In May 2007, after a 15 year layoff from Triathlons, at age 41, I decided to get back into shape and lost 50lbs. I also beat my best Ironman, Half Ironman and Olympic distance triathlon times I set in my early 20's. I know how fat, lazy, unhealthy and self conscious I felt during those layoff years and now my objective is to stay in shape by trying to make a life long commitment to train for long distance triathlons. 2010 my goal is to qualify for Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.
Today was fun. Up at the crack of 10 am and then off to a 8 km road race at noon. My main motivation for this race was free beer afterwards. I was more nervous before this race than an Ironman. I don't know why. There was only 168 people registered.
I took off like a shot. The first 1 km I was at 3:33, right behind the leaders, then I died like a pig. I can't believe how hard this race was. At 5 km I was at 19:49 and then I finished 12 th overall at 32:07. I would have been in 11th place but a 21 year old tied me at the finish and they gave it to him. I ended up 2nd in the old guy age group.
The worst part was a girl beat me. I know that's not politically correct to say, but it sucks getting beat by a girl. The worst part was this one was about 50 years old. When she passed me at the 6 km mark I recognized her. She was the old bag that was kicking my ass at the track about 6 weeks earlier. She was small, old and fast.
After the race, I had a beer or six with Alice. I didn't want to over drink because we had a dinner at 6:30 planned with John and Heather Barclay. I held myself back to be semi-normal and conversational. While we were at dinner I offered to rent Reid out to John and Heather.
They can't have kids and I figured I could make a few bucks and get kids out of their system if I rented Reid out. Because John is a good friend. My best in Ontario. I was prepared to offer Reid for free for the first day. My hope was that they would get attached to him and then offer me more for each day following. They didn't bite, but when I got home and told Reid about the deal, he said he was up for it. I offered to split the profits with him.
John and I arm wrestled in the restaurant. I was important to him for me to tell everyone on the blog I lost and he won. Which he did. Which is unusual. I'm very good at arm wrestling. I can't remember the last time someone beat me without a bar room brawl afterwards. John kicked my butt. He took me down. He said I let him win. I said no. He said he'd believe I lost, unless I put it on my blog.
We started talking about the Mantracker application. John read mine and thought it was weird that I like the movie "boogie nights". He thought that movie sucked and couldn't believe it was one of my favourites. He said from now on he's going to call me "Bryan Diggler". I love that movie because as a kid growing up I lived Dirk's life. It was awesome.
He was also complaining about the lentgh of my blogs recently. Too long. Too philosophical. John had to work tomorrow morning so he was not drinking. He was as fun as "water boarding". I did realize I wasn't as charming as I thought I was when I got shot down from a table of twenty somethings.
I've started to twitter stupid stuff. I finally got sick of being disfunctionally normal. Twitter should be fun. Not boring. Most of the twits are boring. I decided to spice it up. So far I've lost about 6 followers. But I am having fun. I'm being the real me. Crazy. I think I did pretty well being normal for the last year, but it's not me. I'm far from normal.
I finished my year end video and it's below. I hope you enjoy. Oh, and John Barclay beat me at an arm wrestling match. Did I mention that.
There is truth to the saying "an object in motion, says in motion". With my training I find it's the same. The more I train the easier it is to get out the door to train.
This week I've done a couple of runs. I'm going to do an 8KM running race tomorrow and hadn't run since Clearwater. I figured my legs needed the warm up and it wouldn't be wise to show up without doing a couple training runs before the race. I don't want to injure myself if I decide to go hard.
The first run of the week was a shuffle with no heart rate monitor at a 9 minute mile pace. Yesterday's run was a little faster at an 8:10 pace. In both cases, before leaving the house, I had an internal debate with myself. Should I run or not? If I didn't, it was okay, after all it's the off-season and not training is fine. I figured I could always jog the race if I decided not to train this week. Just having choice, made it difficult to decide.
When I have no choice, I just do it. No choice reduces a lot of wasted time with self-talk. Last night the decision was beer or run, beer or run, beer or run? I ended up doing both. Mind you I stopped at two beers, which is a good thing. For the first half of the run I didn't feel in my normal groove. But for the last half, I was right back into it. My legs were fluid and I was feeling the mindless bliss of running.
I was getting a little too into yesterday's blog entry and I needed a run or beer to relax my mind. I was reading, re-writing, re-reading, re-writing and making sure it was just perfect. It's mentally draining. The reason was, to me, it was an import moment to capture. I wanted to make sure I got it perfectly right. When I capture day to day feelings it's much easier because it's still fresh in my mind. Capturing those old ones are much tougher.
Wednesday's blog entry was the same. It took a long time and lots of memory searching. With training less, I have nothing but time on my hands and those two stories I know I'm going to want to re-read down the road. It was the perfect time to take the time to do it.
