Missed a beat...

Yesterday was a tough day for me. I didn't even blog. I think that's a first. I woke up with the best of intentions. My legs were sore from the 7 hour training day the day before and my plan was to do a swim and long run.

I woke up at 6:30 am, very tired, and by 9:30 I hadn't done anything. Then I went to work and before I knew it I was at home and completely unmotivated to train. I was so motivated the day before and instead I went home and pigged out on food. I must have ate about 7 or 8 ice cream bars.

I went upstairs and slept for at least a couple hours. I felt that my body needed the rest and over-eating a little wasn't going to be a big deal, my body bonked on Sunday from nutrition problems. I figured the re-fueling would help.

Before I feel asleep I felt that tomorrow, which is today, will be the moment of truth. Can I catch up. I felt it was very important not to miss any training sessions this close to IMLP.

Fast forward to today, I was lying in bed with my eyes closed. In a sleepy mode I started visualizing my day and talking to myself that I wasn't opening my eyes and getting out of bed without a plan. I visualized swimming. I actually think I feel asleep and was feeling myself pulling through the water. I made the commitment to myself that the moment I open my eyes I'm getting dress and heading to the pool. Not even a quick look at the computer and that's what happened.

I woke up at 7:00 am and drive right to the YMCA and had a great swim workout. I did 4500 meters, by the end I was hungry and when I got home I ate breakfast. I did a little work and then just before 11am I headed out on my long run, it was a warm one, around 30 C. Lots of walking to keep the heart rate down at the end. I ended up running 26 km without water. About halfway I saw Jamie ride by in the same direction. I yelled at him when he whizzed by, he looked focused and didn't hear me. He was in the zone. With 2 km left I was thirsty and stopped at a house that had a lawn hose. I turned it on and started drinking from it.

I got home and my legs were sore. I was so glad to go on this run. I needed it. After the run I went to the office and could barely walk very fast. I stopped for a pita and looked like an old man shuffling. Later in the day I stopped at the Apple store to see if there was a warranty problem with my battery, there wasn't, it was just being used a lot.

On the way home I stopped at Wheels of Oakville and picked up my new speed play pedals. Another $180 expense. As I was leaving I got an email from Curwin the president of the company that bought my yearbook division. About a month ago, Tom, the guy I was preparing the yearbook plan with sent him the business plan to my old email address which goes to him and he was able to see the entire business plan. His email to me read:


Hi Bryan:

In March of this year we spoke on the phone about Friesens concerns regarding your correspondence with Pixami and how this correspondence was a violation of your no-compete with Friesens especially regarding the confidentiality clause of the agreement.

You indicated to me that Pixami had sent you correspondence without your prior knowledge or consent and that you had nothing to do with Pixami. The president of Pixami left me a voice mail (that I have on file) indicating the same.

However, more correspondence from Pixami to you was routed through Friesens in May, including an indication that you have been providing them with pricing information for their sales projections, and a statement that you may joining them in August.

You are in violation of your confidentiality agreement with us when disclose any of your knowledge of Canada Yearbooks pricing models, revenue forecasts, resign rates, etc. Essentially, you cannot consult for another company anticipating entering the yearbook market, as you are using information you acquired while running Canada Yearbook.

This is serious business that Friesens will not take lightly – especially after paying you substantial dollars.

I have pasted to this document an excerpt from your contractual obligations with Friesens.

Please explain to me why you continue to be in contact with Pixami after assuring me you were not.

Regards,

Curwin W. Friesen

Even though I should be concerned, I wasn't. I didn't believe I did anything wrong as per our agreement and I figure what will be will be. My plan was to get on the bike when I got home and knock out a 3 hour ride, instead I put together a response.

Hey Curwin,

Thanks for the email, I definitely understand your concerns and would like to start off by saying I would not do anything to breach my agreement with Friesens. I sold the business in good faith and want Friesens to realize a strong return through the purchase of CYS contracts. Still do.

As per your concerns I'd like to address them.

In March we spoke and yes Pixami did send me correspondence without my prior knowledge. I spoke to Tom Hodgens afterwards and I believe he called you to explain this was the case. 

During our conversation I explained that I was in discussions with Pixami at one point regarding the U.S. market, of which market I do not have a non-compete with Friesens. At that time I had been offered a role at Astely Gilbert and had verbally accepted the general structure proposed. From that time until recent there was some stumbling blocks in the final negotiations with Astley Gilbert that were not foreseen during my initial acceptance. At that point I was not sure if the deal with AG was going to happen and re-opened discussions with Pixami regarding the opportunity to start an online-yearbook company in the United States. Pixami was aware of my 5-year non-compete in Canada and my discussions were that I could not get involved if they wanted to market in Canada.

