Week 32 – Race week… Denmark is hot?
Editor’s note: Ian Murray is using Zwift to train for the International Triathlon Union Long Course World Championships held in Odense/Fyn, Denmark July 2018. His weekly Zwift Insider series discusses the previous week’s training and the plan for the upcoming week.
Ok folks. It’s that time. It’s race week! Well, it’s actually race eve right now as I type this. The bike is checked in, and the transition bags are nestled snuggly in their respective piles in transition. Now, I’m just waiting on a pizza dinner, final preparations, and bed time.
Getting to Know My New Baby
If you remember from Week 31, I had to buy a new bike the day before departing on the first leg of my trip. Prior to heading out on the final leg to Denmark, I got in one ride of about nine miles, so we were not yet very acquainted. Sunday and Monday were pretty much rest days due to travel, so I had to wait until Tuesday to get some time in the saddle. A few minutes after setting out on my ride, I got out of the congested area and put the pedals to the test out on the open road. Well, it wasn’t really the open road. It was a separated bike lane that ran alongside the open road. Oh yeah, this place is awesome for riding! After a quick 30 miles on the bike, I transitioned to the run to see how my legs would feel after 90 minutes on the new ride. It felt pretty good, so I was satisfied enough with the fit. On Wednesday and Thursday, we got in a couple short swims, working on a few skills to prep for the swim start.
Later in the day on Thursday, Deirdre, an Evil Elf Racing and ODivaZ athlete, and I ran most of the run course to get a feel for the trail and the one hill on the four laps. If all goes well, it should be a fairly fast course. Friday came, and I knocked out a quick brick before heading to the athlete brief, bike turn in and the expo. At the expo, I had the opportunity to chat with Alex Rasmussen from Zwift and ride on the Wahoo Kickr Climb for a few minutes. Alex was logged in on his profile and was kind enough to lower the weight to my weight to really see my effort in W/kg while on the climb. After that, I spent about 10 minutes in some Normatec boots, which I did not like as much as my Air Relax boots. Well, they’re really comfortable but not five times the price as comfortable. Finally, we headed back to the house. Whew, it was a busy day.
Now, we’re ready to go. I about to sit down and chow down on some pizza to load my body up for tomorrow. After that, I’ll get the final nutrition ready in my bottles, prep my morning bag, and get some sleep. The weather looks a bit chilly, but favorable for tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes. For anyone wanting to follow the live tracking, you can find it here at https://www.sportstiming.dk/event/5608/tracking.
Sorry for the short post, but it’s been crazy busy here on race week. Plus, I want to save up some words for the race report, as I tend to get a bit wordy on those.
