I'm doing it!

Just 27 days now!

Everything is starting to come together. Travel plans are set, I have my new trisuit and wetsuit, and I'm pretty sure I have my race day nutrition plan figured out.

Still the only thing that concerns me is my bike. I took my aero bars off last week because I knew I didn't have enough time to get comfortable with them and it made bike handling trickier with the added weight. But I still didn't feel comfortable with them off. It felt twitchy- I had trouble riding in drops and my wrists and neck hurt during the whole ride. I went back to the bike shop and had my bike readjusted a little bit. It feels so much better, but I think something is still off. My wrists were hurting towards the end of my 3+ hour ride last week. I'm going to give it another ride or two before I go back for more tweaking just to make sure it's the bike and not just me needing to get used to a new position.

I emailed my training advisor last week asking how much of the training plan a typical/healthy athlete actually manages to finish each week. I haven't been able to complete everything and it was starting to mess with my mind. She said that most, including her, are happy with finishing 70% each week. What?! That's how much I manage! I'm normal! That was a huge relief.
I felt confident I was going to finish and I felt strong, but I was getting frustrated with myself just because I felt like I wasn't living up to what other athletes were doing. Skipping training sessions- or cutting them short- every week made me feel like I was failing at this. It was like- on paper- I was just lazy and slacking... even though I knew I was giving it everything I had.
So I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders when she said 70% was realistic.

She looked at what training I have completed each week and said:

You need to stop stressing.
Here are the facts:
1. you are going to finish this race
2. you are going to finish your first 70.3 quicker then I finished my first 70.3
3. when you cross that finish line you are going to be so happy and forget all about this stress you are putting on yourself
From the looks of the sessions you are completing..you are fine! so do not worry your overachieving mind!!!

This makes me feel so much better.

Last week and next week I have Race Rehearsal days. On the Wednesdays I have a 2400 yard continuous swim. Last week I hit the lap button on my watch after each 600 yard portion was complete, and my pace was pretty consistent- and my last 600 was faster than the two middle 600s. I'll do that again next week and time it again. The distance is slightly longer than race distance (2112 yards), so I feel pretty good about my swim time on race day.

Last Thursday and next Thursday I have the bike and run portion of the race rehearsal: 3.5 hours on the bike at race effort followed by a 1 hour race pace run. I struggled with this last week and I couldn't maintain my race pace. But I still hung in there and put in the effort and got to practice my hydration and nutrition plan. And I was okay with not performing up to race day standards. It wasn't race day! Even my training plan said:

Treat this workout exactly like race day. You may be a little fatigued for this workout. On race day you'll be tapered and totally stoked

I can't even believe that the race is less than 4 weeks away. Time is flying! Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

My main hopes and goals for the next 27 days are to ride out on the roads with some friends as much as possible to get more comfortable, and to nail down my bike fit so I'm not sore after each ride, and to hopefully get at least one open water swim in to try out my wetsuit and just get practice.
Open water swimming is nothing like pool swimming! I won't be able to practice in the ocean before the race, so a lake swim here is my only open water option... but this weather needs to cooperate! Last I heard the lake was 41 degrees! That's chilly!

Physically I'm doing okay. I managed to rip half my big toenail off last week while taking my shoe off (seriously, how do I do these things?), but luckily it hasn't interfered with training and doesn't hurt anymore.
My back pain from January never actually went away, but it was more annoying than anything. Yesterday it starting hurting a lot again and I'm not sure what I did to aggravate it, but most of the pain had subsided by the time I woke up this morning, so I hopefully it doesn't give me any trouble in the pool today.
Energy-wise I'm tired. But I'm always tired. But it's okay because I can still manage at least 70% of my training, so I'm staying calm and not letting myself freak out about it. Progress!

Oh, and no big deal, but after this week... I start tapering. WHAT?!

This sums up this whole process.