Confession time...

Forgive me Coach, I have "sinned", "it has been 18 days since my last swim".

I didn't realize how long it had been until I checked the training log. With less than two weeks until Ironman Syracuse 70.3, I figured I better get back into the pool.

After only doing my 5th swim in 6 weeks, I didn't lose "that much" speed. Over 3700 meters, my slowest 100 meters was done in 1:53. Not good, but not bad considering the lack of swim training since IMLP.

The worst part was NOT being one of the faster swimmers in the pool. The best part was I enjoyed the swim. If I could bottle the feeling I had today, I'd gladly swim everyday.

They say "absence makes the heart grow fonder", I found that to be true swimming today. I realized how much I missed the cool water on my body, soothing my muscles. I missed the gliding through the water, like I was floating in air. I also missed the upper body workout. If the pool hadn't closed, I would have swam even farther.

The good news is it's "swim on" for the next 4 weeks and 4 days until Kona, all according to the master plan. I'm sure my euphoria about today's swim session will "wane", unfortunately.

I did notice that my heart rate became elevated after the swim and it made my bike session tougher. It was finally nice to go on a ride and not see my heart rate dip below 120 bpm, even if it was post-swimming induced.

Although the weather was warm outside today, it was a windy day to ride, gusting up to 67 kph. I can't remember any other time that I though I was going to be blown off my bike by a straight on "head wind". It was one weird gust.

I was happy with the ride, I finally got back to a 30 kph average. It wasn't an easy ride and I went through 5 bottles of water. Again, thank goodness Shaw showed me his "spring water" water bottle refill stop.

My body is a little screwed up, I can tell. After today's ride I returned with a mini-bonk and I don't know why. My weight is also fluctuating. This morning it was back up to 187 lbs and AFTER the ride and post dinner it was 190 lbs. A day ago it was 186.2 lbs.

I'm not sure what the issue is, perhaps it's from starting back with the weights on Friday and swimming today and my body needs time to adjust. Or it's the rapid weight loss. It's probably a combination of the two.

Either way, I'm happy with today's training. All things considered, I felt good and my strength on the bike was back to a 6 on 10. I also noticed the cool water rejuvenated my muscles and I can now officially say, "The People's Elbow is gone" and I was able to stretch properly after today's ride. Thank you Mr. Cool Water.

On the home front, it's back to business as usual. Reid started grade 8 today and Alyssa starts her first day of University tomorrow. Summer's over, I can tell, Alice is back to a routine, up early and to bed early. She was one tired momma tonight.

Swim - 1:20:01 / 3700 meters

Bike - 3:42:55 / 111.72 km / 30.07 kph avg / 133 avg hr

Peeing ribs...

After eating a big rack of Ribs from Burlington's Ribfest for dinner yesterday, I got up in the middle of the night to take a pee and all I could smell was ribs.

It was the same type of sensation you get after you eat asparagus, except it smelt like barbecue sauce and pork fat.

I'm amazed at how fast the body can heal. When I got back from my long run yesterday I couldn't even bend, let alone stretch. I was so stiff and my knee joints hurt. I was also in a semi-bonk state and had to lie down and have a little nap just to get back to functioning. This morning I felt 100% better.

The first thing I did when I woke up was stretch and it hurt, a lot. I thought my "butt cheek" injury from Matty O's "peoples elbow" was gone, but it wasn't. The biking and running this weekend tightened it back up and by not being able to bend or stretch after yesterday's run, knotted it up again.

I could tell I was "treading" dangerous waters by stretching pre-exercise without a warm up. Doing that is the best way to "throw your back out" and I came close. I was relieved that I got some of my flexibility back. After yesterday's training, I had the flexibility of "Herman Munster".

Today was a scheduled bike and weight training session. I wasn't sure if I had any muscle strength to do either. My first stop was the YMCA to do weights. It was one tough workout. I had "zero" energy. Between sets, I shuffled from one piece of equipment to another, sometimes with my eyes closed. If I had to compete in a 90 year old race with people shuffling with "walkers", I would have easily came in dead last. I was "toast".