As I get older my memory is not what is used to be. I joke I have early onset Alzheimer's, but in reality I think when you get older and experience a lot of things in your life, your hard drive gets full. To make room for the new stuff, you tend to forget the old stuff. Alice will tell me a story and then say "do you remember that?". Sometimes I look at her with a blank stare and go "really? that happened?". She'd then explain the situation and I'd listen to it like it was the first time I ever heard it.
Often it's a crazy story about something I did. I'd visualize it and then, after saying "no way! I did that? Get outta her!", I'd vaguely start to remember. Although there are some I still can't remember. I'll tell her she's "full of it", but I know she's not. Her memory is so good, she can still remember being a baby in her crib. I don't remember much before going to school.
The strange part is that I should remember everything. I drink a lot of beer and I contend beer makes you smarter. It's based on Darwin's Theory. You see, beer kills brain cells. It kills all the weak ones and only leaves the good ones. Therefore, "drinking beer makes you smarter".
My brother Bob has two similar theories. The first is that smoking is good because the tar coats your lungs so the cancer can't get in and Coke helps you lose weight because the acid eats away at the fat. As you can imagine, it must have been tough for my mother to manage two geniuses in the same household.
I'm now following Howie Blatt's Advice, he's a retired Insurance salesman I dealt with for years. He would say "the faintest ink is better than the best memory". So true. Even now, when I'm bored, I'll start reading older blog entries that I had already forgotten. Sadly, some were only weeks ago.
I enjoy blogging. I'm actually enjoying the writing part. I thought I'd never say that in a million years. Whenever I used to write it was out of necessity and not enjoyment. It was like school work. When I'd hear people say they enjoyed writing I just figured they were cerebral and probably hung out at coffee houses listening to poetry. Not my scene.
What I'm learning about writing is that anyone can enjoy writing. Forget about rules. All you need to do is express your true feelings with the perfect selection of words. It's taking what is in the core of your being and translating it from your soul to the page. It's that easy!!! It's only taken me 688 blog posts to understand that. I guess I could have learnt that sooner, had I only listened in School.
Me and School, that would definitely be an entertaining blog entry. Er, I mean, entertaining blog entries. Too many stories.
Finally, it's now officially Christmas in the Payne House. Alice has two Christmas Trees and all the decorations up. I also noticed, coming back from my run last night, that although I don't have anywhere near the most Christmas lights on the street, they are the brightest. And because their so bright, it seems like there is more on the house than there is. I guess it's like wearing white, it makes you look fatter.
Anyways, talking about beer and Christmas, I've included a video of my favorite Christmas decoration. Alice got it a couple of years ago from my mom. After I've had lots of beers, I like to push it's start button and play it over and over and over all night long.
Tonight I brought the bike in from the garage and put it on the trainer. I couldn't resist. I needed to ride. I was eating cereal and drinking beer for dinner and feeling sluggish. I needed it for two reasons, to burn off calories and warm up for tomorrow's run. It felt good having beers on the bike. It's liberating and guilt free beer drinking. Best part, no D.U.I., it's legal.
This blog entry is another stroll down memory lane. Just call me Old Man Withers.
I did my first Ironman in 1987. It was Ironman Canada, there was only about 650 of us. Triathlon life was different back then. I don't want to sound like an old codger, but back then, doing the Ironman was a big deal. Not that it isn't now. Make no mistake, it's still a huge accomplishment. But back then it was virtually uncharted territory. Similar to early expeditions up Mount Everest.
In those early years, as an age grouper, finishing without hospitalization was the goal. Literally. The only people who considered the Ironman a race, were a small group of pros and they were deemed as superhuman freaks of nature. We all saw the video of Julie Moss crawling across the Ironman finish line in Hawaii and figured that could be any one of us if we went to hard. We were scared pioneers.
Coaching was unheard of and training was based on intuition. I don't know anyone who had a written plan. Training consisted of getting out of bed and deciding on what you felt like doing that day. Most of us started as runners, so we were used to doing our long runs on Sundays. It then only made sense to do our long bike rides on Saturdays. But a long ride was maybe 50 - 70 miles and a long run was about 8 - 10 miles. No age grouper would have dreamt of doing a 100 mile bike ride on Saturday, followed by a 20 mile run on Sunday. That would have been insane.
Tapering back then, consisted of eating carbs and not training for the week leading up to the race. A massage was recommended. The idea was to build up your energy reserves. If you saw someone a day or two before the race out riding or running in preparation, you thought they were out of their freaken mind. You'd just look at them, shake your head and mumble to yourself "what an idiot!".
One way you knew you were partially ready for an Ironman was to complete a single Century (100 mile) ride. You'd build up all summer, consistently doing 50 - 70 mile rides and then one weekend, usually as a small group, you'd go for an epic 100 mile ride. It was a confidence builder. By the 90 mile mark, everyone was cycling on reserves in a semi-bonked state. This ride would be about 3 or 4 weeks before the Ironman in order to give your legs time to recover.
