Pedal Dammit!

I need a map

2011-08-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

I started the week off well with a 2hr steady road ride on Monday to help the legs recover and keep them ready. I headed out again Tuesday for another 2hrs to get a couple sets of Tabata intervals done and a race pace interval. I finished my ride out at Kelso to watch Dan and Manda race. Dan crushed it, went balls out and was a lot faster then the previous weeks due to all his hard training over the last bit. Manda held her own pretty well and had a solid ride. I stayed away from racing because I still wasn't fully recovered from Saturday and 50mins at race pace would've burried me in a hole, so the Tabata's put the hurt on my lungs but not so much my legs. Wednesday I was at the gym after work and spun the legs out for 30mins and then did a good core workout. I felt pretty good during the workout and got in a solid sauna stretch afterward. Yesterday I had an easy 1.5 hour ride on the mtb so I decided to head to Hilton Falls just next door to Kelso. I figured since it's so flat it will give my legs a break from the hills at Kelso and the ton of rocks at HF will help me work on my tech skills. It started out as a great idea and I was having an awsome fun ride until I got lost. Here's the problem, Kelso I know inside out as its a prretty basic trail system. Most of the trails at Kelso are marked and you are either on top of the escarpment or below it. The are not really any trails that connect other trails together that arn't marked. At HF the Halton Regional Forest (The Agreement Forest) is connected to it and all of those trails are not marked. There is no big escarpment either to use as a land mark, and instead of being a square shape, it is rectangular with a North side that goes out and a far West side. Needless to say it's a freakin maze. I had planned to stay along the double track and ride only Hilton Falls' single track that is marked. Because there are so many side trails and intersections that aren't marked I ended up going off the main single track and ended up in the Agreement Forest. I managed to miss every storm cloud that was dropping buckets of rain and somehow lost my way back to my car - I definitely didn't find my way back to my car as I had no idea where I was. In the end great ride, and great place to work on your tech skills. My plan is to ride there on easy days and eventually learn the trails as best I can and my tech skills should improve quite a bit.

Today will be a brutally tough ride after work, a bunch of race simulation intervals, pyramid intervals, and not a whole lot of rest in between. I feel really good today as my week of rest and solid sleep/nutrition is starting to work. After my ride this evening I'll just be taking it easy, stretch and roll the legs and the rest of the weekend will be spent doing easy spins. Sunday I'll be at Kelso with Mark for a short easy ride and sometime this weekend I'll be going to trade in my old snow board for some xc skiis - should make training this winter a lot more exciting.

All for now.

Provincial's Pre ride

2011-08-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend has a ton of races going on with the East Coast Open and the mtb Marathon in Mansfield and of course the pre ride up at Highlands Nordic. I chose to keep it relaxed and save some money and stress and went out to Highlands. Got there nice and early after a way too short of a sleep. I'll thank my car for that one - never decide to work on drum brakes at 6 in the evening, it will have you up till' 12. Had a planned 6 laps to do, 2 recon, 1 tempo to test my lines, 1 1st lap pace (about top end of z4), and 2 laps at an easy tempo. My first reaction of the course was wow this is awsome - which surprised me as I normally like wide open courses like Kelso and not one with a bunch of tight twisty single track and limited double track. I still loved it though. I actually found that I rode smoother when I started pushing the pace. A lot of the single track you can pump and really throw the bike around in corners since the trails were damp but not wet. The only potential problem that I see with this track is the lack of passing opportunities. To pass you're going to have to pin it one of the steep double track climbs. I think that is why I'm looking forward to this one, you are either climbing or descending, it's sort of like Mansfield meets Woodnewton or Hardwood. The climbs are pretty steep and not super long, this is usually one of my strengths later in the race which should help me out. As for the tight twisty, rocky, rooty course I was feeling confident and comfortable with it throught the 6 laps so I don't think that it will be too much of a negative for me during the race.

I have to look over the bike tomorrow as the shifting was a little off. It ran fine but it was making a little extra noise in the rear and hopping off the big ring once and a while. It was most likely from the rock garden at Kelso when my rear triangle smacked the rock after my rear wheel got bounced.

Tomorrow will be an easy day with a ton of relaxing. I'll be headin out on the road for an easy spin for an hour and then off to the gym with Manda for a core workout. This should leave me more then rested for Tuesday's race. The car is pretty much fixed so I won't have to stress too much over that. Huge thanks to my dad who has basically put his last couple Friday's down the drain to help me, without his help I wouldn't have a car to drive right now.

Hope the rain holds off for tomorrow morning.

Kelso Ocup 6 Race Report

2011-08-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was the second last Ocup of the season at Kelso Conservation in Milton. I had spent enough time riding the course to be super comfortable with it and felt pretty good about it early in the week. I spent the majority of the week doin very short rides and getting as much rest as possible with a lot of stretching/rolling. I went up Saturday for another pre ride which had the official course marked (note to self check out the pre ride times first, the trail running series was on and I ended up having to go back later). I was a little surprised with. Some of the changes with the course but after doubling back a couple times I had all of my lines figured out with no problems. I was also surprised with how the course was now just over 10km a lap, I knew this was because Kelso is super fast but it still semmed fairly long. I was happy with the extra rock gardens thrown into the race and the extra climbing as it made the course that much better.

I woke up on Sunday feeling extremely rested and recovered and the legs felt really fresh, probably the best they've felt in a really long time. I took a look outside and saw how hard it was raining and started thinking about the course. I knew that the trails were super hard packed and wouldn't absorb much water so the surface would be full of water and really slick. I knew the rock gardebs well enough to be able to hit them with speed in the rain but I wasn't sure how slick they would be either.

I had a great breakfast and drank a lot heading out to Kelso. Got to Kelso to hear that it just stopped pouring rain and to see all the racers that were full of mud from the earlier races. It started to get sunny as I signed up and got everything set up. With the humidity and all it got super hot really fast. I started warming up and it was now really sunny and turning into a nice day.

I got to the start pen and was sitting around the back row which was fine since my plan was to start off slower and slowy ramp it up over the 5 laps. I started up the climb at a decent pace and headed into the single track around 28th or so place, quite a bit further back from where I wanted to be but I knew it was a long race and everyone always kills it up the first climb and then needs to spin it out at the top. I was feeling good along the single track and through the rock gardens. It was really slick and in one rock garden my rear tire got popped up and out to the right and hit a rock pretty good. It didn't slow me down at all but I thought I'd taken out my rear derailleur, but kept on rolling and everything was still working fine. It was super hot and humid and I'd finish my full bottle by the end of the lap. I passed a few riders each lap and kept everything super smooth and consistent. By the start of the 4th lap I could start feeling cramps coming on in my lower quads, but they were mild and were manageable. I was in no mans land on the 4th lap as I was slowly catching a group of 3 ahead of me and had made a big gap on anyone behind me. Mark was giving me my splits to the 15th placed guy every lap so I knew I was on pace to catch them on the last lap. At the start of the 5th lap I caught the group of 3 on some double track and passed them. I made a solid 35 second or so gap on them and could see Tim, the 12th ace rider around every corner and was gaining on him pretty quickly.

Then it all went bad, at about 46km. I got really bad chills, not the usual "o I'm a little dehydrated" type chills, these were full on I'm friggin cold and need a jacket kind of chills. I started getting really dizzy and couldn't focus on the trail I was on. My power dropped right off and I was barely able to keep on the trail. At this point I lost sight of the 12th place guy and the trio that I had passed earlier eventually caught back up and passed me. I couldn't do anything but watch them ride away, it sucked. A lot. I put it in damage control and just wanted to finish the race and get through the remaining rock gardens. They were scary, when I hit the last one after the feed zone I didn't even know where I was headed I just pointed my bike between the trees and went. I almost crashed and had to put my foot down. Eventually I crossed the line, good for 16th place. I felt like I was going to pass out, I waved off the chocolate milk in favor of my post ride recovery drink and spun around a bit. I was downing water all night and didn't feel better until about 9PM that evening.

Overall I'm extremely happy with the race. Not as much with the end results but really happy with how I rode. I paced myself smartly for the whole race, I felt I rode the technical sections super smoothly and I stuck to the race plan regardless of my placing throughout the race. If I would've avoided hitting the wall with about 5km to go it was looking like a top 12 finish. My lap times we're pretty consistent at about 26mins and change and my last one shot up to 28. If I had finished strong then I should've had that lap to under 26mins which would've been good for 12 spot. Considering that I haven't done a race in about a month and a half, I was impressed with my fitness and how it all went.

Talking to Mark afterwards we figured out why I hit the wall. I started the race lightly dehydrated, when I got to Kelso I was so worried about getting everything set up that I stopped drinking. It was hot from the time I got there so I was sweating quite a bit. I did a 25min warmup on the trainer so no wind was blowing byme and I barely even went through half my bottle. Since the race was so hot and I started it dehydrated, it only took about 4 laps until it put me in the red. In hind sight I should've drank right up until the start so that way as the race progressed I would've only been mildly dehydrated and not in the red. I've had the feeling of bonking before, where you just run out of fitness. This was definitely not it, so at least I can fix it for next time.

I'll be doing a core workout tonight, first time back at the gym in over a week so it'l be nice to get back. Thursday I'll be at Kelso for a shorter easy ride and I'll probably run through the rock gardens a bunch of times. Friday I'll be back at the gym and the to sleep early as I'll be heading up to Nordic Highlans on Saturday for the provncials course pre ride and a tough training ride. I missed the Kelso race last night as I needed another day of recovery so I just spun it out on my road bike.

All for now, I'm looking forward to these next few weeks to get some good training in for provincials.

Gettin' ready for the Kelso Ocup

2011-08-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty busy last couple weeks with work widing down to its last month. As much as I enjoy working outside I think I'll need to find a different job next year, this one involves too much man labor and makes it tough to get as much recovery in as I need. Next summer I'll have graduated University anyways so hopefully I'll be started on a career by then. Last week I took mostly off as I was feeling a lot of the effects of the hard previous 3 weeks. This week after talking to Mark and Tom I've been following some strict recovery, I'm still riding but it's very limited and all my other time is spent rolling my muscles, stretching, or putting the feet up and keeping the HR down.

Tuesday's race went pretty well. I had pre ridden the Ocup course quite a bit on the weekend and found it not to flow very well. After Tuesday I realized that following just arrows and not marking tape can have that effect on a course. I met up with Chris on the weekend and we both showed eachother some solid lines. I thought I had them all dialied until he showed me one on an uphill rock garden that made it seem too easy. He'll be racing with us Elite's on Sunday and if I remember correctly I think he said it was his debut, so best of luck to him. Back to the Tuesday race. I was practicing a new strategy for Sunday and was focused on getting my lines dialed in. The new strategy courtesy of Tom and Mark is basically to start out the Ocup just below 6:16:32 PM for the first lap and then slowly ramp it up. I used to go balls out from the gun and then my last few laps would be pretty slow and I'd just barely finish, it's a rookie mistake. This works good for 5 lap races that are roughly 42km long, but not so good for 3 lap Kelso races. I was trying the new strategy out, not using it to win. It wasn't easy as I basicall had to watch riders ride away from me on the service road climb. I stayed disciplined and kept it in a lower zone. As the race went on I slowly ramped it up and by the 3rd lap I had enough to stand on all of the climbs and hammer without having any cramping or severe fatigue problems. It'll take a little while to get used to this new way of racing, but it is definitely more effective and efficient. It is something that I know will definitely help me on Sunday.

I was happy with how I rode the course, I felt much more smooth in the tech and tight twisty sections. I had some chain drop issues on a rocky run in to a steep short up hill, but I figured out how to avoid that issue in the future.

I had an easy spin today with a light sauna stretch. Tomorrow I'll be on the road bike for a short loop and one hard effort. The main focus for the rest of the week will be rest, bike prep, and sleep. I'm looking forward to Sunday, I'm not too sure how high my fitness will be for this race but it will at least give me a good idea of what I need to work on come the Provincials which is 5 weeks out.

That's all for now

just call me Crash

2011-07-20T11:36:00.001-07:00

The past weekend was another tough one with a 2.5 hour ride at Kelso on Saturday and then a long 4 hour ride their again on Sunday. I did some race pace laps on Sunday, planned on doing 4 but went to start the 4th and knew it would've been a waste as my legs were done. I met Kyle up there for my last 2 hrs and we climbed the service road and cruised around the back of Kelso for a bit. I hadn't been back there for a bit so it was good times. This upcoming week is my last tough week before an easy week so I expected very little from the legs. I went easy on Monday's road ride and was feeling pretty tired after a lack of sleep from the move in. Yesterday I rode the new course for 2 hrs which was about 5 times up the service road. I kept it a light pace since I had no power in the legs.

The race in the evening went better then I thought since I figured I'd barely finish since my legs were toast after the 2 hrs before. I went to start at a good pace but got to the bottom of the service road and felt a lack of go in the legs so I let the others catch up and followed their pace. During my pre ride I was going slower and never really tested the sandy lose corners, once we were going at a fast pace I found out the hard way how lose the corners were. I hit the deck making a left and went down on the same hip I did last week, got back up and hammered and caught back on to Tyler, Alex, and Schidt's wheel. I wanted to up the pace as I knew I could on the flats but I also knew I lacked the legs to keep that pace so making a random attatck and then being caught would've been useless. On another left turn about 10mins down the trail I hit the deck again, except this time much harder. This one hurt and gave me some nasty road rash on my hip. It took a little longer but oce I got going again I caught back on. I was riding pretty sloppy the first lap but cleaned it up on the second and third. Schmidt and I were riding alone together for the last 2 laps as we pulled away from the other 2. He pull on the flats with his big wheels and I'd lead in the single track. I wasn't finding our pace too hard but I knew I didn't have the legs to break away or win in a sprint in the end, I just had no top end. On one of the last singletrack sections I didn't see a rock and caught my front wheel and threw my stem into my gut. By the time I could breath again and got rolling Schmidt was way ahead and I pulled in 2nd. I was really feeling it by the end, barely made it up the hill to the finish. I'm happy with how I did, I cleaned up my riding in the last 2 laps and was able to still have a solid ride and hang on even with being super tired.

Today I'm off to the gym and then I got to work at the gym for a bit thenit's off to go home to bed. With the move and all going on my sleep has dropped a bit in the last 2 nights, not a good thing when the training volume is high. I'm looking forward to next week to recover, I'm starting to really feel all the training now and have been getting pretty tired lately. Thursday is an easy road spin with 2 sets of Tabata intervals, Friday is just a core workout and the weekend will be tough to finish off a hard week. I'm planning on an easy 3 hr road ride on Saturday and a hard race pace intervals ride at Kelso on Sunday.

Hope this super hot/dry weather stays

legs are starting to finally come around

2011-07-13T14:40:00.001-07:00

It's been quite the busy past couple of weeks for me. I know I said I'd blog more but that won't happen until after this weekend since training and sleep take priority over the blog. Amanda and I are moving into an apartment on Sunday that's another reason I've been so busy. It's actually a coach house which is above a garage. It's small, cozy and has a ton of sunlight which I seem to be very mood sensitive to. It's located in upper Oakville right near Trafalger and Dundas. Basically it's in between my school and Manda's school and super close to rural roads for some good road rides. Looking forward to it once the move in is all set.

Last week I had some solid traing rides. Thursday was some Tabata intervals and my lunch stayed down so it was all good. On the weekend I was on the mtb for 3 hrs Saturday at Kelso doing some z2/z3 stuff, I ended up getting a little carried away and most of the ride ended up being z3. Manda met me at Kelso after my ride and we went down to the lake for a swim and a picnic. I think I scared away some small children with my freakish looking tan lines.
Headed out to Kelso again on Sunday and even after a solid 8.5hr sleep I was still yawning and the legs weren't too happy from the day before. After a couple warm up laps the body started acting normal and I got to work on some hard race pace laps. I didn't bring enough to eat and ended up bonking myself off the bike. I ended up finishing just shy of my 3.5hr ride as I got so hungry and the upper body was so weak I couldn't keep myself on the bike. Headed home got some food in me and put the legs up and started feeling better.
Monday I decided to listen to my tired body and kept the ride in z2 and barely did any z3. I felt ok but mylegs were toast. I wasn't sure how I'd feel for the race Tuesday, especially when I rode around for 2hrs before the race and the legs were pretty sore. I again kept my ride relatively easy to save what little I had for the race. This time I forced myself to drink more water and I had a lot more during the day at work. I had a couple tblsp's of raw honey right before the race and drank eLoad during the race instead of water. This definatelyy helped as I didn't get the "chills" until the last lap near the end. I lined up for the start without any blood on my legs - seemes to be the norm for me everytime I'm on the mtb. Of course everyone said something to jinx it and sure enough after going through the lap gate after my first lap, I was bombing down the grassy decent and cut left so I could hit the gravel straight on and I cut it too sharp and slid out. Landed my left hip on a rock and cut the shorts, had to laugh at myself a little as I knew a crash free Tuesday sounded too good to be true. Got back on the bike and gav'r until the finish and ended up pullin for first.

I definitely wasn't 100% especially after the tough training on the weekend, but what I was pleased with was the feeling I had during the race. I actually had something at the top of the climb and was able to stand and hammer. On all the flats and around each corner I'd hammer and wasn't feeling so "dead" like the whole season so far. I actually had a top end. My HR was still a few beats below my normal and my legs were still holding me back from goin 100%, but that was expected from how tired they were. It will be inyeresting to see my lap times when I'm 100% if I ever do a Tuesday night race fully rested.

I decided to not race the Road Provincials and just train on the mtb up until the next O cup which is at Kelso. I figure with some more high volume training weekends/weeks with a lot of time on the mtb, I can show up at the O cup and actually race to my full potential-something I've yet to do this year. I'm finding more and more the limits of the Rocket Ron's as well, I've been pushing them pretty hard lately on the dry trails and have found that they hold up much better then I thought. In 3 rides my bike hasn't had a single mechanical issue, new record for me let's hope I can keep this up.

Tomorrow I'll be out on the road doing an easy spin with 2 sets of Tabata intervals. I'll try and post back by the weekend, but most likely it will be after the move.

Keep the rubber side down

I'm Back...

2011-07-06T11:51:00.001-07:00

Finally back on my mtb after way to long- think it was a round 4 weeks or something. I planned to be back last Tuesday since I had all the new parts on my bike, except that my cable housing jammed itself into my shifter. It had been like that for a while but was being masked by another problem. Instead I just watched the race, and watched Amanda fly on her 2 laps, she claims it's something called a stairmaster...I say check her for EPO.

This past week had sort of been all over the place in terms of training. Since I missed a fairly important Tuesday race pace effort and my planned longer/easy rides ended up being shorter hard rides. This is because I headed out Thursday bright and early with Manda's family to Quebec. It was an awsome vacation and we stayed in MSA for 2 nights and then St. Sauvard for the last 2. I did a run on Friday and rode my road bike on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Since we were surrounded by mountains, I did some repeats and tough tempo like riding with efforts over all the rollers. We went down to downtown QC which was super awsome to see with all the old buildings and the euro style culture there. I got to see the U23's race as well, the Canadians crushed it and there were a bunch in the top 20.

I woke up Tuesday with tired legs and feeling a little sluggish from all the driving back home. It was a hot day and I was working outside in the sun and I wasn't being smart with my water intake. Got to Kelso to pre ride for a couple hours before the race. I wasn't too sure what to expect from the legs, I was just glad to be back on the mtb. The bike was running great (just need to re adjust the FD as the chain skipped a couple times) and I was riding really smooth considering the time off the bike. The legs, well not so much, they didn't have much in them to sustain any sort of effort. After my pre ride of the super fast flowy course I realised I had only drank 500ml of water in just under 2 hrs. Race was bout to start so it was too late to get any fluids in me.

The race I'll say was a success for me, mostly cause I finished and before the race that was my goal. I knew the legs were way too fried for a win, and the dehydration wasn't going to help. I got the shakes 1/2 way into the first lap. I figured with it being the first time back on the mtb, just finish. Well I finished and I rode much smoother then before. The start of the race was pretty normal, my legs had power I just knew they couldn't sustain any effort for very long. So as soon as we started I figured I'd move into the lead and see where the legs took me. I had a decent gap but as soon as I hit the gravel falso flat going into Fire the legs shut down and weren't putting out any more watts. The group caught back on and I started climbing Fire, I was in one gear lower then I normally climb in as a result of the legs. I cut a corner to close on a rocky/steep section and had to hop off, sorry bout that, think I sort of ruined the momentum there for a couple riders. Got back on and made it to the top. Where I normally get into the big ring and hammer and had to just sit and spin and by the time we were climbing Rockey Road I couldn't hold Ian and a Reynold Cycle's riders' wheel. Normally that would be the spot where I'd make my gap on the group, but the legs would have none of it. From that point on I just settled into a rythym of z4,z5 instead of the usual race pace z5, z6. As the race wore on a couple more riders went by me. I was riding super smooth on the tech sections but I just had no go on the flat parts and falso flats, all the areas where I normally stand and giv'r. On the last lap I got past by a younger Reynolds Cycle rider (Jr Ex I think) he asked if I wanted to work with him , but I had to decline that offer as he was goin a pretty good pace and I was just keeping my rythym. On the ride to the finish his teammate ended up coming from behind me and out sprinting me. I didn't even see him just heard a bunch of people yelling that someone was behind me, sneaky move!

