Ironman Florida

My sisters latest updates from Florida as she prepares for the Ironman

Tuesday, October 30, 2008

We went to bed early last night, slept great, and woke up nice and early. Which is good, as the plan is to keep getting up early so that waking up at 4 am on Saturday isn’t too much of a shock to my body.

The ocean view from the condo is just fantastic. All you can see is the ocean. The waves have calmed down from yesterday. Now the ocean looks calm and inviting. Still a bit bitter cold, fresh weather wise though. Still hoping that it heats up some. The temperature at 7am is around 8 degrees. I am seriously considering to don, knee warmers, extra jersey, toe warmer, gloves, hat on the bike on Saturday. The thing is, it will be cold coming out of the water and transitioning onto the bike. I know I will be cold the first hour or so on the bike at that time of the morning. But, then if heats up, I will be stuck with excess baggage, which you don’t wan’t to be carrying around on the bike with you. You can not litter the course. You will be penalized for this 4 minutes in penalty tent. You could possibly dispose of your extra bike gear at the aid stations en route, however, you can probably kiss your items goodbye at this stage too.

Still time to decide exactly what I will be wearing on race day. The weather is forecast to get better.

Paolina, has appeared to be coming down with the cold. She is only three weeks back from Hawaii Ironman. A lot of people, unsurprisingly, get run down after an Ironman, and are susceptible to the many colds in circulation just now. Poor Polly, and please do not give me any of your germs. For the last three weeks I have been getting somewhat paranoid of catching the cold at this stage in the game.

But sister is an Ironman, so there’s no stopping her and she comes with me for my first practice swim in the ocean. See photo’s. The water is not too cold, in fact the temperature in the water seems warmer than the temperature outside the water. The water is nice and clear and a pleasure to swim in. We had spotted dolphins in the vast body of water we could see from our 21st floor condo. This reassures me, because I’m told if there are dolphins in the water, there are no sharks. Yup, I have seen Jaws quite a few times when growing up, and lets just say there is some fear of sharks occupying the water I’ll be doing my first ocean water swim in.

We swim together for 30 minutes, which is all that is on my schedule. Some people may be swimming for an hour, but I have had it drilled into me by my coach, not to get carried away doing unnecessary training when I am down here. Taper is of utmost importance. Andrew has done three Ironman, back in the day. I am lucky to be able to learn from both Andrew and Paolina’s experiences.

I had been warned that the water is very salty and not to swallow any water. Yes, the water is very salty, it’s the ocean, but I did not find this much of a problem. Paolina was actually gargling with the water to help her sore throat!

After, we shower, we head over to the Race Expo to register me and pick up my race bag. As we head over to the race site we spot lots of “peacock” as we refer to them. That being the athletes. You see so many slim really slim and fit looking people, with all their fancy apparel, and state of the art bicycles. I don’t quite feel I am fitting into this category just yet, with my second hand five year old bike, aluminum frame, borrowed Zipp wheels all the same. I love racing on Zipps, go faster wheels. Them alone puts me in the mood for a race.

The expo is quite subdued, maybe we are early. However, I have been to the half Ironman, California, with my sister, and I remember that one to be more happening. Albeit, this suits me, and keeps me calm. I will conserve all my energy for Saturday.

We cycle the run course after the expo. Nice and flat, bear in mind you have to do this twice. Besides the thought of being drowned and crashing on my bike, the run portion I am kinda dreading the most. It seems the most demanding and comes late on in the day, so I know I’ll have to be digging way deep inside myself to pull through the run. That’s why I am here though.