run this amazing day

Pre-Race Nutrition Coming up to this race, I decided to try an experiment with nutrition to see if it made a difference on race day.  About two weeks out, I cut out alcohol and as much white carbohydrates/refined sugar as I could.  I was essentially trying to eat lots of lean protein and get my carbohydrates from fruits & veggies instead of cupcakes and bread baskets.  Because I started my taper 10 days out, this overlapped with the end of a high-volume training block, so on my last long ride and long run, I still ate the usual Gu/shot bloks/etc that I would eat, but otherwise, I left it all out.  I was eating a lot of chicken, soup, tofu, and fruit.   I did really well for the first week, but fell off the wagon a bit when I went out to Indiana for graduation.  When I came back, I went back on that "diet" for 3 days and then started carb-loading for the race.   While I was eating like this, I didn't feel hungry very often but I had a low-lying ...

I decided that we would drive down Friday afternoon to avoid the 3am wakeup call.   I'm still not sure if this was a great idea as it took us almost 3 hours to drive 60 miles.  Yes, we DID leave before rush hour - around 2:15pm.  Huge traffic fail.  We got to the hotel, checked in, and went for dinner.  The only non-fast food place nearby was an italian place down the road, so we headed there for garlic knots and pizza - bread with a side of bread. After that, it was just time for packing and repacking until bed time.  I went to bed early, but was woken up around 2:45am when SOMEONE decided to get up and turn on the lights.  I laid in bed for another two hours, wide awake, before I finally decided to get up.  I ate a Clif Builder bar, some yogurt, got dressed and then ate a bagel while we drove out to the race site. We left a tiny bit later than I wanted to leave, and the line for packet pick-up was REALLY long and being kind of poorly manage...

I don't have a lot to say (thank God, I know). Yesterday I laid out every single thing on my list: My bags are packed: That's food, transition, overnight, camera, post-race. (Molly) My bike visited with my bike shop boyfriends last night and is ready to rock. And I had my last incredibly short swim this morning.  My favorite swim cap which is actually from my last tri exploded off my head in the pool into 8 pieces, which I think is a very good sign.  And now it's just eat drink repeat until tomorrow morning.   I've got more mantras than I know what to do with, although two are sticking in my head right now.   I'm a beast, I'm an animal, I'm that monster in the mirror . Your heart is a weapon the size of your fist. I hope to be back on Monday happy and exhausted with lots of pictures and good tale to tell.  Have a great weekend, everyone! If you want, you can go back and read about my first triathlon here .   Feel free to make fun of me...

1. ARE WE THERE YET?  Good grief, I hate tapering.   My body is still waking up around the same time even when I try to sleep in, but my workouts are so short that I'm back home before the sun is really up.   At least I can eat carbs now.  I'm down to the last final few workouts, and doing all the pre-race testing things out that I usually do the week of a race.  This morning I did a short run to test my clothes.  Everything was great except I realized that I have no pockets and the old bike shorts I decided to wear are actually way too big and I laced up my speed laces way too tight so my feet were swollen and throbbing after 3 miles.   Last night I also did a short swim in my wetsuit.  I asked someone to take my picture in the locker room afterwards.  It was awkward. Swimming in the wetsuit was okay, it made my chest feel tight, which made me very glad I had tested it out because I would have freaked out Saturday morning.  I floated ...