The pain train is chugging...

First thing I'd like to say is the movie "Blind Side" is awesome. I saw it last night and I highly recommend it. It's a real tear jerker and if it wasn't based on a true story you'd think it was fantasy. Reid came with Alice and I. He's amazing when it comes to observing movies. He sees things no one else sees. If there's an imperfection or a scene that wasn't edited perfectly, he'll catch it.

He also sees subtleties in the storyline. When he points them out afterwards, I'm always amazed and impressed. It's always stuff Alice and I never picked up. I have a feeling he's going to be involved in movies when he gets older. I always tell him he should become a writer and or director. I love great writing or moving making. As far as writers go, I think the writers of Family Guy are brilliant.

Reid also gets immersed in things and takes them to the extreme. First thing he got obsessed with when he was 3 years old was the movie "Small Soldiers". He then wanted every action figure and the entire house was full of Army stuff. Then it was Wrestling and the house was full of wrestling stuff. Then Hockey and now it's Quentin Tarantino. He has every movie and watches them over and over. His favorite's are Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds.

In early December, during one of my weekend beer buzzes, he showed me a replica wallet that Jules had in "Pulp fiction". Photo above. He wanted one and I needed a new wallet, so I ordered two. They just arrived yesterday. I told Reid he can't take it to school or show anyone. He knows the drill. Since he could speak, I've semi-jokingly told him not to tell people what goes on at home or they'll call "Child and Family Services" and they'll take him away. He knows his mom treats him way to well for him to try and upgrade to a better family.

I used my new wallet for the first time at the theatre yesterday. Every time I pulled it out to pay for something Reid would start to get all kiddy. He'd be looking to see if the cashier saw what was embroidered on my wallet. I actually like the wallet. It's good quality leather, holds my credit cards perfectly and fits nicely in my front pocket. I can hardly wait until I take a customer out for lunch and pull out my wallet to pay. I'm not going to point it out unless they mention it. It should be worth a laugh or two.

Training wise, I was dead tired all day today. It's understandable considering I was only 11 km short of doing a full marathon yesterday, and that was after an hour swim. I remember years ago if I ever did that distance I wouldn't train for at least a few days afterwards and I'd walk around the house bragging to the family. Those days are long gone. Taking time off after a long session are "days of training past". However, I'll still brag.

I have a neighbour who trained months for a marathon. I was well into Ironman training and no longer thought like a regular guy who just wanted to complete a marathon. He would tell me about his 2 hour long runs and that his wife would meet him at the half way point to bring him water. When he told me the story I thought three things. First, that's sweet his wife would do that, second, it's not THAT long, and third, why didn't he just bring money and buy a Gatorade at store along the way.

He ended up finishing his marathon in just over 5 hours. He was so proud of his accomplishment, as he should be, and had his medal with his finishers photo put into a glass frame and hung it proudly. By the way he memorialized his medal, he seemed more proud of that Marathon finish than I think I've been of my Ironman finishes. My medals are all tangled up in my dresser drawer. My daughter even lost two of my Ironman Canada medals years ago when she was a little kid. She probably gave them to a friend or left them in the sandbox. But at least I still have my Hawaii Ironman Medal, which is in the drawer with the others.

My neighbour then took about 2 months off to recover, eat and drink like a mad man and relish in his accomplishment. Him telling me about his journey and enjoying the time off brought me back in time and gave me insight to normal peoples reality. It must be nice to set a Big Hairy Ass Goal, accomplish it and relax guilt free for a couple months afterwards. For me, it's set the BHAG, hit it, take a week or three off doing active recovery, set another one and get back at it.

All day to day I was tired and an eating machine. Surprisingly my legs didn't feel sore, just a little tired. I wasn't looking forward to my ride tonight because I knew it was going to hurt if I did it right. Tonight was my tempo ride and I knew to keep my heart rate higher I would need to push the pace and after yesterday's long run I knew it would involve pain to get there.

When I got home I ate 5 bowls of cereal, 6 chocolates and then went to bed for a couple hours. I did this for two reasons. The first was to get some rest by sleeping and hoping I'd have energy and feel fresh when I woke up. The second reason was for motivation. As an PFG (Previous Fat Guy) I'm motivated to burn calories and if I over eat there is a 100% chance I'll do the workout.

I went harder than normal from the beginning and my average pace showed it. I truly think I have a genetic predisposition to do long distance triathlons and training. For me, the more I train, the better I feel and the faster I get. I have the ability to mask the pain and actually feel stronger as time goes on. That's what happened tonight. I kept getting stronger as the ride went on. Tonight's ride was the first in a long while where I was able to get my heart rate up close to my maximum. I even had to slow down to bring it down. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy. I went close to the red zone to get there.

Near the end, three thoughts got me through to finish strong. The first was that it's the end of the year and I wanted finish my training strong, and the second was that I was motivated to keep my average speed at or above 38.4 kph and the third was to pay the price now, rather than during the Ironman China race. I ended up having the fastest tempo ride I've ever had indoors or outdoors. However, in fairness, I don't know if I can compare indoor and outdoor riding speeds.

On a final note, I need to get a new bike seat. This is the second one I've bought and I need to try a third. After an hour it is hard to stay aero. I do it, but it hurts. My old bike didn't have that problem. I'm also so numb, you could kick me in the groin as hard as you could and I wouldn't feel a thing.

Tempo Bike - 1:30:00 / 57.75 km / 38.5 kph / 140 avg hr