I am so impressed with how fast the ladies field was this year and how deep the talent ran. Wow to both Heather Jackson and Heather Wurtele for continuing to hold this race by the throat by trading off wins, this was HJ’s year. Welcome to super-fast Holly Lawrence who came in under the radar and almost rode away with the race and held off fourth place Alicia Kaye. The Canadians definitely came out guns blazing with Angela Duncan in fifth and solid Rachel McBride in 6th. Magali would have been in the mix without a mechanical. Go Canada! Speaking of Canada, how about 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th in the men’s with Lionel, Brent, Taylor and Trevor kicking ass in top 10. Never has the Canadian long course talent been deeper. Add to that my friend Marilyn Arsenault’s win in the master’s division at the Carlsbad 5000 – yay Mar! Good times.
Most of team Canada… missing the Wurteles, Angela Naeth and Alicia Kaye and including coaches Cliff English and Barry Shepley. What do you think of the new Rudy Project WARP glasses on me?
I was back in 11th. Race reports when you aren’t going that fast are difficult to make interesting. There are only attempted excuses or explanations for why you weren’t keeping up. These facts aren’t about how to be faster which are much juicier. However, my attempt to unravel things might be comforting if you did your best and weren’t good as well… because that is all there is. I have been training well, I thought I was going to be pretty good and I didn’t race any leg of the race close to the vicinity I expected.
I didn’t get off to a good start as the worst part of my race was the swim. It was my worst swim ever – even worse than the time I tripped running into the water in Clearwater at 70.3 Worlds and fell flat on my face. Wow, that is a bit of a downer/reality check/surprise because I thought my swimming might be really good. So that needs to be rectified ASAP. The bike started with a bunch of wasted time in the first 7 miles with a minor mechanical I handled poorly and finished after I just pedaled. The run started and finished the same… which was actually maybe can be spun positive as I was consistent. All of this created my deficit at the finish line I wasn’t overly stoked about. But it was the race I put together so – moving on.
Rockin the Champion System running with Liz Lyles
I’ve done this race in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and now 2015. That is a lot of Oceansides! My bag of results includes chronologically: off the bike first and 6th/winner/13th/7th/11th. For a course that I would think is actually pretty good for me my results here are definitely mixed. Other than the year I won here, when it was cold, without a training camp in February in warm California or Tucson weather I have been very average to start the year. So maybe I should expect less.
I would prefer to be flying all of the time, of course. If I look at the last many seasons the fact is training at home delays my best fitness, I need spring training down south if I want to get in shape sooner. This year I took an extra-long break this winter due to illness, changed my training/coaching and approached things differently so I guess I can expect different responses to that training. Going away wasn’t an option because I wanted to work on some technical aspects of my racing with Kelly in Victoria. So this means I need to check my ego, get my butt kicked so that I can get an appropriate dose of hard racing stimulus, and then forget the result and focus on the process on how to improve the next one. I pocket that fitness and go back to work knowing what needs the work.
11th on the day I had isn’t that bad considering the load of talent in the event and the fact I know I wasn’t near my best. Lots of girls came locked and loaded and I know I wasn’t the only one who has some unfinished business after this event.
Thanks very much to Mark Andrews for coming from Trek in Wisconsin to help me dial in some last minute details on my new Trek bike and for side line cheers. Thanks Bontrager, Shimano, Rudy Project, Blueseventy, Champion System, Powertap and Cycleops, USANA, Frontrunners Victoria and Asics, SciCon bags, Synergy Wellness, and Procity Racing for support and I look forward to another season with all of you! Thanks to Kelly Guest and all his juniors for pushing me… looks like there is more work to do.
Some goodies from Champion System and Blueseventy. Seems like the first trip to the USA is athlete Christmastime 🙂
The non-racing fun stuff from the weekend was the amazing time I had with my friend Monica (my chemistry buddy from Uvic) and her adorable family. Five days with those kids was not enough J
This is a message Amaya left on my bed for me to find when I got home the night before the race
This is my fan club on race day
I also am very thankful to have my friend and fit guru Nestor take a look at my bike after the race and confirm it needed some tweaks to be like my bike from last year. I changed to ski bend bars for 2015 and didn’t quite get it right. Studeo DNA has been very helpful in me finding where to sit on my bike.
Thanks so much Nes!
I am on my way back to YYJ to regroup and get ready to try again in St George. I couldn’t pick tougher fields this year but that was the goal, to try to perform when everyone fast is around. Second go in five weeks J
In the end… it is all good in California 🙂 In the short term I definitely need to sort out a haircut. Yikes.