Continuing with looking at motivational pictures from Epic. This is me about 1 metre from the finish of the 11km uphill TT on Day 1.

I CAN CYCLE QUICK ! ;o)

The legs still feel very heavy when I’m running. The motivation is back but this leaden feeling in my legs is worrying me. Still holding on to the thought that this is some dramatic taper taking place. I just feel heavy when I’m running and certainly don’t feel I’m going to be light on my feet during the marathon at the moment.

Last night I was back in Oxford for the college Gaudy. It was really good fun. Not only did I catch up with some good friends from my college days but there were also others I didn’t know that were going which is was really nice to see. The best Gaudy I’ve been to and now wish there was another dinner tonight as there are several people I just didn’t get a chance to speak to as much as I’d have liked – particularly some guys from the first eight who I really didn’t get much time to chat with.

I took the opportunity to have a great run this morning – along old stomping grounds – through Christ Church meadow to the Boat Houses then along the tow path to the start of eights. It was exhilarating how certain sights brought back such vivid memories and feelings – particularly the tension of the start and first few strokes of Eights.  Decided Jo and I should come visit for a day and perhaps come down for Eights Saturday one year.

Got some advice from Gordo about trying to relax when I’m running and improve my running economy. Had some feedback from Jo during a run  on when I was looking relaxed and when tense. It seemed I could feel when I was relaxed which is something I’ve not noticed before so am optimistic about over the long haul being able to make some progress on that.

This heavy feeling in my legs prompted me to do a bit more reading on tapering and reviewing various coachs approaches. It seems that there’s a school of thought that if u rest up long enough after a big build period your body goes into deep recovery that can take weeks – this seems to tally with a Mark Allen style 4 week taper. With this in mind a lot of coaches seem to suggest 10 day taper for mid season races as this gives some time for recovery but doesn’t let your body go into deep recovery that will require a lot longer. Hopefully what I’m feeling now is ‘deep recovery”. I’ve been further tweaking my plans for Wisconsin to Kona so that Wisconsin is a 10 day taper and Kona a 3 week one… can’t really fit a 4 week taper in it. Once I have it clear in my mind what I think I should do I think I’ll ask Gordo for his thoughts.