Rob Eakin Triathlete

Race Report – Canada Day Swim and Yaletown Grand Prix

There are plenty of ways to celebrate our nation's birthday. Some enjoy a parade, some enjoy fireworks, and others enjoy a cold one by the lake. I prefer this...

Canada Day for me meant a day full of racing. The morning was spent at Sasamat Lake for an 2k open water swim race and then to Yaletown for the afternoon Yaletown Grand Prix. Not everyone's idea of holiday but I did get to enjoy a cold one with the boys after the races.

I tagged the swim as a solid 2k threshold workout rather than a true "race". So off the start I took it smooth and built into pace to the first buoy. As I reached that buoy I had begun to pass a number of swimmers and then after the buoy settled in behind another swimmer.

I followed this swimmer all the way along the back stretch which turned out to be a mistake. As we came around the buoy to head back to the finish, I decided to pick it up and passed him quickly. It was obvious at that point that I should have done that way sooner and looking my heart rate data after the race confirmed that as I was barely above aerobic threshold the entire time I was behind him.

So I pushed the pace to the finish line, passing a couple of swimmers along the way and finished in 31 minutes flat, a minute off where I wanted to be. So, a little disappointing (especially since I finished just behind all the boys) but still a PB and a decent workout.

The Yaletown race was more of an unknown for me. After watching on the sidelines the past two years, I was excited to finally get out there and test myself against some strong bike riders. At the same time though, I was nervous as I had heard from so many people that it was a dangerous race (but isn't all bike racing really?)

So off the start I hung back to get comfortable going around some of the tight corners at race speed. Unfortunately, the boys at the front went hard straight from the starting gun so there wasn't much time to get comfortable.

The high pace quickly broke the pack up and I had to spend the first 3 or 4 laps riding through those who had been dropped to get back to the main group.

By the time I had found a group to work with, there was a group that was clear of everyone leading the race. Our group worked to reel the leaders in but there just wasn't enough firepower in the group. A number of times when I went to the front of the group I would look back to find I had broken the group apart. It was a nice ego boost but not what we needed to catch the riders in front.

We managed to reel in a couple riders along the way but in the end we were pulled off with about 5 laps left as we were losing ground to the lead group. It was a disappointing end to the race to be sure.

At the same time though, it was a ton of fun. The Yaletown course was way more difficult than the UBC course we do each Tuesday as with so many corners, there was never a chance to recover. And that technical nature of the Yaletown course made riding way more interesting (even if some would say more dangerous) and really lived up to the description that crit racing is "like NASCAR, but with more passing".

So I can't think of a better way to have spent my Canada Day, even if most would argue. Up next is the Vancouver Sprint at Jericho on Sunday.

Race Report – North Shore Sprint Triathlon

"That was fun."

-Geoff Waterman

I couldn't agree with him more. Not simply because of the result (which was a nice bonus) but because of the competition. And I think it was written all over my face at the finish line.

As I said the day before the race, I had big expectations. After a couple of weeks of solid racing and training, I finally felt completely ready to race and for the first time went into the race with the mindset to win. Nothing else, just win.

With a swim that started with the fastest swimmers, I would be about 5th into the pool in my lane (an important fact later on in the race). The swim was rather uneventful, managing to avoid any big slowdowns with slower swimmers but also unable to find anyone the right speed to latch on behind to.

After a relaxed 1st half, I would work fairly hard in the 2nd half of the 740m and finish the swim in about 11 minutes. Immediately out of the pool I spotted Clarke just ahead of me and caught him in transition as we had racked our bikes near each other. I rocked my first transition, leaving Clarke behind me and headed out on the bike.

At the first turn around I tried to count how many racers I had ahead of me (it would turn out to be 4 I think) but wasn't completely sure so I simply put my head down and rode hard to catch as many as I could (and leave Clarke even further behind).

With so many other racers on course after the first lap, it became almost impossible to keep track of where I was but with each turn around it seemed like I was putting time on Clarke behind me and ever so slowly, catching Geoff Waterman in front of me. Sure enough, just before transition I caught Geoff and would follow him in.

