Monday, June 16, 2008

Cranky Taper Monster

Taper. It is turning me in to a cranky bitch. My lack of endorphin rush every day is wreaking havoc on my addicted body. I am used to training 2 hours on a short day and up to 8 hours for a long workout. Rest day? Never heard of it. Rest day means that I only have one workout scheduled as opposed to 2 or 3. And now, I am stuck working out for 60 minutes a day max. It's hardly worth getting out of bed for. Which by the way, is becoming harder and harder to do. My endorphin-addicted self is used to waking up at 4:30 am, after a restful 9 hours of sleep. Before the alarm goes off. Now, I have to drag myself out of bed at 7 am to get my measly 3000m swim or 6 mile run in before work. The purpose of taper (obviously) is to reduce the amount of training slowly over 2-3 weeks before a big race to allow your body to recover and rest completely. Your muscles rebuild stronger and on race day you are faster as a result. Taper reduces training by about 10-20% in the first week, another 20-25% in the second week, and by the 3rd week you're down another 25%. I guess if you go cold turkey the body would go into shock. What does endorphin withdrawal look like? I can tell you that I am having trouble sleeping. I am cranky and have been accused of snapping at Dan for no reason. I want to go out and run. All the time. But I can't. I don't shake or sweat or vomit. (All the drug withdrawal symptoms I've read about or seen in the movies.) I cannot wait to get the show on the road. 48 hours from now I will be in CDA. Checked into the hotel. Probably on my way to drive the race course. I should feel great on Monday! I will have enough endorphins in my bloodstream on Sunday to motivate a football team for an entire season. Mmmm. I can almost taste them. I've done my last official swim workout. A short and quick 3x 1000 m at race pace. Tomorrow I have my bike/ transition run workout. Then it's off the CDA to run in the cool weather and swim in the lake. I'm tapered, I'm rested, I'm fed. I'm ready. Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Bring it on!

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