Dreaded Week 9!!

Since I picked out the training plan that I am using to prepare for Ironman St. George 70.3, I have been dreading Week 9.  It is when the main part of the base building phase is over and they really amp up the volume and intensity of the work outs.  I have already been doing 3x3 workouts every week (meaning 3 swims, 3 bikes, and 3 runs), and that is tough, but I had fallen into a routine and was doing it.  I average 1-2 work outs a week, but not the key ones, the long ones.  Anyhow, after last week's "recovery" week, the Dreaded Week 9 started yesterday.  I now have an additional swim and bike each week and instead of adding another run, they have added a long walk to Sundays.  This is perfect timing to add that walk as the weather here has been gorgeous!

So, we will see how all this pans out. It has taken some careful planning and maneuvering to fit all those work outs in, as I normally don't train on Sundays, so I had to finagle it otherwise. It breaks down to two-a-days Monday through Friday with a long ride on Saturdays.

Week 9 also means I am half way through this training plan.  I didn't really follow a plan for my first Half, and it was okay.  But I have seen that following this one, it is much better planned than what I did and I have seen the wisdom behind the workouts and the phases with it.  I love that every 4th week is a recovery week.  I mentally and physically need these recovery weeks.  The weeks slowly build on the weeks prior, and it all makes sense!  I am feeling strong and am loving the training.  I do my best to fit it all in, but life happens.  I feel that the work outs are taxing, but do-able. I feel like even with IM StG 9 weeks away, I could complete it today.  I feel that this plan though will not only prepare me to complete it, but do it WELL.  I love that aspect and thence do my best to stick to the plan because it is a good one and I am excited to see how all of this pans out in the races that I will do before then, and for StG itself!

So, in the meantime, Happy Training all!

Way too Quiet!

I haven't posted yet this year!  I guess in the lazy off season, there isn't a ton to post about!

I have been busy though getting ready for this season. I am on Week 6 of my training plan for IMStG 70.3 that is on May 3.  I am so excited and scared about this race all at the same time.  I feel great about how my training is going.  The volume is starting to pick up, and the work outs are more demanding and more frequent, but I am feeling great.  I am swimming well, running well, and biking better than I have been.

One new thing that I have incorporated into my bike training this season is the Sufferfest cycling videos.  I figure if I have to be on the trainer due to the winter, I might as well try new things.  Holy crap those things give you a kick in the pants!  I am dripping in sweat and begging for mercy when they are done!  I really feel they will make me a stronger cyclist, heaven knows they push me harder than I would normally go on the trainer and it makes the time pass much faster.

As far as races go, there have been some slight changes from the original plans I had for the year.  My Dad and I got into the Triple Bypass for July 12.  I am so excited to do this hard and challenging ride with my Dad of all people!  It's 120 miles and 11000 ft elevation gain!  Bring it on!

I also found out that my running group got accepted into the Hood to Coast Relay.  This is an amazing race that I have wanted to do and even though the timing is pretty bad (it is the weekend BEFORE school starts) I am going to do all I can to make it happen!

So, that is it for now.  I am so excited about how things are going and how this season is shaping up.  it is going to be challenging and so fun at the same time.  Stay tuned!  In the mean time...

Happy training!

Fall Trail Running with my Peeps!

Coming off my stupid injury, and also not doing much of anything active for the past 8 weeks or so, my running/tri group has saved my butt! Meaning, they have given me a reason to get off of it!  This past Saturday was no exception as they posted about going to do a training run up on the Bonneville Shoreline trail, and then possibly up to Adam's Canyon Waterfall.  I was so glad that I joined them, even if it was a tough run!  I had no idea how steep it was, but with these folks, I was laughing the whole way.  Just look at us, wouldn't you be laughing too?

We got off track a few times and had to try to figure out where exactly the trail was.  This lead to us sometimes taking a much more difficult route than was necessary.  We joked about cold (read FROZEN) Clif shots, and where to keep them to avoid the frozen predicament.  After the stressful week I had, this was just what the doctor ordered! It was so worth getting to the top and seeing the waterfall, even if it was much longer than I thought. It was gorgeous getting up there, and I so wish I lived a little closer to these trails to enjoy them more.  Yeah for fall running!

