Time to start obsessing

For those of you who know me, this will not come as a surprise, but the week before a triathlon I usually become pretty obsessive about spending every waking moment anticipating the race. How will I feel? Will my legs be ok in the bike to run transition? How will I pace myself? When should I wake up? When should I eat breakfast? How many gus should I bring? Will my clothes be comfortable? How many people will be in my wave? Are my bike tires ok? Will I be able to get out of my wetsuit quickly? How fast (slow?) will my run splits be? etc etc etc. It is ridiculous.

Luckily over the years I have figured out the answers to some of these questions, and for others, I have learned that I can't spend all week thinking about the race. For example, for Saturday's race (Loveland Lake to Lake) I just started obsessing now, which is an improvement over my first race when I spent almost 2 weeks fretting. Also, I am not nervous but really really excited, so that is a step in the right direction, too.

Well in honor of my tri-related OCD, here are my goals for the race. It is dangerous to set goals though because I don't like being disappointed. So I generally don't make them too high, then I can be happy if I meet them, or really happy if I beat them :)
1. Go faster than last year. I will be really happy with anything under 2:55.
Swim: I think I swam a 1:45/100 meters pace last year. Wow, that is pretty fast for me. I'll be happy just to do that again, even though I feel faster this year because of all the masters swimming. Add a couple of minutes for the run from the beach.
Bike: My goal last year was 20 mph and I did 19.5. So why not go for 20 mph again? I can do it!
Run: Last year I did not run well, and I mostly blame this on sleep deprivation, stress, and general fatigue leading up to the race. So this year I am getting 8 hours of sleep every night this week! In 2006 I ran an 8:25 pace. I should be able to do that, I have been running A LOT more this year than ever before!
So total this would take about 2:54. Last year was 2:59. Whew! :)

2. Qualify for age group nationals. This is totally out of my control because I can only go as fast as I can, and then the rest depends on who else shows up. But it would be nice :)

3. HAVE FUN! Smile.