NEW WEBSITE!

Check it out: www.martinawan.com

A BIG thank you to Canister Creative and Sven Boecker for putting this together and making me look good : )

S5 Week 50 – Subaru Banff Triathlon!

Last weekend I headed over the Rocky’s to Banff to race in the Subaru Banff Triathlon and it was a fun weekend! a much needed one and honestly more than anything it was just really nice to have  a ‘drama-free’ race too : )

I’ve driven through Banff with some friends a few years ago on our way to Calgary for stampede, but this was the first time spending a little time there … and it’s beautiful! The weather was also super great so that helps too.

The race started at Two Jacks lake ….

Stunning view right off of the shuttle to the swim start

The course was great in that it was easy to race your own race and every so often get distracted on how scenic and beautiful the course was.  It was also pretty amazing how supportive the community was as well. The women’s heat was 4min back from the guy’s heat so I thought I’d just have some fun with it and see how many guys I could catch through the race  : )

The race in general felt solid, nothing crazy, but just good to get out there and have some fun with it.  I always want to go faster, but like I said it was nice to race solid from start to finish  … and winning is always fun too!

 After the race it was good to celebrate a little … and then the next morning it was up early to get in a  nice ride around Banff, which I was really looking forward to.  After stopping almost every 10min to take a picture I finally had to stop myself or I wasn’t going to get much of a ride in!  Anyways, here’s a few pics along the way …

Thanks to the series and Subaru for making this trip so much fun!  Hmm so what’s next …

S5 Week 48 – 10sec of fame!

Who knew running on a triathlon relay at the Vancouver Triathlon and crashing off a bike at the Subaru Sooke Triathlon would get me in the newspaper and TV? … sweeeet, hehe : )

TSN Broadcast Times for Subaru Sooke Triathlon:

TSN 2*
Sat Sep 03 11, 11:00 PST (11am)
Tue Sep 06 11, 19:00 PST (7pm)

TSN*
Thu Sep 08, 21:30 PST (9:30pm)
Tue Sep 13, 11:00 PST (11am)

*Dates and times subject to change

The Province and Vancouver Sun

S5 Week 47 – Work in Progress … Nationals race report

Ok, so here it goes …

Last weekend was the much anticipated Elite National Championships in Kelowna.  It is a great, well organized race that I have enjoyed
racing very much!  It’s now been 4 years in a row.  The first time being my
very first elite race ever!  Yup, that’s a little hard to admit because …

Four years later I end up with a slower time and a lower finish overall, doh! I know every race is not the same and races don’t really compare, but sometimes it’s hard not to.   Do I think that I am fitter, stronger, smarter, more prepared and tougher than I was four years ago? Yes, Yes, Yes and definitely Yes! without any hesitation.  I feel like I am in the best shape of my life right now. So, what happened?

As this is part of the journey I will not pretend to say that I was not disappointed, discouraged, shocked, upset, sad, etc the list goes on (my dwelling time) because I was.  Actually right after the race I didn’t even know what to say or how to react ….

How do I put in words that I have swam with some of Canada’s best swimmers at UBC, worked my butt off to swim my fastest 1500m this year and made big improvements this summer in the open water … to only  swim slower than I did last year and miss the lead packs and came out 20th?

What do I think when I made up ground on the bike and took a risk by breaking away from the pack with no fluids as I dropped my water bottle early on to exit T2 alone in 10th.
 My hands and hip started cramping up pretty bad by the end … but is that just an
excuse for what happened next?

I work hard in training so on race day if I have my best or worst day I know I have trained enough to believe  that I can still have a great race.  However, the run was well below that and it hurt a lot.  My whole body wanted to cramp/seize up  … or did I  just ‘choke’ in this race?

 Tough questions to answer, but this is the type of racing I signed up for. There are no rooms for mistakes, bad days or whatever and to be honest I wouldn’t have it otherwise.  As tough as it was and it might not have looked like it, I still enjoyed it!  I remember telling myself to smile on the run a few times because as much as it hurt and I wasn’t happy with the performance I wanted to soak it in because I knew  that I was not going to let that happen again and I won’t! It’s tough, but I love this sport and the pursuit of excellence …

As I go through this journey and learn more about the sport and myself I am truly starting to understand the meaning of ‘believe in yourself’ because there are many ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ and all kinds of challenges physically and mentlly, but that is part of the journey and I have to remember that this is what I signed up for: Nobody said it was going to be easy : )

So, believe in yourself and enjoy the journey whatever it may be!  …. I know that when my swim decides to show up in the open water it will be there to stay, my bike will be my rock and my run will let me play!  : )

Thank you to my coaches, family, friends, team mates, mom! and sponsors for all the support and help along the way!!  A big thank you to Rob for the awesome photos as well!

