July 30

Had a triathlon nightmare.  I was on the beginning of the bike leg and there were only a few bikers heading out at the same time.  I think I might have stopped to help someone and then lost the convoy and my way.  I was walking my bike around in quite a crowded city scape.  I was on one ramp and I saw on the next ramp over a group of cyclists going up a hill. I went down my ramp and tried to make it over to the next ramp but the ramp wasn't there.  What seemed like a little further on there was a hill/ramp with 4 or 5 cyclists on it and I make my way toward them only to discover that they are recreational cyclists and not racing.  I'm not sure what happened after that.  I'm used to having actor nightmare wherein I don't remember my lines, or I'm in the wrong play but not a triathlon one.  Just goes to show how much on my mind it is.

July 29

Well, the taper has started.

The race is 2 weeks away and I am getting so that it is pretty close to all I think about.

I had a last long brick on Sunday and felt very good and strong.  I had botched up my long ride (to be 70k) on Saturday as I got up late and left my bike shoes at home.  so decided to turn the 3-4 hour long brick into a 4 hour (90k ride 12k run).  I felt so good on the run I was tempted to do the full 21.1k, but kept it to the 12k.  Nutrition was right on for the day.  I'm reading race reports of people taking salt tablets every 30 minutes but I think that the gatorade and gels will take care of it.  2 gels on the bike after a breakfast of 2 pieces of toast, 1 with peanut butter + a carb bar on the bike.  Water in the aero bottle and gatorade in the downtube bottle.  Water in the hydration belt and 1 gel on the run.  I'll take 3 gels on the run in the  race and after the belt is gone probably drink gatorade at the drink stations.  Feeling positive.  I'll make a "getting ready" entry next week.

July 15

It's been awhile since the Guelph lake Oly.  I seemed to recover quite well from that.  My calves were very sore for several days due to the fact that I changed my running gait to accommodate the pain in my shins.  Since then I have had several long and several hard workouts.  The week ends have been the ...- I was about to say hardest but that's not accurate.  They have been a little grueling but I've been working on endurance and that's kind of what I expected.  Saturdays have been the long ride and I've worked up to 100 kilometers.  Syd's plan called for the long ride on Friday but I never felt comfortable doing Fridays because of traffic.  It also called for a max of 90k but I've been feeling good so...   So Saturdays up to 100k then Sunday the long brick.  The plan calls for 4-6 hour brick (bike with a run directly after).  That translates to another 80-90k with a 12k run after.  Much longer than the Olympic race, this after 100k the previous day.  At first I was a little concerned that it would be too hard on my legs but apart from fatigue on the bike on sunday - no ill effects.  And I think its done a great deal as far as muscular endurance goes.  This past Sunday my pace on the run was around 5'20" per k and my HR barely got out of zone 1.  Recovery from these training days has been no problem at all.  I have a pain in my shin from last week - I took my long run on Monday (day after long brick) night 20k.  I recovered well from that too (apart from the shin splint).

I'm starting to feel quite prepared for the race on August 10.  At Guelph, the 1500m swim was the longest I had done in a race and I feel I could have easily done another 500m.  I'll just keep up my 2 swims a week at the Y and that should work well.  I'll seed myself at about 35 minutes.  I'm feeling very confident about the bike distance.  I'm just not sure have fast and hard to take it.  I would love to bring it in under 3 hours.  Looking at the Peterborough 1/2 times on the bike, there are a couple of guys who I would come close to brought their bikes in well under 3 hours so...  I don't know what kind of hills to expect though.  I think i can jam it because my run off the bike is very comfortable.  Lots of bricks have got me used to that.  I take the first 2k at a relatively easy pace and then gradually go a little harder.  2hrs for that seems possible.  I think 5 1/2 hours is possible.  

This week is a speed test week.  I haven't done much of those in the past because they tended to fall on weeks where I had lots of rehearsal or other obligations to they were easy to miss.  Next week starts the tapering toward August.  The long ride is down to 70 k.  

I'm getting excited about racing.