This Saturday is my next triathlon in a series of seven, and it's my first official Olympic distance. I did a couple this distance on my own last summer. The bike course is really hilly and really hard for me. I rode the course last weekend, and my watch recorded 2200' of elevation in 26 miles. In comparison the last tri I did had a 16 mile bike and 450' of gain. The fastest will be finishing in close to 2 hours, and I'm targeting a goal of 3:15. 33 minutes in the water, 1:45 on the bike, 57 minutes for the run and... ok goal of 3:20 because I'll need a couple minutes for transitions. I will probably finish in the last 10%.
How's the weather looking where you're at? Supposed to be 100 degrees here, so hopefully you're not getting a heat-wave for the tri! A series of seven is nuts.
Temperatures are looking fine! Our heat wave broke last week, and Saturday morning is looking like 70°. But it's also a 45% chance of rain all morning, so that's fun. The water temp is pretty high, too. The swim is in an old quarry, and to get the full Olympic distance it's three laps. So while the air temp is down the water temp in a small area like this hasn't really come down. I might go no wetsuit which is a little annoying. It might be windy all morning, too. Only 10 mph but I know I feel that on the bike. What's nuts about the series is there are three in three weeks in July. Only one more Olympic for me, though, and a sprint is way easier than Olympic. It's like running 10 miles versus 20 miles. I could fake my way through a 10 mile run this afternoon if I had to. A 20 mile run would mean a couple months of focused training. Then another sprint in August. Before getting to the final sprint in September, though, is the half Ironman. I thought that was a hilly bike course but despite being more than double the distance over this weekend is only about 20% more vertical gain. I'll take it. Your heat wave is hitting Idaho, too, and there's a big Ironman there this weekend. It's going to be a tough race in Coure d'Alene.