Training Payne

Big Announcement, my Blog has moved.

2010-12-01T23:59:00.001-05:00

I've moved my blog, it's an all NEW BLOG at http://trainingpayne.com/ Don't worry, I moved over all the posts from this blog as well. You'll be automatically redirected...

I'm officially in the next age group...

2010-11-21T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today's my birthday. I'm 45 years old and I'm smarter, wiser and in better shape than I was when I was 25 years old.

The smarter and wiser I could have predicted, but I'd never have thought I'd be fitter at 45 years old than 25 years old. I must say, it's a great feeling.

Not a lot to report today. I spent the entire day learning, except for a run before we all went out for dinner.

My learning started off with the Canon 7 D, I'm not sure if the settings are correct. We're not getting the same quality of video that we've seen on the You Tube sample videos.

Last night Reid was filming his movie and Alyssa was his actresses. I looked at the cuts this morning and thought it could be better and I knew he would never read the instructions and thought I better. Then I could provide the technical support. After a few hours, I still couldn't figure it out. Tomorrow I'll have to call the camera store.

Then the next learning stop was Word Press, again. I'm making headway. I followed up with Word Press by trying to teaching myself about Mail Chimp. It seems that all I'm doing is learning, or at least trying. Which is making me irritable. All I'm doing is reading from google and watching You Tube videos in the hope they'll help me figure everything out.

At 5 pm, I still hadn't trained and Alice was looking forward to going to dinner. I couldn't pass up a run, I needed it to clear my head. At one point I was fully dressed, heart rate monitor on and ALMOST didn't go. I thought, "it's my birthday, I've trained 12 days straight, your entitled to take a break, why not do it tomorrow".

Instead, I went anyways. I know that after 2-minutes of leaving the house, I'll get in the groove. It's those first steps that are the toughest. I was right. It didn't take long and I was into it. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying the no-pressure training. It feels so damn enjoyable.

I finished the run, had a shower and we were off to Turtle Jacks for my birthday dinner. I was craving a nice burger, although I did pass up the fries and went for salad. Although, they did have a pitcher of beer special for $11 and I went for that.

When I asked the waitress how many beers came in the pitcher she said about 2.5. It turns out that 6 come in a pitcher. It was a great dinner, I love hanging out with Alice and the kids. We have so much fun and Reid constantly makes me laugh. I'm blessed.

For my birthday, the family gave me some beer related stuff, coasters and a cool glass. Oh, and a pair of fake diamond earrings that I helped pick out earlier this week.

Long run - 53:33 / 9.84 km / 5:25 per km avg

Riding impaired...

2010-11-20T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today's ride was not easy. Not because it was windy out, not because it was cold out, not because I was bundled up with lots of clothes on, not because my hands froze, not because my feet froze, not because it was getting dark when I got home.

Nope, those weren't the toughest parts of today's ride, the toughest part was riding with a throbbing hangover.

It was another Friday Night in the man cave, aka "The Pig & Whistle", just Alice and I. We started late and ended early in the morning. I have no idea of what time we got to bed. All I remember was opening my eyes at 9 am and realizing I had a scheduled ride with Shaw and Mike at 10:30 am.

I guess I can blame it on my birthday, it's on Sunday and I didn't want to party on Sunday, or I'd be thrashed for work and that's not good. So, instead, Friday night was my birthday party come early.

I was in no condition to ride when I opened my eyes at 9 am. At that moment, I don't even think my blood alcohol was legal to ride. I closed my eyes and the next time I opened them it was 10 am. When I did wake up it didn't take me long to get dressed, I was dressed.

As sick as this sounds, I was looking forward to getting this ride on and over with, just like old times. It was going to be a RUTI ride (Riding Under the Influence). It had been a long time since I had one of those.

Low and behold, first think I did was check my email and both Shaw and Mike had to bail on the ride. Yes. That meant I could get some more sleep and go later, when it would be warmer and my head would feel better, hopefully.

For the next four hours I tried to work, I was teaching myself about Wordpress. Not easy to do and with a throbbing head it was near impossible. I felt like a hungover zombie trying to learn. It was weird, I didn't understand if I was still drunk or in the hangover stage.

At 2 pm I eventually forced myself out the door. I filled up three water bottles and took a protein bar with me. It was NOT going to be a podcast listening workout, that would be too difficult, it was music blaring the entire way.

To say the ride was slow is a understatement. My heart rate was so high and my speed so slow, essentially it was a HHLS workout (High Heart rate Low Speed). Although, I still enjoyed it, I was out there, I was SIU'ing it baby (Sucking it up). If you want to play, you gotta pay.

I had a twisted thought as I was riding. What if I purposely did a hungover / drunk Ironman. Stayed up all night, drank and went right to the start line. Then filmed the carnage along the way. It's amazing how good of an idea that sounds like when you don't have all your facilities with you.

Near the two hour mark my hands and feet started freezing. I had brought money for a greasy hamburger but was too cold to stop and figured it's almost dinner time, we had steaks. For the entire ride, I drank less than one water bottle.

When I got home I was hurting, in the head. Damn, the delayed hangover was kicking in. I had two choices, fight it or start drinking again. I chose the former, I SIU'd it, had an Advil instead and spent the rest of the night learning more about Word Press until 1 am.

I'm proud of myself for SIUing it and getting on the road to ride. Even though it was cold and I wasn't feeling my best, I did enjoy the ride. No pressure to go fast and it sure beats riding indoors on a trainer. I saw a few other guys out riding and the one thing about riding in November is it's only the die hards out and we never miss a wave to each other opportunity, we're kindred spirits, hard-core cyclists.

It took about 2 hours for the food and Advil to kick to make me feel a LITTLE better. I didn't have my first pee of the day until 6 pm. I had to have a shower when I got home, the smell of my sweat was making me SICK!!! The night before nasty toxins were working there way out.

If the police ever need a non-leathal weapon and don't want to use the taser, the smell of my shirt from today's ride would be perfect. Put it over a criminals face and he's down. Or if you want to extract information from an Al-Qaeda member, I guarantee success.

Long Ride - 2:40:49 / 72.46 km / 27 kph / 135 avg hr

I'll take training any day..

2010-11-19T19:00:00.003-05:00

Some people train to race, I don't, I train because I like training. I'll take training over racing any day. Racing hurts, training is Zen.

I remember hearing a podcast interview with ex-professional triathlete Ken Glah and he talked about how much he liked training. Ken's a 60 plus Ironman event finisher. He said, if you do Ironman's, "you better like training".

Ain't that the truth. What Ken said really resonated with me to this day, I always have felt the same way, I love training.

Since the NYC Marathon, I took one day rest and then got right back into regular training. I missed it. I've now trained 11 days straight since then and it feels great to get back into a daily training routine. As strange as this may sound, the thing I don't like about racing is the tapering and recovery phases.

When I have to stop training, it throws my routine out of whack. I start to feel a little disoriented. Then once the race is over I take some more time off for recovery. Before I know it, if I include the pre and post race time off, my routine has been disrupted for 2-3 weeks.

They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit and I guess it works both ways, in 21 days you can also break a good habit.

It's those 2-3 weeks of pre and post non-training time off that can screw you up. You start to get used not actively training. At first it's all justified on tapering or recovery, but it's also a gateway to making excuses to not get back into the regular training groove.

This is especially true if your big goal was to finish an Ironman distance race and you did it. Most first time Ironman don't have a post-Ironman plan.

For most of us that do an Ironman race, we often romanticize about how wonderful it's going to be to take some guilt-free time off from training and eating healthy. If anyone asks, we can justifiably say, "hey, this is my off season, I'm entitled, now pass me that donut, and f#ck off".

Many, if not most people, stop training altogether after an Ironman, which is one slippery slope. Unfortunately, being crowned an Ironman doesn't give you a never get fat pass. Although I really wish it did.

I was at the YMCA today and did a swim and weights. In only 6 weeks, I've got a bigger midsection than I can remember having in at least 3.5 years, the mirror doesn't lie. And when I was doing lunges, I could see this little paunch. That paunch, combined with hairy legs was disgusting me. If I was to look at it in a positive light, at least I can see my Kegerator investment.

The upside to my current training is I no longer feel weak. I had my best swim in a long time, which doesn't make sense, it was only my third swim since Kona. Today, most of my 100's were in the 1:32 - 1:36 per 100 meters. Weight lifting is a different story, I'm using lower weight and really focusing on long slow reps, two seconds on the contraction and four seconds on the release.

At the pool there was a couple of woman swimming a couple lanes over. One started a conversation by yelling over at me "Hey, Mr. Ironman!!!". I wonder which of the 6 logo's on my person or within a 10 foot radius of my person gave away that I was an Ironman.

She did a sprint this year and was planing on doing an Olympic next year and maybe even a half Ironman one day. She was asking me questions like "so what Ironman did you do this year". It's a great feeling when you can reply, "I did China, St. George, Lake Placid and Kona, AND a couple of half Ironman's".

Her eyes opened wide like saucers and she was in awe. Of course the next question was, "do you have a family?" It was one of those stupid questions I get all the time, where people think that if you do Ironman training your family relationship is going to suffer.

Actually, now that I think about it, next time I get that question I'm going to answer it as follows.

"Damn straight it's tough on the family, I'm on my third wife and both my kids have run away from home twice and my son quit school in grade 6. Then my 12 year old daughter got pregnant and I didn't want a newborn around the house scratching my bike or screwing with my triathlon gear, so I took the coat hanger out of the closet and gave her an abortion. It wasn't an easy thing to do, she's a fighter. The downside of training all the time is it keeps me away from the home and I don't get to beat on them as much as I'd like to. I've rarely asked them if they like triathlons, but like I tell them often, if you want me to be your father and you want a roof over your head and food in your mouth, you better shut the F#ck up and clean my bike without scratching it and not say anything negative about my triathlon training. Heck, it's not easy on me mentally either, look I'm a man wearing earrings for gods sake".

Instead, I told her I have a family and it's not a problem and in fact I also like to party and tonight I'll probably get to bed at 4 am and I have a 10:30 am bike ride scheduled for tomorrow. She then said, "wow, I don't know how you do it, I'm normally in bed by 8 pm".

I don't want to make it sound like she was a jerk, she wasn't. She was actually quite pleasant and I enjoyed talking with her and her friend. I always find it inspiring to watch people who are older in age and new to triathlon training like real athletes. I feed off their energy, enthusiasm and optimism and even though I was in the middle of a set, I'll always spend the time talking and encouraging.

At least I weighed in at 188.2 lbs today, which is .8 lbs less than yesterday. Again, as I look at my 3 Ironman tattoos on my body in the mirror, I realize I have NO advantage to keeping weight off or stay in shape anymore than any non-Ironman. Life isn't fair.

In fact, it may be tougher for me because my body is so efficient at burning and storing calories. If I don't train, I get fat sooner than the average person.

The best part of my day was looking at my training log and seeing that virtually everyday this month I've done something. It's not high mileage, but it's constant training. I've learnt that consistency is more effective than cramming or binging. The same goes for dieting.

Things are starting to feel back to normal. I have no big races I'm preparing for and I'm back to a steady daily training routine. I no longer feel like I'm free falling. I now need to use my Ironman focus to get down to 180 lbs.

As I was leaving the Y, I was thinking that if doing an Ironman gave you a life, or even a 1-year pass to stay in superior shape and never gain weight, everyone would be doing them. It's just not fair.

I actually think there's a downside to being an Ironman and then get out of shape and gain weight. The downside is that you know how good it feels to be in the Top 1% of the world shape and then to lose it makes it even a bigger loss than those that have never experienced it.

SPECIAL FAVOUR REQUIRED: I have a long time friend that is really down on his luck and is trying to reinvent himself. He has started a blog to get the ball rolling. I'm his only follower. It doesn't look good if some of his potential clients only see one follower. If you have a moment can you follow my buddy Dougs blog it's at http://theweeklysalesbeast.blogspot.com/

Thanks in advance. (I also want to hear him tell me how successful his blog has taken off when I speak to him on Monday and he doesn't know why).

Tempo Swim - 48:34 / 2100 meters
Weights Adp 2 - 45:00

Video of the day is John Proc, Rodney Buike and Kevin Neumann. Unfortunately Matty-O and Simon were not at the rink that day.

Found it...

2010-11-18T23:01:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, after 40 minutes of writing, I somehow lost my blog post by hitting the wrong button.

Thanks to Adena, I found it, it was in the drafts section. The good news is the replacement blog post was better.

As you can see, today's picture is a little unusual. Can you guess who it is? No, it's not me. The masked wonder is Al "The Hammer" Nolan.

It was a picture from his recent Mexican vacation. The one where the resort blew up. For those that know Al from the beer run, you can see he's looking good, he's lost weight and is firmer.

I've spoke to Al and I'm coaching him and motivating him for next years Battle Royal at the HOP Beer Run. Al will be my hired gun. I'm his manager, he's my muscle. I can hardly wait to see him and Tank-O rumble. I think it will be pay-per-view worthy, unless Matty-0 has two beers and some chicken nuggets. If so, Tank-O will be crying like a baby because of his Tummy-O before it even starts.

Al is not only a blog follower, he's a family friend and one of my brothers best friends. Al and I grew up in Winnipeg and have known each other since we were 15 years old. Al used to be quite a good cross country runner in high school. He was a lean, mean, running machine.

In just the past few months Al's decided to get back into shape. He's been reading my blog for at least a year or two and in that time he wanted to get in shape and talked about it a lot and even bought a bike a year ago and still didn't commit to it.

This summer something changed. Al started going to an early morning boot camp at a buddy's place. The next thing I know is Al is firm and looking good, actually GREAT. Now the plan is for us to do a triathlon together this summer, Al's first and hopefully a half Ironman. Even Julia, his better half, is thinking about getting into triathlons. Good on you Al, keep up the good work.

Before I move on to another topic, I have one last thing to say about Al and that mask. First off, without even talking to Al, I can guarantee you that at one point during his vacation he was running around Juila in that hotel room with only the mask on. Guaranteed.

Secondly, Al had some fun with the mask at the resort, and I quote from the email he sent me:

I actually bought three masks from the guy and thought Julia and I could do some role playing, but I ended up drinking too much and things didn't work out as planned. I got drunk and wore that mask all evening around this 5 star resort and was growling at people and telling them the Ass Cracker was going to get them. Most were very unimpressed. Too funny.

Oh how I wished I was there, bugging people in anonymity. How beautiful is that?!

On the training front, I had a bit of an epiphany the other day as I was stretching. As obvious as this sounds I felt that I need to be careful or I'll lose all the fitness I gained and gain all the weight I lost.

As it stands now, I just hit the scales at 189 lbs and I DO NOT want to hit that 190 lb mark. My best is 179 lbs and I'm happy around 181 lbs. One of the reasons I haven't set the date for the Training Payne Kona party is that I'm afraid that it will push me into 190 lb's. I'm scared, I'd rather be at 185 lbs before the P-A-R-T-Y.

I've really changed my training focus. For most of the year it was performance based training and by the time Kona came around, no matter how much I trained I was going in the wrong direction. My body was too worn out and in need of recovery. My current focus is to rebuild and recover.

Recovery focused is a wonderful way to train. I care absolutely 0% about speed. I'm more focused on keeping the workouts easy. Even my weight training is all about long, slow reps and full extension. My stretching is the same. It's all about going back to basics.

In doing so, I've found my motivation to train has returned. I'm feeling similar to how I felt three years ago. The workouts are pressure-less and enjoyable, much more Zen like. All I care about right now is rejuvenating my body with the perfect training balance. Training enough that the body can easily recover from the session and still has time to repair and re-build the old damage.

My run tonight was one of the best I've had in such a long time. I didn't get out the door until around 8:30 pm and my brain was fried from working through some problems. I knew that I NEEDED to go for a run. I knew I'd feel like a new man when I returned, even thought it was a relatively short run.

I was right, I felt like a new man. Nothing is as good at clearing the mind and de-stressing like exercise. Even though I LOVE beer, it takes a second place to exercise for immediate stress relieve.

One of the reasons my run was so enjoyable was because I have a potentially BIG announcement to make, and no, it's not that I'm retiring from blogging again. I don't want to say no more, other than it's going to be made on 11:24.

One very last thing, I want to officially thank the following people for their recent contributions to the TPPF. They made their donations AFTER I announced I was shutting down the blog. How cool is that!!! I also want to add that David O'Sullivan made the donation a day or two AFTER he lost his job. I told him when I get to Nashville, all the beer is on me.

Thanks You, in the order recieved.
Kevin Neuman - $25
Kathryn Murphy - $20
Doru Sandor - $75 (now third largest contributor)
David O'Sullivan $25

Thanks again, your money will be spend on beer, and not wasted on frivolous stuff.

Tempo Run - 41:29 / 8.20 km / 5:03 pace.

Blog Post Take Two...

2010-11-18T09:22:00.002-05:00

Thank God for PBS. Last night my brain was fried and it saved my life.

For most of the evening I was deleting old photos and video and trying to make room on my hard drive.

I uploaded some new software and was copying files from one program to another and my computer gave me a warning that I'm running low on disk space and have only 197 mb left from a 200 gigabyte drive.

For the next 3 hours, Alice, Alyssa and I were reviewing my 10,000 photos and deleting ones that we didn't think we needed. No Triathlon photos were harmed in the process.

By the end of the night I had 7 gigabytes open. It was then just past 11 pm and I didn't want to write the blog post, but I got an email from Derek (CouplaHounds) saying he's looking forward to it with his morning coffee tomorrow. That's all it took to motivate me to GETTER DONE.

The rest is history. I changed over to the new editor months before, before switching back, and the same thing happened, the post or parts of the post would delete. Doru, you're the computer nerd, any help would be appreciated, let me know what buttons I'm pushing that are deleting an entire entry. Like you, when the window closed, I figured "no big deal" and then when I opened it, it was gone.

It was midnight and I decided to go to bed, it was too late to start writing my blog post. My mind was racing. From experience I know if I try to fall asleep with a racing mind it doesn't work, I'll be up for hours. Instead, against Alice's ongoing wishes as she tries to sleep, I turned on the TV and specifically PBS.

Within 20 minutes the documentary background voices on PBS put me into a slumber. In fact, the best program they offer with the best voice to put you to sleep is Frontline, hands down. Last night I caught some documentary about the Apple Circus.

Yesterday, earlier in the evening I had no choice but to make room on my hard drive. The day before I bought the family a new camera. It's the Canon 7D SLR camera. In one of my drunken moments in Kona, to shut Reid up, I promised to buy him THE Canon 7D SLR camera for his movie making. I knew nothing about it and little did I know it was $2500, I thought it was about $900. Had I known, I would have kept my mouth shut and kept listening to his whining.

Reid loves movie making and wants to be a director. He's not into sports and that's how we justified the purchase. Out of all the sports and hobbies he's tried, and he's tried them all, he keeps making movies. He's constantly on You Tube and did his research and told me the Canon 7 D is the best camera. He said Saturday Night Live, the TV show 24 and even Steven Spielberg uses it.

At first I called, "bullshit", until I asked him to show me movies and TV shows that used the camera. The quality is truly amazing. I've attached some You Tube clips of the quality at the bottom. There is five clips, each with a different style, take a look as short parts, you'll be blown away.

They are all a little different in subject matter and filming style. I know the one with the porn actresses WILL be watched fully by Matty O. If he had a laptop, he'd probably even take it in the bathroom. (I heard he got caught once trying to unplug all the cords and take his CAD work desktop machine into the bathroom and it didn't workout so well with his boss).

The next topic I'd like to discuss is the earrings and hopefully put this issue to bed. I got an email from John Barclay yesterday or the day before. He asked why I got the earrings? I emailed him back with a truthful reply, I poured my heart out. I then got a return reply from him that said, "Whatever!"

Until I got that email, I didn't realize that no matter what I say, unless it's what he wants to hear, it's going to be a "whatever" response.

So for John and the rest of the knuckleheads out there, and you know who you are, I'm going to tell you the reason I got the earrings and hopefully this will put the entire issue to bed once and for all. I'll give John what he wanted to hear.

I'M GAY!!!!

I've been in the closet for 45 years. The only reason I got back into triathlons was to look at fit men. The only reason I trained with John for Ironman Louisville and ran with him on Sunday's and around the track during the week is because I was smitten by him. He's so tall, dark and handsome. I love his Village People mustache and his flat as a pancake butt. But most of all I think I just feel in love with the hair coming out of his nose and ears, it accentuated his baldness.

And Matty O is right, I enjoy going to Hans for a rear end adjustment. In fact, I loved Matty O's peoples elbow. It wasn't Al Nolan who was the instigator at the HOP Beer run and started the wrestling on the trampoline. It was me. I look forward to wrestling with a bunch of sweaty men and the peoples elbow was a near highlight. It hit me on the side of the butt, like a charlie horse, had it been about 5 inches move to the center, then Bingo, I would have been in heaven.

So there you have it, you now know the reason for the earrings. And don't think I haven't seen guys like Matty O, John Barclay and Simon on the gay porn sites I visit. The stuff you guys do is wild, I think it's even banned in 49 of the 50 states, except Vegas, which gives you added motivation to get to the 70.3 World Championships in Vegas. I couldn't even dream of some of the things you guys figured out to do. Looking at it ALMOST turned me un-gay.

Hopefully now the earrings are put to rest.

I've got to say I LOVE my alter ego's blog, TRAINING PAYNE-S. Each post has been classic. Yesterday's post about the Ironman earrings really hit home and made me laugh. (I hope that blog continues as well). At one point I was actually thinking of getting Ironman earrings and in unison, Alice and Alyssa said NO!!!!

Coming out of the Y after yesterday's swim, I counted 11 Ironman logo's on my person and on my truck. I have 3 Mdot tattoos, a shirt, a jacket, a gym bag, a swim cap. On the truck I have a chrome emblem, a trailor hitch cover and two license plate holders in the back seat waiting to get put on. Not to mention my morning Mdot coffee mug, er pail, and water glass. Actually, now that I recount it, that's 12. The earrings would be just a LITTLE to much.

I'm running out of time, I;ve got to get to work, so even though I got more to say, I've got to wrap this up. The other stuff about my training state of mind will have to be on my next post.

To close it up, I'm glad Al and Julia Nolan are alive. They had a near miss that killed 5 other Canadians at a Mexican 5-Star resort they were staying at this past week. In fact, Julia had just went for a run and passed by the area that exploded. She felt the ground shake. Al was in his room and didn't hear a thing, I assume he was watching "Spank-tra-vision" on TV and thought the explosion was his. Dreamer.

In all seriousness, I feel badly for the people who were killed and injured and glad that Al was okay. In fact, when most people were leaving to go home, the Nolan's decided to stay for a couple more days. I'm assuming, in true Al fashion, he asked for a discount or coupon for another vacation.

I could just see him at the front desk arguing with a Mexican manager that the grounds are a mess, far from 5-Star quality, "I want compensation, you almost killed my wife". I attached a news video below for those who may not know what happened.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of the new stuff Reid creates with the Canon 7D. He's hoping to shoot his movie this weekend if he can break his actress, Alyssa, away from exam studying. I said we should advertise for an actress on Craiglist, but Alice vetoed that idea, she was afraid who would show up and didn't want them in the house.

Al's Mexican News

This ain't a good sign...

2010-11-18T00:00:00.001-05:00

I wrote my entire blog, it took about 40 minutes and then "WHAM" I hit some wrong button and lost it all.

I recently switched over to the new blogger editor and for some reason if I'm not sitting fully vertical when I type on my keyboard my hand his some button or combination of buttons that erases everything.

