The "What are you doing with your extra time? Thread
While I'm not doing my final RR until this coming Saturday, I'm bringing the bike and run volume down this week. Last week I rode about 215 and ran 45 miles. This week will be less with, most notably, a 5k test tomorrow and FTP test on Thursday. I have rabbits lined up for each test . I'm kicking the swimming -- 5-6x/wk for 3.5-5k each + cords + core work -- and dog walking into high gear so I can continue to chip away at the last couple pounds I'd like to see go away before the race while letting my legs rest.
Anyway...woke up this morning and realized that I didn't have to run 8 miles with 2 x 1mi T-pace repeats, eat, recover, then go to the pool and swim 4-5k, eat, get coffee'd up and work in the afternoon. Instead...all I gotta do is swim . I'm also ad
Also, after months of IM training, I'm now shining my mental flashlight on my legs and finding out that they are pretty friggin' tired!
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Ha - I read your post, looked down, and saw I had no fewer than 5 different 'to-do' lists on the go on my desk.
Also doing the 2-week taper, but this week will be a significant drop in volume so I'm finding myself with big blocks of free time that I haven't seen in months. tri-highlights:
-Clean and detail bike with thoroughness I've been meaning to apply since about April
-90min massage Wed, trying to squeeze one in tonight as well
-field test double-side tape on race number for bike
-watch 10-15 minutes of "fast transition" vids on YouTube
-pack all but RR stuff for race
-reply to overdue PMs, posts
-shoot PMc and Chris Whyte CdA PM race file for critique
-fully read "predict my split" responses and write up race strategy & scenarios->responses
And thanks for the reminder about food. I pretty much go on a binary "discipline on / discipline off" approach to chow, and now that the work is off, I tend to shut down on nutrition as well. Easy to to a lot of damage in 3 weeks. so, add "go shopping, and if it's not lean or green, fo-get it."
And sleep. Sweet, beautiful sleep.
Took my wife, daugher, and son canoeing out at the lake at a nice Z1 pace
and took a long breath and thought about the next three weeks!
Took the children to see the smurfs movie and stayed awake and loved it. Ate chicago style popcorn with them and laughed.
This am got up and it was kind of nice to just swim, shower and go to work. Tomorrow is an hour bike but 2x20 minutes of FTP work. So really happy that is it for the day.
Getting excited and nervous.
Isn't that the truth!
Sunday I didn't get out of bed until around noon. Watched some of the Chicago Air and Water Show from my rooftop and then settled in on the couch to watch the Godfather. Had to remind myself that it was a mental recovery day and that going to the gym for a swim or yoga class wasn't going to help.
Now it's just catching up on everything that I've let slip. Documentation for work, cleaning my place, seeing my folks, and so on.
Now I have no excuses and need to start writing a book chapter that I have been putting off for some time.
I'm going to try the elliptical in lieu of running. When I battled PF in my L foot this winter it was a while before I could do it comfortably. Think I might be ready to try it with my R foot.
Other than that, my extra time is going to a second ART/Graston appt every week and now I'm seeing an acupuncturist, too. So, with my extra time goes all of my disposable income... in order to make it to the start line with a decent chance of finishing in 17 hours.
Oh, and I have to give a super special thanks to Mary L, who has very kindly offered to put me up for the race - with all the extra money I'm spending on doctors, the 2k I'd spend race week on hotel and food would probably break me. I've had such a crazy expensive year already (winter I dropped a lot on therapy for my L foot, in the spring I had to replace the HVAC unit, and in July I had to pay for my post-race vaca in full). This round of doc visits on top of race week spending would have been too much for me to handle. She's taken a load off my mind.... So, if the sports rehab doc green lights me on Mon, I'm in...
Surfing the forums....infact, pretty bummed that although I was subscribed to the IMWI group, wasn't seeing any of the discussions ..... especially as I was at MOWS & missed meeting some the team
Must have been having a 'technical' moment when subscribing, so maybe I should sharpen my IT skills with my extra time!!!