As i stated in my last post, I was going to train for this bad boy on 3 days a week of training, and as you can see, that's by and large what happened. I didn't even get in the workouts I thought I would on those three days each week, so I ended up with even less training than I anticipated. No build period. No peak. But I am tapering! :) So I guess we will see what it gets me!
I have to say I feel less stressed about this race than I have any other. I feel absolutely no pressure to go out there and get X time because that's what I feel I should be able to do on Y amount of training. I know I am under-trained. Big time. But I'm OK with that. Overall these last 2 1/2 months have been very enjoyable for me. I haven't felt stressed trying to make sure I get my workout in EVERY day. I haven't been in a state constant state of dog tiredness every day, which has made everything else even better. When I am at home, I haven't felt exhausted when Hunter is asking to be chased, wrestled, thrown on the bed, or some combination of the above(hint: he ALWAYS wants these). His favorite game these days is, "Run into your arms, toss me back on to the bed!" This game involves him running and jumping off of the bed, me catching him, spinning around, and then tossing him back onto said bed. Its a lot like tossing a 40lb kettle ball. Over. And Over. This has been my strength training for the last 8 weeks, as we do this about 80 times a day. Its a good core workout, and if anyone wants to come over and take my place to give it a try, I will gladly let you sub in :).
Switching gears back to my race, I want to talk about race predictions, because that's always a fun thing to do, and is totally pointless because you have no idea what the conditions will be the day of the race, and because I just said I didnt feel the pressure to go get X time :). I stated I thought I could do about a 5:45 in my last post, and I think that is still about right. Assuming the swim will be the right distance, there will be little to no wind on the bike, and it won't be terribly hot on the run(we always have perfect conditions for these things, right?), I think best case scenario I could do the following:
Swim: assuming its wetsuit legal, I should get under :40 fairly easily. :35ish is probably best I can do with my current swim fitness. I swam, uh, once a week for the past 4 weeks??
Bike: maybe a 2:45?? probably closer to 2:50 or a little over. I've been instructed to ride hard and just see what I can do, so I may well end up with something a little faster.
Run: probably a 1:50ish at best. Especially if I bike under 2:50. And its 70 degrees. And overcast. More likely 1:55-2:00. But I have been running well, that 1-2 days a week that I've been doing it :).
So race day is in 6 days! I've got a 6 mile run today, one final short swim/bike/run on Wednesday, and the race next Saturday! So I should be well rested at least, right??