So here I am, I had a great blog post and poof it's gone and I need to get to bed. I'm too pissed off to even want to write a short version. I'll try to do it before work tomorrow. Damn that pisses me off. That's a part of my life that I'll never get back.

The excellent subject matter included my earrings, my training, my hard drive storage problems, Reid's new Camera and Al Nolan still being alive after the Mexican resort he was at blew up. Hopefully I'll still remember it all tomorrow.

Long Swim - 43:56 / 2000

Say no more...

2010-11-17T08:24:00.002-05:00

Similar to an alcoholic that can't stop drinking, I can't stop blogging. It's eating at me.

After I did my last post, I got so many nice emails sent to me directly about themselves or family members that were suffering from a mental illness and who enjoyed my blog.

It looks like my blog attracted a lot of crazy people. In all seriousness, I was really touched.

As I mentioned previously, I stopped the blog to help me focus on some other goals, which I am doing. Just in the last week I found myself being able to do what I needed to do and still had time left over to blog if I needed to.

There is four things that are tugging at me to keep the blog going. The first is I like doing it. The second is people like reading it. The third is I want to try and make money off it and the fourth is I don't want to let the terrorists win.

The blog is never going to make any real money, I get that. It would just be nice to make enough to that it covers some of the beer and triathlon expenses.

One big reason I stopped the blog was because some people who read it I don't want reading it. There is some people I know personally that don't deserve to be part of my life for one reason or another, it bothers me that they know anything that goes on in my life.

They are the lurkers. I know who they are and they know who they are. If your asking yourself if your one of those people, you'll know by asking yourself, do I get along with him or did I have a falling out with him? If you answered yes, you are a lurker.

As my new career position is Internet based marketing, I also justified potentially starting back up the blog as a form of education for myself and a way to experiment with new Internet technology and marketing techniques. Can you tell I'm really working on the justification to keep the blog going?

I've got to say, this past two weeks has been great. I've been very work focused and training has been solid. It's been a nice ebb and flow.

Being able to work from home is good and bad. The good is there is flexibility and the bad is there is flexibility. What I've found helpful is making some goal commitments and bringing structure to my day.

My office is at the end of my couch. First thing I do is get up, force myself to shower, have my breakfast and by 9 am I'm at the office. I've then set my day up in blocks of time, no different than training and have posted those blocks of time on my calendar. Each block of time is set up to handle a task, again, no different than training for triathlons.

In between the work tasks, I have blocks of personal time that I can do training or whatever. Something that will clear my head. If I didn't have those forced blocks of personal time, I'd work all day and night. I've done it. It's so easy to take Ironman focus and get work imbalanced and then mentally imbalanced.

So I guess I'm back blogging, and yes I guess you can call me Bryan Farvre. For those that don't know Brett Farvre, he's the football player that keeps coming out of retirement.

I have to let you know the final decision to blog or not came down to how I make most of my most important decisions, I flipped a coin. Heads, use your head and don't blog. Tails, use your heart and blog.

I've also had to make some changes in the way I blog. Believe it or not, I used to proof read my posts VERY carefully. I was always shocked when someone would say they caught a spelling or grammar problem. I thought I caught it all.

That proof reading took up a lot of my time, it was probably as long if not longer than the original blog post would take. From now on, I'll run spell check, but I won't be proof reading. So you may have to improvise from time to time and figure out what I was trying to say.

I'm also going to put a time limit on myself. Some of my blog posts were taking a couple of hours. It's that perfectionist and all or nothing guy in me.

And finally, I'm going to use less quotation marks. They slowed me down and it seems I've been teased about them enough to know it's probably no big deal to use them or not use them.

Nov 9 - Bike 1:40:21

Nov 10 - Run 45:02

Nov 11 - Weight 45:00

Nov 12 - Swim 44:30

Nov 13 - Bike 1:01:33

Nov 14 - Run 1:08:30

Nov 15 - Bike 1:44:38

Nov 16 - Run 41:12

To get the TRAINING PAYNES ball rolling

2010-11-14T17:06:00.001-05:00

Training Payne here. Yes I'm back, sorta, kinda, not really.

I was with Adena "She Said I need a Goal" @adena_tri today. I was asked to talk about my triathlon experiences at a local triathlon club and she and Fran @JohnWProc - "Lord of The Chainrings blog"'s better half came to watch.

As we sat and talked before hand, Adena said she already missed the blog and came up with the idea of having a blog that the Training Payne blog followers could author to update what Training Payne is up to via Twitter posts or Training Payne sightings.

I thought that was a great idea and even thought it could go one step further. What about "embellishing or completely fabricating" Training Payne stories. Perhaps YOU have a story of something you did that you wouldn't ever want the world to know, but using the Training Payne Alias you could tell the world your story and hopefully make them laugh or cry or inspire or motivate.

The concept is to keep the spirit of Training Payne alive and entertain ourselves each day. This way guys like Doru would have something to read in the morning and John Barclay before bed time.

From time to time I may even post. Perhaps you don't have a blog, but want to tell how you overcame it and Sucked it UP and did it, or you got wicked drunk drunk and have a funny story to tell, or something in between.

The new blog website is www.trainingpaynes.blogspot.com (I added an s to payne, pretty cleaver hun).

I've sent invites out to a few people to give them authoring access to the blog. If YOU want access, it's really easy, just email me your email address at brybrarobry@me.com and I'll add you to the list. The best part is your anonymous, actually "YOUR" Training Payne. Which is perfect, even C.C. can participate.

So, it's now kicked off, I'm not sure if it will take of or not. Time will tell and if you want to have a fun blog to read, then "take the bull by the horns" and write a post, or drop a photo or video. The more each of you put into it the better. And don't be shy, embellishment and exaggeration is fine. I'll take "no offence", I just want a good laugh, or cry, or motivation, or inspiring like the rest of us.

Again, the only requirement is you tell stories that you think are TRAINING PAYNE WORTHY. If you need inspiration, you can visit and read posts from the Original Training Payne blog.

Hopefully the best part will be the comments. It will be interesting to see what, or if, anything happens next.

LETS KEEP THE TRAINING PAYNE SPIRIT AND COMMUNITY ALIVE!!!

And YES, I did get earrings this week. Both ears. So let the GAY begin.

Training Payne
http://www.trainingpaynes.blogspot.com/

New York City Marathon Race Report...

2010-11-08T23:13:00.004-05:00

Okay, all suspense aside, this will be my last blog post. I've given it a LOT of thought and for a variety of reasons I think it's the right time to wind the blog down .

Rather than continuing to blog about myself, I'm going to take a "back seat" and my plan is to read and comment on others blogs and keep connected with all my blog found friends through twitter.

For any that have contributed to the Training Payne Party Fund and feel they didn't get their monies worth, or want the beer and cigar back that they bought me, drop me an email. My customer service staff will be glad to handle your full or partial refund. Just like Wal-mart, no questions asked.

Or, if you've always wanted to donate to the Training Payne Party Fund and buy me a beer and or cigar, or give more, now's your chance.

Now, from this point on, pack a breakfast, lunch and dinner, this post is a long one. You may need all week to read it in chunks and get through the videos.

I started this blog November 12, 2007 as Alice, Reid and I drove to Philadelphia for the marathon. It was my final event of the year after losing 50 lbs earlier in the summer doing triathlons and running races. My goal was to finish under 4 hours and I did a 3:58:44.

Fast forward three years and it's now Nov 8th, 2010 and Alice and I travelled to NYC for the marathon. So many wonderful things have happened over the last three years. My life has literally transformed, and the beauty is I can always look back those 1034 blog posts and relive every minute of it.

I've also experienced so much in those three years that I can always draw strength from it. No one can take away what I've accomplished and when I hit future road blocks I know "nothing's impossible".

With that said, on to the good stuff. In short, this visit in New York City for the marathon was the BEST time I've ever had in New York City. Which means a lot. I used to go there for business, with some pleasure trips in between all the time.

We drove to and flew out of Buffalo Friday afternoon. Other than a huge Customs line up at the border and making it to the airport "just in time", the flight was uneventful.

This was the first time I ever used Priceline.com to "bid for" and book a hotel. We lucked out and I'm going to use them all the time from now on. We got the Millennium beside the United Nations. Of all the NYC hotels I've ever stayed in, this room was the best.

They put us on the 36th floor, two floors from the top. The view was spectacular with unobstructed views of the East River, the Williamburg Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Tower and the City landscape.

The first thing we did after checking into our hotel was head to the Jacob Javits center to pick up my race kit. When we got there it was 6:30 pm and registration was to close at 7 pm.

It was the perfect time to go, it wasn't overly busy and we "flew through". I spoke to others that went earlier in the day and they said there was LONG line-ups and it was slow moving.

Until I showed up at the registration and expo, I didn't have a good understanding of "how large and prestigious" the NYC marathon is. Immediately, you first notice it is one "huge" logistical event.

I've got to say, the minute I walked into the Jacob Javits center to register, I felt out of place. Everywhere were runners and here I am a triathlete and I felt I was "crashing" their event. If it was just a regular marathon that you didn't have to qualify for, I may have felt differently, even though I earn the right to be there.

I started as a runner. I run all the time as part of my training. I enjoy running. With that said, I don't look at myself as a runner. Triathletes even look different runners. Most of the people that I could tell run often were "slight or skinny" in build and even their "heads" looked thin and some had that "skeletor" and even somewhat "unhealthy" look.

I don't want to make this part of the post sound like triathletes are superior to runners. I don't believe that. My point is just to illustrate the differences I felt between a major running event and an Ironman.

The major difference I noticed at the event expo when people were buying race imprinted clothing, was the energy. Runners are somewhat friendly, yet stay to themselves. Many were shopping alone. It's not as "family oriented" and as electric as an Ironman expo.

Before the start of the race, as I was waiting in my bib coloured village, I hung out with the wife of a multiple Ironman finisher. She's a runner and has even run a 3:10 marathon. She has also been to three Ironmans and agreed 100% with my assessment of the atmosphere differences between Ironmans and marathons. She also said that if she could get over her fear of biking, she'd love to start doing triathlons.

During the registration process I had some questions and I'm not sure if they were volunteers or paid help, but everyone was very knowledgeable and helpful. Another difference with the NYC Marathon that I've never seen with any others is "the amount of rules".

I guess with all the people and incredible logistics required to get everyone to the start line, they have strict rules about when and where you need to be. If you mess-up, you are out of luck and will not race. It makes sense, the race is the largest marathon in the world and this year I heard they had 48,000 runners and had over 125,000 people apply to get in. It has an economic impact of $250 millions to New York.

The selection and design creativity of clothing at the expo was a little disappointing. Very standard running specific training wear. Unlike the Ironman which has lots of very cool stuff. Alice and I each got a top, but it was more of a "we really should get a piece of clothing with the NYC Marathon logo on it" as opposed to "wow, this is cool, I gotta have it".

Again, with all that said, it was still a very good expo. The one thing I noticed "throughout" the event was the amount of "non-English" speaking people. It really added to the "International flavour and scope of the event". A few times throughout the event I went to ask someone something and they didn't speak English.

Once we dropped my registration and clothing stuff off at the hotel it was around 8 pm and that is when the fun really began. Earlier in the day, just before I had a couple of beers at the airport, I made a "line of scrimmage" decision, "to care more about having fun than performing well at the race".

My thoughts were the NYC marathon is "a victory lap". Although qualifying for Boston would be cool, it wasn't a priority. Even when I qualified for NYC, I didn't know it until afterward. It was never even a goal and I only registered for it to experience what others had said is a great marathon.

Before we got to New York, I was a little concerned about our hotel location, we were on 44th street and 1st avenue. Being somewhat on the"fringe" of the City, I thought we would have to do a lot of walking to get to any fun places. I was WRONG!!! DEAD WRONG!!!

When Alice and I go to New York, we like to go with no plans. We're not theatre people and the best times we've had in New York is when we just walk around and stop at places in a serendipitous fashion.

Our first stop was to carbo-load at a nice Italian restaurant. The service was great in the beginning and dropped off a little at the end. I don't think they are used to replacing Amstel Lights so quickly.

Our next stop was just around the block at Muldoon's Irish Pub. It was too much fun. Alice and I eventually saddled up to the bar and started talking with the young bartender Shane, he was direct from Ireland.

The drinks keep pouring and eventually I asked Shane if he had four friends that wanted to help me with my "beer marathon". Twenty six beers in twenty six miles. I don't think he could believe I was having so many beers only two sleeps before the marathon and wanted me to come back the following night. He was going to bring some friends to party with us.

Before the end of the night I gave Shane one of my new "Live Yourself to Death" business cards, he loved it. I then asked a Black Guy who came in the bar with his 17 year old son if he could help me out with four friends for my "beer marathon" aspirations. He couldn't and before I left our conversation I gave him an "LYTD" business card.

Eventually Shane's shift ended and we decided to leave. Along the way, we opened the door of another bar, looked in, it was full of rugged looking barfly's and stunk like mold. We stepped three feet inside, turned around and left.

On the street corner we bumped into a guy named Joe Baldwin and a group of girls that were part of some performing group from Chicago. By this time, Alice and I had each probably set an all time PB on the party level scale, we were feeling NO pain.

We asked the group if they wanted to join us as we were moving on to our next adventure. Unfortunately, they couldn't. I think it was something about having to get back to Chicago. Before we left, I gave Joe one of my "LYTD" cards and he gave me one of his.

Our next stop was just one block around the next corner at "The Perfect Pint". In one word, it was "AWESOME". It's the BEST pub I've EVER been too. It was late and there was maybe 20 people left in the bar and it was still rocking. The music was blaring and the energy was fantastic. There was young and old alike partying. Very New York crowd.

I knew we were at the perfect place when I asked for an Amstel and they asked if I wanted a bottle or "draught". I thought, "WOW!!! Amstel on draught? That's unheard of, yes please!"They brought me my beer in the most beautiful Amstel glass I've ever seen. It was a footed pilsner glass and with a gold rim.

Immediately after I had my first beer I hid the glass in my inside jacket pocket. After I finished the second beer I too put that glass in my other inside pocket. There was "no way" I was leaving this bar without those glasses.

When the young Irish bartender brought me my third beer, I showed him the glasses hidden in my jacket and told him I was leaving with these and he wasn't stopping me. He laughed and gave me the thumbs up. He was smart, it only works to his advantage when I leave, he knows he's probably going to get a nice tip, which he did.

I can't express how great the Perfect Pint was, it easily topped Muldoon's, which wasn't easy. Even the food was awesome. We ordered a late night snack of Buffalo wings and fries. The wings were easily the best I've ever had. They were huge and tasty.

We ended up leaving at around 4 am and the bar was still going. I guess the Perfect Pint doesn't close until the last person decides to leave and we weren't the last. You gotta love New York.

I tend to always have a good time where ever I go, but this night was special. It was "too much fun".

The next morning I woke up just before noon and saw my two beautiful looking Amstel glasses staring at me. Whenever I look at those glasses, I'll never forget "the best night we've ever had in New York".

Surprisingly, I didn't feel too bad when I woke up. We decided to walk down to Times Square and then over to Central Park to find a rendezvous point for after the race. I was given great advice by Chris Baker that trying to find your loved ones is near impossible after the race. The crowds are insane.

Along the way we saw the shooting of a movie, someone said it was called "Man on a Ledge" and it was literally a man stories up on a ledge with an airbag below. We were hoping we'd get to see him jump. It was really cool to watch how they were filming it with the different cameras coming off the building.

After a mediocre lunch that they gave me for free because it was poorly cooked, we walked to Central Park. I made one bad mistake, I wore my street shoes. Up until now I've been wearing "flip flops" and my feet weren't yet adjusted to my shoes. My right baby toe started rubbing and I could feel a blister coming on. Not good when you have a marathon to run the next day.

We scoped out the park and the finish line. Along the way we saw a women wearing an Ironman Kentucky finishers jacket and having "major fun" with her friends under the 26 mile marker. At first she was taking a photo carrying her friend on her back and then for some reason a few of them were lying on the ground posing for more pictures. All I remember was the laughter and people walking by and wondering what these crazy women were doing. Typical crazy Ironman spirit.

Rather than walk, we cabbed it back to the hotel and had a blissful Saturday afternoon 3-hour plus nap. At one point I woke up and there was a documentary about the history of the NYC marathon and it's founder Fred Lebow.

Watching it really helped me get into the marathon spirit. The story was fascinating and knowing the background really added to knowing the significance of the event. It added to the overall experience.

We woke up and it was dark outside, it was dinner time. We eventually ended up at "Sparks Steakhouse" and went for a big piece of "cow".

Earlier this week, during an ART treatment, as I was lying on my back, the doctor lifted my leg in the air and caused a small rip in my two to three year old jeans. The ones Alice hates because they are so old. As I was getting ready for dinner, I bent down to put on my shoes and "rip", the jeans had a tear at least 6 inches long.

I was already bloated and have gained probably 5 - 7 lbs since Kona from less training, more food and more partying. The ripped jeans made me feel so fat. Not to mention uncomfortable. As I walked, people behind me could see my underwear, especially as we walked to our table at Sparks.

The food was okay, I was hoping for more, especially when the bill is over $200. On the way out of the restaurant, I covered my "butt" with my jacket. On the way to the hotel we just happened upon a Jean store that was near closing. The guy helping us was great and before I knew it I was in a new pair of, albeit tight, Jeans and felt like a new man.

We stopped at the liquor store and picked up some pre-race snacks. I didn't want to drink too much before the race, so I settled for a 6-pack of Amstel and 4 little bottles of "Molley's" Irish Cream. I rarely drink liquor and I don't know why, but I had the "urge" for some.

For the rest of the night, we hung out in the hotel room watching TV, relaxing and drinking cocktails. I finished my alcoholic "hydration fluids" and we got to bed around 11 pm. I was so concerned about getting up on time as not to miss the bus to Staten Island that I had a poor sleep.

I was in the first wave of three and my group started at 9:40 am. I was on the bus at 5:15 am and at the race site just before 6 am. For the next 3 hours and 40 minutes I had to wait until the race start, and it was cold outside, about 38 F.

There was some people that were prepared for the wait and cold. They brought sleeping bags, pillows and even cardboard to lie down on. The organizers had big white tents set up and virtually every inch of space on the ground had people lying down and sleeping.

I tried the sleeping thing, it didn't work for me. Even though I had a few layers on, it was still too cold. I eventually found an area to stand and then sit in and started talking to the people around me. I really enjoyed talking and getting to know the people around me, it made the time pass easier.

One guy I was speaking to had done 7 marathons. He just turned 50 years old and this was going to be his last marathon. Another guy was doing his first and he was looking forward to going to "Peter Luger Steak House" to celebrate on Monday.

The final person in our group was a women Ironman from San Francisco who had just done the San Francisco marathon a few weeks ago and had run Boston in 2005. Her self-proclaimed biggest claim to fame was being an extra in "The Bachelor" with Chris O'Donnell. She was one of the running brides who almost caught him as he ran away.

Eventually it was time to take off the warm clothes. There was 70 UPS trucks lined up by bib numbers that were transport the morning and post race clothing to the finish line. The race was a point to point. Again, the rules were "strict" and I pushed my way to the truck just to get my clothes into the truck before the time deadline.

I was going to put all my warm-up clothes in the bag and decided not to, it was too cold to part with my black long sleeve "Suck it Up" shirt. Even though I know I'd have to take it off just before the gun went off and discard it, never to see it again, it was a trade off I was prepared to make. I figured I could always order another one with "Suck it Up" on the front and "Live Yourself to Death" on the back.

The process was to put your pre-and-post bag in the trucks by 8:10 am and then we had to get into our corrals and wait for the 9:40 start. Luckily along the way, I was able to get a green garbage bag that I wore over my shirt. Even then I was still cold.

As we got to the start line for the final 30-minute wait, people were discarding there clothes for charity. I discarded mine and the 31-year old Ironman's wife I hung out with until the start did the same. In less than 5 minutes we decided to pick up someone else's clothes and wear them, it was too cold not to. I lucked out and found a blanket.

I had NO IDEA the New York City marathon had so much waiting time. I didn't even know it had three waves starting at 9:40 and then every 30 minutes thereafter. I didn't even really read the athletes information until late last week and assumed the race was going to start like most at 7 am and booked my return flights accordingly.

Based on thinking it was a 7 am race start, I originally booked our return flight for 2:35 pm. While I was waiting for the race to start, I called Jet Blue and changed our flight for 4:59 pm and even that was going to be tight to make.

At least I knew I was hydrated, I probably took 4 pees before the race started. I had to go so bad 30 seconds before the gun went off, I peed between two buses that were set up to be one of the corral walls. The officials were trying to keep people from peeing and at one point I got chased from a bush, pre-pee, with an official with a camera phone taking photo's of guys that were peeing and their race numbers. Those must have been some funny shots, with their wieners hanging out below their race number. I escaped in the nick of time.

I can't tell you how much I wanted this race to start so I could just start running to warm-up. The gun eventually went off and it was less conjestion than I thought it would be. There was three start lines and each runs a different route, eventually blending together at the 4-mile mark.

Almost immediately we ran over the Venrazzano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn. Our group was on the second level in the shade and with the wind blowing across the bridge, it was tough to warm up. The bridge is over a mile long and I was so looking forward to getting off it and into the sunshine. The one upside of the day was it was sunny with a blue sky.

From the beginning I felt good and was running well. It was hard to know my pace, being on the second level of the bridge knocked out my GPS. When I emerged from the bridge I reset my Garmin and was running around a 7:17 per mile pace. It felt comfortable, although my heart rate was around 155-160 for most of the running portion of the race. About 10 bpm than I would have liked.

When I went for my pee before the start, I lost sight of the girl I'd been talking to for almost two hours, I think her name was Christina. She was shooting for a 3:20 and I eventually caught up to her and passed her around the 5-mile mark.

Around the two mile mark of the marathon, the crowds grew large and were amazing. For about 80 - 90% of the race they lined the streets and were two to three or more people deep. It was crazy. Over the entire course there must have been a million or more people. I was listening to music on my iPhone and even at the highest level, for most of the race couldn't hear the songs that were playing due to the crowd noise and bands playing along the way.

Never in a million years did I imagine the size and never-ending line of the crowds. That alone was worth the experience of running the NYC Marathon. In a way I wished I was better trained and not so mentally burnt out from doing 4-Ironmans this year so I could have enjoyed and taken in the sights and sounds more.

For the most part, mentally, I just wanted the race to be over. I was running well and passed the halfway point at 1:40:09 and figured I was running perfect to finish just under 3:30 and qualify for Boston. Then around mile 16 the lower part of my outer right knee ligament started to hurt slightly.

I slowed down to an 8:00 minute per mile pace. For a "split second" I wanted to stop and quit, I didn't want to injure myself and then had flash-backs to my DNF in China and remember vowing I'd never quit a race without medical personnel taking me off the course.

I kept going as best I could. Eventually by mile 19 I was done, my knee was bothering me more, and with almost a month off of intense training since Kona, my ligaments and joints had obviously weaked.

Rather than get down on myself, I justified it. Since Kona I'd only run 8-times for a total of 98.49 kms with my longest run being 22.20 kms. I'd also been suffering with a buttocks / hip injury. Only a week and a half ago, it was so bad I almost pulled out of the race. I felt no disgrace in finishing slower than I hoped.

Justifyably, my body wasn't prepared to run a marathon and I was a little upset I didn't see that beforehand. Again, for a "split second" I thought I should have "withdrawn last week and done it next year when I was ready". Then I snapped myself out of it.

I said to myself, "What? It was worth coming to New York if for nothing else but the AWESOME time Alice and I had together. That alone I wouldn't want to trade for the world. Now snap out of it and no matter what, you're going to finish this race and get that medal. No regrets".

