Sick boy...

Today was the first day of the week and the last day of the month. The weather this year has been terrible.

Last year I was training for Ironman China and in January was riding outside, it was very cold, but I was outside. In February last year I went to Palm Springs for a self-directed training camp. This year I can't find a day when I ride when the roads are dry enough to ride on. It seems that all we've been getting is snow or wet conditions. It's really a bummer.

Today I had another two hour plus ride indoors and I was hoping I'd be able to do some outside. No avail. Too wet and it still gets dark too early.

Yesterday I ate terrible food and I didn't care, not one bit. My body was craving it. I ate over 7000 mg of salt and I was retaining over 5 lbs of water today. Notice how I didn't disclose my weight. I didn't care, I chalked it up to water weight and my body is getting stronger and tighter, all will be well over time.

At lunch time I went to the Y and did an unscheduled swim followed by a weight training session. For the swim I did 800 meters of technique drills and a 1000 meters of speed work. I'm proud to say that I did 2 x 100 and the first was a 1:34 and the second a 1:33. The rest of the 1000 meters was 50's at 44 -46 seconds and 25 meters at 22-23 seconds.

I wasn't my most productive at work today. I had one client phone call, it was successful and the rest of the day I was killing time surfing the net. I was checking out video's to watch while on the trainer. It was just one of those days. Even waking up was a slow process. With that said, I did feel great not waking up hungover or cloudy from drinking. I haven't had a drink since last Monday and feel good about that.

Before I went to the Y I had a 6 inch Subway vege sub. That seems to be my go to lunch in the past few weeks, it's only 330 calories. After the Y, I felt hungry and picked up a baked potato and a small baja salad at Wendy's.

My biggest eating challenge is between the hours of 4 - 6 pm. That is muchie hour for me. That's when I get into the pantry and pull out the potato chips. Today was no different, Lay's Ketchup chips, yummy.

After dinner I craved something sweet and had some rice crispy squares. I had enough to put me into a sugar coma and boom, I had a nap until 7:30 pm. Every once in a while I'd look at the clock and calculate the latest possible time for me to get started to get my long bike ride in and still finish before 11 pm.

Eventually by 8:30 I hit the trainer. For the first 90 minutes I rode strong and averaged over 31 kph which was my best this year. The downside was those were a mentally tough 90 minutes, I wanted to quit most of the time. At the 90 minute point I was going to stop, instead, I recorded my first 90 minute pace into my training log and then reset the bike and continued to ride, at a slower, more enjoyable pace.

Resetting my speed did the trick. It was a semi-effortless pace and the time seemed to go by, very little clock watching. I was scheduled to do 2:50 on the bike and ended up doing 2:20, I stopped at 11 pm. I justified it by using the theory that indoor riding is 25% harder than outdoor, so in reality, I did the equivalent of 2:50 outside.

On the family front, Reid's sick. He has been for the past couple of weeks and has been home from school for most of that time. He says his ears hurt. He never had ear problems until after he went scuba diving in Kona. I think the problem was exacerbated when he dove in the morning and flew in the afternoon. They say you shouldn't do that. We mentioned it to the instructor and he said because Reid wasn't going below 40 feet it wouldn't be a problem. It looks like it may have been.

Reid says he's never going to dive again. He's responsible that way. I'm just pissed off a little because he wanted to get certified and that cost me over $300 to do it. Now he's never going to dive again.

When I got home to day I saw a drawing Reid did on the table. He's always been a good artist. It's a picture of him. He's now into plaid shirts. I bug him that it looks like he's wearing table cloths. Alyssa brought him some shirts back from Palm Springs and today at school in class his friend Noah asked if he was wearing a medium shirt, he was teasing Reid, the clear sticker with the size was still left on the shirt.

Swimming - 44:05 /2000 meters
Weights - 45 minutes
Bike - 1:30:19 / 46.78 km / 31.08
Bike - 51:14 / 24.41 km / 28.35

Breaking point...

It was one of those days, I learnt a lot. First lesson, I'm not going to break up my long bike sessions by long  breaks. It's too hard mentally.

I got to sleep around 1:30 am last night and was up at 8:30 am and by the time I got out of the house for my long run it was 10:00 am.  It was only a 10 hour break between sessions. It felt like I'd been training for 24 hours straight.

My heart rate is insanely low right now. On the run it stayed around the 122 mark. Albeit I wasn't going fast. In fact I was going slower than I can ever recall going. My body just had nothing in it. No juice, no power and my brain was mush.

I persevered and as I ran I experienced another problem, my left Achilles was starting to bother me. I woke up and a joint on the top of my left foot was sore and now my Achilles. Along with being mentally spent I phoned a friend, I called Alice.

By the time she got to me, I had done exactly one hour of a 2:15 planned run. I was toast, burnt toast. All I wanted to do was go home and eat pancakes. I don't know why but my body was craving pancakes. It's been a while since I had them. It wasn't a mental, "I want pancakes", it was a physical, "get some pancakes in me".

As we drove home and I was sitting in the car, even after a 1 hour run, my sitting resting heart rate was only 42 bpm post workout.

When I got home I cooked up and ate 3 LARGE pancakes, they were each the size of the plate. Then with a suggestion through twitter I cooked up 4 nice pieces of bacon. Ah, pancakes, bacon and the bacon dripped in syrup. It was so god damn tasty.

When I got home from my run I was so spent I didn't have the energy or motivation to change. Instead, I took off my wet shirt and was walking around the house with only my running pants on. I looked like an old style wrestler.

My running tights stunk to high heaven. The crap coming out of my pores is putrid. I didn't care, all day and night I sat at the kitchen table with just my tights on and tweeted. For over 12 hours I tweeted. Reid kept bugging me to put a shirt on. I said, "no" and tweeted. It was the Oscars and I tweeted as the show played.

When I look back, 12-hours of tweeting is much easier than 2 hours on the trainer. If I could figure out a way to ride the trainer and tweet, the time would go by so much quicker. There must be an invention that could developed for some to ride, sweat and work on the computer without damaging it. I'd love to figure that one out.

Not only did I tweet all day, I ate all day. Nothing healthy. My body was craving it and I did it guilt free. It started with the pancakes, bacon, syrup, then the potato chips, followed by 5 ice cream cones, more potato chips, and then the coup de gras, KFC. I was a walking salt bomb by the end of the night.

Alice was going to pick up steaks, I didn't feel like it and boom, KFC two Sunday's in a row. I wasn't sabotaging myself, my body was craving it. Without the beer I dropped down to 187.2 lbs today from 191.2 earlier in the week. My body is also firm and looking firmer.

By the end of the night the hardest thing to do was peel myself away from my computer and tweeting. It was so addictive and in the scheme of life a complete waste of time. Although, mentally I did feel much better afterwards.

Run - 1:00:17 / 10.23 km / 5:53 pace
187.2 lbs

What a difference...

Today was my long ride, scheduled for 6 hours, indoors on the trainer. This would be my fourth long ride in a row as part of my IMSG training.

When I signed up for IMSG I thought that I'd be doing my long rides outdoors by now, albeit cold. Even cold, an outdoor ride is much easier than an indoor ride.

Since riding indoors I've seen the downward spiral. The first ride you're all gung ho, then the next one not so much, then each one following the desire gets less and less. I'm already at the point when I cringe about doing an indoor ride.

So far, riding indoors, I've done 1872.71 km since December 1st, of which 1485.88 has been since January 1st. I'm already sick and tired of riding indoors.

The one plus to my ride was the great difference that a new front sprocket and chain made. It was like I was riding a new bike, it was smooth as silk and my speed reflected it, big time. My average speed for this ride increased by over 3 kph just because of the sprocket and chain. I averaged 30.58 for today's ride, the other long rides were 27.88 kph, 27.23 kph and 26.81 kph.

