ARIZONA

Well....1 week to go. I got here Tuesday night and have been finding my way around and training on the course every day. It is a FAST bike course. Wow. It takes about 1.50 to do a 60km loop and that was with stopping 4 times to make adjustments to my bike and stopping for traffic lights. It is very much within reason to do a sub 5.30 on the bike. As much as it is tempting to hammer it on the bike, The Dutchman has made me promise I will hold back. He showed me an article in a German cycling mag he gets that had plotted bike performance against run performance in Kona this year and how the race is won on the run. I suspect it was part of my problem in Austria. I can't afford to run anything slower than a 3:30 here. The article showed the bike splits of Normann Stadler who came off the bike 12 mins ahead of Craig Alexander (the 2008 champion) and how he lost 30 mins on the run. It is going to be hard to hold back but I have to do it. I get my Zipp wheels on Thursday so really looking forward to seeing how I fly on those!

I have not done a course like this before where you are constantly having to pedal. All the other IM's I have done have had downhills where you can rest a little bit. That will also affect my run time. That and the 30 degree heat! So pleased I have been out here for a few days already and have been spending as much time in the sun as possible trying to get a bit of a base tan and used to training in the heat of the day. I am pleased for those treadmill sessions where I was wearing 4 layers zipped up to my neck sweating it out, no matter how strange I must have looked.

The swim is in the Tempe Town Lake and is great for spectators as they can stand on the bridge and watch it start. We then swim out and back to another bridge. The bike goes out in 3 loops along a highway where they close on side of it which is great. It has been a bit scary riding alone out there even though the shoulder is wide. Had some guys in a massive pickup shouting stuff at me yesterday as they went past. Can really do without that. I also hope they sweep the road because there is a lot of crap on there. Came across a guy yesterday with a flat and have seen a few discarded tubes along the road side. I have been lucky which is great as I wasn't carrying a pump or CO2 cartridges. I figured I could hitchhike back in if necessary. (hope Mum isn't reading this).
The run is along the lake, over a bridge back along the other side back across again and away in the opposite direction to cross once more and loop back around. 3 laps. I have a 1.20 run scheduled today so will do the loop at race pace which is sub 1.10 to see how that feels.

I swam in this community centre pool earlier this week. Pool was stinking hot and the showers freezing and wasn't that nice. Complete stroke of luck yesterday when I turned up there to do my laps and they were not doing lap swimming on Fridays so they sent me to the YMCA. It is the same size pool, heated, outdoors and free!! The locker room is also really nice unlike the other place where I picked up some foot fungus thing I am now desperately trying to get rid of.

Really enjoying driving around now that I have some perception of how big this car I hired is. I got a large car because we need to fit 2 bikes, bike bag, suitcase and we will be doing some decent miles so wanted to be comfortable. This thing is massive but kind of fun to drive now. In fact I wouldn't want anything smaller given the size of some of the cars and pickups they drive here. Not a hatchback in sight!

I hit the Arizona Mills mall yesterday and was disappointed. The Nike outlet was OK but that was about it. Got a great base layer for $20 I saw recently for £50 so was pleased with that. Also got a cool run top, will be running in that today. I got a new race outfit too. I ran in black at Austria and this time I will be in blue and black for the bike and black and white for the run. I prefer to get completely changed in transition. The time it takes is well worth it for me to be comfortable, plus by wearing a cycling top I am more protected from the sun. I rode at midday yesterday and it was hot hot hot out there as there isn't any protection.

I was out riding a few days ago and came across another cyclist who was training for a race in Tucson in a few weeks. I was taking pictures of the bike course (included here) with my blackberry because I have finally learnt how to ride without hands and I don't have to stop. Corinna and Leanne used to joke that I would have a camera strapped to my helmet so I wouldn't have to stop, but this works better for me :) Anyway this dude rode with me for 10 mins and then said I was setting too much of a pace and he wanted to drop back. It was very good for my ego because I had slowed down to talk to him :) I don't get any sense of my cycling improving because of cycling with TFD all the time who slows down to adjust to my pace, but it must be!

This hip flexor 'thing' is settling down ( it isn't an injury!). I get the odd twinge but it is OK. I am stretching every few hours. I have been so busy the last few days, I really don't know how I manage to go to work and train. I have also been getting up at 3:30 so have all day to do all of this stuff. Today I slept in till 6 which was good. Ideally I want to be waking up at 5am so I am used to eating and getting up at that time so it isn't a shock to the system on race day. Thank goodness TFD is OK with that. I pick him up tonight from the airport. I can't wait to see him!! We have been on skype every day. He makes me laugh so much, he really is the BBE. (Best Boyfriend Ever).

We had dinner with Corinna and Antoinette last weekend and they were giving him Ironman support tips as they really are the pros at it. They were also fishing for investment into Iron Dreamz. Made me appreciate again how great they both are and how much crap they put up with when it comes to Ironman. Corinna gave me such a beautiful card. If I had functioning tear ducts I am sure I would have cried it was so touching.

So, I am feeling amazing. I am in a great frame of mind. I know the course. I am going to win. I have so many people behind me. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea but I love the tough love approach. Before I left work on Monday my boss told me to 'just win ok'. Mum said 'we are proud of you no matter where you place, but we know you can win it'. Corinna and Antoinette 'you better not ruin our holiday to Hawaii next year' and finally TFD 'I'm not going all the way to Arizona to watch a loser'. Some of my own personal favourites '2nd place is 1st loser', 'don't look back, someone might be gaining on you' and finally 'pain is temporary, giving up is forever'. Can you tell I have been doing my mental preparation? ;)

Tomorrow we head up to Sedona and then onto the Grand Canyon. It is going to be amazing. We get back to Phoenix next Thursday for registration, pick up the Zipps and start the serious race prep. Right, time to go train.
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