It's Taper Time

My first triathlon of the 2014 season - Carolina Half - is just 7 days away!  I had a solid week of training this week in preparation, which means now it's time to cut back the volume and do a bit of recovery.  

Week 15

Swim  - 10700 yards

Bike - 7 hrs, 26 minutes (3 trainer rides + 57 miles outside)

Run - 25.1 miles

Total: 14 hours

In honor of Marathon Monday in Boston, I donned my blue and yellow and set out for a 10k step-up run on Monday.  It was a struggle physically after a long day on my feet at work, but I got the work done.  Thinking about the events in Boston a year ago and the fact that thousands had run 26.2 miles that morning made it easier for me to suck it up and run 6.2 miles.

Saturday I met a group of people to ride and run next weekend's race course.  The first 15 miles were at a slower pace as the group stayed tightly packed on busier roads, but then things started to spread out and I was able to get in some good "race effort" miles.  I'm still not totally satisfied with my bike fit and am just simply not comfortable in aero for any extended period.  Guess I'll be working on that in the future.  Since we didn't start until nearly 10am, it was getting toasty warm by the time I started running at 1pm.  I knocked out 7 miles while running with a couple other people and felt fairly decent until we had to run the last two miles uphill.

I'm in desperate need for some smoking fast race wheels to complete my bike.
Sadly, though, there are seemingly none to be had for rental in Charlotte.
Anyone care to spare me $1500 to buy a set?

Mentally, I'm feeling excited to get out there and race for the first time this season after 4 fairly solid months of training.  Now it's just a matter of some recovery this week so that my legs are feeling equally fresh on Sunday.

The weather this week was absolutely beautiful - warm sunny skies nearly every day.  So warm, in fact, it was starting to feel more like summer.  I tossed together a great corn salad that reminded me a lot of summer.  It's very simple and uses lots of seasonal produce - fresh corn cut from the cob, bell pepper, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, EVOO, and balsamic vinegar.

I enjoyed my dinner on the deck each night and found myself longing to stay out there until darkness to soak up the fresh air.  One evening I had the corn salad a top a bed of greens with a side of sweet potato.

Another night, I whipped up a omelet and served it with the corn salad on the side as well as fresh mango and grapes.  The omelet was stuffed with bell pepper, onion, turkey bacon, arugula, and cheddar cheese.

This week brings an end to my two months on the ortho oncology service and the return to the trauma service for May and June. Translated, that means that just as I've settled into a seemingly balanced schedule between work and training and am really enjoying the service I'm on, it's all about to come crashing down.  I'm holding onto hope that I can maintain a reasonable training volume and try my best to pseudo-enjoy the trauma service, but only time will tell.