Just got back from an awesome ride not too long ago, ate a whole lot and now I'm lying in my bed completely spent. In a good way.
Got a little later start then I would have liked, but sleeping is the shit. I was still out before 12 which is very good for me when it's a solo ride. I started off with the usual Bauer/L2L trails to get to St. Catharines. I knew it was going to be a sick ride right from the first stretch of trail along the canal, everything was completely dry and I was riding sections much faster than I could last year. Finally using the berms instead of my breaks and pumping in and out of the ruts instead of sketching out and loosing momentum.
Once North, I started off with the Mill trail then got to the Short Hills through Driftwood. The trail comes out on Wiley rd. and at the top there is a gate to go around for the main path OR there is some singletrack going right. Lately I've been exploring quite a bit so I took it until I came to camp Wetaskawin, I was having flashbacks of being there as a little fella in grade 7 and 8. That was our junior high bonding trip, I was always so excited to go because of all the salamanders I would catch and bring home.
Anyways, got lost for a while but did alot of very long and steep climbs and descents so it wasn't all that bad, turned around a couple times and I was back at the gate. Not sure which loop I took but I ended up where we go down that sketchy descent with a sharp left turn at the bottom for the Squeezer. Followed that out to Decew that back tracked but instead of taking the L2L, I took the ATV trail that brings me to the Pipelines. Two super tough climbs later and I was heading home on rail trail.
I rode hard the whole 4 hours and climbed all the hills at race pace, once back on the rail trail to get home I took it easy though. Tomorow is the last chance we get for some early season mtbing, then it's rain and more rain for 2 days straight. May isn't really early season anymore, not mid but not early. Or maybe it is, whatever.
The next couple days will be pretty chill, 4 exams in 6 days starting tomorow. Awesome.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
A little sidetracked (pun intended)
I would have slept in way past 12 today if the sun was shinning so bright right into my room. First off it was very annoying, but more importantly it ment that there was a possibility of riding the trails in the North. I started off by heading towards the Pipelines in Fonthill to find the ATV trail that should take me right to the L2L stuff. The plan was to take that North and after riding some trails I was going to take the L2L stretch and canal mtb trail home. I bombed down a hill and put the hammer down to get up one, then another, then another, I just kept pushing harder and harder while climbing and my descending skills were the best they've ever been. I had no idea which trail went where because the Pipelines were way too wet to ride last year.
Every time I came out onto a road I spun easy for a bit until I figured out where I was then went back in for some more fun. I had no idea that the place had so many trails. The climbs have to be the toughest in the region; very steep, suprisingly long, and lots of roots. There isn't any flat stuff, you're always riding on a ridge or climbing. There were some doubletrack descents that reminded me alot of a place like Mansfield or Ganaraska. One of them took me real close to the Hollows so I took a short road ride over to St. John's Conservation Area for some more climbing. I always wanted to take my bike there, but never got around to it. Very short but the climbs are very similar to those in the Pipelines.
I made my way back to the ATV trail and took it right to where the map said it would take me, Beaverdams where the red barn is. I took the L2L stretch and the mtb trail along the canal at tempo(ish) and held a good pace into the headwind for the rest of the way home. The ride was 3 hours but it felt much longer, anyone that lives in the region should defenitely ride those trails. There are a few creek crossings that aren't rideable but the hike-a-bike is pretty easy and there aren't bushes to walk through.
Tomorow I'll defenitely get an earlier start, up at 8 and hopefully out before 10. MTB fo sho, probably the Short Hills, Brock, 8x12, should be more like 4-5hrs.
Every time I came out onto a road I spun easy for a bit until I figured out where I was then went back in for some more fun. I had no idea that the place had so many trails. The climbs have to be the toughest in the region; very steep, suprisingly long, and lots of roots. There isn't any flat stuff, you're always riding on a ridge or climbing. There were some doubletrack descents that reminded me alot of a place like Mansfield or Ganaraska. One of them took me real close to the Hollows so I took a short road ride over to St. John's Conservation Area for some more climbing. I always wanted to take my bike there, but never got around to it. Very short but the climbs are very similar to those in the Pipelines.
