Blog future...

As many of you know, I'm refocusing myself and trying to spend more time on career while maintaining my training and triathlon lifestyle.

I've been keeping track of the hours I spend on tasks and I'm finding that I can't fit it all in and I'm not even training much right now. I can only imagine how pressed for time I'm going to be when Ironman training gets in full swing.

Writing the blog, reading others blogs and tweeting takes up at least 2 hours a day of my time, sometimes more. Writing a blog in a drunken haze on a Saturday morning to catch up on Friday's post definitely takes much longer.

Since starting the blog on November 12, 2007, this is my 1031 post. Other than a brief period after Ironman Louisville, when I thought the blog was over, I haven't missed a day of blogging in all that time.

I'm most proud of the two 400 page books I have to show for it. Every year I use Blurbs book building software to "slurp" all my blog posts and then lay them all out in a book format. At the end of this month, I'll be putting together my third book. The posts have grown significantly in length over the years and I wouldn't be surprised if I need two volumes for this years book.

Writing the blog has been great for me on so many levels. It's kept me honest and focused on my training, it's helped me learn about technology, and the highlight has been all the wonderful people I've met through the blog. Some I've inspired, and many have inspired me.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I've come to the conclusion that I can no longer blog daily. I'm still hoping to blog, I just don't know when or how comprehensive of posts I'll write. I've decided to let it all evolve naturally into a new pattern.

For those blog readers that look forward to reading my blog post over morning coffee, (aka Doru), or before you go ni-night, (aka John Barclay), I apologize for forcing you to alter your routine. It's just that with a changed focus, priorities shift, and the 12 to 18 hours a week I spend blogging have to be spent elsewhere.

On the training front, I bought another Keg of beer. This keg is dedicated to Al Nolan for his $201 donation. Oh, and I didn't run today.

I planned on running and then got caught up expanding my home network, solving a technical issue and working. Before I knew it, it was dark and cold outside and I instead of going for a run, I decided to drive to Hamilton to pick up a new Keg of beer.

After the new keg was "tapped", Alice and I went downstairs to "The Pig & Whistle". She had her Rum & Diet Coke and I had my beers and cigars and we watched a documentary about the beer industry, followed by the movie "Weird Science", all on my $7.95 per month Netflix. (I'm getting so close to "dumping" Cogeco cable).

I'm also looking forward to getting the NYC Marathon over with and getting back into a structured off-season training maintenance program. I really need it for my mental and physical health right now.

Today I was starting to feel fat, I'm bloated and my pants felt tight on me. It's a terrible feeling and it didn't take me long to start "romanticising" about those 7 hour bike rides followed by a 30 minute brick run. As sick as this sounds, I miss how I would feel after those workouts and I'm looking forward to doing them again next year.

I attached a video just for Simon. Recently in his blog posts he's been worried about what the Malaysian kids are eating for lunch and how they are getting fat. Take a look at the video, I think Malaysia has other priorities they need to focus on when it comes to kids.

No Training - Lazy

12

Smoking Baby Hooked on Cigarettes - Watch more Funny Videos

NYC Booked...

It was a fairly uneventful day. I did no training, had a couple of work meetings and found a NYC hotel room for this weekend.

I decided to take my neighbour John's advice and tried Priceline.com. to find a room in NYC.

Most of the hotels were in the $269 - $430 range. I decided to offer $155 per night for a 3.5 star plus hotel and see if any of the hotels would accept my offer. One did, the Millennium near the United Nations. I'm now all set.

Today I went for another ART treatment. I'm shocked at how well my body is responding to it. I'd never heard of ART before last week and now I'm almost a big believer in it. If I can get in a couple more training runs and finish the marathon without injury and recover fully afterwards, I'll be sold on it.

Last week I got my FREE Picaboo book, it looks great. I was glad to hear about 30 people who read my blog took advantage of the FREE BOOK offer. I did my book about my "Journey to Kona" and the cover shot was taken at the 6-hour mark of a 7 hour indoor trainer ride. It was brutally-mentally tough to do those long indoor rides.

