"90 kms & 90 mins"

I awoke to the patter of rain on the cobblestones and so I decided to simplify the day a little.  The plan was to do a complete race simulation including wetsuit, goggles, gear packed in bags etc.  After some further deliberation about postponing til tomorrow, the rain let up and I so decided to take a shot at my bike/run but without all the extras.

I was out the door by nine, back by 9:30 to pick up my nutrition (idiot) and then back again after a decent 90 kms at an average speed of 31.5 km/hr.  And yes I got rained on!  Hard!  I didn't care, but for my poor bike.  That's the first time it ever faced any kind of weather.  I'm glad to report that it functioned flawlessly, including all the electronics.  Of course it is absolutely, disgustingly, filthy now but I can fix that.  Maybe I'll even take the opportunity to install my new tires.

Anyway I was satisfied with my ride.  It's amazing how quickly 3 hours flies by.

Part 2 of the workout I was just a little nervous about however.  I have never done such a long run off the bike (other than races) and I just wasn't sure what to expect.  I had decided to start out with my 4/1 run/walk routine, and if at any point I felt confident enough I would allow myself to start skipping the walk breaks.  Amazingly enough that confidence came by the time the warning went off for the first break!!  I got a little scare at about 25 minutes when my chest started to tighten but I sensed that it may just be a little anxiety and pushed through it.  Again at about an hour I started to flag a little but  pulled up my socks one more time and kept on running.  In the end I ran 17.34 kms at an average pace of 5:12/km.  To say I'm happy with that would be an understatement.  

To put it all in perspective I give you a comparison to my half ironman of 5 weeks ago.  Today I rode the same distance over a harder course, 5 minutes quicker.  While my run was only 17 kms compared to 21.1 of the half, I have no doubt I could have maintained that pace for another 4 kms.  Today's pace was 38 seconds per km faster!!!!

While I still regret how I screwed up I do feel confident that I'm almost back to normal, and that feels damn good in itself.  Roo reminded me to be grateful that I learned something new about myself, and I gave her a point for that.  I also took the opportunity to tell her that the only way I could put the new wisdom to use would be to do another Ironman.  I think she gave me her blessing.....but not for 2014.  We all need a break from my obsessions.  I'm good with 2015.  I'll be 60 that year, and Happy Old John and Grampa Brett claim theyll be ready by then as well.  Game on brothers!!!

By the way, I didn't really need the wetsuit portion today, as yesterday I managed a nice slow 4 km swim in the 50 metre pool in London.  1:25:30

So that's it! Right now I'm on my 3rd fruit & booze slushie, and tomorrow I think I'm gonna sleep in and then maybe do some visiting.  I hope you're all feeling as grateful for life as I am right now, and if not give me a call.  Maybe I'll come visit you tomorrow???

....and here's a monster quote for you....

"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."---John Wooden

Love

Peter

"That's It"

My race taper official begins now!

First off I need to tell you that on my last post on Sunday  I accidentally left the impression that I did my long bike that day as opposed to Saturday.  I mention that because I actually took Sunday completely off, and then yesterday did only a very short easy bike ride of 30 kms.

Despite the 2 easy days I woke up this morning with my heart rate still too high.  Not a lot mind you but when I'm feeling good I am always under 50 bpm and this a.m. it was about 56.  I didn't need to check my heart rate however to know that I was still not completely recovered from Saturday and as such had a tough decision to make.  Whether to try a longer run, or to just go swimming and wait another day.

I decided to give it a shot and while it sure was not the kind of last long run I envisioned a couple of months ago, right now I'm gonna take it.  I decided that the 4/1, walk/run routine was in order and I finished 27 kms that way.  I was shooting for 30 kms but at 27 I knew it was over, and I walked home from there.  It was really interesting as it played out as I was feeling pretty decent throughout, and at 24 kms I was very confident that I would finish the distance without any problem.  One of the reasons I was feeling pleased at that point was because my heart rate had been creeping up gradually, and finally passed the140 mark at that point.  Based on my recent struggles I seen this as a very positive thing.  Over the next 3 kms I started to feel the symptoms that are now becoming familiar to me.  Laboured breathing and tightness in my chest, accompanied by a slight 'drop' in my heart rate.  I have finally gotten it through my thick skull that continuing the abuse when I get to that point is completely counterproductive.  I am breaking my body down instead of building it up.