To build confidence for the run, you'd do a marathon earlier in the year, usually in the Spring. And for the swim, you'd do one 4000 meter swim a couple weeks before the race. We focused a lot on the mental game of just finishing. I don't ever remember considering the Ironman a race.
The single Century, the single Marathon, the single 4000 meter swim and doing a half Ironman somewhere in between, gave you all the training and psychological advantage you needed.
When I got back into triathlons, three things struck me the most. The first was the level of sophistication. Virtually everyone had a coach and a structured training program. The second was the cost of equipment, especially wheels. And the third was the large volume of preparation training done by mere mortals.
At the Wasaga Beach Sprint, I went up to a guy who was displaying a pair of Zipp racing wheels on the roof of his car. I walked by and out of interest asked him "how much for the wheels?". He said $1000. I thought to myself "who is going to pay that much for a pair of wheels? This guy is nuts. Poor guy. What a tough way to make a living. No wonder he can't afford a real display!".
I said to the guy "do you get many people paying you a $1000 for a set of wheels?". He then said "their not a $1000 per set, their $1000 per wheel!". I almost swallowed my tongue. I walked away thinking "this guy is out of his mind thinking someone will pay $1000 per wheel. I'd never spend that kind of money on wheels in a million years!!! This must be a part time job for this guy. I hope he finds a real job soon". Little did I know, less than a year later, I'd own a pair of $1800 racing wheels.
Nowadays, 99% of the people that do an Ironman are prepared. When I was training for 2008 Louisville Ironman, I had a coach and did 8 rides between 113 - 129 miles over a 9 week period. Not to mention long runs between 2 - 3 hours every Sunday. The more I spoke to other triathletes, especially those with a coach, I realized that my high volume training mileage was the new norm. That I wasn't doing anything special.
I can say that I did my last Ironman Canada, in 1991, on only 6 weeks of training. No Joke. At the last moment, I decided to join a group of friends who had prepared all summer. I wasn't even in that good of shape. It was 1991 and I spent most of my time trying to build the business I co-founded a year earlier. The business was all encompassing and I spent very little time training.
At that time, I thought doing an Ironman was 90% mental and 10% physical. I figured with my past experience and 6 weeks of training, I'd be able to get in good enough shape to finish. I was right, I did finish, but it hurt like hell. To this day, I've never forgotten the extreme pain and suffering I felt that day.
I remember vividly being on the run. I was only about 8 miles into it and couldn't bend my knees. At that point, I had one of those "Heart to Heart - Come to Jesus" conversations with myself. It was "what the f**k were you thinking??? this is crazy!!! I hurt so much!!! why did I do this to myself??? doing an Ironman is the stupidest thing to do in the world!!! I'm never doing this ever again!!! This is stupid, stupid, stupid!!! and your stupid, stupid, stupid!!! ".
At that moment, while I was thinking all those thoughts, I remember the race photographer yell at me to smile. I mustered up every ounce of energy I had to look somewhat normal and happy as he took that shot. Every time I look at that shot, it takes me back to the overwhelming pain I felt that day. If you look at it closely, you can see the straight leg run technique and the masked pain in my face.
That photograph was my primary motivator during my 2008 Ironman Louisville training. I didn't miss a workout because I knew what it felt like to do an Ironman when your not properly trained. I'd much rather experience discomfort during training than the pain and suffering I felt during that Ironman in 1991.
Now I think, if your properly trained, Ironman is 90% physical and 10% mental. I'll never, never, never, ever, do an Ironman without being fully prepared physically. I've done Ironmans prepared and unprepared. Prepared is much easier. Don't get me wrong, even properly trained, there is still major pain and suffering, but trust me, it could be much much worse.
Post Run
After writing the above story, which by the way, took close to 4 hours. I had a decision to make. Do I go for a run or have a beer? I asked Alice what I should do and she said go for a run. So I did. On my run, I thought of another lesson I learnt from doing Ironmans. I'm going to call it the "Training Payne's Ironman Law". I've gleaned this from doing Ironman's in 11, 12, 13 and 14 hours. Finishing in eleven hours was the easiest, Fourteen hours was the toughest. Eleven hours I spoke to no one, Fourteen hours I spoke to everyone.
Training Payne's Ironman Law - The faster your time, the easier it is. The slower your time, the harder and more social it becomes.
Also, thanks to Pedalman's comment, I realized that if blogs existed back then, my would not be called "Training Payne" rather it would be called "Payne Train". I don't recommend anyone take the Payne Train.