We then went out to breakfast and discussed next season's racing plans, and I think that I now have a pretty good idea of what next season looks like for me.  It will really depend on a few lotteries for some of the events that I want to do.  Really, beyond St. George 70.3, I don't know what the season will hold till I see about a few lotteries, as mentioned before.

These guys are great!  They are so much fun and when I think of my beginning days of running when I always trained and raced by myself, I don't see how I ever did it!  It is so much more fun, easier to stay motivated, and keep going when you have company a long the way.  Thanks again peeps!

First DNS

Tomorrow is the St. George Marathon.  Even though I got in with the lottery, trained for it, and was fully planning on going, I will not be among the runners at the start line in the morning.

Training for this race has been miserable.  Even though this was going to be marathon #5, the training was derailed on many accounts.  It started with the fact that I started getting GI issues on many of my long runs and had to call many of them short.  I still can't pin down why this happened and what I did differently to have this happen on some runs and not others.  I haven't changed my diet, or my nutrition on long runs in 4 years, so I am at a loss as to what the issue is.  But let's just say that when it happened I would be out the rest of the run and the rest of the day remaining.  Then as if that wasn't bad enough, my peroneal tendon that acted up last spring was back in full force and bothered me even while taped and on short easy runs.

Maybe I called this race to early.  I am really beating myself up today as my friends are all headed down to run tomorrow.  I want to race with them but the thought of a marathon makes me want to throw up!  Running has really hated me lately and last time I was at the doctor to have my ankle checked out, he said no running anyhow for another month.  Granted, I maybe could have sucked it up, but it would have been a miserable race.

Next year I am for sure NOT doing any full marathons next year.  I am generally good on runs up to around a half marathon, but that's it.  I am not even going to do any run specific events next year other than the SLC Half which is my fave and has become a staple on my race calender.  Other than that, I am thinking all tris and bike specific events for me in 2014!

For now I am just taking the time to take a break. I am not on any specific training plan at the moment and am simply biking or swimming as I want or don't want.  I am going to start my official training plan for StG 70.3 in January, but till then it is going to be a basic routine of maintaining a basic level of fitness.  I will do a Turkey Trot in Denver when we are there for Thanksgiving, it is a 5k, then probably another 5k Santa Run in December, but this season is wrapped up for me for now :)

LOTOJA 2013 - Relay race write up

I have heard about LOTOJA for years.  It is a big deal in cycling for this part of the country and many people in my area try to do it every year.  It is a 206 mile bike race from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  You can do the whole thing yourself or in teams of 2-5 people.  I was on a team of 5 people that are all from my neighborhood and they have done it before.  We were part of the Green Gecko Racing Team and there were 25-30 of us total.  I would be doing the third leg known as the King/Queen of the Mountain leg that goes from Montpelier to Afton.  It includes the two highest climbs in the whole route and it is a total of 48 miles.  I have been preparing for this all summer by doing a good climbing ride every week, either Big Mountain, Snowbasin, or something similar.

Ken and I would ride up early on Saturday morning with Kelly and Melisa in Kelly's Excursion, which would serve as our team vehicle.  Ken became the official race support for our vehicle doing the driving and the picture taking, a role he is getting very good at :)

We sent Lisa off, our first rider off at the start line promptly at 6:00 am and then headed to Preston where we would meet her and send Kelly off on her route.  We had so much fun in our car and it was neat to get to know these ladies better!  The following pictures were taken at the Preston stop.  These guys in the Texas jerseys caught my eye, because of the Texas of course.  They were all brothers up from Houston and they all had matching jerseys as well as the Texas flag at every stop.  They were so fun!  It was neat to see that along the route, I still am a bit of a Texas girl at heart :)

