One Week Away

My second tri is next Saturday in beautiful Riding Mountain National Park. Riding Mountain has many fond memories for me, and I am looking forward to making my sprint debut.

Since my last race, I have been doing lots of brick workouts, two a day workouts and absorbing as much tri information as I can. I feel realy prepared for next Saturday; I bought a road bike, have been swimming in open water at least once a week and doing some serious speed work (mostly hill and 800m repeats).

I won't touch too much on my preparation; my only focus is to race to the best of my current abilities. I am looking for my splits to be as follows:

• 800m Swim - 15
• 20km Bike - 35
• 10km Run - 19

Give or take a few seconds here and there, add some time for my transition, but I feel really confident that I can throw down 1:10 to 1:16; that will be my baseline for next year.

Charles won't be joining me for this race; however, I will have the support of my beautiful wife (who is just getting into her second term with out first child), my parents, grandma and some friends.

So, I mentioned that I bought a new bike; it's a 2010 Cannondale Caad 8 with 105 components. Originally, I was planning on waiting till October to get a bike; that is when the liquidation sales are on. To get myself prepared, I wanted to ride as many bikes as I could, talk to as many people as I could and be ready to know exactly what I wanted.

After trying out a dozen or so bikes, it came down to the Trek 2.3 Triple and the Cannondale Caad 8; both had similar componentry and weight (19.5lbs), plus they were a comfortable fit for me and my bank account. Like I said, I planned to wait till October, but I found an offer I couldn't pass up. One of the shop owners (from Olympia on St. Mary's) emailed me to let me know about a clearance special Cannondale was having; the Caad 8 with 105 components was $1499 came down to $975. I jumped on the sale and am now the proud owner of a road bike.

My first couple rides on the Caad 8 were great!!! I didn't do much more than 15km, but holding 35kph was easy. I plan to do a 50km ride tomorrow to improve my comfort level on the bike.

So, I am ready as I am going to be for the race. Although, I am opting to not use my wet suit; I haven't had enough swims in it to really feel comfortable. Still, my confidence is high.

In the time that I have been taking to get ready for the race, I have done lots of reading, watched a schwag of ITU World Championship Series races and even more YouTube videos. Check out the YouTube video I found; it is 48 hours in the life of Tim Don.

I watched this video six or seven times in a row; I want what Tim has. I can't think of any other way to spend the next 13 years of my life. I am dead serious when I tell you all, I have made a commitment to myself; I am working towards a spot on the Canadian Olympic team for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. I have a long way to go, but I have formulated the plan. I won't reveal the plan, but it will elaborate on it over the course of my writing. Dare to Tri, from here on out, will be the chronicles of my attempt to qualify for the Olympics in  four years in a sport I have no experience in.