My last ride outside for the Year???

We had a few cocktails last night and went to a Movie. I was shocked to see my heart rate around 40 bpm sitting down at the breakfast table. I thought my watch was broken. I had a long ride and decided to do it outside. I dread doing long rides inside. It took me over 90 minutes to get ready. I had to cut holes in my new bootees so my cleats could get through. I had to put my new headlight on, I had to pump up the tires, I had to get dressed, I had to eat some food and I had to have my coffee. I got out on the road by noon. The weather man said it was supposed to start snowing this afternoon and we are to get around 5 cm. It was 2 C with a -4 C wind chill when I left. 

I got on the bike and right away started to hear a squeaking. I looked down and a plate on one of my cranks was coming off. Pit stop to fix. It didn't feel that cold out when I got started because I was with the wind. I felt strong was going pretty good, a lot of time spent in the 30 kph range. About an hour into it I started to get hungry and wanted to eat a power bar but it was frozen solid, same with my cliff bar. About 45 minutes later I was really starting to fade. I was riding into the bitter wind and was hungry. I had no energy. I managed to limp home and was dreaming about having some beers tonight. Just as I got to the end of my street it started to snow. Perfect timing. When I got home, I had a snack, some protein powder and went right for a warm shower. Although I stayed fairly warm on the ride, my hands were starting to get cold. The shower and getting into some dry clothes felt great. I'm starting to gain a few pounds and I saw the beginning of some love handles in the mirror I decided to pass on the beer.

Long Bike - 2.5 hours / 68 km / 27.0 kph

I'm caught up...

My plan was to ride and run today and do it as early as possible. I'm trying to take Saturday's off and make them family days, so it doesn't seem like I'm training all the time. I woke up at 8 am and got ready to get out the door. Alice has a cold and was in bed and my plan was to get in 2 hours of training and hopefully be home before or just after she wakes up, that way it's like I didn't train today. Unfortunately she got up before I left because her nose was plugged and she couldn't sleep.

The roads were wet looking and the weather said -1C with a wind chill of -3, so rather than taking my road bike with the thin wheels, I decided to take my mountain bike. I haven't used my mountain bike in 2 years and the tires were as flat as a pancake and the cateye battery was dead. I bundled up, filled the tires and was off for a 90 minute ride. It was a nice ride and I was focusing on keeping my heart rate under 130 bpm. I was also using muscles in the butt that I haven't used very much because the bike geometry is different than my road bikes. I'm glad I took the mountain bike because it was wet and icy in spots. After the ride I did a 30 minute brick run at the 130 bpm pace. After stretching I was done by 11:10 am. Perfect!

Bike - 24.05 miles / 1:30:18 / 15.98 mph

Run -  3.67 miles / 30:48 / 8:22 pace

Switching the schedule...

In order to take Saturday's off from training, Friday is my long run and a bike. It is a tough thing to do, especially with it getting dark outside before 5 pm. I decided just to do the run today and ride my bike outside tomorrow. The fact of the matter is that I wasn't looking forward to a 90 minute ride inside watching TV and this is the off season so "juggling" and "missing" workouts, I'm told, is okay.

I did my long run tonight and focused on leg turnover. I also figured out how to set up the right displays on my new watch and found out that when I go over my maximum heart rate the light comes on, which is great because I can't hear the beeping with my iPod turned on. I'm still trying to get my diet under control. Although I'm not drinking anywhere as much beer, I'm craving chocolates and sweets and carbs. I'm having lots of sugar induced naps.

Run - 40 minutes/ 5.23 miles / 7:37 pace

A busy couple of days...

I couldn't train yesterday because I had some things I needed to deal with. Today I opened my eyes, saw my bike beside my bed, looked at the clock and realized I could get yesterday's ride in and get to work in time if I got on my bike NOW. Within 2 minutes I was on the bike for an hour ride.

