Tapering for a race, personally I suck at taper. I enjoy the workouts and the way I feel afterwards. I like getting out of bed with a purpose and being able to think to myself at 8:00 AM that I have already done more today than probably 80% of my neighbors.
My neighbors, that I see regularly, as I head out the door for run or bike always bring me a smile. On brick days once in a while I get asked, didn’t I just see you on a bike. Depending on my heart rate at the time I either smile and grunt a yes or smile and say something like ‘such a great day to be outside, I couldn’t stop’. The school crossing guards, I don’t know how they do it, are always cheerful and smiling as well. I guess it must be that they wake up every day with a purpose too or maybe it’s the kids.
During taper week I go through any number of feelings, thoughts and actions. From boredom because I woke up at 4:00 am and only had a 30 minute workout, OH what to do with the additional time I have. To joyful bliss because I only had a 30 minute workout. More on this joyful bliss thing in a minute. Some days I think; do I start sorting my gear early, do I start planning for my next race, do I work on my nutrition for the race or do I sit and watch TV. TV should probably be the likely winner, but it’s not.
| During taper week I have more time to do my dogs favorite things, play and go for a walks. We put the tripod in a wagon, at 15 years old she doesn’t like to walk much more than a hundred yards or so, unless she sees the UPS truck. She has a love/hate relationship with the UPS truck. I’m just not sure which it is. | ||
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Joyful bliss, don’t take this the wrong way, a 30 minute workout is rarely enough to bring me the high and feelings of accomplishment that a 6 or 10 mile run brings or a Zone 2-3 bike. Depending on the intensity a 30 minute workout could be similar to a blissful walk in the park or a ‘what the heck am I doing to myself’ workout. Better not be not the later during taper week.
Sorting my gear and planning for my next race. Seems like I sort gear just about every other week for a brick, so who wants to do this any more than needed. Planning for my next race, well yeah I do that. I’m already studying different plans to see what will work in my weekly schedule and checking my budget to see if there are any professional services I can afford. Take your head out of the gutter, I mean coaching, chiropractic care, massage and hopefully not physical therapy.
At this point if I’m still thinking about race nutrition I made more than a couple mistakes in my training. This is probably true for all of us. How many times have we read and been told to practice nutrition during training sessions, especially long ones.
TV, binge watching is not something I do. I watch about 30 minutes of news and one episode of one show a day. Since I am fortunate enough to ba able to work from home I may watch part of a documentary at lunch. Though I do love a good movie on the weekends.
Soap Box Rant: Don’t forget overtime at work, with less training I tend to work more. It would be great if taper week and employee evaluations woud line up. I think this would make for bigger raises. I think it’s funny how the cost of racing seems to out-pace pay raises and the inflation rate. Ironman entry fees seems to be going up 10% every year, Inflation 2.5% or more and pay if we’re lucky 2-4%. WTF is that about.
I also seem to find more time to clean house, wash the car, perform bike maintenance, cook and spend time beautiful bride. I am very lucky, she is an endurance athlete too and very supportive of me, as I try to be for her as well. She is definitely better at supporting me than I am of here. We try to schedule our race season so our training over laps but allows us to do things like volunteer at each others races and be there to do training session SAG for the really long runs and rides. She did just get a paddle board so hopefully she’ll join me on an OWS once in a while and be a middle of the lake island for rest.
Ok enough about my taper week. During your next taper week think about how you spend it and some of the things you get to do, or not, during taper week. It’s amazing how some of the most important things get lost, forgotten about or become insignificant during peak training season. I personally need to keep some things as bigger priority during peak training season. Maybe I should get a dog that can run 10 miles.
Thanks for reading,
Be fast, Be Safe, Stay healthy.
MIke