I made my way back to the ATV trail and took it right to where the map said it would take me, Beaverdams where the red barn is. I took the L2L stretch and the mtb trail along the canal at tempo(ish) and held a good pace into the headwind for the rest of the way home. The ride was 3 hours but it felt much longer, anyone that lives in the region should defenitely ride those trails. There are a few creek crossings that aren't rideable but the hike-a-bike is pretty easy and there aren't bushes to walk through.
Tomorow I'll defenitely get an earlier start, up at 8 and hopefully out before 10. MTB fo sho, probably the Short Hills, Brock, 8x12, should be more like 4-5hrs.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Feeling good about not feeling good
Let me start off by saying that it was pretty brutal of me not to mention how good Nathan Chown did at the P2A. He barely gets any sleep, this time he didn't sleep for 2 days, and 6th place! Apparently he was sick on top of that, insane. This is especially brutal considering he's my team mate and all. Yeah, I didn't even mention that I'm racing for Handlebars CC this year. I'm super-pumped about it and I didn't even share the news.
So on to the first Tuesday night race of the year. Not much to report since I didn't race too long, I left the house at 5 and rode to the star, did half a lap and waited around until everyone got there. By this time I was pretty cold, but so was everyone else, the sun decided it didn't want to shine anymore. The start was pretty calm, I was fealing pretty good so I made my way to the front after there was an attack that got shut down and went off the front for a bit. I knew it wouldn't last longer than a minute.
The pace was pretty high on our first trip up Saylor's, at the top Noah was off the front solo and when Chown launched an attack the whole pack responded, minus me. I was chassing for a while and the gap wasn't growing but I knew I was only one surge away from being out of sight so I shut it down and headed back up Saylor's and called it a day. Rode back home with Willie Coyle and we had a good, unfinished, talk. Gear ratios and whatnot.
"Yeah Justin, it's all about leg speed. Have you ever seen that kid Noah pedal a bike? That guy does not know how good he is."
Agreed.
I was pretty bummed that I got dropped before the real jam started but that's cool. On the weekend I didn't even think I would be back on my bike before Mansfield causing me to miss another race. So everything is going much better than I thought, meds work good as far as I can tell. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I was right about my sinus infection. So last week I was hit with a bad cold on top of the sinus infection (that I've probably had on and off for close to 2 years) on top of my ear infection. Nice.
So on to the first Tuesday night race of the year. Not much to report since I didn't race too long, I left the house at 5 and rode to the star, did half a lap and waited around until everyone got there. By this time I was pretty cold, but so was everyone else, the sun decided it didn't want to shine anymore. The start was pretty calm, I was fealing pretty good so I made my way to the front after there was an attack that got shut down and went off the front for a bit. I knew it wouldn't last longer than a minute.
The pace was pretty high on our first trip up Saylor's, at the top Noah was off the front solo and when Chown launched an attack the whole pack responded, minus me. I was chassing for a while and the gap wasn't growing but I knew I was only one surge away from being out of sight so I shut it down and headed back up Saylor's and called it a day. Rode back home with Willie Coyle and we had a good, unfinished, talk. Gear ratios and whatnot.
"Yeah Justin, it's all about leg speed. Have you ever seen that kid Noah pedal a bike? That guy does not know how good he is."
Agreed.
I was pretty bummed that I got dropped before the real jam started but that's cool. On the weekend I didn't even think I would be back on my bike before Mansfield causing me to miss another race. So everything is going much better than I thought, meds work good as far as I can tell. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I was right about my sinus infection. So last week I was hit with a bad cold on top of the sinus infection (that I've probably had on and off for close to 2 years) on top of my ear infection. Nice.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Now that's what I'm talking about
Got out for just under 2 hours on the bike I'll be racing on this weekend, I haven't ridden it since November and it felt freakin awesome! So much nicer than my other mtb that I've been riding through the winter, defenitely going to get a wide bar for the beater.
