Milton Sprint Triathlon

Headed out into the day today wondering what the weather would hold for the first official triathlon of the season. It couldn’t come soon enough for me. Very anxious to see where the legs were at.
Recent life situations have made training difficult this year, so I was interested to see what would happen. It was a tough field with many athletes peaking for worlds next weekend. I knew this would be the case so expectations weren’t to high.
The race started with a splash into the frigid waters. I chose to start in my AG wave today as opposed to bumping myself to the elite wave. The confidence wasn’t flying to high today. I think this was a good choice overall, despite being held up a bit in the swim. Finished the swim in a respectable 11:10. I was hoping for a sub 11min. swim and would have probably done it in the elite wave. I didn’t really have anyone to draft off of in my wave, and the lappers quickly got in the way of that.
Into T1. I made sure to have sandals at the swim exit, as the parking lot at Milton is awful. Good choice. My transition was really slow. Had a bit of trouble getting out of my wetsuit. I need to practice this more. Normally I can get out in less than 1min, but I took 1:17 today. With the tight field this cost me a position in my AG and a few overall as well.
Onto the bike. I struggled on the bike at Victoria’s Du. I was going to make sure today that I eased into the ride, especially with “the hill” to contend with. Spun up the hill nicely, and passed a bunch of people who were really struggling. This was a moral boost for sure. Made sure to keep my cadence high and avoid mashing. This was my downfall in Kitchener. Managed to do this well while reaping the benefits of a second wave start. I mentally get a big boost from passing lots of people. So starting in the second wave allows me to do this. I only got passed once on the bike which is unusual. 51:03 for the bike, averaged 35.3.
I had a healthy gap over any riders coming into T2, and I knew that I was in contention. Another less than stellar transition had me onto the run course.
The run starts with a series of short punchy hills. These hurt while you are trying to get your legs under you. I made sure to give my legs some time to flush out today before I tried to start pushing. This was another mistake I made at Victoria’s. Milton is a tough run course. It is uphill almost the entire way to the turn around. My legs came under me around 2km, and I started picking off people. By the turnaround I was feeling very good and was holding a respectable pace. I started to cramp with about 2km to go, but I wasn’t going to let it slow me down at that point. I managed a little sprint into the line to finish in 1:35.55. A little slower than last year, but OK. Our AG was extremely competitive with only a little over a minute between first and fourth.
Overall I felt great about today, and I definetely have more confidence going into Muskoka in a few weeks. Should be fun!