Chased by the black dog...

Last night was a late one and we slept till noon, although it didn't help that much, I still had a sore head, was major dehydrated and as Winston Churchill would say "I had the black dog chasing me" mentally. We went out for lunch with my parents and I drank as much water as possible before my long run. I started to notice in the last week that my calf's have been getting tight on my run. I think it is a combination of dehydration and needing new running shoes. Both pair's of my runners now have over 500 miles on them and they say you should definitely get new shoes before the 500 mile point or you can injure your calf's. I've been putting it off because I don't want to spend the $150 to get a new pair, but by my next run, I'll have new runners. I did a country road run and about 20 minutes into it a black dog came running out of this long driveway and started to run at me. I had about 100 yards to make a decision to turnaround or keep running. I turned around, then thought about it, got pissed off that this dog was ruining my run, then decided to turn back around and run right at him and see if he was going to "blink" or "attack". I ran at him, trying to be friendly, and it turned out the dog was a friendly dog. I did an out and back and on the way back I came across him again, this time he didn't even come off his driveway. Because of last night and the abuse I put on my body there was no way I could keep the heart rate under 140 bpm. Once I got home, it was a quick shower, put on the suit and off to the Wedding. We had a great time and afterwards went to Alice's sisters and got back home around 4 am. Another late night.

Long Run - 54:50 -8:16 Pace - HR 144 - 150 bpm

18 b

I hope the house doesn't burn down...

Friday has arrived, yoo hoo!!! We are off to Winnipeg for our Niece Jamie's Wedding, and for the first time ever, the kids are staying home alone for the weekend. I sure they are going to have fun. At minimum it is going to be a memorable experience. It's not like it we should worry, Alyssa is a young adult, but you never know. Of course I told her no parties, take care of your little brother and make sure the house is clean when we get home. Reid couldn't wait to get rid of us, every 20 minutes he was asking if we were leaving yet. We got to Winnipeg by 8 pm and at the airport ran into my cousins Jason and Lori and his wife Sally and son Shea. It was great to see Jason, I remember about 20 years ago, when I was training for Ironman Canada, Jason and I swam across lake Winnipeg from Lester Beach to Grand Beach and my Uncle Rick watching in the boat. Jason was probably only 12 or 13 years old and I was around 20 - 21 years old. 

The rest of the evening was a nice dinner with my parents at Bailey's and then back to their house for some nice conversation. Alice and I ended up staying up until around 4:30 am.

Rest Day

18b

I'm glad today is over...

For some time I've been preparing for today's semi-annual sales meeting. There was a lot things we needed to cover and it makes for a full day. By the end of the day I'm tired. When I got home, I ate, had some family time and felt like cracking a beer and having some cocktails, but decided to go for a tempo run instead. If I wasn't going to Winnipeg for a wedding this weekend I would have definitely let loose tonight. Although, running is like a drug, very euphoric. Once I got over the fact that my GPS watch battery was dead, I pushed myself out the door without it. Quickly I started to get into a rhythm and then into the "zone". It was like I was floating above the road. The music playing, the cool fresh air and a nice pace. Life couldn't be better. Afterwards I went to the Y and did weights. By the time I got home I was zen like tired. I'm actually looking forward to go to bed so tomorrow will come quicker, as I'm looking forward to going to Winnipeg and having some fun with Family and friends.

Tempo Run - 41:25 / 5.15 miles / 8:02 pace (HR unknown)

Weights -35

Everything is perfect, almost...

I fixed my speedometer. When you have nothing but riding time on the bike, you instantly get patience. I went online and read the instructions manual and found my problem. I fixed the sensors and reprogrammed the computer and voila, everything started working. It was the first time in a long time that I've rode my bike indoors with a speedometer that shows me my cadence. My goal is to keep my cadence around 90 rpm. I could tell I needed to step it up from my previous rides. It was also nice to see my speed and distance travelled. I did a tempo ride today and I got to say, I love this bike, it just feels right and being on the trainer I'm taking my time to adjust everything just perfectly. I think I'm going to start adjusting the rear water bottle holders so they don't get clipped by my foot when I get off the bike. The ride went smooth and I didn't over sweat on my arm. I think the tattoo will be totally healed by next week. The only problem I experienced was with my camera, it wouldn't connect and talk to the computer. I guess the cord is worn from how much I use it. But eventually it came back to life and started working after some "jiggling". This camera is the "terminator", I've fallen on it, bent it, gotten it wet, you name it I've done it to it, and it still comes back to life.

Tempo Bike - 1 hour / 18.91 miles / 18.91 mph / Max heart 130 - 140

What a sweet ride...

