Taper Crazy

First things first, my hip/leg no longer hurts. At all. Whew!

My last long-ish run was Saturday. I planned to do 13. I went to bed after 11, woke up at 3:30 and was at the lake by 4:30. It was SO humid and the air was just weird. In most spots there was no air movement but in others it was 20mph headwind. I would say most days it takes me 3 miles, if not 4, 5, or 6 to get into a run. It never happened on Saturday. I was dying for every single walk break. It was ugly. I quit at 9 miles. I was just done. More rest for me. My legs might be really rested come marathon day.

Physically I'm handling taper just fine. I have enough stuff to do that skipping workouts doesn't really pain me. But, mentally, I need those workouts. What's a girl to do on marathon taper but plan for what's next? I really need to drop back the running over the summer so I can come back to racing hard when it cools off in late fall. So, obviously I need to cross train. But I like competition. It's what drives me. So, I'll be competing in sprint triathlons this summer. First one is June 3rd.

I rode nearly 13 miles (on my piece of crap Wal-Mart, purchased on Craigslist mountain bike) with Alicia and Catherine on Friday. They kicked my butt, but we're nice and said the bike makes a world of difference. I came home and started looking for a road bike. That's an incredibly stressful process. My budget is not big, and road bikes are not cheap. I got some good education at one store, some really bad service at a few others, and some phone help from a friend of my dad. Right or wrong, I bought a bike today. She's sexy and so is the tri suit I tried on yesterday (totally tri suit girl, hated the separate tops and bottoms). I can't wait to go ride!!!

Combined, I worry about the swim, bike, run. But individually, I know I can bike 12 miles and run 3.1 miles. I have zero concept of the level of fitness or skill required to swim 500 meters. Until today. I hit the indoor pool at my gym. I wish I had video of it, so I could look back some great time from now and reminisce about how awful I was. I'm certain it wasn't pretty. And it was tough. I'll give my speeds because I don't even know comparatively how slow they are. I was doing 25 meters in 28-30 seconds. I did 50 meters the first few times before I thought I'd die. Then I went to 25 meters, 30 second recovery. And, repeat. I lost track of how many times I did it. I was in the pool for about 40 minutes, but that includes jacking around with turns a little. When I got out of the pool, I marched to the aquatics office to inquire about adult swim lessons. My one on one instructor should be lined up shortly.