Chisago Lakes Half Pre Race do nothing night

We made it! After a long car ride from Madison today, by way of Sauk City for lunch (subway), somewhere along I-94 for gas and bathroom, Turtle Lake for food (country, and I mean country supermarket) and a site visit (work), and the race site in Chisago City on the shores of Chisago Lake for packet pickup, we checked in to the Homewood Suites in New Brighton, MN.

Miley made the trip with us and will be cheering us along tomorrow in addition to my parents and brother. They will all be staying at the hotel in the room next to us.  Laura and I are both super excited to have people that we KNOW cheering for us this year! It makes a huge difference.

It has been 18 weeks worth of training, and I don't feel as prepared as I did last year. But having the experience of completing this distance last year gives me a mental leg up. Various factors played into being less prepared, but mostly it was having more non-triathlon commitments and responsibilities taking up more time. Life happens. It makes me realize how important it is to have everything in place work/life/otherwise when doing this sort of training. There are only 24 hours in the day and at least 8 of them need to be used for sleep for me to be effective.

It will  be interesting to compare to last years times since the weather will be nearly identical if a little cooler this year. The run is what scares me a little bit. Again, I have the experience of running the distance, but my longest run this year has been only 7 miles. That was in Colorado back in May. Since then my longest run has been 5 miles over 4th of July. I am banking on everything being all warmed up and ready to go (slowly) and not have any pain. Laura and I both do a run/walk technique when running. 4 minutes running and 1 minute walking. It helps break up the monotony of the run, and helps keep my legs fresh. Hopefully that little bit of rest will help my groin.

I am anticipating my run split to be around 2 hours 10 minutes.

Here are my splits from last year at this race:
Swim: 41:04.9 Pace: 2:07/100 yards
T1: 1:56.6
Bike: 2:58:42 Pace: 18.8 mph
T2: 1:28.7
Run: 2:02:39.6 Pace 9:21/mile
Overall: 5:45:52.1 

I feel really good about my swim and bike, and hope that I can beat the times from last year. I should be able to break 40 on the swim based on my pace from the Capitol View Olympic (1:38/100 yards). If I can average 1:45/100 yards on the swim that would be sweet. If I can average 19mph on the bike that would drop my bike time down to 2 hours 56 minutes. Not a huge gain, but still appreciable. If I can go faster, even better. It is possible since the Capitol View bike course was much hillier and I was average 19.2 on that course. The Chisago Lakes course is super flat and fast with some nice downhill sections. Again, the run is what scares me...

It is about time to start cooking up some pasta and chicken breast for our pre race dinner. I made some fresh pesto with basil bought this morning at the Dane County Farmers Market, which is going to be delicious. After that, Mom, Dad, and Dan should be getting in around 8 or so, hang out until 9, walk the dog and go to bed. Up at 4 for a hearty breakfast and onto the race.

I will post a race report after tomorrow so look for that! I promise it won't take for ever!