First day off in 77 days....

Last night was great! Reid's team won their three on three championship and were awarded the gold medal. (Reid is bottom front, on the right, lying down with his #1 finger up).

I was real tired last night, but it was an exciting game and watching it woke me up. He scored a really nice goal and got an assist as they won 8 - 6 against the first place team.

It's amazing how much he has improved since the beginning of the year.

I got 8 hours of sleep last night and woke up with the beginning of a cold and sore throat. It never fails, I'm running a 30 K race on Sunday and now I'm starting to get sick.

At least today is a taper day with no training. It is the first time in 77 consecutive days that I have not trained. Which at least gives me a little rest to recuperate and hopefully fight off this cold and be ready for Sunday's run.

Alyssa, Alice and I went out for dinner tonight at an Italian restaurant and I carbo loaded with pasta and beer. My best races have been when, two nights before the race, I have some beers.

After the dinner, I actually started to feel better, which is a good thing. When I got home, I drank another beer as I updated my blog, and am now starting to mentally prepare for Sunday's race.

Until I'm at the start line, I never know what my strategy will be, but 99% of the time, the strategy is to go as hard as I can.

I need some sleep...

I'm tired!

Last night I only got 4 hours of sleep, the night before was a late night with cocktails and the night before that was only 5 1/2 hours of sleep.

I was up today at 5:10 am and went to the Y to do my 3500 meter speed swim workout, followed by a power weight training session.

For the first time since I started training 10 months ago, I almost stopped during my swim after 22 minutes and went home because I was "exhausted". I'm not sure if it was from the lack of sleep, the cocktails or the speed bike session the night before, it was probably a little of everything.

I fought through and ended up finishing my swim workout in 1 hour and 22 minutes, then I did an hour of weights. It was not easy from a mental and physical perspective.

Physically, I was training at around 144 bpm and it was my first anaerobic swim of the year. Mentally, I was just "drained". I kept thinking, maybe I should go home and come back tonight? But I persevered and I'm glad I did.

It turns out that tonight is the final championship game for Reid's three on three hockey team and they are going for the gold. Which is good and bad, as I was hoping I'd be able to relax on the sofa tonight.

Oh well, that's life!

The beginning of the speedwork phase...

Last night we had a great time at the NHL old timers game.

The old school players are awesome and gracious, they don't make them like they used to.

We went to an after party and met Paul Coffee, Bryan Trottier, Glenn Anderson, Dale Hawerchuck and Bob Probert. I got my picture with Bryan Trottier, my favorite NHL player when I was a kid, and Reid got lots of Autographs. The players really took an interest in him when they spoke to him, he loved it.

I also won a Tretiak signed jersey at a silent auction.

This morning I was a little under the weather as the beer was flowing last night, but as the day wore on, I started to feel much better and started my bike ride at around 7:30 pm.

Today's training session was the first speed workout of the year and marks the beginning of the next phase of training. It wasn't long, but it was TOUGH. In total is was around 55 minutes and with only about 17 minutes of intervals, which doesn't sound like much, but it was hard.

My heart rate got up to 171 bpm and afterwards I did 15 minutes of easy spinning, my legs felt like rubber.

I felt a little sick afterwards and I'm not sure if it was from last night or from the intensity of the workout. It's probably a little of both.

What a couple of busy days...

Tonight, Reid, Alice and I are going to the NHL old timers hockey game. Which meant I needed to get in a 4500 meter swim and an hour long run in before work.

I did it! And as the day wore on, I started to feel the tiredness.

In the past 2 days, I've only had a total of 10 hours sleep and did 4.5 hours of training in 25 hours. With the lack of sleep and working and training so much in a short period of time, it feels surreal. I'm in a Zen like state without "sharp" thinking.

I'm looking forward to tonights game, to relax and have a beer. Another benefit is that I don't have to get up at 5 am tomorrow, I can sleep in till at least 7:30 am.

A busy day that started with 4.5 hours of sleep...

I got to bed at 12:30 am last night and I was up at 5:00 am to do my weight training session at the YMCA.

I knew today was going to be a busy day. I had to meet some co-workers at 7:15 am and drive 2.5 hours to Rochester, New York. We spent the entire day there and got back to my house around 6:40 pm.

One of the people had a flight to catch at 9:40 pm, so we had a pizza delivered to my house and had a few pints of beer before he had to leave to the airport. Which meant I wasn't able to start my 2 hour and 15 minute bike ride until 8:00 pm.

I did start and finish the ride, burping up some beer along the way. I actually felt surprisingly good during and afterwards. Watching 2 hours of "Dancing with the Stars" helped pass the time.

Last week it was a "brutal" ride due to the power weight training session before the ride. This weeks power session did not have the same effect. It was a moderate ride, under 134 bpm and I was able to do it with high rpm's.

It felt like I was trying to play catch up all day in order to get the training done.

Tomorrow is going to be more of the same, as I'm taking Reid to an old timers hockey game in the evening and somehow I need to fit in 3 hours of training.

Easter Sunday's run didn't seem that long...

Last night I had a great steak dinner and some beers.

For some reason, red meat and beer help my recovery.

Today was a 2 hour long run. My buddy John ran with me and the time just flew by.

We both run around the same speed and talk during the run, which makes it enjoyable.

The run was through the Niagara Escarpment and was a series of hills and slight inclines and declines.

The scenery is just beautiful and because we started early, there was very little traffic.

We ran at about an 8:45 minute mile pace, which ended up being around 14 miles.

It was interesting, the route we ran today was the same route I did my first long run on when I started my training program in January.

On that first run I was not able to keep my heart rate below 139 bpm unless I walked. I must have stopped 12 plus times.

Today's run was much different. Other than a couple of "bathroom" breaks and a brief walk at the top of the biggest hill, we ran all the way.

I can really see the improvement!

My 5 hour and 23 minute Saturday training day...

Reid had his house league playoff game at 7:00 am this morning, so I was up at 6:00 am.

Good thing I went to bed at 10:30 pm the night before.

It was an exciting game, it ended up as a one all tie. Reid's team really deserved to win, but at least they didn't loose.

By 9:00 am I was on the bike for my 3 1/2 hour ride, followed by a 30 minute brick run.

The ride was strong, I stayed at the upper end of 139 bpm and made sure I ate something every hour on the hour.

It seemed to work, I had good energy for the entire ride.

The transition from the bike to the run took me just over 8 minutes, unfortunately I had organizational issues. I would have like it to be around 5 minutes.

Once I got on the road I felt strong running, it was very tough to stay under 139 bpm as my body just wanted to go faster.

I ran 33 minutes at a 8:59 pace, which is my fastest brick run of the year by 11 seconds per mile.

After the run, I drove to the Oakville YMCA and swam 3500 meters at a moderate pace. I averaged around a 126 bpm heart rate.

By 3:30 pm I was finished for the day and stopped by the Beer Store for some Coors tall boys.

Depending on how I feel, I thought I might have a few tonight. I figure it's best to be prepared, just in case I get a "craving".

A new focus for me is to eat during every hour of training, so my body will be prepared to accept and process food during my racing.

On the bike I ate a bagel, bran muffin, and Cliff bar. On the run I ate another Cliff bar, then a banana after the swim.

I really feel great physically and mentally.

Surprisingly, I don't even feel like I worked out that much today!