AND WE'RE OFF!!
7:30am and just checking in at school. I am all packed and ready to go. Our taxi will be here at 8:00am to pick us up insha' ala! I am feeling marginally better today. Not as congested in the sinus'. I have a slight headache but I'm sure nothing that 6-7 hours of travelling won't fix. By this time tommorrow I should be out of the water and starting on the tough 20k climb that opens the 90k bike leg. That is if the Egypt-Isreal border is open and things go smoothly getting through!

Will file a full report tomorrow or Saturday.

Have a great weekend everyone.

FIGURES!!
It's supposed to be rest and relaxation time. It's supposed to be taper and mentally prepare for race day. Well, it's been anything but this week. After an off day Saturday, Sunday I was supposed to take the trusty steed out for a short ride, only to discover that my flat on Friday was due to a split tire which also caused the replacement tube to burst as I was getting ready to go. This would be no problem if there was a bike shop anywhere in Egypt. After many calls I was able to track down Stu, our clubs bike mechanic, who happened to have an extra set of tires kicking around. After a mad dash across town, tire problem solved.

Monday morning I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. It went away as the day went on and Ididn't think anything more of it. By Tuesday morning I had a full out cold and felt aweful. This morning I don't feel any better despity my amazing wife coming through with all the home remedies she could think of and despite getting the best massage ever from the earlier mentioned Jasmine! With race day in two days things have to get better!

It has left me thinking about what Jaz always asks...'what are you supposed to learn from this?' 'What lesson is life trying to teach you?' At this point I'm not really sure. Maybe I was feeling too good going in to this...over confident. Maybe this isn't life trying to teach me a lesson, but the race itself. "Wait a minute big fella, this isn't going to be all fun and games! Stop thinking ONLY 1/2 ironman, you need to respect me! I know your prepared, but don't lose your focus, I can bite you in the ass any time I like!" Maybe that's what's happening. Maybe I just need to maintain my focus, respect the race recognize what I will be accomplishing, and realize it's not ONLY a 1/2.

As for the next two days, here is what things look like. Thursday morning, report in to school for line-up then take a taxi at 8:00 am across town to meet with travel partner. Drive 5 hours to the Egypt-Isreal border. Ride our bikes 10 minutes to the actuall crossing. Spend anywhere from 1-3 hours getting through the border. Ride our bikes 1 hour in to Eilat. Check in to our hotel and head straight to the pre-race briefing. Have supper, go to bed. Up at 4:00am for breakfast before a 6:30 am start.

If I don't get a chance to check in before I go, wish me luck!

ALL ABOUT THE TAPER!
It seems now all the hard work is done and it's all about the taper now. Had my last two big workouts on the weekend and now winding down. 5 days until Israman 1/2 Ironman. The last 1/2 Ironman I did was my first triathlon. I had no idea what to expect and no real idea what I was doing. 2 years have passed and I am really excited about this race. My training has gone well, nothing that was a big stretch from what I was doing just more focused workouts.

This past weekend I did a 2000m swim followed by a 90 minute bike. If you read my last post you know I was going to be battling the Khamaseen winds of Egypt on the bike. The wind was still a little nasty, but much of the dust had settled out so it wasn't too bad on the lungs. Friday morning I did a 60k bike followed by a 17k run. Bike was steady at about 30k/hr with some consistent cross winds. I took about 6 minutes of transition time to change and get ready for the run, then went 17k in 80 minutes which I was real happy with as I felt strong right to the finish of the run. Now If I can just be smart this week and spend my energy stores wisely this weekend I should be able to turn in a P.B. 1/2 Ironman time.

As for the rest of the weekend I had a surprise birthday supper for Jaz at the Italian Consolate with about 35 friends. Her birthday is actually on the 17th which is race day, so I wanted to surprise her with a little something before I left. Supper was very nice, the company was great and the food was excellent as always.

Saturday my MS boys football team won our city championship tournament, CISSA (Cairo International Schools Sports Association). This was the first CISSA Championship for our school as we have only been in existence for three years.

It's now time to go home, clean my bike and put my feet up for the night.

LAST DAY OF AMSHEER

Or Reiah El Khamaseen as it is also known in these parts. Amsheer comes from the Coptics and it is the name they have given to this time in the calendar that is characterized by windstorms that traditionally last about three days at a time. Today is the last day of Amsheer and today is also the third day of one of the nastiest windstorms I have seen. From my office I can't see our football pitch which is about 150 m away. Our school is right on the edge of the desert so we get it worse than anywhere. We woke up to a 'drift' of sand inside our patio doors and it isn't fit for man nor beast outside. That being said I have scheduled a 2000m swim (which I will do inside int he pool) and a 90 minute bike for this afternoon after work. With my 1/2 ironman 8 days away I feel like I need to get this in and will do everything in my power to tough it out. I'm hoping I can find a mask to wear over my mouth and atleast get some miles in. Tomorrow morning I am scheduled to do a 2 hour bike and an 80 minute run. These are the last two key workouts before the tri, so I would really like to get them in.

