My first long ride of many...

I decided to do errands with Alice this morning and do my 5 hour long ride in the afternoon.

I was on the bike by 2:00 pm and the weather wasn't all that good. As I started to ride, it started to rain for a while, then it stopped for a while, then it rained for a while, then it stopped for a while, and then it "poured" for a while and finally stopped. It was also pretty windy. For the first half of the ride I was going right into a head wind and was averaging only around 26 kph.

While I was riding I saw a big turtle on the road. I had to take a picture of it. On the ride I took a few pictures. Where I ride is very beautiful.

At the end of the ride, with 10 minutes to go, I was making a turn, saw a car coming and veered to the side. I went over the curb onto the grass and then, because my cleats are locked in, I fell over. At first I just wanted to lie there, but I jumped up quickly because I didn't want to cause alarm and have people come to my aid.

I ended up doing 141.28 kms and averaged 28.2 kph and it was all on hills. It wasn't an easy ride for me. At the 4 hour point of the ride I was getting tired, then I had a gel and started to feel much better. I was actually surprised how well I felt when I got home.

The bad news about the fall off my bike is that my camera is damaged and doesn't work. I love that camera. I hope they can fix it.

My fastest run and I was aerobic...

For some reason I woke up really tired this morning. I'm glad I didn't have a beer last night because I would have blamed it on the beer.

After work I did a 50 minute tempo run, which was not to exceed 139 bpm. Like most of my tempo runs I end up pushing it up to 140 - 144 bpm, as it's easy to get carried away when your going fairly fast.

Today's run was my fastest in years. I ended up doing a 7:28 mile for 7 miles. Even my fastest run, which was the race around the bay 30 km, I only averaged 7:43 and my heart rate got up to 180 bpm. This run I did a 7:28 and stayed aerobic, under 143 bpm, plus I have a sore chest. It was an amazing run.

To put it in perspective, at today's run pace it would have given me a 46:23 for 10 km or 1:37:52 for a half marathon and I was aerobic for the entire run. During the run I could still feel my quads were a little sore from the 1/2 Ironman. They still have not fully recovered.

Today was a breakthrough day.

P.S. I was reading about a bruised chest rib and it says recovery is around 4 - 6 weeks, just like my doctor told me.

Chillaxing...

It's a strange feeling, I have no training tonight because I can't swim due to my chest injury.

Instead of training, I did some running around and picked up some natural cream that is supposed to help strains and bruises. I also went to the bike store and picked up some Recoverite drink that came highly recommended. The guy at the bike store also gave me some suggestions of the roads I should travel for my long ride this weekend.


I guess I should enjoy the day off and use it as a recovery session before a heavy weekend of training. It is just strange not training today and sitting around the computer eating "freezes", it just doesn't feel natural.

I've got some good advice...

I felt good today after a good night sleep.

My online coach told me I should look at getting some physiotherapy for my chest, get rest and not worry about loosing my fitness level. He said that my current fitness level will last two weeks before it starts to decline.

Another fellow athlete, on Mark Allen's online forum, recommended Hammer Nutrition's tissue rejuvenator. He said it works great and that some of the natural ingredients they give to horse's to help them heal.

So I set up an appointment with a physiotherapist and ordered the Tissue Rejuvenator. I had to order it from the USA because it is not approved to be sold in Canada. This stuff must be good.

I also changed my training schedule. I was having such a tough time finding a pool that was open long enough for my swim workouts, so I changed the workouts to accommodate the pool's swim lap hours.

Tonight I had a 90 minute tempo ride at 139 bpm. I had a pretty good ride, but was surprised to see my average speed was only 30.6 kph over 46.25 km. At the end of the ride I saw a couple of cyclists in front of me and decided to catch them.

As I was getting close, on a slight downhill, one of the cyclists took off and I could tell he was trying to out run me, he was going as hard as he could. I decided to put the HAMMER DOWN and got up over 50 kph. Not only did I catch him, and he was cycling hard, but I blew by him. I was going so fast, he gave me a cheer once I passed him.

Of course for that moment in time, I was well above 139 bpm, but it felt sooooo....goooood...

My chest is #*@!...

I had a tough time falling asleep last night, it took me 1 1/2 hours, which ended up being 1 am. Needless to say I was tired when I woke up for my 6 am run.

After a good oatmeal and banana breakfast, I ran for 85 minutes at an 8:21 pace for 9 miles. It was cold outside and I wasn't fully dressed for it, I should have worn gloves. I can't believe how last night it was 27 C and this morning it's 9 C and windy. I can hardly wait for the warm weather to come and stay.

