A Pair of Dox

Boise. I have always like this place. Small, outdoorsish, clean, blue skies. While downtown yesterday at the Expo I saw a poster for a place in the burbs for $120K that looked a whole lot better than my current digs. After the race brief this morning, we dressed out the Roo-Cam for her maiden voyage tomorrow and hauled 'er up to the Lucky Peak Dam and into T1. There she will spend the night as her master (and commander) goes through the final stages of his patented one day taper.

This two o'clock start is gonna be interesting. Throws the biological race clock off by seven hours. Us morning folk think that is a perfectly good waste of a Saturday morning. I mean, what are you gonna do from 6-noon knowing that you have to race 70.3 miles starting at 2? Mow the lawn?

The good news is that it should be a decent day, low 70s, water temps as good as they're gonna get and maybe even a tail wind or three. Any way you choose to judge, it is 70.3 miles from Lucky Peak to The Capitol. And, once again here is the RCVman plan of attack:

Swim: All form and economy, breathe deep , relax and try not to think back on skinny dipping in Palm Springs.

Bike: Carrying the Cam and Garmin will be interesting. I will quickly find the sweet spot synergy of camera stabilization and power output (as measured by MPH and rendered video). Most important is, and this is a first, good video. If we score on the MP4 and I average 20mph, it will be a success, if the vid looks like it was shot in a Waring blender and I average 25.5, I lose. Nice paradox eh grasshopper? And you wonder why we call it the sweet spot?

Run: Totally based on the bike. If I can control the two items listed above and have some legs remaining and octane in the tank I will go for it. If the bike has drained it, I will do my best to deal with the pain, e.g. slug it out.

Overall I am thinking that it will be a fun day. I like the game plan. The sun will shine. At the Expo today I was talking with a customer and I told him of the plan, finishing with the experiment du jour abstact:

Testing the high intensity protocols gleaned from Max Testa and Bill Edwards, namely: With a solid base, and doing maintenance spins at 100% intensity, can one counter the effects of aging and less than ideal training over the course of the half-ironman distance?

Answer: We'll find out tomorrow.

Pix: The view down the valley from the Lucky Peak Dam, start of the bike (dig those clouds!) The now infamous Roo-Cam in the pen. RD Michael Tobin gives the race brief. Boise State U, home of the Broncos. The run course is in the green-belt less than a long filed goal from the East end of the stadium. Oh, and speaking of college football, you heard of the penalties levied against those evil Trojans at USC? Heisman winner and Super Bowl hero Reggie Bush is getting hammered along with the rest of them, so much so that President Obama today blamed all of SC's athletic crimes, the economy, the oil spills and the war in Iraq on Bush. Bada-bing, see you manana.