Today Picaboo gave me another offer to give to my blog readers, it's a Buy-1, Get-1 Free Book or Calendar Promotion. Click through the banner on the side bar of the blog or click here to order. If you click through my site to Picaboo and order a book or calendar, the TPPF makes a few bucks.

Changing gears, four years ago I made two major changes in my life. The first was getting back into shape, the second was deciding to learn again. I was starting to feel old and felt I hadn't learnt anything new in a while and decided to focus on computers and all things Internet.

The first thing I started was a blog. As crazy as this may sound, I didn't even know what a blog was when I started it. I also started taking responsibility for all my own computer technical problems. In the past, I'd just have my IT people fix my laptop or home computer if there was problem.

The best thing I did was buy the Apple Care protection plan. They offer 3-years of unlimited telephone support. I spent countless hours on the phone with them learning everything I needed to learn, even basic things like setting up an email account on my computer.

I learnt how to set up a home wireless network, a back up system, shared music libraries, syncing of all my computers and iPhone. Dealing with hardware and software issues no longer intimidate me.

The second area of learning that I've developed a "passion" for is Internet marketing. I find it fascinating and everyday I'm learning something new. Last month I launched the beginning of a program for work and in only one month the sales increased 30%, and I did it working from my kitchen table and sofa. I love the lifestyle.

Tonight I had to go out for some cables and networking hardware and as I was driving to Tigerdirect, I realized I enjoy all things computer. I've never been a builder or mechanic, yet I could spend countless hours figuring out a computer problem, or learning how to use software, or figuring out ways to increase online sales. I find it all very gratifying.

Eating wise, I've got the "sugar shakes". Yesterday I ate more Halloween candy than I should have and my body is "craving sugar". I'm like a "crack addict". Try as I might, I couldn't resist having a little "brown gold" today, but tomorrow I'm going "cold turkey". I find that if you can go two days eating well, it's easy maintain. It's those first two days that are the toughest.

No Training - Recovery Day

Piggy-ween...

It was a rough day, we stayed up way to late last night and had way to much fun.

I'm on the fence whether to call the Man Cave, "The Pig and Whistle" or "The Abyss". Feel free to cast your vote.

I'm finally feeling like I have some leg strength again, I felt a "slight" twinge of muscle. When I tensed my quad it felt a "little" firm. Taking the day off to recover today I think helped.

Tonight was Halloween and try as I might, I fell off the "eating healthy diet". I couldn't resist those little "Oh Henry", "Coffee Crisp" and "Kit Kat" chocolate bars and once I had one, I could stop the "eating frenzy".

The fact that I had a few beers didn't help. Jamie came over first, and after cigars he left, and my neighbour Jeff dropped in.

Jamie and I we're going for our second beer off the "Crackerator" and it was enough to drain it. Fifty Eight litres of beer gone in 14 days, a new personal best. That's the equivalent of 180 beers.

That keg was dedicated to Paul Dietrich, who donated $200 to the TPPF. The next keg being purchased will be dedicated to Al Nolan for his generous $201 donation to the party fund. I want to personal thank Paul for providing terrific "beer oil" to "grease the party wheel" over the past two weeks. post-Kona. It was delicious.

For those that donate $200 or more to the TPPF, you automatically become a "platinum keg donator" and a Keg is named and photographed in your honour as a badge of honour.

In a way I'm glad the Keg is empty right now, I have the NYC marathon on Sunday and I have about two or three days of training left and I need to be focused.

I think my next keg will be my 5th since getting the Kegerator in July or August. At $250 per Keg, that's A LOT of recovery drink.

On a personal note, Reid is sure getting big. I came home from my run two days ago and as I was stretching I saw a big kid riding a bike out of the corner of my eye, I didn't realize it was him. I was glad to see he was still riding my bike for some exercise and "shocked" I didn't recognize him.

For Halloween he went out as a Gorilla and with the mask on and not knowing it's him, he could have been a "man". He's now almost my height and is only turning 14 years old this month. I guess I'm going to have to give it up that he's going to be bigger than me. I've also noticed lately he's starting to "thin out".

The family carved some good pumpkins, as always. Can you guess which one was Reid's?

