Finals Week

This week kind of feels like finals week in college.

Except I've prepared infinitely more for this test than any I took in college.

The one truth is that, for this type of examination, cramming don't do shit. It would be such a novel idea to have a 'taper' for tests in college. Imagine that - not studying that much. Oh wait, that's what earned me those amazing grades...

While the physical studying has been done, and midterms are long behind, there is still a lot of cramming going on, of the odds and ends variety. You just have to be so prepared, it's really nuts. I can go to any running race with a pair of kicks and some clothes. The amount you take to a destination triathlon makes your neighbors ask if you're moving out. At least the ironman is a long enough race to make it worth bringing all that stuff.

My least favorite news of the day was about the water temperature in Tempe Town Lake. Just 10 days ago, Claire did a 4k open water swim there and the water (recently refilled following the damage to the dam) was a balmy 71 degrees. People were swimming without wetsuits and it was probably glorious. Fast-forward to today and allegedly the temps have dipped to 62, and expecting to drop potentially a little more. Well, at least I know how awfully cold that was last year and can brace for it this year. Although there really is no bracing for it, that's just cold. Nothing I can do about it.

Since I'm a huge procrastinator, I'll start packing tonight. Normally I would wait until about an hour before my flight, but even I know this is going to be more work. I fly out Thursday around noon:thirty, and arrive in Phoenix at 4pm. I don't know how that works. I feel like it should net zero itself and I should be there at the same time I left. I'll get there too late to check in for the race on Thursday, so it'll be a short run followed by probably Chronic Taco for me. Too bad Zero will miss out on that this year.

I just got back from my last little ride and man was that rough. I planned on riding today, just doing my 2 hour Gunpowder Loop, riding the TT bike again - but the weather had other plans. People that don't ride bikes can't contemplate that just because the sun is out and the temperature is relatively mild, it doesn't make it a nice day. With home-damaging winds in the area since last night, I attempted to head out and immediately was getting thrashed. The wind was angry, and every flag I saw was getting whipped like it had just had relations with the master's daughter and attempted to run away. I had to use the kung-fu death grips on the bullhorns just to stay upright and out of the way of the unusually high traffic. Maybe rode in the aerobars for 5 minutes total. It was the weather's way of saying fuck you, Ryan, we don't want to see you make it to this race.

But at least I got out of it unscathed. Tomorrow morning I'll hit the pool for a little bit before flying. I'll have my laptop and may check in once more before race day, but if not, as always you can follow along online at www.ironmanlive.com.