Day Before My Ironman #2

I love this!

Being in Tahoe so far has been amazing. It's really brought me back down to earth as to why I love this sport and everything it entails -- from the personal challenge to the other folks involves to the destinations it takes you. I am loving this so far... it helps that I am with two amazing people who are so positive and excited as can be as well. John is like a kid on Christmas Eve. (He is an Ironman virgin, after all; and it might as well be Christmas-time weather here!)

Strolling around the lake (pre-race boredom) in our souvenir Tahoe trucker hats, which were actually made in Hawaii!
Ok, yea, they are too big here but we can tighten them, and they are cool no matter what ;)

Saving this for POST race!

John, Elizabeth and I have been a big ol' house since Thursday, on Dollar Hill, having a great time. ER and I have done all our necessary catching up on life and everything -- Thursday we stayed up way too late talking endlessly (if you consider 10pm(ish) late; hey, it is before a race! hehe). It's a blessing to have such a good friend who's as involved in sport as me on almost all levels. Then last night my family, our sherpas, arrived after we went to sleep. We were supposed to have more people coming, but some unfortunate sickness and stuff is preventing that :( 

Weather prediction for
Saturday night into Sunday.

Anyway, it's been way too chill and easy since we got here. Of course, there is massive hype about the weather and what it will do on race day, then the whole the altitude factor, the terrain, blah blah. Most of that is old news; although, for me it was new news to hear that a storm would be rolling in today (Saturday) bringing rain, possibly some snow at the 8k ft level, and, of course, dropping the temperatures further. Hey, it is what it is. We signed up knowing there were a lot of random variables that play into this IM.

Pre-swim on Friday. All smiles here! I only wish I had a pic of the view in the beautiful water!

I decided a while ago that no matter what, I am doing this race (I'll admit, there was a point where I questioned that this year), and will persevere to the finish at my best ability. Only if they deem me unable to carry on will I stop (but that happening? Fat chance.). So, if it IS in fact 26 degrees outside on Sunday (likely) and the swim carries on as usual (hopefully), you better believe I will strip down and get in that damn lake! Heck, we did a practice swim Friday at 7am and it was amazing. Yea, cold outside, but the water was ideal. Clear as you can imagine (drastic shift from what I just experienced in Vegas), with a turquoise hue that was unlike anything I'd ever seen, and the water was significantly warmer than the ocean back at home. No ice cream headache at all, and a good water temp for swimming. Getting out was the hard part.

So that said, it may get colder for Sunday, but we all just have to plan accordingly. I'm not doing this race to break records, so if I need to spend extra time in T1 to make sure I'm warm(ish) and ready for the bike, then I will. I'm even debating wearing a swimsuit under my wetsuit and then changing into my tri kit and extra layers in T1 so I don't start the bike cold when it's freezing outside. Hm.... 

That said, while it's been "easy" prep, planning what I'll wear and how all that will go down has been the most complicated thing about this race so far! We seriously bought extra gloves, hand and toe warmers, and cheap throw-away jackets yesterday -- have you ever added that to your triathlon race day checklist?! It's actually quite funny, and has made us laugh more than wallow in fear.

John's new gloves from a random convenience store, so he can "murder"
it on the course....

John and his murdering gloves -- getting carried away ;)

It gets windy here. But I think it will be more mellow on race day.

What else is there to say?

Food is good. I brought up most our groceries and have been cooking the usual fare. Everything from tawnee-approved eggs (yes, I am picky about my eggs), to veggies, to grassfed beef, chocolate, kobacha squash and sweet potatoes. Of course, butter and coconut oil for cooking :) And, no, we did not go to the athlete dinner on Friday (we did attend the meeting, however). It was not appealing and would have probably f-ed up my race if I ate that stuff (pasta, pound cake, soggy salad, some kind of chicken, quinoa - but doubtfully soaked, etc). Sorry Ironman, I love the races, not a fan of the menus.

Nice big kitchen for some good cooking...