Yadda Yadda Yadda

Run For Sherry.....

2012-01-30T13:41:00.002-05:00

http://www.shutupandrun.net/2012/01/virtual-run-for-sherry-arnold-february.html

Saturday Funnies

2012-01-28T18:44:00.000-05:00

Stolen from other blogs

And

Oh yea, my knee doesn't hurt anymore but my calf is killing me. I can barely walk. New Year, new coach and same old problems...............

Tag, I'm It

2012-01-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

So Adena nailed me.

11 Random Things About Me

1. I'm not getting much work done today with all this blogging (so far this has taken several hours)
2. I'm pretty much an A-hole when I'm tired and don't get enough sleep (which is all the time)
3. I rarely get lost although I do use a GPS
4. I can remember phone numbers and license plates
5. I can't spell if my life depended on it. Thank god for spell check
6. I've back packed to Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe, Israel and Egypt. I've eaten Mcdonalds in every country I've been in and it all tastes about the same.
7. I work less than five minutes away from where I grew up. My parents still live in the same house
8. I have one sister and three brothers - two have done mutiple Ironmans and I'm trying to get my third brother into triathlons or at least duathlons
9. I'm cheap and shop at No Frills (discount grocery store)
10. I've done five bungy jumps. Four vertical (the highest was over 100 meters - 300 feet) and one horziontal in a bar in New Zealand. Duh, of course alcohol was involved!
11. I wake up between 4:30 - 4:45 am every day without an alarm. If I need to wake up earlier, I can without an alarm.

My answers to being tagged:

1. What is your favourite ‘weird’ food to eat?
Beer

2. If you could have any job/career at all, what would it be?
I'm doing it now

3. Do you know how I can get my safari address bar back permanently?
You're SOL, switch to Google Chrome

4. What is your best race memory?
My first traithlon was Belwood sprint in 2009 and I was running full blast. Right at the 6 km sign, I rolled my ankle and went down like a zebra being shot except I tucked my shoulder and my momentum carried forward. I sprang up and took off running. Everybody around me cheered. Coming down the last 500 meters, I was sprinting full out and I didn't feel my ankle but after the race I took off my shoe and my ankle swelled up like a balloon

5. What is your favourite song right now?
LMAFO - Party Anthem

6. What is your favourite training/racing gadget?

POWER TAP!!! - eat your heart out John P
7. Do you prefer to train with a team, or alone? Why?

Depends. Usually if I'm running or riding (indoors) alone because I start around 5 am and no one is around. If I'm swimming, then with my swimming bud. Swimming alone sucks

8. What is in your fridge right now?

Beer and food. What else would be in a fridge?

9. Favourite TV show? (if you watch TV)

Hmmm tough one. I don't really watch TV other than sports highlights. I like Holmes Inspection (which I rarely see), Weeds and Mad Men but I borrowed the sets from my manager and watch them on a my kids 7 inch portable DVD player so I don't actually watch it on TV

10. Favourite book?

Don't really have a favourite book but the book I'm currently reading (again) is Nick Leeson. The original rouge trader who brought down a 400 year old English bank

11. Do you have any pets? If so what, name, age.

Yup three of them

Rebeeca 8
Vanessa 6
Jake 4.5

Here are the rules:

1. Post these rules

2. You must post 11 random things about yourself

3. Answer the questions set for you in their post

4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer

5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them

6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

11questions for you to answer:

1. Why and how did you get into triathlons?
2. Dark or white meat?
3. Beer, wine or liquor?
4. Where did you grow up?
5. TT or road bike?
6. Favorite vacation?
7. What do you do now that your parents did (and hated) when you were growing up?
8. Your favorite sport (not including swimming, biking or running)?
9. How many days per week do you spend on Slowtwitch?
10. How long ago was it since you've been hammered (drunk)?
11. $20,000. What would you buy with it?

First Indoor/Outdoor Brick

2012-01-21T20:59:00.002-05:00

In my last post, I mentioned that the batteries in the Power Tap hub died despite being replaced in September 2011. I have no idea how to change the batteries nor do I have any tools so I decided to take it to a very well known local bike store (LBS) in Toronto. Fortunately its only 10 minutes away from my work so Friday afternoon I had a lunch meeting and after took my rear tire into the store. I had called on Thursday and they said it would only take 10 minutes to change and cost about $30 which I was totally fine. During lunch I had the tire in the trunk of my car and the weather was a little chilly probably around -5 degrees Celsius. I took the tire in to the LBS and watched the guy struggled to take the hub off. He tried for about 15 minutes but the tool kept slipping off the hub. He finally declared that the hub might be too cold (from sitting outside) and wait for an hour to warm up. I had to get back to work for a meeting so I agreed to come back in a couple of hours realizing it was Vanessa's birthday and I promised to take her to McDonalds for dinner earlier that morning.

My meeting ran way longer than I anticipated and worse it started to snow. By this time it was around 5:00 pm and I knew with the snow storm it would take over about 90 minutes or more to get home. I got to the LBS and they still couldn't get the hub off. They had several employees try to get it off and finally decided to use a wrench to take it off but they would have to crunch (destroy) the hub. They said it would cost about $15 to replace the hub and I said go ahead as Vanessa would be freaking out by now as it was around 5:30 pm. They said it would take about 15 minutes to change it so I whipped out to a nearby electronics store to get Vanessa's birthday present (great parenting). I came back and they somehow managed to get the hub off without damaging it and had changed the battery. Sweet! They changed the batteries and then tested the hub. They turned on the computer head as they spun the tire but there were no power readings on the head. They couldn't figure it out and I was dying to get home. They dicked around with it for another 15 minutes before giving up. The other bike mechanic was busy with a customer doing a bike fitting. They suggested I leave the tire with them and when the mechanic was free he could figure out what the problem was and later that night, I would meet up with one of the employees near my home and he could give me back my wheel. It was the best they could come up with so we exchanged cell phone numbers and I took off. I had my traffic GPS and it showed me that I had a long drive home. I was probably about 20 minutes away from the LBS when I got a call and the guy asked me if this was a wired Power Tap unit. I said yes and instantly I realized why there were no power readings from the head. I HAVE A WIRED UNIT AND THAT'S WHY THERE WERE NO READINGS!! DDDDUUUUHHHHH!!!!!!! I turned around and went back to the LBS and with my tail between my legs, picked up my wheel. It took me over 90 minutes to get home as I got stuck in traffic and my traffic GPS was useless. I promised to take Vanessa to Mcdonalds Sunday night instead.

Saturday mornings Jake has indoor soccer at 9:30 am and I had a two hour ride and a 30 minute run schedule and Vanessa had her birthday party starting at 12:30 pm so the only way I was going to get this workout in was to get up at 4:30 am. One thing coach wants me to do is to ride at a steady power output. Previously when I was riding on an unstructured workout, as my mind would wander, my output would wander. Now coach wants me to ride at a steady pace throughout the entire workout. The trouble with that is when ex-coach changed my Power Tap batteries my watts suddenly shot up by 25%. I mentioned it to him and he chalked it up to I gotten a lot stronger but this was a significant problem at Muskoka 70.3 last year. I had no idea what watts I should have been riding at. I would be coasting and my Power Tap showed I was still generating watts even though I wasn't peddling. With the change in the batteries, I think the problem has been corrected but I still don't know what watts I can generate and maintain so this morning was a bit of trial and error. The first set was a disaster as I rode way too easy and my heart rate was no where near what the target heart rate should have been. The second set was better as I rode about 25% harder. One thing about these workouts is that it sure makes time fly when doing a structured workout by watching your watts, heart rate, cadence and time as opposed to just riding for two hours. I had a portable DVD player and was watching Aliens vs Predator. It was one of those movies that I'm glad I didn't pay to see it in the movie theatre.

After the ride, I had a 30 minute run which normally wouldn't have been a problem but it was about -15 Celsius with the windchill. I had brought downstairs a complete change of clothes and dried off as much as I could. I think it took me about 15 minutes to change clothes as I was soaking wet from the ride and its hard to put dry clothes on while you're wet. As soon as I ran 100 feet I knew that I should have dressed warmer. My back was wet even though I had changed shirts and the cold wind instantly whipped down my back. It was snowing pretty good so I couldn't even run that fast. I told myself this run wasn't about speed but just to build up base. My toes and figures were freezing despite wearing my cold weather socks and gloves. I need to wear warmer clothes.

Now that said, this has been an awesome winter as its only gotten cold a couple of days. On Tuesday, it supposed to hit 7 degrees. Unheard of for mid January!! However, the downside of this great winter, is a smoking hot summer. There is no fun running when the temperature is 40 degree Celsius (+100 degrees F).

Tomorrow is my long run of 90 minutes. We'll see how the knee holds up as it was a little achy today but no issues. My gout issue was not a problem today and seems to have disappeared as fast as it appeared.

Just Swimming, Biking And Running Along

2012-01-20T09:59:00.000-05:00

Well half way through my first "official" training schedule and its been pretty much the same as the "unofficial" training schedule. On the swimming front, nothing going on other than the usual Masters stuff. I got beat by the coach and his 15 year old daughter in a 25 meter race. They did butterfly while I did freestyle and they both smoked me. I need to find some 10 year olds so I can build up my self esteem.

On the riding front, the batteries in the hub for my power tap died again. Oddly enough, they were changed by my previous coach in September. I watched him open a drawer and pull out a couple of batteries and place them in my hub. Hmmmm I wonder how "fresh" they were? Well I guess I know the answer to that question.

On the running front, because I signed up for Around The Bay, the oldest race in North America, I've started to ramp up the running. I was only running twice a week for about 50-60 minutes and need to start building the base. I mentioned to coach that I signed up for ATB and she expressed surprise as my long run has only been about 1:10 but I checked last year's schedule and my long run for the same week was 1:30 so I'm not that far off. However, my right knee has been bugging me after I ride and run. On the pain scale, its very very minor but I went to see Dr Stoddard just to check things out. He poked, prodded and twisted my knee around but couldn't really find anything wrong. He wasn't sure what it was but suggested to do lots of stretching of the quads.

After the appointment, I went over to my parent's house (they live five minutes from my work) and went for an hour run. The weather wasn't bad but it started to snow and the wind was nasty. It snowed just enough to cover the ice on the paths. I actually ran through a golf course The Donalda Club is a very exclusive private club and I actually used to work there as a waiter (my first job as a waiter) many years ago. Actually I was working there when Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers. I think the membership is $100,000ish. Obviously no one was on the golf course but I stuck to the cart path which was a little icy and had a layer of snow covering it just to make things interesting. My knee began to bug me but I pushed on and finished the hour run (later I check my schedule and was only supposed to go for 45 minutes).

Last night my knee was throbbing even more so I iced it down and this morning its was ok buuuuutttt my left foot was very sore. The knuckle spot behind my big toe was very sore and warm. It seems that my pseudogout has returned. It is very similar to regular gout and is just as painful. It only appears once every two years and it comes and goes after a couple of days. One thing that seems to help is if I scrunch my toes. I think it helps move the fluid out of the joints. Let's hope this doesn't last long

Tomorrow is my first indoor/outdoor brick. I have a two hour ride followed by a 30 minute run. Did I mention it -10 degrees Celsius?

Today (Friday) is my official "off day" so I dug up the P90X yoga video and started doing some yoga. I lasted 30 minutes and turned off the yoga and rolled on my $50 dollar trigger point roller. I made sure to nail the quads which were painful.

That's all I got.

And So It Begins......

2012-01-15T18:20:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow marks the first day of training with my new coach. I've already received my schedule for the next two weeks and while it doesn't look all that different from my previous schedules, the one major difference will be doing bricks at this time of the year. Normally, I don't start doing bricks until May but coach says that we do them all year around. No big deal except I wonder what it will be like to do a two hour trainer session and then run outside when its like -20 degrees? We'll soon find out.

It certainly has been an interesting last two months trying to find a new coach. Working in the "service industry" myself, I'm quite shocked on the lack of service that is in triathlon coaching. I contacted several coaches out of the blue but was referred by friends who knew and recommend them. The first coach never responded to my emails while I traded emails with another coach, upon trying to confirm our meeting, she never responded. I find this attitude totally bizarre. Either they are full up and don't want anymore athletes or I don't fit their profile (maybe they looked up my race results).

I toyed with the idea of self coaching as I know lots of athletes who have completed Ironmans that I could rely on for information but while I have completed two Half Ironmans, moving up to a full Ironman is like moving into the unknown. Triathlon training isn't exactly rocket scientist stuff, however I don't want to risk a DNF on my first Ironman simply because I was trying to save a couple of bucks.

Why I picked my current coach was due to several reasons
1. My two brothers who used to do Ironmans had said good things about the coach
2. I know two other guys up here that are currently working with coach and have said good things
3. I met them at Muskoka 70.3 and saw the interaction they had with their athletes
4. I met with my coach and liked the game plan she laid out and this is the key.

Like most people, training for triathlons is like juggling balls. Its a constant shuffling of priorities around and trying to jam in workouts and some do it better than others. With a young family (8, 6 and 4.5 years old kids) and a sometimes demanding job (come February, I usually work 6 days a week and have evening meetings) its almost impossible to squeeze in 15-20 hours of training. And if I did, the impact of my "tiredness" would fall upon the kids. Its not fair to them or my wife. Coach offered what I thought was a reasonable and doable plan for Ironman Mont Tremblant and that's what it came down to. While it would be nice to qualify for Kona, right now that level of training is simply not possible.

Here's to a great 2012 race season for everyone!

Seriously???

2012-01-11T15:25:00.000-05:00

Divorced man suing over wedding pictures says case is
about broken promise

Jennifer Peltz

It may come across as an extreme case of nuptial nostalgia: A now-divorced man saying a photography studio should pay to recreate his wedding to make up for what he considers flawed pictures and video.

But after being branded a “groomzilla,” Todd Remis said Tuesday his now-notorious lawsuit is about holding a business to a pledge, not holding onto a broken marriage.

“It was their failure to deliver after a promise and a handshake” agreement to retouch the photos, Remis said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “How could a business treat a customer this way?”

It was his first public response to a flurry of acidic commentary on the case in recent months.

While suits over wedding photographs aren’t unusual, what set Remis’ case apart is his mention of wanting to reconstitute the ceremony and celebration of a bygone union. He said during sworn questioning this summer that the two began divorce proceedings in 2008. The split was final in 2010, and he said he believed his ex-wife had moved back to her native Latvia.

Nonetheless, “I need to have the wedding recreated exactly as it was so that the remaining 15 per cent of the wedding that was not shot can be shot” and the album and video completed “so we have memories of the wedding,” he said during his July deposition, according to a transcript. “So we would need to recreate everything to complete that.”

After his remarks about recreating the wedding appeared in a story in The New York Times in November, Remis’ quest became a punchline in quarters ranging from the legal blogosphere to the city’s tabloids. The Daily News gave him a “New York Knucklehead Award”; CNN’s Anderson Cooper included Remis on his “RidicuList.”

Remis declined through a spokeswoman to be interviewed.

Remis sued H&H Photographers in 2009, saying the venerable suburban New York studio had done a shoddy job of shooting his and Milena Grzibovska’s December 2003 wedding at a century-old hotel overlooking the Hudson River.

The photographer ignored the couple’s request not to shoot in front of a mirror that ended up reflecting photographers’ lights, and the photographer and videographer left 45 minutes before the end of the reception, missing the last dance and the bouquet toss, says Remis, 44, who has worked as a stock analyst.

Grzibovska, who is in her early 30s, had come to New York in June 2002 from the University of Iceland to study how to teach English to foreign-language speakers, according to a piece that September in a Columbia University newspaper.

The couple had paid a $3,500 advance toward a $4,100 total price for the photos, part of a wedding he said cost $48,000 in all, including guests’ travel.

Still, Remis and his bride “were newly married and in love” and not looking for a fight with photographers, his statement says.

H&H co-owner Daniel Fried says he stands by the quality of the two hours of video and the hundreds of colour and black-and-white photos, which were shot on film.

“I think the photography is lovely,” Fried said by phone from the studio in Irvington, New York. But he said he offered in 2004 to adjust the photos and upgrade the wedding album, telling Remis the two needed first to pick out which pictures they wanted.

“Obviously, I couldn’t turn back the clock,” Fried said.

He says Remis never got back to H&H until he wrote in 2009 to demand a refund and interest — about $5,750 in all — and the completed photos and video.

No contact information could be found for Grzibovska.

The idea of a wedding-photos dispute that outlasted the marriage has been met with raised eyebrows by Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan, who invoked lyrics from the Barbara Streisand hit “The Way We Were” in a ruling last year that threw out some legal claims but let others go forward.

“This is a case in which it appears that the ‘misty watercolour memories’ and the ‘scattered pictures of the smiles ... left behind’ at the wedding were more important than the real thing,” she wrote.

And H&H co-founder Harold Gillet put it more bluntly in an August 2010 letter to the court: “The divorce renders the further demands for photos, etc., ridiculous.”

Both sides have suggested they might be open to a settlement, but the case continues for now.

Doh!

2012-01-09T13:09:00.001-05:00

Wow! I'm glad this didn't happen to me when I did it in New Zealand but then I only did a 105 meter jump

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA—An Australian tourist bungee jumping in Africa plunged 111 metres into a river when her cord snapped, but she managed to swim to safety with a broken collarbone and her legs tied together.

Erin Langworthy told Nine Network television news Sunday that she blacked out briefly when she hit the Zambesi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe on Dec. 31.

“I felt like I’d been slapped all over,” the 22-year-old from Perth said.

Video taken of the jump shows the cord snapping and Langworthy smacking into the river before the current pulled her into rapids.

“You get sucked under and then you pop up so it’s very disorienting — I didn’t know which was up or down,” she said.

She said the trailing cord repeatedly snagged, so she “had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever it was caught on to make it to the surface.”

Langworthy swam through the rapids to reach the Zimbabwe bank.

Southern Province Police Commissioner Brenda Muntemba told tahe Post Zambia newspaper that Langworthy was treated at a clinic in Zimbabwe before being evacuated to South Africa.

The jump from the Victoria Falls Bridge is operated by Safari Par Excellence, whose website describes the bungee experience as “111 metres of pure Adrenalin!”

The 27 Rules of Conquering the Gym

2012-01-05T15:28:00.000-05:00

The 27 Rules of Conquering the Gym By JASON GAY

This is the time of year when even people who hate the gym think about going to the gym. Many of us are still digesting whole floors of gingerbread houses, and jeans that fit comfortably in October are now a denim humiliation.
Sweating is a good way to begin 2012. Exercise, like dark chocolate and office meetings that suddenly get canceled, is a proven pathway to nirvana. But if you're going to join a gym—or returning to the gym after a long hibernation—consider the following:

1. A gym is not designed to make you feel instantly better about yourself. If a gym wanted to make you feel instantly better about yourself, it would be a bar.

2. Give yourself a goal. Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds. Maybe you want to quarterback the New York Jets into the playoffs. But be warned: Losing 10 pounds is hard.

3. Develop a gym routine. Try to go at least three times a week. Do a mix of strength training and cardiovascular conditioning. After the third week, stop carrying around that satchel of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.

4. No one in the history of gyms has ever lost a pound while reading "The New Yorker" and slowly pedaling a recumbent bicycle. No one.

5. Bring your iPod. Don't borrow the disgusting gym headphones, or use the sad plastic radio attachment on the treadmill, which always sounds like it's playing Kenny Loggins from a sewer.

6. Don't fall for gimmicks. The only tried-and-true method to lose 10 pounds in 48 hours is food poisoning.

7. Yes, every gym has an overenthusiastic spinning instructor who hasn't bought a record since "Walking on Sunshine."

8. There's also the Strange Guy Who is Always at the Gym. Just when you think he isn't here today...there he is, lurking by the barbells.

9. "Great job!" is trainer-speak for "It's not polite for me to laugh at you."

10. Beware a hip gym with a Wilco step class.

11. Gyms have two types of members: Members who wipe down the machines after using them, and the worst people in the universe.

12. Nope, that's not a "recovery energy bar with antioxidant dark chocolate." That's a chocolate bar.

13. Avoid Unsolicited Advice Guy, who, for the small fee of boring you to death, will explain the proper method for any exercise in 45 minutes or longer.

14. You can take 10 Minute Abs, 20 Minute Abs, and 30 Minute Abs. There is also Stop Eating Pizza and Eating Sheet Cake Abs—but that's super tough!

15. If you're motivated to buy an expensive home exercise machine, consider a "wooden coat rack." It costs $40, uses no electricity and does the exact same thing.

