In the Zone!

So this week the wind down began and the training was cut back with the Capricorn half Ironman looming! Vital statistics for week number 18 are 12km in the pool, 200km on the bike and 45km of pavement pounding action! For me the focus this week was to hit the hard sessions hard and then to use the easy sessions to recover as much as possible, particularly after the big bike week last week!

I always find this week (2 weeks away from race day) the best week to start engaging the mind in the racing zone! I find the buzz of race week tends to sap me a little of energy and by the time I've gone through all the race week processes and final preparations race day can arrive and feel somewhat of a shock to the system! So I like to use this week to firm up the race plan and to use the harder sessions as little race simulations to start to get myself in the zone! The relative calm and order of this week was however a little disrupted as I needed to start going through some of the race week preparations early so that I would get on the plane to Australia at the end of the week with everything that I needed to race! So perhaps I can place blame on this disruption to my usual zoning for a rather tremendous Faux Paus on my part that almost saw me grounded in Auckland!

As I was dismantling my bike into its box the night before I was due to fly out to Brisbane it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't sorted out my electronic visa! No problemo I thought - usually you just hop on line and submit an electronic travel authority which is instantly loaded into your passport and you finalise the visa on entry into Australia. Unfortunately I learnt that night that the system had changed 12 months ago and you were now required to apply for the whole thing online which takes a minimum of 2 working days! Heart stopping moment combined with nuclear style meltdown and flashes of me appearing on the TV programme Border Patrol being deported from Australia!! Quick phone call to Air New Zealand to see what the rules of my fare were and whether I could delay my departure for a couple of days - short answer was yes but it would cost the same as re-booking a new return ticket. Dilemma. As it was the weekend I couldn't speak to anyone in Australian immigration so I figured that I would sleep on it although I can't really say that I got much sleep - the image of being deported was very striking in the early hours of the morning!

So morning rocked around and my gut instinct was just to get on the flight and try to talk my way in - if I had to get on a flight back to New Zealand and wait for the visa to process online then I hadn't lost anything - if I delayed my flight it would cost the same as having to return the same day I arrived. I carefully placed a few select phone calls to those a little older and wiser than myself to see if they agreed with my decision - 2 out of 3 said go for it so it was full steam ahead! My good friend Zoe arrived to take me to the airport and found me in my usual state of chaos with the extra bonus of me not having a visa thrown in there!! Several cans of diet coke resus later and I was at the airport with the parting words from Zoe just to call her if I arrived back in the country later that night!! Gulp!!

As I took my place in line to check in for my flight I was totally oblivious to the fact that without an active visa in my passport to enter Australia I wouldn't actually be allowed to leave New Zealand and get on the plane! I quickly became aware of that little rule when the counter lady calmly told me that I didn't have an approved visa to travel and that I would not be able to travel until it was approved - second near cardiac arrest - I had not anticipated having to start the blagging process so soon yet suddenly sentences like computer system error were falling out of my mouth! I was quickly directed to customer service desk and after the longest 30 minutes of my life where I swear my heart only threw off a single beat each minute I finally had a visa!

And so I am now safely and legally in Australia in the warmth of the Brisbane sun where the weeks temperatures are predicted at 24-26 degrees! The Capricorn Coast is about 2-3 degrees warmer so tomorrow it will be time to get out in the sunshine and back in the racing zone that I momentarily stepped out of for 24 hours during the visa chaos!

It feels good to have some sunshine on my skin :)