In summary...

Other then "WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" I'm not too sure what else to say!!

Bike packed = tick
Kit packed = tick
Nutrition packed = tick

(the miracle being with that amount of gels and powder I'm still not over the luggage limit!)

Other clothes packed = tick

Passport and tickets in bag = tick

So all that is left is for me to crap my pants..... only kidding... at least I hope I'm kidding, I've heard all sorts of things about this Ironman malarky!!

I've read a lot of blogs and articles over my taper period (as well as playing a great deal of Bejeweled on Facebook... but still).... the two most memorable and which are clearly suitable given what is about to happen to me (fingers cross all my luggage arrives in one piece of course);

First from Wes's ex (coach that is .. mwahh)..  the elf... http://elizabethfedofsky.blogspot.com/2010/09/iron-time.html .... it was whilst reading this that a couple of weeks ago I thought "SHIT" I haven't been noting my nutrition anally enough.. it was with that I did my final 4 hour ride with my intended plan and discovered that would have been oh so wrong as I over carb'd gloriously. I small tweak and a week later and everything was perfect... so to the Elf... you may not know it but you saved my bacon! I thank you for your post!

The next came from a link sent from a EverymanTri which I get news flashes of on Twitter. It seemed appropriate to read the article "The Ironman Marathon"..... now this got me laughing and laughing A LOT (particularly the longest run I've managed is 12miles... ahem... )... here's the quote direct from the article;

"I'll tell you what an Ironman marathon feels like," says 37-year-old Australian Chris McCormack, a 12-time Ironman winner. "Go out and party all night, dance all night, get on the drink, come home and sleep for two hours, get that little slight hangover in the morning, then stand on the start line and run a marathon. That's the feeling -- your body feels sick, your body feels run down. That's how you're running these marathons, so when you're halfway through it, it's like you haven't slept, your body wants to stop, your body wants to sleep. It's depleted, it's empty."

I read this and thought "shit - I should have trained more ...drinks on a Saturday night and a run the next day... should have done it at least once".... ha ah ha....

On that note time for me to sleep - up at 3.30am for trip down to Gatwick and excitable flight to Sunny hot Spain... WHOOP!... see you on the other side whatever lays ahead!

3 week silence

Clearly writing race reports take it out of me ;)

Ha ha...

So given I'm now I guess in TAPER (like HOLY SHIT SO SOON!).... AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

I'm pleased to report I'm not panicking (HA HA HA.. such a crap liar).... but it's ok.. it's controlled panic as I know more then anything else I couldn't have done much (any) more then I've done given the demands of my job and my injured foot and those couple of weeks lost to skin regrowth when I came off my bike. So the hard work is done and now we wait. We keep away from anyone with any signs of a cold, eat healthy, exercise a bit... and try not to get too excited and/ or scared all at the same time ;)

Last three weeks have been good and bad. After little woody I went of to Club La Santa in Lanzarote for a mixture of holiday, chill time, good biking and nice swimming (in that lush 50m pool)... and yes ok a fair amount of oggling at the athletes which visit the complex (well why not ...ahem...)

I followed the La Santa trip up with one of my crapest bike rides ever. The plan called for a 4 hour ride + brick and I pretty much got the nutrition so wrong (over carbed) that it couldn't have gone much worse. Still I small tweak and I yesterday had a FAB 3hr ride (well actually went that fast it ended up being 2hr44) with a chilled 30min run off and everything felt A-OK.... phew! Actually yesterday was an awesome day - took myself down to the seaside to hook up with Anita (of La Santa camps and the odd race). We swam in ridiculous seas - at times I likened myself to a seal (but without the swimming grace) as I bobbed up on the waves hoping to get a sight of a buoy (or beach for that matter)... we had a hoot for 35mins or so and that was enough. Learnt a very valuable lesson for sea swimming - if you see green when you turn to breath likelihood is a wave is crashing over your head so DO NOT INHALE... umm I swallowed a fair amount of sea water yesterday - but the positive of this for race day is I won't need as many salt tablets ;) .... After that we became team CANNONDALE (bizarelly we had chosen the same top to ride in) and went out for a great rolling ride around Brighton and the south downs. I followed up with a 30mins run on the cliff underpass, Anita joined on her bike which clearly took her bike average speed down hugely ;)

Today I don't feel too whacked either, in fact I just feel tired and could happily swim/ bike/ run today if I had too. I'm taking this as a good sign.

Right - clearly not blogging for three weeks means a lot of witter on this one.. more to follow .. two weeks to go... actually one week 6 days (EEEEEEEEEEEeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk)