The October Performance Project

In many ways, 2018 was a rebuild year.  Though 2017 was my most successful season yet, my life was already beginning to change in a lot of ways and it became apparent early in 2018 that my path to success would need to look a bit different moving forward.  Balancing family time and the growing demands of both my accounting practice and coaching business meant training 20-25 hours per week just wasn’t feasible anymore.  Feeling frustrated with poor results in training and looking for guidance on how I could make the most of my limited training time now, I reached out to David Tilbury-Davis.  David has had tremendous success working with World Class athletes such as Cody Beals, Lionel Sanders, Matt Hanson and many more.  With the goal of taking another shot at an age group title at the Ironman World Championships in 2019, I wanted to ensure I was working with someone I felt confident would give me the best chance possible to achieve my goal.  Lucky for me, David was interested in working together and he took the coaching reigns in May.

Though the build back to my prior year’s fitness was slow, we still achieved some solid results along the way.

• IM 70.3 St. George – 2nd in AG / 4th Amateur Overall
• IM 70.3 Victoria – 1st in AG / 3rd Amateur Overall
• Xterre Victoria – 1st in AG / 2nd Amateur Overall
• IM 70.3 Whistler – 2nd in AG / 3rd Amateur Overall
• Cultus Lake Triathlon – 1st in AG / 2nd Amateur Overall

I wasn’t quite back where I wanted to be, I knew some of the changes we were making would pay dividends down the road.  In the back of my mind I knew the true measure of success in 2018 would be my race at Ironman Arizona in November.

In June, David was insistent that I needed to overhaul my bike fit.  I had been riding a Felt IA 54 for the last 3 years, he convinced me that I needed to switch to a 56.  Huge thanks to Felt Canada for their support on making that happen on such short notice.  It was also a huge privilege to get to go down to the FSA/Vision USA Headquarters in Washington and have them build up the new bike for me.  I can’t thank them and Felt Canada enough for the outstanding support they have given me over the years,  After the team at FSA/Vision set up the bike, David dialed in my fit and we did a scan using Stac’s virtual wind tunnel technology.  It’s extremely valuable having a baseline now for my CdA.  I was pleased with the results and I am excited to see how we can improve it this year with some changes we plan to make to the front end of my bike.

Fast forward to November, at Ironman Arizona I set a new PR, had the fastest amateur bike split, and after a long back and forth battle with a very strong Brazilian on the run, I won the amateur race.  It was a very satisfying feeling to be back racing at the level I know I can be at and I look forward to carrying this momentum into the 2019 season.

Finally putting it all together at IMAZ and taking the Overall Amateur Win

The coming year for me isn’t about the “Road to Kona” as in a sense we’re already there as I have qualified.  This year is about doing everything I can to have my best performance possible on the day in October.  Both times I have raced in Kona I have come off the bike leading my age group, in 2017 I was leading the entire Amateur race.  We’ve been working on the others pieces now that need to be put in place in order to finish with the strong run, I’m excited for what lies ahead.

My current race calendar for the year is as follows:

• IM 70.3 Hawaii – June 1st
• Squamish Off-Road Triathlon – June 23rd
• IM 70.3 Canada (Whistler) – July 28th
• Ironman World Championships – Oct 12th

Another exciting date on our personal calendar comes this April.  We’re expecting a baby girl April 11th and can’t wait to welcome her into our family.

I feel very privileged to have had such great support over the years and it has played a huge role in what I have been able to achieve in the sport.  2019 is shaping up to be a very exciting year and I hope to finally be able to piece it all together at the Ironman World Championship in October.