What a difference a day makes...

Two days ago I had trouble walking downstairs without my quads and butt hurting. I felt like I was 80 years old. Fast forward with one day rest and my legs feel great.

I did my running speed work session at lunch time and it rained for the first half and then the Sun came out and it was humid for the second half of the session. I actually had to go to two different tracks to complete my workout.

I got kicked off the track at Corpus Christie and had to get into my truck all sweaty and go to M.M. Robinson about 10 minutes away. I'm glad I brought a towel to cover my seat from the water and sweat.

I ran strong during the workout and on the last few 100 sprints I could feel my hamstrings pulling a bit and my quads were getting major lactic acid build up. I pushed it just to the point of injury and pulled back. No pain, no gain.

After dinner I did a biking speed work session and half of it was in the rain as well. I felt really strong on the bike and was surprised by how good I felt. I had one of my fastest speed bike sessions of all time. There was times I was holding 50 kph on the flats.

I tried to go for a swim, but the pool was closed due to fouling. I didn't notice the sign and actually jumped in the pool and did 25 meters before they got my attention and told me to get out of the pool. I should have realized it was closed because no one was in any of the lanes, I just thought it was my lucky day.

They made me shower immediately in order to get all added chlorine off my body. I wasn't too disappointed because the swim was a low priority workout and it didn't really matter if I did it or not.

I got back to eating healthy today. Yesterday with Johnny and later with Alice, we went to a couple of bars and had taco chips and potato skins. Tasted great, but not the best for training. At the Judge & Jury bar, Alice and I met Colin, a fellow ex-Winnipeger. We had a fun conversation comparing Winnipegers to Ontarians and exchanged emails in order to get together again.

Speed Run - 45:06 / 6.07 miles / 7.25 pace

Speed Bike - 53:48 / 30.23 km / 33.7 kph

4

I don't think I'll ever grow up, thankfully...

I had dinner with all my yearbook sales and production staff last night. Just before I left home to drive to the restaurant I couldn't find my wallet. I was a little panicked because I'm the President of the company and I'm the guy who is to pay the bill.

I looked high and low and couldn't find it. I then thought back to when I last had it and it was the night before at the movie theatre. I called the theatre, spoke to the general manager and he told me they found it. I asked him where I could pick it up, and he sternly said to come to the front desk, and ask for him. This is were I started to experience some anxiety.

You see, I was at the theatre the night before and I brought in beer, which is not allowed, and left my empties under my seat. They would have found my wallet under my seat beside the empty beer cans, which meant they would know I was the one who brought the beer.

On the drive to the theatre I was playing all the scenarios through my mind. I was sure the general manager was going to ask me about the empty beer cans.

I was wearing my Ironman Finishing pullover and I thought if he asked me about the beer cans, I could point to the sweater and tell him I'm an athlete and don't drink. But then I thought about it and didn't want to lie. So then I thought about answers that I could give that don't confirm or don't deny that it was me. I then got really paranoid and figured they might have video, and if they did, they would see the beer cans in the pockets of my shorts. Would they press charges or ban me from the theatre?

Like I said, I was anxious and paranoid driving to the theatre. As I was driving, I was thinking of a recent comment my sister made to me when I posted a non flattering picture of her on facebook. Her comment was, "how old are you"? In a way, me and my brother Bob have never grown up. We are kind of like Benjamin Button. Actually, we're Bob and Bryan Button. We do age on the outside, but on the inside we still remain immature teenagers.

When I got to the theatre, it was anti climatic. The manager came, looked at me, compared me to my i.d. and then gave me my wallet and I left. Disaster averted, but the anxiety sure made me feel alive.

Today was a full day of sales meetings with my yearbook sales people and key production staff. I don't look forward to day long meetings and I've got some strong personalities in the group and I never know where these meetings are going to go.

Fortunately, I felt we had one of our best meetings and am really looking forward to the next school year. I'm happy with this past years progress and I'm confident in the production and sales people that I have in place. With all the new things we're doing and the enthusiasm and confidence I saw today, I think next year is going to be a good year.

After the meeting, I went for a few beers with John Napthine. Johnny is my brother from another mother and enjoys his beer like me. He is the production manager for our yearbook division. He is a high integrity, straight shooter, smart feller, no bull shit taker and one of the most wittiest and funniest people I've ever known. He's one of the few people I'd trust with my life. I took a picture of Johnny as we left Jack Astors.

On the training side, today was a scheduled rest day. I'm so glad because I am so sore. I needed today off. Officially, in my mind, my summer has begun today because I have no more sales meetings to prepare for until September.

Rest Day - Taper

12

My new runners are cursed...

I can't believe how much salt has been coming out of my body and I don't know where it's coming from. The other day my shorts were just covered after only a little more than an hour of biking speed work.

Last night, at the last moment, the family decided to go to the drive in. We loaded up with some rum, beer, pillows and blankets and off we went. It's great having an 18 year old that can drive. Bad news when we got there, all three screens were full.

We then decided to go to a regular theatre and went to "Land of the Lost" with Will Ferrell. What a BAD movie. I ate my popcorn, had some beers and fell asleep before it ended. It was one of those movies that you know sucks right from the beginning.

I slept in again this morning and when I did get up it was raining. I waited about an hour to see if it would clear before I went on my long run. It didn't, so I just went. My legs were so flat and sore. I'm so looking forward to tapering and letting them heal. I'm either going to have the race of my life in Morden or the worst, it all depends on how well my legs recover. I'm staying positive and think it will be my best race.

By the half way point on my run I was only averaging an 8:25 mile pace. Even on the downhills my butt and hamstrings were sore. For the last half of the run I picked it up and ended up averaging a respectable 8:02 pace. My heart rate was good, didn't get to high, it was just my legs, they had no jam.

My new shoes felt good and my legs seem to be adjusting to them nicely. This was only my third run in them and two of the runs were in the rain. These shoes are off to a wet start. It was a light rain and the air was warm, which made it very enjoyable. It's nice to run in that type of weather every once and a while. 

Of course right after I finished, the rain stopped and the sun came out. I'm still glad I did the run early, I still need to spend some time preparing for our big sales meeting tomorrow and I have dinner with all the sales people and production management tonight.

I'm really pining to do an Ironman this year. I know I was going to jump a year and forgo the expense, but I really want to do one. All I've been doing is looking at Iron distance races in November. There is the Silverman in Las Vegas that has over 12,000 feet of climbing. Dave Scott says it's the toughest Iron distance race. All the other Ironman races are sold out.

I found out yesterday that I qualified for an Ironman Canada spot this year at the Muskoka race, and had I stuck around, I would be doing Ironman Canada this year. Damn. That's the second time I didn't stick around, thinking I didn't do well enough and in both cases missed out. Last year it was for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Missing that one hurt big time.

Long Run - 1:40:20 / 12.47 miles / 8:02 pace / 134 avg hr

If I had $1 for every calorie burnt...