For the next 7-miles I walked. My knee wasn't in pain when I walked. Every once in a while I'd try to run, but after about 100 - 200 yards my knee would hurt and I'd stop. I rationalized it by saying, "you're an Ironman and this race means NOTHING. You had an outstanding year, qualified and finished Kona and you have "nothing" left to prove. This race is just your victory lap".

Walking the New York Marathon is not easy. Other than the Hasidic Jew section of Brooklyn and bridges, the roads are lined with people cheering. When we ran through the Hasidic Jew area, I didn't see one person cheer or clap and it seemed they were more "pissed off" they couldn't walk from one side of the street to the other.

If there is a group of people that look or dress more ugly than the Hasidic Jews, I've never seen them. As I was running through the area, all the men and women wore the same clothes, down to the panty hose on woman. They were the kind of panty hose my great grandmother use to wear, more like a leotard. I can't imagine the clothing stores needing much of a fashion selection, other than size.

I decided to walk more in the center of the road away from the crowds. I wanted to be in my own little world and was somewhat embarrassed that I was walking, especially when your very noticable wearing a captains hat.

The pleasant part was when I was walking near crowds they were very supportive and non-judgemental. Instead of saying, "come-on pick it up you can do it", they were cheering, "your in the home stretch, you're almost there", especially in Harlem.

It was really cool to "walk" through Harlem. Although the crowds weren't as large, they had great cheering spirit. It was a lot nicer looking community than I thought it would be and the people seemed nice, many were video taping the race.

I was lucky enough to get video interviewed before the race. My Captains hat drew the attention of a videographer hired for the the post-race video and he interviewed me for a few minutes. It will be interesting to see if I get on the post-race DVD. That would be cool.

The one thing about Harlem, is they have the greatest music and bands playing. Not to take away from Brooklyn, but Harlem's music has "soul". Once I started walking, I figured I better make the best of it and capture the sights and sounds on my iPhone with photo's and video. One women in Harlem was singing so good, I had to stop and capture her on video.

With 6 miles to go there was many other people walking, which makes it easier, you don't stand out as much. I was hoping that maybe I'd meet someone and we could talk our way to the finish. That was a no go. Most seemed to be in their "hurt locker" or "didn't speak English".

Other than the balls of my feet hurting from walking, mentally I felt a 7 on 10. In a perverse way I was curious to see what a 7 mile walk was going to feel like. I'm not trained to walk. I'd much rather run than walk any day, it's easier.

I think I was walking at around a 13:00 minute mile pace and doing the finish line math. At one point I thought to push the knee and finish sub 4-hours and then thought, "Why?" what difference is 10 or 20 minutes going to make in the grand scheme of things other than risking longer term injury and recovery. So I walked, and "every once in a while" would try to run until the pain started, which came in shorter intervals each time.

With two miles to go, I became verclement. I thought "Victory Lap", er walk, and started thinking of the last three years of my journey. I had flashbacks to that first race in Milton when my wetsuit was too tight and I finished 549 - 613 and how far I've come since then. Then I started thinking of my P.F.G Story and the last 10 years of my journey and I really became verclement.

Never in a million years did I think the last three years would have been as specatular as they've been. During that period of time not only did I exceed any triathlon dream goals I had, but my personal being transformed.

For a long-time, I've been wanting to get "choked up" and have a "good sniffle" as I was finishing one of my Ironmans. I had experienced that once when I finished my first Ironman in 1987 and have "pined" for it ever since.

As I thought back to my story and where I've been and what I accomplished, I started to get that tingly feeling and although I didn't cry, I welled up. It was the moment I've been waiting for and savoured the flavour. Had the crowds not lined the course, I probably would have shed a tear or two.

I finished the race and ran the last 200 meters. I was proud of finishing, especially having to walk so far. I forgot to mention that one of my motivations was knowing that Simon didn't quit this year and walked much of Ironman China and Kentucky. I was inspired by his "finish at all costs" attitude, no matter how bad he felt or how much it hurt. I was determined to do the same.

I'm very proud that I finished. Walking is far from easy, both physically and mentally. The other thing is Marathons are tough. Weirdly, I find them tougher than an Ironman and the people that run marathons are not to be "snubbed" as inferior by Ironman.

Marathoners may be different and not as "crazy" or "obsessive compulsive" as Ironman, but none the less, it is a huge accomplishment to finish a marathon. The common bond between Marathons and Ironmans is the level of pain and suffering.

The New York City marathon is actually longer than 26.2 miles. If you factor in the walking to get your gear and get out of the park it's more like 29 - 30 miles. The race ends around 62 street and I had to walk up to 85 th street just to get out of the park and then back track down Central Park West to find Alice around 70th Street then walk some more to TRY and find a cab to the airport.

We couldn't get a cab, but did get a pedi-cab who cycled us about 20 blocks to find one. The worst part of the pedi-cab ride was the discust I had afterwards when he told me the ride was $100. He said the rates went up because of the marathon.

I argued the sign had lower rates and he didn't tell us the cost before hand. He said, "you didn't ask". I was too tired to ague and had to get to the airport in 40 minutes in order to catch our flight. We settled at $70 and he wouldn't take a credit card, his machine apparently didn't work. It's guys like that that put a "black eye" on New York.

I was so discusted I couldn't speak. We scrounged up $50 and then he said he'll accept Canadian for the balance. I gave him $20 and then he said that wasn't enough. I argued that the exhange is essentially at par and he insisted it wasn't. Again, I was too tired, pissed off and in a rush to argue and gave him the last $4 american I had.

Thinking back now and after missing our flight anyways, I so wished I would have said "NO". I wished I would have told him to call a cop and lets discuss this with him and let him decide how much I should pay. To put it in perspecitve, our cab ride to JFK Airport was only $45. Oh how I wished I could get a redo with that "scumbag".

We managed to get a cab and I changed inside as we drove to the airport, which wasn't easy with sore and tired legs and very little room. Along the way, traffic was bad and making our 4:59 pm flight was going to be tight.

It was close, we would have made our flight had it not been for the Jet Blue phone agent who screwed up the flight change I called in while I waited for the marathon to start. It took the counter agent 20 minutes to sort it out and by that time our plane had left. We were lucky enough to get the last two seats on the flight leaving 90 minutes later, which ended up being delayed another 90 minutes for an engine mechanical problem.

The good news is the engine worked properly and we arrived safely and "sailed through the border", it was the first time I've never had to wait for a car in front of us. When I got home, it was straight to bed to rest my legs and catch up on sleep.

All and all, New York and the marathon was great. I wouldn't trade it for the world. It was truly my victory lap and the end of one chapter in my life and the beginning of another. The "Training Payne" journey has been awesome in so many respects.

New York City Marathon - 4:25:18

I've posted four videos today.

-The second is from last year, December 7, 2009 and was the day I officially introduced my Journey to Kona, little did I know at the time it wasn't going to happen as expected. (I found it funny to watch with hindsight).

- The third is the result of all my hard work and my Kona finishing video.

-The fourth and last is my most watched video with over 30,000 views. It's my "Triathlon Song - Motivation to Get in Shape". It is the one that I think is the most motivating to pre-P.F.G's and shows it can be done. It still motivates me when I watch it, or need to watch it

Back on the saddle...

2010-11-04T21:17:00.003-04:00

First off, thanks for all the support and great advice I've been getting over the the future of my blogging. I'm taking it all in.

This weekend is the NYC marathon. I'm not too pumped about it, at least not yet, although I want to be. Maybe the race expo will get me in the mood.

At least I've been carbo-loading and find the "hops" seem to be making my legs stronger. Seriously, no joke.

Yesterday's run was one of my best in a long while and today I went for my first ride since returning from Kona.

It was a nice day, around 10 C and I'm not sure if I needed them, but I wore my "booties" just in case. I had a better than decent ride and I'm starting to become convinced of "the power of recovery".

It's amazing how fast you can mentally get out of the training groove. On the bike, for at least half the ride I couldn't get in the "enjoy the moment" mindset that came so naturally to me during regular training.

There is nothing like a ride to clear my head. I came back from the ride feeling 100% better than when I left. The problems and struggles I felt before the ride didn't seem so big afterwards.

It was also the first time I rode with my "Ironman World Championships" cycling shorts. I must say it feels pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good wearing those puppies.

When I got home, there was a delivered package waiting for me. It was my "LIVE YOURSELF TO DEATH" tee-shirt and FREE business cards from Vista Print. Just in time for NYC.

My plan is to use the cards when I'm out training and meet people. If we hit it off and the want to get together to train or party, I'm going to give them my card.

Mod Bike - 59:50 / 30.72 km / 30.8 km avg

Marianne St-Gelais watches boyfriend Charles Hamelin win gold

I already miss blogging...

2010-11-03T23:59:00.002-04:00

I went for a run today and was wondering if I was being too hasty and could figure out a way to post on the blog daily AND do what I have to career, family and triathlon lifestyle wise.

Personally, I like blogging, I enjoy the benefits I get from blogging and after posting virtually everyday for the last 3 years, it hurts to think of it not being part of my day.

The problem is I'm an all or nothing person, I'd rather post daily or shut down the blog completely.

I'm glad I let everyone know "not to expect daily blog posts", yet I don't want to become disconnected from the great group of people I've met and will meet through the blog.

During today's run I thought, maybe I can "do it all" if I write the blog differently. Maybe shorter posts, less of a daily diary, more on a specific element or challenge I'm dealing with. Perhaps more photos and video? Or turning off or not responding to comments? Or setting a fixed amount of time to blog and not exceed it? Or not proof reading it as closely? I don't know.

I just know I'm having "anti-blogging shakes" and as much as I know I need to free up the time I spend blogging, it doesn't feel natural to not blog regularly and stay connected with my blog buddies.

I had a lengthy discussion with Alice about it last night and she doesn't know what I should do, ultimately it's my decision.

She was happy when she heard I was thinking of not posting regularly, she's a very private person and has felt that others know too much about our life and that realizing the Kona dream is a natural ending to the blog.

In a weird way I want to stop blogging, I'm curious to see how my life would feel in cutting off the connection I've had to the blogger-sphere for the last three years, to go back to being a private person. Maybe I stop for a month and see how it feels?

Do I continue to blog regularly until the end of November, albeit shorter and perhaps differently or not feeling guilty if I miss a day or two and even then I'm not sure.

Waiting until the end of November would complete the full year of posts and in that time it would give me more time to be certain and at peace about my final decision.

I still don't know what to do? I'm not even sure if I should have posted this post or let it go and stayed with my plan to start the next phase of my life Journey.

What would you do if you were me?

Mod Run - 1:02:14 /12.75 km / 5:05 pace / 141 avg hr.

October Monthly Totals

Swim - 8.9 km / 5.51 miles

Bike - 409.01 km / 253.58 miles

Run - 147.68 km / 108.30 miles

Total - 565.59 km / 350.67 miles

Calories Burnt - 28,710

260

Blog future...

2010-11-02T23:59:00.009-04:00

As many of you know, I'm refocusing myself and trying to spend more time on career while maintaining my training and triathlon lifestyle.

I've been keeping track of the hours I spend on tasks and I'm finding that I can't fit it all in and I'm not even training much right now. I can only imagine how pressed for time I'm going to be when Ironman training gets in full swing.

Writing the blog, reading others blogs and tweeting takes up at least 2 hours a day of my time, sometimes more. Writing a blog in a drunken haze on a Saturday morning to catch up on Friday's post definitely takes much longer.

Since starting the blog on November 12, 2007, this is my 1031 post. Other than a brief period after Ironman Louisville, when I thought the blog was over, I haven't missed a day of blogging in all that time.

I'm most proud of the two 400 page books I have to show for it. Every year I use Blurbs book building software to "slurp" all my blog posts and then lay them all out in a book format. At the end of this month, I'll be putting together my third book. The posts have grown significantly in length over the years and I wouldn't be surprised if I need two volumes for this years book.

Writing the blog has been great for me on so many levels. It's kept me honest and focused on my training, it's helped me learn about technology, and the highlight has been all the wonderful people I've met through the blog. Some I've inspired, and many have inspired me.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I've come to the conclusion that I can no longer blog daily. I'm still hoping to blog, I just don't know when or how comprehensive of posts I'll write. I've decided to let it all evolve naturally into a new pattern.

For those blog readers that look forward to reading my blog post over morning coffee, (aka Doru), or before you go ni-night, (aka John Barclay), I apologize for forcing you to alter your routine. It's just that with a changed focus, priorities shift, and the 12 to 18 hours a week I spend blogging have to be spent elsewhere.

On the training front, I bought another Keg of beer. This keg is dedicated to Al Nolan for his $201 donation. Oh, and I didn't run today.

I planned on running and then got caught up expanding my home network, solving a technical issue and working. Before I knew it, it was dark and cold outside and I instead of going for a run, I decided to drive to Hamilton to pick up a new Keg of beer.

After the new keg was "tapped", Alice and I went downstairs to "The Pig & Whistle". She had her Rum & Diet Coke and I had my beers and cigars and we watched a documentary about the beer industry, followed by the movie "Weird Science", all on my $7.95 per month Netflix. (I'm getting so close to "dumping" Cogeco cable).

I'm also looking forward to getting the NYC Marathon over with and getting back into a structured off-season training maintenance program. I really need it for my mental and physical health right now.

Today I was starting to feel fat, I'm bloated and my pants felt tight on me. It's a terrible feeling and it didn't take me long to start "romanticising" about those 7 hour bike rides followed by a 30 minute brick run. As sick as this sounds, I miss how I would feel after those workouts and I'm looking forward to doing them again next year.

I attached a video just for Simon. Recently in his blog posts he's been worried about what the Malaysian kids are eating for lunch and how they are getting fat. Take a look at the video, I think Malaysia has other priorities they need to focus on when it comes to kids.

No Training - Lazy

Smoking Baby Hooked on Cigarettes - Watch more Funny Videos

NYC Booked...

2010-11-01T23:17:00.007-04:00

It was a fairly uneventful day. I did no training, had a couple of work meetings and found a NYC hotel room for this weekend.

I decided to take my neighbour John's advice and tried Priceline.com. to find a room in NYC.

Most of the hotels were in the $269 - $430 range. I decided to offer $155 per night for a 3.5 star plus hotel and see if any of the hotels would accept my offer. One did, the Millennium near the United Nations. I'm now all set.

Today I went for another ART treatment. I'm shocked at how well my body is responding to it. I'd never heard of ART before last week and now I'm almost a big believer in it. If I can get in a couple more training runs and finish the marathon without injury and recover fully afterwards, I'll be sold on it.

Last week I got my FREE Picaboo book, it looks great. I was glad to hear about 30 people who read my blog took advantage of the FREE BOOK offer. I did my book about my "Journey to Kona" and the cover shot was taken at the 6-hour mark of a 7 hour indoor trainer ride. It was brutally-mentally tough to do those long indoor rides.

Today Picaboo gave me another offer to give to my blog readers, it's a Buy-1, Get-1 Free Book or Calendar Promotion. Click through the banner on the side bar of the blog or click here to order. If you click through my site to Picaboo and order a book or calendar, the TPPF makes a few bucks.

Changing gears, four years ago I made two major changes in my life. The first was getting back into shape, the second was deciding to learn again. I was starting to feel old and felt I hadn't learnt anything new in a while and decided to focus on computers and all things Internet.

The first thing I started was a blog. As crazy as this may sound, I didn't even know what a blog was when I started it. I also started taking responsibility for all my own computer technical problems. In the past, I'd just have my IT people fix my laptop or home computer if there was problem.

The best thing I did was buy the Apple Care protection plan. They offer 3-years of unlimited telephone support. I spent countless hours on the phone with them learning everything I needed to learn, even basic things like setting up an email account on my computer.

I learnt how to set up a home wireless network, a back up system, shared music libraries, syncing of all my computers and iPhone. Dealing with hardware and software issues no longer intimidate me.

The second area of learning that I've developed a "passion" for is Internet marketing. I find it fascinating and everyday I'm learning something new. Last month I launched the beginning of a program for work and in only one month the sales increased 30%, and I did it working from my kitchen table and sofa. I love the lifestyle.

Tonight I had to go out for some cables and networking hardware and as I was driving to Tigerdirect, I realized I enjoy all things computer. I've never been a builder or mechanic, yet I could spend countless hours figuring out a computer problem, or learning how to use software, or figuring out ways to increase online sales. I find it all very gratifying.

Eating wise, I've got the "sugar shakes". Yesterday I ate more Halloween candy than I should have and my body is "craving sugar". I'm like a "crack addict". Try as I might, I couldn't resist having a little "brown gold" today, but tomorrow I'm going "cold turkey". I find that if you can go two days eating well, it's easy maintain. It's those first two days that are the toughest.

No Training - Recovery Day

Piggy-ween...

2010-10-31T23:59:00.007-04:00

It was a rough day, we stayed up way to late last night and had way to much fun.

I'm on the fence whether to call the Man Cave, "The Pig and Whistle" or "The Abyss". Feel free to cast your vote.

I'm finally feeling like I have some leg strength again, I felt a "slight" twinge of muscle. When I tensed my quad it felt a "little" firm. Taking the day off to recover today I think helped.

Tonight was Halloween and try as I might, I fell off the "eating healthy diet". I couldn't resist those little "Oh Henry", "Coffee Crisp" and "Kit Kat" chocolate bars and once I had one, I could stop the "eating frenzy".

The fact that I had a few beers didn't help. Jamie came over first, and after cigars he left, and my neighbour Jeff dropped in.

Jamie and I we're going for our second beer off the "Crackerator" and it was enough to drain it. Fifty Eight litres of beer gone in 14 days, a new personal best. That's the equivalent of 180 beers.

That keg was dedicated to Paul Dietrich, who donated $200 to the TPPF. The next keg being purchased will be dedicated to Al Nolan for his generous $201 donation to the party fund. I want to personal thank Paul for providing terrific "beer oil" to "grease the party wheel" over the past two weeks. post-Kona. It was delicious.

For those that donate $200 or more to the TPPF, you automatically become a "platinum keg donator" and a Keg is named and photographed in your honour as a badge of honour.

In a way I'm glad the Keg is empty right now, I have the NYC marathon on Sunday and I have about two or three days of training left and I need to be focused.

I think my next keg will be my 5th since getting the Kegerator in July or August. At $250 per Keg, that's A LOT of recovery drink.

On a personal note, Reid is sure getting big. I came home from my run two days ago and as I was stretching I saw a big kid riding a bike out of the corner of my eye, I didn't realize it was him. I was glad to see he was still riding my bike for some exercise and "shocked" I didn't recognize him.

For Halloween he went out as a Gorilla and with the mask on and not knowing it's him, he could have been a "man". He's now almost my height and is only turning 14 years old this month. I guess I'm going to have to give it up that he's going to be bigger than me. I've also noticed lately he's starting to "thin out".

The family carved some good pumpkins, as always. Can you guess which one was Reid's?

No Training - rest day

Never a dull moment...

2010-10-30T23:59:00.009-04:00

I woke up this morning and continued documenting all my online user names and passwords. The list grew from 165 yesterday to 180 and counting.

Along the way, I got a tweet from @kelownagurl telling me that she uses some software called LastPass to organize all her user names and passwords. It's FREE software and I tried it out. In one word, it's "AWESOME".

The software keeps track of all your user names and passwords for every site you belong to and when you need to go to one of those sites, it automatically logs you in. It is one "sweet" piece of time saving software.

Eventually, I had to push back from the computer and go out for a run. The NYC Marathon is next Sunday and I need to "cram" in some training. Today I did a 2 hour long run and it was my third day in a row of running.

I'm not training to race fast, I'm training to finish without injury. I'd rather show up a little beat up from training too much, than with less training and more susceptible to injury. The worst thing someone can do is show up and do a marathon un-prepared, it's a recipe for disaster. Nothing causes injuries like running.

All things considered, it was a successful run. The highlights were I didn't injure myself and my current injury didn't get overly worse, it went from a 2-on-10 to a 3-on-10. It was also a very slow run, I had to stop and walk a number of times in order to keep my heart rate under 143 bpm. The best part was my muscles weren't at all sore afterwards.

At the 12 km mark during the run I started having some shooting pain around the side of my left knee. It was acute and painful at first and then it eventually went away. It was a similar style sensation you get when your foot falls asleep. That's another reason I train, I don't want to have that happen next Sunday.

I got home just in time to stretch, shower and almost eat before the Nolan's arrived for a pre-party visit. One of Julia's friends lives in Burlington and has a Halloween party they go to every year.

As I was coming out of the shower Alice and Reid were starting to mop up a huge amount of water coming from the laundry room. It turns out the washing machine broke and was overflowing with water.

It wasn't little like "the BP oil spill". It was all over the place and went through the floor and it was "raining" downstairs in the storage area underneath. Reid went downstairs and was pulling out all the stuff in storage that was getting wet. I looked inside the storage room doors and it looked like a rain forest inside, water dripping everywhere.

Alice's blood sugar was getting low and I was trying to help by mopping the floors up with towels everywhere. I finally got to use all my Ironman finishers towels for something. All this was going on as Al and family was to arrive and I hadn't even eaten dinner yet. I had a bowl of soup sitting on the kitchen table.

Just as we finished, the doorbell rang and it was the Nolan clan. Shortly thereafter, Jamie and Barb showed up. We had a full house in the man cave, it was all fun and lots of laughs. As my largest contributor to the TPPF, Al was also allowed unlimited pulls on the Kegerator handle.

I haven't seen Al since the House of Payne Beer run and since that time he's been working out at a local morning "boot camp". Al's looking great, he's down noticeable weight and now actually has muscles. When Al and I gave each other our customary "ass grab hug", I couldn't believe the firmness of his butt cheeks, not to mention his rock solid arms and FIRM hands.

Al's plan is to join the P.F.G. Triathlon Club. He's committed to doing a triathlon next year and is not sure if it will be an Olympic or a Half Ironman Distance race. I told him to "go for the half and I'll do it with you side by side the entire distance".

My recommendation is very self-serving, I want to be Ironman Al's "manager" and pit him against Matty-O during next years Payne-a-poolza trampoline fight, and hopefully he'll be able to return "the peoples-elbow" to Tank-O. I learnt my lesson after this years fight, I'm too small and weak to return the favour.

After the Nolan Clan left, Jamie, Barb, Alice and I sat around the bar and "chuckled it up". My biggest take away is I've come to realize my perfect career would be hanging around the "Pig and Whistle". Inside joke. I found part of an episode on You Tube and posted it below. I was actually thinking of now calling the Man Cave, "The Pig and Whistle" and maybe get a little red vest.

After everyone was gone it was just Alice and I and she came up with a great saying, "It's not where you are, it's who you're with". I told her it was almost as good as the one I came up with last weekend, "Live yourself to death". She then proceed to tell me SHE also came up with that one too. Damn, I thought that was all mine.

By the time I was ready for bed and I finally re-heated the bowl of soup on the kitchen table and had my dinner at 2 am. Alice saved me from myself by telling me we didn't have any little Halloween candy. I'm glad she lied.

Long Run - 2:03:12 / 22.2 km / 5:32 per km avg / 141 avg hr

Login Ho...

2010-10-29T23:59:00.001-04:00

Today I went for my second 11-km run in two days. I went easy, ran under 136 bpm and felt okay. My butt-upper hamstring was only bothering me 2 out of 10.

It looks like that A.R.T. may be working. I've only had one visit and my butt feels better than normal. Previously it was a 5 to 7 out of 10.

I'm also proud to say my weight is down to 184.4 lbs as of this morning. I attribute that to two things. The first is I've been eating healthy and sparsely. Every time I want "junk-food", I go for fruit. Although beer is still allowed on the "Training Payne Diet".

