Six days and counting.....

It's labor day. A day that represents the end of summer activities, the beginning of school, and for me the final time that I will uses the pregnancy analogy to describe the Ironman journey. Like the very end of a pregnancy, it's beginning to get OLD! ;-)
Six days until the "birth"! (ok, I'm done.....seriously!!) The tapering has been going surprisingly well! There were a few days in the beginning of last week that were pretty rough with feelings of sluggishness, soreness, and fatigue. I'm sure that starting back to work has a lot to do with this as well. But by Thursday and Friday I was feeling GREAT!! I was really wishing the race were this past weekend instead of having to wait another week.
But fatigue is a tricky thing. On Saturday morning, I swam the Ironman course while Derek, my swim coach, paddled in a canoe along side me. He helped me with my sighting, where the actual course was in relation to the shoreline, and gave many tips about swimming with 2500 other guppies....ok....maybe not guppies, but SHARKS!! :-O We tried to work on my constant veering to the left!!! It was one of the most beneficial things I've done in my training. And it felt awesome! It was so beautiful to be there at 7 in the morning, with the sun rising over the lake. There were a few boaters, but otherwise it was very quiet. The view of the Monona Terrace was amazing!! I kept imagining all of the people that will be standing at the top of it, cheering on the athletes at the start of the race. I also pictured 2500 sharks trying to eat me!! I quickly shoved those thought aside.
I then ran for about 8 miles. A few miles into the run, I saw two familiar figures running towards me. I literally "ran" into Katie and Sue!!! We all said we couldn't have planned it any better! I took it as a positive sign...the fates are with me and everything is going to be fine. I ran with them for awhile before we went our separate ways, as they were running much longer than I had planned.
The last 15 minutes of that run were interesting. I was POOPED all of a sudden! It was again a reminder that my body is still needing more taper time to heal and refresh from all of the hard training. Again, it's tricky....there's such a fine line...for me at least...between doing too much and DE-training. Even if I do this for the rest of my life, I will never have it all figured out. The best I can do for myself is to keep on trying, learning, feeling, and evaluating. Luckilly, I LIKE to over think things, so this fits right in with my obsessive tendencies.
Later that afternoon, Mike, the girls and I went to the Taste of Madison. It's one of our favorite end of summer activities, where local restaurants set up booths all around the Capital, and you go and "eat your way around the square". There is so much food, and music, and tons of people! We had a great time. It was one of the few times this summer that I let loose and just had fun. We danced and ate...and I even had two glasses of wine! I was soaking in the atmosphere, and imagining myself there in a week...when there is a strong chance that I will not be feeling as good!!
I woke up yesterday VERY sore and tired!!!!! AHHHH!! Did I just blow my taper by DANCING too much?????? :-O A very fine line indeed. :-)
Six more days. I'm completely immersed in it now. It's all I can think about. But it's a good thing right now, and I'm just going to go with it. It's what I've waited so long and worked so hard for. I'm so excited and nervous, but I LOVE this feeling of anticipation. I feel so ALIVE!! Yes, I will take mental breaks from it, and to remind myself that there are other things going on BESIDES IMOO! But for the most part, I will soak it all in...the nerves, the restlessness, the images played over and over in my brain of crossing the finish line and the constant battle to push aside stinky thinking and remain positive and relaxed. I will have FUN!! :-)
Enjoy this day!