The Slow Glide into Taper

Last weekend was my last big build for Placid and this past week I began my taper. And in true taper form, I was tired, grouchy, cranky, and hungry. It all came to a head on Friday, as you could probably tell in my angry post directed at Mother Nature and her stupid wrath. Shortly after I hit "publish" on that post, I ate my dinner and then went straight to bed. Lights were out by 10pm because I couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm rarely in bed and asleep by that time during the week, never mind the weekend.   I ended up sleeping for 10.5 hours, waking up sometime after 8:30 Saturday morning (thank you no-long-ride Saturday! See you hundred mile training rides sometime in February!). It was one of those deep sleeps where I had really vivid dreams, would almost wake up here and there and decide that I needed more sleep and would go back under. It was glorious and amazing and I haven't felt that refreshed in a long time. And then on Saturday night, I got to sleep later than I wanted, but still managed almost 8 hours - two nights in a row with that much sleep is almost unprecedented. I think my body was sitting on the edge of a fatigue cliff, but hopefully all that sleep pulled it back a safe distance. Now I just need to keep it up until race day. This means no technology when I'm trying to sleep, no more bringing the computer or iPhone into bed with me. The iPhone will probably end up across the room in our radio so I'm less tempted to use it when I should be sleeping.

The workouts this weekend weren't bad. It was hot hot hot - much warmer than I had expected, given the the Capital Weather Gang's forecast late last week, which made it sound like it would be pretty nice - I guess they just meant no rain. It also didn't help that I didn't get out the door until well past 10am each day. It's amazing how much harder it is to get out the door for short workouts, when you feel like you have all the time in the world because you only need to be on the bike 1/3 of the amount of time you're typically riding it. Too bad I waste all that extra time tooling around on Facebook. Le sigh. I didn't feel super fast or super snappy, but I felt decent enough. I probably could've done with eating a bit more (both on and off the bike), but that is the story of my life.

Speaking of eating, did you know my cat is a fiend for whipped cream. He just hears the top pop off and he is ALL over it. We learned today, however, that he is NOT a fan of whipped cream stuck to his nose. Miles licking it off him added insult to injury - wish I'd gotten a picture of THAT!

Could he look less thrilled?