Cedar Point FullRev - Race Report - Lead up to Race

When I originally sat down to write about my experience at Rev3 Cedar Point FullRev, I wrote 10 pages of "information". I don't think anyone really needs to read all of that... except for me one day, so I am going to try to abbreviate it for the blog and put it in different pieces. So first up...

Leading up to the Race...

Taper

I’m actually going to take this back a couple of weeks before the race. The day that I entered “taper”. This was three weeks before the race and I was feeling ready, but not 100% certain. In my blog post I wrote about feeling that I knew I was not able to squeeze in any more fitness, now it was just about recovery; and that worried me… had I done enough training? I trusted that my coach had given me the right plan to get me to an awesome first 140.6 but as with any plan, I hadn’t followed it 100% and I worried how that, oh let’s say 10% of missed workouts was going to affect my race.

Then, on the last day of the first week of taper (my first long workout to come at the end of a week that didn’t have a lot of intensity in it) I finished my scheduled workout, a 70 mile ride, followed by 8-10 mile run. It went incredibly well. I rode with my friends Dani and Jason (on their easy day, b/c I can’t keep up with them on the bike on the hard days haha) and I rode hard, the highest effort for that long of a ride that I’d done in training) and it felt incredible! My run after was quick and easy. At the end of that day…

I felt ready.

In an attempt to "keep my head in the game" I ended up watching Surviving the Cut on Discovery Channel and old Ironman coverage. If you didn't get a chance to see Surviving the Cut, let me just say... an awesome way to prepare for Ironman, because what these guys do is so much MORE and they don't get a year to train for it, knowing specifically what they will be asked to do. It makes you realize just how far you can push your body, if you just believe you can do it.



I also loved reading over all of the well wishes emails, facebook posts, etc.

Packing

Now the training was done, and the new challenge was packing; packing myself for the race, and any eventuality that my mind could come up with, packing my clothes for the race weekend, but also some days spent with my family in Pittsburgh, packing clothes for my boys. Then the constant weather watching… do I need to pack rain coats, jackets, shoes, sandals? Do I need to pack arm warmers, rain jacket for the bike, long sleeve shirt for the run? Where did my second pair of compression socks go? What will I wear to ride/run in before the race? What should I bring for the practice swim?

Eventually, I created a checklist of everything I would/could need for each person. Then I created lists of what would be packed in each bag and where the bag was going (some were going on the truck with Alex up to Ohio and as little as possible was coming with me and the boys on the plane. I also used all the “reusable” bags that I’ve received at races this year and packed my race stuff into:

• Race Morning/Swim
• T1
• Bike Special Needs
• T2
• Run Special Needs
• Post Race
• Nutrition/Bottles/Flasks

This way when I got up to Ohio and registered, all I really did was transfer stuff to the official bags and double check everything/fill bottles/flasks. It made the day before the race must less stressful from that standpoint.

I had another list of “things to do before I leave”; such as

• see Dr. Pam (Chiropractor)
• see Ryan (massage therapist)
• see eye doctor (get new contacts)
• get race wheels on bike and ride bike
• get extra nutrition, new sunglasses (I love them!!), new visor (my dog had chewed my all3sports visor, oops!)
• order “hot lunch” for Jason as school for two days before we leave and the day we returned
• etc.