Tapering...

I finished up my ride today and there is definitely some soreness in the left hand. I still have little to no mobility in my wrist and thumb, so it makes reacting to bumps in the road quite uncomfortable. I did not expect that I would have 100% recovery at this point, so I am taking it in stride, hoping that, with each day, I regain more and more ability.

I had planned on heading out for a 100k ride today with the group, and then I looked at my plan, and realized it was supposed to be 110k. Geez, aren't we tapering? Even the 100k seemed a little too long at this point. I was willing to let that go and, at the least, hold back a bit and have a couple of tempo sessions during the ride, but the group was hopped up on excess coffee or something, because they all went out at a pace that just seemed to be a little quick for a taper week. I had two choices, stick with the group or follow what I felt made sense. When I realized our ride might be closer to 115-120k, I made my decision not to go the whole distance. Nothing against anybody out there, but I just wasn't convinced this was going to be helpful.

You have to look, sometimes, at what can be gained vs what can be lost when making any decision. I looked at a long ride of 4-5 hours as having no real benefit, but the potential for negatives, like being fatigued for the race and not adequately recovering. Based on everything I've heard and read, your two weeks prior to a big race are all about getting to the start line as fresh as you can. This doesn't mean shutting down completely for the whole two weeks, but I believe it does mean using workouts to "sharpen the saw," rather than prove something about your fitness. So, when we hit Iona Beach, I made the decision to go back with two others. Our ride wound up around 95km, which was perfect.

The thing is, of course we all feel good and could do more. But what do we gain by it? I felt good after the ride and I know, having done several 160+ rides, a 180k ride and a 210k ride throughout the summer, that I have the bike legs developed. I am not going to lose that in 2 weeks, especially if I just keep biking consistently. For those who haven't done the mileage, maybe it's important to build up more and taper less, but in reality, what does one gain in one week that can help them get through 180k. I have never seen this in anything I have read or with anybody I've talked to who has experience.

Lisa Bentley taught us, at the camp, that the last two weeks are about short stuff and muscle memory. Doing short sessions with more intensity and having longer rests in between intervals. Again, that doesn't mean "do nothing", it just means nothing that should make fatigue you too much.

Anyway, that is me taking responsibility for my own program. If I am wrong, it's my fault and I'll have nobody to blame but me.

And, in all fairness, I had never really talked with my coach about his tapering process, so I feel as though the ball was in my court to bring it up and, when I saw my schedule, I should have at least asked some questions.

I'm going to the pool tomorrow to try some short drills to get a feel for the water again. I am not sure how to approach this week with swimming, but I think that doing some balance drills, and some quick intervals but short sessions, will be the trick. Lisa suggested some reach drills, and doing some 400's at a higher tempo when my hand can handle it. I plan to do this:
200 meter warmup
300 meter various rolling drills and reach drills.
2x 400 intervals
200 meter cooldown (choice of stroke)
TOTAL: 1500 meters

I have a 20k run set up for tomorrow before the swim...

I think I have started to think up some themes. One thing I have realized is that you cannot race at half effort to feel like you accomplished something. I don't care what my finishing time is, but what I do care about is whether or not I put my whole self, mind, body and spirit, into the race. I do want to throw my heart over the top and have it pull my body to it. I want to be completely engrossed in the race while I am there, and give it 100%, and not be a holdout. I think I owe that, and we all deserve to give our best performance.

"Lift the podium!"