It was actually comforting to know my muscles are "drained". I thought I was getting slower and I felt like I was out of shape. Which is ridiculous thinking. I know I can't be out of shape, there's no way I can be, I have to many consistent monthly miles on the board. Today I realized, I just got nothing left in my legs, Mark Allen Online training has exhausted them.

The downside of having exhausted legs is no strength or speed when biking and running. It causes you to second guess yourself and abilities. It bothers me when I can't ride with my heart rate over 120 bpm and average at least a 30 kph on the bike. It feels like all my past results were "merely a dream".

The good news is I'm now able to straighten my arms and lift them over my head without pain. The effects of Fridays weight training is subsiding. I still pushed heavy weight today and it's amazing how fast my muscle firmness has bounced back. I don't feel softness anymore.

When I got home, I had a dilemma, "to ride or not to ride, that is the question?" I decided to postpone it for two reasons. First, I didn't need a second workout with "garbage miles", I did that one on Saturday and proved I'm mentally strong. The second reason was I "mentally" feeling burnt out. If I've learnt anything, it's don't train if you're feeling "legitimately" burnt out.

The upside was today's ride was only of medium importance on the schedule. It's more of a "take it easy" ride and not critical to race day performance. My plan is to go out tomorrow and give it a go and "pray" that I have some leg strength. I don't think I can bear another sub 30 kph average on the bike.

Some good news is I weighed in at 186.2 lbs today. Which means since Friday I've dropped close to 3 lbs. I'm not sure if it will reflect tomorrow, I had a few beers with the Grants last night and no aerobic training. I didn't go overboard on the beer and didn't even get a buzz. Although it was bad enough that I started "snacking" on anything that I could find that wasn't "alive or nailed down" before I went to bed.

Weights - 45 minutes

5

Happy 37th Carlos...

About 90 minutes after yesterday's ride, Alice and I were at a French restaurant in Toronto for Carlo's surprise birthday party.

I now know why the French are so skinny, they charge you a lot for so little.

I will say the food was great and the testy waiter was authentically French. Alice and I really enjoyed ourselves. Thank you Fernanda for inviting us, it was an honour.

There was a group of ten of us. Everyone was very nice, lots of triathlon talk with four male triathletes in the bunch. Alice and I were the only non-Brazilians, the group was probably only speaking English because we were there.

I have now realized the hardest and coolest English accent on the planet to duplicate is Brazilian. Next time I go out with them, in their honour, I won't be able to speak with an Brazilian accent but I am going to get a "Brazilian Wax".

We were the second couple there and the first people we met were Leandro and his wife. The first thing he said was "Bryan, I know who you are, I read your blog", and the first thing she said was, "Oh, you're the blog guy, I feel sorry for your wife".

It is the weirdest thing meeting people that I've never met that read my blog. This has happened many, many times before. It's hard to make a good first impression when they know the truth. They know so much about me and I no so little about them.

It also limits the conversation, I pretty much say everything that goes on in my life on the blog, so any stories I have they may already know and I don't want to "bore" them. I really enjoyed meeting Leandro and his wife and all the group. Carlos hangs out with "good people".

Since I started writing the blog, I've met many people who read the blog. It's pretty much the same each time. If it's a couple, the husband loves me and the wife is "suspect".

At times, it feels like the "ladies" don't want me getting to close to the "hubbies" and "rubbing off". Many people think Alice is a Saint for putting up with me and if I was their husband, I get the sense "they'd straighten me out".

What most people don't know is Alice is not what she appears to be. Under that classy, graceful, quiet, strong, good mother, patient, loving, caring facade, is a major league instigator.

If you've ever watch the TV show "Pippy Longstocking", that's her. I married "Pippy"and she's my "Party Muse". I should know, we've been together for 29 years.

One day, I'd like to have one person who I meet for the first time say, "I feel so sorry for you being married to that enabler, you poor thing". People don't understand how hard it is being married to Alice. She's a stay at home mom and does EVERYTHING around the house.

Alice does the cooking, the laundry, the helping with the homework, the cleaning, the bill paying, the lawn cutting, the grocery shopping, the pizza pickup-ing, the clothes shopping, the driving the kids to school, the dish washing, the Slurpee getting, the lunch making, the kids driving, the deck staining, the garage door painting, the oil changing and the booze getting.

