Taper and Body Image Dissatisfaction

In the week or two before your big race and you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror while you are trying on your race day outfit or you come across a recent picture of you training and racing. What thoughts go through your head as it relates to your body image? 

No matter how you think you look like or how you feel about your body, don't let negative body image thoughts sabotage your taper. 

Body image is the mental picture that you have of your own body but also how you see yourself when you look in the mirror. It also refers to the way you believe others see you. Self-esteem is how you respect and value yourself but also how you take care of yourself physically, nutritionally and emotionally. 

Because body image and self-esteem are closely related, when you have a healthy body image, you know how to and want to take care of your body. When you are dissatisfied with your body, you will not feel comfortable about your body and will not make smart choices to take care of your mental and physical well-being. 

Athletes who are vulnerable of attaching self-esteem (or self-worth) to one's athletic performance (or feel judged by how well or don't well you perform) may find themselves with a heightened sense of body dissatisfaction - and vice versa. One big reason for this is that if your performance doesn't match your predicted outcome, you may feel as if your body weight/size/composition is to blame. 

For many athletes, a drop in volume and a change in routine may cause a heightened sense of awareness of body image. Self imposed pressure to perform and worrying about the many things out of your control may lead to self-defeating thoughts about your body. If you find yourself in this place, I encourage you to change this thought process immediately.

A vulnerable athlete who feels uncomfortable with body image is likely to look for coping strategies, like dieting and over-exercising, in order to gain control. Never is intentional undereating/underfueling or overexercising performance enhancing.   

If you are getting ready for a race but struggling with body acceptance during taper, I encourage you to change your focus on what your body looks like and instead, go to a place of what your body can do. When was the last time you thanked your body for allowing you to train for your upcoming event? 

Direct your energy to your body strengths ­that have nothing to do with looks....

• What are your personal strengths and positive qualities?
• Have you improved your skills or technique? 
• What are you able to do now that you once could not do with your body? 
• What's amazing about your body?
• What do you love about yourself?

What's making you feel so negative about yourself? 

• Take a self-image inventory. 
• Confront distorted or unhealthy thoughts.
• Challenge misleading assumptions about body appearance.
• Refrain from comparing yourself to others. 
• Give yourself positive affirmations.
• Accept who and how you are. 
• Be comfortable with your body.

If you begin to get nervous, worried or anxious about how you think others will see you on race day, remind yourself that the opinions of others do not matter. You are bringing your prepared body to the race start and you should be proud of all that your body allows you to do. It's not what you look like that matters - it's what you can do with your incredible body.

Your taper is the culmination of many months of training. It is a very critical time in your training plan where you intentionally change up your normal training regime to sharpen your body for race day 

A drastic change in your training schedule, alongside changes in your appetite, sleep pattern, body signals, lifestyle and mood can make you feel a little "off." This sudden, yet expected, time in the season can bring question, doubt and uncertainty, alongside an intense fear of athletic readiness. While a different phase in your training as you change your "typical" routine, taper is not the time to try to change, stress or worry about your body composition. 

Taper is an uncomfortable time for many athletes as it means that your big race is quickly approaching. But it should be a time when you celebrate all that your body has accomplished - not bashing your body for what it looks like. 

Embrace your taper. Embrace your body.

Taper is an important time in your athletic journey. Be sure to take good care of yourself mentally and physically. 

Remember - you trained yourself to do something amazing with your body on race day. If you are training because you want to change how you look or how you want others to see you, you are training for the wrong competition. 

Your body is not an object. You are so much more than an image. Be amazing with your amazing body.

Mentally cope with your taper

Taper is an uncomfortable time for most athletes but it can also be one of the most confusing times for an endurance athlete. 

Physically, tapering ensures that the body is rejuvinated and recovered from previous training. Although training volume is greatly reduced, intensity is sprinkled into training in order to wake-­up the body for race day. The endurance athlete who has invested many months to training can now "cash-­out" from previous training investments.

For the first time in a very long time, the body is under little physical stress as it enters race day with a healthy, fit, resilient and responsive body.  

The tapering approach will differ among athletes, depending on fitness ability, prior taper experience and any recent history with setbacks.    

While taper can be physically easy, many athletes mentally struggle with taper. A drastic change in your training schedule can make you feel a little "off." This sudden, yet expected, time in the season can bring question, doubt and uncertainty, alongside an intense fear of athletic readiness.    

Regardless of the type and length of taper, it's important to embrace your taper. As much as you love to train, if you don't taper adequately, you will arrive to race day sore, exhausted, mentally checked ­out and physically unable to perform. But rest too much, and you will arrive to race day flat, exhausted and feeling unfit.    

During taper, most athletes struggle with the change in appetite, sleepiness, random aches/phantom pains, fatigue, mood changes, uncontrollable nerves and extra time that come with the reduction in training volume.   

If you love taper, you likely embrace all of the free time that you have on your hands, not to mention the nervous energy that means your race is quickly approaching.    

Here are a few of my tips to help you mentally cope with taper: 

Enjoy your new (temporary) normal - There is absolutely no reason to be inactive during taper and certainly you don't want to see taper as a time to be sedentary.  When you officially start your taper, enjoy a few days of a very light training (or complete days off). Use this time to enjoy a new normal by doing very little with your body. Sleep in, sit on the patio while sipping your morning coffee or relax on the couch after work and watch a movie. Take advantage of this time after your last big block of training, because then you will gradually bring back structure to your training and spice it up with a little intensity.    

Be smart with your new normal - You should avoid fear based training during taper. In the 2 weeks before a race, you can not gain fitness. Therefore, testing yourself to see if you can run x-­miles or swim at x­-pace or hold x­watts will bring you no physical benefits for race day. Although mentally you may feel more confident going into the race, you want your best effort to be on race day and not in training. Save your energy for when it counts! Additionally, even though your training routine is reduced, this is not the time to pick up a new sport like soccer, basketball, rock climbing or water skiing. Be smart with how you use your time/energy. 

Work on mental strength - With reduced training volume, you now have more time in your life to work on your mental skills (Don't use this extra time for house projects). It's recommend to dedicate at least 20 minutes a day to meditation and visualization in the 2 weeks before your race. This can be done anytime so long as it is done without distractions and in a calm, comfortable place. Although you have the physical skills for race day, you can only compete at the level you are capable of if you remove the fears, anxieties and stressors preventing you from performing at your best. Instead of "hoping" that you will do well, you must believe in yourself, with the abilities to stay calm under pressure and focused on only the controllables.    

