These are my thoughts these days.

Two weeks to go until the big day… and when I say big, I mean long.  There is nothing I can do at this point to improve my performance and my head is full of pointless taper wonders – Did I do enough? am I prepared? Mentally? Physically? Philosophy? For now though, it’s time to relax.  Today is the first day in months that I didn’t exercise.  It’s a strange thought but it feels good.  I actually slept about 9 hours last night. So this is what it feels like to be awake?? It’s wonderful! Why would I ever sacrifice this? Another pointless wonder. 

Tamir and I have pointless wonders together like what kind of tattoo to get after the Ironman? Should they match? What colors? Where? How big? Maybe we shouldn’t get one at all.  It stays on for life… I’m a normal person and I never wanted a tattoo before.  It’s scarier than it seems but so cool at the same time.  I have to get one, I worked hard for it and sacrificed a lot. Will it hurt? I hope I don’t regret it.

How will I feel? Did I pack everything? What if I don’t finish? NO! I will finish. Stop thinking about that! What if I throw up or have an upset stomach? NOPE! can’t think of that either. Whats wrong with me…  Everything will be fine, I just want it to be over or maybe I want to be at the start line.  The truth is that it would be good to just be on that flight already.  Really, I should just go and have a good time, this is a hobby after all.  I mean, there is some competition. I’m sure I can do better than most girls in my age group so it won’t exactly be a day in the park.  I can probably geta Kona slot if those Brazillian girls don’t have money to go.  I’m a strong triathlete.    Nah, that won’t happen, be realistic.  People train for Kona their entire lives. This is your first Ironman so just enjoy… but be competitive too.  I guess, somewhere in between.

Tapering is fun, but it also sucks. I have to eat less because I’m not working out as much and now I have more time to eat. Don’t think about that.  You need to be fed so that you can perform for this race. I need a piece of chocolate, just a small one to calm my nerves.  OK, I should be calm now and relax until the race…

What time is it? Oh.. 19:30 and I’m still at work… I have to train two hours tomorrow. That’s a lot… how did I work out for 7 hours when I wasn’t tapering, 2 days ago… Those were crazy times back then. 2 weeks of this? really? I think I’m forgetting something…

It’s crunch time and we can all feel it. Walking into our appartment is like entering ground zero of Ironman Training. Once you open the door, and step into the living room you are faced with our sturdy bikes, proped up on the trainers ready for the next tripple digit ride; bento boxes open, revealing a left over powerbar or perhaps some salt pills in a miniature zip lock bag. An ITB roller towers over our living room as if to warn us of the injuries to come. If you dare venture into our kitchen, it’s like you’re standing next to the discount bin in a sports nutrition shop. We have an endless array of gels, bars, pills and powders, all in place with several full refill bags underneath the table. Instead of drying pots and pans, we have Aerobotles and shakers, maybe a left over oatmeal pot from the treturous weekend that passed.

A few steps further on the left is the shower. “His & Hers” wetsuits are lying on the top of the shower curtain dripping down, drying from the morning ocean swim. It already looks used and we have a few tears to fix. Then there is THE room. THE room with everything else. A room full of our workout clothes, shoes and everything in between. A dresser that was used in the 1960′s for some ladies purfume, brush and lipstick was now home to about 7 body glides, two sports sun screen bottles and about 15 trophies. My Zipp wheels are resting on the couch (tapering for race day), another neglected mountain bike and my teleporting folding bike stand in the shadows of our serious equiptment.

The bedroom is no better. There are ice packs from the night before which we promptly return to the freezer for next time; More pills and water bottles next to our bed and a tredmill covered with drying towels and some clothes just to feel normal.

This is our life right now.

It won’t get better until we return from our Ironman and regain sanity.

We can’t think about that now though.

Now we just have to live through this week, taper right and plan our race and race like we planned.

UPDATES

I now have two 200km ride under my belt and one 5km open water swim. Tamir and I just got back from a weekend training camp. On Friday I rode 4 hours, swam 1 hour and ran 1 hour. On Saturday I rode 4 hours and ran 2 hours. On Friday Tamir swam 1 hour and ran two hours. On Saturday he rode 180 km and ran 20 minutes.

We are BEAT!

Raanan – People in Zone 3 smile sometimes. We just have to do it in secret so that a certain someone doesn’t see. Then we can pretend that the sun is in our eyes if we get caught. It will be worth it when I’m not throwing up during the marathon. You wait and see

As for the future – This week was tough and I’m planning an 8 hour sleeping night, needless to say “woo hoo”. Tomorrow morning I have an ocean swim with Mor, my spiritual zone 3 leader and a 2 hour run in the evening. Friday is a short 4 hour ride and saturday is a super duper double brick (say that ten times fast).  In English that translates to 85km ride, then 17km run, then 51km ride, then 8km run.