Post Race Lessons

Today is that day. I've been putting it off, but the numbers just keep increasing and it looks more silly.

I am removing the countdown timer for Ironman Muskoka as it has been almost 48 days since!

In those 48 days, I've learned alot.
1) If you don't train properly for a 1/2 IM, it will hurt for MANY days post-race.
2) Nothing is sacred between my wife and I. I must also include the "Lunch ladies" and random people she decides to share the yellow-socks story with.
3) Everytime the yellow-socks story gets told, it gets ever more exagerrated. They were NOT yellow.
4) When you tell someone you did a 1/2 Ironman, the average response at best is "Thats nice". You could just as well have told them 5km run or Full Iron or Double Iron and they would have been equally as impressed. There are those that get it, and then there is all the rest.
5) Your feelings for your bike will succomb to a love-hate relationship. I love to hate my bike. I don't even want to look at it until at least 4 weeks post-race.
6) Post-Race recovery sounds like a planned important part of the process. What they really meant to say is, "you will be so sick of training that you will gain 10lbs, go soft and your first workout will feel like an Ironman even though you only went for a 5km run". If you don't use it - you lose it.
7) Blisters take exactly 30 days to fully heal.
8) You will finally understand why people looked at you funny when you told them you signed up for a Half-Iron without ever doing a triathlon in your life and were still in the clydesdale category mountain biking.
9) You will be completely ignorant to the reasons why triathlon coaches look at you with dispair when they hear you signed up for a Full Ironman without first ever doing a Half-Iron and you've only got a couple sprints under your belt.
10) When coaches look at you in the manner described in #9 - you will get nervous.
11) You will never buy enough clothing with Ironman logo's on it. You will always wish you would have bought more. Wear it with pride.
12) DO NOT forget about the soiled clothing in that gym bag you didn't unpack when you got home from the event. You will need to burn those clothes.
13) Just looking at your bike will make you sick to your stomach, followed by the words "I hate you!"
14) The pictures taken by the 'professional' photographer at the race will always catch you picking your nose, sleep-walking(eyes clsoed) or some heinous facial expression as if someone just farted in your general direction. You will buy those pictures anyways.
15) You will cringe at the cost of the merchandise from #14. You will buy them nonetheless.
16) It takes a month before you start courting your bicycle again. Play gentle, take it nice and slow.
17) When you finally start workout out again, someone WILL eventually offer you a hammer gel / power bar / cliff bar / electrolyte tablet, try not to lash out and slap said offering out of the extended hand followed by the words 'phuck that $hit!!'. They were just trying to be polite.
18) Politely ingesting said products from #17 will immediately induce vomitting and bring back the freshly forgotten pain memories from your race.
19) 6 weeks after your race, you will forget all pain ever existed during the event. You will only remember the highlights, the glory and begin to convince yourself that it was actually easy. This is usually followed by registering for the next big thing - that is if you haven't already pulled a #9.

On the training front there is nothing to report. I worked late last night and skipped my planned workout, whatever it was going to be. The JPO program is like that, it changes on the fly. Very dynamic. So today was supposed to be a recovery day but since I 'recovered' yesterday I think I'll get some strength training in. I'm actually looking forward to a bike ride, assuming the weather is good this weekend.

Double Down

I don't know why they would send the letter to an address, I haven't lived at in 10 years. I went to pickup my supposed Jury duty letter, to find that it was just a questionaire to qualify me for jury duty. Well considering I dont live at my father's anymore, I guess that can go unanswered. It said you had 5 days to answer, it's been longer than that. How do they manage to get my address so wrong?

