Countdown to IMCDA!!

One month today and it is Ironman time for us again!!

After a long cold winter involving many, many workouts on the bike trainer, a good amount of swimming and a poor amount of running we seem to have completely bypassed Spring and popped out into Summer. With the late winter and early season race our window for long bike rides is pretty small so we are really loading on the mileage right now.

After having good races at the American Triple T two weeks ago, it took us about 5 days before we started to feel human and recovered, then we knuckled down again with the Ironman training. We are in the midst of a big training week this week with only 2 more after this one before we can ease back a bit on our taper.

Last Sunday, in the last 30 minutes of the last Swim Squad of the season I managed to smack my little toe on a metal grill by the pool side that I must have walked up and down past hundreds of times. My toe exploded (but I kept on Coaching like a brave soldier, thanks for noticing everyone), but it has had me hobbling round in pain for the last few days. Tomorrow morning I have a 32 km run that I cannot miss, so hopefully I can ignore it for long enough. Other than a few aches we feel pretty good and are making the final arrangements to our travel plans. When I say final, I mean booking flights and accommodation! We had originally planned to drive the 38 hours to Idaho but following our extended drives to and from the last race in Ohio we have decided to fly instead. This gives us more time in the west before and after the race with 2 nights in Seattle - somewhere we have all wanted to go to. Still a 5 hour drive from Seattle to Coeur D'Alene but better than the 38 hour option.
We have also struck gold by getting a suite in a fantastic hotel almost on the race start/finish line. It has athlete specific meal times, post race banquet and ice baths in the front garden! We normally don't mind staying a little further away but as we have no sherpas/support crew this time it will be much more convenient being close by. It is always my intention to go back to the finish line at midnight to cheer on the last finishers and watch the fireworks. Unfortunately I am usually unconscious and unmovable by this point but maybe I stand a better chance this time!