It's not easy living with a person that does all those things. Alice comes by it honestly, she can't sit still or watch TV for very long. There's not a lot I can do, I've tried, but I never do things to her high standards. Like I said, it's not easy being me.

Although, over the years, I have learnt to contribute in my own way and take on responsibility when I can. The first thing I do is control the TV remote. I take over the remote whenever I walk into a room and pick what the family is going to watch. I also get to select which triathlon vacation the family is going to go on.

My biggest responsibility is I'm in charge of the family entertainment. Alice and the kids get a kick out of it when I "get mad" and try to flex my authority. There has been times, they turn their heads and start laughing as I have a "vein pulsating from my forehead". Although, to my defense, it's usually for a serious offence, like when one of my socks go missing.

Probably most importantly, my roll is to "keep it fun". I know how much Alice works hard and I try to stay out of her way and keep the house clean by training a lot. But I feel my job is to do more. I like to keep her laughing. Alice is my best friend and my favorite past-time is talking and partying with her.

I appreciate what she does and her fun loving nature. Alice considers me a "Pirate" and enjoys that lifestyle. She'd be bored with someone who was too responsible and doesn't have a "little devil" on their shoulder. Both our philosophies is "Life's too short not to have fun.

People may think Alice does everything I say, which is the farthest thing from the truth. Every man knows that "women are in charge". The only time a man is in charge, is if "he's beating his wife verbally or physically" and I don't yell at her or beat her. If I tried, she'd "kick my ass".

She was a major athlete in high school and consitently beat the "black girls" at the 100 yard dash. That says it all. She has too many first place red ribbons to count. It blew Reid mind when he saw them all.

Alice is not the type of person that can be pushed into anything she doesn't want to do. People shouldn't feel sorry for her, Alice is the smart one, I'm just her "puppet". She pulls the strings and I dance. I'm the victim.

Before we left Carlo's birthday party, I gave him some Birthday presents. I gave him three things. A P.F.G. (Previous Fat Guy) Triathlon Club Beer Stein (You can check out his P.F.G. story here), A Triathlon-Toons button of himself and an Ironman eye patch. As many may know, Carlos is blind in one eye from a competitive swimming accident when he was training as part of Brazils National swim team.

I consider Carlos a "Pirate", like myself. It was only natural that "the Captain" get another sea-ferrer his very own Ironman eye patch. As strange as it sounds, I've never seen one at any Ironman expo, so I had to make it myself. I think it should be Carlo's new look. He should do races with an eye patch and a Pirates "head rag". It would be a great sight, "the Captain" and "the Pirate" racing.

At the worst case, if he wore it when we get together, I'd know what eye to look into when talking to him.

Today's training was hard. My legs were still beat up from yesterday's ride and today I had a 3 hour run scheduled. The moment I got out the door, I started at a 5:15 per kilometer pace and it got worse from there. My legs felt like lead. When I do my 3 hour runs, to get through it, I pretend I'm @epicbillbradley doing a crazy long run.

By the 2 hour mark, my legs were toast. If I was to categorize this run, it would be a "cartilage and bone strengthener". It was a slow shuffle and my knee joints hurt. My "mind" wanted to walk so many times and my "body" wouldn't let it, just like yesterday. Thank goodness for my "body" taking a leadership position this weekend.

I'm actually worried. I feel so slow and sore, I'd swear I'm out of shape. It didn't help that my arms and chest were "wickedly" sore from Friday's weight training session. It was a two day delayed soreness and I have trouble lifting my arms over my head and straightening my arms. Running with bent arms even hurt.

It's apparent that it wasn't a smart idea pushing heavy weight after a few weeks off from weight training. I know right now that my next few swims are not going to be easy, painless or fast.

I'm happy to say, since Friday's weigh in, because of my training and my reduction of beer intake, I'm down 2.4 lbs and now weigh 186.6 lbs. As a reward for this weekends tough training sessions, I rewarded myself with Chicken and Ribs from Burlington's weekend Ribfest. It's the largest in Canada.

I stayed home and fell asleep in bed with a semi post-run bonk and Alice and the kids went and brought some back for me, along with some cotton candy and fudge. Also, as part of my recovery from extremely sore legs, I decided to forgo a massage and went to McDonald's for ice cream instead.

