Good news, bad news...

I slept 9 hours last night. I was so tired I couldn't get up early to lift weights. I ended up sleeping in and doing the weights at lunch time.

After dinner I had a speed run session, it took an hour. It was the first time I've run since last Saturday when I did a 30 minute brick run. I didn't run for the past week because I wanted to rest my knee. I wasn't looking forward to the speed session because they hurt. I was trying to get a hold of John all day, with no avail, because it is always easier to do the intervals with someone else.

During the early part of the intervals, the area above my Achilles and below my calf started to hurt. It started as a 1 on 10 and on the last interval I went as hard as I could and it moved to a 7 on 10. After the intervals I couldn't even do a 10 minute warm down because it was so sore. I ended up stretching and going home to ice it.

This really "sucks". My knee was fine, but now I've got another injury, which could be much worse. I think it happened because I normally run 35 miles per week and then for a week I didn't run and it lost some of it's strength. Or maybe I should have just did an hour jog instead of a speed workout. I'm icing, taking Advil and Pennsaid. I have a long run on Sunday and I really hope it is okay to run on. I just need to keep healthy for 4 more weeks, then I can take a break and let my body recover.

Riding and Swimming hard...

Now that I got the green light to train, I had two speed workouts today. One was a 3000 meter speed swim and the other was just over an hour speed bike session.

The swim when well. The core workout was 20 x 100 meters with a 10 second rest between the first two and a 45 second rest after every third. The fastest I did was 1:43 and the slowest was 1:49. I was pleased. I felt strong. I never look forward to the swim, but after about 30 minutes of swimming, I get into a Zen like state and time goes by faster. On the bike I wanted to go hard, but not too hard because of my tender knee. The one thing I was happy with was that I was able to average over 40 kph for one of my 9 minute intervals. Overall I was pleased with both training sessions. My quads felt it.

I can hardly wait until the season ends in September. I've been going very hard since January 11th and I looking forward to a break. I've discussed this with my coaches and figure next year will be a six month season from April 1st to Sept 30th. Then for the balance of the year I'll focus on running and weights, with a little biking and swimming. I'm also glad to see that my body is back to normal from last weekend. I'm back down to 178 lbs from 183 lbs, my plumbing is back to normal operation and my resting heart rate is in the 50's standing and in the 40's sitting. Now of course this weekend is a long weekend, so who knows what will happen.

I got the green light...

My knee has been bothering me since my Monday nights bike ride and I was starting to get worried. I posted my problem on the Mark Allen Forum and it was suggested that I get it checked out just for peace of mind. I went to the physiotherapist yesterday and they did an assessment. The ligaments and range of motion were fine. They felt is was a bone contusion, essentially a bruised bone, from the bike fall a few weeks ago. They said it may be uncomfortable, but I can train on it and it should not do any damage. It will also take 6 - 8 weeks to heal. That is good news, because I was concerned that I'd have to stop training for a week or so and I'd lose a lot of my fitness gains. I'm less than 5 weeks away from the Louisville Ironman.

After the good news, I went to the YMCA to do weights and a speed swim. Unfortunately the pool was closed due to a "fouling", but I did do my weight training. I'm now in the chisel phase, which is reps of 12 at a high speed in order to get some lactic acid building. On the cycling and running I am going to lower my intensity and do icing after every workout. I'm also putting Pennsaid on it a few times a day. The Physiotherapist also thinks I should see him a couple times a week for laser, ultra sound, electric and ice therapy. I'm not sure if I want to do this because it is $50 for each visit and time is precious. I have been starting to eat well, so that my body can spend less time on digestion and more time on healing of injuries.

At least with a light workout day I decided to go to the 9:00 pm showing of "The Dark Knight" with Alice and Reid. Heath Ledger is amazing.

Getting rid of those chicken legs...

Today I still feel like "crap". My head is foggy and my face and arms felt numb like. When I got to work I also started to notice that I was getting "stuffed" up. I can't believe the toll that last Friday took on me, although the stuffiness I picked up from my family which is sick.

I decided to cut out of work early to do my 3 hour and 45 minute ride, as I didn't want to finish in the dark. This ride was going to be a test because the last ride I averaged only 28.3 kph and my standard rides are usually over 30 kph. I was becoming "paranoid" and wondering if I'd lost my cycling strength and if I'd ever do a longer ride over 30 kph again. Like I said, I'm "paranoid".

Right from the beginning of the ride I went as hard as I could while trying to keep my heart rate under 134 bpm. The only time I didn't, was if I was going up a hill. On this ride I vowed not to use my small front chain ring on any of the hills, which I didn't. I ended up averaging 31.9 kph for 120 km. It was a good ride and for one of the first times I was actually starting to feel tired at the end. Not a bonk tired, but about 25% away from a bonk tired. I think part of the tiredness was that I lost 2 water bottles off the back cage during the ride. They were just filled up with water and they must have popped out when I rode over some railway tracks. For the last 30 minutes of the ride I wished I had more water.

