SuperBowl SunSnowday



IronBlob



Excuses. I has em'.

First I blamed it on having to take Mrs. LoTC for a date to the coffee shop to make up for not getting her a card for the 11yr thingy.

Then I blamed it on the kids and snow and instead we went outside and played.

Then I blamed it on the Super Bowl and not wanting to miss it.

Oh, and instead of doing my regularly scheduled workouts - I at junk food all evening.

Yes. I skipped my long bike.

Tsk tsk. There was no reason for it. I'm just mentally sapped from the previous day's miserable run. Oh did you see that? Did you see what I did there? Another excuse. Pffft. Pathetic.

A happy ending though, well no not really I still shaved an hours but I did get up early Monday morning for a couple hours of riding. It'll do.



So what did I do instead of training Sunday?



Taking Shape. Sort Of.



Saturday's Run Prep



Well I had a vision. It was going to be a coolest snowman we've ever made.... but there was just one problem. It wasn't packing snow. At all. We tried our hardest but it wasn't meant to be. So instead of a snow man, we got the SnowBlob! It took alot of imagination on our part. It wasn't until Mrs. LoTC pointed out that the wooden board looked like a mouth, and from there - the creative juices started flowing. Until then, we all stood around looking at a pile of non-packing snow with no clue as to what we could make with it. I think it turned out good enough considering the challenges faced!



We missed getting mummy in the pics



Mrs. LoTC





Harry Potter Tyler on take off



Tons of it. none of it packing. DOH!



Snow Demon



Dylan practicing his Levitation skillz



My Snow Fort. I made it. Really!



A Necessary Sacrifice



Rubbing My Carrot



Using my Phat Ass to Pack the Snow. Fail.



Snowman Improvise



Ooohhhh Aaaa Ohhhhh



Week 16 Review

Must Get Back On Track!

Looking back, this week has been a lesson learned. I am still paying the price for not following the outline of my scheduled recovery week. I pushed too hard and for too long and now my IT Band is angry! I have learned about the importance of routine. I need routine to keep me focused and committed to doing the workouts. I threw a wrench in my routine with the injury and later lousy excuses on the weekend to miss workouts. I'm struggling mentally to stay motivated.

My IT Band has flared up again after Saturday's miserable run. It's only sitting at a 2.5/10 but it would take very little to jump to a solid 5 or 6. I can feel it. I think the only thing between me and a complete stop to my workouts is the roller that Peter nagged me about. What an awesome contraption! My homemade solution is working great but I can am beginning to wonder if I had a properly overpriced bigger roller, could it work the same magic on my tight hamstrings? Ohhhh I'll be damned if I give anyone 30 bucks for a peice of foam. What a sham! However, I'm slowly giving in to the idea. My hamstrings need some luvin' too!

Anyhow, on the nutrition side of things - wow has it changed. The past 2 sets had me shaving too much weight too fast. I don't mind a bit of weight loss but not at a rapid rate. A couple weeks ago I decided to completely remove my limits on what I eat and I may have gone a big overboard. First I ate bigger portions and now it has slipped to sweets and potatoe chips and less than healthy meal choices. It's not just the calorie counting that matters, it's also the quality of said calorie that I should pay attention too. Weight wise I have plateued nicely. I'm not losing weight, might have even gained 1 pound but nothing to be worried about, except well.... the plumbing problem. Yeh all this bad eating is taking its tool and I'm lugging around 5-7 pounds of 'training weight'. Wonderful. A trip to Pizza Hut should purge the system just fine.

WEEK 16 TOTAL (Set 5, Week 1 - Base Build)


Swim: 2:00hrs

Bike: 4:30hrs

Run: 4:00hrs

Strength: 0:30hrs

TOTAL: 11:00hrs

Remember the Time When....

Sure I'll have two.

I didn't queue in when she looked at me like I got two heads. She made me two Peanut Butter Jelly sandwhiches on top of the breakfast I just ate and immediately before my run. This would not end well.

