Kona's not yet over...

I don't know how, but Alice and I stayed up until 3:30 am last night, watching UFC and talking. In total, we went 36 hours without sleep since leaving Kona.

It was nice to get home and see Alyssa, we missed her and she liked the stuff we brought back for her. We got her all kinds of little stuff and one big thing, a fine jewellery ring with a black pearl.

The first thing I did after seeing Alyssa was to unpack and re-assemble my bike. It turns out I have some "gearing issues" and the chain won't move from the big front ring to the small ring. This week will include a trip to the bike shop. Damn.

The second thing I did after I putting my bike together was to "tap a Keg". I had a new Keg all ready for me and it was "virgin" and "cold". It tasted fantastic, much better than American Coors Light and thankfully a higher percentage of alcohol too.

As we sat at the bar, we found the perfect place in the "Man Cave" for my Kona Paddle. It's a unique gift paddle I bought for $25 to remind me of our Kona trip. I'm going to put the date on the back of it and have Alice, Reid and myself sign it.

Today I didn't get up until 12:30 pm and it felt great to be back in our own bed. I had an awesome sleep.When I woke up, I realized it's over. Kona is gone and now it's time to focus on other things, primarily muscle recovery and things that pay the bills.

It feels like this is another turning point in my life. In 1988 after I did Kona, there was a major turning point in my career life and now I feel the same way. I sold my business this past May and now it feels like its time to re-focus on my career path.

I'm also going to make recovery and diet a priority. All day I've been editing Kona video and looking at photo's and can't deny I need to lose about 10 lbs. It's time to bring the horns in and it's hard to do, "I hate depriving myself of food" and having a newly tapped keg of beer in the house doesn't help.

I spent the day getting caught up replying to comments made on my blog and video editing. We took so much video and photos it's crazy and I want to get it done now while it's still fresh in my mind. Everything was going well until my computer said I need to remove files because my computer hard drive is near full, again.

In total, I think I'm going to have about 60 minutes of semi-tightly edited video. That just shows how much video and photographs we took. So far, I've spent about 8 hours editing and have only 15 minutes near completed.

As I did video stuff, Alice took Reid to the walk-in clinic, he was complaining about ear problems all morning. It turns out he has an ear infection, a throat infection, a sinus infection and a lung infection. The doctor was very concerned about his lung possibly collapsing and told Alice to monitor him closely for the next 12 hours and if it gets worse to take him to the hospital.

With the NYC Marathon coming up in 19 days, I need to figure out a training plan. I did a google search for plans, but most have the taper starting after this week. I think I'm going to have to take one of those plans and "alter and wing it". I'd like to at least get in two long runs before the race.

I'm also in the process of trying to find a place to stay in New York. The hotel rates are way to expensive for rooms with bed bugs. Someone on twitter suggested I check out Craigslist, as people will rent out their apartments or condos for that weekend. From what I can see it looks like a viable alternative. Instead of $400 per night, the rates are $80 - $125 per night.

Today was a good day for "healthy eating". I didn't cheat, other than a bag of Smart Pop popcorn, which is fairly low in calories. My hope is to try and treat my "dieting and recovery" with the same level of commitment I used for training. I know in my heart that I can easily drop 10 lbs in 3 weeks with strict adherence to eating healthy.

I was going to go for a run today, but decided not to. I didn't feel like it and more importantly, I felt dehydrated and didn't want to have my calves cramp up on me. I also remembered that I'm no longer on a "high volume" training schedule and training for a marathon doesn't require a large time commitment relative to Ironman.

Above are photo's of my new wrap around ankle tattoo. I really like it and it has real meaning when I look at it.

The Ironman logo with the Hibiscus flower in it represents Kona (it's their state flower) and Alice and her support of this crazy sport I've chosen. The band of diamonds are spearheads which represent warrior and strength. The other two Hibiscus flowers represent Alyssa and Reid and the band is the togetherness of our family. The Canadian Maple Leaf is the original tattoo I got when I finished my first ever Ironman in Canada in 1987. The artist cleaned it up and incorporated it into an M-Dot. The kids use to bug me how "jail house and welfare" my old maple leaf was looking.

I've also included two videos below. The first is the one of me crossing the finish line at Kona. The second is the Wheaties spot they have me talking in, I'm at the 1:09 mark of the video.

I actually tried the Wheaties Fuel cereal for the first time today (I only have 6 sample boxes of it from the Ironman) and it tasted "REALLY GOOD". Had I known, I would have taken another 6 sample boxes. Doh!!!

No Training - Recovery