Overall I was pleased with the ride. I'm still not where I was a week ago, but I was happy with the time none the less. The only downside was that my left knee was really sore after the ride. It was either from the ride only or yesterdays 5 km swim and today's ride. The knee pain started a few weeks ago from falling off my bike, now it seems to be radiating from that impacted spot and going down the left front shin, like a shin splint. I was glad to see a package arrive today from Hammer Nutrition because it included something called tissue rejevenator, which is illegal in Canada but legal in the U.S.A, and apparently has strong natural herbal properties that help repair injury. I'm told they give it to horses to help them heal. The guys at work who know about it think I'm going to show up to work one day with a mane.

Still fighting with the Colonel...

I was glad I didn't go out last night. It turned out that I started to get really tired and couldn't stop my lower body from sweating. I watched the Tour and kept falling in and out of sleep. As much as I had a long day of training, that wasn't the only reason why I was tired, it was the two days of partying and specifically eating too much KFC. I know this sounds strange, but I swear that my major organs and my plumbing system have been gravely effected by my overdosing on a bucket of KFC chicken. I now remember why I don't go there more that once every year or two.

I went to bed early last night and woke up at 8:30 am to coach Reid's game. We lost, again, I'm now a perfect 0 - 10. When I woke up I still felt terrible, the sweating was gone but I was a little shaky and was still burping up chicken from two days ago. I haven't been able to get on a proper urination routine from the massive salt and grease intake. I figured the best thing to do is to try and eat well, drink plenty of water and exercise.

After the game and some errands I needed to run, Alice and I went for lunch at Cora's. My daughter just got a job at the new one opening in Burlington in August and Alice had never been there before. We ordered healthy and had a LOT of fruit. Once we finished, I dropped Alice off at home and went to the Oakville YMCA for my long swim workout.

I ended up doing 5000 meters in just under 2 hours. The 900 meters on the kick board was fun, especially the 600 at the end of the swim. Overall I felt pretty good and the swim started to get me to feel a little better, at least I had to get out of the pool and go to the washroom a couple of times, even it it was a tinkle.

I was able to get into a good rhythm and as time went on, I actually started to get faster. Other than being "hit" on by an older gay guy, with a Village people mustache, who was trying to talk to me as I was showering, the swim was uneventful.

Long and Flat...

I had a tough time waking up this morning. I needed to get up by 8:00 am to get on the road by 8:30 am to meet up with Mark and his friends. The plan was to do part of my long bike ride with them, as they planned on doing at least 4 hours and I needed to get in a 6.5 hour ride.

I pushed myself out of bed at 8:00 am, I was so close to calling Mark and telling him that I was going to sleep a little more and go later, but I knew that would be a bad idea. Some how I was able to get everything ready and get out the door by 8:35 am. I could tell this was going to be a slow speed day right away. I didn't have the power and my upper body was a little shaky on the bike.

I met up with Mark and met his friend Doug. We started riding together and met up with Walt, another friend of Marks. The weather was a little strange, it looked like it was going to rain, but we were able to pretty much stay away from it for the first 4 hours of my ride with the group. Mark took us to ride Sydenham Hill in Dundas, it is a nice and challenging hill to climb. He then continued to take us to ride more hills. The route was good and I liked the hills, even though I probably shouldn't have been doing them because they take my heart rate out of the aerobic zone. But they were fun and I always like going on routes I've never been on. At one point, Doug and I were riding together and a big deer jumped out in front of us and crossed the road. At first I thought it was a dog coming at us, then I wondered "what kind of dog is that big", then I realized that it was not a dog, but a deer.

Mark, Doug and Walt are Ironman triathletes. As it turns out, Doug and I both raced in Gravenhurst a couple of weeks ago and Doug finished a minute and 16 seconds behind me and was in 4th place. Doug is a really good triathlete, he had done over 10 Ironmans and his best was a sub 10 hour finish, I think it was like a 9:30 something. Amazing.

At the 4 hour mark I split from the group to get in another 2.5 hours. Just as I started riding alone, it started to rain, then after about 30 minutes it started to rain HARD, then it started to hail. As I was riding in the rain, I passed by a cyclists on the side of the road, who was under a tree and trying to stay dry. Shortly after I rode by, he caught up to me and we started to ride together. His name was Douglas Clark and he is visiting from the Atlanta Georgia area and is a very good cyclist. His strength is hill climbing and he seemed to be a little disappointed that there weren't any bigger hills. He was telling me that as a 49 year old masters cyclist, only recently has some one beat him on the hills. It took a 21 year old to do it. I keep thinking that 40 is the new 20.

After Douglas and I split up, it continued to rain, then it stopped and the sun came out. The roads started to have "steam" rising off them. It was the strangest sight. By this point I was getting "thirsty". I hadn't stopped for water when I should have and now I was getting dehydrated. It was a sight for sore eyes when I pulled up to a convenience store. Once hydrated I started to feel better and had about 90 minutes left to ride. As hard as I tried I couldn't get going over 30 kph for any period of time. I also had to start using my front small chain ring for climbs, typically I can do this route in the big chain ring, but not today.

I ended up riding about 186 km in 6 hours 35 minutes, my pace was around 28.3 kph, although my speedometer started having trouble when it started to rain so I'm not sure if I have the right distance and speed. I was just a little disappointed because I can't remember the last long ride I've had under 30 kph. I guess it shouldn't matter because my legs did get a good workout.