I was looking forward to trying out my new bike on the wind trainer tonight. I got off to a slow start because Apple iLife 09 arrived and I was playing with it. I got hooked on the face recognition feature in iPhoto. It is really cool, I can identify a face and it will scan all my pictures and find those people. I ended up getting out the door for a run around 7:30 pm. I had a really good run, I kept the heart rate under 128 bpm for most of the ride and it didn't get above 133 bpm and I still managed to keep an 8:12 pace. When I got back I need to get my bike ready to ride. It wasn't a simple operation. I needed to change the wheels, take the old bike off the trainer, set up the new bike and do some tweaking. It took a bit longer than I thought it would and I had my little hiccups. The first was that the speedometer wasn't installed right by the shop and the wheel came off the rim when I inflated it. Other than that it went alright. I spent the night riding, editing my pictures on my mac and watching TV. The bike rode much smoother than my Quintana Roo and may even be more smoother than my Trek. I've got a good vibe already. I rode at a moderate pace with the heart rate around 128 bpm.

Run - 40:13 / 4.90 miles / 8:12 pace

Bike - 80 minutes / 21 miles

It felt like Christmas...

I picked up my new bike today. I got a Cervelo P2C with Dura Ace components and Blackwell Carbon Fiber wheels. It is a sweet ride. Originally I was just going to use the Blackwell racing wheels for training and racing, but the guys at the shop convinced me not to, they thought I might damage them easily and they would be very expensive to replace and they also said that by using the wheels the bike comes with that it will make the training rides tougher. Kinda like a baseball player that practices with a heavy bat and hits with a light bat. I also put on an X-Lab Sonic hydration system, they are custom made for the Cervelo's and hold water, compressed air cylinders, tubes, tools and even a pouch. Before I left Endurosport, Brian a mechanic, gave me a good primer on bike adjustments. Then he showed me how remove wheels and how to change tubes on carbon wheels. I learnt more in that short period of time than I've learnt in 20 plus years. In February he is putting on a bike clinic, if I can make it I'm going to go.

After dinner, the entire family went to see the movie Grand Torino. As it started, the sound wasn't in sync with the video. They couldn't fix it, so they gave us a voucher to another movie on another day and let us go to any movie that was currently playing in the theatre tonight. All that was open was "Bride Wars", the theatre was half full and Reid, myself and one other guy were the only males watching the movie. When we got home I dropped the family off and went to the Y to do weights. My tattoo is flaking nicely. I think I'll be good to get back into long runs and bike rides by Friday.

Weights - 30 minutes.

Rest, Recovery and Learning...

After a 10 hour plus sleep I'm feeling fully recovered. It was a pretty uneventful day. I spent most of the day on the computer playing around and learning more about iMovie, Alice and I did some grocery shopping, we had a nice Sunday steak dinner and then I did a bike ride. Like I said it was an uneventful day. The skin on my tattoo is starting to flake and I made sure I didn't sweat to much during my ride. The sooner this can heal the better. Years ago on my first tattoo I didn't let it heal on it's own and it caused some discoloration in some areas. I don't want to go through that again.

Mod Bike - 70 minutes / 19.89 miles

I think Alice prefers I train...

I was a late night last night, I think Alice got to bed around 3 am and I was even later, I kept making movies on the computer. I made one of Reid pretending he was Tom Cruise in Risky business. I guess he took the footage when we weren't home, I just stumbled upon it. It was only around 15 seconds of video, but I was able to loop it for the entire song. I know Alice was getting a little bored with my video editing and I was getting a little manic doing it, but I couldn't stop, it was too much fun. My plan was not to drink more than 12 beers last night, because I didn't want to have a sore head this morning. The plan failed, I still had a sore head, which is strange. Even though my head was sore and my tattoo isn't healed, I did go for a training run. If I didn't get the tattoo I would have ran 90 minutes, but because I'm not supposed to sweat very much while it heals, I only went for 30 minutes. It was about -27 C outside and I ran with part of my jacket open and my gloves off for most of the run. I wanted to keep myself cool so I wouldn't sweat as much. The rest of the day was Family Day. We went with Alyssa to Best Buy and she bought her own camera with the money she earned working at Embassy. It's a pretty cool looking camera and it's even waterproof, which will be good for when we go to St. Croix in May. Afterwards we watched Reid's hockey game, they won, then Alyssa and Reid went out to a movie and Alice and I went to East Side Mario's for something to eat and then home to the bar to watch the UFC. By the end of the night I was so tired I was in bed by midnight.

Mod Run / 31 minutes / 3.77 miles / 8:15 pace

15b

Just call me Steven Spielberg...

