Taper, you say? I'll show you a taper fit for a queen. Taper time, in Ironman Speak, is all about cleaning house, organizing tri-gear, catching up on the Netflix queue, and finishing projects. Throw in some yard work, garage & and basement cleaning, you get the idea. Last night we polished off the summer skirt project, otherwise known as the Zuma Skirt, designed by, yes, Doris Chan. Hooked from the always divine and not too-ungodly expensive, Tahki Cotton Classic Lite, we're lookin' stylin for a late summer evening.
And: "You treat me like I'm an adult and I'm just a little kid!"
I brought out one of my main photographers, and she did me justice. There was a bit of arguing about the clarity of shots, but, as my companion insisted: "Mom, If you get mad that it's blurry I won't take pictures of you anymore!" And so, again, point taken.
Our fine photographer also insisted that we pose in front of the "pretty bungalow. I was going for the art shot of the soon-to-be Oak Park teardown. Not much agreement, here.
Just you wait, this'll be gone soon. Or, at least unrecognizable.
"Now...Get me like I'm tearing down the house, get it?"
Yup, it's vino time.
See, that's a good one, Mom! I was trying to capture all of the extra western light that's flooding over the former attic and roof of the house, but the haze is pretty sharply white.
Great Teamwork.
And, taper time, lots of sing-along music. It's what gets us through on race day and until then....
Only one week ago today, I was out for the last hundred of the season before Ironman Wisconsin. I was feeling good and in the company of three others who are doing IM Wisconsin and a handful of other volume junkies. It was set to be a gorgeous day. I was feeling a bit tired, after open water swim and long run Saturday, but by the time I got out the door I was ready to roll.
And, bam! Just five miles into the event, my snazzy profile rear bottle cage attachment snapped, fell into my ride and just like that, I was down, another meeting with pavement, which almost always has the immediate and often long term effect of slowing things down. Really slowing things down. Pavement and I, we've been together more than a few times. In fact, the last time I went down was another "last long ride" in 2010, when I hit the road pretty hard along with another friend who was training for Ironman. Crash!
This time, my injuries appeared to be slight (road rash) and my bike was fit for continuing the ride. After shaking off the nerves and cruising gently for a few miles, hunting down some bandages at a grocery store, I was prepared to finish the ride. It wasn't really until we were more than half way through our ride that I realized my ribcage was bothering me as much, if not more, than my arm, shoulder and knee road rash. And so it went. By the time I got home, exhausted and a little elated, I realized that I had a problem that was less visible but rather uncomfortable. For an entire week, I've been taking ibuprofen. No way that rib is broken, but most likely a bruise worthy of the sort of discomfort that makes sleep difficult, and running unpleasant. I took this as a signal that Taper starts Now! I spent the week organizing, cleaning, resting, crafting, and watching Netflix.
Seven days later it all feels pretty good, although I've got a lump on the affected rib. But now, to deal with the accompanying burnout that a crash and inspired rest brings on! The last time I went down, maybe three years younger, maybe going all the way to Canada, somehow brought humor and enthusiasm to the whole thing. Today, sitting at home, I'm having a tough time wrapping my brain around any of this. How much training should I be doing this week/today? What's the impact on race day going to be? Who cares? Essential signs of burnout, indeed....So maybe I'll just have to go back to square one. After all, a year ago I was going through the same motions with the wrinkle that I was flying back and forth to Oregon as Dad's condition worsened. A year ago, the stress and sadness level in this house was remarkably higher than today. In fact, It's sort of a no-brainer that I'm hitting the anniversary marker of a grieving process and the next month, in whatever shape it comes, will most likely be a difficult one. So I'm gonna throw in the towel and call it a truce. I'm going to finish Ironman, that's do-able, but I'm not sweating the whole taper/exercise thing. My work, essentially, is done, and now it's time to get my life in order so that no more chaos ensues before race-day. Calm, rest, focus, order. And while we're at it, let's dedicate this year's race (like last year's) to this guy:
Taper time! We're nearing the date of Ironman Wisconsin, and here I am, decreasing my training volume, catching up on sleep, eating, dealing with personal affairs, and beginning preparation for the execution of my Ironman plan. Might seem complicated, but really, to the Unencumbered Woman, it's just another excuse for fun and games. Yesterday delivered a fantastic massage from the masterful hands of Debra, who's been working on me for at least eight years. It was hot as anything on my ride to and from the appointment, and as I rode through the lush suburbia of River Forest, I was on the lookout, as always, for something interesting. LF, you might realize that I don't say a lot about River Forest, but the place is not only a spectacular glimpse at Suburban Grandeur vis-a-vis early twentieth century estate homes, but the abundant mid-century homes are jaw-dropping. In my time here in the midwest, we've lost many of these homes to tear-downs, but there are still oodles of these homes that I simply adore. Everything from custom made architectural streamline gems to Jetsonian midcentury modern to sprawling sixties ranches that offer so much to the imaginative, creative soul.
south beach aqua trim, beamed ceilings, slab foundation, white brick, paneled windows and more, if only we could get in for a look-see!
