After a 16 year layoff from Triathlons, in 2007 at 41 yrs old, I got back into shape and lost 50lbs. In 2009 qualified for Clearwater, 2010 qualified for Kona, 2011 ITU World Championships & Mark Allen Elite Team. In Dec 2012 I was hospitalized for blood clots. In 2014 I did my 12th and final Ironman and decided to pursue every dream and do nothing I don't want to do.
It's official, this is my 900th blog post. It seems like only 900 days ago that I started writing this blog.
All my school teachers would be in disbelief if they found out I'd written so many blog posts. In school, it was tough to get an essay out of me on time and when I'd get it back, it was full of red ink.
I bet that no one I went to school with, or at least those that don't do it for a living, have done more writing that me.
The interesting part is I've come to enjoy writing. When I was forced to do it in school, I hated it. When I first started blogging, my entries would take 10 - 20 minutes. Now they average 90 minutes.
Most people don't train 90 minutes a day. If I can work, train, party and fit in 90 minutes of blogging a day, no one has any excuse that they don't have the time to train.
When I started, my first regular followers were John Barclay, followed by Johan Stemmet and my Mom. For the first 2 years I'd get about 10 hits a day with very slow growth. Now I'm averaging about 150 per day and growing month over month. I guess it's gotten more interesting.
Judging from the lack of comments on a recent post when I asked readers to identify themselves, I've come to realize my followers are pretty much "lurkers". Which I have no problem with. I'm certain a lot of them are family, friends, co-workers and customers. From the data I get, many daily hits come from Winnipeg.
The worst thing I did was start asking for donations. It has caused me to put more pressure on myself to deliver good content, which is another word for "living life to the fullest" or "living hard" every single day. The more I serendipity live, I find the better the blog posts.
Unfortunately, this week has so far been vanilla by Training Payne standards. Lots of mundane work related stuff. Although I did get on a twitter role tonight and was making fun of peoples comments in a jokingly 140 characters way.
The past few days have been a whirlwind. Between my Mom visiting, Alyssa's graduation, sales meetings and a near all day out of town customer visit, I don't know if I'm coming or going.
The one thing I do know is I'm tired. Last night I was up until 12:30am and his morning I was up at 5 am to drive my mom to the airport. It was nice having her come visit. With a full day of work, I didn't have one moment of downtime until 5 pm when I crashed on the sofa.
I'm also in the process of launching an online triathlon related website and it's been taking up all my spare time. Which isn't much. It's something I've been sporadically working on for the past 10 months and it's FINALLY close to launching.
I'll keep you posted, as I'm looking for honest feedback. Hopefully it takes off and keeps Alice and Alyssa busy and me in the financial lifestyle to which I've been accustomed. And, as the site is sponsoring the Captain, there is some nice training and racing write offs. You'll see the marketing tie in shortly.
Today I didn't train. I was beat and it was a short scheduled session that I can easily do tomorrow, which is a national holiday. With only 24 days until Ironman Lake Placid, I'm feeling pretty good. I've definitely got the base to do it.
The only thing I need to do more of is speed work. Racing two earlier Ironmans and allowing recovery time has screwed that up. It's an important part of my focus for the next three weeks if I'm going to have any sort of fast time. I think I'm just on the bubble and can still get some major benefits from speed work. That is one of the reasons I raced last Sunday, I wanted to jump start my speed work.
One last thing. My PFG merchandise arrived today. It is sweet. I got a sleeve less shirt, a beer stein, a label and a clock. They all look awesome and the quality is amazing. The beer stein alone is worth buying. Alice and the kids think is beautiful and Alice wants me to buy another one, so when I die, each of the kids can get one.
I even used the Stein tonight. The only thing I need to get used to is not seeing the beer. It's a little weird drinking and not knowing how much you have left. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing yet. If you're PFG and you order any of the merchandise, you won't be disappointed.
Also, sorry about the delay in replying to the comments. I'm about two or three days behind. I love them, so please keep them coming. I will respond.
Today was school related stuff, all day long. At work, I attended my former Yearbook Companies transitional sales meeting, and then attended Alyssa's High School Graduation.
After the sales meeting, and before the graduation ceremony, I was able to get a nice easy recovery ride in. When I got off the bike we quickly barbecued steaks and Alice instructed me on what to wear. She made me put on a suit and shirt, yet she let Reid go with shorts and a tee-shirt. It wasn't fair. How come Reid didn't have to wear a suit?
When it comes to school or church like events, I'm just not good at acting like an adult. I think I have ADD. No, I know I have ADD. It was a good thing Jamie was somewhere in the audience. His daughter Alex was also graduating from Robert Bateman High School tonight. For most of the ceremony, until he left, we emailed jokes back and forth. I had over 30 emails on my phone. It sure made the event tolerable and I'd even say somewhat enjoyable.
A few times, I busted out laughing after reading some of his emails and the people beside me were looking at me strangely. I figured they didn't like my snorting and laughing uncontrollably with my shoulders shaking. If I wasn't emailing Jamie, I was tweeting. Had I not had my iPhone, I have no idea what I would have done. I probably would have started pulling the hair of the girl in front of me.
Reid on the other hand had Nazaire to bug. The entire event he was hanging out and abusing Nazaire and even got some of it on video. I laughed my ass off when I saw the video. I posted it below. I'm surprised Nazaire was so patient. I would have broken his fat little "water baby" fingers.
Overall, it was a nice 2 hour and 15 minute ceremony, especially if watching paint dry is your idea of an exciting night. I was really happy for Alyssa to finally be done with high school, I know she's even happier. Alyssa also won 5 academic awards for the following:
Ontario Scholar for at least 80% average grades
Robert Bateman Honours Society for at least 80% average grades
Robert Bateman Academic Excellence Awards for at least 90% average grades (and they rewarded her with $50)
Highest Class Mark in Sociology
Business Education Certificate for taking 6 business courses
The one thing I know for sure, Alyssa takes after her mother. Or I'm not her REAL father.
When we got home, we gave her our graduation gift, a Mac Laptop. She also got a Guess pursue and flowers from my Mom. She seemed pretty happy with the computer. It's much better than the old crappy PC laptop she's been using for the past year, I'm pretty sure it's close to being a fire hazard.
On the donation front, I've gotten a couple of new ones. I got $5 from Dave Parker and $12.50 from Corey Philip. Thanks guys. Keep em coming. I'm only a nine iron away from achieving my life long dream of owning my very own Kegerator. Flick my bic baby.
I had a great sleep last night and this morning my body didn't feel like it did a Half Ironman yesterday.
I still had my early morning shuffle down the stairs to the coffee pot, but it wasn't any better or worse than normal.
I had a busy day with a couple of meetings and I also picked my mom up at the Airport at noon. She flew in for Alyssa's graduation ceremony. Alyssa was happy and excited "nanny" could come.
Tonight the entire family went to Tansley pool. My mom wanted to see Reid swimming and I wanted to race him. My mom was impressed with his swimming and I beat his "punk ass". Twice.
