P.F.G., the toughest triathlon club to join...

There are a few tell tale signs I know it's winter. First, I start craving and eating more Carbs. Second, I want to sleep more. Third, I get hairy legs.

With no racing or outdoor cycling, there's no need to shave. At the rate my leg hair is growing, by the time I need to shave for China, they are going to look like a Sasquatch.

It was nice to get back to training today. It's amazing how only two days of rest can make such a big difference physically and mentally. This morning, my legs felt much stronger and my shuffle downstairs to the breakfast table was improved.

Tonight I started my next phase of training, which started with biking speedwork. I enjoyed the 15 minute warm up and I really enjoyed the 15 minute easy spinning cool down, but the intervals were tough. I'm not sure if it was getting back at it after 2 days rest or doing speedwork for the first time since October.

The new trainer is definitely great for intervals. The resistance increases as you go faster and I found the top end speeds were consistent with what I do outside on the road. I was able to push 1 minute x 15 intervals at around the 450 watt range. The last 10 seconds of each interval were real "leg burners". I pushed 90%, but didn't want to go 100%. I still wanted to rest my legs a little.

All went well, I had a complete stretch afterwards and was feeling great until I stubbed my toes on the stairs. About 10 minutes later they felt like they got hit with a hammer. What dumb luck. Tomorrows track speedwork may be a little uncomfortable.

Today I set up the P.F.G. Triathlon Club merchandise on CafePress at http://www.cafepress.ca/pfgtriclub. All the merchandise is shown printed with the black and white logo version only. I'll be posting the same merchandise with the color logo soon. I've also got some requests for cycling jerseys and swim caps. I'm looking into finding someone who makes them on demand in quantities of one and can be ordered by members online. I'll keep everyone posted.

Due to popular female requests, I'm going to create a second P.F.G logo for the gals. It will still be the same P.F.G. Triathlon Club graphic, but instead of Guys, it will be modified to say Gals and I may add some "boobies". Also, In keeping with my "take things to the extreme personality", I registered the domain pfgtriathlonclub.com and set up www.pfgtriathlonclub.blogspot.com. The site will explain how to become a P.F.G. member and order merchandise online.

My vision for P.F.G. Triathlon Club is as follows. There's no meetings, no structure, no dues, no nothing. P.F.G Triathlon Club is a movement. I envision people who have lost weight and got in shape by doing triathlons, proudly wearing their P.F.G Triathlon Club T-Shirt at races or around town. The concept is that if your a P.F.G. and you see someone else wearing P.F.G. clothing, you automatically recognize them as a "brother from another mother" or a "sister from another mister", and of course, say hi!

I see the P.F.G Triathlon Club as globally grassroots. Just in my little corner of the world of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, I've met many other P.F.G's I never knew existed and in many cases we've become occasional training buddies. Nothing structured or formal. Just a, "what are you doing this weekend?".

Not to mention the other P.F.G.'s I've met from around the world through blogs and twitter. It seems there is lots of P.F.G's and lots of people on their way to being P.F.G's. Each of us have pretty much the same story and we motivate and inspire each other without even knowing it.

On the website, people could register as a member. They don't have to pay or buy anything. Although money is not required, it could be successfully argued that P.F.G Triathlon Club is one of the hardest clubs in the world to join. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears and self discipline, self control and self abuse to qualify for membership.

I think it would be really cool, as part of the registration process, that a member would enter the amount of weight they lost due in part to their triathlon journey . I'd then have the site keep a running total of the amount of weight lost by P.F.G members. If anyone else has any ideas or suggestions, don't hesitate to post a comment.

Speed Bike - 57:23 / 27.24 km / 28.48 kph / Max hr 158