Ice in my shorts.

Me and Adam met with our Calgary coach today.  (We have a German coach who designs and emails us our training programs and we have a Calgary coach who meets with us from time to time for various things.)  We discussed the details for the race and one interesting thing he said is that of all the places he's raced in the world (and he has raced in a lot of places as a pro triathlete, including Kona) Cozumel was the hottest.  He said if it says 30 degrees, it FEELS like 40 degrees.  Interesting.  Thanks for that intimidating imformation, coach.  I can't wait to swim 4 km, bike 180 km and run 42 km in 40 degree temps.  Awesome.

He said that he has raced well many times in the heat and the keys are:
- Hydrating properly
- Staying well within your aerobic heart rate zone
- And using ice at EVERY aid station on the run.  He says it needs to go everywhere (under the hat, in the sports bra in my case, hold it in your hands and especially down the shorts).  Apparently ice in the shorts really helps to cool the blood before it travels to the legs. My question to Adam was whether the ice is cubed or crushed...he said cubed.  Unfortunate.


Another one of his many great tips was to make sure to rinse off after the swim to wash away the salt water and thus prevent chafing from the salt rubbing against your skin the remainder of the race.  I wouldn't have thought of that one.

Here's a picture of the island.  The bike is three laps of the lower half of the island.