A huge decision.

Okay, I've made a HUGE decision.  I will not be doing the full distance at the Auckland Half Ironman this year. I will be doing the short course. Why, I hear you ask? Okay, it's pretty straightforward. Here goes:

The recent car repairs ate all my money, and as such I am still without a wetsuit, cycle shoes, cleats and pedals. I'll need about 8 weeks to get really used to and comfortable with these necessities, and I can't get them until at least next week - giving me less than six weeks including my pre-race taper, to get used to them. Aerobars I could probably cope without, but not shoes, cleats and pedals. And then there's the bike fit to set me up with them. Money, money, money!

I am also without a triathlon coach, as the money I wanted to put towards hiring one was imbibed by the damn car. My trainer is great, but he doesn't have the depth of experience in triathlon that I need for support. Hopefully I can get a coach a bit further down the track.

The random shifts at random hours for my work placement messed with my plans for training hard out over Christmas. I had planned on training in the morning then going off to work in the gym - but this didn't happen as I had a bunch of 5.30am and 6am starts. I did my best, despite being dog tired, but the progressions just weren't there.

And then there's the running. As an asthmatic, being quite overweight (let's be realistic here), and without a running background, I had to start from scratch. I've improved 400% on what I was able to do six weeks ago, but it's still not enough. Yes, I could walk the whole 21.1km run, but can I do that on top of a very slow 2km swim and an average-pace 90km bike - and finish within the allocated time? Most likely not.  

I live in Auckland, and the humidity here is gruesome at best. I'm having enough trouble doing intervals in Auckland's wonderful 90%-plus humidity. Five minutes and I'm sucking on asthma inhalers like there's no tomorrow - but they just don't help.  As an asthmatic, as soon as I can't breathe I reach for my puffers. I feel like there's an elephant in my chest, and there's nothing I can do to make it go away. Not cool. My asthma is very well controlled but as my doctor pointed out, my asthma isn't the problem, it's our stupid weather and no amount of symbicort or ventolin is going to get the weather sorted. End of story.  

My doc's advice is to move to a city with moderate humidity year round if I really want to get serious about this sport and not worry about the elephant in my chest. Yes, I am aware that Hawaii will be hundreds of times worse in terms of humidity, heat and the like, but let me worry about that when I qualify in several years, okay? BTW: in preparation for Hawaii, I intend to do the Singapore Ironman 70.3 and the Honolulu event multiple times. But by that stage in my triathlon career, I'll be an awesome runner and probably living in either Aussie or Singapore anyway!

I only get 8.5 hours to complete the whole event, and if I punctured or had other technical issues, I'd be screwed. The last thing I want to do is give it everything I've got but finish after the cutoff time and get a DNF ("did not finish"). That would kill me. I would probably give up triathlon for good if that happened. It would be soul destroying, demotivating and terribly frustrating.

Lastly, after having a chat with Ash at uni today, we also agreed that over-training now for the sake of finishing and being stubborn is more than likely going to result in my picking up an injury. I really don't need an injury right now. With my luck, I'll tear something in one of my knees, and I'm just not in the mood for surgery this year. My LCL in my right knee is still screaming after the gym on Friday, run on Saturday and then run on Monday. I hope it calms down by Saturday!

So, the sensible option is to do the short course at the same event. It's still at the Auckland Half Ironman, but I'll be doing a 1km swim, 30km cycle and a 7km run instead. It is still a big challenge for me, considering that prior to November last year I hadn't been lap swimming in a pool for many years. I also hadn't been riding much and as for running, well, ha!  

I'll do many more short distance triathlons this season. At least with the 3/9/3 and 1/10/2 distances I don't need much of a taper, just a couple of days pre-event to rest and then I will unleash my fury on the tri course.

I need more experience, and I will continue to train throughout the year. I will lose this excess weight, gain more fitness and muscle, and then go kick some ass at the Half Ironman distance. I will do a Half Ironman, it just may not be this year. Geelong, Australia in 2011 is looking good though!