It was awesome to get back to some faster times. The sub 30 kph paces were really getting me questioning if I had lost my cycling mojo, cycling is my strongest discipline. As I rode today I was wondering if I could have done a lot better this past season by changing the front sprocket sooner, earlier in the year. The guy at the shop says the owner, who is a big time racer, changes his every 5,000 - 8,000 km. He says the high end Dura Ace components are softer than other alloys. Who knew.

I am now a convert. I always thought they just wanted my money. Before next season starts I'm also going to have my rear sprocket changed. It's weird, since getting my new Zipp wheels just before IMLP I haven't had any outstandingly fast rides, perhaps it's been because of the chain a sprocket.

It was definitely nice not to hear the grinding and resistance from the front of the sprocket. It was just a beautiful light humming sound. At first because the speeds were so high I was concerned that the wheel wasn't getting enough pressure from the back of the trainer, so I got off and tightened it up some more, didn't make it any harder, I was still going the same speed. According to my Kurt Kinetic wattage, I was going about 205 watts for the entire time I was on the bike.

Now, lets talk about my ride, I did something very different today. I did the ride in roughly two hour blocks with significant rest time in between.

It didn't start out that way. I started around 10:30 am and after two mind numbing hours stopped to make myself some lunch. When I walked up stairs I saw Alice watching TV. A regular Saturday occurrence, me on the trainer, Alice upstairs watching TV.

When I saw that something came over me and said, "this ain't right, every Saturday I train long on the bike and Alice sits". At that moment I decided to change it up. I figured if I ride, then take a break, go out with Alice, come home, train a little more, hang out with the family, then train again, it might make my training a little more family orientated.

After this epiphany, I ate lunch and Alice and I headed out for a drive and then planned to go to a movie. The first stop on our journey was to a Picards Peanuts, it's a factory style store that sell peanuts, we'd never been before. It was awesome, it was huge and they had every flavor of peanut known to man. They also had chocolate covered ones and peanut brittle and all sorts of Candy. Needless to say, we bought a bunch of it and snacked our brains out in the car.

I also bought some no sugar added black licorice, it was good. The beer nuts were the best. I should have taken a picture of the inside of this place, it was huge, or at least huge for a peanut store. As I was reading the backs of the labels and looking at the calories and nutrition, I realized that this is the sort of stuff I should take on my long rides, screw Bars and Gels, go for the tasty crap. My next long outdoor ride, I need to load my jersey up with Peanut brittle or chocolate covered almonds or black liquorice.

After the peanut factory, we headed to the Running Room. I normally never go there to buy anything, I find it's all private label stuff, no brand names. The only reason I went was because I had a $25 coupon I had to spend. I bought Hammer Gels. I'm not a gel guy, normally don't use them, but if I'm going to have a gel I find Hammer has a nice taste.

Instead of buying gels I normally pick up my training gels at Ironman races, during the race. As they hand them out at the aid stations I stock up on them and try to put as many as I can in my pockets or on the bike. You'd be surprised how many you can get and keep in the back of your jersey pockets.



When I got home, it was back on the trainer for two hours. I am now officially caught up and have seen every Mad Men episode they've released. I got off the bike after another two hours just in time to go to the airport with Alice to pick up Alyssa, she was returning from a visit with my parents in Palm Springs.

It was another two hour split of training action. As I drove to the airport I was getting tired. On the way back, we stopped at McDonald's, Alyssa was hungry and I picked up a double cheeseburger and fries for myself. The moment we got home, I was back on the trainer, this time watching the first episode of "Breaking Bad".

To get these episodes, I can't get them on Netflix so I signed up for a month subscription to MegaVideo, via Blinkx. It was $14.00 for the month. The free version only gives you 72 minutes of viewing and then you need to wait 30 minutes before you can start watching again. The membership opens it up for as much time as I need. I think it's worth it, less frustrating, especially when you get to a good part.

I couldn't last another two hours, I could only get in 90 more minutes. It was 12:15 am and it was bed time. As I rode I realized I had a brick run after the ride, I forgot. My plan is to do my long run tomorrow, then take a break, then do the final 30 minutes on the bike followed by a brick run.

Now, I want to say something about splitting up a workout with rests in between. First off, I DON'T find it easier. After I finished the 5:30, even with the breaks, my legs felt like I did 5:30. Perhaps it was because with the breaks I was also able to maintain a higher average speed. I also found that I was running hot body temperature wise and eating in between didn't seem to sit in my stomach or weigh me down, it felt like I could eat anything, i.e. candy and McDonald's, and it wasn't detrimental.

As I was lying in bed, my legs were sore and I was tired. As I rode, I was thinking, "why am I doing these long rides every weekend, you just want to finish, why don't you do one every second weekend?". I was also saying, "trainer rides are 25% harder than outdoor rides, why don't you reduce your trainer rides, you'll get the same benefit?" I remember talking to Mark Allen and he said you will definitely get the same muscle benefit with short training rides, but every once in a while you need to do the full workout to get your body used to adapting to going long and dealing with is physicolocially.

In the end, I think the split in between session, spending some more time with family is a winner. I also think I'm going to be doing a lot more experimenting with training this year. Last week I did a reverse brick, a long run, followed by a long bike. This week it was splitting my long ride with long risks. I'm sure I'll have more ideas, I know I have one I want to try in the pool.

I keep thinking that perhaps there is some unorthodox ideas and training methods that haven't been tried yet and can only be determined by trial and error, by someone who knows nothing about training and how the body works. Someone who can break the rules because they don't know the rules.

For me, my thoughts are that to incorporate family, a heavier emphasis on career and triathlons I'm going to have to figure out innovative ways to train and splitting up longer sessions may be just one of those ways.

On a very positive note, I was changing from a wet trainer induced shirt to a dry shirt in the kitchen (I hate riding with a soaking wet shirt) and Alice mentioned, "you're looking a lot stronger in the upper body". I know I've been feeling firmer and thinking I was firming up, it's nice to see Alice noticed too. It makes a lot of this training worthwhile and I'm feeling better about shedding the pounds and droopiness.

Oh, one last thing. I was standing, playing with my bike computer before the ride and noticed my standing resting heart rate is 42 bpm. I'm happy with that. Most of my ride my heart rate was 120 - 130 bpm.

Long Ride - 5:30:12 / 168.30 km / 30.58

Unexpected caller...

Big day today. It's a Friday and could I have my first dry Friday in a long time? Could I keep my 21-Day challenge alive.

I'm not talking about weight anymore, as promised, even though I was 189.0 lbs this morning. I am glad about seeing my fitness on the scale at 9 on 9 for the past few weigh ins. It should be damn it. To put a positive spin on everything, I think any extra weight is just like training with a weighted jacket, if I can drop those last 10 lbs, IMSG should be easier.

I drove to Toronto today to pick up my bike. I'll be so glad when they open their Oakville store, which will be in April. When I got to Wheels they were already loading a moving truck and transporting bikes and stuff to the new store. The guys at Wheels are great, I always enjoy going in their. I'm a bit of a legend to them, they too like their beer and they know my track record.

Today I got an email that I won a 1986 triathlon watch from eBay for $15. Now I have to find my shoes and helmet. The shoes were white lace up Diadora's, rat trap style, and the helmet is an old while salad bowl style Bell helmet. Then I've got to look for some old one piece triathlon clothing. I was telling the guys at Wheels about my plan to race old school for a race next year, they loved it.

It turns out that the bike needed more than a chain, surprise, surprise. It needed complete front sprockets, apparently they were worn down and the change was slipping and hence the grinding. I can't say that it doesn't surprise me, since January 25th, 2009 when I got it I've put on 20,091.63 km's on it. Wow, that's a lot more than I thought it would be.

I also think my old calculations of travelling around the earth with training was wrong. I may have added up some numbers wrong. The FOR SURE calculations come from my Map My Run training log. As of today I can confidently say I've circled the earth with training. The earth is 40,075.16 km / 24,901.55 miles and I've done 40,218.51 km since recording my training Feb 5, 2007 and I didn't get serious until May 2007 when I started my comeback.

I'd like to say with all that training I should be a lot skinnier, but like I said I'm NOT talking about my weight anymore.

