One week to go........

racing at the Tribob Duathlon 2008

It's only slightly more than one week to 70.3 Singapore and everything is not well. I have been feeling sick most of the week, so have not really been training much at all. I must have caught it during the NCC Camp last week. So basically, I missed my crucial long workout last weekend; something that will give me the confidence that I can finish strong. Well, I may have to go into the race without that crucial long workout. Or I can still do a long workout this weekend, but with just a short run and have to bike at an easier pace, so that I can recover for the race. I will also try to squeeze in a sea swim during next week's break:), my first for the year!

I have been doing some thinking lately. Often when I am down, I will start questioning why I do certain things. One of the things I have been asking myself is why have I been devoting so much energy to triathlon? I know the answer to this.....well, it keeps me happy and makes me fit! But I was just wondering, what if one day I decide to stop racing? Honestly, I enjoy training more than racing!:) Racing is painful! and I got to sacrifice a lot just to try to make everything work on one single day; I got to periodize my training, make sure my equipment is tip-top, get my nutrition dialed in and the race fees!!.... it is so expensive to race and there is this desire to want to turn in a good result, otherwise why bother signing up?? I know I can complete the distances anytime, it's only a matter of how fast I am going to do it! All these race prep is really a bit stressful, and that is added stress that I do not need right now, especially when there are other more important areas of my life that require my attention. Right now, I just want to get this race out of the way, and carry on with my training:)

Right now, I am experiencing what my students feel when they realize that they have not revised their work before their exams. They start to panic and will try to cram in everything in the last couple of days, and often, this leads to facts getting all mixed up and less than ideal results. Well, I have been pretty consistent in my trg since the beginning of the year. I have been swimming, biking and running well; in fact, speedwise, I am faster now than at the same time last year. The question is whether I can put everything together and last the distance. My race will hopefully take around 5 hours. My longest workout this year was only a 120k easy bike ride. My longest run has only been up to 17k, so that is a big question mark for me. Plus, the transition runs off the bike have not been longer than 4k, so to expect myself to run well for 21k is really stretching it a bit. But on the other hand, I am also drawing confidence from some of the workouts that I have done. Hopefully, that will do the trick. Just got to remember not to do anything stupid in the last week!!:)