Packing

Today was a busy day packing, doing some last training on South African soil and last minute shopping of things we forgot to get during the week. Above is the "before" picture of my bike, pre-packed.

Below is Matilda dismantled, wrapped and ready to be put into the bike case.

And below is the finished product. Looks so easy but I hate it each time I have to dismantle the bike and put in into the bike case. Apart from it being a very time consuming thing, I've seen how the people at the airport handle luggage and every time I unpack the bike I open it holding my breath.

This time it is even more intense as I will only be able to reassemble the bike after five days and four different flights. Just hope the people handling the bike read the sign on the case- "Fragile"

Waking up this morning was so different but so nice, not having to shut the alarm but waking up naturally. I can't believe the difference between a twenty two hour training week and a sixteen hour training week. It's amazing what a difference a few extra hours a week can make.

I did my long bike earlier than normal and I could not believe that it is still so cool and it's almost summer. I just could not find any rhythm on the bike, one moment I would be spinning along at 90rpm and the next minute I would be right back at 60rpm. Luckily my coach said that if you feel like it you can cut some training sessions short as the most important training sessions is in the bag.

Needless to say I shortened what was suppose to be a 5 hour bike to 4 hours.

About three months ago when I was doing the big bike weekends and with Kim bringing me replacement bottles I started to throw my empty bottles to youngsters alongside the road. Since many of them don't have running water and are poor they appreciate it so much if they get this empty bottle. Sometimes it is heart breaking if there is two or three standing and you only have one bottle to give, but I always try to throw it at the smallest one.

It is so nice to see how they appreciate a simple used water bottle. Today as I was getting my bottles I use for racing ready for Kona, I could not believe how many bottles are still in the cupboard. Above is a picture of what's left and that's after giving away plenty of bottles during the past three months.

Suppose if I keep doing it I will eventually get rid of most of the old bottles.

Luckily the packing is 99% done and tomorrow will be an easy day before we leave for the airport at 4pm. I still need to do a 2 hour run and a 2.5 km swim but I will do that early so I can take it easy the rest of the day.