The Past Two Weeks

With the biking legs well covered by Pan-Mass Weekend, the last three weeks of training have consisted of topping off run and swim prep and tapering.  Friday after Pan-Mass, Christy Abel and I ran a 20 miler and closed out our distance training a week later with a 13 mile run.

People ask what I find to be the easiest or most enjoyable leg of the triathlon.  While training for Iron distance, I've come to realize it's the swim.  The bike is the most exciting, the run most familiar, but when you're doing each of those for 6.5 and 5 hours, respectively for the Iron, 75 minutes in the water seems downright relaxing.  The swim has received the least amount of focus in my training but extending the distance I can comfortably swim has been lots of fun.

Our family traveled to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont for a final few days of summer vacation in mid-August.  Alison's family has been going to Highland Lodge for years- it's a perfect family retreat.  In the winter, it has some of the most spectacular nordic skiing you'll find anywhere.  In the summer, days are spent on Caspian Lake in Greensboro or reading on their porch.  Caspian Lake was perfect for open water distance swimming and I had two 2 mile swims in a couple of days.  Accompanying me was a crack team of canoeists and kayakers- father-in-law, John Denne plus Jake, Brady and Toby.

The Caspian Lake Swim Support Crew

Tapering just feels weird.  You know it's an important phase of training but your body and mind feel like you need to be working.  I've never been great at it, but have been resting and cutting distances significantly.  Did one last Greylock summit with Steve Brown, Williams '71, last Sunday.  Only work this week will be a 7 mile run today, a 30 minute swim tomorrow and a short 20 mile ride on Thursday.  Then it's 140.6 on Saturday.

Me and Steve at top of Mt. Greylock