Obsess Much?

My triathlon is in 5 days. My triathlon is in 5 days. My triathlons is in 5 days. What should I bring? What should I eat the night before? What should I eat the morning of? How should I set up my bike? How can I make my swim more effective? Will the water be too cold? Do I need a wet suit? What if I get a flat tire? How am I going to sleep the night before? How am I going to sleep tonight?

My mind is buzzing with a million questions. I wouldn't say I'm nervous, exactly. More like anxious for it to hurry up and be Saturday so I will be on my way to Nanjing. I've been working since January for my first triathlon and I hope I don't spoil it by obsessing too much.

Back in January when my yoga teacher's husband suggested that she and I train together for a triathlon, I thought the idea was nuts. I could barely run 5 k without dying. I love to swim, so I figured that would be the easy part. And I've been an on and off again biker since college. So I somehow came up with the idea that this would be a good goal for me. 4 months later, I am so glad I've stuck to my goal and worked hard.

Learning to swim properly is really challenging. My first session in the pool was UGLY! I got about 15 minutes into it, mostly swimming the breast stroke, and called it quits. I watched many many many YouTube tutorials on how to swim freestyle. I also watched a few on doing flip turns, but have decided that's a skill to master after the race. Anyway, to put an end to my rambling, I can now swim a mile in about 40 minutes. It's not impressive, it's not a great time in the swimming world - but I'll take it :).

I have also spent the last 4 months working up to a 10k run. I do have knee problems, so by the time I get to 8k or so, I'm in a bit of pain. I can consistently run the 10k in about 70 minutes - again not impressive but acceptable to me for the moment. I really had to get past the mental block of running 6 miles all at once. I know tons of people run marathons and half marathons... I just don't happen to be one of those people!

I have to say I have not focused on the bike as much as I probably should have. Shanghai is flat, very very flat. With no hills, you would think that it would be pretty straight forward. However, being  close to the ocean, what we do have is lots of wind. Saturday I went out for an 18 mile ride. It should have taken me about an hour, but with the great headwind that blasted me the entire ride home and with the rainstorm that began at about mile 9, it took me more like 1 hour and 20 minutes to do my 18 miles. Again, don't think I'll impress any serious riders with my statistics.

I was feeling pretty confident so I decided to ride my 14 miles and then immediately run, since that's what I will have to do race day. I rode a good ride that day and made it home in 50 minutes. I felt GREAT! Until my feet hit the pavement and I started to attempt a run. Oh. My. Gosh! I seriously thought my legs were going to melt into a giant puddle of goo on the sidewalk! I eeked out 4 or 5 k and called it good. The following attempt 2 weeks later was much more successful and I managed 14 miles on the bike followed by 7k running. Whew! Imagine my relief when I received an email telling all participants that the run would be shortened to 8k due to road construction!

What I have realized through all this training, is that to accomplish any goal you must first remove the obstacles in your mind, clearing the path for success. The difference between my first and second attempt at riding followed by running was that I knew that if I just kept running (nice and slowly) that eventually the fog would lift and I could go about business as usual and just run. So, while I haven't practiced the swim, bike and run all in one training session, I know that if I am careful and persistent I can do it. I've practiced, I've trained and I've done as much research as possible to reach my goal. Now I just need to stop obsessing and relax and clear my mind. I don't plan on being a superstar and I've accepted the fact that I will be walking a little bit of this race. That's ok with me. I'm just excited to get out there and do my best!