This week has gone well. On Tuesday I did a 5K time trial run at Cairo American College and bested my old PB by running 19:20 over the 5K. My time three months ago was 20:12 and that is really the only time I have to go on over this distance. Last night I taught an Abs class at our Gold's Gym, followed by spinning class (Endurance), which was full for the third week in a row. Seems like I'm getting quite a number of regulars who are telling me they won't miss my class.

Some interesting news on the summer plans. Jaz (my wife) has just informed me she is 'considering' doing a 1/2 ironman this summer is well. Her plan was to do a sprint and an olympic but is now trying to decide if she will have the time to train for her first 1/2. I'm excited about this and hope I can help out with some coaching if she decides it's a go.

I will keep you posted on the Khamaseen wind and how the training goes tonight. If you want to imagine what it's like here, imagine the nastiest blizzard you have seen and then change the snow to sand!

GREAT TO BE ALIVE!

This morning I left the house at 5:30 for an hour and a half ride before school. I have been lacking a little sleep the last few days so I was a little tired and it was a little cool as I was wearing short sleeves and didn't want to back in the house and risk waking up Jaz and Anaka so I toughed it out. As I turned around and headed back home about 20K out I was greeted by an amazing sunrise. Big red sun coming up in the distance right between the two biggest pyramids on the Giza Plateau. It was AMAZING!

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but if you look closely you can see the outline of the Pyramids on each side of the sunrise.

I'm not sure 'the early bird gets the worm', but I can definately tell you he gets to enjoy sunrises like this!

THE UPS DOWNS OF TRI TRAINING

As I get ready for my first 1/2 of the season in 12 days, the ups and downs of tri training are starting to wear on me. I have felt my training is going pretty well considering my other committments and the fact that I had to miss 3 weeks of bike and swim training when I went home to Canada, but all in all I feel good and like I am prepared. Two weekends ago I did a swim-bike brick.

40 minute swim-felt great, good time, excited to get on the bike...I can do this!
100K bike-first 1/2 went well, felt good, time was good. Hit the turn around in to a swift head wind, and things SUCKED. Felt like I was peddaling a bike with flat tires through mud. When I got back I thought I couldn't run one K let alone 21 right now.
UP-DOWN

Last Wed. 24K run-Felt great, strong right through. -UP

Thursday 1500M swim-1st swim in a while in wetsuit. Felt strong right through, time was good, this is going to be a breeze. -UP

Friday 500M open water swim in the Red Sea-SUCKED again, strong winds, poor visibility, thought this is going to be no fun if I have to struggle through this. -DOWN

Saturday 100K bike + 8K run (brick) AWESOME, averaged 30KM/HR on the bike, 8 K run in 37 minutes and felt strong. Focused on nutrition and made sure I was executing my race plan. -UP

With 12 days left I have two key workouts left, then a well planned taper. I know I am well prepared and I have a good race plan that will work for me if I stick with it. I also know that mentally I am strong and need to think less about the up and down workouts as I know this is part of training.

This is one of the things that I love about this sport. All the physical preparation doesn't go very far if you aren't mentally strong. If you can't think your way through a race your performance will not be what is should. If you can't stay focused throughout all of your training and stay on an even keel through the ups and downs, you will suffer for it.

12 Days to go and I am confident I will reach my goals and confident this will be a solid race for me not because physically I'm prepared (although I am) but because mentally I am prepared and I am so much smarter than when I started this business.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU??

Last night after my spinning class I was chatting with a couple regulars and I posed the question 'what inspires you to come to spinning class, abs class, etc?' You see in Egypt there isn't much encouraging people, especially women to be fit or to exercise. The diet of the people here by nature is not good. Body image is different to the point where it is attractive to be overweight, especially if you are women and especially if you are of a 'fertile' age. I have a couple women who regularly come to spinning class and have been doing so for about 6 months now. One is probably early 20's the other two late 40's to early 50's and I'm very impressed that they keep coming and now are to the point they put our a great effort and are really leading the class as far as participants. So when I posed the question to them their response was simple...'It feels great' It was nice to hear such a simple answer, not answers like 'to look better', 'to lose weight'. They said, they just decided to do something together, this is what they decided and since they have been coming they have started feeling better, have more energy to do things during the day and are more motivated to do everyday things in their lives.