I've got to be careful I don't get burnt out on triathlons. Not from training, but from all the other non triathlon training stuff. Things like making video's, twittering, blogging and converting the blog into a book. The most important thing is to train and race. Everything else is noise.
In 1990 I got burnt out on triathlons and it contributed to me not doing them for 15 years. As a matter of fact, I was so burnt out on the sport of triathlon, I couldn't even stand to hear someone pronounce the word triathlon.
It had nothing to do with over training. It was because I was a founding father of the sport of triathlon in Canada. When I started triathlons it was grass roots. There was no funding from any level of government. It was just a group of crazy people who paid their entry fees and raced.
I got motivated to get into the politics of triathlon when Warren McKinnet, the race director for the Morden Tinman Triathlon did me wrong. I suggested a business acquaintance do the race photography for his race and Warren was slow in getting the proofs and addresses back to him. The photographer ended up losing money because of Warren's procrastination. I hounded Warren and it took months for him to respond. I then found out that Warren had set up a provincial triathlon association and was the president.
If he didn't screw up with the race photography, I probably wouldn't have got involved. When I found out he was also the president of the provincial triathlon association, I thought that was a conflict of interest and felt a revolt was needed. I felt Warren was in it just for the money and not the good welfare of the sport. My contention was that if he was president of the Association and a race director, he would control the sport to his advantage. He would become the "Dr. Evil" of the sport of triathlon in Manitoba.
Because he did me wrong, I was just the person to be his arch nemesis. He registered the name "The Triathlon Association of Manitoba" and wouldn't give it to us. So we registered "Triathlon Manitoba". For a year or more we had formal monthly meetings in my Dad's companies boardroom and most of the meetings came down to Warren and I verbally fighting. Once he almost came over the table and attacked me.
Warren was older than me and a strong willed guy. I think he did an Ironman in the early or mid 80's. His girlfriend and partner was a lawyer. I was only around 21 years old at the time. It took about a year or more, but I finally wore him down and he gave up. He went back to being just a race director. Then the next challenge began, trying to get Triathlon Manitoba into the Provincial Sports Federation.
Up until that time, I had been told a new sport had not been accepted into the Manitoba Sports Federation in over 10 years. The benefit of getting into the Sports Federation is that you get funding and can hire an executive director to promote the sport full time.
My partner in crime was Dave Markham. Dave is a really, really soft sell. I was the bull in a china shop. However, I will say Dave's approach did work very well in picking up women. Together we were a great combination.
A couple years earlier, Triathlon Canada was formed and run by a guy named Les McDonald. I connected with Les and we both bonded over our dislike for Warren. Around the time that I got rid of Warren, Les made me Vice President of Triathlon Canada.
Les was a controversial character himself. A real political animal. In his former life he was a professional soccer player, a Kona Ironman world record holder when he was in his 50's and an ex-union organizer. Les was a fighter extrodinare. Bill Clinton had nothing on Les. I started attending Triathlon Canada meetings and it didn't take long until Les and I were locking horns. I was idyllic and didn't think Les's motives were pure. Although I did respect his vision to get Triathlon into the Olympics.
During that time period, I made a presentation to the Manitoba Sports Federation. It included a binder 4 inches thick. They wanted to see everything about the sport of triathlon. Rules, clubs, development programs, you name it, they wanted it. Triathlon at that time wasn't that sophisticated so I made most of it up. I made us sound a hell of a lot more organized than we were.
Without getting into all the details, it was a catch 22 situation. To get Federal Government Recognition we needed to have Provincial Government Recognition and to get Provincial Government Recognition we needed to have a Federal Government Recognition. So when I made my presentation I figured we didn't have much of a shot and was expecting to be turned down. I went in with nothing to lose and I argued passionately.
The result was that we got accepted into the Manitoba Sports Federation. I was blown away. I'm not sure if any other province in Canada, up until that time, had yet been accepted into their Provincial Sports Organization. It was a major coo.
For that first year of Triathlon Manitoba, Dave Markham became President and the second year I became President. Dave earned the first year Presidency. He had been involved much longer than me. He was only about 2 or 3 years older than me, but was the grand-daddy of triathlon in Manitoba. I was his muscle. Even though I made it happen, Dave becoming the president was the right thing to do. I remember having a celebration party once we got accepted and Dave and I both cut the cake together. To this day, Dave and I remain good friends.
I ended up spending more time at Triathlon Canada meetings and fighting with Les McDonald. It was "young bull versus old bull". I look back now and we had to create a National organization from scratch. We ended up appointing guys like Barry Shepley as National Coach and at the time Graham Fraser was running the Royal Le Page Triathlon Series.