This afternoon I was tired. When I got home from work I had a nap. I was resting before going to the YMCA this evening to see if my chest was good enough to swim. It wasn't. After 18 minutes in the pool I could tell that I was starting to do more harm than good. I stopped.

Before I left the YMCA I decided to try some weight training. Again, on the upper body exercises I was causing harm and the only thing I could do was the lower body workout.

Now I'm reluctantly accepting the fact that I need to rest my chest as it must be pulled or strained muscles. I've emailed my coach to see if they have any suggestions on how to speed up the recovery, I was reading about a homeopathy remedy called Arnica, I'm going to look into getting some.

Yesterday my doctor said it could take upward of a month to heal. I just hope it heals within a month as I have an Olympic distance triathlon in a month and I want to be at least able to finish the swim.

It is really unfortunate that his has happened because my swimming and upper body strength had really improved since January and I was really looking forward to additional gains before Louisville.

The ground hog woke up...

All I did yesterday was sleep. I figured that in total I slept 17 hours. I still didn't feel 100% today, I was still recovering from the weekend.

I had a my scheduled annual physical this morning. The doctor was pleased with my transition over the last year. He recommended that I find a nutritionist and he gave me the card to a natureopathic nutritionist, who I called and he's so busy that the earliest he could see me was July.

After this weekend and the abuse I put my body through and the length of time it takes to recover, I think I'm going to start slowing down on the partying front, or a minimum, moderate it.

I rushed home from work today and tried to eat as fast as possible, as I had a 2 hour and 45 minute bike ride. I ended up getting out the door at 5:45 pm and had a good ride at a moderate pace. I averaged 29.7 kph for 86.5 kms and got home at dusk. You can tell it is spring, there is a lot of bugs hitting me during my ride.

I decided not to weight train today because of the soreness in my chest. The doctor told me that it is bruised and can take 4 - 6 weeks to heal. He said the ideal thing to do is rest it, but understood that wasn't an option with the training I need to do.

A beautifully wasted day...

Last night we played some pool, watched UFC and had some cocktails and more cocktails and more cocktails and then cigars and then more cocktails.

Today I paid the price. I got up at 11:00 am to go coach Reid's hockey team and then when I got home I went straight to bed. At the game I couldn't even think straight. My head was hurting, my mouth was dry and I just wanted to get through it and go home.

I slept until 5 pm and then barbaqued some hot dogs. Alice had a craving for hot dogs. Afterwards, reluctantly, I went for my 90 minute long run. I was not feeling good, for most of the run I had a side stitch, the blister on my foot was starting to bother me, I was burping up hot dogs and I had dry mouth. I really wasn't mentally enjoying the run. On a positive note, my chest was not bothering me as much as the last run.

I ended up running 10.5 miles at an 8:31 pace. After the run I was stretching and still felt a little woozy from last night. Partying feels so good at the time but then the next day you pay for it. And what's worse is that it was warm and sunny out all day and I slept through it.

Back in the saddle...

After a good night sleep of 9 hours and doing some errands with Alice this morning, I was on my bike by 2 pm.

I did a 3 hour ride and ended up doing 93 km and averaging 30.9 kph. Early in the ride I saw a group of triathlete cyclists and I could resist catching up to them and passing them. Even though today was a long ride under 139 bpm, I just had to do it. A great song came on the iPod just at the moment I saw them and I went for it. They were going pretty fast, but I was going faster. I caught them passed them and then lost them going up a hill.

After I did that, I settled back into a normal ride effort.

The ride went fairly well, for the first 1/2 of the ride my chest was mildly hurting. But as the ride went on it seemed to feel better, I'm not sure if it was getting better or the endorphins were masking the pain.

As I was finishing the ride, I was thinking of next weeks 5 hour ride and the other 7 hour rides I need to do, followed by runs and swims on the same day. I'll do them, but I already know they are going to be epic day's. I'm sure I'm going to be physically exhausted. I'm excited and nervous about this Ironman training program.

I just hope this chest injury goes away. I decided not to do a swim today because I the chest needs to heal and today's swim was at moderate speed and only medium importance.

Man my chest hurts...

This morning I weighed in at 177 lbs, I dropped 5 lbs in one day. I figured my body had been retaining water since the race to help with the recovery process.

I woke up with a really sore chest, at one point this morning I was going to go to the walk in clinic to get it looked at and x-rayed. As the day went on it seemed to bother me less and I figured if it continues through the weekend I'll get it looked at on Monday.

