Goals for Play Tri International Distance

By Natalie

This time tomorrow I'll be in the water. Eek!

Swim: max 45 minutes, I'm really hoping for 33 minutes, but I want to allow some time to get lost. The course looks like it would be easy to lose time swimming all over the place.

Bike: 90 minutes, I'd like to keep a constant speed of 16-17 mph

Run: 62 minutes, 10 min/mile

Total time:  3:17

I've been thinking about this race non-stop the past few days. I'm trying to use positive visualization. I'm imagining long steady strokes in the water, staying at a constant speed.  Having strong legs on the bike, and smiling during the run.

I'm not going to win by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm going to take my time in the transition, and catch my breath. After spin class, we cool down, and I usually feel really good on the run.

The course is 2 loops on the bike and 2 loops on the run. It will be nice to see my friends and family supporting me at least 4 times during the race.

My mantras: "Strong mind." "Legs, legs, legs." "You trained hard, and gave up so much, time to perform."

*The pictures are from the Buffalo Springs Lake triathlon near Lubbock, TX in 2009. I did the sprint distance.