Taper time is always a great opportunity to organize a room or two, and to work on abandoned projects. Today, we're looking at the "world's longest sock".
the world's longest sock...ok...someday to be the world's longest sock.
I've also made time in my hectic week to make sure that I have a lie-down space on my front porch/office/yarn goddess room. It's took me a while to figure this one out, legs have been hanging off that sad little love seat for far too long. Taper time? Fix it, goddamn!!!
chair plus love seat? equals suitable lie-down couch. yes!
Finally, Addie and I finish our shared endeavor of the summer. All three seasons of the pathetically hilarious Arrested Development. I'm not going to bother to defend my love of this 2005 TV show. If nothing else, LF, it'll give everybody something to say when they point to me, and say, "she wasn't so politically correct, after all, was she!"
When prompted, Addie admits that of all the characters, she thinks that I'm most like Lucille Bluth.
It's fun to meet the adolescent at adolescence. So we've slumped on the couch all summer, going through each outrageous episode together. She laughs out loud just about as much as when she watches Portlandia (hardly ever), but I nudge her every few moments and beg her to laugh out loud. She always replies, "Mom, I think it's funny, I just don't like to laugh." And so it goes. My child, in utter control. Me, a wimpy, adolescent parent playing at being the one who knows what she's doing.
Now there's a great send-off for my final week of Ironman taper. This will be the eighth time I've ponied up for a race of this distance, and as much as ever, beneath it all, it seems a juvenile pursuit which could just as easily deliver total humiliation as it could deliver total Jutzpah or even physical harm. I dug around for a Lucille Bluth quote that might sum things up for me, but really, the gal's a bitch and I'm not like her. Truly, however, my favorite character and all time Diva Liza Minelli is Lucille2 and here's what I found from her script:
"Yes. I'm foolish and I'm funny and I'm needy. Am I needy?"
I worked the people and beach earlier this summer.
Or: "She's a Puzzlin' Blogger!" (title credit: Addie)
I think, LF, that I may have alluded to the fact that taper translates sometimes into fun and recreation (taper field trip, a week ago), and I may also have alluded to the fact that taper involves obsessive attention to detail. Well, my friend, what better combination of leisure activity and obsessive detail than a jigsaw puzzle!
This ain't no disco...
If you haven't experienced the joy of working on a Ravensburger Premium Puzzle, I strongly encourage you to take the time to indulge this pleasure. And don't, my friends, stop at the pretty little 100 or 200 piece children's puzzle. Take it all the way, with a 500, or in my case a 1000 piece replication of The Singing Butler, by Jack Vettriano. The pieces are simply lovely, and what's the point of squandering 20 or so hours of your life away if the object of your lust doesn't feel great beneath your fingertips?
It was this or Planet of the Apes with the family.
I can honestly say that this is the toughest puzzle I've worked on in a very long time. The background, although seemingly different shades of grey/green/blue/brown, is compleletely blurred on our dining room table. Time to employ the highest level of obsession: I sorted pieces according to their notches and have been plugging away, trying to fit one piece at a time.
If only all of life were this easy to sort and shove into place.
One might wonder (say, all of my housemates, for example) how I can justify such a monotonous practice for such great amounts of time. It is, after all, tedious, and hardly rewarding as time creeps by and the wheels of progress roll forward.
So close I can almost feel it. Will we finish it in time? Who knows.
But of course the answer lies in the explanation of why I'm rewarding myself with downtime this week, at all. It is the mundanity of puzzling which so strongly reflects the tedium of sitting on a bike saddle for hours on end, or shuffling along the streets in a walk/jog/run fashion for hours at a time, or even banging back and forth in a pool, year after year after year, never getting any faster (or even better). I do it because I love it!
Taper time! Three weeks of backing down on the training and getting all those things in the house organized, errands run, and general all around fun!
Today Mark called and said that he needed to rent a wetsuit because he is going to be a "swimming angel" for the Big Shoulders Open Water 5K. This means that he'll be swimming alongside a novice, so in all likelihood, his pace will be slower than usual, and, well, with very little body fat he will be very cold. He asked me if I had ever been to Urban Tri Gear and I had never even heard of it (shame on me). So I suggested a field trip and we were off!
And don't you think, for one moment that I wouldn't find something for myself. The camera doesn't lie, and I always knew that I had pink compression socks in my future, it was simply a matter of time. In case you're not aware of what tri-geeks have been wearing for the past five years or so, this is one of the biggies. Not cheap, but they create the same aesthetic as the tube socks that we all wore when we were rockin' The Doobie Brothers. And so it goes.
They're practically jumping off my legs!
Energized, rested! Compressed!
Next stop? Whole Foods Hinsdale, for the second day in a row. Go figure? It's taper, what can I say. This time to retrieve the planner that I had left in the store Monday. When I went to the customer service desk I read aloud what I had written on the front insert:
In case of loss, please return to: Karen. As a reward: $ my everlasting gratitude.
Wouldn't that be great? Welcome to Illinois. Now get on your bike.
We then admired the granny-triangle-clad bike out front. Needless to say, this is an employee's bike (nobody in hinsdale has a ride like this). But we were so excited by the serendipity of it all. And look at the bumper sticker on the dark side of the vehicle!