After about 3 years of nothing but triathlon politics, I got burnt out sick. I spent much more time doing paperwork and politically fighting, than I did training. Looking back I did a lot of good and can truly say I was one of the founding fathers of triathlon in Canada, but it took it's toll on me. I was also right about Les. Long after I left and Les became president of the ITU, I was told he was kicked out of Triathlon Canada for misappropriation of funds. But I will give Les his due, he achieved his vision and got Triathlon into the Olympics. Years later I ran into him at the Pan Am Games and the first thing he said to me was "your fat".
My saving grace was that I decided to start my own business with my Dad and it allowed me to get out of triathlons gracefully. Truthfully, I was sick of the sport of triathlon. I couldn't even say the word anymore. I learnt from that experience that doing a sport is much more enjoyable than getting involved in the politics of a sport.
It took me at least 5 years afterwards where I could start saying the word triathlon without getting a headache. I'll never let myself get to that stage again. If I find myself getting too involved with video's, blogs, twittering or anything else triathlon non-training related, I'll stop and just go back to the basics, which is training.
I've decided that this week is going to be my last rest week. I'm starting full speed ahead on December 7th, so next week I'm going to do one week of Ironman maintenance. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have no choice but to start riding indoors soon. Ugh.
Rest Day - Off Season - Went to Reid's Hockey Game - they won
Warning- I've noticed that with less training and nothing but time on my hands, my blog entries are getting longer. Sorry, unless your an insomniac. So lets begin...
I dream every night. I have quite an exciting life in my dreams. Most of the time I can never remember them. For some reason last night I remembered two of my dreams. They were the type of dreams that are so realistic, you think they actually happened.
Before I get into them. There was one dream that I had about 5 years ago that I still remember. Even though I quit triathlons for 15 years, I still considered myself an Ironman. In my heart of hearts, I felt that even in my current, fat and out of shape body, I had the mental strength to finish an Ironman. I believed mental strength was more important than physical strength.
Shortly thereafter, over a few beers, I told my business partner that I could still do an Ironman. He looked at me in my 220 lbs of glory and said "yeah right". About a week later I had a dream. I dreamt I was in an Ironman and I got out of the water and onto the bike and died halfway through the bike. It was too hard. My mental strength wasn't enough to complete the race.
When I woke up, I was devastated. I realized then, that my dream was right. In my current condition I couldn't finish an Ironman on mental strength alone. It was one of those moments that you say to yourself, "what happened to me". It was completely defeating. I'd like to say that was the moment that I decided to get back into shape. But it wasn't. That came about a year or more later.
But it was a moment that gave me a wake up call to quit living in the past. The one thing about exercise is that it is a "zero sum game". What I mean by that is, it doesn't matter who you are, you can be Michael Phelps, if you stop exercising you lose it and it happens fast. I find getting out of shape is a lot easier than getting into shape. Rich or poor, it works the same for everyone.
So back to my two dreams last night. One was about a half Ironman. I got out of the swim, got to my bike and my heart sunk, my bike wasn't there. It was missing. I looked at the number on the rack, it was the right number, but no bike! As I looked around I saw a bike frame, no wheels, no handle bars, nothing. At first I thought it was someone else's bike, then I realized it was mine. Someone jacked everything off my frame.
I went to the race director. He told me I shouldn't have put the bike on the rack so early. I should have waited until the last possible moment before they closed the transition. That it was really my fault. I fought a little with him and then thought, well why waste the day, I may as well do the run. Before I did that, one of the race people came to the rack to see my bike.
As we got there, it wasn't on the ground anymore. I looked around and saw it in a ditch nearby. Now all the stuff was back on it. Yes. I'm back in the race! Or so I thought. It turns out that when I went to grab the Aero bars, they were like spaghetti, no firmness. They drooped down like big dog ears when I touched them. Then the dream ended. I have no idea what it meant. My take away? I should start checking my bike in just before the transition closes.
My second dream had nothing to do with triathlons. Basically a young kid came to the door soliciting something. I was asleep in my room and heard Alice invite him in and it sounded like she was buying something from him. I always say "never buy something from a door to door salesman". It's part of my wisdom. Turns out he was going to sell her a $89 printer for over $300.
So I got out of bed and put a halt to the deal. I was so tired and could hardly open my eyes. The kid accused me of being drugged up and started making fun of me and kept telling me, over and over, that I wasn't making a sound judgement. I tried to get him out of the house, he pushed back and I'm not a fighter, but he was relentless and I had to beat him up on the front lawn, just to make him leave. Then the nightmare began. It was right out of a horror movie. As he left he had this sinister look, like he's going to get me back, big time!
I became super paranoid and eventually went down to the place where the kid worked out of. It was a Motley Crew of juvenile delinquents around a table with one adult who was an adult delinquent. I saw the kid and he looked like Frankenstein, he had over sized stitches, like a catchers mitt, all over his face. I felt bad, I didn't realize how much damage I did and I apologized.
