Jules Galarneau of the Comox Valley returns to his home province of Quebec this month to compete at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Montreal.
He will tackle the June 25 sprint triathlon, which consists of swimming 750 metres, biking 20 kilometres and running 10km. His goal is to complete the race in less than 68 minutes.
Galarneau, 28, teaches at Ecole Au coeur-de-l’île in Comox and works part-time at the Canadian Scottish Regiment, a reserve infantry unit in Courtenay. In summer, he’s a full-time firefighter.
This will be his eighth triathlon.
“I love the sport so much that half of those were on pavement and the other half were off road, meaning the bike and run sections were on mountain trails,” Galarneau said. “These are so exciting.”
During the pandemic, he stayed motivated to train by pursuing personal times.
“I always believe that there are solutions for every problem with the right mentality.”
After years of running without competitive goals, Galarneau dedicated himself to triathlon in early 2019. He can train up to three times a week for each sport by swimming in mornings, and biking or running in afternoons — for a total of nine cardio trainings. He likes to add a weight workout to develop his core, lower body strength and endurance.
As competition day approaches, Galarneau combines high intensity bike and run intervals in the same training session to prepare his body for the physiological demands of the race.
“I also try to bike to work as often as possible to have a weekly training load of around nine to 14 hours,” he said.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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