Tri Tuesday- MTWomen's Tri is THIS SUNDAY! EEP!

Hey, hey, everyone! MTWomen's Tri is almost here- it's THIS SUNDAY!

That's right, race week is upon us! I'm in the middle of my taper, which is about a two-week taper. This week, I'm not hitting anything too hard and keeping my brick workouts pretty minimal. I'm also focusing on short distances but working on speed, especially for my run. I've been doing a ton of speed-builder interval and tempo workouts lately specifically to work on cutting time in my 5K run and it's been going well, so I'm hopeful that it will pay off! 

Now is the time to reassess my goals for the race. My number one goal has always been, and continues to be: To finish and to smile! I feel very confident in nailing that one!

Of course, I've thought about time goals, too. I've cut a lot of time off my 500 swim, so I think I can complete that in around ten minutes. I think it will take me about 45-50 minutes to bike 12 miles on the road (on my mountain bike). My 5K PR is 25:00 (unofficial) but after swimming and biking, I'm aiming for about 27:00 and would be really happy with anything close to that. So, as far as actual physical activity goes, I think it will take me between 80 and 95 minutes to complete the triathlon. 

But then there are the transitions. I've practiced transitions only very minimally, so that's likely to kick me in the arse on race day. My biggest time deterrent will likely be that I seem to have to go to the bathroom a lot! ha! I guess that means I must be on-track with my hydration. :) Other than that, I expect my swim to bike transition to take the most time-- putting on shoes and socks, and helmet... etc. I think the bike to run transition will be pretty quick. Just take off the helmet and replace it with a hat and go. We'll see. 

All in all, I'm really looking forward to race day. I've actually moved past the nervous feeling, for the most part, and I'm confident that I'll do well. I'm not in it to win it, but just to do it for me. I've had a lot of things going on in my life in the first half of 2016, and one of the main reasons in deciding to do this was simply to do it for myself. I'll be channeling a lot of emotions into this race and I know the accomplishment will feel good. Then, it'll be on to the beer tent! :)

I'll be back next week with the full recap! Wish me luck!