Things are flowing…

I can’t remember the last time I had a day like today. It unfolded beautifully. Frankly, last night I was thinking it would be just the opposite. I thought it was going to be all rush, pressure and stress.

First off, I hadn’t done any packing or preparation for IMSG prior to waking up this morning. The strange part was I wasn’t worried about it. China was the opposite, I was stressed and was preparing a day or two in advance and was nervous about forgetting something.

I had a “really” good night sleep and woke up rested. In less than 90 minutes, with no rushing or panic, I had my bike boxed, my suitcase packed and everything was sitting, waiting at the back door, ready to be loaded into the truck when I got home from work. Even Alice couldn’t believe how easy it all came together.

I thought I was going to be late for conference call and magically arrived at work two minutes before it started. The call took up two hours and I had lots of stuff to do before I could leave for the day. I put my head down and worked. I finished EVERYTHING I needed to do by 2:30 pm. I was amazed.

Then it was off to the pool. It was near empty, I had the lane to myself and for the next 90 minutes did my last swim before IMSG. It was a solid swim, my fastest 100 meters was 1:28 and my slowest 1:34. Most were 1:29-1:31. I was shocked how well I did, especially when I consider I swam less this month than normal.

For the first time during a swim, I noticed my left shoulder was hurting. I also noticed my left calve was tight. By the end of the swim, my calve was fine, and the shoulder had reduced to an annoyance. I’ve always believed cool water does the body good.

On the way home I lucked out, there was very little traffic and it was the one night my optometrist was open pass 5 pm. I needed a back-up pair of contacts; I only had one set left for IMSG.

I also ate like a King today. I went to Subway and ordered a foot-long chicken breast sub. Normally, I’m a half-sub guy. I also DID NOT order any seafood or meatballs or anything that I thought could carry food poisoning. I made the conscious decision that my pre-race, safe eating, starts today.

I also upped my food volume. My plan is to do most of my carbo-loading from today until Thursday. I had a big sub for lunch, pasta for dinner, protein shake, peanuts, wagon wheel and some airport food, which included, pretzels, corn nuts, turkey sandwich and a beer.

There’s nothing like snacks to naturally get the salt levels up in the body and beer is my “spinach”. If there’s any little “bugs” in my belly, the beer will take care of them.

Reid is still showing an unwavering commitment to his swim club training. Today, he did a 20-minute run with Alyssa and only had to stop running three times. Alyssa was impressed. His cheeks were big time “red” when he finished. After Alice dropped me off at the airport, she was taking him to our local pool. He wanted to practice “flip turns” on his own.

Also, he LOVES the supportive blog comments. I read them to him everyday and he laps them up, no pun intended. If I hear, “you’re going down” one more time, I think he may not live long enough to collect his money.

To round out the day, I made it to the airport on time, got my ticket, got through customs and boarded the plane with no rush and very little waiting. Like I said, this was a beautiful day. Very Zen.

I hope Saturday’s the same.

Speed swim – 1:32:34 / 4000 meters

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