Anyhow this leads into my excuse for not training Wednesday night. I got talking with Dad over pizza for longer than planned,  and came home with the good intention of running in the rain but I had to give the Mrs. attention as she was pissed I didn't 'check-in' that I wouldn't be home for dinner. I'm such a bad husband. She'll spank me later for it though. I hope! :)  Anyhow, with Wednesday being a write-off I thought I would make up for it Thursday. I immediately ran out the door to get a trail run in at Dundas Valley. It is a 'lolipop' course, starting at the end of the stick. I got 90% of the way around the loop to find that the trail was closed for the filming of some stupid show Nikita. I had to turn back and in essence doubled the distance that I had planned. They were lucky I had enough daylight, otherwise I would have ran right through the set while waving the finger. Classy, I know. Nonetheless, before the end of my run I was feeling mild shin splint from the excessive climbing and distance. This route is very hilly, almost no flat. I tried to justify skipping my planned swim that night since I ran twice as far as I wanted. I hummed and hawed and left late to get to the pool, but I did leave! It worked out in the end because since I arrived to the pool after lap-swimming session began, the receptionist had already closed the till and I didn't have to pay! Woohoo! This happens from time to time. I got a casual 2000m in and 15 minutes in the sauna.

This would be my first catch-up evening to date by doubling up my workouts to make up for one that I missed. Normally Friday is my recovery day, but I may have to shift things around again tonight. I may work late again, so we'll see if I'm skipping my date with the gym.

Late Tuesday

Whoa - apparently I forgot to publish this one the other day. This was meant for Tuesday lol.

I squeezed in between the Titanic and an Iceberg. Here we were again on a Monday night down to 4 lanes because the Master's swim was swimming in the main pool and taking most of the real estate up. I pick a 1/2 lane between H.M.S. and large chunk of frozen water. It was fine at first, but as time went on the Titanic started taking on water an increased in size. She literally took up 2 full lanes for herself. The 'breast stroke' had her arms flailing about as wide as she could reach. I thought I was going to get clawed. At this point I swear it was deliberate because who needs that much room??  Compound that with the fact the Titanic was drawn into that Iceberg and here was little old me being crushed in between two goliaths. As annoying as it was being sandwiched between the two, I know that a mini should never play chicken with a garbage truck, I would definitely lose. I just kept an eye on my lane and swerved around the traffic.
90% of the time, I'm a floater. I naturally float and streamline quite nicely through the water, but not tonight. I was a sinker. I don't know what it was, but I was dragging under water more than ever. This required alot more energy to overcome the drag and I thought about cutting my swim short at 2000m. Even at that distance it's more than enough for a maintenance phase of my training, perhaps too much. I had a goal of 3000m tonight though, no reason for it, just a number I made up on my own as part of the JPO program. Luckily, eventually the Titanic either got out of the water or sunk because she disappeared. Now I could have a full width of a lane to myself. At that point I figured I would just swim until 3000m or if I detect a cramp. I'm happy to say I came nowhere near cramping.
I'm not sure what it is, but my swim mask has been giving me a hard time. Slight leakage and to make the seal tight I practically have to suck my eyeballs out of there sockets. There is even popped blood vessels around my eyes like bruising from the swim mask. If anyone asks, I just tell them Mrs. LoTC told me to say I tripped and fell. I usually try to crack a tear and look submissive as if I'm covering up the abuse that she's been beating me. This mask used to be perfect. I suspect the silicone-like rubber is beginning to show its age. I did get the mask gently used from Training Payne  as he picked it up while at Clearwater 70.3 championship. I love this mask though, I will never buy a set of goggles ever again. I can see so clear without the light-bending effect that goggles have with the angles in the transparent plastic. Masks are far superior for my warped head.
The back pain from Saturday's mountain bike ride is still here. I thought the swim would help it, or even the 15 minutes in the sauna but this was to no avail. I should get on the bike and work my way through the pain. It's just like the spring time when my muscles are weak, I need to stay on it and eventually the pain goes away.

