The last blog post was about 2019, but what a crazy year 2020 was… This year I completed 531 hours of training, compared to the 581 of last year. Some other fun stats: I did 207 rides, 214 runs, 65 swims. I think it’s safe to say that this was a year of running, and definitely not a year for swimming! Besides pools being very hard to access due to the worldwide pandemic, I lost a lot of motivation to swim and I owed it to myself to not force it. Instead, I trained what made me happy and feel good. This is triathlon in lockdown.
In 2020, I said goodbye to my training plan.
March: the first lockdown
We had just gotten back the week prior from a trip to New York. We had stayed with some family friends on Long Island and we commuted in by train each day. The highlights of that trip included running a lap around Central Park, hunting down $1 pizzas, seeing Come From Away on Broadway (because come on, we’re Canadian after all!) and being in the live studio audience for a Steven Colbert taping. We had heard of this Covid-19 thing a bit, but not even Steven Colbert mentioned it that day. Little did we know that one week later, I’d have my last in-person class at Cegep, I’d lose the opportunity for a great internship, and we’d be locked away at home.
Prior to this, I was training consistently with the team at the Côte-St-Luc pool, doing the usual, but loosening up the reins a little and not being afraid to do things that I wanted to do. I didn’t let the training plan affect my decision to leave to Tremblant for a weekend of skiing with my friends. Nor my decision to go on a road trip with only a pair of running shoes as a means of training. After March, I stopped looking at my training plan altogether. We moved our bike workouts online. That was about the only structured workouts I did for the rest of the year. It brought me a sense of community in a time where we’re all separated.
Run boy run!
Besides that, I ran…a lot…2084km/173hrs to be exact. The thing is, I didn’t get any faster, but I put in a LOT of mileage. During the pandemic, our team continued training in our bubble. We stayed mindful of keeping our distances and limiting close contacts.
Besides biking outdoors at our training location in Côteau du Lac, we did a few run time trials. We started with a 5k road race at the Olympic basin put on by On Court Mtl. That SUCKED! The general consensus throughout the team was that you either ran very fast and smashed your personal best, or you ran awful and didn’t come close. No one ran a time in between. Coming off of that a little disappointed (I was running so much and really expected to beat my best this year), the team did a 3000m in August, where I did 9:56. It wasn’t a personal best, but it was very close. I felt back on track to beat my 5k time.
In October, we came back to the track and did a 5000m time trial. I can technically say I beat my PB, even if it was only by 2 seconds! I felt great at the beginning, trading laps with Emy Legault (watch out Tokyo 2021). Then I faded a bit at the 3000m mark. I let Emy go for her PB ahead of me, and finishing slightly less strong than I had planned. It was still great!
Back to Triathlon
Ok, running’s cool and all, but what about triathlons? I did a single triathlon this year. Magog. It was great, I had a lot of fun, despite the weirdness of not having a mass start. I placed 22nd/283 overall. It felt great getting out of town, racing, and then sitting on the sidelines to cheer my teammates on. Besides that single race, Triathlon Quebec hosted a virtual duathlon series. Emma and I raced on our bike trainers and then ran in the streets around the house. I found these pretty fun, even though racing online makes running after the fact all that much harder on the legs!
Everything else
What else did I do? Here’s a short list!
- Biked from Montreal to Ottawa
- Bike back from my race in Magog to Montreal
- Coached the adult team on outdoor bike rides
- Dressed up for half of the online rides we did with the team!
- Roadtrip around Gaspé
- Started making Youtube videos for fun with my sister: HERE
- Made a lot of bread
- Ate A LOT of bread!
- Started working at the Town of Pincourt in communications
- Started the process of making cycling apparel (info coming soon on my Instagram!)
Thank you to Kyla and Javier, the best triathlon coaching tag team, for putting up with me and our family!
