Monday, June 30, 2008

T-Minus 2 Weeks and Counting

It's less that 2 weeks till race day and only 4 days till we leave! YEEHAAAA! I can't BELIEVE it's already here. HOLY CRAP. We were up at the Cadman's this weekend and I did 2 open water swims with no real panic attacks at all. In fact, I was feeling pretty good. We practiced starting in a group, with some pushing and grabbing, I practiced sighting and I was pretty impressed with myself as I managed to sight quite well. I haven't really thought about goals much over the course of my training, I've just sort of gone through the motions and done the work. On the drive up to the cottage, Gary told me I should think about a goal; think about what I'd be happy with. So, I thought about a swim time that would make me happy and I figured 1:10-1:15. A 1:15 swim would mean that I dawdled a bit and a 1:10 swim would mean I got in there and found a good pair of feet to draft off of. T1 should be no more than 7-8 minutes. I won't be changing into anything, I'll just be adding chamois cream and body glide so I should be able to get through pretty quick. If I look back to 2 weeks ago at my 175km bike, I did that in just under 6.5 hours. Come race day with fresh, rested legs & race wheels, I am hoping that I can actually pull off a 6:30 bike for the full 180. That would be ideal. An amazing day would be a 6:20 bike. But let's say 6:30. T2 should also be pretty quick as I won't be changing either. Just getting into my running shoes and putting on my visor. 5 minutes maybe? As for the marathon, my main goal is to run the entire thing. Where that gets me, I don't know. In LP I ran a 4:32 marathon and that was with a fair bit of walking. If I can manage to actually RUN the entire marathon I should be closer to 4 hours. That would make me REALLY happy. So if I say a 1:15 swim, 15 minutes TOTAL for transitions, a 6:30 bike and a 4 hour marathon, I'd be looking at 12 hours. That would be AWESOME. I'd be happy with anything between 12:00-12:30. I think the fact that Sue will be out on the course will push me to keep going. She will have about 5-10 minutes on me in the swim for sure and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to reel her in on the bike. My only hope is the run which will be motivation enough for me to keep running.

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