Half-fast. Not slow. Not fast. Not prepared.

Race Results: Gatorade Race 5 - Portarlington

Definitely not my best race, but then backing up from the half Ironman last weekend was always going to be a bit tough. And the half bottle of Bollinger I drank on Saturday night (the winnings from a bet on the results from Geelong) didn’t make racing any easier.

• Swim (800m): 00:13:45
• T1: 00:02:18
• Bike (26km): 00:47:52
• T2: 00:00:57
• Run: (8km): 00:36:23
• Overall time: 01:41:14

Still, the Portarlington course was a lot of fun and I had a pretty good time, so it wasn’t all bad.

Race Results: Ironman 70.3 Geelong

My fourth triathlon and first half iron distance race. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect given that I hadn’t attempted anything like this before, so had set 6 hours as a time I’d have been happy with and 5:30 as a stretch target.

• Swim (1.9km): 00:33:11
• T1: 00:02:32
• Bike (90km): 02:43:31
• T2: 00:01:57
• Run (21.1km): 01:48:45
• Overall time: 5:09:58

Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled with the result.

Despite getting pretty hot on the run, the conditions were just about perfect for racing; sunny, calm water, not much in the way of wind. There were, however, quite a few jellyfish floating about during the swim and I copped a couple of stings - one on the wrist and one on the face. They don’t freak me out as much as they used to, though.

Thanks have to go to coach Ollie and all the Tri Alliance coaching team who did (and do) an outstanding job in preparing everyone in the squad for racing. And thanks also to all of the crew who made the trip down to Geelong to cheer us on… the signs, messages on the road and high fives around the course made the day so much better.

Race Results: Gatorade Race 4 - Elwood

A very hot (35-odd degrees) and windy (40-50km/h winds) day at the office today and it was definitely not my best performance; having said that, I was only 30 sec slower than last time. I did an 18.8km run yesterday as well, so it was probably a bit ambitious to want to come out and blast a good run leg today.

• Swim (500m): 9:54
• T1: 1:21
• Bike (20km): 36:23
• T2: 1:30
• Run (5km): 24:15
• Overall time: 1:13:22

On the whole, my times were fairly consistent with the last race over the same course, but in harder conditions and with a very different training load, so all up, I’m not too disappointed with today’s result.

And I didn’t do myself any damage leading into next week’s race, which is awesome.