I'm happy with how it all went, I expected my legs to be how they were based on the weekend and Monday's hilly ride. I also haven't raced for a few weeks and missed my Tabata intervals on Thursday so that would explain the missing top end. I'm pleased with my tech. Riding and how the bike felt and everything else. Today I'll be doing a core workout and resting the legs, tomorrow I'll head out on the road bike for a short easy ride which I'll interupt with 2 sets of Tabata intervals to open up the lungs, 1.5 sets made me yak 2 weeks ago so not too sure what 2 full sets will do to me. If you see a cyclists in yellow swerving along the roads in Milton, give 'em some space, there's a good chance he's super dizzy from lack of O2.

this weekend I'll be doing a ton of mtbing at Kelso with a focus on HR recovery. Basically going balls out up the escarpment and then at the top forcing myself to hammer in the big ring. If I train properly the next few weeks I will be in great shape for the next O cup which is at Kelso. I'm missing Buckwallow since it's so flat and technical and I'm not in great race shape since I just got back on the mtb. I should see an improvement at the next Kelso race as well after this week of training.

I had a good talk with Mark from The Vitamin Store yesterday, and we changed up a couple things for this week training block regarding my food intake etc. I'll try and post more often this week, i've been slacking a bit as I've been focused on getting 8 hrs of sleep every night and the blog had to be put off a bit. Hence why this is being typed on my BB, so my apologies for the lack of spell check.

Off to watch a bit of the tour then going to bed, I'll checl back later this week.

Canadian National RR-report

2011-06-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

"you lose 5 in the first 5" well spoken from Justin. The start was pretty normal minus the extreme smell of brake pads before we even got onto the Bell School decent. A Quebec rider somehow slid his rear tire on the inside of the corner and almost hit the deck but it caught and he stayed up, just hit a sign instead. The super fast decent wasn't too sketchy as everyone was pretty spaced out. Then people started hittin their brakes and it got sketchy. Someone went down infront of me and all I saw was a super sharp chainring sticking up. I slammed on the brakes and just missed the chainring but caught the front wheel and sort of went over/kinda stayed up. The rider behind wasn't so lucky as I heard his tire get cut open. I looked up an saw about 6-8 ridersinfront of me rolling away to catch back on. I figured I'd just grab their wheel and we'd be back to the peleton in no time. As soon as I started pedaling I felt the dreaded no resistance. I hopped off and put the chain back on as I watched the group ride away from me. I hopped back on and after about 10 or 15 mins I managed to catch back on to the group, who were hauling ass trying to catch back onto the peleton. I caught them right at the start of Apppleby and worked a bit until the bottom of the climb. I was gassed from bridging to the group and as we hit the climb I was in my 23 which was my lowest gear and my legs were way to fried to turn the cranks over at that gear. I watched the group spin away as I tried to mash a super slow cadence. I'm an idiot for thinking that an 11-23 would work. It's do able on a traing ride but a race is another deal. As Rollin said in an interview when he pulled out of the race, the bike he was given as a replacement had an 11-23 casette on it. Enough said when it comes from a seasoned pro like him. Next time I'll smarten up and put on an 11-28. I ended up riding another lap solo and then got pulled.

On a side note my HR hit 227 bpm on the climb and was hovering at 210 for most of the lap. Normally I would disregard this as an error. Except I had no one around me to mess up my monitor and I turned it off and on and got the same reading. I could also feel it as well in my chest. As soon as the race ended my HR went back down to a normal level. Little scary to feel that.

I'm signed up for the crit tomorrow but I'll be pulling shoot on that one as I hear its a sketchy course. I was going to just ride it safe and hang in the back, the problem with this is that being in the back in a crit means you're working extremely hard so I'd probably get pulled. I'm not risking ruining my bike or the rest of my season. Instead I'll be heading out to my favorite loop out in Halton Hills for a 2.5 hour ride with an hour of hammering. The loops is full of rollers and always makes for a hard ride. That way I'll finish my last training block with a solid day. The rest of the day I'll be putting the finishing touches on my mtb so it'l be ready for Kelso on Tuesday. I'm stoked to start the Kelso races again as my fitness is starting to really come around and I want to test it out next week.

Just at Manda's work eating a post ride salad then off to sleep. For some reason I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's ride.

Good idea, bad idea

2011-06-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the good. Taking 2 weeks off from racing to get some solid training blocks in, it was definately a good idea. I've been doing a ton of road riding and some core workouts at the gym and working on my mtb in between. I laced a new rim to my 24o DT hub. She's true and good to go. And I now have an exact same spare wheelset except that the rear hub is a 340, same insides but less machined on the outside so a tad heavier. Good enough for a spare wheelset though, and the front hubs are both 240's. I decided to stick with the Ron's for rubber, looking back at my flats I've had and they would've puntured pretty much any tire so I'm giving them another chance. I love how I can run them in dry conditions and they roll fast, and in wet/muddy conditions they still grab. They are seem to hook up on corners super well, so other then them being super fast at wearing out I still think its an amazing tire. All I need now is my chainring to come in, so let's hope Canada Post goes back to work soon so I can start riding the mtb.

I'm pretty bummed about missing the Albion O cup, and a little bummed about missing the last L2L. Either way it was still a good idea as racing them would've ended up me only having half an engine and getting a sub par result, that's if I could somehow ever get my mtb to work.

This past week ive been doing some Z4 hill work and a lot of z3 stuff into the wind and up every roller. I have thrown some Tabata intervals into my week as well as those always help the top end. On the weekend I headed out for 3 hrs on Saturday for a short ride with some sprints. Most of the ride ended up being in z3 thanks to a solid headwind. Sunday I did 5hrs and 8 or 9 hills repeats up Sydenham, I lost count halfway so not sure if it was 8 or 9. The climbs felt much better then last week and I did my 3rd and 8th climb standing the whole time and the legs surprisingly took it ok. The whole way home was into a strong headwind, almost didn't make it, but somehow dizzily zigzagged into my driveway.

I headed to Amanda's house in the evening for a Fathers day dinner, and this is where the bad idea comes in. After dinner Dan announced it was time for a fathers day post dinner bike ride. I was tired and my legs were fried, but a nice leasurely ride around the neighborhood sounded good. Sort of forgot that the Schottlander's are a super active family and a post dinner bike ride for them means more then around the neighborhood! they all got on their bikes spandex and clipins ready. I was scared that they'd try and go for some townline sprints. The pace was a nice comfortable one that probably helped my legs recover. The issue was my butt. After the 5 hour day in the saddle, sitting on a bike in jeans hurts...a lot. All in all fun ride and it was great to get out with them all, and a good way to end the weekend.

Off to do an easy road ride then gym for a core workout.

Taking a Break

2011-06-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I'll be taking two weeks off of racing. After Tuesday's attempt to race at Kelso I had enough of the mechanicals and decided to put the mtb aside until all my parts come in and the bike is 100% ready to go. There are way to many things wrong with my bike right now and the temporary fixes eventually went on Tuesday. My last 3 races have all been DNF's and that takes it's toll psychologically. I really wanted to race at Albion as the course is relatively non technical and it usually has a decent amount of climbing, so it tends to be one of my stronger races. There is just no sense in doing a race where you can't feel confident that you're bike is going to hold up, and it is likely that it'd be another DNF. That's the last thing I need right now, so I've decided to hop back on the road bike. Nationals are a couple weeks away so I figured I'd train a ton on the road bike, with some high volume rides and a lot of hill repeats.

Lately I have been doing most of my rides on my mtb as I need to get better at technical riding, but it had me missing the long road rides out in the middle of no where. It will be nice to get back to long rides for a bit and a break from the race weekend stress of getting everything ready and what not. I don't like not racing but I do need a break. My HR is starting to normalize and my adrenal's are almost 100%. With the weekend off from racing the lower amount of stress should have them fully recovered by nationals.

I slept in today and headed out for a 3 hour road ride to do some sprints. I fully expected to get rained on, but it held off and ended up being a pretty nice ride. It's been a while since I got some good sprints done on my road bike, and it felt a little awkward on the first few. By the last couple I was sprinting a lot better and more comfortable. I was pushing Z3 a lot as there was a decent wind that made for a good challenge.

Tomorrow I'll sleep in a bit and then I'll be heading out to Sydenham for a bunch of hill repeats. I love that climb, I have no problem getting my HR to it's max on that hill after a few repeats, as much as they hurt I always enjoy doing them. It's about 1.5hrs from my house out to Sydenham so it'l be a solid 4 hour ride tomorrow.

This upcoming week I should be back to driving my tractor at work instead of standing out in the sun pushing a field liner across soccer fields and walking a couple extra km's each day. I was amazed at how much more tired I was when I wasn't in the tractor all day. I'll be focusing on sleep and nutrition/recovery this week and next. I'm hoping that these 2 weeks of hard training and good rest should have me in better form for the nationals. My mtb should be fixed this week so I'll be racing again at Kelso once it's up and running and I'll get a few more training rides in on it instead of just the road bike.

Off to fix my seized pedals from the Bai St Paul race.

Canada Cup 3 race report-Hardwood Hills

2011-06-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

This one doesn't even deserve a video blog...

another DNF, seems like there's starting to be a pattern here. The start went pretty well and I was starting to find my groove once we all got moving again after the first bottleneck. Got to the top of Bone Shaker and missed the left hand route and ended up going right as there was a rider to my left. As I started to turn the front wheel in the transition from the first part to the second, my tire hit a nasty rock and got punctured twice. I ran the second part and at the bottom of the double track climb I inflated the tire and shook the sealant around. If I knew the puncture was so close to the bead I probably could've gotten it sealed. I shook the tire thinking that it was near the bottom of the tire where the tread was. Air leaked out and I was outta air. Since my spare wheel set was stolen back in Tremblant and my new one in in the mail as I type I couldn't do a wheel swap. I was too far away from the tech zone any ways for that too work. About 3km and 10 or so minutes in and my race was over.

I watched the rest of the race and looked at the bone shaker trying to figure out which rock had punctured my tire. They are looked smooth to me. I rode the Bone Shaker multiple times in the pre ride and had no issues, extremely frustrating to flat on the first run down. I didn't even make it to skid rock during the race, practised that during pre ride and had it down smoothly, but never got to use it.

I contemplated heading out for a road ride today since it was so nice out, but opted for a relaxing evening with Amanda. We don't get too many Sunday evenings to hang out and I needed some rest.

Tomorrow I'll head out on the road bike, and hit a few rollers a little harder then originally planned, then head to the gym. Tuesday I'll be a Kelso for a few hours with the race at the end. Thursday I'm planning on driving out to Albion instead of Kelso to pre ride the course for the weekend. That paired up with a Saturday pre ride and I should have the course nailed pretty good. Albion isn't technical by any means so I hopefully won't have any mechanical issues.

Frustrating day to say the least, but my fatigue level is starting to drop with each week, so I'm hoping by this weekend I'll be 100% again. It's been a few months since I've actually raced with a full tank so it'l be nice to get that back.

off to fix the tire

Canada Cup #2 race report

2011-06-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Did the drive up to Baie St Paul with Amanda a grueling drive where we hit traffic in Quebec and Montreal. Ended up being in the car for 12 hrs. Pre rode Saturday, the course was a lot different then the Tremblant course, it was more like a typical O cup course. The course was pretty muddy which made the rotty rocky uphills pretty tough, but by my second lap I cleared everything with out any problems. It started raining Saturday evening pretty hard, and it continued through till Sunday. By the Time we raced the course was drenched. All I remember is running the beginning of the first lap with everyone and then when I finally hopped on the bike I saw the 3k to go sign. My brake pads had more then half eft on them. But by the second lap they were toast. I kept on riding and hit a couple trees on some downhills since I wasn't able to stop. By mid 4th lap just as I started catching back up to a few riders and was increasing my pace, my spreader clip got jammed in my front caliper and locked the front wheel.

It was frustrating, but I got some good experience racing in some serious mud and water. I was at Kelso yesterday and rode around for a couple hours before the race. Right before the race my front derailleur cable housing frayed so I missed the start trying to fix it and ended up racing with just a small ring. By the time I got going I was starting behind the second wave. At least I got to do a few laps at race pace still. Today I'll be at the gym and then back at Kelso for a couple hours on Thursday.

let's try this again

2011-05-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the 2nd C-cup out in Baie-St Paul. A bit of a mission to drive but nothing to crazy. I'm still waitin on a wheel set and rim to come in the mail so for the time being my rear wheel has a permanent wobble with one side of the spokes being super tight and the other fairly loose. My left shifter is a little finicky right now until a piece comes in, but it still somewhat works. This week has been a lower volume week after a couple tougher ones. Monday I slept in and headed out to the gym, did a good core workout and a much needed stretch in the sauna. Tuesday was the first Kelso race, I rode around for a couple hrs before the race and worked on some more handling skills. Applied them to the race and was cornering much faster and not sliding out on the slick sections. Overall the race went well, I seemed to feel a bit better on the climbs. Yesterday I was back at the gym for another core workout and then worked in the evening. Today I was going to do a shorter easy ride at Kelso but the trails are a little too wet for that. I'll hop on the road bike instead when I get off work. Friday Amanda and I are leaving early to miss the Toronto rush hour and were driving up to Baie-St Paul. Saturday is a pre ride and Sunday is the race. They're calling for rain up there so it looks like it may be wet and cool conditions on race day we'll find out. The wounds are healing up nicely, I'll be taking the stitches out Friday evening. The hand is feeling better and can hold the bars fine now, and some skin has grown bacl on my shin. So were good to go for the weekend!

Canada Cup #1 Mt Tremblant Race Report

2011-05-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

How to kill time in the ER...write a blog.

Pre rode the course yesterday evening, later then I would've liked but by the time we got settled in and I signed in it was late. I went easy on the first lap, too easy so everythingii felt a lot tougher and I had some troubles clearing some stuff. Second lap I picked it up a bit and had no problems. My thoughts after the first lap were wtf this is nuts, after the second lap I felt a lot better.

Woke up the morning of the race and felt pretty decent. Cooked a great breakfast in our room kitchen and got ready. Warmed up on the trainer outside on our ground level patio and headed to the start. P My plan was to settle in at a pace that I knew I could hold and try and make some time up on the climbs and try and hold a wheel on the descent. After the long climb at the start I was in around the middle to back and feeling pretty good. There was a nasty bottleneck in the first sinyuigletrack which had me standing around for a bit. Made it into the singletrack in a pretty good spot and was following a wheel and feeling pretty good. On one of the descents I flatted on a rock. In the process of fixing it I lost about half the air in the cartridge and took about ten minutes too fix. I rode the rest of the lap really cautiously since I only had about 15 or so psi in it and didn't want to puncture my only tube. I got in to the tech zone and the 3 rox mechanic lended me a pump and got my tire going again, huge help and really appreciated it.

From that point on my plan was to try and catch some of the last few riders and finish. I was feeling good and riding pretty much smoother in the tech stuff. I don't know how but on a muddy section I got a lot of Mud under my glasses and in my eyes. I wasn't clearing and I didn't want it to go under my contacts so I stopped to clear it but that was a bad call. I couldn't see now and my eyes were super sore. I figured I'd just get down the hill and see if I could het some water. On a fast descent I didn't see a root and went otb's and supermaned face first into a rock. I planned on quitting and going to the first aid as I was dripping blood everywhere. Except on the paved climb the blood had clothed and I felt like going for another lap. Amanda made a big error in the feed and missed my bottle. I knew this had to be last lap as I was losing blood still and I had nothing to drink. I finished the lap and went to see the first aid to get cleaned up. I guess I hit my hand off a rock as it could barely hold the bar and was super bruised. It's feeling a bit better now so hopefully its nothing more then a bruise.

All for now hopefully I'm not here too long.

Rule #5

2011-05-18T05:06:00.000-07:00

I headed out on the road Monday for a relatively easy spin for 1.5 hrs. powered up every roller and did a few light sprints. I felt pretty recovered from Sunday's race so I did a little more efforts then I thought. I found a new route out in Milton that is perfect for 1.5hr easy rides, it avoids all the traffic on Brittania, has a lot of small rollers, and is on relatively quiet roads.

Yesterday was a strange day for training, I headed out to Kelso after work with plans to do a 2.5hr ride with some z4 intervals and then sign up for the race series. The rain held off most of the day and I was crossing my fingers for the same in the evening. I started my warmup and had to slow darn pretty hard in corners as they were all slick. It started pouring about 30 mins into my ride so I rode around for another 30 working on my bike handling in slick conditions and then headed to the rocky Ascension trail to do some hill intervals. I got 3 in and was feeling pretty good, just super wet from the rain and then on a descent I flatted. A rock half pulled off one of my outer knobs on my rear tire. I went back to the car got the Stans to seal it and pumped up the tire again. Did another hill repeat and then on the descent the tire lost more air since the knob was being moved from riding then Stans wasn't sealing it. I stopped riding, signed up for the race and decided to head home. I hopped on the trainer and finished the hour I had left and a couple intervals. I felt good on the trainer and it wasn't as bad as I thought.

We got sent home today from work so I'll be spending all day patching my tire, cleaning the bike and trying to figure out my d/t issue. I'm going to switch back over to SRAM chains and see if that helps at all. I ordered a new chainring as I think my inner one is worn out and may have stretched my new chains. I'll have to check the chain length and find out.

Amanda and I leave early Friday morning to head out to Mt. Tremblant so hopefully the bike will be running smoother by the weekend. I'll pre ride Friday evening and then race Saturday. I'm bringing up the road bike and will probably get in a decent road ride on Sunday before we head home.

Off to get everything ready

Woodnewton Ocup 2 Race Report

2011-05-16T11:23:00.002-07:00

I missed the video blog on this one, I had a family dinner right after the race, and a bike that was in some major need of cleaning.
This one went a little better theb the last. I wasn't too happy placing 27th at all but in relation to the last Ocup this one went well. I was no longer sick so I felt better during the race and during my harder efforts. I got to the race early on and talked to some people about the course, which was going to be muddy given the amount of rain over the past few days. I got in a pretty good warmup, I didn't feel great during it, not sure if it was the cold or what, but the HOUR seemed slow to react and didn't want to move too much. I know I wasn't tired or overtrained as I went super easy on Saturday's pre ride. I lined up about second row from the back, I wasn't in any rush to get into the front as I still wasn't sure how I'd be from the gun.

The course was much more slick then when I pre rode on Saturday morning. I lost some spots early on from being to cautious in the single track and settled into about 20th or so. I wasn't feeling to strong during my hard efforts on The climbs, it just seemed like my body didn't want me to go into my race pace and wanted to settle in at z4. I lost one or two spots from that, and a few more in the slick singletrack and on the downhill parts. I was fine on those parts during my pre ride, but the mud changed everything and really highlighted my lack of tech skills. I figured I'd settle into a solid pace and see what happens. As the laps went on I started getting a feel for the course more and starting getting a lot faster in the downhill sections. I started feeling better on the climbs and flats so I started pushing a bit more. By the end of the race I had passed about 5-6 guys who passed me early on in the race, and came in at 27th spot. I rode the last rock garden during my pre ride. When the rocks were slick and had no problems with it, but realized that the chicken run was no slower and was basically risk free. I figured I'd take the chicken run to avoid injury or a mechanical during the race. Apparently on race day they changed the chicken run and made it way longer. I didin't want to change my lines without trying them so I stayed on the chicken run. I regretted that and definitely should've went rock garden. It probably wouldn't have mattere much in the end but still. My lap times improved each lap which is really weird for me as I usually start out strong and barely hang on to finish. This means that my endurance isn't a problem, but what I really need to work on more is some z5 sprints. I'd rather be lacking my top end then endurance at this time of year, especially when top end can be improved in a week, but endurance usually takes months to build. With the Kelso series starting up next week and 2 Ccups in QC before the Hardwood Ccup, I'm hoping to get my top end back by the Hardwood Ccup. My cassette was still skipping on my second lowest gear, and no other gears. It"s pretty frustrating especially since I rode it at Kelso all week with no problems. I'll have to look it over again and see if I can figure out what it is. I use that gear a lot and it's a pain in the ass having it skip.

I'm feeling pretty well recovered today. I'm going to head out on the road bike for a bit for a basic ride, with dome light efforts on the rollers. Then it's back to the gym for a core workout and a much needed sauna stretch.

All for now, I'll check back in before I'm off to Tremblant

Is it still called road rash if it's not from the road?

2011-05-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post earlier but I've had a busy week since I started full time work. I head out to Kelso a lot last week as well as some solid road rides. This year I plan on riding my mtb more as I need to pick up my technical skills. Kelso was in great condition on Thursday and it was a pretty solid ride. I'm liking the Rocket Rons more everytime I use them they definately make me trust the bike more in corners. Friday I was back at Kelso and it had rained a bit in the morning. The trails looked damp but not too wet so I started my ride. I guess I got a little to excited and started railing corners pretty hard because the next thing I knew I was lying on my side tangles in my bike and covered in leaves and mud. I was going down a slight downhill about 35-40km/h and was about to make a left hand turn that you can normally hit pretty hard. I guess some water had soaked it pretty good and the top cm of the corner was slick muck. My front wheel washed out and down I went. No injuries which was great, just covered in road rash, or trail rash I guess?

