Some lessons for me to learn in the next 12months

1 – Swim – FFS learn to sight bouys!!!!!!

2 – T1 – Over an Ironman it’s worth spending a bit of time Transition sorting things that will cost lots of time later. How long would it have taken for me to make sure my feet were free of sand before I put socks on? Walking later because my feet were red raw cost me much longer. How long would it have taken to apply some sunblock on my shoulders and legs? I’ve no idea if this would have saved me time, but it might have saved me the 4 days of pain I’ve had since.

3 – Bike – You can spend what you like on fancy gear and it won’t make up for strength. A new bike/aero helmet combo still led to my slowest ever Florida bike split (I still wanted a P3C though). Also learn how to ride how to ride hard on the bike (become a good cyclist). If needs be get your ass in the gym and strengthen those quads. There is no reason at all why I can’t go under 5hrs on that bike course. If I race a Sprint Tri I’m comfortably inside the top 5% on the bike, I can’t be happy with only making the top 20% of an Ironman bike. PS – How the hell do the Pros get all their calories into one bottle? None of their bikes were loaded up with half the bottles that mine was.

4 – T2 – Again, unless you’re at the front of the pack then time really isn’t of the essence. On a long day comfort could actually save you more time than speed. Take the sunblock offers and vas up, it’s worth it.

5 – Run – Practice running off those long bike rides all the time. 5k won’t do it either, running 5k is far to easy. Make sure those practice runs off the bike are at Ironman pace, it’s ok popping out and cruising 6-8miles at 6:30 pace but that’s no good if you’re only aiming to run 8:00pace.

Extras

Tim - When we last saw you 2009 was the furthest from my mind. It's great to have a supportive girlfriend but sometimes Shell is a bit to supportive and she likes her holidays in Florida. It's all her fault!!!! As for 60 more IM with 1min improvements!!!!! I'd rather have 1 more with an improvement like yours.

Rich - You've got a coach (roflmao). I hope that's just Kit you're talking about. The aero helmet was actually the least of my worries. We were off the bike before the temperature got too hot. It's only really there because it was on offer and cheaper than a normal helmet (it should also now have club colours (or hair colours) - picking it up later).
Maybe we'll pop in and let Rosie tear your garden up when we've picked her up from Wolves on the way home :-)