I'm fried...

My base training has now reached it's highest mileage point and I've just started the speed work and power weight lifting phase. My body is also still recovering from racing two weekends ago. Needless to say, I'm fatigued. I haven't felt this way since 2008, when I was training for Florida Ironman 70.3.

Swimming today was hard to finish. I got to the pool and within the first 10 minutes I just wanted to get out. At first I was hoping the pool was going to refresh and rejuvenate me, but it didn't. I would have stopped if it was not for one thing, I was having my fastest swim of my life.

I started a series of 8 x 100's and when I finished the first one it was at a 1:31 pace per 100 meters. To put that in perspective, my absolute best swims are around 1:42 - 1:44 and during my comeback year I swam a consistent 2:25 per 100. At first I thought my watch was broken.

I did my second 100 and same thing, it was 1:32. For the entire 800 meters, each 100 didn't go above 1:34. It was impossible to quit when I was having the fastest swim of my life. However, even at that I still wanted to quit, but kept talking myself out of it. All I wanted to do was go back to work, put in my time and have a nice cold relaxing beer and a good nights sleep when I got home.

But I kept swimming. Using every ounce of mental strength I had, I kept swimming. I finished my second last set and was resting when a guy in the next lane asked "which year did you do Hawaii". He was looking at my tattoo. At first I thought that was a strange question, how did he know if I did Hawaii or not? Then I had to think about it hard and told him it was 1988. He then told me he did it in 1986 and an instant bond was created. Come to think of it, he's the first old timer I've met since my comeback started.

His name was Steve and at 45 years old he was no longer in Ironman shape. He reminded me of myself when I started my comeback in 2007, a big boned Ukrainian. We had a great conversation, reminiscing about triathlons in the mid 80's and talking about our old gear and how wonderful the experience of doing the Hawaiian Ironman was. We both deeply agreed we'd love to go back. Unless you've been there, it's hard to describe how wonderful it is and the need to want to experience it again, even for just one more time. For me it would be a death bed wish.

Steve's story was paralleling my own. He was an Ironman and life priorities took over; kids, family, work, etc. Steve said he wished his friends would want to train and do stuff, but they don't. I told him to get new friends. He chuckled. Steve said he's busy with work, he has about 40 people he oversees. I told him I have a number of business units over 2 provinces with a lot of employees. He asked me if I trained with someone and I said no, too tough to co-ordinate. I saw Steve thinking to himself "see, it can be done".

I could tell that Steve is at a turning point in his life. Get in shape or accept fatness. As we spoke I could see his eyes lighting up. He said it had been a long time since he spoke to someone like me. Steve seemed like a really good guy and I told him to google Training Payne and he should be able to find my blog to leave me his contact info. I told him that if he gets back into it, let me know, I'm always up for a weekend run or ride.

Actually Steve didn't know it, but he motivated me today. I was close to wanting to cut my swim short because I felt so sore and mentally tired, but talking to him put a little more gas in the tank and I was able to finish those last 500 meters strong. Steve told me I swam like a rocket.

I hope Steve decides to get back into Ironman shape, you feel so good being in awesome shape. Plus, you can still enjoy a little extra food and drink. One of the things that I didn't tell him was that us "Original Ironman" have a mental strength that never goes away, even when our muscles do. We did Ironman's when they didn't seem plausible, we were pioneers. In our case we don't need to work on the mental strength to finish, we just need to focus on the physical strength.

Tempo Swim - 1:09:06 / 3000 meters