I headed out on the road bike on Sunday for a 110km ride with some z4 work. I made it out to Acton and did my intervals there since only about 2 cars passed me and There's no lights or stop signs. I felt a lot better during my efforts and was finally able to take full breaths and I had a clear nose for once. I headed out Monday for an easy spin then headed off to the gym. Yesterday I went to Kelso to do some more z4 intervals but my HOUR didn't want to respond too well to them. I got through them and decided to spin relatively easy for the rest of the ride.

I'll be headin to Woodnewton on Saturday for a pre ride and hopefully this Ocup will go a lot better theb the last. At least my cold is gone, now I'll have to wait and see if my fitness has dropped off at all. My sleep schedule has changed a lot since I'm up so early now for work, I'm still trying to adjust to it and should have that figured out by the end of the week. I'll be focusing on geeting to bed early for the rest of the week. At least I'm driving a tractor again this year, it's easy on the legs so I can't really complain.

I'll hopefully have a chance to post after the pre ride.

Ocup 1 Mansfield

2011-05-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Today was the first Ocup, not really the way I wanted to start off the official season but sh*t happens and you deal with what your given. My sinuses should be cleared by this week so I'm hoping I'll be able to get some good training done at Kelso, maybe some hill repeats we'll see. I want to head into the next Ocup in a lot better condition/health then I did today.

Anyway I start work tomorrow which means I'll be working 7-3:30 Mon-Fri so my training rides and workouts will all be done directly after work.

Off to eat some chicken, spinach, and quinoa then get some rest...I feel like absolute crap right now, hopefully a solid sleep will fix that up.

it's a no...ok it's a maybe...fine it's a yes

2011-04-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

That's pretty much been my mind set this week about the first Ocup this Sunday at Mansfield. I guess I'll start from the beginning.

After my brutal race on Friday I decided to stay off the bike and sleep. I may have slept a little too much because by Monday I headed off to do a core workout (still felt like sh*t) and my legs were feeling extremely weak and oddly bloated? I got through the core workout which was a struggle and then woke up Tuesday to do some Z4 intervals. I got through the intervals and completed the ride but I had extremely bad cramps in my quads before I even started the intervals. I had to get off the bike and stretch for a good 5mins until I could even turn the pedals over without being in pain. The cramps started when I ran upstairs to use the wash room and was going back downstairs and I started feeling them. After my ride I was brining down a basket of laundry and as I'm going down the stairs I can feel my quads cramping up worse and worse with each step, I was like "o crap this is gunna be bad" sure enough by the time I got to the last step I was doubled over onto the laundry basket rolling around in pain for about 5 minutes while my trusty dog sat there and looked at me like I was nuts. At that point I called off the race this weekend as I knew I wasn't ready. I woke up Wednesday with extremely sore legs, almost like DOMS except that I haven't gotten DOMS for months since I started working with Mark and we fixed my nutrition. I stayed off the bike and stayed in bed some more. Hopped on the bike Thursday and spun in Z2 with some Z3 mock climbs. The legs felt much better, or at least normal, not too sure how they are in terms of power.

Since I finished exams on Tuesday, and my 3rd year of my undergrad. Amanda (who graduated College this year) and I decided to spend a night in Niagara Falls. On the way there I started thinking about what the hell happened to my legs and why they were so bloated and cramped. I realized that since my diet normally consists of no added sodium and a lot of Magnesium and Potassium and I normally sweat really heavy at least once a day when I'm training, my body normally carries very little excess water. When I got sick I felt like crap and obviously didn't train, which meant no heavy sweating which lowers sodium levels. That paired with all of the lying down, and the fact that my nutrition wasn't excellent had me carrying much more water then normal. I missed taking some electrolytes throughout the day and had some food with high sodium in it, as I wasn't in any kind of mood to do my usual cooking. The problem fixed itself right away once I did my Thursday's spin and made sure I had a low amount of sodium throughout the day and taken all my other electrolytes. So once we finally pulled into our hotel - a 50min drive too 3+hours due to a flipped over truck and a closed bridge - we headed off to the Keg. I got to watch Amanda crush a steak while I munched on my mixed greens and side order of Asparagus. It was pretty decent, just not all that exciting for a Keg meal - except for the funky smell of Asparagus pee for an hour after ward! We headed out to Dave and Buster's after since we had a free $20 there. I'm not a video game guy, and it definitely showed there, although I crushed Amanda twice at some driving game, I had two 1st place wins while she chugged in last place. She quit on me after that and played the machine that dish out tickets. You know the ones where you always feel like you win...too bad her 150 tickets got her a whole lot...a mini blue bouncy ball... All in all it was a fun relaxing night and it was night to get out for a night.

Once back in Burlington I went to pick up my Hemp butter order...tough stuff to find, only took me 3 weeks to finally get an order in. It will be replacing my the peanut butter in my shakes since it actually has protein in it, not just fat. I always laugh when I hear people justify their massive amount of peanut butter use on the fact that they are "getting a good source of protein". I then headed home and spun for a bit and then headed to the gym for a core workout. The legs felt much better and the workout went great. I figured I might as well race since I love riding Mansfield because of all the hills, and it super fast and flowy. I also don't want to go into the second Ocup without having already raced one. So even if I can't race with my full engine I feel good enough to at least finish and get an Ocup under my belt. I'll be heading to Mansfield before lunch tomorrow to do 3 or 4 laps of the course. I have barely been on the Scale at all this year since this week was nothing but rain and consisted of me sleeping most days. Mansfield isn't that technical so lack of experience on the bike hopefully won't be a big issue, and I'm sure it's the same with most people since this spring had been a bust. My plan is to do 2 easy laps and get a feel for the course then another lap with a couple intervals thrown in, and depending on the time, finish with another easy lap to test out my lines. According to people who pre rode today, it is a really fast course time wise.

Off to get some rest now, my sinuses are still gunked up, but at least everything else is running good, hopefully by Sunday my nose will be all cleared up. I won't be making any goals for this race until I at least get to see how the legs are running tomorrow.

Good Friday Road Race...some what of a report

2011-04-23T15:42:00.001-07:00

No video for this one, I don't want to sneeze all over the camera. So I guess this race would've been my official first S1,2 road race as The Tour of Bronte is a little different as I found out. I ended up doing about 4 laps and then getting dropped and pullin in. From a few days out my tonsils have been crazy swollen so I was chugging down Echinacea like it was water and after about Wednesday the tonsils went down to a normal size and I felt much better. I figured I'd focus on getting some rest especially since it was a R&R week and hopefully wake up Friday feeling great. Not the case.

Woke up Friday not really feeling the whole race thing, normally I'm super pumped to race but this morning was different. At first I just played it off thinking it was the cold/cloudy weather or the fact that this was nothing more then a training race a "C" race at best, or the fact that ever since the P2A my focus has been on the upcoming Mansfield O cup. My race prep was off for this race too...I started my warmup late, normally I have all that stuff dialed and taken care of on time, but not today. Luckily there was a delay to the start and I ended up getting everything doen on time. I got into the start pen near the back, which was where I figured I'd sit all race. I normally ride at the front too much so for this race I wanted to focus on staying near the rear. About 1 km in I found out the hard way that the rear is just as bad, if not worse then the front. We made our first right hand turn the accordion effect happened next thing I know I'm sprinting just to try and catch on to the last wheel, the wind is now hitting us from the side and I got dropped. Worked like a horse and caught back on about 250m up the road. I was feeling really congested in my nose the whole race but I also couldn't catch my breath or take full breaths. Even when I was barely riding hard I still couldn't catch my breath. Riding in the drops was almost impossible as it would make breathing impossible, and I had to avoid drinking anything as it was making me burp like crazy. I knew it was a matter of time before I got spit out the back again. After being spit out the back me and Henri worked our asses off and caught back again. From that point on I started to work more and stay mid pack which made my life a little easier. I was now struggling with the fact that I had only drank about 4 sips of eLoad and drinking more wasn't an option according to my stomach. I also found out that I climb much better seated and spinning then trying to stand...I think that may have something to to with the mtb'ing or just the lack of energy in the legs.

On the last climb on the last lap I got dropped by about 10m and once the downhill happened I couldn't catch up. I worked with another dropped ride but then passed him and was on my own. I finished the lap and that was it. I thought it was an 8 lap race and found out later that it was only 6. I guess that makes a little more sense now why the speed was picking up by the end of the 4th, and also why the laps seemed so damn long.

I was pretty angry with myself after the race since I thought my cold was gone, and that the legs should've had more power. But it reminds me of a Tuesday night race at Albion last year. It was raining and the Kelso series was closed and since it was the week before the Summer Solstice 24hr I was racing, I thought I'd pre ride. I ended up sucking the entire race and feeling powerless. I didn't know what it was and as soon as I finished I told Amanda "get in the car were going home". I had no idea why I lacked motivation and power the whole race and Amanda didn't know why I had such a poor performance. The next morning I woke up with the aches and pains of the flu, one that held on for 7 days afterwards. I was relieved to know that was the reason for my terrible race, but pissed to find out I was sick.

That's sort of how I feel now as I sit here typing with jammed up sinuses and a sore body. At least I know why I didn't do so hot at the race, but now I'm sick. I had a planned 2 hour ride tomorrow at Kelso which would've been awsome with the nice weather, but I think I'll be sleeping in and resting. With Mansfield around the corner I want to be 100% asap so that I can hop on the mtb and get my legs back. I guess if I am to get sick a R&R week is the week to have it.

Turns out I apparently crossed the yellow line so I was DQ'd. A little confused by that as I only crossed 2 times and that was to avoid getting my front wheel taken out from a rider in the peleton. I never moved up positions outside the line. But who knows.

Off to sleep.

Paris to Ancaster

2011-04-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

The race was a fun one, my plans changed once I knew about the start, but in the end I was happy with my performance given how early it is in the season and the position I had to start in. I was happy and surprised myself with my bike handling/remounting in the mud chutes. I wasn't sure if my legs could hold off but I ended up solo'ing the last 12km with the hammer down for all of it. I got to the steep part of the last time and my quads started to seize, so it was off the bike for me for about 20m and get the legs doing a different movement. Hopped back on and rode 'er in with the legs not so happy. As Jens Voigt said "shut up legs".

This week is a much needed recovery week, so I today was just a core workout and a long stretch in the sauna. Tomorrow I'll be spinning for a relatively short time, and I'll just be doing another core workout on Wednesday. It works out great with 3/4 of my exams being this week so I have some time to study. Kelso was opened this past weekend, I'm assuming it's still pretty wet but I'll be doing the majority of my rides out there after the Good Friday RR this week to prep for the first Ocup at Mansfield. I still have to get used to the steepness of the Scale and how twitchy it is, it's a good thing, but I'm still not used to it. I won't be making any goals for the race this Friday, just try and race more smart and hopefully stick in with the sprint. My focus is now completely on the first Ocup, as it is the first official race of the season for me. I planned to race about 4 times before Mansfield to get my legs used to some race efforts and get everything else sorted out. The races in April have all given me a good feel of what works and doesn't work as well as get my legs ready for some efforts. It is still very early in the season so I'm not expecting top fitness, but at least my legs are more prepared then if I didn't race much in April.

Off to study and ten get some sleep, early 8am exam tomorrow:(

Lead up to the P2A

2011-04-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

After the Tour of Bronte race I took the Monday off the bike and headed into the gym for a solid core workout, a long stretch, and finished off with a sauna session. I tried a different post race food Sunday evening and found it seemed to help the recovery. I cooked up a chicken breast chopped it up and put it in a sauce I made which was mostly tomato paste and a ton of spices and some almond milk. I mixed that in with a 1/4cup quinoa and had a huge spinach salad. Tasted unreal after the chicken sat in the sauce for over a day, and it was full of electrolytes and other good stuff.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel Tuesday but I woke up and headed out to Bronte creek with the cx bike to do some Z4 intervals. After a solid warm up I stayed on the Tour of Bronte course and did my intervals. I was surprised but I felt great and the legs weren't feeling too bad even after the 3rd 10min interval. I forgot my HR monitor so all the intervals were done by feel. It wasn't too bad as I'm pretty good at going by feel now to know what zone I'm in. My sleep has been a constant 8-9hours over the past 2 months and my nutrition has been spot on as well , I would figure that all has a big thing to do with my recovery.

Wednesday I went back to the gym for another solid core workout, and then headed out on the road for a basic short ride, some Z3's on the odd hill but mostly Z2. It was cloudy but I didn't care as I was just happy to finally be riding outside. I guess I got a little excited as I ended up doing a lot more Z3 then I planned. The legs just felt great and wanted to go. I tried using a different road to take me West instead of the 18 wheeler packed Britannia. I used Lower Base line, which was super quiet in the middle of the day and a much better/safer option. The only problem is they are doing construction on it so you have to detour and pop back out on Britannia for a bit and sit in traffic. Hopefully it'l be done soon and I can ride Lower Base Line all the way into Burlington.

I wanted to head off to Kelso on the Scale but Kelso won't be opened until this Saturday, and I figured I should get some more practice on the cx bike. I headed out again to Bronte to do a short mostly recovery ride instead. I don't know if it was the cold or what but I was feeling pretty tired at the start of the ride. It may of had something to do with my Wednesday ride being more intense then planned. I figured I'd stay in the low end of Z2 and just work on my technical riding and cornering on the bike to prep for the P2A this weekend. I have found that once I'm off the bike, remounting is a bit of a slow process for me. I used some downed trees and was hopping off the bike and over the tree's then hopping back on. By about and hour of this I was feeling a lot smoother getting back on the bike. The legs started feeling a little better so I decided to hop back on the race course and do some loops before heading home. I picked it up a bit and did some Z3 work and felt better. I am really starting to like the handling on the bike, I lowered the bars a bit and felt way better while sprinting. It now feel much closer to my road bike, just with a little more flex and more comfortable over bumps.

I'm taking tomorrow off the bike to give the legs some more recovery time, but I'll do a core workout in the morning and probably a sauna stretch. Ever since I started stretching every day about 4 months ago I have noticed a little improvement in recovery but also more flexibility and range of motion in the legs while pedalling. I'm sure Amanda will vouch for this one, but in the past couple weeks I've been really utilizing the whole "cycling recovery rule": If you can sit, don't stand and if you can lie down then don't sit. I normally ride in the morning and then for the rest of the day it is do as little as possible on the legs and try and keep them elevated when I can. Seems to be working so far, or at least I enjoy the doing nothing part.

I went in to see Mark earlier this week and discussed some of my race day nutrition that went really bad last Sunday. My mistakes were obvious after the fact when looking back at my food log, but at the time I over looked it. We've made some changes and I should be fully topped up and ready to go for this Sunday's race; no more cramps, no more slow to start, and no more bonking.

Tonight is an easy night for me, Amanda has the Sunday off and will be at the race so she's working tonight, Fri, and Sat so I'll get a chance to get all my stuff done, I think I'll wash the bikes and get everything set up on the cx bike. I'll be using the road bike on Saturday weather permitting to do my prep ride and I want the cx bike good to go well before Sunday. After Friday's core workout I'll be getting all my food and clothes set up for the race. I may be staying over at Amanda's Saturday night since were leaving pretty early to Ancaster the next morning. The extra 30min sleep is never a bad thing. I may even watch a movie tonight and tomorrow and just put the feet up all night and relax.

Tour of Bronte

2011-04-11T05:32:00.000-07:00

Fun fun fun,
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That was an awesome race. The weather ended up turning out to be great, nice and warm with sun. I ended up with a pretty bad result that really wasn't a very good reflection of my race at all, but that's what I get for burning all of my matches so quickly and not sitting in, maybe I should pick up the book called "Road Racing for Dummies" I'm so used to xc races where as soon as you see someone jump you usually go with them if you have the fitness, it's a little different in road and hopefully I'll pick that up soon. Thanks to Amanda for coming out and giving me her support in between shifts at work as well as Dustin for taking some killer pics, and Dan and Anne for their great cheer leading quality like encouragement...I still think Dan would be a better fan if he wore a cheer leaders skirt...it would take it to a whole nother level. Any ways, it was excellent training for the P2A Im off to the gym now for a solid core workout and a nice long stretch and sauna. The loads of school work should be pretty much done after mid week which will be nice as my whole last week was spent in front of a computer which is anything but fun.

Homage to Ice XC skii race, I mean mtb race...

2011-04-04T09:07:00.001-07:00

Cracked the ice on the 2011 mtb season this morning(Pun kinda intended). Although the"official" season starts for me at the first Ocup on May 1st, I'm using April as a month to iron out any last minute kinks with the bike, nutrition, warm up etc etc. Mark had my nutrition dialed after I talked with him early this week, I gave it a go and it went smoothly. I was feeling comfortable by the time the start came around, not full but had a lot of energy. The warmup on the trainer felt great got my legs ready. Last but not least, the bike ran excellent even with the conditions. After one lap of not being able to actually put the hammer down and test out the legs (except for one DT climb), way too much walking, and a nasty spill, I decided to call it a day. I hate not finishing races unless its a broken bone or bike, and I fought with myself for about a good 30 mins while riding, going back and forth in my head. In the end it was a solid decision, no need to risk a possible injury and effect my season, or break a bike. I also don't need any running practice, I'll save that for cross season. After a lap of what hammering I could attempt to do I pulled into the start/finish in one piece.

I'd call it a successful race, went there and got what I wanted to do with no problems/mechanicals. Now onto the Tour of Bronte with what should be a dry course and a ton of hammering. Woohoo! Congrats to DeCal for the win, awesome bike handling skills in the snow, maybe I should join him next winter and he could teach me a few things. It was good to see a bunch of people I haven't seen for a few months, looking forward to the season.

All for now

Season is about to begin

2011-03-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

So the past week and a bit have been not too bad. School work is almost done for the year and other then that It's been ride the trainer and go to the gym to do some core. Im dying to get off the trainer and start riding outside. Still too much salt on the roads for the road bike, the trails are still covered in snow, and I dont have my tires in yet to put on my cross bike to ride on the road.

Im hoping the warm weather melts all the snow and gets ride of the salt so I can get on the road next week. I have the 50k Homage to Ice this Sunday, not too sure what to expect with all the snow on the trails. A lot of people are pulling the plug on it, but Im already registered so I'll grind it out and put the bike through it's paces. I set up my April with 4 solid races before the first O-cup which will give me time to fix any last minute adjustments on the bikes and what not. Im not putting any pressure on myself for the races in April, I just want to get my body used to racing again so im prepped for the first Ocup. Hopefully the snow won't be too bad but we'll have to see.

tubs...

2011-03-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

After I did my easy spin on the trainer yesterday, I decided to take out my cx bike to the culham trail. Its about a good 30mins out and 30 back riding in high Z2/low Z3 so my plan was to ride an hour on the cx bike and if it wasn't too muddy and cold then do another hour on my xc bike. I ended up flatting a brand new tub with about 7 km out from the car. I rode it back and realised that a sharp rock had made a small puncture. I was pretty rattled at first since I thought I'd have to drop some more cash on a new tub. When I got home I realised that you could remove the valve stem. I thought it was all one piece when I first got them. I put in some Stan's and the tire sealed instantly. That was a bit of a relief since it saved me a ton of cash. I then figured I might as well take off my front tub and seal that one too since I don't really want to flat during the P2A. Now I have to re mount both tubs again...I guess practice make perfect.

Since Im missing my front mtb wheel, I'll be borrowing Amanda's Mavic SLR until I can buy a new one. i'll most likely get a Stan's ZTR Alpine laced to another DT Swiss 240 hub and throw on my new Rocket Ron I just ordered. At least the SLR is about the same weight as my WCS.

Not to sure what's going on with the weather but last years Homage to Ice was brisk but dry so it made for a solid race. This year may be a little different. I'm going to try and get out to the Rail trail in Hamilton and ride out to Brantford on the cx bike to get used to it a little more. Im pleased with the handling of it and I can see why everyone says tubs are so much better, they grab way better then clinchers and are way more supple when cornering and climbing. As messy as they are they're definitely worth it.

Today Im resting the legs and doing a solid core workout, I'll probably hit the sauna for a but before work, maybe if I spend enough time in there the warm weather will come...maybe. Im heading out to see Mark tomorrow and go over some more things on my diet. It should be dialed in by the first race next weekend. My clothing order should also be in tomorrow, hopefully I can grab my stuff before the race, it mya be a little cold.

all for now

Back from the mountains

2011-03-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

grab a seat, this ones gunna be long.

I wasn't able to blog about each day since the internet was sort of limited ad I was usually exhausted by the evening so blogging wasn't an option.

I met Ryan and Logan in the states just outside the Ft. Erie border around 12:30am. Huge thanks to my parents for driving me out there and waiting at Dickies Donuts for a couple hours for my ride to show up. On the way to the border my frotn wheel which was mounted on a wheel fork on my roof rack fell off. Don't ask me how, I cranked the shit out of it to make sure it didn't fall off. I thinks it has something to do with Yakima having an absolutly terrible design and the wheel spinning a lot. Needless to say, I am not short of a Ritchey WCS XC front wheel laced to a DT 240 hub with an Avid clean sweep floating rotor and brand spanking new Schwalbe Rocket Rons. Its is somehwere off the QEW in Thorold, before the Mcleod exit. If anyone has found it, I'd appreciate letting me know as my parents and I spent about an hour and a half along with Amanda and her dad spending 2 hours looking for it. Also called the MTO but apparently they havent seen it.