After today's workouts I set another milestone. Since I started my "fat to fit" comeback, I've now officially burnt over 1 million calories in 666 training sessions. 

Today's long ride had hot sun, wind, hills and stone chipped paved roads. It wasn't an easy ride and my legs were pretty flat from the beginning. I tried to be optimistic and figured Morden, which is a prairie town, is known to be hot and windy and this is an ideal training session to deal with those elements.

The bike was uneventful, other than I stopped to help a guy put air in his tires. He was a Mexican guy in blue jeans and a coat wrapped around his waist. The tires weren't flat but low. I pumped them up as he admired and asked me all kinds of questions about my bike. The bike he had was a Louis Garneau and much of it was carbon with Ultegra components. I don't know if it was his or if he's one of the migrant workers that work on the farms in the area and they supply it or if he stole it. I was a little paranoid and made sure I straddled my bike while I pumped his tires for him.

My legs and buttocks were sore during the ride and I'm glad my taper starts on Monday, that will give me almost 2 weeks to get some energy and strength back in them. I did a brick run right after and as hard as I tried I couldn't keep my heart rate down or slow up my speed without walking, and I just didn't feel like walking today. For the last 250 meters of the run I had my eyes closed much of the time because they were burning from salt in them.

We have some guys building a fence in our back yard and today they were digging the holes. They started when I left and when I got home they had completed 6 of them. The ground is so hard and full of rocks and they have to hand dig them. It is really hard work. When I got home and saw them working like dogs and frustrated, I realized I'd much rather train than do hard labor.

After blogging, which was tough because I kept rubbing my salty eyes, I had a shower and weighed myself. Before I showered I drank a large pitcher of water, probably 3 - 4 liters. Even with that I was 3 lbs lighter than when I started. I figured I lost at least 10 lbs today from sweating.

Long Bike - 3:19:03  / 102.99 Km / 31.0 kph / 127 avg hr

Brick Run - 30:05 / 3.77 miles / 7:58 pace / 147 avg hr

11

Last big pump...

After this weekend I start my two week taper for the Morden Half Ironman. It really shouldn't be called a taper, that is misleading word. When I think of the word taper I think of taking it easy, but for me, that's not the case. 

For the next two weeks as part of my taper, I'll end up doing 3 days of Olympic or longer triathlons, before doing the 4th which will be the half Ironman. That works out to 4 triathlons in only 2 weeks. It's not so much a taper as a performance sharpener.

It's kind of weird only doing one week of regular training and going right into a 2 week taper. I'm curious to see how it effects my race times, will I be faster or slower? 

Had a good swim at lunch time today, it was one of those swims were time flew by and it was a lot of short intervals at all out speed. I love those things. 

Today was my last weight training session for the next few weeks. I made sure I gave my legs an extra blast of weight, especially on the lunges. My legs and butt were sore after those lunges. My philosophy is no pain, no gain.

At work we got recognized this year for being one of the top 100 printers in Canada (#90). It's too bad it doesn't come with a cash award, I'd really like to buy those Zoot runners. I was joking with a guy that with the state of the print industry, I'm surprised they even found 100 printers in all of Canada. 

Speed Swim - 1:10:08 / 3000 meters

Weights - 45:00

6

21 Years and counting...

Every cloud has a silver lining. 

When I was in grade 10 I was kicked out of St Paul's High School, an all boys Jesuit High School. I ended up quitting school for a year, getting a job and decided to go back to school the year after. 

Then the Jesuit high school told me they wouldn't let me back until I completed grade 11, so I went to a regional public school were I ended up meeting my wife.

Had I not gotten kicked out of school, had I not taken a year off, and had I been allowed to return to St Paul's for grade 11, I would never have met my wife. 

Alice and I met in high school when we were 16 and 3/4 years old (we're only one month and one day difference in age) and it was apparent early on that we were soul mates. What seemed like my life being a little out of control at the time, was actually a tremendous blessing in disguise when I met Alice. I believe it was fate.

After we met and started dating, I told Alice about an experience I had when I was around 8 or 9 years old. At the time, my friend and I rode our bikes to a park that was about 3 miles away from my home, which for a kid, seemed like it was 20 miles away. It was a real adventure. My parents would have freaked out if they knew.

When we got to the park, from a distance, I noticed a girl my age on the top of the monkey bars. I didn't say anything to her but I had the strangest sensation. I looked at her and had this warmth come out of my chest and I couldn't stop looking at her . I never said anything to her and then after a while my friend and I rode home.

It turned out that that park was just down the street from where Alice lived and she played at that park all the time. She was a bit of a tomboy and loved climbing the monkey bars. When I told her that story, she told me that she too remembered that day. 

She remembers being on the top of the monkey bars and looking down at a boy with a bean shave haircut. (At that time my brother and I were the only kids in Winnipeg with a bean shave, most kids were growing there hair long in the 70's, but my parents made sure me and my brother and I looked like we lived in the 50's). Alice saw this bean shaved boy and also had a warm feeling toward him.

Once I met Alice in high school, we knew we were meant for each other, and discovering we both had the same experience at the park at a young age added to it. We ended up dating for 6 years before we got married and today is our 21st Wedding Anniversary. That means we have been together 27 years, which is longer than when we've been apart. We not only finish each others sentences, but one can be thinking about something and the other, out of the blue, starts talking about the same thing.

I knew I met the right person when on our wedding day she had no problem with me doing an Olympic distance triathlon in the morning. All she cared about was that I was at the church on time later that afternoon.

I sent Alice flowers today and I made reservations for dinner at the Powerhouse restaurant in Stoney Creek. I made sure I got my training done early. It was a track speed workout and I did it in a torrential down pour. I've never run in that type of rain and if I didn't have an anniversary dinner planned I would have stopped and done it later. It was so bad that Alice was in her car at the time and with the wind shield wipers going full blast couldn't see out the window, she thought she was going to get in an accident it was so scary. Meanwhile the track had about 3 inches of water on it, it was a huge puddle and my shoes each weighted about 5 lbs.

I needed that workout, it was my first running speed session in almost 4 weeks. I've lost a little speed and my quads were a little sore at times. My fastest 1600 was at a 6:11 per mile pace. I was just glad to finish, dry off, relax and enjoy the evening with my Pippy Longstocking.

Running Speedwork - 50:03 / 7.03 miles / 7.07 pace

8

Shoes do make a difference...

Yesterday I decided to go look at Zoot Ultra TT 2.0 runners. I've been looking at my long transition times and figured I might be able to shave them down a minute or so if I didn't have to wear socks, and the Zoots are designed to be worn sock less.

I went to Running Free, the largest running store in Canada, and they were really knowledgeable and helpful. I lucked out and one of the partners who was the shoe buyer just happened to be walking by and decided to help me learn more about the Zoots.

He had me put them on and do a run through the store as he watched me. They were the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. He noticed that I pronate slightly on the right and don't have any pronation whatsoever on the left. I told him I've been wearing Asics 2140's and I've been wearing that model and it's predecessors for the past 15 years. He asked me if I was having any problems with my left leg because the 2140's would cause my perfectly aligned left foot over pronate.

