Saturday, July 31, 2010

15.5 Hours to Go To My First Triathlon

Ok...  now its starting to get exciting.  Yesterday I was calm and collected and not really all that fussed about the race on Sunday.  Now I'm excited and nervous and ready to go and starting to dream of racing all out in hopes of a high place.  And no...  I'm not foolish enough to think I'll land a podium spot, but I would like to make the top 20% if I can.

But before I get into that today has been a good day.  This morning I volunteered at a local beginner friendly triathlon called the Deary Triathlon which is put on from the backyard of one of our club members David Deary.  Its an 1/8 mile swim, 14 mile bike, 3 mile run.  Most of the entrants are first timers or people who have only done a few triathlons.  However there were also a few local fast guys and gals too.  I spent a chaotic morning helping out with registration and then I helped out with timing.  I had a great time and got to see many club members and friends too.  Definitley a fun morning.  Perfect weather for the race too and it looks like I'll have the same weather for mine too which is great.

After the Deary I came home and got my bike prepped and then headed out for some mount/dismount practice.  I just headed to a somewhat quieter section of my neighborhood and did lots of circuits of one of the blocks mounting and dismounting my bike when leaving the shoes in the pedals over and over again.  I also again practiced getting in and out of the aerobars, corning tightly when in aero, and reaching for and returning the water bottle to the rear cage.  I just wanted to spend an hour reinforcing all of that.  My dismounts all went perfectly.  And I'd say 80% of my mounts went perfectly and the other 20% went very well.  Not perfect, but very quick recoveries, no panic, and no swerving.  So if I missed getting a foot in or on a shoe I calmly recovered and got it on the second time.  Even that will be much faster than the time I'll lose by running through transition wearing bike shoes and putting the shoes on while I'm not making forward progress.  I'm glad I spent that hour as that was very worth it and leaves me feeling confident in my decsion to go that route tomorrow.

So now its 430pm.  All I have left to do is shower and double check everything.  But really I'm all packed and ready to go.  So now all I have to do is relax, and eat dinner in a little bit and then try and go to bed very soon.  I have to leave the house at 430AM tomorrow.  UGH!  So I had better try and go to bed early.  But before I do here's my race plan for tomorrow.....

-Get there right at 5:30 and get registered, body marked, and setup in transition as soon as possible.
-Go through my checklist twice and make sure I'm all set.
-Get at least a ten minute warmup swim in.
-Start on the outside lane of my swim wave, try and keep clear water, but be aggressive and go for the first buoy pretty hard and then relax through the rest of the swim as best I can.
-Slow run out of the water into transition
-Wetsuit off, glasses on, helmet on grab bike and GO!!!
-Run towards the front of the mount area ahead of others.  Don't mount in the bottleneck area right in front of transition.  Put your shoes on while moving just like you've practiced.  DON"T RUSH IT!
-Go HARD on the bike.  Its only ten miles so go ALL OUT!  Even harder than you would on the TT
-Flying dismount...    I'm very good at this.
-HELMET OFF YOU IDIOT! DON"T BE THAT GUY!
-Shoes on
-Grab Hat and Race belt and GO!!!
-If my legs can support I should absolutlely give it 200% on the run.  Shooting for 6:30s for three miles.
would LOVE to have my first sub 20 minute 5K on this thing.
-Cross the Finish Line!
-Celebrate!
-RECOVER, RECOVER, RECOVER!!!!  Stretch, Compression sleeves, Ice, Get some Protein in.  Whatever is needed. 
-Congratulate yourself on a job well done and then shift my focus right back to training again.

So thats the plan.  It was nice to see so many people from my club pretty much all of whom offered me encouragement on my first triathlon tomorrow.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Its gonna be a great day!  Wish me luck!

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