Bitter Sweet

I've been incommunicado for a while on the blogging front (at least compared to my normal prolific blogging rate) and, for once, quite allot has happened. I'm fit! Unfortunately that's fit in the sense of being able to run rather than the type of "fit" I would hope to be a measly 20 days from what was supposed to be the crowing jewel of my tri career thus far. It's all a little bit bitter-sweet to be honest. Going from planning to hit my best race, to beginning to deal mentally with starting knowing I couldn't finish, to my present state of being elated that I will be able to "race", but having to accept that in terms of AG plaudits I won't be able to "race".

My bike and run are the strongest they have ever been and the numbers I've been seeing are very encouraging but my run just isn't there, as you would expect from 6 weeks of no running. I don't really know what to expect on the day so we'll just have to wait and see. I suppose I'll be getting a clearer idea of what is possible in the coming days especially when I land in Kona in under a week!!! Where does the time go?

It's a huge juxtaposition to IMSA where everything had gone with militaristic precision for the previous 6 months. Since coming back from South Africa in April I have had to deal with three injuries (two of them minor but taking out about a week and my most recent effort) and one stomach bug. Also, I'd be lying if I said I'd dealt with the injury well and, as a found myself doing as a younger, fatter lad, solace was found in food. As a result of this I am not quite as svelt as I was 4 months ago. What sort of difference this makes remains to be seen.

Last big training day is tomorrow and it's a quite frankly masochistic 4hours on the turbo @IM pace with a 10k run off. Hopefully I'll have some pictures so you can get a feel for just how sweaty the last 30 minutes were... time to hydrate me thinks!