Maintain a healthy relationship with your body - In the 4 weeks before a race, you should not be obsessing about your "race weight". Your body may feel different and it may feel tired but changing your diet to try to change how you look will be disastrous for your race. For many athletes, a drop in volume and a change in routine may cause a heightened sense of awareness of body image. Self imposed pressure and anxiety may bring feelings of unworthiness, leading to self defeating thoughts about the body. Change this thought process immediately. A vulnerable athlete who feels uncomfortable with body image is likely to look for coping strategies, like dieting and over-exercising in order to gain control in the weeks before a race. Never is underfueling, intentional dehydrating (or fasting/detoxing) or overexercising performance enhancing. This can severely sabotage performance and health.  If you struggle in this area, you must focus on what your body is capable of doing on race day. When was the last time you thanked your body for allowing you to train for your race? 

Your taper is the culmination of many months of training. It is a very critical time in your training plan where you intentionally change up your normal training regime. Although taper can be an uncomfortable time, athletes who embrace taper are destined to experience race day success.

No matter how you feel your training during taper, trust that you will be just fine on race day.  Yes, even if you feel absolutely horrible in the 24 hours before your race, you WILL be able to perform amazingly well on race day.

Effective taper tips (and what not to do)

We all have our own ways of tapering so it would be a mistake to say that there is one "right"  way to taper for an upcoming event. As we develop our fitness and skills, our ideal taper methods may change. However, it's a common mistake to assume that tapering = resting.  Tapering is defined as a short-term reduction in a training load before an important athletic event.  While you may not be accumulating as many weekly training hours during your taper, a short-term reduction in load can occur in many ways. As an example, your typical long ride of 2-2.5 hours can still be done 6-8 days before your upcoming event so load as you reduce the overall "stress" of the workout. By fueling smart, allowing ample recover between any intense intervals and not chasing any paces/watts, you can still ride "long" and feel rested without a massive drop in training volume. Certainly, your taper is dependent on the training that you did and didn't do in the months leading up to your upcoming event. When you train consistently for months/weeks at a time, you place a lot of intentional stress on your body. You may know this feeling well because as your training ramps up, it becomes more difficult to feel fresh, light and energetic for all of your workouts. You never have time to fully recover between workouts and even with the occasional rest day, bridge session and easy workouts inserted into your training plan, your body is never completely repaired from the previous hard workout(s). While you can use sleep, mobility, recovery gear, diet and massage to stimulate recovery, taper finally gives your body the chance to recover from the destructive training process. Because you need your healthy body to train through fatigue in a smart training plan, this allows you to adapt in order to gain the necessary physiological adaptations to help meet the physical demands of your upcoming event. Come taper, you can finally maximize those adaptations and "cash out" on all of your training investments. Tapering also provides a necessary mental relief from the emotional toll that training has on the body. Because racing is mentally exhausting, it's important to give time to yourself on race week to improve your mental energy to feel psychologically and emotionally ready for your race. There are many methods and thoughts regarding how much “rest” is needed by triathletes before a race. Is it one week, a few days, two weeks or three weeks? Ultimately, when done correctly, tapering sharpens your body and mind so that you arrive to your race prepared physically and mentally, to perform at your best. Understanding that tapering does not result in detraining, a reduced training volume allows the body to recover from the accumulated effects of fatigue and muscle/tissue breakdown, induced by heavy training. Make note that an effective taper comes after consistent training. Tapering will not set you up for a great race day performance if you do not put in the necessary work to physically prepare for your upcoming event. What can you expect during taper?  Because too long and too much of a taper can make you feel tired and off your normal routine, your taper should sharpen your body, mind and skills for race day. During your final 1-2 weeks of training, you should include a nice mix of intensity, recovery, a sight drop in overall volume and a lot of frequent workouts to keep you fresh for race day. You must trust this process as it’s not about resting but priming your systems to help you gain an athletic advantage to perform at your best on race day. Avoid the taper funk  Taper can be a long-awaited yet uncomfortable time for triathletes. During the first 3-7 days of taper, athletes will often complain of feeling overly sleepy, walking around with heavy legs, noticing a drastic change in appetite, noticing new niggles, aches and other phantom pains, feeling run-down or sick and moody, losing motivation to train, lacking energy during workouts, not feeling fresh or sharp and feeling worrisome that fitness is lost. However, every athlete responds differently during taper. When you are so comfortable to doing things a certain way for many months, and then you suddenly change that routine, your mind and body can become very confused. You may become oversensitive to any body issue/niggle and start to freak out. When you have been training through fatigue for many months and then you progressively let your body recover and heal, the repairing process can make you feel weird, tired and even out of shape! Do’s and Do not’s during taper Do not freak out if you are feeling off. The only day that matters is race day and on race day your body will know exactly what it needs to do.   Do not train with fear or try to prove your fitness during taper (ex. fear you won’t be ready unless you do x-miles/distance workout). You cannot gain any fitness during taper or make-up for missed/bad workouts but you can lose your readiness to perform by doing too much volume/intensity during taper.   Do not get off your normal routine. While you should try to go to bed earlier and sleep in on the weekends, try to keep yourself on a similar routine as to when you normally workout.   Do not be scared of intensity during taper, just be sure to follow the recommended recovery between sets/intervals and don’t go harder/longer than advised. Do not do nothing on race week. It is very easy for athletes to assume that they can skip or reduce the volume of workouts on race week because they are tapering, traveling or because life is keeping you extra busy  You must follow your taper plan which includes frequent, low volume workouts. If you skip workouts and rest too much, the body will get lazy and it will be difficult to wake it up on race day.   Do not fill in your free time during taper with housework, chores, outside activities (ex. soccer, Frisbee) or other strenuous activities. While you don't have to be sedentary, you need to be extra careful with how you spend your energy. Use your free time to visualize, relax, cook or read. We have had several athletes get injured during taper due to accidents thanks to too much free time.   Do not try new things during taper. However, taper is the time when you can sharpen your skills (swim, bike, run) and practice the little details like u-turns on your bike, swim starts/finish in open water, transitions, grabbing and rotating bottles on your bike and hydration belt and anything else that will help you feel more prepared for race day. Always be careful and cautious during taper – many accidents happen during taper because athletes become careless with everyday activities.   Do us similar gear in training as you would on race day and rehearse your race day skills, clothing and tactics. Race wheels, helmet, goggles, gadgets, clothing and anything else that you plan to use on race day should be used in training, several times, in the 2-4 weeks before race day.   Do arrive to your race as early as possible to avoid feeling rushed before a race.  Do make yourself workout the day before your race, within 90 minutes of waking. We do not believe in having the day-off from training on the day before a competition. This pre race workout should last 45 minutes to 90 minutes and should include biking and running. We leave swimming as optional, but recommended if water conditions are safe, weather is ideal and you are not rushed.   Do not spend too much time outside in the heat or on your feet during race week.   Do put yourself first on race week. Communicate with your family as to your needs and expectations on race week so that you can get yourself and keep yourself in the zone.   Do not try anything new during taper unless you have discussed with your coaches. If you are considering trying something new on race day, discuss with your coaches.   Do visualization and mental strength activities every day on race week for at least 10-20 minutes.   Do write out your race strategy/execution plan and travel itinerary on the weekend before race week.   Do not “race your workouts” or try to validate your fitness or readiness in training. Save your best performance for race day.   Do not hang around energy suckers. Surround yourself with energy givers. Limit your time on social media. Do not make excuses before the race or go into the race with low expectations.   Do minimize/remove yourself from social media and reduce work/family obligations so that you can stay within your own thoughts and not worry about what’s happening in the world, feel stressed out or compare yourself with other athletes.   Do go into your race slightly undertrained than overtrained. No matter what obstacles or setbacks you had to overcome in training, you can only race with your current level of fitness.   Do focus on good nutrition throughout taper. You should only modify your diet in the 48-72 hours before your race by reducing high fiber/fat foods and slightly increasing carbohydrates.   Do stay well-hydrated and fueled during taper.   Do not bash your body, diet or worry about your body image during taper. Be proud of your body.   Do focus on really great sleep, lifestyle habits and stress management. Tapering is not just about reducing your training load and enjoying free time but focusing on the many ways that you can stay healthy, fit and fresh for race day. Do not race if you are injured or sick. Consider the outcome of your choice as well as your long term health and training/racing goals before the instant gratification your ego may feel when consider toeing the start line.  Do get a full body massage on the Sunday/Monday of race week. This should be a flush massage, not spot specific or deep tissue. Your massage should be from someone who you have used in the past, that knows your body well.   Do not focus on what other athletes are/are not doing. Only focus on yourself. Never race another athlete's race or try to follow the diet/fueling plans of another athlete.   Do understand that there is no one perfect recipe for tapering. Your taper response is unique to you and your training background, your event and your physiology.   Do remind yourself that you are ready. Don't worry about the past or the future but focus on the present moment.