Anyway. despite the struggles of the last few months I'm in a pretty good spot mentally.  In 26 days I will be doing an Ironman with my grandchildren watching, and I think the best way to give them a positive experience will be by having one myself.   I have made more mistakes this time than in my previous attempts but in the course of those mistakes I have learned a ton.  I've also worked a whole lot harder than before, and as such I deserve a good race day.  I have no idea what my finish time will be but that's not the measure of a good day.  If I stay within myself and don't get hurt I will call it a success.

I have 5 key workouts left starting with a complete race simulation this Saturday.  It will still be a tough workout but the overall duration will be only 4 1/2 hours.  Of course I'll let you know how it shakes out.

Love
Peter

"The Longest Ride Of My Life"

Literally and figuratively.  I had to ride an extra km to make the first part true.  Since I've gone 200 kms a couple of times in the past I decided today was gonna be 201.  It was also literally longest from a time perspective, because it took me almost 7 hours, which was respectively about 10 and 20 minutes slower than my previous undertakings.  And like I said it was also the longest ride in a figurative sense as my mind just wouldn't relax.  I had negative thoughts throughout, not the least of which was remembering that I still had to run after it was over.  It probably didn't help knowing that I wouldn't even head out on that run until after 5 pm, as the weather necessitated a late start.

By the time I got back I had convinced myself that whatever run I got in was gonna have to do, and after a decent start it fizzled out at 4 kms.  It was a tough decision to start walking but I knew beyond a doubt that I was only hurting myself by continuing.  I managed to jog/walk another 4 kms....it was the only way to get home!

So what do I make of all this?  What does it mean?  Honestly I'm pretty sure it means I'm not in as good a shape as I was this time last year, or 4 years ago for that matter.  I admit however that I don't know this for a fact and as such I'm gonna leave myself open to the possibility that it just because I've worked so hard, and that the hard work will all pay off on race day.  More importantly I'm not gonna let it matter.  All this Ironman training has kept my lungs, my heart, and my muscles healthy for another year and for that alone I am grateful.  I can still tire out my grandchildren and not too many people can say that!.

Besides it's not all about the time is it?  It's about the toys you can justify.  I managed to sneak this little baby into the fold recently.  My new bike computer.

It's quite an amazing little gadget.  As you can see it can display up to 8 data fields, everyone of which is programmable with probably 50 different options.  You can see that I chose speed, avg speed, distance, and time which are all fairly standard, but that's when it starts to get really cool.  I love the elevation one because at any time you know whether your higher or lower than previous points, particularly where you started from.  Grade is just plain cool because it tells you how steep the hill is.  Of course heart rate is obvious and it's information I never had on my bike without having to twist my wrist around to look at my watch.  The beautiful thing is that it uses the same chest strap as the one I use for my watch.  Direction is also a nice added feature, as it helps to manage wind expectations.  It keeps you from fooling yourself.  The other one I wish I had space for is temperature but even though It isn't on the display the gadget keeps track of it and you can check it out later.  That's how I can tell you that the average temperature for my 7 hours was 31.4 degrees.  Which might also be a factor I suppose in the relative toughness of the trip eh?

Speaking of which, here's an interesting bit of nonsense that I learned yesterday.  I kept track and I consumed 8 litres of water, and 1.3 kgs of carbohydrate powder for a grand total in old math of 19 pounds of intake!!!  I never peed once the entire workout, and yet I weighed 5 pounds less when I got back than before I left!!  Holy shit!!

So that's it for the really long stuff.  I'm gonna take a different approach with the last 4 weeks than I have in the past and let the chips fall where they may.  Normally I would still be doing 180 kms next Saturday but I have pretty well decided on half that, with a little longer run instead.  I'll see how I feel when next weekend gets here but if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I want to arrive in Mont Tremblant rested.  I need to try to squeeze one last longer run in this week still and I will probably wait until Wednesday rather than my usual Tuesday.

"I'm so damn tired I can't even check for spelling mistakes" ---Peter W Rooyakkers

Life is good!
Love
Peter

"Still Searching"

Still struggling to get back into a rhythm.  Last night my heart rate was up and I had trouble sleeping.  I'm pretty sure why.  I'm getting back into it too quick.  I decided today was a rest day.  Tomorrow will be long swim only and then Saturday I need to have a good long one.  Bike 200 run 10!!

But I didn't just sit on my ass all day.  I got lots of chores done and finished out the day with some Kylie bonding.

I did hers and she reciprocated.
We call our effort "blue on blue".

Which gets me thinking.  I'm gonna paint my nails for the Ironman!  Maybe one hand black and the other white to match my bike.  Whaddaya think?
Or better yet, maybe I'll let Kylie do it.  She at least as good as me!

