Poole paces himself well after bout of pneumonia
IRONMAN Matt Poole is determined to put a bumpy two months behind him at Currumbin tomorrow, after battling an illness that made him feel like he was “suffocating”.
After a strong start to the Nutri-grain Ironman series that saw him claim second place at both Queenscliff and Coolum to emerge as the early frontrunner on the leader- board, Poole suffered a setback in Wollongong last month.
The Gold Coast-based athlete finished in 10th place and dropped to third on the leaderboard behind Ali Day and Kendrick Louis, in a surprising result that was attributed to a “chest infection”.
But the former champ was actually still recovering from pneumonia after being struck down the week before the Coolum round in November.
He almost didn’t compete in Wollongong but wanted to salvage some points in his hunt for the 2018-19 Ironman title.
“Until about a week out from Wollongong, I thought I was literally zero per cent chance of racing,” Poole said.
“(The pneumonia) put me on the couch for four weeks. I didn’t do any training whatsoever. Racing at Coolum was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Poole said in the time between Wollongong and tomorrow’s Currumbin round, he had been doing modified training but was almost back to full strength.
He said he did not want to push himself too far in fear of having a relapse, but also knew Currumbin was shaping as a do-or-die event if he wanted to return to the top of the leaderboard.
“With age comes experi- ence, so I had to listen to my body a lot more,” he said.
“I was scared that if I went back and overdid it at training again, with my immune system the way it was, I could quite easily put myself back into a rut.
“I definitely modified my training.
“I’m not 100 per cent, but I’m definitely moving in the right direction and I’m excited to be back and feeling good.”