No Training - rest day

9

Never a dull moment...

I woke up this morning and continued documenting all my online user names and passwords. The list grew from 165 yesterday to 180 and counting.

Along the way, I got a tweet from @kelownagurl telling me that she uses some software called LastPass to organize all her user names and passwords. It's FREE software and I tried it out. In one word, it's "AWESOME".

The software keeps track of all your user names and passwords for every site you belong to and when you need to go to one of those sites, it automatically logs you in. It is one "sweet" piece of time saving software.

Eventually, I had to push back from the computer and go out for a run. The NYC Marathon is next Sunday and I need to "cram" in some training. Today I did a 2 hour long run and it was my third day in a row of running.

I'm not training to race fast, I'm training to finish without injury. I'd rather show up a little beat up from training too much, than with less training and more susceptible to injury. The worst thing someone can do is show up and do a marathon un-prepared, it's a recipe for disaster. Nothing causes injuries like running.

All things considered, it was a successful run. The highlights were I didn't injure myself and my current injury didn't get overly worse, it went from a 2-on-10 to a 3-on-10. It was also a very slow run, I had to stop and walk a number of times in order to keep my heart rate under 143 bpm. The best part was my muscles weren't at all sore afterwards.

At the 12 km mark during the run I started having some shooting pain around the side of my left knee. It was acute and painful at first and then it eventually went away. It was a similar style sensation you get when your foot falls asleep. That's another reason I train, I don't want to have that happen next Sunday.

I got home just in time to stretch, shower and almost eat before the Nolan's arrived for a pre-party visit. One of Julia's friends lives in Burlington and has a Halloween party they go to every year.

As I was coming out of the shower Alice and Reid were starting to mop up a huge amount of water coming from the laundry room. It turns out the washing machine broke and was overflowing with water.

It wasn't little like "the BP oil spill". It was all over the place and went through the floor and it was "raining" downstairs in the storage area underneath. Reid went downstairs and was pulling out all the stuff in storage that was getting wet. I looked inside the storage room doors and it looked like a rain forest inside, water dripping everywhere.

Alice's blood sugar was getting low and I was trying to help by mopping the floors up with towels everywhere. I finally got to use all my Ironman finishers towels for something. All this was going on as Al and family was to arrive and I hadn't even eaten dinner yet. I had a bowl of soup sitting on the kitchen table.

Just as we finished, the doorbell rang and it was the Nolan clan. Shortly thereafter, Jamie and Barb showed up. We had a full house in the man cave, it was all fun and lots of laughs. As my largest contributor to the TPPF, Al was also allowed unlimited pulls on the Kegerator handle.

I haven't seen Al since the House of Payne Beer run and since that time he's been working out at a local morning "boot camp". Al's looking great, he's down noticeable weight and now actually has muscles. When Al and I gave each other our customary "ass grab hug", I couldn't believe the firmness of his butt cheeks, not to mention his rock solid arms and FIRM hands.

Al's plan is to join the P.F.G. Triathlon Club. He's committed to doing a triathlon next year and is not sure if it will be an Olympic or a Half Ironman Distance race. I told him to "go for the half and I'll do it with you side by side the entire distance".

My recommendation is very self-serving, I want to be Ironman Al's "manager" and pit him against Matty-O during next years Payne-a-poolza trampoline fight, and hopefully he'll be able to return "the peoples-elbow" to Tank-O. I learnt my lesson after this years fight, I'm too small and weak to return the favour.

After the Nolan Clan left, Jamie, Barb, Alice and I sat around the bar and "chuckled it up". My biggest take away is I've come to realize my perfect career would be hanging around the "Pig and Whistle". Inside joke. I found part of an episode on You Tube and posted it below. I was actually thinking of now calling the Man Cave, "The Pig and Whistle" and maybe get a little red vest.

After everyone was gone it was just Alice and I and she came up with a great saying, "It's not where you are, it's who you're with". I told her it was almost as good as the one I came up with last weekend, "Live yourself to death". She then proceed to tell me SHE also came up with that one too. Damn, I thought that was all mine.