After the ride I did a 30 minute brick run, I felt pretty strong on the run and did it at a 7:44 pace. When I finished the run I felt surprisingly well. The only thing was that even a couple hours after my shower, I'm still sweating. Alice and I planned on going to see a comedy show tonight, but she wasn't feeling well and I don't mind giving my liver a break. It's too bad because we were going to go with Jamie and his wife. Jamie is the triathlete I met last week on the road. I was really looking forward to it.

My plan for the rest of the night is to rest. I'm going to get a good meal and relax on the couch and watch the Tour de France.

My Beer day is what others call a REST day...

It was a late night last night. Jay Yakabowich, one of my yearbook sales people, came over after the Burlington Downtown 10 km race. Jay ran a 38:31 and came in first in his age group and 11th overall. When he got to my place it was already around 9:00 pm and it looked like he needed a beer, his face was "red" from an all out effort.

Jay's a good Ukrainian boy and one beer turns into two, then three, then four, until it's all gone. We ended up running out of beer at around 3:00 am, and I had bought 24 tallboys earlier that night. Jay ended up sleeping over on the pull out sofa.

I woke up and Jay was gone and I went to work. When I got to work, I had a couple of conference calls and emails I needed to take care of, but it was a beautiful day and I figured I wanted to take the afternoon off. I checked with Johnny, my yearbook production manager, to see if he wanted to hang out and have some beers. Which of course he did. So he picked up a 24 of Amstel Light, I picked up the pizza, and we met back at his place. We sat in his back yard and within 4 hours we finished all the beers and pizza.

I ended up leaving around 6 pm and Alice came and picked me up, I was in absolutely no condition to drive. When I got home, I had the munchies, so we picked up a bucket of KFC. Drinking and eating is always a bad idea, you never end up eating anything healthy. As I was eating, I wasn't feeling too guilty, as I knew I'd burn it off on tomorrows long bike ride. Afterwards, I ended up lying down on the couch, falling asleep and not knowing how I got to bed, although at 3:00 am I woke up so thirsty and "hurting". It always seems like a good idea at the time!

I've attached a picture of Johnny (left) and Jay (Right), they are a "bad" influence on me:)

I left it all on the road...

Today at lunch time I did my Power weight training session. I went hard and worked up quite a sweat. I typically only leave about 25 seconds between sets, whereas the other guys seem to leave a minute or two, that's why I sweat. It was a good workout and I've really noticed my strength improvement since I started in January. Every part of my body is much stronger. It feels like I'm going back in time, I feel like I'm in my late 20's, early 30's.

After work I did a speed bike session. It took me 1 hour and 21 minutes and it was the hardest I've ever went on the bike for a speed work session. At times I was going 39 - 40 kph into the wind. I had 2 - 12 minute time trial intervals and my mouth was as dry as a bone and my arms felt like they had "pins and needles". With a cross wind I was winding it up to 43 - 46 kph and on some slight down hills I was going as fast as 60 kph. I was given er. My guts were coming out and for the first time on the bike my lungs were hurting. Even an hour after the bike ride I could feel it in my lungs. I was trying to get it up to the speeds of a Tour de France rider, I wanted to feel what their speeds felt like. They hurt!

I've put my running on hold for a week after discussing it with my coach Mark Allen, so I guess I wanted to get the most out of this workout. The only other thing I thought may have made it harder was that I had a McDonald's hamburger and two McFlurries before I trained. It was my dinner.

I can't sit still...

With my knee hurting and in talking with my coach, I decided to rest it, as I need it to be 100% for the Ironman and that is only 5 weeks away.

My plan today was to do nothing, but I couldn't. I was sitting on the couch at 7:45 pm going nuts, I didn't know what to do with myself. Sitting and watching TV was not something I was used to. At that moment I decided to go to the YMCA and finish off the swim I started yesterday. Swimming and cycling does not really effect my knee like running does.

I ended up swimming 2200 meters, hard. It was a speed work session and I had some great times, finally. For some of the 100's, I was swimming at 1:38. For one of the 50's I did it in 43 seconds and I went so hard, I couldn't have went 1 second faster. I felt really good mentally as well. At the pool, there was a guy who was going as fast as I was on a kick board, I couldn't believe it, nor could anyone else at the pool. This guy was like a motor boat, I would never have guessed that a guy could do 100's at a 1:40 pace on a kick board.

During yesterday's swim I was ruminating about an email I got from my son's hockey league head office. I am coaching my son's team. They had a complaint that I was using an illegal player, a Rep player who should not have been on the team, which I was. I just couldn't believe they caught me and now they wanted answers. They told me the players number was 27, but my rep player did not have a jersey with 27 and I told them that, hoping they would go away. But they didn't. They insisted I had a player, then I told them I did have a rep player who was a year younger and from the players pool and he only scored 1 goal and we lost anyways. They then emailed me back and told me that they made a mistake, it was another coach named Payne that had the illegal player and they emailed me by mistake! Whew, I was nearly busted.

After the swim last night, I sat on the couch, watched the Tour de France and iced my knee with a bag of peas.

I hit the wall...

