Taper Madness

Now is the time when the workouts get much shorter, I encounter the word "OFF" in my training schedule, and my mind is left to its own devices.

You would think that the hours of swimming, biking and running would leave me plenty of time to work through any anxiety and emotions surrounding this event. As it turns out, my mind is a different beast when my legs aren't moving. Without a few hours a day of burning off nervous energy, I am beset by what ironman veterans call "taper madness."

This is the time before the race when you are supposed to limit workout time, and consequently your stress level goes up, right when you are freaking out anyway.

This isn't a completely new experience to me. The closest thing I can compare it to is pregnancy. It, too, was a very stressful time of waiting, and all my methods of coping with stress (running hard, having a drink) were closed to me. Same thing here. The moodiness is similar, too, to be honest. The main difference is people are really understanding when you're pregnant. When you're training for a triathlon like this, mostly people are just sick of hearing about it.

Next Monday is Labor Day, and then I am taking the rest of the week off work. I wouldn't be able to concentrate too well, anyway, I fear. I have a few projects on my list, but mostly I just want to clear my head, double-check my lists, and walk through every step in my mind.

I like having pictures in my blog here. This one refers to tapering for a marathon, but it's the same thing, so I'm using it anyway. It makes me laugh.