On Sunday I did my 'big training day' which is as close to race simulation I will get without doing the whole thing. I did the full ride and ran half a marathon. Wow what an eye opener that was. I think I may have preferred to not know how much it will hurt until on the day ;) I did gather some good information from it though which is great.
Part of that information came from my bike data. My 'numbers' bike trainer/coach (for the last 6 weeks) told me I don't have a hope of making cut off. The ride I did was half the elevation of Japan and I did it in 7:40hr. With all the complexities of the race, such as riding with cars at some points, crossing national freeways etc and 10 different bike cut off points I was told I won't make it. Do I know this for sure, of course not. So what do I do???? Well at the end of the day I do really want to finish. So hard to make the decision as to whether I do Japan or a race in Korea the same weekend. There are a number of things that went in to the decision. For example the disorganisation of Japan, safety isn't 100%, a very precarious relationship with another athlete and will I make the cut off. So much, right?
Well I have made the decision to do the race here in Korea. It is on Sunday the 1st September, so one day later. That was tough. I made it last night but just struggled to find some enthusiasm about it as it is 7 laps of the bike course and 4 laps for the run. Oh I hope I can find some friends here in Korea to come to the race so that I have some supporters to pass the many multiple laps.
After I made the decision I a had a carrot dangled in front of me. After Yeoju Greatman (the name of the Korean race) take a 2 week recovery (wow, I'm going to recover that fast, awesome!!) and then into some focused training to hit Taiwan 70.3 (half IM distance). That wasn't the carrot.....the carrot is.......to place in the top 10. My first response was 'really, do you think I can'. I then looked at the results from last year and yep using my Shinan race time I would place in the top 10. Of course it is a different course, different participants, different day but it shows there is definitely a chance.
What's the big deal about placing in the top 10? I will leave that with you. You may be reading and already know, maybe you might try and find out or maybe you will wait for me to reveal why that is huge. It is definitely something to get me through the boredom of the Korean course. After that I need to make sure recovery goes to plan and then I'm signing up for Taiwan and if all comes together on the day I will be one very happy lady.
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