big weekend in the heat

Saturday morning we all headed out onto the Queen K for a bike ride. We all started together but really I only stayed on their wheels for about 5 min or as soon as we got on to the Queen K they were gone. The boys were planning on 3-4 hours - riding up to Hawi and back.. I only needed to do about 2:30 with a few pick ups.
With in the first 20 min I got a flat on my front tire :( I started to change it and realized that i was missing a lever (I need both to get my tire off). I called Kyle and he was nice enough to ride back and help me - he had it changed in under a minute.
Then it was back at it. Kyle sped off quickly to see if he could meet back up with James and I continued at my pace. I headed up on the course towards Hawi. It was night and day to last year - Ifeel a lot stronger and best of all no winds at all really. It was amazing. Toasty but amazing.I rode for 1:15 and then turned around and headed back. It was around an hour in that my right leg started acting up again - the same pull on the knee but this time I used it as training for how to mentally deal with it in the race.. I stayed focused and work on smooth circles... I did pickups the rest of the way back - 10 min at race pace - 10 min recovery and in no time I was back and heading out on a run.
My run of the bike felt great all the pain in my leg just disappeared. I took the first :15 min nice and easy out and then did 1 min pickups back. It was so hot but I had a small fuel bottle and had practiced race nutrition on the bike so I felt surprisingly good :) Though as soon as I was back it was a ice cold recovery drink and a cold shower for me.

Sunday James and I had "long" runs to do while Kyle headed out on a 3 hour bike ride with some Kona locals. I wanted to run a little earlier before it got really really hot while James wanted to run in the full heat so we alternated running and riding support or each other - which was awesome. I got started around 7:30am and ran on the pavement portion on the run course. Even that early it was already getting hot. I drank every mile and salt every :30 min, then had gel at :45 to sort of simulate race nutrition.. Even though it felt like it was getting hotter every minute in the last 15 min of the run I did 1 min pickups with James watching the clock for me. It was perfect - I was tired and hot but i was able to get the feet moving and felt good.
We waited an hour or so before James headed out so I could recover a bit. He is a monster - the heat did not even seem to phase him. But it worked out perfect for me - riding next to him while he rode gave me a chance to loosen up my legs and spend some needed time in the heat.
Once Kyle got back we all went down to the beach for a short little recovery swim and nap :) And with that I started my full taper.