This past September 7th, I completed my first ½ Ironman equivalent, the Demi-Esprit in Montreal and qualified for the World Championships. This was my seventh triathlon of the summer but only an intermediate goal toward doing a full Ironman in 2020 which is my final goal of a three-year plan.
However, even that three-year plan took a couple of years to develop. I had a strong cycling background and could, even coax my 70-year-old legs to run at a reasonable pace, but swimming was going to the challenge – I didn’t realize how much of a challenge until I tried it.
Four years ago, I signed up for a weekend swim clinic with a local sports club. At the end of the first day, I joked about buying the arm floats that children wear as I was so bad at swimming.
One day on a trail run I heard about ‘total-emersion’ swimming and found the videos useful but realized I needed instruction so sought out someone in the Ottawa area and eventually a friend suggested Julia Aimers of Team Triumph Triathlon Club. In the Spring of 2018, I signed up for group lessons with Julia and Maggie King. First, I had to unlearn some bad habits that I had acquired in childhood, then try to learn better techniques. I did that year’s Early Bird Olympic Triathlon at Carleton University with great effort on the swim – in fact walking most of the shallow ends; the bike and run portions were more successful. Unfortunately, an old shoulder injury flared up and ended my swim efforts that season.
By this spring, I’d rehabilitated my shoulder, bought a wetsuit and started open water swims. I struggled a lot with anxiety especially at the start of the swim and had to do backstroke even dog-paddle to try to relax. I was not able to finish the swim stage of the Guelph triathlon because of anxiety that was aggravated by choppy water. Julia gave me many suggestions to lower my anxiety during Triumph swims at Meech Lake. By the Meech Lake triathlon, I had got the situation somewhat under control and didn’t just swim from safety kayak to safety kayak. I was thrilled to win my age group and have Julia put the medal on my neck. Slowly, I found a swim forever pace when doing triathlons in Bracebridge, Kingston, and Ottawa. It is pretty discouraging to be the last out of the water – although it does make it easy to find your bike in T1.
The Montreal Demi-Esprit was my A race for the season. Coach, Maggie King was also doing the same event and gave me a lot of encouragement as we got ready to start. The swim of 1.9 km seemed to take forever – although I finished a minute faster than I had thought – 59 minutes and this time wasn’t the last out of the water! The bike stage was great fun as we did 21 laps of the Grand Prix race track. The run stage proved a challenge as my legs were in pain almost right from the beginning – I think I need to respect how far they’ve carried me and treat them better if I am to get them to do a full marathon next summer.
Throughout this journey, my wife, Kathleen, has been a constant support although I think neither she nor my two adult sons really understand why I’m doing this. I also know that without the encouragement of Julia, Maggie and others I wouldn’t have even got this far toward my goal.
If you have a dream to undertake a real challenge but are hesitant about whether you’ll be able to take it on, I advise you to develop a realistic plan for training, then just do it.
A huge thank you to my Triathlon coach, Julia Cooper-Aimers. She took the time last week to drop off (from a distance because of COVID19 restrictions) some tri shorts I ordered along with a well-appreciated note to remind me that there will be ups and downs and that things will get better. She has gone above and beyond to support all of her athletes and our Team Triumph club, by providing almost daily strength, yoga, and spinning videos that have been uploaded to Youtube for anyone who needs a little motivation during these challenging times as well as many words of encouragement. I am grateful for her support and encouragement. ❤️
Anita Lacelle Taylor
Training with Team Triumph for 7 months (so far) made me faster and stronger while building nourishing connections with like-minded fitness nuts and shattering the expectations I had of myself. TT is a crew of inspiring people pursuing epic individual goals and encouraging each other along the way. Julia and her team have expert knowledge and provide a thoughtful evidence-based group program that works. I am privileged and thankful to have Team Triumph in my neighborhood and can't wait to get back to the pool!
Alex Bourne
I want to thank you for always putting our well-being at the forefront of your business model. You suspended face-to-face programs in a timely manner, leading the way in a fitness business world that took much too long to respond and put their members’ health and the community at risk. You « triumphed « in quickly acting to flatten the curve.
Your caring nature resulted in a series of innovative and fun virtual sessions and opened them to the community. I am missing the live interaction now that I am working for a few months but I appreciate that I can access the videos according to my schedule. Yin/yang session tonight, just what I needed.
Not to mention the check-ins, the home deliveries, the charitable events. Priceless.
Simone Rose-Oliver