I was giving him no mercy. I'm not one of those fathers that lovingly nurtures their kid and "gives up the win" to build juniors confidence. If he wants the win, he better bring his "A game" and take it from me. It will make it all the more sweeter if and when he beats me. No "cumbia-ing" to my son, I take no prisoners.
I do know that one day he'll probably be faster, stronger, smarter and smellier. Well maybe not smellier. Until that day comes, I want to keep him seething to kick my sorry ass. Right now I'm savouring the flavour of victory. If he wants it, he's going to have to "pry it from my cold dead hands". At the rate he's going, that'll be in the next year or two.
Today was the Welland Half Ironman, my first half of the year. To get ready, I woke up at 5:30 am very tired. I probably only got 4 hours of sleep and the Wedding Anniversary celebration two nights earlier didn't help.
I drove from home and got to the race site around 7:30 am and picked up my race kit and got lucky number "123". It took no time to set up my gear and as chance would have it, there was a guy who was selling racing laces. I bought them and put them on my shoes. I was ready to roll.
I love small local races. Unlike official 70.3's where you have to pick up the race kits the day before and prepare all your gear in bags, you can just show up, put your stuff beside your bike and viola, you're ready to roll.
When I started my comeback in 2007, and even prior, I thought Half Ironman's were challenging and had a lot of respect for them. It was very similar to the mental preparation I'd have for an Ironman. I'd be thinking about the race for weeks leading up and be very nervous the night before and the day of.
Now it's different. With all the training hours and mileage I put in, I treat Half Ironman's like they were a Sprint or Olympic distance race. I even race them as such. I have no fear of the race distance, I consider it very civilized, like a half Marathon. Actually, I consider a half Ironman distance or anything above to be a real man's triathlon.
I was hanging out with Carlos and Hans before the race and Carlos commented that last year he was nervous and afraid of Half Ironmans. This year, he's on MAO and putting in lots of mileage and half Ironmans no longer feel like a big deal to him.
My race strategy for every Half Ironman is to give about 10% less effort than I do for an Olympic distance race. Today was no different. It was a mass, in water start and I positioned myself right in the middle, almost at the front. I don't know why, but in the past few races I look forward to the "washing machine".
In the past, I would start and swim to the outside, trying to stay away from people. I didn't want to get hit. I would also tend to panic or take in water if that happened. Since Steelhead 70.3 last year, where I had one of my best races and took the middle position, I haven't looked back since. I go for the gusto.
I figure, someone is going to be lucky enough to swim a direct path through the middle, "why not me?" Instead of me moving to the outside, I'll let the others do that. The water confidence I gained in this past year has allowed me to start to enjoy the "free for all" swim. It hasn't come easy. I remember my early races being scared of other swimmers in the open water and dreading the swim to the point where I had to supportively self-talk myself the entire swim.
Three minutes before the swim started, I had a slight mishap. My goggles fell apart, the removable lenses fell out into the water. There was immediate panic. I found one and luckily someone else found the other. It turns out the lenses were not clipped in properly.
All I could think of was "REID!!!!" I borrowed them to him and in consistent Reid fashion, he has to play with stuff and must have figured out they were removable and didn't clip them back in place properly. For those that have kids, you know first hand how your kids, especially boys, "break and lose your stuff". In any event, I was able to fix them and get out into the water in time for the start.
Every race my motto is "expect the unexpected".
In the water I didn't land too many shots or kicks, but I took my share. A couple stood out. The first was a couple of kicks to the jaw and the second was a smack to the calf just as we were exiting the water. It was so hard that my calf felt bruised as I ran to transition one after a 35 minute swim at a 1:47 per hundred pace. I was happy with that.
Along the way I heard "Hey Louie", it was Al Nolan and his son Michael cheering me on. "Louie" is the nickname Al gave me long ago. The two of them drove up to watch me, they have never watched a triathlon and Al is a future PFG. I keep telling him he needs to do a try-a-tri. Kudos to Al, he said my blog finally wore him down and he started working out last week with 30 minutes of running and biking each day.
T1 was uneventful, other than I forgot to bring my Ensure. I had a couple gels instead. I was expecting a flat and fast bike course and wasn't sure if my legs had the jam to average 36 kph or not. For the first 30 minutes the heart rate was in the high 150's and low 160's and I was averaging about 38 kph. It settled down to around 144 bpm after an hour.
The bike course roads were the best I've ever ridden on, very smooth. There was a slight wind but I couldn't tell what direction it was coming from and whether it was helping or hurting me. I wasn't as strong as I would have liked it to have been and was a little tired as I rode. On a better day, I think I could have averaged 37 kph plus with similar conditions. The winner averaged 41 kph.
It wasn't a big field, only 269 people, but seemed to have quality. There wasn't a lot of passing after the first 30 km and I got into a good rhythm. I think I only used about 2 or 3 gears all day. By the halfway point I made up 28 spots and was in 52nd position and worked my way down to 38th off the bike.
I forgot to mention it was a hot and humid day. Easily in the 30's with humidex. It wasn't too bad until the last hour of the bike and the run was hot. Thankfully the course was along the canal and had a decent amount of shade from the trees.
I was a little disappointed at the beginning of the run. I forgot to change my Garmin to Statue from metric. I don't understand racing in minutes per kilometer like I do minutes per mile. It sucked because I didn't know the metric equivalent for 7 minute mile. I think that hurt me. I didn't know what carrot I should be chasing.
My goal was to run as fast and relaxed as possible. I did the fist 5 km in 23 minutes and the first 10 km at 47 minutes and finished in 1:42. With only 3 kilometers left it was mentally tough and even though I would have loved to have stopped and walked, but I didn't want to stay out there any longer than I had too. The last kilometer couldn't end soon enough. I made up about 9 spots on the run and finished in 29th place overall.
I can truthfully say I ran the perfect race for my abilities and preparedness for today. After I crossed the finish line I was spent. It took about 20 minutes of water, coke and a piece of pizza to get back to mental normal.
Physically, I felt fine. My legs got a workout but weren't hurting. After a good stretching session they felt 90%. When I looked at the leader board, I saw I finished in 3rd place. I was surprised and happy and said to myself, "I still got it".
Later on, I checked again and the revised finishing sheets now showed I finished in 2nd place. I was only 6 minutes behind first and I think if I behaved myself on Friday night, I would have beat him. I showed up to race at about 75% of my potential.
Carlos had a "great race". He finished in 5:03 and that included 6 minutes to fix a flat on the bike. Hans finished in 5:34 and I heard he had a tough race and wanted to throw up the entire run. Both those guys have improved hugely over last year since joining MAO.
Carlos especially has drank the Mark Allen kool-aid and is training like a mad man. His improvement has been incredible. I hardly recognized Carlos arms, he now has veins running down his biceps that look like ropes. He was a world class swimmer as a kid and came out of the water in 28 minutes.
Overall the race was great. I loved the course. The competition was solid. The first 44 people finished under 5 hours and the first 168 people finished under 6 hours. The worst part of the race was waiting 2 hours for the podium presentations. I didn't want to leave without a photo for the blog. The medal was secondary. If I was to do it again, I'd leave earlier. On the ride home I was near falling a sleep and had to use strategies to stay awake.
