Ouch

Around The Bay race start in 1896!

On Sunday I ran in the Around the Bay Road Race down in Hamilton. 5,700 runners over 30K of roads, the last ten K quite rolling... I've done this race three times before but was feeling better prepared this year and hoped to get down from the low 2:20's to perhaps as fast as 2:15.

Didn't happen. Although the weather was decent (overcast, cool and dry) I actually fell back a minute or two finishing in 2:23:55. My girlfriend Janet ran too, she was treating it as a training run but still pulled off an impressive time of 2:40:20. How could this happen to me, a celebrated marathon clinic coach?

Well I spent Saturday modeling Tony Little's Easy Shaper Total Body Exerciser on The Shopping Channel. Three live shows, the last one at 11:00 PM. Roughly two and a half hours of "weight" training: curls, presses, squats. A pretty good gadget actually. I arrived at the starting line Sunday morning exhausted and sore! It did not bode well, although I managed to hold my planned pace until about 16K. Then my quads started tightening, and cramping a bit. I had to take lots of walking breaks and even stopped to stretch a few times.

10K split: 44:08 Pace: 4:25/km
15K split: 1:07:04 Pace: 4:28/km
20K split: 1:30:59 Pace: 4:32/km
Finish Time: 2:23:55 Pace: 4:47/km
Overall Place 691, 113/592 in M45-49

That evening I also took in the Australian Formula One race with my friend Brian. Walking down into his basement entertainment room was... painful. The season opener two weeks ago in Bahrain was a bit of a snooze, although it was interesting seeing the new strategies that came from needing to carry their full fuel load from the start and the shuffled driving partnerships. There were four new teams fighting it out at the back of the pack too.

Melbourne's first corner is always interesting!

Melbourne however was a real cracker of a race. Everyone started on rain tires, and racing incidents in the first corner mixed the field up. Jenson Button made early change to dries which seemed to put him out of contention, but it proved to be an excellent move. When the front left wheel of race leader Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull failed in the middle of the race, Jenson found himself in first place! There was a long battle for fifth place between Hamilton, Webber, Massa and Alonso. It looks like the teams to beat this year will be Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren.

Listening to: Red Heart by Hey Rosetta! from Into Your Lungs.

Another Year Rolls By

2009 comes to a close with a bit of a whimper this year. I've been under the weather for the last few weeks, with a bad head cold and then a pinched nerve in my neck. Miserable! Needless to say very little exercise has occurred, but there has been much consumption of sweet and fattening food. I dread getting on a scale.

Tonight that changes though, whether I like it or not. I'll be doing my live Shopping Channel thing all day on January 1st, starting at midnight. Seven fitness shows! I hope my stiff neck holds up, I've been taking muscle relaxant pills for a few days now. Yesterday I went for a steam room session at my gym and added a short 20 minute treadmill run to see how that felt. Not too bad. I'm not quite sure what I'll be demonstrating, it looks to be a variation on kettlebells.

So how have the holidays passed? My parents and sister met up in Florida for Christmas Day (my sister's family got caught up in the travel confusion produced by the "underwear bomber"). My brother's family stayed home in up-state New York, at least partially because of some family tensions. I visited my new girlfriend and her kids on Christmas Eve, while my son spent Christmas Day with his mother.

I drove down to my brother's in the week before Christmas as a sort of courier, delivering everyone's presents and returning with just as many. My son declined to come with me at the last minute, citing his disinterest in his family but requesting that I pick up some Pokémon items from the Nintendo store in NYC. I was pretty stunned by his attitude. I really hope it's some kind of teenage phase rather than a frankly sociopathic perspective!

I had a nice visit with my brother's family, his twin girls are in kindergarden and lovable in an "intense" way. They're living in the center of the village of Rhinebeck now, very convenient for their lives and their businesses. Rhinebeck's pretty small but just big enough. Their old house was way out in the country side. Here most things, including my sister-in-law's "commute", are a two minute walk. I was still feeling under the weather from my cold, so I spent the visit pretty quietly. I did a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping (the village shopkeepers love to talk) and spent an afternoon checking out the Vanderbilt's summer home and FDR's home and library. I used Google to find a running route and did a 14K run on the 23rd. I felt pretty good, but the route turned out to be terrible because of traffic

I saw The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus on Christmas Day and Avatar a few days ago. I enjoyed Imaginarium; another crazy, imaginative Terry Gilliam film with great production values and intriguing performances. Avatar I'm a bit more mixed about. I enjoyed the visuals immensely, but the plot and depiction of the "alien" culture were pretty trite. Strip it down and you have a modern cowboys and indians procedural (cowboys = bad, indians = good). There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but if you're going to spend $300 million making it, why not siphon off $1 million to make the story a new one worth the effort? It brought to mind a seventy minute review of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace I saw recently on YouTube that crystalized a lot of things for me. (Yes, a critique almost as long as the subject film. Trust me, watch it if you like critical analyses of pop culture.)

