October 18, 2009
Karen L.

It’s getting close to race time (one week!). This weekend I am once again amusing my neighbors by practicing transitions in my cul-de-sac. This involves such exciting tasks as shimmying out of my wetsuit in one tiny patch of front grass, hopping on my bike and riding the 1 mile around the circle drive in the neighborhood, and returning to the other tiny patch of front grass (to simulate the two different transition areas we’ll have in Austin!) to leave my bike and change shoes before I head out on a less-than-a-quarter-mile run to the park and back. Multiple times.

Last weekend wasn’t the best for training here in Boulder, as we had some snow. While this might bode well for the upcoming ski season, I didn’t really relish taking the road bike out on slippery roads when the temperature was below 30. I had the opportunity to join friends on a road trip to Moab, UT, where the forecast was 70 and sunny, so I took it. Saturday I did a run along the road to Dead Horse Point:


Sadly, my blood sugar tanked not far into my run, so I was battling that for the rest of the workout. Nice distracting scenery, though.

Today I did a brick (bike, then run) with a friend from my local training group who’s also doing a half-Ironman next weekend (one week!). We practiced changing tires at the end of the brick. I was having some serious difficulty putting the final part of my tire in the bead until she lent me her Crank Brothers Speed Lever: it’s like magic! I went out and bought one this afternoon. You can find a review of this fine lever and some pictures of it in use at http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001005.php


Note: tire lever picture and Dead Horse Point picture are not on the same scale!

Since the race is so close (one week!) we’ve all begun to taper in our training program. Interesting things happen in taper time, I’ve found. New aches and pains appear where there were none before, and then disappear just as randomly. I feel alternately energized and sluggish, and wonder if I’ve done enough training. But I have; essentially, whatever we’ve already done will have to be enough!

Did I mention: one week!

We’re just about there, Team WILD!!