Going for the podium.

I have my next Tri in one month- April 26th. The past few weeks have been good-- riding the bike, in the pool and trying to run. 2 bricks in the books in the past week. I'm still not running well-- and I'm really not running well after my bike (calf cramps) BUT-- I'm doing it.

Turns out the last tri I did, I trained horribly for. It turns out that just swimming occasionally and going for bike rides does NOT equal race day preparation. If I want to do well/better then I have to do the following:

1. Swim every week-- doing drills and some for distance. Every time I swim I need to be conscious of form and the strength behind my pull. And my kick-- it doesn't need to help me that much but I have to keep my feet/legs level so it doesn't HURT me.
2. Bike like I'm racing. Going for a stroll does me little good other than saddle time, which is important but more important will be really pushing myself on the bike.
3. Running. Yes, it turns out that I can't just swim and bike and think that I'll be able to run. That is unfortunately NOT how it works. (although I had absolutely convinced myself of that).
4. Doing brick workouts. THIS is NOT optional (I had also convinced myself it was) if I want to be able to finish strong-- even if it's just a sprint. Working 2 disciplines back to back isn't easy. It's even harder on race day with everything else going on.

I've set a pretty lofty goal for this race. I want to podium for the Athena category and I'm shooting for a time of 1:38-- with all things being equal to last year that would put me in good shape-- but you never know who will be there. It also looks like the bike times were pretty slow last year-- must slower on average than my Naples race. I also, however, know that I'm going to kick my swim time in high gear-- hoping to get out of the water in 14 minutes.

But all in all--I'm hoping for a fun race and experience.