With only 2 days to go, I'm beginning to focus on equipment and positive thoughts. Checked my running shoes last night and realized they were pretty worn...went out and purchased a new pair of Brooks Glycerin 6 today and I'll do a short 3 mile run in them tonight after a short 1800 yrd swim. I'm taking off work tomorrow to attend the athlete's breakfast, pick up my race packet, clean and lube my bike, change my tires and pack my tri bag. Tonight I'll eat pasta w/ meatballs and tomorrow night I'll eat a light meal...maybe fish with white rice. Race morning I'll have a bagel with cream cheese and jam...glucose permitting.

Unfortunately, the weather looks a bit overcast today and the forecast calls for rain tomorrow and on race day. I don't mind doing a sprint in the rain but a 70.3 in the rain can be a bit dicey....but hey...at least it will be cool!  

Only 3 days to go....Oh Yeah! Although I fell behind my training last month due to business travel, I've been able to accomplish all my training these past two weeks. I feel ready. Thanks to Epic, Fleet Feet, Gear for Multisport and Team Hendryx for their awesome support and encouragement. Y'all have been really great! I'm excited and looking forward to a great race and hopefully a podium finish (would be my first at this distance). I stopped drinking alcohol about 2 weeks ago (Man!..what a drag!) to try and give me the best possible chance to do my very best. Normally, I'm on a low carbohydrate, low fat diet to assist me in controlling blood sugar levels but this week I've changed the program and have been consuming lots of carbs to see if stamina is increased during the run. I've had some difficulty maintaining my strength and stamina during the run portion of longer races...maybe it's due to diet...we'll see what happens. I've also increased my salt intake...normally, I never salt my food which may also be responsible for some decrease in run performance on hot days.

 On race day, I'll take my fanny pack for the bike and run. In it, I'l have my glucose meter, test strips, and lancet device in a ziplock. I'll also carry a vial of Humalog insulin and a syringe along with EnduroTabs (salt/electrolytes) and seven (7) Hammer Gels for carbohydrates with one (1) Hammer Bar. On the bike I'll have one water bottle with water and the other bottle with Hammer Perpetuem. My plan is to start the swim with a blood sugar of around 200 and then check my glucose in transition prior to starting the bike. I'm hopeful I'll not need to check my glucose again until back in transition to start the run...but you can never tell how this will work out...sometimes I do need to stop the bike and run a glucose check. During the run, I'll see how I feel and, unless I feel sluggish, I'll only stop to check glucose at miles 4 and 8. If sluggish, however, I'll need to stop more frequently to test. While testing is certainly necessary, the drawback is that it normally takes about 1.5 - 2 minutes for each glucose test...I've got to stop, open the fanny pack, dig out the ziplock, open it, take the meter and strips and lancet out, put the strip in the meter, try to dry my finger, prick my finger with the lancet device, get the blood on the strip, wait for the reading, and then put everything back and either...take out the insulin and syringe for a shot if glucose is high, or consume some carbs if blood sugar is low. If I check my glucose 4 times during a race...I've already lost betwen 6 and 8 minutes...hard to make the podium when you drop that kind of time...such is life...the way I look at is that you just do what you have to do because.....the alternative is not very attractive.

Did The Nation's Triathlon (Olympic Distance) in Washington DC on September 14th. What a great race! The entire bike and run courses were completely closed to vehicular traffic. The course was just spectacular. There were 3500 athletes making it the 2nd largest urban triathlon in the nation, behind St. Anthony's in St. Pete. The swim was in the (Ugghh) Potomac River. A very dirty body of water but, surprisingly, you didn't really notice it. You entered the river and swam out to tread water before the "in water" start. You swam up river against a slight current and underneath the bridge that connects the Lincoln Memorial to the Arlington Cemetary. You continued to swim for maybe 200 yds and then took a left to the turn buoy, made another left and swam back under the bridge with the slight current helping you along. It was really surprising to see the large number of athletes losing direction and swimming way off course..the sunlight was a problem for vision but didn't really explain the difficulty that many swimmers had on this day. Fortunately, I swam true and had a quick swim. There was a long run to transition...the best organized transition area in any race I've ever done...each bike row marked with a large colorful banner with individual row number...and then off for a beautiful ride past many monuments and memorials onto the Clara Barton roadway along the river...very nice...and no cars! Man, that was just really great. Unfortunately, it was very, very hot. In fact, they set a new record high for temperature on this day in Wash DC. I jumped off the bike and ran into transition and knew I was in trouble. I immediately cramped up in both legs. It was very difficult to run for the first mile...I was seriously dehydrated. I probably started down the road to dehydration during the swim. It was really too warm for a wetsuit...they must have searched long and deep to find a cold pocket of water. I'm sure it became increasingly worse during the bike...but I didn't feel it until I started the run. It was all down hill from that point. I've read a number of articles in medical journals that state that diabetics are particularly susceptible to heat related problems. This may have been what was going on here. I've noticed that as I've gotten older, starting around age 48, my ability to endure significant heat during long distances has become problematic. Recently, this has only really been a problem for me during the run portion of longer races in Florida in the summer months...but in Wash DC on this day the temp was 95 and it was very humid. Notwithstanding my poor run performance, the run course was spectatcular. We ran along the river and then past several memorials and monuments and finished running along Pennsylvania Ave with the Capital Building behind us. This made for really great pictures at the finish line. While in Washington we were able to climb the Washington Monument and went to the Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea, and World War II memorials as well as the Space museum and Portait Gallery. Really nice trip.

As soon as I returned I had business travel to Boston, Tennessee, California and the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas). This made it really difficult to get my planned training accomplished for the remainder of September. I was able to run in Boston and Tennessee and did some open water swimming in St. Thomas, but I fell really behind in my training log. Now that I'm back and with only 2 1/2 weeks before the big race I need to buckle down and devote some serious time getting up to speed and getting prepared.