I guess it's time for me to wax poetic.
My A race is finally here. Six months after I started with my Coach, I never would have imagined that I ended up where I am. I'm staring down at a race that I feel 100% ready to take on. The olympic distance race is tough. It doesn't get much respect from age groupers. It's a balance between holding back and putting everything on the line the last few miles.
How do I feel? Great.
Am I nervous? No. Not at all.
That doesn't mean I don't care. It's an expression of confidence more than anything. I know the race will be hard. But so was training. When Coach had me start mile repeats (or build sessions) at race pace and get faster from there, I don't have any doubt that I'm going to do well.
Six months ago, I wasn't anywhere close to where I am now. I wasn't anywhere near as confident (particularly with my running). Every time I ran, it was more of "ok, how is this going to go today." I don't feel that way anymore.
And don't be fooled, her training was some of the hardest training I've ever done. There were days that I would look at my training and think, "If she thinks I'm ready for this workout, then I am."
And that's how I handled it. Day after day, I would say that to myself. Day after day, I would do the workout.
But training is always more than the workouts. She built in plenty of recovery days. And there were days, trust me, when the recovery day was SO MUCH HARDER than the hard days, as I would run at paces that I was sure was slower than I could walk.
One of the things that I am most grateful for is that I have no pressure to place. I get to go out and race. I'm a better runner and better cyclist than I have ever been. (Better swimmer too, but I've made the biggest improvements in running/biking). I enjoy the training and seeing all the pieces come together. I'm not worried about running off the bike anymore. I know I'm going to push hard the second half of that 10k because I've already done it.
As far as I'm concerned, I've already had the best of success because I know how much I've improved. Saturday is just the icing on the cake. I'm going out there. I'm going to have fun and PR's will be had.
The race isn't a time for me to prove myself to anyone. The race is a time to show off what I've accomplished the last 6 months.
The best part is that I know I'm only going to get faster and get stronger.
So, No. I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous because I know I'm ready.