I celebrated with some Amstel Light and KFC. Starting tomorrow it's back to eating well. I'm up 6 lbs to 186 lbs. It's been a LONG time since I've been over 185 lbs and I need to pull that back to around 180 lbs. I noticed I'm getting a little soft around the mid-section in the post race photo's. That's motivation enough.
I was feeling tired with stiff legs this morning and I'm not sure why. I had a decent amount of beers last night, but not too much, and we got to bed around midnight, which is early for a weekend.
Even though I have a Half Ironman tomorrow, I couldn't not celebrate our Anniversary last night. That wouldn't be fair to Alice, and the wisdom is in "knowing when to hold them and know when to fold them".
It was tough to walk until around 7 pm tonight when I started changing a flat tire on my race wheels. The movement helped loosen me up.
I hate fixing flats on those wheels. The tire bead is so tight, it is near impossible to put it back on. I've been training with my regular wheels for a while now and was debating if I should even put the race wheels on for tomorrow. I was even considering using my 25 year old Centurion. I would have if it had cadence on the speedometer. I'm curious to see how much of a difference a bike makes.
My concern on why not to use the race wheels was the possibility of getting another flat on them. I wasn't sure if the previous flat was caused by something that was still in the tire and would puncture a new tube as well. I spent a lot of time checking the inside of the tire and removing any dirt. I then examined the old tube and realized it was a stem problem.
I ended up putting the race wheels on for the race and took the bike for a short spin. Good thing I did. The speedometer magnet moved out of place and I wasn't getting my speed readings half way through the ride. I would have hated for that to have happened during the race.
I thought I was going to get in some afternoon of napping but was so busy with Internet related work stuff and catching up on writing yesterday's blog post. I didn't finish working until 7 pm and then started getting ready for tomorrows race. I've decided to get up early and do the 90 minute drive from home. Carlos offered me to stay with him in his hotel room but I figured I'd get a better sleep in my own bed.
This morning I was up at 7 am for Reid's Time Trial swim meet. We got to the pool only to learn they gave us the wrong time, it was an hour later than we thought. Maybe it was a good thing. With the G20 in Toronto, we had some detouring to do in order to get to the pool.
I still can't get over that it is costing Canada $1 billion dollars to have these world leaders here for only 4 days. It beyond belief. They showed the Canadian protesters on TV, very passive. Lots of granola eaters sitting on the ground cross legged and playing the guitar. Stoned I presume. Gillette wouldn't do well with these people, lots of hair and the men where scruffy too.
Reid was a little nervous until he got in the pool area. He had some misfortune on his 100 meter free style time trial. At the turn, as he was breathing every fourth stroke and took in water on the flip turn. It stopped him in his tracks. It took him a while to catch his breath and then he started up again and made one more pit stop at the 50 meter point.
It was a shame. I took video of him and figured out his time by removing his stops. Had he not taken in water, he would have been about a 1:35, which is an amazingly good time. With that speed, he could give me a run for my money and beat me on any given day. In only two months he has went from a 2-2:20 to a 1:35.
His only other time trial was a 50 meter free style and he did that one in 45 seconds. Another unbelievable time. I think my best is 40-42 seconds. Reid is definitely a natural at swimming. I think he could even swim faster if he had a killer instint. His nature is very passive, he'll aways be the last kid in line to do a practice drill.
I've got to say I'm very proud of Reid. Tonight for example, even though it was not on his training schedule, he decided to go for a run for no reason. He told Alice and I yesterday that his bones don't feel sore anymore since he started running and now he can run without side stitches.
It's a shame he doesn't want to continue with the club. He did tell Alice he wants a swim pass for the local pool so he can swim on his own. He really does like swimming. This week he's going to come swimming with me a couple of times. He has to make up a couple of swims because the club cancelled those days. He's only missed one session due to sickness and he made that one up a week later.
Tomorrows going to be interesting. I have no idea if I'm going to do well or poorly. If you asked me earlier on Friday, after my fantastic 4:44 moderate run, I would have said great. After feeling so tired and stiff today, I'm not so sure. All I'm hoping for is that I'll have a good nights sleep and a low heart rate in the morning.
My strategy for tomorrow will unfold tomorrow. I know it's a mass swim start and I'm going right for the middle of the pack. Nothing like a little full contact swimming. The bike is the question mark. If I can get off to a strong start, I'll maintain it, my competitive spirit tends to mask any bike leg pain. The run transition will be slower, I have to tie my shoe laces. I forgot to stop and get race laces. That'll add 30 seconds or so.
All I hope for is no mechanical issues. I don't mind finishing slow due to fitness or alike, so long as I finish. I just don't want to go all that way and have an issue beyond my control and not finish. Anyways, I'm looking forward to racing and the water is going to be 74 F, which should be warm enough for me not to have to worry about my calf cramping.
One last thing. Alice took a picture of Reid and I today as we had a post swim meal at Licks. Nothing like carbo-loading with a hamburger, fries and ice cream. My body was craving it. Reid wanted to show me how close he was to my height and he's constantly telling me that he's going to be taller than me soon. He savours that thought and I know he'll be rubbing it in my face for years to come. He's already started calling me "shrimp".
I keep telling him that he's done growing. He doesn't know it, but I'm using reverse phycology. I want him to be tall. In our world, if your tall, you have a greater opportunities. Research has shown that taller people make more money than shorter people and have more senior positions. I believe my telling him that he's stopped growing causes him to will himself to grow more.
It’s official; Alice and I have now been married for 8030 days. Today is our 22nd Wedding Anniversary.
First off, I’d like to thank Michael Jackson for dying on June 25th of last year. It’s a forever reminder that our Anniversary is coming up. When I start seeing the Michael Jackson tributes on TV, I’ll know it won’t be long until to have to shower, brush my teeth and take Alice out for dinner.
Secondly, people ask, “What makes a good marriage? How is it that you two seem so happy together even after all these years?” Before I answer, I want to say I’m not an expert by any stretch, but after careful consideration and analysis I think it’s all about “Give and Take”. Since we’ve been married, Alice gives and I take. Badda Boom.
Alyssa finished her last exam yesterday and is now University bound, the first in our immediate family. Tonight, Alice and I were enjoying some Anniversary cocktails on the deck and Reid was telling us how much he hated his teacher this year. Apparently she still lives at home with her parents.
Earlier this year he connected on Facebook with her for a short period and saw in a weird photo with her and another women or a womanly looking man. He didn’t really expand on it. She then quickly shut him down and told him in a serious tone she can’t be his Facebook friend. Reid’s had a good laugh over it and thought she was crazy for even bringing it up to him, it's not like he cared.
Yesterday, Reid’s teacher gave the class a year-end anonymous survey. It asked about the year and her abilities and to rank them on a one to four scale. The worst score was one and the best was four. Reid said he gave her a one on everything, except the question that asked something like, “how do you feel you tolerated the class?” He gave himself a four. All the kids in his class loved the fact that he was honest and gave her perfect ones. Even though they felt like doing the same, they didn’t.
