Parting Words…
Well, here I go again. It’s been a crazy week trying to get everything done in time. I finally feel like I have all my ducks in a row. I finished up with a fun, short ride on Pandora on the bike path, a simple yet very enjoyable 15-mile ride. My final ride in the U.S. before my Ironman. I can leave the country tomorrow, satisfied that any loose errands I couldn’t tie up will be waiting when I return…hopefully as a 2-time Ironman. I will be able to say to myself as I line up on the start line that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, else I could have done in my training to prepare for this race. That will comfort me on race day and calm my nerves. On the downside, it looks like, as God always has planned for me, my Ironman will, again, be very hot. Every day the forecast goes up another degree. Right now, the forecast for Sunday is 93 degrees. Ugh. Sound familiar? This is eerily reminscent of my first Ironman, last April in Arizona where temps were in the upper 90s. Someone today said, “At least it’s a dry heat.” I cringed. That’s what they said about Arizona. It was insufferable. Quite frankly, my first Ironman was held in the 7th ring of hell. Now, is my 2nd Ironman going to have the same conditions as the first, except with lots of hills? Oh well. If it’s hard for me, it will be hard for everyone else too. At least I’ve had some experience with heat! (Not to mention some heat training as well, compared to nil last time around). If it’s brutally hot, I’ll survive; I’ll just be a lot slower. I wonder how fast I could go in an Ironman in favorable conditions? Does that ever happen? I leave you with some photos I found today. I call it “Ironman Training: Before & After”. I couldn’t believe how different I look between April and August. It just goes to show that the training really does work! Bike: Before (CA 70.3 April 6, 2009) After (Bike–Camp Pendleton Sprint, August 8, 2009; and 10 lbs lighter) Run Before (CA 70.3; 4/6/09) Run After (CP Sprint; 8/8/09) Note muscle definition in legs! See you on the other side!
See the original post:
Parting Words…
