Taper Time

Monday evening I finally made it out to swim with John and Paula at their pond.  John's father owns a small farm of 70 acres with a pond.  Both of them have been doing Ironmans and were racing with my brothers over ten years ago.  They've mapped out a 400 meter swim course in the pond and my goal was to swim 10 laps.  I had already rode for 60 minutes and ran 35 minutes in the morning so I wondered how I would feel.  The water was very warm and almost too warm for a wet suit.  Also with the hot weather we've been having, it has promoted lots of algae growth but a least the water was clearer than Lake Wilcox.  In some places, I could see the bottom.  In Lake Wilcox, I couldn't see past my arm.  The swim went pretty smooth and I swam the first 2,000 meters in 37 minutes and finished 4,000 meters in 1:17 but more importantly, my heart rate was about 129 bps.  The last time I swam at Lake Wilcox, my heart rate was racing at 165 bps but I was trying to keep up to my friends.  That swim was a huge confidence booster.

Yesterday, I swam in the morning and had a light 45 minute run in the afternoon.  I came home from work and headed out immediately and that turned out to be a mistake.  I was supposed to run in zone one but that would have meant walking but I did keep an easy pace.  I should have eaten something before heading out as I was starving after 20 minutes and took a gel.  As I continued on, the shakes appeared and I had to take a second gel.  Yes that's two gels for a 45 minute run and I barely finished.  I've never bonked but I think I was pretty close


The taper has already started. Hard to believe its only two weeks to go!!  This week I've been tired and hungry all the time but I'm almost at race weight.  Looking back on Training Peaks since Jan 15th, I've:

Rode:  3,629 km in 164 hours.  Planned workout was 164 hours.  I guess its time to change my chain

Run:  453 km in 57 hours.  Planned workout was 89 hours.  I had running injuries in Feb, March, April, May and half of June).  I told coach I get hurt a lot.  As of Father's Day in mid June, I couldn't run as my foot kept swelling up so I'm basically trying to cram for a marathon in two months.  This is going to hurt!

Swim:  36,900 meters in 57 hours.  Planned workout was 75 hours.  I didn't record my distance while swimming with Masters which ended in June.  I was also surprised how low the percentage completed was but then I remembered I told coach to add a third swim per week but only made it once or twice.

That's all I got!  16 days to go