Well--a good few days of training. Yesterday I cranked out 30 miles in a fairly leisurely (AHR 128) 32 minutes...I think my race goal of 1:15 for the bike leg may be feasible. Also had my bike refitted by Lloyd at TriLab (after my ride, so I haven't sampled it yet!). Today did an ocean swim of about 1000-1200 meters or so... cranked that out in 17 or 18 minutes--not bad--then did 5.6 miles in 38:57 AHR 140, MHR 162 or so. I think that my goal of 45 minutes for the run leg may ALSO be feasible! All in all, very encouraging. I WAS beaten on BOTH events by guys who were specialty runners/swimmers; one swimmer did the race in about 15 minutes; I'd guess the fastest runner finished a good couple of minutes ahead of me and Charles, a new TriLab guy who ALSO beat me by a few strides (I had slowed up to grab water on the last mile or so, but he still very well might have smoked me; he's a former track star, though thankfully out of my age bracket). I think I could have jammed it a little faster on that run; for most of it I was hanging back with Charles, Fernando, and Joseph from 101, who's quite fast himself, chatting periodically, not really pushing hard. I was almost 10 beats below my average heart rate from a few days ago when I was running an equivalent pace (though it was MUCH hotter that day). Was kind of mad at myself for not pouring it on with all I had in either event--though as always, ocean swimming is super-challenging...you can't really jam hard because of directional uncertainty; you just have to pick your way along. But my navigation was solid! No worries about going significantly off course...did get kicked and lost my goggles momentarily; kind of startling, but easily recovered. All in all, not bad.
On my desk right now I have a sticky-note with two columns: a low expected finish time and a high expected finish time (on the Olympic distance; I'm not really counting Arrowhead, which will be tough but with the altitude I'm really just trying to jam through it). My low times are (S,B,R): 30 min, 1:28, 50, plus transitions bringing my total time to 2:51. My fast times are 25 min, 1:15 and 43:30, plus transitions bringing my total time to 2:25:30. Very tough. That run time will be especially difficult to make. I actually might amend it to 45 minutes and say my fast projected time would be 2:27. That's only 7 minutes slower than the "benchmark" listed in TRIATHLON TRAINING as kind of a cutoff point for the strong finishers of 2:20. Gotta leave SOMETHING for a future goal. Haven't checked the site yet to see what that would get me placing-wise. But I'd love to try to break 2:30. Bragging rights.
Incidentally, I'm thinking it's going to be LA Tri and not Pacific Grove, simply for transportation/practicality reasons. That means 9/11...just a couple weeks away!
So, this week: Long Bike Mon, Long Run Tues, Long Swim Wed. Off Thurs. Easy all three on Friday. Race Saturday! That makes a full workout week, no misses. I'll be easy (ish) on my long work...getting base in line for the Olympic distance. Then jam on Saturday.
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