Four Days and Counting

I want it to just be over already.
Crap, I need more time to study!
I want it to be over already.
Crap, I need more time to study!

Yeah, I'm feeling a little nervous. I go between 100% "Okay, let's get this show on the road" and 100% "Shit, I am SO going to fail." There's no middle ground.

Given this possibility of traveling, and my general training over the summer, I think I'm going to refocus my efforts onto a late-season sprint race, instead of a Half-Ironman. So no, I am no longer chasing Iron dreams. Yeah, I know - Half-Ironman to a sprint? Come on now.

Well, as you can probably tell, I may have been a little over-ambitious with my goals this summer. The bar exam, and then a Half-Ironman 5 weeks later? Noooo problem. Anyway, since my priority had to be studying, my training has suffered. My long workouts have been slogfests (and I didn't even finish my bike ride this past weekend), and my speed workouts have been less than 100%.

I have no doubt that I could have gone out to Diamondman and finished, but I don't think I would have been happy with how I did. I won't be as ready as I could be, and that would be incredibly frustrating to me. In contrast, though, I've made a lot of great gains in speed over shorter distances this year. Thus, my coach suggested that I focus on a sprint race. He thinks I can do more for a sprint distance race in the 5 weeks after the bar than I can for a Half, and I agree.

Is it an ideal solution? No. But as I get faster, it's kind of fun to see where I stack up against local competition. I had a great time in my first race of the season, which was a sprint. But in my Olympic race, I felt like I was dragging my ass along after a while. And that would almost certainly be the case if I continued with my current plan to do Diamondman. And that's no way to end a season.