14th June - UK Half Ironman Triathlon

The main event of the season for me.

Came out the swim in 41 minutes which was way outside of what I hoped (around 35 mins). My goggles filled up with water about 6 times which didnt help but to be honest think the main issue was a lack of experience in the water. I needed to swim my own line rather than worrying about where other people were.

A slow T1 (again lack of experience). 8.30 mins

The bike split 3.30.14 was better than I was expecting. was on for 3.15 but lost it completely for about 10 miles near the end of the second lap, think this was a result of fatigue, lack of iso intake and heat. The end of the bike was feeling strong.

Again an atrociously slow T2, mostly because I felt really dizzy, still need to really focus on my bike work.

Came out onto the run knowing that the ITB would hold me back, was running for a 2 hour half marathon (with ITB I'd run to 2.05 so was fairly confident). First two laps kept to exactly 40 minutes and feeling OK, ITB was a little sore but nothing major, had to stop once every 10 minutes for 20-30 seconds to stretch. Last half of the last lap (from the Dam) I went for it properly, killed it on the final lap, not feeling too tired, made up at least 9 minutes in that last lap. Last split (around 5 mins) was 13th fastest overall. Total Time for half was 1.51 mins. Felt really strong at the end. Think with no ITB I may even be able to push close to 1.30 half as I was way off my pace.

Total time: 6.15.05

Really happy with the time and have some very easy areas to make up some time (all of them!).

Going to work on the bike this summer and see where I'm at in Sept for a possible IM next year, if not then 2011 for sure.