IMAZ Day 1

Well, the sage advice for any Ironman is not do too much stuff just prior to the race that will add additional stress. So of course, I ignore my own advice. Not that I'm close to any type of sage or other herb.

Tuesday I got up early and went for a nice swim at Fremont with Mike and Dana. I realize just how much I've been slacking off when swimming on my own. Dana had me practice some drafting behind her and Mike (like I could keep up with them anyways)for a couple of 100's. Then they talked me into doing my taper set of 6 x 100's by doing the first and last at level 5 and the rest at level 7. I was able to stay strong throughout and even cranked out a 1:27 for one of them. I'm more of a 1:50 swimmer. That draft really helps even if I was 10 yards behind them. But the swim did a lot to boost my confidence.

Now for the stress part - last August I bought a new Honda Pilot. It was bigger than any car I've owned (and I've had a few) but I could pack my entire locker room into it and have room left over for other gear. Camping at training weekend was great since I could bring everything and more. But the gas mileage really sucked big time. So I made the decision to go look at the new Honda CR-V. I dragged Karen along with me - she's used to me doing this by now. I test drove a new one and decided to buy it. So Tuesday was spent mostly at the Honda dealer bargaining a bit - they really don't give in much on cars in demand. The CR-V is smaller, much smaller, but the gas mileage makes up for it. And it's more fun to drive, easier to park, costs less to fill up - did I mention the gas mileage?

Tuesday night I went to Sports basement for some last minute items and saw the team at spin. Lotsa good wishes and what? You bought a new car? Yep.

Here's the link to the video - http://www.vimeo.com/user:177522/clips

Wednesday morning I slept in. I was planning to leave around 9 am and after packing up the CRV and making the video - I was off. I was supposed to call Glenn and let him know what time I was leaving. We wanted to caravan down to my brother's house in SoCal. But of course, I didn't have Glenn's cell number - only his wife's Karen who was at work in her elementary school class. So I called a few people and left messages. Then I remembered my wife Karen was still at home. Called her and had her look up Glenn's info on last year's team website. Good thing they leave those up for a while. Eventually connected and told him I was leaving.

So finally I was off on 85 turning onto 101 towards Gilroy when I had a panic moment. I couldn't remember or visualize putting my running shoes into the car. Did I or didn't I? I couldn't remember. Oh well, it's only 85/101 - not too bad to go home and get them. But first I called Karen again - "Hey - did I leave my running shoes in the entryway?" Nope, she couldn't find them. But then I looked in my rearview mirror and could see them in the back. Phew... calm down, get to a Starbucks and everything will be fine. Stopped in Gilroy for a latte then headed over the Pacheco Pass to I5.

Heading down I5, listening to the new XM radio, looking at the gas mileage computer - did I mention how much better the mileage is over the Pilot? - then I look over at the car coming up on my me and see that it's Raf from the NB team. We tried to talk but with the wind and him being on my left side - I couldn't hear squat. I can't hear squat anyways and wouldn't recognize it if I did. So we pulled off at the next off ramp and called Glenn to arrange lunch. Turns out Glenn was about 30 minutes ahead of us so he waited at a Denny's for us. Mmmmm..., Denny's. Good Ironman training food. They had breakfast, I had a salad.

After lunch Glenn and I headed to Orange County and my brother's house. Had dinner at an Olive Garden - better Ironman pasta food here - then headed back for an early evening. My brother gets up even earlier than I do. But before we turned in - we had to play a little Wii. Glenn and I played tennis on the TV - that was fun but I think I started to develop a tennis elbow. Then we decided to do bowling. It was pretty funny watching the two new guys standing up with the controller in our hand and going thru the bowling motions. My brother, who's obviously played this game before, calmly sat in his chair and never stood up. He won.

So we were up and out of the OC pretty early this morning. Traffic was light except for a FedEx truck crash on I10 east of Palm Springs. That took us about 40 minutes to pass - there were FedEx packages all over the freeway.

Got into Tempe around 1 pm and checked in. My hotel is just a mile from the start. The hotel even has a shuttle set up for race morning. Cool.

This is probably more than you wanted to know so thanks for reading this far.

Tomorrow we're planning a morning swim in the lake then an assault on the expo and registration. I'll post a new video from the race site tomorrow.

Stay strong, going long on Sunday -

Dan