August 2010 | Leif Baradoy

2010 Canadian National Championships

24-08-2010

Leif Baradoy warming up for the elite race with Sable Water Optics at Canadian National Championships This past weekend I raced as an elite male in the 2010 Canadian National Championships for Olympic distance triathlon.

Overall, I am pleased with my effort at this very competitive race. Like many Canadian triathletes, Nationals was one of my “A” races, or focus races, for this year.

This race had some great athletes in attendance—World Champions, Olympic medalists, Olympians . . . The 2010 Kelowna Apple Triathlon saw a record number of elite men and a stacked start-list, including Simon Whitfield, Kyle Jones, and Andrew Russell.

For the 2010 Canadian National Championships, I am the 19th fastest Canadian in the Olympic distance and I placed 37th overall (out of 64 elite men). Obviously, I have a great deal of room to improve but I am encouraged by this race (full results here). Thanks to my coach Noa Deutsch, I’ve come a long way in a single year while being a full-time graduate student (and working here and there)!

Like so many other athletes, I aimed to have my best race of the season in Kelowna. All my training and other races served to lead up to this race. I have one more race this year—ITU Age Group Triathlon World Championship in Budapest, Hungary—which will further improve upon my Kelowna race.

But let me share how Nationals went.

Leif Baradoy lining up before the horn at Canadian National Championships The elite men’s race started at 2pm. I got on race site around 10am, so I had ample time to watch some of the age-groupers finish and see the elite women race. All part of the plan. As usual, I had planned the days leading up to the race and the entire race day in a spreadsheet, which I followed—my own goofy way of staying sane (even though a few of my training mates made snide comments about my tri-geekness).

I was a little nervy before the race, but nothing significant. I’ve gotten used to that feeling. The hardest part was waiting. Once I began my run warm up, body-marking, bike checking, etc. I felt calm.

At my last ITU race in Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, I failed to bring a wetsuit to warm up in and froze in chilly winds before the race. The weather was intermittently wet and cold at Kelowna so I’m glad I had a wetsuit, which kept me warm right until the race start.

The horn sounds at the 2010 Canadian National Triathlon Championships
The horn sounded. The race began in earnest. I had a solid swim and managed to get on a few people’s hips and feet for a large portion of the first lap. I felt fairly comfortable holding solid form. The water was a little choppy, but not too bad. Throughout most of the swim, I had people around me. I have a lesson to take away from the swim: I think I held a slightly less aggressive pace than I was capable of simply because I was in with other back-pack swimmers. I am certain I could have pushed myself more but got comfortable because there were other people around me (the logic: “I can’t be swimming that poorly, because there are others around me”). Nevertheless, I still had a very good swim. I suspect one of my best of the year.
Coming out of the first swim loop at the 2010 Canadian National Triathlon Championships

After the 23:55 swim and T1, I was in 50th place. I knew I was way back but I didn’t let it bother me. The bike is where I planned to let my inner monster out. Headed out on my first of six loops, Matt Sharpe (who placed first in the Junoir National elite race the day previous) said “go catch those guys.” I smiled.

Leif Baradoy Argon 18 Gallium Pro 2010 Canadian National Triathlon Championships I caught up with a pack of about seven guys right at the bottom of Knox Hill (see A. Russell’s post on this make-or-break climb here). I stuck with them on the way up and for the first loop. There were few guys doing pulls and a few guys just riding the draft. By the time I was on the second lap, I made a move to drop them. Should have done so sooner.

I was alone for most of lap two until midway through lap 5. I had a strong bike and I find it interesting to see that my fastest lap was a lap I did solo (lap 3). I am very happy with my bike fitness, particularly because I did so much work alone and my bike time was only one minute more than the lead draft pack. I pulled a lot of guys on the bike but also dropped most of them. It wasn’t until the very end of lap five that two Canadian guys from QC caught up to me and we worked together. The hill was definitely a point of weakness for me. Being 6’3 and weighing in around 195 makes climbing hard! Still, the Knox Hill isn’t easy for anyone, so I can’t claim any disadvantage.
Leif Baradoy Argon 18 Gallium Pro 2010 Canadian National Triathlon Championships