By the time I was ready for bed and I finally re-heated the bowl of soup on the kitchen table and had my dinner at 2 am. Alice saved me from myself by telling me we didn't have any little Halloween candy. I'm glad she lied.

Long Run - 2:03:12 / 22.2 km / 5:32 per km avg / 141 avg hr

19

Login Ho...

Today I went for my second 11-km run in two days. I went easy, ran under 136 bpm and felt okay. My butt-upper hamstring was only bothering me 2 out of 10.

It looks like that A.R.T. may be working. I've only had one visit and my butt feels better than normal. Previously it was a 5 to 7 out of 10.

I'm also proud to say my weight is down to 184.4 lbs as of this morning. I attribute that to two things. The first is I've been eating healthy and sparsely. Every time I want "junk-food", I go for fruit. Although beer is still allowed on the "Training Payne Diet".

The second reason I may be down in weight is muscle-loss, "if you don't use it, you lose it". Your body doesn't care if you did 3-3/4 Ironmans this year. Either way, seeing that scale under 185 lbs felt good.

I ran and went for a massage today. Sara, the girl I go to really worked the buttocks and hamstrings. She found some tightness in my IT bands as well. However, I'm not sure if the massage is helping, although the A.R.T guy seemed to think it was a good cross-therapy.

I found that after the massage, it felt like the problem returned slightly. It may be phantom pains, however it seemed hurt when I sat down. The real test is going to be tomorrow when I do another run.

The last two runs have been enjoyable, especially when your running slow to keep your heart rate down. It's fall and the leaves have now changed colours and I'm liking the change of scenery. The downside is it's cool weather outside.

The only upside to the cooler weather is I know how to dress for it. I simply wear my jacket, running tights and gloves. The only decision I need to make is whether to wear a hat or a toque.

Tonight was a late night and no beer was involved. Earlier in the day Fedex delivered our Mac TV box and new iLife 11 software. That was the kick off to my day being computer related and then evolved into organizing computer files.

The Mac TV is AWESOME. It didn't take much to set up and now I'm streaming HD from Netflix, You Tube and can even rent movies from the Mac Store on demand. I'm feeling like I'm getting closer to finding a way to eliminate Cogeco from my life.

I set the box up on the TV in the Man Cave, it's one of the few that we have in HD. More importantly, it's where I do my indoor bike trainer rides. The ONLY thing I need to figure out is how to stream from my computer directly to the TV. That way I can order my Pay-per-view events off the computer.

My next adventure is going to see if I can find an alternative way to get Internet from the United States into my home. Perhaps there is some sort of a Satellite dish or something that I can buy in the U.S. with a U.S. plan and smuggle over the border. I know if I have a U.S. Internet I.P., I can stream in movies and TV shows from Hulu, which is banned in China, er, I mean Canada.

Tonight, for over 5 hours, I was organizing all the "user names" and "passwords" for all the website logins I have. I finally got so frustrated with the time wasting involved in trying to figure out what they are as I need them throughout the day, so I decided to put them all into one place.

I set up an excel spread sheet and by 2 am, I had 165 different accounts that I had user names and passwords for. I was shocked that the list was that large, I would have never guessed it was that many, and there was not one was porn account among them. On twitter, Adena said I was "a little web slutty". It's hard to disagree with that. It's a good thing I have a mac and don't get virus's.

Friday nights are hard to eat healthy. Alice doesn't want to cook, I don't blame her, and the kids just eat McDonald's or Pizza. Tonight it was Pizza and I had a couple more pieces than I should have. It's hard not to do when the 2-for-1 large pizza deals are cheaper than ordering one medium pizza, no joke.

My ONLY other diet "faus pas" was eating a bunch of those "little Halloween chocolate bars" that Alice bought. I somehow justified it because I didn't have any beer tonight. Funny how the mind works.

Tomorrow it will be back on straight beer and no junk food. I have no choice, Al Nolan and clan are dropping by on their way to a Halloween party.

Mod run - 58:34 / 11.14 km / 5:15 avg pace / 136 avg hr

Number crunching...

It was one of those late nights last night.

I had my Ironman Kona poster plaque-mounted and was hanging it in the Man Cave. I got thirsty and the Kegerator was right there looking at me all lonely and stuff. It wanted to play.

