Full on summer and taper mode

June felt like a busier month than usual, although we didn't leave town like we often do, saving that for the month of July. Busier, I suppose, with work-related obligations which ended once July rolled around and my summer school class ended.  This past week, therefore, presented me with the opportunity to fully appreciate vacation/summer mode, especially with the 4th of July on Thursday.  Summer mode incapsulates many things, but one of the major aspects of summer for me is that there is a large percentage of my closet that I will not have to touch for the next two months.  It's funny because I like to look somewhat "nice" or professional for work, but when I don't have an obligation that moors me in a certain way, I throw all fashion concerns out the window.  The other indication that it's absolutely summer?  I spent all of Monday and Tuesday reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, which is not the best book I've read but definitely a great read.  It starts out with a group of friends who meet at summer camp - how much more of a summer book can you get?  I also can't remember the last time that time sort of stopped and I ignored most obligations in order to just read a book.  Okay, maybe it was last summer with the Game of Thrones series.  In June, I sat in on two Shakespeare classes that our English department is offering for the adult population (alumni and parents and, with me, faculty), and while I loved reading The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, I can't see myself picking up Shakespeare on my own this summer!  However, there are plenty of options out there, so I don't think that I'll be bored or lack good reading material.

As my days have opened up, I've hit the metaphorical descent in my training - I'm pretty much coasting from here until, gulp, next Sunday.  I hadn't even thought too much about counting the days down, even though I have read the race program, a 24-or-so page document that includes my start time, at least twice.  Then, this morning, as I was making coffee, I thought "I should be on my bike at this point next week, if all goes well!".  I logged in my final long-ish training day yesterday which might be a bit close to race day, but I'm not scientific in my approach to these sorts of events.  Also, I felt pretty good, especially on the 6-mile run post-ride, which I needed - I was sluggish and 'off' my previous run, so this was nice for a final bric.

It seems a bit premature to talk about training since the point of training, I suppose, is to be ready for race day and who knows how the race will go.  That said, I think that I'm ready for race day, at least at this point, and there certainly isn't anything that I can do now.  As per usual, it was far from being a 'perfect' cycle, and there are a few goals that I had which I totally missed (a 60 mile ride, for instance; hit 400 miles on the bike in June).  However, I have stayed relatively healthy, and after my lovely bout with plantar fasciitis in December and January and then a calf issue in May, I don't consider that a mean feat (I was just tempted to make a bad pun about plantar fasciitis and mean feet - ha ha).  So, even if I don't perform as well as I would in an ideal world next weekend, I am quite grateful that I've made the workouts that I wanted and intended to make and that I've enjoyed most of the training!  Fingers crossed that I don't come down with a weird summer cold or something else.  Barring that, I should be good to go next week!

And the other training goals that I did not hit - more strength training and better nutrition.  One of these days, I do hope to incorporate agility and strength training into my repertoire, but it clearly did not happen this time around.  And nutrition?  Well, nutrition while training has held up, and I haven't had any terrible moments this year like I did last when I didn't eat soon enough post-workout.  However, I did sort of hope to make better decisions at other points during the day/week - you know, lay off the ice cream, eat a few less chips, drink more water and less beer/wine/margaritas.  With the exception of the alcohol, I've felt like quite an adolescent (or who knows - plenty of adolescents do imbibe, so maybe I should include alcohol as part of the adolescent diet), eating less-than-ideal food stuffs.  Perhaps the low point was Monday when I ate two servings of ice cream in the afternoon.  Oh, and when I ordered guacamole fries the other day, intrigued by the name, only to find out that they are fries with a huge blob of guacamole on top.  Definitely not the healthiest option.  Ah, well, win some, lose some.

In the meantime, we (or I) are starting to prep for our trip.  I am looking forward to Sonoma - this is our first time to that part of the world, and I can't wait to hit the road this week as we head north to San Francisco and then on to Guerneville!