One Clydesdale’s Journey

Or, taper up and then taper down.

As if doing this whole triathlon thing wasn’t insane enough, I’ve gone and signed up to the “Tri-ing for Children’s” triathlon next weekend. It is actually a fund raising event as well for Children’s Hospital, so if anyone is interested in donating please clink on the link.

I’ll admit that I didn’t feel all that bad on Monday following the Pewaukee tri, err I mean duathlon and given that fact, 2 weeks seemed like a long ways off. But it was a bit of a selfish look at 2 weeks being a long time because I really wanted to be able to get an actual triathlon behind me.

So Monday night I signed up. Tuesday morning however I was a bit more stiff and sore than I expected.

It is what it is and I’m signed up now, so I’ll be doing it.

But that meant that I had to focus very hard on my training this week.

Sore or not I hit the gym on Tuesday and got a swim in. That seemed like the best bet since its low impact and it actually helped quite a bit.

The rest of the week was spent tapering up as quickly as I could and lots of stretching; lots and lots of stretching. I ended the week with a nice long run (for me any way) of almost 4 miles yesterday. I’m happy to say that I only had to stop and walk once during the whole thing. And today with a 22 mile bike ride. Although the ride today was more for seat time than it was for all out distance, but I still kicked it a bit from time to time.

And that brings us to tomorrow and the start of the taper down week. A light swim, a light run and an easy bike ride to work; weather permitting. I’ll throw in a day of strength training and we can’t forget about a lot more stretching.

I have three goals for next Sunday:
First and foremost; don’t drown! I signed up as a Clydesdale and when I got my pre-race email I found out that I’m in the first wave with the Elites. My plan is to let them all go out in front of me and I’ll just cruise along at my own pace trying to stay in front of the second wave.
Second goal is to finish the race.
Third goal, if all goes well and I’m feeling punk come next Sunday is to try and once again finish under the 2 hour mark. Although anything under 2:10 wont make me upset.

Later,
John W.

A Clydesdale in training