Maintenance Success

Well that was a successful weekend.
Friday's rest day felt great, I even ate reasonably healthy! That evening we hit an information session hosted by Second Wind Conditioning coach Nancy and Millcroft fitness for a 20 week half-Ironman program. While we live far away and probably cannot participate in most of the group workouts, I thought this could be good for Fran to meet up with other woman and find some training partners. I on the other hand had to make it very clear in my introduction that "I AM a Mountain Biker". Throughout the evening I was asked about my 1/2 Iron experience and the coaches looked to me to share my thoughts on some of the training regiments. Sorry, but what part of MTB'r did they miss? Do NOT take advice from me as I am probably an example of what NOT to do. Even after I made it clear that my training consisted little more than a ton of mountain biking, they still kept turning to me. I had fun with it nonetheless, people were polite and laughed at my jokes. I think the majority of everyone there looked a little overwhelmed at the amount of training listed on the example program. Not a very socialable group as we met up with Adena for drinks afterwards and a few laughs yet nobody from the rest of the group joined us. I suspect my jokes were worse than I thought. :)

Saturday morning we joined a big group of riders at Hydro Cut in Waterloo for a mountain bike ride. Conditions were perfect, albeit I overdressed for the temperature. Everyone was peeling layers off at every stop along the way. It was surprisingly warm out. The group was large, 20+ people of various skills and fitness. Due to the one-way nature of these trails, it turned out quite well with nobody getting lost or dropped. I hadn't been on a mountain bike in awhile and it showed. I was able to set a decent pace, but not without some huffing and puffing. My back was very sore later and I was disappointed that I had to work so hard at trails that were usually quite easy for me. At least I know now that some leg strengthening is needed.
Sunday morning was supposed to be a spin class with aforementioned fitness center. Fran went without me though, as my back was too sore to sit on an exercise bike not fitted properly for a tall guy. My back has been in knots since. We did however get out for a trail run in the afternoon. The upper Dundas Valley trails were muddy and littered with horse dung which made it a challenge. The leaves would cover the 'land mines' and every once and awhile you wondered if that was mud you just stepped in or not. It would flick up on the back of your legs and you just prayed that was mud. Ew. We'll need to find dryer trails to run on, the lower Dundas Valley has a nice gravel bed but too many people in the way. Once it gets colder though, that should fix the traffic problem.

I've been shopping for a Tri-Bike. I think I prefer to buy one used as I can tool on my own bike fine. Anything that needs work can be cheaply upgraded by ordering the parts from the UK. The bigger problem is trusting an online sale. I don't like the idea of sending money to a stranger and hoping they actually send me the goods. Regardless, I hit a couple bike shops to see what we have around here. I'm looking forward to visiting a couple other stores this week to pick the brains of the experts. Who knows, maybe I'll find something I like.

Overall a successful week. I manged to hit every maintenance workout and even kept the eating reasonable!
WEEKLY TOTALS (Maintenance Week, Off Season):
Run - 2:30hrs
Bike - 2:45hrs
Swim- 1:10hrs

First Big R

Do you hear that? Shhhhh... you have to be very quiet and listen. Yes, that's right - that's the sound of my resting heartrate. Oh and I get to maintain this for another 36 hours! Yay! Tomorrow is the first rest day of my self-proclaimed maintenance plan created by JPO.

JPO, John Proc Online, competes directly with MAO, Mark Allen Online, triathlete coaching program. So far, I've only enrolled myself in this program as nobody is willing to pay me $hit for my coaching.. I'm confident JPO has a superior program than MAO, however I have yet to prove that on the race track. It seems everyone that is following the MAO program is whooping my butt in the races. I've made some improvements to the JPO program and I intend on delivering a world of hurt to those that are following MAO. Namely Rodney, Brian, and Bryan. Well I can dream anyhow.