I've pretty much got the fastest/funnest way to get through Welland to be on my way to Port, lots of hopping around once I get closer to downtown and a sweet but very short singletrack stretch to get me to the canal path. I put down some good hard efforts to open up, well, everything a bit so that I'm not a slug in the trails. The trails were super-dry and fast which made for some really fun trail riding, for the first time in a while I felt good. I was on freakin cloud 9 until there was 15 seconds left of trail to ride before I hit the path to head home and I heard a really high pitch sound, a very painful one, mentally that is. My rear tire was completely flat and after a quick check I found a nice big rip across the top and into the sidewall. Looked back on the trail to find scattered glass, I was so pissed, but now that I think back, at least it happened as close to Welland as possible (in the trail that is) and my mom was just leaving for her lunch hour when I called. Yeah, the more I think about it the more lucky I feel, walking home from Port would sure have ruined the day. Another thing I just thought of, I didn't have to ride through the headwind to get home, nice.
My doctor's appointment is in an hour, we'll see what he sais. After this ride, I'm super pumped for the first race night tomorow. With the 8x12 turned into a night racing series on Fridays I'll be at all of the tuesday night races for sure.
-EDIT- Totally forgot to mention Jeff Lemon's 53rd spot at yesterday's race. That guy is sick, can't wait to start the Monday night youth MTB rides in 2 weeks.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Always learning
I've been sitting here for 10 minutes now writting and re-writting trying to figure out a way to compare training to studying and how they are totally different. The more in detail I try to go with the comparaison the more similar they get, it all comes down to the fact that no matter what you read or what you're told, it's all you. No matter how much help you get, in the end, it's you that has to do the work if you want to succeed. Whether it be sitting down on a chair for 6 hours trying to understand a text or sitting on a bike seat trying to get through a tough day, it's all you.
I'm not too sure where I'm going with this, but as a self-coached athlete I sometimes find myself thinking that I'm at a disadvantage to those who are fully-supported. Of course I'm at a disadvantage, but does that mean I work harder than they do? Not a chance. To get fast you have to ride, lots, period. You have to go hard, very hard, harder than you think you can go and then even harder. However, you must also know when to take it easy, be able to take control. This is the part that led me to where I am today, no control. My rest week consisted of 4 very hard days in a row while trying to fight a cold. Every day it got worse and worse but I ignored it more and more trying to start a new block tired and weak. Look where that got me, I've rode once since Bronte and I've never felt less rested in my life. I worked my ass off while many were still taking it easy indoors, kicked the shit out of myself to get stronger, and then threw it all away. My hard work, my stupid decision, my fault.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is, even if you have a coach, the only way you're going to learn something is by doing it yourself. Usually by screwing up, and if you don't give yourself shit for it then that's when you need to hire a coach so he/she can give you shit. I may be pissed at myself right now, but I know that down the road I can only take this and learn from it. At the end of a block you feel pretty tired, a couple days of rest and you'll feel like you can take on the world but your body needs to fully recover so you can tackle the next block fully rested and ready to go.
Tomorow I'm hoping to get out for a ride, going to see the doctor for sure to get some antibiotics, I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection of some sort which would explain the ear infections since both systems are closely connected. Hopefully this is the last depressing post on how shitty I feel. It better be because Tuesday Night Shit Shows begin in 2 days! When you get some of the fastest guys in the region together and the goal is to ride as fast as you can, good things happen.
To end on a more up-beat note, some awesome results today from the P2A with De Cal 13th, Perry 18th, and Etzl 44th. That's pretty freakin sick considering there were over 1200 racers.
