RACE WEEK!

It's race week people!  I have the Icebreaker Sprint Tri on Saturday.  This is my fourth year doing this race (1 year is was by Women of Steel, the other two Racetri, but exact same course).  I love this race as I always use it as a progress measuring race to see how my winter training has paid off and where I stand.  I have PR'd it every year so far, so let's hope the same holds true this year!

I actually picked up my packet on Tuesday.  They offer packet pick up all week at the local running store, and since we were down there for a funeral, we stopped by to get the packet.  Cool shirts and they showed us the finisher medal....HUGE!  I always love how Racetri outdoes themselves on these things!  It is "just" a sprint, but they always go above and beyond.

My goals are pretty simple...race so hard I puke at the end.  With that being said, I hope that racing in such a manner results in a PR and I would like to qualify again for Age Group Nationals at this one, like I did last year.  Even though I can't attend this year if I did, I just want to be able to say that I did :)  The AG Nationals goal totally depends on who shows up to this thing, but I can hope right?

I really think my niche in racing is for longer distances, because I don't naturally have speed, but I can go on forever at the same pace.  I am definitely a distance gal, but I love a good sprint tri.  In so many ways they are harder than a long distance one!  They hurt more!  My own philosophy is the shorter the distance, the more it should hurt. I really like pushing myself harder.  I have done speed work consistently with all three disciplines as part of my IMTX training, so I am really excited to see how this all plays out. 

In other news, I have had my Garmin 920 for almost a week.  It is so dang cool.  I mean, really.  I never thought I would start using it as an every day watch, but I am.  I love it.  The smart features are awesome.  I love, love, love the Bluetooth capabilities.  The second I hit the stop button on any given work out it is sent directly to my phone and shows up in Garmin Connect and Training Peaks.  So freaking cool.  I also love being able to see who is calling or texting when I am on a ride or run to see if it is important enough to stop, without having to pull my phone out of my pocket to do so.  I will usually only stop for my kids and husband, assuming it is an emergency. It is also ridiculously easy to use, which is helpful for a tech idiot like me.  I am super excited to race with it on Saturday :)

In IMTX news, they have changed the swim start to a rolling start where people self seed by expected finish time.  I am slightly disappointed because I really wanted to experience the mass start at least once.  However, I have done rolling starts at the 70.3s I have done and loved how smooth they are, so no worries.  I am so excited about this I can't stand it!  I was looking at my training schedule in Training Peaks last night and realized that I really only have 5 weeks of hard training left with a 2-3 week taper.  Gulp.  The time has flown so ridiculously fast since I hit the "submit" button on registration I can't believe it! Only 58 Days till race day!  Less than 2 months and just a day over 8 weeks away! 

Happy Training/Racing all!!