Canada Day Challenge Open Water Swim - 2k
What a fun Canada Day! Of course holidays aren’t really for taking time off, but for training and racing more, right?! (My husband will kill me for that one ;))
The day began with a 6am start, meeting Team Pink at their place and heading out to the Canada Day Swim Challenge out at beautiful Sasamat Lake. I scored a late entry by arriving super early to put my name on the waiting list for the 2k swim. Unfortunately Martina and I’s strategy of sticking on Kieffer’s feet the whole way did not go as planned as she zoomed out of our reach in the first 300m! So much for the draft. I ended up lugging my way alone around the lake, but was able to outsmart my brain at the ¾ mark. From experience I’ve noticed this is where I usually start to flake out, technique goes out the window and my pace slows. Today I was on top of the mental games though and brought myself back into my stroke. The final few hundred meters were a sighting challenge with the sun in my eyes, but I finished strong and in 3rd place with a time of 27:09.
It was great to see all the LETC’ers out at the swim as well. I’m particularly proud of Mr. Team Pink himself for his incredible 4k swim. When I first met him, I think he would’ve rather stuck needles in his eye than attempted swimming such a distance “for fun.” Way to go Brian!
Then after a few moments of lounging in the sun, it was back home for some food, a nap and down to Yaletown for the Grand Prix Crit race! I have fond memories of winning the Cat 4 race last year. The atmosphere is just fantastic and the course is incredibly technical and challenging. This year, I was racing with the big girls in Cat 1,2,3- but with the support of Team Glotman-Simpson. It was definitely a race of many ups and downs- I’ll include a separate debriefing race report for this one- but a huge learning experience and proved to myself that I do still have some of my bike mojo. Now I’m all revved up for Superweek in the coming weeks! But first…I finally start off my 2009 tri racing with the Squamish Triathlon this upcoming weekend. So excited! I’ve promised to take it easy on the run as I’m just back to running…though as Coach Alan noted, we’ll see how I react once I’ve got that number on….