Geelong Taper

After the Brick session on Saturday, Sunday was a complete day of rest and a massage on Monday continued the recovery/taper process.

Tuesday morning Elaine and I did our usual swimming squad. The massage from the night before had loosened me up nicely and I felt great. I also used this session to break in a new pair of Rocket Science goggles - these ones are tinted, as the Geelong swim usually involves one section where you head directly into the sun. Getting the correct strap tension on goggles is easier than it sounds and I ended up making at least 4 different adjustments during the session.

On Tuesday night I went for an easy run, but felt terrible. My legs were heavy and I couldn't find any sort of rhythm. I ended up running less than 6km as it simply wasn't happening for me. I don't think this is unusual during the start of a taper period. Hopefully I'll feel a lot better when I run again on Thursday night.

Due to problems finding the right strap tension, I was undecided about using the new goggles after Tuesday's swim. However they felt really good during Wednesday night's swim in the bay. I had great visibility and no problems swimming towards the setting sun (on a 38 degrees celsius day). By the end of the session they probably felt a little on the tight side, but I tend to wear goggles a fraction tighter for races and open water swim sessions.

I have also ordered a new seat to use instead of the Cobb Max saddle I currently have on my bike - which is giving me saddle sores for anything longer than a 1 hour ride. I'm planning to revert back to the Cobb Plus that I used previously. Ideally I would have used the Thursday morning Velodrome session to dial in the position of the new seat, but it didn't arrive in time, so Elaine and I enjoyed a sleep in instead.

From now till the race on Sunday, we'll do an easy run tonight and a swim on Friday morning. If my new seat arrives in time, I'll probably spend around 15 minutes on the Windtrainer Friday night to dial in the position. In general it should be a pretty easy week of training.

We're both looking forward to the race and spending time away in Geelong. There will be a lot of members from our club racing, including Mark and Peter who are using it as a warm up race for Ironman Melbourne, so the weekend should have a wonderful group atmosphere.