I had a pretty full day today with sales meetings and one on one sessions with each of the sales people. When I got home I was mentally tired and after a carbo loading dinner fell a sleep watching TV. It was 7:30 pm when I got up and was going to do weights and move today's swim to Saturday until I saw my training schedule. I forgot about the run I was to do today. So I went to the Waterdown YMCA to do weights, because I like their weight room and then I drove to Oakville YMCA to do a swim. Somehow I managed to do it before Oakville closed. My best was 3 x 100's in 1:35 per 100. When I got home I was going to go for a run but Alyssa asked me for help her learn how to parallel park the car because she has her driving test tomorrow. I spent about 40 minutes with her and she caught on. By the time we were done, I figured I'll move the run to Saturday. I didn't want to finish at 12:30 am.

Tempo Bike / 18.87 miles/ 1hour

Tempo Swim /1800 meters/ 37 min

Weights /25 minutes.

Training less and getting faster...

I did my long swim today. It was 2500 meters that included two 500 meter intervals with a 45 second rest in between. I had my fastest swim to date and completed the first one in 8:52 (1:46 per 100) and the second in 9:06 (1:49 per 100), for a total 1000 meters in 17:58 (1:47 per 100). Normally I'd be around 1:55 / 2:00 minutes per 100. The focus on really stretching and gliding with a strong pull is really helping me go faster. 

I used my watch for the first time tonight. I did a tempo / speed run at a high heart rate. It was tough to see the display at night and when I got home I learnt there is a back light. Duh. The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't see the heart rate display easily. It's very small. I'm hoping there is a display choice I haven't found yet. I used the download feature and downloaded the entire workout to the computer, it was easy and really cool. It shows the time, heart rate, speed and even the course I ran based on the gps tracking. It was a piece of cake to use, I simple just plugged it in and it worked. 

Afterwards I began teaching Reid how to use iMovie. He's really wants to create his own video's for You Tube. Alice has also got to stop buying chocolates for Reid, I can't stop snacking on them.

Swim 2500 m/ 52 min

Run 4.21 m/28:52 / 6:50 pace

Recovery...

I woke up groggy this morning. I guess I had one to many beers last night and my weekend diet wasn't exactly the best, especially yesterday's KFC for dinner. Today is a new day, my philosophy is that if I don't take care of myself for a few days, then I only have to take care of myself for a few days to get back to baseline. 

"A man's resolve is never greater than after his greatest moment of weakness" - Rich Sohor

I was tired when I got home. I ate and fell a sleep on the sofa. It was a deep sleep. The kind where it hurts to even open your eyes if you wanted to. I felt better afterwards. I decided to move my swim workout from tonight until tomorrow. It's weird not having to train strictly. I keep telling myself to relax and enjoy. I will say my legs feel stronger than they ever have. They feel like they did when I was in my 20's. I used todays recovery day to learn how to use my new Garmin watch. 

Rest Day. 

2nd Birthday in a row that I won something...

I really wasn't looking forward to the 10 Km Hanukkah Hustle race this morning. I just didn't know if I had it in me to giver and after a really good year last year I didn't want to have a bad race. But I knew I had to do it. 10 Km was the only distance I haven't raced in the last year and last year my personal best was 49:28 and I knew I could beat it but I didn't know by how much. Even when I woke up this morning I still didn't feel 100% and would have loved to go back to bed.

Alice and I got to the race with time to spare and the weather wasn't too bad, probably around 1 C. I met up with John and Jay and saw Carl from the beer run. I did a 8 minute warm up run before and the roads were un expectantly icy. My heart rate was a little high on the warm up, so I didn't know what to expect. I lined up near the front of the back for the start, right beside Jay. Jay is a really good runner and his goal was to do the race in under 38 minutes. 

