Managing Expectations
Friday, June 15th, 2012
Tomorrow is my first 70.3 in two years, and I have NO CLUE what to expect.
Coach put together a solid race-recover-race training plan to get me to bounce back after the Quassy Oly two weeks ago and be ready for the Patriot Half tomorrow. For reasons I’ll explain later, I think I’ve done about 4 workouts in the last two weeks. Not exactly following John’s schedule very closely at all. Not his fault.
Between that and a slew of other reasons, I have NO CLUE what to expect. It could either be a huge PR or an epic disaster. Let’s break it down.
Huge PR
- I’ve never had such solid base training and consistency all through winter and spring before
- The bar is set pretty low and I’ve never had great 70.3 performances before. My previous PR is 6:15:44 at Quassy 2010.
- I’ve never done a flat-ish 70.3 before
Epic Disaster
- My training has been set up primarily for getting speedy for Olympic distance racing.
- Patriot is scheduled as a “B” race and focused 70.3 training wasn’t a major priority. I’ve always had 70.3s be my “A” race of the year.
- I can’t remember the last time I ran 13.1 miles
- Even earlier than than Quassy, I fell off the wagon and haven’t been able to train consistently for the last month
So there will be lots of surprises on race day. My plan is just to get out there, do what I know how to do and have gut checks half way through the bike at T2 and half way through the run. Somewhere along the way I’ll decide if I actually have it in me to “race” or if I should just compete to be the athlete who has the most fun – bouncing along with a big goofy smile on my face and chatting it up with other athletes along the course and counting how many people I’m able to make laugh.
And now – some more pics from Quassy.
The first one is my favorite because the race photographer also caught Sam and my mom in the background, huddling together and hiding from the rain, waiting to cheer for me at the finish. A Bull family race pic!
PS – Gotta love that I got these pics for FREE. Rev3 gives free high res downloads of your finishing pics. Sweet, eh?
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