Seven Days

I am sitting here in my living room, about an hour and a half removed from finishing my last "long" run.  It is a cold Pennsylvania Fall morning and most of the frost has melted off of the front lawn.  I am can hear my two little girls playing with their princess dolls upstairs in my youngest bedroom.  My wife is out getting some Christmas shopping done (she is so efficient).  Today already feels different to me.  I know what it is, I know why today (and yesterday) feels so different than any other weekend day. 

Over the past nineteen weeks I have spent countless weekend hours biking and running; then trying to recover from these workouts.  Today my "long" run was 7.12 miles (one hour) and I feel like I haven't done anything.  My legs aren't aching, I was able go up the stairs with a hop in my step, I fell fresh.  I am enjoying the taper, I am enjoying the way I feel right now.

There is also something else that makes today a bit different from a "typical" weekend morning.  I am sitting here on Sunday morning with a belly full of pancakes at 9:20AM and I just realized that...IRONMAN ARIZONA IS ONLY SEVEN DAYS AWAY!!!  Holy cow, I can't believe that after months of feeling like the day would never come, it is only a week away.

Here is what has (or hasn't) been going on with my training over the past three days:

Friday - I did my swim in the AM and planned to do my run after work.  Well, my wife got home a bit late before I knew it, I just didn't have it in me to get out and do my 30 - 45 minute run.  I tried not to let it get to me, in fact I used the time that I would have spent running just eating dinner with my family and hanging out with them for a bit.

Saturday - I slept in until around 7:45AM....what?  7:45AM?  Yup, that's right, no need to get up and get in a two ride on my Cervelo because my bike is on it's way to Arizona.  Plus it was around 30F at 7:00AM and I wasn't going riding in that weather.  Instead I offered to take my youngest to dance class while my wife could go and do some errands with my oldest, in preparation for the trip to Arizona.  Around 3:00PM I finally got out for what was an abbreviated "two hour" bike ride.  It ended up only being around an hour on my mountain bike as I tried to find trails around my house to ride on.  I realized that I miss mountain biking a lot, I will definitely have to start doing that again after this race.  I ended up not doing my 30 minute run off of the bike because I had to head into town to get some last minute supplies from our local running shop.

Today - Well, as I said above, I was up at 6:00AM and out running by 6:30AM for a nice leisurely 7+ mile run.  I kept my heart rate in low Zone 2 and my pace right around 8:25/mile, nice and easy, just enjoying the beautiful morning.  I may try to get out on my mountain bike later on today if time permits, but I doubt it is going to happen.

That about sums up the past three days of training for me, not a lot going on, just trying to get my body feeling fresh, but still maintaining the fitness I have built up through out the past 19 weeks.  Anticipate some deep thinking over the next six days as I begin writing down a lot of thing that I am thankful for and some realizations I have come to over the past ten and a half month.  Ciao!