Early season jitters

This Saturday marks the start of my competitive race season, and I have to say that I am starting to get nervous.  I have jumped in a few early season events so far this spring, but the Inside-Out Sports Olympic at Beaverdam this weekend is the first race that represents the style and intensity of what I hope to find some competitive success at in 2011.  Coach Williamson isn’t prescribing much of a taper for this race (as we look ahead to more important things coming in early May), so outside of the usual thrashing I am taking in the pool and on the bike, I have tried to rest whenever possible, and keep my activities pretty mellow the past couple of days.  I guess I can attribute most of my nervous energy to the excitement of mixing it up with some of the great athletes in my new hometown, as well as the symbolic end to the off season that this first race represents.  

Given time to reflect on the body of work I have put in since early December, I feel pretty confident that I have taken care of both the big workouts, as well as the small ancillary details necessary to produce a successful result this weekend.  The long preseason training block has been done, and now it’s time to put faith in recent efforts to get an accurate gauge of my fitness against some quality competition this weekend.

Trust the training, execute on race day.