LET THE TAPER BEGIN!

...almost.

In these next few days, I hope to have one last long swim, and one last decent long-ish run. Then the taper can truly begin. Here are some training updates:

• Yesterday, I was supposed to do my last long bike ride. I was shooting for 115 miles. It didn’t quite happen. It was cold, windy, and rainy, and there’s something about that combination that my knee didn’t like. I got really sore around mile 15-20. Crap.

I stuck it out for a total of 75 miles, but then I called it quits. I stopped a few times to do the main exercise that helps my knee, but it never helped a lot. (People keep asking about this “magical exercise.” Here’s what I do: I first I get a bad haircut, put on some baggy clothes, and stand like this:

Then I slowly lunge forward while pushing hard just below the tibia/fibula joint:

This helps to train those 2 bones to move correctly. Incorrect joint movement has been diagnosed as my main knee issue.) Anyway, back to the ride, my knee was not happy. I didn’t want to overexert my knee at this point in training. Last weekend, I had a good 107 mile ride, and that helped to boost my confidence. I didn’t think that proving that I could go 112 this weekend was worth it. Had it been a month ago, I would have “tested” my knee and stayed out there. But I needed to be smart 3 weeks before the big dance.

I could second-guess this forever, I could ask everyone in the blog-o-sphere what they think about my decision, but I’m not going to. I know I did the right thing for me and my knee. If there’s one thing that IM training does, it’s that it puts you in touch with the workings of your own body. My body was telling me to stop. I’ll take a day or 2 off, and then hit the workouts again. I’m putting this behind me and focusing on these last 3 weeks before IM.

• At a long swim this week at the Highland pool, I shared a lane with John Surprise, who has finished 5 IMs and is going to be doing WI this year.

We were both there early, and we decided to share a lane. We introduced ourselves, and he asked how long I was going to swim. “As long as I can,” I told him. (Lap swim is only 80 minutes.) I don’t know if he spotted me checking out his tattoo – you know, THE tattoo – but then, out of nowhere, he asked, “Are you doing Madison?” I give him a strange look and said yes. He proceeds to tell me that he’s finished a bunch of IMs. Once we started swimming, I tried to swallow as much of his IM water coming off of his body as I could. Good karma, I figured. It was nice to meet you John! See you in WI!

• My sore toe is doing fine. The nail is more black, blue, and dead, but it’s no longer sore. I just hope I don’t lose the nail before IM:

• Some people have been comment on my run times. I’ll make a remark like “my run is getting there.” Many people are saying that I’m speedy and I have nothing to worry about. And I REALLY appreciate those comments - don’t get me wrong. But this issue is if my knee can hold up to that distance. I was quite happy with my 1:11 10 mile training run and my 1:48 Half IM run time in the last few weeks. But I’m not sure what’s going to happen past that. Mile 16: scary. Mile 20: a long ways off. Mile 26: inconceivable.

• One of my drunken female friends said something GREAT this past weekend. Pharmie and I were at a friends cabin for the evening, and we were getting ready to throw a pizza in the oven.

Being I don’t know if the woman in this story wants me to use her real name, I’ll call Rachel. Most people call her Rachel because that happens to be her name (I’m evil). I was sitting next to her and complaining about my IM training weight loss and muscle loss. I said that I needed to eat a lot of that pizza because I’m so skinny. My exact words were, “I’m a skinny little bastard.”

She gave me a typical, drunken, disapproving, female look, and said, “NO STEVE, you’re a FIT little bastard.” Perfection. We all laughed so hard. Later that night, after a little too much Captain, she puked in the flowerbed.