In 24 hours I'll be in the waiting lounge, ready to start one of the longest journeys of my life. It will take approximately 60 hours to get from Seychelles to Busselton, Western Australia! I'll be travelling to Perth via Dubai and Singapore - 3 flights and one coach journey - epic!
The taper for this race has largely followed that which I did for Hawaii, but of course there have been a few changes. This season my approach to tapering has changed slightly, being more aggressive and less conservative. Despite logging a reasonable amount of training hours in the last 2 weeks, I'm feeling fresher than I was heading into Kona, largely due to the reduced build up leading into this race. I've hit all my key training sessions well, and all the signs of fitness are there - swim, bike and run. I wrote previously about how I wasn't feeling under pressure to perform, and that's still the case. Of course as always I'm going out there to have the best race possible, but my focus is very much on enjoying my first experience in Australia.
I know that there will be some tough competition in my age-group (who will no doubt be reading this!) challenging for the win, which is great, and I say that sincerely. You want to be challenged at races and know that you have to be on top of your game to achieve the desired result. The tactical battle that takes place at the front of the age-group race is an exciting element of racing and adds to the experience. It's great to see that there's a strong professional field lining up for the race, including Extreme Endurance athlete Timo Bracht.
From Tuesday onwards I'll be starting my 'Ironman Western Australia Daily Diary', so make sure you keep reading to see what's going on during race week. Time to get packing...
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