When the gun went off and for the first 1 km I was surprised that I was up front and no one had passed me. I did the first km in 3:57 and then the next 4 km at around a 4:10 pace. For the most part I could see Jay about .5 kilometer ahead, which was motivating because I knew he was going for a sub 38, so if I could see him, I'd have a good chance of breaking 40. My real goal of the race was to beat 42 minutes. At the 5 km mark I was at 20:41. The last half of the race I started to feel stronger and started to reel guys in. No one passed me. For some reason the longer the race the stronger I get. The first 5 km is usually harder for me than the last half. I especially like knowing I can go hard and that I'm not going to die at the end. On the way back I got into a euphoric zone and just tried to run fast and loose. Around the 8 km point I had caught up to Jay and passed him. I made sure I didn't look or say anything to him and kept running strong because I didn't want him to keep up to me and push me even harder. I did a negative split and finished the last half of the 5 km faster than the first half by 7 seconds.

I came across the finish line in 41:12 and finished 7th overall and first in the 40 - 44 age group. Last year I won a bike for my birthday, this year I won my age group in a running race. I beat last years time by 8 minutes 16 seconds. I couldn't believe it! The best was that nothing hurt or got injured and I think I would have even done better if there wasn't snow and ice on the road. At points I had to run gingerly because of road conditions. Afterwards it was inside the building for food and to wait for the medal ceremony. Winning a medal is a mixed blessing in that you want one, but you have to wait to get it before you can go home. With that said I'll take the medal. For the first race of 2008/2009 season I can't be happier. After the race Alice and I went for breakfast and down to MEC to pick up my Garmin watch. I think I'm now going to relax, watch some football and have a beer. I think it will taste better than normal. Plus I'm so bloated from last night's Chinese food I need to get the water out of me.

10 Km - 41:12 / 6:39 pace.

Saturday at the Computer...

I O.D.'d on sugar last night. I had turtles, the ice cream cake and the candy at the theatre. By midnight I was in a sugar induced coma. This morning I was up at 7:30 am. I should have went back to bed, but I decided to get my itunes organized and put on my iPhone. I did around 4 hours in the morning, did some errands, one of which was to pick up my Garmin 405 watch. When I got to the store they had it but I was getting mixed reviews that it is hard to read and use and the older 305 version my be better. The only problem was that it was only $30 less than the 405. While at the store I used my iPhone to surf the web and price shop and found the same 305 for sale at Mountain Equipment Co-op for $235 versus $319. So needless to say I didn't buy it.

When I got home I was back on the computer for another 3-4 hours. I was getting mentally burnt out so I went for a pre race run. Tomorrow I have a 10 km road race. It was an easy run around 120 bpm with about five 10 second surges. Afterwards I had a good stretch and some protein whey and recoverite. Just for the record, I didn't have a beer on my birthday or since last Friday. I know John Barclay is reading this in disbelief.

Run - 35 minutes / 4.07 miles / 8:34 pace

Birthday Boy...

I woke up another year older. I'm now 43 year old. I don't think of myself as being 43. When I look at myself I still think I look like I'm in my late 20's. Two years ago I thought I looked then like I look now. It's weird how that self image thing works. 

I ducked out at lunch time and did a swim and weights at the YMCA. I was surprised that I was able to do a 1:31 / 100 meter. It is the fastest interval I've swam ever! I did two more in 1:34 and 1:32. Only 6 months ago I would have been ecstatic with anything under 1:45. After the swim I did a quick weight lifting session and was back at the office. When I got home from work Reid, Alyssa and Alice were waiting for me to give me my presents. The big one was a box of turtles chocolates, they are my favorite and a beautiful bottle opener. I always complain I can't find one. Every night I've been craving chocolate, so they bought me turtles. I ended up buying my own present, a Garmin gps training watch, tells distance, pace, etc. We're going to pick it up tomorrow.

I planned on trying to do an outside bike ride, even though it was below 0, but couldn't leave work early enough and ran out of daylight, so I did it on my wind trainer indoors. An hour on the bike indoors is like 3 hours on a bike outside. It was only my second ride indoors this year and it was tough. I finished by 6:30 pm and the whole family went out for dinner at one of my favorite Italian restaurant. They we came home for some ice cream cake before he head to a movie. We are going to see Religious with Bill Maher. I love his sense of humor. Last year I had my birthday in bed with my tonsils out.