So my trip started off pretty rough. We pulled into Table Rock State Park about 4:00. No idea how, bu we manage to fit 2 carts full of groceries in with all of our gear, yah, Logan and Ryan have some serious packing skills. It also helps when your driving a VW Golf Hatchback, awsome car. After unpacking we went out for an easy spin to get the legs moving just over an hour.

Im not going to go day by day as I'm too slow a typer to type all of that out. Instead I'll do some Cole Notes od things I took note of.

Ceaser's head is a hell of a climb. Decently long and very steep in sections, we climbed it early on in the camp so my fitness was deifnately not there. I followed James' pace and got dropped about 60% of the way up, kept him in sight the whole way until about 2km from the top. I rolled in at just over 34mins. I dont have a power meter so I was using HR. I kept it at 184bpm and was struggling and definately felt it afterwards in the lungs. My fitness really improved as the camp went on and we climbed Blueridge the last day. Blue is a lot longer the Ceaser's but it lacks the really steep switch backs, it'still steep, just not extremely steep. This time I felt unreal on the climb. I kept the HR at around 182bpm and held that the whole climb. I had James barely hanging on my wheel, he later said if I liftedthe pace he woulda said "screw it" and dropped. I wanted to stay at my threshold and not go to in the red as we still had to make the ride all the way back which meant going up and over the foothills of Sassafraz Mt. At the top of the climb my lungs and legs felt surprisingly good. I'm starting to get the feeling that I am one of those cyclists who test bad, but when it comes to actually riding, the results are much better. I say this because my tested max HR is roughly 196bpm. My threshold going up Blueridge was roughly 181bpm. When I had tested before there was no way I could hold my HR at 181BPM for 40mins like I did going up Blue. I have always said that one of my strengths is being able to suffer, but I guess just not on a trainer. I wanted to push it a little bit more going up Blue, but I knew the ride back wasn't an easy one and I was out of food.

That leads me into my next thought. Food. I went into camp on my usual gluten/dairy free diet (and I don't mean diet in a typical lose weight way). I brought what I thought was enough food. I seriously underestimated my caloric expenditure, by about just passed halfway into camp I had to eat dairy and gluten so i could get enough cals back in me to recover. i ran outta my food so it was cereal and pasta. The stomach wasn't happy at first but at least I had enough energy to ride the next morning. Note to self: next time bring some gluten free cereal and more rise bread. With the help of Mark at The Vitamin Store I have my on ride nutrition down pat. The Macro Greens bars are awsome while riding a long with my pre and post ride drinks. I'll be using the same diet during my races this seaosn as it works well with me.

I got home on Saturday night and my tubs and deep cx wheels were in. I spent some time prepping those and cleaning the bikes from all the road grime from the drive home. After doing a training camp I realized how important they are for an upcoming season. As the days went on my fitness greatly improved and it helped me work out some kinks that you cant figure out from being on a trainer. It also gets you more motivated when you start riding in the sun and warm weather. This upcoming week is a R&R week and then the following week is the first race of the season. This works out great for going into the race in decent shape.

I've got a bunch of school stuff to do this week then next week it's go time, start of the season!

Due South

2011-03-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

Leaving for SC in about 30mins so I thought I'd write a short blog. I am bringing down both my road and xc bike so I'll be able to ride some single track during our off day. It should be a pretty good camp with pretty long rides all day and then just spending time relaxing. I have a couple of papers to write up for school but other then that I'll be doing a core workout every second day and just stretching. I'm going to try out some different things with riding food and see what I feel goes best for me. Mark hooked me up with these gluten/derry free bars called Macro Greens, they are by far the healthiest bar you could find, so I expected them to taste terrible. They actually taste amazing which was a huge surprise.

I did a presentation on a couple papers for one of my classes last week and they were on elite athletes training while in a some what fasted state. This is brand new research that is starting to become popular now so you should see more info on it in a couple years. Bascially if you train while on an empty stomach or on a small snack made up mostly of healthy fats and some protein, you become more efficient at burning fat as a fuel source. You wouldn't do this with a race because you want your glycogen stores topped up for max performance, but for training it actually improves fat oxidization. Gone are the days of people telling you to carb load before training rides so that you can train to your max every interval. I have been experimenting with this over the past 2 months even before I heard about the study. Instead of eating breakfast and then riding in the morning, I east a 1/4 cup of raw nuts and some raisins and then ride. After my ride I shower then eat some breakfast. Surprisingly I never felt more hungry when Im riding without eating breakfast. I am going to continue with this throughout camp with the longer rides and see how my body responds. My day will look something like this:

wake up 6am
stretch
drink protein smoothie (p butter, banana, almond milk, sun warrior protein)
get the bike ready
eat some nuts and raisins if theres a big time gap between the smoothie
go for ride with a macro greens bar, an apple and an orange
get back from ride
core (optional)
shower
eat my breakfast
relax and then eat dinner later on.

I'll see how my body handles the food intake with the 4-5 hour rides each day.

Anyways Im leaving in a few mins to meet with Ryan on the other side of the border, should be in SC around noonish on Saturday.

I'll post once I get settled in.

Bike are finally complete

2011-03-08T05:26:00.000-08:00

Training camp is now a few days away so I figured I should finish my bikes. So far I am liking the Shimano Groupo on the road bike, seems to shift much more smoothly then the Sram stuff. The xc rig is completed as well, in the pic I have my training wheels on, I'll be running the Ritchey wheels throughout the season. I got rid of the bigger rotor on the front as it was over kill and not needed. I took out the cross bike yesterday around the street to see what it was like. The Sram groupo seems better suited on the cross bike then the road, it was sifting excellent. After riding nice and stiff carbon frames for the past year, I definately noticed the extra amount of flex in the aluminum framed cross bike. The main problem is the cheap FSA cranks, not so much the frame. That'l have to be upgraded mid season as I can feel the crank arms flexing under any serious power. I have white brake hood coming in the mail that I still need to install, as well as 50mm deep carobn rims that I'll have to mount my tubular's too. That whould improve the performance somewhat. Im hoping that when I get back from South Carolina the weather will be half decent, or at least allow me to get some solid riding in over at Bronto Creek.

With some lower intensity but high volume riding at training camp, I am looking to continue that once I get back home. I'll either ride at Bronte Creek, or use the rail traill in Hamilton. I have my first race of the season April 3rd with the 50k Homage to Ice, that's followed up by Tour de Bronte, which leads into the P2A. These 3 races should be good to get me ready for the first Ocup. After the first 3 races I have a weekend off to go over some things before heading into the first Ocup. That's pretty much it for now, looking forward to some warmer weather riding!

Some new gear...a lot of new gear

2011-03-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

I spent the majority of my reading week putting on new parts and tweaking the Scale around a bit. For the exception of extremely long brake hoses it is almost complete. I'll post some pics up soon of all of my bikes when they're complete. For next season Im running 2 wheel sets which im hoping a quick wheel swap in the tech zone will save me a ton of time if I get a flat. Im using Ritchey WCS wheels being run tubeless with Stans tape with Rocket Rons 2.1 front and rear. Those tires are pretty much the best all around tire so I won't be needing to worry about getting sealant all over my hands the morning before a race trying to switch to mud tires. My spare/training wheels are a bit heavier Shimano XT's being run tubless with Maxxis Crossmark's. Those tires are also decent all around tires and should be pretty solid to train on. I decided to go with 2 different casette's next year for my XX drivetrain. I have an 11-36 and an 11-32. The 11-32 I will most likely be using on my race wheels since I have lower 39/26 crank. I am running 2 chains to help keep the drivetrain new since the XX casette's arn't cheap. Im using a gold KMC chain which looks pretty sick, but I'll keep that once for training only as my past experience has shown that they're not the most durable chains. The other one is just a basic Sram 1091 hollow pin chain which I know I can rely on not to snap.

My CX bike for next season is a Scott CX Team. I have a set of 50mm Tubular rims being shipped to me and I'll be mounting a pair of Challenge Fangos which I hear are also really good all rounders. I'll keep the DT Swiss rims that it comes with as backups. I wanted to go with 50mm wheels for cx since they track much better in sand and mud. Im swapping the 2011 Ultegra DT from the cx bike to my road bike, and moving my Sram Force groupo to my cx bike. I find Shimano is much smoother on the road bike, but I like the crispness of the Sram groupo for the mtb and cx. I have some slicks mounted on a 700c and a 26" tire to use on the trainer for my warmup. I prefer to do my warmup on a trainer as I find it a lot easier to do specific HR zone work.

The training has been going well, but Im definately looking forward to getting the cx bike soon so I can head over to Bronte Creek and get outside. I want to get some good rides on the CX bike before the P2A.

I have a lot of volume this week which will keep me busy, as well as some assignments for school. I'll be heading to the Bike show on Friday afternoon so get my liscence and take a look around. Maybe pick up a few cycling caps as the winter training has taken its toll on my old one.

All for now

getting closer to warmer weather

2011-02-15T05:11:00.000-08:00

The past week or so has been a pretty busy one with school, training, and some other stuff going on. I haved managed to get in every workout and get about 8 hours of sleep a night. This has helped my training immensly and my workouts seems more effective with the proper sleep. I am squatting about 255lbs for 6 reps and have increased my strength some more over the past couple weeks. I havent dropped much weight, but my legs have gained some size, as well as my upper body. Once I start training outside and stop lifting the upper body mass should drop signifigantly. I am down another percent or two of body fat which is good to know with training camp around the corner. I'll be testing with Chris this weekend and will get to see my numbers after 3 solid months of training. Im hoping for a big increase in power, not so much in my VO2 max, as Im a little heavier then I will be in a couple months and I obviously havent been racing lately.

I have been talking with Mark, my sports nutritionist over the past couple weeks and we've tweaked my diet quite a bit. I have been eating a dairy and gluten free diet for the past 8 days and so far Im happy with the results. There is the obvious fact that most junk food contains either dairy or gluten, so it pretty much cuts out that. But I have noticed a less heavy feeling in my stomach after meals, and a more consistent feeling during my training. I'm not lactose intolerant or have celiac, but I would consider myself very sensitive to both foods. I had issues last season with foods before races but I had put it away as just being nerves. I have increased my intake of healthy fats, mostly in the form of raw mixed nuts, veggies, and limited fruit. I haven't noticed any hinderance on my recovery but It'l be interesting to see during testing this weekend how it effects my bodies ability to become more efficient at burning fat as a primary fuel source.

I had an exam last night, and i have one more this Friday then my reading week. I have 2 more exams after reading week and then im off to SC. My time this week and next will mostly be spent studying and training, once exams are done it'l be spring around the corner and another semester almost done. Im looking forward to testing this weekend, I'll post some numbers.

Keep ramping it up

2011-01-27T14:51:00.000-08:00

So the training is starting to pick up a little after last regen. week. A little more volume and a little more intensity on the bike. I have been matching that in the gym as well, I am about 5lbs away from squating 2 plates for reps. By next week this should be acomplished and I will be bumping up my goal to 2 and 1/4 plates a side on the barbell. My core has been leaning out quite a bit over the past few weeks, but the weight has stayed relatively the same, with a little drop here and there. This basically means that I'm gaining more muscle. I wouldn't be very impressed if it was mostly upper body mass, but I have noticed my upper body either staying the same, or maybe even getting a little smaller, but the legs have definately gained some serious mass. Some of this mass will go down a bit once I start the season and get out of the gym, but I am happy with my progression. I'll be doing some testing in a few weeks and I'll have some numbers to compare the amount of watts that is can now produce compared to before. Im expecting a pretty big increase in numbers, and once in South Carolina I'll be able to put these numbers on the pavement and see how they convert.

I have been working a lot less that past few weeks so I have been taking advantage of some early to bed evening almost every day. My rides has increased dramatically and I have been feeling much better on the bike then before. Most of this is psychological as Im less stressed when im on the bike, but the better I feel on the bike the better I can perform in workouts. I have also been much more relaxed lately due to the extra consistent sleep. Tomorrow Im off to the gym and will see what gains I've made mid week, should be a good one and Im looking forward to it.

Amanda has passed her interviews for policing and is a few weeks away from starting her career which is pretty amazing considering her age and how hard she has worked over the past few years for it. The next few weeks are some celebratory weeks for us and we'll be heading out to Barrie next weekend to Tim's to do some snowmobiling and some relaxing. The weekend after is a mini get away to Niagara Falls which will involve some moe R&R.

Great past few weeks in terms of training and everything else in life. Will stay posted.

JoyRide and those funny looking half balls

2011-01-24T09:20:00.000-08:00

Headed out to joyride on Saturday, and it was a first for me. I was very impressed with the whole setup, the place is massive and has a nice mix of everything. It's not the closest place to my house, nor it is very cheap when you are renting on top of the day pass, but it definately makes for a fun day. I spent most of my time jumping 3 packs out and back and working on my balance in the air, as well as the pump track and turning with insane amounts of speed on the bermed turns. I spent a little time on some skinnies and was impressed that I still have my balance after being on the trainer for the last little while. JR in my opinion is great for working on some specific details for a xc racer, but in the end, unless you feel like bringing your xc rig and riding 3 packs on clipless pedals, then you are on a bike that had much different geometry and feel then your racing bike. I found the skinnies to be great for practicing balance, although how many really thin skinnies do you come across on a xc race, if you do come across any they tend to be fairly wide, even at the elite level. The 3 packs were great for having fun and working on balance in the air, but you never get more then a foot of air in a xc race, and being in the air while clipped in is much different then being in the air on flats. The area that I found the most realistic for training at least for me, was the pump track. More specifically the sharp bermed corners of the pump track. My weakness has been my conering the past year and I found that by the end of the day I wasn't braking and I was taking the bermed corners at full speed and I was feeling way more confident. When I was in the vert park i had some memories of when I was 14 and on a BMX and I was thinking about trying to see if I could still transfer and a bunch of other cool things that I could do. Then I thought about my training and all the hours spent on the trainer and in the gym. That pretty much settled it, there was no way i going to risk breaking an arm or collar bone trying to do some pointless stunt just for kicks. I would definately want to go back to JR but for me personally I don't think I would use it in my weekly training, even if I lived closer. It is an excellent park for bmxer's and for people with balls to do backflips and what not, but for me I found that there were definately some training advantages for a xc racer, but not enough to spend a day a week or so there. You have to remember that it is a bike park, so the main focus is going to be for people who do crazy things on a bike. The xc loop was cool too, it was awsome how they threw in some xc in a bike park. It was a super fun experience and a great day, but one that i think probably won't be fitting in to my training plans. O and riding a pump track and 3 packs is a lot tougher on the legs then i remember. I did my spin in the morning which invloved a couple Z3 intervals, nothing too intense, but as soon as I started jumping at JR, the legs got angry and started screaming.

I picked up, my bike from Ashley as well, its a beauty, I'll post some pictures a month or so down the road as i want' to make a few cosmetic changes to it and make it more customized for me. I have a few ideas in mind already...

I was in my exercise prescription class late last week and we were talking about stability balls and those fit discs etc... We were reading studies about their effectiveness (or in effectiveness) and so on. Now my view on the stability balls and all those balance objects has always been the same even when I was bodybuilding;I was usually alone in that view 3 or 4 years ago when I was bodybuilding since they were in their hayday back then. I have seen countless people doing DB chest Presses on a stability ball, even my teacher in high school who was absolutly jacked and fairly knowledgeable did them all the time. The "balance ball fad" came out roughly a decade or so ago and people didn't really question any science behind it. Thank Mr. Twist for this as he has made thousands off of these balance objects. People just sort of hopped on board and decided that wow these are great and just bought them. Here's what I think (and pretty much all of the scientific literature out threre) is the problem. Lets say a person is trying to increase the size of their pecs. So they want to do a DB chest press. But they then decide to do it on a stability ball because they heard that it works your core as well. Now said lifter can normally DB chest press 100 lb DB in each hand. Since he's on a stability ball he has to decrease that weight to 80lb DB's. So said lifter thinks thats he's doing himself a favor because he's "working his core" while working his chest. Wrong, the stimulus is now insufficient to maximize growth in his pecs as he had to drop from his normal lifting weight of 100lbs down to 80lbs. His so called core workout that he thought he was doing maybe stimulated his core more then doing presses on a bench, but it still wasn't as effective on his obliques as a specific exercise. Bottom line, if you want to strengthen your core then lift your normal heavy weight with free weights on fixed benches, then after your workout bust out a 4 exercise core circuit for a few sets. Now I say core circuit not ab circuit because your obliques are way more important for balance as well as your lower back, and the forgotten lower abs that most people's "before bed" crunches don't work. This way you are effectively stimulating your muscles with free weights by lifting as much as you can, and then you are working on your core balance by separately working on your obliques and other core muscle. If some one pushes you over then you are using mostly your obliques to straighten yourself back up, so to work on balance work on your core, don't work on a stability ball. Various hockey players in the past have done a lot of work on those balls and they are starting to move away from them. The reason being is standing on a bosu ball while squatting just makes you squat less weight and can put strain on your ankles. When a hockey player is on the ice, the ice isn't moving from underneath him, it is a force from above pushing against him. So by working on your core muscles, more importantly your obliques, you can strengthen the muscles that will help you balance yourself back out. Your body gets better at certain actions by doing them over and over, this helps your nervouse system remeber the action and lets your body adapt to it. So remember the rules of specificity when your are doing workouts for a specific sport and don't try to complicate certain exercises because they "look cool" or seem really tough. This can lead to new neural pathways having to be learned which can lead to a lack in the neural pathway that you care about most - the sport specific movement that you do during your sport.

So where do these stability balls come into play? They are extremely effective in the rehabilitation setting, and strengthening specific joints (such as ankles etc...) after a previous injury. So if you have sprained an ankle then using these balance objects can help improve your recovery time and re connect lost neural pathways. If you have had an ankle injury in the past then using these balance objects after the odd workout you do can help prevent injury to the same joint by strengthening that joint since injured joints are usually weaker and more prone to future injury after the injury even months or years down the road.

Gym's and Athletic Centers will still be pouring millions of dollars per year into these balance gimmicks that you see pop up in magazines as "4 new workouts to burn fat" while they show a picture of someone doing 2lb curls while standing on a bosu ball...really? This is just my somewhat educated opinion but keep the balance objects in the rehab centers and just lift as much as you can while standing on stable ground the blast your core.

*using the bosu or stability ball for specific oblique or ab exercises is different and I think that they are great for a lot of core specific exercises.

Indoor training may get more exciting...

2011-01-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

I may head out to JoyRide this weekend to check out all of the hype. I have been meaning to go for a while since it had opened but since it's not the closest to my house I haven't gotten a chance to go. I'll be renting a DJ bike and will be going back to my roots of a BMXer on the pump track. Brings back memories of a 13 year old digging 8 packs until the 11pm when the lights went out on the adjacent soccer field. It wasn't until it got dark then we would see how much flow the newly dug jumps had. Definately looking forward to the pump track. So far it's looking like a morning trainer ride followed by a nice breakfast and then a full day spent at JoyRide, we'll have to wait and see.

Today was a gym workout, the legs still arn't happy plateauing, and I again increased the weight. With the progress I have been making by the time my gym sessions end, I should be squatting over 2 plates a side for at least 8 reps. nothing too heavy, but considering my body weight to be around the 150lbs mark im pretty happy with my progress so far. O yah and those would be basement deep squats for those that are critical of the squat depth. As some big muscle guy once said, "you ain't squattin until you past parallel". And since the studies have been published about any danger to going low on a squat being a myth, I figured I'd give my glutes a workout and get low.

This week is fairly easy in terms of volume as its a recovery week. I was feeling pretty exhausted after last week, which is exactly as I'd expect to feel. Anything less and I'd be questioning my work ethic after a week like that.

Another semester of school has started...yah thats pretty much it. I wish I could say that I absolutly love school, but being in my 3rd last semester and having gotten into cycling, I'd much rather be on a bike. There a a lot of courses that I really enjoy, but for every interesting one there is usually 2 or 3 that teach the most basic principles you can imagine. I have learned thousands of times how to asses a sednetry over weight person, but very rarely have we learned about assesing elite athletes. The classes where we do learn that tend to be my most favorite classes. I know that there are more sedentry over weight people in the world then there are elite athletes but c'mon you'd think after the first 3 classes on training/assesing the gen. population I'd get it. Bottom line, I'd rather be the guy on the bike with the wires attatched to him then guy holding the clipboard and clicking a computer mouse. Don't get me wrong there needs to be both types of people in the world, but to each their own, and Im just happier sitting on a saddle.

About 8 weeks out from the SC training camp. Im looking forward to the climb but more so the sprints. I do like climbs but being fast up a 30+min climb is sort of irrelevant to a XC racer or even a road racer in North America. I'd rather have a little extra weight in muscle for sprinting power for the maximum 4min climbs you get on the XC courses in Canada or the majority of the RR. I really need to test out these legs, they're dying to unload on something other then a trainer.

