Didn't even deserve it's own post

After Wednesday's ride I thought I would hold off on the roads/path for a couple days. Bruises are almost gone, I find that riding helps alot to relieve the pain and stiffness in my hips. Gets some fresh, oxygenated, blood to the area to help regenerate the muscle, capillaries, and skin.

So back on the trainer for me, Thursday was 1:30 spin while watching Word Of Honor. Pretty good movie, I picked it because it is 1:31 in length. Nothing more to say about that workout.

Late start today, didn't get on the trainer till a little after 4. Watching Troy, I actually moved a foot. The fuel and remotes that were once beside me were now slightly behind me. Three hours and a bit later and it wasn't dark enough to stop me from lacin' up the runners but too cold to keep me out there for longer than 5min. Also, way too cold to go anything below threshold. Some good intensity, I can really see it paying off in a couple of months or so when cross season arrives haha

Watson hasn't quoted a movie in a bit so I thought I might;

"He's the biggest man I've ever seen in my life, I wouldn't fight him"

"That is why they won't remember your name"

And I feeeeel like I'm sitting on a time bomb baby

Today's ride started off nice, got the mtb all set up with the ice spikers to ride on some ice, go figure. Getting the rear tire mounted I noticed what you see on your right. I quickly map out a good 2:30ish route suitable for the cx bike and since it's already 2:30 I had no time to waste. Felt good right from the start; good cadence, well-dressed, and the tank was topped up. Perfect. Before hitting the canal path The Coach and his Boss drove by with a running partner. Chatted with them for a couple minutes as their footprints followed my line and then I was off.

About 80% of the ride was on ice with a layer of snow on top. I felt like I could loose my bike and eat it at any time. A smooth pedal stroke was needed to survive this one. Got to the mill on Decew with only a few minor fumbles and went into the trails, same surface but a downhill ment for increased speed and decreased control and down I went, pretty hard. With hikers approaching I pulled myself together and even had a graceful cx carry and ran myself to some deeper snow. There are 2 decent climbs on this trail, managed to make it up both, the gravel one was intense with the road gearing in the back.

Back out on DeCew and I had to retrace my steps. The wind picked up and it was a little cooler with the sun covered by massive black clouds. Trying to get up a little climb my bottle came flying out along with the cage that was holding it, snapped off just like that. Once back on to the canal path safely, I thought I was in the clear until the Steve Bauer trail, but of course not. About 1:50 in, still feeling strong, I notice a big pile of dog shit that someone left in the middle of the paved pathway. A quick swerve to change my line is all that would be needed on pavement, since I was unaware of the black ice I had been riding on for the past 10min I lost my bike and complete composure. This time I went down hard with quite a bit of speed. Took a little longer but I managed to pull myself together again and pressed on very cautiously. Hit the left hip on the first fall and the right on the second. Decent bruising on both sides, the right one takes the prize with the integrated road rash.

The rest of the way home I managed to stay upright, finished with 2:45 ride time. Ate whatever I could find, showered, stuffed my coat pocket with food and water and went to go see The Leadville Trail 100 documentary with cx stars Neil and Aly Armstrong and a big group from the SHCC. Good time, thanks for the coffee and ride Neil ! Two things I'll never turn down; food and coffee.

The Frostbike is just over a week away, hopefully I'll get that spoke replaced to get a pre-ride of the course in this weekend. Plans for a ride tomorow with De Cal, definitely road.

There's no place like home, there's no place like home

Did a rode ride with the cx bike out to Silverdale today, of course I had to pick to go out to wide open farm land on the windiest day of the year. As I was approaching Silverdale I'm pretty sure I saw Aunty Anne flying around on her rocking chair way up in the sky. On a serious note, I did get attacked by a flying tin-foil lid, I could barely stay on the road (and moving forward), and I seen a bird in the sky trying to fly the same direction I was riding but his efforts were useless as he remained stationary. I felt alot like that bird today. A ride that would have normally taken me just over an hour took 2:30.

Still no results on the heart test, apparently my doctor uses the 1940's technology of mailing the results instead of the modern electronic exchanges of information so this could take more than a week.

Just got off the phone with The Coach, still some minor tweakage to do on the training schedule but it's getting there. I'm going to start posting my intended training schedule for the week on Mondays for anyone that cares.

