I'll be posting all my workouts here...well, maybe not all. But if you're interested in following what I'm doing feel free to read and/or join me!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Saturday

I brought my bike into Sports Depot on Saturday. The regular bike fixer-dude wasn't in so they had someone else playng around with it while I waited and shopped around. I found a new swim suit that I thought I could probably wear without having to put on a bra for the run (damn, I hate my breasts!) and I picked up a new hat to run in, an spare pair of goggles and a new swim cap (basically I was trying to make myself feel better with new toys). I also finally bought a bike stand -something I totally should of had from the start, it holds the back end of the bike up so you can play around with the gears and stuff.

The staff finally came over and told me that it was going to take more time so I could leave and they'd call me when it was ready. I went over to Favore (a shopping mall across the street) to get blister band-aids and have some lunch. It calmed me down to be in the crowd. I ate a whole wheat ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, read a book Kirsten had lent to me and just tried to forget about what I'd be doing the next day.

The bike guy called me around 2 and said that it was going to be a while longer (not a good sign) so I decided I'd got to Yastuo and get the registration part over with.

I managed to find the place with minor back tracking.

After I registered I had time for a swim before the bus tour. The 6 lane pool in Yatsuo is pretty shallow but a nice little community pool -and they had a HOT TUB!!!

I did my regular warm up, a little bit of kick and some sculling. Everything felt good.

THEN I TOOK THE BIKE TOUR!!!!

The registration information indcated that there were some steep hills on the course. They failed to mention that it was ALL HILLS!!!! From the very first turn out of the transition zone you're climbing!

The bus never left 2nd gear, if that's any indication...


I was trying to stay calm- talking to myself "it's not that bad, just take it easy, go at you're own pace, use your gears (oh yeah, your gears are screwed at the moment....), ok, stay calm".... but this woman in the back of the bus kept freaking out. Everytime we turned a corner she yammered about how tight it was, at each hill she moaned about how steep it was and every descent she practically screamed at how dangerous it was going to be if it was raining. It was non-stop the whole time. I felt like getting up and telling her how inconsiderate she was being, especially for people who were doing this for the first time yadda yadda yadda. But, I'm slowly turning Japanese, and so like everyone else around me I endured her contemptable behavior without a peep. Oh, and I don't speak Japanese that well... Even the tour guide didn't say anything, although it looked like he was ready to throttle her at one point.

I got off the bus feeling slightly defeated and the race was still a day away.

I went back to Sports Depot, picked up my bike (which I still wasn't convinced was 100%) and headed to my friend, Omi's place to hopefully get some R&R before bed.

Omi cooked me a nice big pasta dinner, we watched some TV and I then I reluctantly got ready for bed..

5:00 a.m. comes quickly, no matter what time you go to sleep....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LINEA!!!!! We (mostly me, but Wes also) are waiting to hear if you competed or not and what happened and how the race went!!!! And you are dragging it out!!! I HATE SUSPENSE!!!!!!(and i am not sure if i know how to spell it correctly either). MORE Please!!!
love
-M