Providence 70.3 Course Preview

Took the trip down to the Providence course this past Sunday.  The main objective was to get in the open water, finally, and also to get a glimpse of the setting and the first few miles on the bike course. Nancy joined me for the swim and part of the bike ride.  It will be her first half, so she was also anxious to see what the course had to offer.  She's going to be great on race day.

The swim was really nice.  The water is relatively warm, not clear but seemed to be pretty clean. Nice and calm, as well.  I think the swim will be enjoyable at the race.  After that, it gets a little hairy.  The first 12 miles of the course consist of about 900+ feet of elevation gain.  Not horrendously bad, the majority of that being rolling hills, but much more than originally anticipated.  The publicized course states that the total elevation gain is just under 1400 feet with the majority of that being slam in the middle between miles 20 and 40.  Well, looks like they may have underestimated that by half.  However, no importante when racing with power.  A quick turn back at 12 miles or so and a speedy ride back into Lincoln Woods to start the AeT walk/run work.  It was hot!  The little hills around the lake were challenging, with quick ups and downs.  Finished out 45 minutes at just under 8:00 pace. 

Pretty gassed.  This weekend has reveled some cumulative fatigue that is finally taking it’s toll.  The ride Saturday and yesterday sapped me of all my power and after 5:30 of riding within 24 hours, I was fairly well fatigued for this run.  Couple that with relatively strong sun and heat, it made for a challenging couple days.

Race day will be a different story, though.  Remembering back to Timberman 2009, Joey and I went up to Ellacoya park to preview that course.  Granted the bike was a bit longer and harder that day, but I felt even worse on the run with similar environmental conditions.  I raced well and am confident that with a good taper and nutrition for the next four weeks, we will be in a good place to race on July 8. Looking forward to race day.