I planned on having a picture of me in the dentist chair today, I've been there about 4 times in the last month, but I forgot to pull out the camera from my jacket pocket. For the last three weeks I've had the worst tooth ache ever. It's been major painful. On this one tooth, I've had a root canal, a filling and now I'm going for a crown. It's crazy. But I must say I enjoy going to see Bruce, he's my dentist, he's a runner, a triathlete and a kindred spirit. I showed Bruce my book today and he seemed genuinely interested. What blew me away was that he read the first parts of the book. Most people just want to look at the pictures. He was reading it and was taking his time that I figured I should take him through a tour of the book because I know he is busy and I didn't want to hold him up. He took a LOT of time working on my tooth, way more than normal, like he wanted to do a great job, which I'm sure is Bruce's personality. At the end of it, Bruce said to come back next Friday, his assistant said he was full and Bruce said that's okay, have me come back Friday. When I finished and went to book my time, they said to come at 12:30 pm or anytime earlier as Dr. Gardner would fit me in. It felt like I was royalty. 

Today was a rest day, I ended up editing the video Reid took of me at the tattoo shop. I spent most of the night drinking beer trying to find music that wasn't copyright protected to use as a sound track. After a while, Alice gave me that look... and I realized this was time to spend together and enjoy each others company. So we ended up hanging around the bar, having more beers, listening to great 70's music, having great conversation and we eventually heard the song that would go great with the video.

Rest Day

12b

I'm now a marked man...

I slept in a long sleeve t-shirt last night. They told me that my ink from my new tattoo may run and ruin the bed sheets. My arm hurts, it feels like a really bad sunburn and getting it on the inside of the arm was painful. Before I went to bed last night I washed it in the shower and there was a lot of ink that was bubbling outside of the main drawing. This morning I had Alice take a couple of pictures of it. The design has three elements, the Ironman logo, with an arm band of a swimmer, biker and runner and then the number 140.6 to represent the total miles raced in the Ironman. Reid really likes it and a few of the people thought it looked great, others were indifferent. The main thing is that I like it. I think it will look even better once it heals and the black turns a little more greenish. The artist told me that tattoos that get direct sunlight will become more greenish. I was also told that I can't swim for a couple of weeks and that it can't get to wet from sweating. I'm getting all the artwork removed from all the computers and destroying the original artwork proofs and files. The tattoo artist says he will never reproduce the same tattoo twice and that even if someone brings him a photograph of someone else's tattoo, he won't copy it. I figured that my tattoo is an original and I should keep it that way.

I normally do an hour of tempo riding on Thursdays, so today I figured I'd set up a fan and do as much riding as I could before I started to sweat from the arm. It lasted 31 minutes, which wasn't that bad. Then I went to the YMCA and did my weight training. 

Tempo Bike - 31 minutes / 8.5 miles

Weights - 35 minutes

Tattoo Day...

This morning when I got to work, my 440 page book arrived from the printer. It is over 3 lbs, the size of a college text book, and it looks GREAT. I flipped through the pages and started to reminisce. I realized that my writing style is much different this year than last year. Last year it was very descriptive of my day and what I did. This year I'm trying to make it more insightful.

For the past week I've been really nervous about getting an Ironman tattoo. Mark Lillies at work did the design, I can't even count the amount of revisions that were done and I even changed the location during the process. Mark was great to work with and he did a great design. What I ended up with was a tattoo with a bold design in a bold location, I've never seen another Ironman finisher with one similar. It's in a place that is very visible and in order for it to look good, I need to be in descent shape. For the past two days I've had big time anticipation and in the end was looking forward to getting it done and over with. Before I got to the "Big Kahuna" Tattoo shop I had to put in a tempo run and it was important I did it because I've got to take it easy on the training for 7 - 10 days in order for the tattoo to heal properly. Alice and Reid came with me and Reid video taped the session, we are going to make a little movie and put it on You Tube. Scott Lapp, the shops owner, did the tattoo and in certain spots it hurt like hell. It took about two hours and in the end it was just like the design. Scott did a great job. Alice and Reid think it looks great, I'm still not sure if I should have got a tattoo, but at this point I guess it really doesn't matter, what's done is done. Once it heals, I hope I like it. Hell, what does it matter, either way, I'll learn to like it.

Tempo Run - 45:44 / 6.02 miles / 7:34 pace

Obama's Inauguration and I got a hair cut...

I've never cared about watching the U.S. Inauguration in the past, but this year was different. I was in my car driving and was able to listen to it. I'm encouraged and hopeful that he will do a good job, because when the U.S. sneezes, Canada gets a cold. I liked his speech. I spoke to a couple of U.S. customers today and both said the same thing, they think he will do a good job unless he gets assassinated, which everyone thinks is a real possibility . Either way I hope he does well and the secret service does their jobs. 

I got an email today from Pizzaville. Last Saturday I sent them an email with a picture of something Reid made out of a package of promotional playing cards they send when you order a pizza. He used the cards and the box and made a creation. They emailed to say they loved it and it got rave reviews around the office, so they decided to give Reid a large 5 topping pizza. He was beaming when I told him. I know he is beaming when he keeps asking, over and over again, what did they say again?

