A Welcome Change

When I saw my Fortius training schedule for the week, I thought Coach Gerardo had made a mistake. Two off days?  Seriously?  An early birthday present, perhaps?

It turns out that the increased training intensity I had been bitching about the past few weeks was real.  And now, it's time for a brief rest period.

No objections from me!  Or from Pete at Helen's Cycles, an aspiring British national track cycling team member.  He mentioned he thought I was due for a slight taper from the past few weeks.  Lo and behold, I got one!

I thoroughly enjoyed my training day off.  Slept in.  Didn't pack a workout bag.  Took the steps from the parking garage to the office lobby two at a time without much pain.  Ahh, recovery!

Tomorrow is a light day too, a real birthday treat.  I'll be swimming at 6 a.m. with the Fortius gang and taking a 9 a.m. yoga class after that. Then, it's off to my favorite beach (San Buenaventura) for a vacation day filled with In N' Out, reading, reflection, and relaxation.  My kind of day!

In other news though, Gerardo told me I should practice my T1 transition and learn how to get a moving start on the bike.  This means clipping my cleats on the pedals and doing a running mount on the bike to shave time off the clock.  I'll need every second at the Breath of Life Olympic triathlon on June 27.  If you have any tips or tricks I'd love to hear them.  To be honest, I'm afraid of crunching "my boys" on the frame by being over-anxious with the bike mount.  I literally just shivered with dread thinking about that.

In a more pleasant note, I got accepted into Vineman 70.3!  No more waitlist, baby!  It's official, my first Half Ironman is now just under six weeks away.  This poses an interesting dilemma where I'll be tapering just a little for the Olympic national championship qualifier race while ramping up for the 70.3-mile distance.  Talk about muscle confusion!

One area where there's no confusion: NO WORKOUTS TODAY!

163 days and counting.