The Boilerman Triathlon

It's going to be a fun weekend! A little road trip up to West Lafayette, Indiana to see a Purdue football game tomorrow and then to race in the Boilerman Triathlon on Sunday. Jessica, Kate and I will be in our car with all my race gear and my parents will head up there as well to take in all the weekend festivities. Right now the weather looks great for the game (72° and sunny) and decent for the race (low 60's with a 40% chance or rain). As I've mentioned before, the weather is out of my control, so I'm not going to worry about the rain.

Being a Purdue Alumnus, this race is one that I've wanted to do since I found out about it early last spring. At the time, I was training for the Tri Indy and I didn't want to sign up for another Olympic distance race without knowing how my first one would go. Now that I've raced three at this distance and two that are longer, I'm good to go in the confidence department.

The goal for this race is to set a PR for this distance and to more than anything, just have fun. This is my last triathlon of the year and it will be at least 6 months before I get the chance to swim, bike and run in a race (wow, that's a long time!), so I'm going to have a good time.

Here's what my previous three Olympic Distance races (1500 meter swim, 40K (24.8 mile) bike, and 10K (6.2 mile) run have looked like:

The swim portion of the Boilerman is an open water swim that takes place in a lake just south of campus. I haven't had the best of luck with open water swims due to my struggles with swimming straight (correcting this will be my #1 priority in the off-season), so we'll see what happens. The bike and run are flat (it's Indiana) and should be fast. So I'm hoping to improve on my Tri Indy time of 2 hours and 37 minutes.

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT:

Bike

57 minutes on the indoor bike. 10 minute warm-up, then a 45 minute Spin Class with some tough intervals, then a quick cool-down before hitting the pool.
Avg HR = 137 bpm
Max HR = 153 bpm

Swim

Nothing fancy, just a 1/2 mile swim at race pace.
912 yards (0.52 miles) in 16:56 (32:40 min/mile pace)

I'm taking today off completely and although I would like to get in a short run tomorrow morning, I doubt I'll have time. Plenty of rest and eating some good complex carbs is the name of the game for the next two days! It's time to Boiler Up and Hammer Down!!