Also, congrats to Adena who finished her first ever triathlon. Awesome job for someone that had trouble riding a bike less than a year ago and has the scrapes and bruises to show for it. She's in her forties (A, hope you don't mind me saying that) and she wasn't an athlete and now she's a triathlete. She's an inspiration. You can check out her race report here.

Long Run - 3:03:38 / 33.29 km / 5:31 per km pace / 135 avg hr

5

Garbage Century Ride...

In short. Miserable day. Miserable ride. And it took everything I had to F#CKEN finish!!! It's a ride I soon won't forget.

I remember doing Kona 23 years ago when I got in on the lottery. That year the race was on October 22. I lived in Winnipeg and had to train in September and October.

I didn't train anywhere near as much as I do now, but I still remember my one long ride at that time (which was only 80 miles) in the most miserable weather. To this day, I've NEVER forgotten that ride. Today, weather and spirit wise, it felt like it matched that 1988 training ride.

This morning, just before I started, it was cool and windy. Alice stepped outside onto the deck and came back in saying, "boy it's cold out there". Then I did the same and said, "Yup, you're right, damn".

On twitter, my local buddies were bailing on today's long rides and opting to do runs instead and ride tomorrow. Even though I tweeted them as "pussies", I really didn't want to ride in the cold and wind today.

Before I left, I made some make shift toe warmers with plastic sandwich bags and elastics. I had to, I lost one of my real ones on my last long ride with Shaw. I had to think of something to break the wind from my feet.

It turns out, they didn't help that much. Less than 10 minutes after I left the house it started raining. Weather wise it was cloudy, cold, raining and winds between 33 kph / 20 mph and gusting up to 50 / 31 kph. Even though it was 17 C, the wind made it feel MUCH colder.

Thirty minutes into the ride, my feet were soaking wet and frozen. I just wanted to turn around and go home. I persevered. At the one hour mark, I was toast, I wanted to call Alice, this ride was brutal. Aside from the "Sh*tty weather", I had NO energy. For the first 3 hours, my average heart rate was only 110 bpm and I couldn't push harder. I was standing on the pedals going up hills the size of "speed bumps".

I wanted to call Alice to pick me up more times than I can remember. In fact, if you added up every time during previous years of workouts that I wanted to call Alice to pick me up, it wouldn't equal the amount of times I wanted her to pick me up during a one hour period of this single ride.

I had a lot of "chatter" going on in the "chatter box" attached to my neck. The first excuse was to stop, it was a "garbage ride", I wasn't able to get my heart rate up, "so why waste my time?" Then I answered by saying, "I'll treat this as a mental toughness ride".

The next excuse to stop was the weather, "my feet are frozen". My reply was, "yup, they're frozen. You should be used to it, you had frozen feet playing hockey outside as a kid in Winnipeg". Then I said, "well, okay, lets go home and you can set your trainer up and finish the ride indoors watching TV". My reply, "I'd rather freeze than have to ride 3 more hours indoors on a trainer".

It was hard enough training in the cold, grey, windy, wet, rainy and all round "crappy" weather conditions, but karma didn't even give me an intersection I could roll through. Every, and I mean every intersection, even in the remotest of place, I had to stop and un-clip my pedals to wait for cars to pass. It was a twilight zone ride.

I also had more "scares" than I want to remember. Most of them came from the wind, as I was descending hills, the wind would catch me and many times I thought I was going to be blown over. I had to hang on for dear life. About three other times, I thought I was going to get hit by a car. It felt like most of the cars didn't expect to see a cyclist out riding. The scariest is when they pull out of driveways and don't look you're direction.

This ride did have a turning point, thank God for my "body". It took over today. About 3 hours into a 6 plus hour ride, my mind said, "okay, lets turn here, we'll head home and perhaps finish inside". At that point, the "mind" was ready for the turn and the "body" kept going straight.

The "mind" was like, "hey, how come you didn't turn?" and the "body" paid no attention and said, "why don't you change your iPhone from the podcast to some music". The "mind" said, "okay, but we're turning at the upcoming intersection". The intersection came, the "mind" said, "okay, turn, turn, turn, you're going to miss it" and the "body" kept going. It didn't take too long for the "mind" to understand the "body" was in charge today.