Toughest Mental Run To Date. 25 23Km of misery.

Of course when I started the run I could feel a huge ball of PBJ floppin' around in the belly. It was painful and I promised myself that if my stomach doesn't feel good in 30 minutes we're calling the wife for a rescue. That was a looong 30 minutes, plenty of false starts and walking. Luckily, I think, by 30 minutes my stomach didn't have the pain anymore. So now I actually get to jog but every 5 minutes I'm looking to walk. I just couldn't find 'the zone'. At the time I thought 'This is the part where SIU gets its meaning'. It was one of those runs.

By the time I almost found a tempo I hit a snag in my route. Google Maps screwed up and the road I was following did not complete the loop. Luckily there was a trail that connects the loop so I just decided to take that. 12 Inches of fresh snow on top of a hard base of pitted snow so you couldn't see the holes underneath. Oh the ankles really loved that. Again, mentally I could not get going and the majority of it amounted to no more than a shuffle with now wet feet. Thinking back, I wish I didn't know about that trail, then I could have just turned back home. Doh!

Finally at a road! Approaching halfway I'm now getting buzzed by heavy highway traffic. There is no sidwalk or shoulder on this road. Horrible way to go but it's either this or double back on the snow trail. I make a quick stop at a coffee shop and fill my fuel belt with water. An older country bumpkin looking couple got interested in what I was doing. I told them I just ran here from the next city over and I could tell they couldn't quite compute the distance but it was enough to blow there minds. I could tell the guy was looking at me like I was mentally derranged for doing such a thing. For once, I could relate to such a thought. I am definitely not enjoying this today so why am I doing it?

Anyhow the run back was uneventful. Frequent walks and a weird pain in the back inside of my knee. Something is tight, and my IT Band was on edge but it wasn't until later in the evening that it became obvious that it had once again been aggravated. Oh well. I am so glad this run is over.

The day is not over though. It was our 11th Year anniversary. No we haven't been married for 11 yet, still a long ways off that one. No, she still has us celebrating the 'day we met'. No not the day we started officially dating, the day we actually met for the first time. She'll use any excuse to get me to take her on a date! Hah! So the plan to hit a Thai restaurant was interrupted by the return of my stomach pains coupled with a snow storm. Instead we hit East Side Marios. I pigged out. I ate till I couldn't eat no more and THEN I had seconds! Screw my stomach pain, everything was so tastey and with a miserable cold run behind me I wanted to make sure I stuffed every last calorie into me for the next day's long bike. It was disgusting how much I ate.

Which brings me to my confession. We agreed not to get each other anything for this 'anniversary' since we just bought a bike and bigscreen and toys. However in my haste of an absolutely horrible day at the office on Friday I didn't get a chance to go get her a card. Then the long miserable run took the entire day and I was too mentally drained to even remember the card. Yes, you're reading this correct - I didn't get her anything.

Ahhhh crap. I thought when she handed me a beautiful card with a great message in it. It's topped with a heartfelt hand written luv note at the bottom of it. Yup. I'm an a$$hole.

Luckily for me, she's been with me 11 years and knows I'm one. I'm not a gift giving kinda guy, never have been, I usually show up to birthdays and christmas empty handed for friends an familly. Obviously if I do think about the gift giving part, I completely wait until the last minute. I don't know, its just who I am. I don't like receiving things from people. I think I got that from my dad. If you buy him a gift, it will remain unopened forever. He doesn't take charity or accept gifts. He's too proud. Well, that and he's an a$$hole too :)

Of course I got you sumfin'.... .. ...

She hasn't said anything about not getting her card yet. I said I'd give it to her 'later'. Meaning the next day and we went to bed and she didn't mention it. You know gurls though, it's probably bugging her. I am surprised I woke up this morning alive. Wait..... no, I'm good - she didn't cut my ballz off either. They are still there. Make no mistake, I will pay for this one day. It could be today, tomorrow or 10 years from now. She will get her revenge. Woman tend to hold sinister grudges for ages until the perfect opportunity to deliver exacting revenge all while saying the words "Remember the time when....."

