My withered leg

There was a significant shock tonight. I took my cast off and half of my lower left leg has disappeared. A bit scary, but I've looked at the Western States course and it snakes slightly from right to left therefore it should suit my lopsidedness.

Coming back to the post yesterday, I have neglected to get involved with triathlon since my little birthday sojourn at the Cowman half Iron distance tri a few years ago. I have actually entered 2 Ironman races in the interim but been unable to race both times. The tri world is such a different beast to ultra running. It's expensive, it requires a shed load of equipment, the equipment makes a tangible difference to your performance, it's EVEN harder to get into the big races than the world of ultras primarily because it is a recognised televised sport with full time paid professionals. I'm not going to go on about it in any more but I actually own a half decent trek road bike, albeit it is probably now considered an antique or at least retro with its discovery channel logos from the 2006 UCI racing season. I also have a wetsuit which I've raced in the once. I can't breath in it but at least I float. And I have some pretty nice trainers with only a few hundred miles on them....

Riding the circumference of Puerto Rico in 2008 in BVI national colours

So it's just a question of when. Obviously I'm not entering anything less than a half IM distance as I can't be bothered to get wet and cold for less than that. I'll probably leave it until after the Grand Slam but to be honest the major problem is more finding a race I can get in to at this 'late stage' without incurring a massive flight and entry fee cost. Ironman UK is slap bang in the middle of the slam and Ironman Wales is the same weekend as Wasatch so both off the cards. On the Half Ironman IM70.3 front I'm actually IN Vegas for the 70.3 World Champs so will be there to watch. Ireland 70.3 I am away for. I see two options, Italy 70.3 or France 70.3. Neither are great timing wise. I've looked at some of the other races, double, triple, quintuple and deca Iron events (I'm not joking) but they all clash and I think I should maybe try a normal Ironman before I try and pull out 10 back to back.

So will it be another year of no swimming? I am determined not to get in the pool until I next have to swim at a triathlon. Certainly I have hated every minute of cycling in the gym but my quads are now enormous (ly average sized)