Last week before my "A" race

Push has come to shove. I can no longer influence my finish time for my "A" race this year (Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon) by doing hard workouts. The time for that has come and gone. I'm one week away from race day. Any thoughts of hard or long workouts right now will decrease my chances at meeting my goals. I need to be resting. 

I don't know if "taper" is the right word for the rest period right before an Olympic distance triathlon. I'm basically just resting to get my legs back to 100%, shed all that fatigue. I will still do some very short and race-pace intervals, but they will be minimal overall effort. The idea is for my body to remember what race-pace is while not adding to any fatigue.

So, I wrote my race plan. I'm about half-way done. It's a bit more in-depth and detailed than I expected, but that's good because it helps me hold myself to my goals and let's me remember what I was thinking when I wrote out my goals. Some people will say that the goals should be written down at the beginning of the year, but I prefer to understand deep down that all the base and build training is simply leading up to the fastest that I can be, and writing down my goals for times is done best a week or so out when I know where I'm at physically and mentally. When I finish the race plan, I'll post it on a page for this blog.  I did write down training objectives based on my "A" race back in October or November, but I left out any specific times I want to get.

Tomorrow I organize. Wednesday I pack. I also have a race in the local hill climb series, but I'll be doing that simply as a participant to get the points....I missed the first one because of travel for work, and it killed me in the overall points standings.  I certainly won't be pushing hard on this race ride, and I have four days afterwards to shed that fatigue.

I'm excited and nervous about the race. I've never been there before, and I think it will be a nice family gathering.