Race morning

I do love races that start at a "reasonable" hour. I can sleep, roll out of bed, sip a coffee, nosh on a bagel with nut butter and 'nana and just slowly come into myself. Races that start at the crack of stupid just have me in a rush, because I just cannot wrap my head around a 4am wake up (used to be that was when I was just going to bed...oh right...I'm old(er) now!) and trying to eat at the time...blech!

I have another 15-20 minutes to sip the coffee and chill, and then I'll change (currently -1C, so figuring out what to wear so I don't overheat will be paramount), pack some gear to change into after the race, and head out. Since it starts/finishes in the same spot as run club, I'm not worried about getting there on time. And it's a chipped event, so even if I start late, my time won't start till I cross the line.

Because the Bow River has a nasty habit of attempting to eat the city it meanders through, and because of the dump of snow earlier this week, the route has had to change last minute. We were to start out of Fort Calgary (East Village, close to the zoo) but now it's Eau Claire, west to Shouldice, turn around and return. Same old boring route I've run a hundred times. Will have to play some interesting mind games to stay in the moment. I do not wear tunes when I race (or run for that matter) as I am a safety-first girl, so I just let the voices in my head have their way...lol...seriously, I'm joking here! Besides, if you were to actually read the rules and regulations that we all indicate that we read and agree with, almost all say "the use of headphones is strongly discouraged or strictly prohibited". Why train with tunes when you can't race with them?

Weigh-in on Thursday was...weird. Okay, I like to weigh on my scale in the morning, just so I am mentally prepared for meeting. I wear the same thing, I eat (okay, drink) the same thing, I even have the same supper the night before. I am a creature of habit. Last week, my scale said down .8, theirs had me up .6. Boo... This week, my scale was not kind (Chinese food) and said I was up 3 (yikes!)...WW's????? Down .2!! Are you freaking kidding me??? A 3.6 pound difference when last week was .4??? Whatever...it's down, I overcame Chinese food and I've moved on.

Boot camp was hard both Thursday and yesterday, although yesterday in the snow was a tad more difficult. Mainly because we couldn't find a dry spot anywhere in the park. I forget, being a downtown dweller how much snow the 'burbs actually get. Wow! But we focused on upper body (thank you, Trainer Josh...he knew I had a race today) and got our sweat on. Thursday was all about agility and speed work.

Tried something a little new for dinner last night, the Halibut stew out of Self. It was good, but I may had more to it next time. I didn't add quite so much chicken broth (too soupy then) and I ate it with a deliciously heavy Swiss Rye, schmeared with sundried tomato spread. We'll see how that holds up today.

Okay, must go change, mix my OJ racing fuel and pack up.

Race details later,