Time to Race ?

With some of my teammates down in Florida for the St. Anthony's Triathlon this weekend serving as a reminder that the season is well and truly coming, it's time to turn back towards racing just a little bit. This has been an odd reminder of 2006, when I has a good race at Lake Placid off a very minimal amount of racing.

I've taken minimal to new heights this year with just three races since Christopher Martin's last December. In total 11.1 miles running and 10 miles biking. Compared to my time trial efforts on the bike even, not very much. Which is not to say I haven't gotten in good intensity- running, mostly on the treadmill, the time trials and high-cadence spinning, and even race simulations that have me swimming 50 yards on one minute (a big deal for me). I feel ready to race, but more importantly, I feel like I've built a serviceable base for a race that is, well, it's my A- race at the moment.

But right now, the build-up is going to be about shorter fare, starting Sunday at Greenwich. This is a race where I've done OK in the past- third last year- but always seem to not bike as well as I probably should (there's also a little drafting, but it's not a USAT sanctioned race). So it's run bike run for the second time, and the first race of the season on my road bike.

Oddly, I am not very excited about it. Hopefully that will change, but right now, my biggest concern is getting a long ride in this week, and the knowledge I'll be running long Monday. I'm trying to be more positive this year- after all, I raced well at the end of last year, took some definite lower key time and have trained with good, moderate intensity since. in general I would say that I have not historically approached races with much confidence nor given myself much credit when I do have decent races. I think of myself as kind of a plodding, grinding sort of athlete, which is, on my good days, is not really probably accurate.

I took a positive attitude into Brian's and it served me well, but Greenwich is a different kind of race. Still, I guess it's time to get psyched up and start looking forward to racing.