Oddly, I'm very calm with one sleep to go before race day. With no expectations or pressures for this race, I'm most excited to kick off the 2018 triathlon racing season and go through the motions and emotions of swimbikerun in a competitive setting. I am also so pumped to race with over 30 of our coaching athletes as part of the regional Tri Club Championship. There's something about seeing familiar faces out on the race course (and the sidelines) that makes for a fun, energy filled day of racing. Here's a list of all of our athletes who are participating:
Ironman 70.3 Florida
Alvaro Velez
Chris Anuszkiewicz
Christine Feiherr
Curt Kloc
Erica Nagy
Fiona Martin
Greg Marshall
Heather Anderson
Heidi Hogan
Jane Green
Jim Nitz
Julie Huyett
Justine Waters
Kathy Petri
Kevin Drury
Kim Crist
Lisa Comer
Lisa McCartney
Lisa Heath
Melanie Ziarko
Meredith Rigdon
Mitch Przybelski
Natalie Ramello
Tricia Rado
Rebekah Miller
Reid Thomas
Stephanie Gibson
Stephanie Lefkowitz
Wesley Cook
Don Oswalt
Dave Barrie
Tony Madore
Marni Sumbal
Karel Sumbal
You can track on the Ironman Tracker App.
Alvaro Velez
Chris Anuszkiewicz
Christine Feiherr
Curt Kloc
Erica Nagy
Fiona Martin
Greg Marshall
Heather Anderson
Heidi Hogan
Jane Green
Jim Nitz
Julie Huyett
Justine Waters
Kathy Petri
Kevin Drury
Kim Crist
Lisa Comer
Lisa McCartney
Lisa Heath
Melanie Ziarko
Meredith Rigdon
Mitch Przybelski
Natalie Ramello
Tricia Rado
Rebekah Miller
Reid Thomas
Stephanie Gibson
Stephanie Lefkowitz
Wesley Cook
Don Oswalt
Dave Barrie
Tony Madore
Marni Sumbal
Karel Sumbal
You can track on the Ironman Tracker App.
On Friday morning, we started the day with an outdoor swim at the Lake Eva community pool at the race venue. It's very unique to have a race venue with a free venue for pool swimming in the days leading up to the race. The water was perfect for swimming and I was able to test out my short sleeve swim skin over my one piece tri suit. We only swam about a 1500 but it was a good building effort set.
After the swim we headed back to the rental house and I made a quick grocery shop for a few items for our team pizza party. Karel has been staying busy here in Haines City with last minute bike mechanic work for our athletes as well as a RETUL fit for one of our athletes (he brought his RETUL fit system).
In the afternoon, I headed to athlete check-in just before 3pm and then attended the athlete briefing at 3pm with several of our Trimarni athletes. Since there was a slight change in run course for this year, I decided to bike 1-loop of the 3-loop run course after the athlete briefing to check out the entire run course. I find it helpful to review the start/finish of the bike course and as much as I can of the run course for visualization purposes going into the race.
In the evening, it was time for our tradition of holding a team pizza party for our athletes at our key races. We had over 30 athletes attend our pizza party (with a few unable to attend because of travel) and it was so fun to have so many of our athletes together in one room. Karel and I also gave a team talk to go over some last minute tips/suggestions relative to this race course.
After a great night of sleep (9 hours!), it was time to wake-up the body with a pre-race workout of bike/run, swim.
Karel and his friend Roman (from Czech) did their own thing in the morning so I was off on my own for my pre-race warm-up. It was rather windy this morning but it was good practice to include some wind with my pre-race warm-up on the bike.
My 9-12 am morning workout on Sat (day before the race) included:
-90 minute bike (Same course I rode on Thurs with Karel), ~26 miles
Included a pre-set of: 3, 2, 1 hard efforts w/ 3 min EZ in between. Then a MS of 2 x 6 min build efforts with 8 min EZ between.
-Off the bike ~8 minute run with some stops/walks
-~15 min open water swim
It was great to see so many of our athletes out and about warming up before the race.
It was a packed morning of training but it all felt good to wake-up the body with one night of sleep to go before race day.
During our talk last night at our team pizza party (during our pep talk portion of the race), I told our athletes to think of the race as being a carpenter who is building a masterpiece. All of us athletes are carpenters with our own tools, experience and knowledge. The masterpiece that we each decide to build on race day is created by our performance. The goal is for each of us to create a race (or masterpiece) that we are proud of. On race day, we each experience our own obstacles to overcome and we each bring our own tool set and experience to cover the race distance. There's no point to compare yourself to anyone else, not even a past version of yourself. Remind yourself that YOU are in control all day. Don't focus on the end result, stay present tense and be an active participant in the process....and don't forget to thank your body!