Love
Peter

"28 Degrees at 9:30 AM"

And the humidity!  Not a good time to head out on your run.  Fortunately I was just getting back.  But I was toasted!  I drank tons of water but still not enough.  I had some early doubts as I felt a bit of that nagging tightness in my chest, but I think the weather was definitely a factor.  Also there was perhaps a bit of a psykological  factor at play, as I was worried about my back, as well as my over training status.

In the end I was relatively pleased to finish 21.1 kms in just under 2 hours using my run/walk strategy.    I know it's a far cry from a steady run of 35 kms that I would have done last year, but it is what it is.  Happy old John promises me the race of a lifetime so I can rest easy.

My back held up reasonably well although it feels tired now.  Tomorrow will be an easier day I think.

As promised I spent some time researching the Ironman taper and I'm pleased to tell you that I have my plan pretty well in place.  My last long, long workout will be this coming Saturday,  followed by my last long run during the week, followed by a shorter but more intense bike and run the following weekend.  Actually the bike will be shorter but the run will be quite long.  Then over the following 2 weeks I will be doing four more hard bike and runs in gradually diminishing distances.  Spread between all of that will be some swimming and some other light stuff.  Then the last week will still be fairly busy, but fairly easy.  We'll see how it all goes.

Generally it seems that the gurus now favour harder but shorter workouts during the tapering phase.

Love
Peter

"Hangin in"

Yesterday, other than a walk through the trails with Kylie, was another complete rest day.  I'm proud of my resolve because it truly is much harder to rest than it is to go hurt myself!

Today I headed out on my bike again, but without a real plan.   The one positive thing about my Saturday ride was that my heart rate seemed a little more normal.  I was curious to see how it would react today, and I was fairly pleased to find it was again fairly typical of my "normal" rate.  I hope it means at least that my over training issues are behind me.

I rode 78 kms and then decided I was gonna try a little jog to see how my back would respond.  At first it didn't feel any better at all but I hung in there, one painful step at a time.  Much to my surprise it eased off as I ran, and I managed 5 kms without walking.  Again, the good news is that my heart rate went up with my intensity.

As you can see in this data from my watch.

The top graph is my speed and the bottom one my heart rate.  The faster I ran the higher my heart rate went.  That's how it's supposed to work!!

So tomorrow I will try a little longer run, but I will proceed with extreme caution.  In the normal course of events I would be running at least 35 kms but I'll be happy if I can do 10.  If my back gives me any kind of warning after the initial discomfort I know I will have, then I will quit immediately.  I promise!

That's all for today.  I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.  And thanks for caring about me, cause I know you do!

Love

Peter

"The Realist"

One person sees the brutal facts, ignores them, and proceeds to fail.  Another person sees the brutal facts, gets frightened, and quits.  Another person sees the brutal facts, acknowledges them,  and creates a plan to deal with them.

These 3 guys could also be viewed as the optimist, the pessimist, and the realist.

Then there's the fourth guy!  The guy that sees the brutal facts, acknowledges them, but proceeds to plow forward at all costs without any semblance of a plan.  This guy could simply be viewed as an idiot!

I wish I could tell you that I spend all of my time in the realism camp, but if I'm being honest with myself I can tell you that this is not the case.

While I am rarely the guy that quits, I do sometimes drift into the eternal optimist category, and upon occasion....yes you guessed it...I'm an idiot!!!

Case in point.  While out and about yesterday Michael and I decided to stop and help a couple of stranded motorists who needed some help changing a flat.  Because my Michael is a proven tire changing expert, I had no reservations in giving them a hand.  As soon as I seen the lug nuts on their car though I knew it was gonna be trouble.  Lots of rust(the brutal facts)!  They were so grateful for our help though that I could not let them down.  I got the lug nuts off, but I hurt my freakin back!!!

Today I just want to say "fuck it"!  But I ain't gonna! I'm gonna face the brutal facts, create a plan and get on with it.  I did manage to ride 90 kms this morning so that's a good thing.  I couldn't run 5 steps however, and that's not so good.  I'm not sure about swimming, but since I got 4000 slow but comfortable metres in yesterday, I'm not too worried about that.

So please send me all your energy.  I'm gonna need it in order to stay on the couch tomorrow.  That's step one of the plan. I'm not sure what step 2 is yet, but I'm sure Old John's gonna tell me.

"Both the optimist and the pessimist think they're realists"---Anon

Love
Peter

"This is Soooo Hard"

But I'm doing it anyway.

Sunday I did nothing.

Monday I rode easy for 50 kms and then ran 2 kms.

