Healthy and fast in the home stretch, bees in my clothes?

After my first week of a two-week training taper, I am feeling fit, fast, and healthy. Today was the last long ride of the season, and only naturally it couldn't have been a more miserable one. I rode in and out of torrential downpours, and that was the fun part. Never tell yourself things can't get worse, because when you do, you find bees inside your jersey. When a stinging sensation became unbearable around mile 42 of my ride, I pulled over and quickly removed my jersey, only to find that the stinging sensation was actually two bee stings. After shooing the bugs away, I put my soaking wet jersey back on and finished the ride. Despite the eventful training day, I felt strong and relaxed on my bike today.

This training week has been fun, and naturally marked by faster sessions with slightly reduced weekly volume. Swimming, in particular, has felt real fast for this late in the season. On Monday, at the end of my 6x500s @7:20 workout, I dropped a 6:18 500. I've had college races in season where I swam worse! Then on Friday night I averaged 1:14 per 100 in a set of 10x100s @1:30, which is great considering I've had days where I struggle to keep them all under 1:20. Weekly totals came out to 9500 yards of swimming, 132 miles of cycling, and 30 miles of running. I feel good about the quality of the work accomplished this season, despite a markedly lower average weekly volume. I will taper one more week with confidence, shooting for about 7000 yards of swimming, 90 miles of cycling, and 25 miles of running, all followed by Timberman 70.3 this Sunday.

The Olympics are winding finishing up, with just the men's marathon tomorrow morning and closing ceremonies. It should be easier to get sleep once they're all over. Mo Farrah of Great Britain finished the games with an amazing double, winning the 5000 meters today after his huge win in the 10,000 meters. Must be amazing to win both golds in front of the home crowd. The Brits also did amazingly in the men's triathlon, where brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee took 1st and 3rd, respectively. In a new event, the 10,000 meter open water swim, American woman Haley Anderson snagged silver with a tme of 1:57:38- averaging 11:45 for each kilometer, the same time I went tapered in a single 1,000 yard split in a short course pool! Incredible!

Time to taper, sleep, and eat well. The hard work is done, now I look to reap the rewards of the hard pushed season in New Hampshire. See you at the races!