I noticed over the past month I lost some upper body muscle and was a little disappointed I was firming up nicely between the weights and swimming. I wasn't looking forward to doing the weights until I got started. Something came over me and I decided to turn it up a bit, I only have 2.5 weeks of hard training left for IMSG and I figured I may as well make the best of it. No regrets.
Before I could get started I ran into Steve Zazulyk as I walked into the weight area. Steve did the Ironman in Kona in 1986 and has let himself go. He's got to be at least 40 or more pounds overweight. I met him at the pool last year and he seemed in a real funk, beyond the weight, something seemed to be troubling him.
Today he was much more up beat and motivated than he was last year. When I told him I made it to Kona, via China, St. George and Lake Placid I could see he was now motivated. He asked me how I did it and I gave him the same answer I gave him last year, "Sign up for a 70.3 and let FEAR be your motivator".
I showed him my before and after pictures on my iPhone and he asked me questions of how I got started. Things like did you change your diet? How much training did you do? His wife was also training and she came by and Steve started telling her everything I told him and was getting really excited, much more than last year. I also told him the story of my buddy Rich doing a half Ironman after 20 years of not doing one and I set up the computer, put in his credit card and all he had to do was click the mouse and a year later he was in shape.
I then told him about Al Nolan signing up and being terrified to do Steelhead 70.3 this year and that Al has already lost 25 - 30 lbs. I told Steve he's welcome to join us, there is other new bee's in our group doing it. Lastly I told him about Simon and Johan, who were major fatties and lost near 80 lbs each and are amazing triathletes, also making it to Kona. (Simon will this year).
We left it off with me telling Steve I'll send him some links to a website where he can buy a triathlon starter package of a bike, bike shoes, helmet and wetsuit. I can say it a hundred times and not everyone gets it and it's easy, "Just sign up for a Big Hairy Ass Goal".
After about 25 minutes of talking with Steve, I started training. I decided I was going to go right into my power phase of training. Three sets of declining reps from 10 to 8 to 6 and stacking on the weight to exhaustion. It was great, on every exercise I broke whatever record I had before. In fact, for the last year, I've been going through the motions with the weights, not pushing too hard like I did in the past. Today was different, I cranked it up big time. The only downside was my back was little sore and out of alignment, I'm going to have to watch it.
Work wise was good, got another proposal out. Still haven't heard from Wayne. I spoke to Al today, it's been crazy for him. The receiver officially said the business is being closed down in the morning and Al has got commitments from all but one of his clients that they will continue to send him the work at AG. By the end of the day when I talked to Al he seemed like his old self, except for the horse voice from talking so much.
Al didn't think I had anything to worry about with Wayne and Rino and told me "to keep jumping on my pogo stick and wait for them to call". He said for him the deal was easy, it's what they know, it's a straight commission sales hire. For me it's the unknown. Al gave me more info about his meeting with them yesterday and what he said about me.
He told them that he has known me a long time and I got him into the business and helped train him, we traveled and made sales calls together. He told them that when Bryan gets focused and on task, no one is going to beat him for results. He said on the sales calls we would make together I'd always want to squeeze in just one more and one more and as much as I work hard, he plays just has hard. He said, "as you may already know, Bryan is one of a kind".
Rino said he saw it in action when we went to San Francisco. I laughed when Al told me what Rino said because I remember working out in the Gym, first call at 8 am and then going all day, dinner at night and Rino couldn't keep up, he was in bed both nights at 9 pm. The last night, we got back to the hotel, I ran and then we went out for beers. He fell asleep at the table and I had to put him to bed before going out on my own to have some more beers. I ended up bring 4 back to the room and drinking those too. Then we got up at 5 am to catch an early morning flight and I was still drunk or hungover, can't remember.
I'm taking Al's advice and sitting still. The more time it takes, the more I've been able to think about it and alternatives and directions. Frankly, if they don't pay me $300 K base per year to build the book plant sales both on and offline, I won't take the job. It's too much work and sacrifice to do it based on futures. I'd rather just sell, get paid less, it comes easy to me and I'll go for the futures on that one. I don't want to bust my hump and worry about stuff most of the day if I'm not financially gaining.