16. There's the yoga instructor everyone loves, and the yoga instructor everyone hates. Memorize who they are.

17. If you see an indoor rock climbing wall, you're either in a really cool gym or a romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson.

18. Be cautious about any class with the words "sunrise," "hell," or "Moby."

19. If a gym class is going to be effective, it's hard. If you're relaxed and enjoying yourself, you're at brunch.

20. If you need to bring your children, just let them loose in the silent meditation class. Nobody minds, and kids love candles.

21. Don't buy $150 sneakers, $100 yoga pants, and $4 water. Muscle shirts are for people with muscles, and rhythm guitarists.

22. Fancy gyms can be seductive, but once you get past the modern couches and fresh flowers and the water with lemon slices, you're basically paying for a boutique hotel with B.O.

23. Everyone sees you secretly racing the old people in the pool.

24. If you're at the point where you've bought biking shoes for the spinning class, you may as well go ahead and buy an actual bike. It's way more fun and it doesn't make you listen to C+C Music Factory.

25. Fact: Thinking about going to the gym burns between 0 and 0 calories.

26. A successful gym membership is like a marriage: If it's good, you show up committed and ready for hard work. If it's not good, you show up in sweatpants and watch a lot of bad TV.

27. There is no secret. Exercise and lay off the fries. The end.

Where's my infomercial and best seller?

Time To Start Training

2012-01-05T11:43:00.001-05:00

New Year's Resolution 2012

2012-01-01T21:19:00.002-05:00

Stolen from http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/

At least this morning I managed a 8.5 km run at a dreadful pace of 6:15 min\km. Oddly enough there weren't many people out at 7:00 am New Year's Day.

Oh, and I signed up for Around The Bay 30 km race in March

How's your over hang?

2011 Year In Review

2011-12-31T19:22:00.000-05:00

Well 2011 certainly didn't go down as I planned. Although I was rather pleased with the results of my running races, the triathlon season was pretty much a write off because of a stress fracture from the Toronto Marathon.

The race season was supposed to be as followed:

Chilly Half Marathon
Around The Bay (30 km)
Sporting Life 10 km
Toronto Good Life Marathon
Muskoka Long Course
Peterborough Half Iron
Calgary 70.3
Muskoka 70.3

So how did the race season go?

Chilly Half Marathon
I missed a PB by seconds despite rolling my ankle three times during the race.

Around The Bay
A race which is older than the Boston marathon and one I've wanted to run for a long time. I've trained three times for this race but only run it once due to injuries. Oh yeah and I beat John P.

Sporting Life 10 km
DNS

The Toronto marathon.
My first marathon. It was a crappy day and rained a lot and I could barely walk after the race. As it turned out I got a stress fracture on my lower shin. That pretty much eliminated most of the triathlon races for the summer.

Muskoka Long Course
DNS

Peterborough Half Iron
This race turned into an Aqua\Bike as I still couldn't run. I decided to give everyone a 25 minute head start on the swim as I stood on the shore watching the athletes come out of the water for the end of the first lap. Only then did it dawn on me that it was a mass start. Doh. Also, it was smoking hot and had nutrition issues on the bike.

Calgary 70.3
DNS. Although I was in Calgary during the race, I could barely run. My long run was up to about 5 km. The race would have been painful to finish (literally and figuratively)

Muskoka 70.3
A major disappointment as I was one minute slower than last year. I thought with riding my new tri bike and power tap all summer, I would have seen an improvement

Tammy did a couple of Duathlons. Guelph and Orillia - Kids of Steel and -Duathlon.html. The kids did the Kids Of Steel triathlon and it was a lot of fun on the Saturday and Tammy did the Duathlon the next day.

Looking Ahead To 2012
Well first thing is to look for a new coach. I need to make a decision rather soon while i am still training it will be time to ramp it up. On Friday morning I rode for 2:45 using my new riding shorts I bought on Boxing Day. Tammy had given me an action DVD so I watched the first two movies. The first one was dumb as it was about a small town cop discovering evidence about the Kennedy assassination and cover up. The next movie was with Dolph Lundgren which I've never heard of and for good reason. It was just brutal but it helped kill the time.

With Ironman Mont Tremblant looming in only 231 days, 2012 will be filled with lots of hard and long days.

Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

Boxing Day Score

2011-12-28T05:36:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time ago, I used to go Boxing Day shopping (the day after Christmas and everything is on sale) with my brothers. We would spend hours and hours at various malls around the city shopping for clothes and electronics. We had it down to a fine art. Leave the house by 6:00 am and hit several stores by 7:00 am. Sometimes we'd be done by 11:00 am when the malls where getting crazily busy, other times we'd push on through and fight the crowds and come home late afternoon. We'd usually spent lots of money and come home with tons of stuff.

Fast forward to this year. I had zero desire to go out although I did browse on Best Buy's website for the Boxing Day sale which started Dec 25th at 8:00 pm. I was mulling over getting a plasma TV for the bedroom to replace the old but still working 20 inch TV. I passed as the prices weren't cheap enough. Something about "need" versus "want." However, I did decide there were several things I "needed" at Running Free. They had 25% off everything plus and additional 20% off if you spent more than $500. We got the full 45% off everything. We picked up three pairs of shoes, two for me and one for Tammy. I changed my shoes after the Toronto Marathon in May and the shoes are completely destroyed. Talk about a heel striker. The heel is completely worn down on the right side. We also purchased new riding shorts, gel, bathing suit, and a new foam roller

This one is a lot more expensive but different than the other foam rollers I've been buying. This one has a hard plastic tube inside so it can't be crushed unlike the foam rollers which over time lose their shape and effectiveness. Not this one. They sell for $50 but with the sale, I got for 45% off. We spent over $700 after the discount. Ouch

Last week I went to a physio therapist downtown a the Toronto Athletic Club Clinic in one of the office towers. Ryan had come highly recommended by Scobie and I was looking for someone to build a simple but effective workout schedule for strength training and that I could do in my basement with minimal weights (ie body weight). I had not used any my physio coverage from my work benefits so this was perfect. I saw him three days in a roll. The Toronto Athletic Club is on the 36th floor of an office tower and is pretty high end. It caters to all lot of the downtown executives. I'm not sure what the monthly fee is but it can't be cheap however, if I worked downtown, it would be super convenient.

On the first visit, I went through a series of strength and balancing tests. Overall I wasn't bad but came up with a failing grade with a score of 13/21. Basically any score lower than 14 can lead the body to injuries and oddly enough, I get hurt every year. The second and third visit were going over the program that Ryan built for me. Its a pretty basic program that focuses on the glutes and legs and can be done with minimal weights and within 30 minutes but Ryan assured me that's all I need to minimize the injuries. This should be perfect as I thoroughly agree that I need a strength training program but could never get anyone to build me one. We'll see how it goes

Touchdown!

2011-12-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

Nothing else going on. I ran on Christmas Day for 9.5 km and hit 181.2 pounds on the scale. Oink oink

The Boston Marathon

2011-12-16T20:22:00.000-05:00

Today a work colleague offered me the chance to run the Boston Marathon 2012 (without qualifying) via a special sponsorship/fundraising entry.

I thanked him but declined. One of my brothers had run Boston several times to which he qualified each time. I think my qualification time right now would be a 3:35 marathon to which I'm not even close.

Somehow, I felt that if I did accept, I didn't belong as I didn't "earn" my entry. Odd. I guess that would be sort of like going to Kona by winning the lottery.

David Wilson

2011-12-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

David Wilson

DAVID WILSON It is with profound sadness we announce the passing of our family member, David Wilson on December 12, 2011. Loving son of George and Barbara Wilson, devoted husband to Anny-Sandra Hamel and proud father of Marissa Rose and Arianne. He will be greatly missed by his sisters Karen (Mike), Susan and Michelle and brother-in-law Jean-Sebastian (Nathalie). Loving uncle to Megan, Kaitlyn, Audrey and Catherine. Highly respected son-in-law to Jean Hamel and Carmen Guay. Cousin to Keith (Jayne), Chris (Cindy) and many other cousins. David had a wonderful "joie de vivre" - a positive, outgoing person who loved life. His girls were his greatest source of pride and family was of utmost importance. David was a successful investment advisor with Nesbitt Burns, loved his new cottage, and shared many wonderful adventures with friends and family

I haven't talked to Dave in a couple of years but I've know Dave since our rookie training class back in September 1997. I saw him a couple of times when I went downtown and we'd have a beer or two and oddly enough, I was thinking about him a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know what happened but I do know that Dave was a good guy and he had two young kids that were a little older than my kids.

This is a tough time of year for many people.

Rest In Peace Dave

Feeling Like a Loser This Holiday Season?

2011-12-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

Here's How to Hire a Bigger Loser!

by: Jane Wells

Now this holiday season - you can hire a bigger nerd than you.

A friend forwarded me an ad on Craigslist which pitches the services of the greatest holiday must-have ever—a Criticism Deflector.

"Perhaps you're the least successful of a number of siblings and will be reminded of this bleak reality ad nauseam during the long weekend," the ad began in originally pitching the service for Thanksgiving. "If you're losing sleep over the possibility of yet another Power Point presentation on the reasons why calling your life a failure is too good for you; then I can help."

The ad offers the services of a man in Asheville, North Carolina, who's willing to come to dinner with you and appear to be an even bigger failure than you are. This would make you look better.

"Don't be the most piteous person in the room, have the satisfaction of watching your pathetic proxy wear out your source of negativity."

The seller charges by the hour and offers several different packages: Loser ex-boyfriend, roommate who can't get life together, and co-worker with obvious drug/mental problems.

Too bad Thanksgiving passed. I could've used this guy.

I reached out to the seller to see if his services are still available for Hanukkah and Christmas.

They are.

I also got the hilarious back story on how the listing came to be.

"I started a blog earlier this year that centered around Craigslist postings," wrote the seller, who prefers to go by the nom de plume of H.D. Wimbledon. Turns out, Mr. Wimbledon is a former cable news anchor and reporter in Asheville who lost that job and has been making ends meet working part time at a local community college. In February, he launched his first tongue-in-cheek Craigslist post offering free breakfast to anyone who could explain the TV show "Lost". "I HAVE seen every episode of Lost," the ad reads, "repeat I HAVE watched the entire series, I just can't tie it all together." The ad got enough buzz that one of the creators of the ABC hit show put it on his Twitter feed.

There then followed a series of other Craigslist offers, including my favorite, an offer of "free candy" with a photo of a seedy looking van. "Comes with complementary van ride." Wimbledon's blog got some attention, but literary agents have yet to ring the phone off the hook. So the aspiring writer continues to Tweet hilarious musings and occasionally add another listing "just for kicks and giggles."

I don't know Wimbledon's real name, even his name on Twitter isn't completely accurate. I just know that he's a guy. I also know he likes cats, because in one email he notified me he'd be offline for a while. "I’ve got to take my cat to the vet. I’m sure you’re shocked to learn I’m a multiple cat owner."

That's funny.

As for the Thanksgiving ad, Wimbledon tells me he didn't get many bites, but he's hoping for something more substantial during Christmas. However, he's willing to be your loser companion year round "for wide variety of other occasions such as class reunions, office parties, poetry slams & winery tours."

Wow, to be the biggest loser at a poetry slam will take some work.

Now That's Got To Suck!

2011-12-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

TOKYO—An outing of luxury sportscar enthusiasts in Japan ended in an expensive freeway pileup — smashing a stunning eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini and two Mercedes likely worth more than $1 million together.

Police say they believe the accident Sunday was touched off when the driver of one of the Ferraris tried to change lanes and hit the median barrier. He spun across the freeway, and the other cars collided while trying to avoid hitting his car.
Even a used Ferrari in Japan can fetch $100,000 or more, meaning the total damage may be $1 million or more.
Police declined to comment on the total amount of damage, but said some of the vehicles were beyond repair.

NTV quoted the driver of one of the tow trucks brought in to clear the scene as saying it was the most expensive crash site he had ever seen.
No one was seriously injured, but police in Yamaguchi prefecture said 10 people were treated for bruises and cuts. Police say 14 cars were involved altogether.
The luxury cars were all in one place because they were being driven by a group of automobile enthusiasts on their way to nearby Hiroshima.

On the training front, I rode on the trainer for two hours on Saturday. In a word....UGH! I began to bonk around the 1:30 mark and took a quick pee break but mentally it was tough. One trick I did learn from reading Jordon Rapp's blog, is to count to 300 and then start over again and again. That keeps the mental focus on the counting and not looking at the watch every 35 seconds wondering how I am going to finish the workout.

On the running front, I ran twice last week and my foot seemed ok. The Planter fasciitis doesn't seem as bad as I've been strengthening and stretching my calves. I admit that over the last several months, I haven't been stretching my calves after each workout. No doubt, this is payback. I use a small wooden roller for the bottom and both sides of my feet. Holy crap, did it ever hurt when I first started rolling but now its not too bad. No John P, I didn't pay for this roller. Someone gave it to me for free.

On the coaching front, I was supposed to meet with another triathlon coach who came highly recommended from a friend. We exchanged emails and she wanted the usual info goals, expectation, experience etc. She also wanted to know my race results from 2010 (I presumed she meant 2011). Seriously, how hard is it to look up somebody's results by going to Sportstats? Hmmm, that started me wondering but we were supposed to meet on Thursday at 3 pm but did not set a place. I emailed her early Thursday morning but didn't hear back from her. This is the second time I've sent a triathlon coach an email requesting a meeting and the second time I've received no response. Maybe they a) looked up my results and decided I'm useless as an athlete and didn't want to coach me, b) don' t read emails although this last coach was sending emails from her iphone c) aren't looking to take on new athletes or d) not familiar with customer service. Just like my last coach

CFL Reunion - 73 Year Old Start Brawling With A 74 Year Old!

2011-11-30T09:48:00.000-05:00

Laughter turned to gasps when two former Canadian Football League rivals in their 70s exchanged vigorous punches on stage at an alumni luncheon in Vancouver this week.

In an online video that has quickly gone viral, former B.C. Lions quarterback Joe Kapp, 73, started the ruckus by offering former Hamilton Ticats defensive lineman Angelo Mosca, now 74, a sprig of flowers.

Kapp later said he was trying to end a feud that dates back to the 1963 Grey Cup game when Mosca injured Lions running back Willie Fleming with a hard tackle.

"I'm Angelo Mosca and someone starts waving a flower in my face," the former wrestler said later. "You think I'm gonna take that?"

Mosca, who was sitting down, lashed out with his cane. Then Kapp threw punched Mosca, knocking him off his chair.
"He hit me on the side of the head with a cane," Kapp said.

To which, Mosca replied, "When I went down, he kicked me."

CTV's Suneel Joshi said the fight was so bizarre, the crowd initially thought it was staged.

"People thought it was a joke -- until they saw the right hook from Joe Kapp."

When interviewed after the altercation, Mosca said he was simply defending himself.

"You take a shot at me, I'm gonna take a shot at you," he said.

Counting Calories - Fail

2011-11-29T16:29:00.000-05:00

Someone brought in a large box of Peak Freen choclate cookies (one of my favorite cookies). Everytime I walk by the kitchen, I grab two or three. So much for counting calories.

Simply brutal

What Is Going On?

2011-11-28T13:34:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update to let you know what is going on....nothing.

A while ago, I bought a trainer tire and started using it when I rode my trainer (obviously). Well it was a real PITA to put on but the next morning, it was flat so I struggled for another 30 minutes taking the tire off, changing the inner tube and putting the tire back on. A couple of days ago, I got another flat so yesterday I took off the trainer tire and threw it in the corner. I had an old tire from a couple of years ago and I'm just going to use that and ride it until there is no tread on it.

I'm using Saturday as my long ride and this week I really struggled to finish. Normally I'll ride for about 90-100 minutes looking to burn about 1,200-1,500 calories however this Saturday, it took me 105 minutes to burn 1,000 calories. It was a brutal ride. I wasn't feeling all that great and probably a little tired from Friday's ride. This morning, I rode for 65 minutes and burned 955 calories (I was pissed off).

On the running front....no runs. My foot is still sore but I've been using a wooden roller on the bottom of my foot and it hurts like hell but its getting better. I've started to stretch my calves more and started doing some calf raises and I think its helping. I'll try and run this week and if it still hurts then I'll go see a doctor.

One the dieting front, just two words.....oink oink. On Thursday morning, I hit my max weight, 180 pounds up from my race weight of 170 pounds. I was going to buy some new suits (I wear one everyday) but a couple of years ago, I bought a new one on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas where everything is on sale) and by June it was too big. I've also noticed my current suits are starting to get a little tight, so we are back to counting calories. That means weighing, measuring and recording everything I eat (well almost). The goal is to keep the calories down to about 1,800 per day while burning over 2,500 calories (including workouts). The first thing I noticed is my serving size has gotten a lot bigger. The plate seems much more empty when I measure everything. The second thing I noticed is that I'M STARVING ALMOST ALL THE TIME!!! What does it say if I finish eating a meal and I'm still hungry?

The goal is to get down to 175 the end of the month. Yea that should be fun with all the holidays coming up.

IMAZ 2011 Finish - Pat Tillotson

2011-11-26T17:25:00.000-05:00

Pat Tillotson - You Are An Ironman!!! - 17:00:00

Stolen from

http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2011/11/one-final-im-az-post-finish-line-video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SteveInASpeedoGross+%28Steve+in+a+Speedo%3F%21+Gross%21%29

Minnesota Wild calls on 51-year-old beer league goalie

2011-11-25T09:54:00.000-05:00

Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via GETTY IMAGES

Richard J. Brennan

Beer league goalie Paul Deutsch says it finally dawned on him that being called up by the Minnesota Wild wasn’t a dream when a valet parking attendant at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul opened his minivan door.

“Here they were valet parking my minivan. There is a Range Rover is in front of me and an Audi is behind and here I’ve got my four-cylinder minivan with the company logo on the side. The valet guys were dying (laughing),” Deutsch told the Toronto Star Thursday.

All the 51-year-old owner of an embroidery and screen sprint shop in the St. Paul’s area — called up by the Wild on Wednesday as an emergency backup goalie — says the only thing he can remember about the trip to the arena is being really scared and in a state of disbelief.

After all, his reason for making the trip is one of hockey legend, the kind of story that gives hope to pickup hockey players everywhere.

“I raced home and got my gear and started heading down to the arena . . . I don’t even remember how I got there. I was thinking to myself ‘I can’t go into this game … I don’t deserve to be there.’ I was very scared because what if …,” said the season’s ticket holder.

Earlier in they day he got the call from Bob Mason, the Wild’s goalie coach and golfing buddy, saying he had to sign a contract right away because he was needed immediately as an emergency backup to starter Josh Harding for Wednesday’s game against the Nashville Predators.

“I got called at 3 p.m. and I was probably at the arena by 4:30 p.m.,” said Deutsch, who joked that it did mean having to give up his regular Wednesday night game.

Because of NHL rules, the Wild weren’t allowed to sign a goaltender with professional experience. Deutsch’s amateur tryout contract fit within the rules.

Almost a year ago, a desperate Phoenix Coyote team in a game against the Rangers turned to Tom Fenton, a 26-year-old graduate student former goalie from Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. The Canadian-born Fenton too didn’t get into the game but has a story to tell his grandkids.

While Deutsch is no stranger to some of the Wild brass — he’s a good friend of former Wild assistant coach Mike Ramsey — and has been the practice goalie for a number of years for the team, this call was entirely different. He was one injury away from having the professional spotlight on him.

Deutsch, who didn’t even start playing goalie until he was 37, was signed after Niklas Backstrom was declared out for personal reasons. And it was unclear if the night before the U.S. Thanksgiving whether Matt Hackett, being recalled from Houston, could make it to the Twin Cities in time.

“I was very scared because here we were talking about Hackett coming from Houston on Thanksgiving eve. ‘Come on, how’s going to do that?’”

Deutsch’s improbable shot at playing in an NHL game ended almost as quickly as it started when Hackett arrived at the arena just before the 7 p.m. game time and Deutsch was scratched.

He did however get out on the ice for about a minute or so during the warm-ups and better yet, he gets to keep his jersey. Chuck Fletcher, the Wild general manager, has also promised a copy of his NHL contract.
“This is something that I didn’t even realize, on that ice for a warm-up there are 40 men out there, big guys … and there is nowhere to go. And I couldn’t get out of the way. I almost clipped (Minnesota Wild forward Brad) Staubitz with my stick. He came over and said ‘can you imagine if you cut me during warm-ups.’ I was just a buffoon out there,” Deutsch said.

