And so begins the "taper"

Can't say no to these faces...or no to a pug snuggle!

Welp...the IronMan is LESS THAN 30 DAYS AWAY!  Absolutely terrifying.  I did get some good workouts in this past week....the biggest ones being a 27 mile run one day, 5000 yards in the pool another, and a 112 mile bike.  There were shorter runs/rest days in between these biggie workouts...but I did find myself exhausted at the end of week.  For example, a 2 hour nap snuck up on me while I was laying on the floor at home with the 5 pugs...even though I woke up at 11:30.  whooooops.  At least I enjoyed a pug snuggle!

These workouts were good because I know I can at least do each individual part of the IronMan, but by that same hand I was really tired after all these workouts...and on November 17th I must do them all in a row  :/

Anyways...I officially started my taper weeks off with a 3500 yard swim today.  The workout was actually a good mix of everything, i.e kicking, some fast sets, and some longer sets.  It felt pretty good to do some shorter work in the pool after my last 5000 yard workout, which had a brutal and reallllllly boring 4 x 800 set in it.

Anytime I want to scare myself I look at this on my phone

In looking ahead this week, I see that this taper business is kinda lie, as I have a double brick tomorrow (30 mile bike followed by a 3 mile run...twice), a swim on Wednesday, a run on Thursday, another brick Saturday (2 mile swim followed by 4-6 hours of biking), and then a 20 mile run on Sunday.  I have done similar workouts before...and definitely done longer ones, but when I saw the word "taper" I imagined...not this week ahead hahaha.  Ah well, I am terrified of not being ready, so I
suppose a fake taper is good thing to keep me mentally in the game and my endurance up.

IMAZ you are waaaaaaaay to close!
   

43 Days!

It's been 3 weeks since I finished my half iron and I have completed some difficult workouts since then.  In fact, my tripceps and lats still feel shaky after my double workout on Tuesday.  However, despite these accomplishments I can safely say I am getting more and more nervous, and feeling less and less prepared for November 17.    Part of this is due to general stress in school and life, but jeeeeeeeeeeez I can't seem to find the time to fit these long workouts in.

Hopefully I will be this happy at IMAZ!

For example, tomorrow is a triple brick workout totaling 90 miles cycling and 15 miles running.  Do I dare try to complete that even though I have to study for 3 medical school finals next week?  I guess I'm going to have to get up at the crack of dawn to get that done :(

But enough bitching!  It has been great weather this week for runs and I completed my best mile pacing workout to date: A total of 9 miles, with the middle 5 at pace.  I was able to do those 5 miles at under a 7 min mile pace!  The 5th mile might have been right at 7 minutes, and I had to stop and almost die before finishing my last, slow 2 miles, but I was REALLY happy with that workout :)

Furthermore, because of the furlough, national parks are closed...or at least the roads are, which will lead to some great cycling in Rock Creek Park with no traffic!  While doing my 15 mile run yesterday, I saw a bizillion cyclists in the park taking advantage of the car free roads...I definitely need to do the same.   This will be a perfect reprieve from my normal fear of being run over by a car while cycling!

All in all, these next 43 days leading up to the IronMan will undoubtedly be filled with stress, but I need to keep looking at the positives and the FUN parts of these workouts!  T-minus 43 days!