Embrace your taper

"I don't feel like myself!"

"I feel so off!"
"I feel so lazy"
"Why do I suddenly feel sick/injured?"

For many athletes, the taper period before a race brings a lot of feelings. Some good and some well, not so welcomed.

You'd think that for any athlete who has endured months of hard training, he/she would look forward to a physical decrease in the training load. Yes, that is often looked forward to but it's actually the feelings, that come along with this drop in volume, that leave an athlete feeling uncomfortable in so many ways.

Think about this....
You've reached a point in your season when you put in countless hours of training and you have covered more miles in a week than you feel comfortable driving in a car (who wants to sit in a car for 100+ miles???)  and you have accomplished one too many "impossible to finish" workouts.

Here you are and the only thing between you and putting all that training to good use is ~2 weeks of a drop in training volume to finally let your body recover and heal. 

What's not to love about taper?
Taper means it's almost go time! 

Oh, that's right....
Your "normal" routine changes and that another reason why taper is so terribly uncomfortable. 

It's important to understand that every athlete handles their taper differently - and depending on the athlete, the race distance/goals, previous training and racing intensity, there are many different types of tapers. 

To help embrace and properly execute taper before your next race, here are a few of my taper do's and don'ts.

TAPER DO and DON'TS

Do not rest too much, especially on race week. A drastic drop in mileage and intensity can leave you feeling sluggish, stiff and all-around "off". We prefer to have our athletes "recover" from their last peak week of training for 3-4 days as a "taper" and then sharpen the body for race day with ~1.5 weeks of workouts that help wake-up the body for race day. This helps reduce the chance of the sluggish feeling that many athletes experience by resting too much all the way until race day.

Do lower your training volume relative to your peak training. A proper taper helps you recharge and sharpen but if you are putting out too much volume (especially due to "fear based training" or validation, race-ready efforts) you will go into your race feeling exhausted.

Do not race your workouts. Save your best performance for race day. 

Do not worry about your weight. You are not getting ready for a fitness pageant where you are being judged for what you look like. You are being rewarded by what your body can do and you can do a lot with a well-fueled, nourished, strong and resilient body. 

Do not focus on your body composition during your taper. Do not weigh yourself, talk about race weight, compare yourself to other athletes or bash your body.

Do thank your body for getting you to your start line - regardless of your current level of fitness. Be proud of what you were able to overcome before race day and bring a high level of gratefulness to race day.

Do focus on a healthy, well-balanced diet until the 72 hours until race day. Then reduce the fiber/fat to help optimize digestion while minimizing gut residue.

Do not do fear based workouts or any validation-type efforts to "see" if you are race ready. 

Do trust the work that you did to get to where you are right now. Feeling undertrained is 100% better than being overtrained. Most athletes who feel underprepared are many times, very prepared.

Do not give your best effort in training, when no one is watching. Be willing to go there and dig deep on race day.

Do bottle up your building energy and visualize yourself succeeding on race day. When training volume decreases, increase your mental strength skills.

Do not change your daily routine too much. Aside from getting a bit more restful sleep, try to keep your body on a similar schedule.

Do write out an itinerary for yourself in the 24 hours before your race and then continue your planning through your race day. Write out your plans for travel, eating, fueling and any other details that will make for a smooth race day experience in the 24 hours before and on race day.

Do not change what has worked in training. Trust what has worked and don't try anything new on race day.

Do be open to being flexible on race day. Understand the demands of your race (terrain, weather) and recognize what strategies will help you overcome the obstacles that may come your way. Consider working with a sport dietitian and a mental skills coach/sport psychologist to help navigate through these unknown situations so you have a game plan for the "what ifs". 

