taper tantrums

yeah i'm having taper tantrums. i am struggling with this taper period already and I have one whole week left. a taper is a reduction in training volume before a race. the idea is to let you body recover and heal from all the hard training in preparation for the race. i hate to taper. it makes me feel slow, bloated, and not ready to race.

i don't like to use the car. so i do everything possible on the bike or on foot. yesterday i had many errands to do so i ended up training for 5hrs.. i rode, ran, lifted weights and hit yoga throughout the day getting all these little things done. i never pushed the pace and rode/ran very slowly. but it was still too much time to be not resting.

making it worse this time around is the fact that my diet has been a complete joke lately. i can't even pretend. i am eating waaaaay too much. i'm 5 lbs heavier than when i won the norba regionals and i can feel it. i was 143 then, i'm now 148 if i'm lucky. think about putting an extra 5 lbs on your bike and climbing that same hill you ride every day.. yes you will feel it. i've just had this insatiable appetite... so i empty the contents of my fridge into my belly. am I listening to my body? or just overdoing it? i think it’s the latter, but i can justify it with the former. however any attempt to drop a few pounds now would only hurt my performance. my body needs proper nutrients to recover, not fewer calories at this point.

it's only 8 days away! i leave on sunday for atlanta, georgia. I’m staying with fellow adventure racer lorna mcgee. she raced primal quest this year with team stinkyfeet/kilt racers. she has been my little angel from georgia. my buddy and mechanic matthew noell comes out thursday oct 6th. i've already shipped my turner nitrous. i'm taking the turner flux with me on the plane. the u.s. postal service sucks, a bike box is apparently too big for them to ship.?.. but fedex was great. at 32.1 lbs it was around $43 to ship ground. after i put the $5,000 insurance on it, it came to about $65 - still cheaper than the airlines who charge $100 each way! the airlines suck if you are a cyclist.

I just had my last massage before the race. until ellen started to dig in i thought my legs were feeling great. they were actually a mess from all the training and no massage therapy.

ps: check out the 246km spartathlon ultramarathon - jurek just won it!

that's it for today - i gotta pack!
80 out

my favorite commercial

don't go drinkin with this guy

i'm just glad my addition is to ultra distance sports, cause alcohol addiction is much rougher. if the alcohol doesn't kill you the company you keep might. although i've felt at times that my training partners were trying to kill me, it was nothing like this. i have somehow figured out how to live a very exciting life without the booze. my cousin eric has not. i just spent some time with his mother, when she was traveling through seattle last week. she said he was doing well and was sober. although exciting, sort lived. since then he has fallen off the wagon - and this time the company he kept made sure it hurt - seacoast online article... if you don't feel like reading it, this guy pictured and my cousin got let out of jail together, then decided to hit the local gas station for some booze. they were drinking in the woods when this guy here decided to try and kill my cousin. he chocked him until he thought he was dead then he bashed his skull to make sure (two skull fractures).

i'm going for a bike ride.