September 13, 2010

Primary race stopped by illness

Sunday was supposed to be my last A race of the season. I got sick with the stomach flue Friday night & still wasn't well enough to race by Sunday. The same thing happened in April for my last A race. Obviously the problem is my training &/or my taper. I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Since I messed up this taper so badly I've decided I'm going to train for another A race Dec 7th.

My work started a weight loss competition. The people who has the best results in each of 3 divisions get 4 hrs leave on in on Nov 8th. & 8 hrs leave for each division on Nov 30th.
1) lose the most weight
2) lose the most body fat
3) people to gain the most lean mass

Unfortunately a few weeks ago I fell off the diet wagon. I gained much more weight than I'd like to admit. This work competition is perfect timing for me to got the motivation lose weight. I'd do anything to get time off from the prison!

September 06, 2010

My little monkey girl & my taper

When my daughter was 2 years old I told her the way she came into our life & how we became her parents. I told her that her Mom & I were walking out in the forest & found the prettiest baby monkey we'd ever seen. We picked that baby monkey up, took it home, shaved it, & named it Belle. I even have a picture of a new born orangutan & I tell her the picture was her before we shaved her. To my amusement she has always believed this story.

Tonight out of nowhere my daughter asked me if monkeys bite? I said yes. She asked me in horror if she did that to me when I tried to pick her up in the forest & take her home. Ha! Then she told me the reason she can swing across the monkey bars by herself & the other kids in her pre-k can't is because she was a monkey & they weren't. Like a good Dad..... I agreed.

My pulled quad is completely healed up, but unfortunately my training isn't going well at all. I've been feeling exhausted & slow in training & I can't seem to get my diet back under control. I've gained 7 pounds in a little over a month. My A race is this coming Sunday. I'm thinking I won't have a decent race. The problem is I'm struggling with self coaching. I seem to be getting fast during my training, but when it's time to taper everything ends up falling apart.

I've always been told tapering is more of an art than a science, & I'm a black & white kind of a person, which is why I can't seem to get this whole supercompensation thing down. I've been self coaching since last September & have ended up messing up everyone of my A races. I'm not sure if it's the taper or the peak phase of my routine I'm having difficulties with. But regardless of what the problem is there's definitely a problem. & this problem is messing with my most important races of the year, which is a really big problem.

I purchased a pair of ZOOT triathlon specific shoes to race in at the Patriot triathlon.