Taper Blues

Welcome back.

The last couple of months have being crazy; there was always something to do that kept me very busy. For the last 4 months I was working on my last semester of school and in August 12 I submitted my last assignment for the Master's in Management Information System and the degree was conferred last week. Besides school I was putting long hours on training; I was always doing something away from home. There were days that I came home late at night after a long swim or run (this made the wife little mad). While juggling school and training, in July we went a 4 days vacation trip to Boston; it is a pretty cool city.

Now, moving to the task on hand. Last three weeks of training were dedicated to speed/quality work outs. After building on endurance for the better part of the training program, it was now time to get the necessary speed to finish in my goal time. As for swimming, I pushed a little harder but nothing noticeable. I am relying a on the river current (Augusta 70.3 is a river swim) and the fact the is wetsuit legal to achieve the goal time of 30 minutes for the 1.2 mile swim. On the bike portion I did improve a lot during speed training and I am able to reach the 56 miles in 2 hours and 30 minutes. This time was achieved at Key Biscayne, FL were I was able to experience wind currents that push me for half of the loop and hold me back the other half. And last but not least is the run, I only did the distance once through out the whole training program and that was last week (you would of known that if you followed me on twitter). At a relatively easy pace with 1-2 minute walk every 3 miles I did the 13.1 miles run in 2 hours 4 minutes. Considering that transitions are smooth and every other thing remains true and constant, I will be able to finish the 70.3 mile distance around 5 hours.

As far as nutrition goes, nothing changed since my last post regarding training to Augusta 70.3.

This week I started the TAPER process: tapering refers to the practice of reducing exercise in the days before the race. It feels great to taper, I can do an easy work out, barely break a sweat, and feel great. But with tapering it comes a side effect that some people feel, and the title of this post, TAPER BLUES. If you search online there is a myriad of articles that refer to this "condition" and all of its varying symptoms. As for me it is only the feeling of tiredness. I can go for a work out, perform amazingly but during rest I feel more tired than normal. I often feel the need to nap after work just before a workout or the need to move a morning workout to the evening so I can sleep in.

So....Augusta is less than 2 weeks from today. Anxiety is eating me inside that I just want to go, race, and be done with it.

Thanks for reading.

See you in the next post.