You know you have an IM soon when....

You're tired.  I'm sorry to state the obvious and that isn't meant to be funny.  I know it isn't witty, either. Now that race day is in 23 days and volume has been high this last while, I'm truly tired.  Getting to the pool 2-3 x per week at 5:45 am is early and once you add work and life on top of more bike and run, well, it obviously all adds up.  I haven't been able to write or read much blog lately and my family is feeling the effects of cumulative volume as well.  It all comes down to the wire, doesn't it?!

I'd like to share some great photos / experiences of my last long ride (Canada Thanksgiving Saturday last weekend).  Summer had returned to the North East and we hit highs of 25-27 degrees last weekend.  It was truly special and great to get out.  I rode south of Ottawa again to the St Lawrence river and along it first East to Morrisburg, ON, then West to Prescott before heading back east to Cardinal and then North back home.  How awesome is this section along the river? (dontcha love the sound of race wheels spinning?).

As with any great training ride, I learned something really important on this one....hydrate even if you don't feel like hydrating.  I say this because it was warm, low humidity, and very windy.  I didn't know I was losing a ton of fluids as there were no drips of sweat and my tri outfit was bone dry.  The wind dried me off before I could even notice, but at the 120 km mark, I started to literally feel nauseous.  I had to press on for 20km before I hit a store to buy some water and that's when it really hit me.  Once off the bike and sheltered from the wind, it was HOT and I started to near gag from dehydration.  This was after about 4.5 hours of riding and I had consumed 3.5 bottles of infinit and 600mL of another sports drink already.  And that wasn't enough!

Once I started feeling good enough to ride again, I headed out for the final 40km home, thankful the wind was at my back and giving back some energy it had taken from me throughout the earlier part of the day.  I consumed an additional 8 glasses of water once home, further showing me how I misjudged my exertion and sweat rate.  I will NOT make this mistake again.  Had this been Florida in a few weeks, I wouldn't have been running far!

I've been struggling with carrying my tubular flat kit for some time now and I finally took some action.  I had read online that some people carry their kits in an empty water bottle and after a few zip ties and trial and error, I have a relatively aero kit behind my saddle.  As the saddle itself is really forward (most comfortable for me), no "real" cage holder will fit, but nothing beats a good zip tie plinko!  I added a bit of electrical tape to ensure the bottle doesn't launch and I'll clean it up before IMFL.

I'm going to close out with some interesting shots:  The porcupine was on my run, the snake was at our local town fair, the dogs, well, they were chilling in the backyard, and I had to snap the one with the dozer on the massive pile cuz it's one of the weirdest things I've seen in awhile!  Thanks for reading!