She's still upstairs sleeping. I gotta come up with something like pronto.....

TRAINING:

Run - 2:45hrs

Carbon Complaining

Sure enough I have soreness in every  nook and cranny of my entire body today. Did I mention how much I HATE those workout videos? As Matty-O hinted at - how messed up is that? Even with countless hours of swim, bike, run I am still missing the most basic muscle sets. Crazy. Depressing too. On the bright side - My IT Band feels great! I'm keeping on it though, the real test will be this weekends long slow run.

Ohhh Lucky You! I had a doom and gloom post all typed up but before I submitted it I decided I would go clear my head with a run first. I'm sure glad I did, and then I decided I would wait until this morning. Sure glad I waited too - I think Matty-O stole my post! His looks pretty much exactly what I was going to write. So I'll spare you the whining and complaining and focus on the awesome good stuff from last night! WOW IT FEELS SO GOOD TO SEE THE SUN AGAIN! No really, I went for a run and the sky was on fire with colour (Canadian spelling eh) and it stayed light out for 75% of my run! That was such a great feeling, I ran with a smile the whole time! Well, I smiled only once and then my face just froze in that position. I was trying to imagine the heat coming off the big ball o' fire in the sky. My body didn't quite buy that though. Hey, I tried! :)

After my run I love putting on my soft pair of cotton jogging pants and warm socks and relax in front of the computer. Just as I got comfortable and warmed up I could hear the wife going crazy upstairs. She came running down screaming and flailing her arms about like a mad-man.

She found a Postal note saying a package has arrived and awaits pickup. The place closes in literally 5 minutes!!!!!! WARP SP333D!!!! I've never jumped up and been out the door so fast in my life. Literally 10 seconds we were in the truck racing to the postal outlet. Now I don't mind waiting to pick up the package the next day, but I wouldn't hear the end of it if we didn't at least TRY to get it that night. Anyhow, some less than legal driving got us to the outlet at the exact moment the worker put the CLOSED sign out. She could see that we rushed to get there and took pitty on us and serviced the request. Yay! Oh. Wait. Where is my ID? Whoops, I guess in our haste I left my ID at home wiith my running gear from earlier in the evening hah! I'm lucky I didn't get pulled over on the way here! Even more lucky is that I just so happen to have my mountain bike trail pass with me that had my name on it and she accepted it in combination with Mrs LoTC's license with our address on it. That was close.

Soooo the big toy? Carbon road bike frame, fork, seatbost and bottle cages for Mrs LoTC. The first noticable thing was how incredibly light it is. It's crazy lightweight! I worked the camera while Mrs LoTC practically had sexual relations with her new toy. I'll post the pics just as soon as I get them off the camera. Maybe she'll have something on her blog if she remembered.

TRAINING:

Swim: 1:00hrs

Bike: 1:00hrs

Run: 1:15hrs

Ironman 70.3 Photos

Why is it that the overpriced photographers always snap pictures of you when you're picking your nose, scratchin' your balls and looking your not-so-finest?! Don't we pay the big dollars for quality?

RACE REPORT - CLICK HERE

Well I FINALLY got around to ordering my Ironman Muskoka photos. I wasn't too impressed with the ridiculous price for the digital prints and just finally they sent a 15% discount which at least made it seem reasonable. No. Nevermind, it's still stupidly overpriced but I wanted them nonetheless. The prey on suckers like me.

Slow but I'll take it.



T2 was at the TOP of that hill



That's not me, that's an Iceberg.
4C overnight makes for warm water. Not.

BRRRIIIIIIAAAANNNNNNNN
Those that get 102.1 understand.

Doing everything in my power not
to trip right here. I was still waiting for my
legs to thaw out.

The GPS is not broken.
You were REALLY that slow.

My Lip does that when I'm concentrating. I'm concentrating on doing everything in my power to
keep my balls from freezing to the saddle. It was THAT
frackin' cold out!