Another BIG motivator for me today was I had to get in at least 160 km's of riding. If I did, it would be my 21st Century ride (100 miles plus) since January. At the pace I was going, it was going to take the most of the 6:15 of the workout to do it.

My "mind" eventually gave up and agreed with the "body" that we are going to complete this Century ride, but the mind said, "once we do that, we're quitting, even if it means we haven't put in the full 6:15. The "body" said nothing.

Needless to say, I hit the 160 km mark at around 6 hours and the "mind" said, "cool, lets call it a day and the "body" said nothing and kept going, driving around the streets of the neighbourhood until the last 15 minutes were completed. The "body" kicked the "minds" ass today. It was "body over mind".

The moment I got in the door, I had no time to do a full stretching session. I had to shower and get to Carlos surprise birthday party in less than one hour. It was a quick shower and then drive to a restaurant in downtown Toronto, 45 minutes away.

Near the end of the bike ride, I told myself, "I don't care what, as a reward, I'm having some beers at the restuarant, nothing stupid, but some beers, I deserve it after this bike ride from hell".

I have a new T-Shirt Sloan: Qualifying for Kona is awesome, training for Kona in Fall sucks.

Aside from finishing in the face of negatively, the positive is my "butt cheek" is feeling much better. Yesterday's massage REALLY helped. It seems like "the people's elbow" is only good for 6 days of pain and suffering.

Long Ride- 6:16:07 / 165.72 km / 26.43 / 114 avg hr

187.4 lbs / 10.8% BF

5

Blunt truama...

The left lower side of my butt cheek is still killing me from last Saturday's escapades.

I did my "super run workout" today and it "super hurt". I could tell it's a muscle issue and not a bone or cartilage issue, so I ran through the pain.

After I finished, I booked a massage appointment. I normally don't do massage. I stretch and do weights and in most cases that keeps me loose and limber.

Since I started the weights and stretching a few years ago, every time I'd go for a massage, each of the masseuses would say the same thing, "you've got no knots in your muscles". Essentially, it was a waste of time going.

For the past month, I haven't lifted weights as much as normal and I'd been stretching after only half the workouts. Before I went for my massage, I did a a weights workout. The weight training helped, I did feel a minor sense of better afterwards.

I went to a new massage therapist. It was the only one I could find with an opening after calling about 5 of them. The problem with going to a new therapist, is you have to show up a little early and fill in all the new patient paperwork.

As I was filling it in, it asked my occupation. I've always hated this question on any form, it's personal and why do they really need to know? I thought about my occupation and all I could think of was "cage fighter", so I wrote that down. Afterwards, when I had more time to think about it, I realized I should have put down "donkey whisperer".

I handed the form back and the therapist reviewed it and I was looking for a "crack of a smile" or "surprised look". Notta. It was just as I thought, they don't read it that closely.

From now on, on any form that asks my occupation, I'm making up crazy ones. I can hardly wait to fill in my Ironman race applications next year. The cool thing about the Ironman occupation, is they show it on the athlete tracker site during the race. They sometimes also announce it when you cross the finish line. Wouldn't it be great to hear, "Here comes Bryan Payne, "a Foot Straightener" from Burlington, Ontario Canada. "Congratulations Bryan, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN".

The therapist was awesome, she had a great touch and was a natural. One of the best I've ever had. I told her that I was "drunk" in a "Battle Royal" on the weekend and since then have been experiencing some discomfort. Last year she was in Kona for her honeymoon at the same time as the Ironman and knows how big it is. She laughed at the thought of an Ironman wrestling drunk with six of the guys on a trampoline.

We talked the entire time and she told me, "you live quite an exciting life, mine is boring next to yours". I told her, "don't worry, for the next five weeks, I'm off the beer, mine will be boring too, except for one post Syracuse Ironman 70.3 celebration".

As part of my pre-massage instructions, I told her to focus at least 45 minutes on lower body and 15 minutes upper and if you're going to err, do more lower body. I've learnt my lesson from the past. Most therapists spend more time above the waistline than below. For a triathlete, upper body massage is "diminishing returns", unless you're going for a "feel good" spa experience.

