Game Plan

I guess it's been a little while since I blogged... I was having writer's block, and it rained all last week, so I couldn't get my long ride in (I refuse to go on the trainer for more than 90 minutes!), which is generally where I make my weekly blogging plan.

So here I am, less than 3 weeks till the race (Holy Shizit!!!), and a day before I go on family holidays (Yippee!!!)... It's time to make a serious game plan.

I finished my last really long ride of the year today, 180 km (but it was actually only 177 km - I cheated, just slightly), last week I did a very long run, and a very long swim. I've trained pretty darn faithfully, I haven't skipped any workouts (except for a couple of bad weather days where I just altered the workout), and I over trained the distances in the swim and bike. I have an entire cupboard full of various gels, bar, drinks, and tablets, I carry spare tubes and CO2 cartridges in all of my purses, my tri suit and race day outfit are ironed and ready to go (just kidding - the heat would be awful for the coolmax!) and I now bath in my wetsuit so that I can have daily time trials for the wet suit strip. I guess there is nothing to worry about... except... I'm starting to get a wee bit stressed about all the other zillions of possible things that could go wrong that are out of my control.
There's nothing I can do if my bike freakish-ly snaps in half going down Richter's, or if my wetsuit splits down the middle when I take my first stroke, or if my stomach just won't digest anything, or if it's 500 degrees that day, or if a slow moving herd of aardvark's block the race course for hours at a time making us miss the 17 hour cut off time... You just never know, ANYTHING could happen!

Oh well, I'm trying not to think about it, but there are just so many possibilities!

As for the things I can control:

• I'm going to try my very hardest to get a minimum of 8 hours of a sleep every night until the race (very diffucult for me with my work schedule cause I often work late at night but I love getting up early in the morning)
• I'm cutting out alcohol until the race (very easy cause I hardly ever drink anyways)
• I'm going to try and cut out caffeine almost completely, but I'll make an exception for the odd evening shift that I can't survive without it (it's funny - cause I don't even like coffee, I only drink it when I work in the evenings - probably cause I've been up since 5:30am and I don't even start work until 3pm)
• I'm going to try to take my rest days as REAL rest days. Usually on my rest days now, I still go out for a nice long power walk (I LOVE being outside), or because I have extra time (no 3 hours of working out), I usually try to do all my housework, etc.
• I'm going to try my hardest to stay positive and think positive thoughts - no dwelling on various freak-accidents or uncontrollable weather situations
• I generally have a very healthy diet, but I'm going to put in just that much more effort to cut out preservatives, sugar or junk, just to make sure my body is as clean as possible.
• I'm going to limit my spending money when I shop like a maniac in Seattle this week, this will be a true challenge of self control - hello, outlets! (how did this one make it on my Ironman game plan list?)

Craig and I leave on Wednesday morning for a week of much needed vacationing! We are flying into Vancouver and then driving to Seattle where we are staying for 2 days. Then we move onto Victoria, where we are so excited to spend time with Auntie Rosie and the rest of my family for a couple of days. I am also thrilled to run my all-time favorite running route in Saanich, and get a swim in at Thetis with Coach Carolyn (I LOVE Victoria!). Then we spend a few days up-island in a holiday house on the lake. Basically, this is a PERFECT vacation, the perfect combination of shopping, eating, relaxing, training, and good quality time with my fave people (in no particular order).

Before I finish... In honor of the AWFUL summer weather that we've had (less than 2 weeks of actual nice sunny days!)... I'm going to start off my new-found positive thinking, positive ideas, positive everything regime by pointing out what we DIDN'T have in the last two months:

And if for any reason these pictures make you miss winter... DON'T WORRY! You'll see this weather in approximately 3 weeks (September 1st).