this weekend at banff was all about flexibility and adaptability..... adapting to a long road trip that took many twists and turns (I'll never forgot my unexpected night crashing in revelstoke)... cold weather camping and racing (must. find. hot springs) and making even more new and amazing friends.
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| stuck on highway 1 |
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| preparing our campsite
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Packed a car up with 4 awesome people and road tripped to Banff for the beautiful Banff triathlon. I knew it was going to be cold and with my recent burnout issues I opted to run the sprint. The weather did not disappoint and cold and rainy it was (could be good mental practise for CDA...286 sleeps - what what). Naturally weather aside and self doubts and my telling myelf "i didn't care about the race" I still cared just as much as I do about al the races. By far my worst race prep ever. Due to the double transition set up I made it to the lake with 20 minutes to go, had to inflate my tires, find water and set up an extensive transition in an attempt to keep my stuff dry and sort out my wet/dry bags. This is the first time I've ever been walking down to the water as the race was pretty much starting. Hopped in without feeling the water or warming up and I was pleasantly surprised, not as cold as I
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| banff swim backdrop |
was expecting. Horn blew and we were off. This seemed to be a slower swim field, I had an alright time of 9:10 for 500m, not my best, but I came out of the water early, followed by a long uphill run to T1. I've been working hard on my quick transitions but today I decided coat and socks were necessary, it was pretty frigid, so my T1 was a slow 4 min :P but that was comparable to most other peoples. The bike course was stunning (through Banff mountains, past lakes and into the city) with a negative elevation gain, so despite my bike training being lacks as of recent I still PB'd it averaging over 34km/hr. T2 I still had frozen feet and couldn't get my shoes on quick because I couldn't feel them :) For the run all my training paid off and I got a PB as well. Run felt amazing and I was able to push myself for a 22min 5km, averaging 4:23/km. The run finishes down the main strip of Banff with tons of people around so it was so inspiring. All these splits got my first in my age group!
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| lise and nailey making rock art |
After the race I ran around in the pouring rain trying to find dry clothes. Then I watched another triclub member finish his Olympic distance race before heading to the hot springs to thaw out. Had a really fun night camping before getting back on the road. On the way home we stopped at Lake Louise. It was my first time there and it was just as beautiful as I could have imagined! Here are a few pics from the Banff roadtrip :)
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| athlete love |
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| lake lousie.. awesome trip |
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