Getting up early for track work AND I FOUND THE TRUCK THAT HIT ME!!!......

Today was my first running speed work session of the year. I really wasn't looking forward to it because I know how painful they can be. Yet they are necessary. I had a sales meeting this morning and one of my out of town reps, Jay Yakabowich, who is an awesome 47 year old age grouper joined me. He's a 1:26 half marathon guy. I find speed work seems easier, and harder, with a friend. You tend to draw off each other's energy and the pace stays higher than when your on your own. Maybe ego drives it. Last year I was fortune enough to run with John Barclay for almost every speed session and there was always a little friendly competition.

For me, the tough part of doing speed work is the stopping and starting. I'm the type of guy that can maintain the same pace whether I have a rest or not. As a matter of fact I find intervals harder because when I start up again, for the first 60 meters, it is hard to get back into a groove and my heart rate jumps up unusually high and my core feels week before everything settles back in. After about 200 meters I usually get back into a groove.

The highlight of my day was that I found the truck that hit me. Because I did my training this morning I decided today was going to be the day that I go back to the road and area that I was hit on and do some surveillance between 6:30 - 7:30 pm. The truck hit me around 7:10 pm, so I figured that it might be a regular route for the driver and I may be able to catch him. I had a feeling I was going to catch him because it was raining outside tonight. I figured that if the driver was smart he wouldn't be driving on the same road for a while in case I saw them, but tonight it was raining and figured he would feel secure that I wouldn't be riding my bike tonight. 

Alice and Reid joined me and I spoke to a guy and asked him if I could park in his driveway to do the surveillance. He agreed and wished me luck. For the first 35 minutes, every 5 minutes, all Reid asked was what time it was and when are we going home. Then, right at 7:13 pm the same truck that hit me turned off Tremaine and onto Campbellville road and the chase was on. 

It was a super exciting feeling to find and follow that truck. Reid and I were all "jacked up" and it was more than fun. I felt like a kid again playing hide and seek. When we pulled out to follow the truck I think they saw us but they kept going and they were driving at the exact same speed that I saw them driving when they hit me. When I saw the back of the truck I knew it was them. The color was unique and I'll never forget what the mirrors looked like. It was a Dodge 4 x 4 and it was big, I told the cops I thought is was a 3/4 ton size.

When we pulled out to follow them I saw that there was an older person in the vehicle. The truck was also so big that it took up the entire road. As we followed them we were able to get their license plate number. I wanted to see where they were going and maybe even where they lived. I was concerned they thought I was following them because I pulled out right when they came around the corner and then I pulled up close to them to see the license plate. I was getting paranoid so I pulled back a bit. When we got to the stop sign I was right behind them and they were taking a while to turn and I was getting anxious. When they eventually made the turn onto Guelph line I followed and then they pulled into the left lane to pull into the Mohawk Horse Race track and Casino. I wasn't sure if they were turning to see if I was following them or if they were actually going to the track, so I continued driving North as they turned into the parking lot. 

After they turned into the large parking lot I kept driving and there was another entrance down the road that I turned into. The parking lot was huge so I started driving through it and watching them as they drove through it. They turned into a specific, reserved, parking area and I wasn't sure if they were employees or what. I parked our truck and started walking through the parking lot to get close to their truck. There was three people in the truck, a white haired man and a women holding a new born baby. They were slow at getting out of the truck and walked even slower, which gave me enough time to get close to them without losing them. As they walked into the Horse track I took pictures of them walking using the zoom on my camera. It was just like the movies.

As they got into the building I was beside their truck taking pictures of it from the front, side and back. I noticed both mirrors they were scraped and scratched. It looked like these people had a history of hitting things with their mirrors. From the dings on the sides and back of the truck it also looked like they had a history of hitting other things. 

Because they walked so slow I was able to take pictures and run into the building and continue to follow them. By this time Reid had joined me and he was "pumped and scared" as any 12 year old would be. I used him as a decoy and made it look like I was showing him the trophy cabinet as I kept an eye on them. They started to go up the escalator and the women looked directly at us and I thought we were busted. Rather than continuing to follow them up the escalator, I took another escalator up on the other side of the building and then double backed. Reid and I sat in the grand stand seats and could see them. I also took of my jacket and had Reid take off his hat so that they wouldn't recognize us. They were in a booth in the restaurant area looking onto the track. They looked like regulars.

I walked up to one of the waitresses and asked her when racing started and she told me 7:30 pm. I then asked her if they had racing this past Monday and she said yes. Then it made sense to me why these people came by today at the exact same time, they wanted to get to the track before racing began. At this point I decided to leave, there was nothing more I could do and I had all the information and evidence I needed. 

On the way home I called John Barclay, my training buddy who is also a cop, and told him that I found the truck. I was so excited and he was impressed with my detective work and productive "stake out". When I got home I called the cops and they told me they would send a cop over. As of now they haven't come over and I'm sure the saga will continue. 

When I saw the truck from behind I knew it was the truck. That image was etched in my mind. The only thing that bothered me was that I thought the truck was more purplish in color. It was a blue indigo color. Then I realized that I was wearing red colored lenses in my sunglasses. Sure enough when I looked at the truck with the sunglasses on it became much more purplish in color and the color I remembered. 

Even though I found the truck, I was thinking that it is really my word against theirs. I have no witnesses other than me and as John pointed out, it is not clear who the driver was and that can work against me. And how do I prove that they were driving on the road on Monday at that time. Then I realized that they were on their way to the horse track and casino and they have camera's everywhere. They parked in a reserved lot and went right past the front doors. If it was them I'm sure the tracks video camera's would show they were there and record if the mirror was collapsed when they drove in. I actually feel better about this because if they are on the camera and the mirror is collapsed then there is no question that they are the "scum bags" that hit me and left the scene. 

To be continued...

Running Speed work - 1:03:27 / 7.25 miles 

First bike speedwork session and I was worried...

For the past two days all I've been looking at is trucks and their mirrors and how close they are to the body of the truck. I figure that the side of the truck was probably only a few inches from me when the mirror hit me. At first when I got hit it really didn't seem like a big deal because I wasn't injured, I was more pissed off because the driver didn't stop. As time has passed I've thought more about it and I've realized how truly lucky I am that I didn't get seriously injured or killed.  The driver is also lucky that they didn't hit me.

In actual fact the only reason I was hit was because I moved Tuesday's ride back to Monday due to the weather. It was warm on Monday and Tuesday was predicted to be cold and I didn't want to ride in the cold. Then, once I got on the road I decided at the last minute to go a different way than planned, which put me on the road that I got hit. 

Tonight was the first ride after the near miss on Monday. Quite frankly I was worried and paranoid. I knew I had to get back on my bike and train but wasn't looking forward to it. I now know what it means "to have courage". I decided to make myself as noticeable as possible and put on a bright yellow cycling jacket and a "road workers" vest. The only thing I didn't have, that I'm going to get, is a rear view mirror for my helmet.

This was my first speed work bike ride of the year and I did some hard intervals. I was more concerned that normal because when I do intervals at an all out pace it is hard to keep the bike in a tight controlled line. I did two of the King hills all out. One took me 7.5 minutes and the other around 5 minutes. It was tough, on one I had to get out of the seat to get up faster. Every time a car passed I was a little paranoid. After the ride I was getting lung exertion coughs, which is great, I think it means I'm expanding my potential. I used to get them in my 20's, but didn't get any last year. 

At lunch time I did my long swim. One of the sets was a 1 x 1000 meters and I averaged a 1:49 pace. Anything under a 1:50 I'm happy with. During tonight's workout I realized that I'm prepared to go "all out" on the bike and run, but I'm not prepared to work through that same level of pain on the swim. I think one of the differences between me and the fast swimmers is that they are prepared to experience and work through the pain in the water. I'm not. I've never really had strong upper body strength. My natural strength is in my legs.

