Tapering

The race is just over a week away.  I will put a link up so that you can follow along during the race and track our progress.  I will also post our estimated split times, so that you know whether we are doing well....or not :)

This has been my first taper week and it's still 11 hours of training. Yesterday I had a one hour run and a 3 km swim.  I ran 11 km in the one hour, which is decent for me but not amazing.  It's interesting how some days I feel really great and some days it's such a struggle.  I have been trying to keep my heart rate in the lower end of my zone (around 155 bpm) because this is where I'd like to race.  That is until the last 10 km of the race, where I'll lay down everything I have left (that is, if there is anything left).  Last Saturday I had a GA2 (higher heart rate) run after my three hour bike and it felt AMAZING.  I had my speed at 4:15/km for most of the run.  Six months ago I would have had a hard time sprinting for 20 seconds at that pace but now I can run at that pace pretty comfortably.  Amazing what the human body is capable of when you train it properly.   

People have been asking me lately how much time I take off training before the race.  The answer is....NONE.  Weird, isn't it?  Before having a coach I used to take a few days off leading up to a race. This past summer I had training scheduled the day before my Olympic distance race and I posted a personal best and felt amazing on race day. 

Two days before the race we'll be able to check out part of the course for our 1 hour bike and 30 min swim.  The day before the race is a 30 min run, which will be followed by obscene amounts of stretching to make sure all the muscles are nice and loose and ready for the BIG DAY.