We arrived in Montpelier and it was time for me to get ready for my leg.  I wasn't really nervous for this until we actually got there and it was time for me to go!  Waiting for Kelly to come in seemed to take forever, not that she was slow, just that I was nervous and anxious to just get going!  She came in before we knew it and I was off on my bike.  The route immediately starts something of a climb up a canyon within the first mile, so there wasn't much warming up!  My fault, I should have ridden around a bit before starting, but I didn't want to miss Kelly coming in.  I decided that I wanted to do as road cyclists do and get into a pack if I could.  Group riding makes me really nervous as I have a personal bubble that I don't like people getting into anyway, but to do that on a bike close enough that you are able to get the benefit of drafting is not something I am comfortable with yet.  Plus, I mainly train solo, and drafting isn't legal in triathlon anyway, so I have never really seen a point to it till now!  

The first climb was up to Geneva Summit and I have to say I loved this climb!  It was gorgeous and challenging, but it was very doable!  I felt great, was chatting with others around me and my spirits were still high.  I stopped at the top long enough to shoot a quick Gu and have a short drink.  I then did the downhill coming down from the summit and it was SAWEEEET! Seriously, the best downhill ever!  I didn't hit my brakes one time and tucked in as low as I could to thoroughly enjoy it.  There wasn't any bends in this portion of the road either, so you really could just let 'er fly and not worry about braking.  I hit a new personal record for speed on Belle on this downhill  - 44 mph!  That was so much fun!

We then had several miles until we would start the actual King of the Mountain climb and it was then that many people would pass me or I would pass them.  Most of the packs would simply pass me by and it made me nervous but they would quickly pass.  Well, then this HUGE pack of between 30-40 cyclists just sort of swallowed me up and they didn't leave.  At first I was thinking "PLEASE pass, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!"  I didn't want to be the cause of 35 cyclists biting the dust if I didn't do something right, and it made me really nervous.  Then when they didn't leave and I was in the middle of them, I then resigned myself to, "Hey, this is your chance to learn drafting!"  I have to admit once I chilled a little, it was kind of cool!  All of a sudden I wasn't noticing any wind and I just kept my head down and tried really  hard to hold my line and stay steady so I wouldn't be THAT guy that takes out the bunch.  I noticed that this group was some of a team, but others were like me, single riders that just hopped along for the ride!  The ones that seemed to know each other were passing things back and forth to each other and at times COMPLETELY taking both hands off their handle bars, and I thought that was just plain crazy.  But, they also communicated very well in who was going to pull, whose turn it was to rotate back, when they were slowing, etc.  I was able to stick with this group for about 20 minutes and I learned A LOT in that time.  I think I may see why people swear by this for group riding!  It was actually fun and I wish I could have kept up with them, but most of them split from the pack right before the start of the King of the Mountain climb to use bathrooms and groups like that tend to split up on big climbs anyway.  I did also stop before the climb, but further up ahead of where they did.

I crossed the timing mat at the start of the climb and quickly settled into a low gear and grinded my way up.  I noticed for the first time all day the sun was out in full force.  We had a very overcast day up to that point and it was VERY hot.  I was literally sweating what seemed like buckets as I grinded my way up this hill! I did feel pretty good and was passing several  other people at points, but was also getting passed as well.  Everyone was very kind and supportive and one guy said, "Can you believe we PAID for this FUN?"   He was super nice and we joked our way to the top. I had felt really good during the first climb, but on this climb, my quads were burning.  This is not unusual for me on difficult climbs, and it usually goes away once the climbing part is over.   I was grateful to get to the top because I was hot, sore, and  just about out of water.  They had a feed zone at the top where I did refill my bottles, use the bathroom, grabbed a banana (it was heavenly at that point) and threw some electrolyte tabs into one of my bottles.  I was probably at this feed zone for 10-15 minutes.