The second reason I may be down in weight is muscle-loss, "if you don't use it, you lose it". Your body doesn't care if you did 3-3/4 Ironmans this year. Either way, seeing that scale under 185 lbs felt good.

I ran and went for a massage today. Sara, the girl I go to really worked the buttocks and hamstrings. She found some tightness in my IT bands as well. However, I'm not sure if the massage is helping, although the A.R.T guy seemed to think it was a good cross-therapy.

I found that after the massage, it felt like the problem returned slightly. It may be phantom pains, however it seemed hurt when I sat down. The real test is going to be tomorrow when I do another run.

The last two runs have been enjoyable, especially when your running slow to keep your heart rate down. It's fall and the leaves have now changed colours and I'm liking the change of scenery. The downside is it's cool weather outside.

The only upside to the cooler weather is I know how to dress for it. I simply wear my jacket, running tights and gloves. The only decision I need to make is whether to wear a hat or a toque.

Tonight was a late night and no beer was involved. Earlier in the day Fedex delivered our Mac TV box and new iLife 11 software. That was the kick off to my day being computer related and then evolved into organizing computer files.

The Mac TV is AWESOME. It didn't take much to set up and now I'm streaming HD from Netflix, You Tube and can even rent movies from the Mac Store on demand. I'm feeling like I'm getting closer to finding a way to eliminate Cogeco from my life.

I set the box up on the TV in the Man Cave, it's one of the few that we have in HD. More importantly, it's where I do my indoor bike trainer rides. The ONLY thing I need to figure out is how to stream from my computer directly to the TV. That way I can order my Pay-per-view events off the computer.

My next adventure is going to see if I can find an alternative way to get Internet from the United States into my home. Perhaps there is some sort of a Satellite dish or something that I can buy in the U.S. with a U.S. plan and smuggle over the border. I know if I have a U.S. Internet I.P., I can stream in movies and TV shows from Hulu, which is banned in China, er, I mean Canada.

Tonight, for over 5 hours, I was organizing all the "user names" and "passwords" for all the website logins I have. I finally got so frustrated with the time wasting involved in trying to figure out what they are as I need them throughout the day, so I decided to put them all into one place.

I set up an excel spread sheet and by 2 am, I had 165 different accounts that I had user names and passwords for. I was shocked that the list was that large, I would have never guessed it was that many, and there was not one was porn account among them. On twitter, Adena said I was "a little web slutty". It's hard to disagree with that. It's a good thing I have a mac and don't get virus's.

Friday nights are hard to eat healthy. Alice doesn't want to cook, I don't blame her, and the kids just eat McDonald's or Pizza. Tonight it was Pizza and I had a couple more pieces than I should have. It's hard not to do when the 2-for-1 large pizza deals are cheaper than ordering one medium pizza, no joke.

My ONLY other diet "faus pas" was eating a bunch of those "little Halloween chocolate bars" that Alice bought. I somehow justified it because I didn't have any beer tonight. Funny how the mind works.

Tomorrow it will be back on straight beer and no junk food. I have no choice, Al Nolan and clan are dropping by on their way to a Halloween party.

Mod run - 58:34 / 11.14 km / 5:15 avg pace / 136 avg hr

Number crunching...

2010-10-28T18:09:00.007-04:00

It was one of those late nights last night.

I had my Ironman Kona poster plaque-mounted and was hanging it in the Man Cave. I got thirsty and the Kegerator was right there looking at me all lonely and stuff. It wanted to play.

One beer turned into many. It loves when I pull on it's handle. Alice ended up going to bed at a reasonable hour and I stayed up watching TV and tweeting on my iPhone. Before I knew it, it was 2 am.

I gained 11 new follows last night, I assume people found my tweets amusing, I know I did. It is so fun to make fun of other people and their tweets. Many tweeters tend to be much to serious.

Speaking of numbers, over the past thirty days I've had 8011 hits to my blog and 1925 unique visitors. It's a new PB. Last month was special, I surpassed 100,000 visits to the blog since starting it. Oh, and after the other day's video of the two horses, I didn't lose one follower. In fact, I gained 3 new ones.

I also want to thank a couple of new contributors to the TPPF, they are Rob G (@triwithms) for $25 and John K (@Fletcher54) for $15. Thanks guys. Also, the Top 10 largest donors list at the side of the blog has been updated. Those folks on it are definitely "role models".

For those that got kicked off the list, or have never contributed, don't despair, be competitive, send "Moola" and "Viola" you may get on that podium. I've now received $870.27 in total donations. Many Thanks to "those that know who you are".

It may seem like a lot of money, but it's not. Based on the hours I put into the blog, I'm making about a dollar an hour, almost as much as Simon pays his maids.

The goal of the fund is to raise one-million dollars a year. As you can see, I'm well off that goal. If anyone wants to organize a charity ride or something similar on my behalf, go for it.

Please keep the donations coming, I need beer money for the NYC Marathon coming up. Also, every donation entitles you to a one-year membership in the "Training Payne All Access Program". Unlike Ironman, I'm not going to "Waffle" and change my mind and stop the program. Click Here to see the apology.

As many know, if you donated to the TPPF pre-Ironman Kona, you got a postcard with a special message on it. For the rest of you, nan-na-nan-na-nan-na.

BUT....it's not too late to donate and not miss out on the next round of special gifts and learn about my upcoming parties BEFORE the others. You may even get better odds on me possibly inviting you.

Changing subjects, I went for a run today. The first in 6 days. It's amazing how fast "you can lose it when you don't use it". I started running 4:57 pace and then had to do a LOT of walking to keep my heart rate under 143 bpm. Mind you, last nights shenanigans definitely made it harder to stay in the zone.

In the past couple days I noticed my muscles were starting to "atrophy" and even during the run they felt weaker than they have in a LONG time. The hip bothered me, although it feels better than the last time I ran. I'm not sure if it's because of the rest, yesterday's ART therapy, stretching or psychologically feeling better knowing it's not a problem that can't be fixed.

On the diet front, other than drinking beer last night, I ate perfectly. No junk food and that's NOT easy to do after having a few beers.

Oh, one last thing, on Tuesday we went to the movie "Jackass", it's not as good as the earlier ones and it was in 3D. Save your money and donate it to the TPPF.

Mod Run - 1:01:44 / 11.02 km / 5:35 per km avg / 143 bpm avg

No time to waste...

2010-10-27T20:08:00.001-04:00

Today I started my plan to balance work and triathlons. I'm not one to sit still and ease into it, I'm either "all or nothing" and "now or never".

One cornerstone of my plan is to keep things balanced by scheduling my time, similar how I train.

I'm drawing on my training experience and applying it to career.

When I train, I have daily scheduled workouts with time durations. The schedule doesn't tell me what time I should do the workout, it just says I need to accomplish it sometime that day.

I want to apply the same approach to my work. I've often found that if I "binge work", it's catches up to me, I tend to burnout or lose perspective. My plan is to allocate a fixed amount of hours in a day that I will work on a given task.

When the time is up, it's up, just like training. As much as I might have my head into something or feel good enough to push through, I'm not going to. I'm going to shut it down and continue on the next day.

To help me, I purchased a $10 piece of software call Vertabase Time and it's software that puts a "time clock" on my computer. When I start working on a task, I log in and it keeps track of my time. When I've put in the scheduled time, I stop and log out.

It's important to note that what my current work allows me great flexibility in the selecting the time and place that I can work on a task. Internet marketing is the career path I've chosen. I have a "passion for it" and it's "ideal for my lifestyle".

It's something I've been involved with for the past few years and have come to really enjoy it for a variety of reasons.

One thing that attracted me to it is it's not a 9 am - 5 pm, Monday to Friday job. It allows me to primarily work when and where I want and success is very measurable.

There is also constant learning involved. This past year I can't tell you how many hours I've spend listening to Internet Marketing podcasts as I trained. To me, it's fascinating stuff.

The one downside of Internet based marketing is you can easily become a "work-aholic". There is so much to constantly learn and implement that it is easy to "immersed" into something and not want to break away to train. I've had this happen.

I'm in the process of setting up my time in blocks. I don't think I'm not going to work more than 3 hours at one time without a healthy break in between. I may have one day a week which I'll call my "long-day". No different than a "long bike ride".

I'm even doing the same daily time allocation for my personal blogging and twittering. Family and personal time will be all the non-allocated time.

Another cornerstone of my plan is based on Parkinson's Law, which is defined as "work expands so as to fill the time available for it's completion." Some may argue that you CAN'T assume you'll accomplish something in a specific time, I disagree.

By knowing you have a "limited" amount of time a day, it forces you to focus on the most important tasks. Important tasks are defined by, "that which will make you the most money".

Right now I'm in the process of creating a "work training plan" that will be integrated with my lifestyle and goals. I just started recording the time I spend on different tasks and hope to have a schedule in place within a week or two.

Another benefit of Internet based marketing is my ability to shut off my computer. This is going to be "hard", but when my time is up, I'm going to shut down my computer and not turn it on until the next day or when the next task is scheduled to be worked on. For me, turning off my computer will not be an easy thing to do.

Changing gears, I went to a Chiropractor that specializes in Active Release Technique. He told me that I have a tightness in my ligament and figured it is a hold over from Matty-O's "peoples elbow" when we were wresting at the House of Payne Beer Run.

I told him about the marathon and that I'm fully prepared to take his advice as to whether or not I should do it. After his evaluation he said "he didn't see it causing major damage if I did the marathon, it would just postpone the amount of time it would take for full recovery".

Based on his "feedback", I am going to do the NYC Marathon. It's only 10 days away and I'll be doing a very limited amount of training. Maybe a few runs from now until then and probably not more than an hour per run. I also have 4 weeks that I didn't plan on training after the marathon to let hit heal properly.

During the next 10-days, the Doctor recommended I come to see him for therapy a couple times a week and go for a massage or two per week, and take warm baths and stretch often throughout the day. The goal is to get oxygen into the ligament area in order for it to heal.

My only "fear" about the marathon is the "pain and suffering" I'm about to face. I much prefer mild training-pain over severe racing-pain. With only 7 or 8 runs between Kona and the marathon, I predict I'm going to be hurting during and after the race. Although I spoke to "Coach Gord" today and he thinks my Kona fitness will carry over. Time will tell.

I also got final resolution to my Cogeco cable problem. I spoke to one Supervisor on Monday and didn't get a satisfactory answer and asked to speak to her manager. Yesterday, I spoke to the manager and finally got her to admit that they could have done something that night and "over road" the system and allowed me to order the UFC pay-per-view.

I knew it could have been done. I then asked her to have the supervisor I spoke to on Saturday night to call me and "personally" apologize to me. We'll see if that happens.

Finally, I got my Ironman Kona race poster back from plaque mounting today. I also had my finishers shot printed and framed as an 8 x 10. I've got to say, for print enlargements, Wal-mart is CHEAP, it was only $2.69 for an 8 x 10 print and it was ready in 5 minutes.

Oh, one last thing. I think I created a monster. This past weekend, I taught Reid that you can make a "flame thrower" with a match and a flammable aerosol can. I learnt about that technique when I was a kid and lit my mom's macrame plant holder on fire. It looks like he caught on and is now doing it when we weren't home. He took pictures I found. I sure hope he doesn't burn down the house.

No Training

Today's video comes by way of Al Nolan and his words, and I quote were : Make a mention that I dedicate the song to MattyO, the running Ho!!

A little heavy...

2010-10-26T16:02:00.003-04:00

In the past four years I've accomplished more than I ever imagined was possible. I couldn't have written a better script.

By getting back into triathlons in 2007 after a 16 year layoff was the best thing I ever did. I felt like I got my life back again and became the true person I am in my heart.

As much as I've accomplished in triathlon, I've accomplished more in my personal life because of it.

In 1990, I stopped doing triathlons and started a business. I put all my attention and energy into the business, it was my number one priority for 16 years. Eventually, and it didn't take long, maybe 6 months, I lost all perspective.

People constantly ask me how my family feels about me "training all the time". Frankly speaking, my family sees more of me now than they ever did in my "business-only years" and I'm now much more pleasant to be around.

In those work-only years, I was so focused on success that I didn't care about anything else. All that was important was working and trying to make money. Everything else was secondary. For the first 10 years the business grew organically at over 30% per year, year over year. It kept me busy.

Looking back, it took it's toll, I wasn't a good husband or father in my eyes. I was working all the time, I would never call Alice to tell her I'd be coming home late and most times she'd end up calling me to see where I was. If I was at work, or out with a customer, I'd be "short" with her for interrupting "the important things in life".

I was so focused on success, I had absolutely no balance in my life. The worst part was I felt that my "business mission" was more important than anything, including family. My thoughts were along the lines that, "the work I put in today will benefit ALL of us tomorrow and it's just a short term sacrifice we all need to make".

One of the reasons we moved to Toronto was because I was missing my kids grow up. I travelled a lot. Shortly after the Toronto Plant was purchased, it needed my full-time attention. I ended up commuting from Winnipeg to Toronto every week for well over a year.

I had a nice waterfront condo in downtown Toronto and would fly out early Monday morning and return late Friday evening. My kids only saw me on weekends and when I did get home for the weekend, all I wanted to do was relax and was "unhappy about being fat and the struggles the business was facing". My only "release" was staying up late on the weekends partying, it masked the pain.

I'd then repeat the entire process the following week. It was like the movie "Ground Hog Day".

Prior to purchasing the operation in Toronto, I spent many years commuting between San Francisco, Denver, New York and Toronto. I was typically out of town three weeks a month and again, only home on weekends.

The one thing I'm blessed with is intuition. Often I don't know why I'm doing something, to others it may not be logical, but I know it's right in my heart. Moving to Toronto was one of those "intuitive moves". In fact, buying the business in Toronto was move of "an intuitive move" than "logical".

At the time we moved, Reid was 6 years old and was giving Alice a lot of problems, especially after his idol, Alice's father, died. Reid needed a man in his life. I wasn't there and I remember Alice telling me at one point "that the kids don't even know you". That blew my hair back, even though I didn't want to believe it.

Alice didn't want to move out of Winnipeg and her dream house. Eventually she gave in and we packed up the U-haul with the stuff we'd need while our house was being built and moved to Toronto.

Since moving to Toronto, being present with the family everyday and getting back into triathlons, changed my life and the families life for the better. Surprisingly, Alice adjusted to the Ontario lifestyle much quicker than I did and neither of us would now ever go back.

I look back and realize one of the worst mistakes I made was quitting triathlons after starting the business. As strange as this sounds, doing Ironmans gave me a balanced perspective and kept me fit. I know I can never turn back the hands of time, but I often wonder "What would my past and current life have looked like if I had never quit doing triathlons?"

At the time, I sacrificed triathlons to achieve my financial goals. I wanted to be a "billionaire" and I wasn't afraid to let others know. I had grandiose ideas. I tried hard for 20 years and it didn't happen.

When I officially quit triathlons in 1991 at 24 years old, I accomplished a lot in the triathlon world. It was like quitting on top. I had done 3-Ironmans when very few would even attempt them and one of those Ironman was in Kona. I had been Vice-President of Ironman Canada and President of Triathlon Manitoba and was the driving force that got triathlons into the Provincial sports federation before it was a federally recognized sport.

Fast forward to present. I'm in a similar circumstance. I've again accomplished a lot in the triathlon world. I lost 50 lbs, have done 4 3/4-Ironmans, 10-Half Ironmans and qualified for Clearwater and Kona in the process.

I'm now at a crossroads. Do I once again sacrifice all my triathlon hard work and focus on my career. It would seem a responsible choice to immerse myself in my career, after all, Toronto is expensive and making money is critical, especially if you want to enjoy the finer things in life.

Fortunately, I've seen this "movie" before. Here's what would happen if I quit doing triathlons. For the first couple of years, you can rest on your laurels. I'd still be recognized by others as being an Ironman and to myself I'd even think I was still one.

In the process, I turn my energies to my career and family and I'd get out of shape. As hard as I would try not to, I'd gain weight and eventually start feeling bad about myself. I'd be disgusted that I lost all my fitness, and eventually my perspective and confidence would wane. I would no longer feel good about myself and the downward spiral would begin.

I remember in my 20's when I was doing triathlons, I planned on doing one Ironman each year for the rest of my life. I remember thinking at 40 years old, I'd have done 20 Ironmans and at 60, I'd have done 40 and doing that would always keep me in shape and happy.

If I can give myself any advice, it's "not to go to the darkside". The darkside is the land of "not being the person you are capable of being and living life to the fullest". It's the land of "the path of least resistance". Essentially, it's "the road MOST travelled".

As I mentioned earlier, I'm at that crossroad, even though it's being only a couple of weeks since Kona and my training has been sparse, it's easy to get used to not training. Taking well deserved time off I understand, but my fear is that it becomes a slippery slope and before I know it I'm back to that pre-Ironman person I used to be.

I've been asking myself, " How do I stay motivated to train while focusing more on some unfulfilled career goals and still keep a healthy family life AND continue to have fun TRAINING PAYNE STYLE? How do I not let history repeat itself? Is it even possible?"

The best answer I've come up with, "Is it's not a question of WHETHER your going to do it, it's a question of HOW your going to do it". Not doing it, is NOT an option. Oh how I wish Mark Allen Online had the formula.

I think others in my "Blog and Twitter Sphere World" are experiencing the same challenges. I see people that were "into it", "waning from it". They entered "the Ironman or Triathlon World", worked hard and accomplished a BHAG (Big Hairy Ass Goal) or many. They got the finishers medals, hats, T-shirts, maybe even the tattoo, and are now changing focus.

Speaking for myself, "That's were I'm at".

My next, and perhaps toughest challenge, "is achieving my triathlon, weight, career, family and fun goals without losing a balanced perspective or sacrificing one over the other".

My goal my be unrealistic, I don't know. I don't want to believe it can't be done. However, I do want to warn my blog followers, you may see a shift in my focus and challenges I face. Although, for some of you, don't worry, you can still come to expect my "politically incorrect, tasteless humour and party lifestyle".

To help with "Culling of the my followers herd" (I'm at 159 and wonder how much it will go down), I've included a video I've been saving for just the right moment. I hope it brings a smile to your face and lightens up your day and this blog posts serious subject matter. Enjoy. And Matty O and Simon, you wish!!! And your wives wish you could last so long!!!

Contemplating over Coffee...

2010-10-25T17:01:00.004-04:00

I may not do the NYC Marathon. I've been doing some Internet research and think my injury may be worse than I thought. I'm on the fence.

Based on the symptoms, it may be High Hamstring Tendinopathy and it sounds like it could be serious. One online article even said it could get to the point where you need surgery to fix it. Reading that scared me, big time.

One of the forums say Active Release Techniques may be the answer. I'm not sure what it is but I've decided it's time to get some medical advice.

I also emailed NYC Marathon to see if the spot can be transferred to next year's race. It can, but I will lose my $265 entry fee for this year and have to pay another $265 for next years race.

I'm concerned about injuring my tendon to the point it needs surgery. Assuming it is a tendon problem, I'm told tendons take longer to heal because they don't get as much blood flow and oxygen as muscles, making it harder for them to repair.

I'm really uncertain of what I should do. I think I'm going to wait until I get professional advice and go from there. I found an expert in A.R.T in Toronto who works with the Canadian Olympic Team and emailed him. The only downside is the commute to get therapy.

At least I had a great year and the injury didn't prevent me from reaching any of my goals. That's an upside. My off-season plan was to diet and lose weight and if I can't do the marathon, I'll begin that program sooner. Although, that means I'd have to abstain from beer. It's very hard, if not impossible to lose weight and drink alcohol.

Everything happens for a reason and rather than be down about my injury, I'm going to think this is a blessing and it was meant to be. I must say I've been VERY lucky in the past 4 racing seasons, I have not had any serious injuries that have prevented me from training for any lengthy period of time.

I guess 4-Ironman's, 3-Half Ironmans, and 12-months of hard training in one year is bound to tear the body down.

Also, just a reminder, if you want a FREE PHOTOBOOK from Picaboo, the deadline to order is 11:59 PST. Just click the banner ad on my blog. Oh, and today's video is specifically for Heather regarding Matty-O.

No Training

Stupid dream...

2010-10-24T22:04:00.002-04:00

I didn't wake up until 3:30 pm today, 11 hours of sleep. Wow, I couldn't believe it, I guess I my body needed it.

Rarely do I remember a dream, but I had a "nightmare". It was one of those that feels real. I was at the Ironman in Kona and didn't take my pre-race gear preparation too seriously.

Moments before the swim start, which I didn't know where it was, my bike wasn't checked in and I wasn't sure if I even my running and biking gear was at the transition zone. Oh, and I didn't have my timing chip.

The gun went off and I had to get my chip and find the race start area and was asking everyone where it was. As I was going over a hill and saw the start in the distance, my rear tire "blew".

I wasn't too worried, I figured the swim cut off is 2:20 and I can do the course in 1:15, so that gave me just over an hour to get things ready.

As I was trying to get a replacement chip, guys were swimming and I was jealous. The chip was not your standard chip, it was an old ladies big rubber bathing cap with a glass chip attached to the top. It was very expensive and I had to leave a credit card number, in case I didn't return it, before they would release it.

I never did get into the water, time was running out and I now started wondering how I could "cheat" and cut the course short and still make the cut off. I was now devastated, I was blowing my chance at finishing the Ironman World Championships.

At that point, I semi-woke up and realized, I've already done Kona. I finished and it all worked out. I was so relieved to find out it was a dream.

Even though I've been partying, I'm proud to say I haven't been overeating. I'm also finding my upper body is getting stronger. It's the weirdest thing, I'm not training, yet I can feel the muscles in my arms "peaking", which is telling me about the "power of recovery".

I was checking out Davis's blog today and saw a timely video he posted and I've included it below. I also found out "The Captain" made it to www.firstoffthebike.com's Kona video. I'm 1:13 into the video. Lucky number 13.

Today I took it easy, writing my blog, catching up on other's blogs, editing some final video, building a FREE Picaboo photo book and generally doing nothing other than barbecuing an nice steak dinner, with a beer in hand. It's become a Sunday tradition that we have steak and if there is one good thing I'm good at, it's cooking steak.

There is nothing like bloody red meat, yum. I'm proudly a "meat-etarian".

I decided not to train today, I'm just to beat up and I'm not going to sweat it. It was also one of those cool, foggy days that you want to stay inside on.

I've decided my plan is to go to NYC and have some fun in the City before the race, and during the race, enjoy the atmosphere and sights and sounds. If I feel good that day, I'll push it and if I don't, I won't. I'm not going to make qualifying for Boston a goal in New York. Other than saying I did the Boston Marathon, it's never been a goal I've been motivated to pursue.

I got my Ironman Kona race photo's and posted them with my Race Report, if you want to see them click here.

Finally, I HAVE to get Reid off my back. All he's doing is "hammering" me on getting him his new video camera, a Canon 7 D. He's written a script and wants to film it. If he was asked to write a script as a school project, he wouldn't want to do it. Yet, on his own he's into it. I called him "Reid Speilberg" and he said, "no, my favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock".

No Training

Live yourself to Death...

2010-10-23T23:59:00.006-04:00

I drink a lot of beer and it's not because I'm an alcoholic. I drink because it's FUN.

In my world, I'm a mature 17 year old and "what should be the priority of a 17 year old be?"

It's to have fun, to party, to enjoy life and not get too serious.

Training is also fun. I can't think of a better balance than training hard and partying hard. Who says you have to have regular diet and sleeping patterns. Frankly, I have so much fun I'm surprised my lifestyle isn't the norm.

Last night, I invited Jamie and Barb over to watch the UFC. I also sent an email to my neighbour John to join us when he got back from out of town. He was coming back from watching his daughter play college hockey in the United States. She goes to RIT.

