Paul's Ride Guide: Just Tri It!

Getting registered.

The Repsol Sport Centre is a world class facility that houses 2 Olympic size swimming pools, an Olympic quality diving tank with both platform and springboard apparatus, a teaching pool, cold tub, hot tub, 5 gymnasiums, free weight and machine-weight rooms, plus a full slate of treadmills, ellipticals and other such cardio machines, not to mention a yoga studio. With 1.5 million visitors a year, this is a very popular and well used facility and efforts are under way to expand and improve on what i consider the best fitness centre in the city.
The Repsol Sport Centre is also also home to the 3433 Sport Performance Centre, which is a performance based coaching, triathlon,cycling, endurance and strength training division with specialization for youth and adults athletes, sport groups and teams. And, just in case you're wondering about the significance of the '3433' in their name, that's the actual altitude in feet of the training studios, which plays a significant role in an athletes training and racing results.
I'd say this is a world class training group, though it is open to any type of athlete looking to take their training to a new level and wanting to get involved in some competition. The 3433 runs a multitude of training session throughout the year and the athletes take part in a variety of competitions throughout the season, including triathlons, testing their mettle and gauging improvements in real life settings. Part of that is a fun event the 3433 host at the Repsol Centre that could be considered a warm up to the impending competitive season, an indoor Sprint Triathlon that allows athletes to practice their transitioning from swim to cycle and cycle to run, but also a chance for anyone interested in giving triathlon a try. Take me for example, a member of the Repsol Centre but not the 3433 club, but still interested in giving myself a challenge, as well as an objective for training.
Once the sign up was done, there was a little pressure to get training and improve my technique and time. I'm pretty good at sinking, which is great for scuba or free diving, but not so much for swimming! haha! So, this 'forced' me into the pool a lot more and made me focus on improving my body mechanics and my cardio. I'm pretty decent on the bike and not a terrible runner, though there's always room for improvement, but the transition from cycling to running is a tough one and needs work. Event day was a lot of fun and there were a ton of people, quite few like me in that amateur class and working to improve on their personal bests. Kudos to the 3433 club for organizing and staffing the competition and making it a great success.

The parents of one young competitor had a good sense of humour while cheering him on!

There were 5 Heats of 35 triathletes, and with the swim portion taking place in the pool, competitors were spread across 8 lanes and started in waves every 5 seconds.