Do not go into a race being metric driven. Finishing the swim in x-time, holding x-watts or mph on the bike and then running x-min/mile does not mean you will have the best race possible. The fastest athletes (and those who can put together a successful race) on race day are those who slow down the least and can trouble shoot situations while staying proactive throughout the entire race. 

Do not become a non-athlete during taper. Do not voluntarily become a carpenter and start working a house project that you have been putting off, pick up a ball sport (I can't tell you how many athletes I know who have sprained an ankle by "playing" with friends/kids), make a major life change, put extra work projects on your plate or overwhelm yourself with stressful to do's.

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Your taper is the culmination of many months of training. It is a very critical time in your training plan where you intentionally change up your normal training regime.
The workouts during taper are very important.

Athletes who embrace taper (after months of consistent, smart training) are focused, confident and determined to succeed.

No matter how you feel your training during taper, trust that you will be just fine on race day.
Yes, even if you feel absolutely horrible in the 48 hours before your race, you WILL be able to perform well on race day. 

IM Kona - 12 days out

Always a great feeling when the hard work is done after a hard (4.5 hour) workout.

There are many methods and thoughts regarding how much “rest” is needed by athletes, before going into a major competition. Some athletes will train high volume until 7-10 days from an Ironman whereas other athletes will experience a massive drop in volume 21 days out from an Ironman.

Ultimately, when done correctly (and only a few times per year), tapering sharpens your body and mind so that you are prepared physically and mentally for your upcoming competition.

Tapering is defined as a short-term reduction in a training load before an important athletic event.

When you train consistently, you are placing a lot of intentional stress on your body. You know this feeling well as you are carrying around a lot of residual fatigue, which makes it difficult to feel fresh and energetic for all of your workouts.

However, you need to train through fatigue so that your body can adapt in order to gain the necessary physiological adaptations to help meet the physical demands of your upcoming event.

During your peak training, you never have time to fully recover between your workouts. You are always bringing fatigue to the next workout. 

Even with the occasional rest day and EZ workouts inserted into your training plan, your body is never completely repaired from the previous hard workout(s).

While you can use sleep, mobility, recovery gear, diet and massage to encourage quick recovery, taper finally gives your body the chance to heal from the destructive process that we call training.

Whereas you spend many months making physiological investments to gain fitness, it's only on race day (for your key race) when you finally “cash out” with your accumulated fitness gains.

Tapering also provides a necessary mental relief from the emotional toll that training has on the body. Through taper, you can improve your mental energy to prepare psychologically for your race (insert: train your mind to be willing to suffer on race day).
It is important that you limit the validation of fitness/readiness-type workouts (ex. race simulations, obsessive race pacing with heart rate, speed or power, etc.) during taper as it may physically make it hard for your body to perform well on race day but it is emotionally exhausting to do a "race effort" more than once.
You only need to dig deep and prove you can do it once....on race day.
Don't race your workouts!

Aside from the obvious benefits that you feel when tapering before a major competition, your decrease in training load will boost muscle glycogen levels, increase aerobic enzymes, repair micro-tears in muscle and connective tissue (which can help improve power, speed and endurance), increase blood volume, improve neuromuscular coordination and boost mental focus.

Be mindful that tapering does not result in detraining but improves your ability to race as it helps reduce the accumulated effects of fatigue and muscle/tissue breakdown, induced by heavy training.

Tapering will not set you up for a great race day performance if you do not put in the necessary work to physiologically prepare for your upcoming event.
Following a haphazard training plan or only doing only a handful of workouts in the 8 weeks before an Ironman (because life got into the way or you are overcoming an injury) does not warrant a long extended taper (it can actually do more harm than good).

Because too long and too much of a taper can make you feel out-of-shape and off your normal routine, sharpening with just the right amount of a drop in volume, with adequate intensity and recovery, as you stay committed to your mental strength skills, will help you gain an athletic advantage as you will be training just enough, at the right intensity and volume, in order to perform at the highest level possible on race day.

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Drafting behind Karel on my road bike (double hard work fro me not being aero!) during his ride on Saturday.

Karel's week started out easy with 3 days of frequent, low intensity workouts to help with recovery after the past 3 weeks of intense and long training.
Karel felt "off", which was to be expected, as his body was doing some massive recovering and repairing.

The intensity increased on Thursday with a healthy amount of IM training volume over the weekend.

Here's how the weekend looked just 2 weeks out from IM Kona (Karel's 3rd IM since June).
(Karel is coached by Matt Dixon of Purple Patch Fitness)

Saturday: 
4 hour ride + 30 min run
Bike:
Main set:
60 min, 45 minutes, 30 minute at IM effort w/ 15 min Z1/2 effort in between each IM effort.

Run off the bike:
10 min below, 10 min at, 10 min above IM effort

Sunday: 
80 minute run
Main set:
2 x 20 min Z3+ w/ 10 min Z2 in between

Taper do's and don'ts

"This is so hard!"
"I don't feel like myself!"

"I don't know if I can survive this!"

For many athletes, the taper period before a race can feel harder than any interval workout. You've reached a point in your season when you put in countless hours of training, more miles than you would ever consider driving at one time and have accomplished so many workouts that you termed "impossible" when you started and now, the only thing between you and putting all that training to good use is a week or two of a drop in training volume, less total workouts and more rest. 

Yes, now you can clearly see why athletes dread taper. 

Your "normal" routine changes.......

And we all know that most athletes do not do well with change.  

Some athletes feel they may lose fitness during taper whereas other athletes feel "off". It's important to understand that every athlete handles their taper differently - and depending on the athlete and race distance/intensity, there are many different types of tapers. 

For me personally, I don't mind tapering at all. I love the drop in volume and more downtime in my life. I totally trust the process of tapering and know it works to go into a race fresh, rested, sharp and hungry to race. Overtime, I have learned the best taper for me and my body to ensure that I don't feel flat too close to the race but recovered and rested from many periodized months of training. 

To help you out before your next race, here are a few of my taper do's and don'ts.

TAPER DO and DON'TS

Do not rest too much. A drastic drop in mileage and intensity can leave you feeling sluggish and mentally "off". A proper taper helps you recharge. It is not a period of complete rest from removing multiple days of training from your plan (especially on race week).

