Tapering

The week before a major event athletes are supposed to "taper".  The point of tapering is that any exercise that you do within 10 days  of an event will not add to your strength in time and may actually fatigue you.  For me it is too easy to become a lazy couch potato.

I've been tapering all week..  My definition of taper is as follows:  
ta•per  [tey-per] verb (used without object)1. to sit around and drink a lot of wine.

TOBAY tri here I come

I’m not sure if I mentioned the big dilemma that I have this tri season.  I had the choice of doing two triathlons with TNT.  One is on September 9^th in DC and the other is this weekend here on Long Island.  I REALLY wanted to do the one in DC.  One reason is that I found that it was a lot of fun to travel with the TEAM.  You really get to know the people that you maybe didn’t get to know too well during the season, and you create a good bond.  I am also a TEAM mentor.  I would hate to have my mentees in doing an event in a distant city without me.  I want to be there and be a good mentor.  Plus the September course is flat.  Sunday’s course is hilly, VERY hilly, and you know how I feel about hills. 

September’s course is an Olympic distance triathlon, like my last one.  The one this week is a sprint tri.  You would think that I would prefer to do the shorter event, but I see the difference between the two much like I see the difference between running a marathon and running a 5k.  When you complete a marathon everybody cheers for you.  You can be as slow as molasses and it really doesn’t matter to anyone.  They just care that you finished, and afterwards you can say something like “I’ve completed four marathons”.  When you complete a 5k either nobody cares or they want to know your times, which for me would be worse than nobody caring.  My times are embarrassing. 

Now add that embarrassing time to a local event where I know a couple of dozen of the participants.  For these particular people it IS about the time.  They care a lot about breaking a personal record or beating their friends.  They have little competitions and they smash talk each other all year.  If I am going to embarrass myself I do NOT want to do it in front of these people.  I’d much rather do it out of town where nobody knows me. 

My predicament is that my cousin’s baby’s baptism is on the 8^th in NY.  There are not a lot of things that I would skip my desired triathlon for, but Baby Sebastian’s baptism is one of them.  (I really wish that my family and friends would consult me before planning anything.)  So the TOBAY tri it is.  I’ve trained and practiced on the course twice.  I’m able to finish, but, again, I am VERY slow.  Wish me luck!

The Olympics has me thinking about medals

One of the things that I was really looking forward to, while training for my last triathlon, was winning a medal.  Unless you finish among the top three (and most likely not even then), triathlon medals are not made of gold or silver or even bronze.  They are just a symbol of an accomplishment and I SO wanted one.  Though I completed the entire tri, technically I don't think that I qualified for a medal, since it took me so long to finish, but the guy running the race said that I could have one as long as I finished the race, no matter how long it took me. So when I crossed the finish line I got a medal.

I was so proud.  I wanted to wear it to the victory dinner, but I let my coach talk me out of it.  I, however, put the medal in my purse and slipped it on and off all of  that evening and the next day.  The next afternoon, as we boarded the plane to go home, I put my finishers medal around my neck and sat down in my seat.  The group of us sat in the same section of the plane and joked back and fourth amongst ourselves.  A guy in front of me noticed our banter and asked the typical plane questions:  "Where are you guys from?", "What were you doing in Tennessee?"...  I explained to him that we were all on the same triathlon team and were returning home after competing in a tri in Knoxville.  He asked how we did.  I explained that we all finished, and my teammates did well, but I was actually the winner.  That is why I am the only one wearing a medal.  I had him fooled.  :-)