Dave’s Triathlon Journal

We leave for Lake Placid tomorrow which makes today packing day. I’ve packed for plenty of races before so I know the basics I need to bring but as I consider what I’ll need for the upcoming weekend I’m not sure I’ll have enough room in the car!

Normally there is are two transitions between the swim/bike and the bike/run. Ironman distance races allow for a special needs bag halfway between the bike and run portion of the race. For me this throws a whole new planning phase into the packing process trying to figure out what the heck to put in there. The anal retentive side of me wants to stuff these bags to the hilt with clothing, nutrition and anything else that wil get me through the day. However, I’ll try and follow my reasonable side and only pack what I’ll reasonably use.

For pre-race day I’ll need some workout items for a relatively short one hour bike ride tomorrow in Lake Placid and final tune up workouts on Saturday. The clothing needs for race day will be relatively easy as it will be pretty much the same as every other race, my Granite State Tri Club uniform, wetsuit, goggles, socks, bike shoes, running shoes, helmet and sunglasses. Then the paranoid side of me takes over as I’ll be packing an extra pair of sneakers, a few extra pairs of socks (I may change socks halfway through the run), extra goggles, extra race uniform and who knows what else will end up in my suitcase.

Some of the things I thought were a little strange at first but I’ve determined will be worthwhile are my food scalle to measure the calories I’ll be bringing with me on race day, a body weight scale to keep an eye on my weight prior to and post race day, my bike repair stand (even though there are a ton of bike shops in the area I’m compelled to be prepared to make a quick repair if necessary). It will be interesting to see what ends up in the car before we leave.

My nutrition will be the area I spend the most time on. We have a kitchen in our Suite in Lake Placid so I’m going to try and keep my pre-race daily meals as normal as possible which during my taper has consisted of a fruit smoothie with Hammer Whey protien powder and two slices of whole grain bread for breakfast, veggie burger or veggie sub for lunch and rice or pasta for dinner. Restaurant meals can be higher fat content than I’d like over the past few days so the more I can control my meals the better I’ll feel.

For my race day nutrition I’ll probably bring everything that I could possibly use. I do have a written nutrition plan that includes an all liquid diet for the day and nutritional supplements from Hammer Nutrition. This also includes things to carry everything on race day including water bottles, gel flasks, fuel belt flasks, fuel belt, Bento Box for my bike, coin purses and mini ziplock baggies to hold my supplements.

Let’s hope that I can fit my wife and son in the car when I’m done packing!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 7:37 am and is filed under Race Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.