Long Swim -  1:03:37 / 3000 meters

Speed Bike - 1:18:52 / 37.18 km / 28.2 kph  

I got killed by my son, it was fun...

I still can't believe I got side swiped and hit by the mirror of a truck yesterday. If I didn't have to train tonight I was going to go drive to the place I got hit, park nearby and do some surveillance between 6:30 - 7:30 pm. I was hit around 7:10 pm and figured this may be the persons regular route home and maybe I could catch them. I think I'm going to do it on Thursday evening and Reid says he wants to join me. Like any 12 year old, Reid loves the idea of doing private detective or spy work. It could be fun with just the two of us scoping out trucks and I'm sure it will be a good father son moment. I also have a feeling that I am going to spot this truck, eventually.

I'm really looking forward to dropping some weight. Yesterday it was 28 C and I wore my triathlon top for my ride. When you put on a triathlon top it is so tight fitting you can't hide anything and I noticed some "love handles" that weren't there last year. Today I weighted in at 183.4 lbs at 22.1 % BMI, last year on this exact date I was 178.2 at 19.5% BMI. Although I do have to keep reminding myself that I started my race training a month later this year and in a month from now I should be down 5 lbs. My real goal is to be in the low 170's before my first Triathlon Race on June 13th.

I'm committed to losing weight, since April 13th I've only had 3 beers and haven't had any beers for the past two weekends, which is a record for me. I put myself on a 19 day challenge to eat well and not drink until after the Mississauga Half Marathon on May 10th. I'm also going back and forth with a guy from Ireland who is my size and also wants to drop some weight. We are just in the process of establishing the rules of our contest and hopefully it will help each of us stay focused and motivated.

I did my weights at lunch and my plan was to have a nap after dinner before I went for my run, but that was foiled by Reid. He is doing his next movie and wanted me to be one of his actors. He needed me to take a knife to the head and die, just like in the movie the "Matrix". Being the good and loving father I am, I let him kill me. 

Power Weights - 45 minutes

Mod Run - 1:10:02 / 8.75 miles / 8:00 pace / 132 avg hr

Lucky to be Alive...

It finally happened. I was biking tonight and got hit by a truck. I've always made sure I ride safely. I have a blinking light at the front and a blinding red blinking light at the back. Normally it works really well and vehicles actually give me more room than they normally would.

Tonight I was about 25 km into my ride and was making a right turn off Campbellville road to go up number six side road hill and "wham", I didn't know what hit me. I was stunned. I looked up and a big truck, the size of a Toyota Tacoma whizzed right beside me and the passenger side mirror hit me. It was on a 80 kph road and it must have been about 6" from me, close enough for the mirror to hit me. I was really lucky that the mirror was on a hinge and when it hit me it collapsed and didn't knock me over. I looked up at the truck and it knew it hit me, it put on it's brake lights and then kept driving. I stopped my bike and faked that I was really hurt and was lying on the ground hoping the truck would stop and turnaround to see if I was okay. It didn't. I could tell it was driving slower and it seemed like the driver was debating if they should turnaround and in the end they just kept going.

I was so stunned I couldn't remember the license plate. I should have thought fast and pulled out my camera and taken a photo of the truck but I didn't react fast enough. All I know was that it was an Ontario plate, the truck was a newer model big pick up, it was a unique purple color and I think it had a GXV in the license plate. I wasn't injured other than some redness on my back. I was very lucky because I got up out of the aero position to make a right turn when I got hit and had I not done that, the mirror probably would have hit me in the head. I was wearing my aero helmet and had it hit me in the head it may have gotten under the back of the helmet and really twisted my neck or worse.

I was just really disappointed that the driver didn't stop to see if I was okay, especially when they saw I stopped the bike and was on the ground. I finished the ride and on the way home was looking in peoples driveways to see if I could find the truck. When I got home I told Alice about it and decided to call the cops to report it. They sent an officer to the house but they told me the chances of them finding the guy is unlikely. I was kinda hoping they could put some of the numbers in the computer and could narrow it down like they do on TV.

I still can't believe that I was hit by the mirror of a truck. I wasn't hurt but it just freaked me out and it could have been much worse. I guess I'm very lucky. I'm also so pissed that the truck didn't stop to see if I was okay. Who knows, maybe they were drinking and driving, I don't know. It's interesting that I got hit on Campbellville road. I hate that road, they only other time I almost got hit was on that road. People just drive so fast down that road. 

Just before I got home, the song from Sarah McLachlan - "I will remember you" started playing on my iPhone and it kinda hit home that I could have been killed and that could have been the theme song at my funeral.

Mod Bike - 1:45:15 / 50.98 / 29.0 kph

It was a low day...

I woke up early, looked outside and didn't want to go for a run. It was cold and rainy. I checked the weather forecast and decided to wait and hope it would get better as the day went on. In the meantime Alice and I went for a car ride down to Fort Erie to check out the beach and cottage area. We saw an ad in the paper of a resort and we decided to check it out. It was amazing and even had water slides, tennis courts, skate park, fishing pond, arcades, pools, restaurants, tennis courts, entertainment and bars. You name it, they had it. You could buy a place there in the low 50's which seems like an awesome deal. Not that we would do it, we are renters not buyers. We like the variety of going to different places.

It was only an hour south of our home and the weather was beautiful. It was around 20 C and blue sky. I was hoping that it was going to be the same when we got home. Unfortunately it wasn't. It was about 9 C and windy. When we got home I was tired of driving and wasn't looking forward to running in the cool windy weather. I decided to take a nap because I find when I wake up from a nap I feel rejuvenated. I'm finding that I'm napping more than normal and I think it is because I'm eating better and my body is busy detoxing which is making me tired. 

By the time I got out the door it was 7 pm. I was sitting on the front step putting on my shoes and noticed my heart rate was the lowest I've seen it in I can't remember. It was 40 beats per minute. When I saw that I knew I was going to have a good effortless run and I was right. 

As I was running down No 1 side road, which I do regularly, I was looking into the bush area along the side of the road and remembered that I was running past the area that Paul Bernardo, Canada's most notorious serial killer, dropped one of his victims bodies. I wondered if the area I was looking at was where he dropped the body. It was a little creepy thinking about it and I don't know why tonight I did.

I didn't have to stop once to keep the heart rate down. The one thing that I find about running is that I go into a "time warp" and I lose sense of time. I just get into a zone and enjoy the endorphins and listening to my music. My ball of my left foot was hardly noticeable during most of the run, but I did start feeling it as I put pressure on it during my post run stretch. I also noticed that my left calf was a little strained. I think it was because I've been wearing different shoes for the past few runs and that I'm compensating for the sore foot and using different muscles. I made sure I took some Advil after the run. 

I've been eating pretty good and I haven't had any beer for the past two weekends. My downfall has been that I've been eating 60 calorie ice cream Popsicles. Yesterday I had about 4 of them and today I had another 4 and finished off the box. At least now I have no more Popsicle temptations. 

Long Run - 1:40:04 / 12.60 mile / 7:56 pace / 132 avg hr

Visiting the Six Kings...

I ate pretty good yesterday. I had one slip, I ate a 60 calorie Popsicle. This morning I was up at 7:30 am and it was already 17 C and sunny. I decided to relax, drink some coffee, carbo load on some pancakes and got on the road by 9 am.

Once I got on the road it took me a little time to figure out which route to take. I really wanted to keep my pace above 30 kph for ego's sake, but I also want to get good at climbing and that would reduce my average speed to under 30 kph. I finally decided to put my ego aside and went for the hills. 

There is 6 major hills where I ride and the average grade is between 10 - 15%. I decided to name each of the hills "Kings" and decided to ride all the Kings today. It was pretty windy at 26 kph and on the way a bug flew into my mouth, it was the first time this year. For the rest of the ride I had at least another 3 - 4 bugs hit my face and helmet, I lost count. 

