It's funny how a physical and mental state can change over the course of a week. Last week I was barely functional for Sunday's long run, and I absolutely HATED biking by the end of the hot 100 miler with lots of climbing. This week, everything was wonderful. I'll call this taper euphoria. Actually, I tried not to taper too hard since the first week was just supposed to be letting off the gas a little bit. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with this taper, but I figure that since I'm going for a middle of the pack, average at best, please just let me finish Ironman, pretty much anything I do that isn't overtraining should be ok. Here's what I settled on for the week.
Monday
am- 4200 yard swim, with main set (5 x 100 fr desc @ 1:40 - 1000 fr @ 15 - 5 x 100 fr desc @ 1:40 - 1000 fr @ 15 - 5 x 100 fr desc @ 1:40). I had some pretty good 1000s (13:52, 13:45 cruising effort) although my arms were tired at the end. By the end of my workout I was sharing the pool with only two other people- a co-worker of Travers and a girl I met a few times at masters. Travers' co-worker did IM Canada in 2014 and asked me if I thought I was ready. "How do I know if I'm ready??" He didn't have a great answer, and with less than sufficient evidence he re-assured me I was ready. The girl from master's told me she has just returned from IM CDA (the hottest IM of all time) and I was in awe that she finished. She too said I was "more than ready", also with less than sufficient evidence. At least fellow triathletes are nice :)
pm- easy 60 min spin. After last weekend's ridiculous bike-run combo, I decided to give my legs some active recovery rather than forcing them into intervals.
Tuesday
am- 3000 yard swim (lazy and slow... turns out my arms were tired)
pm- 6.5 mile run, easy effort/no watch
Wednesday
30.0 mile bike commute, 13.2 mph. I moved cubicles to a new building which made my commute 30.0 miles instead of 29.7. I should have moved months ago... I prefer round numbers. Even though there was a nasty, ridiculous headwind (see red arrow in the picture), my legs felt great and I somehow managed to enjoy the ride. So weird!!
Usually 19 mph from the west has me loudly shouting "you gotta be f-ing kidding me" into the wind as I climb the hill along 580... but somehow during taper this ride was just peachy.
Thursday
8 mile run, alternating 2 mi easier effort/2 mi harder effort (7:53 overall pace). The harder miles were tough, but I felt comfortable enough running at this pace which was a HUGE improvement over last week's running.
Friday
3250 yards at master's swim practice.
Saturday
65 mile bike ride/ 13.6 mph / 5400 ft climbing
Imagine waking up on a Saturday morning thinking "this is so great.... I only have to ride 4.5-5 hours today!!" That's exactly how I felt before this ride. The positive mental attitude must've helped, because the ride went great. We did a ride I've done about 6 times in training but backwards, introducing a bit of unfamiliarity (it sounds weird, but when you're going down a hill, it's extremely difficult to gauge how challenging it would be to be going up that hill). All the climbing went great though. While I was riding I found myself picturing the final climb in Whistler. I am hoping that it is my Heartbreak Hill. When I ran Boston, I had built up Heartbreak Hill to be this mountain and trained my ass off for it. When I got there, I paced myself accordingly and when I finally reached the top I couldn't believe I was already there. Let's hope the hill in Whistler goes something like this, rather than to the other extreme (you know... where the hill is actually worse than you could've ever imagined was possible). The latter is more likely but I'll keep you blog people posted.
It was such a clear day, and it turns out riding in 70 degrees is SO much more enjoyable than 95 degrees! We ride Grizzly Peak almost every weekend, but I wanted a photo to commemorate our last long ride of this seemingly endless Ironman training cycle.
Sunday
12 mile run, 8:35 pace. This run wasn't exceptional in any way, except that I feel it's exactly where I want to be 2 weeks out from the race. I was able to very comfortably run 8:35 pace, while still feeling that there is some fatigue and tightness I can continue to workout over the next couple of weeks and therefore I am justified to taper/rest more.
I can count on one hand the number of swims, bikes, and runs I have left before the Ironman. Scary thought!
Man, your first taper week was so much more successful than mine. My week makes it look like I straight up forgot that we're doing an Ironman.
ReplyDeletePinehurst/3 bears/Grizzly/Tunnel in reverse - how intriguing! Maybe I'll try that the next time I'm prepping for a tri... which may be never :P.
And if anyone out of our group is ready for this IM, it's you! FACT.
- Chen
It was weird in reverse! To be honest, I thought it was easier climbing-wise. However, the descents were scarier (Pinehurst and Tunnel instead of Berkeley and Joakim Miller. Not that Joakim Miller isn't terrifying but at least it's straight and fairly well-paved. Tunnel has so many holes I felt like I was in a nintendo game of some sort). We can do Olympic distance tris from now on :) And thanks for your vote of confidence... I'm still not entirely convinced though.
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