Swim - 2000 m / 41:46

Weights - 25 min

Bike - 1:15 / 23.58 miles

Helping Reid...

I had 3 workouts planned for tonight. A moderate run, a speed swim and weights. At dinner Reid said that he had a project due tomorrow and it was a TV commercial. He wanted to know if he could do it and have me help him so he could burn a DVD tonight. I've never burnt a DVD or created a movie, added sound or sub titles using the new iMovie software and I only did it once on the old software. I told him I didn't think I'd be able to help him. He didn't give me enough time and I had to train till around 10 pm.

On my run I figured I should help him and move my other workouts until tomorrow. On the run I was thinking about how he should do it and the scenes he should have and he can be the actor and me the director. I had a major motion picture in my head when I got home. It turns out that just as I got in the door he finished shooting his video. He had it on a tripod in the basement and just narrated it himself. He showed it to me and it was awesome. It only took him two takes and it was just over 2 minutes. 

I helped him by loading it into the Mac, adding a title and ending page and he picked the music "bang your head" to add to it. I was pushing buttons that I didn't know what they did and somehow it worked out. With 5 minutes before Apple support closed I was able to get through and they walked me through how to burn a DVD. By 9:30 we were done. It only took just over an hour. Reid told me afterwards that he figured he better do it on his own because he knew I'd make a major production out of it and do the whole "action" and "cut" thing and tell him what to do and get mad. So he just did it himself and all my big ideas I had on the run were for not. Video is below.

Run /53:46/6.96 m/ 7:45 pace

Winters coming...

I really wanted to ride this morning or come home from work early and ride before it got dark. The weather man also said it was going to snow and I wanted to beat the snow. I also wanted to see if my new cycling jacket would keep me warm at below 0. Turns out it started to snow before I left work and by the time I got home the streets were full of thick white snow and it was slippery. When I got home I went to the neighbors to get my old bike to use the back skewer on my Trek on the wind trainer. 

After scrubbing more songs on the computer and learning how to download video from my new video camera I set up my bike and did an hour ride. Being my first inside ride in a long time I forgot what it felt like. I was actually surprised how it gave me a good workout and I could feel my hamstrings getting a good workout. My heart rate was between 130 - 140 bpm. I also forgot how much I sweat inside. By the time I was done I was dripping wet. I actually started to get the chills afterward and had to towel myself down. The first 30 minutes went pretty quick the last 30 dragged. It will take a while until I can get into a trance like state so the time goes by quickly.

Bike / 1 hour / 18.87 miles

Dawgs...

I waited to do my speed work for two hours after dinner. Alice made her famous meat pie and I ate a ton of it. I hate doing speed work on a full stomach, it hurts! I waited as long as I could so that I'd be finished by 10 pm. The run was good, lots of fartlek intervals. 

The highlight of the run was when I passed a guy and his dog went at me. It never fails, I try to be considerate, I make a coughing or clearing my throat noise as I'm coming up behind them and they don't hear me. In this case his wife heard me and moved her dog then yelled at him to move his, but Mr. Dopey didn't hear her until is German Shepard sized dog jumped at me and I had to jump away. I was pissed off, so I yelled at the guy as I kept going and told him he was lucky I didn't punch his dog in the fucking head. He said something and then I told him that he's lucky I don't punch him in the fucking head. I like dogs but some people who walk their dogs aren't considerate. How do I know if they are friend or foe?

I was happy with the run. Even with 20 minutes of easy warm up I was able to average 7:19 per mile.

Running Speed work / 40:05 minutes / 5.47 miles

An enjoyable day of training...

I got a response from Mark Allen about my concern over the decline in my bike riding. He put my mind at ease and told me that it is completely normal, that the body cannot maintain peak performance all year round and that it is just a sign that your muscles need a rest. He told me to enjoy the spinning on my bike rides. Whew!!! With that philosophy I'm now approaching my training. This is to be easy, fun and recovery training. At least until February. I'm not going to beat myself up, I'm just going to try and enjoy.