I should have my new XC race rig by this weekend. I'll be making the trip to Ashley's to pick it up. It's new for me, not so much for her. but considering the groupo and spec's of it I'd take the 2010 Scale RC over a lower end 2011 model for sure. My CX rig should also be here in the next month or so and yes both bikes will be following the same color scheme, black and yellow. More on that in later blogs, but Im definately excited to be able to race the P2A this year on a proper bike. Now I have no excuses, just a result.

And onto 2011

2011-01-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

My last week was pretty rough. With as many new year's meals as I could handle, Amanda having been gone for a while, and finding out that my dog has mouth cancer and will have to be put down within a few weeks, and me sharpening anywhere around 3-4 hundred pairs of skates in a couple days, (New years rush) I am definately glad it's over. My 21st b-day was yesterday and while on the trainer in the morning doing my cool down I had some time to think about next season. With next year being my second last in U-23 it is a big one to say the least. I mapped out some more general goals and ended up feeling pretty good and excited about next year.

Headed out to the gym this morning, wow it was a cold one. I again increased my lifts and was very surprised to find my legs had no problems with the increased weight. Im really looking forward to the SC training camp to get to test out what kind of power they have with some sprints. All I can do for now is continue to work them as hard as I can and eventually the results will come by spring. I tried out some new shoes courtesy of Nathan at Superhero Fitness and Wellness and was extremely pleased. They are Feivue shoes that are specifically used for martial arts training and are supposed to act like you have no shoes on at all. This basically allows for you to improve your balance and work on your foot muscles that get lazy thanks to all the technology and support in modern running shoes. I'll be the first to admit, they are not something that you would wear out to impress the ladies at the local club. But they do a damn good job of gripping very well, while allowing your foot to be placed as naturally as possible. They are essentially better more specific versions of Chuck Taylor's, thats why so many power lifters lift with Chuck's, same idea nice and flat. Although Chuck's do not transition onto the toe as well as the Feivue's do nor do they grip as well.

Since it was my B-day yesterday, I decided to buy myself a present...or two. Picked up a pair of Mavix Zxellium road shoes. Yes the bright yellow ones. My first thougts were "wow these are light". Actually that was my second thought. My first thought was "wow these are bright". And they are also super stiff, which is perfect for sprinting and hard climbing. I also bought a matching pair of Mavic Fury's for the mtb. They havent come in yet, but i am going to assume that they will be just as nice. Now anyone coming to watch me at a race will have no exscuse to miss me. Just look for the racer with glowing feet. O yah and glasses as well, Amanda picked me up a sick pair of bright Lime Green Oakley's for x-mas. Yah I like bright colors, last year was the white, this year are the bright colors. Im hoping there is a direct positive correlation with how good you look on the bike and how many races you win...key word here "hoping".

Tomorrow is a much needed rest day. Ill be at the store for most of the day and then off to Amanda's house sans Amanda, for a B-day dinner with her fam. Should be yummy. Then Sunday is a long ride on the trainer then work, and then a B-day Seafood dinner with my fam, I think I smell salmon?...that one should also be very tasty.

This time of year is the down time for retail stores, so its much quieter in the store which is nice. The only problem is, that the skates don't stop coming in for sharpening until around February/March, so I'll still be grinding it out at work, at least with less people in the store this time.

School starts next week, I'll post again sometime early next week.

Countdown for Amanda coming home: 7 days wooohooo!

More weight

2010-12-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

Where have I been...

With X-mas just passing and family visiting and getting together with old friends that I havent seen in a few years, the blog has sort of been put on a brief hold. Well Im back now at least.

Although I haven't blogged in a bit, the training has still been going on. I have transfered into my muscle growth phase of my lifting and have started to increase the weight I'm lifting. At the same time I have been decreasing my body weight. Since they are pretty much polar opposites, one being anabolic and the other catabolic, I figured I wouldn't be able to lift very much. Well I have surprised myself with my power. I have increased my lifts considerably in my leg lifts and have been impressed with how well my body is adapting and how much power I have been able to squeeze out of my legs. I have been fairly cautious with my upper body lifts, with not wanting to gain much bulk, but I have increased those lifts a little as well. My core has seemed to get a little stronger and a bit more stable as well. I was going to give it at least 2 weeks before increasing my lifts again, but after the last workout my legs feel quite content on adding more weight. Go Legs!

As for the bike part of my training, it is going pretty good too. My legs seem pretty happy spinning at a higher cadence then what they were used too, and I don't seem to have lost anything on my sprints. All in all everything is going very good. So far this week has started off good too. Tomorrow I will be working all day, but It's my day off so i'll be sleeping in an extra hour or so from the usual 5:45am wake up. As long as I got to bed at a good time, my body has seemed to be pretty happy waking up that early. I have always preferred morning workouts over later in the day ones.

I was on the ice again the other day. This time with some old hockey friends, most of which are still playing and are still damn good. After about 5 minutes of flopping around, I remebered how to skate again. I couldn't shoot a puck if my life depended on it. I guess going 4 years without using a hockey stick will do that to you. Either way it was a fun time and great to catch up with old friends, even if my legs didn't enjoy it so much.

Amanda is now in Aus soking up some sun. She'l be gone for just over 3 weeks. My main focus in those 3 weeks are training, and working. When im not training I might as well be working to make some more cash. Plus it keeps me from sitting around too much. Hopefully the time goes by fairly quickly, and she'll be on her way home before I know it. For once in her life she might just have darker skin then me. Enjoy it well it lasts Amanda...

Off to bed, will check back in a few days.

It has been a while...

2010-12-14T07:19:00.001-08:00

Been a few days since my last post,

I have just finished up a fairly high volume week on the trainer and although I felt a little tired, I was pleased with my progress on the bike and in the gym. I know its not easy seeing progress on a trainer and that the riders weight has no effect when you're on the trainer but I feel a difference. Im now waking up at a weight of 150lbs and have dropped at least a few % in BF. My normal riding cadence has increased and I am now comfpratbly riding at 90-95 rpm. My leg power had also increased not only with my lifts in the gym but during sprints as well. I havent been trying to gain much strength in my upper body as Im still trying to lose some muscle from a few years ago, but my shoulders and back no longer get sore when Im on the bike for a long time. My nutrition intake has been excellent, much more veggies and fruits, I definately feel better from that. With X-mas around the corner it'l be a little tougher since I have about 5 holiday dinners within a couple weeks but I'll be training throughout which will help with some motivation to keep it clean.

I finished up a fairly easy ride today with some Z3 intervals. Now I have 3 days off the bike with one day at the gym inbetween. Although I don't like taking days off, I am well aware of their importance and that they are needed. Im going to be focusing on getting 9+ hours of sleep on those 2 off days and just keeping the nutriton clean. Basically if it didn't grow from the ground or walk around then dont eat it. A simple rule that can do wonders for your body composition.

I have 2 more exams, with the last one being on Thursday, I'll be picking up some extra shifts at the store to help stack the wallet, and going out for some fam jam dinners. With Amanda heading off to AUS next week she decided to surprise me with a nice short 2 day trip out to niagara Falls. Havent been there before during the winter so it should be fun and relaxing to get away for a day or two.

Thats been pretty much it for me over the last week or so, my clothing order for next season should be in soon and I should have my new bike some time after the new year. looking forward to it to keep me motivated up until my March training camp in SC.

Enjoy the holidays!

training continues...

2010-12-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

Almost at the end of the week. This week has been the most hours so far so Im looking forward to my next week regeneration week with a bit more relaxing. I havent worked a ton this week and I've been up a 6am every day, its getting to the point now where my body naturally wakes me up just before 6, which is a good thing. I will be working on getting to bed earlier next week since its a lower volume and more rest week. On Wednesday i went out in the morning and played some shinney with a buddy of mine. I hadn't been on the ice in almost 2 years, so it was a fun time. I don't really miss it, but it was fun to skate around. I have gained some more strength in the lower body this week and I'll start increasing my lifts next week, while keeping my upper body lifts the same. This morning was a fairly easy ride, with a few Z3 intervals, felt pretty good at a higher RPM.

I have an exam tonight, yah I absolutly love Friday night exams...after this one I'll have 3 more to go then its time to de stress and relax since I'll have nothing to worry about other then training and work. Off to study...

Another week down

2010-12-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

Third week into my training and all things considered, it went very well. I decided to work 37-40 hours a week over the last 2 weeks. Not a good idea, the pay cheques will be nice, but it was too much with training and school. This lead to a rough mid week, but then finished the week off nicely and started off this week at the gym in the morning. Had a great workout, the lifts are all increasing, and the legs are feeling much stronger. The sprints are no longer feeling so tough on the trainer either. This week I have the start of my final exams, so I won't be working as much since I'll have alot of down time studying. I headed out to Amanda's X-mas work party for M.E.C. it was an awsome dinner at The Water Street Cooker, had some great salmon and all sorts of salads. Fun time and it was great to have the whole day off. I helped my family decorate the tree yesterday morning and I got to relax all day and stay home for a bit which was nice for a change. Tomorrow I got a few light intervals which i'll do first thing in the morning and then I'll be studying all day...fun. Well the bike part at least, not so much of the studying...

The reason I ride

2010-12-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

Today was a nice day off, slept in till 9 which was a nice break from the 6am wake up every other day. Yesterday I spun for a bit to help the legs recover.

I've thought about this one for a while throughout last year but could never really come up with a definitive reason. If someone asked me why I train so much or why I race, I never really had a good answer. I think I've figured it out so here goes...

I train because I race, but I don't race because I train. I race because I love competing. Ever since I was 4 or 5 and I started playing sports I have always loved the thrill of competing. Even playing my sister in stuff like billiards, a game of Basket ball, or even a race I always wanted to win and hated to lose. I'd find a way to win even if it meant cutting a corner. As I grew up I played hockey and lacrosse, both at provincial levels. I liked team sports because its fun to go out after the game with the team and what not, but I always hated losing because half the team messed up. It didn't matter how good or how hard a few people on the team worked, if the majority of the team didn't come out to play then you usually lost.
I was taught by my dad at a young age to never be "average" always go above and beyond in anything that you do. From about the age of 11 I had always worn a letter on my jersey, either an "A" or a "C". I liked being the captain of the team because of the leadership, but I also liked how it separated me form every other player on the team. I was young, but thats how I viewed it. As I got older I started watching non team sports and wondering what it was like to be a product of your own training and not as a team. To basically be the result of your own training. I got away from hockey and lacrosse and picked up body building. I was happy with what I had achieved in a relatively short time, but with no desire to compete on stage, and with me slowly getting into cycling I still had a desire to compete in a solo sport. After enviously watching the Elites and their amazing fitness in some other races, I figured that cycling was a sport that I would try. Sure cyclists were a sub culture, and they must be weird becaue they shave their legs, are really skinny, and talk about riding bikes. I think that is what attracted me to it, no not the shiney legs, but the fact that cycling is a sub culture. Most people in Canada don't know much about a bike other then a fun toy you had when you were a kid. When people hear that you race bikes they ask "what do you mean?..." You can generally spot a cyclists out in a group of people. Not a trail rider, or someone who rides for the sake of riding (nothing wrong with either), but a cyclist, someone who pretty much lives with a bike between their legs. Someone who agrees with the "rules of cycliing", as most comments about the Rules were bashing them, but generally were coming from the trail riding population, stating that they are stupid and that riding a bike is about just being on the bike. Although it is nice to just ride some times, and I have definately gained appreciation for forests and wild life, I would still have to agree with the Rules.
As my parents had always said - my sister was usually better then me at most sports when we were young, but I would always stick with the sport until I was good at it, until I would beat her at it. I sort of applied this to cycling. Sure I could ride a bike, but could I race one, and more importantly could I train hard enough to race one fast?
I realized after last season that sure, riding a bike could be fun. But "fun" doesn't usually mean going for hour rides, some in the rain and brutal 50km/h head winds. As one pro cyclist said (can't remeber who) "the novelty of riding 30 hour weeks wore off a long time ago" Fun rides mean going for fun cruises on some gravel paths. The fun part of riding a bike for me was racing it. I wasn't having fun on the bike unless I knew I was training for something, or competing at something. And to race a bike, at least at a decent speed, meant training on one. That being said, I do enjoy training most days, the feeling of sitting in a hot bath after doing 8 hill repeats up Sydenham, is like no other, (although I have never tried recreational drugs and don't plan on doing so) and so is the feeling of using only the sheer power of your self powered legs to get up to speed on a sprint. There are times when you'd rather not go out and train and stay infront of a TV or go to bed. Maybe Im a little masochistic, but the feeling of lactic acid build up starts getting addictive. I actually enjoy doing intervals wether its on the trainer, or outside. The pain in the legs usually means you are getting stronger, getting faster.
If some one asked me what I prefer more; road racing or xc mtbing, I'd have to pick xc. For the same reason that I chose to race xc over road. Road riding is more tactical, a team sport. XC is a time trial, with rocks and a technical aspect thrown in to the mix. To me a road TT wouldn't be as exciting, nor as fun to race, so the next best thing was XC mtbing. Although road racing is fun, and the sprints and hill climbs are awsome to watch, I would have to pick XC. My favorite part of road races are either the sprint finishes or the Hill climb finishes, when it is usually down to a small group of riders to battle it out, sort of like a mini time trial. With XC racing, you train as hard as you can, then go out on the race course and generally speaking, the more fit racer wins. Obviously there are mechanical issues, tech ability and other factors, but generally the more fit rider or the rider with more dtermination and drive will win. In road racing the races are longer, and I found that I hated "conserving my energy" while I watch my HR monitor read 120 during a race. If Im racing I want to be going head to head at my maximum physical ability, not be more efficient and smarter at saving my energy. To me, there is no greater feeling then grinding up a hill on a last lap and watching your wheel slowly pull ahead of another riders. Knowing you dropped another rider. Climbing beside another racer and feeling light headed from lack of oxygen, your vision getting blurry, and then going harder. Then you know when you cross the line, that you actually raced.
To each their own, that's why I ride; I ride because I race, and I race because I want to be the best I possibly can.

Winter indoor training rides arn't as exciting to blog about, so this time of the year give me chance to write about other things.

Frist full week in

2010-11-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

Just finished a first full week training schedule. It went very well, I felt great to finally be back on the bike and have some workouts to look forward to. The sprints yesterday morning were burutally tough. Felt like I was going to yack a few times...maybe a bucket would be a good idea beside the bike.

Was in the gym early this morning and finished another great workout, increased the weight on my lower body lifts, and starting to get less DOMS post the next morning. I kept the same weight for the upper body lifts as Im still trying to limit the upper body mass gain. Nothing like walking out of the gym with the sun just beginning to rise, I love going into the day knowing my workouts been done and I can relax if I have some time.

Its been about 2 weeks since I started the rough paleo diet. Nothing to a T but following the general principal. Eating all while natural foods, even if I feel like snacking, it usually just an apple or something along those lines. So far so good, stomach feels much better, BF% is definately down a lot and so is the weight. All in all im happy with it.

Tonight I work, and tomorrow morning is an easy spin which should help the legs from today's lifts.

Ouch...

2010-11-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I woke up this morning feeling much better in the legs as I had been the past few days. I may have pushed a bit too hard on the legs on Monday as I had DOMS pretty much everyday up till Thursday morning. Had another excellent workout yesterday morning, lightened up the upper body lifts and finished with a solid core workout. I don't know if I was quite like.this guy but I felt pretty darn good. I did a recovery spin this morning which helped the legs feel a bit better

I was talking to some different people over the past few weeks, some fellow Kin students, an olympic athlete, and some professional athletes, and I came to better understand, or at least what I think it takes to be at the Olympic level. This is obviously my some what biased opinion as a non olympic athlete, but its taken from various view points.
First off, there is a difference between a professional athlete and an Elite athlete. An Elite athlete is almost always a professional athlete, but not always vise versa. In general I'd say that most sports that are glorified and commonly shown on TV (mostly team sports) are at the professional level, but not the elite level. Most individual sports that are in the olympics but not shown every week on TV are usually at the Elite level. Team sports like Baseball, Hockey etc I wouldn't consider being at an Elite level. Maybe when comparing Hockey to only hockey, then yes the NHL is an "Elite" level. But comparing it to a sport such as olympic track running or Cycling, I would say that it is not at the same level. Yes to play hockey and baseball you have to be skilled, and some what "in shape" but there is not the same level of commitment to the sport off the field or ice. For example, look at the eating/drinking habbits of an NHL or MLB player and compare it to a Olympic XC skiier. Yes Hockey players may need a higher BF% to throw their weight around, but very few, if any will be dedicated enough to train all day and only put in their bodies what will help them. An average Olympic cyclist will train roughly 6 hours a day, and for the most part eat a pretty clean and strict diet. Alcohol, depending on the cyclists will for the most part be very minimal. Cycling is number one on their lists of priorities. I would say that this is the difference between being an Olympic athlete, and being just a racer. Sure not everyone is willing to give that type of commitment to the bike or what ever sport they do. Thats fine, to each their own. But to be at the Olympic level, the bike or any other athletic tool has to be number one. This includes what you do off the bike, such as rest/recovery and what you eat. Number 11 in the The Rules of Cycling may sound ridiculous the the average person, but many Olympic athletes probably agree. It doesn't mean that you ditch your family, it's more of bringing your bike into the family. The bike becomes your job that you do everyday to become the best cyclist possible. The people that think rulle number 11 is ridiculous, probably aren't thinking about their own job. How many people miss family events due to their work. Its the same thing, just different prorities. You ride your bike, and then do what you need to do to take care of the family. Obviously emergencies are a little bit different. Just like someone may call in "sick" at their workplace because their child is sick or some other emergency. It comes down to priorities. If a young aspiring cyclist decides that going out at night with his/her buddies and getting hammered and staying up all night, so that they miss their morning training ride, is more important. That's fine, but for the olympic level, there will a next Cyclists who gets to bed early and is on their bike grinding away, who prioritizes the bike over social time. This applies not only to endurance sports, but sports like sprinting as well. I knew of a few aspiring Olympic sprinter who spent hours a day on the track, in the gym, and in labs perfecting their technique. They had very little time for their social life. I was talking to a fellow trainer who was an Olympic athlete in Beijing. He said that as soon as he started training for the Olympic level, his social life dropped off, he no longer found conversing with "non athletes" the same. He said that he only found he could have great effective conversations with fellow athletes, who understood him. This obviously isn't for everyone, many think it's stupid and pointless and that you will have no fun memories when your older, of you doing stupid fun drunk escursions. But for others, those memories are about doing hill repeats in pouring rain, or winning a sprint victory, and dropping a group of riders, to take the win.

What I’m trying to say is that being an Olympic athlete is more than just riding your bike 6 hours a day. I’ve heard multiple people talk about Olympic athletes and say “I could do that, I just don’t want to ride 6 hours a day”. No, you can’t do that because you don’t have the mind set. It’s more than just “riding 6 hours a day” .

That’s my interpretation after looking and talking to various athletes at the top level of their sports. Feel free to disagree as I’m sure some do, but that is my take on the difference.

Back on the bike tomorrow at 6am before work to do some intervals, looking forward to this one, Im feeling pretty good.

And so it begins

2010-11-22T08:00:00.001-08:00

WOOOOOO...

yah Im that excited about training for next season. Not sure if its the constant testing to see my power improvements, or maybe waking up every morning looking at my training schedule and without thinking I know what Im doing that day, or maybe its because after seeing what my body could do this past season with an unstructured and over trained training program I want to see what it can do with a proper program. What ever it is so far its going good. I actually like training on the trainer as Its a break from the usual dump truck/18 wheeler ride down Britannia where hills and stop lights can mess up the workouts. By the end of the winter I won't like the trainer too much, but for now I actually like it. Im also in the gym lifting a couple times a week, I did one of Chris' workouts today, it was excellent well structured and it got me back to doing quats which was awsome. Im starting to gain some size in the upper body, so Im going to lighten the weight up a bit to keep it to a minimal. My weight hasn't changed much in the past 7 days of doing a somewhat Paleo diet, but I've noticed a big change in my body composition. It could have something to do with lifting, but this doesn't concern me as I'll lose all the gained upper body weight once I start my longer endurance miles and stop the gym.

School winding down a bit so im going to be picking up some more hours at the store, do what I gotta do.

If you havent already read this (if you are reading this Im sure you probably already have read it) but if you havent check out

The Rules of Cycling

Quite possibly the funniest/true thing I have ever read. Very Elitist but very true none the less. Number 5 is great as well as a ton of others. Its a long read but a good read.

Anyways back to class, i'll check back later in the week and post about some more training.

Some baseline testing to get numbers...yes I like numbers

2010-11-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

Was at Chris' last night doing some testing to get my baseline measurements. I felt great being back on the bike and pushing my max. That being said I also felt crappy and just slow on the bike. I wasn't disappointed by this as being off the bike for the past 10-12 days and eating what ever, kind of had me prepared for not feeling in race shape. The important thing is that I now have some numbers for where I am, starting my training. Chris has set some goals for where I should be roughly 10 weeks from now when I re-test so Im excited about having something to work on, wether its a certain BF% or Wattage. Im a bit of a numbers guy, I like to see how Im improving and where, not just that I am improving.

