Saturday, September 3, 2011

THE PLAN

The Swim:  I did the open water race in 1 hr. 10 minutes, so I should be less than that.  It measured longer than it was supposed to be and I swam horribly off-course.  If my time is worse - I either got beat up in the water or had a panic attack. 
I plan on changing in transition both times - I figure if I am going to be exercising for HOURS - I want to start the bike and run in dry clothes.  I don't want to putz in there, but don't expect real fast times either.
The BIKE:  I will probably be between 6:45 and 8:00 hours.  Depends on wind and how much I try to stay with the 1500+ people or so that pass me.  I am not a fast biker, and I am okay with that.  I am competitive though, so I sometimes push harder than necessary just to try to keep up.  I know that pushing hard on the bike means I will pay for it on the run.  My plan is to watch my heartrate and keep my legs spinning.  I don't want to worry about my time so much - besides watching that I am eating and drinking enough.  
The RUN: this ALL depends on the temperature/humidity and how much I blew up the bike.  The slower the bike - hopefully, the better my run.  A dream race would be to hold about a 10 minute per mile pace. I plan on walking the aid stations.  I can run faster, but I don't think that's a good plan after all of those bike miles.  I will again watch my heartrate. 
Overall time - if I finish at 7:30 or earlier -- I had an absolutely lights out dream race.  Everything went WAY better than planned.  I know better than to expect this though.  I'm not even aiming for it.  I think that if everything goes so-so, I should be done by 10:30.  I should think I would finish in the middle of that 3 hour range.  Honestly - I will be okay with finishing at 16:59 -- the course closes at midnight (17 hours).  I might be disappointed, but if I am that late, something really broke down and I will be happy to crawl across.
This truly has been quite the experience.  I don't remember the early weeks - it seems I have been completely consumed by training/racing/planning for the past 2 months.  I think I am at a point that I am ready.  Not really nervous, just want it to be here.  I'm sure that will change come Thursday when I go down to "athlete check-in".  I am still obsessing.  Watching the weather -- which right now by the way would be a PERFECT race day!  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  I have trained in hot and humid this summer - pretty much all summer.  I have trained in the rain.  I started in the cold months of winter.  I had surgery on my ankle.  I swear I did a race in tornado force winds early in the season.  I am ready for what the race gives me.  I also know that there is going to be things that I am not expecting.  I am trying to "expect the unexpected".  I am extremely blessed to have had so much support this past year.  I think I did a pretty good job of balancing the training around the kids.  Just a couple of days where I heard - "Mom - are you going to be gone ALL DAY?"  I especially have to thank Rob for his support and guidance.  It helped that he had done it before.  The couple of times we rode together were fun - except the time he kept riding circles around me.  I look forward to trying to do that more next year as he trains for Ironman Mont Tremblant (IMMT).  His blog is: chasingmailboxes.blogspot.com

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