Race Week!

I'm down to the last few days before the Race! The day will start with a pretty early wake up, I think around 4:00? I know it won't be later than 5:00. The race will start with the pro/elite waves going off at 6:45. My swim wave won't start until 7:40. I submitted my estimated times as 0:26:00 swim/1:10:00 bike/0:42:00 run which is a collective race of 2:18:00 (hr:min:s). I think the swim time is probably pretty accurate, if not a little conservative. The other two, especially the bike, are pretty ambitious. For most of the times, I just scaled up my race times from Triangle Tri, which was a sprint. The distance is longer, which should slow me down, but I think I hoped my experience and fitness would have improved as well. The bike is definitely up in the air; I still consider myself a novice, so cycling is always a little unpredictable. The run time truly is a goal. I haven't calculated the exact base, but for a 10k (6.2 miles), that's a sub-7:00min/mile, which I have not done for a race of this length. In fact, I've never done a 10k. I've done half miles, miles, two miles, 5ks, 8ks, and then jumped to half marathon and marathon. My last 8k was almost a year and a half ago and was not sub-7:00. However, I am positive my fitness is better, and during brick workouts, my run off the bike is almost always faster than normal.

Last week was the end of the semester and [pretty much (I have one more)] the end of classes. With Dr. Greenberg out of the country, I had the chance to go home for Thursday and part of Friday (I had to be back for my Coast Guard obligation). It was too short, but except for maybe more time with my parents, I think it was spent perfectly. I was able to catch up with everyone I NEEDED to catch up with and it really helped me out. It's still hard in Baltimore to find people who I can talk to about both problems and common interests, and I was absolutely able to get some of that while at home.

With only a few more days, this is the worst stage of any training regime: the taper. That is, the time when you reduce your training volume to start saving up energy. The whole time you feel antsy and awkward. It doesn't come naturally and the only taper I ever really followed was for the Marine Corps Marathon, which was planned out for me. Doing it on my own, and trying to do it right is harder. NOT tapering is pretty easy, but when you actually worry about balancing between storing energy and maintaining fitness, it's a little stressful. Furthermore, the reduction in training volume also affects caloric needs, and especially for myself, adjusting is hard.

The Thursday I was at home I needed to go for a swim and ended up going for the first time to the Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC). A very nice facility, it made me think about the differences between gyms. I've been a member/user of several facilities; the NC State Carmichael Rec Center, Johns Hopkins Rec Center, the YMCA, and the Triangle Aquatic Center. Here is a brief summary of some amenities I've like and who has them.

Locker rooms, enough said: ALL
Rental lockers, being able to have a place to store clothes/equipment/whatever for a long period of time is extremely valuable if you don't like toting around EVERYTHING you need: ALL except only NC State was is free
Shower soap, seems simple enough, but goes back to minimizing the amount of essentials you must bring from home: ALL except TAC
Towel: NC State, YMCA
Workout clothes: ONLY NC STATE. It seems weird, but it works. Just like a towel, you can check it out for a whole semester and after using, you trade it in for a clean up (old one is washed). It saves a lot on laundry if you workout a whole lot. I only ever used a T-shirt though.

Some amenities that I've used, but don't think are totally necessary: Locker keys (so to have a locked locker without bringing a padlcok. I always have a padlock anyways so it doesn't really matter.). Student ID access: it's annoying to carry around all your keys and wallet and whatnot when working out; at State, this was nice to eliminate that hassle.

I think I should note, that while many gyms had several amenities, (including some not listed), State definitely takes the lead for having all of them. It truly was a very versatile gym with a lot of fringe benefits.

Next time should be a POST race summary!