After dinner I went for a 55 minute tempo run. Right from the start I was having mild chest pain. It actually hurt more when I exhaled fully, than when I inhaled to the maximum. It didn't seem to slow me down, but it was a real discomfort. I ended up running at a 7:41 pace for 7.2 miles at 139 bpm, although many times my heart rate got up to 141 bpm.

I sure hope this chest injury heals quickly, as without it, I really think I'm on the verge of some real improvement.

I think having a few beers tonight might relax it. My motto is "when in doubt" have a beer!

I've got an injury from the Florida 70.3...

I woke up today to see that Luis had posted my next 14 weeks of workouts online. Today's workout was a 3000 meter tempo swim.

After 3 days off since the race, which seemed longer, I was kinda itching to get back at it. I didn't want to loose any of the training gains I made.

The swim felt good, at the beginning. I felt strong and was even doing some of my fast 100's at a 1:33 p/100 pace. As the swim went on, my left chest started to hurt and by the 3/4 point of the workout, it was hurting a lot. While I was swimming the pain was masked, but when I stopped to rest, it started hurting.

The reason it was hurting was from the "donkey style" kick I got in the chest during the swim portion of the Florida 1/2 Ironman. It really is my own stupid fault, as I pushed the guys legs out of the way hastily and he gave it to me good. The problem was that I was just so focused on doing well and he was slowing me down. I got frustrated.

The tenderness in my chest was getting much better over the last couple days and I figured it was gone, until tonight. It was so sore that taking a deep breath was tough at the maximum inhale. I really hope it doesn't effect my weight training.

When I got home, I tensor bandaged an ice pack to it and will put bio freeze on it before I go to bed. I figure part of the issue is that I was going pretty hard tonight. The next couple of swims are moderate and long, so it may not aggravate it as much. I'm really hoping it is nothing and is going to go away fairly quickly.

I'll tell you, I've really learnt my lesson, I'll never antagonize someone in the water again. I'm just lucky he got my chest and not my head.

Who says triathlons are not a contact sport?

Last day of Vacation...

Unfortunately I didn't get to sleep in today. Alice's alarm went off at 7 am and she got up to get Reid off to school, and I couldn't fall back to sleep.

I weighted myself when I got up and was 183.4 lbs. Since leaving to Florida I gained about 5 - 6 lbs, although my BMI was the same at 19.1%.

We didn't do much today, we went grocery shopping, as the fridge was empty with no healthy food, and I went for a massage. I needed to get the lactic acid out of my system before my full Ironman training begins.

I set up my next training program with Mark Allen Online and I get into full swing next weekend, which includes a 5 hour bike ride. I hope my groin chafing heals soon. I looked at the schedule and saw some 6000 meter swims, 7 hour brick bike rides and 3 hour runs as part of the training regimen. This should be fun!

I really shouldn't complain, as I'd rather pay the price in training than at the Ironman. If I feel as good at the Louisville Ironman as I did in Florida, it will all be worth it. But I have no illusions, it is going to be tough training for the next 14 weeks.

As a sidebar, I was looking at the Florida race results today and noticed that my bike split was faster than Lisa Bentley's, an 11 time Ironman champion. Her average was 22.2 mph and mine was 22.5 mph, which means I was 2 1/2 minutes faster. Of course she still blew me away with an overall time of 4:31:47 compared to my 4:57:55, but it gives me confidence that my cycling has improved and that I might not be all that bad.

Plus, I think I can still get much better at cycling. I know my running can definitely improve!!!

The holiday is over and the real training begins...

Today was a travel day. We left Orlando at 1 pm, flew to Buffalo and then drove to Burlington. Unfortunately the line up at the border was pretty long and when I got to the customs officer all he wanted to talk about was my triathlon. No wonder the line ups were so long, the guy was lonely.

The legs are feeling a little better, I probably could jog a bit if I wanted to. I also started eating better today. For the past week all I've been doing is eating in order to carbo load, then after the race I ate some more, now I don't even want to look at food.

Once we got home, I unpacked the bike, put it back together and took it for a test ride. Everything worked fine, nothing got broken in transport.

I'm feeling good and am actually looking forward to the Ironman training. I just checked my email and the coaching staff at Mark Allen Online suggested I start right away. No rest for the wicked!!!

Wet'n Wild and a little sore...

Last night we celebrated with some cocktails. Alice, Alyssa and I had a good time and some good conversation. I still can't believe how well I did, I just can't believe it!

After a good night sleep we headed out to Wet'n Wild Water Park. To me, it felt like my first day of holiday's.

