Three for three...

I woke up after having another dream that had me ill prepared for the Ironman. In the past couple months I've had a couple dreams where I woke up late or forgot equipment. In last nights dreams I forgot my tri-shorts. In reality, I almost did miss the cut off at Kona for not having my timing strap on and near missed the numbering by minutes.

I'm glad Reid was sick and couldn't go to school I needed his help to lift and move the new pinball and slot machine downstairs. Wade showed up at 9:30 am and Reid and I helped bring the machines down the side of the house and into the basement. Those machines are heavy.

I left for work and Alice and Reid were playing pinball on and off all day. I had to met Al for lunch to discuss the book division direction and then met up with him and his customer at head office for a tour and meet and great. I forgot how bad the traffic was until it took me close to 2 hours to get home from head office on the other side of Toronto.

My plan was to stop at the pool for a swim, unfortunately I couldn't get to the pool before the lap swim was taken over by swimming lessons. I'd have to wait until 8 pm. I really didn't want to swim, I'd rather play pinball or poke my eye out with a sharp stick, although I had to with only 5 days left to race day. This would be my third swim in the last two weeks. I needed it, it was a must do.

I turned my mind off and just did it. I drove to the YMCA and got in the pool. I grabbed a 4000 meter training session schedule and the main set was 30 x 100 meters on 15 second rests. For some reason I was pumped and looking forward to it.

It was a magical swim, they don't come along that often. I had an awesome feel for the water and from beginning to end I was strong, not until the last 300 meter warm down did I feel a little sore in the shoulders.

Early in the swim John Fortin and Hugh showed up and we swam in the same lane. Last week John was kicking my butt, this week I was kicking every one's. It was a wonderful sensation, I had a feel for the water and unlimited energy and power. I'm most happy with doing 31 x 100 (I did one extra 100 by mistake) and when I took out the 15 second rests in between, I averaged 1:43 per 100 meters. That's awesome for me, it don't get much better and in only 3 swims in less than 7 days I'm almost at my best.

This means that in the past week I've had my best run, bike and swim session of all year. I hope that's a good omen for Saturday, which I'm told is going to be hot, they're predicting 30 C or more. My big challenge right now is not to burn out. I wasn't feeling mentally strong to ride or run tonight, I didn't. However, I HAD to swim. When John came into the pool area he asked "how's it going?" and I said "I'm cramming for IMSG", he laughed. I was dead serious.

Prior to tonight's swim I was going to swim tomorrow as well, now I'm not so sure, my arms are pumped. I may just ride and or run tomorrow and swim Wednesday. I'm playing it all by ear. My taper is based on intuition which is focused primarily on mental state. I'd really like to get one more tempo ride and run in before Saint George.

Tonight was election night in Canada. Alice and I hit the polls after dinner. It turns out that the conservative government, whom I support have won a full majority. Prior they were a minority government twice elected.

On the family front Reid is now in full swing on Kijiji, an online classified website. I came home and he figured out how to post ads and had the punching bag and drum set on it. He did pretty good, other than putting our home address on the ad. He fixed that. I don't want people I don't know just showing up. The emails and phone calls have been coming to him, it's all new for him. Of course they are low balling and he's asking my advice and emailing or calling them back. Alyssa commented to Alice that she hasn't seen him ever work so hard. Of course not, non of the other stuff involves money.

The pinball machine is great, Reid and I were playing tonight. Aside from some lights that aren't working and a small ball getting stuck every so often, it works great. I called Wade and he's coming back to look at it. I figured we probably over paid by about $400 for the machine. I spoke to Johnny today and it turns out he has a Buck Rodgers machine and I may buy it from him for only a couple hundred dollars. He has to ask his daughter if it's okay. If so, we'll have two machines, a  Gottieb and a Bally. The good thing about the Corvette machine is it won't depreciate in value.

I've also been cleaning up on EBay. I won a few more items, a Bacardi and Cohiba ashtray and just got a very cool Coors Light beer tap handle and much more. So much I can't even remember what I got. I'm so looking forward to post-IMSG, for me that's when summer starts and I'm going to get the Kegerator loaded and I'm going to have the best summer ever. I plan on living life to the fullest. Good training, good family, good friends and good times.

Long Swim - 1:26:40 / 4100 meters
185.4 lbs