All my bags are checked in, my bike is racked. All that is left to do now is munch my monster steak and salad then try and get some sleep. Boy am I nervous. Last two mornings I’ve woken so nervous. It’s funny. I’m massively nervous in bed but if I get up I feel ok. I lay there feeling nervous deciding whether I’ll manage to fall back to sleep and once I’ve decided no more sleep is possible I get up. This is generally a good sign I think. It’s not nice being so nervous and for many races I’m not but  I distinctly remember feeling like this for Lanzarote and Wisconsin and both went well. I will get another sign tomorrow morning when I eat breakfast. Sometimes I have to stop myself eating too much. Others (when I’m nervous) I have to force it down. I keep reminding myself that it’s not that important. I started Longest Day seriously hungry. I think sometimes it’s a good thing.

Why am I nervous ? I’ve thought about this a lot, not only now but on the previous occassions. I’m not that sure. Partly I worry about things out of my control but can get my nerves under control precisely because they’re out of my control. I think the nerves come from high expectations and I guess I have them now.

I’ve been visualising the race a lot as I’ve laid in bed slowly going to sleep. Slow because now I’m rested. I visualise the nerves before the swim start, the initial argy bargy, the high effort levels  then the settling in to my pace. With this race I see that this shouldn’’t be too bad with the pack thinning pretty quickly. On the bike I see being controlled out of town up the hills and then working hard after that – long downhill, likely with a tail wind, requiring focus not to cruise too much. After the turnaround seeing the pacelines coming. Don’t get concerned. Target keeping them at bay. If someone comes by use them to focus my efforts. I think about the flow build up of fatigue in my legs and the need to keep focus on pushing through the second lap. Then the run. Take splits, run comfortably for the first 5 – 10km observing splits and seeing how I feel. Hopefully I’ll be seeing sub 5 min KMs and will try and maintain them through to halfway. Then decision do  I push or maintain. it will be tough be ready for this. Anchor. Work through it.

The run is the exciting bit. I feel I’m running well but am keeping aware of my lack of run training and hopefully preparing mentally for a tough time out there.

It’s been a relaxing week.  On Tuesday Jo and I got the train from Christchurch to Picton and then hopped on the ferry to Wellington. We stayed with David. Jo set off Wed morning to to ride to Taupo over two days. I did a 30 minute run with Russ then relaxed at various coffee shops before driving up with David in the afternoon. We met with Jo for dinner on the way.

Yesterday I did a 25 min swim on the corse, 90 minute ride on the course and two runs on the course. 24 minutes in to town. Chilled out at Bodyfuel then did a 19 min run. Of all the disciplines running felt great. I visualised the race, tried to anchor this feeling and hoped I’d run like that come race day.

My aero bars were becoming a real worry. Various emails had been sent and finally it got to the right person and things started moving. Oval got a replacement faceplate to Top Gear bikes this morning and it’s now all fixed ! Great effort. The guys at Top Gear were chuffed to bits that I’d got it sent to them and not Avanti !

It’s great to have that off my mind so now I can just focus on getting ready to rumble tomorrow.