After the warm-up was over he discovered that Hackett had arrived in time. Deutsch’s locker had already been cleaned out to make way for the NHLer.

“Reality hit in a hurry. I was just gone. And there was my little chair with towel on it sitting in the room off the locker room where the sewing machine is and the skate sharpener and that stuff,” Deutsch said.
Deutsch stuck around to sit in on Wild coach Mike Yeo’s pre-game team meeting before taking his equipment off and heading to a suite with members of his daughter’s under-14 girls hockey team, which he coaches. He watched his beloved Wild win their fifth straight game with Harding making 23 saves.

“The whole thing was pretty cool,” he told the Star, adding he hopes he doesn’t have to pay for the puck he threw into the crowd as a souvenir.

Pat Tillotson...You Are An Ironman!!

2011-11-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Ironman Arizona Nov 2011

In case you haven't seen it on other blogs, Patricia Tillotson (age 56) from Wilmington, DE finished Ironman Arizona in dramatic fashion:

Swim 1:38:20

Bike 8:06:09

Run 7:00:00

Finishing time 17:00:00

Ironman Announcer Mike Riley (white hat) is screaming encouragement

2011 IMAZ male winner Eneko Lianos (blue shirt) is clapping

2011 IMAZ female third place finisher: Meredtih Kesslar (blue jacket and black hat)

2011 IMAZ female second place finisher: Lindsey Corbin (grey jacket)

Wow!

The Kid Is Back

2011-11-22T15:56:00.000-05:00

The World Triathlon Corporation

2011-11-19T11:14:00.002-05:00

From the Toronto Star

In 2008, Providence bought the World Triathlon Corp., which at the time staged or licenced the rights to 53 Ironman and half-Ironman events a year.

Endurance competitions were booming in the U.S.

In 2007, 800,000 racers participated in triathlons, and despite its modest coverage in the mainstream media, its popularity was on the rise. World Triathlon in 2007 generated more than $500 million in royalty payments from companies to put its Ironman brand name on watches, sunglasses and other items.

By 2009, 1.2 million racers participated in triathlons, and while the sport appealed to many, it was a still considered a gruelling challenge. A 2009 survey reported only 17 per cent of triathletes had finished an Ironman race in the previous year.

So this year, in a move to broaden the sport’s appeal, World Triathlon announced a new 13-race series called 5150. Races in the series would feature a 1.5-km swim, a 40-km bike ride and a 10-km run. (A traditional Ironman triathlon is a 3.8-km swim, 180-km bike race, and a 42-km run.)

Within five years, World Triathlon chief executive Andrew Fertic told The SportsBusiness Journal, the series could have 50 events averaging 2,300 athletes and more than 100,000 total participants.

New Canadian $100 Bill

2011-11-18T11:16:00.000-05:00

Rippppp

So Canada gets a new one hundred dollar bill that is supposed to be indestructible as its made from plastic.

Oppps, I ripped one. I did the same thing in Australia when I ripped one of their five dollar bills that is made from plastic as well

Protester Literally Thrown Out of Zuccotti Park

2011-11-15T14:48:00.001-05:00

See ya! Toronto, you're next!

Nada

2011-11-15T05:15:00.001-05:00

Nada is going on these days. I have nothing to write about for training.

I'm eating like a pig. Halloween was deadly. I took a whole bunch of candy to work and people got mad at me
I'm still looking for a coach. I've interviewed one and want to talk to more
I think I have Plantar fasclitis so I have not been running all that much (once a week)
I'm riding indoors three times a week. Had a hell of a time putting on the trainer tire
This is the time of year I get SAD except I do not get sad, more like extremely irritable and angry
Jake's arm is still broken and now he had a fever for the last several days

That is pretty much what is going on in my life

Poor Jakey

2011-11-03T12:46:00.000-04:00

Post Halloween

2011-11-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

Clearly there are some very creative pumpkin carvers out there

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T19:16:00.000-04:00

Who Wants Broccoli?

OJ Comes To Toronto!!!

2011-10-31T13:29:00.001-04:00

Stolen transport leads police on chase across Ontario

By John Miner, QMI Agency

LONDON, Ont. — Police are pursuing a stolen transport truck that hit a police cruiser earlier Monday morning.

The tractor-trailer was stolen at about 4 a.m. in the Niagara region.

With about a dozen cruisers following, the truck rolled down Hwy. 403 and onto Hwy. 401, passing through the Woodstock area.

The driver then got off the westbound lanes, turned around and headed back eastbound through the Kitchener-Waterloo area and toward Toronto.

At 11:30 a.m., police were still pursing the truck, which had exited 401 and moved onto the QEW.

The truck apparently had a passenger who bailed out earlier.

1:22 p.m. Flatbed has pulled off the road near the Burlington Skyway at 1:22 p.m.

1:27 p.m. Reports that driver of flatbed is in custody. Trying to confirm those details

Ahh yes. Life in the Big City. Never boring

Let's Just Cut The Crap!!!

2011-10-31T09:57:00.000-04:00

In a small town outside of Toronto, a radio station sponsered free tickets to see the NFL's Buffalo Bills play in Toronto. The free tickets were buried in a pile of buffalo dung and the contestents had to dig through to find them.

On the training front, I still don't have a coach and I've gained nine pounds since Muskoka

No Record!

2011-10-30T20:19:00.000-04:00

Guinness says no record for 100-year-old marathon runner

Published On Mon Oct 24 2011Email Print (5) Rss Article

A 100-year-old man who completed the Toronto Marathon has not made it into the Guinness World Records book after all.

Guinness spokesman Craig Glenday says his organization won’t accept the evidence provided by Fauja Singh that he is actually 100.

The Turbaned Tornado, as he’s nicknamed, thought he’d become the oldest marathoner ever on Oct. 16, but Glenday tells Toronto radio station AM640 that Singh can’t provide the necessary proof of his age.

Singh, who lives in east London, has a British passport that says he was born in 1911, but holds no birth certificate.

His trainer says officials in the part of India where Singh was born didn’t issue birth certificates, and Glenday says the man’s family might not have registered his birth.

It took Singh more than eight hours to cross the finish line of the gruelling 42.195-kilometre marathon — more than six hours after Kenya’s Kenneth Mungara won the event for the fourth straight year.

The five-foot-eight, 115-pound runner was also the last competitor to complete the course.

“Don’t get me wrong. We would love to credit this guy with his achievement,” Glenday told AM640.

“It’s a no-go for the record, I’m afraid, because if you can’t prove how old you are, you can’t be the world’s oldest anything.”

Guinness would accept marriage certificates, military draft details or records of surgery, but the organization didn’t see any of those types of documents, said Glenday.

He says passports only confirm a person’s nationality, not their date of birth.

And even the telegram sent by the Queen on Singh’s 100th birthday isn’t good enough for Guinness.

“The Queen doesn’t work for us,” said Glenday.
The race was Fauja Singh’s eighth marathon — he ran his first at the age of 89.

Singh began running roughly 20 years ago after losing his wife and child.

We'll Eat You For Lunch!

2011-10-29T21:26:00.001-04:00

This was handed out to the protesters on Wall Street. To be honest, I have no idea what they are protesting about.

We are Wall Street. Its our job to make money. Whether its a commodity, stock, bond or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn't hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and every one's 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.

Well now the market crapped out, and even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joe's are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well here we are.

Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up 5 am work till 10 pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.

For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school $5k extra a summer, thank you very much. So now that we're going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Guess what: we're going to stop buying the new $80k car, we aren't going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.

The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but its really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat asses land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.

We aren't dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply...will he? and will they?

Toronto 5150 Approved

2011-10-26T06:17:00.001-04:00

Published On Tue Oct 25 2011

Council approves closure of DVP, Gardiner for July triathlon

Paul MoloneyUrban Affairs Reporter

The Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway will close for a triathlon July 22, city council has decided.

The expressways are needed to stage the 40-kilometre bike ride of the Ironman event, which also includes a 10-kilometre off-road run and 1.5-kilometre Lake Ontario swim.

About 1,000 athletes are expected to participate.

Council was told that 11,000 motorists will be affected because that’s the normal traffic level during the 10-hour period on Sunday, July 22.

Council voted 29-9 to accommodate the event.

Joey Quits

2011-10-23T20:16:00.000-04:00

Clearly I have no training to blog about.......

A Sad Story

2011-10-22T07:20:00.000-04:00

Kale Garner had everything going for him when he died running a half-marathon

The runners were streaming past, seemingly by the hundreds now, in a rampaging kaleidoscope of colours. Kelly Bowden’s focus flitted from one to another to another as she tried desperately to pick out her friend in the teal T-shirt.

She’d worn a bright florescent yellow jacket to make it easier for Kale Garner to find her, too, there among the throng of spectators near the finish line of Sunday’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. But they never connected.

Bowden was crestfallen. Her “very close” friend had been there for her when she completed her first marathon five years ago, and now she wanted to help Garner celebrate his first half-marathon finish.

Before departing, she met another acquaintance from the race, who said someone, a young-looking man, had collapsed about 300 metres from the finish line in the 21-kilometre event.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s horrible,’ ” she recalls. “Then, when I was in the car on the way home, I instantly put on (news station AM) 680 because I wanted to hear what happened. That’s when I heard it was a 27-year-old male that had passed away.

“In the back of my head, I was thinking, 27-years-old . . . No, it couldn’t be Kale. There’s no way. When I got home, I looked online and searched his bib number and I saw he didn’t finish the race. My heart sank.

“I had tried to call him on the car ride home.”

Garner, fit and with no known underlying health problems, had already been pronounced dead at St. Michael’s hospital.

If living a life can be seen as analogous to any kind of race, then Kale Garner was constantly at full sprint.

“He loved life and lived life every second, every moment,” says David (Tobe) Day, a former housemate in Bradford before Garner moved into downtown Toronto recently to pursue his goal of becoming a financial planner.

“Just a fun, big-hearted, life-of-the-party guy, able to cheer up any room with a joke,” says Mike Marshall, who shared that house with his two pals.

The type of guy who, when given the chance to sing karaoke, might belt out Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” because he thought it would be funny.

Or who, when working at an event for older women at the Cardinal Golf Club in Newmarket — where he was part of the hospitality department for more than a decade — would take off his a shirt and wear just a red tie, to get a rise out of them.

He was, according to his pals, a handsome charmer, “a lady’s man” who never lacked for female accompaniment. A guy who effortlessly excelled at any sport while still managing to be a ridiculously good student.

“He was the type of guy who would take the shrink wrap off his text book the night before an exam and still get 100 per cent,” says Jordan Mann, a friend since Grade 1. “He was just one of those naturally smart, genius people.”

Every life, of course, includes the stuff of record. Raised in Holland Landing, a political science major at Brock University followed by acing George Brown’s post-graduate financial planning program. There was the long-time employment at the Cardinal Golf Club followed by what the women there call his “big-boy” job as an assistant at Assante Wealth Management in Toronto’s west end. Not to mention all those games of hockey and golf, two of his greatest passions.

But it’s not the resume that his friends remember. Not when asked to recall the life of someone who should still be living it. To them, Garner was much more than an unidentified 27-year-old runner who died in a half-marathon.

But he was indeed a runner.

“When we’d visit him downtown, you’d go into his apartment and there’d be clothes soaked in the bathroom,” says Day. “He’d say, ‘I just ran 16 k or 12 k.’ He was really excited to do different marathons and training for them.

“He was so active. That’s why it was so mind-boggling that he collapsed like that. It really doesn’t make much sense.’

Young athletes have died suddenly and unexpectedly before. Highly-touted NHL prospect Alexei Cherepanov died during a game in Russia when he was just 18. Joe Kennedy, who had last pitched for the Blue Jays, was 28 when he died at his parents’ home. Marathoner Ryan Shay was also 28 when he died during Olympic trials. Denver Broncos running back Damien Nash was only 24 when he died after a charity basketball game.

In each of the recent marathons in Chicago and Montreal, a man in his 30s died. The percentage of deaths, however, is miniscule. There were, for example, about 22,000 runners in the various distances of the Toronto event.

Usually, those types of deaths are linked with a cardiac issue.

Dr. Andy Wielgosz, a spokesman for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, says catastrophic heart problems leading to death among young athletes is actually quite rare and that makes it difficult to generalize about causes.

As possible causes he cites undetected conditions, such as cardiomyopathy or problems with the electrical system in the heart or cardiomyopathy.

Wielgosz notes that only two or three marathoners die during races every year amid the hundreds of thousands who participate. “There’s a lower risk among runners because they are fit and lead healthier lifestyles then general public at large.”

The evening before his race, Garner excitedly exchanged text messages with Angela Shryane, his office manager at Assante, where he’d been working for six months — and had taken up running seriously with his co-workers. He and Shryane were going to run together on Sunday. This would be Shryane’s eighth half-marathon, and she would help pace him during the race.

“We were running 10 and ones, which means we’d run for 10 minutes and walk for one,” recounts a distraught Shryane.

They thought they’d come in at around two hours and 15 minutes, a respectable but not really competitive time.

“He was running very, very strong . . . I was looking forward to his excitement about crossing the finish line. I couldn’t wait for that. He was healthy, he was fit.”

Shryane recalls Garner telling her at about the 10- or 12-kilometre mark about he felt “pretty good.” And nothing hinted at a deviation from that.

“There was no, ‘I’m going to push through this.’ Or ‘I’m feeling a pain in my chest.’ Nothing like that . . . There was nothing abnormal at all about our running that day.”

As the two runners turned north on Bay St. towards the finish line at King St., more than 20 kilometres into the race, Garner was just behind Shryane.

As they neared Wellington St., Shryane spotted her boyfriend in the crowd and turned back slightly to wave to him. That’s when she saw Garner on the ground.

Shryane said a race official came to the downed runner’s aid immediately. A doctor also quickly emerged from the spectators and began performing CPR. She recalls another two race officials appearing on the scene quickly, one wearing a red medic jacket, along with two police officers. Police say they received an emergency call at 11:15 from a cellphone saying a runner had collapsed.

“They pulled me away,” she recalls. “They said, ‘There’s a doctor with him right now.’ He came from the spectators.

“I went into shock. There were wonderful people, strangers from behind the barriers and they were hugging me. I was obviously very, very distressed. I kept saying, ‘Is he okay? Is he okay? Is he okay?’ ”

A paramedic team arrived, Shryane says, “very quickly.” According to race officials, Garner had no vital signs when he was taken from the course.

“They worked on him and then they took him away,” says Shryane, who with no choice because of how the runners are funneled, moved towards the finish line.

“I finished. I had to go and get my bag. I walked across the finish line.”

It’s still not clear what caused Garner’s death. When his family and friends gathered for a funeral on Friday, they were still waiting for a coroner’s report.

“We don’t know any answers, to be honest,” says Kale’s 29-year-old sister, Jill. “Just unknown causes. It’s still under investigation. He was a healthy guy who had been training. It’s just a shock.”

Garner spent Thanksgiving weekend with his two sisters and father — his mother passed away in car accident 10 years ago — at the family cottage near Minden, Ont. There was talk about future plans and, of course, the usual raucous game of Risk, a family tradition.

“(Kale) was in such a good place in his life,” says Jill. “He was so happy. He was really, really looking forward to running this race. He was excited for the experience.

“He was always giving himself challenges and goals and then striving to achieve those goals.”

The Red Hat Society women, the ones who enjoyed Garner’s shirtless, red-tie appearance a year and a half ago, are getting ready for the Red Hats Holiday Festival in early November. The ladies, all 50-plus and many divorced, widowed or single, had made a special request that the handsome young man return for the festivities.

So organizer Liz Carlisle had something special planned. She wasn’t going to let on that Garner, always willing to help out at the club, was there. Then, at the appropriate moment, he was going to bound out of a large gift box, ready to charm as he always did.

“It wasn’t a phony charm,” Carlisle says through tears. “He was just an all-around nice guy. He reminded them of their sons or grandchildren.

“I don’t think I’ll tell anyone he was going to be coming. It would be too upsetting.”

With A Friend Like This, Who Needs Enemies?

2011-10-19T10:59:00.000-04:00

Dying man said friend doused him with gasoline, lit flame

Published On Tue Oct 18 2011Email Print Rss Article

Peter Small

Courts Bureau

A man dying of burns to 80 per cent of his body told a police officer that an acquaintance poured gas over him and lit him on fire without explanation, a court has heard.

“I didn’t want to die like this,” Robert George Brown told the constable as an ambulance rushed them to Sunnybrook hospital.

Const. Carlos Pareja testified Tuesday that the 44-year-old victim said he was sitting in the backyard of his west Toronto townhouse having drinks with Michael Hall.

“I was a little depressed. . . . My wife is dying of cancer,” Brown told the officer.

“Buddy said, ‘Do you want to die?’ ” the burn victim continued.

“I went to have a shower. He poured gasoline on me. He lit me up with his lighter.”

Pareja asked Brown if he and Hall had been fighting.

“No, not at all,” was Brown’s reply.

The questions seemed to distract Brown from his agony, the officer recalled. He was screaming in pain between answers, Pareja told prosecutor Michael Townsend.

As the officer testified, Brown’s common-law wife, Linda Hedge, sat weeping in court.

Hall, 35, has pleaded not guilty in Ontario Superior Court to second-degree murder in the May 20, 2009, burning death on Jasper Ave. near Weston Rd. and Black Creek Dr.

Pareja recalled that when he arrived at the house Brown was sitting on the front steps, staring, as if in shock.

“I couldn’t even tell what race he was. His skin was multi-coloured . . . greenish, yellowish and greyish,” Pareja said.

“His hair was burnt. He had skin hanging off of him.”

Const. Serena Marchis testified that when she arrived, she saw Brown at the front of the house. He told her, “The man who did this is still in the backyard,” she said.

Marchis went to the back, where she helped officers handcuff Hall.

She said she found a red cigarette lighter in his pocket.

His hands were very sooty and blackened, she told prosecutor Anna Trbovich.

There was a large burnt patch in the backyard, she recalled.

Hall didn’t seem intoxicated, though she could smell alcohol, she said.

“In my notes I had him slurring, but I don’t recall that.”

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Tom Dungey, Marchis agreed she wrote in her notebook that he was “very hbd” — police code for “has been drinking.”

The trial continues.

Amazing!

2011-10-17T06:16:00.001-04:00

The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon was yesterday

100 year old Fauja Singh (UK) ran it in in 8:11:05

Not to be outdone, 80 year old Ed Whitlock (Ont) ran it in 3:15:50, which is 29 minutes faster than my time for the Toronto Goodlife Marathon this spring.

I, on the other hand, gained two pounds by grazing all weekend. The only good thing was that I did a 90 minute trainer ride on Saturday and a 90 minute run Sunday morning and I still gained. Mooooooooooo

Tip Of The Day!

2011-10-12T18:54:00.002-04:00

Fall Riding

2011-10-11T10:35:00.000-04:00

This weekend's weather was totally awesome. While I was exchanging emails with a buddy, Rommel, he asked me if I wanted to join them on a bike ride this Saturday. They were meeting at 8:30 am at Angus Glen CC (where I swim) on Saturday so it was an easy 15 minute ride over. The weather was a little chilly in the morning but I knew it would be hot later in the morning. Rommel promised it would be an "easy" ride with no hammering it. The race season was over and it was a short 80 km ride straight up Warden Ave just shy of the southern tip of Lake Simcoe. I've done this route several times and am familiar with the road as Warden is flat as a pancake for the first 30 km and then goes into some small rollers. No problem. There were five other guys and Lisa. This was the biggest group ride I've ever been part of. Usually I ride solo or with one other rider. One of the riders was Roger Hospedales who writes for Ironman.com, Running Free and Multisports Canada. I've read several of his articles but didn't realize who he was until after he turned back partway through the ride. He had to get home to report on Kona.

The pace started out slow but quickly moved up. Only later did I realize we had a pretty good tail wind. I checked my heart rate and I was around 150 bps. I knew I would be able to keep this up but I didn't want to get dropped this early in the ride! Basically at every interesection, the lead rider would hold up and wait until the last rider reached. We kept fairly tight together. Lisa was keeping up pretty good. We reached the turn around point and pulled off to the side to rest and refuel. I had three gels but was feeling tired. This was only the third ride since Muskoka. Rommel mentioned that several guys knew Coach and we chatted about him for a couple of minutes. The conversation confirms what I've been thinking about him the last two months.

