4 Days Remaining - Taper Day 3 - Taper Blues, Blah, and Mental Visualizations

I now remember why I hate the taper.  My mind and body are both so confused.

I am finding this particular taper to be the hardest. Probably because it is the longest of all my tapers being a week.

Yesterday woke up after another terrible night of sleep to get my run in. Chad met me at my house and we headed out for a four mile run.

I felt pretty good on this run. If I can feel this relaxed running in the race I should be in good shape. My legs were tired and a little sore from the long ride Sunday and not doing anything on Monday.

The rest of the day I continued to feel as unmotivated and blah as one could possibly get. I felt this way all day Monday. I love being able to just sit around and hang out with the kids and play, but outside of this I just wanted to lay in bed.

This morning I woke up to swim. I felt horrible in the pool. I felt like I had weights in my pants or something. I could not get going. Maybe all my eating is catching up to me as I cannot control the mass amount of food I am consuming.

100 Free @ 1:49
100 Pull @ 1:52
100 Kick @ 1:54

2 x 25 @ :19 and :19. This is slow. I could not get going at all.
2 x 50 @ :40 and :40. Still slow

50 Pull @ :49

2 x 100 @ 1:30 and 1:29. Slow, but starting to feel a little smoother in the water

100 Kick @ 1:50

200 Free @ 3:24 - Felt much better. Nice and relaxed
200 Free @ 3:16 - Much better. Still nice and relaxed
200 Pull @ 3:14 - Really worked on following through
100 Kick on Back with Fins @ 2:05
100 Free @ 1:42


Total Time: 26:58
Total Yards: 1600

Afterwards I sat in the sauna to visualize my race. I have been doing a ton of mental visualizations for the race. It is hard to do somewhat as I know very little about the course and what to expect of myself with this race.

Here are my thoughts

1. Don't panic at the start of the race. There is probably going to be a ton of people and I just need to stay relaxed and get my own swim dialed in.
2. For the first time try to get in the mix of the swimmers and draft. I need to quit being a baby and get in there with the rest. I will find my comfort zone first and then try to merge into the pack. Not sure how it will work out, but what better time to try than on a 1.2 mile swim!
3. Don't take my goggles off until I have my wetsuit off down to my waist during transition. I took my goggles off first at the QC Tri and my hand and goggles became stuck in my wetsuit sleeve.
4. Have pop in my transition to drink during transition. I always cramp out of the water and perhaps a little sugar rush will help me until I get situated on my bike.
5. Figure out what 4 bike lengths looks like mentally. My other two races were 3 bike length between riders.
6. Find a comfortable pace for the first part of the bike and slowly try to crank it up a notch on the way back.
7. Thanks to Carson for this - ride and run easy at first
8. On the run, get a good pace going and by mile 8 start to slowly bring down the hammer so that I am running with all I have by mile 11. Not sure what I will have by this point, but don't want to leave too much in the tank when I finish.
9. Finish and feel good about myself.
10. Smile and have fun.

I am off to go try and get rid of this headache/head cold/allergy combo I have going on right now. My head is killing me.

I also picked my bike up yesterday so I will head out for a short ride later today as well.

Still hard to believe that in 4 days this journey will reach the ultimate test.