So what motivates you? I got in to this sport for a challenge. I have been successful in many sports in my life and this was something I knew was going to challenge me more than anything ever has in the past. To be honest I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it and certainly not sure I was going to like it and that was part of the attraction. From that point I moved to where I liked the looks I got when people found out what I was doing...'you're running how far?' 'you biked where?' 'how long did that take?' But that has changed also. What inspires me know?:
1) I like who I see when I look in the mirror in the morning. I like the fact that by the time I look in the mirror I have probably run 10k or biked 50k or if it is a weekend possibly 100k. I like that fact that it never really gets easier but I can continue to drag my ass out of bed and get out there and do it with a smile on my face. I like the fact that I can transfer that in to my everyday life. It seems easy to take on new problems and new challenges knowing that I have probably one of my toughest challenges waiting for me every morning at 5:00 am and I voluntarily get out of bed and meet that challenge head on everymorning. I'm not sure I liked the lethargy that seemed to be creeping in to my life 3 years ago before this journey began.
2) My family. Everyday when I look at my daughter I want to have say in how she looks at me. I want her to see someone who is motivated and dedicated enough to take on tough challenges and see them through. I want her to be proud of the fact that her dad can put in full days work, have quality time for family, and be committed to making himself a better person on top of that. I don't want my wife to have to live with the lazy, overweight, couch potato I was on the verge of becoming. I want to atleast be 1/2 as determined as my wife is when she sets her mind to doing something. If she decides she is going to do something she does it, no matter how prepared or unprepared she is it will get done and she will look great doing it. 3 months after having her first baby a 1/2 marathon comes up...she does it and does it well despite not really being a runner. 10k comes up last month and she hadn't been running much...that's o.k., she does it and finishes M.O.P. She is my greatest inspiration.
3) The people I get to meet, are inspired by, and be inspired by me. Like the three Egyptian ladies that come to my spinning class. Three ladies I have nothing in common with and otherwise would have nothing to speak about with. I get to see these ladies on a weekly basis and have a short meaningful conversation. Not much idle chit-chat. Sure they ask about my family and I ask about theirs, but then it's all meat and potatoes. Even if only for a minute, we chat about heart rate training, strenght exercises to help this or that, detox cleanses, whatever. They are interested in what events I have coming up and I'm interested in how their training and development is going. Individually they have said that for one reason or another I inspire them, but little do they know how much they inspire me. There are the few students of mine that get what I'm doing and are interested in what I'm doing, and have some aspirations of doing something similar. Of course there are always the people in my cycling club, the people that I meet at events, our little triathlon cirlcle we have going here. It is great to be a part of a group that has a common, HEALTHY interest in something.

Sooo...what ispires you?

To answer Lauralea

Lauralea left a comment for me asking what it like to triathlon train in Middle East, and specifically Egypt. I can only speak from my point of view, but I think it will give you a pretty good idea about what it is like here.

The first thing you need to understand is the Egypt you see as a tourist is not the same Egypt you see when you live here. The tourist areas can be a lot of fun, but you are looked at differently than the areas where you may reside and unfortunately there are women who come here as tourists who give locals the wrong idea about what Western women are generally like.

If you lived here, you would most likely live in an area calle Maadi. In Maadi there are roughly 30 ooo expats so although you are still the minority, you are not the novelty you might think. In this area there is a running club that meets every Friday morning and sometimes Saturday morning. This group is made up mostly of ex-pats and has a lot of fun with a couple events at the end of their calendars to work towards. Also on Friday morning there is a great cycling club that meets year round. Now the traffic is horrendous in Egypt, but luckily it is not too bad on Friday mornings and we have several routes that are very safe with good roads. Swimming depends on what 'club' you belong to or if you can get access to one of the school pools (CAC is in the heart of Maadi and has a nice pool). The triathlon/cycling/running community here is very tight and very supportive of each other. There are a number of events held each year some organized by the ex-pats and some organized by Event Sports, an Egyptian Organization. In addition to the above mentioned areas, there is an area outside of Maadi called Wadi (valley) Degla which is a great out of the way place to run and hike and has some AMAZING mountainbiking.

For the most part you can train in peace provided you avoid downtown and a few of the areas less frequented by foriegners. You will always attract some attention but it is usually harmless and not too intrusive. There are many women here involved in the running/cycling/triathlon and they seem to cope fine although some choose to always train with a partner. More for their own peace of mind than safety.

Hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I can help in any way.

16 DAYS

Man I don't know what happens to me, but come noon, if I don't have my workout in I have to drag my ass out and even though I'm only fighting with myself, I will fight tooth and nail until I finally get started. The majority of my training takes place in the morning and that's the way I like it. Train...work day...social/family time. It's quite the opposite with Jazzy. She enjoys her sleep in the morning and is not really a morning person, but come evening is when she loves to train. I come from a family of morning people. If my phone rings at 5:00am you can gaurantee it's my father calling to see how things are going.

The run itself went pretty well. 24 km in 1 hour 58 minutes. Not blazing fast, but a good consistent pace for 24 k. The first half was one minute faster than the second half so pretty consistent. I did some work on run nutrition. Experimenting with some different gels and when, a swell as water vs sports drink and how much of the latter I could stomach after kilometer 12. I also nibbled on a cliff bar at 20 k. I don't usually eat anything solid on the run but thought I would give it a try and it wasn't too bad. Small bites and lots of chewing and it actually took my mind offf running and gave me something else to think about.

My legs felt pretty strong throughout and never really felt tired until the 20 km mark. From then on it was just gut it out. Everything today feels like it should with my ankles a little sore and my legs a little tired but all in all o.k.

This afternoon I have some speedwork in the pool (16 X 50), I coach a soccer game after school then I teach a spinning class tonight (interval). If my legs feel a little tired now, they should be completely knackered by tonight.