Journey to Kona Day 111: Taper Time!

Today is two week from Ironman Boulder, which means it's time to taper.  In fact, my taper started a week ago with five straight days of traveling and little training.  This weekend got a nice bump, riding one loop of the bike course yesterday, for a solid 3 hour, 55 mile workout, followed by a lot of walking.  Today was run course time.  I uber'd to the start and ran the first 9 1/2 miles of the course.

I really like the new run course!  It starts out with a prolonged gradual climb, which will be a reminder on race day not to start out too hard.  In fact, coming out of the reservoir, there is a "bump" that used to be part of every bike course.  Now it's part of the IM run, and it isn't to be ignored.  The key to ironman is to avoid burning matches, so, despite the fact that I ran up the short steep hill today, I WILL walk up it on race day.  I'll also take note of the number of every athlete who runs past me on that short hill.  I WILL pass them later in the run.

I'm already getting comfortable with the altitude.  Considering that I've already spent about 4-5 days this week at higher altitude, the acclimatization has begun.  My run was meant to be comfortable, so a 10 minute per mile pace was not surprising.  Most importantly, my breathing felt fine.  As I got to the last few miles, however, in order to maintain my pace, I did have to increase my breathing effort.  I tried to push a little harder and felt the impact of the altitude.  With that said, 10 miles of running completed, knowing that I have nearly another 10 days of altitude before race day.  That's a confidence booster!

My legs feel fine, and my fatigue level is actually relatively low.  I say relatively, however, as a reminder that eliminating cumulative fatigue is my number one priority over the next two weeks.  I'll talk to my coach on Tuesday and dial in my upcoming workouts, but I realize that fatigue can sneak up on you. The altitude adjustment adds an additional stress that must be reckoned with.  I'd been thinking about working out again tomorrow, but have decided to make it a rest day.  I may even do the same on Tuesday, knowing that I'll be home at sea level on Wednesday and Thursday, with the opportunity to even put in a little bit of intensity in order to sharpen me up for race day.  Looking back at most of my previous ironman's, and this has been one of my most solid run-ups to race day.  Only once have I ran 90-100 minutes within two weeks of an ironman.  So, with two weeks to go, the hay is in the barn!