113k Malta Middle Distance Triathlon

After a not so happy ending to my European Duathlon long distance Championships in Holland I was looking forward to have good race back in Malta at the 113k Middle distance triathlon organised at Birzebbugia.  3 weeks of solid training followed my disappointing result in Holland.  I went into the race with very realistic expectation on the final result.  In long distance you cannot achieve top form in 3 weeks and knowing that my main rivals were much more advanced with their training timing I wasn't putting too much pressure on myself. I wanted to use this race mostly as preparation for the coming races so my main target was to execute a good performance, test my race nutrition and race gear. 

The conditions on the day were not fantastic.  The wind was blowing hard and the sea was rough which usually plays in my favour but then again in Holland I suffered big time on quite a nice day.  I started with a strong swim coming out of the water in 29mins together with club team mates Roberto Demicoli and Andrew Grech who were both part of relay teams.  After a quick transition I jumped on the bike and tried to find a good tempo which could take me through the 90k ride without digging too deep into my reserves.  Fabio was quickly gaining time on me but I tried not to panic to much and just concentrating on my race.  In longer races if you push hard early in the race you usually pay for it in the run, and I wanted to have a good run so I stuck to my pace. 

Back to the second transition I noticed that I was going a quite a good pace.  I had kept around 36.3k/hr average on the bike which was quite motivating in those conditions so I started the run in good spirits.... that until I saw Brian closing fast on me and eating all the advantage I had with every kilometer.  In the first lap of the run I wasn't feeling too good but I was running quite well but in the second and third lap I felt much better. In the end I won with a new PB of 4hrs 24mins by just 50sec on Brian and 4mins on Fabio.  All three of us managed to break the 4hrs 30mins barrier which is a very good result.

A big thank-you goes to Johanna for really sorting my race nutrition which worked perfectly on the day.  Next race is 70.3 Italy in Pescara next Sunday 10th June.