Back in Action

After the horrible pinched nerve of last week which rendered me all but inert for the better part of five days it was a great relief to be back up and about this week. The ailment seemed to go as fast as it came (thank god) and I have been moving this week with no real problem. Very strange! Took it a bit easy in the sense that I did not run until Sunday as I figured that would be the thing most likely to flare the problem back up.

Gatorade Triathlon Series. Elwood.

Today was Race 2 of the Gatorade Triathlon Series and we had a swim - unlike Race 1 where the only water was that coming from the heavens. And the swimmers were rewarded, with an on-shore breeze whipping up the chop and making for an uncomfortable start to the race. I took a few mouthfuls of water and found the going tough, but not so tough as the several I saw making their way back to shore in the rubber ducky. My 500m took 10.27min and I was very glad to get out of the water!

Back onto dry earth and made my way through transition to the bike leg. This is a 2-lap 20km course along the dead flat Beach Road. Again, only the breeze made it tricky. I couldn't really get any zip to my riding today and just rode along at a comfortable pace as the super-cyclists roared by. My pace was fairly even with the laps both in 19.20min at an average for 20.5km of a tick under 32kph.

Through transition again and out onto the 5km run where I hoped to feel comfortable. Alas, I did not! I wasn't running badly, just with no real pace. As the technique experts would say, I was running "with a long time on stance" as my feet seemed glued to the tarmac and I just couldn't get going. I guess that's what a couple of weeks with no running (and a stack of fruit mince pies) will do. In any case, only two dudes passed me while I ran by a lot of folks and I covered the 5.1km in 21.55min.

Happy enough to finish the race. Nothing really great, but nothing really diabolical either. Unlike my mate Roger who kissed the road after crashing into a witches hat (traffic cone) on the bike - I think it walked out in front of him.

When I arrived home my five year-old Brooke put it all into perspective. She wasn't interested in the race or how I went. She only wanted to know if they gave me a bag of lollies in my race kit and if she could have them. Kids!