Early morning...

I can' remember the last time I woke up at 5 am to train. The only time I'm up that early is to race, or take a pee and go back to bed.

Normally I do my long rides on Saturday. Tomorrow I'm hosting the third annual House of Payne 5 Km Beer Run and won't have time to do my Saturday long ride. With Kona only 6 weeks away I can't afford, nor want to miss a long bike.

I had a client meeting in the afternoon and in order to get the ride done and get to the meeting on time I had no choice but to start early. Hence, the reason I needed to get up at 5 am on a Friday Morning.

It was dark and cold outside when I woke up. The plan was to leave at 6 am and meet up with Shaw an hour away. I left the house and had to turn back after two minutes, my new aero bars needed adjustment and I needed to put a jacket on. It was colder than I anticipated.

About 20 minutes into the ride, the sun came up and somehow I lost one of my toe warmers. It didn't take long until the foot without the toe warmer was near frozen. It's amazing the difference a toe warmer makes.

The minute I started riding, I knew it was going to be "ugly", I was riding slow. Yesterday's bike and run "super sessions" took a toll on my legs. An unexpected oddity was my heart rate was unusually low. I had trouble getting it over 110 bpm. I was pushing as hard as my legs would allow me and at times my heart rate was under 100 bpm. At times my heart rate would be at 110 bpm and Shaws was 126 bpm.

Eventually, I met up with Shaw and we rode out to Guelph and then over to Rockwood to Cambridge and back to Burlington. By around 10 am it started to warm up. For me, it was a long ride. For Shaw it was a recovery ride, which is a good thing, with my slow speed, he was able to take it easy.

When Shaw and I eventually parted, I checked my email. It turns out my 2:30 meeting got moved to 1 pm. Dang, I'd have to push it to get back home, shower and get to the office in time. The extra effort got the heart rate up, but not by much. My big goal was to finish with at least 160 km / 100 miles of riding. Which I did.

About 5 km from home, a guy on a Giant bike with a red "wife beater" shirt on, passed by me. I imagined him laughing at a guy in an triathlon bike, decked out in aero helmet and he pass me.

It took two seconds and I went from 27 kph to 41 kph and blew by him and didn't stop until I got home. I left him far behind. It's amazing how pride can help the intensity of a workout and I asked myself "why didn't I do that all day?"

When I got home, I originally planned on doing a brick, but with the meeting getting moved up, I had no time. I barely had enough time to shower and get out of the house. I ended up making it to the meeting five minutes after the client arrived. It all worked out in the end and the meeting was successful.

Near the end of the meeting I was tired. The key to training is not to stop. Once you stop, you get tired. Had I not had to rush to the meeting, I would have had no problem doing the brick run. Now, 90 minutes later, I barely had enough energy to drive home without wanting to fall asleep.

When I got home, I tried to sleep and even had Alice pick me up some sugary coma inducing ice cream. It didn't work. I did manage to get a brief 20 minute nap and it almost got my energy up to a level where I was motivated to finish my 30 minute brick run. In the end, I postponed it to next weekends long ride which didn't have a brick run attached to it.

I also found out that Shaw continued on longer than planned and finished his first ever Century ride. The amazing thing is that for a guy who'll do about 15,000 km of riding this year, he's never done a Century before. Congrats Shaw!!!

Going to bed at 1 am and then waking up at 5 am and not having a sound sleep is tiring. In about 20 minutes from now, I'm now ready to have some steaks from the barbecue and some recovery drink from the Kegerator.

I just got an email from Matty O and he and Heather just left Cleveland. I expect him showing up at my place around midnight. I'm glad their running behind, it gives extra time for the gasoline smell to dissipate from the "Hotel Tool Shed".

The plan, and I stress "the plan", is to do a 90 minute ride tomorrow morning before the beer run with Matty and Heather and maybe Jamie.

Thanks goodness for Alice, she's been taking care of getting all the beer run stuff ready. We're ready and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I don't think it will be one of my fastest runs or I'd be surprised if it is. You never know, it all depends on how tonight's recovery drink works and if I get much sleep. Truthfully, I don't see myself catching up on too much sleep this weekend. Typical, what else is new.

As a side bar, I found out that Simon Cross from Tri-Twins has kept a secret from us all. He has travelled from Malaysia and was a late minute entrant into Ironman Kentucky this weekend. His bib number is 2381.

Along with Simon, Bob Lynch the fireman and regular blog follower and commenter from Windsor will also be racing his first ever Ironman in Kentucky. His bib is 2365. And last but not least, Brent Prokop (@2slowtwitch) is racing Ironman Canada this weekend, his bib is 160.

Good luck to all you guys on Sunday. I'll be watching, probably with a hangover from the beer run and cheering very quietly.

Long Bike - 5:39:24 / 160.22 km / 28.3 kph / 116 avg hr

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