I'll be heading out to South Carolina in early March with some CC team mates to do an 8 day training camp on the road. Chris got me excited when he told me there was a 10km climb (forget the name) that they TT up. Nice and long climb, I like climbs, this should be fun. By March I will be at my race weight so this training camp will give me a very good indication of my climbing ability.

The C-cup series schedule has been posted, 3 races in QC, one in ONT, 2 in AB and 1 in BC. This means that 4 races are driveable. Things are looking good so far with my sponsorship so being able to get to all of the C-cups is looking pretty good so far. Super soked about this as well as the 2011 season. After talking with Chris, he briefly told me how my training over the winter will look, after that I realized that my self taught training last year looked much different. Im looking forward to training properly this year, we'll see what the legs will be capable of.

On a side note, during testing my HR got up to 190 bpm (on a trainer). My max last year was 185 bpm (during a race)which I only hit once, for all of the other races it was 184bpm. My Dr told me that my heart is bigger then it should be so that is probably the reason why my resting HR and max HR is lower and why my heart beats ridiculously loud. This makes sense since cardiac output is a function of stroke volume x Heart rate, the bigger the heart, the higher the stroke volume is meaning for a given cardiac output the lower your HR can be. Although since I hit 190 bpm last night (no stimulants taken all day) that may show that I was racing last year way too over trained. Maybe I shouldn't have done every single Kelso Tuesday race especially since the races I was so called peaking for had me only hitting 184 bpm. I was surprised by my max HR but excited as to what it could mean.

This morning was an upper body workout with some core, felt great, really rested since I fell asleep asap after the testing yesterday.

Grind it out...

2010-11-18T08:56:00.000-08:00

I had a bit of an off season the past week and a bit. The only problem was I didn't get to put my feet up and relax as much as I wanted since my 5th semester is starting to finish up. On top of just finishing mid terms, having a whole bunch of assignments that all seemed to be due this week, and preparing for finals, I have also been working 25-30hours a week. Big sale this weekend at the store, paired with needing as much cash as possible means alot of hours working. Can't complain too much, at least the hours are there when I need them. I have been lifting at the gym for just over a week now, and Im starting to not get DOMS the next day so its good to know that my muscles (wherever they are) are starting to adapt, time to ramp it up soon.

I headed out to the Palm Dessert which in in South Eastern Cali for a family wedding. Left Thursday morning from the house at around 2am. Didn't bother sleeping as I finished work at 9 and needed to pack still. Got to the Buffalo airport and our flight left around 6:30am. Got to JFK airport in NY over an hour later. Then waited around a bit until our flight left for San Diego. Then hopped in a rental car and drove 3 hours to Palm Desert. At this time its around 5:00 local time, although my body is used to it being 8:00pm. Met up with my parents and said hi to some family. Headed out for an unreal pizza dinner with my parents where I ate way too much and then hit the pillow after being awake for 48 hours. Woke up Friday and did a solid workout with weights, core, and a nice long stretch. Wedding was that evening, stayed away from the booze, but enjoyed whatever food I saw. Since the time change is 3 hours behind out in Cali, I slept in the lobby when the dancing started. After hearing everyone cutting me up for not dancing I just told them I was pacing myself. Woke up an hour later and danced until 11:45. Fell asleep on the couch again. Apparently pacing myself worked good, just couldn't squeeze out the last 15 mins- too bad I missed a kick ass lil John song. Next morning was spent around the pool and looking out at the mountains trying to look for some roads that I could dream about climbing. Never slept Saturday night as we left the resort at 1:30am (Cali time) and again spent a whole day travelling. After a 80 min delay at the border (long lines, not because I was tryingn to smuggle anything in) we pulled into our house at around 10pm.

All in all it was a great trip, way too short and I spent too much time sitting in a plane, car or airport but I got to see some family that I havent seen in a while, and I saw a ton of mountains. When you dont travel outside of Ontario much, you don't realize that there are places in the world where you can wake up every morning to see mountains out your front door. Made me feel pretty crappy when I woke up the next morning to nothing but the flatness of the GTA. Thanks to my parents for setting up the accomodations, it was an awsome resort.

Im heading down to London tonight to do some testing with Chris and get some starting numbers. Im not expecting my numbers to be nearly as high as they were late last year since I've been off the bike the past 10 days, and havent raced in a while. Im not worried if my numbers are low today, but in 3 months when I do another re-test that's where I'll expect to see my numbers increase, especially since I'll be at my race weight then. Im not near my race weight right now as I was pretty much on the See-food diet when I in Cali, anything I saw I ate. Fun off season, but at the start of this week it was back to focus on 2011.

A Year in Review

2010-11-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

You better grab a comfortable chair, this one may get lengthy...

So I figured that this would be a good time to look back on the past season and go over the good, the bad, and some other things.

Over all I think that I had a very successful season. I surpassed my goals which led to me making newer tougher goals to achieve and made me realize my athletic potential.

The Pro's:
-moved up to Elite
-Learned to ride technical section a little better
-Built up my endurance somewhat
-lost alot of un needed muscle
-showed myself my potential

The Con's:
-the Elite's really highlighted my lack of technical riding skills
-Peaked way to early in the season
-trained the whole season un coached, which led to over reaching and less then peak "peak races"
-realized I still need to drop some body fat

There are probably a bunch more that I'll think of when I get off the lap top. But I would say that this was a great year for learning. I didn't decide to be a racer until about late December/early January. I spent most of the winter in an un periodized base training program until around early March when I read enough in magazines to understand periodization in endurance training. Although I had done some mtb races for the past 2 years, my main focus was on body building and I was lucky to get on the mtb once a week, and my road rides were around 50km which at the time I thought was long. Losing the 30 or so lbs of upper body muscle helped a lot but still lacked endurance. I had planned to peak for the Paris to Ancaster which I assumed that you peaked for the first race of the season. Once I started the O-cups I realized that I had the power to ride with the Sport class, but barely had the endurance to finish a 27km race. I trained a ton on the road and slowly got my endurance up. I moved up to the Expert Cat. and suffered a few mechanicals early on so i never really got to see how my enurance would compare to the top riders in expert. Eventually I was some what happy with where my endurance was and got to the peak of my fitness probably somehwere around July. I had enough points and moved up to Elite. I planned to peak for the championships but about a week before, I started to feel some lack of power and jump. I was impressed with how I did and sort of brushed off the feeling as just being nervous. I got back to training, but as the races went by each weekend, I felt my fitness completly gone. The power that my legs had was not there anymore. I realized that I was burnt out. I tried to sqeeze another race out of the legs and rested the week leading up to the squeezer (Pun kinda intended) I felt a little more top end but cramped at the 15km mark which was way too early from what I would get ut of the legs in the middle of the year. I decided at that point that I'd just race for fun for the rest of the season. I learned a ton about training form the past season as well as where I need to be to achieve my goals for next year. Im excited to see what I can do next season as Im much guided in terms of my training as well as knowing what I need to work on.

This past season has pretty much been the opposite of what I had been doing last year. I had started at the age of 5 as a hockey and lacrosse player got the the Provincial Jr "A" level then had enough and started bodybuilding. I gained some solid muscle in the 2 years of training but I had never really had any desire to get onstage and compete. Once Amanda and Dan got me introduced to cycling I started to realize how tough and serious of a sport it was. I would watch the Elites at races like the Squeezer and wish I could be a fast as them. Then the next day I'd be at the gym and I'd just want to lift as heavy as I could and I'd forget all about cycling. A couple years of that went by and I got sick of working my ass off in the gym for nothing, since I wasn't competing. I thought about it for 2 months and then called Amanda and told her that I was going to start racing mtb's. She thought I was kidding, but a few months later she started taking me seriously. Training for cycling is a ton harder then training for hockey and even for body building. It's one thing to spend and hour or 2 in the gym, but it's a completely different thing to head out on a bike for 4 hours in rain or shine. Once I started racing I forgot about lifting weights. Haven't missed it at all. Im definately happy about this past year, it was full of surprises and some wake up calls, but it has taught me alot. Bring on 2011!

Pre- cycling

post -cycling

Off the Bike

2010-11-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

I start a 10 day break from the bike today. I woke up early and started the day off with a solid core workout and a long stretch. Yesterday I did some tempo, speed, and VO2 work on the trainer, the legs are sore form it today. Tomorrow I dont start work until later so I'll head to the gym for an upper body workout. Haven't lifted for a while so Im looking forward to it. I took advantage of my short "off season" last week and only rode 3 or 4 times that week and pigged out on the food a bit. I realized that I meet with Chris in a couple weeks and kicked my as into gear a few days ago and started preparing for next year. Im looking forward for some time off the bike, but Im also looking forward to starting to train for next season. I have some high goals for myself next year that I expect to ahcieve, and I know it will take a lot of work to do.

Just going to enjoy the gym and core work for now, should have my new bike by the time I get back on the saddle and maybe get a few rides on it before it snows too much.

I'll check back in a few days

mini hiatus

2010-11-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

I have been absent from the blog for a little bit since the last U-cup. I have still been riding but school especially mid terms had pretty much consumed my time. This being my third year of Uni. these marks as well as 4th year are the marks that matter if I decide to go to grad school. So I've been buckling down and actually doing some school work.

I have a bit of a break from now until finals so I will be able to post a little more. Each week I have been riding the trainer during the week and the full squish during the weekend for fun. I'm on the saddle about 5 times a week and 2 of those rides are high intensity rides to keep the training adaptations up, such as blood volume etc... This usually has me doing LT intervals Wednesday and VO2 Max sprints on Fridays. The diet has been consistently good, except for the last night with it being halloween, I enjoyed my self a little too much. I headed out on the road with Carl yesterday morning for 2 hours, one of those hours being a faster pace. I then headed out to the Bruce trail at Kern's road with Dan for a fun hour in the valley bombing on the downs and having fun climbing the ups. Nothing too intense just a ton of fun.

I havent started any sort of weight training yet, just the core work which I've been doing all season. I have never felt that my upper body strength has been as issue, and it probably helps coming from a body building past. I will be meeting with Chris in the 3rd week of November to do some testing and go over some training stuff in regards to weight's and the start of my training for the 2011 season which will start on Dec 1. Im looking forward to starting to do some serious training again, as the past month or so has just been random not specific for anything training.

Now about Cyclocross...

I have decided that next year I will be racing cyclocross. Escuse my ealier ignorance about cross not being for me due to the shortness and the running. Although i don't enjoy running a whole lot, I have always seemed to have a sort of random running talent which I realized when I was younger and testing for hockey and from doing the half marathon earlier this year. I realized that once October comes, the shorter just over an hour races are great for keeping some fitness aswell as giving you a reason to train and stay lean. I enjoy racing in mud once in a while and cross is clearly good for that, and it should help my bike handling. Hopefully I will be able to pick up a cross bike before the P2A this year. On the topic of bikes, I will be racing on a Scott Scale RC next year, thank to Ashley for saving me some cash for next year. After throwing around the fs 26er in the past few weekends, I realized how much my technical riding increases on the smaller hoops. It has the full Sram XX groupo and has a negative weight meaning that I actually am lighter when I sit on it :D. Pumped to be racing that next season. I will be selling the 29er in a couple weeks and my Giant is already up for sale.

Today Im going to run on the treadmill a bit and the rest of the week will be on the trainer. After Friday mornings ride I will be off the bike for 10 days. I have been picking up a ton of shifts in the pro shop to help for next season's costs, so if im not in class or on the trainer then Im typically at work.

I have a weigh in tomorrow morning, should be in the low 150's or high 140's. Im well on my way to my goal of mid 140's by the time I do some testing with Chris.

I'll check back in a few days.

Last U-cup of the season-Ganaraska

2010-10-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

Guelph U was down by about 15points from Queens and we wanted to defend our 3rd U-cup in a row, so this race was pretty important. I did a non usual warmup of riding the course once (11km) with Anton, Bayden, and Simon. Felt god about the course as it had a ton of DT climbing and the ST was fairly smooth and not too twisty for the big wheels. It started to get sunny right before the start so I was feeling good about the race.

The start was great, I got clipped in right away and started up the first DT climb in the top 5. Headed into the ST about 3rd or 4th. Followed the leading riders wheels and then Etienne washed out infront of me, tried to avoid him and ended up riding over his saddle. I cranked up the speed a bit and rode around the first lap solo. About 1/3 of the way into the 2nd lap in the twisty ST I heard Anton and Bayden behind me. I pulled to the side and followed them around as following them around was alot more efficient. On the climbs I pulled away a little from them. I had a nice OTB crash that had me landing on my face in the ST and they both passed me. I caught back on and followed them around the ST some more. I again pulled away on the climb and took a wrong turn and saw them coming around heading into the ST, I waved them on and grabbed their wheel. On some more climbs I hammered hard on the last lap and ended up coming through the line in first. Apparently Kelsey missed a turn at the same place I did, except he went all the way down the DT until he realized he was going the wrong way. Put him out by a minute or so and caused him to lose the lead, not a way you want to lose a race, especially on your B-day!

I felt pretty good, which was good since the last month or so I have had no legs at the races. I was also racing at a much lighter weight of 152lbs so that paired with having much more powerful legs helped on the climbs and the flats.

This week will be a few intervals and some easy rides, all no longer then 2 hours. My serious racing is done for the year, but this Sunday is the Spooks and Spokes TT race at Hilton Falls, so I will be there Sunday morning. I will expect a decent result as the legs seem a bit better now, but I won't be racing very seriously, more for fun.

I will be doing some testing in mid November with Chris which will give me an idea of what sort of fitness I am going to be heading into the winter training months with.

After this weekend I'll post a season review of how I think the season went.

Nutrition

2010-10-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

So after spending the last 3 weeks or so of doing some serious dieting and nutriton change I figured I had some solid info to post about.

Right now Im sitting roughly around 152-153lbs and a drastically reduced BF%. Judging by the amount of weight lost and my appearance I figured that I havent lost too much muscle, the weight has mostly been lost in fat.

The reason I am focusing on dropping weight now is because I want to be at an optimal race weight come Dec 1 when i start my training so that I can focus on endurance and getting some power to my legs. It is contradicitng to try and gain power and lose weight at the same time. Your body is in a catabolic state while your muscles are wanting an anabolic state. I figured since my legs were so burnt out and most of October and Novemeber would be much less high intensity workouts then during the year, that it would be much easier to cut out the baking and high sugary foods. My problem throughout the year was that I would eat great for a straight week and then one day during the weekend, usually after a race I would decide that a brownie ice cream sundae would be a great thing to eat. Or a bunch of other delicious baking that my mom had baked. Im not a fan of greasy fried sutff it's the sugary stuff that I crave. Doing this throughout the season kept my weight roughly the same and I hadn't dropped any BF permanently. I would lean out for a peak race and then gain it back the next week.

What I realised that I needed to do was cut out the sugary foods altogether and kick my sugar craving. The first week is tough when your body is making the shift, but then it sort of mellows out. Anytime I need some sugar, it comes from fruit. I never ate any processed foods much during the season it was all home made food but just not the optimal food that I needed. So far I feel pretty good and have noticed that most of the BF that I carried which seems to be around the midsection and Butt is slowly dissapearing.

My daily food intake consists of the same Breakfast, lunch and snacks. I find it much easier this way as I wake up each morning and know exactly what I making.

Breakfast:
-15grams 85% dark chocolate
-1/2 cup OJ not from concentrate mixed w/ 750ml of water
-1 slice pumperkickle bread with 1 tblsp of natural peanut butter
-1 banana
-1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
-scrambled eggs (1 whole egg, 1/4 cup egg whites)
-5g of glutamine mixed with 750ml of water
-green multi vitamin and 1000iu of Vitamin D

Snack:
-1 apple
-1 home made whole grain muffin

Lunch:
-3 slices lean Turkey breast
- serving of skim milk cheese
-mustard
-2 slices wholegrain bread
-serving of carrots
-1 clementine
-grapes or strawberries

snack:
1/4 cup sea salted roasted almonds

Dinner:
-some source of lean protein
-baby leaf spinach salad with whole grain triscuits as crutons (italian dressing)
-some other steamed veggie
-glass of skim milk
-kiwi
-greens multi vitamin

Basically that has been what I have been eating for the last few weeks. I do not plan on changing it around when I eventually get to my optimal weight. I may increase the serving sizes until my weight balances out but I do not plan on going back to what I was eating before.

I decided to ride the trainer this morning as I figured Kelso would be pretty wet, and I neeed some more time this morning to get my school stuff together. Spun for 2 hours with 2 or 3 fairly short intervals. Legs seemed better, but its tough to tell on a trainer.

Heading off to the bike show tomorrow!

Boo rain...

2010-10-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

I headed out onto the road yesterday and did one hour at race pace and just over an hour at an easy pace. It was completely dark when i started onto the road at about 7am, and got a very early wake up call about 10k into the ride when a double dump truck decided he wouldn't move over. O yah he was nice enough to slow down to 70km/h form the posted 80km/h, real nice guy, missed my elbow by a cm and blew me onto the gravel shoulder, a second before it happened I moved my hands from the tops of the bars to the hoods. If I hadn't done this I wouldn't of been able to slam on the brakes and would've went into the ditch for sure.

I did the hour at race pace, but felt it hard to get my HR up to the usual race pace. I feel alot lighter and climbing seated seems a little easier, but again as per the last month, I feel like Im missing something from my top end. Hopefully it comes back for the U-cup this weekend. I did a core workout in the evening, changed up some of my exercises, felt much better after the workout. I havent gotten it properly calculated yet but Im assuming my BF% is around 8% now. Starting to see more of the muscles in the core that seemed to always be "hiding" during most of the season.

I woke up this morning and saw the rain, so I stayed on the trainer for 2 hours, pushing mid zone 2. I felt good and watched about 2 hours of TV for the first time this year. I havent missed much...

Tomorrow I'll be heading out to Kelso to cruise around for 2 hours. Saturday I'll be at the bike show with Amanda, her Dad and Dustin, finding my self a new helmet, then I'll probably head out to the Bruce trail at Kern's road near Amanda's and ride around with her for an hour or so at an easy pace. Then get some studying done. Sunday I'll be leaving my house early to get to Ganaraska for the last U-cup. Hopefully I can pull of another podium finish. The course suit's fitness over technical riding, normally I would be stoked about that, but with how my legs have been feeling we'll have to see.

Im really looking forward to starting my training Dec 1 with Chris, super excited to actually be on a proper workout with someone on the outside being able to tell me to back off or go harder. There were various times this year when I knew in the back of my head that I should back off on the training, but it tough to actually listen to yourself sometimes. Im thinking with the weight that I will have lost going into next year I should be able to greatly improve my climbing ability and my endurance. If I can also improve my technical riding as well before the season then I should be able to really take some serious time off my lap times of this year.

Off to study then sharpen skates all night.

Thanksgiving weekend

2010-10-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Took the Saturday off and worked for 9 hours, pretty much just sharpened skates all day. Headed out Sunday morning to hammer the 0-cup course for four laps, just under 2 hours. Felt decent, the legs were still a bit sore but nothing too serious. Managed to get a slow leak in the rear tire and rode the last lap with about 6 psi in the rear, awesome grip climbing but rolled the tire twice. Went to kelso again today for a 1.5 hour easy ride with Amanda and her dad. I decided to use my Giant Trance since I will be selling it this week and I wanted to get one last ride on the full squish to enjoy running over anything I wanted. I definitely liked going back to the 26er, I just didn't like the pedal bob when climbing and the head tube angle was way too slack since it's a trail bike. It's way easier to throw around the tight stuff though. I have had about 4 Thanksgiving dinners this whole weekend and have managed to keep the plate full of some Turkey and veggies and away from all the breads and gravy. The Apple pie and ice cream was all kept to a minimum so I'll actually probably come out of the week either lighter or the same weight. I'm going to take tomorrow off and do some studying, but I'll try and get out every morning after Tuesday and get some road riding in. I may do my usual hammer loop on Wednesday morning to get the legs ready for the U-cup, all the rides after that will be easy 2 hour spins.

Off to do some studying.

Finally back in the saddle

2010-10-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

The throat is still a little dry, but I can't complain too much as I have really only been sick for 2 days, Kudos to my immune system. Yesterday evening I headed out for a 4km run, the last 2k were a really fast pace, the first 2 were a lighter jog. It's been about 5 months since I last ran, not a huge fan but I dont mind doing it once and a while. Got up at 6am this morning and got the Kelso trail head at about 7:10. Barely light enough out to ride. I did about 4 laps of the O-cup course, tried to hammer as much as I could, but its not too easy when you have no one to chase. I got the HR up on a few climbs and overall felt pretty good going up Ascension, it seemed alot easier then it did a few onths ago. It could be the weight loss or maybe Im just more rested. I still felt something missing from my sprints on the flats but its late in the season and I havent been riding very hard lately so that what I get I guess. I somehow managed to snap off my quick link about 10 minutes into my ride (3rd time this season) but had one taped to my seat post so i could still ride.

Im going to ride Kelso Sunday morning and try and go hard for another 4 laps of the O-cup course. Next week I'll be back on the bike more as I have the last U-cup to try and have some sort of fitness for.

I have about 3 different Thanksgiving dinners going on this weekend, not to worried about eating too much as my dugar cravings have pretty much been kicked and Out of the whole Turkey dinner the only food I really enjoy is the veggies and Turkey, and you really can't get fat off of those.

