It was pretty special and I thought it would be the beginning of many more triathlons and Ironman's. Little did I know at the time it was more or less the end.
After all the hoopla was over and we flew home to Nova Scotia, Canada, the post-Ironman depression kicked in. It was almost winter, I battled IT band issues, and the drive was gone. It was post season and I really didn't know what to do. My wife and I found out shortly afterwards that we were pregnant, and our first child was expected in July. Now life was changing.
Oh, I have to back this up a bit. Part of the deal of doing Ironman was..........it was to the first and last. Ok, I may have had a hand behind my back with crossed fingers when I made that deal. The other was we agreed to start a family afterwards. That was cool, and I was all for that, because now I have two beautiful teenage daughters that I am very proud of, and drive me completely insane at times.
In a nutshell the next two decades consisted of two marathons, a couple of triathlons, an ultra marathon (never doing that again) heavy involvement in adventure motorcycling, windsurfing, standup paddle boarding, surfing, moving around for jobs, changing diapers, then supporting my girls at dance recitals, soccer, hockey and rugby. In the last four years I've sent more time freezing my arse off at hockey rinks than I have in a pool.
Two years ago I finally bought a new bike. Yup, upgraded from my 1998 Cannonade MS900. Yes, it even had 650c wheels. Rockin' it old school. Mind you that bike cost me $900, and got me through the Ironman with a respectable sub-six hour ride.
I was now the proud owner of a Specialized TriCross. Yes a cyclocross bike. I wanted something comfortable, that I can ride on gravel roads. Not sure if being back on the bike and just riding for the sake of riding led me back to triathlon or not. I did a lot of riding, and it was fun, I had no specific time or speed to shoot for. I remember doing a 180km ride that took all day. I think it was 12hrs with all the stops along the way.
Geared up for a two day ride.
So in October I was sitting in my Lazy Boy, surfing the net on my laptop and stumbled on the live broadcast of the Ironman World Championships. Watching fellow Canuck, Lionel Sanders come awfully close to winning the whole damn thing set a lightbulb off in my head, just like it had done in 1998.
November 1998, I was a newly minted captain with Air Canada's regional airline, Air Nova (now Air Canada Express/Jazz). I was on a layover in Ottawa, Ontario when I stumbled on NBC's broadcast of IMWC. That year another Canadian, Peter Reid won his first of three world titles, and inspired me to give this triathlon thing a go. Pete has since retired from triathlon, and is now a pilot.
I initially decided to ease into it, and do a couple of half IM's in 2018, then go for the big one in 2019. The year I turn the big 5-0. Well that was short lived because in November I signed up for IM Mont Tremblant. I figured why wait, I'm in decent shape and I had 9 months to get even better.
The one thing I was nervous about was getting the nod of approval from the missus. My wife has been awesome, and is used to me coming up with crazy ideas and putting up with them. Two week adventure motorcycle trips to far away places, ultra marathons, surfing trips, etc. But she had been with me through the last Ironman and I knew she would be concerned about the time commitments.
Too my surprise she said "it sounds like fun" A family Ironman adventure in Mont Tremblant.
My girls will be 14 and 17 next year, and they have never seen Dad do any kind of race. My oldest was only a infant when I did the two marathons, and they didn't come with me when I did the ultra marathon in 2014. So a big part of me would like to do this to inspire them. Plus Ironman puts on such a good show it makes for a hell of a fun, inspirational weekend. I've been to Mont Tremblant before and it's a beautiful venue.
Six weeks ago I got back into triathlon specific training. I knew this time I had to be smart about it, and to use my time wisely. I needed a well structured program, and I found a 24-week one for old geezers. A 40+ Masters program. I reached out the creator and coach of the program to find out what I should be doing from now until March, the start of schedule.
This being the off season for most triathletes in the northern hemisphere, I too should be in the off season, mind you mine has been going on for 17 years. I knew without some good direction I would be ramping up the volume as soon as started feeling good. Really do I need to be suffering through two hour runs in January for no reason? I knew I'd be either injured or burned out before April being a slave to my Strava log.
So far so good, no runs longer than an hour, no bike rides longer than 40km. Swimming.........well I was surprised how well I felt the first day back in the pool. I'll slowly work my back to 3000m workouts before March. I've already done a couple 2200m workouts and felt great afterwards.
My life is in a good place right now, so it just feels right to be back at this, and I really believe it will be something that will go long past August 18th when I again toe the line at my second Ironman.
So if you are really bored, need some extra motivation, want to see me struggle, bitch, complain, moan ( I am a pilot and we are really good at complaining) celebrate, and succeed, check back for other posts. I've got 18 years of catching up to do.
