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Holy shit!
So, it’s the Thursday before the Sunday of my Triathlon. To say I’m a little nervous is an understatement. I’ve dropped my training right down this week to just a few gentle activities, noting too strenuous and thrown in a couple of rest days for good measure. If I’m not ready now it’s too late.
Pasta pasta and a bit more pasta
In the 2 days prior to the race I need to carbo-load. Its recommended that I eat 10g of carbohydrates for every Kilogram you weigh. I’m 11.9 Stone which is about 75kg. That means I have to eat 750g of pasta/noodles/rice/potatoes etc. I don’t know about you but that seems an awful lot. Especially when you think a regular bag of pasta is only 300g and that normally lasts me a few weeks. Pasta Party!At last weeks open water practise session the trainers gave a few tips and went through what to expect on race day.
“You should all mentally prepare for race day”
Err ok, not really sure how one would mentally prepare. Does that mean think about it a bit? In my attempt to mentally prepare for the day I just though I would write down what I was going to do. Here goes...
THE DAY
- Get up well early and have some breakfast
- Aim to be at the event about 2 hours before my start time (8:30)
- Get signed up and get my number
- Setup my bike in the transition area and make sure everything is in place and in the right order
- Suncream on
- Wetsuit on
- Start shitting myself (optional)
- Get in the water and float over to the start line
- Try and chill out a bit and relax
GO!
- Do my swim length 1 lap of the dock
- Start kicking my legs a bit more before exiting the water ready for the bike section
- Probably not going to run the 100m from the waters edge to the transition as its over tarmac and I’ll have bare feet.
- Fast walk to my bike
- Goggles on my head
- Wetsuit to my waist
- Swimming hat and goggles off
- Wetsuit off
- Quick dry of my face and legs
- Running shorts on
- T-shirt on
- Helmet on
- Push the bike out of transition (penalties if you ride before they say you can)
BIKE
- Two laps of the bike course
- Take in a gel pack (like an energy drink but in gel form, very weird but seem to help)
- Drink all the water in my bottle
- Hop off the bike at the line
- Push my bike back to the transition
- Helmet off
- Straight back out for the run
RUN
- Take the run slow
- Do 1 lap of the running course
- Look for the water points along the course
- Keep head up and try and take long strides
- Cross the finish line
- Do a backflip (optional)
- Collapse in a heap on the floor (more likely)
- Brag to people saying that it was easy
- Watch the England match
END
Even writing that has put a little bit of fear into me. Triathlons are won and lost in the transition so people keep telling me. I think this is where I can pull it back :) I’m really not aiming for a “good time” or anything like that. I just want to be able to swim all of the swim, bike all of the bike section and run all of the running section without stopping. If I can do that I’ll be a very happy man.
Nothing left to do now apart from eat shed loads of pasta and get ready for the day.
See you on the other side
Comments (3)
good luck kidda!
's the second time you've got to better! Enjoy it.
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