So last night was a swim night. I met up with my arch nemesis Freddie for the first time. He's the one at fault for planting the Ironman idea in my head in the first place. Surprisingly, he's a really great guy. I expected a roughneck knuckle dragger, chewing on a peice of straw in his beat up pickup truck with a gun rack and three legged dog. I mean, afterall he is from Drumbo. Oh wow, Bing maps actually found Drumbo when I did the search! I think they have one stop sign or something in the middle of nowhere. :)  So anyhow, I was glad to see we hit it off with some triathlon talk immediately. He sounded as excited about this stuff as I am, he definitely knows his stuff. We kicked off a few laps and I immediately started feeling the pizza I wolfed down earlier. When I say pizza, I mean Pizza singular. As in a whole. I ate the whole darn pizza, it was so good and I've been behaving myself all week so I treated myself. I may have overlooked the effects it would have on my swim. I put a good 1000m in and then we hit the sauna. Freddie is hoping to hit a half-Iron next year. I know he can do it, he has the personality, I look forward to getting some training time in with someone other than Mrs. LoTC as I think she's getting sick of me. :) Overall it was a successful man-date. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing more of each other in the future.


Rest Dayz



I felt bad cutting my swim short last night, so tonight I went for a fast run. Knowing tomorrow is a rest day, I picked up the pace a little. It wasn't easy, I was out of my comfort zone, but I knew I can relax when it's all done. It's new for us to exercise before dinner. This is a necessary evil because of lack of daylight, but I think I'm finding I enjoy it. I'm not rushed when we sit down and eat. I know that I can relax the rest of the night so it's much more enjoyable. I hate waiting for the workout, I like getting it over with.

I didn't get any pics or videos for the blog still. i'm still working on getting a replacement phone. We're aiming for an iphone so I'm hoping for high quality blog material in the future. In the meantime, I've got nothing.

Fall Trails

Trail Babe

Capt. Morgan Stance

Hill Repeats

It's a bit of an inconvenience to drive that far to just go for a run, but these trails are umatched anywhere else as far as quality and difficulty. The Mrs. must have read my blog because she was ready to workout the moment we got home from work. No slacking this night. Usually we would eat dinner first and then go workout, but daylight is in short supply. We drove 25 minutes to get to the trails, but they are worth it. I remembered to bring the camera this time so I can collect some material for the blog. It's annoying running with a camera though, it bounces around in the pocket too much. The phone would be smaller, but my company phone is busted and I'm waiting for the replacement. Regardless, after a not-so-brief pause for the GPS to sync, we were off! Ohhh the hills. I'm still sore from Sunday's trail run, and here we are again. It's more important to enjoy myself right now as I'm only slowly getting back into the training routine so I promised myself I would walk more this night. What a significant improvement over Sunday though - there was nobody around. We had all the trails to ourselves, nobody got in the way. It was so quiet and beautiful. Sunset said 6:30pm and we were pushing it for time, but with the leaves gone from the trees we had just enough light to spare at the end. Deer, wild kitty, and plenty of tempermental squirrels made up the scenery. The sore muscles went away after 10 minutes of running, everything warmed up just fine. What a great night. Outside of the drive to the trails, I look forward to more of this. I enjoy running uphills, just like I enjoy climbing hills on a bike. It feels like a real workout and I love a challenge. Feel the burn! :)

Running before dinner meant we had the rest of the night to ourselves. I didn't feel rushed or anything. The other thing penciled on the schedule for the evening was volleyball. My company has a volleyball team that we used to play on. That is, until I broke my knee a couple years ago. I do some crazy stuff on bikes and have avoided serious injury, yet I go play some recreational volleyball and I require surgery with over a year of physio and recovery. Needless to say, I'm hesitant to return to the sport. If it was a freak accident, then so be it - but the surgeon made it clear to me that my other knee is just as bad and he expects I'll be back to see him sooner than later. As much as I would like to play, Fran convinced me it's just not worth it. Just the same, he said if I took up running I will wear my knees out before I'm 50 which is too young for knee replacement surgery. I may have ignored that advice just a little... lol.