Today I blew off my swim, just didn't have it in me. I've been reading Simons tweets and in the last three weeks he's put in 47 km of swimming. The one thing I've found is the more you swim the easier it is to get to the pool and swim. Last week when I did the three days in a row each day got easier to show up. I'm going to put in much more swimming in March and April in preparation for IMSG, after all, I love swimming.

It seemed that today was my phone call day. I had some good business calls and I even talked to an old friend, Geoff Burton. I was going through my Linkedin contacts and called him and spoke at length with an old friend from Winnipeg. I knew him when I was in my early 20's and doing triathlons. He wasn't a triathlete but we would swim together with the Masters, we did some indoor relay races together (Photo Above L-R-Me, Bernie Glemas, Dicks Son, Geoff, My Brother Bob, Dick Thomas - my first real Boss/Owner of Image Color-in that pic, Dick is probably the age I am now), we golf together (L-R-Me, Geoff, Neil Mackie- my direct supervisor, Keith (Mac) Mclennan, a co-worker), we went to lots of movies and just hang out. At that time I didn't drink, I went 7-years without drinking. The picture of Geoff sitting in the kitchen of our first house he was about 29 years old, he's 7 years older than me.

He also owned a printing company and prior to me starting mine we were the best of friends, Alice even worked for him. When I started mine we became competition and he fired Alice and she came and worked for me. Winnipeg being a very personal place, unlike Toronto, he was pissed off that I stared my own company and communications stopped for a long, long time.

About 8 years ago it got rekindled. It started slow and now it's back to normal. I had him at the Pig and Whistle about 5 years ago when he visited Toronto and I was in my fat years. He hasn't seen me since so he hasn't seen the skinny me. The night he came we all got really drunk and we got some pictures of him with the Captain's hat, then we put him to bed on the roll away in the basement.

Since then both his parent died. He still runs his printing company, he's a survivor and he suggested we take our wives and plan a trip to Vegas together, sometime. I agreed, now it's just a matter of picking a time to go.

Then I got a really unexpected call, it was from Ian, also know as @PedalmanTO on twitter. Yesterday he did an EPIC ride on his trainer. He rode 200 miles in 12:45 minutes. It was the first time I've ever spoken to Ian, all our communications are through twitter and the blog, and he wanted to thank me for helping him get through his ride. I was sending him supportive tweets throughout the day and more towards the end. He said he appreciated them and it really helped him get through.

He was describing the ride to me and it was a damn roller coaster. It sounded like he went through every emotion known to man. There was times when he was in tears and times he wasn't making verbal sense to his room mate and or when talking to the dog. It was the toughest thing he's mentally ever done. I can only imagine.

I told him that was his Ironman, maybe even tougher from a mental perspective. I've done the 6 - 7 hour rides on the trainer and my brain was mush with just those rides. Doing a near 13 hour ride on the trainer I can only imagine, actually I can't even imagine it. He mentioned his house stank and his room mate had to open the windows to air it out. When he finished he had one beer and went to bed and slept for 13 hours. On ride day he was having trouble keeping Chicken soup down and was hoping today he'd be able to eat and hold down the food. His legs were trashed big time.

What makes this ride even more EPIC is that a trainer ride is much more taxing on the legs than an outdoor ride. They say that 45 minutes of training on the trainer is the equivalent to 1 hour. It's very hard to do 200 miles outside, to 266 miles of riding outdoors. That is amazing. Ian was wondering if he'd ever do it again, I say "I wouldn't". I told him I think more people in this world have climbed Mount Everest than ridden that long and far on an indoor trainer.

I also told Ian that he is motivating me to do my Saturday ride of 6 hours. I never look forward to long trainer ride and Ian motivated me to look forward to it.

The verdict of maintaining the 21-day challenge is still intact. I did not drink a beer tonight and Alice, Reid and I went to the movie Cedar Rapids and I only had a diet coke, I didn't order my usual large popcorn, although I did have a couple of cupfuls of Alice's, maybe 150 calories, but I don't want to mention that because I'm not talking about my weight.

I even got to bed at a reasonable hour for a weekend.

No Training - Pool Pussy
189 lbs

I hear yah...

Okay, first things first, today was a great day on every front. Yesterday's super tough day and me fighting through it, got me back on track, I felt much more motivated today and my momentum is shifting back into the right direction. It feels good.

Of late, I've talked a lot about my weight and have got a lot of comments telling me to stop and not fixate myself on it. Thanks for the feedback.

I just want to say that today I'm not going to talk about weight at all. Those who have made comments, you've all been heard. I'm NOT going to talk about that I weighed in at 190.2 lbs today, which was 1.4 lbs less than yesterday. I'm not going to talk about it. I'm not going to talk about hoping that if I do what I'm supposed to do and keep up with my 21-day challenge, I hope to be back down to 185 lbs within a week. Nope, not going to talk about it. Like I said, I'm not going to say anything about my weight today. I thought about it, weighed the options, and figured, yup no talking about weight today.

Changing topics, a couple days ago I was talking about shooting pains in my hinny. I don't have them anymore and I think I know why. The only thing I've done differently is I started taking omega and flax seed oils. It's been a long time since I've taken them. Maybe I was just too DRY and needed to get lubed up a bit. I will say today's bowel movement just slipped out no problem, like a fat person shooting out a water slide.

I was watching Mad Men last night as I rode and there was a great line I heard. It was, "If your thinking you might have a drinking problem, you probably have a drinking problem". That just cracked me up, so true, so true.

Today I took my bike into Wheels on bloor, for the past 1200 km on the trainer I've been getting a grinding problem and it finally started bugging me to the point I decided to take it in and get it looked at. Please remember, I'm the guy who didn't take my leased truck in for an oil change for 83,000 km. The did a quick look and for sure I need a new chain, that will be my umpteenth new chain in 4 years. I took in both wheels, my trainer wheel and my road wheel. I want to make sure they both work without grinding.

Oh, by the way Wheels on Bloor is opening a store in Oakville on Bronte and Lakeshore called Wheels of Lakeshore. They are going to kick Gears and New World's A$$. These guys are the best and the prices are much better.

In the old days of triathlon I never had to change my chain. As a matter of fact I still have the original chain on my 25 year old centurian. I took it into the shop about 4 years ago and they did a tune up and when I asked them if I needed a new chain they said "no, the old chains were made of better steel and didn't stretch like the new ones".

In my pursuit to convert my centurion back to it's original triathlon racing condition of 1987, I got my Scott DH bars from Coach Gord in the mail a couple days ago. When I thought I'd never do triathlons again, I took my Scott bars off and threw them in the garbage. Scott bars are the original aero bars. Now with those on, my bike will be back to original condition and I plan on doing one triathlon on it next year.

I'm now in the process of trying to find an old Bell helmet and I just put a bid on a 1986 Timex triathlon watch on eBay. When I do this race, it will be completely old school.

I did weights at lunch and ran in the early evening. It was one of my best runs in a long time. For most of the run it was a 4:58 pace and I finished with a 5:03 pace.

Again, it's amazing the difference one day can make and had I went for the McDonald's ice cream cone or bailed on my tempo ride, I'd be feeling completely differently today. And if I was going to say anything about my weight, which I'm not going to, I'd been even more depressed today if my weight was up, that's if I was going to talk about it.

Weights - 45 minutes
Mod Run - 56:13 / 11.12 km / 5:03 avg km.
190.2 lbs

Torture...

It was a tough day. I dragged myself out of bed, albeit earlier than normal. Had a cup of coffee and then picked my truck up, I left it overnight for an oil change and it needed the wheels balanced, I was getting a little shimmy.

I was depressed from the moment I got up, I weighed 191.6 lbs. The highest I've been. What's so depressing is less than a week ago I was 185 and had I not partied and drank too much beer and ate too much food, I'd have been around 183 lbs and feeling great with momentum.

Now I'm back to start and I don't have the momentum. It's like trying to surf when you were just getting on the big wave and fell off just before the ride was getting good.

