10 days until the big day, and I'm looking forward to the race.  About 10 days ago, I was definitely not looking forward to any kind of racing.  I had a difficult time recovering from the race in Gulf Shores.  Rest, light training, sleep, nothing seemed to help, and I was feeling pretty depressed about traveling all the way out to Hawaii to lay an egg.  This entire racing season has a been like a roller coaster.  I've had either good training days, or completely bonked.  I'm used to very consistent training, and I guess that's part of my frustration.  I have been lucky to string a few good days together.  This has left me feeling like I am unprepared for this race.  I have experienced a severe dental infection, then surgery.  From there I pushed a little too hard to come back, and dealt with some injuries.  I lost almost all of my training in July, and skipped a few races because I was either sick or injured.  I have seen all of these as setbacks.  But, at this time I feel like I'm riding the roller coaster back to the top.  I feel like myself, and I know that is a good thing.  At this point, there is no time to do any fitness tests, only enough time to get comfortable swimming, cycling, and running again.

I am feeling much more confident about racing next weekend.  I still have some doubts about my run strength, but I will be out there doing the best I can.  I am undertrained for the first time.  Although it can be said that I have been overtrained for a lot of my races through the years.  I know I have not done enough hard work to put down an excellent race.  I have put in some days that have been at a high level, but not like my normal IM training program.  Who knows, it could be a good thing, but I know how I was training when I raced in Arizona last year, and I have not been able to put in those kinds of days in the last few months.  I have the fitness, but I don’t think I have the strength in my legs to push that hard for such a long race.  The best thing I can say right now is, I finally feel like racing.  I could not say that for a few days, a week ago.  I just did not feel like training or racing, because my energy level and strength was so low.  My best training advice I give athletes is to “take care of the issues you can control, and let everything else go”, so I am taking some of my own medicine.  I did the best I could to get healthy, and now I will race to the best of my current fitness.  My absolute favorite sports quote came from Dwight Stones during the 10k at the 2004 Olympics, “There is no magic in distance running, only science and reality”.   He was referring to Paula Radcliff attempting to run the women’s 10k and marathon in the same Olympics.  Neither went well.  So, I do not plan on pulling one out of my hat next week, but I do plan on managing my pace, taking in all of my nutrition, and starting the run easy.  Much like the rest of this year, it will either go very well, or I will crash and burn out there.  But hey, the Kona Brewing Company is out there, so if things get really bad, there's always Longboard!

I will have a couple people out there with me who will be using my phone for live updates during the race.  Follow me on twitter for updates @weracing.  Or, if you are not on twitter, log onto www.twitter.com/weracing for updates.