Pre-triathlon

Well this workout was in the plan for yesterday, but after a big breakfast with the neighbors, the belly decided that this would wait until Monday morning. We had another big meal last night and man, I was still full this morning.

Anyhoo, I got up this morning, checked the YMCA website to see what time they opened and was thrilled to see they opened at 7am. Game on! I grabbed the necessary gear and headed out. The plan was a bike-run-swim-bike. Technically, I was doing all the disciplines in order (sort of) and working them at about 80%.

The bike to the Y was fantastic. I did 8.7 miles right at :30 with an average of 16.8! Of course, there's one really good downhill on the way, but hey, I'll take it! There are a lot of great downhills on the course too (followed by uphills, dangit!)

Once at the Y, I went upstairs, changed shoes and jumped on the treadmill for 3.1. Kept the speed at 5.7 for the first .25 miles, up to 6.1 through mile 1, then 6.5 through 2.5 miles. At 2.5, I put the angle up to 2.0 and dropped the speed to 6.0 to simulate a slow, gradual, brutal hill at the end of the race in Austin. Then the final .25 miles, I cranked it up to 6.9 to finish it out. Bleh! Tiring! Finished in about :29, I think. I can't remember.

I did run without socks, which is something I'm considering for these sprint tris. It worked out well without any hot spots so I'll probably do it in Austin.

Waddled back downstairs to the pool to finish off the min-tri. After a quick, cooling shower I jumped in the pool and cranked out 800. I was excited about the time on that 800 until I realized I was doing yards instead of meters. Still, it's going to be pretty close. I got that 800 yards done in :14! Holy crap! Despite being really tired from the bike/run, this went pretty well. The open water with a bunch of other swimmers will slow me down a bunch, but I'm happy with this time, for sure.

Last year my times looked like this for my very first triathlon (same course as this year):
Swim 21:50 T1 03:26 (panicked on the first bit of the swim, then figured it out)
Bike 46:19 T2 02:09
Run 33:58 (choked completely on the run!)
Final 1:47:44

So now I'm going to throw this out there for my goal times:
Swim 17 T1 2:30 (different/faster to put on shoes this year)
Bike 43 T2 2:00
Run 31:30
Final 1:36:00

That's a big difference (and my high level goal), but I don't think it's that far out of reach. I'm in much better shape for the swim/bike than last year, but the run probably will be my downfall again this year.

Keep your fingers crossed!