Patriot 70.3...its coming

Ok, so a fresh recon of the Patriot 70.3 course this past weekend has me thinking forward a couple weeks to race day. 

Those course pics look great…I hope the water is as calm and the roads windless for the race. That was not the case during the course recon, the wind was ridiculous, but it’s all about planning for optimum conditions. The weather should be nice that day so that shouldn’t play a factor. It’ll be warm but the hope is I’ll be done way before the day gets hot. For the 1.2 mi swim, I’m looking at a 37. Not fast, totally doable and should set me up for a good bike. With a good rolling to flat course (and no crash) 21-22mph is totally doable. The key will be to focus on hydration and fueling maintain speed and rpms. It’s a double lap course so I can see how I feel about pushing the speed higher for the second lap to set myself up for the run. That half marathon course is flat and shaded so a conservative estimate off the bike would be around a 7:55 but I’d like to be able to drop down to a 7:30 after the 10k mark to push for the finish. All that and a good couple of transitions should put me in the 5:00 to 5:10 ballpark for the first 70.3 of the season. Well…the mark is on the wall and the “experiment” of Patriot will give me a better feel for a sub-5 at Timberman. Then…