I was really looking forward to the downhill after such a brutal climb, but was really disappointed!  It wasn't nearly as cool as the one coming off Geneva Summit and we were greeted by a nasty headwind that didn't leave for the remaining 18 miles of my ride.  It was the kind of wind that at times felt like it was going to blow my bike over.  I was so tempted to get down into aero like I usually do when I hit winds like this, but aero bars are technically illegal in this race.  I didn't take them off my bike, but I swore I wasn't going to use them.  It sucked not being able to tuck down!  I also noticed that the quad burning that started on the up hill at King of the Mountain did NOT go away.  It was awful.  I felt like my legs were on fire, but I was so ready to get off the dang bike I just kept going, though I am sure I was slow.  I didn't look at my watch to see my speed, but I just felt so slow during the final miles of this.  The pic below is one that Ken got of me as I turned into the transition area.  Many people have commented that I look "serious" in this pic.  Yes!  Seriously ready to get off the dang bike!

Once I was off, my quads continued to burn for an entire hour after post ride.  I still don't know why this happened or what I could have done to prevent it.  I don't think it was a hydration issue because I had been drinking all morning long prior to my leg and drained 2.5 bottles during the 3 hours and 18 minutes it took me to do my portion.  I also had taken in electrolytes, a few GU gels, and a Bonk Breaker bar.  I think it may have been I just went too hard on this since it was a race situation and it was faster than I had trained at.  Either way, it was miserable!

However, the rest of the day was just plain fun!  The finish line was great and the entire course is amazingly beautiful!  At the finish line I was able to see my friends James and Jared who KILLED this course today!  They did the whole ride themselves and came in around 10 hours!  That is averaging 21-22 mph for the whole thing!  They are machines!  I also saw other people from my tri group and it was fun!

I had a ton of fun and want to do this in some way next year, either in a relay or if I completely lose it, do the "whole enchilada" myself.  We will see.  It was amazing and a great experience.

What's next?  St. George Marathon is 4 weeks away!

The Utah Half Race Report - My first 70.3!

Wow!  What a day!  This report is going to be long, so for the abbreviated version here it is:  I came, I raced, had a blast and finished 40 minutes under my goal time and will definitely do this race again.  There, you can go now :)

Okay, for the long version, here you have it!

PRE-RACE:

Ken, the kids and I drove down to Provo the night before the race and stayed with some good friends of ours that are in the area.  We were way excited to do this as we haven't seen them in awhile and it was fun to catch up.  Also, they were saving us an hour and a half drive on race morning!  Ken already thinks I like to get their way too early, so he was really glad about this.  We got up at 4:45, and just Ken and I drove to the race site at Utah Lake State Park.  I should back up and say we were half way down there and I realized I left my watch in my purse, so we had to turn around and go back to get it.  I only race with a cheap Timex stop watch on, but it does have alerts that go off every 15 minutes to remind me to hydrate/fuel, and I also like to see my overall time on it as well.  I can't stand racing with my Global Trainer.  One, it is an unreliable piece of crap, and I also don't like to be obsessed with my pace or speed.  I like to go by feel and perceived effort in a race.  So anyhow, we went back and got my watch and I was happy :)

When we arrived it was still dark outside.  I was seriously nervous and in tears.  Ken is amazing though, he knows I kind of need a tough love approach and he just simply said, "If you can do the Top of Utah Marathon, you can do this.  Just get out and do it!"  He was referring to my first marathon that I ran injured and it was my worst race ever and most miserable race experience to date.  Anyhow, he was right.  He also told me to just stay in whatever moment I was in at the time.  If I was swimming, don't worry about the bike and the run, etc.  This was good advice that I followed today!

I was able to find the transition area and my friend Melinda was already racked and had some space near her for me to set up.  There were a ton of nice people there in that area and I loved meeting them and talking to them about their races, and I honed some good advice off of a 4x Ironman.  He simply said, "Don't let your legs burn at any point.  If they do, you are going to hard, and you will pay for it later."  For someone that likes to race on effort level, this was also good advice I followed today.

This race was NOT wetsuit legal, so I was actually pretty happy not to mess with it before the race or in T1.  It was nice to just have my tri suit on and be ready for the swim!

