Two days

Yesterday was a day of travel. Today was a day of (mostly) rest. No workouts, but enough walking with the various errands of the day to keep blood moving. I'll be out for some real loosening up tomorrow morning.

I started off my picking up my bike. It was shipped down a couple of weeks ago with a service that runs down for IMFL and Clearwater. It was a short walk from my hotel, so I got that out of the way early, so I could do any last-second tuning and turn my attention to other matters. Then I was off to the athlete village, for registration and souvenir shopping. The registration went exceptionally fast, I sat down with a volunteer who dumped out the package and we went through every item before putting it back into the envelope. There's a fair bit to keep track of with all of the gear bags and stickers and bibs, but it will be managed. Next stop was to go to the official Clearwater store and pick up some goodies. I ended up scoring a couple of shirts, coffee mug, and a toque to remind me of sunny Florida on the cold days.

In another expo tent I got wrangled into giving Powercranks a demo. They definitely feel different than regular cranks. Maybe it's because I learned to pedal circles years ago, but I got the hang of them pretty quick. They use the hip flexors more than normal, whether that's a good thing or a worthwhile training adaptation is open for debate. The demonstrator did mention that I probably wouldn't get much benefit to my cycling (since I already have the form it's trying to teach) but it might be able to help my running. That was actually refreshing honesty, since usually you'll hear that they will raise your FTP 40%, take 10 minutes off your marathon time, whiten your teeth and give you longer-lasting erections.

After a nap in the afternoon, it was time for the welcome banquet. A great buffet spread on the beach of Clearwater, just as the sun was setting. Not by the beach, but on it. Great set up. They went through the usual speeches, and the a local Boy Scout troop acted as Color Guard, and brought out the flags of all the nations with participants. This was probably the first huge "OK, this IS the World Championships" moment. Very cool.

Now I need to get me some sleep and finally beat this cold that's been hanging around too long.