Peaking...

Yesterday I went out for a short run, 30 minutes or so including 5 minutes at post-bike race pace, just to keep the feel. I did not consult my gps watch during this interval and went only by feel. It was "comfortably uncomfortable", as my runs have been over the last week... but to my surprise it turns out this same feeling that was just barely giving me 3:36/km pace earlier was giving me 3:18/km pace. When I got home, I decided I needed to do 1km at actual race pace. This was a joke.

In the water I am comfortably cruising at 1:30-1:35/100m, and blasted a 100m in 1:12 for fun.

Tonight I'm going to sit at the hopefully comfortable 265W on the bike for a bit.

Adam "Trust the taper" Fortais

Getting nervous...

One week to go before AG Nationals in Toronto. I'm trying to peak right now and I'm getting a little worried. I gave myself 2.5 weeks to peak... The first week off I felt pretty good, but lately I've been feeling like garbage. This morning I went for a short 8km run. At 4km I decided I wanted to touch race pace for about 5 minutes, for fun mostly... I don't know if I was dehydrated, tired, or what but I started getting a little dizzy and well, it just wasn't there. I shuffled home.

From the end of my bike block onwards my riding has seemed to have gotten worse as well. I'm just not putting out the power. I haven't lost any weight, but it's just not there.

I've been more tired than usual over the last little bit as well. And very irritable. Muscles aching in ways they hadn't before.

I shouldn't be "testing" myself during these 2-3 weeks, and especially not now. I just have to trust all engines will come back and be firing better than ever by next Sunday.

To reassure myself I've been reading articles.

http://www.triathlontrainingarticles.com/Taper.html

This sounds familiar. I'm not doing Ironman-type volume, so hopefully my progression will be a bit quicker. I think I'll just go for an easy swim tomorrow.

Adam "Taper" Fortais