Hi everybody. I decided to make a blog to capture my races and really think about what I did right and what I did wrong in the hope of becoming faster and also to possibly help others.

Introduction

I chose IM CDA because I could not do IM Whistler (I did this one in 2016) this year as I had weddings to go to. CDA is a little far from Vancouver Canada, but perfectly derivable in 7 hours if traffic is OK. My 2017 races before this had been a 10th place in AG at HIM Victoria and a 19th place in AG at the HIM CDA (used as a race reconnaissance for the IM). Training had been pretty heavy leading up to this with my coach putting my through 20 hour weeks. Adding on a few weddings I may have missed one or 2 training sessions. I also was coming off a broken color bone in February.

My wife and I drove down Thursday night and stayed in North Bend and continued driving the next day to arrive around noon on Friday (breaking the drive up into 2 parts was nice). I knew of a few others from Vancouver who were coming down with me so I wasn’t the sole racer from Vancouver. I checked in easily, got to my airbnb and proceeded to get my bags ready and my bike organized. I ate a lot on Friday and maybe 3/4 the amount on Saturday. I drank powdered beet juice (great for respiratory purposes). I knew it was going to be a hot day out there on Sunday, so I made sure that I salted everything. I did not receive much sleep the night before the race (something i need to change).

Here is a breakdown of my nutrition and thoughts between the prerace morning till the end of the race:

Prerace Nutrition

oatmeal with instant coffee in it and nuts

slice of bread, almond butter and a banana

bottle of water with amino acids and beet powder

bottle of water with electrolyte salt drink

Swim (10th AG, 1:05, 1:40/100km pace)

Felt decent out there for the first lap…didnt push it hard

Second lap…lots of people in the water…had to go around a lot of people

No issues…breathing felt greatTransition

Rather slow…should ensure i put my shoes on tightly first time

Bike (9th AG, 5:39)

Ate a half a waffle every 12-15 mins (45 carbs every 40 mins) and constantly sipped on electrolyte drink…no issues with this at all… some waffles flew out of my bento box but i had extras….I may have not eaten enough….my energy didnt spike it just felt smooth throughout

Picked up a lot of bottles and mixed them with salt tablets (or ate the tablets and drank some water). I really focused on drinking a lot of water.

One GU gel at 30 mins left in the race…actually did wonders and felt fresh and fast for the start of the run

Some other notes: My screens for triathlon bike were not optimized (didnt have cadence and power on same screen)….thought i had checked this before but guess i didnt. Should have had higher cadence as i did feel some slight right knee pain when cadence dropped due to wind. I really noticed that i was going much slower than people up hills (weight?) and then i would destroy them on slight declines

Major saddle soreness throughout (this may have slowed my down a bit, it really was a lot of pain)…i have a huge bump now 😦 I did just order a mistica which i found for a great price and i think i will angle my seat a degree down

Transition

BOA system on my shoes was harder to tighten then i thought it would…had to stop quickly to tighten it…decided to go sock less for breath ability….worked amazing!

Run (3:51 or 5:30/km pace)

first 20km felt great (5min/km pace)

1 bottle of EFS (400cals) in the first lap (I should just carry 2 of these and then switch to coke)

picked up my second bottle of efs and water combination but it was sour…used it for half of the 2nd lap but my stomach was not feeling good….ditched it for coke (turned out to be rather fizzy and hot for the most part)

Started to get muscle soreness after 21kms (6min/km pace)…coke helped to keep me going…cadence was still there but my stride was smaller and more robotic

started eating some blocks and pretzels otherwise i just searched out coke

Had about 3 -5 chewable salt tablet in the later part of the run.

Passed a lot of people so i guesss i paced the bike well…it was a warzone on the running field…never seen so many people walking

Overall (8th AG, 10:45, 44th overall)

Throughout the entire race my breathing was controlled and my brain felt clear….it was my quads in the end after km 21 that held me back. Seems a lot of others struggled so I guess I should be happy with my result (2 spots away from Kona). I think with some minor adjustments and as you said focus on some long rides and I should be golden.