Ironman Week 2016

Soon. Very soon.

Race week is upon us! As we grilled and chilled this holiday weekend and busily readied our new home, it was crazy to think that in less than seven days, I would be tackling my second Ironman. I feel a broad range of things: umprepared, undertrained, totally ready, zen, panic, distraction, surrealness. It really doesn't feel real yet because I'm not there. I can remember last go around picking up my athlete packet with Alyssa, signing waivers and walking around what would be our finish line and thinking, it's finally here. We're going to do this.

And I'm sure I'll feel the same way again this weekend. Right now, all our gear is in a state of disarray post move. I'm pretty sure we have all the things we need, and all the training is done. At this point, anything we do would just be to our detriment. Instead, I choose to focus on the minutia: changing the batteries on my bike sensor, going through the lists of things we need to pack, prepping the meals we'll need and completing the last-minute testing of equipment. I'd like to be asleep by 9 p.m. every night this week. I woke up this morning at 6:30 after going to sleep by 9:30 and felt like I could've slept another hour.

In terms of training, does packing and unpacking count? We finally got our bikes set up last week and did a trainer ride, and we also had an awesome run through our new neighborhood this week. Our Garmins were dead, because I had a minor panic attack thinking I lost the strap, but we think we went about nine miles. We even ran into some old friends in the process of discovering our new running route in our new hood.

So the plan for this week:

• Light workouts
• Lots of sleep
• No beer
• More housework so less time for panic
• Kick ass on Sunday