Since Madrid as you have seen I have been cracking on with that old swimming chestnut! I’m delighted to report that at the weekend I dived in the water and felt fantastic…I just wasn’t getting as tired as I used to and felt stronger with every stroke! As I predicted and it seems to be a definite pattern this year, there was another lead group of 10 guys hammering it at the front of the race and a big chase pack…normally I am part of this chase pack but on Sunday I was up there mixing it up with the gun swimmers. I am so happy that the hard work I put in has finally payed off and it felt so good to be swimming with those guys at the front!

The bike was pretty fast! In fact, I think everyone who made the front bike pack had to work for it in the first 5k. If I hadn’t good riding form I would have missed it for sure because it was a long line out of the transition. The first two laps were fast and the 10 of us who eventually established ourselves in that lead group put 45 into the chase pack which dropped off to about 30 by the end when we eased off the pace a tad.

I hit transition first and came out with a small lead. I decided to run hard for the first kilometer to put a bit of pressure on the other boys but sure enough, Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez are class acts and they caught me after about 800m and we ran together to the finish line.

I got a very confused at the finish line…there was an extra out and back that I was told we had to do…It would have ended up being about 400m extra. So when Alistair started sprinting early, I thought it was 600m out, but in fact it was only 200m to go. No excuses…I should have known! I didn’t feel too good on the run anyway so when Washington comes around hopefully I will know the course and I will have more of a sprint in me! There was nothing in it really, we ran together the whole way and the best man on the day won, I’m happy taking that knowledge away with me.

I spent a bit of time in Paris after the race, it’s a beautiful city and was a good to unwind after the race. I actually got back today…and I am off again to Washington tomorrow morning! It’s going to be great out there, the course is amazing and I had better get packing!!!

I really don’t take bad results well at all. It was always going to be rude awakening though unfortunately. It’s the first proper ‘tough race’ of race of the year, it was hot, hilly, non-wetsuit lake swim with a really good field of athletes and in these first few races you tend to feel like a one pace man. This year the Russian athletes and a few others have been really racing from the gun, smashing out the swim and carrying that through on the bike. Its changing the sport a bit to be honest and as Javier Gomez is not in fantastic run shape he’s got more beans for the swim and bike these days.  

I haven’t got masses of confidence for my swim at the moment unfortunately so I was reasonably happy to be in the thick of it exiting the swim in ‘the hustle’. I knew weeks before the race there would be athletes to chase on the bike but I was hoping it wouldn’t be too much.  

Unfortunately our pack was mostly lazy today and unwilling to put in the work and get organised enough to bring back the lead pack of 9. We ended up losing 1:30 to them and to be honest were lucky it wasn’t more. I didn’t feel good on the bike today, so that made it a bit more difficult then it should have been. I did my part on the bike though, but it just want fluid enough. 

My run was ok, I ran 31:20 on a hot course and managed to stay with the boys for 6k when they put in a hard surge I really wasn’t comfortable with. I still managed to finish and stay strong till the end however and ended up finishing 14th.  

In conclusion, I’m really not cool with finishing this far down, it’s really depressing for me and makes me feel terrible inside.  When this happens though I have to take a step back and remember, these are the best guys in the World in an ever changing and developing sport. My fitness isn’t all there yet and it should only get a lot better as I go through the next phases of training. I think my run is in place and will get quicker in the next few weeks once I get used to the surges a little more. 

Alistair was incredible today…he took the win very easily and to be honest if I forget for just one minute that he is a good friend and rival of mine, it was probably one of the best triathlon performances I have ever seen. 

Thanks everyone for your support for the build up, appreciated it.