Started work later than usual this morning, 10am, seems the catchers were slow as hell. I'm getting much more efficient at cleaning the barn and I convince myself that it will transfer over to the bike. It's good for strength building that's for sure.
Headed out around 3:15 with blue skies and lots of sun shine, oh yeah, and WIND. Very, very strong winds today. I had 4x6min intervals planned with 3 minutes of recovery in between, I headed down by the river to warm up then made my way North to start the intervals with a tailwind. I felt super strong through the first two and really felt the burn by the third one. After three I was on 8th Ave. heading east, so the fourth one was through a combination of crosswind and headwind depending on which way the road was curving. This one was really though but I pushed through and made my way over to Decew.
I decided to do one more after going down the wall, I pushed really hard through the headwind in the valley between both hills and I was really suffering trying to stay above threshold on the climb. With the stopwatch going I was able to time myself up the climb, starting at the 40km/h sign to the top was 2:45, not bad. However I still had a minute to go on the watch so hammered after the crest, made a quick right turn and finished it off with a sprint up the first hill on Cataract. High cadence spin in to the headwind on the way home.
It just started to rain now, I was hoping for some mtbing tomorow with a 5-20-5 tempo with equal rest thrown in. I guess it's gonna be 3h on the road with a 5min tempo then the St.CCC ITT which takes around 20min followed by another 5min tempo. Should be fun after a full day of shit removal, gotta make up for todays half-day.
If anyone needs some high quality chicken manure for their lawn, garden or to place in a glass bowl in your living room and call it pot-pourri, let me know. You'll have the best garden in the neighborhood, guaranteed.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
It came down to Handlebars CC v. St.CCC
Another good Tuesday night race, the pace was quick from the start with a few attacks on the first half lap. The climb up Saylor's didn't hurt so bad because Kerton, Moote, Watt and myself got the first one out of the way in warm up. Who am I kidding, my legs were screaming at the top and Etzl was feeling good so he took off. From then on it was attack after attack, surge after surge, everyone wanted to get a good workout in.
On the last lap there was a 6-man St.CCC train of pain goin on as we approached the Hollows so I attacked to break that up, it ended up working out and with Chown taking the switchback like Armstrong it was our turn to bring the pain. The climb up Hansler hurt as we made our way through the C and dropped B riders, I thought I was dropped but I dug deep and caught back on. This also happened coming through Sulfur Spring. I'm not very good at racing on gravel.
Coming onto Metler (last road before turning left onto Effingham) Noah launched a beauty attack and was quickly building a gap, his team mates played it smart as I was too gassed to chase and they weren't going to be giving no free rides. Chown told me to go, but I was loosing steam, for some reason I got a second wind a few seconds later and surged real hard in an attempt to bring Noah back. By this time the only people left of the 15 or so guys who started were 5 St.CCC racers (4 juniors) along with me and Chown. I knew Chown would have a much better sprint up Saylor's then I would so I tried the best I could to bring the pack back together. It worked, sorta, as we were closing in, Holtzman attacked and brought the pack back together without me. So I was popped off the back chassing as hard as I could up Saylor's, ended up catching Holtzman but the rest were gone.
Not a bad race at all, felt good and my top end is existent for the first time in a while. Albion this weekend... pumped.
Lots of chicken shit to shovel tomorow and 4x6min intervals after... not so pumped.
On the last lap there was a 6-man St.CCC train of pain goin on as we approached the Hollows so I attacked to break that up, it ended up working out and with Chown taking the switchback like Armstrong it was our turn to bring the pain. The climb up Hansler hurt as we made our way through the C and dropped B riders, I thought I was dropped but I dug deep and caught back on. This also happened coming through Sulfur Spring. I'm not very good at racing on gravel.
Coming onto Metler (last road before turning left onto Effingham) Noah launched a beauty attack and was quickly building a gap, his team mates played it smart as I was too gassed to chase and they weren't going to be giving no free rides. Chown told me to go, but I was loosing steam, for some reason I got a second wind a few seconds later and surged real hard in an attempt to bring Noah back. By this time the only people left of the 15 or so guys who started were 5 St.CCC racers (4 juniors) along with me and Chown. I knew Chown would have a much better sprint up Saylor's then I would so I tried the best I could to bring the pack back together. It worked, sorta, as we were closing in, Holtzman attacked and brought the pack back together without me. So I was popped off the back chassing as hard as I could up Saylor's, ended up catching Holtzman but the rest were gone.
Not a bad race at all, felt good and my top end is existent for the first time in a while. Albion this weekend... pumped.
