After his brilliant gold medal performance at the London Olympics last August, Alistair Brownlee has been on an emotional roller coaster. After he fell ill and had his appendix removed in October, Brownlee could not train for three months. Starting in mid January, he progressed fast enough to win a low pressure, 1.5k swim, 100k bike, 10k run event in Abu Dhabi in March. But the 9-time WCS and WTS winner, 3-time ITU Grand Final champion and Olympic gold medalist was unsure how he would do in his return to the elite WTS circuit Saturday in San Diego.

"I am definitely not in the shape I was in London last year," he said at a San Diego pre-race press conference. "But I can’t spend my life trying to stay in that type of shape all the time. I have spent the last few years only racing when I was in top shape. But now I've had a good 6 or 8 weeks of hard, focused training. I haven't made up the gap between last year and this one. But I am looking forward to racing and see how it goes."

Brownlee answered all his own doubts with a dominating win capped off by a swift 29:30 run.

Brownlee talked to Slowtwitch before the race and he also fielded a few questions in a media scrum after his win at San Diego.

Slowtwitch: With all the great wins you have had, things aren’t always easy. You were injured many times over your career. `

Alistair Brownlee: Oh dear. Where do we start? In 2009 I had a fantastic season including the Grand Final win over Javier Gomez [1st at ITU World Championships Series events in Madrid, Washington DC, Kitzbuhel, London and at the ITU Grand Final on the Gold Coast of Australia]. But early in 2010 I had a femoral stress fracture.

ST: What caused it?

Alistair: Just accumulated stress from running. It took a while to get diagnosed and it cost me several months. After the stress fracture, I was 3 weeks on crutches and 7 weeks to heal. Probably 10 weeks with no running. Then it was back to base.

ST: After that great 2009 season, the stress fracture showed you were mortal?

Alistair: Absolutely -- just in case I needed a reminder. When I recovered, I raced well at Madrid, and the European champs [he won both]. But in London I was a bit unwell and collapsed at the finish line [and finished 10th]. So Jonny [Brownlee] was second there to Javier. It was a great race for Jonny -- and a nightmare race for me.

ST: That illness in London had some recurring repercussions?

Alistair: I had a dodgy stomach at London. I overheated and suffered dehydration. So that became a longer term thing. I tried to race right away after that but I was still ill [he finished 40th at Kitzbuhel]. Finally, I managed to come back and race in the Grand Final [at Budapest]. Even though I was not at full fitness and ability, I won.

ST: It was raining and cold at the 2010 Grand Final in Budapest?

Alistair: That was fantastic because I was still suffering from the aftermath of heat exhaustion. So I needed it to be cold.

ST: Your recovery curve was improving nicely by that point?

Alistair: At the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011 I had ankle problems - stress fracture. Got over that, but raced very badly in the opening World Series race in Sydney [29th]. The rest of 2011 was about qualifying for the Olympics.

ST: You nailed it - wins at Madrid, Kitzbuhel, Europeans and you dominated the Olympic preview and British Olympic qualifier at the London WCS. Then you topped it off with a win at the ITU Grand Final at Beijing.

Alistair: I had a lot of good races that year.

ST: That success led to increasing pressure to win the Olympics?

Alistair: Yes. The pressure was definitely on.

ST: After curing your ankle woes, 2011 made you seem invincible. But you had problems early in 2012 again?

Alistair: I injured my Achilles in January. That was an absolute nightmare. Three weeks in a boot, and three more weeks without running. And then I slowly got back in training.

ST: What was your most worrisome moment?

Alistair: Obviously in the early part of 2012 my Olympics were at a big risk. I didn’t know if my injury was going to go away. The beginning of the injury was bad. But after three weeks we took it out of the boot. And after four weeks, I started training again. One night, it swelled up really badly again and it really hurt. Obviously at that point, I knew if it got hurt again that was it. My Olympics would be over. So I had a bad few days. But it worked out OK. The ankle was just reacting to the recovery process.

ST: What was the turning point?

Alistair: I never thought I wasn't getting to the start line. I just got on with it and trained as hard as I could and did what I could and hopefully it would work out. Thankfully, Kitzbuhel was a massive swing point for me [he won]. Knowing I only had six weeks after Kitzbuhel, it would have been struggle if that race didn’t go well.

