It's nearly time

So....here we are. 10 training days left and 16 days until I race in my first half ironman. 2 years and 3 months since the day I decided that I'd race a half, after watching and Ironman and thinking "pfftt can't be that hard" (umm...right) I'll be floating around with a bunch of other crazies at 6:45am in a mass start in Cairns.

How am I feeling. Well, pretty good. Training's picked up and has gone really well. Unfortunately work has hit a manic patch so there's been a run of long, stressful days which hasn't been ideal but work always takes priority so have fitted sessions around the hours most of the time. My running's strong, bike is solid and my swim - it's fine. I think swimming is one of those disciplines where you could always do more, but the return on investment isn't as pronounced (for me anyway) then the time I could spend running.

I've started some heat work this week, which has been a bit of a shock to the system but in a good way. I'm a big fan of doing things to help build race confidence and this is one piece of training that will definitely help in this area. I have a bit of a mental block about racing in hot climates; I had a really rough race last year in Noosa for a bunch of reasons (only one really being heat) and I think it's scarred me a little bit. Anything that helps to distance that experience from front of mind is a good thing.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up my race suit (all about the outfit! ) from XOSIZE here in Victoria. Given the warm climate, I decided to hunt down a light coloured suit and fortunately Rocket Science Sport makes are terrific 20BPM race suit in white and red in a super stylish design. I snapped that gem up and have given it a run during a couple of mag trainer heat sessions to test it out. I have to say, it is terrific. I have never been able to find a tri suit that I could legitimately say is comfortable; the chamois was either useless and made the ride uncomfortable, the stitching rubbed in the wrong spots, it cut under my arms or in other bad spots. But so far, I can't fault this suit. And the chamois is great - big tick for me (if you're keen to pick up this suit, or any other products from XOSIZE, they've got a great online shop and use the code 'XOSIZE' for 10% off) 

I've got a solid weekend ahead of me - big run, bike bike and some more heat sessions.  I'm really getting buzzed about the whole experience. I can't believe the opportunity to race is nearly here and I feel so lucky that my cards have been dealt this way and I get to experience my first half ironman in Cairns - it feels oddly right to race in my home state, like somehow the journey has brought me full circle. And having my parents there means so much to me; I don't get to see them often and I'm so happy they'll have the chance to see me race, and see the "tri world" that I talk so much about. 

See you soon Cairns!!