I then told him that my left foot has been bothering me all year and the side of my leg became really sore after Sunday's long run. He said that makes sense because it would have me running more on the side of my foot. 

He recommended Asics DS Trainers which has a lower profile and less pronation correction built in, and then suggested that over time I could probably go to a neutral shoe, especially with the faster speeds I run. The shoes ended up costing me $180 with tax. Shoes in Canada are way more expensive than the same models in the U.S.

When I got home I went on the web and discovered that I could buy the same shoes from a U.S. website, after exchange and delivery, for $105 and the Zoots for $127, the Zoots in Canada cost $202. Because the guy at Running Free was so helpful, and in the long run probably saved me from ongoing injury, I decided to pay the premium and not take them back. Plus I really wanted to try them out and I had a feeling that using the old shoes on last nights run could be "the straw that broke the camels back" and cause a major injury.

It's important to note that although I'm not going to buy my next pair from Running Free, unless they are competitive with the U.S., I still buy a lot of stuff from them. They are a great store. Yesterday I also spent a lot on shirts, shorts and a triathlon transition mat with them.

The shoes felt much better and I found myself running differently. I was actually heel striking to the inside and more under my hips, rather than the outside and in front of my hips. I could tell I was using new muscles and I'm sure it will take some time until those muscles and tendons strengthen, but initial indications are positive. I'd love to get the Zoots, but financially I can't justify them, especially after spending $180 on training shoes and $120 on other stuff.

Buying the new shoes was a necessity, the old ones already had 446.3 miles on them and needed to be changed regardless. When I got home I looked at the bottoms of my old shoes and discovered that John at the store was perfectly right, I was over pronating on the left foot. I could see that the left was excessively worn down on the outer heel. The marker was even worn off on the left shoe but not on the right one. 

This taught me an important lesson in that I need to take more of a personal interest in the shoes I'm wearing. Had I even looked at them before I would have seen there was an irregular wear problem and that I was over pronating on the left. In any event, I'm glad he caught it and for future I'm going to keep a close eye on my shoes wear patterns. My next pair of shoes are going to be a neutral fit and I'd really like to get a pair of Zoots one day.

After work I did my bike speed work session in 33 C heat. I loved it. I did two king hills and going down one of the hills I hit 80.3 kph and practiced my descending techniques in order to prevent speed wobbles. By the time I got home I was full of salt, I couldn't stop rubbing my eyes and my cycling shorts had salt all over them. My legs are back to normal and I went as hard as I could and felt wonderfully spent afterwards.

Bike Speed Work - 1:14:33 / 37.55 km / 30.2 kph 

I was up with the birds...

I don't use an alarm clock so I wasn't sure if I was going to get up early enough to do a bike or a run this morning. 

It makes it easier to split the workouts, one in the morning and one in the evening, but if I didn't get up in time, I would have had to do them this evening in 27 C plus weather. Which isn't a bad thing, I like the heat, but I prefer to split the workouts to aid in my recovery.  

Needless to say I got up and was out the door by 6:30 am for my ride. It was a beautiful morning, 18 C and very little wind and traffic. The first 20 minutes of the ride was depressing, my legs were still sore and I had trouble averaging 26 kph, but after that I loosened up and was happy with the ride. I noticed that when you ride early in the morning there is no animals crossing the roads, I guess they're eating or sleeping, which is good because I don't have to worry about riding into one. 

This mornings ride was so beautiful and peaceful and I couldn't stop thinking about it all day. It was the first warm morning ride of the year and is etched in my memory.

I also hit another milestone. Since I got my new bike on January 27th, I've put on over 3000 kms. It's actually a little more because my speedometer wasn't working for some of the rides and when I used it on the wind trainer, but who's counting? That was a joke, of course I'm counting, if you've been following my blog for any period of time you know all I do is keep stats.

All day it was hot, it got up to 30 C and later this week they say it will hit 35 C with the humidex. Yes!!! Finally!!! I love the heat!!! I ran after dinner and it was a nice 25 C and shady as the sun went down. I bought new shoes today and I'm glad I did, they made a huge difference. For tomorrows blog I'm going to show a picture of my old shoes and go into detail of what type of new shoes I got and why. Tonight's run could have been a disaster if I didn't get new shoes.

Mod Bike - 2:03:01 / 64.9 km / 31.6 kph / 129 avg hr.

Mod Run - 56:23 / 7.08 miles / 7:57 pace / 135 avg hr.

No regrets...

I had another weird dream last night during my 9 hours of sleep. This time I went to South Africa and met and stayed at Johan Stemmets house with my family, we follow each others blogs but have never met. While we were there, Reid and I went swimming and the only place to swim laps was in the ocean and it had water streaming that looked like lanes. There were hundreds of swimmers in wetsuits doing laps and the water was fairly warm. The water then went into some building that had all kinds of pools in it with no windows and lots of tunnels. Like I said, it was a weird dream. 

Yesterday on my long run I did a lot of self-talk and decided that I'm going eat well, sleep well and try to minimize my beer drinking in preparation for the Morden Half Ironman, which is only 3 weeks away. I'm really hoping I could get my weight down to 175 lbs or less. This morning I weighted in at 180.2 lbs and 21.0 % body fat. I got off to a good start yesterday and ate perfectly.

The mantra that I keep saying over and over is NO REGRETS, NO REGRETS, NO REGRETS. I don't think I'll ever do the Morden Ironman again, so I want to make sure I have a good race. Plus, my doctor is expecting me to reduce my fat and alcohol intake regardless.

About 4 hours after yesterday's long run, my legs felt like I ran a marathon. Going down the stairs was hard to do and the side of my calves were also tight. The first thing I did this morning was massage them with "the stick". I can't believe how quickly you can lose your muscle fitness in only a few weeks. 

I went to the pool to do my long swim and weights. I didn't swim as fast as my last speed swim but I did do 2200 meters at an average 1:51 pace. My arms were definitely not as strong as my last swim. 

Long Swim - 1:00:51 / 2500 meters 

Weights - 45:00

Dreaming of the Morden Tinman...

We got to bed pretty early, especially for a Saturday night. Since 3 pm yesterday afternoon we were at our neighbor Gilles surprise birthday party for a barbecue and beers. By the time we got home it was around 7 pm and whenever you start drinking in the afternoon you tend to get tired early.

The one bad thing about having too many beers is that you lose your self control for food. At the party I didn't snack on any food and just had the chicken, steak and salad. I was so proud of myself. When I got home I found the Fathers Day Dairy Queen ice cream cake hidden at the bottom of the fridge. Of course I couldn't resist and Alice agreed to let me eat it. I ate about 2/3 of the cake and I blew my eating plan for the day. Too much beer, equals too little willpower. 