Do lower the volume (ex. for a half or full Ironman, 2 weeks out from race day) and accept that at first, your body will experience a drastic change in the demands of the body. It's much better to feel a bit flat 2 weeks out from race day than on race week. Nearing 6-7 days out from race day, add a little intensity to your routine (with double to triple recovery time in between short intervals) to wake-up the body and to help you feel sharp. Remember that you are using your taper to fully (for the first time in a long time) fully absorb and recover from all your previous training so you need to find the right balance between rest and just enough time working out to keep your feel for your sport. 

Do not get obsessed with your weight during your taper. Do not weigh yourself, talk about race weight or bash your body.

Do thank your body for getting you to your start line healthy and injury free. Remember, that same body that you may call names because it doesn't look/weigh what you feel is "ideal", is the same body that is going to get you to your finish line.

Do not worry about your diet during taper.

Do eat healthy. Consider the foods that will best prepare your body for your race. Foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and electrolytes will not only help to energize your body but will also keep your immune system healthy and well. The closer you get to race day, the more you will need to focus on the energy-giving foods that will digest the easiest (low residue/fiber). No need to carbo-load your body for two weeks but instead, maintain a healthy relationship with food so that you honor your biological hunger but also do not overindulge just because you are racing. To avoid feeling "heavy" from a slight increase in carbohydrates, make your morning meal your carb-rich meal and then add an extra snack during your day like fruit, raisins or a handful of granola.

Do not do fear based workouts. 

Do trust your current fitness. Feeling undertrained is 100% better than being overtrained. Most athletes who feel underprepared are many times, very prepared. There is no good you can do by squeezing in one or two more key workouts just to prove you can do a certain distance or pace before your race. You will race with your current level of fitness on race day (regardless of what work you didn't/did do) and that is the day when you can prove to yourself that you can do the distance at the pace that you trained yourself to do.

Do not give your best performance in training, when no one is watching.

Do save your best performance for race day. Avoid "testing" your speed during your taper, joining group workouts (that have nothing to do with your taper) or abiding by haphazard training just because you are feeling good. Bottle up that energy and use it when you get a medal at the finish line. 

Do not change your daily routine too much. 

Do get a bit more sleep, practice your mental skills and lower your volume but remember, your body likes a routine. If you feel lost with your life because your taper plan includes a day off on Friday and you never miss a Friday workout, fill in the gap with something that is productive and makes you feel good but will not affect your taper. Go to the gym and instead of your normal Friday interval run, sleep in and then casually walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and listen to a podcast. If you no longer workout twice a day and instead only work out once, take an evening (or morning) walk with your dog or neighbor or enjoy your extra free time and do nothing. Rather than doing your normal long run, drive to a new location for your shorter run and enjoy the new scenery. Instead of your weekly masters swim, invite a friend/training partner to join you for your taper swim and then enjoy a cup of coffee/tea after your workout and enjoy your "free" time. 

It's important that you follow your taper plan that will likely have a drop in workout volume and frequency but you can still feel like you have a routine. 

Do not change what has worked in training. 

Do trust what has worked in training. With months of training behind you, you have had many opportunities to dial in your pre and during sport nutrition, gear, race outfit bike set-up (ex. race wheels, helmet, hydration system), run gear (fuel belt, shoes, etc.), practice pacing and build confidence. Avoid energy suckers on social media or forums that persuade you to change what you know works well for you, your body and race goals. On your last weekend of working out, immediately after the workout(s), write down what gear you plan to use on race day and also include nutrition before and during the race. If you never tried the nutrition strategy you plan to use on race day, never rode your race wheels in a long training ride (especially in similar race day conditions), never worn your fuel belt with your race kit on or....you get the idea.....rethink why all of a sudden you are changing what you know works well in training. The fastest athletes on race day are those who are confident in their well-practiced nutrition and pacing plans and feel comfortable in their race day gear and equipment. Karel answers a lot of questions about race wheels and he says that the fastest race wheels are the wheels that that you can ride the fastest in a straight line on your race day terrain/conditions. 

(You've never seen me ride in a disc or deep dish wheel on race day because I've tried in training and Karel knows it would take a lot of extra energy for me to race and control my bike in hilly or windy terrain with that type of wheel set.)

Do not become a different person during your taper. Do not voluntarily become a carpenter and start a house project, make a life change, put extra work projects on your plate or overwhelm yourself with to do's.

Do wrap yourself in bubble wrap, lock yourself inside your house and do not step close to anyone who is breathing. Only kidding - well, kinda. With all your extra time, it's very easy to take on responsibilities around the house or work that could cause injury or sickness. Or you may be seeking ways to fill in your free time and find yourself becoming extra social, in settings that your body is not use to. Be smart with your available time and seriously, just be ok with doing nothing. Your race is coming and you will have many hours to do something with your body in a week or two.

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The most important thing to remember is that your taper is the culmination of many months of training. It is a very special time in your training plan when you get to intentionally rest your body. For months, you likely only had an intentional rest day (or active recovery day) once a week. That's only 4 days a month or 24 days of rest in a 6 month time frame!!
Whereas your training helped you gain fitness, your taper will allow you to best use that fitness on race day.
Above all, a taper is only as good as your trust in your previous training. Athletes who nail their taper have a great ability to stay focused, confident and determined to succeed. No matter how you feel your training went or how good/bad you feel during taper, never ever stop believing in yourself.

You are capable of so much more than what you think you can achieve. 

Get excited for your upcoming race so you can prove to yourself that you now a stronger, faster, healthier, smarter and better athlete than when you started training for your event.

Ironman fueling - happy tummy Trimrni creations

We are off to Madison, Wisconsin tomorrow!! 

The weather is looking GREAT for race day and our bodies are feeling healthy thanks to a lot of great, delicious, real food!

I thought I'd share a few yummy creations that we have enjoyed over the past 2 weeks. 

Don't forget to yum!

Chia crepes and egg and kale omelet

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup skim milk
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/8 tsp salt

Dash of cinnamon
3/4 - 1 cup water

1 egg

Olive oil

1. Mix ingredients in bowl for crepes until thin consistency. 

2. In a medium skillet on low heat, drizzle olive oil to lightly coat bottom of the pan. 

3. Pour crepes (around 1/3 cup) in middle of skillet and spread to make a large, thin pancake with back of spoon (you need to do this quickly and your pan can not be hot, it needs to be on the low setting. You may also use this batter for pancakes). 

