I will be completing my last long, hard workout today before I begin my two week taper for the Patriot Half Ironman. As much as I'm looking forward to having a me/pseudo-relaxing weekend next weekend, I really despise tapers. I have improved so much over the past couple of months that I just want to keep going. I hate having to rein myself in. Sometimes, although I know better, I feel that toning down on my training will make me out of shape for the race. I also continue to eat like I do while doing big time training which means an increase in weight. I am still trying to lose my taper weight from Timberman. I realize that's the point, to build up glycogen stores, but it still makes my morning weigh ins sucky. Plus, the race itself blows you up like a water balloon. You get all the belly bloat from eating a lot of Gu and drinking a lot of Gatorade and water. You're muscles swell up from all of the stress and inflammation. Whenever I walked around after Timberman last year, I felt like a pregnant penguin. I know part of it is I just need to eat better outside of race day. I need to stop making excuses like, "I'm training for an Ironman, so I can have donuts daily." And it will all be worth it and forgotten when I cross that finish line.

Obviously, I hope to finish faster than Timberman, but I think I've finally narrowed down my goal time. My "I'm having a really good race" goal time is 6:30. My "more realistic" goal time is 6:45. And my "I'll be happy with this, but I really should be faster" time is 7 hours. My time from last year was 7:33, but that was with a lot less training and a much more hilly course. I feel I can easily knock off at least 30 minutes from my bike time just due to the lack of hills. We shall see. I'm definitely super excited and ready for the race. Bring it!

Song of the Week:
I just loooove this song. So sweet.