On My Way!

Well, it's getting very real. I'm at the airport, waiting to take off for the land down under. Fortunately, there was so much to do to prepare for being away from work, doing a race abroad (with lots of equipment!), and traveling afterwards that I haven't been worrying about the 140.6 miles I'm going to have to cover - under my own power - in one week. There's not much to do about it now anyway. I can't improve my fitness any further before race day. All I can do is mess things up!

Of major importance for the next few days is that I eat, stay hydrated, and get plenty of sleep. All three of those will be tough on the upcoming 15 hour flight, but I hope to avoid too much temptation in Sydney and will try to make up for it there. After a couple of days in Sydney, we will fly to Perth, drive south to Busselton, and the final race preparations will begin.

Our first task will be reassembling our bikes. They can't travel in one piece. The machine that will roll me along for 112 miles is broken down to fit inside a 47 x 30.5 x 10.5 inch box. The wheels are off. The handlebars and seatpost too. All of that needs to go back together solidly, with gearing reconnected to the wheels, chain lubed, and sizing adjustments made so that the bike feels just as good as it did before I broke out the allen wrenches. Of course, this is all assuming the airline doesn't lose that bike box somewhere along the 7500 mile trip!

One of the big mistakes a racer can make is to fail to gain course knowledge. If you don't know where you're going, you race tentatively and risk going the wrong way, wasting precious time and energy. So, one of the next steps for us will be riding or driving the course. Ironman Western Australia has repeating bike and run loops that are far from perfect ovals. Looking at the map of the routes, you'd think it was some sort of roller coaster path. We'll make sure we know where we're going.

I'm looking forward to testing the calm, clear waters of Geographe Bay (race site) too. Busselton has a jetty that sticks out perpendicularly to the shore for a full mile. Our swim route starts on one side of that jetty, goes around the tip, and then comes back to the beach on the other side. They even have an underwater observation deck at the end of that mile so that we can get a look at the sea creatures we'll be swimming alongside. Let's hope none of them have big teeth.

With the swim/bike/run courses evaluations done, I need to learn how these Ironman transitions (switching between disciplines) work. They're quite different from the shorter races I've done in the past. Usually, we try to minimize changes between the swim and bike or bike and run, just to keep our overall race time down. But with Ironman, you're covering too many miles. You need to be comfortable. I would normally wear the same shorts and jersey for an entire race, but here, I'll be changing clothes completely. I certainly don't know how all of this takes place, so I need a quick lesson. With the lessons complete, eat, drink, and (try to) sleep again...the pressure is building.

Time to board, next time I'll talk to you from Australia!