Tuesday I tried running but to no avail. After 4 kms of run/walk it became just walk! I did prove that I can walk 7 kms at 8 min pace, which is good to know. At that speed I can walk the Ironman marathon in 5:40 which may be exactly what I will be trying to do.

Wednesday I swam 2000 metres. That counts as nothing!

Today I did nothing....again.

Tomorrow I will swim 4000 metres. Again that counts as nothing

It is so hard to be so inactive and yet I felt I had no choice. I was dying a slow painful death as it was.

Saturday I will try my next bike and run, but even then I will take it easy and make it short.

Hopefully all that rest means I will be totally recovered and in a position to cram a few more intense weeks in before I have to start to taper. I'm studying that element right not to determine just how short a taper I can get away with, and how intense I can be.

Life goes on!

"All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy."---Scott Alexander

Love
Peter

"No Pit Stops"

Must have been hot!  I ingested 4 1/2 litres of water and 1500 calories, and never once felt the urge.  The heat can sneak up on you when riding simply because it's hard to tell how much your sweating.  The wind evaporates most of it.  The need to pee is as good an indicator of the temp and humidex  as anything.  If you're drinking lost and don't need to go, you better drink some more! 

Anyhow.  While it wasn't a world record I go through my 180 kilometres fairly uneventfully. I was slow, but felt much better than I did last week.  It felt like a typical long ride today.  Tough mentally just because it's 6 hours long, but my legs felt normal.  Last week my quads were sore from the start, and never got better

I say "fairly" uneventful because I did have one hairy moment.  Hairy and ugly, with 4 legs and a yap full of sharp teeth.  I actually thought I was gonna get bit today, and I remember clearly bracing for it.    It's really cool actually how your mind functions in these situations.  Within the space of a second I went from fear to anger, and the sudden adrenalin rush somehow feels good.  Weird eh?  

So I was okay with my ride today, and even okay with my transition run, even though the wheels kinda fell off after 5 kms.  I managed to get that far with my 4/1 run/walk strategy, and then dragged my sorry ass back home to finish up the 8 kms.

So overall, while I'm not where I expected to be a month ago, I feel like I'm starting to climb out of the hole I've been in.  I hope the trend continues.  

Oh, by the way.  I was peeing within an hour of my workout which means I had no serious dehydration problems!   Good job!

And for today's inspiration I give you Electric Light Orchestra's classic beauty "Hold on tight to your dreams" 

"Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
When you see your ship go sailing
When you feel your heart is breaking
Hold tight to your dream.

Its a long time to be gone
Time just rolls on and on
When you need a shoulder to cry on
When you get so sick of trying
Just hold tight to your dream

When you get so down that you can't get up
And you want so much but you're all out of luck
When you're so downhearted and misunderstood
Just over & over & over you could

Accroches-toi a ton reve
Accroches-toi a ton reve
Quand tu vois ton bateau partir
Quand tu sents -- ton coeur se briser
Accroches-toi a ton reve.

Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
When you see the shadows falling
When you hear that cold wind calling
Hold on tight to your dream.

Oh, yeah
Hold on tight to your dream
Yeah, hold on tight...
To your dream."---Jeff Lynne

Love

Peter

"It's Been a While"

Quite frankly, because I didn't have anything to say.  I know that's hard to believe but every time I considered giving an update the feeling passed quickly.

In short it's been a real struggle the last few weeks and I'm not sure why.  I'm also not gonna spend a bunch of time worrying about it.  It is what it is.  Right now I am looking forward to a 2 week road trip with my partner and my grandchildren, and if things work out I'm gonna squeeze an Ironman triathlon into the middle of it.

Just over 6 weeks left til D-day and I've lost more than 2 weeks of critical training.  Every workout since the race weekend in Welland has either been missed, or severely shortened, because of whatever this malaise is.

Tomorrow I will try for a decent long one.  We'll see :)

A couple of bright things I discovered today.  First off.  Thames pool!  It is a 50 metre outdoor pool in London that has lane swimming every day at noon.  What a luxury that is.  Today I swam 3 kms in an hour and I'm looking forward to doing most of my remaining swim training there.  It is a bit of an anxiety dump believe me.

The other cool thing I just learned is that Ironman Mont Tremblant will break from tradition and have wave starts!!  What that means is that I will be entering the water with about 400 other people instead of 3000!  Again this is an anxiety release.  It's about time actually.  There was no good reason not to do this other than the aforementioned tradition.  I think they were really forced into it by their competition, that started using this format a few years ago.

Game on!  I promise to let you know how tomorrow goes.  The plan is 180 kms followed by 9 kms.

Love
Peter