Last post.

Hey everyone.
This will most likely be my last post until post race and it will be a lengthy one, got lots of stuff to cover.
Let's start off with a funny story. I went for my last bike ride and got my first flat of the season. I seem to get one flat a year and it figures it would be on my very last ride. No biggie, might as well get it out of the way now instead of during the race. I pull out a brand new spare and lo and behold it has a busted seam. Great. Two tubes, both with holes. Murphy's law is kicking in. I rumage around in my emergency kit and find some old patches, fortuneately the patch held until I got home. Phew.

'06 Mileage
Mileage report from Jan 2 - Aug 21.
Run: 1582 km- A 13% increase over last year.
Spin: 104 hrs 30 min- A 45% (!) increase over last year.
Bike: 3429 km- A 5% increase over last year.
Swim: 187.7 km- The same as last year.
Dryland: ~50 hrs of stretching, weights and core work.
Starting weight: 168
Ending weight: 159
Comments: A large part of the early part of the season was 'running focused', a 13% increase over last year is nothing to sneeze at, but I know it needs more work if I'm going to continue to make gains in that department. Looks like next year will be running focused again.
The large part of my biking gains was time spent on the spinner. 104 frikin hours - zoinks. That's basically the same amount of time that I actually spent outside on the bike. So if you do the math you are looking at ~ 6700 km on the bike. An almost 25% increase in time spent on the bike compared to last year.
Umm.. ya this year was running focused.. riiiiiight.
About swimming. The mileage is virtually identical to last year. The only thing I did different this year was log some big swim weeks later in the season.

Goal
In all seriousness this isn't super important. Yes, I have some time goals I would like to meet, but I fully realize that long endurance type activities can take years to learn and do well at. I'm only now starting to understand my specific nutrition needs and all the little physical cues my body tells me during an event.
That being said, I'm still going to tell you what I'd like to do and if the weather cooperates and if I can pace well and if I can 'nail' my nutrion and if I can race smart. Notice the ifs.
Swim: ~56 min. I can go faster, but I won't. I must control myself and take it easy.
T1: roughly 4 min. Puts me on the bike 1 hr into the race.
Bike: ~5:20. I took a recent half Ironman bike time of 2:30, doubled it and added 20 minutes. I hope that's reasonable.
T2: 4 min.
Run: the hardest one to judge. They say if you take your best stand-a-lone marathon time and add 30 minutes, you've nailed the run. All my long runs are roughly at a 5:00 /km pace. Is it reasonable to run at that pace after the bike? Doubt it. But my recent half Ironman pace was 4:36 /km. So maybe it is. So I'm going to take the 5:00 /km pace and add 10 extra minutes. Run time: 3:40. I feel like I'm going out on a limb on that one.
Total: 10:04.
You just know I really want to find that 4 minutes and 1 sec somewhere to break the 10 hr mark. Ya that would be the holy grail. Honestly, I think I have a 25% of chance of acheiving that. But it's on the mind.

Thank you's
Obviously first and foremost is my wife, Sally. Could not have got this far without her. Yea, she's my rock.
Canada Post Was awesome enough to come on board as a sponsor. This is a rather expensive sport and working for a company that has an employee sponsorship program and having the powers that be recommend me for it - is rather cool. This would have been a very tough year if they didn't come on board. A big thanks to them.
My family and friends for being understanding. I know some of you don't get "it", but you put up with my eccentricities and that alone deserves thanks. (My folks are going to be at the race!)
My fellow tri-wienies. With special mention to Cliff, and Sheila.
Thanks to the lurkers who read the blog, the people who have taken the time to drop me a line or an email. It's appreciated.

Before I forget, tune your browser to Ironman Live , this Sunday to get live updates of the race throughout the day. You can even plug my number in (754) and get a status report. (send some positive vibes too, will ya?) The race starts 7am Pacific time which is 10am EST.

Eep, it's getting late and I need some quality zzz's. Next update will be post race! Cheers!