Friday in pictures
This morning, I got up and too Charlie for a nice walk down to the lake. There were a bunch of swimmers out there (“No swimming”??):
We came back to the hotel room and I started getting ready to go swim when a massive thunderstorm rolled through. The rain was coming down in buckets. But there was blue sky in the distance and I could tell it would pass through quickly. After the storm passed (no more than 15 minutes) I went for a swim. I did one loop of the race course and felt great. The water is warmer than I’d expected, any warmer actually and I’d be worried about being too warm in the full wetsuit. It felt great swimming in the suit and I’d forgotten how nice and easy the swim in Mirror Lake is. I had some breakfast in the room and met up with my support crew to get some bagels and take a walk:
We walked down to the race site and I made it official and got all checked in. I’ve got my shiny ID bracelet:
My hard-working support crew, making signs:
After walking around the expo a bit and spending a little money (I just needed another visor! And some compression recovery socks and an Ironman magnet, oh and some Newton shoes), we came back to the hotel and had some lunch. I probably spent a little too much time on my feet this morning, so I was really ready to relax for a bit. While we were sitting in the hotel room, around 2pm, it started thundering and then absolutely pouring down buckets of rain. The second big storm of the day. There was loud, strong thunder and some pretty sweet lightening bolts in the distance as well. There were actually a couple swimmers still out in the lake, which seems a little stupid.
While clear skies are obviously ideal, I can live with a little rain on race-day. But today it rained hard enough that it would be pretty scary and dangerous to be out on the course under those conditions. I’m not sure that you would be able to see in front of yourself on the bike. But on the Friday before a race, a hard rain storm is a perfect time for a nap! After nap, Charlie and I walked back down to the race expo to see Cassidy at the Trigger Point booth. He told me earlier in the day that he would work out my piriformis. He worked on me for a couple minutes and helped me refine the technique so I can do it at home on my own.
Bike check-in begins tomorrow, so for now, it’s just a field of bike stands, surrounded by the race expo:
Me:
We’re headed out to dinner shortly. This is the meal that really counts (the night before the night before) – and I’m hungry!
Swim – July 18
Distance: 1.2 miles (2,112 yards)
Time: 33 minutes (and I wasn’t working that hard or benefiting from any drafting…)
Average heart rate: 125
Course: Mirror Lake, IMLP swim course – 1 loop