After a really tough 10days in the build up to Ironman Barcelona I managed to relax and go into race day with some confidence in my ability and fitness. The Pre 2wks training location at Almyra Hotel, Cyprus has produced some great figures and allowed me to get some quality training in for IM Barcelona.

1wk before I road out at the UEA Triathlon 10mile Time Trial producing a PB 22:30 , even though strava says 22:15
NEW*** FTP 326 from 310 , 26.9mph avg
Got 2nd by 6sec because of car stopping in front of me Kudos to Chris Potter.

So travelled out to Barcelona Thursday and rolled out for reccy ride on the IM course, put in a few efforts during this ride and unfortunately I got hit by a car who decided to pass so close to me and then stop immediately infront of me. Giving me no option but to take the full blow on my left forearm and breaking off the wing mirror. I managed to keep the bike upright and come to a stop. Bruising and stiffness. Along with this I managed to enter the sea on a reccy swim and got clipped by a wave that flipped me quite badly and twinged my back.

Race morning came round finally and was really keen to get going, i felt very relaxed but still aching.

SWIM – 55 Pro Men on the start line, great to be in the mix of a larger group and knowing that i could hold myself better in a bigger group I set off from the gun aiming to hang in for a long as possible. The swim down to the turn point was strong and quick as i settled in on the hip of a group of 6 of us 26:00min for the 1/2 way point (TrainingPeaks stats). On the return leg it became more difficult to sight the buoys and also the wind had changed so we had the swell right into us head on. I lost contact with the pack and soon picked up Phil Mosley. Glad to be out the swim exiting on 58min exactly.

T1 – very quick and fluent 2:30min , as was keen to get out on to the bike

Bike – New tyres and tubes (IM Bolton 3 x punctures), headed out onto the Fast, not Flat, boring, non scenic, 112 mile bike course = sub 5hr turbo session. But for most of the Age Groupers a Team Time Trial (although almost impossible not to draft in their defence, due to design of the course.

I was ready to ride a smooth and solid bike here, going out with a plan to hold 240watts avg. This soon became very easy to do so subject to the course and also i soon settled in with a group of 5 as we set out to legally utilise the 12m draft zone rule and proceeded to set a very good pace. Well at least most of us in the group paced up front and did their bit, after a bit of a vocal encouragement. In the last 10 miles i started to get a very hot head and needing to stop and cool my head at the feed station. Still riding with Phil Mosley he passed me and asked if I was ok, I let him ride away whilst cooling my head. Managed to cool down and pick up the chasing group which contained Yvonne Van Vlerken, dually accused of my judgement of 12m after she had sat quite close to my own rear wheel for 5km before. Coming into T2 feeling reading to go into the marathon.

39km 1:00:19 38.80km/h
36km 56:18 38.37km/h
36km 56:19 38.35km/h
36km 55:26 38.97km/h
30km 53:00 33.96km/h
3km 6:47 26.54km/h

Total bike split 4:48:09hr 233 watts avg

Run – Certainly felt i got going into the run here a lot stronger and even made a conscious decision to hold back on the first lap. Spotting and hearing people in the crowed that i knew mad me fly through the finish line loop every time, but the top end of the course was lonely and tough going. Not the best run and was hoping to go certainly quicker than IMBolton, but when Phil saw me again on the run course I think I did well to keep going and certainly finish, I was looking quite pale and not good. On the last 5km I knew I was going to be very close to 10hr mark and this was certainly achievable when I was doing the maths, but the physical out put was not securing it. Until last 800m I realised I had 3 min to go sub 10, thank goodness it was not 800m as almost didn’t have time to grab Seychelles Flag in the home straight to finish 28sec to spare.

Setting a new PB for me of 9:59:32 hr , even though i am most definitely not content with my run split as I went 22min quicker on a harder course at IMUK.

This has left me with a lot of thinking and most definitely left me really hungry for the next Ironman. My season is not over yet for racing, but it certainly has got me thinking towards 2016 and hopefully my 2nd year of racing as a Professional athlete. There is going to be some big announcements in the next few months and certainly with respect to my training and racing. However for the next 7-10days I am resting and then a week of back into training and then off to 70.3 Turkey travelling with Paradise Tri Coached athlete Hannah MacInroy Naylor.

This weekend I will be spending with my 2 boys and fellow club athletes fixed around the pc streaming IRONMAN Kona World Triathlon Champs as Joe Skipper (local training partner) will be stepping up to play with the big boys and SMASH IT!!

That was tough I really put everything into that, shame the swim was over 300m longer- not good Organisers.
Swim – 2,300m (1,900m) swell not too bad but on my own again. Composed and slow 35min but leaders 28min
Bike – had a plan and road it to power higher on way out as wanted to recover a little on the way back but not possible.

Starva Bike Data

Absolutely stoked with a bike split of 2:19hr 24mph avg 270 Watts and was able to ride upto 8th Pro. Got out of T2 onto the run – Wouch!! that was tough on the legs nothing there on the 3rd final lap everything empty blew 3miles to go so so tough.
Finished 4:38:09 10th Pro

Really pleased !!! Left everything out there not just on the bike

Thank you …….
To supporters, followers on FB
To sponsors …..
On
Zone3
Xendurance Europe
Paradise Triathlon Training
Streetlife
Tu Wheels
TORQ Performance Triathlon Team
Team Inspiration
Seychelles Triathlon Federation
Seychelles National Sports Council
Almyra Hotel