I got home tired and fell a sleep. I woke up to the sound of the Benny Hill Song, it's my iPhone's ring tone. It was Al, updating me on on all the craziness with my brothers company and now my brothers company may be bought from the receiver after all. I later spoke to my brother and he's out for himself. Al was his best friend as kids and he's bad mouthing Al, he heard Al was making arrangements to move his work to a printer in Toronto (he doesn't yet know it's AG) and now is thinking he'll go after Al's accounts if the business is sold by the receiver and continues to operate.
It's been fun watching this unfold. My brother has no idea how close Al and I are and how much we talk regularly. My biggest motivation with my brother is to lend support. I don't try to defend Al or anyone even when I know my brother is not all there, I just listen and support. I've been in business with my brother, he's not the kind of guy you want to do business with. He still has no idea how many people have lost all respect for him. Other than me, he has no one supporting him with a ear to talk to. He's so delusional right now.
At 9:30 pm I went for my run. Had one of the best runs, it felt like the old days of heavy Ironman training. This is a test, I'm curious to see how I'll feel after 3 strong weeks of training and how my body will respond at IMSG. My number one motivation is to avoid as much pain as possible. I want to be able to finish without bonking. If this works, I've got a new training regime. It will show you don't have to train super hard for 20 weeks. It would be train moderately hard and then hard for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I'm glad I've done the hard training in the past, I've been there, got the t-shirt and will have something to compare it to, this is a learning building block in my mind.
As I was running, I listen to my Sirius Satellite radio, I love it. Most of the time it's Howard Stern and when I get sick of him I listen to the 70's and now recently the 80's. Tonight I was 10 minutes from home and the phone rang, it was my brother. It's cool running and talking on the phone at the same time, I hear through the earphones and hold the phone up to my mouth like a walkie talkie when I want to talk, it definitely makes the run go by faster.
My brother filled me in on his thoughts. He's so delusional and unprepared, it's like he's drifting in space and going where the wind blows him and thinking where ever that is, it's going to be good. The eternal optimist. If this deal doesn't go down or if the deal does fail and he's unable to purchase a part of the company for himself, he's done. He will have nothing, other than the equity in his house, in part of his building and his RSP's. He doesn't even have a car, his is on lease.
It's turning into one hell of a tragedy right now. I've always thought my brother is made to land on his feet, like me, now I'm not so sure. I still can't believe the business went bankrupt, I would never have let that happen, there was a deal to be had.
Weights - 55 minutes
Mod Run - 1:25:01 / 16.33 km / 5:12 pace / 136 avg hr
5 comments:
Sucks about your brother. You are a better person than I am though, I would have cut ties and let him fail at that point. I don't have the patience to deal with people that are that far out there I guess?
Nice job getting in these serious training sessions again.
I hope Al is right. Otherwards you bought a damn pogo stick for nothing!!! haha.
I can't believe how impartial you can be with your bro's situation. You seem to have a lot of clarity. In fact, that's one good thing about you and I'm sure it makes you the sales guy you are...you seem to see situations for what they really are versus some emotional interpretation. I've seen that in your blog posts since last summer.
It's hard to help people who are delusional. Sucks to be him and to have let the company get to the state it's in. A hard life lesson.
Your training sounds amazing....hope you realize you are cut from a different cloth than most people. Apparently you don't need a lot of sleep!
Dude, I want a video of you when you wake up in the morning (and the morning afterwards), DOMS! Delayed Onset Muscle Sorness. You are gonna feel like 100 years old (you already look it haha).
Can't help thinking there's gonna be some horrible backlash when your bro finds out where Al's business has gone and how tight you are with Al. He's not gonna be objective about it that's for sure. No much you can do about it but I'm just marking your card.
By the way, there is no wind in space!
M, thanks, my bro is certainly in a dark place right now.
D, yup, when I trained sales guys that worked for me, I always said, "see things for what they are, not what you hope or want them to be". Thanks on the props.
S, haha, you're right, it's going to be funny. I'm not too worried about the bro, he's got a hard head and doesn't care about stuff like that. All true. Also, how do you know there's no wind in space???? haha
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