Progress report / reality check: Ironman Cairns 2014

With 11 days to Ironman Cairns, I'm well overdue for a recap and reality check.

Is my injured pinky back to normal? Am I happy with my training? How is taper going? And how do I think race day will unfold?

Read on for the answers.

Same Same but Different

It's Friday night before my first weekend of taper.

That means last weekend was my last big weekend of training. And I've had a week of taper, which I'll write about later.

Your last big weekend or session is always hard but sometimes it pays to remember that as much as you want your training to simulate racing, it's different.

Larry Emdur is not my husband

I slept through my alarm today.

I woke up at 6am to my husband asking me, "do you know what your race number is for Cairns?"

"Nope."

"I do. Have a guess."

Come on down Larry Emdur.

Birds in the bush

Running in the bush is peaceful. Delightful.

The trees, the sunshine (well let's be honest, you can get the sunshine anywhere), the birds.

Let's focus on the birds.

Five from my iPod that are made for Ironman

If you read my last blog post you might be wondering about my musical taste.

At the end of this one, well, I have to be honest, you might still be. But if you're new to my ramblings here you might also get an insight into what goes through my head with this whole Ironman thing. Maybe.

We're at least getting warmer, with today's post being about five songs that will always bring me back to Ironman.

Four surprising songs from my iPod

I've spent the last two Saturdays on the home trainer getting through the Spinervals Hardcore 100.

I've done this training session a number of times so these days I can get through it without listening to Coach Troy's blow by blow description. If you play the DVD there are clear visuals, and you can also download a PDF from the Spinervals website for extra clarification.

So instead of listening to endless Coach Troy-ims I get the tunes going. But what comes up in 5.5 hours with my iPod on shuffle surprises even me.