Practice Tri

We are officially into the taper period (I think) so now our workouts apparently are shorter, but still as intense. Today we did a practice tri on mercer Island. We did a .5 mile swim in lake washington, a 26 mile bike ride (twice around Mercer Island) and then a 6 mile run.

The swim went well - freezing of course, but once I got numb I didn't notice it as much :). Though my arms still felt gold (damn sleeveless wetsuit). The first few miles on the bike ride my legs felt tired... apparently it takes me quite a while to warm up. At some point in loop one I caught up with Frank, and we rode for a while together, which made the time pass much faster. I later caught up with Katie and we rode together ... I hope in the race I find someone to ride with :).

I finished the bike ride still feeling pretty strong - and we'd averaged about 15 mph which I'd be happy with if I could do for all 54 miles of race day.

I jumped into the run - feeling slow as usual during bricks, but not bad. It was slightly hilly which made it less fun, but on the flat parts I felt good. Wade told us to do 2 3 mile loops, but as I was finishing the 2nd loop, I saw a bunch of people heading out on a third! Apparently the loops where only 2 miles, so we had to do a 3rd to hit a 6 mile run...
So much of this sport is mental - so thinking you're done then having to do another loop sucks! But I did it! (thanks frank for the guilt trip...).

I keep being reminded how relative everything is - we did a Olympic distance tri (basically) as part of our tapering!! Until this year an Olympic Tri was a big deal - it was our goal during the season. And now its a shorter Saturday workout... I think that makes us hard core :).