So I'm shopping for running attire. I need some pants, preferably not jogging pants. Something more like my cycling tights, but for running. Don't suggest Lulu Lemon because that is just crossing the line! My current jogging pants are waaaay to big for me now. It feels like I'm running with a parachute on. I'm also looking for a new pair of pedals for the mountain bike. I broke mine finally after 15 years of use. That has to be a record! It still kind of turns, but with a horrible crunches noise and lots of play in the spindle but I'm really hoping it lasts long enough this Saturday that I can join the Defiant MTB group ride at Hydro cut. They ride a casual pace, so theres a chance the pedal might have one more ride in it. We'll see. I have to order the pedals from the UK and wait on shipping. It could be a couple weeks before I put the order in. I would like to order running and cycling tights too. I'll post pics, my a$$ looks great in tights ;)

Masters Fail

She wouldn't budge. I poked, proded, kicked, pushed and nagged her to death yet I couldn't get her off the darn couch. I hate those moments. When your training partner won't join you on a workout, you start to make excuses for yourself and consider skipping it too. My muscles were really sore from Sunday's crazy hill trail run, so I wouldn't mind not going for a swim tonight. On the other hand, I know that when my muscles are sore, a swim makes everything feel better. Well, the Mrs. wasn't going to join me so I decided I would sadly hit the pool on my own.
When I got there, I seen a sign saying the 'Masters swim is in the middle pool tonight'. Masters swim? What's that? I've never seen anyone doing laps here outside of the regular 7-10 people and everyone gets there own lane. Well not tonight. Apparently the 'Masters swim' is held at the same time as the 'open lap swimming' schedule and they take up over half the pool. I just thought it was a busy night at first, but when I crossed the lanes to find a lane of my own, I got some strange glares as if I was in the wrong place. I didn't know that this is a separate paid program and I'm not worthy of sharing lane time with. Why hold open lap swimming at the same time as an official program and then not mark the lanes. How rude. Anyhow, I found the lane for the 'rejects' which of course was down to half a lane since the non-masters had to squeeze off to the side and share 4 lanes. Once I started I felt good though. I just ignored everyone else and did my own thing. My own thing consists of continuous Free for 2000+ meters. No stopping, no flip turns, no pushing off the wall. I'm not interested in drills or equipment. I just do exactly what I would do in a race - swim. In the back of my head I was thinking about checking out how to join the Master's swim group as it would be nice to have people to work out with. Then again, that's what the wife WAS for until she abandoned me to watch Dancing with the Stars. So sad. Anyhow, I quickly decided against the Master's swim idea as it looked like a real waste of time. There was a 'coach' that was giving direction to swimmers but they were stopping every few hundred meters for a pow-wow. They'd swim a bit and then the whole group would stop. Those that were faster would stand around a wait for the slower ones, but ultimately they took a silly number of breaks and they weren't going much faster than me. I'm here for a workout, I don't feel like taking a break every 5 minutes so that group doesn't look good for me. If I feel myself getting sloppy with technique I'll take a 1 minute breather or slow it down. I do not practice sloppy technique, nor do I sprint all out for speed drills. That's just my training style, I'll change it up one day if I get bored. I strongly believe that what you do in pratice is what you'll do in a race. Kickboards, fins and these training devices are not what you have in a race so what's the point? I know what the point is, but still - I'll pass for now.
About 2000m into my swim I got a rude awakening. The nutcase 4 lanes over managed to 'accidently' swim sideways and wound up in my lane. She stopped right in front of me. I stopped and stood up and she was laughing and saying how she must have gone sideways.... sideways? 4 lanes sideways? Riiight. I asked her jokingly if she'd been drinking and she said only pool water. Well I guess that could do it. Regardless she didn't move out of the way. She just stood there with this jagged toothless smile and then tried to strike up a conversation. Annoying. She looked like one of those crazy old woman types that was there looking to pickup a friend or something. She just stood in my lane and started talking. I don't know what she said, cuz I just dove right back at it and swam around her. I still had another 500m left in my workout. She left shortly thereafter at least. I was worried she'd try to join me in the sauna afterwords. ick.
In the end I hammered out a good 2500m and felt good. I've even got comfortable with my 3-1 stroke-breath technique and I even alternate breathing to each side. I never thought I would see the day that I could be comfortable breathing to both sides! I was cold after that long swim so I sat in the sauna for longer than I should have. A good 20 minutes and I was well done. It warmed me up nicely though. I might consider wearing a swim cap next time. Maybe that will keep me a bit warmer in the pool? I hate wearing them, they're uncomfortable and I have Dumbo ears so I cant put the cap over my ears like everyone else. I just tuck it in behind and look like a giant elf. At least I'll look cool when I wear the one that says Ironman Muskoka on it. Yes, next time I'll try and wear it!