Reid also told us he had to do a similar anonymous survey earlier in the year. I hadn’t known about that one. It had personal lifestyle questions. It asked things like, “Have you ever tried hash?”. “Do you look a pornography?”. “Have you ever had sexual intercourse?”, "Do you ever harmed a small animal?", "Do you have violent thoughts?". The entire list was similar style questions. Reid said he answered YES to all of them and handed the sheet in. He said his friends were rolling on the floor laughing.
Later last night, I said to him in a semi-stern voice, “REID, I’m very disappointed in you?” and he replied, “I love you too”. Then I said, “Don’t you want to know why I’m disappointed in you?” and he said “No” and I proceeded to tell him anyways.
I said, “I’m disappointed you didn’t put your name on those surveys”. I hate all things anonymous and from now on, even though you don’t have to, I want you to put your name on those surveys. He chuckled and said “okay”.
Switching gears, I’ve got some comments in the past couple of days that are pure gold, lots of material for future blogs. One post that I got was from Slowdad, who is a good dude in my books. It was a response to Reid taking care of me when I was drunk in Mexico. This is an excerpt
One of the saddest moments of my childhood was seeing my dad passed out drunk. When I remembered it years later I lost a lot of respect for him. Careful on that one.
That’s too late for me, if that scars, my kids need a skin graft. I come by it honestly, my family is full of generations of drunken and disorderly conduct. I remember seeing my Dad sitting on the toilet drunk once. I walked in the house and he was sitting there with his pants pulled down to his ankles, the bathroom door open and his hands holding up his head with his elbows on his knees. He looked painfully drunk. I doubt he knew I was even there.
My Dad can be a little stiff at times. Knowing him, I’m sure he’d be embarrassed about the situation and wouldn’t be sharing it with his other fellow churchgoers on Sunday. But when I think back on it, it wasn’t scaring, it made me laugh. To me, that was a good childhood memory. Even to this day, in my minds eye, when I see him on that toilet drunk, it STILL makes me laugh.
It just showed me that he was a regular guy, no superpowers. He drank too much and was paying the price, like we all do. I don’t hold that against anyone. I don’t even consider it an error. I consider it living life to the fullest.
At the end of the day, I believe you shouldn’t live your life to gain or lose the respect of anyone. If you do that, the terrorists win.
However, I do think Reid has lost some respect for me over China, not Mexico. Last night I was “busting his balls” on something, I think it was swimming, and he said, “Well at least I didn’t quit in China!!!” Ouch, that one hurt
I will say, he still made me proud. He was able to turn the tables on me quickly and pierce a long sharp stick directly into my heart with no “dilly dallying”. That’s my boy!!!!
As I was hunched over gasping, with a combination of laughing and hurting, he casually got up and went to the kitchen in the spirit of, “My work here is done. What’s there to eat?”
My son seems to have lost respect for me over my quitting in China for health reasons. Go figure. It’s obviously something he hasn’t forgotten. And since I can’t time travel back and change that moment in time, “HE’S GOING TO HAVE TO GET OVER IT”. It ain't my problem. It's his.
After China, I vowed to myself I’d never quit again, even if I were on deaths door. NOW, after Reid’s comments, if I need additional motivation, I know where to go in the recesses of my mind to get it. I’ll always remember our 22nd Wedding Anniversary and talking with Reid on the deck.
Reid has left me no choice but to go extreme. In order for me to "silence that piercing blow" from future locker room talk, I'm going to have to do something that will dwarf it. I'm going to have to do a double or triple Ironman or ultra run. Something that will have the equivalent power to someone saying, "You quit the 5 km run you loser" and the response would be "that's true, but who gives a sh*t, 5 kms are for wimps anyway, I much prefer the 100 mile races".
And if that doesn't work, I think my health insurance plan pays for child Phycological counselling and if it doesn't then Reid will have to wait until Alyssa gets her Phycology degree and they can work through any Daddy issues together.
Training wise, easy run as part of the taper program for Sunday's Half Ironman.
I guess the reason most people read my blog will remain somewhat of a mystery. Other than the "usually suspects", I got only four new comments from the unknown readers.
Mind you, I did get a comment from C.C. For those that don't remember C.C. it stands for Cowardly Commenter. C.C. left an anonymous comment on my blog that I didn't appreciate earlier this year. I came up with the nickname C.C. to personalize anonymous.
The blog post was http://trainingpayne.blogspot.com/2010/03/anonymous-rant.html. I had 400 people hit the blog that day after my "venomous" response to C.C. It was one of my most popular blog posts. It's classic and believe it or not, alcohol was not a factor.
Frankly, I was surprised C.C. still read my blog, I didn't think I was one of C.C.'s type of people. Today C.C. posted this comment that I though was worth highlighting:
Regarding the lack of comments on posts detailing your questionable lifestyle, it could be that people refrain from offering up comments that oppose your thoughts, opinions, or actions because you have a tendency to react harshly to these.
There really isn’t much to say about your questionable lifestyle; as a grown man you don’t need anyone telling you about the myriad issues involved with drinking 12 to 20 beers a night with such frequency. What would anyone have to say about this that you don’t already know?
I read your blog to learn from your triathlon experiences. You are very good at managing a work/life balance. Because you are so open we see what works for you and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t. I have taken away some valuable points from your blog and incorporated them into my triathlon preparation and racing.
If nothing else, I stay away from buffets.
-C.C.
On cc.'s comment, I'm the one who bolded parts of it. Those parts stood out to me. Before I begin I want to say I respect C.C. for commenting, although I'd love for C.C. to pull off the mask and show the face, and I thought the last line about the buffet was quite funny, aka China.
However I do want to comment on the areas I highlighted. First off, in 894 blog posts, other than C.C.'s previous stupid ass and unidentifiable comment, I've never reacted harshly or critical to anyone else's comments. I defy anyone to prove me wrong, unless one interprets a joke to the "usual suspects" as critical. It's not, they're my kind of people, "they know how to take a puck to the head".
Secondly, I also want to go on record that I'm not a grown man, nor have I ever promoted myself that way. I do have integrity. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar. As I've consistently stated, I'm a mature 17 year old in a man's body.
Thirdly, I want to congratulate C.C. for learning from my mistakes and seeing that being straight laced and pure vanilla is boring and the wrong way to live one's life. It takes a big person to admit to that.
C.C. recognized that "drinking 12 - 20 beers a night with such frequency can cause a myriad of issues", a minor could be health related. The others could be new friendships, a long-term "true love" marriage, trouble free kids, not worring about money, more fun memories than I can remember, constant growth through professional and personal challenges and living live to the fullest everyday.
In terms of the negative health effects from drinking lots of beer, it doesn't overly concern me. My philosophy is that you never know when your number is up. I don't want to look back on my life with regret. If I lived the 90% healthy lifestyle and came down with some disease and died at 80 and had a emotionally level and balanced life, I'd be pissed off.
