spent in Orillia, I had some business meeting I had to attend so I flew from Texas the weekend before nationals. As far as training leading into nationals, I did a little bit of tapering, and during the taper my body was starting to recover from the 70.3 series race in California therefore I was feeling pretty exhausted. Finally by mid week I started to feel a little better.
I arrived in Drummondville just in time for the race meeting on Friday afternoon. The traffic was a bit chaotic driving through Montreal, which made my drive a grueling 8 hours. Doing some race preparation on Saturday at the race course I felt alright, a little fatigued but nothing unusual that an athlete doesn’t feel all the time. So I would say I felt ready to go.
Sunday arrived and it felt like forever waiting around for 1:00pm, otherwise known as GO TIME. I did a little run in the morning from my hotel and arrived at the race site about 2.5 hours early. I avoided the sun, sat in the shade and focused on my upcoming race. Afternoon races have to be the worse, all that waiting seems to drag on and on for so long. Finally, it was warm up time I did my usual warm up and finally the race was set to start.
The swim started great, I had a great position and I managed to get somewhere near the lead pack of the swim during the first lap. By the end of the first swim lap I was a little behind but not much, still in decent position. As I re-entered the water I put my head down and gave it my all – only to run head first into a wooden box that was marking the distance. If I had glanced up that second to site I would have had a broken nose, luckily the box smashed into the top of my hard head, though I was distraught for an instant I managed to regain myself and continue swimming. I came out of the water a minute down and found myself biking in the third, and much smaller bike pack.
I had to do a lot of biking in the pack if I wanted to have any chance on the run. My bike pack, much smaller and all of us working very hard, lost a few minutes to the lead and chase packs.
I came off the bike and tried to hit my run, I had done so much work on the bike I knew right away I was going to have a tough time finding my running legs. I managed to run down a couple people from the chase pack, but not the finish I wanted. Overall, I finished the race in 20th . I am going to go on a massive swim focus and commit myself to coming out of the water in the lead pack. As for now, I’m going to do a lot of distance training as I will be competing in world’s 70.3 series in Florida in November.
I arrived in Drummondville just in time for the race meeting on Friday afternoon. The traffic was a bit chaotic driving through Montreal, which made my drive a grueling 8 hours. Doing some race preparation on Saturday at the race course I felt alright, a little fatigued but nothing unusual that an athlete doesn’t feel all the time. So I would say I felt ready to go.
Sunday arrived and it felt like forever waiting around for 1:00pm, otherwise known as GO TIME. I did a little run in the morning from my hotel and arrived at the race site about 2.5 hours early. I avoided the sun, sat in the shade and focused on my upcoming race. Afternoon races have to be the worse, all that waiting seems to drag on and on for so long. Finally, it was warm up time I did my usual warm up and finally the race was set to start.
The swim started great, I had a great position and I managed to get somewhere near the lead pack of the swim during the first lap. By the end of the first swim lap I was a little behind but not much, still in decent position. As I re-entered the water I put my head down and gave it my all – only to run head first into a wooden box that was marking the distance. If I had glanced up that second to site I would have had a broken nose, luckily the box smashed into the top of my hard head, though I was distraught for an instant I managed to regain myself and continue swimming. I came out of the water a minute down and found myself biking in the third, and much smaller bike pack.
I had to do a lot of biking in the pack if I wanted to have any chance on the run. My bike pack, much smaller and all of us working very hard, lost a few minutes to the lead and chase packs.
I came off the bike and tried to hit my run, I had done so much work on the bike I knew right away I was going to have a tough time finding my running legs. I managed to run down a couple people from the chase pack, but not the finish I wanted. Overall, I finished the race in 20th . I am going to go on a massive swim focus and commit myself to coming out of the water in the lead pack. As for now, I’m going to do a lot of distance training as I will be competing in world’s 70.3 series in Florida in November.
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