Peach Classic Race Report – 19.07.09

[Rant deleted]

Choppy, Jeff and I left Vancouver on Friday at noon to avoid traveling Saturday morning, the day before the race. The trip was uneventful, the Motel turned out to be quite decent (AC, swimming pool, and full kitchen with new appliances).

Saturday morning we woke up and went for a ride in the morning on the race course, and a short run right after. This turned out to be a great idea because by noon the heat was already way past pleasant levels. Thanks to the AC we took a 1hr powernap and headed to the lake in the afternoon for a 30min swim. After that we went back to the motel, took Ryan in with us for the night, had 1.2kg of pasta amongst the 4 of us, and went to bed at 8pm to get the ideal 8hrs of sleep.

The night was longer than expected, and it was not because we over slept but because I was awake at least 1/1.5 hrs courtesy of the AC noise, being hot/cold, sleeping with another men in a double bed, 4 people constantly going to the washroom (staying hydrated has some downsides), and so on. Still, I was really looking forward to racing in the Okanagan, and when all the alarms went off at the same time, I was ready to give it a go.

Breakfast was as usual, with the small exception of having the cereal and the chocolate milk combined into one (we decided against of regular milk this weekend). Bagel with PB and banana, instant coffee, get in the car, get to transition by 5am (7am race start).

Warm up: 30 min bike ride on the run course (we had not seen yet the 2km hill everyone was scaring us about), 20 min jog with some pickups, 10 min swim. The warm up was anticipating how things were going to turn out, I was feeling good, but conditions were tough. It was windy, we water was very choppy, the race buoys were getting blown all over the place, the bike was going to have a headwind on the way out (which is mostly uphill/rollers), and tailwind on the way back (rollers and downhill into transition). At least it was not going to be THAT hot.

Swim: After warm up I found Jeff Symonds, Jordan Rapp and Jason Shortis and lined up with them at the start. I knew one of them was going to be out of the water in the top places so I wanted to stick with them. The swim start was rough, lots of hitting and swimming over people for the first 300m until we started dropping people. 600m into the swim I found myself in 3rd place and 1st guy was getting away, so I bridged the gap and identified Jeff. Conditions were tough, hard to keep a straight line, sighting meant drinking gulps of lake water, and therefore stuck behind him and followed the bubbles. We exited the swim together with a 20-30 seconds lead on 3rd place.
T1: Uneventful, exited transition 20m behind Jeff.

Bike: Quickly came to the realization that despite feeling good on the warm up it was not going to be my day on the bike. I usually feel good right away but today I was loosing ground quickly. A couple of km into the ride we hit the Vancouver Hill, and run out of gears. How could that happen? I did not run out of gears the day before, hmmm, maybe I just went too hard out of T1… Now past the hill we start hitting the rollers and the wind head on. 10km into the ride I hear Jordans disc FLY by, hmmm, maybe its because he is a rocket on the bike, nothing I can do… Turnaround comes around and I have lost 4 minutes on Jeff and 2 minutes on Jordan already, hmmm… maybe I am just having a shitty day on the bike! The ride back into transition was a little better thanks to the tailwind and downhills, but still every single uphill hurt, legs were burning and power was just not there.

T2: Uneventful, exited transition 5 minutes behind Jeff, 3 behind Jordan, and 50 seconds ahead of Jason.

Run: The day before the race we went to the Bike Barn to check it out, and I got a chance to chat with Jeff about the course. He warned me to take it easy on the uphill to avoid putting myself in a hole and have a decent last 5km, so I listened. Who else better than last years winner to give you advice? Out of transition I run strong, but holding back just a little bit. I heard Steve King announcing Jason out on the run course within my first 200m so I knew I was in “danger”. Still stuck to the plan and did not look back until the turnaround point. The climb was strong, smooth and very steady, I was feeling well. Still 50 seconds ahead, and with Jeff and Jordan way out of sight, it was a matter of holding on to 3rd place. 50 seconds in 5km are a lot of time, however I am not characteristic for having strong last 5km, neither for running downhill. The next 3km downhill I focused on turnover and stride length, and surprisingly found myself running well and feeling relatively fresh legs (thanks Jeff!). Into the flats, 1.5km straight to the finish I look back, and see Jason much closer than I remembered… not good, time to step on the gas. I was caught and quickly dopped by Olly about 2 weeks ago in Squamish, and that hurt psychologically, I was not going to let that happen again. I run hard, run for my life, wishing I had a HRM on to see what ridiculous number I was putting out. 200m to go, I look back again, he is as far as he was last time: I think I am safe.

This race was tough. The bike and run are tough every year, but wind made them a bit harder this year and complicated the swim as well. It was not too hot but still hot enough that I poured 6 cups of water on me during the run, and drank to full bottles on the bike. I was not pleased with my swim (technique felt very off), not pleased with my bike split (I know I can do much better), but very very pleased with my run. After a rough day I still pulled myself together and had a very good run to hold on to 3rd place, with a run split only 2 minutes slower than Jeff.

What is next? Kits challenge on Saturday, a 40km TTT on Sunday. I might skip the Self Transcendence Tri in 2 weeks in Victoria as my hip is still not 100% and Nationals are getting closer.

Pictures from the trip to come, thanks for reading!

PS: It was very nice to hang out with all the guys at some point on the weekend: Choppy, Jeff (tall), Ryan, Anthony, Jeff S, Justine, and Mark S amongst others