I'd rather die at 57 and have a rocking life. A life that I would be hard pressed to top and would be legendary among future Payne generations. A life full of joy, tears, happiness, embarrassment, struggle, euphoria, situational regret, constant growth, new friendships, a few new enemies and LOVE.
To put it in perspective, with all the bike riding I do, my chances of getting hit by a car and killed is much more likely than my internal organs shutting down before a replacement. Don't be fooled, I've given this a lot of thought and I proudly choose OZZY over Dr. OZ.
Changing gears. On the home front, I've got some good news and some bad news. First the bad news. Reid has decided not to do swim club next year. He's going to finish his three month commitment and collect his $1000 and then that's it. He changed his mind because it was cutting into his evening fun time with his friends and he didn't like getting up early on Saturday mornings.
That's the one thing about Reid, he's sensible. He takes after Alice that way. He doesn't fully commit, without thinking out the consequences. He still wants to swim, but on his own time. He still wants to exercise, but on his own time. He did say however, when he goes to high school, if they have a swim team, he'll join.
I've got to say, I'm actually proud of Reid to recognize it now and not feel pressured to continue. In many ways, Reid's a Renaissance man. He tries everything and then quits when he rises to the level of mediocrity. Other than doing triathlons, I'm pretty much the same. Alice on the other hand, only quits when she has too many first place red ribbons.
So far, in the past 6 years, he's done in drum lessons, lacrosse, football, hockey, swimming, skateboarding, weight lifting, movie making and golf. Not to mention all the other non-organized kids stuff, like watching YouTube and playing video games. And most importantly, he's polite, respectful, humble, funny and is a gentlemen around the girls.
He's a little weird in that I don't think he has yet started surfing Internet porn or locking himself in the bathroom for long periods of time.
Most importantly, Reid's "always been there when I needed him". In Mexico, 4 years ago when he was 9 year old, he dragged my sorry ass home when I was drunk and didn't know where the hotel was. He then watched over me with concern as I was playing the Mexican tuba. I think he even cleaned the tuba up afterwards.
I think Reid's on the path to greatness. My dream for my number one and most favourite son is to be "Most Interesting Man in The World". I think Reid is the second coming of the "Dos Equis Guy" and they will be doing commercials with him down the road. For those who don't know who the "Dos Equis Guy", I've included a video of him below.
How good would that be? My son "The Most Interesting Man in the World". He'd be famous, make good money and most importantly be able to supply me with all the free "Doe Equis Beer" I could drink.
Oh, one last thing. The good news about Reid not continuing with swim club is me not having to pay $3000 for the year and Alice not having to drive him endlessly to the pool and weight room, especially on early Saturday mornings.
Training wise, I swam, biked and started carbo-loading with some Amstel Light today. Flic ur Bic.
I have an interesting observation about my blog. Whenever I have a post detailing my questionable lifestyle, I get fewer comments and more page views.
When it's a responsible, training specific post, I get more comments.
I wonder why that is?
Some of the other blogs I enjoy reading that show their page view stats have half the visits of my blog and get far more comments. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for comments. I'm just curious what makes the difference?
Alice thinks it's because I write so truthfully with 100% openness and that most people are intrigued to read what's going to happen next in the crazy world of "Training Payne". She thinks most are just "peeking in" like it's a soap opera, similar to the movie "The Truman Show".
Again, I DO NOT want comments and this is NOT a play to get more comments. I'm just intrigued by it. (Frankly, I much prefer the electronic Bic, which is a code work for C's. If you hear "flick that biC", you know what to do. I'm very close to getting the Kegerator).
However, if you are a regular reader and don't want to be identified, please leave me an anonymous comment with the reason why you read my blog and secondly, why you have never commented or identified yourself. I sincerely want to know. It's driving me crazy.
Changing gears, I think I've finally found an ideal work and training routine, a nice balance. Since I've sold the business, I get up much earlier and without an alarm clock. What does that say? (That's a different blog post). The moment I get out of bed I'm now on the computer working at my kitchen table.
My work nowadays is primarily Internet marketing based, which means I'm constantly learning. I LOVE IT!!! I'm learning many things new everyday and most importantly, I'm enjoying it. I haven't felt this work-alive in a long, long time.
I've got the training down to a morning or lunch session and a post dinner session. I can't stress enough how the training keeps me mentally fresh and balanced.
Today was a prime example. I started at 8:00 am and didn't look up from my computer until 1:30 pm. Then I started eating and working and eating and working (repeat some more) until 5:30 pm. By then I was getting fried, but didn't want to stop. I finally pried myself from the computer and drove Reid to do his weights.
Then when I got home, I avoided the computer and drove directly to the track for my running speed work. It was a hot one, with Humidex it was 38C. I LOVED IT!!! I was running that track and feeling the heat. It was awesome, it's like the air is giving you a big hug.
The net result, was when I got home I felt like a new man and my head was clear. My internal equilibrum was reset. I was also craving a beer and as the current writing of this blog, I've resisted. I feel like I've been taking in too many calories sitting at the kitchen table all day, AND, why drink if your not going to go for the buzz or beyond?
Anyway, back to my point, I'm breaking the day up with training and it feels wonderful. It's a great way to keep energized and fresh. I can't stress enough how much I'm enjoying life right now. I feel a level of freedom and purpose I haven't felt in a long while. (Another blog post).
One last and unrelated comment. "Why I don't like doing shorter than Half Ironman distance racing". First off, I want to say, I have nothing against the shorter distance races and in a way they can even be harder because of the higher intensity and especially if you go out "too hard too soon". It's like running, I prefer a marathon over a HARD 8 km road race.
The reason I like the long distance races is because I don't want to get up early and then get to a race two hours before the start, only for it to be over in less than two or three hours. I want to make the getting out of bed and the pre-race wait worth while. It's that simple.
I'm not elitist, I love all races triathlon, I'm just into time benefit management. If they had sprint and Olympic distance races that I didn't have to get up early for and could show up 30 minutes before the start, I'd do every one.
I don't know what it is about swimming, one day you can have the worst and slowest swim, then a week later it can be effortless and fast.
Today was one of those effortless and fast swims. Which is surprising. I haven't swam since last Wednesday and during that swim, I got tired and slower near the end.
I think today's 400 meters of drills before the main sets helped condition me to reach and twist my body more than normal.
The entire swim I got stronger as the session went on. I even added an extra 500 meters at the end for good measure. I did 4 x 350 meters and for each of the four sets I averaged: 1:40/100m, 1:38/100 m, 1:38/100 m and the final was 1:36/100m. Then I did 4 x 50's at :45, :43, :43, and :42.
It was an unbelievable swim. Especially since I haven't been putting in lots of pool time. Although, I can't get cocky. The one thing about swimming is, "It's here today and gone tomorrow". I sure hope it stays with me, at least until after Sundays race.
Tonight I pulled the trigger and registered for the "HSBC Welland Half Ironman" on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it and I'm not. I'm a little worried about my calf cramping during the swim. It was bothering me ever so slightly in the pool today. I think the cold water triggers it.
