Hopefully by now your taper is coming around from the icky, uncoordinated mess of the last week or so, and you are starting to feel good about the race you are about to complete. Not always true, and one of my friends, Carmen, said she didn't feel good till the day before - and then she promptly qualified for Kona. So there's a big range of how taper can play out.
I know for me, last week was awful. My legs were, simply put, not mine. The 10-miler I did last Thursday just felt all wrong. I was uncoordinated, my RPE was off the charts...running in the 130's felt like I was in the 160's. It was just WONKY. All the little niggles that I talked about in my last post were all there to keep my company. But I executed the session anyway, per directions. And Friday's swim was just the same. Arms and legs not working in tandem, out of breath, just WONKY. Yet interestingly, my numbers were there, all of them, right where they should be. Truly. I wouldn't have guessed that I'd pulled out 7'20-7'40s on the progressions, and sure wouldn't have said I had an 8'37 avg for that run, and yet, that's what I did. And I was swimming in the upper 1'40s (stop smirking...that's fast for me!). Thank you Garmin for giving me irrefutable proof that even when I feel like crap, I can still perform. (did Coach pay you to do this??!) "Your fitness has't just disappeared". It's true. And by Saturday's bike session, the body was working together pretty well again. "Good news!" I told Coach..."I've got my own body back!"
The reality is, if you have done the work, you are ready, no matter how you feel. I know I've done the work. As I look back over the last 9 months, it's right there in Green and Red. ;) Thank you Training Peaks. As an Agile Coach in my day job, I am a big proponent of what we like to call Big Visible Charts. I'm an advocate of full transparency and making things visible. You can't hope for continuous improvement if you aren't being honest and staying aware of what's really happening over time. TP helps me do that, and you may know from reading my blog, that achieving those Green Weeks is a big deal for me. When I look back over this year, I can say with certainty that it's the best year of training I've ever had. Matthew really taught me that consistency is key. I've always known that, but I don't think I've KNOWN it till this year. And, as I always say - as in tri, so in life - that's no different than what I teach my teams every day at work.
Looking back over this year of training, I have had 11-12 sessions per week, so somewhere in the vicinity of 450 training sessions. I've missed 13... 5 swim, 3 bike, 5 run, and 2 strength. Almost all of those misses were purposeful, for health or fatigue issues. A couple weren't. But damn. I have to say I'm impressed with myself. Consistency. Chase Consistency Kat. String together weeks, and then months, of consistency. That's what Coach said all those months ago. And I've done that. And now, here I am. Seems like just yesterday he was saying "Choo is months and months away...we have lots of time". Now here we are, 4 days to go. Hard to believe.
So... trust your training. Know that you are ready. Now it's just about believing in yourself. If you've done the work, you are ready. One of the things that Coach has said to me in the last week is "Know that you are physically ready to race this, even if your body doesn't FEEL good on race day." I never, ever, thought about it like that before. Those crappy sessions last week actually proved that for me. Of course, we all want to feel GREAT on race day. But I really do KNOW that even if I don't feel great on Sunday, my body knows what to do, and it is ready.
Trust your training = Trust your Coach. And that is what I've done. He has earned my trust, not an easy task these days, unequivocally. Thanks, Coach, for making it so easy to trust you, and moreover, for understanding how important it was to me for that to happen. As I told him a few weeks back, as he was still contemplating what the right metrics for race day were going to be for me...whatever you say, is what I'm going to do...I've trusted you this far, not gonna stop now!
#WhatCoachWantsCoachGets :)
I'm excited! I'm ready. Honestly, I can't wipe the smile of my face now. Got on the plane to come home last night, and just couldn't stop smiling. It's all about Sunday now. Ready, Here I Come!!
Happy race prep,
Kat
Go Kat go!
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