This evening on the way to the YMCA I felt great and knew I'd have a good swim session. It was my long swim, although it wasn't that long, and I focused on my stroke and reaching and twisting my body. I had some great times. My best was a 1:38 on a 100 meter interval and I don't think I had one over 1:45 per 100. After the swim I did my weights and just soaked it all in and enjoyed. Mark's words just put me in a Zen like state.

When I finished and I was walking to my car I was just thinking how lucky I am that I can exercise and that I should cherish this ability because there are people who cannot physically move and would give anything to exercise. I thought that's what I need to think about when things get tough. It was just a great night. I was so calm drinking my McDonald's coffee and listening to Howard Stern during the drive home.

Swim -2500 meters / 51:57 min

Weights - 30 min

Ice in the eye hurts...

I'm still in recovery mode from Friday's party. This morning when I woke up I felt like crap, I don't like that feeling. I don't feel fresh. When I looked outside there was a light snow and when I checked the weather channel it predicted rain for this afternoon. After coffee and some oatmeal I bundled up and went for a ride. It was a depressing ride, I just have no "jam", although I was going into a stiff head wind for over 1/2 the ride. I've got to talk to Mark Allen and see what he thinks the problem is. My swimming and running is improved and my cycling is going the opposite direction. 

During the ride, snow started to turn into sleet and the little pellets were sharp and going into my eyes. It was fairly painful. I was done by 11:30 am, which is great as I love being done by noon. After the ride I felt really good and it seems to have helped me recover. I'm feeling 100% again. 

I'm really going to look into my diet. For some reason I'm eating better, not drinking beer and I'm not losing weight. I want to get down 10 lbs. I raced at around 179 lbs, I'm now up to 183 lbs and I want to be at around 168 - 170 lbs. I started the diet that I was given from the homeopathic doctor, but I think I'm going to go back to my own diet plan. Maybe his is hurting my performance.

Bike - 1:34:59/44.3 km/28.1 kph

Recovery from more than training...

I woke up out of my coma at 2 pm. I was at a neighbors party and didn't get home at least 4 am. We had a good time. I haven't had a beer in close to 3 weeks and I just passed out on the bed when I got home. It was a dead sleep. I can't ever remember drinking and getting up in the afternoon. For the rest of the day I was just trying to recover and the best thing the day after a party is some grease, so I forgot about eating healthy and had some fish and chips.

By 8:30 pm, after a few hours of napping I started to feel okay. I got a message from Dave Markham, an old friend from Winnipeg. He was in Toronto for the Triathlon Canada meetings so I met him downtown for a late night coffee. It was great seeing him again and catching up. If Dave is reading this right now then it's because he's bored at the Triathlon Canada Meeting - get back to work Dave :)

Rest Day - No training.

Beautiful Morning...

I had a full workout schedule today, a moderate bike, a long run and weights. When I woke up my plan was to do a morning ride but I was so tired. When I turned on the TV it showed it was 10 C outside. Once I saw that I couldn't help not going for a ride. Very rarely do you get that type of nice weather in mid November. I also wanted to get the ride done early because I had to fit a run and weights in before going to a neighbors party tonight. 

The ride was awesome. The weather was great, the sun was out and the views spectacular. The only downside is that I no longer seem to be able to ride as fast as I was in September. It is quite depressing but I keep telling myself to follow Mark's workout plans and everything will work out fine. The interesting thing is that my running is getting better and my riding worse. 

When I got home from work I was tired and starting to feel sick. I took a couple of Cold FX and pushed myself out the door for my run. I got back and felt great, although I used my new shoes and they wore a hole through my sock and a big blister feels like it is forming and I have a race next Sunday. From now on, no different style shoes. Afterwards I went to the YMCA to do some weights, when I was done, I could have went to bed I'm so tired. Hopefully a shower will wake me up for the party.

Bike 30.30 K / 29.5 Kph/ 1:04

Run 7.89 M / 7:57 pace / 1:03

Weights 25 minutes

What a difference a week makes...