It turns out the UFC at "The House of Payne" didn't happen.

Cogeco, our cable provider, wouldn't let us order it. They said our bill was past due by a few days and because we owed them over $250, the computer automatically shuts down our ability to order Pay-per-View.

It was ridicoulus. Alice had paid the bill online earlier in the week and Cogeco said it takes 3-5 days for the payment to be recieved.

I was freaking and asked to talk to a supervisor and when I didn't get the answer I wanted I asked to speak to the supervisors supervisor. I told them we've never missed a payment, the payment was sent already, we were away on vacation, we're one of their best customers spending about $250 per month. I told them they are treating me poorly and with guests over to watch the UFC, it's an embarrassing situation.

I even offered to pay by credit card "on the spot", but they told me it would take a day to process and they still couldn't activate the fight tonight. The supervisor said "the computer system won't allow me to over-ride it's credit policy" and no matter how high I push up the chain, nothing can be done. She apologized and then offered me a FREE pay-per-view credit for the next event.

Needless to say, I was pissed off. On Monday I'll be calling "the powers that be" at Cogeco and I'm not talking some supervisor or manager. I want to talk to "the bonehead" that set up such a stupid system that exercises "no common sense or flexibility". I'm even considering my options to drop Cogeco altogether.

Around midnight, after Jamie and Barb left, John and his son Alex showed up. It was a lot of fun. I haven't seen Alex for a while, he's away at University in downtown Toronto and is in his third year of pre-medicine.

Alex is having the time of his life. He was telling me about all the partying and fun he's having and how much tougher school is finally becoming this year. I asked him, "how do you maintain your grades while living in a party house with other room mates and hosting lots of parties?"

He explained he does all his studying at school with no distractions. He works hard at school and when he comes to "the house" it's all relaxation and party. Alex is twenty-years old and I liked his "no apologizes about wanting to get drunk and party". Right now, Alex "is living the dream". He loves my Kegerator and wants to get one and said my "beer bong" was the biggest he ever saw.

You can tell the kids talk about their partying ways and possible long-term repercussions among themselves. Alex explained to me that partying hard is proven to only take 5 years off your life. I said I have a double whammy because I'm an endurance athlete and I'm told that too takes years off your life.

Then "out of the mouth of drunken babs" I told Alex if your going pick a way to die, it's best to "LIVE YOURSELF TO DEATH". Alex loved the phrase and could see it on a shirt. From experience, I knew I better note it on my iPhone or I won't remember it in the morning, which I did. I'm definitely getting a shirt make up with that saying.

Alex is also getting his dad John into "partying with him". They've been on some road trips to the U.S. and have been having "college fun" together. To me that is a dream, I can hardly wait until Reid becomes of drinking age.

It's really cool to see that type of relationship between a father and son. Even the discussions around the bar in the Man Cave where completely open between the two. We covered it all, sex, drugs and rock'n roll. No uncomfortableness.

I've told Reid many times that when he turns twenty-one, we are going to go on a Route 66 road trip and are going to stop at all the little towns and bars along the way. He asked if mom could come, I said "of course".

We're also going to do Las Vegas one day and I told him it's going to be "CRAZY". Reid wanted to know if he could bring friends, I said, "sure". I don't think we wants to be left "alone" with his "crazy dad" and knows if his friends are there, they'll have lots of material to laugh about.

I also talked to Alex about some of his courses and he was telling me about some that are "the toughest". He started to explain to me "the theory's" they're learning and I was fascinated. He was describing cell mutation and how they figure humans started as a "stomach" and grew from there. Very cool stuff.

By 4:30 am, I had to "tap out" and said good night to Alice, John and Alex. This had been my third night in a row getting to bed at 4:30 am and couldn't stay up any longer. It was another full clothing sleep. I feel like my sister, she gets dressed the night before and sleeps in her clothes so it saves her time in the morning.

On the training front, I don't think I could be "a runner". I started as "a runner" in the beginning and ended up becoming "a triathlete" soon thereafter.

Training for the NYC marathon, is all running and it's too one dimensional and dangerous. In less than a week I'm already missing the intermixed bike rides and swims. I could also feel my body getting more physically stressed and am always concerned because most endurance injuries are running related.

In fact, I feel sorry for Jamie, he has a major heel injury he got while running recently. I saw it first hand yesterday, he walks like he has a broken leg. Something in his heel is so painful he can't put pressure on it. His walk is the, "lift one leg and hop on the other" technique.

The running program I'm following has runs scheduled almost everyday. I'm not following it to the letter of the law, I feel running everyday, especially in my "worn out body state" is too dangerous.

No training - Rest day

The real deal...

2010-10-22T18:17:00.004-04:00

If you want a FREE photo book from Picaboo, you need to order it within the next three days.

Click the link on the side of my blog, enter your email and you'll receive a coupon code.

Picaboo is one of my customers and this is an incredible deal. As many of you know, I'm a big believer in photo books, I've created many of them and they are way better than prints and photo albums.

For us endurance athletes, they are a great way to put a book together of a "Year in Review". I do one every year.

Yesterday, I was out with the owner of Picaboo for beers and he told me if I put this banner on my blog that all my readers will be offered a FREE photobook, providing they are a new customer.

This is a real offer, "no strings attached", other than you pay shipping. The only downside is the books have to be ordered by 11:59 pm on Monday, October 25th. They also ship internationally. I'm building a "Kona" book right now and the software is very easy to use.

On the training front, I made a "firm decision" during todays run. After the NYC marathon on November 7th, I'm taking one-month off of all training. Period. My body is "toast" and is breaking down.

I remember hearing how many of the pros, like Craig Alexander, do the same. I also want to allow the callouses on the palms of my hands heal from holding on to my aerobars.

During today's run, for the first 8 kms my hamstring and lower buttocks was killing me. I was even wondering if it was my sciatic nerve. The longer I run, eventually the endorphins kick in and the pain dissipates.

Prior to today's run, I was thinking of doing the Niagara Falls Half Marathon on Sunday as a tempo training run. After this afternoons run, there's no way I'm doing it. I'm certain I'll injure myself. I also need to get my aerobic engine working well again.

I've noticed that my heart rate is much higher than normal. I did an easy run and still had to walk a few times. On yesterdays speed run it got as high as 178 bpm, it's been years since it's been that high. The high heart rate is a sign I need to get back to basics.

I choose the wrong time to go for a run. I went at the same time the kids get out of school. The sidewalks were filled with students and I had to continuously "bob and weave" around them. The worst part is some of the kids think "their tough" and when they walk towards you they don't move and you have to run onto the grass to get around them.

One kid was a "real dick" and I almost took him out with my shoulder. It was a "game of chicken" and at the last minute he moved and I clipped his nap sack. If my shoulder would have hit his, he would have thought he got hit by a truck.

I easily had to pass 75 kids over a 2 km stretch. One other kid just missed getting "nailed" as he had his head down and was texting and didn't see "The Payne Train" coming. I cut him some slack and moved out of the way not to hit him.

In Burlington, they have adult crossing guards. Most are retired and they monitor the intersections with there little hand-held stop signs. I think that is great for kids, but it's a bit embarrassing when they treat me like a kid and make me stop until the intersection is clear. I'm not 5 years old.

Most of the time I don't even pay attention to the guards, I just run through the intersections. Today one of "grey haired Grampa" guards started yelling at me for crossing on a "red hand", even though the lights were green.

I didn't hear him at first and took out one of my earphones and could hear him "bitching". I passed him and yelled back, "I don't follow rules" as he kept "barking" away. Finally I just said, "see ya Grampa". Next time, I'm going to tell him I'm a diplomat and have diplomatic immunity.

The one thing about running on a Friday is it's dangerous. It seems that everyone is tired and in a rush to get home. I can't tell you how many driveways and intersections I had to stop at because the driver wasn't looking and I won't pass in front of a vehicle unless I make eye contact with the driver.

It's getting cooler outside and I "hate" it. When I got home I told Alice we need to move to a warmer climate for the winter.

Today I got a completely unexpected phone call, it was from Johan Stemmet, all the way from South Africa. At first I saw the caller ID and thought it was a telemarketer out of India, it was a weird number. I answered it and was looking forward to giving this "Indian" a bad time.

When I found out it was Johan, I was pleasantly surprised. After following his blog for at least the last two years, it was cool to finally hear what his voice sounded like. He called to thank me for my donation to his Charity bike ride. What a class guy.

The long distance call probably ate up all the money I donated. Although I gave a decent amount, his request caught me at the perfect time. It's not that it came when I was feeling generous, it came when I was about 15 beers into the night. I'm always more generous when I'm "feeling no pain". If you also want to donate to his cause you can donate by clicking here. I'm sure he'll prefer if you do when drinking.

It's a good thing I haven't been training the volumes I was pre-Ironman. Creating my Kona journey video series has taken up all my spare time. Each video is at least 4 hours of work and I just finished the 6th and final video. Now I can use my spare time to catch up reading the blogs I follow.

Mod Run - 1:45:20 / 18.68 km / 5:38 avg km pace

Ironman Everything...

2010-10-21T23:39:00.003-04:00

I'm wondering if I should paint Ironman Logo's on the garage doors of our house?

Alice, don't freak out, I'm just kidding. Unless you like the idea.

I will say that I am Ironman crazy. I can't tell you how much Ironman logo'd clothing and products I have. Last year it was Clearwater 70.3 World Championship stuff and this year it's Kona Ironman World Championship stuff.

I use the word stuff, because it's more than clothing. I have glasses, mugs, magnets, license plate holders, stickers, watch, bottle opener, bento box, back pack, swim bags, finisher hats and even a cookie cutter. Yes, you heard correctly, we have a cookie cutter shaped like the Ironman logo.

Today I had a meeting with a client and friend, among other things, we talked about my Ironman journey and he asked if I was wearing Ironman underwear to go with the Ironman shirt and light jacket I had on.

We went for beers and I showed him my Ironman arm band tattoo and my new ankle band tattoo. In total, I have 3 Ironman logos' tattoo's on my body. Some may ask, "why do you wear so much Ironman stuff and have Ironman tattoo's?" and that would be a great question.

The reason I proudly wear Ironman clothing and have the tattoos is because "it's who I am". I don't wear it to show off, or start conversations, I don't even have to leave the house to wear Ironman clothing".

Ironman is a lifestyle and when I get up in the morning, after I evaluate if I've gained any weight by looking in the mirror, I look at my tattoos and feel good about myself. It shows what I've done and what I can do.

The Ironman logo to me stands for "superior mental and physical strength". It's a badge of honour. It is a constant reminder that "anything is possible".

It also keeps you honest. When I got my first tattoo in 1987, it was a red maple leaf. It was to represent the completion of my first Ironman in Canada. When I got it, it was perfectly symmetrical. I distinctly remember telling others that, "if it ever becomes skewed, I need to get back in shape and when it's back in proper symmetry, then I know I'm back in shape.

I intentionally had my first Ironman-comeback tattoo put on my arm, near my bicep. I wanted to be "bold". If I ballooned back up to 229 lbs, it would look ridiculous on my arm. It would be embarrassing to show it in public. I imagine that an Ironman logo would look terrible on a "fat guy's arm" or an arm with no shape.

Clothing is different. If I got fat, it wouldn't fit and I wouldn't be identified as being "a has been". With a tattoo, you're "marked for life", the truth is always present. If your in good shape, people respect you and if your in bad shape, people will feel sorry for you at best and "chuckle under their breath" at worst.

My Ironman tattoo armband motivates me "NOT" to gain weight and "TO" lift weights. Now with two more Ironman man logos on my body, the pressure is even greater to stay in shape. Which I think is a good thing. I don't mind the added pressure. If it keeps me on "the straight and narrow" I see NO DOWNSIDE.

Some may argue it's "a corporate brand" and your promoting World Triathlon Corporation. Their right, it is a corporate brand, but I don't view it that way. To me it's a symbol first, I don't see the brand. All that matters is when I look at it, I'm motivated to stay in shape or get back in shape. If wearing a McDonald logo would do the same, I'd have no problem tattooing Ronald McDonald somewhere on my body.

As crazy as this sounds, when I die, I'd like to have my ashes put in an urn with an Ironman logo on it and put on the mantle of our house as a reminder to our kids or possible grand kids that "anything is possible".

When Alice dies, the kids could keep the urn or get rid of it. If they do get rid of it, I want them to spread my ashes in Kona; some in the water at the pier, some on the bike course and some on the run course.

Now, with all that said, when I'm dead, I'm dead and if Alice and the kids don't want no "Stinking Ironman Urn" hanging around the house, I'm cool with that, who am I to ague. I'm dead. In that case, just get rid of the ashes in Kona, and make a vacation out of it, and come back to visit me often.

"Ironman isn't what I do, Ironman is what I am".

Today I wasn't 100%. I didn't get to bed until 4:30 am, I was having too much fun, but I'm not sure what I was doing, but it was fun, I think. I was back up and working at 8:30 am, with not a lot of sleep, and a little dehydrated.

I still managed to do a speed work session at lunch time. I almost didn't. I stepped out the door and it was cool and starting to rain. I was debating if I should run after work instead. I almost convinced myself until "I kicked myself in the a$$" and said, "don't be a pussy, remember you're an Ironman" and that's all it took. Off I went.

Speed Run - 29:12 / 6.71 km / 4:21 per km avg pace

19.5

Dropping loads...

2010-10-20T23:12:00.001-04:00

I stepped on the scale this morning and was down to 185.8 lbs. Yesterday I was 187 lbs and at Kona I was 190 lbs at the pre-race weigh in. The big 1-9-0 depressed me at the time.

Alice and I went to the movie "Red" tonight with Jamie and Barb at the Cineplex VIP theatre. They serve alcohol and deliver it to your seat. How civilized is that?

Although, I must say the "in-theatre service" wasn't that great. Our next movie will be "Jackass 3" and I plan on bringing in my own 6-pack. If I get caught, I'm going to tell them, "I had no choice, you need to improve your service". I doubt I'll get caught. I AM a professional.

Jamie was telling me that after his Ironman race's he found that he lost weight as well. Losing weight must be part of the recovery process. I know when I came back from Ironman China I dropped a lot of weight. I attributed that to "food poisoning", but I think there is merit to "post-ironman" natural weight loss.

I didn't train today. I was going to do some running speed work, but was too busy working. I'm really liking this of season thing. In fact, "I want to train" and I'm forcing myself not to, I'm trying to do the responsible thing and let my body recover and rebuild. It's only been a week and not high volume training is "taking me out of my comfort zone".

I know I need to rest. It's still tough to walk down the stairs in the morning and my buttocks/hamstring is sore after yesterday's run. The one area I want to focus on in the very near future is weight lifting. I really need to work my upper body, it's feeling weaker than normal.

My tattoo is now starting to "crack and scab", which is a good thing. The sooner it heals, the sooner I can get back in the pool. Now that it's the off-season, I want to see if I enjoy swimming in 30-40 minute blocks as opposed to 60 - 120 minute blocks.

Today I couldn't resist setting up my Ironman Maintenance training schedule on Mark Allen Online. I was happy to see the volumes of training were still decent, but not over the top. A long ride of 2:30 is like a walk in the park.

Last month I signed up with Netflix. Less than 30 days ago they started up in Canada. For $7.95 per month I can watch as many movies as I want On-demand via the Internet. Last year I can't tell you how much time and money I spend going to Blockbuster to rent movies to watch while I was on the indoors training for Ironman China. Those 7-hour bike rides cost me a fortune.

Also, today, my NYC Marathon Official Handbook arrived in the mail. Getting the book reminded me I better get my head in the game and I booked our flights out of Buffalo, it's much cheaper to drive to and fly out of Buffalo.

Now I just have to read the handbook and figure out what I need to know to get to the start line. I think there is some busing logistics involved. I'm looking forward to visiting NYC and it wouldn't surprise me if I run the marathon hungover or drunk.

For an "Ironman Triathlete", a marathon should be nothing. Famous last words.

No Training - Off Season

Twenty-two years and two hours difference...

2010-10-19T23:41:00.000-04:00

When I last finished Ironman Kona twenty-two years ago, I was two hours slower than this years race.

At the rate I'm going, I figure in twenty-two more years, when I'm 66 years old, I should be pulling off around 9 hour Ironman times. I think I may change my name to "Bryan Button".

It's pretty cool to know I'm fitter now at 44 years old, than I was at 22 years old. It's also cool to know I've beat every triathlon distance PB I set in my twenties in my forties. The only PB's I have not beaten are running races, which include a 5 km (unknown), a 10 km (38:18) and marathon (3:07:57). I was able to beat my half marathon PB last year.

With NYC marathon coming up in 17 days, I was trying to think of what my goal time should be. I've determined there is three options. The first option is to race it easy, like a training run and shoot for a sub 4 hour marathon. The second option is to run harder and do a sub 3:30 and qualify for Boston. The third option is to go to break my 3:07:57 PB I set 24 years ago and twenty 25 lbs lighter.

What to do, what to do. I'm going to decide at the start line on race morning.

New York should be fun, it looks like Jamie and Barb are going to join Alice and I. Were going to rent a two bedroom apartment. I was referred to a couple of sites that have a large selection of places for us to chose from. With the kids not going, I think we may fly and go out of Buffalo. I can get one way flights for as low as $59 with Jet Blue.

I had a "rough" feeling head today. I wish I had an off switch and could end partying at a responsible hour. I guess there is no use complaining, it's NEVER going to happen, it's not in my nature. I ended up running around 5 pm tonight.

It was my first real run since Kona. Other than running with a "party induced" higher than normal heart rate, I maintained a decent pace. I also had some excitement. A "dumb mom" almost drove into me in her big Expedition in front of the intersection in front of Jamie's house.

She saw me at the last minute and stopped mid-turn. Without thought I gave her "the middle finger". It's my "de-facto" gesture and it's involuntary. I feel like I'm a "Finger slinger". After I gave her the "FU sign" and continued on my way, I noticed she had a young kid in the car and wondered what the "finger etiquette" is when children are present?

When I got home, my buttocks and hamstring were hurting slightly again. It may get worse before it gets better. Unfortunately, I won't be able to rest it until after the marathon.

As I ran I was thinking how great the last four years have been and how much I've improved. In that time, I've qualifyed for Clearwater, Kona and the NYC marathon. It's been a cool ride so far.

I've been thinking about Kona and my final time and what I'd do differently next time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy in the least about my performance, I just want to learn from this experience and what I'd do differently if I was ever to return and race it again.

The first thing I'd do differently is not do 3 Ironmans prior to Kona. It would be best to qualify well in advance of Kona and recover fully before starting another Ironman training program.

The second thing I'd do is show up to Kona 10 lbs lighter and I'd taper more. This year I ran, biked and swam 7 hours the week of the race. In 5 days, I did a total of 16 hours of training and racing. I was strong on the bike earlier in the week and flat on race day.

The third thing I'd do is mentally prepare to go hard. I think I could cut at least 40 minutes off my time and do a ten-something race if I was prepared to go into the hurt locker.

At the fitness level I'm at right now, I could race 11 hour Ironmans all day long. It is a very "civilized race pace" and even "flat" I'm able to do it comfortably. Over the long-term, that may be my Ironman race pace, breaking PB's is no longer a priority.

This evening I spent more time editing my Ironman Kona Journey Video. I just finished Part three and I'm up to 30 minutes of fully edited video. Until I get all the video edited, I don't feel like I can relax or put Kona behind me.

I'm also trying to get myself into a rest and recovery mode. When I was talking to a Seventy Seven year old age-group Ironman athlete, he told me the biggest difference he's noticed over the years is he needs more time for recovery. Basically, more rest days. I found that interesting, it just shows how important recovery is. Younger athletes don't seem to notice the importance of rest and recovery like the older athletes do.

I ate fairly light and well today. I was trying to do "all fruit cleanse" but broke down in the evening. Although I didn't over eat, I just ate non-fruit. Even though last night was a "diet write off", I figured I may as well get back on the "eating well track" and not "dwell" on what I didn't do right.

Tempo Run - 55:19 / 11.15 km / 4:57 per km avg / 148 avg heart rate

Snail mail...

2010-10-18T23:59:00.005-04:00

Today was "back to reality". Kona was only three days ago, but it seems like a lifetime ago.

I still can't believe this racing year is over and I'm now able to rest and recover. It's what I've been dreaming about and it will be interesting to see how well I adjust and cope with the reduced training volumes.

The NYC Marathon is upcoming and I decided just to follow the final three weeks of a training plan I found online. It's really only two weeks because the third week is a taper. I was amazed to see how little training there was on the plan for the taper week, it's something I'm not used to.

I'm actually afraid to start running. My hamstring and butt still slightly hurt when I bend down. If I didn't have to train for the marathon, I'd only be running sparingly until it was fully healed.

Rather than run, we invited Jamie and Barb over last night. Jamie brought me one of the best cigars he has in his humidor, it's a Cuban Punch aged 6 years. Not a cheap cigar. We each had one to celebrate my Kona Ironman finish. It was the best cigar I've EVER smoked.

In Kona, I almost thought my cigar smoking days were over. The cigars I bought over there made me ill. The night we were leaving, I had maybe 8 drags from one of the cigars and started "sweating profusely" and "feeling sick to my stomach".

At the time, I thought my body was starting to reject cigar smoking. Little did I know that it was the quality of the cigar. I was probably smoking horse hair or something worse. Tonight I realized my cigar smoking days are not over, the one Jamie brought me was AWESOME!!!

The cigar was so smooth and the consistency was the same at the beginning as it was at the end. There was very little of it wasted and I smoked it to the nub. If I had a "roach clip", I would have used it. Smoking that cigar will go down as just another highlight of my Kona experience.

To remember the moment, I took the band off the cigar and dated and signed it and had Jamie sign it. I then put it behind the bar on the Jamaican man's hat and it's now a constant reminder of that night and that fine cigar.

We had a lot of laughs last night and Jamie wanted to see my new Ironman Wardrobe. It was like a fashion show, except I wasn't wearing it. As one Ironman to another, he was loving it. Him and Barb also really liked my new tattoo. It seems the overall consensus from everyone is I did good with the tattoo. I definitely like it, a lot.

My eating healthy was going so well until just before going to bed at 3:30 am. Jamie and Barb left much earlier and Alice and I stayed up talking and listening to music. Needless to say my willpower was at an all time low and I ate through a box of ice cream, all my Wheaties fuel sample boxes and pepperoni sticks before climbing into bed fully clothed.

Today I've posted Part One of my 2010 Ironman Kona Journey video. Oh and for you TPPF supporters, I just mailed out your Kona Postcards from Canada today. Ran out of time to do it from Hawaii.

No Training - Rest and Recovery

Kona's not yet over...

2010-10-17T23:59:00.005-04:00

I don't know how, but Alice and I stayed up until 3:30 am last night, watching UFC and talking. In total, we went 36 hours without sleep since leaving Kona.

It was nice to get home and see Alyssa, we missed her and she liked the stuff we brought back for her. We got her all kinds of little stuff and one big thing, a fine jewellery ring with a black pearl.

The first thing I did after seeing Alyssa was to unpack and re-assemble my bike. It turns out I have some "gearing issues" and the chain won't move from the big front ring to the small ring. This week will include a trip to the bike shop. Damn.

The second thing I did after I putting my bike together was to "tap a Keg". I had a new Keg all ready for me and it was "virgin" and "cold". It tasted fantastic, much better than American Coors Light and thankfully a higher percentage of alcohol too.

As we sat at the bar, we found the perfect place in the "Man Cave" for my Kona Paddle. It's a unique gift paddle I bought for $25 to remind me of our Kona trip. I'm going to put the date on the back of it and have Alice, Reid and myself sign it.

