BOOM. Taper.

Clearly I was too busy training all last week to even blog.  I certainly hope that as I taper there will be a bit more time, in between work going crazy and trying to plan/pack for this race, to update and chat a bit more.  It even took me 2 days to get the photos from our last long ride off my camera.

I do have some decent excuses though, as my weekend was nearly derailed by drama.  On Saturday morning,  I walked out of the pool after my long swim of the week to find that someone had broken into my car and stolen my (fairly-well-hidden) purse - license, cash, credit cards, checkbook, and more, all gone just like that.  Suffice it to say, the rest of the day was spent dealing with police, banks, auto glass repair places...not quite what I'd had in mind for how to spend my Saturday.  Even the police were shocked, as the pool is in a very nice area and has never had a theft or anything like that!  To make matters worse, Jeff and my parents were all out of town on separate trips so I didn't have anyone to help save my ass or give me cash to get my car fixed.  Slowly, I'm putting the pieces of my ID/financial life back together...I spent nearly 3 hours at the DMV on Monday morning to apply for a new license, I bought a new wallet, etc.  In the meantime, I am wishing anal leakage and permanent genital warts upon the skanky bitch (I have photos, from the ATM where she tried to get a cash advance on my credit card) who stole my stuff.  On the upside, absolutely everyone I dealt with after that - police, the pool managers, the banks and credit card companies, the auto glass folks - was so incredibly nice and helpful that it redeemed my faith in humanity.

Onward to Sunday, which I finally got to packing for around 5pm Saturday night.  Kristi and I had been counting down the days...it was our Last. Big. Training. Day. before taper!!!  The two of us drove up to Napa together and met up with riding buddy George for the last 112-miler before Ironman.

The view the whole way...winery after winery after winery, with some hills on the side.

Other than the outrageously painful insect sting/bite (we're still debating what kind of bug it was but it hurt for HOURS) at mile 38 and a flat tire (that I changed all by myself!) at mile 68...it was a fairly good ride!

The headwind on the last 15 miles was pretty rough but we took turns pulling and got through it.  George let us pull for all our wattage intervals during the bulk of the ride, so we let him pull us back on our "easy" cooldown (that wasn't so easy due to the wind).  As a reward, he gave us recovery snacks and sodas when we were done!  So. Awesome.

Done!!!! Hello, taper!