I got a whopping 10 hours of sleep. I needed it. Even with that I woke up and my legs and buttocks was a little sore. I'm not sure if it was from the 4 hour ride or getting back to doing weights on Friday. It was probably both.

Last night I had the weirdest dream. As you may know, my next race is in Morden Manitoba on July 11th, it's the oldest Half Ironman in Canada. It used to be called the Morden Tinman and now they changed the name to the Morden Cornman because that weekend is the town's Corn and Apple festival. I much preferred the name Tinman. It's a very small race by Ontario standards and they cap the race at 100 athletes. 

I'm really excited about this race for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that it is the first ever triathlon I did in my life and it is the race that I met my good friend, Rich Sohor, when we both ran off the not so well marked course together. I'm really excited to go back and do it again after 20 plus years and see if I can beat the times I set when I was in my late teens and early 20's. 

The second reason I'm excited to do it is that it is going to be Davis Sohor's first half Ironman ever. Davis is Rich's 21 year old son. Rich and I ran our first ever Half Ironman together and now Davis and I are going to do the same. I have a picture of Sharon Sohor pregnant with Davis as she watched Rich finish the race.

Alice is also looking forward to watch it and revisit it from a spectator perspective. Because there is only 100 athletes it is much easier to find me and they can drive the bike course in the car, take video and pictures, and cheer me on. One of my good friends, Gord Brauer, is also going to come out and watch and of course we will have a post race party afterwards. It will be a real homecoming event.

So last night I had a dream about being at Morden for the triathlon. It was a disaster. I got out of the water and when I got to the bike I realized I didn't have my contacts in. Then I couldn't find any of my gear, not even my prescription sunglasses. I couldn't find my bib. It turns out that I did no pre-race preparation and none of gear was set up properly. I even had to find my bike because it wasn't in the rack. I must have spent at least 10 minutes in the transition area looking for my stuff as other people, who were much less capable, were passing me and getting out on the road well ahead of me.

I ended up just having shoes and a helmet, but no water or food, and decided to race anyways. Then, just as I was getting momentum I came across a series of obstacles and got lost on the course because I wasn't prepared. I kept having to ask people to help me and my glasses were limiting my full vision. It was very frustrating because I wanted to make sure I had one of the best races of my life and here I was behind almost everyone. 

Then I woke up. Needless to say I got the message that I need to take this race seriously and be prepared. I'm definitely going to drive the course the night before, I'm going to check and double check my gear and I'm going to try and eat as well as I can for the next three weeks to get my weight down as low as possible. I'm starting to get some love handles again and being 4 - 5 lbs down will be helpful on race day. It's going to be hard to eat and limit my drinking because the weekend before we are going to one of the neighbors cottages.

Today is fathers day and we finally got some nice weather. It was 24 C and sunny when I went for my long run. It was the first long run I've done in almost 3 weeks and it felt good to do one. It was an okay run, the sun was hot and I was sweating a lot. I did the number one side road hills and had to walk at least 6 times to keep my heart rate down. For the last 2.5 miles it was impossible to keep it under 140 bpm. I think part of it was because I didn't drink or eat for the entire run.

For fathers day, Alyssa and Reid gave me some barbecue gloves and a devise that allows you to cook wieners without burning them, they hate burnt wieners. We went to a Frankie Tomatto's for dinner, Alyssa's choice. We made it a fathers day and Alyssa's finishing school with great marks celebration dinner. At the dinner we gave Alyssa a card that told her we deposited some money in her bank account as a gift. The restaurant was an awesome choice.

Long Run - 2:04:56 / 15.42 miles / 8.02 pace / 143 avg hr

Hitting a milestone in the rain...

All week they predicted rain for today and they were right. Mark Rutledge had a long ride planned, rain or shine, and I decided to join him. He's training for Ironman Canada this year, he also raced last weekend at Muskoka. Mark is in my 40-44 age group and we were talking about how fast the winners in our group are. It is unbelievable, some are professional calibre and are beating some of the pro's who are 20 years younger.

I hate wet feet when I ride, so before I left the house at 8 am after only 6 hours of sleep, I taped plastic bags over my socks before I put my shoes on. They worked like a charm for about 2.5 hours, my feet stayed dry. 

It was a nice easy, casual ride and Mark and I chatted the entire time. For over half the ride it was raining fairly steady. The one good thing about riding with someone else is that the time goes by so much faster. We were 3 hours into the ride and to me it felt like we were only out for 1.5 hours. We went fairly slow and I didn't mind, I could still feel my left quad soreness from last weekends race. I couldn't have went much faster if I wanted to, my heart rate was good and low, but my legs just had no strength.

I made a point of going down some steep hills, I needed to get my mojo back. My top speed got to 69 kph in the rain and I had no speed wobble. I practice my speed wobble prevention technique and Mark even went by me on the inside on one of the downhills which startled me a little but I kept everything under control. 

When I got home I was soaked and my hands looked like they had been in a pool for 4 hours and were very wrinkly. Physically I felt fine, legs didn't feel bad at all. If felt like I only did a 2 hour ride max. After a good stretching session I dried off the bike, cleaned and re-lubed the chain. I must like this bike because I've never done that for any of my other bikes. Normally I'd let them drip dry and accept the rust on the chain.

Today was a milestone. I surpassed the 20,000 km mark of total training mileage. In 659 days, I've done 1027 workouts, which totaled 20,117 kms (12,472 miles) of training. 

Long Bike - 4:05:31 / 112.5 km / 27.5 kph / 123 avg hr

11

Also, Reid finished his latest video, attached below. As you can see, I got the video camera fixed the same day. Panasonic was great to deal with and they replaced the entire lens compartment.

I couldn't believe my swim...

I bought a new pair of shoes today. There was a wholesaler who was selling all their unsold inventory. There was some great deals. I ended up buying a pair of track shoes with no cushion on the heal. Although it came with cleats, I'm not going to use them. 

I'm going to experiment with these shoes to see if having no cushion on the heel helps simulate barefoot running. I'm not sure when I'm going to try them, but I'm going to try it eventually. I figured I couldn't go wrong because even if the don't work, they only cost me $20.

I got to the pool late and wasn't even sure if I wanted to a swim at all, but I pushed myself to do it and I'm glad I did. It was a speed session with lots of intervals. I decided to change my stroke slightly. I noticed on the Muskoka Triathlon video that during my warm up I swim with my fingers open. I've always done this because it feels more natural. This swim I decided to close my fingers and see if it would make much of a difference.

I was also reading Hans Winters blog and he was saying that his arms were sore during the swim. I've never had sore arms swimming. I think that is one of the reasons my swim is not that strong, I'm not prepared to go into the pain zone during the swim. I will go there on the bike and run, but not the swim.

The result of closing my fingers was the best swim session in my life by far. I did over 2000 meters of intervals and my fastest 100 meters was 1:31 and my slowest was 1:39, most where under the 1:35 range. Even during the easy warm up and warm down I was doing 1:43's. I couldn't believe it! 