As of last week I was able to work through most the details with Astely Gilbert and was presented a written offer on June 28th. There is a couple of minor issues that need to be addressed and my intent is to officially sign on with Astely Gilbert within the next week.

I was aware that Tom had inadvertently sent you the proposed business plan, I was not overly concerned as my involvement was never in violation of our non-compete. I felt more for Tom disclosing the confidential information to Friesens.

In terms of confidentially, I did not, and do not believe I was in violation of any of our agreements. I did not disclose anything that was provided to me from Friesens. The information that I have is from my personal experience and costing models that we created at Embassy. As part of the sale of the business, we sold the sales / contracts, and not one of those contracts were reviewed, shared or dealt with in any other manner.

The crux of my non-compete is with Friesens is that I cannot compete in the Canadian Market and I would never breach that.

In terms of the projections you see, I can assure you I did not derive the revenue forecasts or resign rates from any of the Canada Yearbook Contracts. If you review the data within the business plan of the average school size, page count, colour pages, etc, it is apparent that they are NOT derived from existing Canada Yearbook Schools. We believed the U.S. market is significantly different than the Canadian market and those figures were determined with the purchase of third party research, specific to the U.S. market. In terms of costing / pricing I did not use any Friesen's pricing models (That information has never been disclosed to me regardless) and part of the comparison was determined using Embassy's internal costs with our standard markup and it was for comparison purposes. The final proposed pricing model for the U.S. Yearbook Market was based on pricing from U.S. print on demand suppliers with a fixed mark up and was not based on any Embassy / CYS pricing models as you can see from the projections and proposed pricing models.

In terms of your concerns, I understand and I too would take any breach of contract seriously and I personally would do nothing to jeopardize that trust.

At this point, I'm in the process of finalizing my agreement with Astley Gilbert and it should be signed within the next week or two as per normal course of negotiations. I do not foresee any issues as the final negotiation points are primarily clarification issues.

With that said, had I chosen to pursue the opportunity with Pixami, or any other similar opportunity in the future, it would only be a U.S. based opportunity and not in the Canadian Marketplace.

Hopefully this will clear up any concerns or mis-understandings.

I can't stress enough that never was there a consideration in my mind to breach my non-compete with Friesens and if you require any further assurances that I will not compete in the Canadian Yearbook market I'm fully prepared to provide those. I've copied and pasted the portion of agreement (8.i) that discusses the non-compete in Canada only at the bottom of the email of which I feel I'm in complete compliance.

If you see things differently, please do not hesitate to call me to discuss.

B

(a) the Seller, Embassy and Bryan Payne shall deliver to the Purchaser, an agreement, in form and content attached hereto as Schedule ”F”, wherein they shall each agree that they will not, directly or indirectly within Canada for a period of five (5) years from the later of the Date of Closing be involved in a yearbook business, whether as a shareholder, investor, director, officer, proprietor, employee, agent, contractor or otherwise, except on behalf of or in connection with the business of the Purchaser; provided that, notwithstanding the foregoing, the foregoing persons shall not be prohibited from owning, in aggregate, up to two (2%) of the issued shares in a corporation listed on a public stock exchange which is involved in the yearbook business;
Preparing the response took much longer than I thought it would and it only looked like I would be able to only put in just over 2 hours. I wanted to get out on the road as part of my training and a way to clear my head. My focus is to not sweat stuff I can't control. What will be will be.

I used my new pedals and had to stop to make some adjustments. I noticed the guys at the shop didn't put them on exactly as the old ones were. It turns out it may be a blessing in disguise. The one that wasn't exact felt better. As the ride went on that foot felt most comfortable and now I'm going to adjust the other shoe.

I didn't cut the ride short and finished in the dark. It was warm out and other than a skunk crossing my path at dusk and seeing fire flies in the dark and trying to see the road when headlights from cars coming in the opposite direction blinded me a bit. I got my regular darkness phone call from Alice just to make sure I was okay.

Yesterday I got my 2nd place award from the Welland Half Ironman. They send you a print with all the placings. For the past three years, each year I've had a top three finish each year.

Overall I was happy with today's training. In three days, one a rest, I've put in just over 14 hours of training. Those long days are the best training for Ironman racing.

Long Swim - 1:39:13 / 4500 meters
Long Run - 2:24:49 / 26.02 km / 5:34 per km avg pace
Mod Bike - 3:00:25 / 83.01 km / 27.6 per km avg / 116 avg hr