Thursday, August 19, 2010

Pre-Race Jitters

So tell me, those of you who have raced for years - does that feeling ever go away? This will be my 6th triathlon, and it's *only* a sprint (ooh, there now *I'm* saying only a sprint - ugh.) Anyway, I don't have any big time goals so why am I nervous? I'm not afraid of the swim anymore. I know I can do the bike. Even if my shins and/or ITB hurt, I know I'll still finish the run. So why be nervous? What a waste of energy....

Haven't given a training update on the blog lately so here goes.

Last week I swam twice and then afterwards, instead of running, I hiked up in the hills behind my house for an hour. I also did 2 one hour rides - one hill reps and one force reps. Then last Saturday, I did a brick with a 2:15 bike and an easy 15 min run. It was the first time I'd run in over 10 days and I was supposed to stay in HR zone 1-2 but I just couldn't force myself to go slow. I felt ok and I pushed it a little to see how things were feeling, ready to pull back if ANYTHING twinged. Nothing did so I was happy.

My shins were a little achey for the next day or so and then yesterday, I went for a 30 minute taper run. I kept the pace moderate and did 5 km in 30 minutes. Again, all felt fine. Today my quads are sore-ish but nothing feels injured. I'm supposed to do a short brick on Saturday but I've decided to play it safe and skip it. I think my legs feel ready to race on Sunday and I'm not gonna jinx it now.

I did an OWS at Gyro yesterday afternoon, mainly to make sure I can swim in my tri shorts and tank top that I'm planning to wear at the race. At the moment, the lake temperature is 23C, one full degree above the cutoff temp so that means probably no wetsuit, again. Boo. However, it's supposed to cool off Friday and Saturday so it could quite possibly drop a degree by Sunday morning.

The temps have been in the mid 30's for the past week (about 94-100 degrees) but today it was a tiny bit cooler (30C, 86F), tomorrow - cooler, yet, and Saturday/Sunday have predicted highs of only 21C, 70F with a 40% chance of showers so it's quite possible the lake will cool down enough to allow wetsuits. It also means I should probably throw a jersey into my kit bag in case it's cool when I get out of the water.

I picked up my race packet today - always so exciting! My race number is #611 (when I first saw it, I thought it said #911 and thought that was a little ominous.) I registered ONE day too late to get a tech shirt. If I want one, I have to line up at 8pm on Saturday night to get one. Not sure I care all that much though.

Goals

* have fun!
* finish without injury
* try to meet or beat my 2008 race time (1:30:04)
* go harder on the swim (whether I'm faster or not)
* try to match my 2008 bike avg speed if it's not windy (31.3 kmh), or my 2009 speed if it *is* windy (29.8 kmh)
* run 5k in under 30 minutes, preferably beating my 2008 time of 29:45. My run has always sucked until last May when I ran 27:30 in a sprint but since I've been injured for the last two weeks, I'm not going to hope for that pace again. I'd still like to beat 30 minutes though. :)

If you are interested, here are my previous race reports for the Apple Triathlon:

2008 Apple Sprint Triathlon Race Report

2009 Apple Sprint Triathlon Race Report

So that's it - holy cow, I'm doing it again!! Cue stressed out feeling. Gahhh...........

5 comments:

Mike Russell said...

Relax on the swim and the first half of the bike. Pick up your pace and pound the run.

You will rock this one like you do all your others. :)

ctreit said...

Pre-Race Jitters are funny to me. Why do we get them? I have no idea because I really don't care that much about my racing. I suppose pre-race jitters get you into the right mental state so that you can complete the race well when you are doing one. I am sure that my marathons would not be as good if my mind was not helping me along; pre-race jitters are just part of the deal. And a race is still fun anyway. So, have fun at your race!

Sheila said...

I generally don't get nervous about races. I think after I'd done a handful, that was it for me. Now as long as I feel prepared for whatever my goal is, then I feel confident I can do it and I just go out there and try my best. I get excited, I get hyped, but I don't get nervous. I never got nervous on tests in school, either. So maybe it's related to that? If I believe I can do it and have confidence, then why should I be nervous?

Hope you have a great race! Good luck especially with your swim!

Sheila said...

Oh, now my swim coach was talking about possibly having some Masters swim meets this fall. Possibly one in October and one in December. Like I ever though I'd do a swim race. Geez, it sounds appealing to me now. But I'm pretty sure I'd get nervous for those, because I've never done one and I don't know what to expect (of my performance).

AG-Triathlete said...

I have to agree with the other posts, at this stage (after 4 years of racing competitively) I get excited and jittery. Nerves don't creep into things like they did early on. I'm sure it might be easy to mistake the two (?)

And good for you for graduating to the "...it's only a sprint..." mind-set!