Phycologically it told me that I can swim faster and I noticed my heart rate was much higher than normal. I may never do these times again, and this may have been a "fluke", but I was doing something right and it showed me I can swim faster. Needless to say, I'm going to start keeping my fingers closed.

I did 2500 meters but almost stopped at 2300 meters. I thought I was done and when I got out of the pool I realized I missed a set and was 200 meters short. I was already on the deck and had dried off and took about a minute to decide if I should just stay short or finish all the sets. I ended up jumping back in the pool and finishing the last 200 meters.

After the swim I did weights and felt pretty good, except the lunges were a little tough on the legs. After dinner, Alice and I went to Jamie's Grants place, sat in his back yard with his wife Barbara and had cocktails and cigars.

Speed Swim - 56:21 / 2500 meters

Weights - 40 minutes

11

Sharping the saw...

I'm so proud of myself on sticking to my post race recovery plan. I've been active, but not pushing it. My legs were still sore today and I decided that after 3 days in a row of active recovery I'm going to take today off from training. I have a long bike and run this weekend and I want to be recovered enough to do them.

It worked out well because I was able to attend an Entrepreneur Organization information evening and do some reading. I'm finding that joining the Oakville Chamber and getting involved with other organizations is improving my perspective and helping me to establish a more broad business network. Since moving to Toronto, I really haven't gotten out much and developed a business network like I had in Winnipeg.

I used to read business books all the time, then about 6 years ago I stopped. I decided to start reading again to help me gain some new perspectives, motivate and keep positive. It's not like I lack those qualities, but, like triathlons, you constantly need to commit yourself to personal growth in order to reach your goals.

I got a call to day from my son Reid "Spielberg", he broke the video camera, which is his most prized possession. He was really freaked out and didn't know what he was going to do without a video camera. You would have thought he lost his arm. 

I asked him what happened and he said he only dropped it 5 inches on the counter top. Luckily it is still under warranty and the manufacturer is going to fix it. Even with that, I can't get him off my back because now he wants to know when he's going to get it back. 

Recovery Rest Day - No training

Shuffling in the rain...

Busy day. 

Up early for a Chamber of Commerce networking meeting, then work on budgets, off to the dentist, the doctor and back to work for an important meeting and more number crunching.

My gum is still infected, and it has been since January, and everything the dentist has tried has not gotten rid of the infection. Now the infection is causing bone deterioration. My dentist referred me to a specialist. I have a feeling this is going to be very expensive to fix. I think they may have to remove the tooth and then do whatever they do to replace it. 

Then I went to the doctor for my blood work results and the good news is that I don't have hepatitis A, B or C. The bad news is that he is not certain what the cause is. He wants me to reduce my beer drinking and the amount of fat I'm eating. I kept asking if the exercise has anything to do with it and he said that there has been no research to support that my enzymes would become elevated with exercise. I was drinking the same or more than I do now before I started exercising and my enzymes were better than fine. Once I started exercising they got out of whack.

My theory is that it may be because of the beer drinking, combined with exercise. I think that my liver is busy eliminating waste from training and when I drink lots of beer, all at once, it shocks the liver and it can't keep up with removing the waste from both the exercise and beer at the same time. I'm sure there is no research on this theory. After all, who do you know that trains at least 14 hours a week and parties and drinks as much beer as I do? I bet they couldn't find 100 people in the world, and that might be stretching it. 

In the short term I'm going to try and do what he says. I'm going to try to eat better and reduce my beer consumption, which is not going to be easy. He did tell me that my liver does not have permanent liver damage and that a fatty liver is reversible, if I take his advice. 

I did ask him how long I'd live if I didn't follow his advice and I didn't really get a clear answer. He probably was shocked I'd ask him that. My thought was that if by doing what he said gives me an extra couple of years but I have to sacrifice having a good time, then I don't know if I want to do it. I'd rather have 65 Sammy Davis Jr. years versus 100 boring years.

My old doctor did have a nutritionist call me yesterday. This nutritionist helped him, through diet, to cure his prostate cancer. His assistant told me that the process is to meet with the nutritionist for a 3 hour meeting and he goes through my entire medical history. From that, he develops a personalized nutritional plan and reviews it with me. The cost is $695, which is a lot of money for someone to tell me I need to reduce my beer intake and eat more fruits and vegetables and natural foods. If my insurance plan covers it, I'll go. If not, I'll figure something out on my own and see if it works.

My doctor said that if I take his advice and we don't see an improvement, then he will refer me to a specialist. I think that is a fair approach. My next blood work test is going to be in 90 days.

I went for a recovery run in the rain tonight and it was more like a shuffle. It's been a while since I've run that slow and I enjoyed it. My legs are still a little stiff from lactic acid build up and I could feel tightness in the muscles while I ran. After a while they loosened up and afterwards I took extra time to have a really good, long, stretch.

Race Recovery Run - 51:32 / 5.65 miles / 9:05 pace / 121 avg hr 

Active recovery feels good...

My legs are STILL sore from Sunday's race. My focus is to sleep as much as I can and eat as good as I can to help speed the recovery. Last night I just took it easy and edited my Muskoka Long Course Video as we watched "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here". 

I asked Alice if she wanted to go mountain biking with me today, but she had too much to do, so I decided just to take my road bike and go for a very easy ride. Before I left I took off my carbon racing wheels and brake pads and replaced them with my training wheels and regular brake pads. When I looked at the race brake pads they were worn down big time, not surprisingly. 

I've been nervous about going down hills after my speed wobble. I did some research and the way to prevent a speed wobble, or get out of one, is to not sit on your seat, keep most of your weight forward and keep your knees tight to the top bar of the frame. I went down one hill and got up to 58 kph and practiced the technique. After a few hills I got my nerve back and I'm actually looking forward to going down some big hills again.

I also read about speed wobbles that happen when your riding with no hands. That got me thinking because when I was a young kid I could ride my bike forever with no hands. Now that I'm older I've been to chicken to try it, especially on a triathlon bike. Tonight I decided to try to ride with no hands and was able to do it for about 15 seconds. I'm going to practice this because I think it will help me better improve my confidence and bike handling skills.

I was taking it easy and then saw another cyclist in front of me, who looked back at me and saw I was coming, so he started to push it. I debated if I should chase him or let him go and continue on my easy ride. I decided to catch him because I felt like talking. My heart rate shot up over 140 bpm for a few minutes until I caught him. 

I rode beside him for five minutes and we chatted until I had to take a different route to get home. It turns out that he too was on a recovery ride from mountain bike racing on the weekend in St. Catherines. I told him about my speed wobble this weekend and he told me he had one once on his mountain bike and knows how scary they can be. To get a speed wobble on a mountain bike, which I've read is rare, you've got to be flying.

My heart rate for most of the ride was around 90 - 110 bpm. I just did a nice leisurely ride and "smelt the roses", except for those 3 minutes of effort. It was most enjoyable to take it easy and I don't even think I broke a sweat.