Gobble Gobble

New Team/Coach for next season

2010-10-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

I will be racing next season on the team Coach Chris under the coaching of Chris Helwig. I'm excited to start training for next year as I now have someone who has the experience and the knowledge to make sure I am always training at my limit without over training. This will help me achieve my short term and long term goals and allow me to focus on my training and racing, without having to sit down and figure out my training schedule. I don't start my official traiing until December first but Im looking forward to having a program properly structured to my goals.

Sick...?

2010-10-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

I took the Monday off after the U-cup and was going to head out Tuesday for an easy ride, but saw some rain and decided to get an extra hour of sleep. My parents are both sick with a pretty vicious cold/flu which I happened to catch. I rarely get sick, maybe once a year max. and when i do get sick usually it is for only about 2-3 days and it is minor. I unluckily caught the bug that my parents got and started feeling random muscle pains in my body that i only get when I am starting to get sick. By last night my throat started to get sore but the muscle pains were gone. I am assuming by tomorrow the cold will be pretty much gone. I will be taking tomorrow off from the bike as well as I dont think my body needs to be woken up at 6am to go ride in the cold. Friday if my cold is gone I will be riding around Kelso for 2 hours. Saturday will be a day off and Sunday I'll probably hit up Kelso again for a 2 hour hard fast ride with some hills.

Im hoping to do a few short rides next week with some higher intensity to get ready for the last U-cup. My main focus right now is to lose some weight and get down to my race weight for next season. I was going to wait until I start Base training in December to lose the weight, but since my legs are now toast and my high intensity rides are now minimal I will have no problem lowering my carb intake. I also would rather be at my race weight come December so I can focus on gaining some power in the legs as opposed to trying to gain power and lose weight. I'd rather do one thing at a time instead of 2.

Im thinking of maybe picking up a cross bike for next year, not so much for racing but for riding in the winter and riding rail trail's. I am sort of on the fence about racing cross or just sticking with mtb racing until the end of Oct, but so far I think I'll stay on the mtb.

I will be heading to the gym before work to get in a good core workout and a good stretch on the legs but other then that i'll be focusing on sleep.

I have a bunch of midterm's coming up so I will be taking this weekend to study. This week is obviously a write off in terms of training but it is also a much needed break from riding on the road. Im not worried about losing any sort of fitness as my season is pretty much done for any serious racing. I will just get out when I can to help with the weight loss and then take the beginning of November off from riding. Hopefully next year with a much later peak, I will be able to competatively race at this time.

off to finish a math paper

U-cup #3 Hardwood Hills

2010-10-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

Headed out to Innisfil with Amanda Saturday evening after work. Stayed the night at Tims which meant a solid wake up time and a minimal drive to Hardwood (about 20mins).
During the night apparently some drunk kids decided to loot through everyones cars and steal any money. I thought my car was locked but I guess I forgot to lock it. Kids stole my super comfortable LAS helmet but left my GPS and my $400 Gaerne shoes. The Helmet had a nice crack in it from my crash in Toronto earlier in the year so I was due for a new one anyways, it just would've been a nice back up helmet to have next year. Amanda and I will be heading to the bike show after Thanksgiving weekend so I should be able to grab a nice helmet for a super cheap price out there. I'll get the same one if I can, if not then Im hoping that I can get a Specialized S-works helemt, they fit my head well.

On to the race...

It was a cold start at Hardwood, I did a 20minute warmup, about 10 minutes shorter then normal, but it's a short race and the end of the season so it was good enough. The start had a long DT climb which was great. The only problem was that I took 2 laps to get warmed up. Usually I start races very strong and then by the end I try and keep my position. Not this race, I started out feeling yet another bout of lack of power. I didn't pre ride and I was the only rider on a 29er, it was great on the climbs but the big wheels paired with my lack of a pre ride made for a very slow first lap in the ST. Anton was racing for the Guelph U alumni, so his plan was too pull what ever Guelph riders he could and not race for a good placing, as his placing wouldn't help the overall points for Guelph. I followed him around for the first 2 laps and he showed me my lines in the ST. By the 3rd lap I was barely touching the brakes and was losing no speed in the ST and was just as fast as anyone else through the ST. I started to finally feel a little better in the legs and decided to go for a podium spot. This was quite a change as during the first 2 laps I was thinking about just pulling out if I still felt the same way during the 3rd lap. During the climbs in the 3rd lap I hammered up the climbs and got back on Antons wheel who stayed back to pace me. We started to hammer, and I caught the 2 other Guelph riders and dropped them on a DT climb. I was tailing Anton and he pulled me past a 3 Rox guy on another climb. We caught up to the 3rd place Queens rider on one of the last climbs and Anton went around him, I followed Anton and then Hammered at the top of the climb, Anton dropped off and stayed with the Queens rider. I rode the ST pretty well on the last lap and stayed ahead. Once out of the ST and on the flat DT I heard the Queens rider behind me and not wanting him to stay in my draft all the way up to the line, I slowed right down and let him go by me and then grabbed his wheel. I stayed on his wheel and then right before a sharp loose right hand turn about 500m from the line I pulled around him, once around the corner I looked backed and saw that he dropped right off, apparently he was done I rolled across the line 3rd.

The legs were a little better then the last U-cup, but they were still lacking some major power. I have come to realise that my season of actual solid racing was done about a month ago. Now it will be just fun enjoyable races. I have decided to do the last U-cup out in Haliburton instead of the Hardwood 50km challenge. As much as I really love doing the Hardwood challenge there is just no way that my legs will be able to give'r for 3+hours or so at a race pace. It's a great race with unreal food afterwards but I'm going to stick with the U-cup which will be around an hour to finish, and hopefully Guelph can beat Queens and take their 3rd U-cup title in a row.

Not too sure what i will be doing this week in terms of riding. Today is the usual day off with work in the evening. I think I will head out tomorrow morning for an easy 1-2 hour road ride and probably take Wednesday off, head out on the road Thursday and do a mtb ride at Kelso on Friday. We'll see how the legs go.

Not too sure what I'll do this weekend with there being no races. I think I may head out onto the trails and do a 2hour fast hard ride at Kelso, or if someone is available I'll head otu for a fast 2 hour road ride with a bunch of hill climbs and town line sprints.

Kept it easy...

2010-09-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

Stayed in bed Tuesday as it was pouring out and all I had planned was a recovery ride. I headed out this morning to do an hour easy and an hour at race pace. I ended up shutting it down within the first 10 minutes and 1 climb at race pace. The legs still felt much too tired from the Squeezer to be going hard for an hour. I decided to ride easy for 2 hours instead. I figured if I wanted to actually be able to race some what close to my normal race level this weekend, then I'd better go easy. I kind of have to redeem myself from the last U-cup and my terrible performance. Im hoping with more rest the legs will be ok and not like last time.

Tomorrow will be another 2 hour easy ride on the road, and then Friday will be an easy 1.5-2 hour ride at Kelso with a few short efforts to test the legs. Saturday I'll take off and then after work I'll be heading up to Innisfil to stay the night at a buddies. Sunday morning is the U-cup at Hardwood.

Lets hope the legs can go

Fun Day

2010-09-27T08:06:00.001-07:00

This years Squeezer was another fun one, definately the best one so far. I wasn't sure what to expect as last Sunday I was thinking about pulling out due to the legs being finished. I took some advice from Dan and PG and did nothing but easy rides all week. Although this ended up being a good thing because it allowed my legs just enough rest to be able to race, it was also the same thing that cost me 4 spots at the last 10k in the race. You take the good with the bad I guess, and I would rather have taken last week off and be able to race , then go hard and have no legs to race.

Here's how it went,

Got to the race around 9:30 signed in and worked with Amanda's bike before she took off just after 11. I watched the waves go out, talked a bit with some other riders in the A wave, and then headed back to my car grab some grub and got ready. I brought my trainer since there really isn't any way of getting in a 30min warmup in downtown st kits. I defintaely prefer the wamrup on the trainer as its much easier to work in proper HR zones. After a 35 min warmup of spin ups, a 3 min zone 3, and a few jumps I was ready to go. Last minute nervous pee and off to the start line. I lined up about 2nd row behind a stacked field. In the last 4 years of me doing this race I have never seen such a stacked field. It was awomse.

The start was the usual fast start but nothing too ridiculous, I made my way up to top 10 then moved back a bit and shuffled around some more. On the dirt DT I was in the middle of the trail and felt the mood get really nervous and had a few riders hit my bars, I thought of the L2L start and opted to move to the right outside and move up to top 10 again. Sure enough a couple seconds later a bunch of people went down behind me. Close call.
I stayed in around top 12 going into the ST. The front group broke away and I was in a small train with a SCCC rider leading. He was a bit slow going on the climbs but he obviously knew the course inside out. He was perfectly braking around any courner coming up that was steep, so I stayed behind him which helped me save a little energy and made me ride much smoother. I passed him on a climb and caught up to Morka and another rider. Anton caught us and we broke away from Morka and the other guy. Anton was a beast and pulled me on the flats at 43km/h, I tried to pull my weight but couldn't match his speed, so by the time we got into the ST again he dropped me on a climb. I was by myself and holding a good pace. Maybe going a little too hard but I knew it was a short race. At around the 18km mark or so, I started to cramp bad. I didn't drink as much as I should have in the beginning as I was focusing on going full out. At this point I wanted to continue to go hard as I was about 8 or 9th but I knew I had to back off if I wanted to get through to the end of the race. Morka caught me on a road climb and I had to hold back from going with him as the cramps were still there. Further down Etzel caught me and I had to let him go. Another couple Km's and the legs were a bit better so I ramped up the pace. I got to the new ST section and although the 29er was great on the open stretches, it was brutal in the new section. I got passed by a Trek rider on a 26er, tried to stay with him, but couldn't. Every tight twisty corner that I had to slow down to fit through, left me having to stand to get the big wheels going to speed again. I was by myself again and took a spill at the left U-turn right after the Decew bridge, I thought it was just a left turn not a U-turn and slid out, no big deal. The cramps kicked in again with about 5km to go, this time real bad. I backed off a little hoping to be able to hold my position which was 12th at the time. In the last 2km or so I was on open DT and I realized that Jamie and another rider were in my draft, not sure how long they were there I pulled to the side and got them to pull, although we were now at the end of the DT and there wasn't much I could draft behind them. I knew it would come down to a sprint and I also knew that cramped legs couldn't sprint to well. I was in the lead around the last right hand turn and going up the hill. At the top of the hill Jamie and the other guy edged by me, and I had to accept losing the sprint. I was in the big ring and I gave it everything I had on the sprint, the pain was ridiculous as the legs at that point were almost fully cramped. Ended up coming in 14th and beat my time by over 25mins from last year. Had a ton of fun.

I was hoping for a top 10 after I saw how fast the field was. If I didn't cramp I may have been able to achieve that, but Im still happy with how everything went. Now I know that i need to drink right from the beginning. Next year Im really looking forward to this race as I wont be peaking so darn early in the season and by the time the Squeezer comes I will actually be able to be in peak shape for it. Another reason why I cramped was the last 2 weeks that i had to take off had me doing none or minimal high intensity work. When the race started it was a bit of a shock to my legs and they cramped at about the 18km mark. Mid season they would last up to about 43km of top end before they would start to cramp.

The course was super fun and I have never felt as tired after a race as I did last night. Except maybe for the 24hour weeked. The course was short, but there is no resting, its a full out hammer fest. Can't wait until next year's race

Good Medicine

2010-09-24T08:58:00.001-07:00

Decided to ride around Kelso and get off the road, as the road riding wa starting to get boring since I'm not doing any break through workouts.

I originally planned to do 2 hours easy, but with the Squeezer only 2 days away I wanted to make sure the legs still get some rest. I decided to do one hour and 15 mins, but I did a few hard sprints and some climbs I pushed pretty good. My legs felt better then earlier this week, Im hoping with tomorrow off, they will be good to go on Sunday. I won't know until the race starts,

I was riding around the extreme trail when I head a loud crack, off to my left about 50 feet was a tree going down. I finally saw a tree fall. After seeing a ton of tree's down but never actually see them going down I was starting to wonder if maybe some misterious dude was going into the forest and pushing over dead trees. Apparently not, as today kind of burst that bubble.

It was nice to ride and have the trails to myself, I stopped at a few open pastures and looked to see if I could spot any deer. I never saw anything except a baby deer (I thought it was a gigantic rabbit at first) run beside me along some single track and then dart left further into the trees. At least this time I didn't run into any porcupines. After my ride I rode out to the escarpment and just hung out there for a few minutes. There's no better way to start a morning then a mtb ride with an unreal view. Since the sun was rising the whole ride, it was coming through the trees at an angle which gave everything a pretty cool look.

Tonight I'll be relaxing at Amanda's helping her babysit her neighbours, then tomorrow morning I'll be getting everything ready for the squeezer.

Off to attend an Ex Phys class and learn more about how/why endurance athletes heart's are so much better then untrained individuals... Cycling FTW!

Nice and Easy

2010-09-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

Looked outside at 6am yesterday morning, saw the rain and went back to bed. I headed out after class instead for an easy hour. Then headed to the gym to do an intense core session, and then work. I headed out early this morning and did 2 hours at an easy pace, trying to get my legs rested. I took PG's advice and stayed in between zone 1 and 2 and didn't push my zone 2 at all. The legs seem to be making a little bit of progress, but I wont know until Im racing on Sunday and putting some power to the pedals. Tomorrow morning I'll be riding around Kelso for 2 hour right when the sun rises. I'll probably get to see some wild life and it will most likely be a nice quiet ride with no one else on the trails. I wont be pushing hard but I'll be having fun trying to keep some good flow in the single track. I may push it a bit on some of the hills, but nothing to taxing on the legs. Saturday morning I won't be heading out for my usual pre race hour ride. I'll be getting the bike set up before I head off to work and let the legs rest again.

This week my diet has been excellent, my sleeps been solid, and I am feeling generally much better then last week.

Keeping my finger's crossed that the legs come around.

We'll see how she goes

2010-09-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

Did the U-cup in Mansfield on Sunday. It ended up being about a 22km race consisting of 3 laps and a ton of steep hills. Should have been a course perfectly suited for me, except for the short distance. The whole week leading up to this race was a mess. I took the week pretty much off and ate whatever I wanted. I wasn't feeling too great on the warm up, the legs seemed to lack their usual power. As soon as the race started up the first climb I struggled to stay with the leaders, on a hill where I should have been able to make a bit of a gap. My HR responded fine but my legs had nothing, it was like racing in my body from last year. I think I ended up 6th or 7th not too sure and it doesn't really matter, after the first lap I just focused on finishing. I ran my slick on the rear and found out pretty quick that is climbs better then I thought but I did not trust it on the descents. There were 2 steep loose descents and I was going super slow on them since I didn't know how well the rear tire would hold and didn't want to risk an injury via a tree late in the season.

I took Monday off and headed out early this morning with a light on the rear of my road bike, apparently it's not light out at 7am. I did an hour easy and the usual loop out in Nassagaweya of an hour hard. I felt a bit better but the legs are still lacking alot of power. I will be heading out everyday this week for 2 hours, but instead of my hill climbs on Thursday, I will just be doing all zone 2 stuff.

I hope the legs will come around for the Squeezer, I was actually thinking of not doing the Squeezer as my top end is completely gone, but I've paid my $70+ and it's a fun race regardless. I am hoping with some rest the legs will start feeling normal soon. I may just be at the point in my season where the legs are done. I started my peak for the Paris to Ancaster this year which was way to early. At the time I had no idea as I was still just getting into racing. If the legs are fried then after this weekend I'll just pack in the rest of the races for the season and just get out and ride for fun with some, but little top end work. I have achieved what I wanted to this year and then some, and the legs have done pretty good. Considering it's my first tyear of real racing, they have given me 3 peaks, and almost every weekend of racing as well as a ton of break through training during the weeks. I can't be too mad at the legs if they decide they want a rest this late in the year.

Hope I can squeeze out a few more races in them, we will see.

Follow up to the VO2 test

2010-09-17T19:25:00.001-07:00

Headed out this morning and did 1 hour on the road bike with a few jumps, felt little out of breath it seemed after the jumps but felt decent none the less. Just picked up a book from Amanda's new work (MEC) called Racing Weight, it's a book that I've been trying to get for a few months now but Chapters apparently didn't have it. I grabbed the last copy from MEC. Apparently it's a good read for elite athlete's regarding nutrition, but not so much for the every day person. Or so I've read, so I'm definately looking forward to getting started on this one.

So I have scanned the results from my VO2 max test. For those of you who are not taking an exercise physiology course, or are unfamiliar with the VO2 Max testing results, the underlined numbers are my result. On the summary page it is clear, on the first picture you will see a whole bunch of different VO2's this is the amount of O2 that my body was utilizing at that given point in the test. You will notice that the first few numbers are higher at the start of the test then they level off, go lower, and then increase for the rest of the test. This is due to my higher rate of breathing and higher HR when I first put the mask on. I felt extremely clostraphobic and took a while until I got used to it.

Just to throw out another example of why VO2 max is not the only determinant of a cyclists fitness i'll explain some more. There are 3 main determinants of a cyclists fitness
1. VO2 Max
2. Lactate Threshold (LT)
3. Endurance
and a 4th would be Mental toughness and discipline, not physiological, but very important none the less.

Lets say person A lined up beside person B for a 5hour road race. If person A has a VO2 Max of 90ml/kg/min and person B has a VO2 Max of 75ml/kg/min based on VO2 Max alone you would assume that Person A takes the cake. Lets look at LT values. If Person A has a LT of only 50% his VO2 max and person B has a LT of 80% his VO2 Max, this means that Person A can ride for the 5 hours (assuming both riders can hold their LT for 5 hours) at 45ml/kg/min VO2 and Person B can ride at 60ml/kg/min. Now if both riders had the same endurance then even though rider A has a much higher VO2 max, Person B would be much faster in the race. Now lets look at endurance. If Person A has enough endurance to hold his LT for the full 5 hours but Person B can only hold their LT for 3 hours, person B will start to get cardiac drift. Meaning that they will not be able to get their HR to respond to what they want their output to be. This means that after 3 hours person B will start to be working at a much higher VO2 (past his LT) with the same HR reading as the first 3 hours. Person B would evetually crack and Person A would win the race if they had much better endurance.

Hope this helps clear up what it really takes to be a world champion cyclist. Any questions feel free to send them my way trevor.montague@hotmail.com

Tomorrow I have a ton of assignments to get done so Im not doing the Saturday U cup races, I'll be riding at Kelso for a couple hours for fun then going home to do my papers. Sunday I'll be up at Mansfield racing for Guelph U. Should be a fun one

VO2 Max= 82.0 ml/kg/min Woohoo

2010-09-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

Woke up around 6am,saw some rain outside and went back to bed. 4th day in a row off the bike, which is probably for the better. Headed out the door to school with the legs feeling extremely fresh and feelingn pretty excited about doing the VO2 Max test. We used the monarch bikes but I found one with clipless SPD pedals so I sawapped my egg beeter ones out of my mtb shoes so Ii could clip in. I had 2 prof's and a TA supervising our test (group of 5). I found it really tough to ride with a nose plug on and my mouth being hooked up to a huge snorkel like apparatus. I got used to it and the test began. The bike I was using had extra resistance on it as the cord wouldn't fully release, this meant that when we started the test I was at a higher wattage then we had pre calculated. This caused the test to end at 8 and a half minutes instead of the predicted 10. NO big deal as it only made me work harder then we predicted, so I got to my Max quicker then we thought. I pulled the plug on the test at the 8 and a half minute mark as I was about to faint and couldn't breath anymore. We got the results, had both prof's go over the results for about 20 minutes each and they told me I had a VO2 Max of 82.0 ml/kg/min

Now before everyone gets all excited about it and tells me that if I really had that high of a VO2 max I'd be riding beside Lance at the TDF, let me explain the physiology.

The test was done with new state of the art Metabolic carts (not the Douglas Bag used at Guelph which can be faulty if not done properly). The met carts cost tens of thousands for one. There are 3 at the University of Guelph-Humber. The machines were all pre calibrated prfessionally and properly using pure O2 and CO2 in canisters. The whole apparatus was inspected by the TA to make sure that there was no air leakage. I hit a new HR max of 188 BPM, my previous was 184 BPM.

The reason why I am not close to the prfessional level has more to do with Lactate Threshold (LT) and endurance. VO2 max is a measure of how many ml of O2 my body can utilize per kg of body weight per minute. Genetics play a big factor here. If me and Lance were to line up side by side and go up Mt. Ventoux (Lance's highest VO2 Max recorded was 83.8 ml/kg/min) within the first 5 mins he would drop me. This is because he could hold lets say 450 Watts for 30 mins where I would be red lining at 450 W and only be able to hold it for i don't know maybe 5 minutes if Im lucky (just using an example here). Lances LT is much higher then mine as well as his endurance is much higher. He could ride at 250W for 5 hours and then have enough left in his tank to crush a sprint at the end. If I could hold 250W for 5 hours I would be dead by the end and have nothing left for a sprint. My HR wouldn't go to its max because my endurance isn't there yet and cardiac drift would kick in about 3 and a half hours into the ride. It is my first year of racing and I will need another few before my endurance starts to hit max levels. My LT also needs more time to get to its peak as well.

