LifeTime Fitness Weekend

On Thursday morning, at 8:40am, I will be airborne and heading to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Saturday morning I will be competing in the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. I had to just look up the schedule of events on the website and it seems that our race start is at 7:03am, three minutes after the pro men. When I raced in Minnesota three years ago, this was still the famous 'equalizer' format where the women got a head start in a 'winner-take-all' format. I guess they have changed the format to an unoriginal (and in my opinion, less exciting) separate women's and men's races.

No matter. I will race whoever my competition is for the day. And in the case of Lifetime, the competition is never dull. It will be a great mix of 22 of the best women from all different distances…Ironman, 70.3, ITU, drafting, non-drafting, etc. It's also fun to see those friends from other formats that I don't usually run into at the weekend races.... friends like Sam McGlone…and Leanda Cave…and the Wassner twins.

**Post Edit: I just looked at the updated starting list and it seems that most of the women on the starting line actually are people I race every other weekend at ITU events!**

I will arrive right before the Thursday night pre-race briefing which leads right into a great dinner party hosted at the LTF club restaurant. On Friday morning there is a bus that goes from the hotel to the race site so that those of us that cannot afford a rental car can check out the race site and do a bit of training. Last time I was there, it was brutally HOT. I remember trying to stay in the shade as much as possible all weekend because the sun was just a killer. This year, I should have no problem conquering the heat because of all my wonderful training sessions at noon in Central Florida.
After the race-site-training-session, the rest of Friday will be as relaxing as possible. Maybe a nap, rent a movie in the hotel room, read a book…all very important pre-race activities. I will also find some time to organize and prepare my race-day bag because Saturday will start early. After racing for a few years on the World Cup circuit, I get very accustomed to a mid-afternoon start time with allows me to have a relaxing breakfast, warm-up session, a stretch, etc. before even heading to the race site. This weekend, I will probably be out of the hotel sometime between 4:30 and 5:00am (Yikes:)!
But first, I've got a few more days of training. A few more swim practices to attend, bike routes to ride, and runs to accomplish. Also, there is the little detail about packing a bike and a bag of gear. Other than that, I'm basically all ready to go!