As promised: Weekend update

Thursday night I went to sleep pretty late to finish making my backpack for the weekend, which included all race gear and training/race food (and therefore took longer than expected and some thinking/planning involved).

Friday was a busy and tiring day. Waking up in the morning to swim was hard, but since I was going to travel to Vancouver Island in the afternoon it was going to be my only workout of the day, I had to make it and work hard! Work was short, 7:30 to 3pm. At 4pm I met with Enej at his house, and he drove me to the ferry terminal for the 6pm ferry. Without him, I would have been screwed and had to either ride to the ferry, about 35km with a backpacking backpack completely full, or take the bus and rack my race bike in there, not the safest idea. At the other end Kamal offered a ride and was waiting for me. We had some food, chatted for a bit, and went to sleep.

Saturday morning was tough. I slept on the couch, which is a very very comfortable couch for regular seating purposes, but not for sleeping. It was a 3 piece, but that is not long enough for a 183cm long body. Either my legs were up on the arm rest, or my head, or I was on the side (and on a slope) with my legs bent. The night was long, but hey, better than camping! In the morning had a 30 min jog, and 1hr ride. Lunch, and we headed to Shawnigan for bike drop off, swim in the lake and some relaxing. By 6pm we were back in Vic, pasta dinner, cereal, baguel with peanut butter, and anything else I could find. Seriously, Kamal had to stop me, I was anxious and eating helps…

Sunday morning we set the alarm at 5. Both of us were up by 4.45, none of us had a great night of sleep again. What can you do? Nothing, just eat, relax, and hope that you don’t feel the fatigue. Warm up was a little rushed as we arrived to transition about 1hr20min before the race. 20 min ride, stretch, set everything up, 10 min jog, stretch, finish setting stuff up, wetsuit on, shit! Only 8 min to the start, 5 min swim, find Simon Whitfield, and get ready. The race went well, more on that on the race report coming later. After the race I just ate, ate, and ate. Probably about 8 Recovery Powerbars, 2 Baguels with Peanut Butter, 5 or 6 large cookies, and a muffin. All of the above between 10 and 2pm (from finishing the race until end of awards). After awards we headed once again back to Vic, picked up a set of used Easton EC90 TT wheels to pimp my ride, and to the ferry. Thanks Kamal for your hospitality, rides, and so on. You are welcome to stay at my place whenever! In the ferry I found David and wife, great chatting with them as the 1.5hr seemed much much shorter… This time Jason picked me up at the terminal and gave me a lift home. Thanks for that!

Monday I was lazy and my energy was zapped. I was not sore, but energy levels were just not there and therefore took the day off from training. Instead I went to Speed Theory were I bought a new set of tubular tires, valve extenders and carbon brake pads for my new wheels. On Saturday I will go back to learn the science of gluing tubulars, it seems easy but tricky, and they will show me all the ins and outs.

Congratulations to all people racing on the weekend! Everyone seemed to have a good time =)

That is it for now, I will do the race report soon and post a couple more pictures. Bye now.

Facundo