I'm also a little nervous. I haven't done a half since Clearwater last November. My legs are so beat up and flat right now I'm not sure how they'll perform. My final concern is my stomach and getting the "Sh*ts" during or after the run. I'm thinking of trying an all liquid and gel energy plan. I don't think I'm going to go for the egg McMuffin this time around. I only break out the McDonald's food for full Ironmans or long training sessions.
It was a well balanced day of training. I swam in the morning and did a biking speed work session after dinner. I loved it, especially going as hard as I could into the wind. On the way back, with the wind at my back, I was holding 52-58 kph for decent periods of time. It felt awesome. A couple times I worried about my handlebar pads shearing off when I hit a bump. It happened to me last year when I was going fast and hit a bump. It was scary and luckily I didn't take a major spill.
Tonight I also ordered some PFG Triathlon Club merchandise which included a sleeveless shirt, a beer stein, a wall clock and a label. I'll post pictures when I get them.
On the gift side, I got a Caricature a friend did for me. He's planning to start a Caricature business. I think it looks awesome and want to do something with it. Maybe a label or shirt. If anyone has any cool ideas of how I could display it, please let me know.
It felt so good to rest today. It was a taper day for this Sunday's race and my legs needed it. I can't stress enough how much shuffling I've been doing lately. Even sleeping in compression tights for part of last night didn't help.
I was going through my training mileage yesterday and realized I've done 33,019.74 km's or 20,517.51 miles of training since May 2007. To put that in perspective, the circumference of the earth at the equator is 40,075.16 km's or 24,901.55 miles. Which means I'm only 7055.42 km or 4384.04 miles away from swimming, biking and running around the world.
By the end of this year or by early next year at the latest, I will be at the point where I can say I trained enough to travel around the globe in less than 4 years. It hasn't yet sunk in as to what that means and whether it is a far ways or not. It doesn't seem that I've put in that much mileage. After all, it's just been nights and weekends of training.
However, I will say, once I do it, I'm going to have a Training Payne "Earth Day" party.
It was nice having a break today, I had lots of work related stuff to do and spent over 15 hours doing it. It was a work cram-fest. I'm still not caught up, but pried myself away to get my blog updated and give myself a break. Even when I'm supposed to rest, I can't sit still. I'm starting to think I'm very goal driven.
I'm also looking forward to training tomorrow. I find that sitting and working all day in my kitchen is not good for the waistline. I constantly find myself getting up and looking in the fridge and pantry. Or munching when I'm on the phone. It also didn't help when I found the chocolate cigars I got for fathers day and finished off yesterday's left over Chinese food. I felt like a bry-garburator.
Today I realized that hard core training is the most constructive vice I have. When given the choice between, work-aholic, beer-aholic, food-aholic or train-aholic, I'll take train-aholic every time. As a matter of fact, training alone can keep the other three vices simultaneously in balance. It's the best of the four evils.
I've always said about training, "It's hard to feel sorry for yourself, when they're doing something good for yourself".
I can hardly wait for tomorrow. I'm craving sweat.
This morning started like every other morning with my old man shuffle. Normally it takes 30 minutes until my legs warm up, lately it's been getting worse and taking longer.
In the last 24 hours I caught up on all my lost sleep. In total, I slept 13 hours. This morning I was up at 10 am, felt great, and was looking forward to my long run.
The only problem was my legs. After 90 minutes I was still shuffling. Alyssa even asked, "Why are your walking so funny".
I can hardly wait until this season is over, with all the training and not taking any significant breaks in 18 months, I can feel my body needs to rest and rebuild.
Today being Fathers day, the kids bought me some gifts. Or I should say Alice bought me some gifts from the kids. The good thing about having distinct interests is it makes it easy for the family to buy presents for me. This year they got me a beer related fathers day card, chocolate cigars, a chocolate beer, a Dairy Queen frozen cake with a beer on it and the video series "Bullshit" with Penn and Tellier.
All my favourite interests were covered today; chocolate, politically incorrect viewpoints and humour, ice cream, a hot sunny day, an afternoon nap, the love of my family and a long run.
Before I knew it, Reid already started eating the cigars, but the chocolate beer is too cool to eat. I told Reid in the most non-loving fatherly voice, "He's dead if he eats it". It's going behind the bar. I'm sure it will get eaten one day. It will be the night that I run out of beer and munchies.
I can see myself sitting sadly at the bar and "viola", I haphazardly zero in on the chocolate beer and say, "Your day has come my friend". Then (In fat bastard voice) I say "GET IN MY BELLY!!!" as I aggressively bite of it's neck.
Today was a warm and sunny day, almost not a cloud in the sky. I left the house for my run at 1pm and it was 29 C. When I finished it was 32 C. It was the toughest long training run I've ever done in my life. Near the end, it felt like I was in an Ironman race. It was a great race day simulation training run.
My pre-run strategy was to run 10 minutes and walk for 30 seconds and repeat for the entire run. I also chose a very hilly route. By the 1:50 mark my heart rate started to elevate to the point where I had to start walking often to keep it in the zone. Eventually it turned out to a run 2-3 minutes and walk 20-30 seconds in order to keep my heart rate under 143 bpm.
I was smart enough to bring my water belt and I ran by three golf courses without stopping. When I left the house, I was determined to do the run without stopping for a beer. With 40 minutes left in my run, I was slightly tempted to stop, but didn't. I was committed to having an Epic training session.
With 10 km's to go, it became a grind to finish. Thoughts went through my mind at the 3 hour point to have Alice pick me up, as 3 hours was all I was scheduled to do and technically it wouldn't be quitting. It wasn't a serious urge and passed quickly. I was determined to finish, even if I had to walk. I then set a goal for myself, "to get to the convenience store 1.5 km from my house and treat myself to a Slurpee".
I also focused on this run as a prelude to training for ultra endurance events. I'm debating to do one next year. I was more concerned with keeping my legs fresh than going for speed. The heat was getting to me. The last 10 km was virtually shadeless.
Between the heat and the mental game playing, I got a whole new level of respect for ultra-endurance athletes. Guys like Bill Bradley are doing 6 hour training runs and 6 hour swims on weekends. Today, I internalized that I'm going to have to get comfortable with weekend 6 hour runs and 10 hour bike rides if I want to do a double or triple Ironman.
I finally reached the store near my house and got my Slurpee. What a mistake! After one sip I got the BIGGEST Slurpee headache I've ever had. It was beyond believe. I had such a strong "brain freeze" I dropped to my ass and almost fell over in the fetal position on the sidewalk in front of store doors. I was in pain. If anyone was watching, they probably thought I was having a brain aneurysm.
I learnt an important lesson, take very small sips. After I drank about half of the Slurpee, I started running again, albeit very slow for a few hundred meters. My legs needed to loosen up. I ran the remaining distance to my house sipping on my Slurpee, it was the perfect form of cooling hydration.
When I got home, the weirdest feeling came over me. The only way I could describe it was heat exhaustion. I downed lemonade, apple juice, orange juice and water. I wanted to get some sugar in me to combat any potential bonk. I tried to stretch my calf's but started feeling sick. I ended up taking my sweaty clothes off and jumping into bed wearing my non-compression underwear.