My son saw Sherlock Holmes with some friends at the same time in the same complex, he grudgingly accepted a ride to the theater but asked to be let out a block away and didn't acknowledge us as we passed them in the lines. That's more normal for teenagers.

Oh yeah, I guess I should admit that I participated in this year's Toronto Santa Speedo Run on December 12th... Another 3K loop through Toronto's tony Yorkville shopping district, terrorizing passersby. It was a few brisk degrees below freezing. Still, much money was raised for the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation. I wonder if that was the trigger for my nasty head cold?

Listening to: Thriller (YouTube link) by Imogen Heap from a live solo performance cover on piano. Wow...

Misheard Remarks

My friend Sheryl is recently back from two weeks in Australia. They flew on Qantas Airlines and had some "adventures" getting down there... However this fact is just background for a conversation Sheryl's daughter had with her young son. For some reason she was answering a question about Jesus and she told him that Pontius Pilate had condemned Jesus to death. Her son was aghast; "A Qantas pilot killed Jesus?" Now that's an LOL.

I've just started teaching the Running Room's winter Marathon clinic. We have a great turnout of 37 people and they're all experienced enough that we can do some good runs together. There is lots of running ahead of us, the goal race is the Ottawa marathon on May 24th, with the Chilly Half on March 1st and the Around the Bay race on March 29th. This will be the third time I've run the Around the Bay race - 30K with plenty of hills and often cold, wet conditions. It should be a good clinic, especially as I have drafted a friend as co-instructor to help out.

A friend of mine who is in two of my worlds sent me an e-mail about my modeling. She's a Running Room clinic instructor and also responsible for the Ontario Tourism photo shoots that I've done. It was a surprise for both of us when our paths crossed at the Running Room. Anyway she just sent me a proof of my first cover shot! Hurray! Now the fame and accolades will begin to pour in! It's a travel brochure for "Elderhostel, Adventures in Lifelong Learning"... :-)

We had a brutal winter storm today, and I ended up arriving late for my booking on The Shopping Channel. Ugh. Fortunately it was a show where we swapped back and forth so my modeling partner did the first half and I did last. The other two shows were fine and as the equipment was pretty conventional cardio equipment (a treadmill and an elliptical) I could actually log it as real training time. Training is going well, I'm getting some good indoor rides in, taking the swimming seriously again, and getting lots of running done in spite of the poor weather. I just need to increase the cycling volume a bit.

Listening to: Eleanor Rigby (Soulwax Remix) by Beatles vs. Kraftwerk from Soulwax Presents Hang All DJ's Volume 5. The electronic undertones really magnify the bleak feeling of the original Beatles tune...

Nothing Like a New Wife to Cheer Me Up

I was on a tourism photo shoot yesterday at the exclusive Langdon Hall Country House and Spa; three couples enjoying a "getaway weekend together". This is the third tourism shoot I've done, the first was in Prince Edward County and the second in Niagara-on-the-Lake. For the first two I was paired up with a model named Ruth. However she seems to have been unavailable this time, so I had a new "wife" named Jacqueline. These shoots are good fun. Very relaxed, always a pleasant gourmet experience. I've been at Langdon Hall before, for the wedding of Sheryl's daughter. A highly recommended spot...

A funny thing happened when I arrived. As I was parking I saw a car that looked familiar. I set the thought aside though and made my way into our set-up room. Twenty minutes later, as I was telling the other models that I'd stayed at Langdon Hall before and was showing them a few of the wedding photos I had put on my iPhone, I got a call. It was Sheryl's daughter Tamara, so I immediately asked her to guess where I was. It turns out she was also back at Langdon Hall! She and her husband Dan were packing up to return to the city after a real weekend away. He had looked out their window and had been startled to see me crossing the lawn. Tamara didn't believe him and called me to find out where I was.

Art, as always, imitates life. A few weeks ago Sheryl told me that she wanted to stop dating. She had been recently complaining about my sports, been critical of my son, and had wondered aloud if I wouldn't be better off with a "sportier" girlfriend. Maybe she's right, although the days seem emptier without her... We've stayed on friendly terms.

Interviews are now available for qualified candidates!

Listening to: Touch to Remember by Jean Michel Jarre from Téo & Téa.

F-F-F-Fashion!

Last Friday I had my first "fashion" modeling gig on The Shopping Channel wearing Olympic 2010 clothing, displayed here on Kellie, my first and dearest screen wife. This is as close as I'll ever get to "The Games"! I was a bit nervous doing semi-runway stuff for the first time, especially with the cameras broadcasting it all across the nation, but it worked out. The clothes were a bit big on me though, everything was XL while I'm really a Large. The following day I had a few shows with the irrepressible Rosalie Brown (Hi Rosalie!) demonstrating Leg Magic. Always tough doing a 15 minute workout of a product intended to be used for a minute at a time...

