Kinetic 70.3 Goals

So my first 70.3 ever is on Saturday. The Kinetic Half. As you know, originally I was only going to do the aqua-velo but changed my entry about two weeks ago.

The weekend/week has been less than ideal leading up to the race. I went to Vegas and originally was worried I might drink a lot and eat bad but the joke was one me. I got sick, was throwing up, couldn't eat, and ended up losing 3 pounds.  I didn't do a single workout in 4 days even though I brought my running shoes. I would like to say I got lots of rest, but I didn't at all. Despite being sick, I still stayed out to the wee hours of the morning because I didn't want to miss out on anything. Once back home, I took off work on Tues as I was still feeling kind of yucky and stayed in bed until 3pm. It was just what I needed and I manage to ventured off for a 55 minute swim and a nice and easy 3 mile run later in the day.

I started feeling better yesterday and have been back to drinking lots o water and trying to get my body back on track. Normally people go crazy tapering, but really I'm just trying to recover from being sick. So I guess that makes my taper easy. Even though I could barely drag myself out of bed today. 9.5 hours of sleep and I still can't keep my eyes open. Plus, well my short 2 mile bike commute felt like a struggle to me this morning. 2 miles, a struggle, WTF! I guess I am starting to panic a little....

Even with that said, I'm not too worried or nervous about this race. It's weird. Last year I freaked out over my first sprint. This year, even though I have never done this distance, I know I can finish it. So what that my legs have felt like lead all week. I might not be able to finish it fast, but I know I can finish. And I think that thought is calming to me in a sense.

I guess my only goal going into Kinetic is well to finish and try not to death march the run. The run, which used to be my favorite thing to do has recently turned into pure torture at the end of a tri. I'm sure Saturday will be no different, but I would like to think it will be....

I'm not sure if I have time goals, but I do have some rough ideas of what I can finish in:

Swim ~ around 40 minutes or so - give or take - and really just take it easy in the water and don't panic!!! I always panic! ugh. Maybe I can just find some nice feet to draft off of.

Bike ~ between 3 hours - 3:20. I'm not really sure here? I don't want to hammer it too much on the bike and want to make sure I save my legs for the lovely half marathon that awaits me. I also want to try to nail my nutrition here. I would like to take in about 200 calories an hour (switching between honey stinger waffles & chews) and make sure I drink enough water/Gu Brew mix. This has been working for me during training and I hope my stomach doesn't decide to go ape shit on race day.

Run ~ I have no clue ... survive? It will be warmer, I will be tired. My half PR is 1:44 but I will be running no where close to that. I'm thinking closer to the 2 hour mark. Maybe a little over two hours. Also hoping I did enough bricks, but too late now.

Final Time ~ I say I don't care, and I really don't until about an hour after the race when I think about all the things I could have done differently to improve my time...

So there you have it.

But the big question is: what race kit should I wear?

1. DC Tri Kit

2. The big orange Timex kit (it's the most comfy one)

3. Soas Racing Kit (but with all black shorts) - new :)

source

Happy Thurs All :)