Today I didn't get up until 12:30 pm and it felt great to be back in our own bed. I had an awesome sleep.When I woke up, I realized it's over. Kona is gone and now it's time to focus on other things, primarily muscle recovery and things that pay the bills.

It feels like this is another turning point in my life. In 1988 after I did Kona, there was a major turning point in my career life and now I feel the same way. I sold my business this past May and now it feels like its time to re-focus on my career path.

I'm also going to make recovery and diet a priority. All day I've been editing Kona video and looking at photo's and can't deny I need to lose about 10 lbs. It's time to bring the horns in and it's hard to do, "I hate depriving myself of food" and having a newly tapped keg of beer in the house doesn't help.

I spent the day getting caught up replying to comments made on my blog and video editing. We took so much video and photos it's crazy and I want to get it done now while it's still fresh in my mind. Everything was going well until my computer said I need to remove files because my computer hard drive is near full, again.

In total, I think I'm going to have about 60 minutes of semi-tightly edited video. That just shows how much video and photographs we took. So far, I've spent about 8 hours editing and have only 15 minutes near completed.

As I did video stuff, Alice took Reid to the walk-in clinic, he was complaining about ear problems all morning. It turns out he has an ear infection, a throat infection, a sinus infection and a lung infection. The doctor was very concerned about his lung possibly collapsing and told Alice to monitor him closely for the next 12 hours and if it gets worse to take him to the hospital.

With the NYC Marathon coming up in 19 days, I need to figure out a training plan. I did a google search for plans, but most have the taper starting after this week. I think I'm going to have to take one of those plans and "alter and wing it". I'd like to at least get in two long runs before the race.

I'm also in the process of trying to find a place to stay in New York. The hotel rates are way to expensive for rooms with bed bugs. Someone on twitter suggested I check out Craigslist, as people will rent out their apartments or condos for that weekend. From what I can see it looks like a viable alternative. Instead of $400 per night, the rates are $80 - $125 per night.

Today was a good day for "healthy eating". I didn't cheat, other than a bag of Smart Pop popcorn, which is fairly low in calories. My hope is to try and treat my "dieting and recovery" with the same level of commitment I used for training. I know in my heart that I can easily drop 10 lbs in 3 weeks with strict adherence to eating healthy.

I was going to go for a run today, but decided not to. I didn't feel like it and more importantly, I felt dehydrated and didn't want to have my calves cramp up on me. I also remembered that I'm no longer on a "high volume" training schedule and training for a marathon doesn't require a large time commitment relative to Ironman.

Above are photo's of my new wrap around ankle tattoo. I really like it and it has real meaning when I look at it.

The Ironman logo with the Hibiscus flower in it represents Kona (it's their state flower) and Alice and her support of this crazy sport I've chosen. The band of diamonds are spearheads which represent warrior and strength. The other two Hibiscus flowers represent Alyssa and Reid and the band is the togetherness of our family. The Canadian Maple Leaf is the original tattoo I got when I finished my first ever Ironman in Canada in 1987. The artist cleaned it up and incorporated it into an M-Dot. The kids use to bug me how "jail house and welfare" my old maple leaf was looking.

I've also included two videos below. The first is the one of me crossing the finish line at Kona. The second is the Wheaties spot they have me talking in, I'm at the 1:09 mark of the video.

I actually tried the Wheaties Fuel cereal for the first time today (I only have 6 sample boxes of it from the Ironman) and it tasted "REALLY GOOD". Had I known, I would have taken another 6 sample boxes. Doh!!!

No Training - Recovery

Back to Reality...

2010-10-16T21:59:00.002-04:00

First off, I realized I forgot to mention some very important TPPF contributors on yesterday's blog post video. First and foremost, I want to thank DRog (Derek).

Not until I was on the plane on the tarmac of Minneapolis Airport, his hometown, did I realize I forgot to give him a “shout out” from Kona. I got my list from PayPal and I forgot Derek made a $100 EBay donation, which is now a Coors Light patio umbrella that sits proudly on my deck. Thanks Derek.

I also forgot to thank some donations I received while I was in Kona, specifically from Derek Dean, Matty O (his second), Scott K (Ree_ti_ree) (his second), Doru (his 3^rd or 4^th) and Al Nolan (his second). Thanks Guys.

I especially want to thank Al Nolan who is now my new best friend with a $201 donation to the TPPF. Sorry Paul, you're now my number two best friend.

I’ve known Al since we were kids and when he makes a donation that big, it means something. Al, is well, frugal, to say the least. I’m sure this money came from his “baby sitting” bank account when he was a kid. Thanks Mr. O-gallan.

I sure hope I didn’t miss anyone else, if I did, drop me a line and I apologize in advance, I was rushing to get packed and return from Kona and was a little “scatter brained”.

We finally did make it to the Kona Airport and barely got on the plane. We were the last passengers and they were ready to close the doors. The delay was at check in and I was concerned about security being able to put my bike case back together properly after inspection, so I sat and watched. It’s a little tricky to do properly.

Alice, Reid and I were not able to get seats together and as luck would have it Dave Anderson was in the seat behind me, which was cool, we got some time to chat. I felt sorry for the people beside me, I was talking to them with beer and cigar smell on my breath. I had bought beers for the hotel mini-fridge and tried to drink as many as I could before we left.

I always request an aisle seat. I’m a major airplane “pee-er” on the best days. Put a few beers in me and I’m wearing out the carpet from my seat to the lavatory. Instead of an aisle seat they gave me a window seat beside a mother and daughter from Wisconsin.

Before the flight left and I sat down, I relieved myself. I then told both of my row neighbors that I pee a LOT and prepare. I then ordered two more beers. I was hoping they got “the message” and would trade the aisle for a window. They didn’t and I figured, “too bad, so sad, you’ve been warned”.

In total, I think I made them stand and get out of the row three times. The worse was when the mother beside me was “fast asleep”. I was polite and waited as long as I could for her eyes to open. I then set a limit of 15 minutes before I woke her up. Just before the deadline, her eyes opened slightly and I “pounced” on the opportunity. This time I could tell they weren’t impressed they had to get up in the middle of a red-eye flight.

The funniest part was they were on the next connecting flight that I was taking and when I walked down the aisle I saw them and there was an open window seat beside them. I could see the “dread on their faces” and envisioned them saying to themselves, “not again!!!"

As I walked by, I said, don’t worry I’m not in that seat, you got lucky. They politely smiled. I’m sure they’ll be talking and complaining to others about me when they get home. I don’t feel bad they were warned.

Our flights were Kona to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Minneapolis, and Minneapolis to Toronto. I only got a 90-minute sleep on the first flight and was so tired I slept from take off to touch down on the second flight. I love when that happens. It’s like falling asleep in a car when you’re a kid and the next thing you know you’re home. It’s the equivalent of “time travel”.

All our flights were on time and the layovers were minimal. It was an easy ride home, unless you ask Reid. He feels sick again and he likes the holiday and hates the travel time to get there. Now he’s saying he never wants to go on holidays’ again. Kids.

Since I’ve got nothing but time on the plane, I decided to write a comparison between Kona and other Non-Kona (NK) Ironman races.

What can I say, Ironman Kona doesn't disappoint. In fact, it was even beyond expectations. If you ever get the chance to do it, do it.

With that said, Kona is not the “end all be all”. It’s just “different” than most other Ironman races. Aside from it being the “Mother of all Ironman’s”, it’s the caliber of athletes that make the difference. Virtually every athlete is an “Uber Elite” age group athlete.

Would I want to do Kona again? Damn right I would. Would I want to do it every year? Damn right I would, providing I had the time and money.

I love Kona and I love NK Ironman’s. I may even like the later more and it’s not because I place higher in the non-Kona Ironman’s. The reason is the people.

In the NK Ironman’s, the participants are primarily regular folk that have set a “Big Hairy Ass Goal” to do an Ironman. These are people who in many cases have overcome incredible odds just to be at the start line. They are not “DNA superior athletic superstars", they’re people like your neighbor, your kids teacher, a guy you work with, someone from church, a stay at home mom, basically everyday people.

One of the first things to catch my attention at Kona was the “lack of Ironman tattoos”. That surprised me. I thought it would have been opposite; after all, these are the people who “eat, breath and sleep racing Ironman”.

Whereas, at NK Ironman’s I see a LOT of Ironman tattoos. Most of the guys and gals I know planned on getting the Ironman tattoo as part of there finish line reward. I know I felt that way when I did my first Ironman and I still do today. I now have three Ironman logos on my body.

Basically, if you’re going to do something “sacrificially great”, why not celebrate it and show it off?

If I was asked, if you could only select one race to do a year for your lifetime, would you want to do Kona every year or a NK Ironman. As unbelievable as this sounds, I’d have to pick NK Ironman.

Why you may ask?

I prefer the “energy of excitement” of a NK Ironman. At Kona, you don’t see anywhere near the “amount or deepness of smiles” that you would see at a NK Ironman.

In Kona, generally, the participants are “serious first” and “fun maybe”. I judge a race by the amount of “smiles and welcoming gestures” shared between the participants. Kona definitely has them, but not to the same level when you pass each other on the street. At NK races, the norm is a “smile or to say hi” as you pass by other athletes.

I find a NK Ironman is a “personal journey” shared among “kindred spirits”. Most of the participants are not “natural athletes” and have a common bond of “fear and doing something extraordinary by just finishing”.

Kona is the Olympics of Ironman. Athletes are “internally focused on performance”. Which makes sense, these are the thoroughbreds of our sport. Most aren’t just coming to finish; they’re coming to race.

There are two things that make Kona great. The first is the caliber of athlete and seeing what “a finely tuned human machine” looks like and amazed how fast they can race. The second is the “pomp and circumstance”. Most of the smiles and fun come from the scheduled events, such as the “athletes parade” and “underwear run”.

Every serious brand sponsor is also present. The streets are lined with banners, exhibitor’s tents or temporary rented retail space. Free shirts and samples are everywhere. For one week, Kona is “Ironman Mecca”.

Aside from the “Brand Sponsors” there is the week long schedule of events. There is the “Parade of Nations”, the “Underwear Run”, the multitude of exhibitors at Ironman Village (many more than any other NK Ironman) and the Pre and Post Ironman banquets. Not to mention all the other “private” events hosted by the Brand Sponsors.

Even on training runs down Alli Drive, there are energy drink sponsors tents handing out free samples of their products, similar to an aid station on the race course.

For NK Ironman events, what they don’t have in “Brand Sponsors and as much expanded pre-race events”, they make up with it in “Ironman Enthusiasm”. Which I judge by the amount of “smiles towards each other, loudness of chatter and Ironman tattoos”.

At Kona, you don’t see many people “worried about the swim” or “struggling on the bike” or “walking the run”. What you do see is “highly focused individuals that are in their own personal zone trying to beat the clock”. Walking is definitely a sign of weakness and embarrassing, unless you’re older.

At NK races you see athletes engaging with each other more often during the race, “cheering each other on” or even “chatting with each other or the spectators”. You see “big people, little people, fit people and slightly overweight people and people struggling and hurting and persevering”. The spectrum of athletic abilities is much broader.

I’m not making a case for one race over another, that’s not my objective. My position is they are both “just different”. For the ultra-competitive and extremely dedicated, they may prefer Kona. For me, “I like to visit, but don’t need to live there every year”.

I get as much, if not more joy from doing NK Ironman events. With that said, I think every Ironman who is not capable of qualifying, at one point get a chance to experience Kona.

If I were in charge, I’d implement the following changes. First off I’d increase the race size from 1900 to 3000 and keep the same lottery ratio. I think it’s a nice mix and doesn’t water down the quality of the event.

The second change I'd make is allowing only previous Iron Distance race finishers to apply and thirdly, if you got in on the lottery once, you’re not allowed to apply for the lottery ever again. The idea is to “make room” for the people who have never been.

I’d also make a rule that if you applied for 10 years straight and were never selected; you get to go, or somehow are given even better odds.

I DO like the idea that Kona is the Ironman World Championships where the “best of the best compete”. Besides being the birthplace of triathlon, I think the “superior” competition is the key to keeping the “mystic and exclusiveness” of Kona.

Personally, I don’t need to go every year. If I was to script my visits, I’d like to go every four years, just like the Olympics or World Cup. That way, every time I went, I’d be in a different age group and not Kona for granted.

My feeling is a NK Ironman does NOT take a backseat to Kona. They are just different experiences and I could do a NK Ironman every year and if given the choice, I’d rather do Kona once every 4 years.

However, with that said, if I qualified again and if I had the “money and time”, I’d probably go to Kona as often as I could.

If I'm lucky enough to qualify again, I'll race it hard.

No Training – Kona Recovery and Travel Day

Farewell Ironman Kona 2010...

2010-10-15T23:59:00.007-04:00

The 2010 Kona Ironman and family vacation (less Alyssa) is over, unfortunately. The next time I'll definitely be back is once Alyssa finishes University.

There will be no greater motivation to qualify for Kona than having Alyssa experience it first hand. My only regret, is that she couldn't come this year.

The good news is she's been "kicking ass" at University, she just got back a couple of mid-term marks and one was a 92% and the other was 89% and the class average was 67%. Good job Alyssa.

Today was the last day and we tried to make the most of it. Reid got his diving certification and I got my tattoo. It turns out that Reid got FULLY certified. There is two levels, one where you are certified to dive but need to be with a Master Instructor and the other is "you are the man" and can do it all without an instructor and go as low at 130 feet.

The instructor said Reid was a natural and if he thought there was any problems he wouldn't have given Reid full certification. Good job Reid.

The rest of the afternoon was spent "packing". We extended the room an extra night and I'm glad we did. It took me close to 3 hours to pack all my "new" and "extensive" Ironman World Championships wardrobe, and bike. I'm amazed I got it all to fit.

Before we left, I shot a video which I've included below. (If you don't see it, that means we had to leave for the airport and our slow Internet connection didn't work and you'll need to check back). Thanks to all the blog and twitter followers for sending me their energy and karma, I don't thing we could have had a better time in Kona.

Now it's going to be back to reality and I've already got my next adventure semi-planned in my mind. I'm glad Reid likes diving, I'll have to pick events that are near an ocean so I can "bribe" him to come for the diving.

I can hardly wait to get home to "stop eating and drinking". What the don't tell you is doing Ironman Kona is very "fattening".

Rest Day - Post Ironman Recovery.

Feel the heat...

2010-10-14T23:59:00.006-04:00

I can't believe tomorrow we're leaving Kona. Time has flown by and Reid doesn't want to go home, he wants to stay here.

Before our family day started, I went for a 30 minute run. It was hard to get mentally out the door and get my legs moving. I was afraid it was going to hurt.

Once I got going it wasn't too bad, albeit slow. Near the end of the run I was faster than the beginning and it was a nice easy and relaxing run.

I stretched afterwards and still have the pain in my hamstring and buttocks. I really need to rest it.

Unfortunately with the NYC marathon only a few weeks away it may be difficult. I'll need to do the marathon with less training or make it more of a training run than try to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Today our family outing was an open door helicopter ride over the volcano's. The brochure called it "Feel the Heat" and said we'd be close enough to the volcano that we can feel and smell it.

It was out of Hilo which is a 2.5 hour drive from Kona. The drive was part of the adventure. We drove cross Island, which gives you a real perspective on it's elevation. Just on the normal roads we got up to 7000 ft above sea level.

As we were driving, I saw a sign for the Mauna Kea Observatories, which is on top of Mount Kea and when you get to the top it's almost 14,000 ft elevation. We were ahead of schedule, so we drove up to the visitors information at 9,000 ft.

We rented a "crappy" four cylinder Dodge Calibre and when we got to the visitor center I could smell something in the engine was burning from the climbing. I didn't say anything to Alice or Reid about it.

Inside the Center I spoke to a Park Ranger and asked him if we keep driving up the road is the observatory on top, he said, "yes, but do you have a four-wheel drive vehicle? We only allow four-wheel drive vehicles past this point. The road is not paved and is loose gravel". I said, "no we only have a two-wheel drive". He said, "then you won't be able to go any further up than where you are now which is 9000 ft".

As I was leaving the center, another guy who had just returned from the top said, "I wouldn't worry about what the Ranger said, we just came back and we only had a two wheel drive Ford Edge and I saw other smaller cars like yours up there. It is steep at points and you just need to keep it in a low gear and give it everything at some points. And before you get to the top, it turns into paved road again and then you're home free".

That's all it took. Against Reid and Alice's "pleas of NO LETS NOT" I decided we have come this far, lets go for it. At that moment the Ranger came out of the visitor center and I had to hide until he got in his vehicle and drove where he couldn't see me and then I "gunned it up the hill".

The ENTIRE time, Reid and Alice were freaking, saying, "come on lets turn around, the Ranger said this is dangerous, don't be a fool, I don't want to do this". Undeterred, I kept going. As we climbed we got higher than the clouds, it was a cool and scary feeling.

The road was bad and I had it in low gear. They were grading the road and at one point I was riding over the middle of a strip of rocks that hadn't been graded and heard a loud "BANG", the bottom of the car hit a big rock. I'm used to my Toyota 4Runner with more clearance.

After I hit that rock, Alice was freaking, "what are you doing? Don't you know that's a dangerous part of the road to drive on?". Actually, before I hit the rock she was freaking "get away from the middle that's a dangerous part of the road to drive on".

Eventually, I wore the family down and they stopped trying to turn me around. I was determined to get to the top, which is about 6 miles of a drive. We finally got to the paved road and were only 400 ft from the top when we all smelt something burning from the engine and the car seemed to be having a real tough time climbing, it felt like the car was minutes away from "tapping out". Even I was "worried".

At this point Reid was also sick to his stomach and had got back to "Dad, lets turn around, I don't want to go to the top, my stomach hurts, I don't feel good, lets just go down" and was near tears.

Finally, after the car started smelling like burnt rubber, I agreed to turn back around and go down, which took some maneuvering in the middle of the road on an incline. For the entire way down, I had the car in neutral and was riding the brake. Just as we got near the visitor center I saw the Ranger driving up. It was a good thing we didn't make it, I'm sure I would have gotten in trouble when he caught me at the top.

The ride from Kona to Hilo is worth the trip. The terrain changes and has a little bit of everything. There is a lot of climbing and hills. The speed limit is 45 mph and I was going 65 mph over some of the hills. Driving over some of them was like driving on a roller coaster. At one point, we were going so fast it felt like we were on a roller coaster when we'd drop down, you'd feel it in the "pit of your stomach". Of course Reid and Alice were nervous and complaining about my driving, which is "nothing new".

We just made it on-time to the Hilo Airport for the helicopter ride. It was a good thing we didn't get to the top of Mount Kea or we would have been late. As we were watching the video and then got a safety lesson, I started to get nervous and "a little scared".

They walked us out to the Helicopter and the group coming off before us told us "you'll enjoy the wind" which freaked me out a little more. They strapped us in, I was in the front with the double shoulder harness and Reid and Alice were in the back with lap belt style seat belts.

The pilot was an older women that looked like a professional women's golfer or "a lesbian". Now I was even more scared, "a women driver?" She lifted off and and introduced herself and asked "Cody" a question. It turned out that somehow they screwed up and instead of havin the name "Reid", they had "Cody" on the paperwork. It didn't take long until I started calling him "Cody" too. I was constantly bugging Reid and saying , "hey Cody, ........(insert lots of questions here).

Flying a helicopter with open doors was a little unsettling for me, especially if we caught some wind or she did a mid-air turn and I felt like I was going to fall. Even with the harness seat belt I felt like I was "slipping out the door" and when I took video, I had to hold on to the camera with both hands or it'd blow away.

In the end, it was cool, we saw the lava fields, although there was "NO FEEL THE HEAT or SMELL THE SMELL" experience. It was more of a , FEEL THE WIND AND COLD and SEE THE SMOKE" experience.

When we landed, Alice and I got a good laugh about Reid's new hair style. The wind coming off the blades of the helicopter made him look like "Vanilla Ice".

It was 4 pm by the time the helicopter ride ended and we stopped for some dinner before heading back to Kona. In hindsight, I should have went straight back to Kona. We had to travel the same road, which can be narrow in spots, it hilly, windy and VERY DARK.

The drive took longer than normal and 9 miles into it Reid and Alice were "freaking" that I didn't have enough gas to make it back. I checked on the GPS and the closest gas station was back in Hilo, I had to turnaround and go back to where we started.

When we got back on the road, I was telling Reid and Alice that the helicopter ride freaked me out. Reid said he wasn't freaked out or scared about riding in the helicopter or scuba diving, but he is "major league freaked" about my driving. My driving style "is unsettling" to both him and Alice. Big time.

We got back by 9 pm and were all pretty tired. For Hawaii, staying up past 9 pm was a late night.

Easy Run - 30:05 / 5.39 km / 5:35 pace / 122 avg hr

Reid Cousteau...

2010-10-13T23:59:00.002-04:00

Today started with the plans to snorkel on a charter and changed to underwater diving for the boys.

I've never underwater dived and the snorkel cruise we were on had an "upgrade package" and I asked Reid if he wanted to do it. I was surprised when he said, "sure". He seemed okay about it, I was nervous. It definitely took me out of my comfort zone, just like horseback riding after IMLP.

The instructor spent a lot of time teaching us the basics and what you can do to hurt yourself before we dove. The more he explained the more nervous I got. Reid was fine, his attitude was, "Let's do this".

We suited up and jumped from the boat into the water, "it was on". The instructor took us down to the bottom of the ocean floor via a rope tied to the boat and both Reid and my ears were feeling the pressure. It was a little scary when I couldn't get them to clear and was worried I could rupture an ear drum. Reid was having the same issues.

Eventually both of us were able to get our ears to "pop" and got down to 40 feet and started exploring. It was the "coolest" thing I can remember doing on a vacation. We were down there for 41 minutes according to the instructor and it seemed like only 10 minutes.

There was all kinds of fish and coral and we even got to look into a cave and when the instructor shone a flashlight inside there was all kinds of fish with "big eyes" in there.

When we got back on the boat, the instructor said that with one more lesson we could get underwater diving certified, which means you can rent equipment and dive or go on boat dives. Reid loved the diving so much we set up an appointment for him to get another lesson on Friday and he'll receive his certification. Reid's pumped.

The instructor had to rank each of us after our dives and Reid got 5 out of 5 and I got 4 out of 5. The instructor said I was too wild under the water and Reid was much more "cool, calm and collected". I have a feeling, with Reid's love of water, that underwater diving could become his thing.

After we finished up the underwater diving, I went for an easy bike ride and then hooked up with Cowman, he wanted to show me his new Cow Horns. Alice and Reid dropped me off and then drove down a few miles to Magic Sands beach.

While Cowman and I were sitting and talking at table outside of Java Lava Cafe, a 77 year old gentleman from South Africa named Vivian Francis walked by and said hi. He was disappointed that he didn't make the bike cut-off.

Vivian was returning from the doctors office. He was getting some blood work done, he has prostate cancer. It never ceases to amaze me the obstacles and sub-stories that many of the athletes carry with them. I told Vivian he was an inspiration and had a picture snapped with him. He seemed truly touched by the gesture.

There is more to Cowman than just the horns. He's now 66 years old, never been married and spent most of his life in Construction. He came to Oahu for his first Ironman in 1979 from Lake Tahoe and loved it so much he stayed.

Cowman helped build a lot of hotels in Kona. He's a live in the moment kind of guy and doesn't have a lot of money, nor seem to care about not having money. At 62 years old he decided "he was no longer going to work for someone else". He lives on a small government pension and does the odd landscaping job from time to time.

