Preparing for the end

I keep thinking about all the cool things I can do when my race is over.

-- Sleep past 4:30 a.m. regularly
-- Stay up past 10 p.m. regularly
-- Diet!
-- Wakeboard (or attempt to)
-- Mountain bike (or attempt to)
(these last two things I haven't done because I'm not risking injury by taking on a new sport now)

I'm still looking forward - very much so - to the race. I'm looking forward to the excitement of that morning, starting the swim, ending the swim, cruising on my bike, starting the run, and of course finishing. But I'm also looking forward to the great sleep I'll get that night, sleeping in Monday morning, and starting to plan the rest of my year (marathon training and sprint tri fun).

I still don't feel nervous. The race will be what it will be. However, a co-worker has issued me a challenge: If I beat him at Lake Stevens, he will do the Kirkland sprint tri in a skirt (like the one I did STP in).

Well, I'm sure beating him will be very difficult for me, so I plan to use the motivation if I start to falter. But I plan to just get into a happy place, accept problems if they arise, and just keep moving. I have a new song to run to (not that I get to run with an mp3 player much since I have so many great running partners now, but still) - it's "Move Along" by the All-American Rejects. "All you got to keep is strong, move along move along like I know ya do" - that's me. All I have to keep is strong. I will listen to this song over and over again prior to the race so it gets stuck in my head, and since I don't know any other of the lyrics, all I can sing is this one.

Although I had so much fun singing on STP that I might have to think of other songs to sing while racing. That would certainly keep my heart rate in the right place, wouldn't it!

So this morning I met Nancy at 5:15 for half of our usual run - just a 30 minute jog, then I met Jessi for a swim/bike brick. We did 40 minutes of each at a very comfortable pace. Strangely, I actually had a little water panic today - I got water up my nose twice, and that was uncomfortable and startling - but I recovered very quickly and I'm not even sure my stroke changed. Also, the sun was in a bad place over the water, so it made unilateral breathing difficult. I did switch to my less-comfortable side and felt so-so; it was enough to get me past the crazy-can't-see part.

Tomorrow will be a total rest day; Saturday will be a mini-tri (like today, but in the correct order with fast transitions), then Sunday the race! I can't believe it's here - and I feel calm about it!