T-10 days

I'm happy to report that Triathlon became fun again shortly after my last post. I've been figuring out what exactly my body needs in order to recover well enough to do it again the next day. And I think that overall I'm getting stronger so I can tolerate more.

I laughed a little when I reread my last post... how a 90 minute bike ride seemed so long, because my longest ride of 2.5 hours last week makes everything else not seem so bad. Granted, that was a rough week, but still.

On Tuesday I swam with a wetsuit for the first time! Those suckers are not easy to get on! Since winter didn't want to go away and spring has been so mild, my race is probably going to be wetsuit legal (water temp under 78), and maybe necessary. I ended up renting a suit that luckily fits. I was a little bit skeptical since I just told them my height, weight, and general build and they just send one.

Phil, me, and Glen pre-swim

I'm so glad to have gotten an open water swim with the wetsuit before the race. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely different and my shoulders were getting tired during the second half of our swim.

Yesterday, I rode for 2 hours and felt really good, but then struggled a lot on the run.  The run was supposed to be 40 minutes, but it ended up being an hour because mentally I needed it to be race distance (10k).  I felt okay for the first few miles, but then it just got hard.  I think my biggest problem was dehydration, because I was outside from 12-330 on a muggy 85 degree day (I'm NOT complaining about the heat!) so I know I sweat out more than a few pounds. I had water with me, but not enough to compensate. My pace (not including walk breaks- which I didn't want to take but desperately needed) was actually pretty good which was both surprising and comforting.  Hopefully race day hydration won't be as much of an issue since it's earlier in the day and there will be water stations every mile by the time I get to the run.  I'm not sure how I'll be after swimming almost a mile, though. It might be hard to catch up on fluids?  I don't know! I've never done this before! Ah!!! 10 days!!! Freak out!!!

The way my training fell into place this week wasn't ideal. I ended up having to do a 50 minute ride/20 minute run today after my 3 hours yesterday, and my legs were TIRED. They get a day off tomorrow, though, since it's -thankfully- a swim day.

I'm now into taper mode. This is the first race I've actually followed a training plan for, so while I've tapered to some extent for some races, I've never seen it written down on paper, and I don't even know if I've tapered this much before. Going from a 10.5 hour training week to a 7.5 hour training week was okay (and kind of a nice break), but next week is only 3.5 hours!!!!!  That's shorter than what I did last Thursday! It hurts my brain a little bit.

My view for hours.