Goal Setting

Today I was asked about my time goals for Beach to Battleship. I felt pretentious and overly ambitious when I stated my perfect condition race time, especially considering this will be the first time I will try and cover 140.6 miles. I think sometimes it's easy to get lost in times and figuring out where you can make up time and where you might lose it...especially when you're thinking to yourself and wishing and having pipe dreams!

That being said, I think it's really important to have goals in life. Sure, my goals may make me sound cocky and/or overly confident but if you don't set high standards for yourself how will you ever get motivated enough to do better?? I remember when I was gearing up for New Orleans 70.3 I thought I was capable of running a 1:25 half marathon after a 2:30 bike and a :35 swim. NOT! I struggled to the line with a 1:37! That taught me that you can't do stuff in races that you've never done in training. I never put in the work to be able to run a 1:25 half marathon. That's a longgg way to be holding fast miles that I've never even come close to in training. I realized that I had to work HARD to be able to run as fast as I wanted to in a half ironman. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have enough time before the next one to put in the work and consequently went the same pace in my second effort at the distance!

So, just to hold myself accountable my goals for Beach to Battleship (on a perfect day where everything goes right including my nutrition, my pacing, and most importantly I don't fall apart on the run due to all the factors that can contribute to that happening...)

Swim 2.4 miles in :53-:55 (tide-aided!)
Bike 112 miles in 4:58-5:05 (this may very well be a bad idea but why not try for it?)
Run 26.2 miles in 3:25-3:35 (this one's the big question mark. No idea what to expect!)

To elaborate, my main goal for this race is simply to FINISH. That is my main objective on November 7th: to cross the finish line intact and mostly healthy. Having said that, if conditions are perfect and nothing goes wrong mechanically or physically I'd LOVE to see those times. That may be asking too much from myself and I may very well not come anywhere close to those splits but if I don't then I'm not ashamed. I know that I'm not trying to come off as overly confident but if you don't set high standards for yourself, who will?

Taper

It's taper time... The hard work is done and now it's just about making sure I'm peaked for the race.

Swim and bike have been strong but running has been almost nonexistent since my IT problems started. I've been doing everything I can to keep it in check but to a certain extent there's just not much I can do about it.

This week I've just got to start making sure that I have everything I need for the race itself. Wetsuit, clothes for all conditions, wheels, nutritionn, bike check-up, race shoes, etc etc. Should start to get pretty exciting!

Almost there...

Swim: 11,000 yards
Bike: 197 miles
Run: 16.5 miles

This week was the first running since last Tuesday. My IT band is not tight but my calves and knee are quite tight. I had a ~4 mile run on Thursday and a 10 miler on Sunday.

Got in a lot of good swimming again this week. Even without true workouts in the pool I'm getting a lot stronger. My pull is super powerful right now and that will prove valuable ... Someday.

Lots of biking but it was all crammed inti 3 days: Friday 40, saturday 100 with Behme and a Sunday 56 miler in the NC mountains (again with Behme). We had intended to do 100 but the weather was uncooperativeve.

Next week is my last big week woo hoo

Ouch ouch my leg

So my running definitely took a hit this week after my long run on Tuesday that ended so dramatically (the recovery from said long run actually).

Sometimes it's hard to explain how it feels to not believe that your body is at 100%. Right now I can't even imagine what it feels like to run pain free. That's about as exciting as a new pair of pants. For some reason running is my favorite thing to be good at (that's of course assuming that I AM actually good at it... Big assumption) so it kind of sucks to no longer be able to do it as regularly as I want to... Oh well. This week I'm going to try out some short easy runs just to see if I can back into some kind of a groove.

Biking has been going awesomely. That's been a trend through this training block and that actually IS exciting. I've been able to string together good long rides. I'm hoping that this trend continues because B2B is a race where the bike course can be taken advantage of big time.

Swimming has been good no doubt about that. Too bad B2B is a race where the swim is the LEAST portabt part of the race. Oh well, it is what it is.

This weekend I'll get in two 100+ mile rides on Saturday and Sunday and that will mark my last BIG weekend on the bike.

I'm hesitant to be too excited about this race be ause of my leg issues but I feel like I can tear this bike course apart. Time will tell