The Calm Before the Storm

The energy today down at Tempe Town Lake was noticeably higher and the transition area was buzzing with athletes checking in bikes and transition gear. My friend Andy did some quick calculations and estimated that the transition area had to contain roughly 6.5 million dollars worth of bikes alone. Let me tell you, $6.5 mill looks pretty SWEET!

I had to drop by the Inside-Out Sports tent at the expo and pick up some last minute supplies. I picked up two small bottles of spray-on suntan lotion, one for my swim-to-bike transition bag and one for my bike-to-run transition bag. The event actually has sunscreen applying volunteers but I didn’t want to take any chances on them either being slow or fully occupied. I also got a cheap tubular tire for my bike special needs bag.

In my only IM experience I had very little use for a special needs bag but they are given to you and I would just feel like an idiot having had a bag, not using it and then wishing I had one…so then the trick become putting a few things in them that might make sense. My bike special needs will include a spare tubular, air cartridge any maybe a bottle of Perpetuem, though I am loath to put anything in there that will cause me to feel obligated to stop. My run special needs bag, well; I probably will skip that one. The run course is like an 8.5 mile buffet line that you traverse 3 times…8.5 miles with 9 aid stations! The only other thing I might wish I had was a long sleeve t-shirt in case I am out late and get cold but it is very pleasant here in the evenings and I think I’ll be fine…besides, I don’t have a long-sleeve t-shirt with me and wasn’t going to buy one.

All in all my day was relaxing. I did get to have lunch with members of the Arizona Tri Club, to which Andy belongs as does the redoubtable Commodore of Common Man Syndrome fame. I am having a banner year for meeting Blogopeeps and it is only the beginning of the season! That is one benefit from forking over the dough to travel to big races.

And now a word from our sponsor…eat your heart out you other non-Nuun-Kona-Cola-trying people…I tried some of the new Nuun Kona-Cola flavor and it ROCKS! With Nunn’s light effervescence and the cola taste it really is just like drinking a slightly flat cola but it is not sticky-sweet and heavy. The cola Nuun also has caffeine…Yea! They had a display tent with samples in the Inside-Out Sports tent and of course I went up there with fellow Outlaws “Mighty Mike” and “Sluggo” to introduce ourselves and try a sample. The woman handing out the samples knew our team and loves our blogs…very cool. I was very close to snapping up some cola Nuun for the race but since I didn’t train with it I thought better and went on my way.

So…the weather for tomorrow…warm, windy, dusty. Well, it ain’t like I haven’t been training in the wind…I was just hoping to have a crack at scorching a bike route.

Sun, Apr 15 Mon Hourly Forecast
6am 9am 12pm 3pm 6pm 9pm
61°F 68°F 75°F 77°F 73°F 68°F

Partly cloudy, with a high near 79. Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Breezy, with a east southeast wind 11 to 14 mph becoming southwest between 19 and 22 mph. Winds could gust as high as 34 mph.

Andy and I are just getting ready to sit down to some pre-race hydration and the 2006 Ironman Arizona DVD. I am ready!