Meltdown.

Before I left, Coach Amy told me "When you find yourself crying on the bathroom floor...call me."

I fully expected this to happen race morning. Heck, I've even scheduled time in for a pre-race call to Amy.

So imagine my surprise this morning, when I woke up to get ready for the day's "mini tri" and suddenly found myself on the floor, leaning against the wall, sobbing. I questioned if it was too early to call.

I rationed that it was too early to call, and texted her instead.

Amy always seems to know what to say when I need to hear it most. After a handful of exchanges, I still couldn't move.

I whimpered for Mike in between sniffles.

And of course, he was dead to the world.

Tears streaming down my face, I did my breathing exercises. Did some visualization stuff. Did everything I could to collect myself.

Finally, I took a deep breath and told myself "If you don't pick yourself up off this floor, no one is going to..."

Emerging from the bathroom, I started to get ready. Mike rolled over, finally realized my distress, and offered up a hug.

A quick swim...bike...and run were on the schedule. And so we headed down to Tempe Town Lake to get wet.

The swim went swimmingly. No shoulder pain at all and acclimated quickly to the water.

After crawling out of the water, we met up with the Lovatos for a quick pep talk. I gotta tell ya, Amanda and Michael are two of the coolest, awesomest, most down to earth people in the sport. She reminded me that this is perfectly normal.

From there, a bike along the run course...and then of course, a quick little run for good measure.

When I returned, Lauren had arrived!! YAY! Shower. Lunch. Check-in. Side trip to Tempe Cyclery to get some threaded CO2 cartridges. Pick up Sleepy Sis at the airport!! YAY!! Chill in the room. Pull together special needs bags. Try not to think about tomorrow.

Most of the afternoon has been spent off my feet, fielding phone calls and texts and trying to keep myself distracted. So far...it's working pretty well.

I'm feeling okay at this point in time...pretty good, in fact. You ask me how I'm feeling in 20 minutes, and you'll get a different answer.

All that's left to do tonight is dinner, find my inner zen, and get to sleep...hopefully tomorrow won't find me on the bathroom floor...

...deep breaths...I got this...