Silence

The lack of posting over the last week or so has not been intentional. Life has been busy. On top of that, tapering has begun and I feel myself starting to retreat into my own head.

The last big(ish) week of training capped off last Saturday as we crammed in one final long bike ride before heading directly to a friend’s wedding (well, we showered first, and frantically packed our suitcases, but that was about it). From the wedding, we headed to my parent’s house to sleep for a couple hours before boarding a flight at 5:30am bound for San Diego.

The reason we were in San Diego was for a conference for my work. I spent most of my days in sessions trying not to be too nerdy with the rest of the “arts and culture” geeks, while Shane got to explore the city. That said, it wasn’t all work, and I did get some free time and a chance to get in a little exploration and sightseeing of my own. (Old Town might have been my favourite, as it made me long for another visit to Mexico).

I think it is fair to say that both Shane and I were definitely out of our routine, but we did still manage to get in a bit of training to kick off our taper (thankfully the hotel had a 25 yard pool that was very quiet at 6am).

I swam a couple mornings in the warm hotel pool (it definitely wasn’t my happy place, but it was nice to be able to swim outside all the same) and enjoyed a nice sweaty run along the waterfront one evening. We also rented some road bikes and managed to get our legs spinning for a couple hours one afternoon.

During our ride we got to see a little bit more of San Diego than the Gaslamp Quarter and the stretch of marina by our hotel. The ride up to Cabrillo National Monument was very cool and offered some amazing views of the city. Oh, and we only managed to take one wrong turn, which ended in us having to back track along the freeway ~ oops. The highways on Vancouver Island are definitely a little quieter than the freeways in southern California, haha.

I think we both would have liked to have seen a little more of the beach, but with only 3.5 days in the city, it just wasn’t meant to be.

We got home early yesterday evening and quickly settled back into our routine with a great 3000m(+) swim this morning at Thetis.

The taper mind-games have definitely started to affect Shane (even if he isn’t willing to admit it) and I can tell they are starting to weigh on my mind too. I can’t believe that IMC is only 8 days away! It boggles my mind a bit.

And so, I think it is probably time to revisit this.