2010 Year End Review

Reflecting on a Year of WIN!

So here is my year end review. This is a good opportunity for those just showing up to the party to get a sense of where I am coming from now that I'm headed to Ironman Lake Placid.

So this blog started halfway through the year, which coincides with a successful registration to Ironman Lake Placid. Obviously some of these events didn't make it to the blog at the time.

2010 OVERVIEW:

I got registered for Ironman Muskoka 70.3 in late 2009. Having NEVER done a triathlon before, nor even seeing one in real life, this was all alien to me. I searched and studied all the material I could get my hands on and I had a plan. I spent the begining part of the year with good intentions, on my bike trainer and barely making 5km runs. I came out of the gates too hard, I quickly found myself layed up with an IT Band injury. It took forever for the injury to heal and by the time it felt better it was spring and I was on the bike enjoying the outdoors. I was so fixated with riding that this whole 'running thing' was getting in the way of cycling. Thus I did no running.

Paris to Ancaster MTB 60Km, April 18th, 2010

I Then Got Distracted from My Training...

Here in the spring I was enjoying the traditional kickoff to cycling season. It was cold and wet and in honest truth, miserable. This is a tradition to do this event, however in 2011 I will face reality and scratch this less than stellar event from my list. By this time I had already given up on running, not because it was hard - but because it would be easy. Right? My plan was simple: Ride hard on the bike, transfer the built-up cardio to running. Suck it up on the rest.

Milton Sprint Triathlon, June 6, 2010

So here is where that not-so-genious plan reveals itself. I did just bareley enough swimming to survive the swim. The bike was 'ok' albeit the fact I froze my ass off. I don't cope well with cold and who in their right fricken mind wears a skimpy tri-outfit into freezing water and hits a windy bike immediately after? That was a shock to the system. Oh the run? Yeh, I think I ran less than 10% of it. My back seized up from the cold and running was 1000 times harder than it looked. I enjoyed the experience nonetheless, I seen this as an awesome challenge. Why suck at 1 sport when I could suck at 3 at the same time? I was hooked!

Ride to Conquer Cancer 200Miles June 12-13, 2010

The biggest shocker to this event was the other people doing it. 100 Miles back to back. I thought I was cool being able to comfortably finish a Century on my own but here at this event they had little old ladies on hybrid bikes knocking off the 200Mile route. Damn, I was blown away by the human spirit. A century is not just reserved for the elite. It really wasn't all the tough. Nonetheless, an awesome event and I spent the latter of the 2nd day taking lead for some buddies which made it a blast. I would do it all over again if it wasn't for the difficulty of raising such a large sum of money to get entry. It was more stressful than I would have liked. I will pass on this one in 2011 in favour of TBN TNT 200 Mile ride.

24hrs Solstisce MTB, June 26-27, 2010

By now, I forgot about that running thing. Back to mountain biking some more and the odd swim. This event was simply a fun one, namely we had the awesomest team EVAR - we had 2 hand-cyclists!! These guys were superstars, they were the first parapalegic mountain bike hand cyclists to take on the 24hr mountain bike race. Amazing. The fun around the campsite made it all worth while, the cycling was nothing to write home about. I think the previous year's mudfest sucked the fun out of 24hrs racing. The repeated wet events have taken there toll.

Peterborough Sprint Triathlon, July 4, 2010
Ahhh yes. Have you ever raced intoxicated? In 35 Celsius and blazing sun? Well this is the event for you. A weekend at Brian's cottage is a guaranteed 10 pounds gained, Loosen your belt a good 5 notches and you get to experience a week long hangover. It was THAT good.

As far as the race goes, I don't remember much. I know that we would have blown well over the limit at the start line. I remember the heat beating on my face as it reflected off the pavement. I remember I stopped sweating early in the run. I was beyond dehydrated and overheating. The run was the toughest run in my life, I would do IM Muskoka's run before I did this short little 8.5km Drunk Oven 'sprint'.

So again, my run appeared weak. I was itchin' to get another race in since this was not a fair assesment of my running progress. The conditions were less than legal stellar. The weekend at the cottage was epic though, one of those ones you pay for remember forever.