I finished the bike (including both transitions) in 29:27, almost a minute faster than anyone else (a fact which would get me DQ'd from the results for a time but was eventually fixed). Obviously, things couldn't have gone much better on the bike.

Being right on Geoff's heels into transition, I was right on them coming out of transition as well. And as soon as we crested the hill out of transition, I saw Ryan Smiley was just ahead of us. And so the real fun began when about 500m later we had caught him and were running as a pack of 3.

Geoff would later tell me he thought to himself "this is going to hurt" but personally, I was just excited at this point. After years of training and watching great ITU races where finishes come down to head-to-head battles on the run, I was finally in the midst of one. Every competitive bone in my body was just screaming "here we go".

At that point I thought the three of us were the leading pack as I had heard my dad say I was in 3rd coming out transition. That idea would be shattered when a little later a spectator cheered us on to go catch the guy in front. Luckily, a couple hundred metres later we could see him and we were obviously catching him.

Knowing we would be running for the lead momentarily, a new thought occurred to me: I only needed to stay with these guys to win. With the staggered start, I knew that I had started at least 20-30 second after these guys and so had some time to play with.

At about the halfway mark, Ryan had fallen off the pace a little and Geoff and I were just about to finally make the pass for first place. I was at my limit as we crested a hill and made the pass and in a moments lapse of concentration I let Geoff put in a little acceleration and get a gap on me. As we sped back downhill I just couldn't bring myself to try to catch back on as I knew in my head, I just needed to keep him in sight to win.

So I spent the final 2 km or so doing just that, keeping him in sight. And so when I crossed the finish line about 10 seconds back of Geoff, I knew I had won.

I finished in a time of 57:10 with a run that was definitely shorter than 5k.

It was a great feeling, after all the work that I had done the past couple of years, to finally see it paying off in such a tangible way. And to do it in such a competitive race made it that much better.

After the race, Geoff and I talked about how great it would have been had it been a mass start so that we had truly been racing for the win on that run. Even though it probably would have made the outcome very different, I wish it had been too. Mostly because I'm curious to know how I would have reacted when Geoff got a gap on me knowing that it meant the race win. I wonder if I would have had it in me to chase him back down or how a sprint finish would have turned out.

I guess we'll just have to wait until August in Kelowna to find out, won't we Geoff...

Race Report – Race the Ridge

In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.

-Anthony D’Angelo

You win some, you lose some. Last weekend at Race the Ridge was definitely a loss.

It was meant to be to weekend of cycling with a 70k road race Saturday morning, a 24k time trial Saturday afternoon and then a 40 min crit on Sunday. It turned into just a 70k road race after a pretty dismal race.

Even the warm-up was a bit of a mess. It wasn't raining hard but enough that the roads were slick and coming downhill into a tight corner I locked up my bike wheel, skidded and just barely kept myself upright. And this during warm-up and taking it easy.

So going into the race, I wasn't in the best mindset as I was worried about taking that corner at race speed in a pack of 60 riders. The first half of the first lap, the majority of which was uphill, went fine. Felt comfortable, relaxed and had no problem keeping pace. But then we hit the downhill section.

The near wipe out in warm-up was still in my head and I just couldn't push the speed the way the rest of the group did. After the race, I other riders were talking about hitting speeds well over 70 km/h. Looking at my data after the race I was just getting over 60 km/h.

So naturally I got dropped in the couple of kilometers of downhill and turns (and nearly went down again except in a different corner). Once I got back to the flat section, I picked up the effort and did everything I could to catch back onto the main group. A kilometer or two later I had done it and was with the main group as we finished the first lap (~10 k).

Unfortunately, it was the same story on the second lap. Good uphill but dropped on the downhill. And this time it took a while longer to catch back onto the group. I managed to do it but only just before the uphill section again so there was no time to recover this time around.

I rode with the group through the uphill section, with a little more effort, but again got dropped on the downhill. This time though I wasn't able to catch back on and I knew my race was done.

I found a group to ride with most of the rest of the way (although again they would drop me slightly each time on the downhill and I would have to work to catch back on each lap) until I completely cracked with about a lap left and they dropped me too.

