Race Preview - Lakefront Days Triathlon

It's come full circle. I'm going to redo the race that started it all for me. I'll admit it, this race has a special place in my memories - those that know me well know that sometimes my memory is sketchy. There are many things I don't remember, or don't remember well. I have a decent memory of this race, but the only things that really pop to mind when I think about it are

• Cold - standing around waiting for the race to start
• Hot - The feeling of death on the bike
• Tired - Crossing the line, I was T.I.R.E.D

The risk of missing this race is high - the order for kid 3 has been placed, and is due to start delivery any day now. No worries, I'll take family over a race any day.

Race Info
The race is in Prior Lake, just down the road from where I live. So close that when I do my mid-week "long" run I run to, then along, then away from the same path the race's run course covers. I am also, now, very familiar with the bike course as it's got some portions that are favorites with the local biking group.

The swim is an out and back, which is sort of funny now that I've been on enough different courses. Keep the buoys to your right and you're fine. That ALMOST works, except that not everyone knows how to do it. So the real trick is keep sighting and try to notice when someone is WAY off course and swimming right at you. There will be people there with wetsuits I'm sure, I will not be one of them. 400 meters I can cover with no wetsuit.

The bike is a 13.5 loop with what I guess would be called rolling hills. Here's my brief description of this ride
Start - slight uphill, turn right level out, slightly steeper short uphill, crest the hill, short fast downhill. Flatten out, false flat, another downhill that immediately turns into an uphill, round a corner on that hill, more hill, flatten out, more hill, turn at a stop sign, more hill - large fast downhill. Flat for a good while, turn just before ominous looking hill that isn't.
Half way point.
More flat, small downhill leading into short deceptive uphill. Flat - mixed with false flats for a couple more miles, turn, small downhill, turn, 2 miles of small hill, turn, basically small downhill all the way back to the start (try not to run over runners on the trail for the last half mile or so.) You feel the hills right at the start, just before the big downhill, and right after the small deceptive hill. Other than that it's pretty much pick your cadence and go.

The run is a 3.3 mile loop in the park. It's got some little climbs and some little descents, nothing that will destroy me (hopefully :) There are some shaded areas, and some sunny areas. What there normally isn't any of, is wind, there is tons of shelter on this trail, so if it's hot, it's hot.

Goals
Primary goal - do better than last time. If I fail at that for any reason other than accident I will probably try to convince my wife to run over my arm with the van so I have a good excuse to stop trying :)

	Goal	Pace
Swim 1/4 mile	6:35	1:30 per 100 yards
Bike 13.5 miles	45:00	18 miles/hour
Run 3.3 miles	28:00	8:30 mins/mile
Total	1:23

1:23 puts me around top 35% overall and top 1/2 in my AG. I am curious about the swim, 6:35 looks to be enough to get top 5 overall in the swim, which worries me a bit because that may mean I've done some math wrong.

1:30 is roughly what I do for medium-hard swims when I'm training. Heck, I did nine of them this morning during the first set and was getting plenty of rest. Then again that's in a pool with nobody to swim around, but it's also not in a race where I will try to insert myself at the front of the pack right away to avoid water punchers.

I put the bike pace at 18, I'm pretty sure that's doable for me and still have some steam left for the run.

Since I've not done much running it's hard to gauge on if that is achievable after the other stuff. I know 8:30 is in the relm of possibility, and I know that I usually have some energy left at the end of these things, so I'm going to try to push it. Heart over mind..

I put another 3 minutes of transition in there, it actually seems pretty fast for me, but seriously I have no idea. Overall conditioning has been the focus. If I thought I could make 10 minutes up and be in the running for a medal I'd worry about it, but for now I'll just not sweat it.

Closing Comments
I'm looking forward to this race, it took the wind out of my sails last time. I'm going to have a good time.