---------August 2010 Blog Starts Here, ALSO read the Race Reports for more detail--------

Element Offroad MTB Triathlon, August 22, 2010 RACE REPORT
Rainy, foggy, muddy, cold and it's an offroad triathlon - the first in Ontario in like 12 years or something like that. Yeh baby! This was pure awesome. Read the race report for details. My run came together on this one, I really look forward to doing this again. I managed to run the whole thing, albeit extremely slow, but the key was that my legs shuffled in a running-like fashion which was a big improvement to date. I think about it all the time. I just wish there were more of these events around.

24hrs Hot August Nights MTB, August 28-29, 2010 RACE REPORT

The team bailed last minute for a variety of good reasons. This left an opportunity to have my kids to a lap at the race. Again, this was all about fun. I barely got 1 lap in as this was more of a camping trip than anything. I forsee not signing up for 24hr races in the future. People are tired of the bad weather.





Ironman Muskoka 70.3, September 12, 2010 RACE REPORT

Longest, toughest race of my life. I survived, nothing more, nothing less. My biggest take away from this event - I don't cope well with the cold. It was so cold it was unbareable. To my surprise, the best part was the running. I dreaded the run, expected to walk the whole thing but it was the 'warmest' part of the race. I started to feel my limbs again and it felt good. I pushed to hold pace with an experience runner and I RAN THE WHOLE DARN THING! A sad pace, but nonetheless I didn't walk it! That was a huge sense of accomplishment for me, especially after doing so miserable on the bike. I was borderline hypothermic on the bike. The other big take away from this event - I got my ass handed to me. I was really hoping to beat Rodney but I wasn't even in the same zip code as him by the time he finished. Simply put - he put the training time in, I didn't. I did not give the run the respect it deserved and I rely'd too much on my natural athletic ability. He did awesome, I look forward to crushing him in Lake Placid. I never lose, thus this bitter sweet defeat will fuel me for the training days to come. We all finished, Brian included, which is the biggest WIN of us all - the guy drank more alcohol and bad foods than Rodney and I combined. He had a respectable finish, and managed an unbalanced lifestyle. I'm jealous as we all got the same shirt and medal in the end. He just had a ton more fun along the way lol!

Rides of Note: 200 Mile Road Ride

So in August 2009 I completed a 200 Mile road ride, all in the same day. I figured I would try to make this an annual event but bump up the date to July-ish because I ran out of daylight the first time. This ride stared out great, but chosing a day where it was 40 Celsius was not a very good decision. I love the heat, but by about the 100 Mile mark I was beginning to fade. I never stopped sweating, I concentrated on staying hydrated but I felt a sickening wrenching in my stomach everytime a heat wave blew up onto me from the scorching ashphalt. Eventually, around the 259km-ish mark I turned into a wicked headwind along the lake. If I was only going to be out for another couple hours, I would have kept going. But the wind had me down to a crawl and I'll be damned if I'm out in that heat for yet another 5 hours. I threw in the towel. Wrestled the Fail-Demons for a short time but then regretted not quitting sooner. For after that ride, I coward away from heat which threw a wrench in my training/riding. Even the slightest days that were hot made me want to vomit stepping into the heat. I plan to do this again next year, except on a cooler day.

Vacations of Note: Gravenhurst Porcupine Ridge, Buckwallow, Torrance Barrens MTB Extravaganza
RIDE REPORT PORC  RIDE REPORT BUCK-TORRANCE  

Greatest mountain bike trip EVAR! And I got to spend it with my wife!! I look forward to do this as many times as I possibly can next year. These are the most fun technical trails I have ever been on!

2010 Wrap-Up

So to wrap up the year, I spent a couple months after IM Muskoka 70.3 doing absolutley nothing. Not even cycling, especially cycling since I had such a miserable time freezing on the bike I didn't even want to think about riding. I can honestly say I was fully recovered both physically and mentally by November and started peicing together the training plan and base maintenance for Ironman Lake Placid. Here I am 9 weeks into the maintenance plan and I'm in way better shape than when I started Muskoka. The difference here is that I am actually training serious, which includes a ton of running.



IMLP Training - BRING IT!!





LESSONS LEARNED

Rezpekt teh Rawn! -  It is harder than it looks, do it often, you can't cheat it.

