Just had a bit of an unusually heavy week with a spot of racing too. Another Brit training out in Oz popped down to Geelong for the week so I planned some solid volume for us finishing with a couple of races to keep us honest.

Basically in the six days prior to the weekend, I logged just under 800kms of riding and 80kms running. The riding has all been of pretty solid effort with some PBs on the local hill rep and some decent pace efforts mid long rides.

So I was quite smashed by the time we headed out early Saturday morning to get to the start of the Australasian Masters Olympic tri. The swim was fairly lonely with just a few jellyfish around to keep me company, but the calm conditions made it pleasant. Luckily they didn’t seem to sting and mostly sat just out of arms reach (though I did catch a few, and they barely felt like they were there at all). Out of the swim second (but by a fair way), I lost a lot more time in T1 as my body told me it was a bit weary. The bike was tough. Long mileage in the week meant that it was hard to push, and the power data reflected this, and the wind made it that much more of a challenge. Onto the run, I realised that the guy in front was properly old school. Luckily he suffered on the run, so I took the lead within a km and then got to ease off a bit to finish the 4 lap 10km. It felt long… cruising speed was about all I could muster. But a win is a win. Luckily it was an ‘open’ event, so even though I am a Brit I can still hold the Australian Masters title!

If I felt like I was running on a half tank on Saturday, Sunday morning’s sprint I was running on empty. The swim was choppy to say the least and sighting near impossible over the whitecaps. I ended up about 100m down the beach from the swim exit. The ride was a struggle – I remember looking at the odometer to see how far I’d gone and seeing just over 1km. Ouch!!!! Too early to be wanting it to be over! So I just plodded on. The run arrived and I headed out as hard as I could for about a km. Then that went and I was left with a jog. I’d caught a couple of guys and managed to finish 7^th overall. Not bad considering!

Glad that the week’s done. The sense behind the structure was this: get lots of quality volume in. Then save some intensity for the end. Knowing that this would be difficult, the races were slotted in to make me push harder than I would do otherwise and to get some race prep. It also got me over any anxiety I had over lack of race morning practice – by Sunday morning I was completely relaxed about the whole racing affair. And yes, in hindsight it was even fun!