Last minute learning

What a wonderful thing a rest day is. I have experienced them before, but I never cease to marvel at the simple beauty of them.

Staying in bed, having a leisurely(ish) morning. I say leisurely(ish) because I still have two children, I am not sure anything is going to be properly leisurely for another 18 years or so. Grabbing a coffee, taking some time. Lovely. I wouldn't want to live here, but it sure is nice for a holiday.

Given that I have no training on the cards today, the day has involved other race prep stuff. Going through my traditions of preparing my race plan, putting together my packing list. Those little things that help firm up plans and settle the mind. Reassurance that preparations are on track.

I also spent a bit of time on here:

Hammer Nutrition Knowledge Centre

I have a fuelling plan that has developed over quite some time. It is based on few different reputable sources, plus hard earned experience. It has worked for me and continues to work for me for the 70.3 distance for a few years now. It is based around a lot of stuff, but at its core is a fuel load of around 70g(ish) of carbohydrates an hour. However, recently I have been hearing a bit of talk about fuel levels that made me question whether I have been eating enough. Whether I was underfueling myself. It made me want to double check that what I was doing was right. What better time to do that than the week before a race?

Anyway, so it was great to spend a bit of time on the Hammer Nutrition Knowledge Centre and reconfirm what I have been doing. Remind myself why my nutrition plan is the way it is, plus learn a few new things. The interwebs is so full of STUFF, that it can be hard to sort out the gems from noise, it is always nice when you find another good source of information. Particularly a source of information that backs up what they are saying with some science and facts, rather than just anecdotes.

On the bike in the morning. I would really like to take the race biyke out for one last spin. Make sure the wheels are still turning etc. However, the forecast for the morning is predicting a reasonable chance of rain (50%). As much as I would like to get the race bike out on the road, I like staying dry, not risking illness, crashes and bike damage, even more. So it might be a morning on the trainer. I suspect the final decision will actually have to wait until morning. We shall see.

Last but not least, here we are:

Bintan 70.3

I guess it is official. I am definitely racing on the weekend.