Different place, same thing. Race day eve is here bringing all that goes with it, the preparation, the nerves, the resting. All in full swing.
Due to the glories of technology I am currently sitting in a picnic shelter at the Sydney Regatta Centre writing this on my laptop. Whilst I am at the race venue I am nicely removed, on the opposite of the rowing lake to all the goings on. Sitting here, watching the rain and listening to the music from the always impressive Ironman speaker system gently wafting over the lake to me, it is really quite pleasant. Almost relaxing. I was keen to find a nice place to hang out between my swim this morning and my briefing this afternoon, I didn't suspect that nice place to be the race venue though.
Oh yeah, so it yes it is raining. Has been most of the day on and off. I keep thinking it has passed and then another front rolls in. Not a big deal, it isn't raining that heavily and it hasn't really impacted my day at all. Glad I brought a jacket though. The only impact it may have is when I rack my bike. I was planning on doing that soon, getting it out of the way before heading to a race briefing at 1:30, but I think I might leave it until after the briefing. Doing it after the briefing will still give me plenty of time to fix any unrevealed issues, but the later I leave it the better my chances are of keeping the bike dry. All minor stuff in the end, but the sort of thing that you think of on race day eve.
The swim this morning was pleasant. Water temperature was a nice 25.5 degrees. Not a bad temperature for a non-wetsuit swim. Any cooler and it would be cold, any warmer and it would be hot. The lake doesn't feel too sinky, at least it doesn't until you stop anyway and then you notice the lack of buoyancy. Swimming feels fine though, just like a big freshwater pool really, similar temperature too. I got a few laps done of the small part of the course that was open, dialled in a bit of race pace stuff. Reminded myself that the swim is 1.9km long and that I need to pace it accordingly. No point swimming it like a 400m. It isn't. Instead I was thinking about how I swim a 1000m effort in training and tried to find the same rhythm. That will be my aim for tomorrow.
Other the swim, the briefing and bike racking, there isn't a lot else to today. After I am done here it will be back to the home stay to put the finishing touches on my packed gear for tomorrow, pack my nutrition, put dinner together and then get into bed nice and early. Through no brilliance of my own today has ended up being a good race day eve. I don't like just sitting around on the couch the day before a race, I end up feeling heavy, but at the same time you don't want to spend the day running around getting tired out. Today has been a nice mix of being out and about but also relaxing. Just what I was after.
Hopefully tomorrow goes as just as well. I guess I will let you know tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment