Days Go By: Two Days 'Til Race Day!

Keith Urban, besides being a cute Teddy bear looker of a hunk, has a great rockacountry voice and "Days Go By" is one of his best. Not necessarily a jogging song but a good listening, head-noddin' song.

Days have gone by and here I am two days out from my race. I'm packed, the car is pointed south, and Patient Spouse and I are loading up in a few minutes to go see what the Texas coast has to offer. I'm trying not to obsess over the weather predicted on race day--cloudy, very windy with gusts up to 25 mph, and a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms--the day gives me what the day gives me and I'll deal with it. At least it looks as if it will not be miserably hot which is awesome for me.

I didn't rest as well last night as I had hoped--don't think it was nerves, just springtime allergies and restlessness--but I'll try to get into bed fairly early tonight as we will be up before 5 to get ready for Patient Spouse's sprint race tomorrow. It will be my turn to be support crew for him and I'm looking forward to it.

I've started slowly to intake more carbs and protein (and sure enough, slapped 2 pounds back on within 24 hours) and intake a bit more hydration. This morning I did some easy stretches after warming the muscles with a hot shower and that's it except I hope to get there in time to wheel the bike around for about 20 minutes to make sure all the parts are working right.

I'm really not very nervous about this race at this point; I feel confident that I have put in the time and work necessary and all I have to do is implement my race and nutrition plan, and have a bit of luck to avoid any mishaps, and I'll do fine. Now, I may feel very differently tomorrow or early Sunday morning!

I bought some books to try to give me extra inspiration for the race. And here's a hint: do NOT read "Becoming an Ironman" right before your big race. Although I recommend the book highly, and it does have some motivational stories in it, it's also chock full of descriptions about racers facing vomiting, the runs, broken hands, broken bikes, blisters, broken toes, bloating, getting lost, heat prostration, passing out, etc. I realize the stories are about full ironman races and I'm only doing half that distance, but still. I coulda done without those graphic reminders of Things That Can Go Wrong. I'm now reading about the Iron Nun: the 70 plus old nun who does Iromans, including Kona. That should be much better reading.

OK, time to put on my boogie shoes and head out the door. More tomorrow!