Race Week Already??

Where did the summer go and how is it already race week?? Eeek!! 3 months ago I felt like I had all the time in the world to prepare and now I'm 4 days out from the race and wondering if I even trained at all! I don't know why I feel this way because I followed my schedule to a T. I went to bed most nights while it was still light out and the kids were still playing outside. I woke up at 4:40am every day to put in a few hours of training before work. I toughened up va-jay-jay muscles I didn't even know I had and am now the poster child for chlorine damaged hair. I put in the time whether I feel like I did or not and now I just have to hope that it was enough.

Unfortunately, I woke up last Friday with a sore throat. Something is going around my group and this little secure area we work in with no ventilation doesn't let you escape without catching what everyone else has. Totally sucks. But anyway, after leaving work on Friday I headed straight home for the couch and meds. I had one more long ride to get in Saturday morning and I was determined to get that done. I woke up Saturday, popped some meds, and headed off to the race course. The bike course is 3 HILLY loops so I wanted to do exactly this to prove to myself that I had it in me. I used this ride to practice one more time my bike nutrition and also added in the task of trying to pop Endurolyte capsules while riding. I am so not good with multi tasking on the bike so I really slow down when I go to fumble with a gel, drink, etc. But I managed to pop the capsules out of their little holder with some creative tongue work and didn't lose control. I even mapped out exact spots along the course where it'd be best to eat/drink (i.e. one of the few flat spots, large shoulder) and I have different land marks to focus on to get me through the rough patches. I've ridden the course so many times now that I know all the ins and outs, what to watch out for, and where my most mentally challenging spots will be. Saturday took me a little longer than I would have liked but I'm still not exactly sure how much to push on the bike and on top of it, I was sick. So hopefully come race day, feeling better and the adrenaline, I'll be able to push a little harder.

After this workout, I went straight home and back to the couch where I stayed the entire weekend. I'm feeling a little better but no where near 100%. I missed my workout yesterday and was going to make it up today since today was a rest day, but I might not even bother. A half hour swim and half hour run at this point won't make me any more prepared for Saturday.

So am I prepared?? I know I can swim 1.2 miles (in a pool!). I know I can run a half marathon. And now I know I can ride 56 hilly ass miles. Come Saturday it's time to put all three together and see what I can do. I usually go into every race with some sort of time goal but I've been humbled by this training. That combined with not knowing this race distance at all and so many things being out of my control, I decided that my goal for Saturday is just to finish. To finish and to have fun.