Tomorow is a rest day, although I don't deserve one because I slept in too late on Sunday, woke up in time for hockey. This would not have been a problem before, with the indoor training centre set up, but The Bible says that if you miss a training day forget about it, move on, that's what I'll do.

Fall Weather. Awesome Riding.

Left the house at 9:40 this morning to go meet a few people at Tim's in St. Catharines. Took the Lake to Lake gravel trails to get there which ended up being just over 50 minutes. When I got to Tim's I seen fellow bloggers De Cal, Watt, and Kurton's bikes leaning on the garbage can then the Etzl's, Jessica Tripp, Bryan Sheldon, and another blogger Ben Perry arrived. I knew that this endurance ride was going to be fun. Standing there was a little cold but once we got going again it was all good. Quick stop on the way out to Niagara On The Lake at Picard's where we found a snowbank that would be cx practice, a few face plants later and we had a rideable line that killed some time while a few went in for food.

"What a perfect winter day for riding" was said quite a few times, twas indeed. On the way back a few branched off and we made one more stop at Tim's before parting ways. De Cal, Watt, and I still had the locks in Thorold to climb and a few more km's. A final attack from Watt at the top to take some points for the polka dot jersey and it was just me and De Cal. Some shitty stuff, a massive puddle, and a few mud patches later and I was ridin solo. There was alot of snow and ice from the bridge where we split to Allanburg, including a mini snowbank just before the road. Snowbank practicing was very useful in the end and not a complete waste of time.

Still felt good at the 4h mark but at 4:10 hunger set in and I couldn't wait to get home and munch out.

Finished with just over 4:20 of ride time which is just a little more than I wanted, but it made up for yesterday's short-coming. The neighboor had the hose out to wash his car so a quick spray and the rig was shinning. Some perogies, chicken, and chickpeas were the recovery food of choice and now it's on to some fruits n' veg.

Lovin the cross bike

Took off from the house just a little before 2 with a 3ish hour loop in mind, going north on Church St. I met up with superstar Brandon Etzl and Ironman Bryan Sheldon. Made a U-Turn and joined them for a ride through North Pelham, pretty much did the whole StCCC tuesday night hilly race course. Finished the ride with Saylor's Hill which felt alot tougher today then the last time I rode it, but that was on the road bike. Total ride time was a little over 2:20, weather has been very cooperative lately for outdoor riding.

On a sadder note, went to the doctor's and he pointed out a problem on my ECG (electrocardiogram), he thinks there is a part of my heart with a thick muscle that can be getting in the way of oxygenated-deoxygenated blood transfer. Had a more detailed test of the heart called an echocardiogram, the same thing they would use to check out a baby before it's born. Results are sent out to my doctor, the day after the Frostbike I'm getting hooked up to a heart monitor for 48 hours and then I'll get the final diagnosis I guess. When I go riding with it hooked up to me I'm going to ask for a copy of the data for that time, some free high(ish)-tech testing.

Long steady flat endurance ride planned for tomorow.

Freeze and Thaw

First ride on the cross bike today and it was sick. Similar to yesterday's loop but a little more hills. I made my way to St. Catharines where I missed my turn and had to back track quite a ways. Got into the Short Hills area, made my way to Orchard Hill (which is a closed road therefore unplowed) and had my best climbing performance in a long time. Made it up all three hills, the first one is the toughest and longest but after using up pretty much all the fuel left in the tank the next two felt just as tough. This had me sweating like crazy and I still had alot of downhill to get home and was freezing my ass off. For some reason, when I got back on the Steve Bauer trail to make my way home I started to warm up again, there was just as much wind and the temperature didn't go up suddenly, hmmmmm...

Finished with 2:40 ride time, went to class, took the bus to the gym and pumped some iron. Squatting is now at 335x4. Tomorow is a rest day, loads of school work anyways.

I moved ?

I took a pedal stroke and for the first time since Dec. 22 the bike actually moved and I got somewhere. Right from the start I was getting flashbacks from the insane ride De Cal and I did a little while back on our road bikes in 3 inches of snow/slush and ice. This ride really focused on keeping balance with a really high cadence. In rough snow/ice you can push as hard as you want but you won't get anywhere. Winter riding is pretty sick, on colder and windier days it can get pretty miserable but today it was pretty warm for a day in January.

The pace is always good when I go riding with The Coach, got in a good 2:30 before going back and making some progress on the race schedule. A couple races are in the air now, but we'll see how the season starts and go from there. First race is 3 weeks away, no special prep for it, just a fitness test.

