Nerves ... nerves

It's only Tuesday and I'm already nervous about my tri this weekend. I'm starting to do my usual over-think and over-analyzing of things. Typical. I'm being hyper-sensitive to how my body feels and find myself waffling on my usual pre-race exercise plan this week. To swim or not to swim ... that is the question.

Lately my body's kinda had an all-over tiredness to it. Perhaps I'm over-trained, but I really don't think so. I think it's more like my body knows my season is coming to an end and it's preparing to go into winter hibernation. lol. I don't want to do too much this week and have a residual soreness for the tri. Then again, I don't want to take it too easy or I'll feel like a slug. Ah, choices. I could hit the pool tonight ... or I could sit on the couch. But if I sit on the couch tonight, I'll definitely have to hit the pool tomorrow. I've got about another half hour to sit here at work and make up my mind.

The thought of the actual tri itself has me nervous as well. It will be the longest distance tri I've ever done. It's called an "international distance," which best I can figure is somewhere between "sprint distance" and "Olympic distance." The swim is 8/10ths of a mile, or 28 laps in my pool, or about 29 minutes depending on how frisky I feel. The bike, at 16 miles, will be a non-issue. The run is 4 miles, which is a mile longer than the runs in the tris I've done before. Although I'm not a fast runner -- at all -- I think I can maintain a 10-minute-mile pace for that portion. Plus, I'm not too proud to walk.

My goal for this event is to finish strong. I want to control my heartrate and asthma on the swim. I want to go my own pace and not hurry my stroke. I want to feel strong and refreshed on the bike. I want to pass people and use the bike leg to make up time. I want to start my run without my asthma kicking in (as it's prone to do when running after riding). I want to run a lot more than I walk. I want to have enough energy to sprint -- even if it's 20 yards -- to the finish line. I want to regret nothing.

Most of all, I want to eat a lot of Mexican food when I'm finished.