The Slowest Sixteen Days of the Year

I have sixteen days left until Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I am therefore in full taper mode. Yuck.

This is the time of year that I don't sleep well, I'm irritable, hungry, my muscles ache, and self-doubt starts to creep in. The only time I feel really good is after 10-20 minutes of running or riding. I'm starting to feel refreshed, which scares me because it's too early to feel this good (there's that self doubt again!). But I'm not allowed to open it up on the bike or during a run. "Save it for race day," Lindsay says. If race day doesn't come soon, I may explode.

In other news, I've had two races since my last update. I raced the inaugural Rotary Classic Rock Sprint Triathlon in Rockwall (where I live), and then one week later we made the trip down for the CapTex Olympic in Austin. Last year, I never felt like I raced well leading into the Ironman. This year, I haven't peaked yet (which is good), but I'm off to a much better start than last year.

I've been reasonably happy with both results. I ran 5:44 pace off the bike and finished second overall at the sprint. At the CapTex, I was over 3 minutes faster on the swim, only 4 seconds faster on the bike (although the course changed a little and some say there was an extra hill or two), and I was close to 4 minutes faster on the run. I wanted to break 40 minutes on the run, but was only able to do just over 41. Still, in one year, I had a much better swim, a faster bike split, and then ran a solid, steady pace, which was also faster than last year. That should mean that I'm ready to have a good day in Idaho.

Last weekend was my last long ride and run before the race. I felt good and had better results than in years past. This weekend I'll be doing a long(ish) bike/run brick on Saturday (40+mile ride followed by a 10+ mile run), and a swim/bike brick on Sunday (3800 meter swim (i.e., ironman distance) followed by a 40 mile bike).

I'm looking forward to these workouts. For one thing, I have some extra energy to burn, and this is my last chance to really wear myself out before the race. But the best thing about this weekend's schedule is that it looks fairly easy compared to the weekends I've had for the past several months. That tells me that my taper is going well, and more importantly, my mind is ready to race an Ironman. Hopefully, my body is ready as well.