Tauranga Half did not go to plan. Just under 4hr15 and top 25 overall. Within seconds I recorded an identical time to last year. This was not the plan. I swam faster, I biked a bit faster, and I folded on the run. It just wasn't happening. Coulda, shoulda, woulda? I didn't.
I just felt lat and struggled to get power down on the bike. I tailed off throughout, and by the time I started the run my hamstrings were already cramping. Not plesant. On reflection there were many reasons, and many contributing factors. Many of them I should've controlled better. I will bank those lesssons, and not make the same mistakes again if I front back at Tauranga again. The positive is last year I was happy as with Tauranga half. This year I was average, I struggled, and I still did the same time as last year. I'll take that as a positive. My base fitness is quite reasonable. XTERRA is 3 months of yet.
To vent some frustration I lined up for the NDuro MTB race the following day. Not suprisingly I lacked any 'zing' in the legs but was relatively strong. I just didn't have the punch or real top end speed. Rode upp to 2nd at about the 45min mark before fading a little, then taking a little unneccesary deviation and sampling some extra singletrack along with Patrick Avery after a course marking hiccup. Ah well. Extra training. 4th in the end so can't complain too much.
Time to rest up the legs then kick into phase two of the season. Developing some MTB speed for National Champs.
Bobbing round awaiting the swim start. One of the few times I would still be surrounded by the other "pro" swimmers for the rest of the day.
4km or so into the run. Trying my best to fool my legs into thinking they actually have some 'go' left in them.
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