It didn't take her long to zone in on my butt injury epicenter. She felt it right away and started doing some pressure point work. At one point she was shaking. She asked, "do you feel you're muscles involuntarily shaking?" I told her, "I thought that was you and your elbow shaking".

Her diagnosis was "high impact muscle damage" caused from a "blunt trauma". I asked her if an elbow being "dropped" on me would do it and she said, "yup". I think it was the 26 year old, 200 lb'der from Ohio, but I could be wrong, Doru has one bony elbow. I asked her advice on recovery, she said, "stretch often". It still hurt like hell when the massage was over, although it was looser.

I made the personal commitment to myself that next year, if I have a big race following the House of Payne Beer Run and a trampoline wrestling match breaks out, I'm going to take the high road and do the responsible thing, "I'm going to put on my hockey equipment before entering that ring".

Speaking of health, I made the commitment to increase my life insurance. Currently, I'm un-insurable, my GGT levels are too high from drinking beer and no insurance company will touch me. My previous employer had insurance on me and I found out I can assume all or part of it with no medical.

I decided to increase my coverage. The reason was threefold. The first, is I bought a Kegerator. The second, is I ride my bike outside on busy roads. And the third, is no insurance company will insure me. Insurance companies aren't in business to lose money, "so they must know something from their data about people like me".

I also heard that if an insurance company knows you're an Ironman, they put you in the category of smoker. The do so because of all the free radicals in our body from over oxygenation from training. It's common knowledge that endurance athletes do not live as long as normal people.

I talked to my insurance guy to determine the amount that I would need to keep the family in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. I ended up topping it up to $2 million dollars. I figured that'll give Alice enough time to find a rich guy without having to jump at the first one she meets.

Tonight Alice and I went out for dinner with John Barclay and Heather. We went to Earls. When the girl came to ask for our drink orders, John ordered Beer, Heather ordered wine, Alice ordered a Rum and Coke, and when it came to me, I could feel John's eyes on me saying, "what's he going to do?" It was the moment of truth.

I ended up ordering a glass of diet coke and a glass of water and then looked up and said something like, "I could feel you're piercing stare wondering what I was going to do". We had a good laugh about that one.

Although I wasn't perfect. After dinner we headed back to my place, John wanted to try the Kegerator and I did have a glass of beer to keep him company, but I didn't finish it all. John had a least a couple. It was the first time John beat me at beer consumption and he also beat me at playing pool, he won 3 games out of 5. I'm sure I won't hear the end of that one. To this day, I still having lived down losing a 25 meter swim sprint and the 100 yard dash.

As we sat around the bar, Alice was explaining she was very distraught. Her favourite ring I bought her for her birthday, which was very expensive with multi-diamonds, had gone missing the day of the Beer Run. She liked it more than her wedding ring and remembers specifically putting it on her night table in the bedroom. I'm having a tough time thinking or wanting to believe anyone from the run took it.

I hope she was wrong and it turns up else where, or if it was taken, it's anonymously returned via mail. I'm praying she's wrong. She's certain. After John and Heather left, we tore apart the bedroom looking for it without any luck, although we did get to redo the bedsheets, the bed looked perfect afterwards.

This morning, as part of my 5 week commitment to focus on my Kona preparation, I stepped on the scale. I haven't weighed myself since the "weigh in" at Ironman Lake Placid. At that time I was 189.8 lbs. Since that time, I've drained 138 litres of beer from my Kegerator.

I was so afraid to step on that scale. My comfort zone is 183 lbs or below and I weighed in at 188.0 lbs with 9.7 percent body fat. I was actually impressed that I wasn't heavier, especially after draining 280 lbs out of the Kegerator since IMLP. At minimum, all I have to do is lose 5 lbs and I'll be happy, if I lose 10lbs I'd be ecstatic.

Super Run - 1:46:48 / 21.0 km / 5:04 per km / 143 avg hr

Weights - 45 minutes

188.0 lbs / 9.7 % BF

1

I've gone to far...

These past couple weeks have been two much party, beer drinking and late nights.

I've had too many days where I wake up in my night before clothes, shaky when I reach for the alarm clock and feeling anxiety. This morning was one of those days I woke up a little shaky and fuzzy.

