Jackie D - Week 42

Week 42 - starting Monday 2 July 2007

Original Scheduled hours: 10hrs 30 mins
Actual hours: 10hrs 30mins (I hope)

Well this was the first week of the taper but to be honest it didn’t really feel like it. Frequency of workouts was same and pretty much all same length as usual except long run and bike - these were scheduled for end of week so I didn’t really notice a difference in volume til the weekend. Of course that is my way of justifying that I can still eat the same amount as I am used to. I must watch that next week as the volume really drops.

Swimming was all in the lake this week but this time with more of a purpose. One swim was doing fast/slow intervals between the buoys and the other was steady aerobic pace with sighting practice so I stopped as little as necessary. I even managed to get up early for both of them. I got back home from one of my swims and found the bath had been run…….to digress for a second or two - there are 2 things that I take extreme, neurotic care about and won’t let my family touch - my bike and my wetsuit. Fred jokingly called my bike “Precious” once as I get so upset if anyone goes near where it is hanging in the garage (what can I say, I have 2 boys who think kicking a ball around a garage or shooting nerf guns is fun!). Well my bike is now “Precious 1” because it has been noticed how I soak and rinse my wetsuit, hang it carefully in shade etc etc etc - it is now “Precious 2”…..
So… when I come back from my swim and the bath is run and ready I say to Fred, “Oh thanks you have run a bath for Precious”. “NO! “ he says jumping in “This bath is for Precious 3!” So, there now seems to be a hierarchy in our house.
I think it may have backfired a bit though, ‘cos one of my sons has so far been banned from having dessert for 23 years for touching Precious 1 and 2.

The workouts have seemed hard this week. Even the “easy” stuff has seemed like more effort than I expected. It must be psychological. On Saturday I had a 3 hour bike which was nice (not least to have to worry about refuelling stops) but I also had a 90 minute BT run to do. Due to family stuff I planned to do it in the evening but it was a real effort to get started. It even felt like an effort whilst out there - and that was shown by the data which confirmed I have metamorphosed into a snail. I just hope I can metamorphosise back into something a bit faster in the next 2 weeks.

My last bike of the week was to be a hill repeat thing doing some standing sprints up a hill. I rarely stand on the bike and was worried that I might not be able to move for a week afterwards if I use “new” muscles so we have agreed to change it into an easy bike. But give me an inch and I take a mile. I am now planning (the bike is not yet done) to count a family bike ride on my mountain bike as my easy bike. Actually it should be OK to count because my youngest son will be out on a playdate and the other one can go at a good pace. If not, I will just go out again later.

We had our last Ironman meeting on Sunday morning. We practiced grabbing bottles whilst riding along on the bike and then went over the details of the race (the athletes guide is out). It was nice to see everyone again and we are all excited about what we will be doing in TWO WEEKS TIME.


2 WEEKS TO GO