I can't figure out my weight. Today I weighed in at 185 lbs, my highest in a long time, but my BMI was lower at 21.8. A week ago I was 181.8 and my BMI was 22.8. I can't figure it out. Actually I'm not going to sweat it. I starting to eat well and trying not to eat after 8 pm. Other than drinking beer and eating junk food during those sessions, I'm doing well. Today I did a moderate run, followed by a moderate bike ride. All in all, it totaled 2.5 hours of training. I felt good and I finished by 10:45 pm after a good stretching session.

Moderate Run - 1 hour / 7.32 miles / 8:18 pace

Moderate Bike - 90 minutes / 25.2

It's Monday and Ground hog week starts again...

I took my triathlete magazines that are all over the house, but mostly in the bathroom, and put them out of sight or turned them over. I need a break from the word triathlon, triathlete and Ironman. I keep having to remind myself that this is the off season and that I need to relax a little and not overdose on thinking about triathlons. I don't want to burn myself out before the season even begins. I decided that instead of thinking of my current training as a means to an end, I'm just going to enjoy it just for doing it. After all, nothing feels as good as after a good workout. So today I didn't think about how much I dislike swimming, I just decided to enjoy the swim, and I did. Even though I was enjoying it, I was swimming pretty fast, I did a 600 meter set in 10:55 which is about a 1:46 average. Afterwards in the locker room one of the guys said I looked really good and strong, which was unexpected. I finished off today's training with weights and a good ab workout and overall I was really pleased with my state of mind. 

Long Swim - 2300 meters /46:54

Weights - 35 minutes

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction...

I was hurting this morning. Last night was a late one and we ended up getting to bed around 3:30 am. My mind was numb today, doing simple tasks like surfing the web was difficult. However, I was able to teach Reid how to use the snow blower and of course he loves using it. I decided to do my Sunday long ride earlier than I normally do. Sometimes when you ride after a crazy night of debauchery, training time can go fast, 2 hours can seem like 1 hour, or it could go slow, 1 hour can seem like 2. Today was one of those 1 hour feels like 2. I was surprised how strong my legs felt, I was pushing a pretty high gear. I'm really enjoying being able to surf the web while I ride, I'm starting to get hooked on watching You Tube. I didn't eat much today, other than some bacon and eggs in the morning, I needed the grease, so I made sure that I ate during the ride. It felt good to finish by 6 pm and afterwards I had some olive oil laced pasta and started to feel a little better, but I'm still paying the price.

Long Bike - 2 hours / 35.74 miles

God has a plan for me...

I don't believe in God, at least not in the religious sense of the word. But today, God had a plan for  me. I started my long run and it was about 8:30 am and I decided to run diagonally through a cross section. I looked too both sides, and in front and started the run. Once I got to the other side I realized that I did not look behind me. It was on Walkers Line, a super busy street. When I crossed it is usually so busy I should have been hit by a car. I crossed and realized after the fact that I didn't look behind me. For me not to be hit by a car is a miracle, and I'm serious. The plane that landed on the Hudson with all the passengers surviving had a greater chance of survival than me crossing that street. It truly was a miracle that I didn't get killed. I know this sounds a little over the top, but it is true, I'm lucky to be alive. With that said, I had an awesome run, I did over an hour, averaged around a 134 bpm run and ran at a 7:44 pace for an hour and 15 minutes. My head was in the most wonderful place, especially when I realized I was alive after crossing the street. I was finished my training by 9:45 am and was with Alice at the Silante bar in Hamilton by noon. We had a quite a few pints and some great conversation, then we went to Reid's hockey game. The rest of the night was a family night, we stayed in, ordered pizza, watched "Caddy Shack", Reid and I wrestled, he taped me up so I couldn't move,  Alice and I hung around the bar downstairs playing pool and having cocktails, then we topped it off  watching the UFC pay per view with Alyssa. The day wouldn't have been the same if I wasn't so lucky.

Long Run - 1 hour 15 minutes / 9.75 miles/ 7:44 pace

22b

Friday, fat day...

Yesterday I was  181.8 lbs and today I'm 184 lbs. Go figure.  I had the most awesome workout last night, I was so strong and I'm only assuming that I'm retaining water to fix my muscles. At least that is the story  that I'm sticking to. I don't feel fat, I don't look fat, my pants aren't tight, but I weigh a lot. Today was an easy day, I did nothing, other than work, eat, watch TV and eat crappy food like ice cream and taco chips. I don't know what to say other than it was a weird day for me.

Sometimes you just feel STRONG...

The sun, moon and stars must have been in alignment today. For the first time in a long time I didn't take a nap after dinner. Afterwards I went to the YMCA and did some weights. I felt strong, especially my legs, I did 15 reps of 450 lbs on the squat press and 80 lbs lunges on each leg, and I easily could have added weight on both exercises. When I got home I did a tempo ride on the bike and I was riding in the second toughest gear on the small chain ring and it was tough for me to get the heart rate up to 140 bpm. I could have used the toughest gear, and I did for a while, but it was making too much noise. For me, I find that the more I work the same body part without rest, believe it or not, I get stronger and faster. Sometimes I think my last name "Payne" came from my ancestors being able to handle lots of pain, or I guess it could have been because we are a pain. Humm. Either way it was a good workout. 

