Race Plan & Training with Macca

Miami Baby!!

As I’m writing this I’m flying across the country to Miami, Florida.  I wish I could sleep on flights it was an early morning with a 5am wake up call, but since I cant (too excited) may as well be productive.

This will be a rambling post (shocking and unexpected I know).  So much to catch up on but a lot of cool things happening.

The next 10 days I am going to live and breath triathlon, race, train, and see a bit more of the world.  The only way it could be better is if my hubby could have come with me.  2 races - 4 days in Miami and 6 days in the Caribbean in Nevis St. Kitts.

The Schedule:

Today!

Macca is holding a training camp in Miami leading up to the Miami Man Olympic and 70.3 race.  Unfortunately I missed out on the welcome dinner Tuesday and day of training today.  I cant wait to get down there, almost 100 triathletes are attending the camp many of whom I have spent hours talking to online about all things triathlon and some very slightly disturbing random conversations to keep things interesting.  Lots of BIG personalities to say the least. So today I arrive at the hotel and get settled in, probably spend some hard time by the pool while everyone is out riding and doing technique work.  What?  Its training…I need to acclimate to the heat ;)

Tomorrow:

The schedule has a packed day of swim/bike/run and transition work.  I’ll take it pretty easy through this, rest up for race day Sunday.  I love that there will be so many other people to train with. Now that I think about it its been about a year since I’ve actually trained with other people.  You get caught up in your own training and sessions and with triathletes its tricky to match up schedules so this will be great!

Then a talk by Macca at the local bike shop that evening.

Saturday

Rest & eat. 

Sunday

RACE DAY!!!  I haven’t hit a starting line since Ironman Kalmar and I cant wait to race!  (Challenge Penticton doesn’t count I started in T2 :p)

AFTER PARTY!  Throw it in the Big Chain Ring and party it up with the crew & Macca.  Looking forward to this part.

So 2 races coming up the Miami Man 70.3 this Sunday and an odd distance 1.5k/60k/10k in Nevis.

It was very cool to meet up with my coach Lucho before these races to talk about triathlon and what it takes to be successful in this sport.  Usually there is a Skype call before races to hammer out targets and race plan but being able to chat over coffee in person really added to the experience.  Its great to hear about his experiences being a professional triathlete being among the ranks of the elite, especially finishing 12^th in Kona. It’s very cool to have such a talented and knowledgeable athlete to guide me and let me pick his brain.  As well as an honest assessment of what it takes to make it to the professional category.  He even brought an entourage, his adorable son dressed up as Spiderman J

RACE PLAN 

Nothing too fancy but a little crazy. 

Essentially survive the swim, take risks on the bike and see what I have left for the run.

Not my typical plan, I’ve always hedged my bets on the run essentially survive the swim, ride moderate, run my ass off.  I’ve had a mental block about the bike, still think of myself as a runner even though I’ve only been running 2 years I’m more comfortable with it.  After the last year my biking has transformed and is usually faster than the other two in relation to the field.  I just haven’t trusted it in racing yet, my legs start to feel fatigued I always back it off thinking about the run.

Now this doesn’t mean go out there pushing threshold the first hour and being completely stupid, it just means going to the upper limits of what I should be able to hold for 56 miles, instead of riding comfortably like I usually do, let the legs hurt a bit.  Ironman was my A race of the year these two are just bonus’s so I’m going to take the opportunity to experiment and I’ll either PR, or spectacularly explode and have some data to use for the future. 

You rarely learn anything in your comfort zone.   I need to let go of ego and not be afraid of blowing up and sacrificing a podium finish.

Training leading into this has been blah, I haven’t fully made the adaptation, paces and efforts that felt comfortable in Scotland are still a fair bit harder here and it hasn’t been as consistent as I would like with the move.  While I usually pull a lot of confidence from my training this time it’s all going to have to come from a belief that I have not lost fitness from Ironman training, and just know that I have the mental strength to go out there and suffer more to get the result I want.

Let the fun begin.

No pictures right now but there will be tons of the training camp, racing and partying with Macca to follow.