I tried to time all of the hills and it turned out that the cumulative time that I spent climbing the Kings was around 30 minutes. About 2 hours into the ride I saw Carlos and Hans and stopped to say hello. They were parked and getting there bikes ready for a 5 hour ride. Carlos asked me if earlier I stopped at the foot of Sixth line hill. I said I did because I had to fix my chain. He didn't know it was me when he passed me in his car and though I was some loser who couldn't climb the hill without stopping. He then told me he looked in his rear view mirror and saw the same guy flying down the road behind him at over 40 kph and realized he misread the guys abilities. 

The last King hill I did was Rattle Snake point. This hill probably has a 15 - 17% grade at points. It's a ridiculous hill and winds from side to side. A few years ago they had the world junior cycling championships in our area and the cyclist would climb Rattle Snake point as part of their training. The Europeans said that Rattle Snake Point is as difficult as any mountain they have in Europe.

On the way up I saw another cyclist in front of me walking his bike up the Rattle Snake hill. I was able to pull the camera out of my jersey, ride with one hand and take a picture. Also, for the first time ever, I was able to ride that hill without getting out of my saddle. In the end I was really happy with the ride. I did all six King hills and I was still able to average 29 kph and finish by noon. 

Long Bike - 3:09:40 / 92.03 Km/ 29.0 kph

Solving problems...

I've eaten well for the first two days of the 19 day challenge, although it feels like a lot longer than two days. It's starting to get warm here and is supposed to be about 25 C this weekend and with the humidex could feel like 31 C. With warm weather like that it is tough not to think of sitting on the deck and having some cool beers. This weekend will be a real test of commitment and discipline.

I had a appointment with a Podiatrist this morning. All he wanted to do was put me in Orthotics. He had the basic pair for $500 or the athletic pair for $750. I tried to ask him about the new theory that the more expensive the shoe and support, the greater the risk of injury. I recently read this at 

http://runnersweb.com/running/RunnersWeb_External_Links.html?http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1170253/The-painful-truth-trainers-Are-expensive-running-shoes-waste-money.html 

 

A lot of triathletes are telling me they have heard the same thing as outlined in the article. They are also seeing more runners running barefoot or with old style shoes.

When I asked the doctor about this, it went in one ear and out the other and he just kept telling me I need orthotics. He was pushing pretty hard and even gave me his cell number if I decided to get them. He as a little too aggressive and it seemed a little tacky for him to give me his cell phone number. I think I'm going to get some cheap runners like the article suggested and try that out first.

After wearing two left shoes yesterday I've decided to make sure it doesn't happen again and have now organized myself differently. Rather than having one bag that has my swimming and weight training equipment and clothing, I've now got two bags. One has all my swimming stuff and the other has my gym stuff and my gym bag has an old pair of shoes permanently put in it. This way I won't be putting in and taking out gear all the time and forgetting to put something back in the bag.

At lunch time I did my tempo swim. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I jumped in the pool and put one stroke in front of the other. The main speed session was 20 x 100's and I was happy with my performance. I did all of them between 1:42 - 1:48. Trying to keep them all under 1:50 made the swim a little more interesting and helped the time go by. I think I improved my technique and hopefully I won't forget what I did on my next swim. I've never enjoyed swimming and so far going only 2 times a week as opposed to 3 times has not slowed me down a bit. As a matter of fact I think I'm swimming faster than last year. Strange.

Tempo Swim - 1:07:24 / 3000 meters

Ate well yesterday

Passed 900,000 calories on two left feet...

I don't know what it is with my feet lately. For the past few weeks the ball of my left foot has been sore and I'm going to have a Podiatrist look at it tomorrow. On the phone he told me I should take a couple of weeks off and I told him "that's not going to happen". Then this morning I stepped on my toe with the same foot. Yes the same foot. Somehow my toe crunched under and I stepped on it and no I don't have a really long toe. It felt like I had severely stubbed it or broken it. 

At lunch time I went to the Y to do weights and when I pulled my runners out of my gym bag I had two different runners, different colors and both were for the left foot. I had a decision to make. Do I train later tonight after I go home and get new shoes or do I put on two left shoes and train now? I decided to train with the two left shoes. 

At first I thought I'd be embarrassed if someone looked at my two left feet, but realized this is Toronto and very few people even make eye contact, so chances are no one will even notice my shoes. The bigger problems was that because I hurt my right toe and was wearing a left shoe, it was putting incredible pressure on the injured toe and it was hurting bad. I tried to do lunges and when I pulled me right foot back I almost jumped out of my skin due to the pain. I was only able to do lunges on the other side. But I finished and no one saw I was wearing two different left footed shoes. Today I also hit a milestone. In 612 days, I have now burnt over 900,000 calories over 951 workouts.   

After dinner I did my last tempo bike ride before I start my speed work next week. I was a little concerned if I was going to be able to ride with my injured toe but it turned out I could, it just throbbed a little. I had a strong ride, for the first half I was going directly into a head wind and keeping it over 30 kph. At the beginning I didn't feel the soreness on the ball of my left foot because my right toe was throbbing. Then it would switch and I could feel soreness on the ball of my left foot and it would take the focus of pain off my right toe. Then I decided to do hills and my quads hurt so much I couldn't feel either foot and then when I was heading back with the wind at my back my hamstrings were getting sore and I didn't feel the pain in either foot or my quads. And finally, when I was going down my last hill and I didn't have any pain in either foot or my quads or my hamstrings and at 63 kph a bug hit me and got stuck in my eye. I couldn't get it out until I slowed down at the bottom. 

I did some research on how to get good at climbing hills and I found out the secret. It was in every article I read. Sure they all said to relax, to breath consistently, to pull your foot up on the upstroke, to spin, and to have a positive attitude, but those tips were not the secret. The secret to getting good at riding hills was "to ride hills a lot"!!! 

So tonight I decided to do Spring Ridge hill which takes about 4 -5 minutes to get up. When I got to the top I was so tired and I was glad it was the turnaround point to go home but I decided to extend the ride and go down and up the killer Number 14 side road hill. The reason I did it was because I didn't want to do it. It was a test to see if I really wanted to get better at hill climbing. That took another 5 - 6 minutes. My legs were screaming riding up the hills and after 44 minutes of riding I was only averaging 25 kph because of the hills. On the way back, which took only 20 minutes, I had the wind at my back and rode close to 40 kph the entire way and only got chased by one dog and he didn't have a chance of catching me. I ended up getting home with a 29.8 kph average. It may not seem like a fast time but without the hills I would have averaged at least 33 kph. 

The one great thing on this ride was the timing of the music on my iPhone. Going down Spring Ridge hill at 70 + kph the song from Green Day "time of your life" came on and it seared that downhill into my memory. Then as I was flying on the flats at 47 kph with the wind at my back the song from Louis Armstrong "what a wonderful world" came on and I had another memory searing moment. That's the definition of "Life's simple pleasures".

Tempo Bike - 1:08:24 / 33.98 km / 29.8 kph 

(Ate healthy yesterday)

Self Sabotage has to come to an end...

I was thinking about how to better my performance from last year and realized that if I lost weight I'd naturally get faster. Last year I raced at around 179 - 181 lbs with 19.5 - 22% body fat, which I'm sure would surprise most people. Most thought I was lighter and had less body fat. If I lost 10 lbs I would naturally get faster. In a world where triathletes are getting carbon fiber bikes to reduce ounces, just by me losing weight it would make a huge difference. 

I have discipline. I have rarely missed a training session in the past 15 months, yet I haven't been able to curb my eating and drinking because I haven't been able to make the "commitment". Two weeks ago for example, I weighted 181.4 lbs on Friday and by Monday weighted in at 185.2 lbs. The reason? I ate poorly, had some pizza Friday and Saturday night, lots of beers and deep fried foods. Even with 6 hours of training on that weekend I still gained weight. This week for example, I weighted in at 186.8, my heaviest in 18 months and today I weighed myself and I was back down to 183.2 lbs. 

