(Image from Google Images)

The Timberman 1/2 Ironman is 10 days away – yikes! It is coming far too quickly and I am not as prepared as I should be but, oh well. I am also not sure if or how you taper for these things? I think I am just going to scale back a bit next week, but I don’t have that much to scale back from, so in reality I will probably keep it pretty much the same…

Swim: The good news is that the pool temp has come down out of the 90s… it got so hot at one point a few weeks ago it was nearly unbearable to swim in, but this week it actually felt refreshing again! My main fear about the swim is being trampled on the entry, but I guess I can’t really worry about that. 

Bike: Walter and I had intentions of doing a long ride, but his pedal kept falling off (like actually falling off) every couple of miles, so our long ride got cut short. This did force us to bring our bikes to the shop and now mine is all tuned up and ready to go (and he has a new pedal 🙂 ) – that is the good news. The bad news is we don’t have time to get in another long ride before the race, so I will be relying heavily on my hour long spin classes to pull me through the 56 miles… this probably is not a great idea, but it is what it is… 

Run: I had a minor accident tripping over our neighbor’s dog when I was running across the street about a week and a half ago. To clarify, I was running with the dog, I didn’t just randomly trip over a dog in the middle of the street… and I skinned my right knee (and pinky finger) pretty bad. This took me out of the running game for about a week.  But, with a little rest and a whole lot of Neosporin, it is healing up well and I am back out on the roads! I don’t think my running break will really have much impact on the race since, by that point, I will most likely already be in survival mode 🙂 

I promised you guys I would let you know my nutrition plan for the race. Well, it’s a good thing I have my mom to keep my nutrition in check – she sent me this picture this morning with all the things she has picked up for me for race day – she’s the best! 

Those Gatorade Prime Energy Chews are my favorite and I have used them in all of my running races in the past.  I have heard that when you are biking it is much easier to drink your calories instead of eat them so I think I will try to put something together in an easily accessible water bottle for that portion. 

I am also planning to have some of these Honey Stinger Waffles and Clif Shot Blocks both of which I have been testing out and incorporating into my training. Pre-race I am planning to eat a banana and an english muffin or some sort of white toast with jam. 

Although I do not feel as prepared as I should, I am very excited for the race! I have been wanting to do a triathlon since I graduated from college, so I am pumped that I am finally doing one! It may have been a little aggressive to choose a 1/2 Ironman as my first one, but go big or go home – right?