Outdoor ready

The trainer set-up has seen better days, I just couldn't stand being couped up indoors anymore.

Made the trip to St. Catharines today to make a purchase and I am proud to welcome the newest member of my family of bicycles... a cyclocross bike ! I am no longer jealous of Andrew Decal, oh wait yes I am, he's in Alberta. Also got the mountain bike ready and the xc skis.

Nathan Chown's ex-pit bike (wheels are from my road bike)

The beauts that came with the bike, ambrios carbon tubulars with Dura-Ace hubs and ceramic bearings. Previously owned by Justin Hines. I was told that training will help me improve better than these will. But they couldn't hurt.

For the next couple of months I will have more than just a stationary option.

With new bikes comes more weight for my closet door

New scenery !

Tuesday was a good leg workout, focused mostly on squats, got 5 reps again at 315, felt a little easier than last time.

Yesterday was my first partial outdoor day in quite some time, jogged over to my friend's house for an upper body workout then a cool down jog. Got home and got on the trainer for a 3h tempo ride, had to break in the new set-up.


I gotta say that Gotham City does look much better on blu-ray. The speaker stacks are a little overkill, but my dad used to be a dj and we don't want all that beautiful sound equipment to go to waste now do we ?

Today was a 5 step pyramid workout; 50min spin/class/1:30 leg workout (focusing more on quads, calfs, and hamstrings)/class/back home for the remaining 1:10 in the planned 2h. I finally got around to changing the tire to a cheaper one that I don't mind wearing out and when I got home to finish the spin it was flat. Very slow leak, it's always something.

Finished American Pie series

Just finished a good hour of shoveling, doing the sidewalk for a few neighboors and two driveways, I really like the lower back and glute workout it has been giving me.

Saturday was a 1:45 spin while watching American Pie's Naked Mile, Sunday was a hockey game that completely drained me. Maybe it was because we only had 8 guys, my excuse is that the ice was very sticky.

Today, however, I stepped up my game but I didn't make it outside. My mountain bike needs a new cassette and I still need to get my ass to St. Catharines to buy a sick cross bike off Nathan Chown. Pretty similar to the previous spin-up/iso-leg workouts I've posted, this one was done while watching American Pie's Beta House;

1h spin
8x5 min. build to max. cadence, hold for 30s
16min spin (till 2h mark) - time to fuel up
Pyramid iso-leg (10s/20s/30s/20s/10s)
Spin till 3h mark

Followed by 15 minutes of core and some modified versions of push-ups.

Every time I do this workout there will be a stack added on the pyramid and the time at max cadence will increase. The 5min build up is to give the knees a break. There is one movie left in that series to watch, but I don't have it.

Here we go again...

Last night I started feeling like I did around christmas time, really shitty. Like I said before, nothing cures those congested and weak body feelings better then some saddle time. Put on American Pie: Band Camp and away I go on another amazing and unexpected adventure on the trainer. It took about 5 minutes to get the legs feeling ok to spin, didn't think I would get to 20 minutes but after an oil change and some fuel I was ready to go.

The only thing I was thinking of was coming across the line first at the Niagara Classic, I'll make the official 2010 goals/tentative race schedule by the end of the weekend but I'm pretty sure one of the goals will be to win that race, in S4 or S3, wherever I am at that point that race is mine.

Found power... now where's my endurance at ?

Some big plans for training over this 3 week break from school went down the drain between getting sick and having to work alot. All this snow on the massive farm I work at means lots of snow shovelling... I'm not talking a driveway or two, I'm talking a whole 200 by 50 foot ice rink hand shovelled and much more around the house. Having to do 1000 squat repeats a day to lift the snow over the snow bank builds some good glutes. I have also hit the gym quite a few times to lift some iron, squatting weight is going up; now at 315 for 5 reps.

Taking this long of a break off the bike and eating alot of unhealthy foods in big quantities scares me a little for my planned trainer ride tomorow while I watch a movie. The 2010 dates are out now for road and the race season should be planned by this weekend. There will be a defenite peak for the Road Champs (Elliott Lake weekend Aug. 14-15) and the XC Champs (Aug. 22). Depending on how this base stuff goes I might be able to squeeze in 2-3 peaks, 3 might be pushing it depending on how good me and The Coach (JF Bérubé) and his boss (Nat Labre) plan it.

Hopefully get into a good training schedule over the next week.