We started to head back home and directly into a headwind. This was going to be trouble! Within a couple of minutes, the line spread out pretty quick and I was struggling to keep up. When we met up at the next interesection, I told the other guys not to wait up as I would stay back with Lisa. Needless to say, it was a long ride back home. By the time we got back to Angus Glen, the other guys had taken off, not that I expected them to wait. I checked my power tap and saw that I burned about 2,300 calories but only had about 600 for breakfast and 300 in gels during the ride. Talk about running out of gas. Rommel suggested we ride with them next spring and summer as many of them are doing Ironman. Not a bad idea as riding with faster people will make me faster and my bike needs work. Lots of it.

Sunday I ran for about 90 minutes and it was a disaster. I think I was still tired from Saturday's ride. I was using a wooden roller for the bottom of my foot/heel and it killed. I'm still mulling over running the Angus Glen Half marathon next month.

Holiday Monday (Thanksgiving) was another awesome day but I had a meeting at 9:00 am. It ran a longer than I thought it would. I wanted to get another ride in so I bugged my brother Don to go riding. He made every excuse in the book but I basically told him that the riding season was almost over and there aren't going to be too many days where its sunny and 25 degrees. He agreed and so I rode down to his place in Ajax and then we tooled around south Ajax for about 45 minutes. Tammy wasn't too happy about me working on Thanksgiving and then go riding so I agreed we'd all go to Whittamores Farm after she picked me up at Don's house. It was total chaos but expected for a beautiful holiday Monday.

Vanessa with a friend

I was tired from the ride but didn't dare complain to Tammy. It was another beautiful day but sadly days like these are coming to an end.

Toronto 5150

2011-10-07T06:12:00.000-04:00

It looks like there is a proposal for the WTC to host a 5150 race in Toronto ala Ironman New York City. The plan would be to swim would be in Lake Ontario (yuck, I don't know about that), the bike would be on the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway. This is laughable as they are two of three major highways in Toronto and they are going to shut them down for 1,000-2,000 athletes? And the run somewhere in the Beaches. Oddly enough, Toronto city council denied their request.

Last year, soon to be mayor Rob Ford criticized shutting down major streets in Toronto for the Toronto Marathon and the Scotiabank Marathon, although he did have a point as to why there were two major marathons that were only three weeks apart. Rob Ford said if he were mayor, the marathons would be delegated to the parks. Yes that's how the New York and Chicago marathons have their courses set up. Running in circles in a park. All 40,000 runners.

Speaking of which, it seems that there is a new war breaking out on running races in Toronto. The Toronto marathon moved from the fall to the spring this year. The organizers of the Scotiabank Marathon want to set up a new 10 km race in the spring however the Sporting Life 10 km race which has been around for years and attracts over 10,000 runners is also in the spring. So, they want three races all within one month, running down Yonge Street (a major, major road in Toronto). That should make Mayor Ford very happy (he's quite overweight).

Going back to the WTC and they're new 5150 series, it seems that they have replaced the Muksoka Long Course (2 km swim, 55 km bike and 13 km run) as the new Muskoka 5150 is on the same weekend as the Long Course is usually scheduled.

On the training front, not much. This week I started swimming with the Masters swim club and targeting the Angus Glen Half Marathon in November. I'm eating like a pig and my weight shot up to 178 pounds but drifting back down.

Oink oink or should I say gobble, gobble

Summer Is Over!

2011-10-01T19:57:00.001-04:00

As September comes to an end, so does summer. I ran this morning for 93 minutes and the weather was pretty crappy. The temperature had dropped to 7 degrees and it was windy (44 km\hr). I wore long sleeve shirt and pants and used running gloves. I was just thankful I didn't have to ride in this crap and tomorrow the temperature drops down to 4 degrees. Doh!

Training has dropped off as I'm only running three times a week. I'm only riding once a week (outside) but the weather is getting much colder. I haven't swam since Muskoka 70.3 but did think about going to Stoufville to swim on Friday morning. Instead I just surfed the net in the morning. I'm not sure if Masters has started up but I'm debating on joining them now or swim at Centennial on my own for a couple of months (its much cheaper).

I'm targeting the Angus Glen Half Marathon in early November but still worried about my stress fracture in my shin. So far, so good. I'm not really shooting for time as I don't want to do any hill training or intervals. This race is more about something to train for as I can't sit around and do nothing.

Nothing going on with the coaching front. I'll start interviewing a couple of coaches next month. The thought of building my own training plan has crossed my mind.

Other than that, there is nothing going on, other than drinking lots of beer and gaining weight. Oink oink

Oh yea, I played ice hockey this afternoon for the first time since March. I had my ass handed to me as I was badly out of shape (might have had something to do with running 17 km this morning). I'll start playing regularly this Tuesday until Christmas and depending on what my new coach says, that could be the end of winter hockey. This IM training is getting to be a real PITA

Montreal Marathon - What's Wrong With This Picture?

2011-09-30T15:27:00.002-04:00

Yoga Mat For Sale

2011-09-30T09:26:00.001-04:00

Unashamely stolen from Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Yoga mat for sale. Used once at lunch hour class in December 2009. Usage timeline as follows:

11:45a

Register for hot yoga class. Infinite wisdom tells me to commit to 5 class package and purchase a yoga mat. I pay $89.74. Money well spent, I smugly confirm to myself.

11:55a

Open door to yoga room. A gush of hot dry air rushes through and past me. It smells of breath, sweat and hot. Take spot on floor in back of room next to cute blonde. We will date.

11:57a

I feel the need to be as near to naked as possible. This is a problem because of the hot blonde to my left and our pending courtship. She will not be pleased to learn that I need to lose 30 pounds before I propose to her.
11:58a

The shirt and sweats have to come off. I throw caution to the wind and decide to rely on my wit and conditioning to overcome any weight issues my fiancée may take issue with. This will take a lot of wit and conditioning.
11:59a

Begin small talk with my bride to be. She pretends to ignore me but I know how she can be. I allow her to concentrate and stare straight ahead and continue to pretend that I don't exist. As we finish sharing our special moment, I am suddenly aware of a sweat moustache that has formed below my nose. This must be from the all the whispering between us.
12:00p

Instructor enters the room and ascends her special podium at the front of the room. She is a slight, agitated Chinese woman. She introduces me to the class and everyone turns around to greet me just as I decide to aggressively adjust my penis and testes packed in my Under Armor. My bride is notably unfazed.
12:02p

Since I do have experience with Hot Yoga (4 sessions just 5 short years ago) I fully consider that I may be so outstanding and skilled that my instructor may call me out and ask me to guide the class. My wife will look on with a sparkle in her eye. We will make love after class.

12:10p

It is now up to 95 degrees in the room. We have been practicing deep breathing exercises for the last 8 minutes. This would not be a problem if we were all breathing actual, you know, oxygen. Instead, we are breathing each other's body odor, expelled carbon dioxide and other unmentionables. (Don't worry, I'll mention them later.)

12:26p

It is now 100 degrees and I take notice of the humidity, which is hovering at about 90%. I feel the familiar adorning stare of my bride and decide to look back at her. She appears to be nauseated. I then realize that I forgot to brush my teeth prior to attending this class. We bond.

12:33p

It is now 110 degrees and 95% humidity. I am now balancing on one leg with the other leg crossed over the other. My arms are intertwined and I am squatting. The last time I was in this position was 44 years ago in the womb, but I'm in this for the long haul. My wife looks slightly weathered dripping sweat and her eyeliner is streaming down her face. Well, "for better or worse" is what we committed to so we press on.

12:40p

The overweight Hispanic man two spots over has sweat running down his legs. At least I think its sweat. He is holding every position and has not had a sip of water since we walked in. He is making me look bad and I hate him.

12:44p

I consider that if anyone in this room farted that we would all certainly perish.

12:52p

It is now 140 degrees and 100% humidity. I am covered from head to toe in sweat. There is not a square millimeter on my body that is not slippery and sweaty. I am so slimy that I feel like a sea lion or a maybe sea eel. Not even a bear trap could hold me. The sweat is stinging my eyeballs and I can no longer see.
12:55p

This room stinks of asparagus, cloves, tuna and tacos. There is no food in the room. I realize that this is an amalgamation of the body odors of 30 people in a 140 degree room for the last 55 minutes. Seriously, enough with the asparagus, ok?

1:01p

140 degrees and 130% humidity. Look, bitch, I need my space here so don't get all pissy with me if I accidentally sprayed you with sweat as I flipped over. Seriously, is that where this relationship is going? Get over yourself. We need counseling and she needs to be medicated. Stat!
1:09p

150 degrees and cloudy. And hot. I can no longer move my limbs on my own. I have given up on attempting any of the commands this Chinese chick is yelling out at us. I will lay sedentary until the aid unit arrives. I will buy this building and then have it destroyed. I lose consciousness.

1:15p

I have a headache and my wife is being a selfish bitch. I can't really breathe. All I can think about is holding a cup worth of hot sand in my mouth. I cannot remember what an ice cube is and cannot remember what snow looks like. I consider that my only escape might be a crab walk across 15 bodies and then out of the room. I am paralyzed, and may never walk again so the whole crab walk thing is pretty much out.

1:17p

I cannot move at all and cannot reach my water. Is breathing voluntary or involuntary? If it's voluntary, I am screwed. I stopped participating in the class 20 minutes ago. Hey, lady! I paid for this frickin class, ok?! You work for me! Stop yelling at everyone and just tell us a story or something. It's like juice and cracker time, ok?

1:20p

It is now 165 degrees and moisture is dripping from the ceiling. The towel that I am laying on is no longer providing any wicking or drying properties. It is actually placing additional sweat on me as I touch it. My towel reeks. I cannot identify the smell but no way can it be from me. Did someone spray some stank on my towel or something?

1:30p

Torture session is over. I wish hateful things upon the instructor. She graciously allows us to stay and 'cool down' in the room. It is 175 degrees. Who cools down in 175 degrees? A Komodo Dragon? My wife has left the room. Probably to throw up.

1:34p

My opportunity to escape has arrived. I roll over to my stomach and press up to my knees. It is warmer as I rise up from ground level - probably by 15 degrees. So let's conservatively say it's 190. I muster my final energy and slowly rise. One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. Towards the door. Towards the door.

1:37p

The temperature in the lobby is 72 degrees. Both nipples stiffen to diamond strength and my penis begins to retract into my abdomen from the 100 degree temp swing. I can once again breathe though so I am pleased. I spot my future ex wife in the lobby. We had such a good thing going but I know that no measure of counseling will be able to unravel the day's turmoil and mental scaring.

1:47p

Arrive at Emerald City Smoothie and proceed to order a 32 oz beverage. 402 calories, 0 fat and 14 grams of protein -- effectively negating any caloric burn or benefit from the last 90 minutes. I finish it in 3 minutes and spend the next 2 hours writing this memoir.

3:47p

Create Craigslist ad while burning final 2 grams of protein from Smoothie and before the "shakes" consume my body.

4:29p

Note to self - check car for missing wet yoga towel in am.

I'm Pretty Sure Alcohol Was Involved!

2011-09-29T16:28:00.000-04:00

Yikes!

2011-09-20T12:04:00.000-04:00

After the floods in Australia, look what comes crawling out.........

Hello? Can You Pick Me Up?

2011-09-18T20:33:00.000-04:00

A couple of years ago as when I started into triathlons, I rode inside on the trainer for several months during the cold winter until finally it was warm enough to ride outside. I had not ridden my bike on the road for many years and never with the clip in shoes. My youngest brother Paul, a three time Ironman finisher, volunteer to come up to my house one early spring morning and join me for my first outdoor ride. We rode for about 30 km but took about 90 minutes for a painful 20 km\hr average speed. It was good as Paul was able to give me little pointers, like clip out before getting to a stop light and things like that.

Fast forward two and half years later, today I went riding with my older brother Don. I rode down to his place in Ajax to meet up with him as ironically he borrowed Paul's wife bike and has just started to getting into riding. He runs, but like me, gets hurt a lot so I been bugging him to start riding in order to minimize the pounding of running on his body. Last month he borrowed Sarah's bike (with $1,600 Mavric rims) and started tooling around. I told him I'd ride down to his house (about 30 km away) and ride with him and Tammy would come down with the kids and pick me up later.

The ride to Don's house was pretty uneventful other than it was down hill almost all the way but into a pretty stiff head wind. My shoulder/back was bugging me when I was in aero position. I arrived at Don's house just after one hour and we headed out but he was complaining that the tires were low on air so we stopped and I used one of my CO2 cartilages to fill up the front tire but his back was a little low as well. I warned him that if you ride with low air pressure in the tires you run the risk of getting a flat. Tammy was coming down with my air pump and he could fill them up after the ride. We headed out south to Lake Ontario and then eastward along a walking path. We couldn't go fast as there were other people on bikes and foot so eventually we got off and went along Lakeshore Road. I started getting tired and mentioned we should turn around and head back as Tammy would be at his house with the kids and probably didn't want to hang around for a long time. We headed north and then west along Bailey. Don was in front as we headed down a small hill with me charging fast when all of a sudden he jammed on the brakes and I almost ran him over. He got a flat tire! Unbelievable and we were so close to his house. I called his house and Tammy had just arrived so she came over and picked us up.

Later we went to a local bike store and picked up some new inner tubes and I showed him how to change a flat tire. What goes around, comes around.

Oh yea. I swapped emails with coach regarding why he didn't bother calling me before Muskoka 70.3 and looks like I'll be looking for a new coach for Ironman Mont Tremblant

Muskoka 70.3 Race Report

2011-09-15T11:23:00.001-04:00

By returning to Muskoka 70.3, I felt I could do better than last year's result after suffering my chain falling off and then a flat tire. I've always thought my bike was the weakest of all three sports.

Muskoka 70.3 is a tough course where everything ends up hill. The swim has a 300 meter run uphill to T1, the bike is rolling uphill in the last 10 km and the run at the 20.5 km mark is the bottom of a hill. Everything ends in a hill.

We headed up to Deehurst Resort Saturday morning but like a couple of weeks ago when we went up to Orillia, we jumped on Highway 400 only to come to a screeching halt. Traffic was backed up for miles and we turned on the radio only to find out there was a bad traffic accident at 5 am (like 5 hours ago) and the highway was a mess (I really need to get my traffic GPS fixed). We zigged zagged for miles going east, then north, then west to try and get back to the highway only to find traffic was still crawling along. Finally we arrived in Barrie two and half hours later (it should have only taken one hour), we stopped off at Tim Hortons for a pee break and coffee. Traffic cleared up once we got past Barrie and what should have taken about two hours to get to the resort, it took about four hours.

The race is held at the resort so it's a no brainer to stay they especially since we have three young kids and Tammy can take them back to the room or go back to the room while I flounder around on the course for six hours. Last year, the resort had a minimum three night stay but this year it was only two nights so that saved several hundreds of dollars. After checking in, we headed to our room which was on the third floor and had no elevators. There is nothing like walking up three flights of stairs after a race carrying your race gear and bike!

Pre-Race
Seeing all the set up got me going and I was looking forward to this race as it is the first and last triathlon of the year. The weather was very nice but my friend Peter A had told me about his team meeting with NRG at 3 pm and I wanted to sit on it. The meeting was more for first timers and since I did the course last year, I had a pretty good idea what to expect but if I could take away one thing, then it would have been worth it. I've known about NRG for several years as Scobie was coached by Nigel Gray who is a sub 9 hour Ironman finisher and his sister Fiona who is a 10 hour Ironman finisher. In fact, my two younger brothers used to train with Fiona as well as Paul & Cathy S train with NRG. Also Paul D is with Nigel. The briefing was casual and there were three coaches with about 20 athletes. Fiona is one of the coaches who knows my two younger brothers from their Ironman days. The most important thing I did learn was part of the roads at the bottom of a hill was broken up and if you had water bottle cages at the back you might lose your bottles. This is very important as I do have the cages and I usually keep my nutrition in those bottles. It would be a disaster to lose any water bottles during the race but especially those one. I planned to switch those and keep the water in the back so if I did lose them, then not as big as a deal. I also got elastic bands to hold them down as well. After the meeting, we wandered over the to the expo where I ran into Fiona. I introduced myself as originally she thought I was working with one of the other coaches. I explained I was a free loafer but was interesting in talking to her as I knew lots of people that trained with her. She was super friendly (aren't they all when they're talking to a prospect?) and I told her I would contact her in a couple of weeks. Later I introduced myself to her husband who also knew my brothers. Branden works in the same industry and we chatted about how things were going as well as training. I looked at my watch and realized transition was closing and ran out to get my bike set up but found out later they delayed the closure due to the accident on the highway which caused several athletes to be late.

Race Morning
I woke up early as usual and watched a little TV. We rented a suite and I slept on the pull out coach (Oooh my back!) while everyone else slept in the nice comfty beds but at least I can move around without waking everyone up. I was in the seventh and last wave so with six minutes apart, I wasn't going to get swam over by another wave. Lisa was in wave three so she had a 24 minute head start. I figure I'd catch up with her somewhere near the end of the bike or even on the beginning of the run. I went down to transition for the final set up and wondered around for a couple of minutes. There were a lot of people from the Ajax Pickering Tri Club so I asked one guy if Mindy was around. Mindy is a friend of my brother Don knows her from the Running Free store in Pickering. I did the Scotia Half Marathon several years ago with her but she didn't remember me. Back then I could beat her but she's gone hard core into triathlons and can smoke me (also she weighs about 100 pounds less than me and is 20 years younger). I headed over the number marking and then headed back to the room. When I got there, I realized I told them the wrong number and ran back down to get remarked. Doh! First time I've done that.

The Swim 37:21 - 1:53\100m
Seeing that I was in the last wave, I stood around chatting to a couple of people I knew. Peter A was in the wave ahead of me and I ran into blog follower Paul D. We chatted for a bit and then headed for a short warm up swim. The water was warmer than last year but I did see one woman with no wetsuit. She's more of a man than I am because there was no way I'd swim without a wetsuit. I double checked when I was packing the car to make sure I brought it. If I had forgotten it I would have bought a new one at the expo. The race started and we were off.

Me and Peter A. Do I look fat?

Me in the middle with no goggles

The start had less crashing than last year but I had a hard time getting my groove. I finally caught on to a pair of feet and was doing ok but they were going a little too fast and time I hit the last buoy about 400 meters back to shore, I was dying. I felt as I was all over the place and in fact strayed too far to the left. The water was very shallow and I actuallly stood up and walked about 10 feet as I was hitting the bottom. As I stumbled out of the water, I looked at my watch and I was 37 minutes which was the same as last year. The wet suit strippers were great and had me out of mine in a flash. Now the hard part was the long 300 meters run uphill after swimming. One of the points in the NRG meeting was not to sprint up the hill which is what I did last year. It killed me and I staggered through T1. This year I jogged up the hill and took my time. Too much time in fact as T1 this year was a brutal 6 minutes.

The Bike 3:23 - 27.8 km\hr
The bike course is a tough 94 km leaving the resort. I hoped to come in around 3:15 as last year I had a flat tire. The first 10 km out is a series of rollers but it gets flatter. I've been having trouble with the Power Tap as it was showing me riding at an average of 170 watts but recently coach changed the batteries and my readings shot up by 25% so I tried to ride conseratitvely but did not know what watts to ride at. The course becomes flatter as we head towards the small town of Dorset where they had a water station and lots of fans. I carried my three bottles and one throwaway water bottle so I slowed down a grabbed a new bottle, some gel and tried to grab a bottle of Ironman Perform but it bounced right out of my hand. I've never tried it nor even seen it sold anywhere. We headed to the next town of Baysville 27 km away. This part the course was on Highway 117 which was nice and smooth but into a stiff headwind. Baysville is roughly two thirds of the way and the roads begin to get a little hillier until the 80 km mark where it starts getting tough. I was playing cat-and-mouse with one girl who kept passing me on the hills as I spun up the hills but would blow by her on the downhills and flats. Eventually she dumped my ass as the course got hillier. At the 80 km mark there was a steep hill and I wanted to use my momentum to carry me up the other side so in aero position I flew down the hill hitting 72 km\hr but at the bottom I hit a small bump and almost fell off my bike. At that speed a crash would have been ugly. As we head back into Deerhurst, we encounter the same hills that we hit coming out and I really begin to tire. I thought my nutrition would be ok as I had two bottles of Hammer Perpetuem for 500 calories but actually I thought they were 500 calories EACH bottle so I knew I had to take in more gels. I figured I had about 10 gels on the bike and was getting sick of them for a total of 1,500 calories plus lots of salt pills. I could feel my legs beginning to cramp up and took more pills each time. Despite all that, I was bagged by the time I reached transition and headed out to the run.