Dirt Run

Once you fall off the training routine, why is it always so tough to get going again? This was my day Saturday. I was done my medication and had no more excuses to not get out for a ride yet it took all my willpower to roll my phat ass out the door. Eventually I brushed the cobwebs off the mountain bike and decided I would go to Hilton for some techincal rock trail, except I would take it at an easy pace. My plan was messed up as soon as I got there since there was some kind of event going on and a peice of the main loop trail was closed for wagon rides. This meant I had to take the back entrance and go by the trailhead of Bent Rim trail which is arguably one of THE most technical trails around. It wasn't part of my plan to attempt that trail as I hadn't rode in awhile and its a serious upper body workout that I wasn't prepared for but since I'm passing the entrance to it, I just can't resist. What a crazy workout, my heartrate was maxed for the entirety of that trail. No falling or crashing which is an indication of a good ride. I did break my pedal though, the spindle and bearings on my old pedals have finally gave out. It's about time, I've been using these same pedals for 15 years! Overall it was just over an hour long, but I didn't want to push any harder as I just wanted a fun ride to get back into it so I cut it short.
On Sunday, I knew I wanted to get a run in. I've been meaning to do a trail run, not our typical railtrail but an actual offroad trail. We went to Dundas Valley and plotted out a short 5km loop. I thought that was short at the time, but the hills were relentless and again this was another day of max heartrate for an hour straight. Running on trails is very tough, namely the crazy hills. One thing that got real annoying was the crowded trails. Every 100 feet was a group of people blocking the entire trail. Even when they seen you, they didn't make room for a pass, and most of them cut you off. It was ridiculous. The horses didn't help either. In the future, I plan to run the upper trails on weekends. There is usually less people over that way. I'm sure it'll clear up once it gets cold out. Regardless, I really enjoyed the challenge of trail running, this should help make me a stronger runnner on flat road. I look forward to hitting trail again.
On Saturday I weighed in at the lowest I've been in over 10 years. Of course, the chineese food 2 nights in a row, pumpkin pie, buttered popcorn and chocolate almonds have erased that all time low already. I may have to do something about those less than stellar nutritional choices. I think the last 5lbs of weight loss was just me losing muscle. Everything has gone soft and flabby, but I don't think I mind - at least I know I'm 'well' rested.

Lumbergh Days

She was having sympathy pains for me. I knew we had a connection, and this just proves it! We were meant to be together. I just haven't met her yet, but of course She Wants Me!
Poor Chrissie Wellington. Defending Ironman World Champion and she couldn't even defend as she didn't race due to illness. That had to be a tough decision. Congrats to this years winner, whoever you are, but it must be tough knowing you only won because the real competition didn't show. I'd go nuts with that doubt in the back of my mind for the entire year, I hope she can back this win up next year when Chrissie actually competes. What an experience for the winner though, enjoy it!

Just the same, Epic Bill Bradley got sooooo close to crossing the channel. On the GPS map it looked like he was there. However once the sun set, the temperature dropped and he succombed to hypothermia. This guy is a hero, he is to keep his chin up regardless. He made it to the start line which is more than anything any of us will probably ever do in a lifetime. His battles won, or lost, inspire the rest of us to do great things.