During training I was thinking about the best purchases I've ever made in my life. Here is my current top 5.

1. Alice's Wedding Ring.

2. Snow blower

3. Thule bike rack

4. Anything Apple

5. Timex iControl which is a wrist watch remote for my iPod.

Weights - 30 minutes

Bike - 60 minutes / 20 miles

No doggies on the run...

The weather across the country has been cold this week. In Winnipeg it was -50 C today and here in Toronto it was unusually cold at - 20 C, the average this time of year is -2C. To people in Toronto, -20 C is super cold, they shut down and stay in doors, in Winnipeg - 20 C is a warm winter day. Because I'm from Winnipeg, going for a run in -20C is a nice run. The beauty tonight was that no one was out walking their dogs and I didn't have to dodge dogs and worry whether they were going to jump at me. So many owners keep a loose leash. Tonight was an easy night and all I had to do was a 45 minute tempo run. One of the highlights of my run was that I got to listen to all the new songs I put on my iPhone. I only picked ones that I REALLY liked and it made a difference on the run, especially when your listening to lyrics like "hot sun in the summer time" and it's snowing. For some reason the song does warm you up a little.

Tempo Run - 45:14 / 5.56 miles / 8:08 pace

It looks like I'm having an impact, at least on the economy...

Interesting day. I went to the dentist this morning to get a filling. My dentist is a huge marathon runner, a triathlete, and he has done over 40 marathons and Boston 3 times. We always have fun talking and today I gave him one of my "Training Payne" business cards and told him to contact me if he wants to go for a run or bike. I got these cards for free from Vista Print and also used VP to create my "suck it up" shirt. Afterwards, with a numb mouth Al Nolan treated me to lunch. Al is cheap, cheap, cheap, and when I get him to buy me lunch it is sweet. I made sure I had an appetizer, the most expensive fish entree and of course a coffee. During lunch Al was telling me how he pays his kids $2 week allowance in order to teach them the value of a dollar. I will say it seems to be working, he's got great kids, but $2 in this day and age? I think I got $2 a week 30 years ago. (To teach my kids, I tell them to "suck it up" and made a shirt to wear around the house so I can remind them). Durning lunch, Al was telling me he was inspired by my blog and decided to get back into shape, he's already dropped around 20 lbs and just before he came to pick me up he had bought a road bike, shoes, wind trainer, speedometer, clip less pedals, the whole kit and caboodle. He wants to do a least a sprint triathlon next year. He told me that he looks at my "fat guy" picture and sees himself and figures if I can do it, he could do it. And he is right. He also told me he has another fat friend from St. Catherine's now reading my blog and getting motivated to get back into shape. Just talking with Al and looking in his eyes, I think he is ready to do it and I think he is going to do it! If he does, at least I'll have another person to ride with next year. For training, I got started around 8 pm and did a moderate bike and run, keeping the HR under 130 for most of it.

Moderate run - 50:17 / 5.96 /8:25

Moderate bike - 75 minutes / 22.33 miles

Dressed for success...

For the past 3 days I can't stop eating. All I want to do is graze. By the time I got home I had already eaten all my daily calorie requirements, then Alice had made her "world famous" ribs and I had to have those, plus some ice cream for dessert. After dinner it was sleepy time. I woke up around 7:40 pm and really would have loved to keep sleeping but I got up, didn't think about it, got into my truck and drove to the YMCA. I did a speed swim workout. I think I had my best 100's ever, I did a 1:32, then a couple of 1:34's. I didn't have anything over 1:40. Last year I swam a lot and didn't improve much, this year I'm doing only a couple of swim workouts a week and I see improvement during the maintenance phase. After the swim, I got changed to do weights, then I realized that I forgot my runners. I had a decision to make, do I go home or do I work out in my street clothes and look out of place. Humm...I decided to work out in my dress clothes. As it turned out I was also wearing the new shirt I made online that says "SUCK IT UP!!!". I stood out like a sore thumb, but I didn't think it made a difference to my muscles, they still got the same workout regardless of what I was wearing.

Speed swim - 51 minutes / 2200 meters

Weights - 30 minutes

Semi bonking watching a movie...

