Race Week

Not year, not month...week! To paraphrase Marit, I was okay when June came. I was okay when the race came on my schedule. I was even (mostly) okay when I sent Charlie Brown off to Idaho. But once I started packing for real, it sort of set in. MY RACE IS THIS WEEK! I'm completely anxious, excited, scared, thrilled, and every other conflicting emotion you can think of. More than anything, I want to get out there, if just to see what that course that I've thought about every day for the last 9 months really looks like in person. I want to get settled in our apartment and see what the town is like. I want to meet some new friends that I only know from blog-land. And I want to race!

My taper has been a mixed bag to this point. I've been tired, hungry, energetic, lazy, and everywhere in between. So, a normal taper. My rides have been decent, my swims have been horrid for the most part, but my runs have been fantastic! I'm not sure if and how those three things will reconcile themselves for the race. And mixed in with the normal training have been a few adventures.

After shipping Charlie Brown on Thursday, I had a swim lined up on Friday. Now, while I packed my race goggles in the gear bag that went along with the bike, I made sure to leave out my clear goggles so I'd have them for the remaining swims. All well and good there. The minor detail I left out? I shipped the bag I usually take to the gym. And while my goggles were not in there anymore, they were also not in the bag I DID take to the gym. By the time I realized this, I was already spandex-clad and headed out onto the pool deck. What to do? Cancel the swim? Try and swim eyes-closed or eyes-open-and-ouch?

Instead of either option, I tracked down a lifeguard and asked if they happen to have any loaner goggles. And they did! She went back to look for them, but came back empty handed. Consulting the aquatics head revealed that swimmers had walked off with their stash. But there was one other option:


Well, it was that or nothing, so I gave it a try. Pushing off the wall felt like I was beating my head on a solid wall of water. And once I got to the fast parts of my set, not being able to breathe out through my nose was making it really tough. (Not to mention a little claustrophobic) So at 1100 meters, I decided to call it a day.

The other downside to shipping your bike early? You don't have your bike. On Saturday, I had a brick lined up, and I pulled my mountain bike out of mothballs in the garage. And I learned that a proper fit is really a necessity. Within 30 minutes, I could feel my IT band starting to complain, and I decided again to shorten the workout. No sense in doing ANYTHING to jeopardize the big day at this point. The good news was that my run off the bike felt great! On the last couple runs, I've had to consciously keep my pace slow. The legs are feeling good, and ready to go!

So now the majority of the packing is done, the training is nearly at an end, and the mind is struggling not to be out there already. One more run today, a swim tomorrow, and we'll be off to Idaho by way of Illinois and Washington. What an adventure it will be!