SWIM:

  

My swim wave time was 7:25.  It was going to be a deep water start, which are my favorite.  I hate beach starts where everyone is running for the water at the same time.  The water however, was COLD!  I had a hard time believing this water was really 81 degrees, but I knew it would warm up as I got swimming.  Before we knew it, they blew the horn and we were off.  I immediately noticed this water was not just cloudy, it was BLACK when I put my head under.  Gross.  Granted, I didn't want to see all the carp and catfish that supposedly live in abundance in Utah Lake, but it was really murky.  It still beats when you have lake weed or crap sticking you as you swim, but it wasn't my favorite swim for that reason.  I found that I was able to spot the first buoy and was happy that I settled into a good rhythm of counting my strokes and sighting the buoy on every third stroke.  I don't think that I have ever done so well staying right in line with the buoy in any race!  I sometimes tend to swim wide or get slightly off course, but this seemed to be spot on the entire 1.2 mile swim!  I was very pleased with that!  I found that I quickly lost the women in my group and caught up to the slower men in the wave before me.  It was never too crowded though and I only got brushed by other swimmers a couple of times and that was usually when we were rounding one of the buoys.  There was plenty of clear water (meaning water without hitting other swimmers, the water itself was FAR from clear).  I really enjoyed this course as far as it was a two loop course but it seemed really doable.  Granted, it felt long and I was glad to be done, but it was definitely a good swim.  The water level is low and there hit several points as I had completed my second loop and I was heading into the beach that other people simply stood up and started walking or running in.  Even though I could tough the ground with my hand at a few stroked I decided to swim until it was no longer possible and really kick to get their faster.  I was glad that I did because trudging through the mud once it was too shallow sucked.  As we left the water, Racetri had set up several buckets of water to rinse feet off and plenty of volunteers.  I looked down at my watch and realized I was right at my swim time goal!  My final swim time was 45:23!  I was pleased with this as it was my first stab at this distance and longest swim in a race yet, and it was right where I wanted to be!  I left the water with a HUGE smile on my face and was excited to hop on my Belle (my bike)!

 T1:

I got to T1, quickly found my spot, and it was nice not having to mess with a wetsuit!  I smiled for a pic, and grabbed my bike stuff and was off.  Final T1 time was 1:50.  I need to work on that, not stellar.

BIKE:

Now to settle in for 56 miles on the bike.  I have never done this distance in a race, obviously, since this was my first 70.3, but based on training times, I wanted to finish between 3:00-3:15.  That would mean maintaining a pace around 18-19 mph.  I had done that at Spudman, but that was only 25 miles and it was ALOT cooler that day.  I would simply try to stay in a good yet maintainable pace for the duration of the ride.  

I knew that they had changed the bike course slightly this week.  We immediately left the Park and headed into a residential section and then into some industrial parts of Provo.  We even rode right on University Avenue for a bit, but it was nice because of all of the officer controlled intersections, we didn't have to stop once!  We then headed west again over onto some farm roads and then headed out to the most southern part of Utah County and out past and behind Sand Mountain out there.  This course was an out and back course that I really liked.  It was fun to see the pros as they headed back in.  Those guys KILL it with speeds averaging 25-26 mph and I love watching them do their thing.  It is so cool!  The further out there we got, the rougher the roads got.  They were all paved, but some were in bad condition.  Racetri put plywood over the worst parts, and they had plenty of volunteers around the worst parts warning us of gravel, steep turns, etc.  I came to the first bike aide station and loved that when I had to get off my bike for a potty break, they even had volunteers to hold your bike for you so you didn't have to lay it down!  First class man! I also found that I loved not having to stop at these stations and I LOVED my aeromounted bottle.  It was so easy to grab the bottle of water from the volunteer and squeeze it into my aerobottle without stopping.  Cool beans!  And all with out stopping!  I am so easily entertained, but this was seriously slicker than snot!

