Days Four and Five - Running and Swimming

Passed out last night before I had a chance to blog. Right after work, I headed out to the lake and ran around it six times - the number of times for the triathlon. I think I had enough in me for another round or two.

It was our first sunny day in a thousand years and it was warm and their was no spine-numbing wind like the one that's been swooping in on all our warm days all this spring and swallowing all our heat.

The lake water was calm and mirror-like and I think I may have seen the occasional bass jumping for bugs.

Yes. Bugs. They're back. At the end of my run, I did some stretching in the grassy hill behind the beach. I was soaked with sweat and it didn't take the black flies long to find me. I finished my stretching and did some very fast Tai Chi. By the time I was finished, I was surrounded by a cloud of the hungry little assholes. Too bad the bass can't crawl onto the beach and eat them. The world needs fly eating sand bass.

This morning I was up at 6:30 and off to the Nashwaak indoor pool. Gail the lifeguard was there with her usual big cheery smile - a rare gift for someone who has to do the 7:15 AM lap swim twice a week.

I went easy on myself today and only did 80 laps. I usually do between 100 and 120 (2.5 to 3 kilometers). My legs felt like they were going to fall off. They hurt. They cried about sore muscles and tired ligaments. I said: "Sorry legs, we're going for a hundred today." They tied themselves into knots and said: "Get us the hell out of here and into the hot tub right now, or we're gonna drown you on the next lap."

Damn legs.

I withdrew from the pool and pushed my way through air that had grown suddenly heavy and thick and made my way to the hot tub. There were bubbles. There were water jets. The water was warm and relaxing. My legs were right. And they haven't let me forget it since.

I guess, if I want my body to shut up, I should listen to it.

Day Three - Still Alive, But Wet

Day three. Sunday. I did the bike course twice for a total of 20 kilometers. Then I ran the lake four times, about six and a half K. The transition from bike to running wasn't as bad today. I didn't fall down. Didn't have to do baby steps for as far.

I may actually live through this thing.

There was a light rain for most of the bike route. After my first lap around the lake, it started to rain harder. But that was OK. I love running in the rain. And I love running around Killarney Lake.

It's not a big lake, about one and a half kilometer circumference, peanut shaped, but it's surrounded by evergreens and it looks almost wilderness-like. There's large sandy beach with two life guard towers. In the summer they rope off an area for public swimming, although you can still swim anywhere in the lake. Last fall, they built a big lodge close enough to the lake that you can see its big blue roof through the trees.

Things change.

There's a trail around the lake. It starts at the beach and within seconds you're away from everything and into the woods. At the far end of the lake, the trail goes up a hill. At the top of the hill you can look down on the lake. I took my daughter for a walk once when the lake was covered with fog. The view from the top of the hill was like looking down on the outskirts of some magical place from childhood stories.

On the other side of the hill, the woods stretch for miles to the north, but right at the base of north side of the hill there's a stream with a series of small waterfalls. I could hear the sound of the water rushing and splashing as I ran by them today. We have lots of water in the woods this spring.

The trail slants down gradually just past the falls. On both sides huges cedars keep the path in semi-shadow. But they don't stop the rain from soaking me. But, like I said, I was OK with that. I could still see the lake through the trees. The pattern of rain on the water was beautiful.

The trail goes up and down like a roller coaster till it reaches the lodge, then it turns to the right past a frog pond and onto a wooden bridge. Then it veers back to the beach front.

This is where I run in the spring and the fall, and I usually run around the lake six times, the number of times for the triathlon.

Maybe I will live through this.

But if I don't, I can't think of a more wondrous place to go down in a blaze of heavy breathing and high tech running shorts.

Day Two of Triathlon Training

Day two is day-of-rest-and-hope-that-the-pain-in-my-legs-will-go-away-some-day day. Slept in till 11 AM. Got up. Did some Qi Gong and a Karate kata. And went for an intense mall crawl leg work out. Went to Cleves and bought a new pair of running shoes. The old pair are two years old. They'll harder than the pavement. The new ones felt like a second skin. They better. They were the most I've ever paid for a pair of shoes, and they were on sale. This was a great financial commitment to the health and spiritual well-being of my feet.