4. Cook for 1-2 minutes until firm on edges, then flip and cook for 1 minute. 

Omelet
1 egg white + 1 whole egg
Kale
Cheese (Cabot Sharp cheddar)

1. Add eggs (scrambled) to small skillet and then add chopped kale.
2. Flip omelet to cook the other side. 

3. Remove from skillet and fold. Top with cheese. 

Berry Yummy snack!

Snacks on the go!
Peanuts, strawberries, banana

Tomato soup with basil, mushrooms and rice

Combine cooked rice/whole grains, sliced mushrooms, corn and garlic with 1 can tomato soup + 1/2 cup water in large pot. 

Cook for 15-20 minutes and top with basil. 

Mushroom and corn tomato soup

1 box low sodium tomato soup (I use Trader Joes brand)
1 package mushrooms

1 cup corn
Garlic, basil, pepper

Mashed cauliflower and egg veggie hash

Mash 1 head steamed cauliflower and combine with 1 cooked potato (with skin). Season with parsley, a little salt/pepper

Stir fry: eggs, veggies to your liking. Saute veggies with a little olive oil and then scramble eggs with veggies. 

Mellow Mushroom - create your own salad

Out to eat in Jax with friends (Karel did RETUL fits at Open Road Bicycles last Mon - Wed)

Bed of greens
Tempeh
Artichoke
Sundried tomatoes
Cheese
Dressing on the side

Cauliflower "rice" 

Marinated Tofu Steaks

Raspberry pistachio salad

Raspberries

Cabbot sharp cheddar

Pistachios
Shredded carrots
Green pepper

Mix greens

Kale and tempeh stir fry

Cabbot cheese

Sauteed kale, mushrooms and tempeh (in olive oil)

Rainbow salad

Mixed greens

Tomatoes
Apples
Kiwi
Dried blueberries and cranberries
Broccoli
Carrots

Tofu salad

1 package tofu (grilled on skillet)
Sliced celery, tomatoes, leeks
Parsley
Salt/pepper to taste

A few spoonfuls Greek yogurt (Fage 0% plain) to taste
1-2 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp spicy mustard

Tuna salad

2 cans tuna (packed in water) - drained
Sliced celery, tomatoes, leeks
Parsley
Salt/pepper to taste

A few spoonfuls Greek yogurt (Fage 0% plain) to taste
1-2 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp spicy mustard

Kona ready: active recovery week

On Monday morning I finished my last long run in prep for Kona. The body and mind felt amazing and I can't wait to put it all together on the big island.

It's pretty cool to see how the body can adapt to training stress over a period of time but it's even cooler to feel it all come together. At one time the body feels slow and the end point seems so far away and with so much work for the body to handle, it's hard to even grasp what it would feel like to be stronger and faster "one day". But when the hard work is done and the day finally comes, you know that it was all worth it. Patience as an athlete can be challenging. Patience for anyone can be tough. We live in a world of wanting everything yesterday and if it takes too long to achieve, there's a quicker way somewhere, somehow. 

I like the journey. I love my lifestyle and I never take a day for granted. I really love what my body allows me to do and every day I wake up excited to see what the day will bring. Not every day does my body give me what my mind can handle and vice versa but I always try to make some type of progress. Or as Karel likes to say "you want to make investments with your fitness and minimize the withdrawals as much as possible. As athletes we are always teetering on the edge - avoid falling off."

Monday morning run -12 mile "long" run

1 mile warm-up

Main set:
3 rounds of 3 x 1 miles descending w/ 30 sec walk in between. 1 minute walk after each 3 mile round. 

Then 1 mile descend to fast. Walk 1 minute. 

Then 1 mile cool down

The body responded amazingly well and I could not slow myself down as my normal 8:15-8:30 min/mile pace for my IM prep just felt like a jog on Monday morning. I just couldn't hold back as sub 8 min/miles was what my IM body wanted to give me on this day and I allowed myself to give in just enough to enjoy the moment but not too much that I wouldn't be saving my best performance for race day. 

 What a beautiful way to end 10 weeks of IM Kona specific training. 

As for Tues: 3000 active recovery swim (no watch so I probably didn't count my yardage correctly but that's OK - I enjoyed the swim and didn't want to get out). Hip and core work followed the swim. 

Wednesday - 1:50-2 hour bike (only my wrist watch - no Garmin) w/ 5 x 6 min hard efforts w/ 3 min EZ in between. 1 loop run off the bike (not sure of time - probably around 7-8 minutes). 

I absolutely love the active period that follows my last long training load for it also leads into taper...which means that race day is near. 

A chance for the body and mind to rejuvinate and recover means extra time to reflect on the past journey. What doesn't change during this tapering period is my lifestyle. There is balance just like there was with training. Plenty of time for Campy, real-food Trimarni creations and sleep as well as my career of speaking, writing and coaching/nutrition with Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition, LLC.....which pays the bills. I also maintain physical activity with just enough structure and purpose to keep me sharp but plenty of gadget free workouts to keep me in-tune with my body. 

 Not once during Kona training (or 22 weeks of training for two Ironmans) did I let training affect my love for a balanced lifestyle and not once did training affect my quality of life. Knowing that good sleep, a fantastic real-food diet, good stress management and quality rest make for great training sessions, I never overlooked the many important areas in my life, that alongside putting in the hours of swim-bike-run, that will also contribute to a great race....not to mention a great experience during my prep for Ironman #7. 

This past week (although it's only Wednesday) has been a busy one but I wanted to reflect on a few highlights of the past three days. 

The best part of my day is enjoying the outdoors with Campy. We love our mini walks but we also love the short runs together that make our hearts pump even faster. I'm so lucky to have such a great dog who loves an active and healthy lifestyle just as much as his parents. 

I love lunch n' learns and really enjoyed my talk to a group of employees at Brown & Brown of Florida INC. They are starting a wellness challenge which is fantastic. I love to see people taking an initiative to take care of their health, especially in a group setting. Since I don't prefer to speak about the specifics of nutrition like calories, carbs, proteins and fats but instead the "lifestyle" approach of healthy living, I feel the group walked away with a better appreciation of how to live a more balanced active and healthy lifestyle. 

One of us is taking this tapering thing to the extreme. I guess with Campy turning 6 soon, he has a good reason for feeling tired after helping me train for my past 5 Ironman events. 

Mother nature prescribes the most delicious creations!!
Mixed greens, toasted red quinoa, apple slices, carrots, cucumbers, edamame, corn, leeks, tomatoes, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, pecans, avocado, goat cheese and strawberries.

