Good omens!!

After all the thought and discussions that have gone into preparing for a very windy Ironman event on Sunday, the weather forecast has u-turned, and it's now looking like it could be a fast day, but cold. And cold I can dress for! As much as I think I could handle a windy day, I'm somewhat relieved the wind is dropping. 

A very positive thing that's come out of the past week's pondering is that it's got me away from focusing so hard on time goals. I chatted yesterday with another old training buddy from the UK, Chris Beedie (who was once an exceptional cyclist and accomplished Ironman triathlete). He pointed out something key in my preparation, which is that sometimes goals become barriers, because the goals are set high, and reaching them is hence perceived to be almost unaccomplishable. I'd recognized this myself in the past week, and have been focusing more on how I can draw the best performance out, regardless of time, and let the time follow. Good to have these thoughts validated!!
Now I'm sat I the living room at home, sorting through all my gear for the race. As I learned many years ago, perfect preparation prevents poor performance, and making sure all the gear is where it should be, the bike works well, socks fit the shoes, the helmet's adjusted right, etc etc, is all part of this process. It's also a good way to facilitate the process of visualizing the transitions, thinking through the order in which the kit goes on in T1 and T2: for example, the helmet needs to go on before the glasses for the bike section, and the race number belt needs to go under the Fuel belt for the run, and so on and so forth.

Time to pack everything away and eat lunch!!