T2 - 1:39
No pee this time. Now is that a good thing or bad thing given how hot it was? I drank almost five bottles of liquid and took in about 20 salt pills and no pee.

The Run - 2:05
In my transition bag I had a throw away bottle of water that I mixed Amino Vital with two salt pills. When I come off the bike, I'm aways thirsty and like to run with my water belt. For this race, I decided to ditch my water belt and run with a throw away water bottle as there were aid stations every two kilometer. That turned out to be a big mistake as I was constantly thirsty and by the 15 km mark I was walking through the aid stations gulping down the water.

I tried to start off the run with a slower pace that would allow for a negative split but every time I looked at my pace watch, I was running around 5:00 to 5:30 min\km pace. Coming out of the resort, the roads are hilly and I struggled in the first 4 km until we hit the highway where the roads are flat. I kept looking for Lisa as I didn't see her on the bike so I catch her on the first part of the run but I never saw her. Just before the turn around I saw John Proc but he was walking???? I yelled at him to keep going and he said something about his stomach. Later on I found out that he was puking on the bike and run. At least he looked good in his IMLP kit! Others I saw on the run were Mindy F (friend of my brother Don and Barb), Doug Stoddard (owner of SEMI and eLoad). Both were way ahead of me and moving fast. I was looking to run down John Proc but never saw him again so he must have ran hard. I finally saw Lisa as I was at the 13 km mark and she was around the 8 km mark. I must have passed her and not noticed. Later I found out that I passed her on the bike as I flew down the big hill at the 80 km.

Up until the 14.5 km mark the course on the road but then cuts into the a rolling hilly trail. Last year I died at the 15 km mark and had to walk the hills and aid stations. This year it was pretty much the same but I did walk less! I was constantly thirsty and drinking heavily at every water stations which were manned by kids. They took great joy in splashing us with water. They did a great job! I think I only walked once on the staright away and that was only for about 30 seconds. I knew if I started walking more, my time would have been toast. I kept checking my watch and I knew it was going to be very close to last year's time. As I hit the last aid station, I knew I wasn't going to make it but I kept going. The 20.5 km mark was at the bottom of the last hill and there were several people walking up it. I swore to myself there was no way I was walking up that hill so I kept going. Finally I reached the top and started to pickup my pace. I kept looking at my watch but I knew I wasn't going to make it. I checked my pace and I was running at 4:30 min\km and by the time I crossed the finish line I was running a 3:35 min\km. Oh well, at least I finished strong.

Total time - 6:13:46
One minute slower than last year's time - boo

Summary
I'm pretty disappointed about my time especially the bike. I thought having a tri-bike with a Power Tap would have given me a better bike split but that wasn't the case. I think my biggest disappointment is with my coach. He never called me before the race and I didn't return his call or email after the race. I basically had to make up my own game plan and nutrition. Sitting in on the NRG meeting was very helpful and I would like to talk to Fiona about Ironman Mont - Tremblant but I think I'll talk to her after I talk to Scobie.

Right now, I'm unhappy with my performance and was looking around for another race. The last triathlon race is this Sunday in London but its completly sold out. Maybe I'll run either the Ajax Half Marathon this month or the Scotiabank Half Marathon next month. Although I don't have any problems with my shin, I'm wondering if running another half marathon might be pushing it?

Oh yea, I finally got to try that Ironman Perform after I crossed the finsih line and it was quite disgusting. I couldn't even drink half the bottle.

Mihaela & Doru S, John P and me

Next Up, Muskoka 70.3

2011-09-09T17:52:00.000-04:00

To be honest, I thought my race season was over after I got the stress fracture in my shin from the Toronto Marathon. While, I'm glad to be entering my first and only triathlon of 2011, I must admit, I am not pumped up for it. I'm sort of going in with the attitude "well, its only a Half Ironman and I did it last year. No big deal" Not a good attitude.

My Goals

Swim - 1.9 km (Last year's time: 37.43 - 1:54 min/100 m)
I'd be very happy to match last year's swim time

T1 (Last year's time: 5:12) Ok although it is a 400 meter run from the swim exit up a hill to T1, as one of my friends asked me "what, did you stop and do your hair?" I have to do better

Bike - 94 km (Last year's time: 3:23 - 27.7 km/hr )
Last year my chain popped off and then I got a flat tire. My speed has not increased at all so if I can do 3:10 on the bike, that will be ok

T2 (Last year's time: 2:59)
Had to take the longest leak of my life. I tried going on the bike but nada

Run ( Last year's time: 2:03 - 5:50 min/km)
This is the toughest half marathon I've ever run (about 8 half marathons) because of rolling hills in the last six kilometers. My run fitness is nowhere near what it was in the spring. My run times are all over the map and I can't figure out what pace I'll be able to hold.

Goal: Under 6 hours

I'm raising money for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. Please sponsor me if you can

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=3130366&Lang=en-CA

Note to our US friends: This is a Canadian charity so you will not be able to use the tax deduction but thanks anyways

BAMF!!

2011-09-06T11:37:00.000-04:00

My buddy was racing IMC a couple of weeks ago when he got sideswiped by a SUV on the bike course. He went down hard but got up to finish in 11:48. Not bad for his first IM! BAMF!!

Why You Should Zip Up Your Riding Shirt

2011-09-04T07:20:00.001-04:00

So the taper down for Muskoka 70.3 has begun, although it isn't much of a taper as its only one week. Running wise, my shin is ok but does get a little sore after each run but my run times down right suck. I'm probably about one minute per kilometer slower than when I was running in April this year but at least I'm running. I was hopping to smash last year's time of 6:12 (flat tire) but my biking has not improved all that much and I'm going to be hard pressed to beat last year's run time of 2:03. I've tried to incorporate some hill training in my runs, but it just aggravates my shin.

At this time of year, it is getting lighter out later and later. I headed out while it was still dark as we had plans go visit my cousin and hang out at the beach. Last week, while riding with Peter A, we found a nice hill to do some hill repeats. Its straight up Mccowan Road past Aurora Road and in the same area of where the twin hills are except they are off Kennedy Road. One thing that's better than riding the twin hills on Kennedy, is that Mccowan becomes a dead end road so there is no traffic. With Kennedy road, you get the odd car or dump truck that comes racing over the hills. I did the two hill repeats before heading back home. My legs were burning after the second repeat and I'm sure I'll be seeing those hills many times next summer before IMMT. I was zipping down Mccowan coming down a long but not steep hill doing about 50 km\hr when I saw this black thing flying in front of me. Before I had a chance to brush it away, it flew into my shirt and I tried to get it out. It stung me once as I fished around for it. I jammed on the brakes and veered to the left where there was a driveway. I didn't even look behind me as a car just missed me as I turned across the road. I stopped and tried to get the wasp out and it stung me again on my side. I ripped off my helmet and shirt looking for the little bugger but couldn't find it. I guess it could have been worse. One my brothers got stung in the mouth during IMLP.

Coming off the ride, was a 45 minute run. This is the longest brick I've done and it was very humid. The temperature was only 23 degrees but with the humidity it felt like 33 degrees. If I'm going to stand a chance of beating last year's run time of 2:03, I figure the only way I can do it is to run a negative split. I have to hold back on the first half and hammer through those rolling hills on the second half. I took off running and kept checking my pace. I started out at 5:45 min\km (perfect) and then next time I looked, I was running at 5:00 min\km and then 4:50 pace. Ok, this is not how a negative split works. I had lots of trouble running at a slower pace but oddly during my last long run, I had to run faster to maintain my pace. The run was tough with the heat as I ran along Rammerville which has some rolling hills (not much but better than a flat road) and even did one hill repeat. I was bagged after the run and completely soaking wet. I don't think I could have gotten any wetter if I went swimming.

During the last couple of long rides, my Power Tap has conked out during the rides. Last week, it died about 12 minutes into the ride and a couple of weeks ago, it died about 75 minutes into the ride but the weird thing is that for my indoor trainer rides, its worked perfectly. How could it work inside but not outside as its a wired unit so there is no interference. I didn't want to take any chances for Muskoka so I took it up to coach and he replaced the batteries in the unit head as well as the hub. For this ride, it worked perfectly and I didn't have any problems. In fact, my power numbers surged. I normally ride around 175 watts (yes I know this is pathetic) but today's ride I averaged 225 watts. I asked coach and he said it was a) I had a great ride - ummm maybe b) I'm getting stronger - no c) weak batteries in the hub - yea this is probably it. We'll find out for sure over the next couple of rides.

So as we head into the last week of my first and last triathlon of the season, I don't feel as prepared as I did last year. Last year's swim was a PB and I don't know if I can match it. I thought I would be stronger on the bike this year but my numbers at the Peterbough Half Iron Aqua\Bike don't show it and I'm slower and weaker on the run because of all the time I lost from the stress fracture in my shin. I guess I should be happy that I'm able to race at all this year and look at this race as a preview for Ironman Mont-Tremblant. Oh speaking of preview races, how's this for the ultimate warm up race for IMMT? Pretty clever

WTC Announces Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant

New event in Quebec slated for June 24, 2012

Published Thursday, August 25, 2011

Following the excitement over the inaugural Ironman Mont-Tremblant next August, World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) announces that it will also offer an Ironman 70.3 event in Mont-Tremblant on June 24, 2012. This will be WTC's first-ever 70.3 event in the province of Quebec.

“We anticipated that registration would fill up quickly but the interest and response from athletes has been beyond our expectations for the inaugural Ironman Mont-Tremblant,” said Mitch Fraser, WTC’s Director of Event Development in Canada. “We are delighted to be able to enhance our calendar by offering athletes the Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant race. Participants registered for the full Ironman in August will have the chance to experience the course in June.” Online registration for Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant will open on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011, at 12 p.m. EDT at www.ironmanmonttremblant.com.
A challenging course
Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant athletes will begin the 1.2-mile swim at the Beach and Tennis Club close to Tremblant’s pedestrian village. The one-loop course will bring them back to the Beach Park, 300 meters from the transition zone, located close to the Quintessence Hotel.
The 56-mile bike course winds mainly through forest and mountains, with the Montée Ryan being the most consistent part of the challenge. At Highway 117 the elevation goes from 200 meters to 310 meters with a six percent slope. On the return route, via Montée Ryan and the Chemin des Voyageurs that crosses Mont Tremblant Resort, the athletes head into the municipality of Lac Supérieur.
The 13.1-mile run leads athletes through the Tremblant pedestrian village, toward Club Intrawest and then to the linear park bike path. The athletes will run through the Old Village sector of Mont-Tremblant before launching on to the final portion on Chemin du Lac Mercier. After having run along Le P’tit Train du Nord, a former railway bed that has been made into a linear park – the longest of its kind in Canada - the athletes will complete the course by again running along the Chemin du Village to end at Mont Tremblant Resort.

Originally from: http://ironman.com/new-event-in-quebec-slated-for-june-24-2012#ixzz1Wytz7Ka6

Now That's Gotta Hurt!

2011-08-30T04:55:00.001-04:00

In this image provided by the University Medical Center in Tucson, a CT scan shows a pair of pruning shears embedded in the head of an 86-year-old Green Valley, Ariz., man before it was removed by Medical Center surgeons in Tucson on July 30, 2011. Leroy Luetscher was accidentally impaled through his eye socket after falling on the shears while working in his yard, the handle penetrating his eye socket and reaching down into his neck. He is expected to make a full recovery. (AP Photo/University Medical Center, Tucson, Arizona)

Today's workout is 5:00 am 10 km run followed by a 2.5 hour drive (one way) for a round of golf. Yup summer is coming to an end.

Sign In Front Of A Pub - Only In Australia

2011-08-26T14:32:00.000-04:00

Today was a 90 minute long run for 15 km @ 6 min\km pace. I was worried about my shins and knee but things went ok. My shin is slightly sore but managable and my knee was a little sore but some ice after the run took care of it. We should be good to go.......famous last words!

Love Thy Trainer...Not

2011-08-25T20:52:00.000-04:00

I switched Thursday's run with Friday's ride as my runs are getting longer (90 minutes tomorrow) and I can't make it to 6:00 am swimming unless I start running at 4:15 am, which is just....stupid. Today's 45 minute trainer ride was nothing short of pathetic. I knew going in, it was going to be a tough ride after yesterday's 75 minute ride which went better than I thought it would. I started watching the Bourne Identity movies with Matt Damon. Ya gotta love all that action. It makes the trainer ride a little bit easier. Within the first 15 minutes I was struggling to keep going and around the 25 minute mark, I grounded to a halt. A short 20 second rest and getting to the good action scenes helped me make it through the sessions but I dreaded to look at the power tap numbers.

I hopped into the car and headed to the pool. Lisa went to Mount Tremblant for the weekend to check out the course so I decided to just bang out 2,000 meters. I was counting every 50 meters and stopped when I reached the 20th 50 meters. I looked at the clock but only 18 minutes had passed and the lifeguards who switch every 30 minutes, had not changed. It finally dawned on me that 50 meters times 20 laps is only 1,000 meters so I started to swimming again. The trainer ride had taken a lot of steam out of me but I finished around 39 minutes. I was satisfied with that time and headed home to get ready for a round of golf at 9:45 am. Yes, it was a triathlon of a different sort. Bike, Swim and Golf. But golf was a disaster because I was tired and by the fourth hole I really began to fall apart however after the ninth hole (and loading up with sandwiches and beers) my game picked up and I finished half decent. I only get out 5-6 times a year so my game is pretty much what I expect.

On the injury front, my right knee has begun to ache ever since I started riding inside and my right shin is a little sore. The same spot where I had the stress fracture. I guess last week's long run was a bit too much as I threw in a couple of hill repeats. Scobie warned me about too many people that come back too hard which leads to re-injuries. This could be trouble as I just registered for Muskoka 70.3 on September 11th and we can not cancel our accommodations. This triathlon season hasn't gone very well. We'll see how tomorrow's run goes.

Orillia Race Report - KOS & Duathlon

2011-08-23T10:49:00.000-04:00

Kids Of Steel - Saturday

On Saturday we headed up to Orillia (90 minutes north of Toronto) for the Kids Of Steel race. We thought about going up last year but couldn't get organized as I was racing the following day. This year, Tammy was racing the Du so we decided to go up and stay overnight. It sounded like a lot of fun as I knew several families going up. Peter A (childhood friend), Paul and Cathy S (fellow master swimmers), and Doru. All of us have kids and all were racing. Heading up to Orillia was a mess as there was a traffic accident and we were stuck in traffic for a good hour. For once we left early enough to make it to Orillia before registration closed. It was fun walking the kids through the process, getting them set up in transition and explaining what they were going to do. We were a little worried about not being able to help the kids out during transition but there were tons of volunteers to help them out. The race was delayed for about an hour because of the thunder and lightening. Try telling kids to wait for an hour with nothing to do in the pouring rain but finally lightening ended and they were ready to go!

Pre race jitters

Jake was the first one to start. He was in the 4-5 age category and the race was 25 meter swim (well water running actually as it was shallow), a 500 meter bike ride and a 100 meter run. It was pretty chaotic as parents were yelling and screaming at their kids and then started running along the beach to follow them (I was guilty as well).

I have to pee!

Dad, he said I need a timing chip. What's a timing chip?

Get outta of my way!

The hardest part was Vanessa who was in the second wave right behind Jake so while I was following Jake, Tammy was watching Vanessa and then all hell broke loose. Jake was on the bike course, Vanessa was coming in to T1 . Tammy followed Vanessa out on the bike while Jake had come in to T2 and started to run and I had to take Rebecca to her swim start. By the time Rebeeca was coming in to T1, Vanessa was still on the bike and Jake had finished his run but neither Tammy and I were there at the finish. I yelled at Tammy go to the finish line and meet Jake. All this time, other parents were running around and yelling at their kids. For an observer, it must have looked war had just broken out with everyone yelling and running all over the place.

Although Rebecca was not yet 8 years old, she had to race in the 8-9 age group as its based on the year you are born (DOH!! I forgot about that). She was one of the smallest kids and not the strongest swimmers. Fortunately, she was allowed to use a swim noodle as she had to swim 100 meters (the water was too deep to walk), ride 5 km (I don't think she's ridden more than 500 meters) and then run one km (nope, never done that before). By the time she finished the swim, the rain was pouring down and she had to ride but she finished with a smile (which is more than I can say I've ever done)

Run Rebecca Run!!

Finish my first triathlon!!

Vanessa heading into T1

Help with transition

Tammy giving Vanessa directions

All in all, it was an excellent day for the kids to finish their first triathlon. It was a long and exciting day for everyone and I think its a great way to get the kids active. I looked around and there must have been over 100 kids which is pretty awesome given the crappy weather.

The Duathlon - Sunday

This was Tammy's longest race and it was my turn to watch the kids for over 2.5 hours. No problem because Paul and Cathy's three kids would be there and they usually play great together. The skies were overcast but according to the weather channel, the rain should hold off until noon so that means at some point during the race, we were going to get wet.

Mommy, don't leave me with daddy!

Finishing the first run

Who's kids are these?

A long wait

Tammy did the first run two kilometers in good time and headed out onto to the bike. This was the longest bike she's ever done (including training). We rode together on Friday (while the kids were in day camp) and I told her about gearing down when riding up hills (ie high cadence). I guess most of her training rides are flat and while Orillia is not a hilly course, it was pretty hilly for her. She rode the bike faster than I thought she would.

Coming in from Tammy's longest bike (30 km)

The third part was a 7 km run and I knew this was going to be the toughest part for Tammy. The kids were great but I think they were getting hungry as they've been up for 4 hours and wouldn't eat any breakfast. I didn't bring any food because I thought the snack bar would be open. Why any one wouldn't want to open a snack bar when there were about 500 people milling around for a couple of hours, is beyond me.

Tammy's run was a little longer than I figured and we moved down to the finish line after hanging out by transition for most of the time. It was getting darker and darker and I knew we were going to get wet so at least the finish line area had tents and lots of trees. While we were waiting by the finish line, I saw a runner come in that looked liked Greg, the guy I bought my wetsuit from several years ago. Greg has done IMLP a couple of times but was done with racing. He's semi-retired and moved to Mexico part time but recently rode his motorcycle across Canada. Later on, I did meet up with him and it was Greg. We chatted for a couple of minutes and it was good to catch up.

Tammy came in just as the rain start pouring down. What timing and the kids were really beginning to lose it!! Here over time was 2:28 which is pretty good and was happy to have finished.

Ok seriously, we need a bike rack.

We need a bike rack

City2Surf - Sydney, Australia

2011-08-18T09:14:00.000-04:00

This is too funny

Stolen from Jeff Dangle The Carrot

City2Surf is a 14 km race that attracts over 85,000 runners in Sydney, Australia. Why a distance of 14 km is beyond me? Read Jess' race report

Today was a 45 minute trainer ride followed by a 2,500 meter swim. At 5:00 am it is pitch black and too dark to ride outside. Summer is coming to an end :(

WHOOOAAAA!!!!

2011-08-15T19:22:00.005-04:00

Work has been abolutely brutal last week and I've had no time to blog or read blogs. I just barely have enough time to train, work and sleep but things are going along with Muskoka 70.3 only a month away. Last year at this time, I was anxious and this year, its like, ho-hum. Its ONLY a Half Ironman. What's the big deal? Hmmm what a difference a year makes especially considering this is my first, and only, triathlon this summer due to all the injuries.

I was pretty happy with my swimming the previous week when I banged out 3,000 meters and 3,500 meters. Its amazing how much more energy I have when I don't run 9 km at 5:00 am before I go swimming at 6:00 am however, Tuesday's swim was, uhmmm.....interesting. The fast lane is a double lane wide and was pretty empty. I generally don't like swimming in circles rather just swim up and down the lane however if more people join then obviously we have to swim in circles. Things were ok until near the end of my swim. My buddy Derek showed up and we chatted for a couple of minutes until he went to the far side of the fast lane while I went to the other side. I forgot my swim workout so I was just doing things to come up with a 2,000 meter workout. I was almost done and was heading DOWN the lane when some guy came UP the same lane I was swimming in. We just missed and it scared the crap out of me as I have been swimming by myself for 45 minutes. I changed to swimming in circles but didn't say anything as I only had six laps to go. Several times as we passed each other, he seemed to drift pretty close to me and I looked down to see if I was off line but each time, I was always left of the black line. I was getting pretty pissed but kept telling myself it wasn't worth getting into an argument but as I finished my last lap, he was right behind me and I stood up and ripped off my goggles and swim cap. I turned to him and snarled "if you're going to jump in my lane, at least let me know." He looked surprised and said "it was a free pool and he can swim wherever he wanted to. Well the conversation degenerate into some name calling and I told him to "learn how to swim" and jumped out of the pool. I was hoping he would follow me into the showers and we could continue our "discussions." Thankfully he didn't, as I had a pretty good idea, how it would end.