My training today was a 3 hour bike ride. Yes, 3 hours and this is the off season, I'm not even in real training yet. What is my coach thinking? Although he did win 6 Ironman triathlons and is in the Triathlon Hall of Fame, so he must know something. To get ready I decided to sleep in this morning, then I went to the Franchise show in downtown Toronto to walk the floor and see if any of the companies could use my services. About 2/3 of the way through a woman came up to me who was in charge of the show and told me that I was not allowed to solicit the exhibitors and told me I'd have to leave. So much for trying to make a living. The rest of the afternoon was going for a car ride, going through some open houses and grocery shopping. I ended up getting on my bike at 7 pm and for the first hour watched 60 minutes, then Alice, Reid and I rented and watched the movie "Step Brothers". I was sweating like crazy, I went through 7 water bottles and my clothes and the mat under me was drenched. Around the 2:20 point my legs were tired, not sore, but tired. I mentally told myself I'd go till the movie ended. By the time it ended I only had 10 minutes left and that was easy to finish. When I got off the bike I bent down to clean the mat and was very light headed and semi-bonking, I didn't eat anything on the bike and I should have had at least 300 -500 calories an hour. Also, I hadn't eaten a lot of nutritious food today, lots of simple carbs. Afterwards, I had a craving for fruit and salad and I ended up eating a banana, watermelon and spinach salad. It helped a little.

Bike- 3 hours / 53.61 miles

Running long running high...

At least I woke up at 9:30 am and didn't waste the entire morning sleeping. I felt a little beat up from last night, but nothing I can't handle. I'm glad I stopped partying when I did. I was close to the point of no return, instead I just went to the edge and looked over. After an evening of cocktails, for some reason, the next day my mind is in a Zen like mode, it's great for training. I can put in the time and I feel like I'm having an endorphin high. The first thing I did when I got up was drink a LOT of water and then headed out the door for my Saturday long run. I especially drink a lot of water because I don't want to dehydrate and get muscle cramps. The side walks were full of snow and my heart rate was higher than usual because of last night, but I still managed to run an 8:25 pace. It was a beautiful morning to run, nice and fresh and there was a lot of runners out on the roads. For the rest of the day I took it easy going through my iTunes 54,000 song library, picking new songs for my iPhone. Certain songs just make training more enjoyable. We then went to Reid's hockey game (they won), dinner and to the movie "The Wrestler" and we were in bed by 11 pm. The movie does have a great story line, but Mickey Rourke is amazing. What a comeback.

Long Run - 55 minutes /6.54 miles / 8:25 pace

Banging in the Basement...

Reid began his drum lessons today. It's great because the teacher comes to the house so we don't have to drive him somewhere and Reid really likes the guy. His teacher is young, hip and has played and toured in a lot of bands. After he left, all Reid did for the entire night was practice and he was surprisingly good. His teacher wrote out some symbols for Reid to follow, not music notes. I can't understand them, they look very complex, but Reid does. It's interesting that Reid has trouble reading but can easily understand complex symbols. Tonight was a relaxing night hanging out downstairs listening to 70's music, having cocktails, watching one of my favorite movies "Kingpin" sans sound, listening to Reid practice, laughing with Alice and Reid, looking at old triathlon photos,  and finalizing the graphics and location of my Ironman tattoo. When I got into triathlons 20 plus years ago, only one other person I saw had a tattoo. I was one of the first and put it on my ankle and it was a Canadian Maple Leaf to remember finishing the 1987 Canadian Ironman, now I see so many Ironman tattoo's on the ankle. I'm now going to set a new trend with the design and location of my Ironman tattoo. As far as I know I've never seen one like it, or in this location. For now all the details will remain a secret, but Reid and Alice think it is great and surprisingly, so does Alyssa. Reid was also showing me my double chin, so I returned the favor, it was a funny father and son moment. You had to be there. The time flew by and before we new it, it was 2:45 am. I definitely didn't want to go to bed that late, but time flies when your having fun.

Rest Day

13b

Alice's cooking motivates me...

I've been keeping my calories under control since I've been logging my food on my iPhone. I even ate a Burger King today without feeling guilty because my Whopper Jr. with cheese was only 420 calories. Yesterday I stepped on the scale for the first time since December 21st. Throughout Christmas we ate and drank everyday. I deliberately did not weight myself because I'm sure the weight gain would have depressed me. I'm such a woman that way. Yesterday I stood in front of the scale for about 30 seconds just looking at it and then I took the plunge and it came up 182 lbs which was 2 lbs less than what I was on December 21st. I was happy to see that my week of eating properly, no alcohol and training burnt off the weight. Tonight Alice made an awesome Roast dinner with Yorkshire and gravy, not your most calorie wise meal but it tasted great. When I counted my calories I realized I needed to burn an extra 1000. That really motivated me to get training. Today I did weights and a tempo bike ride. I like weights, it's kinda like yoga and stretching to me, I can get into just feeling the muscles straining. I get Zen like and I can zone out. I decided to add a little weight on the squat press today and did 5 plates on each side for a total of 450 lbs and I did 15 reps. I could tell some of the big muscle bound guys in the gym seemed a little surprised that my legs are so strong. 

Weights - 30 min

Tempo Bike - 60 min / 18 miles

Running in a winter wonderland...