One of the positives is that after two months race season training my body is really starting to tone up.  I can see and feel less flab on the stomach and the legs are starting to get more defined. If I could just combine the training with a healthy diet I'm sure it would make a huge difference. I was reading $1.79's blog, he is similar in height and is racing as low as 158 lbs and 7 % body fat. How much better would I do if I was that weight? Although I don't want to go that low, I would like to race at 168 - 171 lbs.

On April 13th I made the commitment to start eating better and drinking less. It has been challenging but I've been able to reduce the beer consumption but I haven't been able to stop the snacking when I get home from work. So I've set a short term goal. In 19 days I run the Mississauga Half Marathon and from now until then I am not going to snack on any refined sugars or fried foods and my goal is to get down to 178 lbs or less by May 10th. I'm only allowing myself one night of beer drinking because I've got some Winnipeger's coming to visit. It is going to be tough but now that I've blogged my "COMMITMENT", I feel obligated to follow through. No more "Denny's Style" weekend breakfasts. 

As a favor, if I fall off the wagon and eat poorly, which I will truthfully blog about, it would be much appreciated if you send comments that KICK MY ASS!!! 

I had a good tempo run tonight. At the 5 mile point I was averaging a 7:17 pace. Tomorrow I'm making an appointment with a podiatrist to get my left foot checked out. When I run the ball of my foot hurts and is tender afterwards. I figure it is better to get it looked at now while it is a discomfort rather than it turning into acute pain.

Tempo Run - 1:00:56 / 8.26 miles / 7.22 pace / 141 avg HR

I started off flat again...

Tuesday is my heavy weekday training day. I find that if I split the workouts and do one in the morning and the other in the evening it doesn't seem as tough. I was dreading today because the weather man was predicting cold and rain and I really didn't want to do my ride indoors. 

I woke up early, looked out the bedroom window and it was wet outside but not raining. I turned on the TV and it was 4 C and only 7 kph wind. I thought about whether I should run or bike this morning and then I heard it was going to be raining this afternoon so I decided to bike. I don't mind running in the rain but riding in the cold when it is raining is never fun, especially for 2 hours.

It took me about 25 minutes to get ready and bundle up. I got on the bike and after only 50 feet of riding I realized I had a flat rear tire. This is my third in only 5 weeks. It was the moment of truth, do I fix it or remove all my cycling clothes and run. I figured if I rode it would cause me to get to work only 15 minutes late if I gave myself 6 minutes to get showered and dressed, so I turned back to my house, fixed it and got back on the road. I'm glad I did, it was the most beautiful morning, a little misty, very little wind and because I was going against the traffic I had very few cars pass by me. I can't stress enough how beautiful the ride was. It is one of those rides that I won't soon forget. 

The only mishap was that I passed a stopped school bus with its lights flashing. I clearly saw the kid was getting on the bus and was no where near me and I didn't feel it was a big deal with me being on a bike. Wrong! I had woman who was stopped yell at me and one guy behind the bus caught up to me, rolled down his window and started yelling at me. I'm glad I had my iPod on loud and couldn't hear them. On my run tonight I thought about it and realized it was a dangerous thing to do. "What if the kid turned around and went back across the street?" That will be the last time I pass a school bus.

I left work and by the time I got home it was pouring rain. I ate dinner and had a sugar induced nap. My daughter made cookies and cinnamon buns and I couldn't help myself and pigged out on them. When I woke up, my legs were tired and the last thing I wanted to do was run. I told myself to remember it was a scheduled easy run and pushed myself out the door. It turned out that I had a fast run that felt effortless at a low heart rate. On the way back home, a van with a large trailer carrying a tractor crossed my path and was pulled out into the intersection waiting to make a right turn on a red light. I had the right of way and he was blocking the side walk so I jumped on and over the trailer. After I did it I realized that it was a pretty dangerous thing to do, especially if he started driving. I did some pretty risky, dangerous and stupid moves today.

Mod Bike - 2:00:20 /60.82 km / 30.3 kph / 128 avg HR

Mod Run - 55:13 / 7.18 miles / 7:41 pace / 133 avg HR

Tricks of the mind...

Last year I started blogging to document my Ironman journey comeback. Then I took the blog and used software from Blurb and made a 440 page book. Last night I was reading it and realized that, performance wise, I'm miles ahead of where I was last year and last year I even started my performance training 6 week prior to this year. This year I was getting really disappointed if I had a bike ride under 30 kph. Then I noticed that last year I was only doing 27 - 28 kph and that was enough to get me to race at 36+ kph average. This year I'm disappointed if I don't run a under a 7:40 per mile pace for my tempo runs, last year I was around a 8:10 - 8:40 pace and that was enough to run a 1:46 in a half Ironman. The only thing I thought was better this year than last year was my swimming, but when I look at the book, my swimming is around the same. I still suck at swimming.

If it wasn't for me blogging and then making a book I would have thought I was not making any progress. In my minds eye I was the same or behind last years progress. I'm so glad I was able to review last years training and see that I am improving. This year I also seem to be eating all the time. I'm in the pantry all night long. My daughter said that's what I did last year and I told her "no way". Then I started reading the book and she was right, as a matter of fact I think I was eating more. Another observation was that last year doing all the workouts was mentally and physically tough. I hadn't ever put in that sort of high mileage and every new long workout was like climbing Mount Everest. I remember my first 6000 meter swim and thinking this is nuts! I would also shuffle out of bed every morning with tight leg muscles and would need a good 10 minutes for them to loosen up.  This year I'm doing the same sort of mileage and it's a piece of cake. Now my legs are rarely sore, I hop out of bed without any stiffness and the long workouts are mentally no big deal.

I'm just so happy I blogged and made a book out of it. I originally did it just to record my journey to the Louisville Ironman and have a family "Heirloom". The unexpected benefit is me getting a "reality check" when I read it. I hope to keep blogging and do a book every year. After doing my first book, which took me a lot of time to layout, I've learnt how to make it flow easier for the next one by laying out my blog a little differently.

Today's training was uneventful. I had my after dinner nap and was off to the Y at 7 pm for to start my power weight training sessions and do a long swim. The swim was slower than I would have liked it but I figured it was because I did heavy weights on my arms and I just didn't have the strength to go faster.

Weights - 45 minutes

Swim - 1:05:19 / 3100 meters

A little tired...

We all ended up not going to a movie last night and went to "Crash" after my long run. Bad movie, very, very unrealistic, but lots of action. Reid liked it from a "film making" perspective. This morning I went for my long run. I'm getting sick of the cool weather. I'm so glad I went biking yesterday when it was warm. On the run it was very windy and I chose to run the hilly number one side road.

I did an out and back and had the wind at my back on the way out and against me on the way home. I have no problem running against the wind, I actually enjoy it and it never slows me down. At the turnaround I was at an average pace of 8:18 and by the time I got home I got it down to an overall 8:02. My heart rate was great today, no walking to keep it down and it was tough to get it up to 140 bpm. The only problem I had was that at the 14 mile mark my left calf started to tighten up. I'm sure it was because I wore a different brand of runners without a slow transition of doing shorter runs. I went with the Saucony's because the ball of my left foot is still bothering me and I thought it might help by giving me more padding. It feels "hot" when I run and is more of a slight discomfort rather than a pain.

I ate way to much popcorn at the theater. As I'm writing this blog I'm feeling a little sick to my stomach. I'm also a little tired in a good way. My plan is to watch golf and have an afternoon nap. I'm not a golf fan unless Tiger is playing, but the soothing sound of the announcers talking quietly makes it so easy to fall asleep. Reid finished his latest video and I used me as the actor for the "neck breaking" seen as per attached.

Long Run - 2:01:29 / 15.09 miles / 8:02 pace / 133 bpm avg HR

I made adjustments...

