Two Months to Worlds Triathlon

Okay, so I’m doing the aquathlon on September 8 and the sprint triathlon on the 11th. Of the two, the triathlon represents my goal race, while the other is important but mostly a practice race, like the Couples Triathlon this morning. No offense to aquathlon specialists, but adding the bike into the mix raises the stakes considerably. The transitions alone are hard enough to manage, and then there’s the 20K bike ride to prepare for. Good thing I like cycling.

The triathlon in Budapest will be more difficult than the aquathlon because waves start between 6:55 and 8:20 a.m., and I’ll use my wetsuit. However, the aquathlon waves will start between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., so the weather will probably be warm enough to swim without a wetsuit. If it isn’t, I’m still not sure I want to squirm into it while I’m hot and sweaty from running and then yank it off to finish the run. Makes no sense to me.

This morning, my race at the Couples triathlon felt good through the swim and the bike. Not until the latter part of the run did I begin struggling with heat, humidity, and fatigue. My stomach felt a bit uncomfortable, and I also had an annoying series of images running through my head – the poop deck of an 18th-century man of war, a long handled cat poop scooper, a stinky porta-potty, and so on. By the time I finally realized that I should have made one more bathroom stop before the race, it was too late and there were no convenient bushes. Talk about sucking it up!

As an exercise in mental toughness, I pledged someone near and dear to me that for an entire week I wouldn’t look up my official results for this morning’s race, and so far I’ve stuck to the promise. I’m trying simply to focus on the fun and take the whole pressure of competition off my shoulders for these races leading up to Worlds. I got the impression that my swim and bike were reasonably fast compared with my previous races, but I suspect that my run/walk was pretty slow. Oh, well. It is what it is. I had fun, and that’s what counts these days.

Training log: Swim – 800 meters. Bike – 11.2 miles. Run/walk – 3.1 miles.
Motivation log: The emphasis on fun helped a lot.