Now I'm on full taper mode. Just a few short easy workouts left in the final few days leading up to Ironman Canada. I leave Thursday morning and race on Sunday. My bike is packed up and my other gear gathered together. I've been inspired by some of the performances I've seen at the Olympics, particularly the men's 8 rowing, marathon and triathlon (natch).

Listening to: Starry Eyed Suprise by Oakenfold from Bunkka.

D's. Whoo hoo!

So my son's Grade 9 exams are over and he has his "preliminary final" marks for all his courses. He went into exams with five failing subjects out of seven, but he managed to pull himself together enough to get to a passing grade in all of them! Who knew I'd be celebrating my gifted-program son not failing? Well there you go.

In other news, I finally watched the Canadian Grand Prix on Monday, eight days after the race. I'd managed to remain completely ignorant of the result until the following Saturday when a friend let some details slip before I could plug my ears. What an interesting race! Drivers complaining about the track surface, last minute track repairs, spin outs galore and race-changing drivers errors...

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Robert Kubica (BMW) were duking it out with Lewis having a reasonable gap at the front, but crashes that brought out the safety car bunched them back up. They all pitted together but Kimi and Kubica, who had quicker pit stops, were lined up at the pit lane exit waiting for a stoplight to let them back onto the track. Lewis Hamilton didn't notice them and plowed into the back of Kimi, ending both of their races. Kubica avoided damage and went on to win his and BMW's first race. His teammate Nick Heidfeld was second, making for a perfect race for BMW, while David Coulthard made an appearance on the podium for Red Bull. There were some great passing moves, particularly by Felipe Massa, through out the field. That's the upside of an unpredictably slippery track. Kubica is now narrowly in the lead of the driver's championship, with Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen close behind. Its great to have such a competitive season.

This week was another Ontario Tourism photo shoot, this time with "my wife" and another couple. We spent three days "shopping", dining, wine tasting and playing golf, all for the camera, down in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Ironically Sheryl and I were there just a month ago, but we weren't paid for doing it. I didn't know who else had been cast, but my "wife" turned out to be the same woman from the last shoot and the other wife was a friend from The Shopping Channel.

Turning to my crazy "nine weeks to Ironman Canada" training program, this morning I rode out of the city at 7:00 AM for a three and a half hour ride, where I encountered all kinds of triathlon club teammates out for their rides. This was followed immediately by a 48 minute "brick" run and then a long nap...

Earlier this evening Chris and I went with Sheryl to see Mike Meyers' new comedy The Love Guru. A friend of Sheryl's was on the production team and there were tonnes of Toronto locations. A paper-thin plot with lots of crude juvenile humour, but a few guilty chuckles. Not much more to say about it...

Listening to: Return to Innocence by Enigma from Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits.

Seven Hours of Weightlifting!

Yes, I've just finished spending seven hours lifting weights. So I'm a bit stiff. I spent all day Sunday, except for one brief excursion back into town, at The Shopping Channel demonstrating the Bowflex Extreme. Over the course of 24 hours we did seven live one hour shows. Guess what? We kept the resistance pretty damn low...

Our broadcasts started at midnight Saturday, but I had previously planned to spend the weekend at a training camp with my triathlon club up in Collingwood. So I drove up to Collingwood Friday afternoon, had a nice 60K ride that evening and followed up Saturday with a 100K ride and 9K run. There are plenty of challenging hills in the Collingwood area, I even tackled Scenic Caves Road with a team mate at the end of the day. After a serious three hour nap followed by dinner out with the gang I drove straight to the studio. I've posted some photos from the day on my Flickr page.

Nice to see some good news from Mars: the Phoenix Mars Lander touched down safely on Sunday night in the Martian Arctic, which looks more like our Arctic than I expected. Nice for Spirit and Opportunity to have some robotic company. Although Spirit and Opportunity have been operating for an undreamed of four years the Phoenix Lander faces "death" in a few short months. It's Arctic location means that when winter sets in the Lander will likely be buried in ice and run out of power.

I mentioned above that I left The Shopping Channel studio briefly on Sunday. I had just enough of a gap between two shows to whip into town to watch that morning's Monaco Formula One Grand Prix with my friend Brian on his PVR. With gas prices at a record high ($1.27/liter!) I had to pause for a moment, but tradition won out over penny-pinching.

