"Brain Dead"

Felling a bit better today.  Still a bit anxious but ok.  Maintained my resolve to take it easy and only ran the block.  Tomorrow will be swim only day and then hopefully by Saturday I will be ready to rock again.

I'm a wee bit frustrated by my new bike, as it has still not arrived.  Well actually it did, but when the Fedex guy showed up at the bike shop after hours and found it closed, he had the wisdom to send my bike back to Montreal!!  Moron!

And I got nothing else.

(run 7.3 kms)


"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."---Albert Einstein

Love

Peter

"Dealing With Addiction"

I think I know a fair bit about many types of addiction but today I learned some more about my own.  I tried desperately to take the day off and eventually settled for a swim.  Even then, I would have done my leg weights at the Y but I forgot my gym clothes so that was a message I think.  On the way home I was still thinking that an easy ride and run would be just the thing, but I could tell that my legs were still rubbery.  I managed to say no!

But!  I had an awful day.  I feel bitchy and irritable and just generally out of sorts.  I have a general sense of anxiety without anything to blame.  I even had some physical symptoms, most notably an irregular heart rate.  That freaked me out a little, but Cory, I am 100 percent sure it was just anxiety!  It is now 10 pm and I still feel all pent up.

I'm quite impressed really as to how significant the sensations are.  I suppose I should get a life.  I did end up going to the liquor store and had 3 drinks, but now I feel like crap on account of that.  It just goes to show you that you can't correct one form of addiction with another.

I'm sure that no one feels the least bit sorry for me, and quite frankly that's the way I want it.  Despite the fact that perhaps I overdo it a little, and indeed do have an exercise addiction, I think it is still irrefutable that its the least harmful of them all.  I will try hard to keep it all in perspective in the coming months.

And on scarier types of addiction I wish to announce to the world that my son Jon has recently celebrated over 3 years of sobriety and in fact just 2 weeks ago has completely weaned himself off of methadone as well. That in itself is a long demanding process but his resolve never wavered. He is here at the moment putting a new floor in the basement for Roo, and I can not possibly describe the pride I take in him.  He is my reminder to never, ever give up on anyone, or anything.  Even though I know he doesn't read this blog I still wish to say, "Way to go son!  I'm damn, damn, DAMN proud of you. "

(swim 1200 metres)


"Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism."---Carl Jung

And this is one of those times I wish to expalin how this quote hit me.  I am often very quick to criticize people who are addicted to religion.  Perhaps it's not so different than my exercise mania?  They are both a form of idealism.

Love

Peter

"Beyond Tired Now"

I'm really trying to back off this week and I'm starting to think it's pretty important.  Tuesday is usually long run day and from the get go I had decided to play it by ear.  If I was at all dragging I would shorten it appropriately.  I knew right away that my tank was empty and in the end I struggled through 15 kms.  I'm not sure yet about tomorrow but maybe I should seriously consider taking a complete day off.

And in the interest of brevity, and because a picture is worth a thousand words I give you this.

He wanted to paint eyes on it!

(run 15 kms, weights)

Love
Peter

"I'm Tired, but proud"---Norman Rockwell

"It's a Bird! It's a Plane!"

No it's Supermoron!  Or is that Moronman?

Yup!  It's my new secret weapon as promised.

And just for the record LG is not the Korean appliance/electronic manufacturer, but rather stands for Louis Garneau, a Canadian cyclist who owns a very successful cycling wear manufacturer.

There is all kinds of speculation about the value of aero helmets, and not a lot of good data.  Certainly in wind tunnel testing it is clear that they help reduce wind turbulence but the controversy takes place mostly around how they are used, and how they respond in real conditions.  In the wind tunnel the air is always going the same direction, while in the real world you can be faced with cross winds and tail winds.

The other consideration that is critical is head position.  A lot of time trial cyclists tend to look at the ground because it is easier on the neck, but for the helmet to be truly defective you need to keep your head up like supermoron in the first picture.  Actually, other than the hands sticking out front, that is almost exactly the way your head and torso should be positioned on the bike.

And last but not least is the issue of comfort.  They are generally a bit heavier than a conventional helmet, and of course there is the concern of heat buildup as they have very little ventilation.