The one thing about Cowman is he is "strong". His hands and bone structure is big and muscular and he's never lifted weights. I asked him how many times he did the Ultra Man and he said, "I think 15, I'm not sure, after doing so many you lose count".

Even at 66 years young I bet Cowman is physically stronger than most of the athletes who competed on Saturday. I've never met a guy his age, who is his size. He's still 230 lbs and not fat.

I must say I was a little freaked out by Cowman. We met at a coffee shop and he wanted to show me his horns at the secluded Old Kona Airport 45 minutes away. He was disappointed my family wasn't here and offered to take me in his car and told me the passenger door doesn't open. My "spidey senses" were tingling big time.

If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was the last time I was going to see my family alive. I've come to realize that Cowman is just the kind of guy that wants to "give you a good time". He wanted to find a nice location with a good back drop for pictures and have fun shots with his horns".

I told him that I couldn't. I didn't plan on staying away from the family for more than and hour and was going to join them at the beach. My plan was to spend the rest of the trip doing family stuff and non-triathlon related stuff.

Instead, he drove me to the beach where Alice and Reid were hanging out. Because the front passenger door didn't open, I had to sit in the backseat of his beat up old Toyota Camry. It was the box style, probably late 80's, lots of dents and sea shells covering the front dashboard on the driver side. I told him I felt uncomfortable and awkward sitting in the back seat as he drove, like I was being chauffeured. He said it will make a good story for the blog.

The beach was about three miles away and he pulled out his new horns. They are amazing. Essentially, they are real cow horns that are attached to an Army helmet and covered in sheep skin. His original horns and helmet were brown and looked like a buffalo. For the new horns, he couldn't find brown and went with white sheep skin from a seat cover, which isn't a bad thing, it matches his beard.

The photo's don't do justice to the "coolness and quality" of the horns. He had put reflective tape on them for running the Ironman late at night and they don't look real. In person they are awesome looking and real. Actually, if you look at the Matador photo of Cowman with Reid you can see the real horns without the reflective tape on them.

I asked Cowman why he got banded from Ironman and he said it was because of USAT (United States Association of Triathletes). According to Cowman, three to Five years ago, he wasn't able to get a qualifying spot from one of the local races to race at Kona. He had done every Ironman since 1979 and was not going to be deterred to keep his streak alive, so he did it illegally.

Afterwards, he was warned if he did it again he'd get a lifetime ban from the USAT, which is the insurance carrier program that Ironman Kona uses. Cowman had the same problem with getting a qualifying spot again the following year and did Kona illegally again. Hence, the life-time ban.

In fact, it wasn't the Ironman that banned him, it was USAT. For a few years Ironman used a different insurance carrier and allowed Cowman to race legally. Cowman raced illegally again this year and within the week will finish the Ironman. He calls it "finishing on Hawaii time".

I told Cowman he should write a book and I think he'd like to, although I find he had an inner turmoil between "corporate" and "in the moment". In the past he's been paid to fly and given appearance fees to do races all over the world, it's all been based on serendipity.

When I suggested he get a sponsor or start to market himself, I could see he was struggling with that thought or the thought of even launching a website. I offered him my help and told him it's easy to do. I sensed some resistance. It's the old saying, "You can lead a cow to water, but you can't make him drink".

After our goodbyes, I went into the ocean and swam with Reid. On the body board the wave threw me around like a rag dog. Reid and Alice told me they were "vicious", but I had to learn for myself.

The wave was so strong, it took me and threw me end over end under the water at least three times and when I got up my goggles we off my head. Lost forever. My favourite, perfect fitting, took forever to find goggles, were taken by the sea. Not to mention, the "crank in my neck" that hurt when I'd turn my head.

When we got back to the hotel, Reid was too tired to go out for dinner. He just wanted to lie down. The underwater dive instructor said it's not uncommon to get tired after diving. Alice picked him up some taco bell and then her and I went out for dinner.

I've got to say, the general service in Kona is "poor" and it's consistent where ever you go. It's like they don't care if you come back. We ate at one restaurant tonight, then bar hopped at three other places and each were the same "poor" level of service. Even talking to locals, they told us that's standard fare.

We did have one really good waiter and the locals we met said they know who we are talking about and he was imported from Alaska, all expenses paid. They also told us about a great burrito place we're going to check out before we leave.

I was "perfect" on my diet for 36 hours until I had a dessert and when we got back to the hotel had a late night snack of Domino's Pizza. Reid was hungry and I couldn't resist.

On the "what's next front", I've got 24 days until the NYC Marathon. I'm not sure how the training will go, I felt extremely weak riding today. In a way I wish I didn't have the marathon, I can sense my body needs some time to heal and rebuilt itself after a near two seasons of straight training and racing.

Easy Bike - 30:24 / 13.60 km / 26.84 avg pace

Cow Man...

2010-10-12T23:59:00.001-04:00

It was ANOTHER beautiful day in Kona. Alice and I both agree we could move here and wouldn't be surprised if one day we do. We love the climate, the pace and it feels natural.

Today we drove and explored Kona and hoped to find a beach to swim at. Before we got started we picked up Reid some Taco Bell, which he brought and ate at a restaurant Alice and I wanted to eat at, it was a place called Lulu's. Awesome "feng shui".

The food was great and they have a tradition where a customer can write a message on a dollar bill and staple it to the wall. Which we did.

Reid also went across the street and bought some artwork from a street vendor. I felt sorry for the guy, Reid's quite the "haggler". Trust me, I know firsthand.

This morning I decided it was back to clean eating and other than the beers I had today, I've been perfect. Salad for lunch and fish for dinner and even when Alice and Reid had ice cream, I didn't.

After lunch we drove to the Southern part of Kona and stopped at an Antique shop and Coffee factory along the way. At one point we stumbled upon "Magic Sands Beach". As we got out of the car and walked to the beach I saw a familiar face, it was "Cow Man".

For those that don't know Cow Man, he is a legend in the sport of triathlon. He did the second ever Ironman on Oahu and most all since and he races wearing a pair of cow horns. In 1987 when I did my first Ironman Canada he was there.

Back then he was about 43 years old, a big 230 lbs guy with a mountain man brown beard. During Saturday's race I saw him on the bike course. I noticed the horns on his helmet and he still had the beard, but it was now white and trimmed shorter. When I saw him, it brought a huge smile to my face, it was just like old times.

One of my inspirations for "The Captain" is "Cow Man". I always remember he brought some fun into triathlons and put smiles on spectators faces. I like doing the same.

I introduced myself to him. Alice and Reid went swimming and I spend the next two hours talking with him. He told me he just got new horns as his original ones went missing at a party in Maui. He then also told me he "crashed" this years Ironman race.

He explained the USTA had given him a lifetime ban and he "sneaks" into the Ironman. For this years race he made up a fake swim cap, bike and run bib with the numbers "MOO" on it. As we were speaking a young girl walked by and said "you're cowman, I've heard about you, my teacher said she saw you in the water at the Ironman with MOO written on the sides of the cap.

He's now 66 years old. This year he got through the swim and made it to just outside of Hawi and had to stop on the bike due to darkness and wind. When I saw him today he was going back out on the course to finish.

Cow Man is an interesting guy. He shared so many stories with me. I loved hearing how he used to swim Ironman races with the Cow Horns on. He'd breast stroke it and not get his helmet and horns wet. Cow Man is a larger than life character. As we spoke, people were constantly honking horns or walking by and saying high to him. It's like standing beside a celebrity.

He also told me he was only the second person to do the Western States 100 miles and the first person to receive the 1000 mile run buckle after doing 10 Western States 100 mile runs. He said when he did the run it wasn't even yet called the Western States 100.

As you can tell, Cowman is also an Ultra Endurance Athlete and has also done Hawaii Ultra Man many times. In his younger years, he ran at 2:48 marathon, which beyond impressive for a Clydesdale. He's even run Boston Marathon with the cow horns on. He said it was amazing how wildly enthusiastic the crowds reacted.

We hit it off so well that we set up a "play date" for tomorrow afternoon. He's going to show me his new horns and I'm going to bring my Captains hat and we'll mess around a bit.

Just when I thought the Ironman experience was over, it keeps getting better.

No Training - Recovery

Going deep...

2010-10-11T23:59:00.003-04:00

I would have loved to stay in the hotel room and watch TV all day. My head was so sore from the last couple of days of drunken debauchery.

Instead, I "sucked it up" and did the family vacation thing, we spent the afternoon deep sea fishing. It didn't take long until I felt "a little sick". I'm not sure if it was the smell of diesel from the engine, the rocking of the boat, the beers I had since boarding or the hangover.

It was so bad I had to stop drinking at about 5 beers and had my head over the side of the boat for a while. I couldn't even eat. Eventually, I dozed off and on for a little while and that seemed to help.

I was still sun burnt from the Ironman. When I got up in the morning, I saw the skin under the race numbers was lighter than the non-marked skin. On the boat, in the direct sun it was fairly unbearable. I was also bloated, my toes looked like sausages.

We didn't catch any fish. Reid was our designated "reel-er inner" and I really wanted to see him have to take two hours to reel in an 800lb fish. I wanted to see that "fear in his eye".

The upside was we did see at different times about 20 different whales very near our boat. It was very cool. We spent 4 hours out in the boat with "Captain Bob" and it was relaxing and fun. He drove up top and the three of us hung out below waiting for a fish to bite. It was a great way to see the Island from the Sea and the water is amazingly blue.

When we got home, we showered and Alice and I went for dinner. Reid wanted to stay at back at the room. We had the worse service I can remember having. Whoever hired our waiter, should be fired.

This guy took our orders, then got us our first round of drinks. Then I didn't see him for a while. Our drinks were empty for so long I though we were going to dehydrate. When he finally came to the table, I said, "I was wondering where you were, I thought you were MIA". He then said, he'd check on our food order with no personality.

I was worried, it's not wise to give a waiter a shot until after you get your food. I was stewing on it until he came back and said the kitchen had lost our order. Alice figured something was up when a table that came in after us had already gotten their order twenty minutes ago. I didn't care about the food as much as having a full beer in my hand at all times, that's where I draw the line.

The waiter then came back to our table and apologize and offered to buy us a round of drinks. When he returned, he had a Bud light for me instead of the Coors light I was drinking. Eventually, we got our food and the order was wrong, he forgot my french fries and had to put in a new order.

He then asked me if I would like mayo for my burger and I said, "sure". He then went to the table beside us and was talking to a girl. I could tell within seconds that he had already forgot he was to bring me mayo. I kept eating and was near done the burger when he returned 10 minutes later to ask how things were. I said, "what about that mayo?"

I had about three bites left and asked him "how's the mayo coming" to show him how much of an idiot he is. He remembered and apologized and got me some mayo. He then offered to also pay for the fries and give us 10% off the bill.

That sounded good until it took forever for him to get me the bill after I asked for it. At one point, I truthfully asked Alice if she thinks we may be getting "punked". I still think the $4 tip I left him was too much.

After dinner we hooked up with Dave Anderson, his wife Anne and friends Tom and Mary. Dave is a follower of the blog, a PFG and two time Ironman Wisconsin finisher. The four of them were in Kona on vacation and also volunteered at the Ironman. We met up with them all after the volunteer dinner for beers.

Dave made a bet with me and lost and the deal was he'd have to buy me a pitcher of beer. Which he more than did, I think I had 3 or 4 Coors Lights. Thanks again Dave. Dave and friends are from Michigan and they were a fun group to hang out with and I didn't get too crazy.

If the service was faster and any of us had more energy after the last couple days of Ironman to stay another hour or two, there could have been the potential for "wheels up". I was too tired to go three days in a row.

The rest is history, Alice and I went home and it was lights out. It felt nice getting to bed early.

No training - Recovery

The day after...

2010-10-10T23:59:00.011-04:00

Post-race I didn't get to bed until 3:30 am. I would have stayed out later but there was no one left to play with that didn't have a yellow security vest on and working.

I was pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty drunk and Alice said that when I got into bed I did it "commando style". No, not naked. Rather, I "slithered" into bed like I was on my hands and knees going under the wire in an army obstacle course. She had NO idea of why I was doing that and I have no memory of doing it.

I woke up at 8:30 am foggy and sunburnt. I guess it really was hot out there on the course yesterday because even with sunscreen it took its toll. It hurt to the touch.

After getting up I looked on twitter and Johan mentioned that I better get down to the expo early if I want to get finishers clothing, it sells out quick. I'm so glad I saw that tweet and moments later Alice and I were walking down the street to the hotel.

As I'm walking, I hear someone yell at me from behind I look and it's Sonja and Michelle with big smiles on their faces. The timing was fate. We only know each other through each others blogs and twitter, it was "awesome" to finally met them in person. The best part was we got to hang out and talk in the long line while waiting for the store to open.

Both Sonja and Michelle are killer triathletes. Both raced Clearwater last year and Sonja did Kona this year and Michelle did the Nationals and broke a 2:20 in an Olympic distance race in the 40-44 age group and qualified to represent Team USA at the World's in China. Michelle came to Kona to watch, volunteer and support Sonja.

Sonja "crushed" the course and did a 10:17:53 and came in 15th in her age group. She deserved it, the level of commitment to living an Ironman healthy lifestyle and training hard is insane. I think I could do the training, but the "lifestyle commitment", no way.

Next year I wouldn't be surprised if Sonja is back, if not to race, to support Michelle if she qualifies for Kona. I am very jealous of both of them, not because of their triathlon abilities, I'm jealous because of their "rock hard abs".

Sonja "blew me away" when she told me she was a PFG (Previous Fat Gal). She said she used to be 180 lbs on a 5'7" frame and showed me pictures. I couldn't believe it, this is a girl that ran a 100 mile race this year and not far apart qualified for Kona at Coeur d'Alene . Never in a million years would I have thought Sonja was a PFG and now I got to get her to write her story and give pictures so I can put them up on the PFG Triathlon Club blog to inspire others.

As luck would have it, they opened the Ironman store at 9 am and most of the good stuff was still available. I'm so glad I got Johan's tweet. I was fairly selective on what I got with Alice helping to "vet" whether it looked good on me or not.

Had she not been there, I probably would have got one of everything like some of the other guys were doing. It was the funniest sight, guys had little shopping baskets filled to over capacity with every piece of finishers clothing offered.

As we were standing in the long line to pay, a really outgoing woman was talking about her husband and his Ironman obsession. He's in the Executive Challenge, which is another word for rich guys that can pay $5000 a race, get the VIP treatment and can qualify for Kona easier than most due to a less competitive field. In my age group, if I would have payed the XC Challenge big bucks, I would have won it all by 3 minutes and got the first place bowl.

The interesting thing about the guy who won the XC challenge in my age group, who's name is also "Guy" was he qualified at IMLP and I remember talking to him on the bike and then I passed him on the run in Kona and asked him "if he was the guy I met on the bike at Lake Placid" and he said, "good memory". Like me he had a really fast Lake Placid race and a respectable Kona finish.

Back to the women standing in line. She was joking that if she tries to give her husband a "bad time" about his training or constant Ironman talk, he'll give it back to her with "would you rather I be at the bar drinking, or would you rather I was fat, or would you rather I was having an affair".

She then said, "and all he wears is clothing with an Ironman logo on it and he has way too many t-shirts that need to be thrown out to make room in his closet". I started laughing and I said, "that's me too, to a tee". It was funny to hear there is more of us out there. In total, I probably spent about $700 on my new wardrobe.

Also at the Ironman store I ran into Heather (@heatherkrug) and Iain again. Heather is just a little ball of fire, I told her that from her avatar I thought she was taller. I also said, "I'd hire you any day". She's one of those people "that just gets it done and does a lot".

Heather is the person that asked me to send in footage for the Wheaties video about nutrition, apparently I made the cut, I'm on the video talking about my smoothies and they are going to be showing it regularly for at least the next four months. I think, I was a little drunk when she was explaining it to me and I may be wrong.

Iain and I are like magnets here in Kona, we keep running into each other. I saw him five times yesterday and twice today. At 2 pm, I invited all the blog and twitter buddies for beers and he was the only one who showed up, which was fine, him and his better half Shelly were fun to hang out with.

We left "Humpy's Bar" around 5:30 pm to get back for the Award Banquet at 6 pm. Along the way we stopped in at a Tattoo shop. I wanted to get another tattoo to remember this trip. The guy helped us come up with an idea and I'm going in on Thursday to get it done. The unveiling will be on Thursday's blog post. And no, it's not a "full back" tattoo of the Captain, like Steve O did.

The awards banquet was again overpriced, but I was glad we went. I really enjoyed it. It was cool to see the age group winners and hear their "off the chain race times". It seems in the age group categories there is lots of Germans. For the "big prize" the overall male and female winners were Aussies.

I was MOST impressed with the categories over 40 years old. In my 45 - 49 age group, the winning time was 9:16, which is "sick". Who are these "freaks of nature". The older the age groups, the more impressed I got.

As luck would have it, we were sitting beside two older gentleman. Gary Elmitt raced in the 70-74 age group and finished 16:13:33 and Neal Henderson was in the 75 - 79 age group and DNF'd on the run after finishing the bike. The amazing thing is the winning time of 70-74 was 12:41:33 and 75-79 was 13:59:26.

After talking to these guys and seeing the smaller field of competition, I think I have a good shot on making it to the podium in Kona in the 70 plus categories. I'm sure the current fast guys in my age group will wear their body parts out by then and retire, hopefully. Mentally, I know I can finish at any age, my challenge is to live that long.

The guy who won the 80 plus age group in 15:48, was the only one in that group. His acceptance speech was awesomely funny. I got it on video and will post it when I get back. I think it was his 21 Kona Ironman and he looked much younger than Eighty.

The older competitors REALLY inspire me. It's almost like Kona has two races within a race. There is the "Young Uber athletes" and the "Older Athletes". Rarely do you see the two camps mingling, but I was lucky enough to get to hang out and talk with them.

I asked each of them how old they felt inside and Gary immediately said 14 and Neal was 29. I told them I was a mature 17 year old and Gary laughed and said, "see I'm even younger than you". I too believed him when he said he felt 14 years old inside, he had a bit of a devilish eye to him. Sitting with those guys was another highlight of the entire Kona experience.

I also really enjoyed hearing Mirinda, the female winner, and Chris, the male winner, give their speeches.

I felt good for Chris, he was there in China and was staying just down the hall from John and I and he too came down with food poisoning and dropped out of the race at the 50 mile mark on the bike.

Then I read on his blog about his China experience and he too had a virus and wasn't able to train for a few weeks and had to redo his entire race schedule. Like me, he ended up having one of his best seasons ever. Maybe both of us picked up some super bug that hurt and helped us. Even John Barclay who got sick in China set a PB at Syracuse. His only triathlon since China.

At the awards Banquet they were serving FREE beer and I had a LOT. I was just stacking the cups up and always had two or three on the go in front of me. I was afraid they'd run out or close before it was over. I was feeling no pain when I left and we went back to the hotel and sat outside on the patio having more.

Before we left there was a German group of people beside us and the cameras came out for a group photo. I was behind one of the guys at the back of the picture and couldn't resist putting the "peace sign" above the back of his head. I wish I was there when the eventually notice someone "punked" their photo.

Last night as I was talking to my Security guard friends I had my first celebratory cigar, tonight I had my second and I even gave Reid one. I was surprised he took it, he rarely takes it anymore and I was amazed how fast he smoked it down.

At one point I wanted to go out and party some more and I'm glad Alice convinced me not to, no good would have come from it. I couldn't even tweet "coherently".

Recovery Day - No Training

Ironman Kona - THE OFFICIAL RACE REPORT...

2010-10-09T23:59:00.010-04:00

First off, I hate having to read through a long blog post to find out if someone finished or not and what there finishing times were, so I'm going to save you the trouble.

I finished!!!!

Swim - 1:15:05

Bike - 5:47:01

Run - 4:12:34

Final - 11:24:33 (1150 of 1926 overall / 136 of 198 Age group)

I woke up at 5 am and the day started off odd, I wasn't nervous or feeling rushed to get down to the start. Actually, I was "too non-chalanent" and it almost bit me in the ass. I was very close to missing the "body marking" cut-off time and I was worried about the transition zone closing before I could put my water bottles on my bike.

I got all the way to the body marking area and the "eagle eye" volunteers noticed I did not have my timing chip. Doh!!!

The volunteers at the "Big Show" are no-nonsense, they volunteer with "authority". They wouldn't even body mark me until I had my timing chip. I asked if they could body mark me and then I'd go get it. The answer was, "No, you MUST have your timing chip before we can body mark you. Go back to your hotel, get it and we'll hold your pre-race bag".

I figured, "okay, no problem, I'll be back". The problem was they didn't tell me there was a body marking time cut-off. I was back with my chip in less than 10 minutes and they were "tearing apart" the tables and there was only a few volunteers left.

The women who told me "I MUST have my chip" then said, "Your lucky, you just made it under the cut-off time". I thought to myself, "What the F#ck, why didn't you tell me about a cut-off time BEFORE I went back to my hotel room?"

She then said, "I can't believe how relaxed you are". I really was relaxed, except I was still worried that the transition zone was going to close before I got to put my water bottles on my bike. Internally I had lots of anxiety until I saw the the transition zone was still open.

As I was going into the transition zone I ran into Iain (@devonian). He noticed me right away. It was "cool" to finally meet in person after twittering back and forth for so long. It was the first of five times I'd see Iain throughout the day, which is amazing odds considering the number of people at the event.

It was a weird morning, for the most part I didn't "have my head in the game". As I stood in the long line of people waiting to get into the water, I saw a fellow Mark Allen athlete who got in on the lottery. She said she ran into Mark this morning and asked for advice and he said, "enjoy the buffet, there's lot's of food and drink on the course". I thought that was good advice.

As I was standing in line I looked to my right and there was a guy beside me who had "thick, permananet marker" writing covering his entire forearm. I looked closer and it said, "Flight $2,000, Hotel $1500, etc, etc". I loved "how he motivated himself to finish" and went over to him and told him so and we shared a laugh.

For the most part, I wasn't amped until I got into the water and swam out to the start line. Along the lower part of the pier, some athletes were holding on to the big tracker tires that are used for boat bumpers. Some had even climbed up and were sitting on them resting.

As I was about 100 meters off the beach and "treading water" I looked around and started "soaking it all in" for 10 minutes before the gun went off. I was amazed at the "pom and circumstance" all around me. The crowds of people around the pier and down the seawall along Ali'i drive was never ending and deep.

Everywhere I looked was spectators. Even on the roof of the host hotel, which is about 8 stories high. It was amazing and the energy outside of the water was electric.

In the water, it was "quiet". Not a lot of talking. People were getting cold treading water and the extend of my conversations to a couple people were, "I'm starting to get cold, I can hardly wait to get going so I can warm up". That was it, nothing else was said. I didn't sense any "fear" or "anxiety" in anyone, it was more of a subdued "confident anticipation".

The minute the Cannon went off to start the race I remember vividly getting excited, I had a big smile on my face and said to myself out loud, "This is THE Ironman, lets do it!!!!" and I was off.

True to Training Payne fashion, I went for the direct line and was only about 5 rows back from the lead swimmers at the start. This race was full of "full contact swimming". I loved it. I was kicked a couple times in the nose, hit all over, slapped AND "kicked in the nuts". A guy swam under me and kicked his heel up into my "family jewels". All I thought was, "ouch that hurts and that's going to be a good story for the blog".

At one point, I got hit from behind so hard I thought I was rammed by something. I was right. I looked up and it was on of the lifeguards on a surf board that ran into me. There was "a ton" of support people all along the swim course on surf boards.

I had to laugh, most Ironman races don't have anywhere near the water support that Kona does, yet the worst swimmers are in those non-Kona Ironman races. The probability of someone drowning in Kona is about 0% and they have the most water support I've ever seen.

