Olympic Triathlon Training: Starting With No Race to Train for, Part 4

Is it possible to say that before I even start I have a crisis? Is it a crisis that as of right now I have no race to compete in? How did this happen and how can I fix it? To be honest right now I don’t even really have a real plan but I think I still really want to do this, this year so…

How did I find myself with no race to train for? In the past I’ve participated in the Shubie Dooby Tri in September in Dartmouth about an hour away at the sprint distance. They have an olympic so I’ll do that, right? Wrong!!! This year it’s held in June. sad face 😦  So far there are no races scheduled for all of Nova Scotia after August 12th and that one is 4 hours away in a tourist trap so accommodations will be crazy. Plus the bike course is so hilly, yet beautiful, that the engine in our SUV overheated when we drove it as a child. Other than that it’s the 6th and that’s two hours a way and too soon, plus there is a family wedding I’m obliged to attend that weekend, 7 hours away.

Is there hope? It does seem that triathlon Nova Scotia might be a bit slow and later than, at least I would like, in updating their calendar. Maybe one will be added? But scrolling back through a year of Facebook posts on their page suggests I shouldn’t get my hopes up. Time to check neighbouring provinces I guess. The best I can hope for is a to be determined multisport event October 2nd in PEI. That would be my best best as it’s past tourist season and accommodations should be semi-reasonable. Plus we’ll potentially be coming out of busy season with our company and mine won’t quite be in full swing. In New Brunswick there is one for August 19th in Sackville, home of my Alma Matter, Mount Allison. It’s a beautiful little town nestled along the Bay of Fundy. Apparently you mail in or fax if your form and they take race day registration. The last time I was there was for a conference and I won three awards! I could stay in the residences the night before so that would be great! So for now this is my plan but I’ll be keeping my eye on that Muti-sport event in PEI too.

That means that the training that was supposed to start June 17th, should have started last weekend and I’m behind. We pretty much skipped spring this year and we have yet another frost warning tonight so the lake I planned on swimming in is still frigid. Plus I’m not in shutdown mode until about June 17th with my work stuff. With a few days of good weather last week we’re in full swing on the construction side so for now it’s double duty. So what’s my plan for this, suck it up buttercup. Late night runs are easy, bike rides well, move those to Sunday mornings, and swimming well I’ll just have to delay that a week or three.

So for this update my first in training, I’m a week behind. Plus since I have that wedding, peek week will have to either move three days back or ahead. How am I feeling about all this? Well a bit gutted and optimistic at the same time. My fitness level is pretty good right now my weekly long runs are up around 12-13 km right now. Tonight I went for an hour and a half so that’s not bad and this year’s Bluenose 10k was a PR for me two weeks ago. In the spring I pretty much only run to get a jump start on my fitness, I’ve gone for one 12 km bike ride In May and swam to flip over an RC boat last September. Our local outdoor, but mercifully heated, pool doesn’t have an opening date yet but an announcement will happen in early June.

So yeah I can be ready for August 19th and worse case scenario I adjust down my goal times. As much as I would like to revisit my very early 20’s again in Sackville it’s probably better if this PEI thing works out in October. Plus the Sackville one might be a sprint after all. There is no website that I can find and a news article from the local weekly paper from three years ago describes a sprint. But Allisonian Alumni get mentioned by name so that could be fun. My race day nerves would be lower in familiar surroundings and when I was there for a conference I figured out how the locks work in the new residence shared bathrooms so there is that. But Richard would like the trip to PEI more however since we fell in love in Sackville he wouldn’t be upset about that either. I think a walk in the duck park with coffee would probably bring a tear to both of our eyes. Should I drop down to a sprint for this year or maybe look farther afield? So no hard decision yet but the ball got rolling today, now all I need are magnets to attach the training plan to the fridge.

A little help would be appreciated here. Have you ever had a major wrench thrown into a training plan like this? How did you handle it? How should I go about shortening a plan by about a week and a half?