Spring is Dangerous - The nice weather will call me out to play on the Mountain bike. Stick the the plan, dont stop your running & swimming or it will hurt later.

Event Overload - reduce the number of events. I had no time for relaxation, I was overwhelmed.

Losing Sucks Ass - Lick my wounds, Savour the taste of bitter defeat, Come back with a Vengence

Slipped these numbers in after the fact to just have something to look back on. I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't properly train for the Ironman Muskoka 70.3. Although, this does not include the beginning of my training program which started a little over a year ago. The Cycling is 90% mountain bike by the way.

2010 Training Totals:

Swim: 26.5hrs   77Km
Bike:  258hrs   4355Km (I do not count Km's on a trainer, only hrs)
Run: 44hrs    432Km
Total: 342 hrs (Includes category 'other')

Week 9 Review



Party Cat says: U slack too much



So this was the first week to incorporate early mornings. I decided that I would get up for two of the mornings to get a trainer ride in, and just sleep in the other two. I contemplated getting up for all 4 workout days as it might not be a good idea to change up my sleep routine like that. Is consistent wakeup time better than a varying one? I do not know, but nonetheless I had a better chance of getting out of bed if I knew I could sleep in the next day.



Kona Partaay

The week started off perfect. I rolled out of bed on time and made the workouts count. It was a perfect week until the weekend. I took my scheduled rest day on Friday as usual but unfortuntely my rest spanned Saturday and Sunday due to hangover. To make matters worse, I went on an eating binge that included more candy, sweets and pie than I would like to admit. Complete nutrition fail.



Compared to previous weeks I still managed to squeeze out a barely adequate number of maintenance hours thanks to those early mornings. From here on in, I've decided no more alcohol for the rest of the holidays. The sweets on the other hand I may have to do battle with.



More Partay. I am all Partied Out..



I have made several adjustments to my bike fit since I started on the trainer. In the new year I plan a professional fitting. I've tried to do it on my own, but it's just not the same. I don't have the confidence in my setup and I can feel my neck getting tired from holding my head up. I don't know if this is due to me not being adequately trained to hold the aero position for a long time, or if my setup is wrong. Either way I'll find out soon. Then I can concentrate on strengthing the muscles that seem to need work. My neck gets tired and sore, and the front of my shoulders do too. I'm not used to the aero position. This sucks.



WEEK 9 TOTAL (Set 3, Week 1 - Maintenance Mode)

Swim: 1:40hrs
Bike: 2:00hrs
Run: 2:20hrs
Strength: nil

Total: 6:00hrs

Fish PB



That was the longest swim to date!

4000m continuous Free, with a 1 minute break at the 3000m point and 30 seconds at 2000m mark.

I was getting fatigued since I also punished myself with an unplanned 1.5hr moderate trainer ride before the swim.

Today my arms feel like jello. My hands feel like they have a brick strapped to them. This is great!



Red Eyez. Note to self: Fix teh UniBrow!

My eyes are very irrated. I read a few articles about red eyes after swimming and it's likely I have allergy to the chlorine. Mrs. LoTC administered eye drops last night and it felt like it helped a bit, but this morning they are red. I look and feel like hangover eyes. Need more eyedrops, but I hate them! The wife likes to put them in for me, she likes to inflict pain on others. I've never seen her so excited given the chance to pour alcohol on a wound or rip a bandaid off my hairy legs. She's sick like that.

I'm a little worried though. Everyone around me is ill, there is a cold thing going around. In my fatigued state I am likely to catch something. Maybe I'll walk around with a facemask or something.

Nipple Clamps

I phucking suck.

No really, that was like beyond suck.

It made Fail look like WIN.

Fail is something I would have to aspire to be. I would have been better off with Fail than what I just pulled off this weekend.

I'll spare the gorrey details. Lets just say 'I indulged' is the understatement of the year.

The entire weekend was bad food, desserts, sweets, a Phuck-ton of alcohol, cigars and what amounted to absolutely ZERO exercise whatsoever. Yup, I suck.

Oh I'd love to punish myself for being such an idiot. I deserve every ounce of punishment coming my way. I feel like I gotta get out the door on the bike and hold myself at lactate threshold till' my liver comes out my ass. Repeats. How many livers do you got? Nevermind, I'll just stuff it back in and keep doing them till I pass out.

