Tapering & High Altitude training & Best Burger in SLC

I've been sick most of the week after coming back from Pittsburgh for work. I ate very well on the company dime Sunday thru Friday. My new boss was here from Scottsdale. He's a cool guy who went to high school with Tom Brady.
I hadn't put anything on paper for the taper but I am someone who needs a mental and physical taper of 21 days so things are going according to plan. Even though there is no plan. US Long Track championships on the 27th is my next competition. They asked me to block chase for the US ST Champs next week and I think i will. It's going to be a throw down for sure. I did it last time in 1996 Boston when Appolo won at 14 years old. It's very intense and you need to keep focused otherwise you can really get hurt.

I found some good articles on tapering which I already know but needed to hear again. One thing I'm going to take from Sue Ellis's one is to lift closer to competition than I normally do. Nothing long mostly max stuff to keep strength. I don't like to do huge weight since you move slow. I don't know what my max squat is but I've been doing 475 with 3 sets of 10!!! I love lifting. I believe Box squats are the way to go. i do the max strength and the speed day. Andrew Love is a big box squatter as well. (http://www.elitefts.com/documents/box-squat.htm)

2 x 2 @605 (i don't use belts....best abs wo you get is pulling 450+ off the rack) this isn't me...just gives you an idea of a solid box squat


http://ezinearticles.com/?Running-Advice---The-Importance-of-Tapering&id=484591

http://www.ellismethod.net/files/Tips/March06.html


The running article explains the taper well by a speedskater....When asked about the secret to her successes, triple Olympic speed skating champion Yvonne Van Gennep remarked, "There is no secret. It just comes down to training hard and then putting on the handbrake."

I put the handbrake on super hard because of work and sickness but I'm sure it's for the best. God puts things in my life which I don't understand till later. One great thing is I had a PB at work this week. Making huge progress on my projects. Life is a balancing act and I find that i have 3-4 balls I'm juggling (skating, work, wife and family). One mentor told me the key is when one ball is in the air is to not look at or think about the other balls. Great advice but i don't always do it well.

I did do some high altitude training yesterday while most of my competitors were racing at the Oval.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6qT1Y8VUkDA

http://www.speedskatingresults.com/index.php?section=2&competition=405&page=info/competitiondetails.php

I went up to 10K feet at Alta and pointed the boards downhill. What an awesome day that was. Just be careful driving down as it was a standstill (see ksl video). Some lady plunged off a cliff in Little Cottonwood and luckily got caught up in trees. We had a long ride down then topped off the perfect day with a Garlic Burger and some drinks at the Cotton Bottom.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2338093

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cotton+bottom+salt+lake+city

If you are in SLC. The Cotton Bottom should be your first stop. Don't be scared by the fact its a dive bar that bikers sometimes frequent. I'd actually never eaten inside there. Here's some details on it i found.....

The Cotton Bottom Inn, actually a tavern, is located at 6200 South at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon inside a low building with a wood-shingled roof. Outside, a faded wooden sign features a bunny rabbit hoisting a beer.

Inside is a dimly lit beer hall with an L-shaped bar. The room, just large enough to hold a pool table, is packed daily with a crowd of ski bums, tourists and grizzled locals.

Then there is the garlic burger. Served on one-third of a toasted French loaf baked daily on special order for the inn, the Cotton Bottom’s garlic burger comes with tomato, lettuce, lots of onions and a bag of chips. Cheese or no cheese, your call. You don’t so much eat a Cotton Bottom garlic burger as have one melt in your mouth. The garlic flavor is subtle; the home-made patty comes off like layers of a meatloaf. Best, the Cotton Bottom doesn’t overcook its hamburgers.

The famous burger came to the Cotton Bottom courtesy of Helen Chlepas, a former inn employee who took over ownership of the bar 40 years ago by paying the lease as foreclosure was looming. “She went from being employed to the boss on the same day,” said current owner Tony Chlepas, who has managed the inn since his mother’s death in 2003. Tony began working at the Cotton Bottom in 1976, dropping out of Westminster College to help after an arson fire damaged the building.

The Cotton Bottom had a “big burger” before Helen Chlepas, said Tony. She “added her little Greek touch” and the garlic.

“It’s the simplicity of it that makes it good,” he said. “It’s all just really good, fresh ingredients. Not any one single part of it dominates. You just taste a little bit of everything.”

The burger makes the business, he said. “Everybody likes to come in and have a burger once and a while. You get a craving. You’ve got to have it.