I’m sure I’ve used that title before. Anyway… I do feel ready to rumble. Germany is a good place to be pre race when you’re eating out at everywhere seems to serve up fantastic steaks. I managing to eat a very good diet this week and not feeling hungry but feeling relatively lean. Today I’ve added a small amount more carbs – couple of banana’s with breakfast and some dark chocolate snacking during the day. Other than that it’s been pretty low carb all week and I’m feeling good for it.

Been doing my stretching regularly and avoiding the bike. We will find out Sunday whether these mysterious cramps return for a third time at that point there is nothing I can do about it other than deal with it.

When I entered this race the real goal was to get sub 9 hours. As I enter it my main aim is for a PB with the thought at the back of my mind that if I get my dream race (like I did for my current PB) I could go under 9 hours. Being totally honest though I just don’t think my running is there yet. I am running faster and I’ve done more long runs and long runs at pace together with more bricks but I’ve still not built up to anywhere near what I was doing when I used to run pretty fast regularly. A sub 3:20 run would be a very good effort I reckon.

The dream is clearly dream land … perhaps. The swim would probably require getting in to a good pack, the bike is slightly faster than I went at Busselton in 2009, I am riding much better than that now but not sure how that translates to this course. For sub 9 I reckon I need to be in the bottom half of 4:40s to have a shot. Running a 3:15 would be super fantastic and I’d be absolutely over the moon. The mid prediction is more realistic allowing for a conservative bike and a steadier run. How hard I hit the bike will be a little decided on the day based on how I feel and what sort of pacelines there are. I think the recent cramping on the run is likely to make it easier to really go for it on the bike.

If I end up at the OK end of my scale that would be pretty disappointing but tricky to complain about just know that if thats the case don’t come and congratulate me on a good result as it won’t be.