Another Ironman tomorrow and I feel totally calm. I can’t say I see the importance of it right now. I’m sure a big doze of perspective is a good thing. Jo hasn’t managed to make it up to support so I’m spending a lot of time on my own just chilling out and spending time reading and thinking. My final hours ahead of racking were a little stressful as my rear tyre exploded in my room about 10 minutes after I’d pumped it to pressure. Sure it was my own fault, I had problems putting on my race tyre yesterday and I think I must have not got it on right. Got it fixed though. Then riding in to transition I was in the final block before I’d dismount and my front tyre goes flat. Head in to Avanti to get a tube … $12 !!!! What a rip off but what choice did I have. Then I had to suffer the miserable woman (manager possibly) muttering about me changing it in there. Ghee whizz, it was raining outside, they weren’t even busy. If it was me I would have offered up one of the mechanics that were just standing around to fix it for me.

Got it fixed then when I racked I checked the tyre and there’s a big nick in it. It was right near the end of racking so I didn’t feel I had time to find a new tyre (and get ripped off again ?). Now I’m in a dilemma. On the one hand I’d probably just ride that tyre if it was on my training bike but with rain scheduled there’ll be lots of crap on the road. I thought about sticking glue in the nick (I’ve heard people do this to make tyres last longer) thinking that would at least stop grit getting in and working through. I commented this Facebook and Matt Illingworth was pretty adamant I should change the tyre. When it comes to bikes his opinion carries a lot of weight. So now I’m thinking I should change it and put one of my training tyres on there but I’m not convinced they’re in any better condition !

My plan for tomorrow is to try and really hold back in the swim and bike to see just what allows me to do on the run. I’m trying to prepare mentally for this as I will have to be focussed to not get drawn in on the swim. During the bike my plan is to go steady early on and try to join pace lines as they catch up. I will need to make judgements at the time on whether it’s worth extra effort to stay with those pace lines. On the run, the aim is something similar to Wanaka – keep it controlled in the first half then work on the second to get an even split run. The hope is to be quicker.

Ball park slits: SWIM: 54 – T1: 5 – BIKE: 5:10 – T2: 2 – RUN: 3:25

Which gives: 9:36