Hey Tracy-
Please forgive me if this post doesn't make sense- I have come down w/ a RAGING head cold. I feel like I'm living in a tunnel.
Anyway, are you in southern california? I did a sprint there last year. It was near San Dimas I think. I want to say Bonelli park? I'll try to find the link to the organizers. They keep sending me emails for this years races. It's actually a series. And they run both a sprint and an Oly distance at the same time.
The only major difference I found in the Oly was the swim. For some reason it seemed like a big jump in distnace from the sprint. I was already riding 30 milers every weekend and as a marathoner the 10k was no problem. Now of course I am SLOW as mollasses! So it may be different if your going there to try to be in the front pack- there may be more speed work needed etc. But to just complete and have fun, I say as long as you can do a 30 mile ride followed by a 6 mile run (brick) you'll be fine. And of course swim a mile in the pool. I can't remember the oly swim distance but I think it's around a mile.
We have some fun sprints here in AZ as well. In the next month they should start back up- usually March-May, and then again come October when it cools down a bit. There is a really fun sprint in Tucson in May. I think it was memorial weekend. I had a blast! It was called the Sahuarita tri I think?? The bike course has a 2 mile climb up a mine road- basically up the side of a mine-and I passed a guy towards the top with a "24" on his calf. Of course he was on a mtn bike, but he was never able to catch up to me. On the run he finally did and he said "thanks for motivating me out on that bike course" I laughed and thought to myself "yeah, must stink to get smoked by a fat chick"....
Anyway, it would be great to see you in AZ in April. IMNA really puts on a good show. I think the best though is watching all the last hour finishers. It's very motivating and very emotional! Heck, if I make it through the cut offs *I'll* probably be one of those last hour finishers!!
Another bonus is all the free stuff they throw out to the crowd during the last hour. Like timex watches and cool stuff like that.
Ok, back to the couch for me... Do you have any idea how hard it is to "bench" myself?! I had a 15 mile run planned for today. But I also have a 100 mile ride planned for Saturday and I DO NOT want to miss that because I'm too sick!
Ciao!
denise