Shawnigan Lake Triathlon 2014 Post Race Report

I competed in my first triathlon of the year this past weekend. It was the sprint distance at the Shawnigan Lake Tri, part of the Subaru Western Tri Series, which was recently acquired by Ironman. It was an experience that I was only partially prepared for, both psychologically and physically, and I am still processing how I feel about my performance. I'll post photos in a separate post.

Physically: I knew that I wouldn’t really be ready to do very well this early in the year. This past winter-spring I have mostly been in the gym working on strength training, focusing on my core, hips and glutes/upper legs in order to support better (i.e., more efficient and pain-free but not necessarily faster) running. I have only been running and biking outside (and on my bike instead of the gym’s stationary bike) for about a month. And my pool was closed for a few weeks right when my training plan had me committed to increasing my swimming volume. These aren’t excuses, just background. The lack of much running/cycling prior to the race was anticipated. This was never intended to be an important race for me performance-wise, more of a warm-up or practice race to see where I should really be focusing my efforts before heading into my real ‘season’. That, and an excuse to visit some family: my BIL and SIL and their 2 kids live about 30 minutes from the race site. Anyway, the point is, I knew this would not be a great race, but my goal was to finish, hopefully feeling good, learn something about where to focus my training efforts going forward, and to see some people I really enjoy spending time with.

Psychologically: There were two psychological hurdles for me. The first was just being OK with not doing better than last year. I don’t tend to do thing half-way, and so being in a race where I knew I was not going to perform supper well (for me), was something I had to deal with. But since this was mostly by design, this was relatively minor. The second was just the kind of triathlon this was. Last year was my first year doing tris, and I competed in 2 much more low key event – the Qualicum Beach and Cultus Lake Triathlons. The first one I would highly recommend for newbies, as there aren’t too many intensely serious athletes to intimate you, and the organization, volunteers, and community are great. (There are still spots open for this year’s race, if you’re interested.) Cultus Lake was a little more intense, mostly because it also included an Olympic distance race, and it’s an open water swim (in contrast to the pool swim at QB) which is a little less inviting to first timers of the ‘less than perfectly fit’ variety. I knew that Shawnigan Lake is a more intense triathlon – it attracts more people from farther away and this year (possibly others, I don’t know) was a qualifying event for age-group spots to the worlds next year – but knowing it is one thing, experiencing it is another. I have been training to meet my own fitness goals, and feel pretty good about my progress (although my migraines have come back, something I am not at all happy about), but I am not vying for any of those age-grouper world championship spots to say the least. That kind of commitment to training just doesn’t fit into my life, either as it is, or as I would want it to be. But plenty of people who were there are the kind of people trying to get one of those spots, or more. And there were a few of the typical a-holes who felt they needed to walk around (in the rain no less) with their trisuits only half on before the race showing off their physiques. And the bikes! The amount of money in that transition area was crazy! Especially given the course, which is really hilly and curvy, not the ideal course for a tri bike. But it’s hard to show off with a road bike I guess. (Although if the Giro is any indication, the professional cyclists seem to be able to find some pretty sweet road bikes, as far as I can tell…) Anyway, there were enough of us regular folks that I could focus on so as to not get caught up in feeling inadequate. I met a really nice woman from Saskatoon who helped me remember why I was there. She and her husband seem to spend all their weekends travelling around doing triathlons. Neither of them were the hard-body type to say the least. Indeed, she told me that she is almost always the last woman, sometimes person, on the course (which she was yesterday), but they keep at it. It’s a way for them to be active together. Not all of the serious athletes are jerks, of course. I just find them intimidating, and that affects how I feel about my own involvement and so how I perform. In my field we call it imposter syndrome. Luckily (or not) I’ve dealt with it for years in my work life, and so know how to get past it. It’s something that is in my own head, not imposed on me by others (most of the more competitive athletes I actually interacted – which you had to do since we were were all in the racks together – were really nice). It helped that my BIL was also participating. He is quite fit and very active, but had never done a tri before, and was competing on his commuter bike. He even left his rack on the bike. So it was about having fun competing with ourselves, not the rest of the pack. As long as I thought about that, I was fine.

Race summary – I finished in 1:35:56. 7/10 in my age group. I was aiming for between 1:35 and 1:40, so I was satisfied with my overall time. But I had hoped to place higher in my age group. If I had had the same time last year I would have. But it looks like some speedies moved up this year. Oh well.

Swim: My swim sucked. There’s no two ways about it. I started hyperventilating early on and could not get control of my breath. I didn’t panic though. I flipped over on to my back and swam that way most of the 500 m. Faster than breaststroke but I could get air. I think it was the flailing and crashing around at the start. I had warmed up, and the water wasn’t as cold as I had anticipated. I held back at the start to avoid the crashing and banging, but I was fast enough that I was quickly in the middle of too many arms and legs. At least I didn’t panic. So my swim was 12:02. I figure I could have done it at least 1:30 minutes faster, but figured out that that wouldn’t have affected my placement, so I’m less frustrated about it than I was.

Bike: I completed the 22 kms in 50:19. I think this was the fastest kph bike I’ve done yet. Not super fast, but I’m really happy with it. I enjoyed the hilly course (although I didn’t love the fact that it was wet). The one big hill wasn’t too bad, and I passed 3-4 people going up. In fact, I pretty much only ever passed people on hills. Given that I haven’t really started my bike training yet, I’m feeling pretty good about my bike goals this year. I’m never going to be objectively fast, but I’m actually starting to enjoy cycling, not just endure it.

Run: I had some issues with my watch at the beginning, couldn’t get it into timing mode, or just plain clock mode. I fiddled with it for too long, which meant that my arms weren’t doing what they needed to do. That slowed me down a little bit. And I’ve learned, next time, make sure my watch is ready to go! The 5 km took me 27:31. I know I can do it a little faster next time. But probably not too too much faster. The course was nice and pretty flat. I would have liked a 1 km marker, as I like to know when I can speed up for the last bit of the run. But all in all, not a bad first effort of the year.

My transitions were a little slow. There were a few small things I can easily adjust for next time, so they’ll get better.

All in all, except for the swim, I’m pretty happy with my performance. And even there, I’m feeling good that I didn’t panic. I figured out how to deal with it, and didn’t let the swim put me in a bad space for the rest of the race. I liked the course, and the volunteers were great! I would do it again. And it sounds like my BIL will be right there with me!