Last night was a long training session and today I had to get up a couple hours early for work, leaving me only 6 hours of sleep, which is not enough. I typically need 8 hours for healthy recovery. I had an important meeting that took all morning, requiring my full attention, and by 1:30 pm I was "toast".

I wasn't functional, so I decided to go home and sleep, which I needed badly. I woke up around 4:30 pm and felt a lot better. I ended up going for a 12 mile run which took me 1 hour and 45 minutes and I averaged 8:46 per mile. For the entire run my heart rate was around 125 and I felt strong, although my knee was still bothering me.

When I got home, I ate and then at 7:30 pm headed to the pool for a 3500 meter speed swim. As I pulled into the driveway at the YMCA I really started to feel burnt out and I didn't know if I was going to go in and swim or turn my truck around and go home. I ended up going into the pool and swimming 1200 meters. At that point, I felt so mentally tired that I decided to go home and finish the rest of the swim tomorrow. In hindsight I shouldn't have done the run today and let my knee rest, as I have a 10 km race on Thursday.

The next 5 weeks of training is high mileage and is going to be tough, I figure I really need to monitor my body and mind and make sure I don't burn myself out.

Another flat day...

I was really tired this morning, I could also feel that my back was on the verge of being thrown out, but I went to the YMCA to work out anyway. Today was my power weights session and as I got warmed up, my back got better. At the Y there is a fellow Ironman triathlete, named Jennifer Boehm, who is a personal trainer. She's doing Ironman Canada this year and we talked about the course. She has already put in a couple of 180 km bike rides and she's competing in the 50 - 54 age group, she's ready. Unfortunately we couldn't talk longer because I had to get to work.

At 5:30 pm I got on the road for a 3 hour and 30 minute bike ride. Just as I was leaving the house my back tire went flat and I had to change it. This is the second flat in the past two rides. This year I have had 4 flats in total and I'm starting to get much faster at changing them, which is a good thing in case I get a flat during the Ironman.

Once I got on the road, I felt great. For this session I was to keep my heart rate under 134 bpm and do a moderate ride. Even at that low heart rate I had power to spare. I ended up riding 112 km at a 32.0 kph pace. It was a great ride. By the time I finished it was dusk, but I do have that high powered safety light that can be seen a mile away, which makes me feel safer.

Vancouver came to Burlington...

At 7:20 am my alarm went off and did not want to get up, but I had to, John was going to be at my place for our 2 1/2 hour Sunday run at 8:30 am.

When I got out of bed, every muscle in my body hurt, even my abs. This week has been a brutal week of HARD training and my body felt it. I also had a sore left knee from my bike crash that I was worried about. I didn't know if it was going to hold up for the entire run. And to top it all off, it was raining, which was good for watering our new trees, but no so fun to run it.

We decided it would be best to put some Gatorade at the half way point of the run and Alice was nice enough to take it and drop it off for us, which worked out well. The run was pretty good. The road we ran down ended up being closed from traffic because they had a bike race in progress and that road was part of the racing route, which was really enjoyable, not having to worry about cars. It was raining lightly for most of the run and hard for a portion of it, but the rain was actually a nice change of pace, it was warm and wet. I told John that the last time I ran in this type of weather was in Vancouver. With the combination of the weather and the scenery, today's run was spectacular.

As we were running, Jamie Grant, the guy I met yesterday on the bike ride, came running up from behind us. We ended up running and talking for a while and then he turned around and headed back, he said it was starting to rain to hard for him. John and I ended up running 16.53 miles and averaging 9:04, although it felt faster. My knee ended up not stopping me and only hurt when I thought about it, so I tried not to think about it.

Afterwards, back at my place, I showed John some tips on how to put on a wet suit and ended up punching myself in the face, when my hand lost grip of the wet suit as I was pulling up. Once the run was over and I had stretched, all I wanted to do was lie down on the couch and watch TV, but I couldn't, I had to coach Reid's team.

We lost, again, but it WAS a good game, we only lost by 2 goals and if not for the other teams goalie, we would have won.

Another Long Saturday...

Today was my long ride day, scheduled for 5 hours and 45 minutes. I got out the door by 9:30 am after taking about 30 minutes just to find all the stuff I needed for the ride. It's amazing how long it takes to find clothes, fill water bottles, get iPod, clean glasses, etc. Even though I try to get out the door with everything I need, about 7 km into the ride I realized I forgot my flashing safety light for the back of my jersey and I needed to turn around and go home.

I put on the safety light and left home for a second time, then 18 km in to the ride I got a flat front tire. I hit a pot hole and it went flat. It took me 12 minutes to change the tire and after I did change it, I decided to ride back home to pick up another spare tire just in case I got another flat, I also needed to pick up my GPS which I also forgot to bring.

When I had to go home for a second time, a cyclists passed me going the opposite direction and didn't wave back to me. Because I decided to go home to get a spare tire, I turned around and started to follow him from a quarter mile back and started closing on him fairly quickly. As I got closer and was going to pass him, he decided to stop and take a drink of water and when I passed he turned his back completely on me as if I didn't exist. What a loser! That is what gives cyclists a bad name in terms of being arrogant and rude. I guess he couldn't imagine being passed by a triathlete.

