All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

Ok, that’s not entirely true. I’m ready to BE in Hawaii, but I haven’t packed a thing yet. I missed today’s coached run on Mercer Island—a game of Pirates & Scallywags—because I didn’t feel 100% this morning when I woke up. One thing I have learned from all this training is that when the body speaks, it’s important to listen. I slept another hour and felt better. Guess I have been burning the candle at both ends like we all do from time to time. I had my bandanas ready to go. I was ready to talk like a pirate. I was ready to evade capture. The game, which is similar to “Sharks & Minnows”, would have been a whole lot more fun than running on the treadmill at the club, which I did later in the day.

Looking back on the past 5 months of training, I’m quite amazed at the lengths I went to for improvement in each event. Besides putting in the miles on my own and with the coach & team, I’ve taken lessons, gone to lectures, studied DVD’s, read books, read articles, gone to clinics, watched demonstrations, asked for pointers, watched YouTube videos, even dreamed about technique. Hopefully some of it has sunk in!

What I know now that I didn’t know 5 months ago: I knew there was technique to swimming. We learn different strokes as a kid and then watch the Olympic swimmers (over & over) on HD TV, who by the slightest of margins win medals or not by their technique. Who knew there was technique to running, though! I guess I’d always thought you just ran. We all came with the basics: first you learn to crawl, then stand, then walk, then run. And some people just seem to run faster than others. Then I started Team in Training and discovered heart rate monitors, strides, posture, cadence, tempo, race pace, core strength...When you pay attention to all of these you can learn to run more efficiently, faster and longer. A friend and I went to hear Scott Jurek, an ultramarathoner, talk about injury prevention. This is a guy whose resume is a mile long itself: 50 mile races, 100 mile races (and he doesn’t just run them, he sets records in all of them), and best yet—he not only ran, but WON the Greek Spartathalon twice! It’s a mere 150 mile jog from Athens to Sparta. It was a fun talk and he did have some good pointers on nutrition/hydration and form. Not sure how anyone could worry about their form after 100 miles. I’d be crawling…

Cycling has its technical side. My last bike had 21 gears. The new one, which is still en route to Hawaii, has 27 gears. The gear shifters are totally different, too. I didn’t get to ride my new bike very many times before it shipped. I tried out all the gears, but seemed to favor certain ones. It’s kind of like my dishwasher at home. It comes with a gazillion different cycles, but I tend to use my few favorites. We didn’t all come with the basics in cycling, though. One of my teammates, Bex, never learned to ride a bike as a kid growing up in Ireland. I’m in awe of her guts to learn as a young adult now—and she didn’t do it just to tool around her neighborhood, but for an Olympic distance triathlon no less! Way to go, Bex!

Still need to finish my worksheet to calculate calories of carbs and protein I will need to fuel the body during the race, milligrams of electrolytes & oz of fluids per hour I’m likely to need in the heat. Then we’re supposed to come up with a plan of what fuels and liquids meet those needs and when we will consume them during the event. Even the brain gets exercise!! Sorry for the length of this blog. I’m not very good at writing short ones. Check back here for some pictures once we get to Hawaii. They might be worth a thousand words. Aloha!