In Training - World Half-Ironman Championships!

Ever since last October I have milked the fact that I qualified for the Half-Ironman World Championship. For eleven months now I have coasted on the aura of preparing to do battle with the elite of the sport, I have been telling everyone I happen to meet how I will be duking it out at the very pinnacle of endurance athletic competition.  

Unfortunately time has flown by and now I have to actually go and do this stupid race in a matter of only 5 days.   

I really have tried to maintain the proper disciplined, competitive attitude like my ultra-serious triathlon teammates, but during the recent long training sessions I find my mind drifting to  less confidence-inducing thoughts:



1. I barely qualified for the World Championships and given my slow swim and late starting wave I may suffer the ignominy of being near last place and struggling to keep my spirits up as I try to fight my way from the back 

2.  I did almost zero bike training during my "running season" from last October until May.  I thought I could build the requisite endurance over four months but have found myself drained at the end of my long rides.   

3. Unlike running, I have seen limited correlation between triathlon training and triathlon race results.  

4. My two triathlon races in 2016 have seen discouraging results.  The World Championships is my only remaining race, and I feel strangely "oppressed" by feeling that my less enjoyable training sessions have been in vain and I have squandered another year which began with such high hopes... 

4b. I have a gnawing feeling that I should make the effort to do all those precious little things that all my more serious, gung-ho, real triathlete teammates simply relish -- practice transitions, shave my legs, lace my speed-laces onto my running shoes, attach my aero water bottle onto my front bars, carefully study course maps, purchase co2 cannisters and upgraded aero gear...  I suppose each one of these things offers chance to shave a few precious seconds off my time.... but somehow I just find them all too trivial and tiresome and for yet another race I feel that I just can't be bothered..  

5. I seemed to have grown soft and weak over the past few years training in "artificial" conditions:

• All my swimming in comfort of small, luxury spa pool with lane to myself
• All my cycling on indoor training in my apartment
• All my running on asphalt or on a track

All that said, hope springs eternal.   I fully intend to perform well in Australia in each of the three sports and achieve a PB for the distance.