Happy Wednesday, everyone! Today is actually my Friday as I am heading up to my parent's lake home tonight to spend a couple of days with my brother from Chicago and his family. I felt a little bit sheepish asking for time off during the 4th week in my new job but my boss was totally fine with it. I have barely seen my brother and his family since last summer so I am looking forward to spending a couple of days with them. I have to head back to Minneapolis on Friday afternoon (for Phil's pre-birthday celebration + triathlon weekend!!) so it will be a quick trip but I'll take what I can get!
Besides thinking about my time at the lake, my mind is also on the triathlon which is on Sunday morning. In an ideal world, I would have focused more on training for the triathlon but I did the best I could on top of marathon training. I know I am going to finish the race which is really all that matters. My ultimate goal is to finish and have fun, so I guess you'd call that my "A" goal. I'm pretty sure I'm going to achieve that so my "B" goal is to finish in under 2 hours. But, because I like to push myself, I've got a stretch goal of finishing in around 1:50, which would be my "C" goal. In order to achieve that "C" goal, here's is how each of the segments would need to go:
Swim - 15 minutes. The swim is 500 yards. I have not timed myself during any of my swims and I always swim further than 500 yards so I have no idea what to expect for the swim. 15 minutes seems like a reasonable goal, though. This is definitely the biggest wild card of the three sports!
Bike - 60 minutes. The bike portion is 15.5 miles. I've biked quite a bit this summer but I am always having to slow down for intersections and such so I have no idea how fast I can go when I don't have to start and stop. I'm hoping that I can do the bike ride in about an hour as that's just shy of a 4 minute/mile pace which seems doable.
Run - 28 minutes. If it was a stand alone 5k, I could certainly finish it in well under 28 minutes but considering that I'll have already swam and biked, I expect my running time to be a bit slower. 28 minutes equates to about a 9 minute mile so I might be a little bit optimistic on that as I imagine I'll be tired when I hit the run!
Overall goal - 1:50, which gives me about 7 minutes between the 2 transitions.
Will I achieve this? Who knows. But since I am a competitive person, I can't go into a race without a challenging goal! If all I achieve is my "A" of finishing, then that is A-OK, too.
This is my last post of the week as I'll be focusing on having fun with my family! Have a great rest of the week, everyone, and send me some good race vibes on Sunday morning! If you've done a tri, do you have any words of advice for me?
13 comments:
I have no words of wisdom but good luck!! I will be there to watch, although admittedly I am terrible at finding people in races. So if I don't see you or you don't see just know that I am there somewhere!!
Those goals sound doable, but I know what you mean when you say it is difficult to gauge performance based on your practices. Race day circumstances are just so different.
Safe travels and have so much fun with your brother and family! <3
Of course, good luck on Sunday, too!
I think you'll do really great at your triathlon! It's hard to really know how long it will take because of the transitions but I think achieving your C goal is totally doable for you. I remember I also wanted to finish my sprint tri in under 2 hours and ended up totally smashing that goal and finishing in 1:34! However, the bike portion of my tri was only 20 km (12.2 miles!)
Actually I just went back and re-read my triathlon race report and now I really want to do another one, I don't know why I haven't yet! Haha.
Have a great week with your family!!
I am so excited for your tri! You've definitely been working hard for this goal. It's always tough to guesstimate how you will do in a race because so many factors can be out of your control on race day. My fingers are crossed for a good experience! Enjoy your time at the lake, too. I'm so glad your new boss was understanding - family first!
I'm so glad you were able to get some time off to be with family :) How funny is it that I have done 5 sprint tri's (I think? or is it 4, or 6? haha) and I still have no idea how long the next one will take me! Good luck with all your goals!
I think those are great time goals :-) Have a wonderful race, and a fun time with your family!!
yea Goal #1 - Finish, don't die. all you want to do is find that finish line. I think you'll do great!
Lay out your gear in transition before the race start. Bring a small towel to put all of your stuff on. you want to sit down as soon as you get there after swimming, throw on the bike shoes & helmet and get out. Same after the bike, helmet off, bike shoes off, running shoes on, and get out. t-times should ideally be under 90 seconds each if your prep is good.
a back of the pack swim speed is about 2 minutes per 100, so you will likely finish the swim somewhere in the 8 to 12 minute range. 15 mph is pretty normal average bike speed, and you can count on being about 1 minute per mile slower than normal running after that. so your bike and run estimates seem pretty solid.
and fwiw, my first triathlon was a 400 m swim (9 minutes), 15 mile bike (1:10), and 5k run (32 minutes) plus changing clothes and making sandwiches in transition for a 2:03 finish; just good enough for almost last place overall. You're in considerably better shape than I was back then.
Have fun at the lake!
Hey you don't want to do too well otherwise you'll have to train even harder to beat your time in the next tri! :D hehe but seriously I hope you achieve your goals and will be sending you good race vibes :) Also, wishing you an awesome time with your family!
Sounds like great advice from John! Experience always helps, so I know you will use that information. I hope you have a great tri and that it isn't too hot! We will be cheering you on from the lake! Have fun!
Have fun at the lake and good luck on the triathlon!
Sending tons of good wishes for the triathalon and have fun with your family!
I'm so glad you were able to get some time in with your brother and his family! Before I accepted my new gig I made sure all my days were approved before accepting!
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