Lots of chicken shit to shovel tomorow and 4x6min intervals after... not so pumped.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Monday Night Youth Club
After a day of work around the house, mostly the garage, to make room for my bike-repair centre, I loaded up the truck and headed to Brock to meet the club. Yeah, I know, driving there is weak but mondays are my active recovery days so a 2h (usually 1.5h ride time) trail ride is perfect. As I was heading there it started to rain harder and harder, by the time I was at Brock it was coming down pretty good so I was thinking it would be a dump ride to work on skills which would have been fine by me.
We headed towards the trails despite the short rain fall and to our surpise they were not bad at all, a little soft heading towards the 8x12 along the creek. The 8x12 itself seemed like it would be soft so we avoided any damage to Marv's hard work. Since last week wasn't so hard on training I decided to give a few good efforts today, nothing Etzl couldn't shut down and easily counter with his team mate Hopkins close behind. I felt pretty good, my legs would burn any time I put an effort in but I wasn't exhausted.
We rode up Hogsback then some horse trail it was insanely humid and the rest of the trails we rode were bone dry. Somehow anything around Brock got much less rain than closer to suzanne's, even right after the rain fall the stuff around Brock was dry.
It was a great ride with some good guys, as usual. Even though I'm one of the guys that is supposed to be helping out the youth, I find myself learning from guys like Kirbie and Lemon (though he wasn't out tonight, back injury, get better soon man) and now even Etzl seems to have much more knowledge than myself.
Sorry for the lack of pressing enter, blogger isn't letting me tonight for some reason
Looks good, now I just need some mechanical knowledge
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Handlebars Spring MTB Classic
Neil Armstrong was over at 7:30 to pick me up, we headed south of the border for my first race in a different country. Rolled in Sprague Brook park before 9 and got registered and whatnot, hit up the first set of singletrack a few minutes later and realised I still had my toque on. I actually got in a very good warm-up today, around 40min, delayed start, some more spinning, shoot the shit, line up at a baseball diamond and we were off.
I entered the first bit of singletrack sitting 8th, up the first long climb I was pretty comfortable in the train. I didn't loose any spots but by the time we got out the open road I seemed to be behind 20, not sure what happened there, some people were talking about wrong turns that made for a short cut, I'm sure no one actually ment to do it. Anyways, this was before the second big climb so I picked off a few here and there and made my way back to my spot. Coming around the pond before the final descent of lap 1 a few people got caught by a flat trap, a dip just big enough to fit your wheel so if you hit it just right you find yourself with no more air, the guy in front of me who got caught was riding a 29er. Dismount and run it is.
Lap 2 I was feeling very good, the caffeine from the gel Nathan gave me was working its magic and I was starting to bridge gaps in the singletrack. I'll have a better idea of what position I was it at what point when the results are up but I believe I was in 5th or 6th and starting to pull in the next guy. I wanted to pick off 2 more guys before the end of the lap, but riding on the bumpy and greasy open field between trails just kicks the shit out of you. There was one nice really long doubletrack section that was pure horsepower, but I still couldn't seem to get the next guy. A few spots were swapped before the end of the lap but I think I stayed in the same position.
Starting lap 3 I could feel the depletion of energy in my legs and a hard-charging JC "the power house frenchman" Roberge wasn't making things any better. He ended up catching me on an open field section and I was unable to hold on to his wheel, I should have taken my gel before the next guy caught me that way I could have jumped on his wheel, but I took it after I realised that if I went hard on the next climb I would surely cramp. I had to let him go, lesson learned, eat gel before getting caught and not after. The rest of the race I fought hard but there was no one in sight behind me or in front of me, JC was gone. Came through the finish in 1:48 -corrected- and the winning time was 1:40ish by none other than Nathan Chown, no need for ""'s between his first and last name. Apparently he was leading the country in UCI points way back when, had no idea until there was a speach about him before his award.
Before the awards JC and I headed over to some 55 degree water to destinkafy and cool off, I'm not too sure where the water came from but I'll post up tomorow if I start to sprout a third arm.
Now get this, after the race we were treated to some deliciously greassy pizza, some salad AND FREE BEER! Yeah, I know, crazy. It nearly brought a tear to my eye, I think I saw JC crying out of joy though while eating out of his pizza box: "What? Dey ran out of plate". Although it was not as good as we make it, a wise man once told me that the best beer in world is a free beer, that would be my father. Out of respect, I couldn't not have one.
