Mine is full of remote control devices because I need to spend time every day in my trainer because anyone who is anyone knows that in triathlon it’s all about the bike and I need to get my bike on, big time.

I have an “A” race coming up but before the “A” race is a “B” race that I almost chickened out of. The “B” race is an Olympic distance event – the Folsom International Triathlon. I can’t quite remember why I signed up but I think it’s because I felt a need to redeem my Wildflower performance. Never mind the lack of need for redemption – that’s how I feel about it and you can’t take that away from me so onward.

After I signed up, I looked at last years results for this race. I was immediately discouraged. In my age group the finishing times ranged from 2:33 to 3:20 – gulp. How was I, a person who had finished Wildflower in 4:38 going to keep from going DFL? I knew this was a flat, fast course but still – how could I knock over an hour off my time?

Then I did a Tri for Fun. I was happy with my performance but I got passed on the bike by so many people and I started to have grave, grave doubts about my ability to manage FIT and not DFL. In fact, I was totally demoralized and had visions of hitting the run with nary a soul around and coping with a pile of self loathing on top of the heat. I went so far as to send an email asking if I could just withdraw since my fee hadn’t gone through yet. They offered a race voucher for a fee of $20 and I decided to think about it. When thinking failed me I turned to the numbers. I found a triathlon pace calculator and using the numbers from the tri for fun plus some liberal padding (since it will be hot and will be longer) I came up with this:

Shablam! That is doable – very doable. If I could keep the transition times down to a total of 5 minutes then I can come in between 3:20 and 3:30 which might be last in my age group but not last of all. So I took it a step further and I did this:

Which gets me in under 3:20 and in under 3:20 = not DFL in my age group. And that makes me happy enough and confident enough that I decided not to withdraw and to just go for it.

This weekend I am going to do an Oly distance brick to see if I can manage that distance in the heat without getting totally nauseated. I’m going to test drive using Endurolytes or… (insert favorite product name here – if you have a fave please comment) Masters (swimming) isn’t until 8:30 on Saturday which means it will be good and hot by the time I get off the bike and head for the run – just what I need. I will then spend the rest of the week doing a couple of light workouts to keep my muscles loose and then it’s show time on August 12.

Guess I’ll have to replace the remote controls with some Cliff Blocks.