Amidst all these battles comes good news. Training Payne finished Kona. The beer drinking, cigar smoking, Tri-Dork has finally done it. A well earned victory nonetheless. It's utter fail that he has become a role model for many aspiring athletes, including me. His story gives hope to the rest of us, that if he can do it - then so can I. :)

So my energy levels are slowly returning. I am excited to get to work in the mornings and get things accomplished, however by noon-hour I'm out of steam. I never understood people's obsession with coffee, but in my 'old age' I have come to appreciate it's effect. I was never a coffee drinker until recent so a large coffee will send me to the moon. I can't have a normal conversation after a large coffee, my thoughts and communication ability are in two different time zones. My mouth can't keep up and I end up looking like a fool. I try to lay low after drinking coffee and close my office door. My head has enough voices and thoughts without the effects of caffeine. Heck it even causes me to break a sweat as my heart feels like it's racing. It definitely wakes me up! The plus side now is that I get to walk around with me Ironman Muskoka 70.3 mug. I kinda feel like that guy Lumbergh from 'Office Space' movie. Come to think of it... I kinda talk like him too.

So I'm counting down the days before I can get back to training. The original plan was to be back already, however I am still on the meds and have not got back all my energy yet. I figure I'll be safe and start next week. I'll just have to suffer going soft in the meantime.

Fab to Flab

The day after my last post, things took a turn for the worse again. By the time I went to bed, the pain returned and I was back where I started on Monday. I got fed up and used the internet to self-diagnose because the Doctor wasn't much help and I need this to go away. Within minutes I found what it was. I could check off 6 out of 8 symptoms for it and there was no mistaking what it was. The silver lining was the part about how it will never heal on it's own without drugs. You have to see a doctor no matter what. I DID see a doctor and he was useless. It's comforting to know that Cracker Jack boxes are not just giving out driver's licenses these days as that is where this guy had to get his license to practice medicine. I was so mad at him.
A not-so-quick trip back to a different doctor and I got the drugs I needed. And not the cheap kind either as he said "this is the I.V. grade drug" as if he's pulling out the big guns or something. It sounds promising anyways.

On the training front, I've been getting lots of cardio in. Daily, I've been brushing my teeth. Heck, I even walked up the stairs a few times from the basement. Something as simple as picking my nose will cause me to break a sweat. I would argue that it was way easier to ride a bike a couple hours in the summer than it is to do these chores today. I'm physically drained. My energy levels are hitting rock bottom, I dont have much left to fight this  infection so I'm hoping the horse pills will work on their own.

Last night it became quite obvious. When cutting the sliver of turkey on my plate, I could feel the muscle hanging off my bicep. It was drooping and swaying back and forth. I've gone real soft. My appetite is non-existent too. I'm full after 2 peices of toast. That's like a feast for me. A recipe for Thanksgiving FAIL. This wasn't how I pictured it. I was hoping to pig out and then get back to training this week. I'm going to have to adjust plans, just as soon as I beat this Kidney infection.

I'm to tired to edit this post, I'll leave it as is. :)