I realized after I got to the water park that it wasn't the greatest idea, in that I had to walk up a lot of stairs. My legs were sore, but not to sore to walk up stars, but sore enough that I couldn't run if I wanted to.

The other reasons I wouldn't be able to run are due to a blister on my left heal and major, and I mean major, chaffing in the groin area. It turns out the triathlon shorts I used have too small of a chamois for long distance. Also, my chest still hurts from the "donkey kick" I got during the swim portion of the race.

But I can't stop thinking about my race time. Doing a sub 5 hour half Ironman is like doing a sub 3 hour marathon. To think less than one year ago I did my first triathlon in years, I was in the Clydesdale division (men over 210 lbs and finished 550th out of 600, and now I finished 161st out of 2000. I just can't believe it!!!

All that training paid off…

It was an early morning, up at 4:45 am. John gave me a wake up call just to make sure my alarm went off. It was a good thing he did, because it turns out my two watches, were both 10 minutes behind.

Kevin, my brother in-law, gave me a ride to Disney and my family was going to sleep in an extra ½ hour and then come to watch me. It turns out that I arrived fairly late. By the time the busses got me into the transition zone, they were 15 minutes away from closing the zone, which meant I had to rush to get my equipment ready. It was not a good situation to be in because it would be easy to forget to set something up.

One sad thing was a guy beside me asked to borrow my pump, and when he used it, he ended up blowing out his tire 15 minutes before the race was to start. I felt so bad for the guy, what happened to him is a disaster. I hope he got it fixed in time.

I ended up having the camera, as I figured Alice might forget it. My plan was to take a few shots at the transition and then give it to her when she arrived to watch. But as fate would have it, they got held up by the bus transportation and didn’t get to the race on time. My swim wave was about to start in 90 seconds and they had not arrived. I scrambled and hid the camera in a bush by a sign post. Then I quickly drank my Ensure and RAN to the swim start. I got there just before the gun went off.

Once I started swimming, my stomach got upset from the Ensure, I shouldn’t have drank it so close to getting in the water. Plus, I shouldn’t have drunk it at all because I hadn’t tried it in training. The first 200 meters of swimming I started taking in water, started gasping and thought I was going to struggle through the entire swim. I ended up stopping for a few seconds, getting my breath and my bearings and then trying to go again. After about 300 more meters I started to get my stride and started feeling good.

My swim felt good and I felt strong. My wave was silver and we all wore silver swim caps. As I swam, I didn’t see many silver swim caps and as time went on; I started passing previous waves, which had green, red, blue and white swim caps.

Not only was I passing these people, I was climbing over them; there was so many swimmers in my way. As I got to within 300 meters of the end, a guy was in front of me that was “pissing” me off, so I swept his legs away with my hand. He ended up giving me a hard kick to my left chest and it HURT!

I ended up getting out of the water in 36:27 and averaged 1:50 p/100 m. Last year all my races were at a 2:25 per/100 pace. I didn’t realize it was all that fast until after the race I saw that it was the 67th fastest in my category (out of 281) and 440^th fastest swim overall (out of 2000), I’m glad because it made all those miles in the pool seem worth it.

Once I got out of the water, I felt “fresh”, I started running to my bike and there were people in my way and I was running around them. I’ve never came out of the water feeling so strong. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother In-law and Alice were able to see me out of the water. I tried to tell Alice as I was running where the camera was hidden. It turns out they couldn’t find it, but a maintenance guy found it, and by chance, in passing, he over heard they were looking for it and he gave it to them. Alice got the impression he planned on keeping it for himself and reluctantly gave it up.

When I got to my bike, I had one of my fastest transitions and had another bottle of Ensure. As I was changing I noticed something…most of the bikes in my age group were still in the racks. That meant that I was ahead of most of them. This is completely different that last year where I came out of the water and my bike was one of the few still in the bike rack as everyone else was ahead of me out of the water.

Once I started running my bike to the bike start area, I was passing guys and getting frustrated that they were in my way. When we finally got to the bike mount area and I started riding, I took off fast. I started my ride in the 40 kph range. I started passing people like they were standing still. I felt so strong and it felt fairly effortless. My heart rate was only in the 1 43 – 147 bpm range for most of the ride.

The ride was awesome, I "gaver" for the entire 90 km, I passed so many people I couldn’t even count. Over the entire 90 km, I was only passed by 2 people who were both 29, I could tell because their ages are written on their calves. The ride wasn’t that flat, there were quite a few rolling hills. I expected it to be flatter.

