Calm, Cool & Collected.

Tomorrow will be my first triathlon of the season.  Originally, I had one scheduled in March but that one was canceled due to inclement weather (and I was so busy at work I didn't even make the trip anyway).  Then I had the Alcatraz Challenge, though that event is only a swim/run, it felt like a good warm-up.  Nice to be back in a race atmosphere and having to go through transition.

This time, I feel better prepared, having spent more time training, even working specifically on transition techniques. Hopefully I will be calm, cool and collected on race morning and able to remember those tips when setting up my transition spot.

Tomorrow will be a one mile swim, followed by a 34 mile bike ride, and finishing up with a 10 mile run.

Based on my training, I am expecting a swim time of approximately 40 minutes, a cycling time of approximately 135 minutes, and a run of approximately 95 minutes.  Four and a half hours total (excluding transitions).  But looking at the 2011 results, that kind of time would put me well into the bottom half of my age group.  My estimated times may be a bit off, since I don't know the course - I've reviewed the course maps but that only tells me so much.  It looks like many of the participants are strong runners, completing the 10 miles in just over one hour.

During my 10 mile training run, I clocked an average pace of 9:06 minutes per mile.  Granted, those 10 miles were not done at race pace or at any steady pace (it was broken in to 2-mile sets to be done at varying intensities), but it does seem like a 10 mile run in an hour after the swim and bike would be a bit aggressive for me at this time.

Looks like I'll have to make up most of my time during the cycling leg of the triathlon and keeping my transition times to between one and two minutes.  It'll be a challenge for sure.  Well, let's see how I do...