My lack of motivation carried into work as well. It's a good thing I'm working out of the office, I find by just being there, I get bored and decide to do work.

For training, all I had on the schedule for today was a 90 minute tempo ride. I REALLY wasn't looking forward to it. I'm already in trainer hell. Last year I experienced the same thing. The only difference was last year the roads were clear of snow and the temperatures weren't as cold and I was able to do some long rides outside in the cold. Outside, even in the cold is much better than an indoor training ride.

I was toying with the idea of going for a swim just for "shits and giggles" in the morning but decided to go to work instead, I killed enough time picking up my truck.

By 1:30 pm I hadn't eaten and was brain dead. Surprisingly I had a couple of good things happen at work, I have another potential massive account almost in the boat. I decided to leave work, go home and pick up some lunch on the way home.

Before I left, I had the biggest urge to go to the bar and drink and get drunk. Jack Astors was calling me. As I sat at my desk I said to myself, "If Johnny comes around the corner it's a sign, and if he does, I'm going to ask him if he wants to go for afternoon beers". Sure enough, around the corner Johnny came, I asked him and he said "no". He over did it on the weekend. I was relieved. No beer it was.

After Johnny said no, I left work and went to pick up lunch. I didn't want subway, again. I didn't want extreme pita, again. I decided to stop at a local Falafal and Pita house and had a falafal pita and Greek salad. When I got home I was beat and by 3 pm I crashed on the sofa and didn't wake up until around 5 pm. It was a crushing sleep, one that was so deep they could have performed surgery on me.

Before I fell asleep I couldn't resist a little snacking. Alice bought and didn't hid some mini cinnamon buns well enough. Between three of those little guys and some baked chips there was a quick 600 calories.

When I woke up, I barbecued some pork chops and then played on the computer and watched TV and looked at the clock. Time was running down. When was I going to do my bike ride? I looked at the TV Guide schedule to see what good TV shows were going to be on and when and was envisioning which shows would be the best to ride to. In my heart I didn't want to ride.

I think the weekend session wrecked me, 10 hours of training in under 24 hours didn't seem that tough at the time. Since then it seems that I don't have the core engine with motivation to train. Tonight would be my first ride since Sunday and it wouldn't be an easy ride, it's a tempo ride, a push hard ride.

By 7:45 pm I wasn't on the bike yet. I then started to fantasize about how good I'd feel if I trained. I though slipping in a fun swim would hit the spot and when I was done I'd be in a zone to handle a 90 minute hard ride AND the TV show "swamp people" would be on between 10 pm - 11 pm.

So BOOM, that was the plan. Go to the Y, get in the zone and then home to the bike. Off I drove.

When I got to the Y, as I walked to the front door I looked into the pool area and there was no one swimming. That could mean only one thing, a fouled pool. Sure enough, I opened the doors and the sign was up, the pool was fouled and closed until tomorrow morning.

I wasn't ready for that. I went from feeling tonight was going to happen to I should stop at a McDonald's and get an ice cream. I was at a real crossroads. Do I drive to another Y? I envisioned that pool and wasn't mentally prepared to jump at that idea. Heck, I didn't even know if they were open for lap swims. Then I thought, should I just go home and do a ride without the swim? Then I thought, how about an ice cream?

My head was spinning. I didn't want the ice cream, I know I shouldn't have it, I don't need it, it's stupid calories. Then I thought, well if I have the ice cream those calories will motivate me to get on the bike and burn them off. Then I thought, well if I eat the ice cream, half the ride will be burning off just those calories, it would be better to just burn off the existing calories and not add new ones.

In the end, I flipped a coin. I grabbed a toonie from the change area of my truck and said, "heads it's ice cream, tails it's not". Tails won and even then I almost went against fate and not until the last minute when I had to make the turn onto the highway home did I know if I was going to go for the ice cream or not.

The battle wasn't over.

I now had to decide if I was going to go to another pool and then ride or go home and ride, or stop at a different McDonald's along the way. At this point, the McDonald's wasn't a serious consideration, just an annoyance. I reluctantly and half heartily decided to go home and ride. I knew my decision to ride was only part of it, I need to actually do it.

When I walked in the door I told Alice the pool was fouled. She was trying to console my bad mood by saying something nice like, "I can't believe it, that's too bad". I didn't snap at her but I somberly said, "please don't say anything I need to get into the frame of mind to do my ride". I needed to concentrate, essentially I need to find something in my mind or a vision to get me motivated to get on that bike. I was in a foul mood, pun intended.

I set up my computer with an episode of Mad Men and got on the bike. It hurt, it wasn't easy. I didn't mail in the effort. To keep the heart rate up I was going about 33 kph, it was a strong effort and I can't stress how much it hurt.

It was so hard, I looked down at the speedometer and only 15 minutes had passed. I was ready to quit. I even got off the bike and hung my head. How could I go any further? I hurt so much. I'm so not into this.

I then said to myself, "Just get back on and see if you can at least get to 30 minutes, you can't quit after 15 minutes, that's not a work out, at least quitting at 30 minutes it could be argued as a workout and an effort was made".

When I got to 30 minutes of hell, I pushed to 40 minutes, until the episode ended. The show ended and then I loaded another and pushed on to try and get to 60 minutes. Quitting at 60 minutes is respectable and after all, 60 minutes on a trainer is like 90 minutes outside.

It was a hard ride, I was riding hard, although the overall time doesn't show it, most of the ride was 32 kph plus. The overall average speed was low from the amount of times I stopped, took a 30 minute deep breath and motivated myself to keep going. I can't even count how many times I did that and dug deep to finish.

When I got to 60 minutes I kept pushing and then eventually came close enough to know it would be easier to finish the full workout than quit. I've termed it the "black hole effect". It takes a long time to get near the black hole, but once you get close enough you get pulled into it. That's what happens on the trainer rides, when you get closer to the end, the easier it is to stay motivated to finish. It's really tough to stay motivated to put in most of the time.

I can honestly say I can't remember the last time I've had as hard of a ride. I'm sure I've had them, I just can't remember them. I went hard enough that it was painful. The upside was as I was riding I was thinking that the added effort will definitely get the calorie burning going. Tonight's session was the equivalent of a speed work session.

Proudly, I finished. What got me through the final 20 minutes was reading a tweet from Matty O that he was drunk and was eating wings and was going home for more beers. I don't know why, but that motivated me to finish. I'm not sure why, but it did. I was also motivated earlier in the day from Simon's recent tweets, he's training like a maniac and working through the pain.

Before I finished I decided I was not going to eat anything post workout. I didn't want to do all that work and then add calories, I wanted my body to work on burning existing calories.

I need to get back on that big wave and not fall off. Ironman training is about momentum. The more momentum you can build the easier it is to get through those tough training days. Actually, with momentum there is less tough training days.

Looking back, today was a BIG WIN.

Tempo Bike - 1:30:14 / 45.40 km / 30.19 kph

I didn't want to do it...

It was tough to wake up this morning. It was the day I decided to officially start my 21-day challenge. As much as I didn't want to do it, I stepped on the scale. I knew it wasn't going to be purdy, it was 191.6 lbs. Less than a week ago I was 185.4 lbs. 

Now, it's not all fat, much of it is from this weekends training and my body retaining water to repair itself. The reason I know this for certain is my Ironman scale is not recording numbers correctly. Normally it puts my body fat around 11.5% at 188 lbs and this morning it was 9% at 191 lbs and my fitness level was at a 9 on 9. 

I know I'm going to drop weight over the next couple of days, it will be water, the question is how much and how long will it take. 

Matty O thinks I may have OCD about my weight. I researched what it is and this is the definition. 

Obsessive-compulsive disorder: A psychiatric disorder characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions, such as cleaning, checking, counting, or hoarding.

As you can see, I'm not OCD, I don't do any cleaning, checking, counting or hoarding. Whew!!! At this point in my blog, I ask you to stop reading as I run up to the bathroom to weigh myself. Ok, I'm back. 

