Taper Time!

 It's taper time! Ironman Florida is less than a week away. Naturally I'm starting to get nervous about the race, but my body is so ready to race. Last week in Hawaii my body was on fire. It was really hard to rein in the pace/power during my sessions, which is a big indicator that I have properly peaked. My past two sessions weren't that great, but I've been on the mainland for less than 48 hours.  Once my body adjusts to the time and temperature change (and fights the bugs I picked up on the airplane) I expect that power to return.
     Usually I get antsy during taper time, but I've had plenty of distractions to occupy my time. My last week in Hawaii I got to housesit in Kailua, which is my favorite town on Oahu. The house was one block from the beach and a perfect distraction. Every morning I woke to take care of the chickens:

And got plenty of quality time in with the cats.

My roomie Tara (remember the smoothie video?) joined me and one day we tried on formal dresses for no reason whatsoever.

We found this video in the house collection and decided to give it a test drive. My first attempt at hypnosis--it didn't fully work, but it put me in the oddest trancelike relaxation state!

The wallet I ordered last week arrived the day I left for the mainland. I can't tell you how happy this makes me:

Friday night I took the redeye flight out of Hawaii. A man offered to switch seats with me so he could sit by his girlfriend, and I ended up in first class! I ended up not sleeping a wink, but a 3 hour nap and an hour run later in the day fixed my jetlag. All my gear arrived intact but I still have some minor mechanical issues to take care of before the race (genius me stripped one of my handlebar screws, and my rear derailleur is all kinds of whacked). I have a few more days here hanging out with the fam and then Wednesday MamaFL and I will drive down to the race!

Waiting for me on the mainland was my new torque wrench

I purposefully left my hard drive in Hawaii, so I have no desire to do actual work these 2 days I'm with my family. Instead, I do more productive activities like paint the family Chihuahua's nails hot pink:

The weather for the race keeps improving. Last year it was so, so cold. I think it was 38 or 39 degrees at the start. I remember being in tears before the race saying "I can't do this. My body simply cannot handle this." I dropped my nutrition the first hour on the bike because my hands wouldn't function. My feet were numb throughout the entire bike and the first 5 miles of the run. This year, thankfully, the forecast looks great! Depending on what source, the low for the day is from 53-63 and the high is from 73 to 78--PERFECT for this Hawaiian! Now all that's left to do is fix my bike, avoid catching a bug, rest, hydrate, and get ready to RACE!