Not Long Now......

I am actually surprisingly, reasonably calm about race day. Even though it is only a week away now. I will say that I am underprepared. But I would probably say that about every race I have ever done also. You can never get it 100% right, even with all the best intentions.

A quick whip around. Swim: feeling pretty confident, the swimming seems to have stepped up a little. Endurance is good and strength seems good. Unfortunately no extra speed it seems, but I can still out sprint Slippery, but hey we are doing long course so a pretty useless skill there. My shoulders have been tightening up with the 3 hard swim sessions a week, including 1 open water sesh at the harbour. I had a good massage and now they are good to go again.

I'm in the blue cap, in front middle, hands crossed - looking very chubby next to the elites

Bike: eh, I would have liked some more strength under my belt. Damn those hills. I still seem to err towards avoidance and saving myself for whatever excuse I can come up with rather than just get on with it and deal with the stiff legs and muscle fatigue next ride. My bike handling skills are going great. Today out on the ride we had 3 near misses, all on round-a-bouts and cars coming at us from the right. 1st time I was 2nd wheel and would have hit the round-a-bout at the same time as the oncoming car, I saw his indicator turning right and so I took a quick evasive manoeuvre and swung off left down the road and away from my buddies. I waited to hear if Slippery got collected, but he was on the brake and the car went through before him. Scary, but path for the course when you ride on open roads. When I caught up with the boys they checked in with me expecting perhaps a tear or find me a bit shaken up. But I was ok.


Run: well always the unknown, but! I am having a few wins of late. I decided to start taping my knee. I know Coach is against taping if there is a core or strength issue. I have been working on the strength and core, again erring towards less muscle fatigue than riding with the boys on a Saturday and riding on dead legs, so again I am under cooked there. But with taping so that the ITB insertion point is off the bony bit where it rubs (highly technical description there for the lateral fibular condyle) I am finding I can run. I think Coach has given up and is frustrated by not being able to get me running so he agreed to the taping with a"what ever gets you to the start line Sammi." So the latest runs are looking like 20min walk then 30 x 1:30min run/30sec walk then 40min walk. So 2hrs of exposure and 15kms in the bag when done and running well inbetween with no knee pain is feeling pretty confidence inspiring. I haven't given much though to the 'what if' scenario if the knee was to start playing up. I will just call it on the day.


Wish me luck :)