Gino manipulates my back

Me and Gino

Me and Dirk Friel from TrainingPeaks

The bike is ready

With bike and bags into the transition area

One last smile before racking the bike

Lots of very expensive bikes in transition

Swim to bike transition bags

There are 5000 volunteers for this race! Amazing! Thank you all!

Day 7 in Kona

The day before the race. I always find it a bit of s strange day. You can't do very much, you have to hand your bike in and eat! There is nothing else on the agenda.

This morning I first went for a litle swim with Tauny and Lawrence. We swam to the Espresso bar which fortunately was a lot closer today. We had an espresso and a breakfast cookie in the water and then swam back.

Jo had met up with Gino, a physio from Southern California who treated her ankles. After the swim I alo went to see Gino and he helped me with a tight back. I felt much better after the treatment (amazing job Gino!) and went to the room to relax!

On the way to the room we bumped into Dirk Friel again and took a photo. Dirk showed me a preview of the new TrainingPeaks website where I will have a profile. He did a great job. It will be for everyone to see in 10 days.

After an interview with ESPN on the phone, I went out for a little bike ride while Jo did some more food shopping. My bike seems to be in perfect shape. I made sure that the communication between SRM and the Garmin Edge 705 worked fine and were calibrated. I then did a little test ride, checking out a section of the coursed with road works that they had warned for in the briefing.

At 12 we went for lunch with Tauny, Debbie, Mim and Lawrence. A short walk to an Italian restuarant where we had the staple carboloading pasta meal. At 2:30PM it was time to rack the bike. Everything was organised very efficiently and there was no waiting time at all. They checked the bike I positioned it at place 1097 and then put my bags with running and cycling gear at the appropriate places. I always feel a bit of relief when this is done and I can really start to relax.

I went to the room and rested on the bed, working on my laptopm till 5:30PM. The phone rang. It was Phil, he had bought a lot of food and we were going to have a light evening meal on the beach. Tauny, Debbie, Lawrence and Mim came down, Zibi was there, Rob Walker and his camera man joined us a bit later. JO sang while Tauny played the guitar and Phil had a cheese cake made for use with an Ironman logo and our names. Phil you are an absolute star!!

At 7:30 we were back in the room. A couple of hours of rest and then a good night sleep. It is also a good time to think about the race, visualise parts of the course, visualise how you are going to feel. Think about things to think about when it is getting tough. Think about the goals and what I really want to achieve tomorrow.

Check my race preview here