Leading up to Geelong Long Course

Today is my last day of work for the week. I have annual leave from Friday through to Monday. I am heading off to Geelong tomorrow (post swim-breakfast-massage-nap-pack) planning on arriving around 3pm.

This race is not branded as a Ironman 70.3 but the distances are nearly identical - 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21km run (rather than 21.1km). - more like 70.2-something (miles).

My preparations for Geelong Long Course have been a mixture of good and not-so-good. To be honest (and I have posted about this before) because my A race is Ironman Melbourne, I haven't really wrapped my brain around the fact that I am going to be doing my 2nd half Ironman (distance) triathlon in 3 more days! My training has been going along smoothly, ticking off 90% of the boxes and my health is still good. Often we are too concentrated on the fitness side to triathlon training that it can sometimes impact on our health (getting sick as a result) - luckily, the body is still holding up. I haven't been working too much on my speed but hoping that the fitness I have from Ironman training will translate to some form of speed for this weekend.

We will have a small training session on Saturday morning - for some reason, the Ironman group will be starting our session at 6am(?!). We will be riding somewhere between 30-45km, run around 5km and then swim maybe 500m-1km and all within an hour (?!) Maths is probably not Ollie's strength. Expo opens at 8am but check-in and bike compound doesn't open until 12pm and 1pm respectively. It's going to be a long day of hanging around.

We received our training program late last week and by the looks of things, we have some recovery sessions next week - a sleep in on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday! YESSSSSS!!

I have also put my hand up to be part of the Nissan Corporate Triathlon Team on the 17th Feb for Tri Alliance. I spoke to Coach Greg about this and he has given me the A-OK. If I want to (or feel like it), I can do a 10km run too later in the day but it's not important. The triathlon should take just over an hour to do. Last two years have been duathlons and I completed the race in 53min. I have also been allocated as Team Captain so I will need to be there to pick up the kit on Saturday so our bikes can be prepped (with stickers) and checked in.

Not sure what will be on offer at the Geelong Expo - I need to buy a new helmet. My helmet is still the one I had when I fell off my bike (with concussion) - needs to be replaced. Haven't seen one which I like or can afford yet.

Geelong Long Course - 3 Days
Nissan Triathlon - 10 Days
Big Bay Swim - 17 Days
Ironman Melbourne - 45 Days