I believe that your meals should be too pretty to eat and worthy of a photo. 

Red quinoa toasted with olive oil, strawberries, raisins, avocado, cucumbers and sunflower seeds on a bed of mixed greens.

I've been working on a few articles and quotes lately for magazines (Women's Health, Triathlete, Runner's World) for the winter months as well as on Ironman.com and Irongirl.com but I wanted to share one of my favorite run workouts, featured at Triathlete magazine online.

Over/under interval run workout

This picture doesn't have to do with the article but I love any excuse to post another pic of Campy. 

And lastly - a huge thank you to Susan Wallis (president and finisher of 39 IM's and 8 IM world championships) and the members of the Hammerhead Tri club who came out out to Corner Bistro this evening for a get-together/Kona send off party. I love my Kona towel and can't wait to use it at the pier (aka "dig me beach") next week!!

Wow - it's been 7 years since I did my first Ironman at the age of 24 and I still have the same love, passion, excitement and respect for the distance and what my body allows me to do to prepare and race in an Ironman -140.6 mile distance - triathlon. 

5 more days til Kona prepped and ready turns into Kona bound!

Kona prep: the puzzle is complete!

22 weeks is a long time. 140.6 miles x 2 is a long way for the human body to travel. 

My journey of training for two Ironmans is now complete.....and now I anxiously await the day when I can stand at my 7th Ironman starting line. 

I am so very grateful to my body for allowing me to train for 2 Ironman distance triathlons (with the second round being 100% injury free) within 6 month time span. I trained for 10 weeks specifically for Ironman Lake Placid and after a 2 week unstructured bike/swim routine from training (with only 1 run/walk at the end of that 2 week period) I dedicated 12 weeks to preparing for the Ironman World Championship. 

Aside from needing to clean my car (My triathlon bag explodes in there almost daily), I am very excited to be approaching my active recovery week and then race week which will be my official "taper". Active recovery week allows my body to recover from many weeks of structured, quality "train hard, recovery harder" training and to rejuvenate my body. Taper, on the other hand, will include high intensity efforts w/ plenty of recovery to prepare my body for race day. Through experience as an athlete who has struggled with tapering and peaking at the right time, over the past few years Karel and I have learned that my body does the best with a heavy load at the end of my training cycle (keep in mind - I did not do over 17.5 hours a week of training for the IM world championship so my typical weekly load was more intense and race specific than high in volume) and then following that with an active recovery week. As you may have experienced, after a hard training load the body needs to repair and that can bring heavy legs, altered sleep (body wanting a lot more sleep), perhaps a change in appetite (my appetite stays the same with IM training so I never get super "hungry" or cravings with training - thanks to proper sport nutrition and daily fueling) and mood changes (nerves, excitement, highs and lows). These are things that no athlete wants to or needs to experience on race day so to ensure the body feels 'hungry' to race on race week, I allow the 2 weeks before a race for total body and mind recovery and I welcome active recovery to help flush things out and to keep the body active without a lot of training stress. Then on race week, I get to wake the body up with a few bursts and keep with my motto of saving my best performance for race day. 

One of the best parts of our training style is seeing all the pieces of the puzzle come together when they need to come together. With MANY 3-4 hour "IM rides" behind me, my body was set to put it all together for my last long ride last week. It was raining and I was in a 11-mile loop for the ride but all things considered, I was not going to let excuses get in my way for my 2nd 5-hour ride during Kona prep (the other ride was 99.1 miles with Karel).

5 hour ride + 30 min run
Bike main set:
45 minutes at IM Pace watts w/ 3 min EZ in between for 5 hours.
(yep  - that's it! Put all those pieces together and all those 3-4 hour workouts were coming into play for my first solo 100 mile ride in the past 22 weeks).

Run off the bike was great - averaged 8:12 min/miles w/ 30 sec walk in between each mile as usual.

I switched over my Garmin to my main page (from my interval screen) and I couldn't believe my eyes. Holy cow....NEVER have I held 20 mph alone and finally I could fully experience how this quality training approach pays off! Karel was just as happy as I was for you never know how the body will adapt to training stress and I'm so happy that we have been able to put the pieces together very nicely with my 3rd time training for the IM world championship.

This past week was one of the hardest weeks of training (Mon - Fri) that I have ever put in and I could not be more proud of my body. It was a lot of commitment, dedication and mental strength and as usual, I do not let excuses get in my way. Trying to keep everything balanced, I focused on the controllables and did waste any energy on things out of my control. 

Oh - speaking of uncontollables - I must mention that I did have a mental break down on Thurs as I was doing my "planned" workout which was modified thanks to a power meter that decided to malfunction just 24 hours before I needed to drop off my bike at the Trek Store for Tri Bike Transport to pick up. But as usual, Karel saved the day just like he did at Branson 70.3 and IMWI when I had two mechanical issues the day before the race. 

When people ask Karel about what gadgets/bikes to buy, Karel is always honest in terms of quality gear but he also focused on customer service. I am so grateful to Stages for sending Karel (and me) a new powermeter overnight so that Karel could do his magic and install it, sync everything and tune-up my bike within 2 hours of sending my bike off to Hawaii. THANK YOU KAREL and STAGES!!!

As for this weekend, a glorious well-deserved gadget free 2:45-3 hr-ish ride on my road bike (yes - no gadgets not even a bike computer) followed by a Campy walk in the rain. I could have ridden forever on my road bike but the focus today was to ride like a kid and stop when I wanted to stop. I figured my ride was over when it started pouring but I really enjoyed today just riding for fun. Tomorrow I will enjoy a day off from training and cheer for Karel who is racing at the local HOT olympic distance triathlon at camp blanding (with Campy).

And lastly....how about those taper blues and concerns about the diet/body composition before race week? 

Putting things into perspective if you struggle with your relationship with food as an endurance athlete, it's important that your mindset does not change throughout IM training....even if you are still training despite lowered volume. The entire focus of training is to put all the pieces together for race day and I could not be more excited to see what my body can do on October 12th, 2013. I did not put in all this work to stand around in spandex and show off my body. I trained to use my body, to test my limits, to overcome obstacles and to thank my body for the gift it has given me to swim-bike-run for 140.6 miles.

14 days until the Ironman World Championship and I will continue to eat the same foods that have fueled my workouts, have kept my immune system strong and have helped me recover. I will still love every day as triathlons are not my life, but instead my lifestyle.
My body will perform on race day based on how I trained it to perform and not based on a number on a scale. 

