Its not gonna be much of a taper this time...

Well here I am 2 days out from the NYC Half Marathon. I chose this race because of where it fell on the calendar, and not necessarily because it was the NYC Half Marathon; I did get lucky because I was able to lottery into it, so this race does hold some more value than others.

I liked the date because it is EXACTLY 4 weeks out from the New Orleans Half Ironman, which will make this a great gauge on my fitness leading up next month's race. Afterall, I will be running this distance again in 4 weeks, but after a 56 mile bike and 1.2 mile swim.

Since I am in the middle of my last build phase leading up to New Orleans, this particular week is a big one including over 100 miles on bike. So that is where the push and play of volume vs rest comes into the play. Can you really do huge volume day after day after day then finish the week up with a half marathon and expect to do very well? Then turn around immediately and put in an even bigger week?

I am sure some can, but my body can't. Fortunately I got lucky this week and had work canceled on two glorious days of sunshine earlier in the week where I was able to put in 70% of my week's worth of biking volume. This allowed me to spread out the rest of my week's volume and made it so that I could draw down the volume leading up to Sunday.

Ta da! Its magic!

This of course is being done with a LOT of stretching, ice bathing, foam rolling, and protein shaking. This week was not free! After running 6 miles yesterday morning and having to put in another 3 this morning after the two days worth of biking, @ 6:30 AM I was questioning what the heck I was doing with my life and wondering if it was worth it.

Motivation is 50% of a workout!

Did 2500 more yards in the pool @ lunch, then its 15 miles tomorrow on the bike and heading down to NYC to the expo to get my packet and goodies.

Sunday evening I am drinking a beer!

...and Tuesday morning I have an appointment with the "Elbow" to put my body pack together, because I have a feeling I am gonna be a hurting boy come Monday!