Almost there!

Race Number 1826 reporting for duty

Somehow time seems to have flown and race day is just over two weeks away - how did that happen? We're now in the period where apparently I can't really do anything to make myself faster or stronger, I can now only do things that will keep me where I am or mess things up. It seems that it's time to taper, or in my case ......... go back to normal!
I've never had or understood the whole taper thing. This buzz people get, they get irritable because they're itching to train, straining at the lease raring to go, race day can't come soon enough! Really? Can't say that I've ever noticed. I'm just glad that I haven't got to force myself out on 80-100mile bike rides any more.
Maybe it's because my training has no structure to it, maybe it's because the start of my week always resembles a taper anyway I don't know, but I always seem to sit here wondering what all the fuss is about when people talk about 'Taper Madness'.
My weeks have been pretty normal and at their un-predictive best in recent weeks. The two weeks when I expect most people racing Florida were putting in their biggest weeks I failed to break 10hrs and then last week I almost broke 15, which is a huge amount for me! Included in that was 11h30m of cycling where I'd only spent 9hrs in the saddle over the previous two weeks combined.

Love this pic - makes the bike course look hilly! Erm, no it's not!!

So what will 'taper' involve for me?

Well, it kind of happens naturally, there's no big plan. I'll hopefully do a good few hours this weekend, no idea what though. As always I'll just make it up as I go along, then the two weeks leading up to race day will naturally turn into taper weeks because I simply won't have the time to train much.

Mon-Wed I never get a lot of training done.
Thursday on my day off I'll be busy packing, unpacking, repacking and swearing at my bike while I try to fit it in my bike box. Then if I've any time left I might try to pack some clothes.
Friday I'll try to swim as normal but that will mostly depend on Thursdays packing success/failure.
Saturday we'll be loading up and embarking on the first part of the journey to PCB.
Sunday will mostly be spent on planes and in airports.

Then before I know it I'll be into race week, trying to get over jet lag and acclimatise to the Florida heat while bike building, unpacking, registering, exploring, meeting folks, eating cheesesteak and trying very hard not to buy stuff that I really can't afford from the race village  etc etc etc. Training? What training? I'm sure I'll get some in. Tues-Thurs on race week I'll probably get some small bike/run sessions in and I'll hopefully make a few of the morning swim sessions too. I'll play it all by ear though, I can't believe for a second anything I do will have a great effect on race day performance unless I do too much.

Does that lot make any sense? Really? It doesn't to me!