Wednesday Words {Dare Mightly Things}

It’s Taper Time!

For those of you unfamiliar with a Taper:

Per Wikipedia (the always correct, all knowing website):

Tapering: In the context of sports, tapering refers to the practice of reducing exercise in the days just before an important competition.^[1]Tapering is customary in many endurance sports, such as the marathon, athletics and swimming. For many athletes, a significant period of tapering is essential for optimal performance. The tapering period frequently lasts as much as a week or more.

Per my own definition:

Tapering: A week where….  one must try to stay off his/her feet to rest (harder than it sounds), and try not to go stir crazy in anticipation of the race ahead.

Which probably means…

• Catch up on all the movies and TV that I’ve wanted to watch.  (Why hello, Orange is the New Black, Season 2!…(small confession, I may or may not have jumped the gun on this over the weekend… so if anyone has any recommendations, I’ll probably need a new show by Wednesday).
• Catch up on my running and triathlon magazines I haven’t yet read.
• Start a new book.
• Cook & bake a bunch of food.
• Knit something.

It’s kind of like being sick and stuck on the couch without actually being sick – you’re just stuck trying to rest and relax – which is more difficult for someone who is used to being on the go all the time than it should be.

Unfortunately, due to all the house work, yard work, and other things I want to be doing – I will be struggling with the goal of staying off my feet.

However, despite of the pending to-do list, I am going to do my best to embrace this week and the opportunity to kick back and relax (as much as I can manage).

Yes, it’s finally here. Race Week. Minimal workouts, excitement as the course sets up at Jamesville Beach, and waiting for the fun to begin on Sunday morning.

I’m so excited for this race, it’s not even funny. And even with my love-hate relationship with tapering, I’m so excited for this week!

But first, let’s recap last week:

Weekly Workouts//

• Monday – Rest Day & Girls Night Out!
• Tuesday – 2050 yard swim – 50 Yard Sprints – Hit some new records!
• Wednesday – Brick – 1:30 Bike with Hill Repeats, 15 minute Run
• Thursday – AM – 1 Mile Open Water Swim
• Thursday – PM – Ragnar Fun Run at Fleet Feet – 45 minutes, 5 miles- ran with and met some amazing people!
• Friday – 2000 yard swim – 300 repeats
• Saturday – Brick – 2:30 Bike for 40 Miles, 30 Minute Run for 3.5 Miles on the 70.3 Course
• Sunday – Long Run – 1:30 for 10 Miles on 70.3 Course

Weekly Totals//

• Swim – 1 hour, 40 minutes – 5810 yards/3.3 Miles
• Bike –  Included in my Brick Sessions this week…
• Run – 2 hours, 15 minutes – 15 miles
• Brick – 4 hours, 45 minutes – 60 miles Biking/5.25 miles Running
• Total Time – 8 hours, 20 minutes

Weekly Photo Recap//

Tuesday morning, back at the office… apparently avoiding the office for a big birthday the weekend prior does not work. Glitter everywhere. Seriously, I think I’ll be finding it for the entire year to come!

Peonies, my favorite! So excited for this bouquet!!

The feeding trough. You’ve got to hand it to our office, we know how to do food courts and birthday tables well…

I love frosting. And sugar cookies. Healthy eating was totally blown out the door for the day, but totally ok with it.

My swim times from Tuesday AM… considering I started in January at a 1:51/100yd pace, I’m blown away. Of course my times won’t be this good during the race (sprints are waaaaayy different from a long swim), but it’s exciting to see this type of progress!

Spotted on Wednesday, the trucks are here!

Miss Roxie at the vet. Not sure if she loves or hates coming here… I think she loves to antagonize other dogs and cats, hates the actual doctor part.

Word. (Or, should I say words?)

If you haven’t caught on, I love different quotes and sayings. The world can do with more thinking. Less Lemmings. (Although I do like Lemurs, especially the Disney-fied, errr DreamWorks ones.)

Random Dinner Dish. (aka, Throw all the things together and hope for the best. Continue to modify until you like said dinner.)

Bronco helped with the cooking Saturday morning. And by help, I mean cleaned out the left over peanut butter from the jar. 

Last bike ride on the course before race day. Didn’t expect nor dress for the 50 degree weather – it took 20 minutes into my run before I could feel my feet again!

Birthday gift from a friend! 

Post my final long brick session of this training cycle.

Sweaty, tired, happy. 

It’s race week, automatic must – teal nail polish for race day. Love me some triathlon tradition. 

Since I can’t plant my garden, due to the lack of progress on the garage painting front, I embraced container gardening in full force this weekend!

The pups are so helpful with gardening…

Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers… and happy to report we have veggies already, despite the fact they’ve been hanging out in their tiny little seed trays for weeks. 

Also, a little update from garden #1… we have broccoli!! 

Finally, Sunday had a number of different conflicts that delayed my run until pretty late in the evening. However, due to those delays I had an amazing start to my run – I was set to run out on the 70.3 course, which for those who are not familiar, contains some pretty serious hills. Needless to say, this course has never been a running destination that I seek out for fun. I was not particularly looking forward to my final long run (even though it was my last long run before the 70.3…) but I had an awesome surprise – as I started to run, I realized a couple of hot air balloons were launching for an evening flight.

And then I realized they were tracking along the valley that the run course crosses…

And they just kind of hung around…

And I discovered that I can run faster than they can travel…

I had some good company along my first 3 miles headed out…

Can’t complain about this experience to close out this training cycle! 

So, there you have it! The final intense week of training in the books. I’ll probably check back in later this week for the final taper week check-in, pre-race thoughts, musings, and pictures – then it’ll be go time!

Here’s to looking forward to a week of forced relaxation, I hope you all had a great weekend and have a fantastic week!

Cheers!

Never Outrun Your Joy

The number one rule – enjoy the process & make sure training is not just another thing to check off the list.

Every run may not be fun, but there is some fun in every run.

Faith

Source: Life:Beautiful

Don’t waste your time.