Focus...

I'm going to be pretty brief today as with only 14 days to go it's time to 'lock-down' into race mode and ensure that every angle is covered with regards 7am on July the 6th... and as it's now 8.30pm and we're up at five, time is short...

H and I raced this morning at Allerthorpe sprint triathlon near York. I've spoken previously about the challenge faced in order to recover in the three weeks between UK 70.3 and Ironman Germany. Today's race on it's own would never effect my race in Frankfurt, but what it could do would be to slow down the recovery process from last weeks efforts. Because of this my race plan was to hammer the swim but then back right off on the bike and run sections. This way it would be a great training session to recreate a race situation i.e. open water swim start, transitions under pressure, riding off the swim and running off the bike... but would allow my tired legs to have a fairly easy day to add to yesterday's complete rest. The swim was a bit of a boxing match and with the results not out yet I'm not sure where I came but it seemed ok... although... H and I started in different waves and with our watches showing a 10 second difference coming out of T1 she may have taken me down in the swim for the first time ever... it'll be a nervous nights sleep ;) Once I was out on to the bike things calmed down and I quite enjoyed being out in the sun, at an average heart rate of 138 though it wasn't long before people started flying by. As competitive as I am though I was more than happy to kick back with thoughts on Germany. Into T2 and yet more people were flying by but with a self-imposed heart rate cap of 150 I crossed the finish line in about 1:07 for the 750 swim, 20k bike and 5k run... job done.

I've really enjoyed an easy week this week and without a single challenging session am starting to feel fresh... however, I'm also looking forward to getting stuck into a little intensity over the next seven days with a mile TT in the pool, the club 20k bike timetrial, and a 30 minute hard run all scheduled I should be heading off to Europe a week tomorrow feeling like an athlete.

Talking of athletes... a massive well done to Ian for earning yet more 'Iron Bling' in the sweltering heat of southern France, at today's Ironman Nice... and also to Sam for making himself the subject of today's photo ;)

Sleep well,

T