Beer Drinkers Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2023 Mentor Group - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 47)

Hi, all.  Starting to taper a little (or at least not thrash my body anymore).  Short warm up bike and a 5K run yesterday with some strength training, then this morning 2500 in the pool and a 45 minute bike at lunch.  Swim felt great, like I was a swimmer or something. 

@Gretchen:  I agree with Nathalie - you picked the right level if you're heading into the last few weeks not cooked; I'm sure you could have gone harder in some respects but didn't you PR a bunch of stuff during training?

@Nathalie:  throw away stuff?  C'mon the goal is to fill any size house with as much stuff as possible without looking like you're hoarding!    And just do your workouts around the fun planning with your friends - I'm sure they won't miss you for a couple of hours; and love the crazy hockey fan video - so cool!!  Nat's a celebrity spokesperson!!

@Andrew:  enjoy your work trip, though standing around for that long would destroy me; I'd have to get up super early and do something at the hotel gym 'cause there's no way anything is happening in the evening when I'm at a conference

Another USWNT futbol match tonight, this time against The Netherlands so it should be a good test.

@Gretchen:  there are always a few things we could have done differently (some in our control and some not) within the training cycle (like actually doing some running for me ); at this point there is zero point in worrying about it; you've had a great training cycle so enjoy the fruits come race day!; FWIW, I do regular strength work up until about 10 days, and after that only REALLY light PT-level strength and core stuff which I'll do even the day before or during warm up

@Nathalie:  Kick 2018 Nat's butt!!!

@Andrew:  I typically bring a pair of goggles (they are permanently in my carry-on) and I use the lightweight Desoto tri shorts as compression shorts so I always have swim stuff; hopefully your world will become it's usual abnormal vs. lately for you

Today was about 50 minutes on the treadmill including WU and CD, with 3.5 miles in Z2 and a few 30" pickups as the main part.  Core work afterwards - mission accomplished.  Still no taper issues as I'm exhausted from sleeping terribly the last two nights (last night up until almost midnight watching the USWNT draw - wow we looked bad for about 50 minutes n that match).  O'dark-thirty 3K in the pool tomorrow (though not quite Gretchen's O'dark-thirty).  We're headed to the state park on Saturday for a short tri run-through including OWS (and it'll be hot so some heat acclimation as well - like 105 heat index right now through Saturday).

If it's anything like around here, not sure the water would help.  110* F heat index today and the water temps are in the upper 80s.  Daughter and I are going to do a practice tri tomorrow to get acclimated, probably the same rough distance as you, Nathalie though we're not going to hammer it. 

So I had a Gretchen Pool Morning today...I got there at 6 ready to swim my 3000 and the lifeguard tells me they ran out of the chemical to test the water with (really??) and that pool is going to close at 6:30.  I figured I'd at least get in a little over 1K so I started and during my WU he said to me it would technically be 6:40, so i would up getting to 1300 (sorry for the "not multiple of 250" but I wanted to get in every yard I could).  So basically a long warm up.  So I had some time to kill and did some strength training, probably the last real session.  30+ minutes on the bike in aero at lunch to wrap up my Friday.

Have a good weekend, peeps!  Good luck in your race tomorrow 2023 Nat!