Huge props, first of all, to anyone who rode that course on a cross bike. Just finishing with one of those must have been a huge challenge, I couldn't bring myself to complain about how sore my arms and lower back were because of them. Of course, big props to Chown for the win, Neil Armstrong for his second place in 45+ (both on cx bikes), JC for an awesome performance for his first race of the year, as a matter of fact, Canada was really well represented with the SHCC and St.CCC. Also, props to De Cal, Perry, Visser, and Maccalum for their performance at Springbank.
Huge thanks to Neil for taking me there and back, that guy is awesome. Also, to Chown for his defenitely needed gel and bottle-and-a-half of Accelerade.
Tomorow is the opening night of the Youth MTB club, always a good time. Looks like a road race weekend in Hamburg as well as the Racoon Rally might be added to the schedule, which is getting pretty crammed if you ask me.
I entered the first bit of singletrack sitting 8th, up the first long climb I was pretty comfortable in the train. I didn't loose any spots but by the time we got out the open road I seemed to be behind 20, not sure what happened there, some people were talking about wrong turns that made for a short cut, I'm sure no one actually ment to do it. Anyways, this was before the second big climb so I picked off a few here and there and made my way back to my spot. Coming around the pond before the final descent of lap 1 a few people got caught by a flat trap, a dip just big enough to fit your wheel so if you hit it just right you find yourself with no more air, the guy in front of me who got caught was riding a 29er. Dismount and run it is.
Lap 2 I was feeling very good, the caffeine from the gel Nathan gave me was working its magic and I was starting to bridge gaps in the singletrack. I'll have a better idea of what position I was it at what point when the results are up but I believe I was in 5th or 6th and starting to pull in the next guy. I wanted to pick off 2 more guys before the end of the lap, but riding on the bumpy and greasy open field between trails just kicks the shit out of you. There was one nice really long doubletrack section that was pure horsepower, but I still couldn't seem to get the next guy. A few spots were swapped before the end of the lap but I think I stayed in the same position.
Starting lap 3 I could feel the depletion of energy in my legs and a hard-charging JC "the power house frenchman" Roberge wasn't making things any better. He ended up catching me on an open field section and I was unable to hold on to his wheel, I should have taken my gel before the next guy caught me that way I could have jumped on his wheel, but I took it after I realised that if I went hard on the next climb I would surely cramp. I had to let him go, lesson learned, eat gel before getting caught and not after. The rest of the race I fought hard but there was no one in sight behind me or in front of me, JC was gone. Came through the finish in 1:48 -corrected- and the winning time was 1:40ish by none other than Nathan Chown, no need for ""'s between his first and last name. Apparently he was leading the country in UCI points way back when, had no idea until there was a speach about him before his award.
Before the awards JC and I headed over to some 55 degree water to destinkafy and cool off, I'm not too sure where the water came from but I'll post up tomorow if I start to sprout a third arm.
Now get this, after the race we were treated to some deliciously greassy pizza, some salad AND FREE BEER! Yeah, I know, crazy. It nearly brought a tear to my eye, I think I saw JC crying out of joy though while eating out of his pizza box: "What? Dey ran out of plate". Although it was not as good as we make it, a wise man once told me that the best beer in world is a free beer, that would be my father. Out of respect, I couldn't not have one.
Huge props, first of all, to anyone who rode that course on a cross bike. Just finishing with one of those must have been a huge challenge, I couldn't bring myself to complain about how sore my arms and lower back were because of them. Of course, big props to Chown for the win, Neil Armstrong for his second place in 45+ (both on cx bikes), JC for an awesome performance for his first race of the year, as a matter of fact, Canada was really well represented with the SHCC and St.CCC. Also, props to De Cal, Perry, Visser, and Maccalum for their performance at Springbank.
Huge thanks to Neil for taking me there and back, that guy is awesome. Also, to Chown for his defenitely needed gel and bottle-and-a-half of Accelerade.
Tomorow is the opening night of the Youth MTB club, always a good time. Looks like a road race weekend in Hamburg as well as the Racoon Rally might be added to the schedule, which is getting pretty crammed if you ask me.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Another one bites the dust
Opted for a mtb ride today since the trails won't be dry for much longer, oh yeah, and mountain biking kicks ass. It was an awesome day for anything actual, hot enough to make fighting a headwind on the road a fun challenge, almost a relief after sweating so bad in the trails.
I rode pretty hard until I got to Brock, decided to take the Bruce Trail after a little loop in the Dump. A really fun trail with some good log hops at the bottom, managed to make them all finally, a couple I had to question then man up and walk back then do it. Once I got out on Treemont rd. I started my tempo, did a couple hard climbs on the road before heading back into the trail. The first set of singletrack climbs right to the top of the escarpment, I had to take a little breather after that one, I felt the heat getting to me. After a couple minutes I got back on and continued the tempo out to Hydro Hill, got a call from Nat (The Coach's boss) and I was to meet them at Allanburg. So I pushed really hard through some trails, across the creek, very hard through the 8x12 and then finished it with an all out effort up Decew. Stopped at The Mill to top up the bottles.