Monaco is Formula One's most glamorous circuit, but also the slowest. It's a crazy twisty city street course, with almost no view ahead for the drivers. Sunday's race was further slowed by heavy rain, which meant that the race ended by reaching the two hour time-limit (they almost made the full distance...). Because I only had 90 minutes to watch the race in anyway we used the PVR's fast-forward option except for when there was an interesting development. But there were plenty of those. The wet conditions and lack of view led to lots of spin outs and collisions. Although the Ferrari's started on the front row there was a lot of back and forth as collisions, repairs, pit stops, safety cars and weather changes came heavily into play. Lewis Hamilton overcame an early error to ultimately win the day, Kimi struggled for grip but was holding third when he had to accept a drive-through penalty, he eventually lost grip near then end of the race and drove into the back of Adrian Sutil's Force India car, ending Adrian's best race ever and dropping Kimi back to ninth. Massa started on the pole but events lead him to a third place finish behind Lewis Hamilton and fifth-place starter Robert Kubica. Kimi's poor result and Lewis' strong one means that Lewis has taken the lead in the Driver's Championship.

This afternoon will be my "big acting break", I'm shooting a scene for a Discovery Channel documentary about the human body. I'll be portraying a sperm, swimming in my triathlon wetsuit toward the Ontario Place Cinesphere (standing in for a human egg)! The things we do for art...

Listening to: Pork and Beans by Weezer from Weezer (their albums are all called "Weezer", this one's got a red cover). This song's video is a great collection internet memes...

Boy, that was quick.

The Sprockets International Film Festival for Children has been and gone. I only volunteered for one theatre shift, although I worked several days before and after. It seemed to go by very quickly as a result. I still enjoyed the post-festival party at the Drake... I only saw a bit of one film, La Citadelle assiégée, a Canadian/French co-production about life within an African termite mound. Lots of interesting microphotography, but even the boys who I thought would love the scenes of inter-species combat were grossed out by it! A volunteer who watched most of the screening said she felt really itchy afterwards.

Sheryl's still in Australia visiting family, so keeping her little dog Barkley has been my main preoccupation. He's getting four walks a day to reduce the risk on indoor poops, which has been mostly successful. I've been keeping up my training, although sometimes it's a bit tricky. Last Wednesday I wanted to get to my triathlon club's Computrainer session but I was working, off and on, at The Shopping Channel all day. A slight last minute juggling of our air times gave me enough of a window to race back into town for the workout. I didn't even change out of my "on-air" gear and managed to forget my cell phone and wallet, but I got the session in! On the weekend I did a half marathon-distance training run, which was tough but satisfying. I need to get my aching calves looked at though, it feels like I might be verging on a shin splint.

Today was busy, two "go-sees" at opposite ends of town, a hope of getting a swim workout in between them, and a ticket for an afternoon screening at the Hot Docs documentary film festival. The first go-see was a really big call and I ran into a bunch of girls from my modeling agency so I had someone to chat with while I waited for the 50(!) people ahead of me to be seen. In the end I was called up ahead of schedule, which I think was a good sign. That shoot would entail two weeks in the Dominican Republic! I was still there much longer than anticipated, so the swim workout got dropped and I had to drive down to the Hot Docs screening rather than enjoy a bike ride there. Hot Docs isn't closely associated with the Toronto International Film Festival, but there were lots of TIFF acquaintances there anyway.

I'd bought my ticket for the screening of Cuban Song, which was being shown with Blood and Incense. Both documentaries had no narrative. Cuban Song was good, but I find those latin beats so fluid and relaxing that I often, well, fall asleep! Interesting footage, and they used six different performances of one song to tie the film together. The other film, Blood and Incense, was a surprise for me. It dealt with cock fighting in Bali, and used a fascinating blend of stills, video and freeze-frame stills to portray the Balinese ceremonies and cock fighting contests. Some pretty gruesome imagery, but the impressionistic way it was presented was very effective. Hot Docs goes on for the rest of the week, I might try to get to another screening.

Listening to: What A Day That Was by Talking Heads from Stop Making Sense.

Another Season Begins

Last night I watched the Malaysian Grand Prix with my friend Brian, a week ago we watched the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix. Only sixteen more to go! Brian and I have watched almost every race together for thirteen years now. A bit of a ritual...

Quick summary of the two races: No computerised traction control allowed this season, so there will be plenty of driving errors and greater speed differences at the start.

In Melbourne "my" driver, Kimi Raikkonen, managed to survive two serious braking errors and fought his way up from 16th (owing to a problem in qualifying) to third before his Ferrari coasted to a stop in the closing stages. The McLaren's ran strongly all day, Lewis Hamilton started at the front and stayed there comfortably. The Ferrari's were perhaps the fastest but that meant little as both cars failed to finish. The first race of the season is always a bit chaotic and this year was no exception. Lots of collisions and other incidents. Only 7 of the 22 cars finished!