I'm not too sure where I'm going with this, but as a self-coached athlete I sometimes find myself thinking that I'm at a disadvantage to those who are fully-supported. Of course I'm at a disadvantage, but does that mean I work harder than they do? Not a chance. To get fast you have to ride, lots, period. You have to go hard, very hard, harder than you think you can go and then even harder. However, you must also know when to take it easy, be able to take control. This is the part that led me to where I am today, no control. My rest week consisted of 4 very hard days in a row while trying to fight a cold. Every day it got worse and worse but I ignored it more and more trying to start a new block tired and weak. Look where that got me, I've rode once since Bronte and I've never felt less rested in my life. I worked my ass off while many were still taking it easy indoors, kicked the shit out of myself to get stronger, and then threw it all away. My hard work, my stupid decision, my fault.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is, even if you have a coach, the only way you're going to learn something is by doing it yourself. Usually by screwing up, and if you don't give yourself shit for it then that's when you need to hire a coach so he/she can give you shit. I may be pissed at myself right now, but I know that down the road I can only take this and learn from it. At the end of a block you feel pretty tired, a couple days of rest and you'll feel like you can take on the world but your body needs to fully recover so you can tackle the next block fully rested and ready to go.
Tomorow I'm hoping to get out for a ride, going to see the doctor for sure to get some antibiotics, I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection of some sort which would explain the ear infections since both systems are closely connected. Hopefully this is the last depressing post on how shitty I feel. It better be because Tuesday Night Shit Shows begin in 2 days! When you get some of the fastest guys in the region together and the goal is to ride as fast as you can, good things happen.
To end on a more up-beat note, some awesome results today from the P2A with De Cal 13th, Perry 18th, and Etzl 44th. That's pretty freakin sick considering there were over 1200 racers.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Hit hard
So last time I posted I was feeling pretty good after the race, thought that I had overcome the cold and I can get back in to some quality training and was even considering racing the P2A if things were going well, maybe. Well, later that day I was having the early signs of an ear infection, I'm very susceptible to them for some reason, I wasn't when I was younger. In an hour it had gotten really bad until I got some ear drops and super-knock out advil delivered and I was done for the night.
Monday I woke up very sick; a combination of overtraining, cold (as a result of overtraining), and an ear infection. So for the next 3 days I was coma-toast chillen on a couch. I had the shakes Tuesday night and just felt like a complete bag of shit all week. I guess it came at a good time, even though the weather was nice, it's early in the season, C-priority race on the weekend that I can easily not do, and right between the end of school - beginning of exams.
Doing nothing at all gets you thinking a whole lot and I realised that I was being a hyprocrit when I said that "you're body will tell you everything you need to know" going on about how I don't train with numbers. My body was surely asking for a rest the week of the Good Friday Road when I trained hard through the weekend and last week leading up to the ToB and what do I do ? Ignore it, nice. I'm surely paying for it now though, so I guess I'm not totally a hipocrit. Just gotta add "and if you don't listen, it will kick the shit out of you... from the inside".
Today I didn't feel so bad when I woke up and the weather channel said it was 20 degrees. I decided I would do an hour on the race mtb to get both the bike and the legs spinning. The bolt that holds the bottom pulley of the rear derailleur is stripped and that thing has shark teeth now so it did just over an hour on the road bike and it didn't feel as bad as I thought. Sure didn't feel like 20 though.
Oh and one more thing, I got the best KMC chain for 9 speed last year for 80$ and 2 links broke in a month. I just found another broken one today and I didn't even ride it once since November. Defenitely getting myself some Dura-Ace before the first O-Cup.
Monday I woke up very sick; a combination of overtraining, cold (as a result of overtraining), and an ear infection. So for the next 3 days I was coma-toast chillen on a couch. I had the shakes Tuesday night and just felt like a complete bag of shit all week. I guess it came at a good time, even though the weather was nice, it's early in the season, C-priority race on the weekend that I can easily not do, and right between the end of school - beginning of exams.
Doing nothing at all gets you thinking a whole lot and I realised that I was being a hyprocrit when I said that "you're body will tell you everything you need to know" going on about how I don't train with numbers. My body was surely asking for a rest the week of the Good Friday Road when I trained hard through the weekend and last week leading up to the ToB and what do I do ? Ignore it, nice. I'm surely paying for it now though, so I guess I'm not totally a hipocrit. Just gotta add "and if you don't listen, it will kick the shit out of you... from the inside".
