If you continue after that opening – you’re brave – bored – silly or tapering :)
I am pretty sure I have written this before but with so many people racing this weekend I figured I would pen it again with maybe a little update.
I sleep GREAT.
I actually slept GREAT in the 10 minute cab ride from the Conference Center to the Airport this afternoon (just before this blog was started) – I snored, I drooled and I even dreamt a little…apparently I was talking in my sleep as Ahmed, my driver, just gave me my receipt and asked me with a grin –
“who es des Bianca and ver she sister?” :)
The night before a “bigger race” I can’t sleep at all. It has become a self full filling prophesy – I worry about not sleeping and then I don’t fall asleep then I make myself REALLY upset that I am not sleeping and think about all the training I have done prepping for the race being ruined by not sleeping and so on and so on and so on…
It’s crazy – I know…but I have not been able to cure it. I can treat it…Xanax works – a little...
Ambien works a LOT but that stuff is scary…I wish I didn’t need anything as the ½ life is not so helpful with racing.
The point of this blog is not to tell you I have pre-race anxiety issues and need medication – most of you who know this blog even exists or knows me at all already understands that… :)
My point is actually pretty simple…we all face pre-race stress and deal with differently…some effective…some not so effective…
So - if you think your alone – your NOT :)
Other than my own personal issues – which I have a well thought out (prescribed) and practiced plan to deal with…pre-race stress can come from anywhere and everywhere.
The bigger the race, the more the demons stack up against you.
Why is it that exactly 4 days prior to your ‘A’ race you will be in unexplainably sequestered in close quarters with someone hacking and sneezing and your pretty sure you smell bacon :)
You reach for the only door to make a quick escape and pulling the handle you feel a cold clammy wetness which you are pretty sure is Fong’s last sneeze.
Quickly reference the Wikipedia medical site...
H2N1 incubation – 72 hours…perrrrrfect – that mean’s I get it on Saturday and my race is Sunday :)
Can someone please call CDC?
You can ABSOLUTELY count on while doing your last “easy” run making sure to stay ONLY in zone 1…some little old lady in a walker will pass you and drop her keys. Of course, when you bend down to pick them up, your always supple hamstrings LOCK UP tighter than a violin string. The only good news is you are now sitting third chair for the Jacksonville Symphony and you can own play one note and it isn’t really a good one. :)
What are you going to do? For sore tired or pulled muscles, stretching and massage is always on my menu. I especially try to mix this in for taper and recovery weeks. ART can help as well and you should try it. Being a little tight from my earlier Boy Scout duties with Grammies keys – I let Jean Pierre work on me for a few minutes. I’m not sure it was such a good call…
In order to pass all the extra time you might have by not swimming, not biking and not running I decided to mix in a little core training. I even got a membership at the local Globo gym. They set me up with Shaun Clump, a fitness consigliore for a little “tune-up” – Do you think doing all these flies will help my swim this weekend?
Shaun recommended a few supplements and I like supplements so I went and talked to a salesperson from Pro Legume Power Endurance Max HP. They convinced me to throw away my rehearsed nutrition plan for their “all-natural” single chain malto-dextro-suplo-opty-oxy-morpho-genzene which is easily digestible, taken ONCE for the whole race and mixed with anything you want, whenever you want and of course – will guarantee to let you win your age group.
Hey...it works great for Torschten Spitzga and he just won the Snitzleman Uberbiker in Ulm. They have a picture of Torshten on the bottle and he all is logo’d up…saying “yah yah ist gut, yah yah…” – I bought 4 bottles at $39.95 a bottle.
These guys also make this stuff and it seems to work…for him (?)
I am so ripped and amped up that I super glued my thumbs together!!!
(Is it just me of does he look a little like Ollie North? :))
Even the best maintained bikes will develop a creak, tweak, squeak that it has never had before indicating to you an eminent mechanical failure prompting a last minute streak to the expo to see if you can actually melt the Platinum American Express Card with your new ride purchase complete with wheel set and bike fit the day before the race (errr Ironman:) - ok – this one is true and as a Disclaimer, this was a previous less responsible former life and I was being a good friend and errrr enabler and might have actually drove this person to the expo and helped him pick out the color…yeah – I know – not smart…but it was John Cobb fitting him :) I am REALLY glad he finished or I would feel guilty…16:57 baby – ouch – it was close :))
Finally, no prerace/taper week is complete with the obligatory search for the latest in speed suit technology…Speedo, Nike, Blue Seventy, LGE, Orca, Jaggad, and Zoot are all great.
But after reading all of the marketing materials and trying on a few – I had to go with the latest from QR-BAIT. Their marketing was really exceptional…the suit is called “OUT” and the description is...
“When you’re all shaved down and ready to roll, we have a little compressive latex to get you off the bottom and back on top – The La Tigre”
I wonder if they have this in white to match Bianca?
Good luck to all of you who are racing this weekend – Kia Kaha!!!
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