ST: Great duel in the Olympics. What is it like racing against Javier Gomez? During the race, did you ever doubt you would win?

Alistair: During the race I was pretty confident. I was more worried about controlling the controllable. I wanted to make sure I didn’t crash.

ST: Did your bike breakaway help you ?

Alistair: I knew that wasn't going to work. But I wanted to make sure that we stretched out the people who also worked hard on the bike. I was trying to tilt one factor in my favor. And yes, I was confident the race could go my way.

ST: What was the decisive moment?

Alistair: Actually you worry about the first kilometer on the run. After that, I was feeling fantastic really. I didn't actually pull away from Javier until about 7k into the run -- and that was it.

ST: When did you get your appendix out?

Alistair: Early October.

ST: You weren't feeling well at Hy-Vee [On September 1 Brownlee finished 14th while Gomez took home the $151,000 top prize].

ST: I wasn't very well then and actually raced again in France the week after [where he finished 16th]. I became really sick and I had the operation shortly after that.

ST: How did it feel to go from Olympic champion to invalid in a few months?

Alistair: I remember waking up three days after and thinking 'Wow! Nothing is stiff because I'd done nothing for 2 or 3 days.' I had never done that in my life. It was strange.

ST: The most formidable person you have faced is Javier Gomez. While you were out after the appendix operation, Gomez won several top races in other formats: The non-drafting Hy-Vee, the XTERRA world championship and Escape from Alcatraz. This is the first time you will race each other healthy since the Olympics. What do you think you might happen on Saturday?

Alistair: No idea really. I am in uncharted waters. And there are some other top people in the race as well. So we will see.

On race day, Brownlee came out of the water in 2nd place and mounted his bike just in front of Gomez. Gomez held within a few seconds of Brownlee on the bike, but was off form and fell back to 8th on the run. Brownlee started the run with a conservative first kilometer, but then rocketed away to a 29:30 run which was just 23 seconds slower than his Olympic gold-medal winning run at London -- and good enough for a 22 seconds margin of victory. Alistair's winning time of 1:47:16 was also 1 minute 31 seconds faster than his brother Jonathan's winning time at this race last year. Jonathan was unable to defend his 2012 San Diego title due to a still-healing ankle injury.

After the medal ceremony, Brownlee elaborated on a few issues in the media zone.

Were you surprised by your performance on the run? "I think the whole race was good. I was quite nervous before this race. It’s the first race I've done properly since the Olympics last year. I've been pretty busy and took a lot of time off from training due to the appendix surgery. In mid January, I started a bit of training. I literally didn’t know how I was going to go. Even if I had come 2nd, 3rd, or 4th today it would have been great just to do that first race. The fact that I won it and I won it like that is just brilliant."

How did you feel about the bike breakaway today? "I was in the initial group. I think there were 8 of us. I was trying to motivate the guys to work and get going. I don't understand why those guys aren't pushing me hard, because I can win the race on the run. But these guys' best chance for a good result is by working together on the bike. I don't understand why they weren't working. It doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. If I can try and get rid of a few of these guys by attacking up the road, and maybe two or three guys have the sense to join me in a group of three or four, we can work well together and we might get away. But none of them came with me when I tried to go up the road. Every time I tried anything I was just getting pulled back. So, a very, very tactically negative race today."

Were you surprised that you did so well on the run today? "Purposely my tactics weren't to go out too hard on the run and I expected to have some people with me on the first k or so. Normally I run a very fast first kilometer but I didn't quite know what my fitness was going to be. When I got to 2k, I found myself on my own and running at a controlled pace. Which was very good."

Did it feel good when you could walk to the finish line rather than battling with Javier Gomez to the end? "Yes, it did feel good. I have had some massive battles with Gomez and Jonny in the past which left me absolutely dead at the end. Today wasn't one of those. I fully expected if Gomez was in top form it would have been one of those days."

Were you looking for Gomez during the run? "Gomez is a great one. But I could see on the bike he wasn't his normal self. He is one of those guys who would push but he just looked pale and weak. I think he was not in good shape today and I hope he gets better because he is a fantastic competitor."

And then Alistair Brownlee was taken off to doping control.