Today I didn't feel so bad when I woke up and the weather channel said it was 20 degrees. I decided I would do an hour on the race mtb to get both the bike and the legs spinning. The bolt that holds the bottom pulley of the rear derailleur is stripped and that thing has shark teeth now so it did just over an hour on the road bike and it didn't feel as bad as I thought. Sure didn't feel like 20 though.
Oh and one more thing, I got the best KMC chain for 9 speed last year for 80$ and 2 links broke in a month. I just found another broken one today and I didn't even ride it once since November. Defenitely getting myself some Dura-Ace before the first O-Cup.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Tour of Bronte
The warm up with Perry and Etzl felt pretty good, not too much mucus coming out and my legs weren't feeling completely drained after a couple sprints. The race started out pretty neutral until a few attacks here and there but nothing stuck until I missed my chance to go with Etzl and some other guy. It was hard to find a good spot to break away because of all the gravel turns and pot holes.
I spent a little too much time out front and when Perry attacked there was only one guy that went with him and no one felt like working with me to bridge. At this point Etzl was by himself and it looked like the top 3 spots were gone. There was a couple guys in blue, a Wheels of Bloor guy, Dan Dakin, and myself left to try and bridge the gap. The Wheels of Bloor guy and I took some good pulls and kept driving the pace, I didn't realise there was so few of us left until about 3km away from the line.
If we would have got organised the race could have been a little more interesting but everytime one of the guys in blue would get to the front they would wave their hand for someone to go by after 20 seconds. This is a good amount of time for a pull if you are doing any sort of work at all in the pack. The finishing stretch was very sketchy, a guy in blue did the short pull/hand wave thing and when no one came by he started going all over the road almost causing a big crash. Now I see how the kind of shit in Good Friday Road happens, stupid riding. I tried to be patient and thought I would have the legs to make a break 1km from the line and make it, but I didn't. The group latched on and, like a sucker, I towed them to the last 500m. I had nothing left in me for a sprint, yet again.
In the end I still have a lot to learn about road racing strategy, but I'm pleased with the effort I put in. So far the P2A is still out, we'll see what the week brings me.
Big props to Etzl and Perry for the 1-2 and to Noah who was in a sick solo break when I left. Can't wait to hear what happened with that. Big day for the St.CCC with Tyler Holtzman adding a win for the club in the S3 race.
I spent a little too much time out front and when Perry attacked there was only one guy that went with him and no one felt like working with me to bridge. At this point Etzl was by himself and it looked like the top 3 spots were gone. There was a couple guys in blue, a Wheels of Bloor guy, Dan Dakin, and myself left to try and bridge the gap. The Wheels of Bloor guy and I took some good pulls and kept driving the pace, I didn't realise there was so few of us left until about 3km away from the line.
If we would have got organised the race could have been a little more interesting but everytime one of the guys in blue would get to the front they would wave their hand for someone to go by after 20 seconds. This is a good amount of time for a pull if you are doing any sort of work at all in the pack. The finishing stretch was very sketchy, a guy in blue did the short pull/hand wave thing and when no one came by he started going all over the road almost causing a big crash. Now I see how the kind of shit in Good Friday Road happens, stupid riding. I tried to be patient and thought I would have the legs to make a break 1km from the line and make it, but I didn't. The group latched on and, like a sucker, I towed them to the last 500m. I had nothing left in me for a sprint, yet again.
In the end I still have a lot to learn about road racing strategy, but I'm pleased with the effort I put in. So far the P2A is still out, we'll see what the week brings me.
Big props to Etzl and Perry for the 1-2 and to Noah who was in a sick solo break when I left. Can't wait to hear what happened with that. Big day for the St.CCC with Tyler Holtzman adding a win for the club in the S3 race.
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