Initially, lying down on my bed didn't help much. I knew I needed to sleep it off. I was right. Ninety minutes of sleeping worked, it brought me back to functionality.
With that said, I wouldn't trade my day for anything. It was a great Fathers day. There was the love of my family, combined with beautifully hot weather, a tough, memorable run and a DQ ice cream cake for desert after a nice juicy steak dinner. To me, it was "priceless".
Long Run - 3:24:35 / 35.0 km / 5:49 pace / 141 avg hr
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That sums up my day.
Last night was too much fun and today I paid the price. I thought I was okay when I woke up at the crack of noon. I blogged and was on my bike by 2 pm. I was looking forward to riding outside in the heat and humidity.
I knew it was going to be a slow ride once I started. My heart rate was high and to keep it in the zone, there was not a lot of pushing on the pedals. I also felt flat. About an hour into it, my engine powered down. It was noticeable.
At that point I knew riding was going to be a waste of time physically. There would be no performance gains made today. It was only going to be a mental grind. I decided to cut the ride short and head home. Little did I know the worst was yet to come. When I got home, the suffering began. I experienced a semi-hangover and exhaustion.
The rest of the day looked like this. Lie on couch, pick up and eat Chinese food, fall into a coma on the couch and wake up at 11:30 pm back to a semi-normal state.
I had one of those sleeps where you can't move or open your eyelids if you wanted to. Even Alice fell a sleep on the sofa. I was on one end and she was on the other. For Alice to fall asleep during the day or evening is rare.
Some nights I wish I had an off switch or had the ability to powerdown.
My name is Bryan and I have a problem.......I'm a compression sock wearer.
One day this past week, I even went to bed wearing my black, knee high compression socks. The only thing missing was a plastic pocket protector in my pajama top pocket. Alice got a laugh at them. I think I said something like, "do you think I'm sexy?!".
I think wearing them helped. I'm not sure. I do know my shin hurt a little until I took them off in the morning. I figured if they could hurt you, at least they're doing something. This week I also wore my full lower body compression tights. Man are they hard to put on. I don't know how Batman does it.
After wearing full body compression tights, I realized I have non compression underwear. I think they must be 4 or 5 years old. My philosophy is, "if the band hasn't separated from the fabric, they're still good". Although, they are so loose, I think I may have to start wearing suspenders with them.
Today I went to theTop Health Blogger website. Earlier this week, they reviewed my blog and felt I was worthy enough to get a Top Health Blogger badge. If you scroll down the page, you'll see my badge on the side of the site. I went back to the site because I decided to change my avatar picture.
When I got to the site, I was surprised to see I was already a Platinum member and had over 6600 points. How did that happen? I then realized they had "slurped up" and posted over 600 of my blog posts on their site and gave me points for every post. In the Ironman community on the site, my picture and profile is number one. It's at the top of the page and the first you see. I have more points than anyone else.
That made changing my badge photo even more appropriate, it would now be highly viewed. I choose the one where I have with a cigar in mouth and beer in hand.
I'm wondering how long it will take until some granola eating, sandal wearing, non smoking, politically correct, born again Jehovah, organic everything buyer, teetotaler and all around do gooder complains and I get a request to remove it.
I figured if Arnold Schwarzenegger could be the Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and smoke cigars before visiting schools promoting fitness, then smoking cigars must not be a bad thing. That's my secondary argument.
My primary argument is, "You got to have fun along the way". I've been told my blog is inspiring and motivating and people like how I mix training with pleasure. That alone should make it a Top Health Blogger site. It has merit. The fact that I also smoke cigars and drink to epic proportions with a sense of politically incorrect humour shouldn't be held against me.
With that said, I await with baited breath. I was also chuckling when I saw the picture of the girl with the bottomless male blow up doll on their site. I would think that would definitely grab someones attention. If something does happen, I hope it becomes a blog worthy story.
Tonight I had to jump of the beer wagon to fix a wheel. At least the wagon worked well for 5 days straight. Jamie and Barb came over and as always, we had a lot of good laughs. They had to leave when the street lights came on. I think Jamie is the reverse of a vampire, he can only stay out in the light and has to get back home before dark, or his face melts.
The rest of the night was booze talk and drinking-Alzheimer's with Alice. Drinking-Alzheimer's is a medical condition that is caused from excessive alcohol. The primary symptom is when you are telling a story or making a point, and if you segway for some reason, you then can't remember what you were talking about originally. I find by about 12 beers it kicks in. I was telling Alice we need to get a tape recorder that I can play back, I don't want the disease to get the best of me.
Talking about something getting the best of them, John Barclay is up 20 lbs since Ironman China. He has a bad hip problem and needs a replacement. Running and biking is near impossible. Unfortunately, due to his job as a Police Officer he's also around donuts all day, which doesn't help. No exercise, combined with eating junk food regularly, is the recipe to become a Fat Guy.
Being a friend, his pain is my pain and I've been trying to think how I can help John. I'd really like to run and bike with him again. Then it hit me! John could become a wheelchair athlete. I don't think or there shouldn't be any rules in the book that says you have to be a cripple.
John could get a high tech carbon fibre wheel chair for our runs, although he'd have to slow down for me. Another benefit would be he could carry my water and gels on those long runs. For biking he could get one of those hand pedaling machines. The new ones can now go as fast as a regular bike. For swimming, that would be easy for John, no kicking. He's always been good at that.
I think this is a brilliant idea. If John puts his heart and soul into it, it may even have a shot at qualifying for Kona and getting written up in the local paper.
Today was speed day. I did my first run and bike speed work sessions since IMSG.
Technically, I did a speed bike session last week, but that doesn't count. It was low rpm's and my heart rate didn't get in the red zone.
Today was different. I was in the red zone for both speed work sessions.
For lunch, instead of eating, I decided to put rubber on the road. I rode strong and got the heart rate up to 160 bpm, which is pretty much as high as I can go without a hangover. I even hammered up 14 side road at a blistering 9 kph for 5 minutes and it didn't go higher and that was with standing on the pedals.
The best part of the ride was doing intervals directly into a stiff head wind and maintaining 33-37 kph. To put it in perspective, the return was 45-48 kph. If I'm doing speed work, I love a strong head wind, there's no mailing it in.
This evening, Reid and I went to the track. He had his 30 minute run and I had speed work. He's definitely improving, he runs at about a 9:00 per km pace and doesn't stop often. He doesn't have the "fat boy" legs he used to have, they've evolved to "thick" boy legs.
My speed work session started off pathetic. I felt so slow. My legs didn't have the turnover and my lungs felt like the "air filter was clogged". Intervals are tough at the best of time, they're miserable when it's your first session in six weeks. It also didn't help that my back was tight from working at the kitchen table all day.
The good news is I improved on each interval. My first was the slowest and my last was the fastest. Unfortunately, it's the opposite in the pool.
