'Twas the night before race day....

'Twas the night before race day...and all through the house our triathlete was getting ready to race. 

 (If I had time and little more creativity I would have come up with a new poem.  Maybe I can start working on that before Augusta!)  

After almost a week off of his training schedule Jerry was back at it at the end of this week.  Swim, Bike, Run, repeat!  Tomorrow is his first triathlon (tri) of the year. He will be racing in the Capital of Dream Triathlon.  It will consist of a 400 meter swim, 20K (12.4 miles) bike and 5k (3.1 miles) run. Think that sounds like a lot wait until you see what he is doing in September, but we won't talk about that yet.  So you might be wondering what does someone do the night before a race?  Great question.  Here is what is going on in my house right now and what went on last night (yes he started prepping last night!  Isn't he cute!)  Last night he started with his bag and his bike.  His bike has been on the trainer (I'll explain this in a later blog) this week due to all the rain.  So he got his bike off the trainer and took all the "extra stuff" off his bike that he won't need for race day.  He also got his bag ready for race morning.  In his bag he has "a bunch of stuff, a lot of it will come out" (that's what he just told me way to go into details).  I see a towel, race bib, bike pump, shoes (running shoes not to be confused with the bike shoes on his bike), and I don't know what else. But I took this picture last night: 

Bag ready to go!

Getting the bike ready!

Tonight prep is: 

 Soaking the wet suit, and now we are hanging the suit to dry.  Not sure if it will be worn or not.  We will wait and see

.

Getting the race number on the bike and helmet. (What you don't keep a bike in your dining room?  You might if you were an ironmate!)

Jerry is ready to go!!!  

The alarm will go off in the morning around 4:00 (Jerry's) and 4:45 (mine, I hate getting up that early.  But, I'll do it for him!)  Oh those are AM times!  So what do I do the night before a race?  I get my stuff together too.  Tomorrow will be a short race only a couple of hours so that means I'll take make camera, a hat, umbrella, extra batteries, my water bottle, and gum!  So in short that is what happens in our house the night before a race.  Of course each race is different, but for a sprint tri in our area this has been the routine.  Good luck to all our friends racing!  Can't wait to see you at the finish line!  I'll write a post race wrap up as well!  

Word of the day: PR although it is not really a word, it is something you need to learn for sure if you are going to hang around triathletes, runners, bikers, swimmers, etc.  PR stands for Personal Record.  Once you know what this stands for it makes sense.  This is when an athlete beats their previous best time in the same distance.  

Until next time!