I’m on a BOAT and Montréal is calling. - in transition

One day in, next day gone. I am cruising at about 25thousand ft up in the air and on my way to Montreal. I am a little blue to be leaving friends and family in Victoria but on the other side of this continent Montreal is calling. But here is what I have been up to in the past week or so.

The past weeks focus has been mainly running and some hard efforts on the bike. Swimming has been consistent in maintaining that feel of the water. My confidence in my running in the past couple of weeks has seen some great improvements.

All starting with last Fridays run at the Cedar Hill Golf Course where at the end of a set of 3 loops I ran a personal best on this very difficult loop running 11.40. Tuesday I ran with Simon and Kyle for 5x1km at 5km pace on Lochside trail. Again these Km repeats are slightly downhill for the odds and slightly uphill for the evens. It is amazing how ones performance is boosted when in good company. The Km’s were strong and a good effort but I felt in control of my speed. Here are the splits: 3.01, 2.57, 2.51, 3.00, 2.52. Friday we were down at Beacon Hill Park after a difficult swim workout and an always challenging Motor pacing session. The Motor Pacing ended up being 2x30min of steady effort then, 6x1min all out. The 30min pieces were fast but it was more the 1 minute pieces that put me in the hole. With an initial wattage of avg. 750 watts and settling into an avg. 450 watts we finished the ride knackered. Couple of hours later we had a set of 3x The Harder than Hamish Loop building 1-3. Feeling a tad bit ill and my body at its end I a managed to run 6.35, 6.20 and 6.17 for the Harder than Hamish loops. Solid day finished with a swim in the Ocean off of Dallas Road.

Saturday and this Tuesday we had a couple of good Brick workouts Saturdays brick focused on the bike where as Tuesday’s focus was the run off the bike. Both included some fun tactical riding. Transitions are feeling great and I am feeling very strong both on and off the bike.

A non-triathlon related highlight would have to be a couple sailing ventures out in the waters of Cadbaro Bay. On a couple of Laser sailboats I quickly picked it up again and became comfortable with the high winds outside the bay in the gulf. These are small fast boats but with a rather large sail and shallow haul these boats fly! When you get going with a good wind, you are hiked out fighting against the wind, leaning way out over the water (to keep the sailboat upright) and the water sprays out to the side as you hydroplane across the choppy water. On Monday Patrick and I maneuvered through Trinity island through a thin channel tacking back and forth continuously into a headwind; a challenging rout to take. Although returning home was very fast with winds up to 15 knots.

So on my way to Montreal. The race is the Couteau du lac ITU Pan American Cup. The rout is a very simple one. FLAT, FLAT, FLAT. 6 laps on the bike out and back. The Run is similar. I am excited to race but the main focus will be on the week following, The Des moines Hi-Vee World cup. I’ve had a lot of solid training over the last month or so. I know I am capable of something good, now it is show time.

Before I bid you goodnight, I would like to Congratulate Shailie Sanbrooks on being upgraded to Category 2 Cycling after her awesome performance at the K-town Classic Cycling festival.

Ciao for now,
Andrew McCartney