So it was a bit of a disaster of a race but here a couple of lessons that I learned. First, I need to improve my bike handling skills. I wasn't dropped because I didn't have the fitness to keep up but simply because I wasn't comfortable going at the same high speeds downhill and through corners.

Second, I wasn't quite ready to race 70k. At about the 50k mark my legs just didn't have anything left. Maybe it was the efforts to catch back onto the group or the extra solo riding I had to do but I didn't have the fitness to finish the 70k strong.

There are positives to take from the race. After racing last year in category 5, I had moved up this year to category 4 and this race actually included both category 3 and 4 racers. The fact that I felt comfortable fitness wise to ride with them was, despite the end result, a confidence boost. After all, when I raced this race last year, in category 5, I was dropped a couple kilometers into the race.

I also was pleased at how I was able to ride myself back onto the group in the first two laps. For anyone who has raced in a bike ride will appreciate what it's like when you lose touch with the group. It's demoralizing and takes a serious effort to ride solo faster than a group of 50 riders. So to do it twice made me realize that my riding has come a long way.

And most of all it was a learning experience. Looking back on my race in Delta the week before, I had a successful race. I remember the feeling of elation driving home, feeling like all the training over the winter was paying off. But that was all I got out of that race. It didn't make me any better, it just made me feel good.

On the other hand, Race the Ridge taught me things. I have lessons to take away from it, apply to my training and get better. It felt terrible after the race (bad enough that I withdrew from the race even though I knew my strength would come in the time trial) but after that subsided I was able to see the race as a chance to improve.

So time to move on. It's Sun Run time this Sunday.

Race Report – Delta Triathlon

The race season is finally underway and it was a cold, windy, and rainy start. The weather required some quick morning problem solving like duct taping old socks over the toes of my bike shoes and taping gloves to my handlebars for the bike ride.

With a staggered start from slowest to fastest swimmers, I was one of the last swimmers to start (the idea of which I'm slowly getting comfortable). It was also a surreal experience lining up just in front of pros Mike Neill and Jasper Blake.

Compared to some of the horror stories I heard from others about their swim, mine was fairly uneventful. With nine swimmers per 25 m lane, things got pretty crowded for some racers but after a couple of laps I was the only one left in the lane. You would think this would make counting laps for the officials easier. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.

As I came to the wall with one lap left I was looking for the board to tell me it was my last lap. Nothing. So I swam the next lap in uncertainty wondering if I had counted wrong. When I came the wall the next time, still nothing. So on I swam, pretty sure I should be done but still a little unsure. When I finished my next lap, still without any signal, I simply stopped and looked at the official. After a brief look at her clip board she said "oh, you're done". Out of the pool I climbed and with a glance at my watch I knew I had swam an extra lap with a time well over 12 minutes for "700" m.

But all you can do is put it behind you and refocus on what is left of the race. And refocus I did. The bike was basically a flat out and back twice which took you into a strong headwind on the way out and a strong tailwind on the way back. So I tried to work hard on the way out and let myself recover a little on the way back (letting my HR drop a couple bpm).

At the end of the 2nd lap I caught a glimpse of Jasper Blake behind me and realized that it didn't look as if he had gained anything on me (and I had even possibly put some time on him) and knew it had been a strong ride. In the end it turned out that he did get me by 14 seconds on the bike but it was still extremely rewarding to see that I could hold my own with some serious pros on the bike.

Heading out on the run, I knew I wanted to stay controlled for the first couple of km's and then build into the final km's. The plan seemed to work perfectly as at a couple of points I felt super strong but at the same time nice and relaxed. I finished the run in 18:39 which is by far my fastest 5k in a triathlon.

I would finish in 5th place overall in a time of 1:00:39. It is a little frustrating that without the extra swim lap, I could have met my goal of a sub 1 hour sprint this early in the season but considering I felt as though I had very little race fitness going into the race I'm very pleased with how the race went. It was nice to reinforce the belief that all the hard work over the winter does pay off eventually.

Congrats to Rob J. for his 4th place finish, just 4 seconds ahead of me, and Jeff M. for gutting out a spill on the bike to finish 13th. Nice early season results for the squad.

All in all a solid start to the race season. Up next: some bike racing at Race the Ridge this weekend.