And most of all, my "reward" food will continue to keep me healthy until I get to the starting line.

A yummy post workout meal:

Local fresh whole grain bread
Scrambled eggs (1 whole egg + 1 egg white)
Sauteed kale w/ olive oil, goat cheese, leeks and red peppers
Sliced peaches

Thank you to all who have continued to follow and support my IM journey! Keep dreaming big!

Hello Ironman TAPER!

Taper is a beautiful thing. You reduce the volume before a race and maintain the intensity and see the fruits of your labor begin to ripen. Your life becomes a bit more normal as you find yourself with a bit more time on your hands....but for those who don't get "it", you have trouble with your new normal as you aren't quite sure what to do with your extra time. Clean, chores, errands, watching TV....not as fun as a 5+ hour workout. 

Over the past few years, Karel and I have really spent a lot of time understanding tapering for endurance athletes. Between Karel and myself, cyclist and triathlete, we have both learned how to nail a taper and it is great when it pays off. 

One of the best things about taper is going into it without needing it. No fear-based training the last week before taper, no worries about gaining weight by reducing volume and no hoping that an injury or burnout will go away in 10-14 days. 

It's really neat to see the body change throughout training for an event in terms of getting faster, stronger and smarter. But let's never forget that with training for an event, there comes plenty of ups and downs to overcome to get to the starting line. 

When I train for an event, I love putting in the work. I love staying focused for a few months at a time and learning how to keep things balanced while dreaming big. The way I race the best is by remembering all the great, positive moments in training (and in life) instead of dwelling on any bad or down moments. 

I find for many athletes, the "bad" or off workouts weigh heavy on the mind and thus, athletes struggle with not feeling "ready" for an event due to thinking about those off workouts. Well, I hope that for every bad or off workout, there is at least a dozen or so great workouts that can bring you confidence for race day. And on top of it all, an appreciation that racing in endurance events (or any event) is a gift that should not be taken for granted. 

As I go into my 6th Ironman, my mind is filled with happy thoughts and I'd love to share some of those with you in hopes that you do not waste too much energy on the moments when you feel "off" but instead, remember that in life, you will be the happiest when you think happy thoughts. Although I have many great memories in my 31 years on this earth, here are a few of my favorite recent "sport" related memories. 

Riding 112 miles behind Karel's wheel. It's been an amazing journey over the past 7 years since I first got a triathlon bike as it was super scary to clip in and ride with aero bars. I'm so grateful for a supportive hubby who is a talented cat 1 cyclist. He has been so incredibly helpful and patient with my cycling skills and fitness. Thank you Karel for challenging me on the bike and for always believing in me. It's been a pleasure looking at your butt for many long bike rides over the past few months. :)

Winning 2012 Iron Girl Clearwater Half Marathon and having my dad there to see me win my first big win. My dad was attending an optometry continuing ed conference in downtown Clearwater and left the conference to watch me finish. Neither one of us expected me to win so it was a great surprise for both of us. Thank you Dad for being my #1 photographer and supporter (with mom). 

Karel getting a call-up and finishing the Athens Twilight Crit two years in a row. Don't get me wrong, I love sharing a triathlon journey with Karel. But I LOVED watching Karel race in crits. The adrenaline pumping just as loud as the music and the energy was contagious. I met Karel on the bike in 2006, when he was a cat 3 cyclist and it has been amazing to see how Karel improved with cycling over the years to race Cat 1, alongside top level cyclists who race as full-time pros (not TDF pros but still pros who race for their day-job). Karel loves to suffer and push himself on the bike and he did just that at USA Crit Speed Week for three years in a row. I absolutely loved sharing those races with him. 

Riding from Znojmo Czech Republic to Retz Austria. It's easy to think that traveling will disrupt fitness, especially while training for an Ironman. Karel and I think otherwise as we rarely travel for a vaca not related to a race but when we do, we love to stay active and deviate from the "normal routine". I believe that everyone needs a break from the normal routine and structure and there are so many ways to do just that. Riding road bikes in Europe will stay with me forever and I will remember the switchbacks, the cobblestones, the espresso's mid-ride and the beautiful sights from Europe whenever I am riding my bike...even in flat Jacksonville, Florida. Thank you Karel for showing me your beautiful home country and for living such an active life with me!

Oakley Women trip to Utah! I love the sun, the water and the heat. But I'm ok with changing things up for some winter sports. I really enjoyed my recent winter trips to Iowa and Utah and allowing myself to step outside of my comfort zone. I love seeing what my body can do and the only way I can do that is by trying new things. I'm not good at everything but that's OK....life is short, not perfect. 

Pittsburgh Half Marathon. Part of being an athlete is knowing how to be a great sherpa. My brother was graduating from Carnegie Mellon business school and as my parents supported my brother at his graduation, we first had to cheer him on for his 3rd half marathon. 1:31...not too shabby for a Big Ten High Bar Champion from University of Michigan. All-around Division 1 gymnast turned runner....so proud of my brother and all of his accomplishments! Next up...he is getting married in Sept in Pitt to his amazing fiance Dana! 

I still remember my first Ironman (IMFL 2006) like it was yesterday. Winning the 18-24 age group was a dream that came true with a lot of hard work, determination, passion and excitement. Here I am with Ironman #6 in 14 days and I still have the same motivation, excitement and passion for what I choose to do with my body on a daily basis. It never becomes boring, not-fun or something I have to do. I stay competitive to the point where I am driven by the ability to improve but I try to stay balanced so that triathlons are not my life, but instead my lifestyle and something that I want to do because it makes me happy and healthy. 

Since Campy came into our life 5 years ago, my life hasn't been the same. Since we rescued Campy from a foster family, I have found myself seeking ways to fill my life with as many opportunities as possible to create memories for us. Knowing that Campy does not get the pleasure of living a life that lasts more than 20 years, I am constantly looking for ways to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle with my furry BFF by my side. We travel together, run together, sleep together and love life together. Whenever I have a low moment in a race, all I need to do is see a furry friend to bring a smile to my face. Cow, horse, bird, dog, squirrel, cat....anything will do as I have a soft spot in my heart for all animals. Campy just happens to be the lucky one as his life is truly a lottery-winning life and I'm lucky that I can give him the best life ever. Campy always reminds me that it is possible to never have a bad day.