Operation List

I am a list person. Lists clarify my ticking brain and give me a locus point. Top of today’s ‘to do’ list is the creation of several other lists in race preparation. Operation List is a tangible task to assist me in the psych out of tapering and the impending race: A revised training schedule to stop my twitching body from doing more than is necessary, a nutritional list to hold me to account and remind me to hydrate, a packing list (want to circumvent the disaster of the Lochness Marathon and neglecting to pack a real sports bra!) and of course a miscellaneous list of anything else that might just need a list e.g. really got to finally tri out those damn tri laces!

Tapering, where science battles with psychology and 14 weeks of body battering. A bit of googling and my original taper plan has been slightly modified. Felt a bit guilty about yesterday’s effort (60km ride, 8km run, 2.3km swim) but then discovered that most people operate on a 10 day program. In fact, I found out that most taper programs recommend keeping some high intensity efforts to jog the muscle memory. Still, the doubt factor was there this morning and I kept having to check that my legs hadn’t been replaced with solid concrete stumps. In a really strange way these two weeks are going to bring completely different challenges than the last 14 weeks.
 
Right, according to my list there is much more to be done today, but at least I can now cross this off. Yes, I have been known to add something to a ‘to do’ list after the fact to then be able to enjoy the satisfaction of crossing it off!