Part of the Mark Allen Family Again...

I tried my SAD lamp for the first time this morning. Wow, is it bright, just like you were lying in the sun. I wouldn't be surprised if I start getting a tan. I can see that this is really going to help when we have to move the clocks back at the end of the month, it won't seem like winter in the morning.

Work has been Crazy. Lots going on. I normally swim at lunch time but couldn't, I had to take my bike to EnduroSport to get them to fix my broken aero bar. Thankfully it was still under warranty, one less expense to worry about, although it won't be ready until tomorrow.

My carb monster is still getting the better of me. Across the street from EnduroSport is a place that has the best "fish & chips" in Toronto and I've always wanted to try them. Today was the day. I ordered Take out, drove back to the office and ate it at my desk. It was excellent. My car and office still stink of fish & chips.

I also broke the bank today. I spent $1100 on 14 months worth of coaching. With two Ironman's scheduled and the potential for a third if I qualify for Hawaii, plus a some 70.3's and who knows what else, I decided to sign up for a full year membership with Mark Allen Online. It's much cheaper to go for a full year than week by week. I'm now officially a team member again. I wonder if they are now going to include my blog in their daily twitter feed, or will it be deemed "too explicit, corruptible and bad for business"? lol. Probably.

Now that I'm back in the MAO family, Luis mentioned that there may be some group training sessions in Clearwater and gave me a program to follow leading up to Clearwater. I noticed he moved my maximum heart rate up to 142 bpm. Cool. Finally after 3 seasons of aerobic training my body is conditioned enough to stay aerobic at a higher heart rate. I'm hoping this will help me build more speed. When I started my maximum was only 138 bpm. The concept is that after years of consistent training it can be moved up slightly.

I decided to take today off and blend Monday's workouts into the rest of the week. It seems to becoming a trend, this is now my third week of doing that. Rather than swim in the evening, which I don't like because the pool area is dark, depressing and busier, I went for a car ride with Alice. I wanted to have a nice relaxing conversation and at home there is too many distractions, like email, Internet, and television. It felt good for the two of us to get out of the house and just drive and chat. We had a good "Vulcan mind meld".

Fish & Chip Recovery Day