The kid was super sweet and said "no problem mister, I'm over it, lets just get on with our lives, I have houses to call on and sales to make, don't feel bad". Then I left. But like a movie, the minute I left, the camera panned to the room at that moment as I walked out and the group turned evil, the kid especially. He then said in a "let's get him" voice, "okay when are we going to get that mother f**ker back real good"!!!! I was shit scared, holy F**k, what did I get myself into.
At that moment I realized it was a dream and thought it would be a great movie premise. My take away? I've always told Alice we should get a no solicitation sign for the front door and she won't let me. Maybe I should over-ride her and get a sign.
Then I also realized that it was probably my son, Reid "Dahmlers" drawing that he did last night and it must have freaked my subconscious out. He did one of a guy with an axe in the head. He joked it was me. I told him I need to take him in for therapy. Then I noticed it had earings. It wasn't me after all. Whew!!!
I actually know from personal experience that most young kids who solicit door to door tend to be juvenile delinquents. I was one. Starting at 13 years old I sold popcorn and drinks at the Winnipeg Jets Games and newspaper subscriptions door to door for the Winnipeg Tribune. Most of the kids I worked with tended to be poor, tough, sexually active, cigarette smokers and drug users.
The best story I have is selling newspaper subscriptions. They were so desperate for kids, area subscription managers would wait at the school doors to pick me up the minute the Catholic school I went to ended. It was a white commercial cargo van, with no windows and no seats in the back. Just two bucket seats up front. I'd open the back doors and there was other kids, who had been picked up from their school, or local pool hall, sitting on the floor inside. It looked like a bunch of Mexicans trying to sneak over the border. We'd all be bouncing around and banging into each other as they drove around.
The funniest part, was the two guys who did the driving and dropped you off and picked you up at different soliciting locations, were total burnouts. Just like Otto on the Simpsons. They be driving, smoking pot and cigarettes and the back of the van would be full of smoke. I didn't do drugs, so when they started passing a joint around, I'd pass, but I would have a cigarette or two. It was surreal and fun to experience. Because I sold a lot of subscriptions, I was their fair haired boy and no one was allowed to mess with me. They were actually quite distraught when I quit. There was a lot of "awe come on man, you don't wanta quit man, please stay man, we need ya man"! Lots of "mans". Now that I think about it, my success was probably due to the fact that I was the only one who wasn't stoned.
Switching gears, I got an e-newsletter from Mark Allen Online and it described what to do in the off season. It said to take it easy, but also not to hesitate to go in a road race or two. I checked around and found a 8KM downhill running race in Hamilton is Saturday. The best part is it's sponsored by Slainte Pub and there is free beer at the end. So I"m going to do it. Alyssa may join me and do the 4 km run. If interested, the link is http://www.roadrace.ca/race4.html.
I went for a nice easy run after work, not even with a heart rate monitor. On the way back, I had to stop at Jamie's house. He called me to pick up some beers I left there last night. What a sight, me running home with a box of beer under my arm. Now that's a beer run. After I got home and logged my mileage, I realized it's time to get a new pair of shoes, today I passed the 500 mile mark.
Sadly, I slept the day and night away yesterday. Nineteen hours total. But I finally got rid of my 24 hour flu. Another way to look at it was that I only had a one day weekend.
Today I woke up feeling great. Refreshed and relaxed. My cough was even gone. I took a look at yesterdays blog post and noticed a lot of grammatical errors, which I try to avoid, but is explainable.
I had a super productive day at work. I even had some time left before the end of the day and put together my Clearwater video. It it came together quite nicely. I'll have to thank my sister. She took a lot of the video and she was really cheering me on. I still have one more video I need to do. I'm going to do a "2009 Year in Review" video to the "Triathlon Song". I think I may make this a yearly event.
I finally got my appetite back. Yesterday I couldn't eat anything. I tried a chicken wing, put it in my mouth, chewed a little and then couldn't eat it and had to spit it out into the garbage. When I got home tonight, the first thing I did was ask Alice "where are the wagon wheels that John gave me". "Down behind the bar" she said. Downstairs I went. They taste awesome.
Then I emailed John to let him know we had an extra tray of wings from the party and if he wanted them I could drop them off. John is the wing king. At the party when the wings came out and I first saw them, I turned to tell John and before I could say anything, he was already chomping on a wing like he hadn't eaten in a month. It's like he had a sixth sense for wings.
Turns out that I sent the email too early. Alice had already thrown them out. I emailed John back to let him know, I'm sure his mouth was probably still watering from the first email. His response was classic, he wrote " Threw them out, they were great wings, what's wrong with that girl"? Ten bucks John picks up wings tonight.
I also changed my avatar profile picture for 2010. I change it every year after my birthday to keep it current and representative. I see others that use there "best ever" picture from 10 years ago. Good or bad, I figure I should keep mine honest. I decided to use my Wagon Wheel picture, it only seems appropriate.
