Pre-Race Week

This week is my 'pre-race week'...I depart for the Wellington, New Zealand Triathlon on Thursday afternoon. The race starts mid-day on Saturday and I return early Sunday morning.
After a bit of a illness and some sore/achy muscles last week, I'm playing it safe and resting a lot!
On Monday, I woke up and the weather was just WEIRD! The wind was insane, the sky was dark, it was even cold enough to put on my PANTS to go watch a movie in town. I saw "Freedom Writers" again (movies come out about 4 months late in Australia!) and had an amazing lunch at Cafe Karma in Noosa Junction. After the movie, I had a session with Toby...he's been the team masseuse for the duration of this trip but I will call my time with him 'sessions' not actual massages b/c I'm in an unbelievable amount of pain (not pleasure) for the half hour on the table.
I actually woke up on Tuesday with the intention to exercise! I know that I am finally remotivated when I wake up before my alarm and I look forward to the group ride. I didn't stay with the team for the whole ride because everyone else was doing a long, flush-out ride after their races...my workout was 5x4 minute efforts at race pace in my aerobars! Speaking of bikes...I've got a date today with my Litespeed to give it a bit of love and maintenance before traveling to race this weekend. I think I'm going to change my rear cassette for the massive hill on the course, clean my chain, tighten my headset, put on new tires, etc, etc.
After my bike ride, I hopped in the van with Jasmine and John for a long drive to the Brisbane airport to find Jasmine's lost bike box. 90 minutes to get there, 30 minutes to find out that it is actually arriving on Wednesday, 30 minutes to grab a quick lunch, and then 90 minutes driving back to Noosa. We arrived just in time to grab our swim gear and hurry over to the pool for afternoon practice. After a few laps in the sunshine, I changed into my run gear and went for a short jog while everyone else headed to the grocery store. I knew that my cupboards had almost enough food to get me to my Wellington departure so I took a scooter to the closer grocery store for some yogurt and apples.
Last night was the 3rd day of the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne. Talk about being in the right country at the right time...they show the finals LIVE EVERY NIGHT on the national TV network. I've been cheering on all my friends and former teammates...bragging that I KNOW those guys and girls. There were 4 world records broken last night and the Americans took 4-out-of-5 gold medal up for grabs! Ryan Lochte (my DBS and Gator teammate) swam in lane 4 of the finals of the 100 backstroke...on Tuesday night he was the fastest person in the semi-finals with a new championship record. Tonight there will be more stellar swims to watch while we're eating dinner...I can only keep my fingers crossed that New Zealand will have some coverage of the meet...if not, I can watch the recaps when I get back to Noosa.