For the entire ride, I ended up averaging around 22.5 mph and finished in 2:29:08. I hauled “ass” and it felt like a walk in the park. At no time did I feel that I was losing energy, the fact that I was eating like crazy and we had some cloud cover and a little rain didn’t hurt. I ended up having the 28th fastest ride in my category and 166rd fasted bike ride overall. When I dismounted the bike, my legs felt like I didn’t even do 90 km, there was no bike to run adjustment required, which was a first. My mother said that she couldn’t believe how strong I looked getting off the bike compared to everyone else.

I had a super fast bike to run to bike transition, before I knew it, I was on the run. My run felt fast but I didn’t realize how fast. For the first 7 miles, it was hot and humid, but no direct sun, as there was cloud cover. The run was not easy, half of the run was on pavement and the other half was on a grassy trail. Whenever you run on a trail, it is hard to go as fast as when running on pavement.

It turned out that I did the half marathon in 1:46.26, averaging an 8:08 mile pace, and ended up having the 31st fastest run in my category and the 192nd fastest run overall. At the 7 mile mark, the sun came out and it was hot. It was so hot that most of the people started shuffling and even walking. I kept running strong because I figured if I could keep up my pace; it was possible that I could break the 5 hour mark, which is a HELL of an accomplishment for a triathlete. In fact, when I raced 20 years ago, a sub 5 hour would win races.

The last 4 miles of the run was brutally hot. I was running on pure will power. By this time, most of the people I was passing were walking. I kept looking at my watch and realized that if I could keep up the effort, I could break 5 hours. I kept running hard, and it hurt. The last mile was PURE DETERMINATION. It was HOT!!!

As I got to the last 200 meters of the run, the adrenaline started to take over and I felt strong again. I ended up crossing the finish line in 4:57:25. It was good enough for 24^th place, out of 281, in my age group and 161st, out of 2000 overall. In fact, I may have been good enough to qualify for the World Championships, but I didn’t stick around to find out, and if I did win a spot, I wouldn’t get it without being there to accept it. The winner in my age group did it in 4:24.

I had an AWESOME RACE!!!! To break 5 hours is a major achievement in the triathlon world. It puts me in a whole new class of triathlete, one where people think you are pretty good.

What felt great, was that it was reaffirming that all that training I did paid off, that it was not all for not!

Overall, for the entire race, I finished in 161^st place out of 2000.

My preliminary results were as follows:

Swim: 36:27 (67th in category, 440th overall).
Bike: 2:29:08 (28th in category, 166th overall)
Run: 1:46:26 (31st in category, 192nd overall)

Transition one: 4:06 (slow)
Transition two:1:49 (not bad)

Final: 4:57:55 (24th in category, 161st overall)

After the race I felt great, I was no where close to “bonking” and once I got home, washed and packed my bike and went for dinner, then of course I picked up some beer for my post race celebration.

In my fantasy world, I though a sub 5 was possible, but highly improbable. For it to actually happen is unbelievable.

It actually has given me motivation to look forward to my Ironman training. Had I had a bad race, I wouldn’t be looking forward to an Ironman training program.

Warm up, register and no relaxation…

I was up early and at the pool by 9:00 am to do a 500 meter pre race swim. When I got back, I drove the Family to Disney’s water park. My sister is a “drill” sergeant and insisted that we leave as early as possible, she doesn’t like sitting around.

After dropping them off, I went back to the condo and did a quick pre race 15 minute bike ride and a 15 minute run. Afterwards, I put my bike in the van, picked up John and his bike, and headed to the Disney race site to check in our bikes and pick up our race packets.

Once we were done, I dropped John off and went back to the condo. I was craving whole wheat pancakes. We can’t get whole wheat pancake mix at home and I picked some up here and was really looking forward to eating them and had to have them.

I had to hustle, as I only had 20 minutes to make and eat the pancakes because I had to pick up the family from Disney at 5:00 pm.

We had a later dinner and I filled up on more pasta. When I got home, I did a pre race body shave and got to bed by 10:30 pm and it took me until 12:30 am to fall asleep. I kept thinking of the race and my strategy.

Oh, I almost forgot...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

Relax, Ride and Walk…

Today was a training rest and taper day, so we all went to Universal Studio’s theme park. We had a great time and went on every thriller ride. We walked and walked and walked. I figured walking in the heat has got to have some benefit to help me acclimatize.

My parents, sister, brother in-law and my nephews came to watch the race and arrived earlier in the day and where waiting for us at the condo. We left the park around 7:00 pm, picked up a pizza and hooked up with the family.

