Antepenultimate Race Day - Eagleman

I had a good workout this morning. I didn’t feel sluggish and I had to force myself to lower my effort. I caught myself starting to push too hard, which is not the wisest thing to do two days before a big race. Visualizations of having a good race and crossing the finish line kept getting my HR up higher than where it should have been and I had to keep slowing down. This was a welcome change of pace from the other day when it was difficult to push myself faster.

Today called for a 13 mile bike followed by a 3 mile run. The weather was overcast and exceedingly humid. If I stopped moving my glasses would fog. I am always obsessing with my glasses. They are always sliding off my nose, fogging up or bouncing around. On a good day, they stay put and simply get very blurry from sweat and grime rubbing onto the lenses. I wear a pair of Rudi Project glasses that have a prescription lens insert that sits behind the frosted lenses. These lenses sometimes get so dirty while training or racing that I can barely see two feet in front of me. Should I unfortunately suffer from Glaucoma in my later years, I will already have many hours of practice navigating with blurred vision.

Tonight I pick up a Triathlete I have not met before, for the trip down to the Eagleman Half Ironman in Cambridge, MA. I connected with Jason through a Triathlete message board. He was looking for a ride to the race and in exchange offered free lodgings for the weekend. It will be in a Homestay. Homestays are local residents who open up their homes for athletes to stay with them over the race weekend. It is my understanding that Natasha Baddmann also stays at the house where I will stay. I am hoping I can get a picture of me with her holding a sign stating that I will kick ST’s ass at Lake Placid. It will go good right next to his picture of me with Amanda Beard holding a similar sign.

I am going to have to end this entry short, as I am writing it on the subway and a large class of eight year olds just boarded. It is becoming too difficult to write with them jostling into me.