End of Triathlon Season – Part 2

Last week marked the second end to the triathlon season for me, after coming back from London in January significantly better insulated and less fit than when I left, I’ve enjoyed the last few races of the sprint season and rounded that off with a 6th place finish in 30-34 age group and a good all round race.

Despite fairly limited swimming I’ve actually been going pretty well in races and based upon the splits posted yesterday (which I am still not convinced by) I was actually 5th out of the water in my age group

Copious amounts of baby oil helped to get my slightly snug wetsuit off in double quick time and I picked up a podium slot (3rd fasters through T1!).

I wasn’t feeling great on the bike but my speed was pretty good, a couple of guys came past me as I was starting to lose a bit of focus (probably due to the slight hangover and sore legs from paintball on a bucks/stag (depending on your nationality) and that woke me up and my simple plan was to make sure that they didn’t get to far infront. This kept me working pretty hard and before too long I was back past one of them and hunting the other guy down. Off into T2 and some quick abuse from the coach’s husband regarding the aero lid (fair) had me on my way into T2.

I had a bit of a fight with my new shoes (check them out - trying to move toawrds forefoot running a bit - at least they look fast!!) which cost me a bit of time in T2 but I was on my way. Run was reasonably uneventful, I was pushing as hard as I could and running a decent pace. Some more abuse from the coach as I got near to the line (“Rob this is a race!”) had me busting out a mini sprint finish.

Splits for the race were:

Swim 13.06 (3rd in AG)
T1 1.01 (3rd)
Bike 33.52 (4th)
T2 1.15 (13th)
Run 19.59.7 (10th) - (ok I know that is 20 mins when rounded like the others but it looks better this way)
Total 1.09.14

6th in 30-34 AG, 48th overall. I measured the bike course a little long for this event (21.6km) and the run course a touch short (4.95km).

Overall I’ve been really happy with part 2 of this season, it was hard coming back to racing having lost so much fitness post Busselton but I’ve enjoyed the last few races and can feel my form coming back again. The focus now switches to running as I start to build up for Great Ocean Road half marathon and Gold Coast marathon.

I have to say a big thanks to Scott at XOSIZE, he’s helped me out this year with some sponsorship and it’s been great being part of the team.

I’ve been really impressed by the XOSIZE series, having previously only done Gatorade races. I think the support these races give to the kids series is also pretty impressive, although having a 35kg 15 year old bouncing past you on the run is a little soul destroying!! Busselton was a great memory for this year but getting my first podium at race 1 of the series was also a cool moment.

Last week saw an increase in running up to 60k's for the week, I have a target of close to 100k this week but will see how the body holds up.