This morning it seemed like time stood still. I was up at 7:30 am relaxing with a coffee and eventually made a "Denny's Grand Slam" breakfast to fuel me up for my long ride and brick run. Originally I was scheduled to do the ride tomorrow but some guys asked me if I wanted to join them and the weather man said today was going to be 20 C and tomorrow 9 C. I decide to ride today and run tomorrow.

Once I got on the road I realized this wasn't going to be one of my best rides because the heart rate got up to my maximum fairly easy. I rode 50 minutes to Kelso to me the guys. There was Hans, Rogerio, Carlos, Brian, Bryan and Fernando. Hans, Carlos and Brian are training for Ironman France and I think this was Hans and Carlos first ride outside. Once we got going I realized that this was going to be a slower ride than I wanted to do.

Once we got on the road I took the lead and looked back and the group was back and split within about a kilometer. I kept going, would slow down, kept going, slow down and after going up 6th line hill I looked at my speedometer and after an hour of riding as only a 26.6 kph average. I was starting to get depressed. I don't like doing long rides that are under a 30 kph average. I had a decision to make, do I ride leisurely with the guys and make it more of an enjoyable social event or do I try to make up lost time and try to get to a 30 kph average. I decided to go on my own, I was going to tell the guys but they were too far back and I figured they would understand it wasn't personal.

I rode steady and kept the heart rate under 140 bpm. I did an out and back and at the half way point I was only at a 27.7 kph average. I had a side back wind on the return and was able to make up a lot of time. By the time I got home, and I did 3 big hills, I ended up averaging 30.4 kph. On one of the downhills with a wind at my back I got up to a speed of 83.3 kph /51.64 mph and didn't get a speed wobble. I love this new bike. 

This was our first warm day of riding. I was able to wear just a cycling jerse and nothing else. When I was riding in the cold weather all bundled up, virtually every cyclist I passed waved. Now that it's warm I guess there is a different type of cyclist on the road. At least 20 cyclists passed by me and I wave every time, only about 4 waved back. Just when I thought I was wrong about cyclists not being friendly they prove me right. So now I understand the rule. The "hearty" cyclists are friendly and the "fair weather cyclists" typically are not. Interesting.

When I got home I had a 5 minute transition and did a 30 minute brick run. It was really hard for me to keep the heart rate down only because I was running in the low 7 minute pace range and I wanted to keep it in that 7 minute range. My ego got the better of me, which is stupid.

All in all the training felt good. I wasn't exhausted, yet I felt like I had a good workout, I had a chest lung exercise cough, which I think is a good thing because it means I'm stressing that part of my body a little and making it grow. Now it's shower time, dinner, a movie and relax for the rest of the night. It's also nice getting my big weekend workout over a day early.

Long Bike - 3:30:50 / 106.87 km / 30.4 kph
Brick Run - 30:03 / 3.87 miles / 7:43 mph avg /145 hr avg

It was a mentally tough day...

Maybe it was the two beers I had a dinner last night, but I didn't wake up mentally sharp and lacked focus. I was up early enough to get to the pool for an early morning swim or weights but I just couldn't motivate myself to go. I figured I'll do it later. As the day wore on I started to feel mentally tired. At lunch time I went to the bike shop to get my gear indexing fixed. It only took them 5 minutes to find the cable that slipped and fix it. When I got back to work I started feeling worse and worse as the day went on.

For the past few days I've been hungry and eating regularly. Yesterday I started to notice that my body is starting to get leaner, especially around the mid section. I'm 8 weeks into my race training and my muscles are changing. The first few weeks of the plan I felt completely out of shape, even though I was averaging 350 miles a month of training during the off season, then the following few weeks I started to feel I had gotten in shape, and now in the past 10 days I'm feeling that I'm making my muscles grow stronger. For the past week my legs have been tender to the touch but I can still train hard on them. I know training through the pain and tenderness is when I make quantum performance gains. For example, earlier today, Reid gave me a light punch to my quad and I almost jumped out of my skin in pain and then 3 hours later I'm doing aggressive leg weight training.

When I left work I was going to go to the Y to do weights. As I was driving there I decided to turn in the opposite direction and go home. I was so mentally tired I couldn't even push myself to do it. When I got home all I could think about was having to do my training and when would I do it? I was dreading doing my swim and weights tonight. I was playing all the options in my mind, do I do both sessions tonight? or one session tonight? or both tomorrow? I was then thinking if I moved any sessions to tomorrow, then the entire weekend would feel like training and that wouldn't be fair to the family. I just couldn't visualize myself training tonight.

For dinner I was craving a hamburger, so Alice and I went and got one. Instead of fries I had a salad and afterwards I started feeling better. When we got home I dropped Alice off and took a deep breath and just drove to the Y. On the way I was thinking that I shouldn't think anything negative about training and that I need to just understand that it is a way of life that is non negotiable and that seemed to help. When I got to the Y I realized that I forgot my watch. For a moment I thought this could be my excuse why I didn't swim tonight because I typically use it to keep track of how many laps I've done and without a watch I'd have to try to count how many laps I did in my head. I thought about it for about 5 seconds, and thought that Olympic Champions of the past never had watches, and decided to swim anyways.

I ended up doing a 3000 meter swim and it was a great swim. I don't know how fast I was going but it felt fast and as my arms got sore I was able to push through the pain. There was a 20 something year old in the lane beside me with a lean swimmers body and a pretty good swimmer. He was only swimming very slightly faster than me. I was really enjoying the swimming through the pain sensation. Although I hate thinking about having to do my swimming workout, inevitably when I'm about half way through it I tend to enjoy it. After the swim I was just able to squeeze my weight training session in before the Y closed. 

I was really proud of myself that I overcame my lack of motivation and feelings and completed my training anyways. Getting mentally prepared to do a race is fairly easy because of the anticipation and hours of training preparation , but grinding out a training session when you really don't want to do it is my definition of an "Ironman". Truth be told, on days like this, having the blog is a blessing. I'd rather do the training, no matter how tough it is, rather than write excuses about why I didn't do the training. 

The photo I attached today is of the calendar I'm using to keep me focused on eating well. Green is good, yellow is chocolate, fried foods or snacks, and pink is alcohol. One of the guys on twitter told me I should focus on eating well 3 days a week to start. I thought that was interesting because I understood the psychology for training and yet I've never heard about that method for eating.

Tempo Swim - 1:08 / 3000 meters

Weights - 40:00

Riding with an adjustment...

I was going to ride before work today because I have a dinner scheduled with a client tonight but I just couldn't force myself out of bed to ride in 3 C weather when it was going to be 14 C later in the day. I'm just so sick of having to bundle up to go for a ride. I left work a little early and did my ride. It was an awesome ride and my best of the year. The bike fit great and for the first time this year I was able to stay in the aero position the entire time. I was riding so strong that my legs built up with lactic acid and prevented me from going faster, which is unusual because it's usually keeping my heart rate in the zone that slows me down. Today it was tough to get the heart rate up.

The only problem on the bike was that the gearing was not adjusted properly and in the smaller gears it slips and I wasn't able to do the big big hills without it grinding and jumping from one gear to the other. I guess it's another two hour round trip to the bike shop. After the ride I quickly showered and went to dinner and had to reschedule my weight training to tomorrow.

Since I have made the adjustments to my bike seat height, and have been wearing different dress shoes and different runners, the ball of my foot is not as tender. It's actually feeling better. The only thing I noticed was that the muscles on lower outside calf is a little sore because my running and biking style has changed slightly. Also, since Monday I've dropped just under 4 lbs. The only thing I've eaten that is not part of an ideal diet is some of the kids Easter chocolates. I figure with all the training I'm doing it's not going to slow down my weight loss too much. I really motivated to drop weight so that I'll be in top form at the Morden triathlon, I really want to do well at my old stomping grounds.

I've attached a video Reid put together. It's actually pretty funny, especially at around the 3:55 point when he does his acting scene and uses the prop he made.

