Tri Indy Preview

Tomorrow afternoon I'll pack up the car with my wife, daughter, all of my triathlon gear and the hopes and dreams of an entire nation everyone sitting in front of my computer right now. Sunday morning is the Tri Indy, which is our course, in Indianapolis.

Races away from home pose a different kind of challenge. Having to go through your pre-race routine on the road is not easy to do. I will have to pack all my gear and go through my checklist before we hit the road...taking the chance that I will forget something that I need. If I do, I will try to find it in Indianapolis or I will just do without it. Taking road trips with the family is always fun, but trying to eat good, complex carbohydrates the two days before Sunday's race will be tough. I haven't decided what to do, but I may end up packing some food to eat while everyone else scarfs down something more fun. I'm looking forward to spending time with some friends that live in Indy on Friday and Saturday...hopefully I won't stray too far from my planned diet.

This race is an Olympic Distance, which consists of a 1500 meter (0.93 miles) swim, 40K bike (24.9 miles), and a 10K (6.2 miles) run. As you can see by the distances, the metric system is used so that international athletes can train for this distance, which as you might have guessed, is the distance they run on the Olympic Triathlon.

Last year at this time, I had never done a distance at this length. I ended up bonking on the run and was disappointed with my race. You can see all the details here. Fast forward a year and I have two Half-Ironman distance races and second Olympic distance race under my belt. I'm feeling confident that I can do Sunday's race without running out of steam.

Goals (in order of importance):
1) Have fun and don't get injured!
2) Improve on last year's overall time of 2:50:02
3) Improve on last year's run time of 1:00:19
4) Improve on last year's swim time of 36:58

TUESDAY'S WORKOUT:

Run

Fartlek run. This run consisted of running at a comfortable pace for 5 minutes, then running at a faster pace for 1 minute...then repeating for the duration of the run.
Covered 6.06 miles in 46:01 (7:35 min/mile pace)
Avg HR = 155 bpm
Max HR = 175 bpm

Swim

10 minute warm-up with drills
20 minutes at race pace (1056 yards in 20:29 - 34:08 min/mile pace)
Total workout: 1488 yd in 30:31

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT:

Bike

1 hour on the bike. Nothing too fancy, just tried to maintain a good pace for the entire time.
Avg HR = 128 bpm

Swim

5:30 warm-up with drills
4 x 100 intervals with 1 minute rest
1) 1:27.98
2) 1:29.53
3) 1:29.66
4) 1:30.14
5 minute cool-down
Total workout: 1104 yd in 20:10

I'll do a short (4-5 mile) run tonight, take tomorrow off completely and probably try to do a short ride and/or run Saturday morning.