9 days!

9 days till the longest race that I have ever done. 9 days till I do one of the scariest things I have ever agreed to do. 9 days till lots of pain. 9 days and I will be loving every moment of it!
I'm excited. I'm scared. I'm hopeful and happy that my four months of training will be put to the test.
Went out with coach Mary and a fellow Ironman competitor (Yeah Sharon!) in Lake Stevens north cove this morning. The medium wetsuit gave me so much more room in my shoulders than the small. I might be short and small but I got a lot of meat on these bones. I was so hard. But I did it. 1.2 miles. Slow, but I did it, with lots of encouragement from Mary and Sharon. Thanks guys!
The water temperature today was 70+ degrees. Nice and warm. Should be perfect for next weekend.

Nice easy run on race course after the swim.
I have a mantra that I use when running long and/or hard. Decided that it is necessary for the swim. Light Easy Smooth Happy Free It will so work for my strokes. Just have to remember to glide, breath all out, keep my head up more in water, push the buoy, stay calm and always remember that this is fun.

For my first half marathon I had dedicated my run to my mom. She had passed away almost 20 years now. I am dedicating my Ironman race to my beautiful mom again. I just wish she could see me now. She would be so proud. LOve you mom and miss you.

I have lighter shoes now and I also just bought a used new bike. It has got to be about five pounds lighter than my pink one. Riding it yesterday was so much fun. I am going to do so much better on the bike course than I had thought in the past month. I hoping that training on the heavy bike will help on this light one. It's a Specialized and purple! I have named it "Petal"! (Thanks Lori!) It's my Purple Petal!

Got a brick workout to do Saturday and a loop around the bike course on Sunday with coach. Lets see if there is a difference from last week. Then I can really taper. I actually can't wait. My legs ache and I'm tired.