Tempo Bike - 1:18:40 / 42.81 Km / 32.6 kph / 130 avg HR

Weights - 45:00

3

New motivation..

Alice, Alyssa and Reid were looking forward to going back home to Winnipeg for my brothers wedding. He's now postponed the wedding and they were disappointed and thought we should go anyway. I didn't really want to go, but when I mentioned if we did go back mid July I could do the Morden Half Ironman. They jumped at it and happily said "sure no problem, that would work out great". I've never heard them be so excited about me wanting to do a race. 

The Morden Tinman, which is now called the Cornman (I much preferred the name Tinman), was the first triathlon I ever did. It was in 1986 and I was 19 years old. I think I've done that race 5 - 7 times, I've lost count, but the last one I did was exactly 10 years ago in 1999 at 33 years old, I was out of shape and it was my slowest at 6:21. 

During yesterday's training I had a spring in my step due to this new found motivation to train hard and do well. Winnipeg is a fairly small triathlon community and is nowhere close to as large as Ontario. I would have a really good chance to place in the top 3 overall based on last years results. The Cornman only allows 100 competitors, it is a small race. It would be special to do it and see how the coarse would feel racing it in a well trained state. It would be a home coming of sorts. Plus Davis Sohor is doing his first HIM there and it would be fun to be in the field with him, like I was with his Dad back in 1986.

I tried to get up at 6:30 am to run before work but I was too tired and my legs were pretty sore. Actually all day they were sore but I knew I'd have to run through the pain because those are the workouts that really help you improve. 

At noon I took my bike to Endurosport to have it fitted again. I explained all the problems; sore upper back, lack of handle bar control, blister on heel of hand and the ball of foot pain. For about 1.5 hours, Scott Malone, an ex-professional triathlete fitted me. He was really good and made some major changes, specifically with the handlebars; raising and widening them and we kept the seat higher and far back. He raised the bars so much that he had to replace all the cables so I had a full turning radius. The other guy that fitted me had me in a much more aggressive position that was more suited for Olympic distance racing. Bike fitting is somewhat of an art and I expect I may have to go back for more adjustments. I'm looking forward to tomorrows ride to test it. He also rewired my speedometer for no cost and now it seems to be working well, which saved me $60 if I had to replace it.

After dinner I did my tempo run and felt much better than last week when I had my killer salad stomach problem. It was 13 C and the first time this year I ran in only a t-shirt and shorts. Afterwards I hit the pool. It had been a week since I last swam and as surprisingly I didn't slow down that much, maybe a couple of seconds per 100 meters. As I was swimming, a guy didn't realize we were not swimming in circles and swam head first in me. I didn't feel it too much at the time and I could tell it hurt him, he couldn't stop rubbing his head. My Dad's always told me that me and my brother are "hard headed". It felt good to get in the pool and for the first time my arms got lactic acid build up and I pushed through it. For those brief moments it started to put me in a zen like state, similar to running, except on the run the sensation goes on for virtually the entire run because I don't let up.

One of the highlights of the day was receiving the April Issue of Graphic Monthly Canada and seeing myself on the cover. I was surprised and flattered that they asked me to do it and joked to them that everyone else must have turned them down. 

Tempo Run - 50:50 / 6.87 miles / 7:22 pace / 139 avg HR

Swim - 1:08:28 / 3000 meters

Feeling much better...

I felt much better this morning. For the first time in a long time I got up just after 6 am and went for an hour plus run. I figured I'd better do a workout before work because I didn't know if I'd have enough time after work to fit in four different training sessions. I felt pretty good after the run and prior to going out the door for the run it was nice to spend 15 minutes in a quiet house having a cup of coffee and some toast.

At lunch time I went to the Y and did my weight training. Lunch is the perfect time to go because it is pretty slow and I can move through the sets pretty good and man do I work up a sweat. After work I got home and was a little fuzzy tired. Dinner wasn't ready, my mother kept Alice on the phone for over 2 hours and screwed up our schedule;-) , so I ate some leftovers and took a 15 minute nap. It's amazing how fresh I felt after only a short nap. I was on the road by 6 pm and hit the hills and did a couple hours on the bike and returned just before dark. I made sure I went up the three biggest hills again. Right now I'm really committed to get good at climbing steep hills. I did a very relaxed ride and decided to make the hills my friends, just like the wind. I included a picture of the back side of Appleby line but the photo doesn't do the hill justice, its much steeper than it looks.

I adjusted my bike seat before I left and moved it back and it made a big difference. I felt like I had more control of the front of the bike, especially on the downhills. Unfortunately when I got back from the ride, stretched and had something to eat it was too late to get to the pool with enough time to train before it closed, so I decided to do it tomorrow. It's too bad because I felt really good after my ride.

To help keep me focus on eating healthy I took a desk calendar and have started coloring each daily square with either a "green" highlighter (a positive color) if I succeed or a "pink" highlighter if I don't. As of today I have 1 box filled in and it's green. At least I'm off to a good start.

Moderate Run - 1:15:10 / 9.07 miles / 8:17 pace / 134 avg HR

Weights - 45:00

Bike -  2:03:03 / 55.80 km/ 27.20 / 121 avg HR

Sick little puppy...

No training today. I came home from work sick this morning. I'm now feeling a little better but don't want to risk it by training tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long training day with the combination of today's and tomorrow's workout sessions. I sure hope I feel better in the morning. 

I Got a nice email from my cousin Jason Guarino today, he's about 7 years younger than me. He told me I've motivated him to get back into shape and he's started to run again. It's amazing how that works, I saw Jason by chance at the Winnipeg Airport when we went home for Christmas and part of our conversation was around my transformation from "fat to fit" and doing the Ironman. Whenever I talk about training my intent is never to motivate, yet Jason is probably the 4th or 5th person that has told me that they have started training because I motivated them and they are now reading my blog regularly. 

I remember seeing a picture of Doug Martin in his bathing suit on the beach. He was a customer of mine and lost about 50 lbs and looked really good. Seeing that picture was motivating because I figured if he could do it, so could I. That is why I think others have gotten motivated by me. They figure if I can do it, so can they. What's interesting is that they also motivate me and when things are tough, I know they may be reading my blog and damn if I'm going to let myself slide. Heck, if I did, I know I'd get a comment from John Barclay kicking my butt. John already drops me emails if the blogs not posted before he goes to bed, it screws up his routine.

After feeling so crummy today I've made a decision to take better care of my body and improve my lifestyle by eating a little better, drinking less beer and not getting to bed too late on the weekends. I think this time I'm mentally prepared to be disciplined enough to do it. I was really tempted to eat the kids Easter candy today but resisted and that's a good first step. I've now set a goal to live a healthy lifestyle for the next 30 days. Then I'll go decided what to do from there. I attached a Music Video that Alyssa just finished for school and Reid was her actor.

Sick Day

Biking road kill...

I'm so sick of cycling in colder weather. Today it was 6 C and with windchill felt like -2 C. I did my long bike ride today and wasn't looking forward to it. I made myself an Easter brunch  and pushed my self out the door around 2:30 pm and did an out an back. The first half was right into the wind and I decided that I was going to do the most challenging hills around me. The hills I did was Bell School Line, Sixth Line and the back side of Appleby line. I didn't attack them. My goal was to try and keep my heart rate under 140 bpm which is near impossible. The interesting thing about doing big hills is that the smaller ones seem much easier. This year I'm going to try and at least do one big hill on every ride.

I think the positioning on my bike is causing my back and foot problems. I stopped during the ride and raised the seat height, hoping that will take pressure off the ball of my foot. It seems better. I'm also going back to the bike shop to have them look at my positioning on the bike. After every ride my upper back is hurting. I'm also finding that when I hit bumps it's hard to keep my hands on the handlebars. It's a little scary because I lack the control I'm used to and I'm afraid I'm going to wipe out. I've already had more close calls in the past month than I've ever had all time. 