Toronto is a world class City in virtually every respect except when it snows. A little snow fall and everyone acts like babies. Without a word of a lie, I've seen them tell students not to come in tomorrow because the weather man says it may snow. Truthfully, I think they just want snow days. Coming from Winnipeg I laugh at what they call a snow storm. Today was no different, it snows a little and everyone gets into a lather. The good think about it snowing was that on my run I got the sidewalks all to myself. No people, no dogs. On my snowy, sand like run I realized that it has been a long time since I've had an injury. When I started getting back into shape I was injured all the time. I think with all the training and especially the weight training and extensive stretching after each workout I've turned back the hands of time on my body. I actually feel that my body is now has the strength and flexibility of a 20 year old. As a matter of fact this Christmas I challenged my 15 year old weight training nephew and my best friends 17 year old son, who plays in the WHL with 21 year olds and is going into the NHL draft this year (he's all muscle and trains all the time), to a push up contest. Now of course I had a few beers before hand (which is my spinach), but that didn't matter, I beat them both. What I didn't tell them was that I had been planning and training a little for this contest for some time. They thought it was spontaneous and that they just got wasted by a 43 year old. Ha, Ha.

Tempo Run: 40:26 / 5.08 miles / 7:57 pace

Learning and churning...

I got a lot of emails today cheering me on about my transformation and telling me that I'm starting to motivate them to get in shape. It's humbling. One person wondered how I do it? They wondered if I had a job? Which I do. I put in a solid 8 hours a day like most people, typically eat lunch at my desk, respond to emails from home nights and weekends and do most of my training in the evening after dinner because I'm not a morning person. But the comments got me thinking and I realized that I live more than 24 hours in a day because I multi-task. For example, tonight I went for a run, listened to music and thought about work stuff. I was thinking so much it took me three Bee Gees songs to realize I was listening to the Bee Gees before I changed it. Then I had a bike ride tonight and I watched some TV, read Lance Armstrong's blog, surfed the net and then watched an hour of the Apple Keynote speech at Mac World 2009. I learnt so much about what Apple is coming out with. Stuff I got to get, like the new iPhoto that has face recognition to help organize your photo's. Then I realized by multitasking I'm doing more and making my day more productive and adding hours. That's my theory anyways. The highlight of my run tonight was to watching a guy training a seeing eye pup, he was so gentle and I wondered if the little dog realized he was going to have a very important role in someones life. What a beautiful dog. Both my training sessions tonight were moderate effort with a heart rate not to exceed 135 bpm. These are supposed to be the easy, relaxing workouts and the off season, yeah right, it doesn't feel like it.

Mod Run - 40:53 / 4.77 miles / 8:34 pace

Mod Bike - 1 hour 45 minutes / 29.4 miles /16.8 mph

It's those small wins that feel great...

I finished and published my book today. Finally! It took me over three months in my spare time to put all my blog entries into a book format and edit all the pages and photo's. It was a lot of work, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I get older and want to relive this time of my life. 

Tonight I did a 3 km swim and weights. Since winter started I feel like I need to hibernate. When I got home from work and after I ate, I fell asleep on the couch for 90 minutes. When I woke up I really wasn't motivated to train, especially swimming. Unexpectedly the swim was a highlight of my night. At the pool, a very fit, with a swimmers body, Speedo's, and a racing shaved head was in the lane beside me. I've seen him before and he always swims faster than me and although at times I've tried to say hi, he never really looked my way. Tonight was different. I out swam him. I was catching him and passing him consistently. At one point when we had a mutual rest, he looked over at me and said hi. It was a win for me, I never have passed anyone at the pool who looks like a real swimmer. After the swim I did weights. It was the first time I've done weights after a swim and it was much harder on my upper body than usual. I was struggling to push the weight I normally do. I finished when the YMCA closed and was the last person to leave. It was strange only seeing my lone truck in a parking lot that is usually full.

Long swim - 62 min / 3000 meters

Weights - 35 minutes

Smelling like Sweat...

I was at Blockbuster last night and some young girls walked by me and I think I overheard one of them say they smelt sweat. Now I'm a very clean person and I shower everyday, but I realized I had my Ironman hat on and I work out with it and it has gotten sweating and I haven't washed it in a while, maybe I did smell like sweat. Today we went out and I was wearing the same hat and very self conscious, I kept asking Alice if I smelt like sweat. My training schedule had a 2.5 hour bike ride. I like biking but I wasn't looking forward to the ride. I put it off and spent the day driving around with Alice, checking out Tattoo shops, doing the open house thing and visiting a $2.5 million dollar home (to see how the rich live), and getting a speeding ticket. When we got home, JB called, we caught up and we ordered pizza. The family decided they didn't want our regular Sunday night steak. After eating 5 pieces of motivational pizza (I now needed to burn it off), I got on the bike and did my ride at 7:30 pm. I set up the laptop, surfed the web, watched YouTube and TV. The first time I looked at my watch it was 90 minutes and it felt like 2 hours. I really had to mentally struggle to get that last hour in. I find that the training is harder mentally and physically than the Ironman if you put in the mileage. Reid came down near the end and said the basement smelled like sweat. I asked him what he meant and he said it smelt like his hockey locker room. Now I'm really self conscious.

