OCA licensing

My next race is the KW classic here in Kitchener, which is an O-Cup race, meaning that it's affiliated/sanctioned by the Ontario Cycling Association. This means you need a valid OCA license, obtaining said license is a bit of navigation through some twisty passages because there are two options, 1) a vanilla UCI license or 2) a Citizen's permit.

The UCI license will let you race whatever, whenever you like, but costs $148 for the year.

The Citizen's permit is $48, but can only be used for three races, and only for specific categories -- typically Masters 3 in the road/XC races. At each race you'll pay your race registration fee, *plus* have to purchase a Citizen upgrade permit (which is $12 at the KW Classic).

Because I am 1) slow, and 2) unlikely to race more than 3 O-Cup races this season, I decided to purchase the Citizen's permit, and pay the upgrade fee.

Update: If you purchase a Citizen's permit, and then decide you need a full UCI license, the OCA will credit your Citizen's permit cost to your UCI fee.

Triple T summary -- "Choose to walk, not forced to walk"

Last year's goal was "don't walk" ... a year's worth of training and experience later, and that seems amusingly naive. This year, the goal was "don't blow up again." So Saturday, the mantra was "this is not the race, tomorrow is the race", and then on the Sunday bike, "this is not the race, the run is the race."

My goal was to be sub 12:00, I was 12:04 with a slight unplanned 5k detour during the Saturday morning Olympic.

Best stat that describes this bike course: over a 10 minute period, I averaged 250 watts at 12 km/h.

Fri -- wasn't stupid, (26min-ish)

Saturday AM Swim : 25:53 (1:43 min/100m)
Saturday AM Bike : 1:31:33 (got lost, added 5k onto distance), NP=216W, 29.7km/h

Saturday AM Run : 1:00:50 (5:49 min/km)

Saturday PM Bike : 1:21:36, NP=201W, 29.9km/h
Saturday PM Swim : 26:16 (1:45 min/100m)
Saturday PM Run : 58:49 (5:38 min/km)

Sunday Swim : 30:45 (1:37 min/100m)
Sunday Bike : 3:19:52, NP=165W, 27.9 km/h
Sunday Run : 1:51:30 (5:43 min/km)

I was happy with how I raced, I was very even on the bike, steady on the runs, walked up the steep hills and opened up on the downhills (my quads paid for that, but it worked for the race).

I did what I had planned to do in this race, I'm going to give it a rest for a while, maybe do it as a team in a couple years.

Week 28 summary

whoo... 5.3 hours of training! Luxury! Unintended taper, but hey, I'll take it. Any work that did get done was at least reasonable intensity (strides). There was a fair amount of non-specific training: baby jogger errands, bike trailer school commute, etc, but maybe only another two hours worth.

Week 27 summary and Mudpuppy Chase 5k report

Working on adding some intensity this week, getting ready for Triple T. Didn't get a lot more intensity, just reduced work (only 7hr of training this week -- snuck in work as possible, child care responsibilities have higher priority :).

Good news was a quick performance at the Mudpuppy, I was hoping to go under 20min, ended up 18:39, so that's nice, if a bit scary for my required training paces now.