It finally happened, a squirrel ran across the road and I ran over it with my front wheel. It wasn't a full grown squirrel and it happened so fast I didn't have time to react. I just kept my hands on my handlebars and focused on keeping the wheel straight. When the front wheel went over it, all I could hear was a crunch sound. I think it was the head or neck. Afterwards I stopped and went back to see if it was on the road and I was going to take a picture of it, but I couldn't find it. I figured it limped back into the bush to die. I was going fairly fast down a hill and I'm glad I didn't wipe out. 

Alice and I were tired today and not motivated to do much. We were going to have a Roast for Easter dinner but I told Alice not to bother. She was tired and I wasn't that hungry so we decided to go out for dinner instead. We've never eaten Easter dinner at a restaurant before. That is the tough part of moving to a new place with no family, special occasions aren't that special. We went to the Olive Press and the food was good but I felt like a bit of a loser going to a restaurant for Easter dinner. Reid also made a video for YouTube and is taking requests to build movie props. His account is FanBoyStudios.

Long Bike - 3:00:20 / 84.14 km /28.5 kph 

12

A Masterful day...

Last night Alice and I just hung around the home bar and took it easy. Jamie Grant ended up coming over for a few beers. About 6 weeks ago he finished Ironman New Zealand and is currently having problems training. It turns out that his family came down with pneumonia and he took a drug for it. Later he found out that there is a class action suit on this drug because it causes calf and Achilles problems which he now has. When he runs or cycles everything tightens up and he can't run and needs to take time for it to heal and then the process repeats its self. If that happened to me I'd go nuts, I need to train to keep mentally healthy.

I noticed the ball of my left foot feels bruised and I was looking on the net as to what it may be. Every thing I read was that I should look at my shoes and put some additional padding. I think I may change my shoes when I go to purchase a new pair. I've been using Asics for years and this new model 2140 felt different and for some reason I started to get blisters. Obviously something has changed from last years model 2130 to this years model.

Today I didn't do any training. I was going to swim but decided not to. We just did a little grocery shopping and sat down at the home bar in the afternoon and watched the Masters. We didn't leave until around 2 am. Reid was trying to tire himself out all day long because he wanted to go to bed and fall asleep right away. Tomorrow the Easter bunny is coming and every year leaves a basket of chocolate for him and Alyssa. He prepared a little snack for the Easter bunny and it was the grossest sandwich you can imagine with things like barbecue sauce, raw eggs, egg shells, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, etc. I guess he thinks that I'm the Easter bunny and was preparing a nice meal for me.

23

I decided not to take NO for an answer...

Last night after my training I took some Hammer Recoverite. I wasn't sure if I was going to do the 10 mile race this morning but figured if I did the Recoverite couldn't hurt. I managed to get up early and decided go for it and race. I wasn't sure if I'd have my best race because my heart rate was elevated from a heavy workout yesterday and no tapering but I was mentally prepared to give it my all. When I got to the site to register they told me they were sold out and I would not be able to race. I had checked the website yesterday and they said everything was sold out but the 10 mile run. It was the moment of truth, do I go home and do my long slow run or do I race. I DECIDED TO RACE!!!

I hung around the side of the start line and just before the gun went off I slipped into the middle of the pack. I was thinking that I was wearing the wrong shirt to crash a race in. The shirt I wore said "SUCK IT UP!!!" and was drawing all types of attention. I figured when they were looking at it someone might notice I had no race number. But luckily no one did. 

I went as hard as I could. The first mile was at a 6:48 pace. At the 5 mile marker I was averaging a 6:57 pace. I was a little worried at the 5 mile point because it was a looped coarse and it went through the start/finish line a second time. I was sure I was going to get caught. The coarse was pretty tough, some good hills and the last 2 miles was running into a medium head wind on a slight incline. My finishing time was 1:09:42, average pace 6:57 per mile / 4:19 per kilometer. With all things considered I was happy with the time. I'm sure if I tapered I would have done a little better but my goal was to run under a 7 minute mile and give it my all and I did that. My average heart rate for the entire run was 155, maxing at 162. My best pace going down a hill was 4:58 per mile. Based on the final results my time put me in 38th overall out of 290 finishers and 10th out of 49 in the 40 - 49 age group. 

The one thing about wearing the "S.I.U." shirt is that I constantly get cheered. Everyone on the coarse is telling me to "Suck it Up" as I run by. After the race, while I was stretching, a guy came up to me and thanked me. He said that for the last 3 KM all he could think of was my shirt and it motivated him to finish. That was cool. The only issue I had was after the race the ball of my left foot seems sore, like a mild bruise. I've noticed that it has felt like this, on and off, for the last couple of months. I hope it doesn't evolve into something major. I was happy that I was only 10 seconds slower on my last 5 miles than my first 5 miles. 

By mile 8 I finally got in the "zone" where I can run through the "pain" and actually go faster, usually I get in the "zone" by mile 6. I in the last two miles against the wind and up hill I was able to get my average down from 6:58 to a final 6:57 average. I'm sure I could have held that pace for a half marathon, which would have given me a 1:31:22, which would have been an all time PR by 15 seconds from my early 20's. After the run and when I got home my legs didn't even feel like I did a run, yet I couldn't have went faster during the race. That means I'm starting to get in decent shape. Last year my first race was an 18 miler and I averaged an 8 min pace. It looks like I've improved. I love it!

Road Race - 1:09:42 / 10 miles / 6:58 pace / avg hr 155 

31th out of 136 overall males / 10th out of 49 for the 40 - 49 age group

21

One stinky workout...

For the past two days I've been debating if I should do tomorrow's 10 mile road race. It's Good Friday and everything is closed, even all the pools. I haven't done a race this year and quite frankly I'm interested in seeing my current race shape and feeling some pain and suffering that you can only get from racing. The race starts at 9:40 am and I'm not setting my alarm tonight. I'll only go if I wake up naturally and fully rested. If not, I'll just do my own long run.

If I do race it's going to be interesting. I haven't done any tapering and the last two day's of training have been harder tempo workouts and weights. Not the recommended training sessions to do before racing, especially doing lots of leg weight training 12 hours before a race. I don't really care because I'm not really going for time, I'm going for the hardest I can run under the circumstances and I want to feel some pain and an endorphin high.

My tempo bike was pretty good. I can tell I'm getting stronger I was able to catch a couple of guys who had at least a 5 KM lead on me. I was also hoping there was a strong rider I could have found going my direction, I would have liked a little fun competition. On every ride this year my middle back is sore when I get home. It's either from the cold weather or it's from the positioning on the bike. It's annoying but I don't want to change the positioning until I know for sure it is not the cold weather. I can hardly wait until I can ride without a jacket, tights and Bootees.

When I got home it took me about an hour to warm up and then I did some weight training. I was open to staying home and watching some TV and doing weights on Saturday, thinking that postponing them would help my race performance. But there was absolutely nothing on TV worth watching and I figured I may as well get them over with and I'll just run the best race I can under the circumstances. When I got to the gym I almost passed out. I forgot that on Monday I rushed through the weight session to finish before they closed and I had worked up a shirt soaking sweat. Well, the shirt smell reminded me. When the smell of my own shirt bothers me, I know it's bad. I really tried to stay away from any women at the gym, I didn't want to gross them out. The guys I wasn't to concerned about. It takes a lot to gross a guy out and I could care less if I grossed them out. I would actually wear that as a badge of honor. That's one of the differences between Girls and Guys. Guys like grossing each other out.

Today, Alyssa was invited to her schools "Principal's Breakfast" were she received recognition and a certificate of achievement for how well she is doing in one of her classes. All year she has been working really hard, I don't think she has one grade under 90%. It's a good thing she takes after her mother.

Tempo Bike - 1:16:03 / 39.06 km / 30.8 kph / ave hr 136

Weights - 45 minutes

Eating healthy made me sick...