Took the L2L gravel back to Allanburg where we met up with De Cal who was prepping for Springbank this weekend. Shot the shit then rode some trails for over an hour before heading back home along the canal trails. Of course, with not even 30s of trail left before we were to get on the pavement JF gets a rip in his tire, most likely from glass. The glueless patch actually held up for the last 3k. Perfect day for a 4 hour ride.
Just had a huge protein shake not too long ago and now I'm waiting for some potatoes and sausage to be ready. Gonna go to my grandpaps for Game 1 of the Mtl v Crosby series, can you believe they actually came back and beat Washington?
Tomorow is looking like a good day to get out for an early ride while its hot and before the rain comes.
I rode pretty hard until I got to Brock, decided to take the Bruce Trail after a little loop in the Dump. A really fun trail with some good log hops at the bottom, managed to make them all finally, a couple I had to question then man up and walk back then do it. Once I got out on Treemont rd. I started my tempo, did a couple hard climbs on the road before heading back into the trail. The first set of singletrack climbs right to the top of the escarpment, I had to take a little breather after that one, I felt the heat getting to me. After a couple minutes I got back on and continued the tempo out to Hydro Hill, got a call from Nat (The Coach's boss) and I was to meet them at Allanburg. So I pushed really hard through some trails, across the creek, very hard through the 8x12 and then finished it with an all out effort up Decew. Stopped at The Mill to top up the bottles.
Took the L2L gravel back to Allanburg where we met up with De Cal who was prepping for Springbank this weekend. Shot the shit then rode some trails for over an hour before heading back home along the canal trails. Of course, with not even 30s of trail left before we were to get on the pavement JF gets a rip in his tire, most likely from glass. The glueless patch actually held up for the last 3k. Perfect day for a 4 hour ride.
Just had a huge protein shake not too long ago and now I'm waiting for some potatoes and sausage to be ready. Gonna go to my grandpaps for Game 1 of the Mtl v Crosby series, can you believe they actually came back and beat Washington?
Tomorow is looking like a good day to get out for an early ride while its hot and before the rain comes.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Done... Now it begins
Finished off my last exam yesterday, 3 hours of philosophy, hopefully my brain hardens back up in a couple days. Took my last antibiotic this morning, hopefully they worked. Now that school is done for the next 4 months, I just have work and training to worry about. Most of the summer days will go something like; wake up/eat/work/eat/ride/eat/sleep, not very complicated. Work will consist of shovelling chicken shit or goat shit (yeah, there's a goat coupe too), cutting grass and gardening. Pretty good work, keeps me from sitting on my ass all day.
This week's training, back up to Tuesday night's race, lots of attacks right from the start. Lefebvre, Toews and Holtzman got away and when I bridged a small gap to Etzl we put the hammer down and looked back to see we had a gap. Noah joined us shortly, don't mess with his cadence. We were chassing for a lap until they got away from me and I was chassing solo for the rest of the race trying to stay away from Chown, Perry, Hokins and maybe others but I forget. Lefebvre dropped off the first group so I was chassing two guys who were chassing two guys. In the end, no one caught anyone. Some pretty big gaps in the field, wind sure played a big factor in that. I was feeling comfortable above theshold trying to hammer in the headwind, Perry is defenitely right that I have to learn how to hold a wheel in a corner, I'm getting tired of bridging 50m gaps after every turn.
An exam 2-5 pretty much screws up any training you have planned since I like to take a nap after a ride, can't really do that when writting an exam. After the exam I decided to chill out a bit and pick it back up today. I sent out an email to De Cal and Morka on Tuesday to see if I can get a ride set up on today, totally forgot to check my email until this morning. De Cal was probably already out riding since he had work, but Morka wasn't heading out til 11:30. We met at Mossimo's, did some good climbs, battled some good winds and finished off through the Hollows after 3 hours. The initial plan was to head to Jordan but I got a flat heading North on Effingham, luckily a lady rode by on her nice new Trek bike because my back-up tube didn't work and I couldn't use Morka's because he was on his hardtail. I did a doulbe patch job and somehow it worked, so we stuck around closer to home just to be safe. Good stuff.
I told him about my problem with race starts and he said that my warm-up is for sure a huge factor in that, his warm-ups are never under an hour. So I'll defenitely try that out before this weekend's race and see if I can actually breathe for the first 10 minutes.
