Tapers and Tales

This is taper week for me. That means everything starts to slow down in ironman training but the funny thing is- how does life slow down with three children, a husband, a house still in progress, 3 part time jobs and getting my training studio going? People have warned me, "taper week is really tough". "Just get through the week". "Good luck with tapering" they said.

SAY WHAT?! I am loving taper week! I feel like a mom in control (did I just say that??) again. I am actually home this weekend (for the most part). For the past bajillion weekends I have left the house before family awakes and gotten home mid afternoon usually to a house upside down and a teen looking for mom.

Taper week has got me reflecting on the past eight months of building endurance, trying to gain speed and confidence in the three sports. Two constant challenges continuously popped up through the spring and summer. How to be present for my family and how to train while teaching and participating in numerous group fitness classes. There would be days that I could incorporate spin classes easily but to offset that there were many days of a lot of TRX and weight lifting and then trying to swim across the lake with little upper body strength left. I desperately needed cliff notes on how a fitness instructor does it without over training. And then lets just throw in doing all this with Hashimoto's Disease- never fully knowing if it was the training or the thyroid issue that left me feeling exhausted. There was also that annoying metatarsal stress fracture, bruised rib, and plantar fasciitis that tried to mess up the plans but here I am. Going forward.

So for the next few days, I'll be laying low, getting ready to leave for Arizona. Putting out the daily fires at my house. Staying positive and mapping out the race in my mind. Nervous. Excited. Tapering.