The Trials and Tribulations of Life on the Road

I think every triathlon training schedule ever published is designed around the Mon-Fri nine to fiver. I'm sure that works for the majority of the population but for me it couldn't be any worst.

Except for a brief two year period in my late teens when I was disenchanted with post-secondary education, and not sure of my "life direction" I lifeguarded and instructed swimming lessons full time. It was a 9-5, sometimes 7-5 job. The pool had no windows, and in the winter there were days when I went to work in the dark, and came home in the dark.

After that my career in aviation took off(pun intended) and it hasn't been "normal" since. During my first Ironman in 2000 I was flying for a regional airline, and worked pretty much every weekend, and it consisted of what we call a 4 or 5 day pairing. Leave on Thursday come back on Monday or Tuesday. So needless to say except for the odd time, most of my long runs and rides were solo affairs during the middle of the week.

For the last 13 years I have flown a corporate jet for a large family owned business. I have more time at home, but it involves a LOT of on call with frequent schedule changes. Thus making it hard to plan a week of training.

For example this week. I have been essentially off all week, however I found out yesterday I have a day trip on Saturday (long bike day), leave at 7am, get home around 4pm.  Then I leave again Sunday  (long run day) at 1:30pm get home on Thursday, to leave again on Friday for seven days.

Being involved in a sport that requires a 25m pool and a bicycle, air travel to places your boss wants to go to can make training a bit of challenge.

So I have some juggling to do. I know on Saturday I will not feel like sitting on the bike trainer for 2 hours after working all day. So I'll move long ride day to Friday, and easy run day to Saturday.

Sunday I'll get my long run in before work.

Next week will be a write off for swimming. I'm in hotels all week (White Plains, NY, and Washington DC), and lets face it the only thing you can do in hotel pool is practice flip turns, or tread water. As long as I don't have to do a long ride on hotel gym exercise bike. I can suffer an hour on one, but after that it just sucks. If I'm lucky some will actually have spin bike with clips. (Hotel Saskatchewan has two spin bikes with clipless pedals)

The good news....... on Friday I head to Fort Lauderdale, and Miami for a week. Can you say company paid training camp.  There's a 50m pool behind our hotel (Swimming Hall of Fame), and there is a Trek dealer that rents bikes in Lauderdale. So that week is covered.

my hotel is tall building on the left 

I actually have two trips to Florida, the second trip has us sitting in Lauderdale for a few days, so if there's not too much luggage I'll throw my bike in for that one.

Unfortunately these Florida trips are kinda rare. I mean once every two or three years does this happen. Usually it's drop the boss and family off, and if we are lucky get a night or two in the south before heading back to the frozen wasteland we call Canada. #wintersucks

Oh, and the best part.......this could all change the day of departure, and I could end up out in North Dakota or heaven knows where. So I have learned it's best to pack for all four seasons. Then the juggling of the training sched starts all over again.

Most of our trips are rather mundane, exotic destinations like Auburn, Maine, Bedford, Mass, North Dakota, Minnesota, Toronto, etc, etc. Airport hotels begin to look the same after awhile. It's pretty bad when you pick your hotel based on the quality of fitness centre, or available outdoor running areas.

Wait a minute, we do get the odd European trip. In the winter. I mean Finland in December is awesome. Five hours of daylight, wet, cold, windy and dreary. Not to mention the 6hr time zone change. Trying to drag your arse out of bed for breakfast when your brain is screaming, "hey it's f'ing 2am!"

So this will be a constant process of juggling workouts around, not unlike some of you in the same boat, or plane.

You do a lot of reflecting and daydreaming when your boss is 3 hours late showing up.

Despite everything, I'll take this office any day over a cubicle and 9 to 5 hours.

It's still early in my training program, and my coach says if I get in 85% of the planned workouts, especially the key ones I'm good to go. I'm not too worried, it's pretty typical to have a pile of trips come up all together. There will be weeks when I'm hardly doing anything, and training will actually go as planned.

Hopefully I'll be writing you from the Sunshine State after a couple of days of great workouts in the heat and sun.

Cheers.

Time to Get Serious and Why the Name Change for the Blog

Ah yes, the Newfie Bullet. I'm sure there at least one of the two people that actually read this blog are wondering what or whom is a Newfie Bullet. If you grew up in Newfoundland and Labrador chances are you already know. If not, follow along dear readers.

The Newfie Bullet was a nickname given to the train that operated in Newfoundland on it's 900km route across the island. It was in service from around 1898 to the 60's when the Trans Canada Highway was opened.

There is a lot of sarcasm in Newfoundland humour, the train was so slow it was referred to as "The Newfie Bullet" My father said it was so slow that on some of the hills, you could jump off the train, pick a bucket of berries and jump back on again before it made the crest.

Being a proud Newfoundlander, and the fact that I am not very fast (mid-packer at best) I thought the term Newfie Bullet was fitting. I'm even going to give my new bike the name.

"Did he say new bike???"

Oh ya, finally pulled the trigger. Dropped into our local shop, Bikes and Beans (they make coffee too) and told them I wanted that nice Cannondale Slice 105 that was in the window. Of course as luck would have it I was called into work and had to leave. Steve the owner of the shop said he'd put a sold sign on it, and we'd get the fitting done later in the week. They are the only
Serotta International Cycling Institute fit specialist in the Maritimes. So I know I'll have a great bike setup, which makes a huge difference.

I'll do a follow up post on how the fitting goes. Looking forward to that since I've never had one before.

Today marks the end of week 19 of my training, and the beginning of my "structured" training. Tomorrow I start my 24-week Ironman plan by David Glover of Endurance Works 

The plan is Ironman Mont-Tremblant 2018 24 -week Experienced plan. I know there are plenty of "free" training plans out there, but after trading emails with David this one seemed to work with my lifestyle. I shied away from a beginner plan because I want to do more than just finish. I know it's been 18 years since the last Ironman, but after the last 19 weeks my workouts have been as good or better than where I was in 2000. Glad I kept my old training diary to reflect back on.

The one surprise has been my swimming, I can't believe how well that's going. Running is on par or slightly better. I have eased back into and have kept the mileage down, running nothing longer than 70mins. 

I did change up my sneakers this month. I have been using Hoka One One for quite awhile, but I just could not get the new models to fit right. I switched back to New Balance, which is better fit for my fat feet, and I couldn't be happier.

I've seen gains in my biking, but the real test will be when I get back outdoors again. Hopefully that will be very soon. At least on the cross bike. 

I do have an upcoming work trip to Florida. I'll be in Lauderdale for a few days and plan to rent a bike and get in some nice long rides. The swimming pool hall of fame is next to our hotel which has 50m lap swimming, and there is a nice ocean for some open water training. Can't wait to get in some heat and sun.

Looking forward to those Florida breakfast smoothies watching the sun come up.

Kona? Well I think that is every triathletes dream. Whether or not I have what it takes to get there is the question. Of course if you don't try you'll never know. I know for a fact that the competition for those rare slots is at a level I am nowhere near. I have to pretty much win my age group, and that means going 10hrs or better. I'm giving myself a solid 5 years to see if I have what it takes. 

If not, well I'll have another 10 Ironman races to do and I qualify for the legacy program, and I might get a shot at it then as an old man.