Taper Thoughts

Today marks the beginning of my taper period for Ironman Wisconsin. I can’t believe it’s finally
here. It seems like so long ago that I signed up. A lot was happened in the past year….Example A) Lindsey
and are now parents.

So, I celebrated my last “hard” long weekend sessions in true fashion on Sunday with a Chiporle burrito, a couple of Upland Rad Red Ale pints and a massive bowl of ice cream and cookies. It was amazing.

• Saturday: 85 mile ride, short run, and 1000m swim. 
• Sunday: 1:30 run at open marathon race pace

With the last weekend and pig out behind me I look ahead to two weeks of recovering, rest, and
cleansing my mind and body to prepare to tackle Ironman Wisconsin on September 9 th.

I’d be lying to myself and anyone who reads this, (most importantly myself) if I tried to say that
I am not at all anxious or nervous. I think that is normal though… if I wasn’t….that would be more of a red flag. It’s not so much a question of completing the race…I guess things can always happen that finishing becomes an issue but I’m just really anxious to see how I handle and react to the day and how hard I can push myself. I think in the end that is really what it boils down to…anyone outside of myself, Lindsey, and other internet stalkers of race results (like myself) could care less what time I have two Sundays from now. Whether it’s 10:30, 12:30, or 14:30 the average person that I interact with will still think I am crazy. I often think I might be.

My goal is to try and keep the internal pressure and second guessing to a minimum. I have to have faith in my plan. I have faith and belief in what I have done over the last 6-8 months…I am ready.

Lindsey said last night that she wished I had made more training entries on the blog and as I think
about that the thing I keep coming back to is if you do it right the entries would be rather boring. To be
honest, my Ironman training has been pretty boring. It is just a day in day out grind…get in do the work
and recover. There is no magic formula, no secret weapon…it is all about putting in the work. Being
consistent. I believe I have done that. As I look back, could I have changed things…yeah I am sure I could
have but like I said nothing of value can done about it now.

I’m not one for keeping extremely detailed training logs. Don’t get me wrong I have very detailed
training plans to execute each week but I am not one to go back and record daily/weekly milage like a
lot of people I know do.

If I look back over the 16 weekly plans I would estimate that I have done the following: 

• 100,000 yards of swimming (probably should have done more)
• 2,250 miles of bike riding
• 750 miles of running.

Those numbers are probably a little loose but probably pretty close to the actual…some weeks more some weeks less. Come September 9th…will this be enough? Only time will tell.

October at the Miami 1/2 Ironman – looking forward to a better race for he full.

Next stop: Ironman Wisconsin

P.S. Good luck to Lindsey this weekend as she makes her return to the running scene. My prediction is
1:48:15 for the half…not bad 9 weeks after a baby.