Still Alive...

Where the hell have I been? The truth is, I've been sitting right here working my little ass off. But since I haven't been racing, I haven't really had much to blog about. My weekly training follows roughly the same routine week in and week out, and since I really only have two run routes, two bike routes, and two pools that I ever swim in, there hasn't really been much to report. When there isn't much to say, I haven't really been checking other people's pages either. You don't have to guilt-trip me for it. I already feel shitty enough about it as it is.

So am I ready for Mexico? Yes. I am. How boring is that, huh? I have given up on trying to control the things that are out of my hands (read: chupacabras, rabid manitees, hurricanes), and everything else is just kind of falling into place.

Without any drama. What the fuck is that?

My swimming has been going well, despite my conviction that I was going to swim like a cinder block if I didn't spend at least 3 hours a week in the pool. I have been getting by on two sessions a week, and have watched my time trials get faster and faster. When I first signed on with Eric, I swam 1K in 15:10 and thought I was going to puke in the gutter. I was pretty proud of myself for holding 1:31 pace for 1000 yards. Yesterday I swam 1975 yards in 30:04, or twice the distance at exactly 1:31 pace again. I didn't even feel like I was going to puke in the gutter this time.

So I guess my swimming is on track. Not much to worry about there.

I was really freaking out about the bike, but last week we got some days where it was warm and not windy at all, and I finally got an accurate idea of how fast I'm riding. At IM effort I'm going as fast, if not faster than I was over the summer. A course that I rode at 20mph in July, I rode last week at 21 at a similar heartrate. I also did a 20-minute time trial on one of the bikes at the gym that gives a power readout, and found that I'm pushing about 20-35 watts more than I was last winter (about 218 watts for a 20-min TT, threshold power at about 200 watts).

So I guess I haven't lost my bike legs after all. Nothing to damper my excitement there.

And as far as my running... Well it appears that one day I just woke up and learned how to run. The sun just rose one day, and suddenly I was a cheetah. I stopped drinking smoothees before my runs and stopped drinking Accelerade during, and the phantom poo problem just went away. Without my insides rotting out, I was suddenly running a minute per mile faster at all efforts. That was it. I even started enjoying running a little bit. Don't tell anyone...

So for the first time I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what will happen on a run. No drama there either.

Everything else is falling into place too. I tore through the crotch of one pair of tri shorts at the beginning of a 110-mile ride (wearing a hole in my leg), and couldn't find my Aquaphor shorts. But the Aquaphor minishorts turned up at the bottom of my laundry basket one day without my even looking for them. Drama averted.

I was worried about how the deep-dish Zipp 808 wheels I'd reserved would hold up in the costal crosswinds, but then the King of the Bike Geeks offered to lend me his race wheels (same depth as Zipp 404's) for free. So that saved me $140. Problem solved, even more than I could have hoped for.

I was worried about the drag of my race kit without a wetsuit, and worried I'd have to buy a swim skin. But when I went to the tri store, the guy sold me this Zoot Ultra Sprintsuit which sheds water but doesn't have neoprene. I can wear it like a wetsuit, but it doesn't have neoprene, so it's about half the price. On top of that, he gave me $40 off the ticketed price for coming in in the offseason.

My only concerns now are that:

1. My drink mix looks like blow and I don't want it confiscated from my luggage.
   
2. I don't know if they're going to be mixing the Gatorade on the course with tap water or bottled water. Does anyone know the answer to this one?
3. Will my cell phone work in Mexico? What about my electronics plugs?
   

And, well, that's it. There's nothing to tell.

Which ones of you guys are going to be out there? I don't arrive until 9:30 on Friday morning, but does anyone want to meet up for a short ride after registration to test out bike setups?