Time Flies...

... when you have fun OR a race on the weekend.

I am glad it's already Friday, but can somebody explain to me where the week went? This is crazy!

Oh and I forgot to attach that to the last post, but I actually took a picture of the turtle that I scooped off the road yesterday morning. The turtle still had the head out when I picked it up, but as soon as I pulled out the phone to take a picture... Well, you see what happened.

And to extend the list of wildlife we have around the house, Karma (the dog) and I almost ran into a snake on our evening walk. I noticed it way too late and first thought it was dead, but Karma as nosy as she is got pretty close and the snake lifted the head up... And then I turned around. ;-) I assume it was a rat snake, but I am not really that great at identifying snakes.

Oh the wildlife... You gotta love it.

Anyways, let's get back to taper week. This is what I did:

Monday: 1h 20mins ride*

Tuesday: 30 mins ride and 40 mins run

Wednesday: 30 mins ride and 40 mins run

Thursday: 30 mins ride and 25 mins run

*was supposed to be 1h ride and 20m run, but the thunderstorms prevented the run

All workouts were done in the evening. I was in bed early (10pm) every night and got a good 8 hours of sleep in. I watched what I ate throughout the week and my only slip was the ice cream social at work yesterday. Reduced diet coke intake and didn't have any since Wednesday (I think). I am stretching and rolling like a mad woman. Actually, I was scheduled to have a massage yesterday, but that unfortunately got canceled... So Terry tortured gave me a massage again. (Thanks, baby!) I am still super tight in my legs... I was screaming when Terry put pressure on my ITB and saw little stars floating in front of my eyes.

Today was rest day and more stretching and rolling.

In general, I would try to stay off my feet tomorrow as much as possible, but I signed up to volunteer at the Youth Tri at Furman tomorrow morning. I got put on the run course which means I am going to be out there until the bitter end. Oh well. If I can squeeze it in somehow, I will also try to get a little swim in, to shake things out.

Looking at how I handle taper week, one could think I am going for records on Sunday. But really, I try to not have any expectations on this race. It's going to be my first international distance triathlon and therefore will be an automatic PR. I do have an idea of what I want to accomplish in each leg, but I choose not to share it here, because I don't want to put myself under any pressure. This one is for fun and will be largely determined by how much I can keep my head in the game* and by the weather/ heat.

*I won't give too much away when I say that I hope to finish this race between 3 and 3.5 hours. That means I am going to race so much longer than what I ever done before... We'll see if my mental toughness can keep up.

Have a great weekend and so long! ;-)