Canada Day 11 - Saturday 29th August

The day when Warriers become Worriers.
The day when you have to rack your bike, your bike bag and your run bag.
The day when nerves abound, if you let them. It is the day when you can get in some great mental preparation and calm yourself to enjoy your big day or play the next day.
If you're not interested in triathlon final race prep the rest of this blog item isn't going to be of use to you as I'm going to talk through the contents of my race bags. This is mainly for my benefit as a mental check for this race but also for future ones.
If you are a novice then please feel free to use this info as a guide, though work out what you need yourself. If you are a seasoned triathlete, please don't mock what i'm doing, but feel free to read and have a chortle to yourself.
Okay. There are 5, yes 5, race bags. There is the Bike bag which contains what you want to put on for the Bike stage when you come out of the Swim. There is the Run bag which contains what you want to put on for the Run when you have finished the Bike. There is then the Dry Clothes bag which will contain what you want at the finish. There are then the two optional special needs bags; one for the Bike and one for the Run.
The Run Bag and the Bike Bag get racked along with the bike on the Saturday. Depending upon the race you may or may not get access to theses bags on race day morning. You will get access your bike (though you won't get to ride it) on Race Day Morning before the start to check tyre presures and to put bottles and nutrition onto the bike.
The Dry Clothes bags and the two optional Special Needs Bags will be handed in on Race Day morning before the Start.
Fairly simple eh? I'll now talk through the contents of my bags for tomorrow. I don't wear glasses or contacts so personally don't have to worry about that - though what I've seen normally is a table near the swim exit where glasses can be left.

DRY CLOTHES BAG
This is the bag that you are going to hand in once you've put your wetsuit on come race day morning. You're going to travel to transition in some dry clothes with your wetsuit, goggles, heart rate monitor, nose clip in this bag. I travel down with my tri-shorts on under my dry clothes with my timing chip already attached to my ankle.
When I get to transition I'll put on some water proof sun screen. Riessman P20 is pretty good. It's supposed to last 10 hours and can tolerate a wetsuit and water, so will last to the end of the bike and ought to get to the end of the run, but having got sunburnt on the run in Nice I'll be putting on more sunscreen in t2.
The clothes I travel to transition will go into this bag for wearing after the race.

Also in this bag I'll have powder to make up some recovery drinks. I normally have 2. Science in Sports Rego is my recovery drink of choice. I'll also have boxers, a towel and some compression socks to aid in recovery. If I know for definate that there is a shower then I'll also take shower gel. For tomorrow, insect repellent is also going in. When I wander down in the morning I'll also have a track pump with me. Jennie Child will be with us and I'm hoping she'll take away the track pump. At other races the track pump has gone into my dry clothes bag.

The knack is to have everything you need and nothing that you don't need.

Oh and I'll have a set of bike lights with me as I figure I'll need to ride back to the campsite while Jen drives all the bags back.

Bike Bag
This is the bag you will find when you get into t1. In mine I've got my cycle shoes with sockes already opened inside the shoes. I've got my cycle helmet, cycle clothes and sun glasses. There is also my cycle jersey with nutrition in the pockets and a race number pined to the back. I've got a full length zip on my jersey which means I can put it on without pulling it over my head as that means I don't lose anything from the pockets. In my left rear pocket I've got three energy bars with protein. In the middle pocket I've got 3 normal energy bars and my little emergency bag containing toilet paper and $20. In the right hand pocket I've got 3 sachets of powder for 3 refills of my water bottles, plus I've a bag containing 6 salt stick tablets and an opened packet of Dextro Energy tablets.

These goodies supplement the two bottles of energy drink that is on my bottle. Tomorrow I'm using Tauk Pink Grapefruit. I also like and get on with SiS Go and have found the Infinite drink with protein excellent on the bike. The drink being provided on the course is Gatorade that I'm not familiar with. Normally you get PowerBar drink that I really don't like the taste of (nor does it seem to work for me), hence the need to carry all the stuff myself. I could put it onto the bike, but I like to keep the bike clutter free.

As well as the water I plan to take from the aid stations I'll also have the odd half banana and I'm tempted to add my usual turkey sandwich into this bag in the morning.

It is possible for me to put extra food into the Bike special needs bag which I'll be able to pick up at 75miles. I'm not planning on using this.

Having put on my cycle gear, the wetsuit, cap, goggles and nose clip will go into this bag for later collection.

Run Bag
At the end of the bike section I'll head into t2, park the bike and pick up my Run Bag. I'll empty the contents onto the floor next to a chair and as I take off my cycle top, cycle shoes, cycle gloves, cycle socks and helmet they will go into the empty bag.

I'll then put on tri-top with some goodies in the back pocket, a hat, running socks and running shoes. There is a race number already pined to the front of my top and the goodie bag contains some more salt sticks, another packet of Dextro tablets, an energy gel (which I don't expect to use, it's a get out of jail card) some more toilet paper (just in case) and another emergency $20 bill.

There is also a spare pair of shorts in this bag just in case (so this is the only item that is possibly surpless to requirements). There will be "sun cream girls" in t2 so I don't need to bring my own sun screen top up.
Then it's out onto the run.
I'm not planning to use my Run Special Needs Bag either. I had been considering putting a spare pair of trainers into it just in case my trainers got sodden (based on the experience in Nice) but I'm going to endeavour to keep my feet dry this time.


So that's it.
After that little lot I'll get to the finish to a medal, t-shirt and my dry clothes bag for a couple of regos and I'll chill out in the athletes village eating and drinking what's available whilst waiting for team mates to arrive.
All I have to do now is rack that little lot and chill out.