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K, well aside from beating myself to a pulp - I think I'll draw the line here and moving forward I promise to behave myself for the remainder of the year. Yes, that is cheating cuz there's only a few more days left but you know what I mean. Moving along, I reserve the right to eat jellybeans at my Dad's xmas party. Outside of that, I will behave myself. With any luck, he'll forget to get jellybeans this year! :)

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Despite my wicked behaviour, I had the most awesome time at Adena's place Friday night. I got to sleep in her bed and everything! She may have touched my penis again, but given how intoxicated I was I do not remember.

The Training Payne Kona party was a hit. I love talking with John Barclay about his Ironman experience. He is a great story teller. You can tell he is passionate about what he has done. I still remember his stories from last year and they ring my ears frequently on training rides.

I left the entire batch of Ironman cookies at Bryan's place. The idea was to sabatoge his training cuz I knew he would eventually eat all the cookies himself. The plan seems to be going perfectly, however I did not forsee his kegregator delivering 1000 times more punishment back my way. A 2-day hangover sucks, thus I didn't get a single workout in. I just ate my brains out. I wonder if he planned this... Nahhh, he's too dumb for that. I'll let him take credit anyways.

I'm such a lightweight.

Uhhh so then there were 2 other xmas party's where I consumed a good 30,000 calories+++ or something like that. I'm mad at myself. I didn't exercise even the slightest self control whatsoever. It was horrific. I dont want to remember this weekend.

Can we pretend like it never happened?

Should I punish myself for being so naughty?

Maybe I'll double up on some workouts this week. Triple?

Beat myself over the head with a rolling pin? Anvil? 

Administer Hot Wax? Nipple clamps? Fran's Cooking?

Grrrrrr.... I'm livid!

I haven't stepped on the scale yet. I'll check in the morning.

Here is the missing workouts that I didn't post from last week. Maybe this will make me feel a bit better:

TP Kona Partay

Yeh so there was some training going on over the last couple of days that I didn't post about. Uhhh I think I had a 3K swim last night, moderate pace I might add. Then there was a bike this morning followed by a 12Km run this evening in the falling snow. What a beautiful sight, right up until the snow flakes started poking me in the eye.

So for those of you not in the Training Payne world, I highly recommend you visit his blog and start from the absolute beginning. His blog covers the ups and downs and super downs of the complete journey to Kona. Over the months he has gathered quite the following and we'll be attending the Training Payne Kona party tomorrow night at his place.

Soo since the room would be filled with the uber elite athletes from our area, it only seemed appropriate to bring something healthy.

Artists At Work



Mass Start





Training Payne - But something not look right





FIXED

The 'Sucks' actually turns out good in the picture, but I didn't think it would work in the oven so it was omitted in the final masterpeice here:



 





Now for those of you that missed the House of Payne Beer Run, goto his blog to check it out. This year's video is sporting some excellent H footage courtesy of Reid, but more importantly is the priceless shots of Matty-O getting some very ghey Kartwheel action going on. Now in the TP world you could describe me as the resident blog troll whereas Matty-O fills the role of Puck-Shooter Elite. Matty-O can't make it to the party because he's busy whining about his Knee or sore body or he's shoveling snow. Nevertheless I don't want him to feel left out......



Kartwheel'ing Matty-O
Something don't look right though...







FIXED.





You'll understand if you watched the video. Now I we all know he's a pussy but I planned to spare him the permanent label when it came to cooking time. However, Mrs. LoTC jumped the gun and stuck little Matty-O in the oven before I could remove the obvious offending label.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA. She cooked it that way. She's so mean! lol

Permanent Feature

WIN!

Slave Labour



Masterpiece



Transplanting Said Masterpeice

Holy shit! She's got spare limbs!!

Intermission while cooking made me hungry. That's raw dough Fool! Get your mind outta the gutter. Pic Fail.



T2



Half-Iron 70.3

Blakes Creativity, Nested M-Dot

MAN

Chew before you swallow.

I call this THE OFFSEASON cookie. It's layered for maxmium effectivness. Got a base layer of chocolate chips, a crunchy M&M mid layer, followed by all of the above. I don't know who will eat this tomorrow night but whoever indulges may want to consider a marathon training run on the weekend.



