4 days...

Today is my last day full day in Iowa before the big race. I am taking off tomorrow for Louisville. I could not be more excited to do this race. I am sure as soon as I get there, the nerves will set in. Right now I am more anxious just to get going. Tonight I am dropping my dog off at the kennel, dinner with friends and then spending the night with Rob. I am pretty excited about that too since he has a huge work project to turn around. Tomorrow Rob and I are having breakfast before I am on my way. I have a full schedule Friday and Saturday which will be nice so I am not going crazy over race prep stuff like I have earlier this week. I will do a massive check over my stuff probably Friday and Saturday before equipment drop off to make sure I have everything. It is challenging because I won’t see my run or bike bags until I get them in the race. I have to make sure I have body glide in all of them since I won’t be able to get my bike bag for the run. Just things like that. I just noticed last week I should get my oil changed soon in my car, but wasn’t sure if I would have time to do it. I was able to get squeezed in this morning. Good thing I did because my brake lights weren’t working. I would have never known and that would have not been a good thing to not have when you are driving 8 hours some place. Good thing only the bulbs needed to be replaced. All in all, I am so ready for this race and can’t wait to get out on the course to see what I can do.
Race Goals:
#1: Finish and have fun doing it
#2: Have a great time
Strategy:
Swim: take it easy (which isn't hard for me) but not to easy that I lose track of time
Bike: Slow, Slow, Slow to start. My heart rate tends to be the highest here.
Keep power even on the hills
If I am feeling good and no stomach issues, the last 10 miles I can push it a little bit
gel every 30 min, salt tab every 30 min, 1 water bottle/hour, half bottle of gatorade/hour
Run: Just keep moving
Walk Aid stations, Run inbetween
Gatorade and water at every station, salt every 30 min

Race weather: upper 70s, party sunny, wind 5-10mph. I will take that! Hopefully the ran in the preceeding days goes through quickly to result in a fabulous day!

Question I am going to ask myself several times during the day: Why are you doing this?
Answer: Because I really want the tattoo, haha, just kidding, ok I really do, but mostly to prove that I can be successful in anything I set my mind to and why not!

I am always looking to challenge myself and better myself in anyway that I can. After all, I have an "A" personality :)

Follow me on race day: August 30, 2009 at www.Ironman.com. On the home page will be a link to the athlete tracker. #337!!!!!!!!!

#337

Officially Ironman Louisville Race Participant #337!

Going Strong

I am so happy to be tapering because my body just could not take any more. I was finally able to run Sunday and last night and feel "good". My legs are still a little tired and achy, but not near as bad as they have been. I am doing a 3 week taper. I decided on this last year when I tapered for 1.5 weeks for my half and I was tired during that race. This year I tapered 2 weeks for Kansas and felt great. I also have doubled my workout times since then and decided 3 weeks would be the min. I still did workout 11 hours last week, but it felt like hardly anything. This week I have 7 hours which feels like nothing. I am doing some final lists of stuff I need and then going to start compling my stuff. I have my room lined up, Anubis' "room" reserved, directions and schedule all ready. I can't wait to get going. Workouts this week and up to my race: Monday ran 30 min, tonight: bike 1 hour, tomorrow: swim 45, Thursday: off, Friday: 2 hour bike, 30 min run, Saturday: 45 min - 1.5 hour swim (depends how I feel), Sunday: 1 hour run, 45 min bike, Monday: 30 min swim, 1 hour bike, tuesday: 30 bike, wednesday: 30 min run, off thursday - travel day. Friday I have a million things to do: 30 min swim, check in, I volunteered for a pain focus management group (I get $75 to buy stuff with!), IAMTRI group get-together, race essentials clinic, welcome dinner and mandatory athlete meeting. Also inbetween all that I am going to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Bat Factory. Saturday 20 min swim, 20 min bike, 2 mile underpants run for charity then back to my room to get my gear and check in at noon. Then I am relaxing the rest of the day. Hoping to meet a couple friends that evening for dinner from IAMTRI that are coming down to cheer. Sunday is the big race day. It is going to come fast. I feel like I am not ready yet just because I have to get a few things from the store and then gather up everything, clean my bike and check the rest of my gear. I will get most of that done this weekend, then I can relax.