On the track, my first 400 of 8 was a 3:54 p/km (6:17 p/m) pace and my last was a 3:41 p/km (5:56 p/m) pace. I did 800's and my first was a 4:01 p/km (6:28 p/m) pace and my last was 3:52 p/km (6:14 p/m) pace. I guess you could say I had negative splits. I definitely left a lot of sweat on that track, I was dripping wet the entire time.
As I was running the intervals, I was thinking, "I can hardly wait until the last one's over". I was also thinking, "Welland Half Ironman is going to hurt". It's in 10 days and yesterday I decided I'm going to sign up and do it. Unfortunately, with only two speed work sessions before the race, I'll be far from setting any PB's, and that may hurt the ego a bit. (Although, my ego felt good this morning when my scale said I was back to a 9 on 9 for fitness with the metabolism of a 12 year old).
Speed work is hard and necessary. If you want to get fast, you have to do it. It also makes you feel young. Nothing makes you feel younger than running around a high school track as fast as you can. As a kid, I only remember doing it when we were forced to by our gym teacher in preparation for a compulsory track meet. Most adults don't spend much time even thinking about sprinting around the school track, let alone doing it.
The running speed work did my body good. It blew all the crap out of my lungs. I couldn't get any lactic acid build up in the legs and it wasn't from lack of trying. To me, there's no better feeling than coming off the track with sore legs. It's like leaving with a trophy, it's the gift that keeps giving. The only thing you need to be careful about when doing running speed work is keeping your form, or you risk injury.
I think I'm getting Reid closer to doing an Triathlon. I told him he ran about 3 km's today and he was surprised, he said for sure he could now do a 1 km running race. He did a 2 km race a few years ago and a 4 year old beat him. No joke. To Reid's defence, the kids WAS Ethiopian. His father won the 10 km race.
In my last two races, I've had to go to the porta-potty, either during or right after a race. At IMSG it cost me a Kona slot. It happened again tonight. I've got to figure this thing out. This speed work is really "shaking something loose". I've heard that a lot of the pro's just take in gels during the race to avoid stomach issues. I was assuming when they said stomach issues, they meant "the sh*ts".
What is it about running fast that makes me have to crap? In the movie comedy "King Pin", and one of my personal favourites, the landlady has the same problem, but with sex. I know where she's coming from.
I had my first swim since cramping my calf in Lake Placid last Saturday.
In the past 6 weeks, the only training that has suffered is my swimming. I'm doing the running and biking mileage, I'm just avoiding the pool. Swimming is what I like to do least. You could ask me to swim for 1 hour or run for 2 hours or bike for 3 hours and I'll take the run or bike.
The only time I REALLY enjoy swimming is if I'm hungover. There's something about your brain being mush and time flying in the pool. The only problem I have swimming after a night of drinking is my calf's tend to cramp from dehydration. Oh, and the probably of drowning is greater, but that's secondary.
Today I had two challenges. The first was whether my calf would cramp or not, and the second was mentally accepting my loss of speed. I find that if I don't swim regularly I lose it.
I definitely lost swimming speed, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Two weeks ago in the pool I was swimming 1:50 per 100 meters. Six months ago my lowest 100 ever was 1:28 and my overall average back then was probably 1:40 - 1:45 per 100.
After today's warm up, I did 6 x 50 meters and was averaging 44 seconds each. Then I did my first 300 and finished in 5:00 or 1:40 per 100. Then it went downhill. I had 5 more sets of 300 meters on 40 second rests and each set got slower. My final set was 5:28 or 1:49.6 per 100.
Like most swims, I wanted to quit after about 40 minutes but I wasn't going to let it beat me and "sucked it up". There is no greater feeling than finishing a swim session when you don't want to.
My calf was fine until the end. I was pushing off the wall and it started to have a very, very, slight cramp. I was driving home and my calf was "twitching" like crazy with all the "electrons" firing. It a freaky cool thing to see the muscles involuntary moving. It reminds me of those "electric pads" that therapists use to contract the muscles, except it's the body's natural electricity.
I got a good laugh today. If you look on the side of my blog you'll see the addition of a "Top Health Blogger" badge. I applied for it as a joke. Before they endorse your site they have to review and approve it's content.
Based on that requirement alone, I didn't think I had a chance of becoming accepted and was anticipating my rejection letter. I was looking forward to judging it against the others. Today they emailed me my acceptance. I wonder if they just looked at the photo's on the side and didn't read one word?
That's my cynical side. Then I realized, "I could be wrong". Maybe they scrutinized much of the content and felt I was onto something with my controversial training lifestyle. Perhaps they understood that text books are meant to be rewritten and we need to tell the world that excessive beer drinking goes well with excessive training.
It got me thinking that I should write a book. It would include chapters like, "4 am is too early to go to bed" and "If your drinking less than 12 beers you should have a nipple on that bottle". My personal favourite chapter is "Training with a hangover makes bonking in a race feel like nothing".
I think there is a whole group of future P.F.G.s (Previous Fat Guys) who would find it motivating. It is unique enough that it could be marketed differently. I'd propose that I make a deal with Coors or Amstel and include a copy of my book in every case of beer as a giveaway. It would show a whole new generation of P.F.G's that exercise doesn't have to be "sobering".
I'm just honoured that an organization with credibility has recognized my efforts and exploration of alternative training lifestyles. It almost brought a tear to my eye to be among all those "high brow blogs". (Read the next three sentences in Oscar acceptance speech tone). I finally feel accepted. I feel like I belong. And last but not least, I want to thank my family for taking care of me when I'm playing the porcelain tuba.
Talking about P.F.G's, I got the colour logo completed and now all the P.F.G. Triathlon Club merchandise is in full color. You can purchase it at http://www.cafepress.ca/pfgtriclub . I also updated the P.F.G Blog. If anyone is, or knows a P.F.G., have them email me their story and pictures and I'll post it. The more stories the more inspiration.
One last thing, last week I got an email from Google. They very nicely "bitch slapped" me for asking for clicks and said if I don't get all my requests off the blog within 72 hours they were going to infiltrate the grid and remove all the money from my bank account and shut down my homes electricity and gas.
Well, maybe they didn't word it exactly like that, although I'm sure they could do it if they wanted to. What they did say was that they would shut down my ability to have my blog readers "throw a coin in my open guitar case".
So you won't find me begging for Cs ever again, I won't even use the word, it won't happen, it's not right to beg for Cs, and I won't do it, definitely won't beg for C's ever again, nope, not again, don't want to sway people towards doing anything against the rules and Cing for the sake of Cing, I don't want to have my privileges shut down because of inappropriate requests.
I just wanted to let everyone know that they should only C if they find something that interests them. If you've been reading my blog for any period of time you know that I definitely don't like breaking the rules. I'm basically the type of guy that likes to color between the lines. I'm an early to bed, early to rise kind of guy. And that has nothing to do with time of day. Wink, wink.
On another subject, I wanted to talk about pacing....if you are going to do something regularly, like helping a friend or TPPF, don't do it excessively. It's always good to do things in a measured fashion. To much of a good thing isn't good. It's like training, if you go to hard and do it all at once, you burnout. The tortoise wins the race, if you know what I mean. If not, you're an idiot.
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