The day was hot and humid, well into the 30's C. Normally, I really love the heat, but today it was tough to ride in. It seemed that every 4 pedal strokes I'd feel a wave of heat coming up through the pavement and it would just radiate through my entire body. I also ended up meeting another triathlete on the road named Jamie Grant. It turns out he lives just around the corner from me in the house with the Porsche's in the driveway. He's is a lawyer turned Canadian Tire Owner in Milton. Sounds like a good trade

I ended up riding 174 km at a 30.3 kph pace. I felt a little more tired that I usually do when I get home from a long ride and I wasn't sure if it was the heat, or the heavy training week, or the fact that I'm still recovering from last weekends visitors. Near the end of the ride I couldn't stop thinking about a nice COLD beer. I had a Carlsberg lite tall boy in the fridge and kept visualizing in my mind and telling myself that the minute I get home I'm going to drink it.

Which I did! Then I had some more and felt a lot better.

Some people go out on a Friday night, I swim 6 KM

Tonight was my longest swim to date, 6,000 meters in 2 hours 20 minutes and 36 seconds. I started at 7:00 pm and finished just before the pool closed at 9:30 pm. I'm pretty sure the lifeguards thought I was nuts.

The swim was fairly tough, not because of the distance, but because my arms and chest were sore from yesterday's power weight lifting session. As a matter of fact, all day my entire body was sore, especially my glutes. My swim was slow and I'm not sure if it was from the weights or that I'm just not as strong in the water as I was, although I think it is the weights. At times, my left shoulder and pectoral muscle was starting to get sore, so I didn't want to push it too hard.

When I got out of the water, my hands looked "prune like", I thought I was looking at the hands of an 80 year old man. But, overall I'm happy, I did my longest swim ever and I felt pretty good afterwards.

This was one Friday that I did my body good!

Hot, Humid and Hard...

Usually I do weights in the morning, but today I wanted to sleep longer for better recovery and I figured I'd do them after my speed run later tonight.

After dinner, I headed down to the local school track to do my running speed work. It was HOT and HUMID, with the humidex it was 37 C. Once I started my speed work my heart rate monitor was at 192 bpm, then settled around 180 bpm. This was the first long speed work session that I'd done without John and it was hard. I've now realized that speed work running is always easier to do with a friend. During the run I went hard and near the end of the run the front of my quads were getting really sore. By the time I was finished, I was dripping wet, my shoes were wet and felt like I was running in the rain.

I put a towel on the seat of my truck and drove to the YMCA for my weight training session. It has been a couple weeks since I did weight training and I was looking forward to it. Today's session was a Power Phase, which means heavier weight to exhaustion. It was a good session and on the power squats, even after the run, I set a record for me and squatted 500 lbs. Not bad considering less than a year ago I started at 90 lbs. On the drive home from the YMCA, even though I put a towel on the seat, the seat was WET, big time.

I also picked up my bike after work from the bike shop. I took it in because the gears were still not working well. They are really trying to fix the problem and I appreciate their efforts. They showed me the P3C Cervelo and said it was the supreme triathlon bike and even let me take it for a test drive. Truth be told I liked the fit of my Quintana Roo better, although the Cervelo was not fitted to my body, so it might feel better if it was. The only problem is that they want $4700 for the Cervelo and I probably could only get $1700 for the Quintana Roo. I did see a similar Cervelo, 2 years old, on Ebay that is only at $1600 and only has one day left in the auction. If it stays that low, I'm going to bid on it and if I get it I'll sell the Roo.

Speed work without a speedometer...

My training for the day was a speed work session on the bike. I had a late work related meeting, so I didn't get out on the road until 7:30 pm, which is cutting it close, as the sun is starting to go down. It took me just over 85 minutes to finish and it was intense. I was determined to go all out and I went as hard as I could, the heart rate got into the 160's.

I decided to go up Spring Ridge Hill for one of my 6 minute intervals. The hill is extremely steep, at least an 11% grade, and took me about 3 minutes to climb. For the first half, I was doing well, for the second steeper half, I was really pushing and hurting.

My gears still aren't working perfectly and now my speedometer broke. I sure "hate" this bike, even though I've had my best times on it. I'm also starting to watch what I eat, with all the partying we've been doing, I haven't been eating well and have gained some weight. I'm now around 181 lbs, the day before I was 183 lbs, and a week ago I was 177 lbs. It just shows that diet is more important than exercise to maintain or lose weight.

Full day...

Today I was back to a full day of training, totaling just under 3 hours.

Before work I did a 3500 meter swim, which took me 85 minutes. The swim was fairly slow for a speed swim workout. I could really tell that I lost speed due to the chest injury and limited swimming for the past month, but I went as hard as I could and I'm determined to get my swim fitness back.

After work, John and I went for a 90 minute moderate run. It was fairly warm outside and we took it easy, I kept my heart rate under 134 bpm for the entire run. We ended up doing 9.66 miles at a 9:30 pace, although it didn't feel that slow. About half way through the run my knee was really bothering me. It hurt on the side due to the fall I had 2 weeks ago. If the run was any longer I would have been concerned that I'd be doing some real damage. When I got home I iced it for about an hour and took some Advil.

I'm still hurting on the left knee and elbow from the fall of the bike a couple of weeks ago. My elbow is still so tender that I can't rest it on anything hard.

