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The week before the week before - tapering and random thoughts


And don't go crazy
This week officially began our two week taper. It's fairly common knowledge that tapering is almost as difficult as training is for triathletes. Anxiety rises as the race gets closer and all you want to do is train more; but at this point, nothing we do in terms of swimming, biking, or running will increase our fitness for the race. If we push hard during these two weeks, it can only hurt us and send us into the race over-trained. I've read multiple places that it's better to go into Ironman 10% under-trained than 1% over-trained. 
Training is nice and easy this week - MUCH shorter across the board:
Monday: 3600 meter swim (1:15 in the water)
Tuesday: 75 minute turbo trainer (HR 3 intervals) and 20 minute transition run 
Wednesday: 4000-4600m key swim and 60-90 minute easy spin (optional)
Thursday: 60-70 minute interval run (we've been doing 90 minutes)
Friday: OFF!!!
Saturday: optional 30 minute swim, key short 2-2.5hr bike, key 15 minute run. (this is SO short in comparison to our normal Saturday workouts, it's unreal!)
Sunday: optional 60 minute easy ride, 60 minute run at HR 2.

 This week I have a lot of things going on outside of training. I'm heading to Portland for work tomorrow and Friday morning I head to Tacoma for 2 days for Jen's wedding! We're spending the night down near the venue. I can't believe her big day has finally come and I am so excited and honored to get to be a part of it. It's going to be a fantastic weekend celebrating a couple I love!

 Random thoughts...
Our condo looks like this most days of the week....
It's strange to think that in two weeks, I won't spend hours on my trainer in our condo (for a while at least). This has become a normal Tuesday, Wednesday, some Fridays, Saturday, and Sunday activity for me. This is what it looks like to have a trainer in a  tiny condo - (and yes, there are two fans on me and a towel under to catch sweat - bike rides are sweaty without the wind of riding outdoors!) The only reason I've been able to stay up on my favorite TV shows has been because of hours on my trainer... weird to think it'll be put away in a closet soon and not a constant fixture in our living room! If you're looking to buy a trainer, our Kinetic itself is fantastic, BUT the app for it SUCKS! It craps out all the time. 
Wilson loves sleeping right next to me

What's next? I'll wait to make any decisions until after Ironman to see how the race goes - but I've been thinking a lot about whether my next adventure will be an ultramarathon or a destination Ironman. One of the great things about Ironman is since you're training in 3 sports, you're not over training certain muscles, whereas marathon training can take a toll on your joints and lead more easily to injury (at least for me!) What I would love about ultra training would be trail running. I miss trail running a lot as I don't have direct access to any woods/forests or anything like that out my door anymore. I love getting lost running in the woods and if I was ultra training, I'd have to drive to trails on the weekends to run on which would be nice. Right now with Ironman training, the last thing I want to do is waste time driving somewhere just to run, I'm short enough on free time as it is!

I have to say, I don't know how I would have pushed through training without Isaac. It's been so incredible to share all of this with him. We've both grown so much as triathletes - from barely being able to get through a brick workout to living the tri life. As much as I've grown and love the sport, Isaac has really found his passion. He loves triathlons and is incredibly good at them (I mean, if you place in every race that means you're good, right?!). I'm so thankful we found something we both love and get to spend time together doing. 

Also, let's be real, Isaac practically forced me out of bed at 6am every weekend to get our long rides in. Ugh, why are long rides the worst. Let's hope my last long ride is the best I have.

12 days.

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