Cana-do Day...

Today was Canada Day. Who doesn't like a National holiday!?

With all the great infrastructure and a peaceful and civilized lifestyle, it's hard to believe our Country is only 143 years old. I'm lucky and proud to be a Canadian There is not any other place in the world I'd rather live during the Summer.

The holiday couldn't have come at a better time. For pretty much the entire day and until midnight I worked on my new website. I also got a commitment from Alyssa to manage it for a percentage of any profits. In between, I went for a swim with Reid and fit in a biking speed work session.

At the pool, I was in a lane with a couple of early to mid 50 something guys. When I showed up, the first guy was just swimming butterfly. This went on for at least 25 minutes or longer. I was blown away, butterfly is hard and I have trouble doing even 50 meters of butterfly. He was doing them at a 2:00 per 100 meter pace.

A second guy later appeared who knew the first guy and they asked me if I wanted to join them in doing 100 meter freestyle repeats? I didn't, but I did anyways. I forgot my watch and don't know the times, but we were getting back to the wall, waiting around 5 - 10 seconds and going on 1:40's.

I'd bail after every 3 sets and follow my MAO 200 meters of easy in between, and then return for another 3 sets. After I cut out once, the first guy asked the second guy if going on 1:25's would work for him? In the end, they didn't even continue with freestyle, they decided to do 450 meters of butterfly repeats.

It just shows that age doesn't matter. These two guys still got it. I don't know too many guys their age that are such strong swimmers with such old looking faces. I'm sure, just by his look, one of the guys was a grandfather. He was the one continously butterflying.

Reid's been pushing himself to catch up on some missed workouts. Not his fault. The swim meet wasn't really a workout and until next week, regular swim club is over for the year. I think he's now two workouts behind and I'm working to help him catch up.

As a side bar, his coach emailed me and seemed disappointed that Reid wasn't returning. He's email said, "Well you tried. If I can do anything on land training and diet let me know. You have to have him do something, sometimes it's tough love. Good luck". I kind of laughed at the tough love remark, if I gave him anymore tough love, I'd have to remove the word "love".

It's interesting, Reid doesn't want a free lunch. He's harder on himself to make up those missed workouts than I am. Although he did have a friend sleep over yesterday and wanted to postpone a couple of sessions and I had to pull out the, "I don't care, don't do them, it just means I don't have to pay you $1000". Needless to say, with his friend in tow on his long board, Reid did his run and then the two lifted weights together downstairs.

Reid's only got three weeks left and at the rate he's going, he'll win the bet. However, the next three weeks is not going to be easy. Next week he starts "summer swimming school". It's four swim sessions a week and one of the top coaches of the Dolphins run it. Alice was told the kids improve the most during these intense summer sessions. For the next 3 weeks, Reid will have a combined total of 10 (swim, run and weights) sessions per week.

Later on in the day, I did a bike speed work session. I felt much stronger than I have in a long time. The HIM race on Sunday really helped, I felt like I had some power again. Even though I had a bit of a headache from last night (I've got to stick to the light beer) I still attached Bell School line hill as part of my 20 minute time trial. I didn't wuss out and it's at least a 5 minute steep climb, against a stiff wind, and I was only able to manage 7-9 kph.

On the way down the hill, I got up to 70.9 kph and that was ridding the brakes a little. I HATE going too fast, I tend to speed wobble myself. I'm now convinced it is "not about the bike", it's "all about my fear of going to fast and my arms starting to shake". It's phycological.

The rest of the night was uneventful. I just did website testing. I didn't even eat a real dinner, other than grazing. Which brings me to my "harping to myself" point. I need to work outside of the house or put locks on the fridge and cupboards, "I just can't stop eating when I'm working at home". It's just too darn easy to open the pantry door and most times I don't even know I'm eating. It's become an involuntary behaviour.

The time to stop complaining is now. I feel like a broken record. The time to take action is now. I feel like a broken record. The one thing about being a P.F.G (Previous Fat Guy) is you're always a F.G. deep down. It's not something that goes away, it's just something you constantly have to monitor and control.

Alice was telling me that she no longer looks at triathletes the same way. When see sees their P.F.G's pictures, there is no comparison to how they look now. I got the sense that she felt, "you can't judge a book by it's cover and that there could be an unrecognizable athlete in that F.G. body".

As you may know, Nazaire is a model and has done some commercials. Below is one of the commercials he did for Zero Vodka. I was wondering what Reid was laughing uncontrollably about the other night.

Speed swim - 41:53 / 2000 meters

Speed Bike - 1:11:45 / 34.38 km / 28.75 kph