In Malaysia the Ferrari's were on the pole and it was the McLaren's starting down the grid because of a penalty assessed during qualifying. Kimi and Massa were untouchable. Kimi got past Massa on pitstop strategy, but Massa was bitten by the lack of traction control late in the race anyway and spun out. Lewis Hamilton fought his way up from 9th to 5th, but was never really competitive. His teammate Heikki Kovalainen made it up from 8th to 3rd though, putting two Finns on the podium.

Otherwise last week was a busy one for me. I did a two day photo shoot for Ontario Tourism out in scenic Prince Edward County where my "wife" and I had a cooking class, went antiquing, visited an art gallery, a winery and a brewery, relaxed in a luxury suite, and browsed in a bookstore. With a production crew of ten following our every move. You should go there! :-)

I also did two days of fitness modeling on The Shopping Channel. Bowflex four times on Saturday and four different gadgets, five times each, on Sunday. All this while I was hoping, but failing, to get a solid long run in before resting up for the 30K "Around the Bay" race in Hamilton this coming Sunday (bib number 4270 if you want to check my results). I did manage to do a 15K workout before heading out to The Shopping Channel on Sunday morning.

Listening to: Where The Streets Have No Name by U2 from The Joshua Tree.

Kiss me, I'm not Irish!

St. Patrick's Day is upon us, and I invariably do my best to ignore the whole faux Celtic mess. But this year, because I've been teaching a 5K running clinic, I'll be down at the Steam Whistle Brewery with my students racing in the Achilles St. Patrick's Day 5K Run. There's a post-race beer and bowl of "Irish Chili" for all the runners, with an expected temperature of just above freezing I think the chili will be the preferred recovery technique.

I just got a mad idea; I'm going to ride down to the race on my street bike! It will be about 12K each way. I've been reading Simon Whitfield's blog, SQWRACING, and he's posted a lot of bike training video footage that has me aching to feel some pavement under my wheels again.

Here's a photo from my iPhone: On Thursday I helped a makeup student friend out by being the subject for her makeup effects exam. The final "look" was a vagrant after a fight... I kept the makeup on afterward so I could surprise my son, and didn't end up removing it until my 5K clinic so they could get a laugh too. Click on it to see it larger!

Earlier this evening Chris and I met up with Sheryl and her grandson. We had a nice quick dinner at Spring Rolls and then headed over to the movie-plex to see Horton Hears a Who!. Only problem was that little Oliver got a rare stomachache and really wanted to get back to his Mum. That left Chris and I with pre-paid tickets to a kid's movie... We sheepishly took our seats and sat through some imaginative animation and flashes of clever dialog, but sometimes a good little story just can't be stretched to feature length. Of course Oliver's stomach returned to normal about ten minutes later, while Sheryl was driving him home. "Can we go back to see the movie with Chris and Ben?"

In a few minutes the first Formula One race of the 2008 season will begin down in Melbourne Australia. Brian and I are taping it, we'll watch it together after dinner Sunday night. No spoiler e-mails please! Looks like another McLaren/Ferrari season with BMW lurking in the shadows. Last year's rookie sensation, Lewis Hamilton, is on the pole for this race. Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, had a mechanical problem in qualifying and will be starting 16th. This season will have a night race in Singapore, and traction control has been eliminated. This promises to produce some hairy starts...

Listening to: Will It Go Round in Circles by Billy Preston from Ultimate Collection.

Whoopsie!

Yesterday I was doing some more fitness modeling on The Shopping Channel, demonstrating the Bowflex Blaze. It was the first time I'd used it and I managed to nearly tip the darn thing over, on live TV! Always keep you feet planted on the base plate. Yike.

Chris left on Friday night for his B.C. vacation with his mother. We've been battling over his inactivity and obsession with World of Warcraft, but I think we found common ground at the end. When he gets back in two weeks he'll only be around for a couple of days before heading off to camp for four more weeks. It's going to be quiet around here.

I watched the British Grand Prix on Wednesday night, again on "tape delay". Wunderkind Lewis Hamilton started from the pole, followed by his Ferrari rivals and his McLaren teammate. Felipe Massa's Ferrari stalled just before the start, so he had to start from the pit lane. His drive, from 22nd back up to 5th, provided the most excitement. At the front all the racing developments resulted from pit stop strategy. Kimi Raikkonen got past Lewis at the first stop but was passed the same way by Fernando Alonso. In the second round of stops Kimi overtook Fernando again and that was the way the race ended. That's two wins in a row for Kimi, looks like Ferrari's are going to be the car to beat for at least the middle part of the season.