My bike nutrition was NAILED on this ride.  Okay, mostly.  I did drop a Honey Stinger waffle, but I didn't go back for it.  I knew I had an extra Gu, so I took that instead.  But the timing of everything was right on.  Every 15 minutes, I had some Perpetuem, every 30 I took a salt tab, and every hour I had half of a Bonk Breaker.  I sipped water from my aerobottle the whole time in between all of that and it worked well.  I felt great, it wasn't too much and it wasn't too little either. I took in 3 20 ounce bottles of water on the bike plus a 24 ounce bottle of Perpetuem, so I was spot on with hydration!

The second half of the bike went super fast.  I noticed that the pain in my knee returned from when I fell on my ride with my Dad a few weeks ago when we did Big Mountain.  I also noticed that we had head wind coming back in and at times my legs burned.  I would quickly heed the advice of my new friend and gear down so it wasn't as hard.  I started to worry about the knee as I still had a half marathon ahead of me, but then I remembered the words of my sweet TriSherpa and just stayed in the moment and focused on getting through the final miles on the bike. It was nice to round the final corner to hear Ken, the kids and my sister Lisa cheering for me!  They rock!  I quickly finished and was so excited to see bike catchers at the bike dismount area!  Really?!?  This is something I have only heard of being done at Ironman Races!  It was so nice!  I simply handed my bike to them and headed over to my gear!  Awesome!

My final bike time was right in the range I was hoping for at 3:04:18, which is 18.23 mph.  And I felt really good about nailing the nutrition and feeling really good and better than I thought I might at this point of the race. 

T2:

This was a pretty quick transition thanks to the help of the bike catchers!  I simply switched to my running gear and I was off!  I snapped on my race hydration belt and ran for a quick porta potty stop, which didn't annoy me because it was another sign I was well hydrated!  Ken got this shot of me leaving T2, knowing I was right on track to his my goals today.  Final T2 time was 1:11.  Not too bad!

RUN:

Now to top this day off with a half marathon, 13.1 mile run!  This was a two loop course along the Provo River Trail.  I must say, given how hot it was coming off the bike, this course design was a pure life saver!  It was probably 60% or more in the shade of huge trees, and I was so grateful for that!  I had been really worried about the heat and this course was awesome in that regard.  I tried to keep the mindset to run at a good yet maintainable pace and only walk the aid stations.  I was able to keep to this goal.  I found that my knee didn't hurt one bit the whole run like I had worried about!  I was starting to feel fatigue in my quads, but nothing to terrible.  Energy wise I felt really good as I made my way through this run.  I found that every time I got passed or passed someone else, they were always so friendly!  Everyone was very supportive of each other and yelled encouraging things at each other on the way.  I have never seen that to this effect at a race before and it was awesome!  They had aid stations about every 1.5 miles on the run and I rotated between taking in Gatorade or the Coke they had on the course.  I also took a glass of ice water at each station, but I used it to dump on myself.  Can I just say, ice cold Coke on a run course is simply nectar of the Gods?  It was pure Heaven!  I also took in my Powerbar Gels every four miles as well.  

As I finished the first loop, I was prepared for the second loop to royally suck, and though it was hard, I found that the adrenaline of knowing I was almost done kept my spirits and attitude and effort up.  I could hear the music at the finish line and even got teary eyed a few times knowing I was almost there!  I won't lie though, the last two miles of this were awful.  My body was simply saying, "ENOUGH ALREADY" and it felt just like when you hit mile 24-25 of a marathon.  You are just exhausted, your legs are starting to feel like lead and sides hurt.  This was when I became very grateful to have 4 marathons under my belt and a couple of 20 mile training runs just this summer under my belt.  I really feel they prepared me well for the final portion of this run that was VERY hard.   I continued to stop at the stations and grab the iced sponges (again, sheer HEAVEN on this hot run) and stuff them in my top or hat, but then I got to the finisher's shoot and I just gunned it.  I did a finish line sprint and was finally DONE!  I would later find out my final run time was 2:28:01, which averages out to 11:17 per mile pace.  This was MUCH better than I was expecting!