I was somewhat happy with my training today. I did a long swim, of which my speed sucks, and I did a weight training session. The upside is my upper body got a good workout and since I started back swimming in full force last week my core is feeling tighter. 

Tonight I tried to go for a run. It's a moderate run and of medium importance. In the Mark Allen Online world if you're feeling tired and you need to miss a workout, missing the moderate ones is best. 

Like I said earlier, I tried to go for a run. I was exhausted after work, I napped, I woke, I got bundled up, I got out the door, I run two minutes and couldn't do it. I had to stop, turnaround, and start walking back to the house. I just didn't have it in me. At least I gave it the college try. 

My diet was not as good as I would have liked it. I do awesome until late afternoon before dinner. I have a craving to snack. I felt victim to some Doritos and potato chips. I still managed to keep my daily calories in check, but wasn't perfect. 

This morning Alice and I had to take Alyssa's car into the shop to get the window fixed, among other things, $666 later we picked up the car. When she gets back from Palm Springs I'm going to have to set some ground rules, NO ROLLING DOWN ANY OF THE WINDOWS, use the air conditioning. 

After we got home Reid bundled up to go skateboarding on the street. He's been doing this lately. I don't think it's so much to keep warm, I think it's to help him sweat off a few extra pounds. Before he left the house I was laughing at him and calling him "Timmy". He looked like a retarded kid. 

We have new neighbours that have been moving into the house across the street over the past week and I'm sure they would have seen Reid out skateboarding. I was telling Reid that I'm sure if they were asked by someone what their new neighbourhood is like, they would respond, "It's very nice, we haven't yet met the neighbours, but we have noticed one of the neighbours appear to have a son who is retarded. We see him skateboarding all the time, for a backward looking retard, he skates pretty good".

Training wise, I'm very comfortable with were I am physically. Last year, if I was to do it over again, I would have started 3 weeks later. Tonight I was looking back at the lead up to Ironman China and I think I peaked about 3 weeks to early, when I was at my Palm Springs training camp. 

This year I don't want to make the same mistake so I'm not putting to much pressure on myself to early. One of my goals is to show up to IMSG ready and wanting to race. China I had done so much training I just wanted to get it over with. 

Long Swim - 1:07:14 / 3000 meters

Weights - 45 minutes

Houston I think we have a problem...

First off, I'm pissed off. I came off a defining moment of training on Sunday, only to get drunk and set myself back once again. I did no training today. I was too unmotivated, I couldn't even shower or shave, yet once again. It was Saturday all over again.

It has become obvious that The Honey Bryan is entering his later years and the Old Honey Bryan who could party and still training through it in the 40-44 age group, can no longer do it in the 45 - 49 age group. One day of partying sets the OHB back two days.

I woke up wanting to train, almost did it. Had it not been for a holiday and the holiday schedule I MAY have went to the pool. After I missed that small window of motivation it was off. Instead I was craving eggs and bacon. I scrambled up some eggs and cooked some bacon.

First thing in the morning when I woke up I stepped on the scale and my weight was back up to 189.4 lbs. Just earlier in the week I was down to 185.4 lbs. Although I did know why I gained some weight. Aside from the beer and sloppy eating yesterday, it was from the near 8 hours of training.

From the moment I woke up, my legs were pumped, similar to the feeling you get after an Ironman. I'd say 80% of that feeling. As I got out of bed I was proud of myself and the condition of my legs. I know from experience that it's just as beneficial to train slow and long than most people think. I could tell my legs were going up to the next level in fitness. Hence the weight gain, my body was retaining water to repair the muscle damage. The same thing happens to me after an Ironman.

It still pisses me off though. On Sunday when I woke up I was 188.4 lbs, when I returned from my long run I was 184.8 lbs and then after I finished my bike ride I was back up to 188.4 lbs. I was surprised to see that after 5:15 on the bike I was able to replenishes 4 lbs of fluids.

So it's become apparent to me that I have a problem with drinking and training. It's not that I don't want to do it, it just appears that I no longer can. I'm also frustrated with moving onto the Fit for Life diet a week ago, losing weight and then sabotaging myself with beer.

I went into the weekend at 185.8 lbs. Now I'm sure when I weight myself tomorrow I'll be over 190 lbs again. Had I not had two debauchery driven nights of beer drinking I'd probably be around 183 lbs later this week.

This can't continue. Now I got to make up for Monday's missed sessions sometime this week and I'm heading into more and more higher mileage. I'm starting week 4 of Ironman St George Training.

Starting tomorrow I've decided to put myself on a 21-day challenge. I'm going to eat like a saint, train like a saint, not drink any alcohol like a saint and get up early like a saint. I'm going to go from The Honey Bryan to Saint Bryan.

There is another reason I'm doing this. I'm getting shooting pains up my rear end. Now at this point, I know Matty O is getting excited, especially when he hears "up" and "rectum" together.

Since I started the Fit for Life diet I've noticed them more regularly. I've also noticed them more regularly when I wake up in the morning after drinking. They only last a few seconds and are sharp and painful. It's not uncommon to notice them when I'm taking a pee.

At first it didn't bother me and then I thought they'd go away. I've googled it and according to Dr. Google it doesn't appear that it would be anything serious.

However, it did get me thinking about drinking a lot less beer. On my visit to the dentist this week he mentioned something with Acid is eating at my gums. I went to Dr. Google and beer is highly acidic. I even found out it turns much more acidic when it enters the stomach and then it works over the liver and kidneys pretty good.

Between the bum pains, the dentist comments, Dr Googles mention of high acid in beer and my lack of motivation the morning after, I've narrowed things down to that beer may have some negative effects when taken in large quantities.

Now, I know what your thinking, you're like "whoa, no way, you shouldn't just spurt that out, you should at least get it copyrighted so that people will know it was your discovery". I get it and I do plan on filling out some paperwork on Legal Zoom, but for now, lets just keep it our little secret. I trust you.

The one upside from the FFL diet is the lack of toilet paper I need. I pretty much just need a courtesy wipe. The same thing happened to me years ago when I was on the diet. I always took it as a good sign that your eating healthy, no mess.

Now that I think about it, I haven't heard much of the FFL diet in the last 20 years. It's probably due to lobbying by the Toilet Paper manufacturing industry, people following FFL could put them out of business.

As with every time I lose motivation to train, I gain motivation to eat. I had a terrible night of eating. Tomorrow is a new day and the beginning of the 21-day challenge.



No Training - No motivation and sulking.
188.6 lbs

HOW TO TICK PEOPLE OFF

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
    "DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
    "What?"
    "Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."

The Honey Bryan...

Yesterday I felt like crap, I didn't even shower I was so unmotivated. Today I woke up with a new attitude. I was determined to go for my long run early and get it out of the way. I looked at the temperature and with windchill it was - 16 C.

I checked my email and saw I got one from my daughter Alyssa. It motivated me to do more than my long run today. It motivated me to do yesterday's long bike ride right after the run. It would be a first for me, a reverse brick. Without dragging it all out, I did it, I ran 28 km and then got home and by 12:30 pm I was on the bike for a 140 km bike ride. I finished just after 6 pm. Almost 8 hours of training today.

Before I get to the email that Alyssa sent me and how it motivated me big time, I must say I played it smart on the run. I did 10 minutes of running and 30 seconds of walking for the entire time. It has been my experience that the walk every 10 minutes will save your legs, and they did. When I got home, they felt fairly fresh.

I did a stretch, weighed myself, I was 184.8 lbs, then ate and got on my bike. My goal was to try and make up for yesterdays brutal day of training that I couldn't complete fully due to Friday's Coors Light night. On the run I fantasized about what it would feel like to get it all done. Alyssa's email motivated the hell out of me. I knew if I did it, it would add to her email analysis.

The bike ride was NOT easy. It was 5:15 minutes that seemed longer. To get to the first 3 hours it seemed like a life time. There was moments that I was trying to talk myself into stopping early. I was justifying only a 3:15 ride because I did 2 hours yesterday and if I add the two together it would be 5:15.

