The Taper

From what I have read, I should be reducing the amount of training I do this week, but not stopping completely. I don't know if I really need much of a taper given that it's only a sprint triathlon but my main goal will be to get my legs feeling like running again. My shins are still very sore from the PT on Tuesday and I have not been for a run since then. I did one 40 km ride on the flats this week with 1 minute hard intervals and 3 minutes easy spinning. That felt pretty good without beating up my body, but because I've been away on and off the past couple of weeks, it's been more of a rest week than normal anyway. I have been swimming a lot, more to get myself used to lake swimming than anything else, but my running has really suffered and I haven't had a good run since my July 25th brick. Since then I tried running on July 28th and felt crappy, then again on my tri practice on August 3 and felt so-so (and slow). It's almost as if I have to recover from my physio appointments as well as my runs. I am contemplating cancelling my appt next Tuesday and just letting my legs relax. I dunno.

Tomorrow morning is my last big mental OWS challenge. Carmelle has invited me to join her and some other of her triathlete buddies on a practice swim at Tugboat Bay, where the tri will be held. It's a bit of a freaky place to swim (rocky junk, weeds, sharp drop off) and I'd really like to experience it a couple times before the race so I am ready for it. I may do a short run after if my legs feel ok but I probably won't join them for the bike route trip because I want to do that on Sunday or Monday.

My other goal this week is to devise my race plan - I need to make a detailed plan of everything I will be doing on Sunday, as well as the days leading up to race day. The better planned I am, the more relaxed I will feel (I hope). God, you'd think I was going to be in the Olympics... :)

Health and Fitness

Well today I had an interesting appointment with the woman who did my body composition analysis. One year ago, I had my body fat tested and it was at 30%. All my numbers were great and I was definitely in the healthy and fit range, despite having what I consider to be fairly high body fat. So I decided to work hard for one year and then get it tested again to see if there would be changes. Today was the day. My weight is exactly the same as it was a year ago but I really feel like my body has changed a lot. I have way more muscle and feel and look much slimmer than I did a year ago. I even wear at least one size smaller than I did a year ago. And yet every single number came in about the same today! My body fat is still 29.8%, my measurements are about the same (although my chest, at the armpits, is one inch bigger - I think due to more muscle from swimming.) I really can't believe that all the caliper testing was pretty much the same, well only slightly lower in all areas than it was a year ago. Erik was really surprised too. My tanita scale says my body fat is around 25% and the electronic measuring device at the grocery store has shown a steady decline from 30% down to 25% in the past year. I just don't know why the numbers on the caliper test didn't show that today.

At any rate, she said I was in excellent shape for my age and I'm doing all the right things so I guess I won't really care about what the number says. I have been wearing a bikini all summer and that's what really counts right? Haha, oh yeah, and I rock at swimming, biking, and running - LOL...

Well I have to hit the sack so I can get up by 6 and head down to the lake by 7:30am. It's been thundering and raining this evening so it'll be interesting to have to swim in rough weather tomorrow morning. Just another challenge to beat, right?