This week My taper has officially started. Yesterday my training schedule had a 60 mile ride and an 8 mile run.

I was not able to finish the 8 mile run ( due to the spare tire I decided to add to my waist the last month !! and the feeling of being poisoned from last nights Chocolate indulgence) did only 4.

However I was very fresh afterwards and was able to resume a 'Normal Person's Saturday' activities that included drinking from a glass instead of sipping through a sportscap.

Side Note: When I spend more time on my bike saddle than on the couch I lose the ability to drink any liquids from a glass, weird feeling ( some of you probably know what I am talking about)

This year I have been working with my coach Dominick Castellano who geared my training to my individual needs, and gave me just the right amount of recovery to get the most of my workouts. I have been doing weight training which I believe helped me immensely in all 3 disciplines. My recovery times from long/key workouts have almost been cut in half.

I always felt undertrained, but after each long brick workout ( long bike followed by a run) I saw surprisingly that I was getting stronger every week.
In my previous Ironmans' I definitely was overtraining piling on junk miles, workouts.

My typical weekly workouts consisted of:
2 runs, 2 swims ( sometimes 1 ), 1-2 spinning classes, 1 long bike. ( sometimes followed by a long run)

This year I feel very strong, if only I had not sabotaged myself with my binges, and gained 15 pounds while training I feel I could have completed this IM in less than 14 hours. I am hoping to shed a couple of them off until the race but cant be too aggressive this close to the race regarding weight loss which could lead to power loss.

Now all my goal is to finish within cutoff without any problems.

My Key/long workouts have been as the following:

Week 8 : 62 mile bike ride - 4 mile brick run - back to back
Week 7 :116 mile bike ride - 15 mile run.
Week 6: 105 mile bike ride - 2 hour swim
Week 5: 30 min swim/80 mile bike/10 mile run - all 3 back to back.
Week 4: 15 mile run, 90 miles ride
Week 3 : 70 mile ride/10 mile brick run- back to back.
Week 2: 2.4 mile swim, 14 mile run,
Week 1: 96.5 ride/6 mile brick run - back to back.