And I will never let them forget it.

Something I forgot to mention about my bike and run yesterday: when I got off my bike and locked it to my car, I started to run. I immediately fell down. My legs ... in fact, my entire lower body ... felt like a large bowl of jelly. There was some kind of discontinuity between my legs and my brain. I was thining: Go forward. My legs were thinking: Go down.

I think this is what they call a "transition" effect, when you go from one physical activity to another. Something like ... my brain was saying, "I am no longer bicycling. I am running." And my legs were saying: "Speak for yourself, mutha, we be needing some serious running foreplay here. We was just getting into the bicycling thing and now you want us to run. There's like serious support issues here, fool. Your ass ain't holding up your upper body anymore. We are. And it's a whole new motion. And whaddaya got against grass. It's nice down here. Just smell that grass."

But I got up and did the old baby step thing for a couple hundred feet and then I slowly moved into a nice-paced run. So, I guess I gotta work on the transitions."

Did a half workout on my Gym 1000 and then stretched for a while. Tonight's my last night for alcoholic beverages until after the triathlon. I think that part will be harder to survive the training.

Oh well, this year I won't dip into the dandelion wine too soon.

I hope.

War Bug Release Date Postponed Till October

Yep. The War Bug won't be released this June. Nobody buys books in June, July or August. They do things like swim, bike, lay in the sun (if it ever appears), play with frisbees, go on vacation ... all sorts of fun stuff the doesn't involve reading.

Things pick up in the fall though.

So I talked to Deron Douglas at Double Dragon Publishing and he agreed.

"We'll just scrap the whole thing," he said.

"Um ..." said I. "That's not exactly what I had in mind.

"So ..." said he. "You want me to cancel June, July and August? We're an independent publisher. We don't have the rights to calendar months. Who the hell do you think you are, Biff, Danielle Steele?"

"No, but I was thinking that maybe we could change the publication date so that maybe two or three people will be around for the book signings."

"Hmm," said Deron wisely.

And now the release date is October. That's when people start buying books in earnest, like for Christmas presents and stuff. And The War Bug will make a perfect gift for someone who has everything but craves violence foul language, perverse sex and rollicking humor.

All of this comes, of course, after I put out a media release all over the web entitled "The War Bug by Biff Mitchell Hits Bookstores this June."

Back to the word processor.

Biff Swims, Bikes and Runs for the Sequel

Here’s the scoop. The sequel to my novel The War Bug (coming out this October) has a long sequence featuring a virtual triathlon. I know nothing about triathlons other than the people who do them are in a lot better shape than I am. But that’s OK. I have a month and a half to get ready. That’s right … get ready … as in not only have I entered a triathlon … I’ve entered the Olympic level event: 1500 meter swim, 40 kilometer bike ride and 10 kilometer run. I’m gonna swim, bike and run to research the sequel to The War Bug.

Piece of cake.

And elephants wear panty hose. I’m gonna die!

Well, maybe not. I’ve been swimming 100 to 120 laps at the Nashwaaksis indoor pool all winter. That’s, like, 3000 meters … double the swim for the triathlon. Last fall when I stopped running for the winter (which I do each year after several mishaps involving icy intersections and speeding cars) I was running around Killarney Lake six times. And Killarney Lake is the site of the run for the triathlon. And six times around is the 10 kilometer run. And, of course, I bike a lot in the spring, summer and fall.

Now all I have to do is put them all together. And live through it.

Today I biked one leg of the bike route (10 K) and ran around the lake three times (5 K). And lived. My bike is a Norco Pinnacle mountain bike (considered a mite heavy for competition, but nice for general riding) and there was a strong wind, so my timing wasn’t anything worth mentioning.

But earlier in the day I visited my old friend Matt Savages from Savages Bikes. He’s lending me a thousand dollar racing bike for the triathlon. I sat on it today. It sang songs to me. Songs about speeding down roads like the wind skimming over the rooftop of life. Or something like that. It felt good.