I swam fairly hard, I sighted well and thought I swam a lot faster than my time showed. For the last kilometer I drafted off a couple of swimmers. It was the first time I ever did that. I was so into the race I didn't even look at the fish below, all I remember seeing was feet and bubbles in front of me.

One guy was an "aggressive" swimmer and we swam the first half near side by side. He'd constantly be swimming into me with "unnecessary force". He kept pissing me off, but I got back at him in the end. For the last 500 meters I swam in his slip stream and constantly was hitting his feet with my hands. I'm sure it drove him nuts and if it wasn't him I would have felt bad about constantly touching his feet.

I never know how well I'm physically feeling until I get on the bike. The swim is just the warm up. I got out of the water and ran through the showers, which are garden hoses that hang down with water coming out of them. I grabbed one and took a little time to flush the salt off my body and out of my shorts.

My transition was slow, I had trouble putting my jersey on and needed volunteer help. I also wanted to make sure I put sunscreen on, I was still burnt from Tuesdays ride. The volunteers were fantastic and couldn't be more helpful.

When I got on the bike, I wasn't feeling it and mentally, I wasn't prepared for the first part of the course. I didn't realize we weren't going onto the Queen K immediately and I ride better when I mentally know what to expect.

From the beginning, I was being passed, which rarely happens. And I was being "chicked" big time. Which means, passed by girls or Simon Cross. The first 20 miles were the hardest, I wasn't into it, I was riding fairly strong and being passed more than I was passing.

The worst part was my "ass was sore". I don't know why but I was strangely uncomfortable riding on my seat. It hurt.

It was a moment of truth and I had to have "a come to Jesus talk" with myself. I was an hour in and knew how my body was responding and now it was time to determine my race strategy based on how I was feeling.

I drew strength from the blog followers and the word that came into my mind was "celebration". That I needed to enjoy myself. At that moment, I new what my strategy was going to be.

I decided I was going to go as hard as I could, "without going into the Hurt Locker". I was not going to take it easy, I was not going to feel inferior or get down on myself for being passed. I realized that this was not an ordinary race, this was "the best of the best" racing, there's no dishonour in getting passed.

I knew I needed to "race my own race" and forget about the others. The one thing I really liked about this race was they didn't put your age on your calves. It was nice not having to constantly look at the ages of people your passing or being passed by. It allowed me to stay in my own zone of thought.

It felt like the bike course had more aid stations than any other Ironman I've ever done. If you were dehydrated it was only because you were lazy, it wasn't from lack of available liquids.

It was hot on the bike, not Ironman China hot, but hot. I made sure I was drinking constantly and ate every hour. I started with my Ensure out of the swim and had three Power Bars, a banana and a couple of gels on the bike.

After 25 miles, my state of mind changed. I tried something I've thought of doing, but had never done before. I started repeating to myself, "There is no other place I'd rather be, there's not other place I'd rather be".

Forget about lying on the couch, forget about watching TV at the hotel, forget about drinking at the bar, I'm out here doing the Ironman, "there's no other place I'd rather be".

I used that line and added to it later in the race on the run. When it got tough and I wanted to walk, I kept saying to myself, "there's no place I'd rather be" AND "there' no other mental state I'd rather be in". I decided to "embrace the pain".

I figured, "it's not everyday that you can live on that mental pain edge". "Embrace the state" and "there is no other place I'd rather be" were my mantra's throughout the day when I felt I needed them.

The bike was a lot harder than I though it would be. It was windy, hilly and hot. It was also scary for about 8 miles up to Hawi and back. The winds were "wicked" and I came very close to being blown off the bike a few times. Once I was going down a hill in my aero bars at 59 kph and a huge gust of wind almost "took me out". It scared me.

I then started talking to myself out loud and saying, "wind, you are not going to beat me, you can knock others down, but not me, not today". For those 16 miles, my arms were tensed and I was so relieved when I saw we were almost out of "wind alley".

I could tell when the wind was going to end because the white caps in the ocean stopped dramatically. It was a cool sight seeing flat water and then "boom", as if it was on a line, there was white caps. For part of the road to Hawi I also had some rain droplets fall on me.

At times, over the last 50 kms, I could feel the heat coming up off the road. I was later told that at the road level it was 121 F. Throughout the day it was hot and sunny, although it didn't overly bother me. I made sure I didn't go 15 minutes without drinking something. I think getting here on Monday and doing 7 hours of training in the heat also helped.

It was cool watching the pros go by in the opposite direction as I was climbing to Hawi. They were just flying and I saw McCormick, he was in about 7th or 8th place and a bit of a ways back. As they went by, I was thinking, "this is the IRONMAN, it's going to be on NBC, this is big time, there's no place I'd rather be".

Throughout the ride, I was thinking of my "blog buddies" and when I say "buddies" I mean "guys and gals". I played a bit of a game with myself and tried to remember and say everyones name in my head. The list was LONG. I was surprised how many names I could remember and how many online friends I've made.

As I rode, I had the gps on and envisioned others watching my progress and I didn't want to disappoint. I wanted to have a respectable race. I was drawing on all my B.B's (Blog Buddies) energy and well wishes. I must say, "there as great karma in the air, it was a tough day physically, yet mentally I felt fantastic". It was the strangest sensation.

The one thing the race course didn't have was many porta-potties, I saw none at any of the aid stations. I was fully prepared to stop and take a pee within the rules and I couldn't find a washroom.

I was able to pee as I was close to finishing my swim and now with 25 miles left on the bike I had to pull over to the side of the road and pee. I decided to go after I saw the "drafting Marshall" drive by on their motorcycle and were out of sight. I figured the odds of me getting caught were now "low".

Drafting wasn't too much of a problem, but I did see one guy "Werner" with bib #280 blatantly drafting for about 3-5 minutes. I wanted to pull up to him and say something like, "must be easier drafting, eh?" It never fails, any of the guys I see drafting are aways European. I just can't fathom why someone would "cheat an Ironman". I personally want to know "I did it on my own".

Seeing the names of people on their race bibs was cool as well. There was a lot of different European names. The Japanese had either a crazy name I couldn't pronounce or the name "Ken". I laughed to myself when I saw the name "Ken" and wondered why "Ken" is such a popular North American name chosen by the Japanese.

Throughout the last 20 miles of the ride I was playing some head games with myself. Primarily I was counting how many miles I'd have to walk or run if I had a catastrophic bike failure. As the miles wound down, I got happier and happier knowing I'd have to walk less and less.

Physically I gave it everything I had in me on the bike. My ass was SORE, yet I felt mentally fine and in control. I was still in control of this race, it wasn't "owning me". Everything was going according to race plan.

I also "sucked in" as much of the bike course as I could. In all honesty, I remembered "NONE" of it from 22 years ago. I remembered it being flat and I didn't even remember seeing the ocean. In 1988 I think I was so in "the hurt locker" that I wasn't looking at anything but my front tire and road.

When I did this race last time, my longest bike training ride of the year was 80 miles and my longest run was 2 hours. I came totally "unprepared" and it was a "struggle" to finish. It HURT. I remember doing a lot of walking in the dark and not being able to walk after I crossed that finish line.

The one beautiful thing about doing 24 bike rides over 100 miles this year is "you know you will easily finish this bike". It's not even a question if you're going to finish. Other than my butt hurting, my mental strategy having to be refocused, the strong winds to and from Hawi, almost getting blown of my bike and the heat, the ride was fairly uneventful and not too bad.

Getting off the bike and running was scary. My butt hurt so bad I was having trouble running. I'm normally a great runner off the bike and now I was having doubts if I was going to be able to even run the marathon.

The transition zone is a long run and by the time I ran to the change tent, sat down, put on my runners and began the marathon, I was feeling much better, I was relieved to know I'd be able to run the marathon.

It was hot and I started running strong, I got to the 5 mile marker at a 5:00 per km pace. The crowds were huge coming out of the run and there was constant patches of spectators as we ran out and back down All'i drive. There was a lot of "Go Captain" or "I like the hat" cheers going on. The spectator support in Kona was great. It was not subdued like Clearwater. I'd put Kona right up there on the"Go Captain" Cheer meter.

After 10 km's I started slowing down, it was hot and I just didn't have it in my legs. At times I even thought of walking, that it would be so much easier.

The one similarity between Clearwater and Kona is the caliber of athletes, they are the "elite", it was MUCH less people walking than any other Ironmans I've done.

When it got tough, I started my mantra, "there's no other place I want to be" and "there no mental state I'd rather be in". It's amazing how quickly it helped. I also saw Iain on the run course twice and the first time we exchanged a low high-five.

For the last 32 kms I walked through the aid stations and ran the entire course. I'm proud to say other than walking briefly up a steep hill to the Queen K highway, I ran the entire course.

I played some "head games" with myself along the way. I always think of walking time and distance. I hate walking and I walked 13 miles in China and "hated" every minute of it. When you run it is so much better, you get to finish faster and the "suffering" ends sooner.

I'm actually "afraid" to have to walk long distances, I think it would be hard. My muscles are trained to run, not walk and I figure walking long distance would eventually hurt more than running.

The toughest part of the run was transitioning from the walk through the aid station back to a run. Once I was running, I was good. The walk to run transition was painful.

For the first half of the run it was HOT. As I ran along All'i drive I'd try to hug the side of the road and get some shade from the buildings, trees and bushes along the road. As I got out on to the Queen K the sun started to get blocked by clouds. It was a godsend.

I primarily drank water and it tasted "GREAT". When I do a long training session in the heat and come home and have that "first" glass of water, it tastes like HEAVEN. During the entire last half of the run at every aid station the water tasted like HEAVEN. I've never had that experience before, every cup of water tasted like it was the first time I've drank water that day.

As I ran, I kept counting down the miles and doing the math on how much walking I'd have to do if I stopped running now. At mile sixteen I decided that for the last 6 miles I was going to have the "Celebration Six".

I came up with the idea of "giving thanks to all the wonderful things in my life for the last six miles". For the last hour, I was just going to "Celebrate Life". At times, I'd start to think about positive things and then I'd bitch slap myself and say, "not yet, you still have four miles before you can start the Celebration Six".

When I got to the energy lab it was the first time I saw people walking and I felt good. I wasn't fast and I couldn't go faster, but I was mentally feeling "fantastic". I was so looking forward to getting to mile 20 and "Celebrating".

Eventually I got to mile 20 and just thought of the best things that have ever happened to me. Things like Alice and the kids were the first thing to pop into mind and it went from there. I even had a moment of paying homage to "the original Captain", my grandfather Neil. It took three miles and I couldn't think of any more great things. At one point I got a little "verclemt" going through my blessings.

At that moment, an idea popped into my head. I thought of the blog followers and decided to celebrate and honour them. I decided to "channel" all there well wishes and karmic energy that they gave me and pass it on.

For the last 5 km's I cheered on every athlete that was coming my way or passed me. I'd yell out words of encouragement. There was a lot of "whey to go, keep up the good work, looking strong, your almost home, etc, etc, etc". I also played it up big with the spectators and thanked as many volunteers as I came in contact with.

Those last 2 km's was "the Captain" cheering back to the spectators. I was saluting and thanking people for there cheers continuously. I could feel my speed picking up naturally. It was the most AWESOME 2 km's I've ever run.

Along the way I heard a cheer and looked behind me and it was Sonja. She looked so fresh I thought there was problem and she didn't do the race or had to drop out. I found out later she killed it with a 10:17.

Not much farther, I heard another female cheer and said "thanks sir", then I realized it was a women and said "I mean mam" and then I heard, it's Michelle (@Michelleford6p). Another twitter buddy, Sonja's friend and an awesome triathlete. I yelled back, "hey Michelle".

As I ran I had one other mantra, it was "no glowsticks". Last time I was here I spend a LOT of my time on the Queen K Hwy walking with glowsticks. The sun was almost down and they were just starting to hand out glowsticks, my motivation was to get to the finish before being handed a glowstick and I'm proud to say, I made it without a glowstick.

As I was coming down All'i drive, the crowds were cheering like mad, it was amazing. About 150 meters from the finish I had arranged for Alice to meet me and give me my finish line props. I had a Canadian Flag for one hand and a Prop Beer Glass in the other. She had the props, I apologized to her for being "a jerk" over the past week, gave her a kiss and continued on.

I can't tell you how many times I read the rules to make sure I wouldn't get DNF'd for crossing the line with a prop in my hand. I almost didn't do it, but I figured that so long as I get the medal and finishers shirt I could care less if they DNF my results.

For the last 150 meters I was estatic. I was waving my flag and yelling "It's beer time!!! It's beer time!!!, It's beer Time!!! Over and over and over. The crowd loved it, people were laughing and taking pictures and I couldn't have asked for a more "memorable" finish.

When I crossed the line I even pretended to take a drink from the beer glass. I felt amazing. It was a tough day, I had a respectable race time and more importantly, I felt GREAT!!!!! I couldn't have asked for a better race mentally and spiritually. It was MORE than what I even expected.

I started the day off "non-chalanent" and "not hyped" and finished "on Cloud nine". It was one of the GREATEST DAY'S OF MY LIFE!!!! I couldn't have scripted it any better.

When I crossed the line I had two catchers, a husband and wife team from Calgary who were on holidays in Kona and also triathletes. It was awesome, a Canadian being caught by a couple of Canadians. We had a great conversation as they lead me to the athlete and family area.

All I kept asking them was were I was to pick up my finishers shirt and medal. That's all I cared about.

I couldn't find Alice or Reid and waited in line to get a finishing line photo. I had them shoot three different poses. Afterwards I went for food and all they had left was ice cream, they ran out of Pizza.

My only complaint about the Kona Ironman was the food. The pre-race banquet was bad and the post-race food was non-existant. For the money they charge, it should be had "hot buffet". I'd even pay extra to have good food at the end.

In the end, I had a cup of vanilla and chocolate ice cream that I ate with a wooden spoon. Thankfully I felt great and wasn't near a bonk state.

Instead, I went to pick up my bike and gear. I couldn't find my run gear and found out Alice and Reid picked up my stuff, except for my bike transition bag. They lost it. Until I realzied they took my stuff, I thought my run gear was "misplaced or taken by mistake by someone else".

When I got back to the hotel I was hungry and Alice and I went out for a nice dinner. I had a 16 ounce piece of prime rib and ordered two beers at a time and told the waiter to keep them coming. I was starting to semi-bonk until I got some food in me and I then got my second wind.

Alice was tired from spectating and I still wanted to go out and party. I also wanted to watch the finish. I checked my email and twitter and Heather (@heatherkrug) asked if I wanted to hang out and I accepted the invitation.

It turns out that Heather is the PR person for Wheaties and she got me into the Wheaties private party that overlooked the finish line. It was the best location ever to view the finish and I had a birds eye view.

Later on Iain and his better half Shelly showed up. I'm sure Heather thought I was "trailer park" when I showed her I had two beers in the side pockets of my shorts. She was buying me beers and I was to lazy to go order more, so I'd pull one out, open it and start drinking.

Watching the finish was one of the most magical experiences I'd ever seen. The crowd was huge and the energy was electric. Even the pros showed up to congratulate the last place finisher. I recorded it all and will post it shortly.

It was the first finish I've ever attended and I don't think I'll ever miss another one. It was just awesome.

After it ended, the bar ran out of beer and no one wanted to "say out and play". I ended up going to a younger persons bar and eventually left or closed it down, it was a bit of a blur. I was probably 18 or more beers into it.

I didn't get back to the hotel until 3:30 am and ended up talking to some of the security personal as the race site was being "torn down". It was amazing to watch how in a matter of minutes the Ironman went from "everywhere" to being seen "no where". There was an army of people taking everything apart and loading it in trucks.

I would talk to one guy, he'd get sick of talking to a drunk and then make an excuse to leave, then I'd walk down the street and find another guy and the process would repeat and then I talked to a third guy before heading home.

All the guys I talked to couldn't believe I did the Ironman, I was walking fine and "up late". If I didn't have a finishers shirt on, I'm sure they wouldn't have believed me when I said I was one of the finishers.

Overall, it was a great day and I had a blast. Heck, it was "a great week". It was the most incredible experience and I'd recommend to anyone and everyone that they need to experience it. If they aren't fast enough to qualify, I'd suggest they enter the lottery every year. I think it's something every triathlete should experience at least once.

It exceeded every one of my expectations and "I'm still waiting to wake up from this dream".

Swim - 1:15:05

Bike - 5:47:01

Run - 4:12:34

Final - 11:24:33 (1150 of 1926 overall / 136 of 198 Age group)

Kona - Finish Shot

2010-10-09T23:59:00.002-04:00

Quick update. I did it 11:24:33. I'm super happy, lots to say and post race video will be posted in the next few hours. Hopefully. (My internet is slow).

Here's the finish line video that Doru captured of me finishing. In one hand is a Canadian Flag, in the other is a Fake Beer. I'm drinking the real stuff now.

Kona race report

2010-10-09T19:22:00.000-04:00

Kona - Day Four - Ironman Eve...

2010-10-08T22:33:00.001-04:00

For those that want to follow the Ironman tomorrow, my information is as follows: Bryan Payne, race number is #759, 45-49 age group.

The race starts at 7 am Hawaii time / 1 pm Eastern Time Zone / 12 noon Central Time Zone

There's a few online options on how to follow the race and me.

Ironman.com

1. Athlete Tracker and put in bib #759 at http://tracking.ironmanlive.com/tracking.php?race=worldchampionship&year=2010

2. Watch the race unfold "live", there will be an all-day streaming webcast. You can find it by linking on to http://kona.ironmanlive.com/

And, via "Track My Athlete"

You can track me live via a gps devise I'll be wearing. With a Web browser and iPhone you can track via http://www.trackmyathlete.com/vemap.aspx?name=033899 or with a Handheld PDA/Blackberry/Palm you can track via http://www.trackmyathlete.com/pda.aspx?name=033899

I found some old photo's from my last visit to Kona in 1988. Alice and I were married that year and the Ironman was part of our honeymoon.

I "loved" being here and experiencing the Ironman 22-years ago and this week it hasn't disappointed. It may even be better. Now all I need to do is cross that finish line and that will be the last little piece of magic that will "capture lightening in a bottle for a second time".

I don't think I can be any more ready for Kona than I am now. I feel I'm going into this race with "no regrets", other than a "stress induced cold sore" and weighing 3 lbs more than my Ironman Lake Placid race. Minor stuff and as "Coach Gord" says, the extra weight will help riding through the wind.

I've done all the required training, I've eaten relatively healthy and have not drank any beer for the past couple of weeks. I've slept well, I've gotten into the Ironman Spirit and "I'm looking forward to racing". All that's remaining is spending the afternoon and evening resting in my hotel room.

This morning I was up at 7 am, after a "solid sleep". Before I went to bed last night I said to myself, "you are going to have a good sleep and wake up completely rested". I learnt that technique at a workshop and it worked. I woke up feeling great with no back tightness.

Before I did my pre-race bike and run, my standing resting heart rate was 53 bpm. If it's like that tomorrow morning, I'm going to have a good race.

I'm still stressed and today may be the worst of it. My cold sore is blowing up and simple questions from Alice or Reid make me irritable. As much as I try to "chill", it's not working. The only thing that is going to relax me is crossing that finish line.

This morning I did my pre-race bike and run early, then had breakfast and walked around the town a bit and went to the outdoor expo. There was NOT a lot of athletes out and about. I assumed most are "holed up" and resting in their hotel or condo. My plan was to rest after gear check in and go for an early dinner of pasta in olive oil and garlic.

I was in the first wave allowed into the transition area to drop off our gear, between noon to 2:30 pm. It is one highly organized event with over 5000 volunteers. The transition is beautiful, fully carpeted and the bikes aren't "hung" on metal racks. Instead, they are wooden racks that the back wheels fit into and the bike stands up nicely.

As I was walking my bike into the transition, Dave Anderson, a blog follower, said "hi". I didn't realize it was him until I had to go back into the transition a second time because I forgot to put the Captains Hat in my run gear bag. It was still on my head. He said "hi" again and this time introduced himself. We chatted for a while, great guy. The plan is to together after the race for beers, he owes me a "pitcher" for a bet he lost.

Before I packed my gear into the bags, Alice, Reid and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some Ensure, Beer, Salty Snacks and water. A pre-race axiom is the saying, "you should race like you train" and that's what I'm doing. To load up on salt, I bought some Salt & Vinegar Chips, Taco Chips and Sunflower Seeds.

I've posted often that "I can't believe I qualified", almost in an undeserving way. It's not that I know I don't deserve it, that's quantifiable. It's likely I would have qualified at St. George if I didn't have stomach troubles and I did qualify at Lake Placid, arguably one of the most competitive fields, making it a tougher place to do it at.

I guess, why I can't believe it because I remember where I was four years ago as "a fat and unhappy person". I find it "surreal" that I'm here. My initial goal was to lose weight and get in shape, it was "never" to get to Kona. It wasn't even a "fantasy".

I'm also thankful that my "blog buddies" who set me straight about "deserving to be in Kona". In retrospect, I did earn my spot and do deserve to be here as much as the next guy. Looking back, "I have put in a LOT of training". I even remember asking myself during many long training sessions how many guys in my age group were putting in similar training volumes.

As time went on and I started doing well and placing higher and higher in the results, I attributed it to "my training volume". I knew my progress was a direct result of my commitment to "get out that door and not mail in any workouts".

The disbelief I have is that "even me, never an all-star athlete and someone with a party-lifestyle, can make it to Kona". In light of the blog comments, I agree, I do deserve to be here, "I've worked my ASS OFF!!!"

Those 6 and 7 hour indoor trainer rides were the toughest thing I think I've ever done in my life. Real character builders.

I've often said, "If I can do it, anyone can do it" and it's true. From a physical DNA standpoint, I'm not a "natural triathlete" and if anyone else puts in the time and miles that I did, they too will get to Kona, eventually.

The one personal characteristic I am proud of is my "mental strength" to train hard and not miss workouts. The second personal characteristic I'm proud of is my ability to "have fun, party and enjoy life to the fullest".

I also want to say that the support I've gotten from my "blog buddies" has been great. I think I have the best blog followers on the planet. When I get off the rails and need a "hug" or a "smack" they are their to deliver it. There has been many a time that I've done a workout because it was harder to have to write about missing a workout than actually doing it.

In many ways, I feel my "Journey to Kona" is not just mine. I've never felt alone. In many respects I feel it's my blog followers journey as well. From day one, I've felt the "cheering" from the sidelines, that people are living vicariously through me and want to see me succeed.

There hasn't been one training session since starting the blog that I've felt alone. Even though I primary train alone, I've always felt my blog readers were with me. In the beginning, it was only John Barclay following and he kept me honest and posting on time, or I'd hear about it.

Without getting too mushy, "I'm dedicating tomorrows race to my blog followers", even C.C. You have helped me in so many ways that you weren't aware of, nor intended, and I want to return the favour.

During tomorrow's race from the beginning to end, I'm going to celebrate this race with you in mind. For those I know, or see your avatar regularly, I'll be visualizing you. For those who I've never met and "watch from a far", I'm going to draw from your spirit.

When you check in and see where I am, consider "me" you. I'm going to try to give it my best and "give you the race of your life". It may not be my fastest race, but it will be the best race I have in me for that day".

I HOPE it's uneventful and we have a "great race". However, if the world falls apart and I'm limping along, it will be "you" limping along and I guarantee you, "you will not surrender".

YOU WILL CROSS THAT FINISH LINE TOMORROW!!!!

Pre-race Bike -19:02 / 8.96 km / 28.25 km avg

Pre -race Run - 15:08 / 2.68 km / 5:38 per km pace