It's been 13 weeks since I "officially" started training for the Alaska Women's Gold Nugget Triathlon and this will be the last update I post. The next time you hear from me on this topic should be my race report after the triathlon one week from today.
I hadn't realized until just now that I'd skipped writing updates the last two weeks - I thought I'd only missed one. I suppose I haven't been seeing any great strides in fitness, speed or readiness so it didn't seem like there was anything to report. In fact, it seems that the closer I get to the big day, the less ready I feel. The feeling isn't grounded in any sort of physical reality, but is instead, I think, a mental lassitude. I'm starting to get tired of focusing on the tri, although I'm not tired of the exercise. Indeed, if I miss doing something, anything, for a day I feel much more sluggish and out-of-sorts.
So, where am I at? I'll update you in the triathlon order of events: swimming, bicycling, running. As always, swimming is my worst event simply because it's the one I'm most likely to skip due to lack of interest or problematic work schedules. I finally got to the pool twice this week and was pleased that I was able to swim almost a mile on Saturday. I'm not speedy, but I'll get there.
I've been able to do a bit more biking, although still not enough (it's never enough). However, pedaling 13 miles for the race won't be a problem.
Running is the area in which I'm most disappointed. Becoming a runner has been a focus for over three months now and I don't feel like I'm really any further along than I was at the beginning. Of course, I know that's not true - on a good day I can run a lot further than I ever could before. I just really wanted to be ready to run most, if not all, of the three miles on race day and that simply won't happen. I should be able to run at least part of it, though, and that will be an improvement over last year.
Speaking of improving over last year: that has been one of my goals for this race. A year ago all I wanted to do was finish and not be last. I managed to accomplish both goals quite handily. I didn't have any specific goals for this year (other than running), but it would be nice to finish ahead of where I was before. My overall time last year was 2 hours, 13 minutes and 38 seconds. (I won't tell you where I was in the overall standings; suffice it to say that I was no threat to the winners in any age group.) I'm fitter this year, so we'll see if that results in a faster time.
One more week to train. Professionals would be tapering their training at this point to allow their muscles time to recover and repair so that they were in the best possible condition for race day. I don't think that will be an issue for me. I'll just keep moving all week as much as possible to keep my muscles limber and ready. I'm confident that by Sunday both my mind and body will be ready to go.