I watched Alfonso Cuaron's film Children of Men on TV Saturday night with Sheryl. I'd wanted to see it but missed it in the theaters. What a bleak vision! Eighteen years since the last human birth, society in despair and tearing itself apart. One moment the setting seemed to be the ordinary world of today's Britain, the next moment like the worst places in Iraq. It made me reflect on the fragility of the world we take for granted. A great performance by Clive Owen with great supporting roles from Michael Caine and Julianne Moore. And a lot of dogs. No Hollywood ending either, which I appreciated even though my lazy Hollywood-trained imagination wanted one.

Listening to: Fashionable People by Joel Plaskett Emergency from Ashtray Rock.

Downstream and Uphill

Another road trip report! This one began on Thursday morning with a trip up to Stouffville for a photo shoot (happy couple discovering the delights of their new hometown). That went smoothly enough, with our outdoor shots completed in fairly cool weather. The last few days have been blisteringly hot. I learned that there's a vineyard in Stouffville, which was a surprise. Then I tried to get to an audition downtown (didn't make it) before heading out to join my friends Adrian and Sebastian in Ottawa for a white-water rafting trip. We met in Renfrew at about midnight as we'd both been delayed and spotty cell phone reception made connecting a bit tricky.

The rafting, with Owl Rafting, on Friday was good fun. We had great weather and our guide, Alex, was a real character. We got soaked of course, as well as getting dumped out of our raft a few times. Between rapids we amused ourselves by engaging in combat with other rafts. One of the large and very stable rafts was carrying a dozen young Asian guys. They managed to get dumped completely upside down on the biggest rapid. We had a great view of the incident, which ended safely.

After a short nap we headed back toward Toronto, a five hour drive. We stopped in the little town of Tweed for a genuine "Chinese-Canadian" meal and then followed our own routes. They drove straight on to Toronto while I stopped in Cobourg to spend the night at my parents so I could get up to Peterborough quickly in the morning. There was a great pale red moon at twilight, it looked fantastic against the horizon.

My reason for wanting to get to Peterborough is that I'm racing a Half Ironman triathlon there next weekend. I wanted to get a good long ride in this weekend and I thought that it would be nice to get a look at the bike course. So 90K later I have a good idea of what I'll be facing next week. There were a few other triathletes doing the same thing, but I only encountered them at the starting point. The route is pretty hilly but there weren't any killers. It should be a good road to race on, unless the peregrine falcons that have built nests atop several telephone poles get aggressive. A couple of women who finished their ride at the same time discovered that they'd locked themselves out of their car. Despite wanting to be a knight in shining armor the best I could do was drive one of them up the road to a service station to get a mechanic's help. Should I start carrying a "Slim Jim"? Probably not.

Driving back into Toronto there was a traffic jam on the Don Valley Parkway; yet another Canadian Goose leading her "teenage" gosling flock along the highway shoulder! After a nice nap when I got home I met Sheryl for dinner at Le Paradis, a nice French restaurant in her neighbourhood and we finally had a chance to catch up, her telling me about London and Paris, me telling her about Ottawa and Peterborough...

Now it's out the door to Brian's place to see the French Grand Prix on tape.

P.S. A bit of Mars news! The Opportunity rover is about to begin a risky descent into Victoria Crater. Let's hope it makes it back out after investigating some interesting rock formations.

Listening to: 5 Days In May by Blue Rodeo from Five Days in July.

Home is the Sailor

I'm back home, safe and sound after my epic weekend. It all worked out in the end, even though I ended up living in my car for the whole trip.

Saturday was a long day with five shows to do, starting at 9:00AM and ending at midnight. Five hours of exercising the day before my race! Oh, I threw in a 5K run as well. The set was a bit fraught as there were three different products to demonstrate each hour and a nearly impossible new routine for one of them. After my last show I jumped into my car and headed north to Huntsville, hoping to be able to get a few hours of sleep when I arrived. Unfortunately there had been a massive accident caused by idiots racing through traffic. Eleven people were hospitalized! Hours later when I was traveling traffic was still being re-routed around the scene, adding a desperately needed hour to my journey. I rolled into the race parking lot at 3:15 AM and managed two fitful hours of sleep in the car. I was able to notice and enjoy a beautiful sunset and new moon earlier in the evening.

So what about my race? I was a bit bleary on race morning, but it was nice to see my club mates start to show up in the transition area. I had two surprise introductions at the race, once when a cyclist paused beside me to introduce himself as a club member and then after the race while I was watching the other athletes finish I discovered I was talking to someone from San Diego who'd asked me, as official e-mail answerer for the Toronto Triathlon Club, for some Ontario race advice a few weeks ago!

3:35:33, 281/792 overall, 31/93 in my age group
Swim - 2km. 31:16 (1:34/100m), 8/93 in age group. Transition 1 - 2:12
Bike - 55km. 1:45:04 (31.4 kph), 41/93 in age group. Transition 2 - 1:15
Run - 15km. 1:15:48 (5:04 min/k), 40/93 in age group.

