Marathon Meetings...

I'm not a big meeting guy, especially long scheduled meetings. I'd much rather deal with something in the hallway, a quick sit down or a phone conversation. The one good thing about most meetings at our place is that we get right down to business, no pleasantries. It's a good bunch of people and none of us need warm up talk.

The only time I have longer meetings is when I have a monthly sales meeting with our yearbook sales staff. They work from home and we only get together once a month and the meetings run at least 4 hours straight. Lots to cover. I usually order in pizza's and work through lunch so were done as quickly as possible.

I just set up a new rule for myself today, thanks to Jevon in the U.K., I don't want to be in any meetings that take up more time than it takes for me to run a marathon. Today was just over 4 hours, I could have run a marathon. Not good. I love that comparison. So my new motivation is to get faster at marathons so my meetings get shorter. lol.

I finished up the meeting just after 2 pm and was "mind numb". The lights were on but no one was home. So I left early to do a swim and weights. Even though I had 3 pieces of pizza during the meeting my Carb monster forced me to pull into Harvey's and get a hamburger to eat while driving to the YMCA.

Considering I didn't swim since early last week, I had a pretty good swim. The sets were hard. The guy in my lane was a guy I've talked to before, but I can't remember his name. Last year he was "smoking me" in the pool and was nice enough to give me some pointers. This year we're swimming at the same pace. Either he's gotten slower or I've gotten faster. I think it's a little of both.

As I finished my last lap, I met a couple of guys similar in age, John and Hugh. They are friends and were resting at the end of the lane. We got talking and they are triathletes. Hugh's been doing triathlons for over 3 years and John just started. John is signed up to do Ironman Wisconsin next year. He's like John Barclay. He's only done a couple of sprint distance races and then signed straight up for an Ironman. John's also started a blog documenting his journey, its http://wisconsin2010.blogspot.com/

I had a good weight training session, but for some reason I feel like I have a frozen shoulder. Usually you get that when you don't exercise. I think I got mine from pushing too much weight about 6 weeks ago. I'm glad to be in the Chisel phase so I don't need to push the weights too hard. All I want to do is keep it healthy until November 14th.

When I got home I "pigged out" thanks to the Carb monster. I had two big plates of spaghetti and meatballs, a wagon wheel and a bowl of Special K. I just can't stop eating. I've got to ask Alice to hide those damn wagon wheels, they keep calling my name. Eating all that food tonight added a little weight resistance to my track work session.

It was cool, windy, dark and deserted at the track. Running into the wind was cold. Mentally it wasn't an easy session. I'm glad it had less repeats than normal. All I focused on was doing each interval, not thinking of about how many are left. I was pleased with the times. My first 400 was at a 6:21 pace and my 8th 400 was at a 5:21 pace. I was even able to get the heart rate up to 176 bpm. I can't remember the last time it went that high. I didn't even think I could get it that high anymore.

I'd love to rest on the couch right now, but I can't. I have to go out to buy some docker style pants for a golf game tomorrow. I don't golf, I don't like it, but it's with some guys I went to high school with, so I made the exception. Normally I only golf once or twice a year as an excuse to drink beer, smoke cigars and screw around driving the cart. With me being "on the beer wagon" until after Clearwater, this round of golf I'm actually going to have to golf. Oh, how I wish golf was only 13 holes.

My day to day wardrobe consists of suits and jeans. I don't have anything in between. I've never been a casual style pants guy, they make me feel "old". I do have "one" collared golf style shirt. This golf game is going to be expensive. It's at Glen Abbey, where they host the Canadian Open and I'm sure the green fees won't be cheap and now I have to buy pants. Being the fashionable guy I am, after finishing this blog entry, I'm off to Walmart to get my pants.

Maybe if I don't take off the tags, I can return them tomorrow.

Long Swim - 1:04:42 / 3200 meters

Weights Chisel - 45:00

Speed Run - 48:21 / 6.35 miles / 7:38 pace / 149 avg hr. Highest 176