I'm also now feeling back to normal after such an action packed weekend. I've got everything out of my system and it feels good to get back into a routine.

Back at it...

I went to bed at 10 pm last night and slept for 12 hours. I needed the sleep badly. I probably only had about 10 hours of sleep over the past 3 days.

I was still really tired and I knew I had to get back to training today. It helps bring normality to me physically and mentally. After dinner I did a 30 minute bike ride, followed by a 15 minute run. The pace was easy and under 134 bpm.

Once the run was over and I stretched thoroughly, I could tell my legs were starting to feel better. Tomorrow I start back at the heavy duty training days and for the next 6 weeks it is going to be intense. The next race I have is the Louisville Ironman.

Recovering...

Last night was the final night that our relatives were at our house, so we had one last partying night and didn't get to bed until 5 am.

My optional training was to do a 500 meter swim. I figured that I'd pass, I had to drive my relatives to the airport and by the time I got back the pool would be closed. I also needed to give my body some recovery time.

At 8 pm I was watching the Tour de France and almost falling asleep as I sat at our bar downstairs.

I made it to the Podium...

Originally I was going to drive up to Gravenhurst the night before the race and stay in a hotel. Instead, I decided to sleep in my own bed, save the money, and get up at 4:45 am to do the 2 1/2 hour drive to the race in the morning. I got to bed at 11 pm, but didn't fall asleep until 1:30 am. All I could hear was the others downstairs laughing, and even when I eventually did fall asleep, after they went to bed, I had a really poor sleep.

On the drive there, I was tired. I ended up having to pull over to a McDonald's to take a break and get some coffee and food because I thought I was going to fall asleep driving. I managed to get to the race site on time and everything was looking good until someone inadvertently took my wetsuit.

I took my bike to the race mechanic for a quick adjustment and put my wetsuit on the rack to reserve the spot for my bike. By the time I got back, which was less than 5 minutes later, my wetsuit was gone. I couldn't believe it, I was going to have to swim in the cold Muskoka water with no wetsuit. I was panicked and pissed off.

A non competing triathlete, who was standing beside me, started to help me look for it and then tried to see if there was a wetsuit around that I could rent. I went to the announcers table and they started asking everyone if they had my wetsuit. I ended up not finding my wetsuit in time, but I was able to rent one for $40 with only minutes to spare before the start.

It was an interesting swim start in that we all loaded on to steam ships that took us out into the middle of the lake, then we jumped off the boat "frog man" style from 8 feet high and swam a couple hundred yards to the start line. I was a little worried because I didn't know if the wetsuit was going to fit me properly and if it would cause me to panic in the water. It turned out the wetsuit was fine, it actually fit better than the one I had. I hung out with a guy named Brad Lukow on the boat, nice guy.

As I got into the water, I realized that I forgot to take off my wedding ring, which is very loose around my finger and I even lost it once in the pool during a training session. I was lucky enough that someone at the pool found it and returned it to me. Now I was worried that I'd loose it in the lake. For the entire swim I had to keep my fingers tightly together and keep 100% of my attention towards not losing it. I think in doing so it made me slower.

Once I got out of the water I didn't feel as fresh as I have in past races. I was now starting to question the wisdom of my last two day's of partying. Once I got on my bike and started riding I didn't feel that strong. It seemed that I was going hard but not getting the speed I normally do and my bike seemed to be extremely noisy when I started pedalling. The bike course was hilly and seemed very hard. For a lot of the ride, the road conditions were terrible. They had lots of potholes and were really choppy. It seemed like I was peddling in quick sand, or my brake was rubbing on the wheel, and I figured this was not going to be a very fast ride for me. Now I was REALLY questioning the wisdom of my actions over the past two days.

Within 10 minutes on the road it started to rain hard. I had to take my glasses off because it was really difficult to see and the water was covering the road so much that I couldn't see the potholes. It was a little scary at times and a couple of times I hit bumps and envisioned myself "wiping out". I also had to stop and fix my chain because it got stuck against the frame. After a while I was passing people and noticed that I wasn't that far from the leaders. My motivation was to push as hard as I could and hopefully finish without "bonking". Remarkably I ended up averaging 36. 2 kph. I couldn't believe it! What made it more special was that it was the toughest course I've ridden this year and the second hardest all time.

I had a quick transition and was on the run. The run course was super hilly and hard. By now the rain had stopped, the sun came out and it was becoming very humid. I went as hard as I could and started passing more people on the run and getting closer to the leaders. At one point, one of the hills was so hard to run up, I just wanted to quit, but I figured everyone else is experiencing the same thing and did positive "self talk", telling myself it will be over soon.

With 1 km left I was passed by a guy in my age group, I didn't even attempt to catch him as he was "flying". When I crossed the finish line my overall time was 2:27:47, it was good, but I thought I would have finished faster.

Once the results came out I was "blown away", I ended up finishing 3rd in my age group and I was going to the podium and I was getting a medal. This was only the second time in my life that I meddled. The last time I was 20 years old. As I looked at the results I couldn't believe that I also had the 9th fastest bike ride out of the entire field of 266 athletes and it was even faster than that the overall winner.