Recovery Bike Ride - 54:29 / 24.23 km / 26.6 kph

This time I'm going to recover properly...

After the race my legs didn't feel too bad, today they were sore when I woke up and all day long. I love that feeling, it feels like you did something and once the soreness goes away your legs are going to be stronger. 

One thing I've never been good at is taking time to recover after a race. This time I've decided it's going to be different. I'm going to take it easy and do active recovery. Today at lunch time I went to the pool and did a recovery swim. I went super slow and didn't even have a watch on. I did freestyle, breast stroke, back stroke, kicking only and arm paddles only, I really mixed it up. 

It was one of the most enjoyable swims I've ever had. All I was focusing on was movement to get the lactic acid out of my body and letting the cool water reduce any inflammation. I was going so slow that I had old ladies wearing swim caps with flowers on them pass me. I just tried to have fun and even did some diving to the bottom of the pool.

As I was swimming I was watching the old people in their water aerobic class. There is about 14 women and 3 men. The funniest thing I saw was one of the old guys baggy bathing suit make him look like he was on Viagra. Here he was in the middle of all these women, looking like he was sporting wood. I wished I had an underwater camera, it was hilarious.

I was reflecting on yesterday's race and have determined that it is much more enjoyable to race a triathlon than to run to finish it. First off, to race it, you must train a lot. To finish, you train much less and just enough to give you the confidence you'll finish. When you race it you are in control and you are tackling the course, when you run to finish, the course is tackling you. 

The race was an out and back and I saw hundreds of people just starting their run as I was close to finishing mine and many looked dead tired. It looked like such a physical and mental struggle for them. I've been there before and it hurts. I'd much rather put in the mileage, race hard and enjoy it, as opposed to just running it to finish. Don't get me wrong, it is a major accomplishment to finish, it just hurts more than being in good enough shape to race it.

It turns out that the bike course was long. Instead of 55 km, it was just over 56 km. That makes sense because my odometer had my average at over 35 kph and the final race results only had me at 34.4 kph. I'm glad I found out about that because I was surprised and bummed that the results didn't have me over 35 kph. 

I also found out that the run from the water to the timing mat was exactly 1 minute, which means that I actually did the swim in 1:49 per 100 meters. I knew it was my best ever swim, I could feel it. I also find it interesting that I'm swimming faster this year with only 2 swim sessions a week versus 3 sessions a week last year. And I'm putting in less mileage during those sessions this year. 

Recovery Swim - 50:00 / 2000 meters.

I went as hard as I could and almost died...

I slept really light last night. All I could hear was Alice breathing and Reid coughing. Reid is really sick. He has allergies and we think he has a cold. He's blowing his nose so much that he's gotten nose bleeds. He is in just an incredible amount of pain and add the fact that he didn't want to go to the race, all he did was complain. Alice is going to get him checked out for the second time tomorrow, we know he is allergic to grass and oak, but there was a couple of cases of "swine flu" in his school so it is best to be safe versus sorry.

I don't know why, but I was very nervous about this race. It was not a full half ironman but close. It was a 2 km swim, 55 km bike and a 15 km run. I know I probably did more training than most, and in reality this is really a baby race for me. My goal was to do a 3:30 and I would be happy because the guys I raced close times to last year typically did around a 3:30 pace. My nerves were really getting to me, I think a big part of it was how I was going to do on the bike portion. Would I be better or worse than last year?

We got to the race site without a hitch and it turned out to be a nice day, sunny and warmer than I would have thought for an 8 am start. The water was also surprisingly warm. I was anticipating it really cold and it was actually quite nice. 

It was the most enjoyable swim I've ever had in my wetsuit. Normally I feel constricted around the chest, but this time I felt pretty good. The only hitch was about 300 meters into the swim, someone swam into me and I started to feel claustrophobic and felt like I couldn't get enough air when I breathed. I kept telling myself to relax and pretend that I was doing laps in the pool, and that I swim so much, I shouldn't be worried. It worked, and about 100 meters later I was fine. 

I swam with long strokes and kept to the outside, even around the buoys. I got out of the water in 36 something. The official time shows longer but that is because the timing mats weren't at the end of the swim. We had to run at least 200 meters to the timing mats. I figured it added at least a minute to my swim time and if I took that extra minute off the swim time, it would have been a 1:51 per 100, which would have been an all time personal best.

My transition from the swim to the bike took longer than I would have liked. It took longer to put on my socks and had my racing belt wasn't clipping properly. I had one of the worst first transition times.

During the swim I was wondering if I was going to have a good bike time. I wasn't sure how I'd feel when I got on the bike and was really looking forward to this race ending. Once I got on the bike, I hammered. It was a very hilly out and back course. I noticed on the map that the first half was more uphill and I figured if I was going to have a good time I needed to go hard on the first half. Which I did. About 5 km into the bike I was averaging 39 kph on hills. I was flying by other riders.

By the 20 km mark my left thigh started to cramp. I've never had this before, but I've never pushed so hard from the very beginning of the bike on relentless hills. My original plan was to follow Mark Allen's advice and race this distance at a 90% effort. The problem was that I saw that my heart rate never got over 153 bpm and was well within my zone, which couldn't exceed 159 bpm. I raced at around a 97% effort.

Everything was going fairly well, except for the thigh, and I was flying with my head down, down a hill. There was no one yelling "turn ahead" and by the time I saw it, I was only about 40 ft away from the turn and I was going about 45 kph. I put on both brakes "hard". The bike started to "squeal" and I went to my side "like I was stopping on skates". Then I almost went over the side of the bike and had to straighten it to keep me from wiping out. Once it got straight I did the same thing again and it "squealed" and I almost when over the side and had to straighten it out. By this time I got the bike down to a speed that I could try to stop it going straight. I gripped hard on the brakes and it "squealed" right off the pavement and into the gravel, which was only about 10 feet before I would have hit a metal rail guard.

I lost time, but was lucky to be alive. I got off the bike, and ran the bike back to the road and got back on and started to hammer again. I probably lost 30 seconds and caught and passed the guy I had just passed before almost wiping out. I figured this was the last of my potential mishaps. Wrong!!!

I passed hundreds of people. The only person that passed me on the first 40 km was a guy on a Cervelo P4. It is one nice looking bike and he was really flying. The turnaround was at the bottom of a hill and I was pre-warned that it can be dangerous and was prepared. On the way back I kept going as hard as I could. My thigh was still sore, but getting better. I was giving my thigh motivational self talk, like, "relax, everything will be alright, just loosen up" and I was drinking Mark Allen's Infinite drink hoping the electrolytes would help. I was also wondering if I'd be able to have "any speed whatsoever on the run" after potentially burning my legs out on the ride.