While eating dinner, I had 3 beers. It is my tradition to have a few beers two days before a race. For some reason, when I do that, I have a great race. I hope it works again this time.

My first training day in Florida...

We all got a great sleep last night, it was over 9 hours.

When I woke up, I went directly to the local YMCA and did a 1500 meter swim. While I was there I met a guy, Harold Walker, from London, Ontario. He is in my age group and is also doing the Florida 1/2 Ironman. Judging by his times, and his body, he is a pretty good triathlete.

After the swim, I drove Alice, Alyssa and Reid to Disney World. I still had a bike and run to do and figured it wouldn't be fair to them to have to wait for me to finish. Once I dropped them off, I found part of the race bike route, parked the van in a residential area and went out for a 90 minute bike ride. My ride was really strong. At a low heart rate, only in the 125 bpm range, I ended up doing 50 km and averaging 32.8 kph. It was unbelievable. With such little effort, I had the 3rd fastest bike ride since I started racing triathlons last May.

The only downside was that my speedometer was not always working properly. I guess with all the banging around in transport, the sensors are not positioned correctly and it was working intermittently. This is a real problem and I need to get it fixed tomorrow, as knowing my speed and cadence is critical to my race.

I finished the ride and drove back to the condo, and went out for a 30 minute moderate run in the high afternoon sun. It was hot, close to 90 F, but I felt okay throughout the run. The legs felt fresh, which is the main thing.

After stretching and a quick shower, I drove back to Disney World and hooked up with the family by 4 pm. We went to the Disney Studio Park and Epcot. It was hot and all the kids wanted to do was go on the "major thriller"rides. I went on them too, but I don't like them, they are "scary". I used to like them as a kid, now I just look forward to them being over.

The last part of our day was a large pasta dinner at Pacino's Italian Restaurant. Lots of bread, olive oil, salad and pasta. Just what my body needs for racing fuel.

Tomorrow is a rest day and we are going to go to Universal Studio's, they have the "scariest" rides according to Alyssa. Oh great???

Up early and a long day...

By the time I finished packing last night, I didn't get to bed until 12:30 am, the next thing I knew, the alarm was going off at 5:45 am.

Everything was packed, so by the time I showered and rounded up the family, we were in the truck by 6:45, right on schedule.

We made good time to Buffalo Airport and got there by 9:00 am and our flight was at 11:15 am. On the flight I carbo loaded and had a three light beers. Everything went smooth and 2 1/2 hours later we were in Orlando. By the time we got out of the airport and to the condo we were "starving" and went out to the Olive Garden for more Carbo Loading of breads and pasta.

When we got back to the condo from dinner, I started taking my bike out of the bike case and found a major problem, aside from the gears slipping, the skewer that holds my front wheel in place was bend from the baggage handling. The wheel would not go on the bike and there was no way I could ride it, so I feverishly started calling bike shops in Florida.

I found one that was 25 miles away and they were closing in an hour. I rushed and got there with just 15 minutes to spare. It was a good thing I got the gps with the van or I would never have found the place. The guys were really good and they replaced the skewer and fixed the gears that were slipping, and $75 later I was good to go.

When I got back home, we went grocery shopping and got back to the condo. We were all really tired and got to bed by 10:30 pm.

Unfortunately, I don't have an internet connection in the condo and I was so tired I couldn't be bothered to do my daily blog entry.

Swim, Bike and Pack...

Today is the last day before we leave to Florida. I can't believe it. I started my training program on January 11th and now we are 5 days away from the race. Time has just flown by and I've never trained so hard or consistently in my whole life.

I was up early and in the pool by 7:00 am to do a 2000 meter swim, moderate speed. It only took me 43 minutes, I'm not used to such a short swim. I tried my new non prescription goggles that I'm going to race in. They worked good, the eye rubber is so soft, it doesn't even feel like your wearing goggles.

At lunch time I got a call from my buddy John, who told me CNN had reported last night that a truck transporting alligators tipped over near Disney and the gators got loose.

Disney decided to cancel the swim portion of the race because they could not guarantee the alligators didn't get in the water, so the race was only going to be changed to a bike-run duathlon. I couldn't believe it. All those miles of training in the pool for not.

Then after a long while, John fest up that he was kidding. He had me going. He told me he was getting back at me for doing a similar thing to Reid. Man he got me good.

After work, I got on the bike around 6:30 pm and did a 1 hour ride, moderate heart rate, not to exceed 134 bpm. I put in my contacts and used my new sunglasses, the ones I'm going to use for the race, they worked great. I ended up averaging 127 bpm for the entire ride, but I was flying, I averaged 32.6 kph. I couldn't believe it. The ride felt AWESOME!!!

