FW: First World Cup of the season

This past weekend was the first World Cup of the season and the first of five races in nine weeks to finish off the Olympic qualifying period.  The goal through these races was to start strong and then build to peak fitness after this World Cup in Mooloolaba, Australia.     It was a very physically rough beach start ocean swim but I managed to literally slug it out and get back towards the front by the end.  A quick transition and some hard work up the first hill I was in the front group.  I felt strong during the ride and despite being knocked into and over a median I stayed comfortably in the front group.  It was an intense entry into transition with 40 men trying to squeeze single file through the three tight turns.  I managed to hold my position in 5th place and lead the group out of transition.  I felt really smooth and strong on the opening stretch but once we hit the first hill that is where the lack of threshold training and sickness kicked in.  I had a limiter on my output so I was only able to run at strong tempo pace.  I pushed hard to the finish with what I had and came up with a 14th place.   Everything looked great for this race coming off a really strong training camp in Maui in February.  However, a week after being home I got sick and ended up with a sinus infection.  I was able to put one last good effort in at a 5km road race with a solid 14:44 before fully succumbing to the virus.  This was one of the last strong workouts as I had been fighting off the sickness prior to racing but then it got a hold of me post race.  I ended up missing close to a week of training leading up to my flight to Australia.   I managed to get a couple of solid workouts in before getting on the plane but it was going to be a roll of the dice how things were going to turn out come race day.  I went in to it knowing I have done lots of hard work earlier and I was still strong.    I was happy to finish strong but wished I could have had more as it was a tight race just up the road.  Regardless, it will be a great fitness builder and hopefully I will kick this bug soon and get some quality training in here in Noosa.     With my 14th and Kyle getting an 8th we have moved Canada into 7th place of 8 with three spots for London.  We now have to maintain this position and hold off the other countries now chasing us.