Tapering

Not much to report for the last 2 days. Just two days of short easy running with the dog, plus a bit of FST type stuff. I mapped out a little taper plan for myself and 2 stupidly short/easy days is the start of it. Athletes tend to either love or hate taper. You can probably guess which camp I personally fall into. For me I think it is less a fear of losing fitness than it is about the fact that when I'm training big/hard, I feel motivated/fulfilled in a way that I don't when I'm not training big/hard. I like feeling like I'm on a roll, and stopping that momentum with a drastic taper doesn't feel right to me. That said, I've convinced myself that this is the right thing to do right now so am not really fighting it... mostly b/c tomorrow I get to do a decent workout again!

I still haven't swam. I jogged down to the pool yesterday morning with the intention of swimming, but the heater is not fixed yet and the water is so so cold. I had my suit + cap/goggles on and I just stood on the pool deck trying to convince myself to get in. One of the older ladies (braver than me!) got in and swam 100m and came back to the wall and said It's so cold I can't breathe! And that was all I needed to hear. I took my swim cap off and walked back to my dry clothes and jogged right back home. Then later of course I get email updates from my local athletes who are swimming and they are saying the water is cold but they did it and I thinking BLAH I am setting a shitty example right now!! The fact is, if I had an Ironman this year, I'd be gritting my teeth and getting in that icy water. But I don't have any reason/motivation to be swimming well right now. Clearly, one has to care about their performance in order to put up with the discomforts of training. Right now I don't care enough about swimming to put up with water that is 70 degrees. That said, I do plan on taking my wetsuit with me tomorrow and forcing 3K even if it kills me. Ok, maybe I'll start with 2K. I am tapering after all.