My 2 km swim was strong, in warm water and not too bad traffic until near the end. I managed to get a solid draft all the way from another swimmer. I think he tried to shake me toward the end, but I clung on like a limpet. Seeing the whole 2 km course laid out in front of me was a bit intimidating, not at all like looking down a 25m pool. About half way through the swim the back of my neck started to burn. I think I missed a spot with the Body Glide. Ouch! I have a scab there now.

The bike leg, 55 km in this race, is always my weak link. I got passed by 33 guys in my age group! Disheartening. I think my lack of sleep started to catch up with me on the bike. It was a hilly course though... I saw a few riders defeated by broken chains and watched two riders come together in a low-speed tumbling crash while wobbling up a steep section.

On the run I really felt a lack of energy. I had 15 km to cover and averaged 5:04 min/k, which is slow for me. In the shorter Milton race two weeks ago I averaged 4:36 min/k. Around the half-way mark I started walking up to and through the aid stations. I was beat! I managed to pick up the pace a bit as we came back into town. I get a real boost from the spectators on the run. The downhill finish was nice, as was the cold shower immediately after the finish...

I watched the finish for a while with a friend and then it was back into my car to rush back into town. I got there with ten minutes to go before air. That's cutting it too close! There were three shows Sunday evening. I was tired and stinky, but I don't think it showed on camera. Finally heading home at 12:30 AM, I picked up Sheryl's dog Barkley from a friend to babysit. She's on a trip to London and Paris, timed to let her join her old boss for the premier of the London production of Lord of the Rings. It had been two days of sweat and toil with no chance to shower, but I simply collapsed into bed with Barkley taking the other pillow...

Monday should have been a recovery day but I ended up spending the afternoon at my friend David's home office helping him switch to a new MacBook laptop. This was followed by a long but pleasant evening at my friend Brian's place where we had a nice barbecue in the back yard and then watched the US Grand Prix. There were some interesting moments in the race, but it finished the way in started: "junior partner" Lewis Hamilton's McLaren ahead of Fernando Alonso's, "junior partner" Felipe Massa's Ferrari ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's. Nineteen year-old Sebastian Vettel, filling in for Robert Kubica who hasn't yet been cleared to race after last week's crash in Canada, became the youngest driver ever to score a Formula One point. But Lewis' dominating drive is a sign that he's the rookie to watch this year. That's two victories in a row and a podium finish in every race he's run!

As we drove home Chris uttered some ominous words; "You know, Clare and I have a lot in common." Clare is Brian's oldest daughter, just turned fourteen...

Listening to: All That I Know by The Marble Index from Watch Your Candles, Watch Your Knives.

Going with the Flow

After my late Friday night on The Shopping Channel I was up and out the door with my Cervelo triathlon bike shortly before 9:00 AM. I got to the meeting point a little bit late, so I rode with one other latecomer. We covered 60K in two hours on the country roads around Newmarket, under sunny warm skies. Nice. There was a bit of wind though, which made for some hard sections. The last leg had a tailwind which felt great. Note to self: Body Glide isn't just for races. Apply liberally to areas that will be in contact with bike seat before all long rides...

Back in town I met Sheryl for lunch at the Montreal Bread Company in Yorkville. Afterward I was going to help her shop for a new car (she sold her old one last week), but I ran out of steam. I tried to fix some things on her computer, but then I had to head home for a nap before meeting up with a friend.

My friend David had invited me along to a charity concert for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, called Mardi Gras in the Beach at the Balmy Beach Club. David plays harmonica with the R&B band Three Chord Johnny, but was last night he was sitting in with Roadhouse. I thought the evening would be sittin' and drinkin' but Louise, one of Sheryl's best friends, happened to be there too so we spent a lot of time dancing and chatting. Louise works for an ad agency and most of her company had come out. David's day job is freelance copywriting and he may have scored some work with Louise's agency. I also may have landed some work, modeling suits and jackets, as the result of a conversation with an art director. Never pass up a party!

Sunday morning was supposed to be an early start like Saturday. I had planned to head up to the Running Room for a 20K run. Didn't happen... Something told me that a sleep-in was what the doctor ordered. Instead I went for a swim at noon.

Speaking of "going with the flow", there's a free online game I discovered a while ago called Flow. Try it out!

Listening to: Domino by Van Morrison from His Band and the Street Choir.

I Could Tell You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You

Today I was on a secret mission with my photographer friend Adrian. That's all I can say. Sorry! I can reveal that I disposed of (make that donated) five garbage bags of clothes and bedding today. More to come no doubt.

Yesterday my mother and I spent a good part of the day sorting and packing. She's a combination of a bull in a china shop, whirling dervish and a Chinese fire-drill when she wants something done fast. She's of the opinion that we should strip the house down and "camp" in it until it's sold. Seems kind of extreme to me...