The journey continues …

S5W45 – lucky #13?

… OR not so much.  Wearing race #13 this past weekend wasn’t very lucky at the Sooke Pro Chase event. A very cool event that I was really  looking forward to.  It was going to be fun racing  and being ‘chased’, but more than anything I just wanted to put in a good effort and have a solid race.  Simply race smart, race hard and see how it goes. I just wanted a decent race … buuut I guess that’ll have to wait until the next one : (

It started off with a solid swim (finally and yay improvement!) that had me come out with the lead pack of 3 with Tenille and Allison.  On to the bike I was ready to giv’er …. however it only lasted about 10min as I had some bike issues (worn out chain and front chain ring not a good mix with fairly new cassette on race wheels and not good for shifting … lesson learned!) that had me climbing out of the saddle hard and then  ’friendly’ with the road and not being able to get the chain back on (it somehow twisted on itself?!). UGH! I so badly just wanted to continue racing…. but it wasn’t going to happen so that was it. game over.

‘Vacation’ is now over and its been back to the real world. Despite not quite ending the way I wanted to and feeling a little down and defeated I know I can’t let the race shadow the positives from this past week … I had a great training camp led by Coach Lance and Bjoern.  Training with superstars Amanda, Rachel, Sara and Brent along with Laura, Nathan, Elliot, Jon and Andrew was awesome!

This camp felt similar to the one I did in Noosa in March so in a way it wasn’t a huge shocker when we were thrown some tough workouts after already long training days like 15 x 200m best avg swims or an hour tempo brick run after 3hrs on the bike or solid 800′s on the track for a double run day, and so on.

I think there must be something sadistic with me or something because as grueling as it was, it was fun and my kind of ‘vacation’, hehe.  And there were some grueling workouts that weren’t super fun, but knowing that it will be rewarded later made it worth it!  It also helped that everyday was pretty much sunny and perfect weather!

Anyways, a couple weeks to recover and recharge to get ready to ROCK IT in Kelowna at Elite Nationals!

Mmmm the BEST sandwiches from the Red Barn Market! Marble Rye with turkey and the works : )

S5W44 – Day 9 …

Too tired to write, so some pics this week (Thanks Laura and Andrew for the pics). Thanks Coach Lance, Bjoern and Paul for a great camp …

 

 

A looong (for the Olympic distance triathlete ), but beautiful ride along the coast

 

Some great swim workouts at the Saanich Commonwealth Pool

The famous Thetis Lake

Lotsa open water swimming .. and much needed : )

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful weather, beautiful rides with the crew!!

Mmmm dinner : )

The Observatory

Top of the Observatory … fun climbing!

Lifesport Pro Camp!!!

S5W43 – Day 2 of ‘Vacation’!

… and by vacation I mean training camp : ) I am currently in Victoria training with the Lifesport crew. With the amazing support and understanding from my engineering work I am able to get away for 10 days to focus on my other job as a triathlete. And with the beautiful weather (since I have been here) and the great coaches and training partners, I gotta say its a pretty sweet job! Fun stuff!

So, as an update I think this camp has come at good timing as the past couple weeks have been pretty challenging juggling work and life, but mostly staying positive.  It’s been a bit of a rocky start to the season with some injuries and not so great races, which I know happens, but the tough part was battling myself and my self-doubt.  As I have and am still learning that sport is not only about being physically tough, but mentally tough as well!

I knew I just had to make it to camp and I would start feeling better … and it has! Don’t get me wrong camp is tough and its only Day 2, but I am having fun again and enjoying this journey : )

Cheers! and hope everyone has a great weekend!

S5W41 – … not quite Boulder ‘Peak’

Well, where do I start? I guess I’ll start off with the positives from this past weekend in Boulder racing a 5150 race because there always has to be something positive  out of everything …. Boulder is pretty awesome! The moment I got there I got a really good vibe from it.  It’s a mecca of active, healthy and friendly people and it seemed very organic and environmentally conscious, which is cool.  And it being warm and sunny and surrounded by mountains with plenty of places to ride and run is also pretty sweet. I can definitely see why people go there to train!

I homestayed with a super cool, fellow Mechanical Engineer who did ironmans and made me feel very welcome, so thank you Emilie! Her place was a block a way from a Caper’s like Whole Foods, bike and run shop so it was perfect!

Also,  there was this cool café that had Acai served with granola, banana and honey, just like in Brazil. It definitely brought back some good memories with Lisa and Sil and our adventures in Rio : )

Oh ya other positives from the race was that I think I got a tan and I didn’t have to worry about legs cramping on the flight back  … wait I’m not sure those last one’s are suppose to be positives, hehe ….

