On the ground here in Tempe

Flew out yesterday wtih Sparty and another DE triathlete, Mac Weymouth--everything is hunky-dory and good to go at this point. A couple of items:

1. Sparty and I rode the furthest most 6 miles (out and back for 12) of the course yesterday--this is the "hilliest" of part of the bike course. It strikes me as a very fast fast bike course. I had no problem holding 18 mph/200 watts going up hill on the steepest portion and was doing 25+ on the downhill at that power. The pavement is excellent on the beeline--although less so on the 5 mile part ner town. All and all--it seems like a course to post a good time.

2. Weather looks to be a lot "nicer" than originally forecasted. This is not necessarily to my advantage--while the weather will be way better than what I've had in my last 4 IMs it might be a little bit warmer than I would ideally like and the wind doesn't look to be that bad--more wind probably helps me. The water should be around 62 degrees which is really not an issue at the end of the day. Looks like no rain now.

3. Had a brake issue--my Zero-Gs really aren't build for the new 808FC wheels as the tolerance is too close. Plus the brakes are 5+ years old so they don't snap back like they used too. I felt I would be running the risk of periodic brake pad rub if I didn't deal with it so i swapped out my front caliper for a 105 caliper--while this will cause me a 200 gram penalty I felt the peace of mind was worth it.

4. Ran a few miles yesterday evening--lots of concrete but I can endure 26 miles of it....legs feel pretty good although hard to tell with "taper funk" going on.

5. Met all of my competition--nice fellows.

6. Good to go!