One beer turned into many. It loves when I pull on it's handle. Alice ended up going to bed at a reasonable hour and I stayed up watching TV and tweeting on my iPhone. Before I knew it, it was 2 am.

I gained 11 new follows last night, I assume people found my tweets amusing, I know I did. It is so fun to make fun of other people and their tweets. Many tweeters tend to be much to serious.

Speaking of numbers, over the past thirty days I've had 8011 hits to my blog and 1925 unique visitors. It's a new PB. Last month was special, I surpassed 100,000 visits to the blog since starting it. Oh, and after the other day's video of the two horses, I didn't lose one follower. In fact, I gained 3 new ones.

I also want to thank a couple of new contributors to the TPPF, they are Rob G (@triwithms) for $25 and John K (@Fletcher54) for $15. Thanks guys. Also, the Top 10 largest donors list at the side of the blog has been updated. Those folks on it are definitely "role models".

For those that got kicked off the list, or have never contributed, don't despair, be competitive, send "Moola" and "Viola" you may get on that podium. I've now received $870.27 in total donations. Many Thanks to "those that know who you are".

It may seem like a lot of money, but it's not. Based on the hours I put into the blog, I'm making about a dollar an hour, almost as much as Simon pays his maids.

The goal of the fund is to raise one-million dollars a year. As you can see, I'm well off that goal. If anyone wants to organize a charity ride or something similar on my behalf, go for it.

Please keep the donations coming, I need beer money for the NYC Marathon coming up. Also, every donation entitles you to a one-year membership in the "Training Payne All Access Program". Unlike Ironman, I'm not going to "Waffle" and change my mind and stop the program. Click Here to see the apology.

As many know, if you donated to the TPPF pre-Ironman Kona, you got a postcard with a special message on it. For the rest of you, nan-na-nan-na-nan-na.

BUT....it's not too late to donate and not miss out on the next round of special gifts and learn about my upcoming parties BEFORE the others. You may even get better odds on me possibly inviting you.

Changing subjects, I went for a run today. The first in 6 days. It's amazing how fast "you can lose it when you don't use it". I started running 4:57 pace and then had to do a LOT of walking to keep my heart rate under 143 bpm. Mind you, last nights shenanigans definitely made it harder to stay in the zone.

In the past couple days I noticed my muscles were starting to "atrophy" and even during the run they felt weaker than they have in a LONG time. The hip bothered me, although it feels better than the last time I ran. I'm not sure if it's because of the rest, yesterday's ART therapy, stretching or psychologically feeling better knowing it's not a problem that can't be fixed.

On the diet front, other than drinking beer last night, I ate perfectly. No junk food and that's NOT easy to do after having a few beers.

Oh, one last thing, on Tuesday we went to the movie "Jackass", it's not as good as the earlier ones and it was in 3D. Save your money and donate it to the TPPF.

Mod Run - 1:01:44 / 11.02 km / 5:35 per km avg / 143 bpm avg

No time to waste...

Today I started my plan to balance work and triathlons. I'm not one to sit still and ease into it, I'm either "all or nothing" and "now or never".

One cornerstone of my plan is to keep things balanced by scheduling my time, similar how I train.

I'm drawing on my training experience and applying it to career.

When I train, I have daily scheduled workouts with time durations. The schedule doesn't tell me what time I should do the workout, it just says I need to accomplish it sometime that day.

I want to apply the same approach to my work. I've often found that if I "binge work", it's catches up to me, I tend to burnout or lose perspective. My plan is to allocate a fixed amount of hours in a day that I will work on a given task.

When the time is up, it's up, just like training. As much as I might have my head into something or feel good enough to push through, I'm not going to. I'm going to shut it down and continue on the next day.

To help me, I purchased a $10 piece of software call Vertabase Time and it's software that puts a "time clock" on my computer. When I start working on a task, I log in and it keeps track of my time. When I've put in the scheduled time, I stop and log out.

It's important to note that what my current work allows me great flexibility in the selecting the time and place that I can work on a task. Internet marketing is the career path I've chosen. I have a "passion for it" and it's "ideal for my lifestyle".

