One week 'Till Race Day!

My last big week of training is dwindling down, all in preparation for my big debut Ironman 70.3 next sunday, at the Vineman 70.3 near Santa Rosa, California (about 66miles north of San Francisco.) It's been a tough week, especially since I've just come off two weekends of racing in a row, and a few weeks of heavy training. As always, I'm totally loving the work, every big session giving me a bit of a confidence boost for this weekend's race.

Rachel, Steph, and I at Kits Beach, practicing starts

This week had some REALLY fun sessions, including a few open water sessions at Kits beach (thanks Rachel Mcbride and Stephanie Ossenbrink for the fun,) one which saw some drama unfold mid swim: we were practicing some drafting, with myself in the lead. Just as I approached a turn buoy, I *SLAMMED* my hand into a giant log floating in the water! I repeatedly yelled out "STOP STOP STOP STOP," to try and prevent Rachel and Stephanie from crashing into the log. Fortunately for them, they stopped. Unfortunately for me, Stephanie thought I was yelling SHARK, and proceeded to scream and try to climb on top of me to get out of the water (because, as you know, a shark can't attack the top person in a people sandwhich! Hahaha!!) Way too funny, boy we had a good laugh with that! Then, we decided to have an on-going battle royale the rest of the swim, with many karate chops to the head (and a few well placed shots to a bit of a tender region, if you know what I mean!) We followed up the session with a trip to Burrito Brother's just up from the beach, with Coach Bjoern. Mexican seems to be a great way to finish a swim session.

My new Vineman scare tactic, courtesy of Stephanie :)

Friday was a great Kits pool swim (one of a few this week,) followed up by an awesome UBC track session with Coach and the rest of the Lifesport athletes. Probably the best session ever, as we played barefoot Freeze Tag post workout (I had my heart rate monitor on, and it is quite the workout running around!) Stephanie Ossenbrink came up with some great tactics to paralyze opponents, one that I think I might employ this weekend at Vineman (running after people, arms waving, head shaking, barking like a dog, moving like a bat outta hell!!) It stopped us like a deer in the headlights, so hopefully it will work for me, to psyche out my competition :)

A successful Mt. Seymour climb for everyone!

Enjoying the BBQ

Yesterday capped off the week with a big group ride, which included a Mt. Seymour climb, and a stop in Deep Cove for donuts (sandwiches and muffins for some of us.) We polished off the day with a BBQ at Megan's relative's house on SW Marine Drive (amazing place, the kitchen was UN-believable!!!) Burgers, salads, and all the fruits we could handle, it was a fantastic time, too much fun for all the Lifesport gang! The BBQ was finished off with an absolutely amazing mini-concert by Megan (on the violin,) and her brother Nathan (on the piano.) They played many tunes, there was even some dancing going on by Anita and Stephanie! Too funny watching them rip up the dance floor, but the best part was Bjoern's air-piano playing (think: headbanger meets Beethoven's 5th Symphony!!) Classic (literally.)

Megan and Nathan's mini-concert, conducted by Coach Bjoern

The rest of this week will be a ton of resting, relaxing, stretching, and getting ready for the race (with a little bit of training, just enough to keep fresh.) This will be my first full week taper, so I'm not 100% sure what's going to happen come race-day, but hopefully there will be a great result! You can follow Rachel McBride's race progress (she's racing in the women's pro race,) as well as mine, at ironman.com .

Enjoy the week of forecasted sunny, warm weather, and happy training everyone :)