More on the bike later.

While I was running around the lake, I passed two lovely young ladies running the opposite direction. I talked to them in the parking lot later. They’re entered in the Spring level triathlon. Cut each of the Olympic levels in half and you have the triathlon I should have entered. They’re obviously smarter than me.

I’m in pain at the moment. My inside thighs feel like steaks hammered by mallets. My knees are trying to tell me something, but I haven’t deciphered their message yet. It could one of pain. It could be one of regeneration. It could be they don’t like the position I’m sitting in as I write this.

Things will reveal themselves in the weeks ahead. It’s the Duncan Hadley (don’t have a clue who he is or why they named a triathlon after him) Triathlon at Killarney Lake outside never-sunny-anymore-in-the-spring Fredericton, New Brunswick. It’s held July 10. By then there will be sun. There will be sun.

Stay tuned.

The War Bug by Biff Mitchell Hits Bookstores This June

Summary: Previously available only in e-book format, the trade paperback of Biff Mitchell’s best-selling cyber-thriller "The War Bug" will be available in bookstores throughout North America this June.

Author Biff Mitchell announces the June trade paperback launch of his best-selling cyber-thriller "The War Bug." Previously available only in e-book format, the paperback version will be coming to bookstores throughout North America in June.

The story revolves around Abner Hayes, who has just hours to save his virtual family from death at the hands of a ruthless kidnapper. His only ally is a deadly computer virus responsible for a war that's killed millions and threatens to destroy the Internet from Earth to Jupiter.

"The story is set in a virtual world dominated by warring online city states," explained the author. "It's a world driven blindly by greed and lust, a lot like the real world."

The book was featured at Fictionwise and was a best-seller at EPIC. "Reviewers called it edge-of-your-seat science fiction and praised the characterizations and plotting," said Mitchell. "I was thrilled with the response to the e-book version," said Mitchell.

This June, the trade paperback version of "The War Bug" will premiere throughout North America. In the United States, bookstores and libraries can order the title from Ingram or Baker & Taylor, or in Canada from Double Dragon Publishing.

Almost never published, "The War Bug" was a culmination of a year and half of writing, including a near-scrap of the entire manuscript. A few months later, Mitchell revisited his novel and completed it a year and a half later. He explained, "I read through the novel once and made a decision to keep the basic idea, but to start all over again. I dropped several of the characters and remodeled the rest. I re-plotted the story, and somewhere in all that reworking, my faith in the story returned and I knew that I would finish it this time."

"The War Bug" was picked up by Double Dragon Publishing, the first publishing house Mitchell sent his manuscript to, with a contract for the e-book format signed only a few weeks later. The e-book sold well, and the reviews were enthusiastic and positive—in fact, some bordered on raves.

As "The War Bug" continued to sell and bring in good reviews, Mitchell began work on a new book, a mystery called "Murder by Burger." To generate advance publicity for the book, he ran an auction on eBay to find someone willing to bid on being a murdered character in his novel. The campaign generated media interest from coast-to-coast.

Mitchell decided to launch a contest for the paperback version of "The War Bug;" entrants were to write a review of the e-book version with the winning review appearing on the back of the book along with a picture of the reviewer. While the contest flopped, Mitchell plans to use some of the marketing campaigns he worked out for the paperback launch this summer. He explained, "Some of those campaigns are going to be pretty wild; that is, if I survive the first one, the one in which I’ve entered an Olympic level triathlon. It promises to be a hot summer."

About Biff Mitchell Biff Mitchell is the author of the world’s first laundromance, "Heavy Load" (biffmitchell.com). His second novel, "Team Player" (originally published by Jacobyte Books but soon to be released by Double Dragon Publishing), is a spoof on the IT industry, based largely on his own work experience. He has two novellas, "The Baton" and "Smoke Break," published as Dollar Downloads by Echelon Press. His most recent publication is "Surfing in Catal Hyuk" (biffmitchell.com), a collection of mostly absurd short stories. You can visit Biff at www.biffmitchell.com.