Boxes ticked

A better day today, got lots done including the exercise I had been hoping for, one of those days that is rather satisfying. In many ways it made up a for yesterday.

As much as my Saturday didn't go to plan, today did. A good bit of solid training this morning, time with the family, out for lunch, some work around the house and then another little bit of training this afternoon. Lovely.

I was very happy that I was able to get out for training this morning, but at the same time it was a total sufferfest. I was after a couple of hours of solid exercise, which is exactly what I managed to achieve, however, the body was feeling pretty flat and so it was a real struggle. I persevered and finished off the session, but I was not loving life by the end. I know from experience that persevering during sessions like that is what improvement is built on, which is why I stuck with it, but making it through was not easy. As hard as it was, I much prefer to have done the session than not, I think that makes sense...

With today done I am now turning my mind a bit to next week. I will hopefully have a race next Saturday and so this week is pretty much taper time for me. As with most tapers I will be training nearly every day this week, but things will be coming back a notch and the volume will certainly be decreasing. The race is a paddle event and so I am not really expecting miracles with regard to results, but I would like to give myself a chance to put my best foot forward, which means preparing for the race properly. Taper, proper sleep, good nutrition, all the right stuff.

Besides some race preparation I will have the usual bits of coaching and athlete whispering this week. This is race week for three of my athletes (Busso) and so there may well be a few panicked phone calls etc to deal with. All the athletes have prepared well and they are ready, but getting a bit nervous is all part of the territory and being there to talk to them is part of the job. Getting closer to Busso is pretty exciting though.

All up it has been a great day and it is looking like being a pretty decent week. Better get on with it.