36 hours before an Ironman

Wake up from a nightmare at 3am that I left my power meter and all my nutrition in my hotel room.   Get out of bed and check bike, power meter and write a giant note NUTRITION.

5am wide awake thinking that in 24 hours I will be en route to the start- check iPhone for weather see 32 degrees and try not to think that is the temp of freezing.


Confident texts with Coach!  Fired up? Yes! 

Make coffee and scroll through emails with that start of a nervous bubble in my stomach.  Eat roasted sweet potatoes and egg + avocado, Today is about storing calories for tomorrow.

Drive to freezing cold lake, get out and decide that freezing on Friday and again tomorrow was enough and return to my "favorite" pool in Truckee for a shake out 2k swim.  Swimming calms me.

Hit up Wild Cherries for Almond Milk Latte + 24 oz bottle of H20  + 2x NUUN, While it maybe 32 in the AM it will be over 80 on the run so I am hydrating as well as caffeinating and storing calories. 

Go to CVS and buy a  new Power Meter battery, just to be safe.  Return home, more coffee maybe a bad idea, and some brown rice, small amount of spinach and daiya cheese.  Charge Di2 battery and go for a 15 min run.  Run the finish line again only to find myself in the middle of the IronKids race- oops. 

Run around the parking lot and see all the Ironman athletes invading and get really nervous excited to see them all! 

Bubble in stomach bigger.  Need to get out of the mayhem.  Batteries all charged and replaced and bike ready to go.  Grab Bike bag that is overflowing
- tri shorts
- aero jersey
- arm warmers
- vest
- jacket
- gloves
- socks
- toe covers and shoes
- helmet
- sunnies

Tie up the bag and off we go to Kings Beach- 10am and is 65 and sunny. Lake is stunningly clear and blue and looks inviting. Insert picture that I wish I had taken but was too nervous excited to do so.  Drop of my bike- lonely on the rack. Swim exit is up the beach so bags are on the sand.  Done- crap, I mean yeah!  Checking the bike is making it all real.  Not that I previously thought this was all a charade, but you know- right? Or am I just crazy.

Back to Condo and pack up run bag
- garmin
- hat
- running glasses
- belt and race #
- socks
- shoes
- 4 tiny bags- 3 bags with 4x salt tabs and 1 bag with Imodium and ibuprofen
- tube of glucose tabs
- running shorts

Drop of run bag and meet up with Mike ( my athlete who is racing- final course talk, prep and I am glad to worry about his race vs mine)

all the bags

Back to condo (again)  and eat Mediterranean pizza left over from dinner.  48oz powerade zero.  

Nap- but no sleeping- get horizontal and read emails and settle into Netflix complete trashy series- Scandal.  Ideal for pre- Ironman.

Work on a few schedules, repack AM clothes bag for the 4th time,  lay down and get up 10x.  Start pot of Quinoa and sweet potatoes. 

Visualize finally drinking wine again the last 8 miles of the day-  mentally prepare to suffer and practice how I will deal with that.

Freak out that I forgot something in my bike and run bags- mental check list- all good

Take call from Mom wondering how my race is going.  Alert her the race is tomorrow. She was worried.

Peruse Facebook....awesome messages of good luck from so many!  Love this one


Start to panic relax and think about the day and write a blog..... 4:18.  there you have it!