Thursday's run (before swimming) was pretty good as I went the full distance without doing the 10 x 1s. I ran about 10 km in 53 minutes or so which I was pretty happy but left me totally wiped for the swim. I bailed after a pathetic 1,400 meters.

Friday's ride was only 45 minutes so I opted to ride the trainer. Without a doubt, riding inside is a thousand times harder than riding outside but it was pouring so I rode inside. Comparing the power numbers, it was brutal. By the end, I was totally drenched and all my numbers were lower than outdoor riding but I'm going to ride once a week inside to start building for the winter riding season.

Saturday's ride was another 100 km ride followed by 20 minute run but I had to be at work by 11 am so that meant I had to out the door by 6 am at the latest. It was cool and a little dark as summer is coming to an end and the sun is rising later and later. Boo. It was an okay ride and fairly uneventful except when I was heading back home, I was flying down a short hill in aero position when a lady started to run across the street except she was looking the wrong way and I yelled WWWWHOOOOAAAA!!!! She was quite startled as it was only around 8 am and I must have scared the crap out of her. If I didn't say anything she would have ran right into my path and that would have been a painful crash. I think I'm finally getting the hang of my nutrition but still don't think I'm taking enough calories on the bike. I had about 1,000 calories and three salt pills but I burned about 2,000 calories. I have a tough time taking in more calories and also how to carry more calories.
The run off the bike was tough as it was humid and I'd be hard pressed going any longer than the 20 minutes I ran. Sunday morning was a right off as I was so tired after the brick and working five hours.

I left the house this morning around 5:20 am and it was still dark. The ride was pretty ho hum except I need to get used to riding in the dark as once I'm in the country (10 minutes from my house), there are no street lights and I can't see anything. The run off the bike was pretty good as I ended up running a 4:15 minute\km pace. The whole run wasn't at that pace but knowing I could finish at that pace felt good. My shin only ached a little bit.

I also signed up for Muskoko 70.3 for a mere $334. What a rip off but hardly unexpected with Ironman Tremblant a steal of a deal for $734 or something like that.

Let's hope I don't get hurt in the next four weeks

PS: Just to clairfy, I was not annoyed with the guy for jumping in my lane unannounced but rather because he changed the direction of the lane without bother telling me and I already had been in swimming for 45 minutes by myself

Dieting - Epic Fail

2011-08-04T11:53:00.000-04:00

The dieting front has not been going very well. This week I ate at McDonalds twice and felt sick afterwards. I had the Crispy Chicken sandwich and ended up throwing out half of it. The second time I ate at McDonalds, even the fries tasted like crap and I love their fries. I've think I drank beers almost every night this week and even swam last Sunday morning hung over.

On the swimming front, Tuesday's swim was a nice 3,000 meters and today's swim was even a better 3,500 meters. Both are record distances for myself. Today, I should have kept swimming to make it a nice Ironman swim of 3,800 meters

On the running front, this week I'll have run three times for about 50 minutes. I've used the run 10 minutes and walk one minute twice during each run and skipping the last walk session. So far, my shin is holding up just fine.

On the Ironman front, Scobie sent me an email about Ironman Melbourne for March 2013. I asked him if he was trying to get me divorced. He laughed and said this would help me "love" my trainer. Somehow, riding on my trainer for 6 hours isn't even remotely funny.

Back to the cupcakes

This Should Make The Swim Interesting

2011-07-31T17:52:00.004-04:00

Vineyard Warrior Triathletes Warned To Be On The Lookout For Sharks

By Jim Armstrong, WBZ-TV

July 28, 2011 10:02 PM

athlon

BOSTON (CBS) – Close to 300 people have already signed up for the first-ever Vineyard Warrior triathlon, to be held on Martha’s Vineyard in September. Participating in such an event is a test of one’s physical and emotional endurance – no less so when the swimming segment of the triathlon is set to take place in waters where shark sightings are being made.

“It’s a big mental game and especially with the news going on lately, it’s really in my head now,” says first-time triathlete Tom Kennedy. “I’m just going to kind of go and shut my eyes, and hopefully I’ll finish. That’s my goal.”

Kennedy’s wife Melissa will be joining him. She’s run marathons before, but acknowledges the preparation is quite different for this type of event – especially when she takes the native wildlife into consideration. “My e-mail was going crazy with everybody sending me the links about sharks and Martha’s Vineyard and all that going on,” she said. “So I’m just trying not to worry about it as the day gets closer.”

Great white sharks made their annual reappearance in local waters this May, earlier than usual. State officials confirm another half dozen great white sightings off Chatham this weekend alone.
“We have friends who said, ‘you must try it here, it’ll be a great first triathlon for you’”, explained the Kennedys’ friend Mhairi Maclean, who agreed with the suggestion “until I got the news today that apparently I might be an object of desire for a shark.”

The sharks like it here because they feed on gray seals. They tend to stay in the area until September. That’s cutting it a little close for the Warrior event, scheduled for the eleventh. The Vineyard Warrior will also be Lori Baronian’s inaugural triathlon. She jokes that there is no way a shark will mistake her for a seal.

“I think I will be swimming so slowly they will mistake me for a buoy, so I’ll be totally fine,” she says. The would-be triathletes can have a little fun with the shark sightings, taking heart from that fact that it’s been 75 years since the last confirmed shark attack in Bay State waters. Besides, they say, it adds to the excitement of the event. Said Baronian: “I get a thrill out of doing events like this, really challenging you physically and mentally.” Neither she nor any of her friends have plans to skip the event because of the shark sightings. Event organizers say they will do everything in their power to keep participants safe.

In honour of those racing Calgary 70.3 today, i did a cheesy 2,000 meter swim....hung over

What's Up?

2011-07-30T07:01:00.001-04:00

I've been falling behind on blogging and barely being able to keep up with reading some of the blogs as work as been very busy. Since the Victoria Day Weekend (May 23rd), the work volume dropped off a cliff. I could leave the office for several hours and come back with no phone messages and only one or two emails. I could waste hours reading Slowtwitch or blogs but all of a sudden, work has been so busy, and not necessilary "good busy".

Tuesday's workout was great. I started with a 6 km run and moved the run\walk from 5 min run x 1 min walks to 10 x 1s and ran five minutes longer than the previous week. The only thing was the humidity at 5 am in the morning. You could cut it with a knife it was so thick. I finished the run completely dripping wet, jumped in the car and drove off to swimming where the nice cool water was so refreshing (I took a shower before getting in the pool in case you were wondering). I brought a 2,600 meter workout fully expecting not to finish it because of time or I'd be too tired but to my surprise, we finished the entire workout! I was pretty happy about it.

Because of some stuff in the family life, I moved my long bike from Saturday morning (today) to Wednesday morning so that meant getting up at 4 am to eat and be out the door before 5 am and still get into work before 9:30 am. One thing I love about June 21st is that it is the longest day of the year (around here) and it begins to get light before 5 am. The one thing I hate about June 21st, is its all down hill after that day. It starts to get light later and later so when I headed out the door at 4:50 am, it was pitch black. I decided to play it smart and ride along Major Mackenzie road which has street lights instead of just heading north of it where there are no lights and there could be a body lying across the road and I wouldn't see it. It must be because of the new bike. I went west on Major Mac for about 20 minutes and then headed north up to Bayview by that time, there was some daylight but still could barely see the road as there were no streetlights. The ride as uneventful and boring. I mixed the Perpetuem so that each bottle had about 250 calories. I ended up drinking two bottles, one gel and 3 salt tablets and felt fine but I think part of the problem is that when I ride this early in the morning, the weather is nice and cool so I'm not sweating as much but during the race at Peterborough a couple of weeks ago, it was hot and I was running into hydration and electrolyte problems. Oddly enough, with the Perpetuem, I felt full all day and didn't eat very much at lunch or dinner. Maybe this could be the new diet drink although I don't think I could handle drinking that stuff all day. I have mixed feelings about the Perpetuem as it does the job for calories but it taste ok but nothing great. I think I need to keep experimenting what works

I emailed coach the powertap file for the long ride and told him I wanted to increase my ride time up to five hours by extending each ride by 15 minutes. I feel my bike is probably the weakest and needs the most help. He must have been in a pissy mood as when he called me at work later that day as he laid into me as a dumb idea as it is unnecessarily and increases the possibility of injury. The key to getting stronger on the bike, is not extending the long ride but increasing the number of rides per week. He rambled on for half an hour before I had to cut him off and head into a meeting.

I'm still miffed at missing Calgary 70.3 which is tomorrow. If I could have started running three weeks earlier, I would have raced it.

Morphing

2011-07-25T13:32:00.000-04:00

One of the things I've begun to figure out for a 13 hour Ironman finish, about 40-50% of that time would be spent on the bike. I remember talking to Scobie about how my two hour bike rides would morph into four hour rides and then six hour rides. Not a chance I told him. I'm perfectly fine riding for two hours but as my races have moved from Olympic distance to 70.3 to Ironman next year, I'm a woefully weak rider. With that in mind, as I head into the last (and my first), triathlon of the year, Muskoka 70.3, I need to build up my bike. I thought with my new bike, I'd be faster but at Peterborough, my bike time was almost the same as last year Muksoka (minus the flat). Well, at least I look faster on the new bike.

So on Saturday, with the humidity lower than the last couple of days, I decided to move my ride from a 3.5 to a four hour ride, with the intention of getting up to five hour rides by the end of August. One of the biggest problem I've had is the nutrition so I took coach's advice and tried some Hammer Perpetuem. I mixed two bottles with two scoops each for 200 calories per bottle. I also brought some GU Chomps and GU Gels and three salt pills in a salt stick. The weather was about 22 degrees but the humidity made if feel like 29 degrees Celsius when I left the house at 5:45 am. It was nice and cool but warmed up with sunrise. All in all, there is nothing to write about other than:
a) my nutrition was better but still needs adjusting. I need about 300 calories per hour. Today was about 200 calories per hour
b) three salt pills are not enough for a four hour ride even though it wasn't hot. I need to figure out how to carry more
c) it sure is boring riding by yourself for four hours. I can't wait for those seven hour rides

This morning, the weatherman was actually right and I woke up for thunder and lightening so I rode inside on the trainer for 65 minutes. It was dreadful and I struggled to finish. I compared the power tap numbers with an outdoor ride and what a difference. All the numbers from riding indoors were lower by about 30%. What a difference

Finally, congrats to all those who raced IMLP yesterday. Looks like it turned out to a nice day.

So How Hot Was It Today?

2011-07-21T19:23:00.002-04:00

Current WeatherThurs. Jul 21, 2011, 19:00 EDT Pearson Airport

°C

°F

A few clouds

Feels Like : 46

Wind : W 37km/h

Wind gusts : 46km/h

Sunrise : 5:56

Sunset : 20:53

Relative Humidity : 45%

Pressure : 100.48 kPa

Visibility : 24.0 km

Ceiling : unlimited

I ran at 5:15 am this morning but it was only for 5.5 km. I was dripping wet after I finished and then I went for a nice cool 2,000 meter swim.

FYI: 46 Celsius = 118 Fahrenheit

Speed Wobble

2011-07-18T20:52:00.001-04:00

Summer has finally arrived as it has been smoking hot on the weekend. Last week was a recovery week from the Peterborough Half Agua\Bike. I went to the sports doctor to check out why my left foot had swollen so much after the race that I could barely walk. Dr Stoddard suggested my foot has widen (as in got fatter?) and the riding shoes I've been using the last three years are too narrow. Okay. He suggested I get the shoes widen by a shoe store. We also chatted about the Peterborough race which he did as well. I talked to him a lot about nutrition and cramping as he is a sports doctor and the inventor of e-load and a fellow triathlete as well. Bottom line, for Peterborough, given how hot it was, I just simply went too low on sodium and water. If the race was another 15-20 km, I would have bonked. After I talked to coach about widening my riding shoes and he suggested I wear riding socks instead of running socks which are a little thicker. Once the shoe is widen, there is no going back so I'll try riding socks first but I really really have to figure out this nutrition as on several races I started to cramp up badly.

On Thursday, I did a short 30 minute test run to see how my leg felt and it felt GREAT!! I couldn't believe what a difference another 1 1/2 weeks made!! The last time I ran, my leg felt stiff and not flexible as I shuffled along but on Thursday it almost felt normal. I ran 5 minutes and walked one minute and was pretty happy. After the run, I jumped in my car and drove to the pool and swam 2000 meters. My swimming buddy was away so it was a pretty boring swim plus it was a little more challenging after the run. So the plan is to run twice a week and slowly ramp up the run by increasing the time by five minutes per week. On that note, I asked coach again about racing Cobourg Olympic distance on Aug 13th for a nice tune up for Muskoka 70.3 but coach said forget it as I probably hammer it on the run. I didn't respond to his statement, nuff said as yea I would have hammered the 10 km run. Nothing to gain by racing Cobourg.

Saturday's ride was only two hours as there was no one around to ride with. Everyone was away on holidays so I rode by myself. I did the good old route of going up Kennedy Road north of Aurora Road to the Twin Hills and did four hill repeats on the twin hills before heading home. A pretty uneventful boring ride.

Today's ride, on the other hand was interesting. I waffled about riding outside as the forecast called for 60% chance of thunderstorms and something about riding a bike outside during lightening strikes. I headed out at 5:15 am and took the chance. I was dehydrated from the previous day of being at a picnic and it was smoking hot. I drank half a bottle before I got three kilometers so I swung by Angus Glen community center which is always open and refilled one of my bottles. It was really humid and windy. Riding north into the 30 km\hr wind was tough and I was glad to have aero bars as it made a huge difference. I reached the turn around point and headed east (perpendicular to the wind) and was almost blown off the bike by the 45 km\hr gusts of wind. It was quite scary as three times the front wheel lifted up and moved a couple of inches to the right. If I was riding with Zipp wheels I would have ended up into the farmer's field. I headed down south with the wind at my back and hammered it down my favorite hill. I didn't bother going into the aero position as I hit 65 km\hr. I made it home in record time. What a difference the wind makes. I wonder what coach will say when he looks at the Power Tap file?

Oh yea, after a birthday party on Saturday and a family picnic on Sunday, I managed to gain five pounds in two days.

Repo Games

2011-07-13T05:45:00.000-04:00

This is a new show on Spike TV. If you have nothing to do (like me), this eposide is hilarious

Redneck Rampage
Get More: Redneck Rampage

Training wise-its a recovery week after Peterborough so nothing to write about.

Tempting Fate - Home Run Derby

2011-07-12T11:15:00.001-04:00

And this is just after someone died at a Texas Rangers baseball game trying to catch a baseball. He already caught three balls and wanted the fourth to complete the cycle

Post Peterborough

2011-07-11T15:21:00.000-04:00

Today I feel like crap. I'm constantly thirsty, have a wicked headache and very tired. I suppose waking up at 4:00 am doesn't help. I don't remember feeling this bad after Muskoka 70.3 last year. I wonder if I got too dehdrated on the bike yesterday given how hot it was. Coach called to discuss the information from the Powertap and he was quite pleased with the results (even if I wasn't). According to the numbers, I was riding in zone 5 (highest heart rate zone) for about 75% of the race. This was the type of information he was looking for to build my future workouts.

The good news is the swelling in my left foot is going down and I can walk without limping. Sports doctor appointment on Wednesday

In case you missed it yesterday, one of the many Tour De France crash. How's that for support?

Peterborough Race Report

2011-07-10T21:34:00.004-04:00

Wow, what a race. Just look at that smoking swim time!! It doesn't get much better than that.

Name

Time

2000m
SWIM
Cat Ovr Time /100m

90 km
BIKE
Cat Ovr Time km/h

Tr1

Peter TAKEDA

4:22:45.6

27 46 67:30 3:23

21 27 3:12:34 28.0

2:44

So we left the house about 5:45 am and Peterborough is only about a 90 minute drive. The race is supposed to start at 8:24 am so we had loads of time. We stopped off at a Tim Hortons (famous Canadian donut store) before driving into the park. I went to registration and then went into transition to get ready. I checked my watch and saw I had tons of time but had trouble finding space for my bike as all the racks were full so I racked my bike under the Duathlon bikes. I couldn't find my race kit so I started to panic but saw that I dropped it a couple of yards away. After I was finished, I thought I forgot my strap for the Power Tap but found it in my bag. Not off to a good start so far. I walked down to the beach to where Tammy and the kids were playing. I checked my watch and still had a good 10 minutes to get ready so I started to put my wet suit on. I looked over to the water and saw a whole bunch of athletes in the water swimming. The course is a two loop swim so I watched for a couple of minutes and then I noticed that there were a lot of people with the same color swim cap that I had. I checked my watch again and had about three minutes to race time but there were people running along the beach and heading back into the water for their second lap. I started to get a little concerned and ran down to the beach. I ran into Jen, Scobie's wife and asked if he was already in the water and she said yes. I thought the Aqua\bike started at 8:24 am while the regular group started at 8:00 am. Jen told me to check with the announcer on the beach and he cheerfully told me that everybody started at 8:00 am but not to worry as I had plenty of time to make the swim cutoff. He zipped me up and I ran back up the beach to the park where Tammy was playing and I yelled to her that I was supposed to have already started. I then ran down to the water and jumped in. The slower swimmers were starting their second lap and it was a horror show as they kept crashing into me. It was impossible to draft off anyone and I finished the first loop with a ton of people behind me. I was wearing my Road ID bracelet but if fell off during the swim so I had to carry it for the last 300 meters. I ran up the beach and Cathy S yelled at me so I tossed her the bracelet and headed out for my second lap. This time I was completely by myself. I tried to hold a steady pace and if I didn't know better, I could have sworn they moved the buoys out further for the next race. According to my watch I swam somewhere between 41 and 42 minutes and as I ran out, Cathy was there yelling. I asked her if I was winning and she gave me the thumbs up.

Running to T1 was brutal as it was at least 300 meters and my shin was aching. I finally made it to the entrance and did my usual horrible transition time. I headed out when a race volunteer yelled I had racked my bike in the wrong spot. I should have been on the left side with the Half Iron instead of the right side with the sprint. I asked if it made a difference and he said I would get crowed out. Whatever that means.

I was so far behind everyone, I was riding by myself. I took off and tried not to hammer it. The sprint had gone off at 9:00 am and the first riders caught me around the 7 km mark. One of the guys that passed me was Derek who swims at Centennial. He very fast and has a whole bunch of tattoos on his arm. I recognized the tats and yelled at him as he blew by me. At the 10 km turnaround point for the sprint, I saw one girl slow and turned around while another lady behind her plow into her. They both went down hard and when I passed, one was calling for an ambulance. I kept riding as there was nothing I could do but there was a race official about one kilometer down the road so I slowed down to tell her there was a crash and to call an ambulance. I rode through a small town and the roads were open to traffic. There was a tractor pulling a wagon of hay chugging along and five cars behind it when I came flying up. I passed the cars on the right but there was no room to pass the tractor so I swung to the left and blew by the tractor except I crossed the center line and probably got DQ'd. Doh

I was bagged and began to slow down but then realized that its an out and back so the turn around point was at the 45 km mark. This part of the course was all down hill and it was great but it would be trouble coming back in. I saw Lisa around the 40 km mark and if I wanted to catch her before the end of the bike, I would have to boogie. As soon as I hit the turn around point, I ran into some strong headwind and I had to ride mostly uphill. This wasn't going to be fun.

I was able to pass more riders on the hills as I worked my gears and was in the easiest gear quite a bit. The goal was to keep the cadence about 80 rpm on the hills. The heat, hills and wind began to take its toll as I started to crap up in my legs, my boys were killing me and my back was sore. I had trouble holding the aero position for long periods of time. Traffic wasn't too bad but one one climb, a pick up truck with wide mirrors wouldn't pass some riders going up a hill. There were 6 cars behind him when I came up. I was passing the cars until I came up behind the pick up truck. There was no room for me to pass him so I yelled at the driver to pass the bikers through his open window. He gunned the engine and blew by the bikers and the other cars followed.