I had been considering buying one, and had even looked at this exact model when 'lo and behold' the guy that fixed my tire at the race had them on sale for half price.  It was such a pretty blue that I could not resist.

As to why my wife can't stop laughing it's probably because for years now both of us made fun of people who wore them.  I'm pretty sure she originally thought it was a waste of her money but she's having much fun teasing me that she now thinks it's worth it.

She told me that from the front I look like Super Dave Osborne, thinking of course to insult me.  Little does she know that Super Dave was the greatest stunt man to ever dwell on this earth, and a personal favorite of mine.

Anyway, I bought it and I'm gonna give it a go.  At the very least I will wear it for my 2 races in Welland next month and then will decide if it is gonna be an Ironman thing.

I wore it for 60 kms today and it felt quite good.  It was an extremely warm day and yet I had no over-temp problems. Actually I didn't have any kind of discomfort issues despite a fairly stiff wind that I experienced from all directions.  Unlike some people who struggle staying down in the aero position I actually prefer it to sitting more upright, and as such this helmet could actually help me.  Or maybe not!

Who knows?
Who cares?
It's pretty and I like it!

And now everyone except for Elly knows all about it

(swim 500 metres, weights, ride 60 kms)


'He played football too long without a helmet."---Jerome Cavenaugh.


Love
Peter

"Interesting Day"

I arrived at the race site at about 7:20 am.  Pulled my bike out of the back only to discover that my tire was flat again.  No way!  I must be stupid!  I have been changing tires for years and never experienced anything like this.  Of course as I mentioned I had no spare and so my first reaction was to put the bike back in the car and head home.

But...I knew there was a possibility that one of the exhibitors would have a spare and after the second try I found one.

Back to the car where I completely removed the tire from the rim.  I inspected every millimetre of the rim and the inside of the tire but could not find any problems.  Sometimes if there is a jagged edge or a piece of debris lodged somewhere it can cause this repetitive problem.  But I could not find a single irregularity anywhere and so I installed my new tube and headed off to rack my bike in the transition area.

I almost got there before it blew again!!  I said "fuck" out loud!  Time to go home for sure!

But...I knew the bike shop guy a little bit, as we bought Roos bike from him years ago and I remember him as a a good guy.  I went and explained my problem and he agreed to help me out.  He coached me through good tube changing process, and then as we were pumping the tire again he suddenly said....wait, wait, wait!  He had spotted something.  Thankfully just before it blew again because we were now on the last tube available.

Personally I think he got a bit lucky to find this, but I can assure you that I never would have. This is the inside of the tire, where perhaps you can make a out a wee little cut maybe 3 mm long.

So now I was going home for sure.  No more tubes left, and for sure if we put any amount of pressure in it that would be the end.

But.....maybe he had a new tire?  Lets look.  Yup!  So after a bunch more farting around I had a tube and tire which would probably work but of course no spare again.

I now had to hustle cause it was getting close to race time and all my stuff was still in my car back in the parking lot.  So I got my bike racked and headed back to the car for the rest of my gear and to start getting changed.

And then it started raining.  That was the last straw.  I left my stuff in the car and started back to transition to get my bike back.  It was just not meant to be and since this was only a training race there was no harm done.

But...what was I gonna feel like later?

Back to the car, got my stuff, got it all set up in transition and put my wetsuit on.  Game on!

And with this positive attitude things started to go better.

I was thinking that maybe I could do this race in 1:50.  Based on my recent experience I should be able to do the swim in 15 mins, the bike in 60 mins, and then the run in 35.  That of course left no time for transition but I figured I could make it up on my bike ride.

Sure enough, I stood up out of the water at 14:45.  After 2 transitions and the bike I had indeed made up the extra 2:30 that my transition took and I headed out on the run at 1:14:54.  Perfect!

Now all I had to do was run my planned 5 min kms for the 7k run and I would have achieved my goal.

But....was this a 7k run like I considered when doing my math, or was it actually 7.5?  Whoops!

Oh well.  Game on!  I ran the 7.5 kms in a very respectable 33:30 and finished with an overall time of 1:48:12.  Very satisfying.  Here is the official if you care.

I was 54th out of 180 overall and 3rd out of 8 in my age group.

I did my best Elly....even though I almost didn't!

