Prologue

Made the ITU website!!!

For the first time, I really don’t know where to start this one. I really can’t even to begin to describe how I ended up here. My first World Championship experience was a surreal and humbling one. I've had a week to let it sit and sink in. I will apologize now for the probably super long write up (edit: it ended up being super long). As always, the purpose of these is for me to look back years down the road and remember or be re-inspired by these events... Or to cringe at the dated references and linguistics. If anyone can benefit from these, all the better! I've split this race report summary lets call it a diary entry, into two manageable chunks; a prologue outlining my journey to get to worlds and a main article elaborating on race week itself.

            TL;DR – I had a fantastic week. I came down to Cozumel, Mexico to compete in 2 races: the Aquathlon Age-Group World Championship and the Olympic (Standard) Age-Group World Chapionship. The aquathlon on Wednesday was a novel experience that I had never competed in before, nor trained specifically for. I finished 26/32 M20-24 competitors with a 8:31 2.5km run (3:24/km), 18:40 1000m swim (1:52/100m) and 11:56 2.5km run (4:46/km). Definitely not anywhere close to my PB times, but it was a good opportunity to apprehend the climate and better plan for the Standard race on Sunday, which was my main objective of the week. I completed the Standard WC triathlon in 2:10.58 with a 24:15 1250m* swim (1:56/100m), 1:00.52 40km bike (39.4kmh) and a 41:30 10km run (4:09 min/km). This put me 35 36/70 athletes in contention in the M20-24 AG. Overall, I was happy with my performance given all the circumstances and I proved to myself that I could compete with some of the best athletes in the world.

            I should preface this by saying I don’t claim to be a pro by any means. I can’t even fathom how I ended up on the start line of a World Championship event surrounded by some of the best athletes from around the world. Realistically, I know my times aren't the best - or even close to pro-levels so to be able to compete in a field such as this was a huge honour. It wasn’t so long ago (I calculate it at 6 years, apparently) that I struggled through my first Give-it-a-Tri at Toronto Island back in 2010. With my crappy steel frame Miele, Adidas “gym” shoes and a race belt so big I had to wear around my shoulders like a satchel (not a man purse!), its crazy to see where I’ve ended up.

Very first triathlon...
I wanted to do the same picture
under the worlds banner so bad!

            Like I mentioned in my IM race report (cringeworthy looking back), in my very first cross country race in high school I finished within the bottom 10. That feeling of defeat and failure made me strive for success even more. Slowly but surely I improved to eventually become captain of my high school team (fine, co-captain). I had the same experience once again in collegiate cross country and now I am still slowly improving to the level where I can kind of run to the standard of the field. My point here is this whole triathlon and running thing never came naturally to me, as it doesn’t for most. This is a sport that I believe absolutely anyone can succeed in and in which anyone can reach his or her goals. There was a very long stretch of time where I would finish in the bottom quarter/bottom half of the field and be happy with my races because it was something that I loved to do. Overall positions and splits were not even on my radar. Completing an Ironman or competing at an international level weren’t even a consideration. Eventually, something clicked and I saw marked improvements in my performances (which may or may not have been the sound of 3Sixty5 wheel hubs spinning out below me). #shamelesssponsorshipplug). Some of these still baffle me today; the capabilities of the human body are amazing when they are pushed and tested.

My build-up to worlds really started 15 months ago when I was doing my final build to TTF 2015. I had attempted to qualify for Edmonton 2014 in the 2013 season and again for Chicago 2015 in 2014, but just didn’t have the times to qualify. For those unfamiliar with the qualification process, you must be a member of your provincial triathlon association (Triathlon Ontario for myself) and place top 3 in your AG at a qualification race. In the case of qualifying for Edmonton in 2013, 10 spots per AG were allotted since we were the host country. These qualification races are typically way more competitive as athletes travel great distances to bid for a spot. During TTF 2013, I didn’t even come top 10 in the AG!

Heading in to TTF 2015, I felt like I had an outside chance at nabbing a spot. I had a solid training block leading into the race and finished 2^nd in AG in a time of 2:15. This beat my previous TTF PB of 2:21. Ecstatic that I had qualified, I drew out a long 14 month training plan (which would change drastically over the following months) culminating in Cozumel 2016. I finished out the 2015 racing season, dove into varsity XC, varsity track, varsity swimming, OYL group rides (#oylcycling @oylcycling #anothershamelessplug) all while training with the UW Triathlon Club. Over the past year I have had an amazing group of athletes and mentors helping me along the way getting me to where I am today, to whom I am so grateful. As I will soon describe, I went through literal blood, sweat and tears on my journey to Cozumel.

