TWO weeks to go ....

(Summary of July 13 - July 21)

I had been having some issues with my coaching in late June and had briefly mentioned this to my tri-mom when I did my first beach-to-beach swim in early July. Whether she mentioned this to her coach (who had swam with us that morning) I don't know but, ever since then her coach totally took me under her wing and did everything she could to make me feel 100% prepared for my race: she gave me a second opinion on my July training schedule (i was scheduled to do too much), invited me to her group training sessions, answered numerous questions (based on her experience of doing 8 IMs!), and even included me in a send off she organized for her other athletes that were doing IMLP). I am eternally grateful.

Sweet Swag Bag from Bring on the Bay!

At the reco of my tri-mom and her coach, on Saturday I did Bring on the Bay - a local 3K open water swim event. Great event, very well organized, and it provided me with a taste of what the IMLP swim might be like (i.e. lots of bodies around me, getting jostled about, and having to navigate through/around other swimmers). I did it in 1h15. About 24 min. a kilometer. If I managed that pace in the IM, I’d be out of the water in 1h40. Sweet.

I followed the swim with a 70km ride. It should have been 120km but I ran out of time. I made up for it the next day with a 2h30 run followed by a 2h ride. I won’t lie. It felt like crap. I had a good cry - again, thinking I wasn't ready. My husband tried to placate me, saying it was likely because of the sweltering weather and the fact that I was still getting over my earlier bug but ... I could not be consoled. I was convinced that my chances of completing the IM were very low. I didn’t really speak of this to anyone though as I was horrified that someone might agree with me. Anyway, I sucked it up and continued that week ...

Monday - off
Tuesday - run
Wednesday - ride
Thursday - off
Friday - beach to beach
Saturday - long ride + short run.

Saturday was to be my last long ride (90km) and I figured I would do it myself somewhere around my house, but early Saturday morning I got an email about a group ride starting at 7:30 that morning. Knowing that the group ride would be waaaaaay more enjoyable than a solo, i bolted out the door to make it on time.The plan was to ride from Andrew Hayden Park to Pakenham and back (about 100km). I found myself struggling within the first 20km. Again, the doubts started to creep in ... "You can't even handle 20km of flats,  how do you expect to handle the hilly 180km LP course?" For the next 10 minutes I dropped further down into my pit of despair until it donned on me. In my rush to make it on time for the ride, all I really had to eat was a piece of toast with some peanut butter. So although I may not have felt hungry, my body was likely in need of food. So I scarfed down and energy bar and my PERFORM and within 15 minutes I was doing ALOT better. Made a mental note that I never want to feel that way again.