Now the scary part! With about 15 km to go to the finish, there was a steep and winding downhill. I decided to stay areo and push the bike as hard as I could, I was in the highest gear and didn't stop pedaling. I was nervous because at points the road was quite bumpy and I ended up going right through one patch, it rattled my bike like cobblestones and it was a winding road. I was still gaining speed on this downhill and was about to catch up and pass about 6 or 7 guys riding in a cluster. As I got closer I went to the outer edge of the road, probably about 3 feet from the center line in the road. As I passed the cluster, another bike came on my left and passed me. I was going so fast that I didn't think a guy passing me would even be possible and when he pulled up beside me, he startled me. Plus the fact that he was big, probably 6'4", he looked ominous. 

I jerked the bike to give him room and it caused a major "speed wobble" and I was probably going a minimum of 60 kph in the areo position. I had no time to get scared. Luckily I've had speed wobbles before and it didn't completely freak me out and cause an immediate crash. I've realized that I'm prone to speed wobbles because I a "chicken" when it comes to going downhill, my arms tend to shake at high downhill speeds. I used to like the speed in my 20's, now I'm scared of it, but I do it. 

For what seemed like an eternity, I was wobbling. All I kept telling myself was to not panic and try to minimize the wobble. It was probably 10 - 15 seconds of speed wobble before the bike started to slow enough that I could move my hands from the areo position to the brakes to slow down. I averted a major disaster, all in the name of racing a few more seconds faster.

A guy behind me came up beside me and told me that was the "most frightening" thing he ever saw. He didn't think I was going to hold it together. I told him I was definitely scared". I also realized that last night when I was tightening the bolts on my bike that the stem bolt was one of the loose ones. I can't imagine what would of happened if I didn't tighten that bolt. Needless to say I didn't go in the aero position on any of the other downhills.

I had a great bike to run transition. It was the 6th fastest in my age group and made up for the other one. I was happy when I looked at my watch and saw that I was running a 6:30 pace for the first 400 meters. It didn't feel that hard. Then I hit some major hills and the pace got slower. At the 3 km mark the front and side of my thighs were getting sore, like someone was hitting them with a baseball bat. By the 7 km mark, it felt like I hit the wall in a Marathon. 

I kept telling my legs to relax. My heart rate was only around 150 bpm. I think the only reason they were getting sore was because of the limited running I did over the last two weeks. The good news was that I had no discomfort at all in my heel. 

By this point is was starting to get hotter and sunny with no shade. At the 8 km marker I was running at a 7:04 pace. My running has improved a lot from last year and I was passing people for the first time. Surprisingly I was still getting passed by guys in my age group. I didn't know how they were running so fast. I probably came of the bike in 8th place in my age group and a net of 4 guys pass me. 

From 8 kilometers on, my legs were going in and out of wanting to work and seizing up. The one gift I have is that I can overcome the pain when I run by allowing my mind to turn it off. The last 5 km's was more downhill running than uphill, which helped. I kept looking at my Garmin and my goal was to maintain the same pace that I had for the first half of the run, for the second half. And I did it! I finished with a 7:04 pace, overcoming the pain and the hot, hilly run. I was ecstatic.

I decided not to look at my watch with the final finish time until I crossed the finish line. I wanted to be surprised on what my time was going to be. I was over the top when it read 3:23:00. I knew I gave this race everything I had and even risked my life to do it. On the bike, I even beat Pro Lisa Bentley (my benchmark) by the largest margin I ever had, she averaged 33.1 kph and I averaged 34.4 kph. Normally I only beat her by .2 kph. The fasted bike ride of the day was 38.4 kph by the winner.

Once I crossed the finish line and saw Reid and Alice I could tell they wanted to go home right away. Reid was really sick and Alice was sick hearing how sick he is and how much he hates triathlons. I did a quick stretch and was in the car for the 2.5 hour drive home. I didn't even wait to see the results.

On the drive home I started to think of my near mishap on the bike and it started to "settle in". Even driving home I was paranoid that I'd get into an accident and with good cause, the 400 HWY was busy and people in Toronto are all high speed drivers going at least 120 kph in the fast lane, which I was in.

I just wanted to get home to decompress. I needed ground to stand on and a beer in my hand. I needed to get my mind off of what happened and try to forget about it. My speed wobble was way more scary than getting hit by the mirror of a truck. When I got home, I kissed the ground, unpacked, opened a beer, looked at my results online and updated the blog. Now it's barbecue time.

Swim - 2000 meters / 37:51 / 1:54 per 100 meters / AG 37-84 / Overall 221 - 672

Bike - 55 km / 1:36:91 / 34.4 kph / AG 9-84 / Overall 53 - 672

Run - 15 km / 1:05:51 / 4.24 per km/ 7:04 per mile / AG 21 -84 / Overall 102-672/150 bpm avg

T1 - 2:19

T2 - 1:00 (AG 6 - 84)

Final - 3:23:00 

Age Group - 12th/84

Overall - 74th/672

17

Race Results Website - http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=44389

Travel day...

I tried to get a good sleep last night and ended up getting a solid 8.5 hours. I tried to stay in bed as long as I could before my back got sore. I can hardly wait until this race is over because I'm sick of carbo loading.

First thing I did after my morning shake was go for a pre-race run and bike. The foot was feeling a lot better, but the heart rate was a little higher than I would have liked it to be. Hopefully it will be low tomorrow morning. I also took my laces out of my runners and replaced them with elastic laces and race clips. 

My ride was fun because I got caught up with a charity ride and there was hundreds of riders. Going against them I was giving them the high fives and cheering them on and then at the turnaround point of my ride I was riding with them and "whizzing" past them, literally. My wheels whistle similar to a disk wheel.

We left the house around 2:30 and drove the 2.5 hours to Muskoka. We just got to our hotel before it started to rain. First thing we did was go for an early dinner and then back to the hotel to rest. Unfortunately I couldn't sit still and ended up cleaning and tuning up my bike. I wanted to make sure all the screws and bolts were tight. When I was finished, I ended up driving the bike course.

It is going to be a challenging ride. Thirty five of the fifty five kilometer ride have lots of major hills. The run is constant inclines and declines. It is definitely going to be a tough race. Hopefully I'll get a good nights sleep.

Pre Race Run - 15:48 / 2.05 miles / 7:40 pace

Pre Race Bike - 22:00 / 11.78 / 32.3 kph

Sharping the body and spirit...

Last night we went to the movie "The Hangover". I loved it. I ordered a large bag of popcorn to carbo load on and it put lots of salt into my system. I've done this before and have never ever had muscle cramps during a race, I think it's from all the salt. 

I actually had two bags of popcorn, the first one fell all over the floor beside my seat when I tried to save my soft drink from spilling. The young people beside me got quite a chuckle. Good thing they give free popcorn refills.

I ordered the book "Fit Soul Fit Body" from Amazon and it arrived yesterday. It is written by Mark Allen, the coaching program I follow, and Brant Secunda, a Huichol Shaman. Nine years ago August, I was fortunate enough to go to a couple of retreats they put on and spend time with them. The first was a 3 day retreat at Monterrey Bay and the second was a 10 day retreat in Alaska. 