POST RACE:

I was so happy!  I lost it and before I knew it Ken was running towards me with the most wonderful look on his face and he picked me up in a huge hug and just said how proud of me he was!  It was a perfect finish line moment!  I had a new medal around my neck, my family was there, and it was awesome.  I saw on my watch that my final finish time for my first Half Ironman was 6:20:40, which was well under what I was hoping for!  I was thrilled with this time! I enjoyed the chocolate milk at the finish, and the two slices of pizza they had for the racers! Sweet!

RACE ORGANIZATION:

I was so impressed with this event.  Racetri did an amazing job. I simply can't think of anything they could have done better!  The course was great, the aid stations were perfect, and the volunteers went above and beyond.  I can't think of anything else I would have wanted!  I would most definitely do this race again and look forward to more Racetri events next year.

POST RACE OBSERVATIONS/THOUGHTS:

I loved this race.  My race plan was executed almost to perfection, and I am glad to see that what I had trained with worked so well.  I knew it worked in training, but without doing this distance before, I was second guessing everything all week long, and I was glad that I just stuck with my plan with a few adjustments here and there, but it worked well.  I feel like this distance is a beast, though I feel that my training prepared me well for it.  However, I can't IMAGINE doing the full distance at this point.  I mean, this was a LONG day.  I can't imagine doubling all those distances!  Yikes!  I know that I want to someday as a bucket list item, but I am very content with this for now.

I have the best race crew ever.  This is not an easy day for them as they have to wait in the heat for long stretches to see me for a few seconds and snap a few pics in between each leg.  I couldn't do it with out them.  I love Ken dearly for many things, but especially for his supporting me in these crazy adventures I drag us on.

What's next?  I have the LOTOJA relay in two weeks and the St. George Marathon in 6.  Happy Racing and training!

70.3 Race Week - AAAAHHHHHHHHH!

Well, it is finally here.  Not sure exactly how I am feeling about it.  So many mixed emotions.

On one hand, I am terrified.  Really?  What was I thinking to sign up for this?  What's wrong with short course races and running half marathons?  I know that I can make it through the swim and the bike, I am just worried about having to run a half marathon after the first two legs!

On another hand, I know that I can do it, but I am afraid of how much it will hurt!  The race day temps right now are forecasted to be around 98-100.  The swim is no longer wetsuit legal due to the temperature of the lake being 81 and rising by the day.  I have never raced for 6-7 hours, so I am not sure how my body will react to that!

Yet another side of me has me second guessing EVERYTHING I have done in training, my nutrition, my race day strategy, what I plan on wearing, etc.  I know you are supposed to stick to what you have trained with, but then again I get all of these What If? thoughts.  I have never done this distance before, much less under these conditions, so I have no idea what to expect and I want to be prepared for everything.  Sigh

Then, there is the part of me that is just plain excited!  I love racing!  I don't think that I would be able to stick to a regular work out or training schedule if I didn't always have something to work towards and something on the agenda.  I love the atmosphere, the other athletes, the pushing myself, and the feeling you get when you are done.  But, I feel like I did before my first marathon.  It is just the unknowns of a new challenge that can be terrifying!

My goals for this race are pretty simple.  I have some realistic goals and some "I'm really hoping for this" goals that may not be so realistic seeing as how I have never done this distance and don't know what to expect.

My first goal is to simply finish.  I know that I will be thrilled with finishing and checking this off the list. I say I don't have a time goal, but I would be lying if I said that.  I really want to finish with anything with a "6" in the front of it.  I have done some number crunching based on worse and best case scenarios and I think that this is possible.  But then again, given the conditions, we'll wait and see.

I would also be thrilled with a 3 hour bike time.  This might be really advantageous seeing as how that means averaging around 18 mph for the 56 miles, but I think that it should be doable given some of brutal bike rides and training I have done this summer.  I am hoping for 3:15 worse case scenario, but then again, we will see.

My final goal is probably the most important one to me and that is to SMILE the entire time.  I really want to enjoy this and race AND finish with a smile.  If I can do that, I will consider this race a success.

So, wish me luck.  Send me thoughts, prayers, good juju, whatever.  Heaven knows I am going to need it!

In the mean time,  Happy Training and Racing all!