My "morning after" pill is training, it is my reset button, and gets me back to normal almost immediately.

Today was a tough day. Last night I had a few too many beers and I woke up with cigar ashtray mouth. The worst part is I needed to complete a pricing matrix for work and had to be sharp. Making a mistake was not an option, doing it correctly was critical.

I committed to getting it finished this afternoon. To do it right, it was more work than I anticipated. Also, doing it with a lack of motivation, anxiety and a fuzzy brain wasn't helpful. All the effects of too much constant partying over the past couple weeks. Even for me, it has gotten out of hand.

The good news is I got the pricing completed by 6 pm. It took me the better part of the day and when I finished, I was not in a good place mentally. I felt brain dead and shaky from my body detoxing. All I could think of was pouring a nice big glass of beer and making my body feel better. It was a painful dilemma. I had NO motivation to train, the partying was taking it's toll and was near taking control of me.

This morning I made the decision to start eating well in order to lose some weight for Kona and sharpen my mind. I even went to the pantry and out of instinct went to snack on some "gold fish crackers". I even had my hand in the bag and grabbed one, I was ready to eat it and stopped myself, I decided to pull a "catch and release". It was a moment of strength.

By the end of the day I didn't have the same strength. I was so close to having a beer and realized I need to turn the corner sometime. If I drank tonight, it would just set the recovery back a day, the sooner I stop, the sooner I'd start feeling better.

The blog helped me make the right choice. If I started drinking, I knew I wouldn't train. Not training for two days in a row is a slippery slope, especially since I didn't have any numbers on the board for September. I've would never lie about not doing a workout. I was wondering how I was going to explain another day of not training to my readers.

I felt mentally burnt out. If I had felt this way from over-training, I would have taken the day off. I felt this way from over-indulgence of alcohol and I didn't know if the "burnt out" feeling was legitimate.

The turning point was I felt it would be too painful to make excuses to my blog readers about not training tonight. I also made a commitment to myself to do every scheduled session for the next 5 weeks. If I missed tonight, catch up would have been near impossible. Reading tweets from Shaw (@shawhasyj) and Ian (@pedalmanTO) about them completing workouts today helped motivate me as well.

At 7:15 I pushed myself out the door to do the "dreaded" speed work biking session. I knew would be hard and I'd be finishing it in the dark. Taking yesterday off did the body good, I felt strong on the bike from the beginning and had a very strong speed work session. Most of the 6 minute intervals were upwards of 40 kph.

To make the ride even tougher, a semi-torrential rain storm came out of nowhere. I didn't care, other than not wanting it to wreck my new iPhone. It was a good thing I put it in a plastic sandwich bag beforehand, it's a habit I started a few months ago to prevent sweat from wrecking it.

By the time I got home, I felt much better. The exercise "reset" my body and mind and I had no desire to have a beer. I beat the urge. I considered the decision to train "the moment of truth". It was a turning point that either was going to take me "up hill" or "downhill".

Alice asked how I was doing when I got home, I said, "I made the right decision, I feel like a new man". Tomorrow, I know I'll feel great when I wake up, which is good, I need the physical and mental strength for the next few days of training.

I can't believe I heard this, but Alice is even encouraging the idea of "getting to bed at a reasonable hour". I find there is no greater feeling than living healthy, getting a good nights sleep and waking up feeling great before a long ride or run.

I hope this weekend will be one of abstinence, or at least minor abstinence. I've got a long ride and run scheduled and don't want to be hungover for them. It hurts to much.

Speed Bike - 1:23:36 / 44.20 km / 31.7 kph

Upper body blues...

It was a busy day today. It started with an important morning meeting at work, followed by a visit to the Apple store, a haircut and back home to prepare a spreadsheet for work.

The Apple store was nuts. I ordered new phones for Alyssa and I. The only problem is there is no iPhone 4's in stock in Canada. The only way to get one is to stand in line at 7:30 am outside an Apple store, wait until they open at 10 am and then HOPE they got some in the day before.

Alyssa tried it last Thursday and when the store opened they announced they had no deliveries the day before. Today, Alyssa tried it again. This time they had new stock and we got our phones, although it still wasn't easy to get them activated.

