Cedar 12km and Training Update

After a tough tough week of major miles on the bike we did take it back a notch in the week leading into the Cedar 12km. My swimming however has finally clicked. I had been concerned with my fitness in the water and to be honest I had just felt sloppy. In the past week it just seemed to click. I am recovering fully and swimming well.

I did enter into the Cedar 12km rather fatigued from the past two weeks and in warm up I had my concerns. I had no expectations except the desire to run a personal best on the course. The Cedar 12km is definitely the most challenging event of the Series. Pacing was hard to judge with two climbs on the way out, two on the way home and rolling in between.

Start

From the gun Geoff Martinson set a strong strong pace. I set my own pace of 3.06 for the first couple of Kilometres. From then on I paid less attention to pace and more about heart rate and my rate of perceived effort. I ran through 5km at 15.45 which unfortunately got me to the lowest elevation of the course. The worst was yet to come.

I came to the roundabout and saw Geoff running about 30-40 seconds ahead and the same sized gap to 3rd place.

Leading into the climb at the 9km mark I looked up the road and was concerned that I could not see Geoff up the road. I passed the water station only to see Geoff on the Sidelines. Evidently some calf cramping had forced him to pull out.

So suddenly, unexpectedly I was leading the race. I re-focus as I began the biggest climb of the day. My split at the 10km mark was 32.25 with still some climbing to go. For the rest of the run I focused on chasing after the lead bikes and trying hard to make up for the drops in pace due to the hills.

Finish

Thanks to the race organizer, John Durken

With 150m to go the road turns into an energy robbing grass field. I tried sprinting but basically the harder I ran at this point the more I felt I was flailing. I was pretty sure I looked like the sloppiest runner. I ran it in for First place in a time of 39.04. This is a small personal best. However, considering I had a group of 4 to run with last year I am content with my effort.
RESULT CLICK HERE.

Jen and I with Plaques by Angellos Glaros

Unfortunately I believe this will be the last VIRS event I will be able to do. My first triathlon of the season on March 9th is the Clermont ITU and will be my season opener followed by the Sarasota ITU on March 16th.


The majority of my training partners have left for a training camp down in Florida. For financial reasons I have remained in Victoria. I have been obsessed with the Les Misérables soundtrack lately and the song, empty chairs and empty tables comes to mind. "My Friends! My friends....They're all gone!...." Ok ok I can manage on my own for a few weeks.

I have been networking which is working quite well. Some rides with Houshang. Saturday I jumped in on one of his awesome training camps. Saturday's ride included a 50km team Time trial. I was grouped up with Curtis Dearden, Raphaël Lalumière and Emile De Rosnay and several others. Lets just say it is good to every so often be up against the ropes. I survived and feel stronger because of it.

Tron & I

In the Swimming world I have joined up with Island Swimming which unfortunately means earlier mornings. I managed to get some video of myself swimming. I know that it is invaluable to have film like this. My biggest critic is myself and so looking through this video I see several issues I intend to think about for tomorrows swim.

Hope all is well n'Ciao for now,
Andrew McCartney