Even if through some sequence of events I end up staying here it will be in a house that isn't filled to the rafters with junk. I have so much stuff that was shoved into cupboards and drawers seven years ago and never touched again. There's a bit of zen goin' on here.

Listening to: Whatever Lola Wants (Gotan Project Remix) by Sarah Vaughan from Verve Remixed 2.

Another Great Performance

Yesterday I ran 30K, today I barely moved an inch. I spent the day doing some catalog work for a Sears publication called New Outlook. Four looks, one with a Labrador Retriever named Sadie and a few setups with a "wife" who had flown in from Vancouver for the shoot. Nice working with you, Judith. It seemed to go well and there's a chance they'll use one of our couple shots for the cover. Now if I can just get this kind of work every week...

Chris is with me this week, tonight it was urgently important that he show me this YouTube video. It's an infomercial about a replacement toilet seat that is an intelligent bidet that he found hysterically funny. When I explained to him the enema function they mention he just about lost it. I had a hard time keeping a straight face at that point too! I have no fundamental problem with bidets although I have no personal experience with them. This particular device's enema function sounds a bit dicey though and I don't think I would have the patience to wait for a "warm breeze" to dry things off.

Sheryl came over last night to watch the last episode of Rome. Grippingly bloodthirsty and carnal as always, but there seems so much still to tell. Too bad it's stopping at two seasons. With Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip gone at least temporarily there are precious few intelligent shows left to watch.

W.C. Fields' advice to actors was "never work with children or dogs" but I seem to have got through the day. This shot from last night of Sheryl's dog Barkley was perhaps foreshadowing the day's photo shoot. I didn't know there'd be a dog on set until I got there. Sadie and I became fast friends, as is usually the case. Not like my surprise dog bite from two weeks ago!

Listening to: Cooling the Medium by Martha and the Muffins from Mystery Walk.

Holy Cow!

As my regular readers might have divined, I have been trying to get work as a model recently since nothing else has been happening employment-wise. A professional photographer friend of mine has taken enough photos of me to create a portfolio, which I took to an agency this summer. They signed me on and have been sending me out to casting calls and "go sees" about once a week since then, with zero results.

Well, yesterday I got a result... Tomorrow I'm going to be on set for an American television commercial in which I will be "seen on camera"(edit: silent on camera) in the role of 'patient reassured by the approach of his doctor'.

I nearly fell of my chair when I got the (good) news. I had hoped to get a bit of print work for catalogs and such, but I have hated the casting calls because I feel awkward and tongue-tied on camera. But the first call I had was for a commercial, and I was put on hold for the part. I think my agency got the idea that I "must be a natural" and have been pushing me into acting, including minor speaking parts. Frankly there's no way I'll get those parts, for the above reasons. Maybe with a year of acting lessons, but that is not on the cards.

Still, it's money in hand...

Listening to: In View by The Tragically Hip from World Container.

The Kindness of Strangers

Today, without warning, a wildcat transit strike left 700,000 Torontonians to find their own way home. In the middle of our first smog alert/heat wave too! The temperature hit 34 degrees this afternoon. That's 94 in American.

I spent a sweaty afternoon voluntarily riding around town, which in retrospect isn't so smart when there's a smog alert. At the end of the day I met my photographer friend Adrian, who wanted to take some more photos for the portfolio he's building for me. I was wearing a business suit and tie in the still-hot sun, coyly holding my cell phone and sweating almost as fast as I could dab it away.

After a couple of thirst quenching beers in The Distillery District followed by a quick Vietnamese dinner I drove home to walk Barkley. Being an honourable canine he has so far left my floors un-blemished, but a dog has needs...

So why were pedestrians waving at me as I drove by? Oh yeah - 8:30 PM and office workers were still trudging home in the heat! As soon as I realised that their hopeful gestures weren't a recognition of my impending stardom I stopped and filled my car with hot, tired huddled masses and drove them as far north as I could.

Listening to: Lonely in Your Nightmare by Duran Duran from Rio.

I may already be famous

I found the web site MyHeritage through another blog today. It's a geneology site that lets you post a photo of yourself (I used the one here that a photographer friend shot for, uh, my portfolio) and lists the "celebrities that you look like."

Apparently I'm the spitting image of George Clooney, Enrico Fermi, Sean Bean, Cary Grant and... Yasmine Bleeth! And a few others. Who the hell is José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero? Oh, the President of Spain.

Why the portfolio shot? Well I've got a bit of time on my hands and my photographer friend tells me that my salt-and-pepper hair might get me some catalog work. Personally I'm hoping for a juicy GQ cover so all my old girlfriends will know what they're missing...

Listening to: Kiss and Tell by Bryan Ferry from Bête Noire.