It turned out that because my name was on the plan, I had to be there in person. I had them hold the phones and after my meeting I went to the store. Alyssa was back in the long line again. They held the phones but had her "start over" in line for the activation.

That didn't work for me, so I went and spoke to the manager, explained she was there earlier and was now being asked to "start over". He was cool about it and took us out of the line and had the next available employee activate our phones. In total, it took close to two hours of wait and activation time.

Today's scheduled training only included a speed bike session. My plan was to do it around 7 pm. Unfortunately, my plan failed. I was having problems with the settings on my iPhone, I wasn't able to send emails. I called support after dinner and it took over 90 minutes of wait and support call time.

Actually, I ended up figuring out the problem myself. Normally, Apple support is fantastic, but every once in a while you get a "new bee" and you can tell from the "long pauses" that they are reading the manual as they have you on the phone.

At one point, I got "pissed off" with the constant silence, that I asked, "are you new?". When I said that, Alice cringed. Shortly thereafter, the phone line went dead. I'm not sure if she hung up on me or we were disconnected. Either way, I was upset and called Apple back again and was put on hold while I waited for another support person. The hold waits were long, it must have been a busy night.

As I was sitting and waiting, I was playing with the settings and figured out the problem. By this point it was almost dark. I had a choice, do I set up the trainer and do my ride indoors, or do I have some more beers and do it tomorrow in the heat. I chose the beers and heat.

With 37 days left until Kona, my plan is to start my regular swim schedule this week. For the month of August, I've not swam very much. The lack of swimming started as part of my post-Ironman rest and recovery and then evolved into just plain "laziness".

I justify it to myself by saying, "the less you swim the better you've gotten". Which is true. I used to swim religiously 3 days a week totalling 10,000 meters. I then pared it down to only 2 swims a week totalling 6000 meters and got faster. Then I took it to 1 swim a week pre-IMLP and I had one of my best swims in an Ironman ever.

The problem with not swimming is I'm finding I'm losing my upper body strength and shape. I noticed it yesterday. With this past month of sporadic swimming and weight training, I've lost the firmness and roundness in my arms. It just goes to show, no matter how much you have trained in the past, if you don't continue, you lose it. It's one of natures laws.

My goals for Kona are simple, "to finish strong and enjoy the race". I don't care about time. It wouldn't even bother me if I was on the course for 16:59:59. That finish time would mean I just got to spend more time enjoying the Kona experience.

I don't see myself getting back to Kona anytime soon and I want to "savour the flavour". I don't want to be so head down that I don't take in the sights and sounds. I want it to be a similar experience to my Ironman St. George race, except without the porta-pottie stops.

Training wise, I'm comfortable with my running and biking endurance. I now need to get back in the pool. Within a week or two of swimming, I'm confident I'll be back to my normal speed. With five weeks and 3 days until Kona, there is plenty of time to get "swim ready".

My biggest challenge leading up to Kona is to get off the beer. Which is going to be tough. I've got the Sohor's coming for Ironman Syracuse 70.3 on September 19th and I'm sure there will be a "blowout post-race party". My ideal situation would be 30 days beer-free leading up to race day at Kona.

Right now the beer is killing me. It's hot out, I own a Kegerator and I can't stop romanticising about a large cold glass of beer when I get home. Mentally, I know I'm off the rails right now.

The month of August has been a big one for beer consumption and I'm in a tailspin that I need to pull myself from. As an "extremist" with no "middle switch", once I start going in a direction, it's tough for me to "release the throttle" and "turn the ship around".

The upside is it works the same way if I'm training or working. Once I get started down a path, I'm a focused machine. Right now, I'm focused, but need to change course to a healthier direction.

Even though I don't have a time goal in Kona, I do want to finish strong and enjoy. If I could muster the will-power, I'd go on a 30 day "health kick". I have 7 days to try and visualize what that would look like and make the internal commitment to do it. I hope I can, I'd love to show up in Kona as a lean, mean, fighting machine.

The other day, my buddy Rich sent me a prayer to print out and put above my bar. I included a photo of it. I don't think the timing is good for this prayer.

No Training

13

August Training Totals

Swim - 8 km

Bike - 1115.31 km

Run -161.36 km

Weights - 3

Total - 1284.67 km

Calories - 53,080

225.5