The only downside is that my left hamstring is now a little sore, I'm hoping it's nothing and will be a quick recovery before the race. To help it out, I think I'm going to get a massage on Thursday or Friday.

The balance of the evening was spent packing, hence the late blog entry. I took my time to put my bike in the bike transport box, I wanted to make sure nothing moved around, plus I didn't want to rush and "put my back out", which has happened to me if I'm stressed and rushed. When I finished packing the bike, it was a work of art, everything fit perfectly and securely.

The other good news was that I was able to get the bike box into my Truck if I pulled one of the seats down, this means we won't have to take two cars to the Buffalo Airport, which is a good thing. Alice was very happy. The only thing is that there is not a lot of room left in the truck for luggage, so Alyssa is going to have to pack light, which she is not used to.

The packing went really smooth and the reason is because a week or so ago, I sat down, very relaxed and took my time to make a list of everything I needed, so I wouldn't forget anything. It seems like it worked, no stress, just find the item, pack it and check it off the list. I still have a few more things to do, but the important stuff is packed.

Florida, here come the Paynes!!!

Taper, Taper, Taper...

I had a bad sleep, the phone rang at 4:30 am and woke me out of a dead sleep.

When the phone rings at 4:30 am, it is never good news. Before I picked it up, I was thinking...did someone die?

It turns out it was Alyssa's friend playing with text messaging that can be forwarded to a phone line. It was good that it was not bad news, but it was bad in that I couldn't get to sleep afterwards. I woke up really tired and felt it in the late afternoon, and I told Alyssa to talk to her friend.

Today's workout was a easy 35 minute run with 4 layers of clothing, including a big woolly sweater that I use for Winter running. It was a special running route I took, one that I did before last years 1/2 Ironman, I did well then, so I hope it brings me good luck on Sunday. I'm being a little superstitious.

I made sure to use my new tri shorts, to see if they were causing the chaffing between my legs. Something is, and I'm not sure which shorts are causing it. I think it's from riding the bike, but I'm not sure, so I decided to use the new shorts as much as possible to ensure they are not the culprit. If they are, I'm going to have to get a new pair with a larger cycling pad before I leave. Although, Alice's biking zone cream is helping.

The rest of the night is tan night and to start packing night.

Hockey dad, gone bad...

Today was Mothers day and I got in my 3000 meter speed swim workout by 10 am, as we were taking Alice out for Brunch at 11 am.

I never look forward to a speed swim because they can be hard, but once I get started I go full out and feel good afterwards. The fastest I did was 50 meters in 47 seconds. The only downside was that I forgot my towel at home and had to drip dry. Other than that is was a really good speed session. Three more swims until the race.

We had a nice Brunch and I "pigged" out on everything. The cheese cake and chocolate mousse were very tasty. I figured with all the training and very little beer, I needed to let loose.

After Brunch was Reid's 3 on 3 hockey game and I'm the coach. It is the first time I've ever coached and was winging it, although one of the other parents who coached house league before was helping me.

It started off okay, I picked the lines based on putting good and not so good players together. We only worked one gate and next time we'll work two, but the big thing that happened was a parent out of the stands came down to the bench and just took over.

He didn't say anything to me. He just walked up, went to the gate closest to the goalie and started telling all the defence men to move down to his side. In doing so, he screwed up all the lines. Then he started yelling at the kids and telling them what to do. He completely took over.

After a few shifts, I went up to him and told him I was the coach and in a respectful way told him to leave. He did, and I moved all the kids back together, but my lines were now screwed up. We ended up losing 7 to 6 and I think we would have had a better chance to win if that parent didn't interfere. It was amazing, the guy didn't even introduce himself or ask me if I'd like his help, he just took over.

Once I sent him back to the stands, all you could hear was him yelling at the kids. After the game, he didn't come in the dressing room to get his son. It's unfortunate that I can't make the next weeks game due to the race because it would be interesting to see how this thing plays out.

After the game the assistant coach told me that it was good what I did.

It's unbelievable how some parents are with their kids hockey, first Reid gets assaulted at his 3 on 3 game by a parent earlier this year, then I get a guy who just comes in and tries to take over. In both cases, the guys looked similar.

After the game, what happened was bothering me, I figured if the guy had any class, he would call to apologize, but I highly doubt that is going to happen.

I had a 2 hour ride at tempo speed scheduled after the game and getting ready was a challenge. I had a tough time focusing on what I needed because all I could think of was what happened with that parent at the game. But I managed to get going and just before I got out the door it started raining. Although, I did remember to put on 4 layers of clothing and two jackets.

