Day Minus One - Off to Victoria, BC

This is it, finally we are taking off today! Feels like I've been packing for days now in preparation for this race. I've had so many lists of things to take and not forget to do, I think I should probably have had a list for my lists.

The real preparation for this race started back in January though, with base training. Long slow hours on the bike in the in the most joyful of Seattle weather. There were times when it rained so much I thought I would never dry out. I swear if it had gone on any longer I would have started going mouldy. It was good to build intensity after this base training. Shorter hours, but harder effort. Some racing pepped things up a bit. The weather improved marginally, and there were even some gloriously sunny training days.

For the past couple of weeks now I've been tapering - way shorter hours and less intensity. It's amazing how good you can feel when you do this. This past week I've had a bunch more energy and it's been hard stopping myself from doing other stuff (like yard work) with the extra time and energy I've had. A lot of time was spent making lists and packing though, so it's not been that hard staying away from chores. Oh yes, and the lawn tractor mysteriously died, so I couldn't take care of the mowing either :) The knee high grass will be interesting to deal with on our return!

As excited as I am to get going on this race, I'm also really nervous. The problem is, I can't change anything now. I just can't get stronger than I am now. It's not like exams that you can 'cram' for the night before in the hope of being that little bit better. I just can't put more time on the bike now in the hope of getting stronger. If I do, I can potentially make myself weaker. I guess this really is it. I am what I am.