It's something I've been involved with for the past few years and have come to really enjoy it for a variety of reasons.

One thing that attracted me to it is it's not a 9 am - 5 pm, Monday to Friday job. It allows me to primarily work when and where I want and success is very measurable.

There is also constant learning involved. This past year I can't tell you how many hours I've spend listening to Internet Marketing podcasts as I trained. To me, it's fascinating stuff.

The one downside of Internet based marketing is you can easily become a "work-aholic". There is so much to constantly learn and implement that it is easy to "immersed" into something and not want to break away to train. I've had this happen.

I'm in the process of setting up my time in blocks. I don't think I'm not going to work more than 3 hours at one time without a healthy break in between. I may have one day a week which I'll call my "long-day". No different than a "long bike ride".

I'm even doing the same daily time allocation for my personal blogging and twittering. Family and personal time will be all the non-allocated time.

Another cornerstone of my plan is based on Parkinson's Law, which is defined as "work expands so as to fill the time available for it's completion." Some may argue that you CAN'T assume you'll accomplish something in a specific time, I disagree.

By knowing you have a "limited" amount of time a day, it forces you to focus on the most important tasks. Important tasks are defined by, "that which will make you the most money".

Right now I'm in the process of creating a "work training plan" that will be integrated with my lifestyle and goals. I just started recording the time I spend on different tasks and hope to have a schedule in place within a week or two.

Another benefit of Internet based marketing is my ability to shut off my computer. This is going to be "hard", but when my time is up, I'm going to shut down my computer and not turn it on until the next day or when the next task is scheduled to be worked on. For me, turning off my computer will not be an easy thing to do.

Changing gears, I went to a Chiropractor that specializes in Active Release Technique. He told me that I have a tightness in my ligament and figured it is a hold over from Matty-O's "peoples elbow" when we were wresting at the House of Payne Beer Run.

I told him about the marathon and that I'm fully prepared to take his advice as to whether or not I should do it. After his evaluation he said "he didn't see it causing major damage if I did the marathon, it would just postpone the amount of time it would take for full recovery".

Based on his "feedback", I am going to do the NYC Marathon. It's only 10 days away and I'll be doing a very limited amount of training. Maybe a few runs from now until then and probably not more than an hour per run. I also have 4 weeks that I didn't plan on training after the marathon to let hit heal properly.

During the next 10-days, the Doctor recommended I come to see him for therapy a couple times a week and go for a massage or two per week, and take warm baths and stretch often throughout the day. The goal is to get oxygen into the ligament area in order for it to heal.

My only "fear" about the marathon is the "pain and suffering" I'm about to face. I much prefer mild training-pain over severe racing-pain. With only 7 or 8 runs between Kona and the marathon, I predict I'm going to be hurting during and after the race. Although I spoke to "Coach Gord" today and he thinks my Kona fitness will carry over. Time will tell.

I also got final resolution to my Cogeco cable problem. I spoke to one Supervisor on Monday and didn't get a satisfactory answer and asked to speak to her manager. Yesterday, I spoke to the manager and finally got her to admit that they could have done something that night and "over road" the system and allowed me to order the UFC pay-per-view.

I knew it could have been done. I then asked her to have the supervisor I spoke to on Saturday night to call me and "personally" apologize to me. We'll see if that happens.

Finally, I got my Ironman Kona race poster back from plaque mounting today. I also had my finishers shot printed and framed as an 8 x 10. I've got to say, for print enlargements, Wal-mart is CHEAP, it was only $2.69 for an 8 x 10 print and it was ready in 5 minutes.

Oh, one last thing. I think I created a monster. This past weekend, I taught Reid that you can make a "flame thrower" with a match and a flammable aerosol can. I learnt about that technique when I was a kid and lit my mom's macrame plant holder on fire. It looks like he caught on and is now doing it when we weren't home. He took pictures I found. I sure hope he doesn't burn down the house.

No Training

18

Today's video comes by way of Al Nolan and his words, and I quote were : Make a mention that I dedicate the song to MattyO, the running Ho!!