Fourth Weekend and more

Well I started my weekend of the 4th early, namely I only worked Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I was up at 4:30 and out of the house before 5 to head out of town and help build a garage for some family. What an extreme 3 days of work. There was not much in my triathlon training that prepped me for construction, so I started to notice muscles that had not been used in a looooong time.

We got the garage mostly sealed up and water tight despite some issues with parts being delivered on time. The weekend was spent with family enjoying the weather on Saturday at the pool with my niece, nephew, and family. Sunday decided to rain all day and we returned home late that night.

During the weekend, I got confirmation that I would be able to enter the Lifetime Fitness Triahlon, which is this weekend. Having been out of town and away from training for a few days, I knew I need a very disciplined week this week, to trim a few pounds off that I happened to gain this weekend, partially to the super addicting M&M's with pretzels in them..... freaking YUM!

The short week is a good start, Monday I was able to pre-ride the course, or pretty close minus a small detour I took accidentally. I am all registered and ready to do packet pickup on Friday. I may take a half day to hang at the expo and meet/listen to some of the pros. I will be doing the short course, while I know I could do the International distance, I am focused on sprints and think my performance will be best at that distance.

That being said... here goes with my goals:

Swim .4 miles: Under 11 which would be around a 1:33/100
T1: No clue how this is going to work being so large, lets say <2:30 Bike 15 miles: 240 Watts enough said, it is going to happen! Not sure what that will get me speed wise on this course, but aiming at <40 minutes (39:55 is 22.5 MPH) T2: <1:30 Run 3 miles: No guts no glory, hopefully I don't spill my guts on the run, but I want a sub 7 pace for less than 21 minutes. It doesn't take a mathematician to sum those times up and you get 76 minutes or 1:16. My goal is better than 1:15. If you want to look at Last Years Results You will see why I am saying sub 1:15.


This race is a mental hurdle for me. Looking to push my swim, last race I settled and did not have the race mentality for a good 1/2 of the swim.

Efficient transitions will help shave some precious time.

The bike... oh the bike. I rode the course Monday on my road bike, a few tight turns, some rough roads, but a couple nice stretches to put the pedal to the medal. Since it is a short course, I will not be packing repair kits and hoping for the best luck getting through. Wattage is my performance factor here. If I push over 240, I will be happy as that has been a barrier in a race.

The race is won on the run, or so they say. I know I am not a speed runner, but my 7:01 average at the first tri makes me want to push hard and break that barrier. Since its 3 miles and not a 5k, I need to push hard to make a good pace. If it were a 5k, I would be aiming for that sub 20 5k time. Hopefully I can mentally break that barrier.

Overall: As I said mental toughness day. It will be less than 75 minutes of pain (have not raced a sprint yet that was even close to this pain threshold overall) I love pushing hard, but on my races, I tend to be tired later that day, but not physically wiped out. I am going for that.