Nearing the finish line.
That's what a Half-Iron smile looks like.
Coupled with pain from siezed up Hammys

I'm grunting something, thats why
she is looking at me like I got 3 heads

Core Meltdown

Suck.

Suck would be about 10 levels ABOVE where I rate on the rating scale. At least if I sucked, then I could improve, however I don't even suck at it. I am just completely incapable of performing any of the core strength training exercises on my Traithloncore workout video.

As I lay face first on the ground, collapsed in a pool of my own Fail sweat, I wonder how the frack am I gonna get better at this stuff. I don't even want to do it. I'm not enjoying myself whatsoever. Who's idea was it to do this workout DVD anyways? This is stupid. I just want to cry. Quick, somebody call me the phuckin' Whhaaaaambulance.

Anyhow, that was my day. Snow day today, I couldn't get out of our survey. I made an honest effort but the snow drifts are too much for the car. Mrs. LoTC took the truck so I stayed home.

Yesterday was a bit messed up on the training front. I got up in the morning to get a bike in but then got distracted and missed my workout. Not a problem since I could just do the bike in the evening and skip the run. The runs are extremely important at this point of the training program but as good as my IT Band is feeling, I would like to give it just one more day to be safe. I left the bike until the last moment, it was a late night, but a very quality ride at least!

I think I'm ready to run though. That foam roller did the trick. The Triathloncore DVD has a bunch of roller techniques that I would like to try. Its about the only thing I can do on that video.

I don't know about this workout video crap. Talk about a kick in the balls.

TRAINING:

Swim:  1:00hrs
Bike:   1:30hrs
Strength:  0:30hrs PHATB0Y U SAWK! FAIL.

Noodle Knees

Bike P0rn

Awww Yes! Feelin' g00d! More on that in a moment.

I'd like to interrupt our regularly scheduled program for some nudie pics. Bike Pr0n FTW! I forgot to attach a picture of my new shoes, neud carbon 66mm clinchers.

So anyhow, Peter over at Tripple Yadda had repeatedly mentioned something about a foam roller for IT Band issues. I've seen this a few times throughout my comments but was quick to dismis yet another marketing gimmick being force fed to wannabe atheletes on the next greatest thing to make them faster, stronger, last longer in bed yadda yadda yadda.

Taking the advice, I called the local running bandits store to see if I could find one of these alleged foam rolling devices. After a 10 minute speach on how this device will change my life forever, he got to the really good part: Are you F'in kidding me? 30 bucks for a peice of foam? So I went online to see what this thing looked like. I'm expecting some high-tech looking device with at least a little bling factor, maybe a built in MP3 player or Wireless internet connection. Nope, just a hunk of foam. Pffft, They can kiss my hairy white a$$ if they think I'm giving them more than 5 bucks for that.

To the drawing board.....



Warming up my Noodle



Running stores can Kiss my hairy $30 a$$



Matty-O Size





OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!




Feels so goooood. Owwwwwwwwwww!





Daddy Long-Legs





Upgrade.

I only needed it for my IT Band. I think if I wanted to use it for other rolling-cises I would need something a bit taller/thicker. This worked perfect for me, I even have enough noodle for a couple more. The foam is just soft enough to take the bite off the grinding of the leg. I noticed the effect immediately. I take back all the bad things I've said about Peter, that guy was actually right about something this time! Wow, I seen seemingly instant relief. I'm in Heaven! Heck, at this rate I'm feeling good enough to hit my bike ride tonight! Thank you so much for being so insistent that I buy into your 'As seen on TV' slap-chop gimmicks :) When I finished with the foam roller, I upgraded my design to something a little more hadkore. This worked even better, but you have to be ready to trade IT Band pain/tightness for bruised thighs lol. That is a just plain old Nalgene water bottle from our backpacking trips. I liked the foam pool noodle because it was 2 bucks and I get 3 rollers from it. This bottle was laying around, it might cost a few bucks more but worked better. I'm still in awe over the relief I'm getting from something so simple.