With that said, the ride was brutally hard. At the 5:09 mark I didn't think 5:15 would come soon enough. Right after I finished, it was right to the beer fridge.

I know the secret of riding indoors. The more you ride the easier it mentally gets to preserver. When I got to the 3:15 mark, I knew I was going to get to 5:15, I was too close not too. Plus it would add to "THE HONEY BRYAN" story.

When I finished, I mentally felt brain dead. My legs felt fine. I didn't go that hard, but with that said, if you do close to 8 hours of training and feel fresh, that's a good sign. I definitely could do an Ironman right now. Not bad for three weeks into Ironman training.

Watching TV shows and movies the computer got me through it. The best was Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Between the heart felt story and being emotional from the training, I was tearing up and crying a bit at the end. I love when that happens.

I also didn't eat any gels or healthy food on the run or ride. On the run I ate one banana and drank only 20 ounces of water. It's a good thing I don't need water on my long runs, the spout of the water bottle ended up freezing anyways.

On the bike, I stopped every 60 to 90 minutes to get some food from upstairs. I put some popcorn and potato chips in a bowl as I ride and watched the Movie. It's much taster than a gel. The bowl I picked sat perfectly in the aero bars.

Okay, at this point your probably wondering, what's "THE HONEY BRYAN?" Well, it has to do with a You Tube Video I posted two days ago AND Alyssa's email that I opened today.

First off the video is about "THE HONEY BADGER", I've included it below this post if you didn't see it the first time. Here is some of the lines from the video describing The Honey Badger.

"The honey badger is pretty bad ass, it' runs all over the place. It's chasing a jackal, it's eating a snake, the honey badger is just crazy. The honey badger has been referred to by the Guinness Book of World records as the most fearless animal in all the animal kingdom, it just doesn't give a shit. Oh, the snakes up in a tree, the honey badger don't care, it just takes what it wants. Ewe and it eats snakes. The honey badger has no regard for any animal whatsoever. The honey badger has a long body, it's skin is loose allowing it to move about freely. Here's a house full of bees, do you think the honey badger cares, it don't give a shit, it goes right into the house of bees to get some larva. The honey badger is getting stung like a thousand times, it doesn't care, it doesn't give a shit, it's hungry, it doesn't care about getting stung by bees, nothing can stop the honey badger when it's hungry. Ewe, it's eating Larva, that's disgusting".

Okay, you get it, if you want more watch the video, especially for the voice style, that's makes it most funny.

So here's Alyssa's letter to me. It was a reply from an email I sent her

From Me to Alyssa: Have fun. I love you. Hugs and Kisses.

From Alyssa to Me: Thanks I love you too Honey Bryan. It should be your new nickname: you do all this crazy and excessive stuff with training..."The Honey Bryan is hungover...he don't care". haha

I busted up laughing, it was so true, I AM "The Honey Bryan". I could see the video now.

Ironman, it's doing another one, and another and one more, all in one year. The Honey Bryan gets drunk after every Ironman and stays up later than all triathletes. The honey Bryan may also drink more than all the other Ironman finishers combined after the race. Even in training The honey Bryan parties and hours later will be up and training. The Honey Bryan has been known to drink 6 beers and run a sub 24:00 5km and then the honey Bryan starts smoking cigars. The honey Bryan has been been turned down by the Guinness Book of World records to run a beer marathon, one beer per mile for the entire race. What makes the Honey Bryan so bad ass is he's able to drink and party all night long, then he trains the next day hungover or drunk, he don't care. The honey Bryan has no regard for his body or what people think whatsoever. The Honey Bryan is the best at drunk tweeting. The Honey Bryan has a huge appetite, it can consume large amounts of beer and then the drunker he gets the more deep fried food and ice cream he can consume. The Honey Bryan don't care if his pants get too tight, he just trains off the fat the next day. The honey Bryan even gets so drunk he often sleeps with his pants on. The honey Bryan can train with a massive hangover, he don't care. Look, the Honey Bryan is also honest, he's maintained a blog and lets it all hang out there, to customers, employees, children, who ever, the Honey Bryan talks about every thing and even makes racist comments. The Honey Bryan don't care, he don't give a shit about anything, the Honey Bryan is the most fearless triathlete on the planet, he don't follow no nutrition, sleep or diet rules. The honey Bryan often trains eating popcorn, chips, cinnamon buns and he'll even do races eating McDonald's egg McMuffins. The honey Bryan will train a full day and then party a full night, there is two sides to the Honey Bryan, the athlete and the partier, the honey Bryan does both, it don't care, one ain't better than the other. The honey Bryan endures great deals of self inflicked extreme mental and physical pain, the honey Bryan don't care, it's bad ass, it don't give a shit.

So that's the story of The Honey Bryan and it motivated the shit out of me today. I did the long bike, followed by a long bike because I'M THE GOD DAMN HONEY BRYAN.

After the Honey Bryan finished his training, he showered, rubbed a ton of Glide in his groin area because it was on fire and then BBQ some steaks and started drinking Coors Light, one of The Honey Bryan's favorite beers. I'm sure the honey

I'm glad Alyssa made the The Honey Bryan comment, it reminded me of who I am, The Honey Bryan.

Long Run - 2:37:00 / 28.20 / 5:34 avg pace
Long Bike - 5:13:03 / 140.80 km / 26.81 km / 123 avg hr

I was off and so was Alyssa...

Alice had to get up early to drive Alyssa to the airport, she's going to Palm Springs to spend the week with my parents and study for her mid-terms.

I was so glad I didn't have to get up. I felt bad about not wishing her a good bye, although I did email her. I don't think it would have been possible for me to get up, I felt so crappy from overdoing it with the Coors Light last night.

Today's session was a long bike, 5 hours and 15 minutes. I kept postponing it, hoping I'd start feeling better. At noon I ordered a medium vege pizza, no cheese, from Domino's. I thought this might be what I needed to give me some energy.

I then had a little snooze. When I woke up, I got ready and as I was getting my towels ready I realized that the old one had a nice yellow stain, from my sweat. What the hell is coming out of my pores?

When I woke up I had enough energy to get on the bike. I just didn't have enough. At the two hour mark I was toast. I couldn't ride one more stroke, my brain was fried and I felt like crap. A big part of riding long is to be mentally strong enough to do it and when you ride long inside you have to be doubly strong to do it. The upside was I had a strong ride.

I was so tired and unmotivated I couldn't even bring myself to blog. I did this post the day after, after my Sunday training session. I didn't want to blog for two reasons, the first was I was too unmotivated and the second was I didn't want to get any negative comments about me not doing the workout.

Earlier in the week, on Valentines day Monday, I didn't do my moderate ride. I considered today making it up. I was still depressed because this meant that this week I'd not get my long ride in. I started questioning myself, more so about whether or not I have it anymore. Actually, I knew I still have it, I was just thinking about the blog buddies thinking I didn't have it or ragging on me.

It's weird how I give a sh*t about what people think. I have nothing to prove, I just want to finish respectfully and in as little pain as possible and I, for whatever reason, hold myself accountable to others who at the end of the day careless one way or another.

Rather than train, I ate. I ate well up until dinner, then I suggested Alice and Reid get some KFC for themselves, knowing I'd snack on some of it. Then I had a couple of ice cream cones and fell a sleep watching TV for a while.

When I woke up me and Reid went to the grocery store and picked up more ice cream and kettle cooked popcorn and I pigged out some more. One the way, for about 1 km I drove the car as fast as the idol speed would take us, Reid thought that was funny. We looked like we were scoping out to rob houses.

Then I talked to him in a singing operatic voice. Belting it out in the car and even in the Grocery store. It was already around 11 pm when we got to the store and it was empty, except for the weird looking guys who were stacking shelves.