Long Bike - 2.5 hours / 40 miles

The house is a LOT louder...

I've decided January is going to be a healing month. I'm going to take care of my body and liver. I was hoping to get up early this morning to train but I even though I was in bed by 1 am, I didn't fall asleep until around 3:30 am and woke up at 10 am. There was no time to train because at noon we had to pick Reid up at the Hamilton Airport. We left him in Winnipeg to play with his cousins. Once we picked him up, it became real apparent that Reid makes noise. All types of noises. When he got home, he couldn't stop talking and started bugging his sister and they both started making noise. The house has become a whole lot louder with Reid back. It was a sanctuary with TV shows we wanted to watch and now it is a Circus with the Disney and MTV channels playing all the time and loud. With that said, I'm not complaining, it feels good to have the Reid home. I know Alice was really missing her little buddy, it's that Mother and Son bond.

I started my training mid afternoon. I had a full agenda with a long run, tempo swim and weights. Plus I had to drop by work to pick up some stuff I forgot on Friday. It was a fairly nice day, at least compared to Winnipeg. It was around - 7 C. It was the first time I was doing a long run in the Escarpment in a long time, plus I think it was my first one there without JB. I could tell I was running hills right away, my pace was slower than last weeks flat course run. For the first half of the run I averaged a 8:25 pace, then on the second half, which was down hill I was able to bring the overall average down to 8:07 and for the entire run kept my heart rate under 140 bpm. To do it, I had to walk a few times. It was still a major improvement, my previous runs on the same route were between 9:07 - 9:30. After I picked up stuff at work, I went to the YMCA to do weights and a swim. The weights are easy, the swim is tougher, at least to get started. Once I got swimming, I felt great, I could really feel my technique improving. I didn't have my watch with me to tell if I was going faster, but it felt fast. I was really rolling from side to side and reaching long. I was proud of myself that I did the swim, even without my watch.

Run - 1:29:13 /10.98 miles / 8:07 pace

Swim - 48 min / 2250 meters

Weights - 30 minutes

I don't know what day it is...

I didn't want to get up this morning. I was tired, my body needs to recuperate from all the holiday partying. This year with the days that the holiday's fell on, it didn't feel like a Friday. For at least January I've committed myself to eating better. To help me, I downloaded the Livestrong App for my iPhone. It helps me keep track of my calories and the best part is that it is free. I postponed my swim and weight training session tonight to go in and out of sleep while watching TV on the sofa. This year has been the first year in a long time that I need after work sleep. I think it is the lack of sunshine. Over the winter months I tend to get a little down, I think I'm going to try one of those SAD lamps. I also did my resolution for this year. I only did one. For me, as I get older, if I set too many goals or resolutions I can't remember them easily. Now I pick just one and make some sort of mantra out of it. I'm keeping it a secret because I find if you tell someone your resolution that they never come true. There is a power in internalizing it and keeping it a secret. It was a pretty relaxing evening, sleeping, watching TV, sleeping, surfing the Apple Apps Store (there is so many cool free apps), sleeping and Googling stuff. What would we do without the technology.

It didn't take much to get the heart rate up...

New Year's ended for us at 7 am this morning. We figured we should get to bed once we saw the sun coming up. We had one of our best New Year's Party's ever, it was just Alice and I hanging around our bar in the basement. We started off ordering some Chinese food, played some pool, talked, watched TV, talked, listened to music, talked, researched some artwork on the internet, danced and talked. At one point we became private detectives and tried to find the phone number of the person who built our bar. Three years ago when my cell phone was put in the washing machine I lost my entire address book and his name was in it. At first it was tough to remember his first name, then Alice remembered it, then we went through every drawer that we thought the name would be in, then I got all my old day timer's and to do books. Nothing found. But we did remember the street he lived on, so I did a reverse look up and got all the names on the street, there was at least 200. Then I started drinking and dialing and at 9 pm on New Years Eve I started calling everyone with the initial A in on the street. After about 7 calls, I FOUND HIM! We wanted to talk to him about making some adjustments to the bar so you can sit at it with your legs under the counter. He was really good, very slow and extremely cheap. It was a combination we could live with.

We got up today just before 3 pm. I was feeling a little groggy after drinking my 24 Christmas presents. But that didn't prevent me from getting on the bike to do my tempo ride. Afterwards Alice, Alyssa and I went out to dinner and a movie. Without Reid being with us, everything is so quiet. Alice is really missing her little "buddy".

Tempo Bike - 1 hour / 17.5 miles

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