So,  as some have asked or some have wanted to, but haven’t I am not sure I even know what to say about the race.   Something was just off…

The only data that I have that kind of puts me at a little bit of ease was my power output on the bike.  Having known my average power in Monroe, past bike races, training, etc this race had me well below those averages and what I was expecting to go …  my legs/effort just wasn’t there. Even as people rode by me I couldn’t respond. I tried to go hard at times, but it just didn’t last.  And cycling’s been the one sport that has been pretty consistent for me … and I felt like this similarly on the swim and run.

This will sound bad, but by the end of my bike I kind of wished I had a flat and didn’t have to run 10km! Bad, eh!? and kind of funny … my mom laughed when I told her this and then she called me a slowpoke and I laughed in return, she gets me! : ) … Anyways, when I finished I was kind of happy just to be done with it.  And that was it.

Joking aside, it was pretty tough to swallow. A part of me wanted to throw everything out the window and go for a ‘very, very long walk’ for a while, but the other part of me wanted to get back on the saddle, figure out what happened and move forward cause I know I am faster than that!  And that’s just the way sports is sometimes.

Anyways, I guess I should have taken a hint when I arrived and saw this at the airport everywhere …

and walked out into pouring rain, like seriously pouring rain and was told to be careful of the flash flooding and find under cover if I heard the Tornado sirens go off!!  yikes : S It was definitely an interesting and eery drive to Boulder!

Anyways, back to work! : )

S5 week 39 – Race 3 of 3 … a little rusty!

Well I know it’s been while since I’ve raced an Olympic distance triathlon, but I guess I’m a little rusty! So, I could say many things about the race, but I’ve already moved on and am looking on how to make things go better in the next race!! So, I’ll summarize in some photos and a few words …

My swim did not go as planned, not even close! you’ll see a straggler at the back of the pack of swimmers in the photo …yup that’s me, yikes!

I was 2nd last out of the water (17th), couldn’t get my wetsuit off, got a penalty for not putting my cap and goggles in my basket (that’s a 15 sec in the penalty box!) and it took me 3 attempts to get on to my bike (super embarrassing!) … as you can see I’m not so happy in this pic, hehe (I can laugh now …) …

I think I wanted to cry and quit a few times before I even got onto the bike, but I decided that the race was NOT over and there was still 2/3 of the race to go! So, this is me determined …

I ended up catching 8 girls and breaking up a pack, so that was kind of fun.  Then onto the run I didn’t look back …

It was a really rough start and in general not as fast as I wanted, but I was happy for not giving up and sticking with it.  I ended up 9th with a little money and it was definitely worth not giving up!  Here’s me finishing and finally breaking out a little smile hehe  …

Then, it was time to enjoy the rest of the weekend.   A nice sunset on the ferry to Bainbridge Island  …

Now back to work!!!

S5 Week 38 – Race 2 of 3 …

 

 

 

 

Well, its been another solid week of training and racing. I made the trek over to Victoria for the weekend and got in some good work done!  It started with my first wetsuit swim of the year at the famous Thetis Lake with the Lifesport crew and it was surprisingly not so bad, hehe…

Ok, so I have had this fear of the wetsuit from the beginning … or maybe I should say hatred for a little while as I couldn’t quite get used to it after all these years swimming in a pool … in a swim suit. The wetsuit is constrictive, super buoyant and technically awkward  …  something that Supermom Steph enjoyed very much ; ) hehe And every year I would say I will conquer it … and this year I mean it!!

Well, with a solid few months of swim training under my belt and some good tips from Coach Paul and Brent McMahon at the lake this weekend I think it is starting to come around! I also got in a nice ride and run … it’s beautiful in Victoria and it’s nice to have a change of scenery.

Then it was race time …

A swim relay, 1.9km, for the half ironman race and then the Sprint triathlon race afterwards.  The swim relay was pretty good as I came out with some of the top men and the first time I felt like I got into nice rhythm in the swim, yay!

Next up was the Sprint Triathlon and  that swim was c-r-a-z-y as it was only 500m so everybody was thrashing everywhere … I thought I was going to drown a few times! hehe Survived that and the rest of the race was ok, legs and energy weren’t quite there, but I’ll take the win for my first tri of the year : ) A couple pics …

No, that wasn’t my time .. just the finish line : )

Overall Sprint winners. Nice job Robert! It wasn’t quite the epic battle as I was hoping for, but I still took the swim and had fun, hehe … until next time ; )

Always great hearing the familiar voice  and kind words of legendary Steve King!!

Now, one more week and looking forward to seeing what some rest will do for race #3 : )