I loved the bike and I felt great. Six loops seemed short, even though the distance was actually more than 40km (I think it was 41.3km, if my memory serves). The Argon 18 Gallium Pro made a huge difference for this race and I want to thank SpeedTheory Calgary for helping me out with it.
Leif Baradoy Argon 18 Gallium Pro 2010

The Run

I had a lousy T2 as I struggled to get my shoes on. Then the run was on. I went into this race with a different approach to visualization. Instead of visualizing the positive, I gave myself over to suffering and pain. I visualized hurt and pushing through pain to achieve and maintain speeds that properly reflect my fitness and training. I have trained to hurt and hold on and this race would be a test of my threshold. I gave a lot on the bike and I needed to keep pushing for the run.
Leif Baradoy begins the run

Leif Baradoy finishing the run I held a reasonable pace for the run (3:33/km). I know I can do better, but after a great bike that is what I had in me. Of course, hindsight always makes me doubt whether I pushed hard enough, but I have to take the run for what it was. I took a lot of energy from all the people cheering me on. I cramped up on laps two and three (left calf and stomach), but pushed through and didn’t slow. I managed to catch a couple people, although one guy who came off the bike with me out ran me and another guy from a back pack also caught me.

I kicked things up for the final 400m meters and I thought I was going to fall over. I left it all on the course.

So, I managed to move from 50th out of the water to 37th by the finish. I will continue to work on all aspects of my racing. Improvements in the swim will result in significant gains in my overall placing. And, of course, non-draft legal races will also play to my advantage. I’m looking forward to my final race for 2010 and preparing for the 2011 season.

I have come a long way since starting triathlon in June 2008. I’ve made some huge leaps forward in the past year. While part of me would certainly like to achieve a higher ranking, I need to remember that I can’t rush this process and I can’t fake the years of work it takes to excel in this sport. This is my first year racing as an elite! Not bad for anyone, especially someone pushing thirty with only two years of sport in his background. I feel that I am on track as a high performance athlete and I feel confident about where I’m going in the sport that I love. I will keep putting in the hours, working with my great coach, learning and suffering. Even better results will come. And I will know that I’ve earned them.

For the record, here are my times:
Swim: 23:55 (56th out of water)
Bike: 1:04:57 (19th fastest bike split and only 1 minute off lead pack time)
Run: 35:21 (36th fastest run)
Total Time: 2:06:15 (19th fastest Canadian and 37th overall)

Leif Baradoy Post-race. Post-coffee. Post-beer (one). Post-pre-supper-sushi. Still able to walk and smile.

Full results for the 2010 Men’s Elite National Championship can be found here.

The Sri: Fatigue, Focus, Acceptance (race report 2010)

01-08-2010

Still smiling! Earlier today, I raced the Self-Transcendence Triathlon & Duathlon, Canada’s oldest triathlon! What an honour.

The last few weeks I’ve felt fatigued with the training I’ve been doing. Noa, my excellent coach, has been pushing me just hard enough—enough that I hurt bad but not enough to break me and my spirit (that angle/demon who lives inside my body/mind). Today’s race functioned as a important laboratory to test out how I race under less than optimal conditions. At least that is how I approached it. No race is perfect, but testing my performance and mental focus coming out of a few challenging training weeks added extra complications and excitements.

I learned a few valuable lessons from this race and built some additional confidence for my next race: Canadian National Championships in Kelowna August 22. I placed fourth overall. Here’s the details:

I awoke early, ate a small breakfast, and headed to race site, imagining that transition was first-come-first-to-select-the-most-awesome-spot-on-the-racks. Ahh. The well organized race crew had designated spots! I took a little nap in the car once getting marked and setup. Then all the normal pre-race stuff: warm-up run, bartering with gods and demons to favour me, sudden atheistic moments of doubt in gods and demons (and self), warm up swim, chatting with other racers . . . the usual.

This was a no-wetsuit swim. The water was warm but the air was cool. Luke, an athlete from Oz, stood shivering, wanting the race to begin. I had a solid swim in what I believe to be a full 1500m course; my time was 22:04, which is a PB by over a minute since last race. Looks like swimming 6-7 days per week has some payoff, although I still have many minutes to shave off. Good thing this won’t be my last race or my last season!

