North Shore Race Report

[gwaterman]

Hey Everyone, hope your weekend was great!! So I went down to race the North Shore Spring triathlon.  I ended up coming 2nd, which was nice and I again had a great run!!  Here's the low-down!
The swim was in a pool I was seeded 2nd, we had to do 10 laps of a 37m pool.  Everyone gets in 2 seconds apart and then it is a free for all.  **I teach math but cannot for the life of me count to 10, turns out I like doing extra** With no warm up (we weren't allowed - I just did some swim stroke and bouncing around to get a little warm) I jumped in and set off after the leader, I stayed with him, but the thing with this race is there are like 25 people in a lane and I lost sight of him, he got out and I stayed in.  But I was swimming well and felt great! Out of the swim I went into T1 fast and put my helmet on and went got up to speed and put my feet in.  Turns out I was chasing a guy that started behind me and never laped me......huh?  Not to worry i just went for it.  I managed to control my breathing and I kept my watts around 280-290. My cadence was around 95-100. The bike had 4 laps with 2, 180 degree turns on each lap, I went 30:24 (think this included my transitions).
 Coming into T2 I caught a guy and another guy (Rob Eakin) came up from behind, we went out of T2 together and it was on!!!! I set the pace to try and control the race and reel in the one guy in front.  After about 10 mins of running we caught the leader and that is when I made my surge, I had a very high cadence and relaxed upper body, as well as what I felt was really controlled breathing.  I won by a few seconds which was nice, but Rob Eakin left behind me in the swim so he got the win. The thing I take away from this race is tactically I was there, and I think I have more room to improve as I haven’t done any speed work yet.    What a difference being confident in your fitness makes!!!! 
I’m really stoked for a good block of training, see you all next weekend at the century ride!

Take care and thanks for reading. 

GW
I had a little video check it out. 
www.geoffmwaterman.blogspot.com

[GinnySellars]

CONGRATULATIONS GEOFF!!
So, you did an extra lap in the pool? I thought they crossed under the lane lines and did a lap from one end to the other, then ran back and did it again...new scenario this year?

You look awesome running.

A questions for you....what do you think the speed work would improve for you? Stride length or leg speed? Respiratory depth? I'm only asking because I'd like to know what you plan to work.

[Andrew]

Great effort and race report!

Tough to know you would have won with better counting, but also part of the mental game in these kind of pool events. Great bike time considering the tight turns that force you to slow each lap. And very positive run result considering your return from injury.

Keep up the great work!

I think from watching the very short video clip that there is room for improvement in both foot speed and stride length. The addition of some specific hip flexibility work will certainly help with the stride length.

As for the addition of speed work, I think if the speed is controlled by maintaining a goal cadence, or by working on specific stride length, then it makes sense to slowly add to that. I would suggest you try to get up to Kelowna for some work with Chris on the track, as he can watch very carefully how your form is at the different cadence choices. You should have the Polar monitor from Simon by now to help with monitoring this.

I would be very wary of thinking that by adding blind speed sessions that you will improve your times dramatically. Take a balanced approach, work on the weakness, and then attack your goals with confidence as the season progresses!

We need to get you into BPR Gear!!!