When I got home, I watched some more TV, depressed and looking at the clock. Thinking that if I had continued my workout I'd be done by now. I was thinking I can't not do tomorrows 2:35 long run. At some point Alice and I fell a sleep on the sofa and I woke up and put myself to bed at 2 am and left Alice to sleep. I didn't want to wake her out of her slumber, she was tired from getting up early this morning and I know I hate getting woken up when in a nice sleep.

Tomorrow's a new day.

Mod Bike - 2:01:53 / 60.09 km / 29.58 avg km

New record...

I  had a good day today. What made it good was I swam AGAIN, it was my third day in a row. I don't think I've ever same three days in a row. It must be a record. In three days I managed a respectable 8000 meters. Which isn't bad, considering I hadn't swam once 11 days prior.

Today was another one of those big work days. We are in week three of negotiating my contract. I had a phone meeting at 3:30 pm and it just so happened earlier in the morning I sold an existing account for some new services worth a minimum of $125,000 in sales per year. I also did the analysis on an online promotion I ran for some of our products and the sales more than doubled from the same period last year. The best is going into a meeting to talk about how much they should pay you and you have new business in your hand.

Unfortunately nothing got resolved on the contract side, we talked more, went over potential business sales targets and they are going to go back and run the numbers to get a better handle on the margins. I am looking for a serious amount of money and I'm sure then need to make sure they can afford and justify it. I get that.

I had a fantasy earlier in the morning, a dream of how I wanted my day to play out really and it happened. It proves "dreams do come true". My dream was to work, then go to the YMCA, do a 3000 meter tempo swim, go hard, then go and do weights and then get back to the office just before my 3:30 pm meeting, AND THEN go home, pick up beer along the way and when I get home starting drinking lots of it, hang around the family for the night and then go to bed.

And it happened exactly like that. I was in heaven.

With Alyssa in University she's learnt a lot of new stuff about psychology and theories. I had her explain some to me and most of the time I want to take the reverse side of the argument and say it's not true or I don't have the attention span to listen fully to the explanation.

The trump card I often use when I think a theory may be wrong is, "the map is only as good as the map maker". I told Alyssa to use that on her profs and see how they handle it. She thought I was an idiot.

She was telling us that a lot of the kids in her school watch South Park, that it's way more popular than family guy. That the kids don't like The Family Guy. I can't believe that, I've never been able to watch more than 10 minutes of South Park. It looks cheaply drawn, the voices are squeaky and the guys who created it seem like douche bags whenever I see or read about them.

However, in fairness, now that I've heard that, I will FORCE myself to watch one full episode. I'm not looking forward to it and I'm sure it will be painful. I'm still perplexed how they don't like The Family Guy. That's the best show on TV.

Alyssa was explaining the theory of evolution and I kept interrupting, she was getting frustrated and Alice kept telling me to listen and Reid was beside me laughing, supporting and egging me on. That's pretty much how our night went. Oh, and I found this video of the Honey Badger, it was a tweet from Howard Stern and we all couldn't stop watching and laughing at it.

Food wise, I'm doing great. Alice is super on-board and supportive. Tonight she made meat tacos for the family and a New York Goodwich for me, it's from the Fit for Life book recipe and is all veges in a pita shell. Had I not had the 14 Coors Light beers, I would have been down big time on my calories again.

I'm now in the 185 - 186 range consistently. I can see the loss in my face and more importantly my shirts and sweaters are fitting better, not as tight. It is critical my Ironman clothing fits. If it doesn't I have nothing to wear. Tonight sitting in the living room I asked the family to count how many Ironman logos I had on my body and was wearing. The total came to 8. They counted only 7 until I showed them my Ironman watch. The breakdown was as follows: Shirt, pullover, three body tattoos, two socks, one watch. That doesn't count my car which also has two Ironman license plate covers, one for the front and one for the back.

I know some people think it's crazy to promote the WTC by wearing Ironman logos. I don't see it that way and over the past two months those Ironman logos have got me through a rough stretch of less training and more weight gaining. Having those logos everywhere allowed me to build strength from them. The shouted out to me, "you're an Ironman, never forget that", "You can do what ever you set your mind to, you're and Ironman", "You better get and stay in shape, you're an Ironman, you don't want to look like a slug with Ironman clothing". Even getting through those trainer rides are easier when I can look at the Ironman World Championship Posters.

During my contract discussions today, I was asked if I have any Ironmans planned for this year. I knew what they were getting at, they wanted to know if I was going to be giving 100% percent of my focus to them. I told them "YES I am doing Ironmans this year, I always will, it's a way of life. I don't see myself not training or racing. The only difference this year is I don't care about time or performance, other than finishing. I've made it to the World Championships already and that's no longer a goal. Staying fit and not getting fat is the goal".

We then went on to another discussion, but not before they mentioned that they were talking to a VP of HP who told them about them taking me to Israel and I was up at 4 am training. I expanded on the story and basically said that I was only in Israel for a day and a half and managed 3.5 hours of training and I had to get it done early because the events all started at 7 am and they ran until 10:00 pm.

Frankly, I'm not sure if they like the idea of my doing Ironmans or would prefer I didn't. One day I'll have to tell them that they should only hire Ironmans, that they are over achievers and the average income is $160,000. Over achievers, professionals and smart people make that kind of money.

For me I find that being an Ironman has brought me in more business. It's part of my Schick. People love to meet someone who has went from Fat to Fit and it inspires them naturally. They figure if I could do it, they could do it. Which is true. I also think people feel more comfortable and trust someone more who looks fit and together.

In my case I look fit, I look together and I don't hid the fact that I'm one crazy SOB when I start drinking and I like to drink and party. I find my customers have come to like this. Many were following my old blog and although it may have seemed counter intuitive letting it all hang out there, warts and pimples and all, customers liked it and it didn't hurt me at all. Even with my racist remarks and all.

I almost forgot to mention. Last night as I was having a beer induced discussion with Alyssa regarding theories, she said pretty calm. As a kid, I probably would have been yelling at my dad. Instead, the most animated she got was saying, you know that blog "Bullshit Advice" you have? That's a good name for it.

The word IRONMAN was used 16 times in this post, 17 if you include this one.

Tempo Swim - 1:16:51 / 3000 meters
Weights - 45 minutes
186.4

14

Break through...

Okay, everyone knows I'm a woman about my weight, "I'm so fat, I'm so fat, I'm so fat". The weight issue has been bothering me for a long time, since after Kona when I drank almost a whole keg of beer by myself. That's 165 lbs of beer.

Less than a week ago I pulled out my ratty old Fit for Life book and got the tingly motivation to start following it. It was either that or weight watchers. I've always lost weight on FFL so that's what I did.

This morning I weighted in at 185.4 lbs. January 16th, I was 191.8 lbs. I think the main reason I'm losing weight is because I'm eating only fruit in the morning and I've been having a vege only sub or pita for lunch. Plus, I think the swimming yesterday helped.

Alice has also been helping, she's been making some of the recipes from the FFL book. Some of them are amazingly good tasting and properly food combined.

Today, because "I love swimming", I went swimming. I didn't have to, it wasn't on the schedule, but because "I love swimming" I went.

I decided to have some fun, mix it up a bit. I didn't follow a Mark Allen workout. Instead I did drills and did a 5 x 300 meter set of slow long strokes. The best I could do was 14 strokes to the wall, most were 16. Then I was focusing on bi-lateral breathing and reaching long.

My speed I didn't care about, it was about 2:00 per 100 meters. Then I started taking breaths every 4, 6, and even once 8 strokes. Holding your breath for 8 strokes is not easy. Even for such a slow pace, it was a good workout. I think all the long stretching strokes and deep breathing made it beneficial.

After the swim I ran out of time and couldn't do weights. I had an appointment in Toronto for teeth whitening. I got a groupon for it last week. I've never used a groupon and it was a $650 treatment for $129 at Polar Dentistry in Yorkville mall.

It's a bit of a drive for me and when I called they said I had to have a check up before hand. I asked if it cost anything, they said no. I was concerned about additional costs, it's the old saying, "if it sounds to good to be true..."