As I got closer to town, the cramping was bad and I ran out of salt pills. I was also in danger of running out of water. I came up to the bottle exchange and was unsuccessful in grabbing a bottle on the way out as it just bounced out of my hands but this time the guy handing the bottle out was good and he moved forward to make it easier for me to grab the bottle. I emptied the water bottle as well as my other two water bottles and the two bottles of Amino Vital and was still thirsty. If the race was any longer, I would have had serious problems.

As I got closer to the park, there already were runners on the course. At one point, I could not even see any other bikers behind or in front of me. I slowed down and asked a volunteer if I was even going the right way. She said yes and just follow the road in to the park. I saw some riders ahead of me and burned it in. I was totally bagged and thankful I didn't have to run a half marathon. Lisa came in just ahead of me so I made pretty good time on the bike. However, when I saw my time on the bike, I was pretty disappointed. I thought I would be faster on the new bike but that was basically my Muskoka 70.3 time for the bike (minus the flat).

Much work to be done. Also Calgary 70.3 is out. The side and bottom of my left foot is all swollen and I could barely walk after I came in from the bike. Wonderful. More injuries.

So lessons to be learned from this race?
1. double check the start times
2. work on the nutrition - need to figure out how to take more calories on the bike and salt pills
3. work on the water situation. I had two bottles of water and two bottles of Amino Vital and it wasn't enough
4. start taking the B and C races a little more seriously. Drinking beers Friday and Saturday night before the race probably didn't help
5. Don't leave the suntan lotion in the car. It doesn't help when you're in the sun for four hours

Oh and in case no one knew the song of my last post

And I Ran, I Ran So Far Away

2011-07-08T08:12:00.000-04:00

Anyone recognize who sang that song and what year?

I went to the sports doctor yesterday and got the medical clearance to start some LIGHT running. I was kind of surprised because I didn't think my shin felt any different than last week. The other day, I was meeting a client downtown so I took the subway. He told me what stop to get off but for whatever reason I took the wrong subway line and got off the wrong station but right street. I started walking looking for the address when I realized I was one kilometer away but it was such a nice day and the sights were ummm "interesting" (I don't go downtown much) so I decided to walk the distance, in my suit and dress shoes. That wasn't such a great idea because I was hot and my shin was a little sore afterwards. But the doctor said I could start running.

The plan is to run for 30 minutes but break the run into blocks of five minutes. I would run for three and walk for two minutes. That sounds exactly like my Ironman pace for next year. So after dinner, I went for my first run in about two months and it felt weird. My leg felt stiff and running in my new shoes, felt well, different. I think part of the problem that contributed to my stress fracture was that my running gait had changed and my shoes were no longer appropriate. The new shoes were totally different and it felt like I was scuffling my right foot on every step. In terms of timing and pacing, the run was horrible as at one point, I was running at 8 minutes per KILOMETER. At that pace, I don't think I can call it running, more like shuffling.

Calgary 70.3 is seeming like a distance pipe dream. If my shin holds up, I think I need to do this "shuffling" three times a week and my long runs on an elliptical trainer otherwise on July 31st I'll be in Calgary but not at the race.

Riding Backwards

2011-07-07T05:35:00.002-04:00

This guy probably rides faster than me

Canada Day Weekend

2011-07-04T13:38:00.001-04:00

This weekend we were invited to a friend's cottage northeast of Peterborough. With Canada Day being on a Friday, I wanted to leave early Friday morning to avoid the traffic heading out of the city as well I wanted to ride part of the way. The cottage is over 200 km away and that's too far to ride so the plan was for Tammy to let me off about 100 km away and I would ride the rest of the way. I wanted to be on the highway by 8:00 am but as usual, it took us forever to get out the door and then after driving for 10 minutes, I forgot my water bottles in the fridge so I had to turn around. So we didn't get going until close to 10:00 am by which time the highway heading east of the city was just brutal. Within 15 minutes of getting on the highway, we were crawling along at 40 km\hr as traffic was bad. I was so annoyed by the late start I drove right by the place where I wanted to be dropped off. I was just on the outside of Peterborough before I realized I drove too far. In hind sight, it turned out to be a good thing.

Here's the route I took. Ride to Kassahabog Lake (the link might not work so you have to refresh your browser). If you look on the left hand side of the page, there are a bunch of options including to turn on elevation for the route. Starting along Division Road which runs parallel to Highway 7, there were a lot of rolling hills but not as bad as Muskoka. The weather was pretty warm but traffic was very light or non existence on this secondary road but at one point it turned into a packed hard crushed gravel road. I didn't really like riding my new bike on that road but after checking my map, I didn't have much of a choice but it only lasted a couple of kilometers. I eventually headed south (even though the cottage is north) simply to avoid riding on Highway 7 as its a two lane highway with minimal shoulder and very heavily travelled. I rode through a couple of small towns before heading east and then finally north. I reached Havelock which is famous for their country music Havelock Jamboree. This small town of five thousand will get over 100,000 people in August.

The town was pretty busy for Canada Day but I didn't hang around. I started heading north on Route 46 to Kassahabog lake and while the road didn't have any shoulder, it wasn't too busy. I just hoped I didn't get smoked by some drunkin' cottager. The road had lots of false flats and I was constantly gearing down. On the outside skirts of Havelock, I realized I wasn't going to make it with the amount of water I had left. I probably had less than one bottle of Amino Vital and a little bit of water so I stopped off at a locals house and begged for a two bottle refill. The lady was kind enough to add some ice cubes but in this heat, they didn't last long. The turn off to my friend's cottage was Fire Route 75 and by Fire Route 65, I was barely hanging on. There was a tough double hill climb around the 65 km mark and I stopped at the top of the hill where I promptly got bit by massive horse flies. Talk about an incentive to keep riding! I counted down the Fire Routes until I hit Fire Route 75. Thank god!!!! I was cramping pretty bad in both calves as the sun and heat were taking its toll pretty quickly. The Fire Route is nothing more than a gravel road carved out of the woods and my friend suggested I call him for a pick up but the horse flies had other ideas so I rode my bike down the final 2.5 km. Bad idea. The flies were even worse as the road cut through the forest and there was no wind and I didn't want to go fast because I thought I would either get hit by a car flying around the blind corners or run over a rock and crash in the gravel. Somewhere along the way, I lost my rear light as it must have jarred loose. I almost wiped out when a car passed me and I pulled over to the side where the gravel was deeper. I felt my rear tire sliding out and I knew if I went down, the gravel would cause a lot of damage to me and my new bike but I was able to peddle my way out of danger. Whew. I finally made it to the cottage! It was only 75 km but I was wiped out. The hills and sun took its toll and its a good thing I missed the earlier starting point and eliminated the extra 30 kilometers! I don't think I would have made it. All throughout the day I was constantly thirsty and drank a ton of water. I only had about six beers for all of Saturday. I woke up at least three times to pee during the night and on Sunday morning I was so thirsty.

I also brought up my wet suit to do an open water swim and so on Sunday, with my friend in the canoe beside me, I swam down the lake. This is my first OW swim and I remembered last year's first swim was at Guelph Olympic and I died. Its a completely different feel and effort between swimming in a pool and OW with a wetsuit. Within 10 minutes I was exhausted and had to rest a couple of minutes. I started out way too fast and paid for it. I kept having to stop and rest for a couple of minutes while my friend looked on with amusement. He's a non athlete and just shakes his head at some of the things I do. So all in all, the OW swim was a disaster as it took me about 43 minutes to swim 2.1 km with a least 5-6 stops where I treaded water or did breast stroke.

Needless to say, this Sunday's Peterborough Aqua/Bike Half Iron might be more like a disaster as this weekend's workout showed that I wasn't a fit as I thought I was.

First Run

2011-06-30T22:07:00.000-04:00

This morning's swim workout was a little better than Tuesday's unstructured mess. Masters swimming ended for the summer break this week but I missed the newsflash and showed up anyways on Tuesday. Serge gave me a lane to swim on my own but offered no workout so I just goofed around and did a pathetic 1,500 meters as I got bored. Masters swam at 5:30 am but regular lane swimming starts at 6:00 am in the summertime. Not quite as good but will have to do. I don't think many people realized as the pool wasn't that busy and there were only three swimmers for two fast lanes. Bonus! I printed off some of the workouts I downloaded from Slowtwitch last year and knocked off around 2,200 meters. Not bad as the different drills helps breaks up the boredom of pounding out lap after lap.

I went to the sports doctor on Tuesday to get an update on my stress fracture and unfortunately it is still a little tender. He advise no running for another 1-2 weeks but I can pool run or run on an elliptical trainer. Both wonderful choices. They rank right up there with watching glaciers melt or paint dry. He still believes I'll be able to race Calgary 70.3 on July 31st with only two weeks of running outside given the base I've built up (coach said he was on crack). Later on Tuesday, I went to my podiatrist to get new orthotics for my dress shoes. He informed me that the ones I am wearing, he made in 2004. Seriously??? I believe these might have contributed to my stress fracture although the ones in my running shoes were made last year. As a former marathon runner and a podiatrist, I asked him if it would be possible to race on July 31st given my stress fracture and my target date of running outside of July 15th and he concurred with the sports doctor that given my base I "should" be able to run and I |might| do better than I think.

My friend lives in a condo and in the past I've used his very small pool to water run. The condo also has a small gym with an elliptical trainer so I left work a little early but not early enough. My errands for preparation for the long weekend took me way longer than I anticipated so I didn't get to his condo and started running until 3:30 pm. I've never run on an elliptical but heard its basically a waste of time. The plan was to go for an hour run and see how I felt. I started running and within five minutes had a good sweat going. The sports doc was correct in saying that there would be minimal impact on my legs and I managed to keep running without going crazy. I had my ipod and was watching the Prince William and Kate do the tour in Ottawa on the overhead TV. One might have thought that everything else in the world has grounded to a halt given the coverage of them.

The run itself was tougher than I thought it would have been but the numbers on the trainer seemed a little dubious. Towards the end, my cardio was fine but my legs were getting tired and I wondered how long I could actually run on this contraption but it did the job. It is a lot harder than pool running and if I can run a couple of times doing the week, it would help significantly when I get back to running outside. I must admit the elliptical trainer was a lot tougher than I had expected and am bagged from it. Of course, I haven't run since mid May so going out and running a full 60 minutes probably isn't the brightest thing but than I've never been acccused of being too bright.

Obviously, I'm still clinging to the fact that I "might" be able to race Calgary 70.3 despite the overwhelming (non medical) advice not to race which I greatly appreciate your input. Don't worry, I do have a backup plan if I get hurt and can't race Muskoka 70.3 on September 11th.

I have planned two interesting bike rides this long weekend. That is, if I don't get smoked during the heavy holiday traffic. I'll tell you about it if I survive

Happy Canada Day (July 1st) and Happy Fourth of July for our American friends. Drink lots of beer or something. I know I will.

More Decisions - Calgary 70.3

2011-06-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

I just came back from the sports doctor and he said it will be another 1-2 weeks before I can start running again. The stress fracture isn't fully healed and Calgary 70.3 is on July 31st. That would be around July 15th that I could start running outside. I have a fairly good base built up as I've done the Chilly Half Marathon, Around The Bay (30 km) and the Toronto Marathon in the last three months but have not run since the marathon (May 15th).

So the question is, can I run a half marathon on two weeks of training? If I plan to run it, I would need to ramp up the water running or elliptical trainer to match my outdoor training. For example, if I need to do two hours of running that would mean two hours of water running or two hours on an elliptical trainer (which I don't have one nor do I belong to a gym). UGH!! If I bail from this race, we could shorten our trip out west and come home earlier. This would save about $1,500 from paying race fees, van rental, hotels, food etc.

What should I do? What would you do?

Obviously I missed last week's announcement that there was no more Masters swimming for the summer. I showed up at the usual 5:30 am and it was just the kids swimming. Serge was kind enough to give me my own lane and so I just swam aimlessly with no structure workout. I figured I banged out somewhere around 1,500 meters. Going forward, I'll just have to swim by myself, lap after lap after lap...............And worse, it will be public lane swimming where I'll have to dodge the breast strokers and other ahem, swimmers.

Making Cookies

2011-06-27T20:20:00.001-04:00

And I wonder why I can't lose weight.........

Awesome ride on the weekend with Doru and Lisa. Rode up to Zehpyr and back for a short 63 miles or 101 km but got soaked one kilometer from home.

Now to ice the cookies and crack open a beer. Oh wait, its only Monday night. Doh!

And my wife thinks all I do is yell at the kids every time she goes out. Hah!

2011 Triathlon Race Season Over

2011-06-21T12:47:00.002-04:00

Or is it?

We'll find out next week...........

A Canadian Century - 100 Kilometers

2011-06-19T21:30:00.001-04:00

I picked up the new bike as an early Father's Day present on Friday afternoon. Coach fitted me to the bike and we were good to go. I went out early Saturday morning leaving at 5:15 am and wanted to ride hard for an hour by myself before meeting up with Lisa. I love this time of year as it is so bright at 5 am but the sun literally begins to rise later on June 22nd. I headed over to Kennedy Road and went north until I hit Stoufville Road. I tried to get used to riding in aero position but it felt weird and I assumed that it was because I was used to a road bike. Then I realized the handle bars were slipping down and I had to keep pulling them up. I was supposed to meet Lisa at 6:15 am so I didn't want to stop and tighten them so and went east until I reached York Durham road and went south. This road is nice and smooth so it was a great place to test the bike and Powertap...drooping handle bars and all. I passed a guy on a road bike and said hi as I cranked it up. I hit 55 km\hr generating some 550 watts of power. I held this for a couple of kilometers and then backed off. I looked behind me and the guy I passed was about five meters behind me so I cranked it up again and after one kilometer he was only five feet behind me!! I couldn't drop him as he easily kept pace with me. He caught up with me and we chatted for a couple of minutes before he met up with his ride. My legs were fried after those two long blasts and after getting mixed up I finally got to the spot where I was supposed to meet Lisa. The handle bars were moving around so much that I had to stop and tighten them as now it was becoming dangerous. I tightened them at the wrong height and could not ride in aero position for the rest of the ride. That really didn't matter as my legs were fried and I was wiped out. We rode for an hour but I was done like dinner. According to the Powertap, my top speed was 55 km\hr and I generated an average of 175 watts for the ride which is not bad but needs to be around 225 watts. Lots of work to do.

When I got back, it was time to head out to Guelph for Tammy to enter her first sprint Duathlon. We left a little behind schedule and I was worried about getting in there in time as last year I entered the Aqua Bike and because it was so busy getting into the park, I barely made it. The Try-A-Tri, Sprint and Sprint Du were sold out but luckily they were at different times so getting in the park was a breeze compared to last year. It was a great day to be racing but I got to watch from the sidelines and play with the kids. Tammy did great and finished 1:40 good for 13/23 for her age group. \

While we were still in Guelph, Paul S called me and wanted to know if I wanted to join him for a ride Sunday morning. I initially declined as I needed to be refitted on my bike and Sundays are an off day. I was still a little tired from Saturday's ride. Later I called Coach and mentioned the troubles and he said to bring the bike up when we got back into town and he would fix the problem. After getting refitted, I called Paul back and told him I couldn't ride the entire five hours with him but I would go out for two hours to keep him company. Paul is a very strong rider and is training for IMC so this would be a great opportunity to ride with someone who is much more experienced. We agreed to meet at 7:00 am (holy that's late).

Paul showed up at 6:30 am Sunday morning and I was a little unprepared. I rushed around to get ready and headed out. I fully intended to only ride for 1.5 to 2 hours with him and only had one bag of GU Chomps, one gel and two bottles of water. It was a great day to ride and we headed west and then doubled back to head north. Paul gave me a lot of tips especially about the importance of holding a steady cadence of 85 revolutions per minute. This allows for easier peddling and as we went up hills, I had to gear down in order to maintain the cadence at an even 85. It was an awesome day to ride as we headed out west and then double backed to go east and then straight up York Durham line where we eventually hit the small town called
Zephyr which was about 40 km from Markham. Normally there is a store that is open on Sunday mornings as I was running low on water and needed to refuel but for whatever reason, it was closed. This was going to be a serious problem. I had ridden a lot longer than I antipicated and did not have was getting tired and hungry. We made the decision to turn around and head back home despite that Paul had originally planned to ride for another hour before heading back. We rode for about five minutes when I told Paul I would ride back by myself and he should continue his planned ride. Why should he screw up his ride becuase of my lack of preparation?

The ride back was tough as the countryside was pretty hilly. Not as bad as Muskoka but still pretty tough. I ran out of water and stopped at a house to reload. Paul gave me one of his gel and I used it up as I was heading into a slight headwind. My legs were burning and on some hills I had to shift into the easiest gear in order to make it up some of the hills. I was pretty happy when I hit familiar roads and turned down my street.
All in all, it was a pretty good unexpected ride. The roads were much hillier furthur north and that's somewhere I'll have to ride more often if I want to improve my bike time. Total distance was 100 km and I burned over 2,000 calories.

So my triathlon season is pretty much over. The plan is now to do a couple of Aqua Bike events like Peterborough half iron next month and maybe Calgary 70.3 but it will be tough to bail on the run. There is a slight chance of doing Muskoka 70.3 in September.

2011 Triathlon Race Season Over

2011-06-17T20:09:00.001-04:00

The Toronto Marathon has taken its toll. A stress fracture has ended my season but Father's Day came early...........

With Powertap

I'm In! - WTF Did I Just Sign Up For?

2011-06-15T12:35:00.003-04:00

Only for a mere $774. What a bargain !

Suck It Up Buttercup

2011-06-09T15:21:00.001-04:00

As so quaintly put by Scobie in reference to my "fretting" of which IM course to get killed on. And he's right. At the end of the day, 140.6 miles is 140.6 miles. There is no hiding that there is going to be a lot of suffering regardless of which course I do.

Right now, although Coach is saying to do IMLP, but I think IMMT might be a better venue as it would be more family friendly (in case you don't know, I have a 7.5 year old, 5.5 year old and an almost 4 year old).

Also it appears that several fellow bloggers are thinking about IMMT. Misery loves company as I always say. Most of them have young families around the same age so they could hang out together for the day.

On the injury front, my shin splints have almost healed but I can still barely walk as there is another problem with the bottom of my foot

Metatarsalgia

With this common foot condition, one or more of the metatarsal heads become painful and/or inflamed, usually due to excessive pressure over a long period of time. It is common to experience acute, recurrent, or chronic pain with metatarsalgia. Ball-of-foot pain is often caused from improper fitting footwear, most frequently by dress shoes and other restrictive footwear. Footwear with a narrow toe box (toe area) forces the ball-of-foot area to be forced into a minimal amount of space. This can inhibit the walking process and lead to extreme discomfort in the forefoot.

Marathon training sure takes a toll on the body.

Muskoka Long Course (June 26th) is highly doubtful.

Decisions, Decisions

2011-06-08T11:31:00.000-04:00

A lot has been going on in the Triathlon world over the last couple of days. One of the biggest complaints, as Ironman goes mainstream, is that its so hard to get into a race. In order to guarantee your race spot, you have to sign up at the venue one year in advance. You could try registering on line but that's totally hit or miss. Or you could *cough* up $1,100 US (good thing the Canadian dollar is stronger than the US dollar) for a community foundation spot of which you would receive a tax deduction for about $550 except as Canadians, that deduction is worthless. Popular races like Lake Placid, Canada and Wisconsin typically sell out within days if not the same day they open registration.

Rumours have been flying around on Slowtwitch that the WTC is going to open more races in the northeastern part of the US/Canada as it has a combined population of over 50 million people and having only a handful of races available and it finally happened. On Monday, WTC announced that there would be an Ironman race in Mount Tremblant, north of Montreal, Quebec and if that wasn't enough, a couple of days later, the WTC announced that New York City would host an Ironman as well all in the month of August starting next year. Online registration starts on June 15th so it should be interesting to see which races sell out (if any). Like everything in life, there are pros and cons for these races.

