Makin' it look easy

The main reason I decided to race Ironman Canada this upcoming Sunday was because of the ideal tapering period the Olympics provide. Usually I can't sit still, let alone leave my bike and running shoes alone overs the weekends, but with the Olympics on TV 24 hours a day, it's been no problem.

Emily will tell you how antsy I am getting though. My legs shake all-the-time which I'm hoping means they have lots of stored up energy ready to be spent this Sunday. This weekend is the peak race of my season and I'm ready to shut it down after this Sunday. We've booked an end-of-the-season trip to Phuket, a chance to get together with my family living in Saudi Arabia, and it will be great to be able to watch my Mom and Dad compete in one of their first longer triathlons. Dad was a collegiate runner at Luther College and got better in the years after he graduated and Mom has always been great about setting new challenges for herself and setting out to complete them. She raced at the Lifetime Fitness sprint tri in Minneapolis last month and has been enjoying her swim training this year. Dad could be in for a wake-up call if he doesn't start following Mom's lead in putting in training time outside of running. Once a runner, always a runner...

Back to the title of the blog today...

We just finished watching the women's triathlon and were so happy to Emma Snowsill win the gold medal. No one deserves this victory more than her and I'm sure she's sharing it with her fiance, Craig Walton. These are two of the hardest working triathletes of all-time and they are equally as dominate in non-drafting races as in the ITU draft-legal raceing style. Her 33min 17sec 10k looked easy and she showed her agility by leaping over a course block after being misdirected during the run. No doubt she could have competed in the open 10,000-meters or women's marathon if she'd have chosen that as her sport.

Back to the pre-Ironman Canada race week. I have a busy week of making sure everything is together before flying into Spokane and driving up to Penticton Thursday. I have a bike tweak with Todd Carver on the revolutionary Retul 3-D bike fit system tomorrow and take the bike in to Vecchio's for a pre-race tune up later in the afternoon.

While in Canada, I'm staying 33k up the canyon from the Penticton race start in the mountain resort of Apex. This will be great as it will allow me to stay away from all of the hoop-la that is so easy to get caught up in during race week. I'll be staying in a small hostel that has wireless internet, so I'll be cranking away on some blogs leading up to race day, I'm sure.

Cheers,
Lars