Man was I tired this morning, even after 8.5 hours of sleep. After yesterday's training I was sleepy tired and after I finished today's bike training session I became sleepy tired again. I did a moderate bike ride after work and it was windy. It was 50 kph with gusts up to 67 kph and only 7 C outside. It seemed that no matter what direction I was going in I was being blown by the wind. I had one scary moment when I was on busy Tremaine road, the same one that another cyclist was killed on about 3 years ago, and the wind almost blew me out of control. 

My speedometer is broken and no longer works. I just used my heart rate to gauge my effort and forgot about the speed which made the ride much more enjoyable. After I finished the ride I ate some Caesar salad that we picked up at Costco. I figured I should try to eat more healthy. The only problem was that when I went on my run after dinner and a nap, about half way through the run I was feeling as sick as a dog. The first mile was at a 6:55 pace and I felt food then it went all downhill after that. All I could feel was the salad in my stomach. Now I've eaten large pizza's and gone running right after and never felt this bad. All I could think about was finishing and never eating a Caesar salad from Costco ever again. I've never felt that sick during or after a run, ever! When I got home I just closed my eyes and almost keeled over on my driveway. After 5 minutes my heart rate still hadn't dropped down to much either, it was staying up around 122 bpm.

On the run I was thinking I need to take a break from Uncle Ben's rice and chicken for a while. I usually eat them for lunch and Alice often makes the same thing for dinner. I can't even look or think of them right now or I start feeling sick. Not a good food and training day.

Mod Bike  - 1:49:43 / 51.66 km/ 28.42 kph / HR avg 122

Tempo Run - 51.29 / 6.74 miles / 7:38 pace / hr 139 - 146

Had to juggle a few balls...

I got a call just before noon from HP, one of our suppliers. They offered me 4 tickets to the Toronto Raptors NBA game. I was reluctant to take the tickets because Tuesday's are pretty heavy training days for me. Yet at the same time the family really likes going to Raptors games and the seats were 3rd row with free food & booze. It's kinda a cool concept. The seats are part of the Platinum Suites which are underneath the stands and each one has a hostess and you hang out there and eat and drink before the game and during intermission. Then during the game the hostess serves you at your seats. It's really a first class experience. I've heard that just to lease one suite it costs $350,000 plus food charges.

The family really wanted to go. By coincidence Reid was saying to Alice yesterday that he'd love to go to a Raptor game again. The last time we went was probably 4 - 5 years ago. I decided to do my run at lunchtime. It was a really easy paced run and it was about -6 C with windchill. I was hoping I'd have some time to do the ride after work and before the game but there was just not enough time so I postponed it to tomorrow, which is probably not a bad thing because it's supposed to be warmer and I'd rather ride outside. This rarely happens to me but I was a little sleepy about an hour after the run and didn't perk up until I got a beer in me at the game. The game was fun, Raptors lost and we were back home by 10:30 pm. I had a couple more beers watching the news at the bar with Alice and it was off to bed. Also a big congratulations to Johan Stemmet, a Mark Allen trained athlete, who finished 9th at Ironman South Africa and managed to get a spot for the Hawaii Ironman. 

Moderate Run - 1:06:02 / 7.88 miles / 8:22 pace

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Man was I tired...

Alice and I were up late last night and I ended up getting only 5 hours of sleep. All day I was tired. When I got home I laid down on my bed and went into a coma like sleep and woke up at 8:15 pm. I should have been out the door to do my swim and weights at around 7 pm. Now I was running late. Actually, I was thinking of not going but I just couldn't talk myself into it. I have to train or it doesn't feel natural.

I wasn't going to be able to do both workouts tonight so I decided to do my swim only and postpone the weight training session. Twenty minutes into the swim they closed the pool because the chlorine was too low. It worked out okay because there was just enough time for me to do my weight training before the Y closed. In a way it wasn't too bad getting there late. I was still able to get in a swim and a weight training session.

I was looking at a picture of Lance Armstrong with his shirt off on the Internet. He is exactly my height and before his comeback he weighted around 180 lbs, the same as me. Now he is probably around 160 lbs if that. When I was at the wax museum I had my picture taken beside him. It's amazing how much thinner he is when you stand beside him. Tiger Woods on the other hand is a monster. I've been eating much better and drinking less and I'm really trying to get my weight down and I can feel my body getting tighter. I know my performance will go up dramatically just by weighing less.

Swim - 23:21 / 1100 meters

Weights - 45 minutes

Big day...

Lots to blog about today. First off, last night I got to bed before midnight. I can't remember the last time that happened on a Saturday night. Part of my dreams were about JohanStemmet's Ironman in South Africa. I dreamt I was watching him on the athlete tracker. During the dream his swim was 1:12. I got up at 7:30 and his actual swim was 1:15. He had an awesome 5:02 bike ride and finished 10th in his age group at a 10:25. I met Johan online, he lives in South Africa and was reading my blog. Now I also read his. I had to wait to go on my long ride because I had to see how he finished. It's interesting, winters coming for him and his season is ending while mine is beginning.

During the morning I carbo loaded and worked on my bike. I put on two $5 water bottle cages because my old ones weren't working and almost every ride I'd lose a water bottle from popping out behind my seat. I also put on a pump so if the CO2 doesn't work when I get a flat I won't be stranded. I finally got out the door at around 1:30 pm and within 1 minute I had a problem with my speedometer and then my shoe. Which was frustrating, but I persevered and within 5 minutes everything seemed to be going well. The weather was great and I was over dressed. I stopped early in the ride and opened my jacket and took off my gloves. There was a lot of cyclists out enjoying the day and every one of them waved when I passed. I think I've been too tough on cyclists for not being friendly.

At the 47 km mark my speedometer stopped working. It's the same one I had on my Quintana Roo last year and I had problems with it last year as well. That Roo was evil and I think it rubbed off on the speedometer. There is nothing more frustrating than not knowing your speed, distance and cadence. It's a good thing I have a back up watch and knew how long I'd been out on the ride. I did an out an back route. It's one of the few times I've done an out and back. I've noticed that out and backs seem to go quicker than circle routes. At the 2 hour mark I turned around to headed back and at the 2.5 hour mark my legs were starting to "SCREAM FOR MERCY"!!!

I decided to be the "LEG NAZI" and told them "NO MERCY FOR YOU"!!! At every hill, and there was a lot, I went as hard as I could within my target heart zone and every time they started to scream harder, I went harder. I was not going to let me legs off the hook. I was thinking about Johan's Ironman and was jealous. Not because of his great finishing time, but because I wasn't there doing it. Just watching him on the athlete tracker brought back memories for me. I knew how I felt at every mile marker and could empathize with him and the pain he was feeling at that mile. I didn't want to take it to easy, I wanted to try to push myself like I was in an Ironman. I wanted to feel some pain. My legs hated me! I told them that when we got back I'd give them a rest from riding by going on a brick run. On the ride I almost ran over a squirrel on a fast downhill with no time to stop. I'm waiting for it to happen, they cross my path all the time. This one came within 18" of my front wheel.

I got home safe with exhausted legs and within 3-4 minutes was out on the run. I was surprised how fast I was going and within 1 mile of returning to my house a great song came on the iPhone. It was the song from the movie "Crash". It was the song that plays when he is standing on the motorcycle in a hospital gown. It is that "every body's talking bout...". I love that song. When it came on I got extra energy, closed my eyes like the movie and ran blissfully. When it ended I wasn't home yet so I re-winded it and finished with it playing. 

After a good stretch, mapping the distance of the ride on "map my run", I barbecued a nice steak dinner and had some well deserved beers. Afterwards I was having fun going back and forth on Facebook with my Uncle Rick about Winnipeg vs. Burlington. I haven't heard from him in a while. I guess I won the "Yo City is so bad" or he's getting so old he gets to bed at 8:30 pm.

Long Bike - 4:00 / 127.70 km / 31.93 Km

Brick Run - 30:01 / 3.7 miles / 8:07 pace

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