The 2011 season officially kicked off in Sydney with the first race of the ITU World Championship Series.  After giving Mooloolaba a pass (after four straight years), I was pretty excited to get going!  Here’s how the race went for me:

The swim: Bit of a mob on the first lap, just a wall of white water, arms, legs, and red caps. Couldn’t tell where I was, thinking I was really far back.  Onto the second lap I was relieved to see Paula Findlay fighting it out beside me, so I knew I’d have motivated company on the bike to make up any time!  The second lap I was able to maneuver up a bit, but still came out of the water farther back than I would’ve liked.

The bike:  Once on the bike there was some initially furious chasing but it eventually packed up.  I was hoping to test my legs on the run a little, so I just tried to stay out of trouble and not roast my legs too bad.  After a few laps we were ~40 women. There’s a prime line one every lap of the race this year, so there were plenty of surges and jockeying for position. Also early in the bike there was a crash (I was safely in front of it).  Coming into T2, I came off the bike in a good spot and got my shoes on quickly. Unfortunately I put my helmet into the “WHITE” bin in my area (more on this later…)!

The run: I’ve been working on my run leading up to the race, but had yet to test my legs in an Olympic distance tri, so I just went for it!  I managed to stay with the front group of 6 for about 4.5k but then fell off the pace a bit.  As we were running I heard the race announcer say I had a penalty to serve…this is something they introduced last year, all your gear has to make it into your bin in transition (it can’t be left lying around and they’ve been on an enforcement crackdown the last 2 races).  So, I tried to stay focused until I confirmed it for myself, and yep, I had to serve a 15 second penalty at some point on the run (you have to stop in the ‘penalty box’ but you can do it on any lap)…great!  At this point I was running with 2 girls and we were in the 8^th-10^th places, so I opted to take the penalty on the last lap ~200-300m from the finish line (I think, though it felt like FOREVER!). It was the longest and most painful 15 seconds!  As they counted me down, the two girls I was with were long gone, one more had passed me, and I had 2 hot on my heels…so I just sprinted like mad and managed to hang onto 11^th place.

While I’m happy with the race and the result, I was disappointed with myself for getting a silly penalty that cost me places (and points& prize money)—especially since I had put it in a bin, just not the correct one (the boys WHITE bins were directly behind and touching our RED bins). But rules are rules and I won’t do that again! All in all, it was a fun day!

Now, the team is back in New Zealand, this time in Nelson (NW part of the south island) for more training and prep into the next round of races.  For me, I’ll have a few more weeks in New Zealand, a quick stop in Calgary to change clothes and gear (hopefully the snow has melted by then…), and then over to Europe to get ready for my next race in Madrid in early June. 

Keep up the great training!

Lisa

Subaru Shawnigan Lake International Triathlon–Race Report

For the past few weeks I’ve been training in Victoria, BC, Canada. The riding around Victoria is excellent and it’s a great place to train with lots of world class athletes and gorgeous mountain and ocean scenery. I’ve had some epic training sessions over the past two weeks, including a long ride with Ironman 70.3 New Orleans winner Brent McMahon and another session of hill repeats with Brent and 2x Olympic medalist Simon Whitfield. It’s tough to keep up with those guys, but at least they were great company!  I finished off this block of training by racing the half at the Subaru Shawnigan Lake Triathlon on May 24^th.

Since my focus over the past two seasons has been solely on Olympic distance races, the 70.3 distance is still pretty new to me. This was to be my second half ironman ever; the first being Oceanside 70.3 in April where I finished in 6^th place; good swim, mediocre bike, and the second fastest run for the women to finish off strong. I’ve been training hard in Victoria going into Shawnigan Lake and my coach, Paul Regensburg of Lifesport, had only scheduled two lighter days before the race…so not much of a taper!  But Shawnigan was a good opportunity to test myself at the 70.3 distance once again.

The Race:

The swim took place in the picturesque Lake Shawnigan, a wetsuit swim since the water was about 17 degrees Celsius.  The race was started by a cannon shot…even though I was expecting it, it still sent my heart rate up when it blew!  After a good start I found myself swimming solo and slightly off course due to the glare of the sun, but I managed to be the first female out of the water and set a new course swim record in the process.

The bike was a very scenic rolling four lap course. I had good focus and was pushing some decent watts for most of the bike and tried hard to keep my daydreaming to a minimum.  Keeping focus on the bike for all 56 miles has been my biggest challenge at the 70.3 distance; its not at all like an ITU World Cup where you ride the 40 km fast and furious and there is always action. I’ve been working on it and felt my bike at Shawnigan was much improved from Oceanside.  Last year’s winner Rachel Keirs managed to pass me near the end of the cycle to take the lead and gain a minute on me going into T2.

The start of the run was straight up a hill on a trail through the forest, then across a road and onto the Cowichan Valley Trail, which is a historical railway bed that is now a beautiful winding gravel pathway.  My game plan was to run a solid tempo run for the half marathon since I am racing the Rev 3 Triathlon in two weeks and wanted to save my legs.  I focused on my form and heart rate and managed to re-gain the lead after 2.5 km.; from there it was a smooth run into the finish for the win!

It was a great day out at Shawnigan Lake. I’ve been lucky to race and train around the world and can say that Shawnigan is just a spectacular place for an event. It was very well organized and the athletes were treated great, which is always a plus! I was even given a brand new 2010 Subaru Forester to drive for the weekend!  If you’re looking for a fun race with great scenery next year, I’d recommend this one! 

Here a link to an article from the local Times Colonist newspaper.

A big thank you to all my supporters; Lifesport Coaching, Paul (my coach), Team Timex and all the team partners, Speed Theory Calgary, Travis Blanton, Richard and of course my family and friends!  Thanks for all the cheers!

Lisa Mensink

www.lisa-triathlete.blogspot.com

Photo Credits: Kevin Light, Olympic Rowing Gold Medalist and photographer.  Click here for Kevin’s Gallery.