Sunday approaches

As my hairless legs cut through the days of the current week, I have found myself thinking of the past and future, to remove myself from the present. I'm waiting for Nation's Triathlon, this Sunday. But the days leading up to a key race are often dull and full of anxiety. Am I ready? Have I trained enough and to the proper capacity? Taper week isn't easy. I can barely train as any training I do will have no real positive impact on race day.

So I find myself thinking about every workout since Columbia. I remember the successes... the bricks where I biked at least 24 mph and ran 17-minute 5ks (on 10k pace). The intervals and time trials where I pushed new speed records. The track workouts where I consistently ran faster than I ever have before. The swims where I improved by a second or two over 100 yards. Those encourage me. There are the failures too. Last Tuesday's brick, where I couldn't find the energy to run. The Church Creek TT, where I suffered badly. The Midsummer's Mile. Worst part about those were they were races. It troubles me... what if I just can't perform under pressure on race day?

I did well at Columbia though... and I had similar feelings going into it... and despite factors I couldn't help (rain, flat tire), I had a breakthrough race. I've improved significantly in all three sports since then. I should be confident, right? I am... but I am pretty nervous too. Church Creek still weighs heavily on me even though Michelle and Dirk will point out that I was hurt, dehydrated, etc. I'm just worried I'll feel the same pain I felt at Church Creek and collapse. I can't have that happen!

Anyway, my week has been going according to plan despite my uneasiness. I rode and swam yesterday. Biked 4x90 seconds @ race pace, and put in some fast 26+ mph speeds with a strong headwind. Good... I'm resting up! The swim was hard right after the bike, but I still put in 16x50 at 40 seconds with a 400 warmup. Tomorrow I sharpen my run and guide Michelle through a progression run on my bike.

The base goal: Sub 2:08 (23:00 1.5k swim, 1:03:30 40k bike, 36:00 10k run) More to come as race day approaches. Nations, you are next!