Israel was a success on every level...

I only had 4 hours of sleep last night, but I was still up at 5:11 am to do my training.

I did a 50 minute tempo run, followed by an hour in the weight room.

I ran along the ocean and it was nice, it seemed like I was running faster than usual.

It has been a long time since I've been able to run with shorts on and no snow.

Hurray, I love it!

My trip was successful on every level. I was able to keep up my training, even traveling overseas.

Now I'm off to the airport for my 12 hour flight back home.

I should be home by 8:00 pm and told the family that when I get home we are going out for dinner and cocktails.

I plan on having a few pints to celebrate a week well done.

In Israel, I'm the fastest in the pool...

It has been a long day.

I was up at 5:00 am and in the pool by 5:45 am to do my 3500 meter tempo swim.

It was only one of two pools in Tel Aviv and I didn't know what to expect. I didn't even know if it was indoor or outdoor.

When I got there, I realized I was the youngest person by about 40 years. I felt like I was in the movie "Cocoon".

While I was there, one person had a medical emergency and had to be taken away by ambulance.

I was by far the fastest in the pool, thankfully.

I had a great swim, the water was warm and had a salt like taste. It was nice.

For the rest of the day I was busy, busy, busy and got back to the hotel at 12:15 am.

Day Two - Mission Accomplished.

Day Three - I need to be up at 5:00 am, two workout sessions, and my motivation is to "burn" off all the food I ate today.

I think I've been eating every 3 hours....

Yesterday, I left at 6:35 pm from Toronto, via Frankfurt, and arrived in Israel 16 hours later, at 2:40 pm today.

With all the time zone changes, Air Canada seemed to be feeding us every 3 hours. By the time I arrived, I felt like I just ate a Christmas dinner.

I was fairly tired when I arrived. I only had 3 hours of sleep and my "back side" hurt from sitting on a plane seat for so long.

It's strange, I find sitting on a bike seat for a long time is easier than sitting on a plane seat...go figure.

I just had enough time from when I arrived until I had a scheduled dinner meeting to get in my 60 minute bike ride. I had a nice view of the ocean and a sunset from my bike, so I took a picture.

I did a tempo ride, fairly hard but not over 139 bpm, at times my watts were up to 255.

After the workout and shower, we went for an amazing dinner.

There was so much food to eat, plus desserts and then when I got back to my room, HP dropped off chocolate and dried fruits as gifts.

Between the plane food, the authentic middle eastern dinner and the room snacks, I need to burn about 7,000 calories to get back to zero.

But you only live life once, at least in this lifetime!

Day 1 - mission accomplished.

Now I need to find a 25 meter pool for Day 2.

Some people run 4.5 km, I swam it this morning...

I'm leaving to Israel this afternoon, so I had to get all my training in before I left.

I didn't get much sleep last night, about 5 1/2 hours, and was in the pool by 6:40 am.

Today's long swim workout was 4500 meters, the longest distance I've ever swam. Previously my longest swim was 4 km, which is the swim distance of the Ironman.

The swim was okay. My arms were very "heavy", perhaps from the weight training session last night. I was struggling to do 2:05 per 100 meters.

I finished the swim in 1 hour 39 minutes.

On the way home from the swim, I stopped at McDonald's and picked up a large coffee and bran muffin for only $1.69. I love a good deal, caffeine and good carbs.

After I ate and read the paper, I did a 65 minute run under 134 bpm, then stretched, showered, and packed.

It is going to be interesting how I handle my training in Israel.

I'm only gone for 3 days, but 28 hours of those 3 days is in a plane, plus airport waiting time, and a time zone difference.

In addition, I've got full days and evenings of meetings.

I emailed my hotel and they found me an Olympic sized pool, and they have a Lifecycle and weight room, so I'm hoping I can pull it off.

Oh yeah, I included a picture of a custom paint job Reid did on his goalie helmet.

He didn't care if I put it on my blog, which for an 11 year old, is a round about way of saying to put it on my blog.

Monday evenings are all training...

On Monday's I don't split my workouts, I don't do one in the morning, and the other in the evening.

I do them both in the evening, which makes for over 3 hours of consecutive training.

I started at 7:32 pm, which is about an hour later than normal, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

The first half of my training was a 1 hour and 45 minute bike ride followed by 80 minutes of weights, then of course stretching.

By the time I was done, it was 10:45 pm. I feel good, but it was just a long evening.

Part of the reason I started later was that I was "craving" a Dairy Queen soft ice cream cone dipped in chocolate, so before I started training, I went a got one.

It tasted better in my mind, but was still good.

It did give me something to work off tonight!

Swimming like a fish...

Last night I carbo loaded with some beers and pizza.

Today at noon, I did a 3000 meter swim.

It was the best swim I can ever remember having.

I thought Friday nights swim workout was good, but this was even better!

I altered my swim stroke. I reached as far as I could with my arm, then pulled.

At first it was awkward and caused my torso to really twist from side to side, but somehow in doing so, my speed increased.

I was easily doing 1:45 per 100 and even kept under 2:00 just pulling. And the amazing thing is this was a moderate workout and my heart rate was around 121 - 129 bpm.

Around midway through my workout another guy started swimming beside me, he had just regular swim trunks on and I was "pumped" to see how much faster I would be than him.

The problem was, he was kicking my "butt".

I couldn't believe it, I can't remember the last time I've been the fastest in the pool. There is always someone humbling me.

As I was leaving the pool, I realized that he was doing kick flips at the wall. Obviously he swam competitively in the past.

Whew...that makes me feel a little better, at least he was no just a "regular" guy with regular swim trunks.

When I got home I ate, snow blowed my driveway and two of my neighbors, then went for an 80 minute long run. I did 9.24 miles at an 8:40 pace under 139 bpm.

The weather was better, but I'm so looking forward to the snow melting so I can run on the sidewalks. There is so many drivers that don't give me a lot of space when they pass me.

Especially young people and old people.

A new PR for bike training...

I slept in today until 8:30 am, I got a good 8 1/2 hours of sleep.

As unbelievable as this sounds, I've gained a few pounds in the last 10 days. It's not due to muscle, but it is due to poor diet.

Primarily, refined sugars and fried foods. Surprisingly it's not due to beer, as I haven't had many for a couple of weeks.

I figured that by burning over 40,000 plus calories per month, I could eat and drink whatever I want.

Wrong!

Last week for example, I did my long ride and brick run, then "bonked"afterwards. Doing so was a reflection of my poor diet.

For today's 4 hour long ride (which is the longest I've ever been on a bike indoors), followed by a 30 minute brick run, I was determined not to "bonk" this time.

I started to eat better two days ago and decided to eat something during the ride. I had either a banana or cliff bar for every hour of the training session.

The ride went reasonably well, 4 hours is a long time and the "butt" and "legs" get sore. But I managed through it. Lot's of sweat and determination along the way!

After the ride, I dried myself off, changed quickly and was out the front door in just over 6 minutes.

The cold weather outside just "sucked"!

It was snowing and blowing, again. I'm just sick of this weather.

I heard that we may break a record from 1939, for having the most amount of snow fall this year.

The run was slow, it is really tough to run on the snowy roads, but it went well. I listened to my iPod and enjoyed it.

When I got back, I felt good, no "bonking" this time. I had a protein shake and a couple of baked potatoes.

Then I had a nice post workout snooze...