THE OFFSEASON'r



If I knew how to rotate, I would. Leave me alone.



One of these things is not like the other



For you slower peeps (Matty-O) I've included the answer here.

I would like to reassure you that all cookies were prepared with the utmost attention payed to sanitation. Strict Food handling procedures were adhered to at all times

Do I got sumthin' hangin'?



FIXED.





The 'Special' Cookie made especially for Rodney.
Got lost amongst the other cookies, so I'm not sure which one it was anymore.
Someone is bound to enjoy the special sauce surprise.
Enjoy.

HOUSE OF PAYNE BEER RUN 2010



Monthly Totals Set 2 Review

So here we are at the end of the second month of training. I divide training up into 'Sets' that are made of 4 weeks, the last week being recovery.

Looking back, has it really only been 8 weeks? It feels like a lifetime ago that I commited to learning the routine. These workouts have had little to do with quality and everything to do with just going through the motions.

I have learned a few things along the way. When I was tired, I didn't allow myself a break. I just pushed out the door and promised myself to take it easy and have fun. Once I started the workout, it morphed into a quality session by the time I got warmed up. I have learned that if I know I'm expecting a hammerfest of a workout, then I dread it. If I convince myself I'll just go easy, I willingly show up for the session. This has worked like a charm so far.

Nutrition is so-so. I've been eating proper portions but have had a ton of pizza. There have been a few too many sweets here and there too. I would like this problem to go away. I suspect I'll need to wait until after the holiday season. Regardless, I may need to start counting calories. I'm still losing weight. I am guessing I'm still not taking in enough calories, even with the odd treat. I'm eating proper portions for a non-athlete, so I may need to compensate for the extra 4000+ calories I'm burning every week. I do like seeing the Body Composition Monitor in the Tanita scale show that I'm losing Body Fat %. I'm still at the upper end of the 'norm' as far as body fat is concerned. I'd like to know how to burn body fat but stop losing weight, if that is even possible.

Admitedly I've only been swimming and running. I use swimming for recovery because I find it easy. It has remained easy these past 8 weeks and I would like to explore adding a few extra beats a minute to my average heartrate.

The only Biking has been weekends. I've been lucky in that the weekend weather has warranted some exceptionally fun mountain biking. I will continue the weekend MTB rides for as long as the weather allows me. It beats an indoor trainer.

The runs, especially bad weather ones, have been a new challenge. I dilligently hit all my runs because I am desperate to improve and the Around The Bay Race is approaching all too fast. I can comfortably say I have graduated from 'I hopelessly suck at running' to the level of 'Noob runner, slow moving vehicle'. It wasn't all that long ago that a 5km run would suck the life out of me. Set 1 came with an average 8km weekday run with a 10-12km weekend run. Set 2 has me comfortably at a 10km weekday run and a tougher 15km weekend run that needs improvement.

Going forward, my routine evolves. I am comfortable with my evening workout routine, so now it is time to try early mornings. I need to bike through the week. I am not confident about this new wrench in the routine so I will have to see how my body responds. I plan to continue my routine as is, but add a 1 hour early morning trainer ride twice a week.

So the big question in the back of my mind - What do I do with the other two mornings of the week? I get up early (5:30am) Tuesday and Thursday for my bike ride, and allow myself to 'sleep in' on Monday and Wednesday? Or is it better to have a constant wake up time and get up early Monday and Wednesday and do something like stretching or yoga or the 100 pushup challenge? I'm not sure if varying my wake-up time is a good or bad thing.

I think I'm going to try a few weeks of staggered mornings to see what it does to me. I think I'll make the final decision starting January 3rd when my official training program starts. In the meantime, I'm open to suggestions.

Just sayin'...

One of the biggest downfalls of my getting up early has been the wife can't sleep in very well. It is because of this that she has not been getting up to make my breakfast and lunch on the early morning day. I is sad. :(

SET 2 TOTAL (4 WEEKS), Maintenance Mode


22 Activities at 186Km in 25hrs

Swim Set: 6.5hrs
Bike Set: 8.5hrs (Mostly MTB)
Run Set: 10.0hrs
Strength Set: Nil