Death Bed

Ew. The sweat is gathering on the inside of my elbows and back of the knees and running down my chest. The good news is, my headache has finally subsided enough that I can look at a computer screen.
Yup, I'm deathly Ill. What is it? I have no idea. The doctor figures some kind of infection but he couldn't figure out where it is coming from. Bowels are moving just fine, ears, throat are clear and there is no pain coming from anywhere. Annoying. Tuesday night I was up all night with a killer fever and intense naseua. I can deal with a fever, but the naseua was worse than when I was taking percocet for my knee surgery. Fran saved my life that night. I got up to take a pee and on the way back to bed my knees started to buckle. She jumped out of bed and caught me. I blacked out completely for a few minutes. I couldn't even string a sentence together, I was trying to tell her what was wrong with me incase she had to relay it to the ambulance crew. When I finally got my sight back I was laying down on the bathroom floor, I dont even know how I got there. I dont even remember falling. It was a very long night.
Wednesday wasn't much better. Again, the fever comes in waves, but the worst part is the cold. I've been getting 'the shakes' as if I'm freezing to death. Nothing is warming me up. I can't function, I just lay there and freeze. If it wasn't for Fran staying home to take care of me, I would be in the hospital for sure. On the plus side, I finally vomited. I've had this permanent feeling that I wanted to and finally out of nowhere in the middle of the night it finally happened. I think I was drinking too much water, and I needed electrolytes. I've been sweating way more than I thought. Poor Fran, the blankets were soaked last night. I think she's catching a cold with all these sleepless nights.
I'm thankful that the headache has finally ceased, but I think its just because of the advil. Gravol works wonders for the naseua. I started drinking powerade instead of water and I think it's working much better. The intense naseau has limited my choices to apple, bannanas. Toast is so-so.
I'm hoping to get a good night's sleep tonight. I slept pretty much all day yesterday. I feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck. My skin is tingley to the touch, almost like pain. I would like to shave this beard, but it's too painful.
Anyhow, I have to go air out now. I'm soaking wet. I would take my sweater off to dry off, but I wont want to risk succombing to the cold shakes again. I'd rather be super hot, than super cold. It's a cold that I can't warm up from, no matter what I try. I better feel good by tomorrow. I don't think you're supposed to have fevers for this long.
All this lack of training, I'm definitely going soft.

Stubborn Heroes

Before I went to bed last night, I had to send a barrage of support Bill's way! As I tweeted his account, his sister would read the tweets to him while he was in the water on his feed 'break'. Now, I wonder if he can actually hear someone on the boat when sitting in the washing machine that is the English Channel, but nonetheless I'll assume they had the logistics figured out. He was already in the water for a couple hours, so I thought the following would help:

• DEATH BEFORE DNF!  #DontTakeMeSeriously :)  lol 
•  75% of the world is water - Can you Swim? :)
•  Tell him I sent him a message in a bottle but he's gonna have to swim further to find it lol
•  I went out back and pee'd in the lake. Tell him that warm spot was probably mine, he can thank me later.
• Motivational tweet for @epicbillbradley since he's in the water now: "IS THAT A FIN?!! SWIM FASTER!!" be sure to point and scream #JAWS

I stuck around long enough before going to bed to listen in on his progress. It sounded like the first two feedings were Fail. I remember reading his blog about the crazy waves on his first attempt and hoped the sea sickness will subside in time. In the morning I expected to wake up and find Bill just past the halfway mark of his journey. I beleive they guesstimated a 20 hour swim!
This wasn't to be. The sea sickness took it's toll and you simply cannot complete an epic-anything with no fuel in your stomach to power the effort. He did make it longer than he did last time though!
DON'T COUNT HIM OUT. If anything this guy has shown, is that he is one determined stubborn S.O.B. and he will be back. Like as in, NEXT WEEK! He applied to get a permit for another attempt as early as next week. He has struck a deal with the boat pilot and picked up some prescription sea sickness pills and is more determined than ever. I hope he gets his permit, the suspense is killin' me!

So this brings me to the other hero of the day - Scott Goodfellow - you can view the video below to find out who Scott is. It just so happens he left a comment on Training Payne blog and I remembered his name from the video. The video below is by far the greatest Ironman video EVAR!!! NBC captured Scott's battle and his effort has inspired so many and has become quite the IM celebrity. Since the video, Scott has joined the P.F.G. club. Life, wife, kids and a good 50lbs later and he is determined to get back in shape and is aiming for the Ottawa Marathon in the spring. I look forward to awarding him his 'P' in PFG in the spring!

I can feel the 'blah' leaving me as I write this. These past couple days have been exciting and I'm stoked! It's cold out, but damnit I WANT to go for a ride. I think I'm ready to start the road to Lake Placid. Oh, now that my passion is back, I can finalize my gameplan to Ironman.

No Training Today. Final Phat-Mode Rest Day.

Greatest. Ironman. Video. EVAR.