To do the Oly or not?

I am signed up to do the Austin Tri Olympic distance race on Labor Day. They also are doing a sprint distance, and I am trying to decide if I should try to switch to the shorter distance. First a little background about me - I'm doing my residency in ob/gyn, which equals crazy hours (and little time to get on here anymore), and I had a pretty decent injury that kept me from training from Mid March through Mid May.

Now, since the beginning of August, this is all I have had the time to do training wise - two trainer rides of 30min, and one trainer/treadmill brick totalling 40minutes. This weekend I know I'm doing a 25-30mile bike followed by a 4mile run brick. Then on Sunday i have an OWS race for 1.2 miles. Then after that, I don't know how much I'll get in because of work.

Looking at my base, I've gotten in a 2 25mile bikes, 1 30, and 1 35, a couple of 6 mile runs, a 7mile, and an 8mile, all of which I finished easily. (This is all June-July - I had lots of long stuff before getting hurt). And one brick at 30/4. I did a 1600m OWS with a friend easily about 2 weeks ago, and over 1.2mi in the pool. For my base over the entire year vs last year, I've swam 8000yards more, am <200 miles shorter on my bike, and around a 100 miles less on my run. I didn't do any Oly last year, but I did do 2 duathlons, and 4 sprints. The one race I did this year in July went well, with one of my fastest runs and a decent pace on the bike over 17miles.

I'm not looking for a great time, just finishing, but with the TX heat, that may be hard. What do you gals think? Any suggestions or ideas?

You can do the Oly, but you need to feel comfortable signing up for it.

Sounds like your residency is stressful enough, racing should not add to that stress. If signing up for the Oly will add to your stress, don't sign up. If you feel comfortable with it and won't think twice about it, then sign up for it.

That was a real solid answer wasn't it? ;)

Can you switch that day or do they fill up? Then you could decide based on how much training you got in.

Sounds like the sprint would be easy for you to pull off -- you probably are ready for the Oly looking at what you are already doing! I would think you'll do fine with either!

Well, I am by no means an expert, but any training you do between now and the is really just tweaking right? So I would not worry about getting to much big training in, the path is already set.

Now that being said, what is your goal? If it is just to finish, and you know you can do that, go for it. ( yuk, heat...blech)

If like Karen said, it is addding stress and you want to have a good race day, then do the sprint. You could go race with little stress and have fun.

One thing I have learned this season is that at least for me, it is the racing I enjoying, whatever form it comes in. Sprints have been my friend and they are just plain fun!!!!!!



Good luck in whatever you decide, and keep us posted.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to wait and see how everything goes this weekend before making the decision (unless I get rained out - we need the rain, but not on one of the few times I actually have to ride!). For me, I've been wanting to do an Oly for quite a while, and it's bugged me that I've never gotten it done. Last year it was school that always kept me from it, then injury early this year. I kinda want to get it done and over with now, but not if I'm not ready. We'll just see how this weekend goes!

bt, I did my Oly yesterday under similar circumstances - not the training I had planned months ago when I signed up... it was to be my A race but my training was more like a C race at times...

I say to go for it if you can. I didn't have a great time (result) but I had a great time (experience)! I think it was worth knowing/learning about the distance and I got the same medal and shirt everyone else did. ;)

I will have more on the race later but hope you are coming to resolution. I think if you allow yourself to adjust the goals you may have set then you can still get a lot out of it.