My initial thought was that taper would start right after the peak training weekend. But I was wrong. There was one more week with big numbers that I had to get through, and that just happened to be birthday weekend.
First, while bike and run are starting to wind down, the swims pick up. I have 30 minutes of additional swim time that are tacked on at the
beginning of each swim workout. That means a 4am alarm clock. I'll tell you, that extra half hour really does a number on me! As if I wasn't tired enough already....
Then, super hot weather kept me inside on the trainer for my midweek rides. Since I am so behind on laundry, I decided to use my old soccer jersey that's just been sitting around collecting dust. Gosh, I don't even really remember the last time I kicked a soccer ball... sometimes I miss it and wonder if I will return to playing after Ironman. Then I remember the 9:30pm start times, coming home so beat up and tired. We'll see... as of right now there are no plans whatsoever (soccer, triathlon, anything) for after October (other than Disney half marathon in January). But I digress...
Then, on Wednesday evening, I decided to skip the treadmill at the gym and come home and try to squeeze in a run before the rain started. I was not successful, and got caught in thunderstorms. Unfortunately, that meant that on Friday morning (birthday morning!), my shoes from that run were still wet AND my shoes from the long run the week before were still wet. That's mostly my fault for storing the soaking wet clothes on top of the shoes and not doing anything about the pile for the whole week.
Anyway, I grabbed the lesser wet of the two pairs, which is not the pair I normally do my long runs with, and set out for a birthday morning run with Paula. My plan was to get the run done on Friday, the bike on Saturday and then celebrate my birthday Sunday with Monday being a complete lounge day. I had to run a little further than Paula so I did an hour on my own before meeting up with her. I knew right away it was going to be a long day. Every step felt like it required a great deal of work, I could feel blisters forming from my wet shoes, and I only covered 3.8 miles in that first hour. After joining Paula, it didn't get any better, and she was feeling it too. We finally realized that we both had done our longest runs ever the previous Sunday (16 for me, 17 for Paula) and probably weren't recovered just 5 days later. So, we forgave ourselves for the crap run, and honestly I'm shocked that we were able to shuffle our way to just over 10 miles.
Then on Saturday, I headed down to Cambridge with a small group from Team Z to ride the IMMD course. After the hills the last few weeks, I really needed a break and to do a ride that was not demoralizing. Take a look at that pace!! I really felt like I was just cruising along. For a few minutes there I wondered if my Garmin was broken, or if somehow it got switched to kilometers instead of miles. I made sure to focus on the course and break up the ride into smaller chunks for race day. 12 miles to the high school (which I didn't do this ride), then 10 miles to the wildlife refuge which I made sure to enjoy the scenery. 3 miles through the refuge and then 5 miles to the next turn. 8 miles after that was the next turn and then it was 5 miles to the dreaded MD 16 route. I hate MD 16, and we're on it for about an hour... twice!
This day there was a decent wind on that road, and slowed down some, but managed to stay at 16.1mph at the end of the first loop (back at the high school). I decided rather than doing the whole loop again, my plan only called for 80 miles so I would do an out and back. I actually maintained 16.2mph for the first 60 miles, but then faced a nasty headwind after I turned around. Still, 15.5mph for 80 miles?! I will take it! Goal for IMMD is 14mph. I'm trying not to get too excited about that speed... any given day and all, and who knows what conditions will be on Oct 3...
Then, on Sunday it was finally time to play to celebrate my birthday! I spent the day on the river with Jon, Joann, Daz and Cindy, and then we went to a winery. Monday was complete and total lazy day! I slept in, laid in bed awhile, moved to the couch and watched 2 movies (Wild and Theory of Everything), took a long nap, ordered in dinner delivery. It was a perfect couple of days.
And.. I am happy to say that I am officially in taper mode! I have a 3 hour ride/1.5 hour run brick workout on the schedule for this weekend, and am going to return to Cambridge to give the Ironman course one more ride before the big day. I've started making my packing lists, race plan and to-do chores... hard to believe that in one month, this journey will all be over!
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