Friday, July 6, 2012

How do you taper from nothing?

Well, ok. Not quite nothing.

It's been a whirlwind few weeks. Between the house falling apart, my father passing away, racing, the visitation and memorial services and having company for a week, training went rather by the wayside. Enter absolutely punishing heat and humidity, and even the training that's getting done has been reduced to easy effort workouts. You'd think that the pool would provide some relief, but when it's suddenly closed and then changes the lane swim schedule with zero warning it makes it tough to get the work done.

I think this is less than I did in my taper for Woodstock.

That 4,100m of swimming? It includes a 500m session in a 10m long hotel pool. Yeah, that's right; flip turn, 3 strokes, flip turn.  I could dolphin kick the whole thing underwater. I did finally do a decent 2,000m swim Sunday morning, but had to go to the YMCA because the Johnson Centre was closed for Canada Day. The cycling distance represents one single ride, and I only got 4 runs in, though one of them was a decent length (just over 11km, as opposed to all the 5k runs I've been doing).

This week has been a bit better: I've already run 4 times and rode twice, but it's mostly been slow 5-ish kilometer runs and the rides were just an easy 20k recovery ride and a 26k slog-into-the-wind-then-turn-and-hammer-home. I found out at 7:50pm on Tuesday that the 9-10pm lane swim was moved to 7-8pm effective this week, so Tuesday night's swim was a no-go. I did make it for the earlier time last night and put in 1,850m, and then forced myself (since I was running later) to put in some hill repeats. The Gravenhurst Olympic next Saturday is going to be a deathmarch unless I can handle the road going up, though I've already rather resigned myself to what was going to be my "A" race of the season being nothing of the sort.

Since the Johnson Centre has cancelled all Saturday lane swims, I need to decide if the weather will support doing an open water swim (they're calling for morning thunderstorms), or if I can roll myself out of bed to make the 6-7am lane swim at the Y. I also need to get out and paddle a kayak for awhile, since I'm signed up to volunteer on the swim course at the Sunday Gravenhurst races!

Guess I can thank my lucky stars that next week is a taper week, but I have to ask myself - tapering from what?

3 comments:

  1. I'm the same way. Next week's a taper week, but I kind of feel like I've been on a three month taper.

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  2. Come to the Y on Sunday and train with the Mavericks. Plenty of triathletes in the mix and coach Anthony has been a god send for me.

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    1. I was actually there last Sunday morning (public lane swim is at the same time - if you saw a bint in a jolly roger swim cap, that was me), but I'm not much one for team training. Schedule is too unpredictable, and don't you have to be a member of the Y for that? My pockets simply aren't that deep; I can barely afford race fees and consumables like nutrition, bike tires, etc, let alone what Chaplin wants to use their (admittedly nice) facility. I buy the 20 activity passes for the rec centres, which means my swims are only about $3.65/session x 4 per week = $58.40/month, and in the unlikely event I actually want to use a treadmill or stationary bike they don't mind me doing so at the Johnson Centre before or after a swim for no additional charge.

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Go on, have at me!