Are you ready?

This photo is from the John Wall 1-miler back in July,
but I hope to create a similar image on Sunday!

This is a question several people have asked me over the past few days. According to the countdown clock on the IronGirl website, my first triathlon is (as of this second) 3 days, 10 hours, and 44 minutes away! So, I suppose "Are you ready?" is an appropriate question.

Answer: Yes and no. At this point, I am confident that I can finish and that I will not go through the misery I experienced during my first marathon. I am definitely better prepared for this race than I was for that one. At the same time, I feel like I finally figured out exactly how I should be training and got in a good groove over the past three weeks. So, its hard not to think about how much better prepared I would be if I had figured it all out sooner.

But I'm trying not to think about that! Instead, I'm focusing on one of the lessons I learned from MCM, which is that you can only be so prepared for something you are doing for the first time. Nothing about all the training I put in really prepared me for what it was like to run a marathon. Now, the second time around, I feel like I have a much better idea of what I'm doing and what I need to do to be ready. I assume the same will be true of triathlons. Which, of course, means I'll have to do at least one more...

Here's a sport-by-sport breakdown of how I'm feeling:

1) The swim. I started swimming all the way back in January, but I had a very hard time establishing a consistent training schedule. The problem is that the closest indoor pool is about 10-15 mins from my house and often crowded. The best time for me to go there is on weekday evenings, and I have a hard time getting motivated to do much of anything after work. For awhile, I was getting there for an hour every Friday evening, but then summer rolled around and the pool started closing on Fridays. D'oh!

Finally, in late July, I contacted the athletic director of a small college less than a block from my office in DC. It turned out that I could get unlimited use of their pool- which includes a locker, towel service, and parking- until October 1st for $100. Problem solved. Now, I go there on my lunch breaks or right after work and feel like an idiot that I didn't ask about it sooner. Since I joined that pool, I have swam at least 2-3 times/week every week, and my swimming has improved by leaps and bounds. I still expect that I will have to backstroke a decent portion of the swim leg, but I am hopeful that I will improve a good bit over my dress rehearsal performance.

2) The bike. I expect the bike to be my weakest leg by far. Unlike the swim, I have never found a consistent bike training routine. Some weeks, I get to a couple of spin classes and ride around my neighborhood. Then, I'll go for a couple weeks without riding at all. Over the past two weeks, I have done three rides with my friend Marie, including two rides on the IronGirl course itself. These rides have made a big difference, so I wish I had started doing them sooner. My first trip around the IG course was miserable. The second- which was only a week later- was much better. I think that knowing what I was in for made a difference, but I was also better fueled on my second trip and I had added toe clips to my bike. So, I'm hopeful that my third tour of the course will be my best yet, even if I still have significant room for improvement.

3) The run. I was always best prepared for this leg, and that has not changed. Still, the run course is very challenging. I think the keys for this part will be staying focused and fueled. When Marie and I did our bike-to-run workout a couple weeks ago, I definitely did not eat enough and the run was miserable. So, I will absolutely be packing extra fuel for the bike-to-run transition. I'm hopeful that the excitement of getting to do what I'm best at will give me an extra push at the end of the race!