I told them I was coming from Burlington, it's about an hour drive and I didn't want to come twice, once for the check up and then a return visit for the treatment. They told me if I came today they could fit me in for the treatment right after the check up. I'd only have to come once.

When I got to the office they made me fill out a lot of forms, even insurance forms. They weren't super comforting and I wondered if I was getting ripped off. It felt like I was back in China, you never know if something is legit or not. I questioned the Insurance form information and they confirmed that today's session is not billed to the Insurance company.

I finally got in and the doctor checked my teeth. He specialized in cosmetic dentistry and pointed out some problems with my teeth. I was actually warming up to him and believed him. My dentist is slipping, he hadn't caught some of the stuff this dentist did and I was actually considering coming back after the whitening to get him to fix some of the problems.

He did notice that around my gum area there was problems. It's usually caused from high acid diet, he asked me if I drink a lot of soda or juice. I said no. He said "strange". I asked him if beer was acidic. He wasn't sure. When I got home I checked and it's highly acidic. The beer is eating away at my gums. The dentist recommended some front teeth fillings and bonding, I have a tooth that the backside has chipped off.

Anyways, things were going good until one of his girls came in and told me that there was a problem, that they double booked and they couldn't do my whitening today. I'd have to reschedule. I lost it. I told her I wasn't impressed, I specifically told the receptionist I was coming from Burlington and that I didn't want to come for two visits. She just said she was sorry.

I was still freaked. I told her not only did I travel a long ways, I had to reschedule a meeting. Little did she know that my meeting was my weight training session. Had I known, or had they called me before hand, I wouldn't have missed the workout and I wouldn't have been so pissed.

I was also really tired from the swim. It was weird, I didn't go hard and I was exhausted, which added to the irritability factor.

I told her I didn't know if I was coming back. I did set an appointment for next week with the plan to call groupon first and if I could get my money back, I'd cancel. After wasting 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back, I emailed Groupon and they gave me my money back. I then sent an email to the doctor and cancelled my appointment. I was actually thinking of not cancelling and just not show up. I didn't want to stoop to there sloppy and unprofessional level.

The sad part is they lost a potentially good customer. Had they done the treatment, I probably would have come back for the fillings that the dentist recommended.



Even though I felt like I was running fast, my Garmin didn't agree. For the past few runs I was wondering if the Garmin was even working properly, it shows a slower speed than I think I'm running.

It was a tempo run tonight and the best I could do was 5:00 for about 20 minutes and then it gradually got slower as I had to slow down to keep my heart rate under 143 bpm. At one point I had to stop and walk to keep it down.

I was talking to coach Gord the other day and he was telling me to be careful about the FFL diet. He knows it well and says it is not good for keeping muscle mass. I told him I didn't care I just want to lose weight and I don't care about performance anymore, other than finishing without being in a lot of pain. I also said that I'm only going to follow it strictly for two to three weeks, until I lose the weight I want to.

Then Coach Gord hit me with the bomb. Completely unrelated he told me that his girlfriend brought a friend into their bed together. She referred to it as a birthday gift for HER. Then he filled me in on all the gory details. If you know Coach Gord, although it sounds like Penthouse Forum, I'm sure the girls are far from Penthouse material. I once met one of his girlfriends and I think he had her on a day pass from a mental institution and came over to introduce me to her.

I love coach Gord and it was a great story, I just don't want Matty O to read this and get too excited. Mind you he probably will, farm animals still give him a chubby. Oh, and don't talk about cats, Matty O loves cats. Little does John Proc know that Matty O only reads his blog to fantasize over those cat photo's.

I'm not a cat lover. I've put a request into John to put a photo of a cat on his site that is being ripped apart by a dog. That would be a cat photo I'd enjoy looking at.

One last thing, on the family front, Alyssa's car window is screwed up. It was warm out today, 7 C and she thought it was warm enough to drive with her window open. The problem was that when she got home the window wouldn't go up. Alice tried it then I tried it, no go.

I then told Alyssa that it's going to suck having to drive with an open window for the rest of the winter. That when she parks it at the Go Station on Snow blowing days the car is going to be full of snow. She'll have to shovel out the car before she can drive it home. She thought that was funny. It just shows and proves my point, "kids wreck everything". Just another unexpected expense.

Mod Swim - 46:38 / 2000 meters
Tempo Run - 57:51 / 10.75 km / 5:22 per km avg pace

I love swimming, I love swimming, I love swimming...

Today was the day, come hell or high water I was going swimming. From the moment I woke up I kept repeating the mantra, "I love swimming", over and over again.

To make sure I had the energy to swim and didn't cop out, I did the swim before work. I must have repeated "I love swimming" 100 times on the drive to the pool. Even as I jumped in the pool I was repeating my mantra.

For the 200 meter warm up I did technique drills, then some butterfly, back, breast and free style strokes to stretch it out. It was a tempo swim and my main set was 100 meters x 20, the first two on 10 seconds rest and every third on 45 seconds rest.

My first was 1:36, then the next few were in the 1:40 range. Thinking of Matty O pounding out 1:40's helped motivate me. I was able to keep most every 100 under 1:45 except near the end, the last 100 I couldn't keep in the 1:40's, it was a1:51. For not swimming in a couple of weeks I was happy with it.

The entire swim I kept up the mantra. At one point I got into the zen and time went faster. For the warm down I did 300 meters of kicking with fins. I could kick all day long. I think I like doing anything with my lower body, it's upper body swimming that I, er, love as well. "I love swimming".

Work was productive, I pounded out a solid 4.5 hours straight doing business plan numbers in excel. My brain hurt by the end. When I got home, I napped and really didn't want to do tonight's ride.

Instead, I forced myself. Mentally riding indoors can suck and sometimes when your mentally feeling good it goes fast and easy and when your mentally feeling tired, the ride goes slow and is hard. Tonight was the later.

It was a tempo ride and I decided not to hold back. I have not really went to my full potential on the bike for a long while, especially with my left buttocks hurting. Tonight it was still tender, it started up on yesterday's run. Regardless I still went to my potential. It was a 90 minute keep it at 143 bpm and it ended up being my fastest ride of the year.

Even with the fan on, I was dripping sweat. That's not usual. Normally the fan keeps me dry. As I was riding, I kept saying to myself, "I love swimming, I love swimming". It was a clock watching ride and I had a great stretch right afterwards.

With my butt sore, I'm not going to succumb to it, I'm going to stretch through it. I think it could be that I'm stressed. My neck is still sore from over a week ago when waking up with a kink in my neck and I can feel my body is tense. I think the work negotiations must be the cause.

I ate well again. I feel like I'm on track with my diet. I don't want to jinx it but I think I've made a major mental break through. On tonight's ride I kept thinking that I needed the intensity to get the fat burning faster. On the swim I also gave it.

Some people say swimming helps them lose weight and some say it doesn't. I remember hearing David Blain talk about his training for when he had to hold his breath to break the Guinness Book of World Records. He trained for a long time and would do it in the pool. He said that he lost a lot of weight in the process. There is something about holding one's breath that somehow causes weight loss. Maybe I should swim and breath only every 6th stroke.

I'd say today was a win training day.

On the family front, Reid got his report card. It was decent, no behavioural problems. The biggest compliant is he should participate more in group discussions. It's funny, at home and around his friends he's the leader. In school or groups he doesn't feel the need to be heard.

I saw one of his math tests on the table tonight, he got 76%. Reid's in a program that they adjust it to be easier than what the kids in his grade do. I read the test and frankly wasn't able to understand or answer one of the questions.

I asked him if he had help or if it was an open book, he said no. However, he did tell me it took him two hours to answer about 13 questions. I was still impressed, I would have needed that much of time as well. As a father seeing that test and his ability to answer questions I couldn't give me hope that he's going to do well as an adult. I DO know that when it comes to money, Reid's math and memory is exceptional.

Tempo Swim - 1:10:14 / 3000 meters
Tempo Bike - 1:30:03 / 45.87 km / 30.57 km avg