Triathlon Tomorrow!!

Meghan's sister Molly and I are a team for the Little Miami Triathlon tomorrow (Team Name: HOT TOMOLLYS). The even better news is that my brother Dave is now participating in the singles division (Kayak division).

Because the iPhone is so amazing my parents will be following my progress live over the internet (remember my cool iPhone App!).

Using the iPhone app has been awesome because I have been able to measure my progress from when running a few miles seem a little longer than I thought it should be to where cranking out 5.5 mile trips is like nothing.

Even better than running - my Polar Heart Rate monitor is awesome because I have experimentally determined the range where I can keep my heart beat and still feel good after the running! My watch beeps at me when my heart rate get's too high and I can slow down (especially handy for those long hills). So in theory I will still have some gas left for the bike ride tomorrow as I plan to wear my polar watch and measure my heart rate over the course of the triathlon.

GOALS
So I go back and forth with my goals. Sometimes I think I should be able to do the whole thing in 3 hours, and other times I realize how hard 3:30 (hh:mm) will be. And I haven't done any training by running or biking together and obviously haven't canoed before any running or biking so it will be interesting. So like any good engineer I ran some numbers:



Based on the times of the previous triathlon here are my goals. I'm publishing these as motivation for myself as people say one of the ways to make sure you do something is to start telling everyone you are going to do it.

Goals:
1) Finish the darn thing!
2) Finish in under 3:30 (which I hope to do)
3) Stretch goal: Finish under 3:17 which was the median time last time

The stretch goal seems out of whack since I haven't even run distances or biked competitively yet, and as of June I hadn't trained to do either at all! I also know I run much slower than many distance runners I talk to - I'm just not a distance runner yet but hopefully I'll continue to improve in that area.

I have also used my training and some previous participants canoeing times to estimate my finish time tomorrow. On the high side of each individual event I'd come in at 3:25 and on the low side 3:05 but that is running the events individually, I figure running all 3 in a row has to add some time, so do the transitions which includes one shoe change (canoe to biking).

Here's the course Map:


Also because people think I'm crazy for tracking the whole thing on my iPhone - I thought I'd share with you all the equipment I'll be carrying with me tomorrow :)

Polar Heart Rate Monitor Watch + Chest Strap - Measures my heart rate


iPhone with GPS - Runs my RunKeeper App with GPS


iPhone Arm Band - to wear while running and biking


Dry Pak iPhone holder - To wear while canoeing incase we dump!


Kensington iPhone Power Pack - the GPS running constantly drains a lot of power - this will guarantee I finish before the battery dies!


Miscellaneous Items:
- Change of shoes in a waterproof bag (incase the canoe dumps)
- Sunglasses (of course)
- Under Armor type T-shirt to keep sweat away
- "Chub Rub" like product to prevent chaffing (once it happens while biking distances you'll understand)

During the triathlon - I'll basically look like this guys


I think that's it. Time for Bed because Dave starts even earlier than us and we are going to head over together.

I have to say that having a triathlon on the calendar for these months has really made training enjoyable. I hope I finish and enjoy the triathlon and plan to improve my time next year too as I will have more time to train!