Saturday 9 October 2010

Time to Rumble!!!!

Hey all, how’s things?

Heck I’ve been hopeless at doing this blog while we’ve been here. I was planning to post every day but just don’t seem to have had the time, partly down to a hectic pre-Ironman lifestyle, partly down to my own laziness and party down to it seeming a bit rude when we’ve got people over here holidaying with us. My frequent strolling around the complex so my phone can update Twitter on the wireless signal seems cheeky enough.

Enough of the excuses though.........

Thursday I hit the water again for a swim. Once again it just didn’t seem to be happening for me, I never really seemed to get into any rhythm. Of course the fish take your mind off it a little but it’s still annoying when one of your supposed strengths doesn’t seem to be up to scratch. I was told later that the swim times are always relatively slow here, so maybe it’s just me making a fuss about nothing.

After the swim I drove out to the Energy Lab for a run to see what all the fuss is about and to try out my new Zoot arm coolers. I didn’t really find out too much about either as it was fairly early in the morning and the temperatures hadn’t got up too high. Once again though my running (like my swimming) was a bit out of sorts, nowhere near as bad as Tuesdays run had been, but still it was far great. It seems really odd that my supposed weakness (the bike) currently seems to be the only discipline that is coming together.

Once the training was done for the week I headed out to replace all of the bike spares and tools that I lost on Wednesdays Hawi bike ride, they’re now all crammed into the bento box on my top tube as I didn’t really want to spend huge $$$ on carbon contraptions that attach to the back of my bike. Then I headed out to the beach with Shelly for a bit more swimming, this time of the leisure kind.

Thursday night was Pasta Party night and they treated us to a full on concert type show on a big stage at the back of the hotel. It was hugely impressing compared to the normal IM affair. Of course you were aching to get out of there by the end as it finished with the obligatory (but necessary) race briefing. Still, it was a decent feed and an overall good show so we were happy.
Friday was supposed to be chill out day. It never really happens like that though. First thing we popped into town so Shelly could go swimming on the quiet beach right next to the race beach, the difference between the two is amazing. She really enjoyed herself and finally got to see what we were talking about when we rambled on about the fish. Then it was more touring the shops which I promised myself I wouldn’t do. I finally succumbed to the compression sock trend, mostly because they had “Kona2010” written on them. I’ve no idea if they actually do work but I’ve been wearing them for 12hrs straight, just in case.

Friday afternoon I had to go rack my bike. Normally my favourite time as I get to stroll the Transition area with my camera taking pictures of all the flash bikes...... Not today though!! The organisers are very officious. You walk down what seems to be a fashion parade with people lined up scribbling in notepads (I’m guessing this is the bike count) and then after the checks you’re met by someone who walks through the whole transition process with you as you drop your bike and bags. Then as quickly as you’re ushered in you are ushered out without any strolling around time. Very good for keeping things under control, very bad for a geek with a camera............ I did feel awfully for the lad I passed riding to transition who’d obviously had some form of accident and was at the side of the road with Police and Medics AND a bike that was snapped in two. Hopefully he’s ok (he looked to be) and hopefully they’ve managed to find him a replacement steed to race on.

So that’s it!!!!! As I sit here typing it’s 4:30 am on race morning. I’ll soon be down at the race site getting ready to roll. Hopefully I can get around Shelly enough to post before I head off. No piccies today though I’m afraid, I’m a bit short of time..

Time to go and get battered in the swim for the first time in my life (gulp!!)

See you on the other side.

1 comment:

Leslie said...

I think you'll already be on your bike as I'm typing this but Good Luck!!!

I can't wait to hear all about your race.