To compensate myself for all the grief I experienced with the tire situation I allowed myself to but a new secret weapon that the bike guy had.  I am gonna save that for tomorrows post however but I can tell you now that on top of making me faster, this secret weapn has the added advantage of making Claudette laugh.  Stay tuned!

(swim 750, ride 30, run 7.5)

"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change."---Earl Nightingale

Love

Peter

"The Bitch"

She knows somethings up!

There is a lengthy old joke comparing the merits of owning a bicycle to being married.  According to the joke one of the many advantages to the bicycle is that it does not care if you are about to get rid of it, nor does it care if you have more than one bike.

I beg to differ.  My bitch bike knows.  First the debacle with the flat tire the other day.  Today the freakin seat fell off after 87 kms of my 10 km ride!  Poor maintenance I know, but when it fell off I lost an important part and was unable to get back home.  Roo drove the 35 kms to pick me up.

So off to the bike shop this afternoon to try to find a part.  No such luck!  Apparently my bitch bike is too particular to accept just any part and I will have to try to order one somewhere.

So I spent several hours with the wrong materials and cobbed something up to make it work.  Not fancy but my seat is at least stuck on.

So I get everything back together, do a little testing, and as I finished packing up my tools the unmistakable noise of a tire blowing reached me from the other side of the garage.  Again? WTF!  Yah I know it was a very old tube that I found in the basement but it lasted for 87 kms and that's it?

Okay!  So I repaired that but now I am without a spare, and come hell or high water I am going to the races tomorrow.  I hope I can buy one at the race but I am doubtful since I need this super long stem one because of my wheels.

The bitch knows there's something up!

It is now 10:15 pm and I need to be up and out by 6 am to head for Woodstock.  It is gonna be fun!  I am less tired than I planned on being.

(ride 87 kms)

"The journey of life is like a man riding a bicycle. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. We know that if he stops moving and does not get off he will fall off. "---William G. Golding

Love

Peter

"It's The Weekend"

And no lawn cutting or garage cleaning for me!  I'm gonna be busy!

Tomorrow is of course my long workout and as always I look forward to it.  It looks like I'm gonna get lucky with the weather again with the temperature dropping to a more reasonable level and little chance of rain.  I also have my bike fixed up to allow me to carry enough fluids with stopping back home which I prefer not to do.  I will do the same as last week, 120 kms followed by a run.

Then on Sunday I have my first race of the year and I am not the least bit nervous.  That despite not having done a triathlon since my Ironman.  I suppose that the fact that I am treating it as just another workout helps.

I was hoping maybe to try out my new bike either tomorrow or Sunday, but alas that was not meant to be.  There was a delay in getting the wheels and then strangely enough the wheels showed up ahead of the bike.  They assure me however that it left Montreal today, and should arrive in London at the first of the week.

You know what I was thinking today?  I was considering how everything has changed since I was a kid.  I remember buying my first 10 speed bike when I was about 16 years old.  It cost me 100 bucks.  Today a 10 speed actually means 20 speed!  Yup!  Now there are 10 cogs on the back instead of the 5.

And you know who causes all the change in the world.  Young people. Young people with new thoughts, new ideas, new trends etc.  No where can you see that more than in the way young people express themselves through their clothes.  I thought I had seen it all when the style was to wear pants that hung so far below the hips that belts were useless...only suspenders would keep them from landing at your feet.  Or how about the little fad period where young ladies got all dolled up in black makeup....I think they called it goth?

Like I said, I thought I seen it all, but as I drove my nephew to his high school this morning I noticed not for the first time an alarming new idea that some juveniles have discovered...particularly the young ladies.  Believe it or not they have taken to completely cutting the legs off of perfectly good jeans and wearing them as shorts!   Some of them are so short that the pockets actually hang below the cutoff point, and where they have been scissored has just been left to get all frayed and ratty looking. What will they think of next??!!

On the training front, as usual Friday was long swim in my wetsuit day.  It's very strange that although I am slower in the pool than in 2009 I am quite confident that I will be faster come race day.  It's just a feeling and hopefully I'm not deluding myself but we will see.  Even though I will be very tired for my race on Sunday maybe the 750 metres will give me a better indication.

(swim 3100 metres, 1hr, 2 mins)

"Always strive to excel, but only on weekends."---Richard Rorty

" Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless."---Bill Watterson

Love
Peter