Updates

Couple things that have happened in the last couple days: 1st and most important - Taper time. My taper started Monday, but I did have 1.5 hour bike and a 45 min swim. I bailed on the swim because my neck was sore from biking Sunday. I couldn't turn my head far enough to breathe so that was out. Tuesday I did a 45 min bike and a 35 min run. My body is exhausted. I am going to try to swim for an hour tonight, give or take 15 min. I have been looking forward today since Sunday. Not only because it is finally an easy day, but my bf gets back from vacation :) Tomorrow I am going to swim for 30 min and run for 45 followed by either one or two softball games. It is the final tournament and if we win we play 2 games, but if we lose the first, we are done. Friday: Day off!!! Also I am having my orthotics remade because the left one is not working correctly. My foot does not sit on it correctly in my shoe. The ball of my foot is on the beginning of the arch so every time I step, it slides down and rubs and it burns bad. I have also found out that I have less than 17 hours to finish IMKY. IMKY is unique in that is has a time trial start. In the past, there is one entry point where you wait in a big line and one after another jump in and go. The swim cut off is 2:20 after the last athlete enters the water and the official time ends 17 hours after the last athlete enters the water. This year, there will be 2 entry points for the swim. Same swim cut off except now you have to finish the bike by 5:30 and the race cut off is midnight. so if you start last, say around 7:30 am, you have 16:30 to finish the race. You basically have a shortened bike time. I am not to worried about this, but how many people finish in that last 30 min. Quite a few. So now I am going to have to hurry to get to the swim start in the morning along with everyone else having the same plan now. The reason behind this is what I think is really dumb. Due to permits issued by Louisville and surrounding communities, they have to have the race done by midnight. Really? This isn't a big enough race, and we aren't brining enough money to the city that you can't give us an extra 30 min? Ok. Not going to worry about it because I have no control over this. I am going to race my race and not worry about anything else. 2 weeks from tomorrow I will be on my way to Kentucky. I can't wait.

Downhill from here

Nothing else can make a person more nervous, anxious, excited and scared at once than an email saying the athlete guide is available and race numbers will be assigned soon. I was rushed with all of these emotions when I got that email last week. What I think was funny was I had the guide all printed off before I got the email. What are the chances that within the 30 seconds of posting it and emailing saying it was ready, I checked the website. I think that is a little more obsessive than anything. Hey, what can I say, I am excited. Also in that email was a note saying, if you know you are not participating, let us know so we won't give you a number. My last chance to back out. Nope. I am ready. I just finished up my last build week. I basically have 3 long workouts left. Tonight, tomorrow and Saturday. 20 days left. I finished up this weekend with a 15 mile run Saturday and a 30 min bike on the trainer. It was a great day to "practice" in Kentucky heat. I need to make sure I keep myself cool. Sunday I had a very interesting bike. I started out about 9, biked for an hour when a line of storms had come up on the West. I was about 10 min from Ankeny so I decided to turn back and wait it out at the park there. By the time I had thought that and turned around, it had started raining. I got back to Ankeny and the rain stopped. I checked the weather on my phone and there was another line coming through so I decided to head home and get the rest of my nutrition and head back out. I figured it will be gone by then. I got home, got my gels and headed back up to Ankeny. As I got in Ankeny, it started thundering and lightening so I stopped at the park and waited it out under a shelter. After 10 min it had stopped. There was Another line of storms coming so I thought I could make it up to Big Creek before they arrived. I was wrong. I got 10 min North of Ankeny when the torrential down pour started. It was actually refreshing. I was more concerned about my phone getting wet than anything. It was nice. I made it to Big Creek just in time for it to stop raining. I took sometime to dry out my stuff and packed the bike back up. It started lightening again so I waited about another 5 min. It never stopped raining so I started to head back home. I got 5 min from Big Creek when it started pouring again. I would have kept going, but I was riding directly into the wind and it hurt so I turned back to wait it out at Big Creek. I dried my stuff out again and spent another 30 min there waiting for the storm to clear. It was still thundering out, but I was freezing cold and drenched that I just said screw it and headed home. I got half way home when the sun came out and got sooooooooo hot. I really enjoyed the ride. I just wish it would have been a little less windy when the storms were coming up. That made it dicey. I have started my list of things I need to take. It is no longer a list, but now a book. It is very long and I don't even have non-race stuff on there yet, lol. This is the last week my pool is open so I will need to find another one to swim at next week. Probably have to go to the downtown Y. Hours in the next 3 weeks have dropped off significantly from what I have been doing. I won't know what to do with myself. Maybe I will get some stuff done around the house or maybe turn on that black screen thing in my living room that has pictures on it. It has been a long time.