Last week Thursday I was burnt. I did my run, a weight session and just couldn't get myself in the pool and I was at the pool. Today it was like night and day. I was looking forward to training today. I started a little late, around 7:30 pm because I was showing John my old triathlon photo's from 20 years ago, so I was only able to fit in my run and swim and had to move my weight training to tomorrow because the YMCA was closing right after I finished swimming.

The run was a moderate pace, keeping the heart rate under 135 bpm, and I focused on leg rpm's. I keep feeling great. I'm starting to feel lighter on my feet and it was so nice out tonight that about half way through the run I opened up my jacket to get some fresh air. A great song came on the iPod and it just takes you to another place. I time travelled back in time in my mind. The swim was a speed work session and I really focused on long strokes. It is hard, I constantly find myself getting out of breath or taking in water. But it does feel great to glide in the water. I was able to do one 25 meter in 16 strokes. I think it was the first lap I did in the pool, when I had the lungs.

Run - 45 min/5.5 m/8:07 pace

Swim - 35 min / 1500

Early morning ride...

For the first time during a week day I rode my bike in the morning. Now that we are on day light savings time it's dark at 5 pm and it is light at 7 am. So I decided I'm going to ride in the morning. Although I am going to get a front light in case I have to ride at night. Riding outside, regardless of the weather or conditions is much easier (less boring) than riding inside.

The ride was okay. I'm finding that my running is getting much better and my cycling is slower. Today I was only able to average 29.7 kph.  With all my free time I'm still organizing my 69,000 itunes songs and just completed my 440 page book. I'm just waiting on 3 race day photo's to come and then I'll be sending it off for printing. Now I'm organizing all our old photo's and shipping them off to a scanning service that does 1000 images for $50. I can't sit still.

Bike - 21.10 km/29.7 kph / 44 minutes

Sub 7 in 11...

So far for the month of November I haven't had a run that has been over an 8 minute mile pace. Today I ran a tempo run for 40 minutes at a 7:15 pace. Even at that pace it was tough to get my heart rate up too high. For half the run I was under 140 and I didn't exceed 151 at any point. Most of the second half of the run I was in the high 140's. I knew this was going to be a good run because my standing resting heart rate, after dinner to boot, was as low as 49 bpm. Amazing!!! 

Again all I focused on was my foot rpm's and pretty much have it nailed at doing 93 foot strikes per minute. I'm starting to feel like I'm flying. I remember the feeling from when I was in my 20's and running sub 39 minute 10 k's. It's a euphoric feeling. Heaven on earth. I'm also working my way up to 100 consecutive push ups. I found it on the web, it is called the push up challenge. Tonight I did 5 sets which totalled 160 push ups. I'm also working on my pull ups. To do 5 is tough.

No garbage swimming...

I had a root canal this morning. It took just under two hours and I hate going to the dentist so it was tough to sit through. No matter how much freezing they give me it is never enough.

I did my training after dinner and went to the YMCA to do weights and then my long swim. I never look forward to my swimming and now that I'm focusing on technique, I really don't look forward to it. I've decided that for some reason my heart rate was never high in the pool which tells me I'm not doing something right because all the good swimmers I know say that their heart rate goes through the roof when they swim. So I've decided to work on really long strokes and only doing 19 strokes per 25 meters. It is pretty tough. I find myself losing my breath and have to breath more regularly even though I'm doing less strokes. The amazing thing is that with less strokes I'm going faster. For the first 100 I did, I did a 1:39 and it felt effortless. The last 100 I did was 1:47 which is still good considering I race at around 1:57 - 2:00. I ended up doing 2000 meters total.

I was originally only going to focus on getting faster on the run by improving my technique and was going to focus on swimming the year following, but now I figure if I'm going to swim I may as well try to do it right. I was learning how to use my new scanner and found this picture of me when I was in my early 20's competing in the Falcon Lake Olympic Distance Triathlon.

A Beautiful Ride...

