Monday 7 June 2010

Tapering - yeh right!

On Sunday night I got my new training schedule through and this week I am meant to be tapering i.e. an easy week before my half ironman on Sunday.  Day off today after the hard weekend, that's a good start - swim on Tuesday, run on Wednesday, Bike Thursday & Friday and a short swim on Saturday!   Thanks Steve, I am glad it wasn't a full on week!
However Monday is the only time I can sneak in an Open Water swim and I need the practice as it's quite different from swimming in a pool - they don't get everyone out the water if there are brown objects floating.  As I hobbled across the stones (forgot my flip flops) I could see people thinking, look at that ironman - ouch, ouch, aahh, b****r.  I managed 10 minutes before my earlier pasta tried to make an appearance so I decided time for a shower.  I had applied "glide" to my arms and legs before I went out so that I could get the wetsuit off quickly as previous attempts had looked like a wrestling match.  To the amusement of the other swimmers in the changing rooms I tried to look as though I wasn't putting in any effort to extract my arms, which I was, but when I kicked my leg to get the suit off I ended up in the air and then on my bum - ironman my a**e!  Lessons learned are don't be lured in by the temptations of my wife's pasta before going training, consider the terrain I'll be walking on before swimming and only fight with the wetsuit in private!