Oops, just got the "bat signal" email from Jamie. Cigar smoking room is open. Gotta go!!!
Last night was my Birthday and Clearwater celebration party. Earlier in the day I put up the Christmas lights and it was such a beautiful day I decided to go for an easy bike ride.
It's a great feeling riding for pleasure. A couple of times, out of habit, I got aero and then remembered this was supposed to be an easy ride, so I made myself sit up on the seat. For the entire time I rode sitting up, taking in the surroundings and being thankful.
As I rode down Bell School line and looked at the Escarpment rock face, I just said to myself "I'm so glad we moved to Ontario, it has so much more to offer. I love the countryside, the people, the business environment, the schooling, the future opportunity for my kids and the pace". Ontario feels like home. It took about 5 years, but now it just feels so right.
I felt so alive riding yesterday, like I was on an endorphin rush. I was listening to music and for most of the ride sang along out loud. The song "it's a wonderful life" by Louis Armstrong started playing and I love that song. Alice has trouble listening to it, it brings back emotional memories and she tears up when she hears it. It was her mom's favourite song.
Both of Alice's parents passed on about 7 years ago and both were just beautiful, loving, wonderful, salt of the earth people. Her mom would always say "remember, life is a wonderful thing". She'd seen and experienced lots of hardships in her life. As a child in Scotland, she saw the horrors of WWII first hand. Bombs dropping all around her, the sight and smell of death in the street, and even seeing people having to drink and eat their own excrement because there was no food. On day, a bomb fell down their chimney in the middle of their living room. Luckily it was a dud.
Alice's mom was the oldest and had to take care of and protect her younger siblings, one of which had polio. Then when Alice was born, her mom was treated for a major life long heart problem. All while trying to raise an infant and four other children and living and working on a farm. Even with all the hardships she had, she always maintained optimism and if others were struggling she'd remind them "always remember life is a wonderful thing".
Later that night was the Party. It was great to see everyone and finally meet face to face with some of the people I've only known through the Internet. The common thread was Ironman. Everyone was at a different stage of their Ironman experience. Some were just getting into it and others were seasoned veterans.
Rodney and John P, are two friends that came with their better halves, Lisa and Francis. Rodney and John have never done a triathlon yet, but signed up for 2010 Muskoka 70.3. They got into mountain biking over the past couple years and are now going to start doing triathlons. In the process I think Rodney has dropped close to 60 lbs and John 40lbs. One thing that amazed me was that when John first got his road bike he went out about 8 times and then did an epic 200 mile ride all by his lonesome. I think if Rodney went for it, John would sign up to do a full Ironman tomorrow. I told John that if he does a 200 mile ride again to give me a call, but give me at least an hours notice.
Hugh and John F, are two friends who also came with their wives Denise and Trish. I met John and Hugh at the Oakville pool. Hugh and his wife Denise do triathlons and Hugh is also an awesome runner. John's done one sprint and then took the big plunge and signed up for 2010 Ironman Wisconsin. I love John's enthusiasm and optimism, especially his line "Living the Dream"!!! I didn't get enough time to talk to them as I would have liked, but I know we'll get together as a group at some point and yak over a few beers. John blog is http://wisconsin2010.blogspot.com/ and Trish has a blog http://ironsherpaskierz.blogspot.com/ . It's kinda cool because each blog is about John's Ironman adventure from two perspectives.
Doru and his wife Miha both got into running and triathlons in the past couple of years. Both did IronmanMuskoka last year. Unfortunately Doru took a major spill on the bike and couldn't finish. I didn't know him back then, but I remember riding by him and seeing him lying down on the ground and people around him, it looked severe. I think it was so bad it broke his wheels and bent his forks. He was very lucky to escape with only minor injuries. This year Doru is training for 2010 Ironman Lake Placid, his first. Doru's the only one of us that didn't start fat and lose weight. What I found funny was that Miha found my blog by googling "beer" and "triathlon".
Carlos is a great guy I met at 2008 Muskoka 70.3. We were sitting a table over in a restaurant, having our pre-race dinner, and just started talking. I think my buddy Rich asked him for a match so he could have a smoke, and yes, Rich was racing as well. From that simple moment, we became fast friends and this past year spent some time riding together in the escarpment. He did 2009 Ironman France, his first. Fernando, his wife also came. She too does triathlons and is taking a year off and focusing on getting her masters. Carlos has an amazing story of having to swim 27,000 meters is one day when he was on the Brazilian National swim team, it was part of "hell day" hazing.
