Coming off a great training block in Noosa after the Mooloolaba World Cup I was looking forward to a solid race here in Sydney.
My run training had gone well and I felt strong and fast. I wanted to challenge myself on the day and go out with the lead group on the run and see where I could get.
After a rough swim and coming out 15sec back of the main group I had some work to do. I worked quickly with a group of other men to make some in roads but heading onto the second lap I decided to make to final bridge to make sure I got there. Sometimes if you wait too long it doesn't happen so I wasn't going to take the risk.
I was happy to make the bridge but may have done some damage to my run start as a result.
I had a good transition and got in that group I wanted to be in on the run but my quads were still holding some fatigue and I couldn't hold pace. I fought to hold what I could and then found some better legs at the 5k mark. I pushed hard for to the finish and pulled back a lot of time in the last 2.5k and managed to get up to 20th place.
We gained some more valuable Olympic points for team Canada but an impressive Russian performance has bumped us from 7th country to 8th but we still hold three spots just ahead of the Portuguese.
It was a tough race chasing and working hard on the run but again I will get some huge fitness gains. The goal is to keep pushing the fitness up on the path to the Olympics and get to a new level this year.
Brent McMahon
Brent@BrentMcMahon.com
www.brentmcmahon.blogspot.com
@tribrentmcmahon on Twitter
