"Ready For Bed"

I need a day off.  Not from training strangely enough.  I actually feel quite good.  But my brain is tired.  I suppose it isn't as well conditioned as my body.  It gets very little exercise.  Tomorrow I promise to rectify that by actually turning it on when I get up....or at least by noon for sure!

(computrainer 60 mins, weights)

"Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think."---Ambrose Bierce

Love
Peter

"Laugh Out Loud!"

Everything is relative eh?  Even though I had a pretty good idea of approximately what it would, just for the hell of it I looked up the world record for a 30 km outdoor race.  Wanna take a guess? 

One hour, twenty seven minutes, and thirty seven seconds!

Approximately 2 minutes per km faster than I just did my 30 K!!  And what's more amazing is that the guy did it as part of a marathon which means he ran for another 12 kms afterwards.  Furthermore,  that was not the fastest 30k ever, as the indoor record (on a track) is almost another minute faster.  That's as fast as I can run period!!!  Less than 3 mins/km or 17.5 seconds for 100 metre.  I think I could maintain it for about 20 seconds.

Everything is relative.

On another note I feel all pumped today.  I called the RV place in Penticton and got a spot reserved for the week of the race.  For a couple of reasons I  was worried that they were out of business.  When we were there last time there was already talk about the land being redeveloped for condos, and the park was in fact for sale at the time.   Also I had sent them an e-mail before Xmas and didn't get a response.  She explained to me that they don't take reservations before the first of January and in actual fact couldn't be bothered to call me back because the week is a sure sellout for them.  Anyway, we're in, and that's all that matters.  Going back for the second time and knowing the setup is going to be so much less stressful.

Bring it on!  I'm ready to go now!!

(swim 1200 metres, 7.4 km run, weights)

"It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes."---Henry David Thoreau

"Personally, I don't like the term 'success.' It's too arbitrary and too relative a thing. It's usually someone else's definition, not yours."---Ichiro Suzuki

Love
Peter

"The Rest of The Story"

Since I started building my long runs I was trying to do them at 5 min/km pace and trying to hold that as I gradually increased the distance. I managed to get it up to 20 kms but when I jumped up to 24 it was simply not happening. After several attempts at that distance I gave it up as too lofty a challenge, and moved up to 30 kms. I have done that distance several times now with my best pace being about 5:17/km. So yesterday I knew that I was heading out too fast but it was such a great day and I truly felt fresh after having a relatively easy week. I truly expected to start regretting it by 10 kms and yet I still felt great and so I made a conscious decision to try to maintain the 5 min pace through 20 kms and then call it a day if it all fell apart after that. At about 17 kms I crested a bit of a slope and still felt unbelievably good, and still under the pace.  The next 7 kms were all at or about 4:45 pace, and although it started hurtin a bit by then I suddenly believed I could make it the whole way. Sure enough I hung in there to finish in 2:27 and change, or 4:56/km. Woo hoo!!

I'm now gonna be at peace with that and if I never do it again so be it. It was one of those days when the stars just all aligned. As my Brazilian friend always says, "O universo conspire em meu favor".

(swim 1200 metres, computrainer 45 mins)

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."---Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark."---Swami Vivekananda

"Everything is perfect in the universe - even your desire to improve it."---Wayne Dyer

....and I really like this one...

"It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods."---H. L. Mencken

Love
Peter

"Magic!"

It was a magical kind of training day.  Unfortunately I will have to tell you about it tomorrow as it is currently 1:10 am of the following day and I will have to post date this to make it appear as saturday, and then go to bed.  Talk to you tomorrow.

( 30 km run, 2:27:25)

"This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it."---Thomas Dekker

Love
Peter

"Breed Class Average"

I knew what BCA stood for before you were even born brother dear!

What did come as a complete surprise to me after a little research was that there is actually an age consideration within the standard.  After a cow gets to be about 7 years old, the  milk/fat/protein levels required to achieve a certain score go down.  Wow!

So whether you knew it or not Johnny, you chose a good analogy to make your point.

Now to simply live long enough that I am the only one in my breed class at my age, and I will be the champion of the world!!

Long run day tomorrow!  Woohoo!  Looks like decent weather.  Gotta run faster than Roo did today and I'm not so sure I can!  Wish me luck.  Full report tomorrow.

(swim 2000 metres, weights)

"All the really good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."---Grant Wood

Love
Peter

"I Don't Know But it Really Doesn't Matter"

I remember clearly back in Ironman 2009 what I was thinking as I headed out on the marathon portion of the race. I even stopped briefly to tell Claudette that quite frankly, I had no idea what was gonna happen next. For some reason I wasn't really scared though, just uncertain, and in some kind of wonderment that I was even there. After all, I had never done that particular thing before in my life.

I feel a similar sense of uncertainty now as relates to the overall race, and the preparation. I am confident that I will not screw up by going out too hard, or messing up my hydration etc, and confident that I will finish it in some reasonable fashion. I am even confident that my training is smarter than last time and that it should reap some improvement in results.

Where is the uncertainty then? It's the age thing! I truly don't know if the improved training, and the stronger effort are enough to offset the 3 years, let alone allow room for improvement. I give you this as some evidence. In the 2009 race the average time of the top 3 in my 50-54 age group was 10:06, the 55-59 avarage was 11:02, and the 60-64 average was 11:55. Pretty drastic eh? Almost an hour slower for each successive 5 years.

Generally I believe that I am already fitter than I was in 2009 and yet I also notice more fatigue after hard efforts, and I definitely notice less co-ordination particularly when I run. The muscles just don't seem to fire the same way  they used to. When I am tired I stumble easier and often trip over my own feet.

But back to my title. At some point I will establish and publicly identify my time goals, but only because it is motivational and fun to do so. Beyond that I don't know, but it really doesn't matter.

One training thing I have struggled with is getting my weight sessions in without it being a problem for the next days workout. I found that I was trying to swim with tired arms, and trying to run with sore legs. The answer was staring me in the face and today I figured it out. From here on in you will see twice as many weight sessions per week, as I will break them up into upper and lower body, and fit them in appropriately. Problem solved!

(computrainer 60 mins, weights)

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."---Mark Twain

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."---Mark Twain

Love
Peter

"Guilt!"

What do you think of this? There are five main types of guilt.

1)Do something hurtful.

2)Given to you

3)Should/shouldn’t

4)Defense against helplessness

5)Survivor

And apparently the only one that's of any use is number one. Guilt that keeps you from repeatedly hurting someone, even yourself, is a good thing. The funny thing is that out of the five I believe it is the one I'm least "guilty" of.

The other four are waging a battle within me to see which can be the most prevalent. Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are primarily child related with maybe a few other odds and ends thrown in, and the other one is cancer related.

Here's the seeming paradox! If feeling guilty (2,3,4,5) is hurting someone (namely me) then I should just use feeling guilty (1) to stop hurting myself. That almost makes sense.

What do you do to alleviate your guilt? Or do you even experience it, and if not, what's your secret?

Today was a one workout day as I skipped my swim. I know I "shouldn't" have but I thought it might "hurt" so I let it slide....actually no.... I don't really feel guilty about it at all.

(10.4 km run, 50 mins)

"How blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver in comparison with those of guilt."---Robert Blair

"If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends."---Charlotte Bronte

Love
Peter