Taper????

Well it is now 13 days until Ironman Wisconsin. I'm back to feeling very confident. I know that I will finish and that really helps to take a lot of the pressure off. I still have it in my head that I would like to come in close to 11 hours. That will mostly depend on what the day gives me. I truly believe that the fitness is there and if I EXECUTE on race day it will happen. Of course that is the biggest challenge on race day. Executing the plan and making it through the dark periods that we all face during an IM.
I am attempting a different type of taper that I believe will help on race day. In years past with Ironman and marathons I've done 2-3 week tapers. After reading posts by ChuckieV and talking with Zach Ruble. I am going with very little taper. While both of these guys essentially say that training through the race will give you the best results I have decided to train through but at a slightly lower volume. I am still doing hard efforts this week and next week but the volume this week will be at approximately 90% of the last few weeks and next week will be at 65%. As always it is an experiment and the results are purely subjective. How can you really measure the effectiveness of a taper? If I feel good on race day it was a success, if I'm tired it didn't work out so well. Stay tuned for the results.

Catching up....

WOW, It's been a long time since I got to this. I guess in my quest to stay balanced writing got pushed to the side. It has been an incredible summer. We went to the Outer Banks in June with 2 other families. It was a great week of playing on the beach and learning to surf. Unfortunately my best friend tore his knee apart the week before we left so some of our play was hampered by his immobilizer. He had surgery to repair 3 of the 4 ligaments holding his knee together and is going through some horrific therapy now.(not at my hands) Training for IM has really gone well. Lots of big rides and some real focus to my LT training. Swimming dropped off for a while but has built up in the last few weeks and is starting to feel strong. My running frequency was picked up in July and the length of my weekday runs has never been this consistently high. I really think that this race will go well if I can execute on race day. Of course that is always the hardest part! I'm leaving for Madison in the morning to train on the course for 4 days. We will get close to 300 miles of riding in the first 3 days. There will be some transition runs after those rides and a loop of the course (13mi)on Sunday before we head for home. We have done this before and it really helps with knowing the course and building confidence in the training up to this point. It could be hot and I'm looking forward to practicing in some heat. It has been a record cold summer here in IN. Great for training but it has me worried that the heat will hit again on race day and I won't be used to it at all. The goal for a sub 11 hour race is still there and everyday I gain confidence. I'll try and stay updated on this more frequently. As always thanks for reading.