Tomorow I would like to get out on the mtb before the rain comes, Pipelines might not be dry but it's worth a shot to check it out on my way North.
This week's training, back up to Tuesday night's race, lots of attacks right from the start. Lefebvre, Toews and Holtzman got away and when I bridged a small gap to Etzl we put the hammer down and looked back to see we had a gap. Noah joined us shortly, don't mess with his cadence. We were chassing for a lap until they got away from me and I was chassing solo for the rest of the race trying to stay away from Chown, Perry, Hokins and maybe others but I forget. Lefebvre dropped off the first group so I was chassing two guys who were chassing two guys. In the end, no one caught anyone. Some pretty big gaps in the field, wind sure played a big factor in that. I was feeling comfortable above theshold trying to hammer in the headwind, Perry is defenitely right that I have to learn how to hold a wheel in a corner, I'm getting tired of bridging 50m gaps after every turn.
An exam 2-5 pretty much screws up any training you have planned since I like to take a nap after a ride, can't really do that when writting an exam. After the exam I decided to chill out a bit and pick it back up today. I sent out an email to De Cal and Morka on Tuesday to see if I can get a ride set up on today, totally forgot to check my email until this morning. De Cal was probably already out riding since he had work, but Morka wasn't heading out til 11:30. We met at Mossimo's, did some good climbs, battled some good winds and finished off through the Hollows after 3 hours. The initial plan was to head to Jordan but I got a flat heading North on Effingham, luckily a lady rode by on her nice new Trek bike because my back-up tube didn't work and I couldn't use Morka's because he was on his hardtail. I did a doulbe patch job and somehow it worked, so we stuck around closer to home just to be safe. Good stuff.
I told him about my problem with race starts and he said that my warm-up is for sure a huge factor in that, his warm-ups are never under an hour. So I'll defenitely try that out before this weekend's race and see if I can actually breathe for the first 10 minutes.
Tomorow I would like to get out on the mtb before the rain comes, Pipelines might not be dry but it's worth a shot to check it out on my way North.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
O-Cup #1 Mansfield
A couple days late, but with 4 exams sandwiched in 6 days I haven't had much time for anything. After studying Saturday, then writting an exam from 2-5, then rushing to get a chain for tonights World Cup to make it to work for 5:30, getting everything ready was left to Sunday morning. Good thing I race at 1:30 now because it was tight. We (me and pap) made it to the course just before 1 and I got signed in and peeled a layer off. Warmed up for a bit solo, then with Morka, then solo again, I got in the starting pen at the very pack. So here's a vid of the start to explain part of how the beginning of my race went. Yeah, that's me, third last.
The pace wasn't very high at all but I always tend to breathe uncontollably at the start no matter how fast it is. Weird, it's not the nerves, maybe a shitty warm up technique? Or I am just brutal at starts, I'll find out in a few races. The first lap went by very quick even fealing as shitty as I was, I started to feel better on the opening climb the second time around but once back in the trails I was just fealing tired and I had lost count of the amount of crashes. I was riding with Jeff Moote when the front Elite guys came by, that was cool to see. The third time up the climb I felt awesome, this is where my race started. A couple stupid moves, but nothing major, started picking guys off and was making very good use of the big ring.
The last time up the climb I pinned in and started fealing very good. My fourth lap was my fastest lap (besides the shortened first one) and I started picking off more and more guys, I dropped my chain for the third or fourth time on one of the steep climbs, but a little on-the-go fix and remount combination ment that I didn't loose much ground at all.
I had no idea where I was, I was hoping top 10, but that didn't end up being the case. Ended up 17th out of 30. Not too bad for my first expert race, hopefully get in the top 10 at Albion and start making my way up to the podium by August.
There was no time for socializing afterwards because I was getting some sort of energy exchange/mind clearing. Pretty cool stuff, did it work? Not sure, I was able to breathe better afterwards but that could have been caused simply by the rest and the fact that I was no longer inhaling second-hand dust. Who knows? Let's just leave it at that.
Just like any race, some good things learned. I'm defenitely going to get in a much longer warm up by arriving at last 2 hours early to have some time to chill and get on the trainer for 30min before spinning around and doing some tempo/sprints. Handlebars Spring Mountain Bike Classic this weekend with Chown, he's doing it on his cross bike, should be a quick race.
Props to Etzl for his podium in Cadet ex, De Cal for a strong ride for his first time in Elite, Derek M. just missing a podium, and Jeff K. cracking the top 10 in masters. Sorry if I missed anyone, I'm studying for my philosophy exam so my brain is a little fuzzy.
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