It turned out that the partying didn't hold me back, although I was only 2 minutes and 23 seconds out of 1st place and 29 seconds out of 2nd place. It didn't matter anyways because I was just so happy to have actually come in the top 3.

My times were as follows:

swim - 31:51 - 69th overall
Bike - 1:06:21 - 9th overall
Run - 47:00 - 47th overall
Final - 2:27:47 30th overall / 3rd in age group

Of course I stuck around for the awards and got my picture with the 1st and 2nd place finishers.

I did end up finding my wetsuit, it was only 8 feet away on the bike rack, and as I thought, someone moved from beside me and inadvertently took my wetsuit. I ended up talking to the guy who did take it and he gave me $20 towards my rental. The only other downside to the race was that in my rush to get a wetsuit and get to the swim start, I left my transition bag open and all my clothes, camera, cell phone and equipment got wet when it started to rain. For a while the camera wasn't even working.

When I got home everyone was happy for me and we started day three of partying. This time we didn't get to bed until 5 am. I love having the relatives around, they are fun and we get along great, but I'm glad they are leaving tomorrow because I don't think I could take one more day of partying.

I was right, my head was going to hurt if I didn't take care of it...

We got to bed at 4:30 am and I was up by 10:30 am. I was still a little tipsy from last night. The minute I got up, and everyone else was still sleeping, I decided to do my pre-race training ride and run. I went out for a 30 minute ride and did a 15 minute brick run right afterwards.

I was still feeling the effects of last night and could feel a hangover coming on, so I decided to keep drinking, hoping it would help avert it. Right after my run and and for breakfast I had a beer.

It ended up that we relaxed on the deck all afternoon, barbecued and spent the day recovering. I ended up having about a dozen beers between noon and 11 pm. I'm not sure if it is a smart thing to do, considering I have a race tomorrow morning, but I had to make a judgment call and I'll find out if I made the right call tomorrow morning. However, I was able to avert the hangover.

On your mark, get set, go...let the partying begin...

Today is the day Alice's sister and husband are coming to visit us from Winnipeg. They are hard working and hard partying prairie people. Today's training is an off day, in preparation for Saturday's race, which worked out well, as I was able to spend more time with them.

We ended up, going to bed at 4:30 am and the captain's hat came out during the evening, which is always the sign of a good party.

It was a good time and we all had a little too much to drink. I'm sure we'll be paying for it in the morning.

Tapering with a triathlon...

Yesterday was a rest day, today was swim, bike and run training in preparation for my race on Saturday.

I was up early and did a 1500 meter swim. Some of the intervals were 100's and my best 100 was at 1:35, I was breathing out one side only and going full out. I was real happy with the time and at no time did my chest hurt.

After dinner I did an hour bike ride, I did just over 30 km and averaged 30.4 kph. I was able to keep my heart rate under 134, except for the time I had to beat another cyclist up a hill, my competitive juices got the best of me and I couldn't hold myself back. I ended up leaving him in the dust. The overall average speed of the workout was slower than I would have like to have done, but for half the ride I was going directly into a head wind.

I did a 35 minute brick run after the bike ride. My heart rate was great, it stayed around the 128 - 133 bpm range. The only downside to the run was that the side of my knee was still sore from when I fell off my bike last weekend. I ended up running at an 8:30 pace.

After all the draining I did a pre-race leg shave, I don't know how women do this all the time, it's hard, and now I'm resting my liver for when my relatives arrive tomorrow. When I asked my brother in-law what he would like to see while he was here, he said "the LCBO".

I got the gold...

Today was an off day as part of my taper for Saturdays race, which means NO TRAINING, it's a weird feeling. It actually worked out well because I've got family flying in from Winnipeg on Thursday to visit, and I had a lot of stuff I needed to do around the house to get ready.

I also got Alice and my 20th Anniversary rings today. We had them custom made and the only problem with mine is it's too big, I'm afraid I'm going to loose it when I swim. But other than that we are both really happy with them, now my daughter can't keep telling us that our old wedding rings are "ghetto".

246 miles for the week...

I was at the pool before work and did a 2000 meter swim. For most of the swim I did it breathing out one side. I was testing to see if I could get more oxygen and swim faster breathing out one side only. I noticed that in the Olympic trials, the swimmers were breathing out one side. I did pretty good, I was swimming 100 meters at around 1:45.

After dinner I did a speed bike workout and got my heart rate up higher than I normally do on the bike. I got it as high as 160 bpm. At times I was cruising at 42 - 46 kph on the flats. I was going as hard as I could on the most hilliest section of road that I ride.

I had a good stretch afterwards and am trying not to snack on any junk food. I find that I've been really hungry lately and I haven't been eating the most healthiest foods. The last thing I want to do is carry a few extra pounds into this weekends race.

In terms of training totals, last week, between swimming, biking and running, I did a record 246 miles for the week.

Speed work on speed fuel...

Today was an easy day. It is the first day of my taper for Saturday's race in Gravenhurst.

Because it was a short training day, I actually did some work around the house. I cleaned the garage and power washed the back deck.

I also had my best game coaching Reid's hockey team, although I cheated. I brought out one of Reid's friends who is a AAA player, for a team one year younger. I told the kid that if he stays with the team and we win the championship, I'll give him $200.

