Training Update 10/15

I officially started tapering this week! How exciting! I had an epiphany this weekend that all my HARD training is behind me. I made it through 6 months of tough, intense training, and now the race is almost here. It's crazy for me to look back at everything I've done over the past 6 months - reaching new PR's in distance and time along the way. A few years ago, I trained for several months for a 70 mile bike ride. Now I ride 60+ every weekend. I trained for a marathon and thought my training runs were grueling. Now I do 100 mile rides and then have the same running distances to cover the next day. It's amazing what your body can handle if you put your mind to it. This probably all sounds corny, but it's pretty cool to be able to do these distances and realize that you have survived the hard part of Ironman training. Now I just have to put all this training to work at the race. I have 3 more weeks to go!!

I am focusing on nutrition, stretching and getting mentally prepared for the race at this point. Last week was my first week to really feel burned out. I was exhausted after the Half Ironman but didn't really get much rest last week following the race. I just went right into it. I had a hard time getting motivated for workouts, mostly due to my body being so exhausted. I was fine once I got going and this weekend I felt fresh. Over the weekend I completed 90 miles on the bike, 13 miles running, and my longest swim yet - 2.5 miles in my wetsuit. I am looking forward to this taper and getting things in order for the race. I am pretty sore from the weekend, but hopefully I can work some of that out this week. Wednesday is my birthday!! I took Friday off work, so I am planning to get a bike ride in that day and a run on Saturday, which leaves me time to rest and actually sleep in (amazing) on Sunday.

Thanks to all of you for supporting me through the toughest part of my training! I really appreciate all of your thoughts and encouragement.