In few hours I will be packing up my car and driving north to San Francisco. One of the two positive parts about living in the North Valley of Los Angeles, is that I will miss all of the painful traffic on the 405 to reach the 5, and begin my five hour drive north on wide open highway.

I am fleeing LA to race.

Shocking.

I will be racing the Santa Rosa 70.3 triathlon on Saturday, and I am very excited about it, but that is it, just excited. I am not nervous.

Weird, but true.

I wanted to write up this pre-race report, (prequel), to share those odd, yet honest feelings, instead of glossing over them, or puffing them up in a typical post-race report, (story), that I will publish next Tuesday.

Transparency is the new black.

Naturally, I felt pressure at Ironman Boulder to perform well because it was my follow up race to Ironman Arizona, (an absolute breakthrough race), but I do not feel that pressure now. I simply want to swim, bike, and run around wine country with my friends, teammates, and competitors as fast as I can.

My first training ride of the year with my friends, Lynne Fiedler and Greg Stannard. Photo courtesy of Greg Stannard.

I have enjoyed the ramp up to this race tremendously. I was able to ride in new places pedaling alongside my friends, indulge in more speed work than my long legs have been allowed in months, #happyrunner, and was able to swim in the ocean every single Saturday of the early summer. It has been a special seven weeks.

Before another wonderful Saturday morning Ocean swim with SMOG.

I also want to hold on to this carefree feeling because the next eleven weeks will be tough. Marion is leaving for Canada in a week or so to start shooting the second season of Lost In Space, and I will begin training for my “A” race of my lifetime.

Yep, that one.

In the mean time, I can’t wait to load up Simone in our shiny, fueled-up Black Jeep and hit the road.

To be continued....

I LOVE this song from Troye Sivan. Enjoy!