We still ended up losing the game, but only by 4 goals, usually it is 10 plus. I ended up extending my coaching record to a perfect 0 - 9. Reid figures we could get a couple more of his AAA friends, which I'm seriously considering. Even though it is not allowed, who cares, it's only summer 3 on 3 and it's the first and last time I'd ever be coaching. I'd love to go out a winner, even if I need to cheat. I consider it the "bad news bears" technique.

This afternoon we had beautiful weather, with not a cloud in the sky. After my work around the house, Alice and I spent the afternoon in the sun on the deck sipping cocktails. After dinner, we both went down the local school track for my speed work session. During our cocktail conversation, Alice, who was a top high school sprinter with over 20 first place red ribbons to show for it, decided to race me on some of the straights.

My speed work session was to run hard on the straights and jog the curves for 1.5 miles. Alice would then race me on one of the straights and walk back. She ended up beating me 1 out of 3, but always was ahead at the 50 meter point.

It was fun doing speed work after an afternoon of drinking beers and feeling no pain. You can see my "glow" in today's picture. I'm sure not many other triathletes would use my training techniques.

My longest training ride EVER...

Today was a heavy training day. I had a 5 hour and 45 minute bike ride, followed by a 30 minute brick run. I was up early and on the road by 9:00 am, I was glad the weather was nice, all sun, no clouds and around 25 C.

I wore my new Fire Fly high powered light (which can be seen from 1 mile away) on the back of my triathlon jersey and I'm glad I did. With all the shadows from the tree's, it is easy for a driver not to see me. I also noticed that most drivers were giving me much more room than I normally get without the light.

Early in the ride, I ran over a young frog. It jumped out at the last minute and "splat", my tire ran over it and I felt the little guys guts on my leg. I'm glad it was a frog and not a raccoon.

For the first 3 hours of the ride, I felt good, had the wind going with me and averaged 31.1 kph. At the 3 hour point I tried to turn my bike on a loose gravel road and wiped out at a slow speed. I scraped and hurt my hand, my elbow and my knee. It hurt! For the first few minutes I just breathed through the pain. I ended up getting on my bike and continuing, but I was now riding a little slower. It took a while for the endorphins to kick in and mask the pain.

As the day went on, it got hotter. I ended up riding a total of 176 km (109.2 miles) at a 30.6 kph pace. After the bike I had a 4 minute transition and got on the run. The entire run my knee was hurting from the bike fall, also I could not keep my heart rate under 146 bpm without walking. I ended up running 3.67 miles at an 8:25 pace.

I actually felt pretty good afterwards, no bonk. Other than the bruised bone on my knee and elbow, I'm okay. I got home at the right time because the Tour de France was on TV and I was able to relax on the sofa, ice my knee and watch the Tour. Man are those guys fast!

All in all, a good day and the longest training ride I've EVER done.

My longest swim EVER...

I was feeling a little rough today after last night's cocktails. Just when I say I'm not going to drink for a while, I drink.

I left work early and got to the Oakville YMCA around 3:30 pm. I did a 5500 meter swim. While I was at the pool I met a guy named Kevin who is a 46 year old incredible swimmer. He used to be a triathlete until he got knee problems, he used to come out of the water in 4 to 5th place and off the bike in 10th. He was going fast and it looked effortless.

After he finished we talked a little and he gave me some pointers. He said I swim well, good stroke, body position, etc, but that when I stroke on my left side, I "plow" my head into the water which causes more resistance. He gave me some pointers on how to overcome it and it worked.

The only downside was that from that point on, my swimming started to become slower. I guess because I haven't been swimming as much as I normally do, this session was hard. At the midway point I was getting so hungry and my shoulders were actually getting sore. When I finished I felt disorientated. This was the first time I've ever felt this way after a swim. But I was happy that I did a 5500 meter swim and it only took me 2 hours and 7 minutes.

I left the pool and went to New World Cycle to pick up my bike and pay my $218 bill. I'll find out tomorrow if everything works well.

By the time I got home I was tired and there was some driveway sealant spray that had just be laid down that was starting to give me a headache. I was in a semi-bonk state. I was pretty tired and not looking forward to my run, but I knew it had to be done. So I ate some pasta, drank a lot of water and went for my run just after 8:00 pm.

I went for a 55 minute tempo run and averaged a 7:44 pace for just over 7 miles. My heart rate was high due to last night, so I didn't try to keep it under 139 bpm. I decided to keep it around 146 bpm. The run was effortless, it felt like I had springs for legs. It was just a really easy, enjoyable run and when I got home I felt rejuvenated.

Today I also got two new pairs of my DeSoto shorts, they feel so great. And my firefly red blinking light that can be seen from 1 mile away arrived. I'll be using both from now on.

Another Thursday, another work party...

I decided to weight train early this morning because we had another company barbecue planned. My plan was to have a burger, a few beers and get home for around 6 pm so I could do my 55 minute tempo run.

It didn't turn out that way. I had a burger, had a lot of beers, had to call a cab, the cab driver ended up driving me home, coming in and partying and I didn't get to bed until midnight.

Sans run, but it was fun!