August 6-12: Embrace the Inconsistency

IM Louisville is now less than 12 days away, which means a couple of things. First, it means we’re all checking the weather forecast for race day on a regular basis. Second, it means that it’s the start of taper.

And THAT means that it’s time for my body to start putting itself back together. Note that “start” is the operative term here. It’s going to take a while to come back from months and months of long weekend workouts stacked on top of each other. And that’s fine, as long as I keep this in mind as the training results come in daily. I may have a few sessions that turn out faster and come more easily, but others will still reflect the large load of accumulated fatigue that I’ll be carrying around until just before race day.

Besides, consistency is BORING.

Monday: Rest day.

Tuesday: 20-some miles around Hains Point in the morning, with Beth, Tim and Vinny, and a surprise attack pace line near the end. In the evening, a 4.5 mile bike commute home and a 3700 meter swim practice with DCRP.

Wednesday: A 5.3 mile evening track workout with 4x1200 at a surprisingly fast-for-me pace (6:02-6:05-6:06-6:08).

Thursday: A not-fast 4.9 mile recovery run commute in the morning, with the first mile barely cracking 12:00/mile pace. Sure, it’s uphill the entire first mile, but still. It was pretty sluggish the whole time.

Friday: Who said anything about sluggish? 3500 yards of swimming with Beth, followed immediately by just over 30 miles of biking, mostly around Hains Point, with some higher-intensity intervals in the 22-23 mph range.

Saturday: Extra rest day on the schedule, thanks to an event I got to attend.

(Yes, I threw the candy. Hard.)

Sunday: 63 miles of biking around Potomac and Poolesville with Karen, struggling up hills but surviving, followed by a 30 minute run right off the bike.