The rest of the group was rounded out with Jamie and Barb, John B and Heather, and Richard. Jamie is a neighbor and an 8 time Ironman finisher. I met Jamie riding my bike in the Escarpment. I pulled up beside him, started chatting and the rest is history. Jamie shares my Ironman, beer drinking and cigar smoking interests. Jamie's big time into cars and has a Ferrari and a Porsche GT, among others. When he showed me them in his garage one day, I got all excited...about his beer kegerator in the corner. I just thought it was so cool to have beer on tap in your garage. Jamie, John and I are going to be doing 2010 Ironman China together this year.
John B, what can I say. If you read this blog you know John. We have an Iron-bond. We trained together and did 2008 Ironman Louisville together. Last but not least was Richard Kun. Great guy, former neighbor and came in third place in this years "House of Payne Beer Run". Richard stayed right up until the end, I think it was around 5:30 am. You gotta love a guy that comes to a party bringing 30 beers and stays till the end.
I got some great gifts, even though I requested not to bring any. John Barclay's was the funniest. He brought a package of Wagon Wheels. If you read the blog regularly, you'll know the background story on the wagon wheels. All the other gifts were beer, beer glasses, cigars and more beer. Surprise, surprise. I also got a humorous triathlon book called Trizophrenia. The timing to get it is perfect because with no training planned for the next two weeks, reading it will give me something to do. I want to thank everyone who came and thanks again for the gifts. And Alyssa did a great job bar tending. Also, later that night, those cigars tasted great.
The energy was electric and at one point I thought the volume from all the talking was going to blow the roof off the house, and we were in the basement. The one thing I've always said is "triathletes are the most positive, optimistic and supportive group of people I've ever met". When I did my first triathlon in 1986, the people were great. After my 15 year layoff and coming back into the sport, the only thing that has changed is the faces. The triathlon spirit is exactly the same as it was 23 years ago.
One of the funniest comments that keep coming up last night was with respect to my Christmas lights. After reading yesterday's blog entry, everyone was expecting these dazzling lights, especially after I said I kept them up for two years rather than take them down. What they saw was two simple strands of lights in a straight line above the garage. Very unimpressive. Doru said it looked like it would only take me about three minutes to put them up. Actually he oversimplifies, it took me more like 12 minutes.
I also thought it was funny that all the folks in their 30's hadn't ever heard the 70's music I was playing. Every once in a while I'd hear a classic song, maybe something from "Three Dog Night or Chicago" and I'd put my arms up in the air in victory and say "yes!!! I love this song!!! Isn't this just a great song"?!?!?!? Then they'd look at me with a "deer in the headlight look" and said they never heard it before.
They weren't getting all my jokes either. Richard, who is close to my age was laughing hard, but they didn't get the references. When I look at other triathletes I never see age, we tend to bond by sharing racing times. At that moment, I started to realize I'm not a young as I thought I was.
I had a great time and wished the night went on longer. Everyone was interesting and I would have liked to have spent more time talking with everyone. Oh well, I guess that's what long bike rides are for. It's amazing how in moving from Winnipeg, and having no friends here, that through a simple sport like triathlon I've been able to develop some strong friendships. Some deep, the kind you make as kids.
Today was a ROUGH day for me. I ended up getting to bed at 6 am and didn't get up until noon. My hat goes off to Doru and Miha who left at about 4:45 am, had to drive a 100 km home to Ajax and then they managed to do a 10 mile road race today, while their kids did the 1 km run. And Doru had a lot of beer. I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!
I woke up at noon, fully clothed, lying on top of the bed covers and it looked like I had all these small pieces of white sponge all over my shirt. Then I realized it wasn't sponge, it was birthday cake. I must have had a piece before going to sleep. I slinked downstairs and in a semi-sitting position, feel asleep on the couch until 8 pm.
At least I did achieve another goal, which was being hungover the day after my birthday. The only thing is that this hangover was different. It hurt more than normal. I guess by not having a drink for 39 days, the body isn't used to having one to many beers. It's the kind of pain that makes you want to not over drink again.
I've heard about this phenomenon, but never experienced it first hand. I usually hear about it from older guys that say they don't drink as much as they used to because it hurts to much and it takes at least a couple of days to fully recover. I guess it's another sign I'm starting to get old.
I'm normally not touched by store bought Birthday Cards, but Alice got me one this year that I love. It says " Before you dash out and whoop it up for your birthday...Before you even think about engaging in wild and tawdry acts...Before you do something you'll only regret in the morning...Just hold it right there!...............and let me grab my jacket. That sums up our relationship. Life is a wonderful thing!!!
Photo: Back Row - Lisa, Rodney, John P, Francis, John F, Denise, Carlos, Fernando, Hugh, John B, Heather, Barb, Jamie. Front Row - Doru, Trish, Alice, Miha, Me, Richard.
Today was fun. Up at the crack of 10 am and then off to a 8 km road race at noon. My main motivation for this race was free beer afterwards. I was more nervous before this race than an Ironman. I don't know why. There was only 168 people registered.
Posts