I rode as hard as I could while trying to keep my heart rate aerobic at under 139 bpm. I think, all in all, I did okay. I averaged 30.2 kph for 60.42 km. After the ride, my legs felt pretty good and I was much more calm and relaxed about "hockey dad gone bad".

Before I even stretched, I got a bucket of soapy water and started to clean my bike. It was really dirty from the rain and the muddy roads. I didn't want to have a replay of last time, when I took my bike out in the rain, didn't clean it, and got the "third degree" from the bike mechanic about how I'm ruining my bike and all the work he had to do to clean it up.

As a side bar, I was looking at the weather for Florida this weekend, it was around 33 C with no wind. This race may be a hot one.

P.S. I know my Mom reads this, so HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!

I got the tempo...

Today was an easy day of training. I only had a 1 hour tempo run on the schedule.

The day didn't get off to a good start, as I knocked the passenger mirror off my truck by backing out of the garage without looking.

I went for a tan in the morning and hung out with Alice for most of the day. I decided to wait until around 4:00 pm to run, as I wanted to make sure it was as hot as possible out. Once it got to 19 C, I put on 4 layers of clothes and went for my run.

It was supposed to run at 139 bpm and go as fast as I could at that heart rate, but I ended up going as high as 144 bpm.

From the start of the run, I felt FAST, and it felt easy.

I ended up running 8.26 miles and I averaged a 7:33 pace. My second half was slower by 2:09, which means my first 4.13 miles was at a 7:16 pace. WOW, I couldn't believe it. By the end of the run, the front of my quads were feeling sore, but I'm not sure if it was the pace or a little dehydration.

In either event, I was real happy with today's run. At that pace it would have put me at a 46:54 10K or a 1:38:58 for a half marathon.

I'm starting to see an improvement. It's about time!

It was a lot of training for a Friday...

Rest day yesterday, heavy day today.

I was at the pool by 7:00 am for my 2000 meter swim, then I followed it up with a 35 minute run. I had to rush to get both in before work, plus the stretching and a shower.

After work I did a 2.5 hour long bike ride. I used the triathlon bike, and it went pretty well. I did 75 km and averaged 29.8 kph. I was real happy with the ride. The only thing that concerned me was that the gears still do not change smoothly, and on some of the uphills, my heart rate shot up through the roof, with no inter chest strength. The only other time I experienced this feeling was when I was doing speed run workouts. It lasts briefly then goes away.

I got home from the ride around 8:00 pm, stretched and went out for dinner with Alice and Alyssa, and had a few pints. They tasted great after a 4 hour training day!

Relaxing with nothing to do...

Last night I didn't get that great of a sleep, all I was doing was dreaming about triathlons, the type of dreams that seem so real you don't know if your dreaming or not.

For the past couple of weeks all I've been dreaming about is racing. It's weird. Even when I was younger and into training and racing, I can't remember dreaming about it.

Today is my second rest day as part of my taper. All I needed to do today was pick up my bike and get my heart rate monitor battery replaced.

Earlier this week, I took my bike into the shop for a tune up, the gears were slipping, with a whole host of other new bike problems. Today when I picked it up, the mechanic took me aside and wanted to talk to me. He told me the bike was full of sand and grit and that if I hadn't brought it in and kept riding it, that the bearings would be damaged. He essentially "bitch" slapped me and told me to clean the bike after I ride it in wet weather.

He then told me he had to take the bike completely apart and rebuild it, which is not part of the new bike warranty policy, and wanted more money. I asked him how much and he said $25. I gladly paid him.

Other than that, I have no training today and I don't know what to do with myself, except surf the net and snack, er...I mean...carbo load.

A beautiful day that turned bad...

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Yesterday was a rest day from training, today was a triathlon workout day. I had running speed work, biking speed work and a 2500 meter taper swim.

To get everything done, I was at the running track by 7:00 am for an early morning work out that took just under an hour. After dinner, I did my speed bike which took an hour and followed up with another hour at the pool. Only having to swim 1 hour was awesome, I can't remember swimming for only an hour in a long time, the workout seemed to be over so quickly.

The weather today went from beautiful in the morning, to miserable, windy and raining hard in the afternoon. Unfortunately my bike ride had to be in the rain. It never fails, yesterday I cleaned my bike, today it rains. To my surprise, I did see a group of other cyclists out riding.

The training day ended at 9:45 pm and I ended up going for a tan to get ready for Florida!