Let the Taper Begin!

As of Monday, July 15th, I am in my third taper of the year, this time for Ironman Lake Placid.  Two weeks to rest and hone my swim, bike, and run. 

It's exciting and nerve racking all at the same time.  I enjoy the 6 hour bike rides, the 2 hour runs, the crazy brick workouts, and two-a-days.  I feel good being exhausted from my workouts.  I'm comfortable with the physical and mental drain they provide.  And my members/clients enjoy knowing that I've worked out before they do; otherwise they tend to get a harder workout themselves.

However, I am also looking forward to having a little more free time to catch up on the things that have been neglected over the past few months; laundry, cleaning my room, this blog, reading, sleep, napping, and such.  Even having an hour or two more each day will let me slow things down so I don't feel rushed 24/7.  

I can't say I have my taper skills down to a science yet, but it is always a great experience to see all the hard work I've put in transition into natural speed.  There's always one workout during my taper - usually an short, easy run - where I calculate my pace afterwards and get a little shock at being some 30 seconds per mile faster than I would have guessed. 

Lake Placid will be Ironman #2 for me.  At this point I doubt I'll do it again next year, but I have been looking at Rev3 Cedar Point for 2014.  We'll see what happens.  I may need some time post-race just to remember why I like doing these things.  haha

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Questions
1.  How long do you taper before a big race?  
Ironman is 2 weeks for me, marathon is 1.5 weeks, half marathon/ironman is 1 week.

2.  Is there at least one thing that gets neglected during your training that gets attention again once you're in a taper?
Cleaning is probably #1 for me.  I spend weeks pulling clean clothes out of my hamper because I don't have time to fold them.  My room is an organized mess most days and the kitchen/bathroom gets spot cleaned whenever something starts looking horribly bad, but never cleaned fully top-to-bottom.

3. When is your next big race and what is it?
Ironman Lake Placid, two weeks.


DREAM.  BELIEVE.  ACHIEVE.