Ironman Mount Tremblant.
Pros
*Absolutely stunning scenery with tons of accommodations as its awesome skiing in the winter time (I don't ski).
* Family Friendly - I think this place would be similar to Muskoka 70.3 where the race start/finish is well within walking distance of your accommodations and Tammy could take the kids back to the hotel and play around all day while I flounder on the course.
* Reasonably priced - given all the accommodations, the prices would be reasonable as opposed to Lake Placid where the rates double or triple during race week.
* Driveable - Mount Tremblant is probably about a six hour drive from Toronto

Cons
* MOUNT Tremblant
* Tough tough tough course

Ironman NYC
Pros
* Probably "easiest" of all three races
* Its in New York City - do I need to say more?
* Driveable - NYC is about 11 hour drive from Toronto or less than a 60 minute flight

Cons
* Probably will sell out immediately
* Smoking hot
* Smoking expensive. Rumours of entry fee somewhere between $700-$1,000
* Staying in NYC for a week will be very expensive. I can see dropping $10,000
* Logistics of the course seem to be a disaster
* Not very spectator friendly
* The thought of Tammy trying to keep track of three kids in New York City doesn't sit well

Ironman Lake Placid
Pros
* Probably won't sell out given the two new races
* Driveable as its only six hours away
* Well known course - both my brothers have done it

Cons
* Tough course
* Accommodations are expensive due to the large demand on a small town
* Race is in July which will make for tough training in April and May - busy time of year for me

So there you have it. What to do?

I've only run once since the Marathon and gone to see Kevin (chiropractor) a couple of times to fix my shin splints and its definitely working. I'm almost ready to start running. I'll probably try tomorrow morning for a short 5 km run and see how they hold up but I'm having other issues with the bottom of my foot near the toes. Its a little sore when I walk but Kevin said not to worry about it. I froze a water bottle and rolled with it last night and that seemed to help.

On Saturday I rode 70 km and Sunday I rode another 45 km. Sunday's ride was crappy as I was pretty tired from the hill repeats on Saturday. This Saturday, we are going to a friend's cottage and I was thinking of riding the 150 km but I'm not ready to ride that kind of distance. Maybe I'll ride part of the way except its supposed to pour.

This morning I headed out at 5:15 am and put in a 55 km bike ride before work. It turned out a little longer than I expected as while I was doing hill repeats, a biker passed me and seeing that I was finished the repeats, I went to chase him down (hmmm a little competitive?).

That's pretty much it. Not much else going on

First Run....Uh Oh

2011-06-03T21:45:00.000-04:00

It seems like last year when I last ran when actually its only been 26 days since the Toronto Marathon. My shin splint was feeling better as I've been icing, stretching (sort of) and massaging. I haven't done any of the runs on my schedule but they were only 30 minutes so no big deal. This morning I felt I could run so I ran the Rammerville loop which is normally a 34 minute run which is about 6 km.

I started off as a slow jog and my shins were sore but I kept running as I hoped the pain would go away....it didn't. Next, according to my Polar, my heart rate was 165 beats per minute, even though I was running at a 7:00 km\min pace (very slow). Stupid Polar. I stopped running and my heart rate dropped to 16 beats per minute. Eventually I turned off my watch. Do I really need to monitor my 6 km run? This was a tough run and I couldn't believe how hard it was to run. How long ago did I run a marathon?

I got home and used the roller on my shin.....PAIN!!! I emailed Kevin (chiropractor) to see if he had any appointments this morning. He responded 30 minutes later saying that he had time at 9:20 am. Not bad considering it was 7:00 am when I emailed him. What service!! Anyways, he proceeded to kill me as he worked on my shins. I brought my ice pack with me so I could throw it in the freezer at work and ice throughout the day. I knew it was going to be painful and it was!

Tonight I talked to coach to give him an update on my status and looks like Muskoka Long Course (June 26th) is out as I can barely run. My next race is Calgary 70.3 and is about six weeks out and that could be in jeopardy if I don't heal in time. I also talked about Ironman Mont-Tremblant to be announced on Monday. He thought it would be a very tough race as it would be similar to IM St George (Utah). Very hilly on the ride and run so that would change my thinking back to IM Lake Placid or IM Canada for 2012. Part of the problem is finding the hours to dedicate to training. According to Coach, in February, I would be logging about 15 hours a week. Given my occupation, there is no way I can log those hours in at that time of the year as it is the busiest time of year for me.

What to do?

Hot Wheels - Adult Version

2011-05-30T09:42:00.002-04:00

Too Cool!

This morning's workout was a 90 minute ride for 44 km. I was on the road at 5:25 am. Totally awesome to be that much daylight so early in the morning. Unfortunately, it won't last as June 21st is the longest day of the year. After that, the days get shorter and shorter.

Long Ride

2011-05-29T08:32:00.001-04:00

A friend invited us up to their cottage in Minden which is about 150 km away. Naturally the thought of riding up to his cottage would be a great way to test my endurance. One small trouble. My longest ride has been 36 km and I've only been riding outdoors for one week and we were invited up in two weeks. So for Saturday's ride, I decided to ramp it up by going a little further than the normal 36 km loop but it started out as a disaster.

Normally before any workout, I have everything arranged the night before so I don't waste time fumbling around in the morning. I been riding outside with my trainer tire (last year's tire that the tread has worn down) and have been too lazy to switch over. Saturday morning forecast was rain so I wasn't sure if I was going to ride outside or on the trainer (for two hours? Ugh) so I didn't switch the tires over rather I would wait until I got up Saturday morning. I got up around 5:30 am and checked the weather. The roads were wet but it wasn't raining so I decided to ride outside so I had to change the rear tire. If you recall from last summer, I had about eight flats so changing a tire should be fairly simple right? Nope. I fumbled around for about 15 minutes and then took the bike outside. I rode about 15 feet when the rear wheel kept rubbing against the break pads. Upon closer inspection, there was the inner tube bulging out of the tire. I didn't push the value up to ensure that of the inner tube was inside the tire. I'm lucking it didn't blow when I pumped it up. So back into the house to fix the problem. Another 15 minutes later, I was back riding and about 400 meters, I came to a stop light. I stood up to start riding when the back wheel locked up and I almost went over the handle bars. Looks like I didn't tighten the fly nut tight enough and the wheel popped out of the brackets. I guess it was better to find out when I was stopped as opposed to be flying down a hill doing 50 km\hr.

Finally I got riding and headed north up Warden Ave. I hit my normal turnaround point at Bloomington Road but kept going. I was flying along thanks to a nice tailwind. I hit Davis Drive and was going to turn around when I saw another rider about 500 meters ahead. I decided to chase the rider down and it took me about 5 km until I finally caught up to her. Small victory but it would come with a price. I was bagged and I was far from home. I turned east to head home and then south. I forgot about the tailwind and now had a slight head wind. I had one gross tasting Power Gel (from the Marathon) and that helped but I was a little shaky as I had burned a lot of energy chasing the rider down. I was averaging about 38 km\hr as Warden is flat as a pancake.

I forgot that Mccowan Ave isn't a continuous road this far north so I had to detour further east to Highway 48
By the time I hit Aurora Road, I had to get something else to eat. Thankfully I had five dollars so I stopped at a gas station and got a bagel plastered in butter. It tasted sooooo gooooood!! I was about two hours into my ride so I called Tammy and let her know that I would be about 20 minutes and she reminded me that she wanted to go for her ride. On the ride home, I passed about 200 riders training for Ride To Conquer Cancer. There were some people riding mountain bikes. Oh that was going to be a painful 200 km ride! Naturally with that many riders, traffic would be backed up but at least there weren't many cars on the road. But there was one idiot who tried to pass the riders by driving in north in the southbound lane....the lane I was riding in. I got out of the aero position and stood on my pedals to make myself as visible as possible.

I boogied home with doubts about riding to my friend's cottage as my back was killing me. The ride was about 69 km and took me about 2:20 or so. Not bad but 69 km is way short of 150 km.

On another note, Tammy has a friend whose husband had a stroke a couple of days ago and is in the hospital. The thing that's most bizarre is that Tom is only 40 years old and is in better shape than I am and probably has half the body fat I do. He is totally ripped and in good shape. There is no history of strokes in his family. Hopefully everything will work out.

P90X And Update

2011-05-27T16:15:00.000-04:00

Not much going on as the recovery process dips into the second week. I thought I'd be good to go by now but I have nasty shin splints that aren't going away. I've had this problem a couple of weeks before the race but looks like the Marathon did some damage as they are still sore. The usual icing, massaging and stretching doesn't seem to be working but looks like the cause of the shin splints has been solved. Coach had dropped off Tammy's new bike on the weekend (more on that in a minute) and I mentioned my shin splints. I ran up and down the sidewalk for about 10 feet as Coach watched me. Actually, it was quite painful running that short distance! He quickly concluded that my gait had changed quite significantly as I've grown stronger and the current shoes that I was wearing, no longer properly fit. Even though I just purchased the shoes in February, all the marathon training had changed my mechanical significantly. Great, there goes more dollars!! That said, I probably had only two or three months left on those shoes. Last night we met Coach at Running Free and both Tammy and I got new shoes as she has Plantar fasciitis. So that cost only $400 but it was worth it. I could immediately feel the difference and it wasn't as painful to run.

A while ago, Tammy had decided she didn't want to train\run any half marathons this year and next year and....well forever but did still wanted to do some running. She thought about doing Duathlons and has been riding only on bike at the gym on a stationary bike. I was reluctant to go out and spend thousands of dollars on a bike only to have it gathering dust, so a couple of weeks ago we went to a bike swap. There was a bike that seemed to be the right size for Tammy but it was for $600. With the kids running around it was hard to concentrate so we ended up getting the bike figured that Tammy would need a fit from Coach. Turns out that it needed more than a "fit" as it was slightly too big and needed a new seat and post and several other adjustments including a safety kit, water bottle cage and speedomoter. So another $600 later, we would have been better off buying a brand new $1100 bike from Coach....doh.

So with my shin splints, I've ditched all my runs for the next week or two and concentrated on riding, swimming, yoga, strength training and abs. This morning I did the P90X yoga workout for the first time in about two months and it showed. Not only did I work up a sweat, I can't believe how hard some of the poses were even though I could do them two months ago! Lots of shaking and falling over! I definitely need to work on the strength training and stretching as we roll into triathlon season. The next race is Muskoka Long Course (2 km swim, 55 km ride and 13 km run). The goal is to beat last year's time of 3:55

Tomorrow I'll ride for about two hours as my biking really sucks. Oh and I just found out that the loop I've been doing is shorter than I thought so therefore I'm not riding as fast as posted a couple of days ago.

First Ride Outside

2011-05-21T10:08:00.001-04:00

How pathetic. Its the third week of May and I rode outside this morning for the first time this year. So much for being a hard core roadie. Reality is, marathon training got in the way and the days I was supposed to ride, it was either pouring rain/cold or its was too early to be riding at 5 am outside (ie not light enough).

Today was perfect as I headed out about 6:15 am. The sun was already up and a slight breeze. The temperature was a little chilly at 15 degrees Celsius but I figured it would warm up. The plan was a light easy ride for about one hour as I'm still tired from the Marathon. Oh speaking of which, the shin splints have almost gone away but I'm still limping as under my right foot behind the big toe, its all swollen and painful to walk on. I'm not sure where this injury came from as it didn't start hurting until a couple of days after the race. In fact last night, I woke up around 3 am (courtesy of Jake) and it was throbbing. I couldn't get back to sleep so I came downstairs and iced it. I'll get Kevin (chiropractor) to look at it tomorrow. The clinic is closed but he'll open it for me. How awesome service is that?

I rode my usual my usual loop with no real intentions of anything but taking it easy. I rode along Warden Ave where there is a nice 6 km straight away and I usually tried to keep my speed at 30 km\hr. The first time I rode outside a couple of years ago with my brother, we averaged about 22 km\hr. There were a couple of riders ahead of me so I used that as an incentive to chase them down. Once I caught up to them I kept at 30 km\hr and decided to take the longer route up to Bloomington Road. On Warden there is a gradual hill but the hill on the next road over is twice as steep. I love bombing down this hill and this morning I hit about 63 km\hr in areo position of course. I boogied home at a pretty good clip (for me at least). I was kind of surprised that I was riding at this speed but I did take the easier route. Kennedy Ave is easier to ride southbound than ride northbound.

I did the 41 km route in 1:13 for an average 34 km\hr which includes getting caught at two stoplights. Maybe all those stupid one-legged drills are paying off. That said, I'd be hard pressed to go out for a longer ride. A friend invited me out for a 100 km ride.....ummm not a chance.

Recovery

2011-05-18T05:51:00.001-04:00

This week and next week are recovery weeks and that's not a bad thing. I'm still limping because of my shin splints. My manager just shakes his head and asks "why I do it?"

I got an useless massage on Monday afternoon. One of the advantages of my work is I can come and go as I please. The massage did help somewhat but wasn't worth the $85. The place is close to one of my offices and usually I can get an appointment within a couple of hours. I've been there three or four times and gotten a different person each time. The quality of therapist is hit or miss at best

Thanks to those who posted comments from the race report. Matty O posted a great article on recovering from a Marathon. He and his wife ran the Cleveland Marathon on the same day and got pretty much the same weather.

I had lunch yesterday with a work colleague who gushed over my time. He just did 3:19 at Boston and did the Sporting Life 10k in 39 minutes so I'm not so sure why he was so impressed with my time. He was absolutely insistent that I could qualify for Boston in a couple of years. I told him he was nuts as I need to knock off 24 minutes which is around one minute per mile or roughly 45 seconds per kilometer. And that's before the new rules for next year. I think it adds about 5 minutes and then its based on the fastest time for the age category. To be honest, I'm not sure how "accurate" my actual time is as we had the wind at our back all the way down Yonge Street (17 km) and for mostly running west to the turn around point at the 30 km mark. Only running west back to the city did we run into the wind and north up University Ave for about 4 km. So, if there was no wind, would I have been able to knock out the same time? I doubt it.

Other people that ran on Sunday, Doru and his wife ran the Mississauga Half Marathon. Great time Doru although your "worst hangover race time" is about my fastest time. And Daryl who ran the Mississauga Marathon in a smoking 3:01. Holy crap!! Still waiting for your race report.

Today is supposed to be 30 minutes of spinning but I'm so far behind in work, I'll use this time as another rest day. Tomorrow is swimming and its probably one of the best ways to recovery from a hard race but I died on the kicking drills yesterday. Serge just looked at me and shook his head.

Toronto Marathon Race Report

2011-05-15T20:30:00.005-04:00

Whooo hoooo a PB!!!....Oh wait, this is the first full marathon I've done so any time would have been a PB! I could have crawled and it would have been a PB

The weather was just nasty but at least it didn't pour but rather light drizzle and the wind while averaging 30 km\hr I'm sure there were several times it was over 50 km\hr. That was a painful run but I'm glad I did it. I'm some what disappointed I couldn't hold my pace as I died running up University Ave into the wind but that was expected.

Last night's sleep was horrible as I don't think I got more than five hours of sleep as I tossed and turned. I'm glad I got a solid sleep Friday night with the help of a sleeping pill. For some reason, the sleep two nights before the race is more important than the night before. Why I have no idea.

I was constantly watching the Weather Channel for the last couple of days and they were pretty accurate with the forecast. We got down to the start line at North York City Hall (not far from where we used to live) just after 7:50 am. The Half Marathon went off at 8:00 am. The area is surrounded by condos and office buildings and the wind was very strong and it was freezing cold. I got ready while the kids waited inside the truck and then we headed over to the Starbucks to warm up and get the kids something to eat. I had to go to the bathroom and there were two line ups in the Starbucks. One for coffee and one for the bathroom. While I was waiting, a lady with a small kid walked up to the front of the line, not realizing the line up was for the bathroom. The lady in front of me told her sharply that she had to wait her turn. Once she went into the bathroom I turned around and said to the lady with the small kid to go ahead of me and she looked very relieved. Clearly you can tell which people that have small kids. When a kid has to go, they have to go....immediately. There is no waiting. After I was finished, we headed over to the start line and the kids had to stop at every puddle to play. The race was starting in less than five minutes and as usual, I was running to the start line. At least this time I managed to make it to the start line BEFORE the race started. I looked around for the 3:50 or 4:00 pace bunnies but couldn't see them. I did spot the 4:15 pace bunny at the front of the pack near the start line. WTF????

The race started and I jogged easily for the first couple of kilometers. My brother Glen and his family were there as we headed down Yonge Street with the wind at our back. Sweet. Within two km, I was warming up fast and I ditched the garbage bag I was wearing (I was getting funny stares in the Starbucks). The rain was on and off but more importantly the wind was at our backs. I ran with an old neighbour for a couple of minutes as we chatted. She remembered my name but I didn't remember her name. Doh!

One of the problems I've had during long training runs was nutrition. I talked to coach before the race and he said I should be consuming 300 calories per hour. I never came even close to that amount so I was a little bit hesitate to crank up the calories but I didn't want to run out of gas during the race. I calculated that would be two GU gels per hour and one bottle of Amino Vital. Coach suggested I use the 35 mm canisters that film came in and fill them with Amino Vital and add one salt tablet. The plan was to run with one water bottle and when I emptied it, I would refill it at the water stations and add the Amino Vital as I ran. I had to drink one bottle per hour so I ran with four canisters and about eight GU gels. I wore my riding jersey that had three deep pockets plus I had two GU gels in the running belt. This strategy worked out quite good as I knew they would be giving out Power Gel on the course as well. They taste gross but do the job.

With the help of a nice tail wind, I hit the 21.1 km mark at an easy 1:54. As we ran along Lake Ontario, I followed a guy that was running at my pace. At some points I was running so close to him, if he stopped suddenly, I would have ran him over. I was only about one or two strides behind him. I hoped I could draft off him on the return trip back to the city (eastward into the headwind) after the 30 km turn around point. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep up the pace with the headwind quickly taking its toll and I passed him around the 34 km mark and never saw him again. I was beginning to struggle as the winds were quite furious at some points. I knew I wasn't able to hold my earlier pace and it was only a matter of how much the headwind would slow my pace down. I tried to hold a 5:30 min\km but it ended up more like 5:45 min\km and some times it was at 6:00 min\km. By the 36 km mark I started saying to myself, "ok its only 6 km to go. That's only one loop of the Rammerville loop I sometimes run around my house.

As we headed up University Ave, my pacing really began to slowdown as I kept drinking the Amino Vital. I could feel my calf really cramp up but figured I could gut it out. I hate the finish line as its 3/4 around Queens Park Circle and it feels like it will never end. I managed a slight sprint at the last 200 meters but had nothing in the tank. As soon as I crossed the finish line and stopped running, both my calves seized up and I fell on the ground. Several volunteers ran over but I was ok after a couple of minutes. I collected my big honking finishing medal which weighs about 5 pounds and got one of the solar blankets to keep warm. The wind was whipping around and it was cold. I made my way over to the food tent where they were giving out bagels, bananas and tangerines. Pretty pathetic. Someone gave me a carton of chocolate milk so I sipped that and collected my bananas.

I hobbled my way to the exit as my shin splint was killing me and looked for Tammy and the kids. I prayed I'd find them quickly as I was absolutely freezing and my teeth were chattering. I couldn't find them and I knew this was going to be trouble. I told them I would meet them in the "family area" which I thought was on the southern part of Queen's Park so I hobbled\shuffled to the southern end (about 400 meters) only to find it empty. I turned around and headed back to the finish line. I was absolutely freezing at this point and hypothermia might be a problem. I borrowed someone's phone to call Tammy but only got her voice message. I headed back into the finishing area where they had warm tents for massages. I signed up for one as my calves were killing me but was worried that Tammy and the kids would be waiting in the cold and rain. I headed back to the exit and I asked (begged) a volunteer to call Tammy. Again, he got her voice mail and he left a message. Just then, Tammy appeared at the exit gate and thankfully she didn't have the kids. She left them at a friend's house.

We hobbled back to the car which was parked a long way from the finish line and I was absolutely freezing. Finally we got in the car and I cranked the heater to 30 degrees Celsius. Traffic was heavy heading back uptown and it seemed like it took forever as my teeth were still chattering. We headed back up to Tammy's friend house near the start line. We stopped at a Tim Hortons were I shuffled out to use the bath room. I sure got a lot of strange stares just like the Starbucks six hours earlier.

All in all, not a bad race given the weather but not great. I was on pace to finish around 3:48 but the end killed me. I ran the first half at 1:54 but the second half at 2:00 for a finishing time of 3:54. Good for 498 out of 1,296 and 61/115 for my age group.

Thankfully I didn't have to ride 180 km before this run or swim 3.8 km before the ride.

Funny of the day # 1: I ran by a guy running with in bare feet. I asked him if he forgot his shoes and he replied he didn't want to get them wet

Funny of the day # 2: I ran by my daughter Rebecca before the one kilometer mark. She yelled encouragingly that I was almost done

Funny of the day # 3: In order to qualify for Boston, I would needed a 3:31 finish. Not even close.