taper

This week is my itsy bitsy taper week before Lobsterman on Saturday. I am suuuuper stoked to race again, though I am slightly terrified of what awaits.

I've never done a swim in water colder than 68 degrees (Barton Springs Pool), and even at 68 degrees it takes me 10 minutes to get in and 20 to stop complaining... Current water temps in Portland ME are 64 degrees! And my wetsuit is sleeveless. And I don't have any of those fancy booties or other 'cold' weather gear. Either I'll be so cold I'll work harder to warm up (and get the EFF out of the water) or I'll freeze up (pun intended, sorry), have a panic attack and have the slowest swim of my life. Considering I'm still afraid of sharks, lets go with option one.

Also, I haven't been training with the consistency I usually do. For Boston Triathlon, I don't think I missed a single workout. For Lobsterman, notsomuch. I've missed on average one workout a week. So, I'm nervous about my fitness for race day. Well, let's clarify. l'm nervous about my fitness not being what I want it to be to PR the way I want to. I know I am fit enough to do the distance and have fun.

But I don't want to just have fun out there.

I want to HAMMER and HURT. This is my last shorter distance race before off-season and IMLou training. Training for IMLou will be entirely different from training for short course races, and I won't be doing much ballstothewall racing efforts. So I want to make this one count.

I suppose the hiccups in my training schedule could make this race hurt alright...just not the way I want.

Here's the week in workouts:

Monday: OFF
Tuesday: PM swim 1600m
Wednesday: tempo ride 1hr
Thursday (today): PM tempo run 35min
Friday: AM swim 1250m before schlepping to Maine
Saturday: Raceday!!!
Sunday: recovery ride. or brunch. probably brunch.

I still have yet to decide on an off-season training schedule.  What are y'alls favorite off-season sports/classes/routines??