I felt comfortable on the swim, not nearly as panicked as other races. I didn’t have the energy to flail wildly. I just swam the best I could with the energy that I had. I want to give a shoutout to Sable Water Optics, an amazing supporter who provided me with a few sets of goggles for this season (thank you). They make the best goggles on the market. As usual, the goggles didn’t fog and helped me sight buoys without difficulty. I felt that I kept on course and didn’t swim too much extra distance due to poor sighting.

I came tenth out of the water and almost four minutes back from the leaders. Well, better than coming out 5 minutes back, I figured, as I hopped on my bike.

Aero helmet! I felt like utter crap on the bike the whole time. I felt like a slug. My legs hurt. I couldn’t climb. I was sure that I was going to be passed by half the field. I even wore my fancy aero helmet, which they tell me is uber-aero (but might just be a joke to make suckers look like sperm). Sadly, no magic jets in the helmet. I just suffered on and tried to do my best.

There were a lot of duathletes on the course, so I wasn’t really sure if I was actually making progress when passing people. Nevertheless, by 20km in I caught a couple of the faster swimmers. The last 20km was a series of different attacks (while always repsecting the draftzone rules!) between me and three other guys. I am sure that I was sending off vibes of weakness. My legs were saying “no more! leave us alone.”

Anyway, I took my feet out of my shoes way too early, which cost me the lead I gained off a final attack about 2km from T2 with still a few hills to go. My poor decision. I accept the resultant consequence. Nevertheless, I managed to have the fastest bike split of the day, which is pretty cool, given that I still am riding a entry level, too-large-for-me, aluminum bike. Looks like training is paying off. Bad races still can yield reasonable results!

I had a solid dismount, but my T2 wasn’t great as I had trouble slipping my shoes on. Three guys went out about 10-15 seconds ahead of me. My legs didn’t want to run. My mind knew that I should be able to outrun the guys infront of me, but the body needed some convincing.

We ran around Elk Lake, which has a few winding forest trails, so it is easy to lose sight of people infront. I first committed to getting my legs under me and holding pace. Pretty much the entire time I wanted to stop/slow down/walk/give up. I managed to close a gap within the first 3km, but I was hurting and the other guys knew it. Damn heavy breathing! By 7km, two of the three guys who went out infront of me managed to pull ahead by about 12 and 20 seconds. However, I kept pushing and became motivated to just finish the race. I think I actually picked up my pace just to get the pain finished with! Anyway, I managed to close a 12 second gap and pass one athlete with about 1km left.

~~Then I finished in unchallenged glory~~. But nothing comes easy. With about 300m to go, the guy I passed followed his coach’s direction and just started sprinting to the finish. I looked back and thought that he wouldn’t catch me in time. I picked up the pace, but not to a sprint. I looked back again. Whoah, he’s fast. I picked up the pace more. Looked back. Fu fu fu fu, I better get moving! Check out the photos.

Finish line at Sri Tri 2010

Scotty had a good run and an impressive sprint finish. I just managed to cross the line before him, although our timing chips register the same time. My lesson: sprint like hell and don’t give people the chance or thought that they can catch you in that last stretch of the race. If you give people hope, they will create an opportunity, and that might come to fruition!

I was not happy when I finished. I feel capable of more, especially on the bike and run. This race was a struggle for me. Staying on my feet was an accomplishment.

When I finished, I told my coach that I didn’t feel worthy of wearing my ITU race suit today, but reflecting on the race I take that comment back. Because I didn’t stop running, because I had a solid bike split despite feeling horrible, because I had a solid run split when my mind was making a strong legal/moral/ethical/religious/ case for walking, because I could sprint to the finish, I feel that I can hold my head high as someone who races at the ITU Continental Cup level. I have earned my way to racing at that level because of commitment and attitude. Given the context, I don’t need to be ashamed of not meeting my potential at this race. I toughed it out and I managed to finish fourth overall. I am looking forward to seeing how I perform (no matter how I feel) for my “A” races at Kelowna and Budapest.

I should mention here that Matt Sharpe won the race handily today! This was his first time racing an Olympic distance race. He had an amazing swim and run (I don’t know his bike time). My congratulations go out to him. It is so cool to race with such strong, young, “development” athletes (development means that he’s only going to get faster!). Matt finished 4 minutes ahead of me. He also swam almost 4 min. faster than me. Oh yeah, he also ran a 33:41 for the 10km. Well done and inspiring, Matt!

Full results for the 31st Annual Self Transcendence Triathlon/Duathlon can be found here.