Milton Sprint Tri - Pre Race Report

This week has been a horrible lead up to a race. One of my worst training weeks in a long time, for sure.

Monday got off to a strong start in the pool as I was swimming well and working on my form. I was then super excited to get a chance to participate in my first FMCT TT this season and made the trip up to Brampton under cloudy skies. The rain stayed in the clouds but my night was cut short by an incident on my bike. The rear skewer came loose on the ride to the start and when I applied the rear brakes it jammed the wheel and the rubber slid along the pavement, popping before reaching the start area. I stayed to helped out but was disappointed in my luck. I then had to make up for the lack of workout by putting in a late night run after I returned home and put the kids to bed.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had big work commitments which took away my usual lunch workouts. At night, I was so blasted from the work load that I ended up crashing well before my regular bedtime. With my better half having an early meeting on Wednesday, I could not slip in a training session before work. She then had her sports fun that night so I was on kid duties until she returned from her much deserved post game social. I was thinking about getting to the gym after she returned but I just could not find the energy to pull myself from bed.

So to get myself out of the funk, I slapped on a smaller backpack this morning and set off a little earlier to work. I ended up running 13k on the Meadowvale trails and pushed pretty hard on the final half of the run. I am now hoping to get away from work in time to put in another swim at lunch and then, if all goes to plan, get a ride in tonight.

On Friday, I plan to swim at lunch and then do a short, easy brick workout before taking Saturday off. I have found that, at my age, I feel the effects of even lighter workouts the day before races. I tried them in the past and my results were never what I expected as my legs were always tired and sluggish. A lot of this is mental as I know they could not have been drained too much from those light efforts but in my head I always used it as an excuse for the power outage on race day.

We are about 72 hours out from the first triathlon of the year and I can't wait to see how things play out. I admit that the pressure I felt before the duathlons last season created a heck of a lot more nervous energy. I knew that I would consider the race a failure if I did not finish in the top 3. In the triathlon though, I cannot expect those type of results with the size and calibre of the fields on that side of the multisport event. I guess deep down I would be satisfied with a top 20 placing this weekend and top 5 in my AG. I would love to post a PB on the bike split (the course is always the same and I have been a touch slower every year since my rookie season) and run under four minutes per km on the tough 7.5km run course.

Best of luck to all those racing this weekend! There are plenty of different events taking place so best wishes to everyone in all reaches of the racing world!

Larry