Music City Pregame

The triathlon season is winding down for most people, and while I'm past the halfway point in my race season, the next couple months carry a lot of weight. Tomorrow a.m. I will be competing in my first Olympic Distance race of the season: Music City.

Why is this race so important? I've been racing sprints all season, but my training since April has been focused on the international distance. My goal for this season has been to travel to Dallas in October to race in the U.S. Open- a competitive USAT race that qualifies the top 3 finishers for their elite license. Yes, I'm still hung up on that. I realize that I am currently a competitive amateur, and that if I become a professional I will be bringing up the rear, and I'm ok with that. It feels great to do well overall, but I'd rather go for it & be a mediocre pro than not try & be happy as a fast age grouper.

Being a professional doesn't really pay, it just enables you to enter pro races where there may be more opportunities to win prize money. But the real incentive is that this would be a great business opportunity. Kyle & I own a running/ multisport store, so we need to be the experts, & what better way than to have a professional triathlete & her coach running the show? Not to mention, our coaching services are starting to take off, & being on the next performance level will be great for business. The bottom line is Kyle is an awesome coach, he's very knowledgable & passionate about what he does, & his methods WORK.

Back to the race...
Music City will be kind of a checkpoint race to assess my progress & where the focus needs to be in the coming months. The ultimate goal is to go under 2:20 by Rocketman. If I can't get into the 2:teens, there's really no reason to waste the time or money going to Dallas. I don't have those expectations for tomorrow, but I should have my best Olympic Distance race yet. I've never been this well prepared going into this distance before, so I'm EXTREMELY excited to see what I'm capable of. I've been working on pacing for the swim, & I know exactly what 1:20 per 100yrds feels like, so I anticipate being out of the water between 23.5-24 minutes. The goal for the bike is to average 23, and that needs to happen. While the run will be considerably weak compared to the other two legs (I've never broken 50:00 in this type of race-sad!), I've never been I this good running shape going in to this race, & I expect to finish around 48 minutes.

Wish me luck!