Weekday Century...

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Yesterday was all business, no training. Today was about 5 hours of business and 6 hours of training.

I got to the office around 10 am. First thing I did was talk to Chris and ask him how it was going, he said busy. The plant is real busy. I mentioned to him that I have a couple new photo book accounts I'm talking too (bullshit) and he told me that they are too busy to integrate any new accounts. Okay, me not doing a lot isn't a bad thing it turns out, they couldn't do it anyways. Winning.

This morning I got some great advice from Simon and friends. Keep it coming regarding the Cloud Marketing Business. Good stuff. I did a little work on it before I got to the office. At the office I was still working on some of the business services. I spoke with my brother and he was looking at it from a small business perspective and thinks I should have a basic starter package priced around $500-$1000 per month for small business. Not a bad idea if I make it cookie cutter, which I can. A lot of the Internet Marketing companies have cookie cutter stuff and packages I could follow.

I emailed my Internet Marketing guy, Nick. He said he'd call at 10:45 am. Then 45 minutes later I got an email from him to call him. When I was paying Nick he was totally responsive and if he said he'd call at 10 am, he called at 10 am. I considered him a top supplier. A few months back I stopped using his services and he got pissed off. I was paying him around $2000 per month and over the years I've given him at least $50,000 in business. Now he was treating me like a second rate citizen. In fact, he emailed and said he was off the phone and to call HIM. The character of a man is determined in moments like this, I did call him, I did talk to him and I don't think I'll ever call him back again.

When we spoke I did get an idea. I asked him if he did pay for results. Would he be open to providing his services based on a revenue increase upside. He said he hasn't done it before, he would be open to think about it, he would need to have his out of pocket costs covered though. I also asked him how much he would charge me for a full time person, like Poochie, it worked out to about $60,000 per year and I'd have to commit to a minimum of 6 months.

I'm now thinking about 3 potential pricing models. Flat Rate, Package Rate and possible a hybrid flat rate / performance, or even a performance pay. In a way it's no different than being a commission sales person. For the right type of e-commerce style business I might be interested in performance pay. Perhaps a flat rate or reduced flat rate that can be reduced or paid back if sales volumes increase to a certain amount. I'm reluctant not to charge something, mind you at $7 per hour, $550 per month, it's not a huge investment on my part for the right website opportunity. I do know that people are much more open to sign for pay on performance, I would. I'd even pay a hybrid rate. For example, if I charged $500 - $1000 per month plus commission it may work out well. It's definitely risky, no different than sales, you just need to pick the right product that you believe will sell. Most of the competitors do not do performance pay. Any feedback on this approach?

I got home and on the bike just before 2 pm. The weather was relatively good, about 18 C and it wasn't ideal, needed two shirts, but it was sunny and decent to ride. It was so miserable this weekend I didn't do my long ride and I wasn't riding indoors long on a trainer. I left the house and told Alice I'll be gone until at least 7 pm. My plan was to get in 5 hours, then brick run it afterwards.

It was an interesting ride. I started out windy and sunny. When you hit the shade it cooled down and as time when on it got colder. Most of the time I listened to Howard Stern, they had old episodes from the past. I actually think I like those ones better than the ones they do now. It seems like they put more work into those ones.

My ride was slower than my last couple. I stopped taking the Creatine and it feels like my power is gone. Albeit, I rode okay, averaging 29.1 kph for 100 miles. I was going to do 5 hours and then figured lets go for a Century even though it will take longer. I felt stronger on the ride on hour 5 than I did at the start of the ride. I think my body is strange as it gets better with stress put on it. The legs did feel tired, I worked through it. They were not as spent as my last couple rides, I think it was the slower pace. I only averaged a 127 hr average.

It was dark when I finished, it's getting dark by 7 pm now. I got home around 7:30 pm, it was a little scary finishing in the dark. I had to take my prescription yellow sunglasses off and without them I'm pretty blind. I was flying down number one side road and other and worried I was going to hit something I couldn't see, like a rock or crack.

Early in the ride I got a phone call from Rino, he rarely calls me. I couldn't answer it, I was on the road and he would know I was outside on my bike from the sound of the wind and traffic. I sent it to voice mail and then checked it and emailed him back I was in a client meeting and would get back to him later today or tomorrow am, knowing it would be tomorrow am.

My mindset on the ride today was "enjoy life", take advantage of life's simple pleasures like riding in October without major cold weather, appreciate it. When I got home my plan was to do a brick run, off course it always sounds good at hour 2 into the ride, by hour 5 you want to just stretch, eat and relax. I forced myself out the house and did it. I was depressing, I don't know what's happened to my running lately, it's soooooo slow. I thought for sure it would be fast today, my last run was speed work and that usually carries over. The only three things I can think are the problem, is carrying about 5 lbs to much weight (not likely the problem), using the Creatine, or my running style has changed as part of my calf injury and I'm not using the style that made me faster. With all that said, I can't figure it out.

When I got home Alice had some of her world famous ribs made. I didn't eat them. After riding and running for a total of 6 hours you get a greater respect for calories and the effort you just put in. I was concerned I was going to eat all those calories back. So I didn't eat them, I stuck with healthy foods instead. Even though I ate well the calories still added up to 2669 calories, I posted it as the photo of the day what I ate. On the bike I only had GU orange, a couple of waters and one bio bar. I purposely didn't want to eat or drink too much.

After dinner I was going to go to the pool and bailed. Not for the reason you'd think. It was more for the people in the pool and the time of day. I'm not a big fan of swimming at night and not having the sunshine lighting up the pool area. Also in the evening the swimmers are not swimmers, they are people that don't know how to swim and swim a little better than a dog paddle. Most are immigrants and I just don't like having to deal with moving them from my lanes. They are so new to a pool, they don't even know there is pool edict. Tomorrow am will be my swim day. I'm actually anxious to get back into the pool to make sure my upper body stays strong, it's going on the fence right now.

I'm glad I didn't eat to much today. I'm trying to stress my body. By the end of the night as I was righting the blog I could feel the furnace of the body kicking in, feels like a minor bonk. The body has now realized that no more food is entering the system and it's going for the fat to get some energy to fix the semi-bonk.

Long Bike - 5:29:58 / 160.30 km / 29.2 kph avg / 127 avg hr
Brick Run - 33:37 / 5.93 km / 5:40 avg pace / 141 avg hr
2669 Calories