Anticipation

The last week and this coming week have been relatively light schedules as far as my training goes.  This is being done as preparation for my next event.  This will be my last event in this brutal stretch of 30 days.  When finished, I will have done a 1/2 marathon, an Olympic Tri, a 5k race and then a half Ironman.  In terms of miles in races I will have swam 2.2 miles, run 29.3 miles, and biked  82.  The scary part is that near in some events but overall it is less than what I will attempt to do in one day with the full Ironman. I will get to that later.  Where as these events have buoyed my confidence somewhat based on my performances I sit here now at the cusp of my biggest test.  This weekend will be my first half Ironman race distance.  It will be the Toughman in my home town of Richmond. This will be a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run.   Am I ready?  No.  Should I be? No.  This may seem strange and kind of ignorant but it is not unusual for endurance sports.  Most athletes prepare their season by choosing races and then classifying them with a letter from A-D.  Louisville is obviously an "A" race for me.  The 5k from over a week ago is probably a D.  This race will be a C. This does not mean I go into it without any effort or that I will just lay down. It means that I have not focused or fully prepared for a top performance.  The focus for the race will be on a few areas so that I may check my race plans for later in the year.  I will be checking my nutrition to see how I feel, if the process for intake works OK and lastly I will be looking at how I feel in the race.  I will be seeing where it was good and where my challenges are.  This will allow us to dial in my training even further to address my needs.  I guess you could consider this to be similar to an inter squad scrimmage in terms of team sports.  Go out and play hard, work on some things, change it up if its not working and above all else don't get hurt.  Even with this more laid back approach I do not rest will well.  The unknown of not having done these distances together yet eats at me. What I do know is how I feel after doing each individually.  The thought of the others done in succession takes me back a bit.  The part I must accept is that this is not going to be pleasant at times in the race even if it was my "A" race.  To coin the military phrase you need to "embrace the suck".  Its those parts that will give you the true test of your ability and fitness while testing the one thing that can be the most critical, your mind. In a little over 100 hours from now ......