{13} Days

Thirteen short days until I attempt to finish a beast of a race in seventeen hours or less. Thirteen more sleeps to be haunted by the what ifs. It’s frightening if you think about it too much. So rather than think about it, I’m keeping busy.

Friday night I went out to Crystal Lake with the other Tahoe crazies to get an open water swim in. Unfortunately, our IM is late in the season and all of the local club open water swims have ended for the season. Fortunately, we have a dock hook up for Crystal so we were able to swim right after work. Surprisingly the water was warm and absolutely beautiful. We were the only three people in the lake and it was such a great swim. I don’t know if it was because of how calm the water was or how quiet the lake was or what, but I can safely say that it was one of the best swims I’ve had in awhile. It may help that my last open water was in Maine and it was so cold. Who knows, but it was great and I left feeling so glad that we had done it.

Refueling around a fire to warm up!

Saturday morning the race prep continued. We went up to Victory Cycles in Burnt Hills, Ny to pick up our bikes from their race ready tune up and also to ride approximately 70 miles of the Tahoe bike course on computrainers. At first blush, the bikes really looked great. Ya know, it’s important to me how Foxy looks!

Foxy got new tape for the Tahoe ride.

Unfortunately I quickly found out that while my bike looks good, it actually has a crack in the frame. Let me start by saying that I did nothing to cause this. I haven’t been in an accident or anything that would have cracked the frame. It just is what it is. I’ve been assured that its safe to ride for IM…. You know, because its 13 days away and I don’t have another tri bike lying around. So it’s sad, but I can’t stress about it right now. Pictures have been sent in to Trek and we will see what they say. Onward.
Empties from the computrainer ride.

At the end of the day we covered over 60 miles on the computrainers. While not the same as riding the course, it was fun to do with friends and it was good to “experience” some of the climbing that we will face on race day. Over 6,000 feet for anyone who’s wondering. Good times.

After concluding the ride, it was time to shift focus but remain on IM and start working on packing. My bike is being shipped out to Kings Beach via tri bike transport. With that I also added the option of sending a gear bag out as I think there is only so much I can fly with. So I made some lists, checked them twice and filled up a bag.

Just a small fraction of what ended up in the bag.

Sunday morning was the day. We packed bikes and gear bags in to the car. Then we headed down to Armonk, Ny to drop off bikes at the local bike shop partner called Hickory & Tweed. It was a nice day for a ride. And fortunately the ride was uneventful.

We were a little early for drop off so we took a little time to eat some food and relax until the shop opened. It was nice to be still.

After dropping bikes it was time to head home. The 2.5 hour drive back was also uneventful. Score! We finished up the day with a twelve mile long run from Lyons park. It was beautiful out and we were sure to take our time and practice a run walk as that’s what will be happening in Tahoe. Thank you altitude. Even with the walk run we kept a really strong pace and just enjoyed the early evening.

As taper sets in, I know that I’m as ready as I am going to be. There is no hard work that can be done now that will make a difference in 13 days. I need to trust my training g, stay within myself and just get through these next few days…

A weekend full of distraction. How about you?