My summer training blocks consisted of an endurance base block to shake out the body after the longish winter, a speed/power block to build up my threshold ability, a tempo block to merge my endurance and speed work and ended with a race specific training block (the "sweat"). The endurance block consisted of pretty unorganized training at any chance I got. I went through some personal obstacles (the "tears") towards the beginning of the summer, which inspired me to really dive into my job and into my training to keep my head clear. This forced motivated me to do doubles, triples and even some quad session on most days. The speed/power sessions were filled with short efforts at close to max effort (think Tabata or Fartlek). Tempo sessions were more race pace efforts at longer distances (3x3k running or 4x20min on the bike). Finally race specific training was focusing on race distance workouts and bricks.

In May, I also had the opportunity to travel to Cozumel ahead of the race, since it was a port on our summer cruise vacation. I got to recon the run and bike course, as well as check out the swim conditions. I can't say that it really affected my training, but it was good to have an idea of where the course was and I always had it in the back of my mind. If anything, running in the heat scared me into prepping for it better. 

May 2016

TTF 2016

Between my speed/power and tempo blocks, I returned to TTF to test my development over the past 12 months. My initial goals for the year were to get as close to a 2 hour Standard distance as possible, including a sub-hour bike (40kph) and a sub-40 run. At TTF 2016 I yielded a 2:05 finish including 4^th overall and 1^st in my AG. This was 10 minutes faster than the previous year, and 16 minutes faster than the year before that. I rode a 40kph bike split (#shutupalexanderdossantos) and ran a 39:30 10k. This boosted my confidence and had me optimistic for worlds. To me, this validated my position on the team Canada AG team and proved to myself that all of my training had been paying off. I remember in my first years as a competitor, looking at the results page and being in awe at the 40kph bike splits or the runs in the 3min/k’s only hoping to one day get there. In absolute terms, I know these aren’t crazy fast splits, but relative to my goals, they are accomplishments to me.

Clearly, I had seen better days

My 2016 season consisted of very minimal racing, due to both logistics and my decision to train through the races and stick as closely to my training protocol as possible. My only other race of the summer was the Tour de Terra Cotta road race. This is my favourite bike race, and one that traditionally I have done very well at (12^th(?) in 2013, 4th in 2014 and 5^th in 2015). I have never crashed in a race, nor DNF’d (hubris, huh?). I have my own opinions on what happened that I won’t publish here, for various reasons, but what occurred during the race was a huge clusterf. I was in the Masters 78km race and after 77.8km on the finishing straightaway, a rider cut across the road and clipped someone’s wheel taking out a group of 5. Obviously, I was in that group of 5. I became unclipped and ate the asphalt (the "blood"). I went to the hospital with road rash to both elbows, both knees, my shoulder and a broken heart because of the condition of my new bike. I had serious worries that I had broken my elbow (ok fine, my radial head at the proximal forearm, to be kinesiologically correct) since I could barely move it. Worlds was in exactly 6 weeks. After 14 months of preparation, this was how I thought it was going to end. I was gutted. I couldn’t even comprehend the situation. The x-rays came out clear with a concern for an invisible hairline fracture. Essentially, the results were inconclusive and we could only wait and see. Soon the pain of the road rash set in, and I found it painful to bend my arms and legs, since the cuts would re-open with every movement. Frustrated with the situation, I gave myself one week. One week before I would commence training no matter how I felt. The pain and swelling in my elbow eventually subsided and after 7 days I was back on the bike and running. I was running normally before I was walking normally because somehow running hurt less. As it would turn out, the week that I was forced to completely shut it down ended up to be beneficial as I came back to training feeling really fresh. I guess that week gave my body time to recover from the tough summer of training.

Every triathlon season I have ever done has culminated in a race in late August/early September, whether it be a 70.3, Ironman or series final. This gives my season focus and something to work towards. I always find it funny how in the winter and early spring, I am itching to get outside and train. It could be -10 outside, but as long as the roads are clear (I hesitate to ride/run in slippery conditions) I fight to get out. However, I always notice a conflicting feeling around the end of summer. I always feel burnt out, so to speak, leading up to my season closing races. It’s a struggle to convince myself to go for a tough ride or long run. Just as that feeling was creeping up on me this year, some personal issues (the "more tears") arose that once again forced motivated me to bury myself in my job and in my training, just as it did earlier on in the year. I didn’t encounter that mid-season hump and found another gear to train on. When life gets hard, run harder right?

With all of the hard work behind me, all that was left to do was run the good race.