It was a Sunday to remember. It was so peaceful. I woke up early, rested and alert. After coffee and toast I bundled up and went for a 2 hour bike ride. I was a little concerned about it being too cold, but after 5 minutes I was nice and warm. 

The ride was so enjoyable. I didn't ride hard. I wanted to keep my heart rate under 140 bpm. I noticed with all the racing I was doing, I was loosing my aerobic base. I checked my ego at the door and just rode to enjoy, listening to 70's music on my ipod. Surprisingly there was a lot of cyclists out today. Most were riding in packs. Funny thing, everyone waved to each other 100% of the time, which is unusual. I think it is because we all felt like kindred spirits riding our bikes on a cool 4 C day. I've decided that this year I'm going to take more photo's of the landscape that I train in. Today I had to take a photo of a horse beside a barn. 

I rode 63 km and averaged 29 kph. When I got back home my tooth started to really hurt. It was a 12 on the scale of 10. It was unbearable. I couldn't believe the pain. As I was calling the dentist, Alice found some Demerol. I took it and about 45 minutes I felt much better. Although the tooth pain was gone, I felt nauseous. I spent the rest of the day photographing my old racing shirts for my book. I haven't seem most of them for so long I forgot that I had them. It was a trip down memory lane and relaxing. The Demerol probably attributed to it. We just stayed at home and took it easy, other than picking up some nice rib eye steaks for dinner. 

My ache breaky tooth...

I've scheduled Saturday's off of any training till at least February. It was strange sleeping in and not having to do any training today. My tooth is still bothering me so I went to the dentist again today. They determined that I need a root canal and scheduled me for Monday morning and gave me some antibiotics in the meantime. She says it is about a 90 minute procedure.

For most of the day I've been working on my Training Payne book. I'm about 95% complete. We went to Reid's game later in the afternoon and the mouth was 5 out of 10 in terms of pain. When we got home and I started to lie down to watch some TV it went to about 9 out of 10. It is now becoming fairly unbearable. I almost want to get drunk to mask the pain.

This week I haven't been eating the best. I'd say I've been a 4 - 5 out of 10 for the past week. Even tonight at Reid's game we had some fries and gravy. Then when I got home, I'm bored and all I want to do is go in the cupboard and look at food. I've been snacking a little and have been holding myself back from going out for ice cream or ordering a pizza. I'm not hungry, I'm just bored. 

Friday Night Training...

I was well rested this morning. Work was same old. The highlight was that I picked up my replacement iPhone and it worked properly. It's nice to now get my email. 

I scheduled my workouts a little different so that I get Saturday's off to spend with Family. In doing so my Friday's are a little heavy with a long ride and a moderate bike ride. I left work a little early to ride my bike outside before dark. The weather was an unusual 13 C and I much prefer riding outside over inside. 

I rode for 1 hour and 15 minutes and averaged 29.5 kph. Even though I started at 4:30 pm I couldn't beat the darkness. For the last 25 minutes it was dark and about 10 minutes before finishing it started to rain lightly. It was the first time ever that I've ridden my road bike in the dark. I did have my red flashing light on and I noticed drivers gave me much more room that during the day. I'm going to look for a good front headlight, not just to be seen, but so that I can see the road when I ride. It was a enjoyable ride. When I got home and had a protein drink I did a 40 minute long run. I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but tried to gauge my effort and keep under 140 bpm. I ended up doing just over 5 miles at a 7:55 pace. If my heart rate was in the zone, that's a great run. I'm really focusing on leg rpm's. Now I can relax, take tomorrow off and get back at it on Sunday.

I'm actually feeling a little irritable with the training. I'm really going to be careful that I don't over train or burn myself out in the off season. I'll probably only do 2 swims per week, 2 bikes per week, 2 weight sessions and 3 runs until my peak performance training plan begins in February.

Up to early...

I was up at 6 am. I was going to go to the pool and do weights before my emergency dentist appointment at 8:30 am. I woke up so tired, I hit the snooze a couple of times and then realized that I'd be too rushed and decided to do my training after work.