Alaska was the first time I experienced doing a "sweat lodge" and we did them every night. Essentially you sit in an igloo with hot, hot rocks that give off a tremendous amount of heat and the shaman keeps throwing water on them, it feels like your in a sauna. It was a small space and there was at least 30 of us in there. I remember it being so hot and all of us were shoulder to shoulder, two rows deep, and you couldn't move. Some people found it unbearable and had to leave. One time I had to fall to my side on the cool sand bottom because it was so hot.

The other thing we did was a "vision quest". I had no idea what it was or that we were going to do one until a day before we did it. Essentially you find your magic place in the woods where no one else is around. They give you a rattle that you shake when you arrive at your spot and if someone shakes their rattle back you move on to a new place until no one rattles back. Once you find your spot you sit there in the same direction for the entire night and you don't return until the next morning. 

It was a little scary and I didn't sleep a wink. The retreat was in Juneau Alaska and it has the worlds largest population of Grizzly bears and I'm scared of bears. Lucky, none of the bears came across me that night, but the next morning on my long walk back to the retreat cabin, about 300 meters away one crossed the road in front of me and I had no choice but to walk past were the grizzly crossed the road. I was pretty paranoid. Then, only 200 meters from the cabin, a baby black bear crossed in front of me and it was only about 20 meters away. I was really freaked because I figured the mama bear isn't to far behind. Lucky I didn't run into her and made it back to the cabin in one piece. 

Other than the sweat lodges and the vision quest, we also swam in the glacier waters. I shouldn't call it swimming. We really just jumped in and ran out. It was the coldest water I've ever been in. The glaciers are right in front of you and you see the blue ice at the base of them. Blue ice is apparently the coldest type of ice.  It was quite an experience and Brant and Mark were very approachable and everyone got to know each other. 

Taper Rest Day - No training

Last big day before go time...

Today was my last real day of training until Sunday's race. It was another triple workout day. 

My biggest concern is the speed of my run and whether I lost any of my speed because some of the runs I missed due to my injured foot. I think I might be okay because the first half mile of today's run was at a 6:44 pace. My heart rate was getting high and I slowed it down, but my legs weren't sore at all. I think the heart rate was high due to the poor eating abuse I put on my body yesterday.

I did my run and swim over lunch time at the Y. Right after the run I did my swim and I had a good workout. I even had a guy kick water in my face during the swim and lost my breath, it was good training for Sunday's swim. The swim in triathlon can be a dangerous and a very physical event. Last year I was kicked and got bruised ribs and had my goggles knocked off, plus I've been slapped and scratched.

I left work a little early to get my ride in before it started raining. I was hoping to finish early enough to go to the movie "The Hangover" with Alice and Reid. I felt fairly strong on the ride and half way through it, it started to rain. I got soaked. It felt good to finish and have a hot shower. 

Today's picture is of a sign on a tree in front of a house I often ride buy. I stopped in the rain to take the shot and get some cover under a tree. I'm not sure if they sell flags or have a yard full of different flags. I'll have to check it out one day. Now it's movie time.

Mod Swim - 31:13 / 1500 meters

Tempo Run - 31:39 / 4.13 miles / 7:39 pace /141 avg hr

Mod Bike - 1:30:25 / 48.85 km / 32.4 kph / 130 avg hr

Eat, eat, eat...

I'm not used to these rest days as part of my taper, I don't know what to do with myself. I find myself watching TV, napping and snacking all night. I guess the snacking isn't too bad as a part of my carb loading, but I should have drawn the line at the ice cream.

At least I had a healthy dinner. I barbecued up some chicken breast, corn on the cob and potatoes. I included a picture of the $35 Weber barbecue I bought. I cleaned it and Reid painted it and now it looks near new.

Not much to report, other than the foot seems to be getting better and I'm mentally looking forward to Sunday's race. Reid doesn't want to come to the race, he finds them boring, but Alice is forcing him to come in order to keep her company.

Our plan is to head up to Muskoka around noon on Saturday, I'll get my race kit and I've booked a local hotel near the race site. I'm really hoping we have some good weather. They are predicting 22 C, but who knows, we have been having below average cool temperatures all Spring. The one thing I do know for sure is that the water is going to be COLD.

I was texting Davis Sohor the other day and he did a race in Manitoba last weekend and the water was 13 C. He said his feet were frozen. 

Taper Rest Day

8

Flat legs...

For the first time ever, my legs were sore while swimming. I didn't know why but I thought maybe it was because I had my first land run in 9 days yesterday. 

When I finished the swim they were sluggish. I don't know what it is about swimming but I get tired afterwards. I can run and bike and don't get tired but for some reason swimming tires me out. I swam at lunch time and it was tough to do budgets in the afternoon while feeling sleepy.

I got home and decided to do my ride before dinner. I was so tired and unmotivated with flat legs. I knew I had to push myself out the door and get the ride over with. Once I got going my thighs were hurting. It seemed like it was hard to push on my pedals. The first half of the ride was directly into a 26 kph head wind and after about 20 minutes my legs started to feel stronger.

I find it strange that I don't train near as fast as I race. I typically train at 30 -31 kph and depending on the course I can race over 36 kph. On tonight's ride I was wondering how fast I'm going to ride during Sunday's race. Will I be slower, faster or the same as last year? I never know how fast I'm going to go because I don't train fast. I often wonder if my racing speed is a fluke.

At the turnaround of tonight's ride I saw a cyclist about a kilometer away and my competitive juices got going. I was motivated to catch him, which I did, but he was on a mountain bike so it doesn't count. Then I saw some cyclists going up one of the 11% grade hills and caught them and passed them at the top like they were standing still. They were gasping and going for the water and I just kept going hard.

I then realized that when I have competition, it brings out the best in me. There is no better feeling than catching someone and passing them, or dueling with them and eventually beating them. When I finished the ride I felt 100% better. I wasn't tired or unmotivated anymore. I was pumped.

I'm hoping this competitive spirit works for me on Sunday. The ride is going to be a typical Muskoka ride. The entire distance will be lots and lots of rolling and hard hills. Last year Craig Alexander only could average 38.1 kph in Muskoka, whereas in Florida he averaged 41.6 kph. Lisa Bentley and I are about the same speed and for the Muskoka race last year she averaged 34.2 kph. If I do just a little better than that I'll be happy.

I've been doing the research to adjust my diet. My doctor wants me to reduce my protein and fat, which works well for me, because Mark Allen's diet is 20% fat, 20% Protein and 60% Carbohydrates. I just started logging my food at Livestrong.com, it's free, and a real eye opener when you see what the fat, protein and carbohydrate percentages are in the food you eat. 

From what I entered I've been eating 35-40% fat, 20% protein and 40% carbohydrates. I've got a lot of adjusting to do. It looks like I shouldn't be eating ribs to often either. I guess I'll just have to barbecue and taste them only. 

At least there is no fat in beer.

Swim - 39:59 / 2000 meters

Bike - 1:00:17 / 33.22 km / 33.1 kph / 136 avg hr