Pre Race Thoughts

The time is here. I survived the last taper weekend with some satisfaction. It is time to turn my attention to mentally dialing into the race. I have mixed feelings about the weekend. I want to be excited about it but something is lacking. I guess it is the timing. It is early in the year and hard for me to think this is an "A" race.

I finally feel ready. My last few runs came together nicely. I still wish my rides were conducted with a bit more cooperation from the weather but the reality is I held my wattage just fine. My swim, well, it is what it is.

I will discuss later in the week my time goal, though it should be no secret to those who follow my training. But I really want to achieve a different goal. I want to hurt and continue to push. I want to try to find that line between pushing it hard and pushing it too hard. Too hard and I may go bust. While I never plan to blow up during a race, if there is ever one, this is it.

I commented the other day that it has been a long time since a race has taught me a lesson. Sure, races teach lessons. Often, for me, that lesson is that I could have pushed more. This, I think, is part of my discontent. I think I need a race to kick my ass to make me re-evaluate things.

Given all this, I am very tempted to flirt with disaster. Dan will kill me but he probably agrees that it isn't that bad of an idea. Personally, I would rather walk and go 30 minutes over my time goal than cross the finish line 2 minutes over that goal and know that I left something out on the course.

Will meeting my time goal mean giving it 100% the entire race? I don't know. When I put the numbers down on paper, it seems to add up too easily. I look at the targets and think I can make them. So I might not have enough perspective to know what I can really do. And that is the point of this early season race....to set up the rest of the season.