My dentist is a marathon runner, his name is Bruce Gardner. He has done 60 marathons and is in his early 50's. My pain was coming from a cavity and as he was putting in the filling all we did was talk about running and triathlons. It's amazing how fun it is. I'm sure his assistant thought we were crazy and had no idea of what the times were were saying meant.

Work was busy. I had a couple of very important meetings. When I got home I did my 35 minute easy run at an 8:05 pace and I had to really hold myself back to keep my heart rate under 134 bpm. Afterwards I drove to the YMCA in Oakville to do my weights and swim. I did the weights, but when I looked in the pool area it was really full with lap swimmers. I was feeling tired and didn't want to share a lane with someone, so I decided to miss the workout. I know so long as I do two swims a week I won't loose any fitness, plus I keep reminding myself that this is the off season and not to worry about missing sessions. I was looking forward to doing a quick blog entry and going to lie down and watch TV. I don't even have any energy to work on the layout of my book. I guess that last three nights I've been up to late and it's catching up on me.

Great Weather...

I was going to go for an hour ride this morning but couldn't get out of bed. I was so tired from spending the night working to make last year's Training Payne blog entries into a book. Right now it is up to 438 pages of all color. I bring my extremist mentality to everything and end up staying up way to late and then when I go to bed my mind is racing and I can't get to sleep. 

I ended up power working today and clearing everything off my desk so I could leave early and get a ride in before dark. I had an awesome ride. It was a tempo ride, under 140 bpm and it felt effortless, it was so enjoyable. I ended up averaging 32.5 kph for an hour. The weather was 19 C, it was awesome. The only downside is that I have a tooth ache during the ride the cool air hit the tooth and hurt big time. When I got home I made an appointment to see the dentist tomorrow morning. 

After stretching and eating, I spent around 3 hours working on the book layout. I forced myself to shut it down at 9:30 pm in order to rest my mind. I have a busy work tomorrow and also need to fit in 3 workouts. Still "pigging out" on candy.

I'm getting faster...

This maintenance program is pretty tame compared to the peak performance program. Tonight I did a 30 minute tempo run. I was supposed to keep the heart rate no more than 140 bpm, but because I want to do a 10 KM road race at the end of November I decided to make it a speed work session and I didn't care about my heart rate. I ended up doing 4.31 miles and averaged a 6:46 pace. The heart rate got up to around 161 bpm. I was focusing on high leg turnover and maintaining form. I could have went harder but didn't want to lose form. I did feel great. No calf or lower calf knots or pulls. It felt good. It was also a seasonally unusual 18 C this evening. 

I can hardly wait until the Halloween candy is gone from work and home. I'm good until around 3 pm, then I get the munchies and go for the chocolate. I've been eating really well, but started to add one daily cup of coffee into my diet. I've decided that where ever I go from now on I'm not going to order a large of anything. Portion control. 

I'mmm baaaccckkk.....

I've decided that my season starts and ends the first week of November. Today is the start of the 2009 season. 

This year my focus is to get faster. I've decided that I'm only going to do Ironman 70.3 races and not do a full Ironman this year. Training takes to much time away from family on the weekends and it wouldn't be fair to my family for me to do an Ironman again this year. I want to be able to spend at least one day of the weekend with the family. I also want to get a motorcycle and go with Alice on weekend rides. My goal for next year is to qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Florida. It turned out that I had the chance to go last year based on my time at the Muskoka Ironman 70.3, but because I wasn't there to take it, they rolled it down to the next person. My plan to get there is to eat healthier, drink less beer, loose 15 lbs, training according to Mark Allen's plan and try not to get injured.

I started my Mark Allen maintenance program today. I did a weight lifting session followed by a 2000 meter swim. The swim was one of the toughest I've ever done. I decided I'm going to focus on technique, so I was trying to keep my strokes long and do 19 strokes per 25 meters. It was hard. For the first time I found myself breathing hard at the end of a set. Afterwards I had a bit of a sore stomach. I think it was from eating fairly well and then having some Halloween candy before I went to the pool.