As I have only swam ~5 times in 2011 (and about the same in 2010) the swim was about what I could expect. I did well through the first 200m and then I was just hanging on through the rest; grabbing feet and trying to draft as much as possible. I caught Liam (one of the juniors) at the final turn and tried to hang onto his feet to the beach but lost him about halfway back and ended up pulling a group of athletes back to the beach.

Swim more :)

Lost a shoe as I jumped on the bike; had to go back and grab it.

Shorter elastics.

Hard ride; after grabbing my shoe I dropped into aero and was in the middle of a decent pack (most of whom I had pulled to the beach) and there was lots of jocking for position. As I live on the course and have riden the coures many times, I was focused on trying to move well through the first 4km (where it is fairly flat) and setup a strong ride through the hilly portion. Liam was just ahead of me and has never riden faster than I have in a race so I expected to pull him back in short order but he quickly pulled away. I figured I would pull him back in the hills so set my own pace and watched quite a few athletes go by until the turn into the hills. Through the hills I was able to climb well, be strong over the top and then fly on the downhills; I was passed by a couple of athletes but rode well and passed many (both sprint and oly distance). As we came out of the hills and into the final slight 3km downhill, I was riding really strong; low watts and average speed in the mid 40km/h range. Passed a couple of more people I knew heading back to the park and finished with a ride time just under 40:00 which IMO is a great result for this course.

Ride more

Great T2

Nothing

I wanted to run 21-22 but it just wasn't going to happen. I think I ran mid 22/low 23 and this is purely a reflection of my training going into the race. I settled in well through the first km and then tried to hold the pace but I was unable to; when I was passed (by three or four people) I was able to get on their shoulders and hang with them for a bit but the fitness just wasn't there to pass them or even hang through the finish. I was able to pick it up a bit in the last km and as I got passed on the last turn, sprint out the finish (lost by a second). Overall not as good as I had hoped but about what I should have expected.

Run more

Ate some goodies and then rode home.


Training.