So what my VO2 Max score means for me is that genetically I have the potential to be a world class athlete if I take advantage of it and train properly. If I had a VO2 Max of 65ml/kg/min I would say that I would probably not have the chance to get to a world level. This doesn't mean that I will next year be good enough to get to the World's, but years down the road I have the potential too, as my genetics will not be limiting me (thanks mom and dad!). Keep in mind that Lances VO2 Max was actually fairly low compared to most of the peleton. He won because his LT was extremely high as well as high maximum power output.

VO2 MAX IS NOT THE ONLY DEFINING FACTOR OF A CYCLISTS PHYSICAL ABILITY.

There are other factors. VO2 max is one of the few factors that cannot be trained as easy as LT or max power. Genetics restricts ones VO2 Max, but it does not have as much restriction on LT or power output.

This is good news for me, and explains why I have been able to go from Sport cat. up to Elite cat. in one season. This is good for looking into the next few years of racing as I now know that my body can be pushed and has the capability to go much further if I train my weaknesses, which is my endurance, power output, and my technical riding.

Next time I am at Amanda's I will scan my results from the test and you will be able to see the raw data collected from the computer.

If anyone still had doubts about the legitamacy of the test I can get either professor to verify that for me.

Neither of my parents were runners or endurance athletes, but genetically they could have been gifted and never known. There are various people out there who decide to to do non endurance related sports, or not do sports at all and could carry a high genetic potential for endurance. Luckily (or thanks to Dan and Amanda) I have gotten into an endurance related sport and can take advantage of my genes. Even as a hockey player I would always go minutes longer then any of the other players on my team during the beep test. I didn't like running and rarely ever ran when I played hockey. Even when playing Provincial Jr 'A' we did the mile running test. I was 15 seconds behind one of my team mates who was about 5'6" and had a BF% of an elite runner. He apparently had won the provincial high school track race the year before. Keep in mind I never ran and had too high of a BF% to be a runner. Who knows where I will be in 5 years as a cyclist, it definately gives me some peice of minid knowing my body apparently loves riding a bike.

Off to work, looking forward to next years season!

Been a Lazy week

2010-09-15T11:54:00.001-07:00

I have my Monday set as a day off from the bike but because of how sore and burned out I felt at the Marathon last weekend, I decided to take off Tuesday as well. O yah and today. Today I have a core workout to do and then work at the gym, so I decided to just go to school, and stay off the bike. My legs are starting to feel normal again, so the 3 days off were a good thing.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to head out for a 2 hour road ride and I will be hammering for 1 hour. I then have a VO2 Max test at the lab in my school. I will be fried by the time I do that as my ride in the am will be a tough one, but it will at least give me a starting point of where my fitness was for this year. Friday I will be either heading out on the road for 2 hours or I may even head out to Kelso for a couple hours. I have booked the weekend off from work so I will be doing the mtb Crit and TT on Saturday and the mtb race on Sunday, both at Mansfield for the U cup.

Other then the sqeezer coming up next weekend, I don't really have any "important" races to do. I am just going to enjoy the next couple months. My legs are done thanks to an intense season (my first) and where my fitness right now is where it will be for the rest of the season. Any more training I do will just fry my legs more. My plan is just to do an hour hard each Tuesday to keep my LT at a normal high level and then race on Sunday's with no goals set. Just go hard and have fun.
My goals are already achieved for the year, I have accomplished more then what I thoguht I would, and I have been in serious mode for most of the summer. Time to enjoy the 2 wheels. I will probably gain some weight, especially since November is my "off" month where I only ride with Amanda or Carl and Debs and let the lady's lead. Or I'll start playing squash or badminton for fun, pretty much anything but bike. Then December comes and it's lose weight time and start base training.

My sleep schedule had been messed up lately since I have been picking up some shifts at Nation Sports and my classes don't start until later in the day except for Monday. Next week I'll be focusing on getting up around 7 every morning and going to bed before 11. Tomorrow I'll be up at 6 to ride, but I don't work late tonight so that won't be a problem.

Off to make my lunch

Quite the surprising day...

2010-09-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

Pulled into the parking lot at Mansfield around 8:30 shot the shit with some people and then headed out for the usual 30min warm up.

Heres where things go wrong (I had no idea at this point). For the marathon races I normally use a mix of normal cycling bottles and aquafina open spout bottles. This saves me from having to wait around until 5:30pm to get my bottles back. I will be using normal bottles next year as the aquafina ones are to flimsy and are a nuisance to get in and out of the cage. Before my warm up I grabbed an aquafina bottle full of E-load and took it with me. Apparently(unknown to me) the bottom of the bottle had a crack in it causing sugary E-load to trickle down my down tube and onto my drive train, and yes the whole drive train every time I cranked the pedals.

This lead to... 8Km into the race I heard the dreaded sound of sand in the drive train. I know Mansfield was extremely sandy but I had cleaned my bike the night before and lubed and cleaned the chain. I kept on riding and at about the 10km point I started getting chain suck. At first it was only on the climbs. But by the second climb the chain was jamming even on the flats with minimal power to the pedals. I thought it was my chain ring that was worn again (as was the chain suck problem that haunted me for the first 2 months of the season). I was cursing the whole time I was pedaling. I ended up finding Dan fixing some arrows and he attempted to tell me how to get to the first feed zone. As per the norm, when a person who knows a course inside out, tells a person who doesn't know anything about the course, where to go, they usually get lost. I got lost. I decided to attempt to follow the arrows and find my way to the feed zone instead of taking a DT short cut. I also at this point decided to look at my drive train. It was absolutely caked in mud and a random cloudy liquid. I realized what was happening and chugged what little was left in my bottle. As I rode around at a moderate pace my drivetrain started the run normal as the E-load worked it's way out. I figured I'd find feed zone 2 and join back in the race just to get some riding in. I ended up making my way to feed zone 1 and had gone a total of 30km. I then headed back to the start 200m away. At this point it was 2 hours into the race (12:15) and the half marathon got delayed and wasn't starting until 12:30. I wiped down my chain and put some new lube on it. I hoped into the start for the half marathon and did another 30 something km. Finished the day with just over 60km done and 3.5 hours on the bike.

I realized on the first climb that I would have been lucky to even finish the marathon top 8. On the first climb I found out how dead my legs were. no top end, they filled with lactic acid and had no power to climb, I had to watch riders pass me on climbs who I would normally have no problem staying away from. I only gave my self one day to recover after a tough week of top end work. Even last night I could feel the soreness in the legs. I guess it was a good thing that I only did about 2 hours of zone 4-5 instead of the full marathon. I made the mistake of going over board on my training this past week. I got excited to be back doing break through workouts and fried myself. I talked to Carl tonight who talked to Dezzy for me and after going over a couple things my weeks are now modified.

I went from doing:
Monday: off
Tues: 1 hour race pace 1 hour easy
Wed: 2 hours easy
Thurs: Hill climbs (anywhere from 6-8) 2-3 sets of jumps 3 hour ride
Fri: 4x8min LT intervals 3 hour ride
Sat: easy hour
Sun: race

to now doing:
Mon: off
Tues: the same
Wed:1-2 hours easy depending on the legs
Thursday: 2 hour fun mtb ride or road ride
Fri: same as Thurs
Sat: 1 hour easy with a few jumps
Sun: race

I had already tapered my hours from what I was doing in the summer but it just wasn't enough. This week I will be going hard on Thursday instead of Tuesday as I need Tues as an easy 2 hour ride to recover from how exhausted my legs are. I only have a U-cup this weekend which I will be doing for fun and not worrying about my placing.

The new tires I ran today were great for hooking up to anything but were burtaly slow and had terrible rolling resistance. They will be awsome for next year as a mud bike, but that's about it. Even so I will not be buying new tires for the few races I have left. I will be using Carl's old aluminum Giant hardtail for the Squeezer which should help me a bit, at least with the dry tires that are on it. I'll be using my own bike for the U cups and any other races, I'll just have to work a bit harder the get the wheels moving I guess.

I'll be meeting with Dezzy within the next few weeks to go over my training for next season and go over my peaks as well. This should help me strengthen my training plan that I already have.

Huge congrants to DeCal for finishing 1st and taking the big money prize, solid race. Another kudos to Justin who had a great race and finish 5th or 6th.

Pre race... Rain

2010-09-11T20:03:00.001-07:00

Sitting here after work with the car packed and the bike ready to go and its pouring. Im actually happy that it's raining now. I have my new tires on the 29er as all my old ones were way past their life span, and since it's my mud bike for next year the tires are fairly agressive. If it was a dry race I would have been at a bit of a disadvantage as I don't have any dry tires to run. The tires are for all conditions but would be over kill in dry conditions, and they look like they would hook up well in mud or wet trails. So the wetter the better for tomorrow.

Im looking forward to this one as it should take anywhere between 3-4 hours to complete and there will be a constant barrage of hills which suits me well. Im aiming for a top 5 finish, but this race for me is more of a long training ride where I can push my zone 5 for as long as possible. It will help get me ready for the next bunch of weekends which are mostly all sub 40km short races where you are at your limit the whole time. The marathon races are nice because the start is more relaxed since the race isn't over until over 3 hours, so it's a bit of a break from the O-cups where my HR is usually siting at the top end of zone 1 just waiting on the start line. I'll be trying to stay with the leaders for as long as I can and hopefully get away from some other riders early on and maybe even stay away. We'll see how it goes. The legs are still sore even after todays sub hour easy spin before work. They should be better for tomorrow but they won't be even close to 100%.

Should be a fun day tomorrow hopefully the rain makes for a more difficult course.

End of the week

2010-09-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

Headed out Thursday and did a 3 hour ride total with 6 hill repeats up Sydenham and 2 sets of jumps. Felt great, nice to finally get back to the break through workouts.

Went out This morning as my class didn't start till later in the day. Did 2:45 on the bike and 4X8min LT intervals. I didn't know how my body would react as I went hard the day before, but surprisingly my HR was great throughout all 4 intervals. The only time the fatigue set in was with 30 secs left in my last interval. The HR dropped a bit and wouldn't go back up unless I went full out. I pedaled home into an unusual and extremely strong headwind.

Tomorrow I work at 11 so i'll head out for an hour before and do an easy ride with 1 set of jumps. I have the marathon on Sunday and my new tires came in the mail today and I got them all set up. They are a little more aggressive then I need for dry conditions but since my 29er will be my mud bike next year, they will be prefect. They are the Michelin AT's, pretty much the same as the Racing Ralphs but with a little more space between the knobs and a little bigger knobs. I didn't want to spend the cash for Racing Ralph's when I'd only be using them for 2 months and as a mud bike next year.

Off to enjoy a relaxing Friday evening

I once met three guys named pain, suffering and sacrafice. Now were inseperable, were best friends.

2010-09-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

Im not a huge fan of naming off Lance quote's, but this one was sent to me in an email by Amanda. I felt it was a good description of the competitive cyclists life. Saved it to look at once in a while.

Monday was an easy 2 hours with Carl, his wife Debby, and Amanda. The legs were sore from Sunday's ride of constant sprints with David so opting to keep it in recovery pace was a good choice.

I'm back in classes now, and I didn't leave until 10am today, so I decided to do my ride before class. Headed out the door around 7am and decided it was cool enough for the arm warmers. It's that time of the year where the days are still mostly hot, but the mornings can be brutally chilly. The traffic was heavy going into Mississauga, but heading out into Milton it was super quiet. This is why I love going out in the am. I headed out in zone 2 warm up pace into a head wind holding about 31, 32km/h. My plan was a 2 hour ride with 1 hour being a ball's out race pace effort. This is the first time I have gone race pace since 2 weeks ago as I just finished 2 weeks of late season base training to get some endurance back after various peaks. I turned off Britannia onto Bell School Ln. and started my hour of pain. Held a solid 38km/h with a strong side wind up to the base of the steep escarpment climb. Stood on the pedals and hammered. Got to the top and hammered some more. I decided to do the Halton Hills route since it it super hilly and fun when you are riding full out. I flew down Cambellville road going about 58km/h with the tail wind and slight downhill, then turned up onto 6th line Nassagawaya. I hit the base of another steep longish climb and stayed in the saddle and spun a high cadence. The legs felt fantastic for yet another climb. Once at the top I mocked another sprint. 6th Line if loaded with nothing but rollers, I attacked everyone and did a full TT pace in between on the flats. Turned down 15 side road and then down 4th line. Headed home on Appleby going back up the escarpment for one last hard climb to finish off the hour. The legs at this point were toast but in a good "I just kicked ass" sort of way. Pedalled home down Derry with about 42km/h in the bottom of zone 2 with a strong tail wind.

Felt amazing to finally get back to some break through workouts. The legs responded excellent and although I haven't done much zone 5 in the last 2 weeks, the legs still felt pretty powerful compared to normal and the HR responded quickly as it should.

I was going to go out tomorrow for 2 hours at recovery pace before class, but the legs are tight now and mentally the day off will be good for me. Thursday is hill repeats at Sydenham and Friday is LT intervals, so tomorrow will be a needed good rest. I will do some core work before I start work at the gym tomorrow.

Great day on the bike

Long Weekend...

2010-09-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

I decided to take the Saturday off since I was going out riding Sunday and doing another long ride Monday. I slept in till 9 and relaxed most of the day and gave the legs some rest from Friday's 4 hours.

Headed out This morning with the Brant Cycle group. The start was slow but after 2 hours we had already climbed a ton since we decided to ride out in North Halton as opposed to the usual flat Lincoln/Hamilton area where they normally ride. Most of the group turned back to keep the ride just under 3 hours. I stayed out with 3 others and rode some more. We hit a ton of rollers going on 6th line Nassagawaya and decided to power up most of them. Me and David were sprinting every town line sign we could, which kept it interesting. By the time we rolled back into Burlington we had done about 124kms and just over 4 hours in the saddle. Lower average speed due to all the climbing.

All in all an excellent ride as I got a good amount of tempo work pulling for a while, a little bit of zone 5 on a few climbs, and a ton of zone 4 from all the sprints. Tomorrow will be an easy zone two 3 hour ride with Carl and then I'll be heading into next week which consists mostly of shorter high intensity rides. This will get my top end back up for the Squeezer in a couple weeks.

Off to go hiking with Amanda up at Kern's road, should help relax the legs a little as they're feeling a little tight right now.

Late week rides

2010-09-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

Headed out Thursday bright and early at 6:30am with Carl. The sun was barely up, but it was nice having such little traffic and being done my ride by lunch. We headed out around the Waterdown and Carlisle area and did about 3 hours. Carl then headed home to work and I headed out to Hamilton to do a 2 km loop at the top of Sydenham. Headed home with just over 120km and just over 4 hours on the bike. The legs took a bit of a beating as the whole beginning of the ride had a lot of climbing, nothing to extreme though.

Headed out this morning about 7am and did 3 hours and just over 90km. I had a brutal head wind heading out, but on the way home I was averaging about 44km/h in the bottom of zone 2, pretty fun. Made it into the house just as it started to pour, nice.

This weekend will be a 3 and a 4 hour ride, hopefully one of those rides will involve some efforts. Next week I'll be back to the shorter sub 3 hour rides with a visit to Sydenham and some LT intervals to get ready for the 2 months of racing

Im staying at Amanda's this weekend so it should be a relaxing one alot of relaxing the legs.

The end of the Race series...

2010-08-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of the kelso race series, so there was no race just the awards and some other fun mini races. I rode around for a total of 3 hours before everything got started, 1 hour medium pace, 1 hour race pace, and another hour at a good mid zone 2 pace following behind Amanda. It was good to finally get to ride with her, she has improved a huge amount over this year, not sure if it is the new bike or what, but she's a lot more confident and her lines are much better. The 1 hour at race pace wasn't as hard as it usually was as I had no one to follow or get chased by so my HR wsn't nearly as high as I would have liked. I tried to go ball's out for the whole hour, but it is tough when there is no actual race going on.

I ended up taking the 19-29 Catgegory win, as well as the over all win for the series. That was my goal after last year's series so that's another goal achieved for the year.

The legs felt good today, almost fully recovered from this weeks excessive amount of hours on the road bike. Amanda surprised me with a trip out to Niagara Falls wich had us leaving Monday morning and getting home just after lunch today. I decided to skip out on my 1-2 hour recovery ride on Monday as the legs were still very sore from the weekend. I got to relax all day and sleep in which definately helped the legs. Plus all the easy walking around Clifton Hill was a good substitute for the ride.

Over the last week and a half I've been trying a mini experiment on myself to see the effects of sugar intake and recovery rates. I have read and heard over the year that dieting during the season is a no go since your body needs the sugar which it converts into glycogen for proper recovery. With my knowledge of nutrition I have always not completely agreed with that statement. If someone diet's improperly then yes you can hurt recovery and lose muscle or strength. But if someone ensures they are getting the peoper anti oxidants and vitamins through fruits and veggies as well as the proper amount of protein and healthy fats, they can lose weight mostly in fat and recover properly as well as maintain their strength. Keep in mind that this is applying to a cyclist not a body builder, who would need an excess of glycogen at all times to constantly be in an anabolic state for optimum muscle growth. After my week and a half of excessive sugar as well as eating the proper amount of veggies etc. I have concluded that the excess sugar does not help my recovery rate. Nor does dieting or being in a caloric deficit hinder my recovery. This is what I have found works for me, not everyone is the same, but at least I now know how my body reacts to my diet. I will say this though, during the season it is tougher to eliminate sugars from your diet as all the high intensity riding makes your body's need for glucose increase. The best and easiest time to diet is during the winter when you are base training as this is when your body is mainly using fat as a predominent fuel source and the cravings for glucose will be at their lowest. You can diet during the season, it is just tougher mentally.

I am now a few lbs heavier then a few weeks ago, so back to eating the usual healthy foods until I get down to where Im content.

Off to get some rest, tomorrow will be spent on the car, changing the oil, re painting a rust spot, etc...

10k short of a Century

2010-08-29T10:47:00.001-07:00

Headed out to Nan's from Amanda's at 7am and met everyone to ride around West Lincoln and the Grimsby area. I then rode back into Amanda's after 150km and just under 5 hours in the saddle. I didn't do many sprints or efforts as the legs were still a little sore, much better but still sore. I put a bit of an effort in on one not so steep but long climb and another for a town line sprint. There were a few break away attempts coming back to Nan's so I followed in the draft and stayed with them. A great way to finish a week of base training. Next week will be similar but maybe more time spent pulling and some more efforts as it is getting closer to the OMC championships in Mansfield and I'll need some top end for that.

Off to have a nap.

Weekend

2010-08-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Decided to stay on the trainer on Friday and lightly spin for 3 hours. The legs were sore form the 4+ hour ride on Thursday and I didn't want to ware them out from hitting all the rollers on Brittania. Big mistake, 3 hours on the trainer is torture when it's nice and sunny out. I finished the 3 hours and cursed every minute of it.

Headed out with Carl and Marty this morning and only did 3 hours and kept it in zone 2. The legs were still sore and tomorrow's ride will be about 4.5hours total with a bunch of town line sprints and some efforts, so I wanted to make sure they're rested for that. I had a good 8 hour sleep last night so I felt good this morning. I'll be heading out the door to Nan's house in Stoney Creek about 7am for an hour ride out before we start the actual ride and then ride home after the ride ends. The weather's supposed to be nice so Im looking forward to it.

Off to stretch

Back to Base-ics

2010-08-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

yes pun intended. Lame, I know but it's at least true.

Headed out on the bike today around 2:00 after leaving the work BBQ early to get my ride in. Decided to leave the Ipod at home and just enjoy the sound of the wheels. Rode out to Guelph and back and hit a whole bunch of other towns along the way. Rolled back into Mississauga at just over 4 hours in the saddle and just over 130km on the bike. Awsome ride felt fantastic, it was nice to not have to worry about intervals or hill repeats, and just be able to ride. I kept it in the middle of zone 2 for the whole ride except for a few hills which for the most part I tried to spin seated.

Tomorrow is a 3 hour and then a 4 hour on Saturday and Sunday. I wont be joining Zach on Saturday as he has to work,so I'll probably ride with Carl and follw him around the Hamilton area for about 4 hours. Looking forward to a weekend off from racing. Im pretty meticulous about my race prep so not racing saves me alot of stress.

Off to Bed, I have been consitent with 7 hour sleep minimum each night this week, with a full 30min sleep on my lunch at work and a few falf snoozes in the tractor on break. I feel rested, but the legs are sore from today's ride. I'll see how they are tomorrow morning.

Kelso Race

2010-08-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

Rode for 2 hours before the race. The HR wsn't as quick to respond but not as bad as I've seen before, and the legs weren't half bad either. I felt alot more confident then usual and decided to take turn with some speed and not brake as I normally would. It was amazing how much faster I was riding in the ST. I can thank the Elites for that, after following them around on Sunday. Im surprised how much you pick up from faster riders after only one race, it was a good feeling knowing that I was now not touching the brake in corners that I used to cut my speed in half for. I spent alot of time on some dowhill sections taking adavantage of the new found confidence. I then cruised around the course a bit.

I had the 1st place overall by more then 300 points before the race started so this race was more of a fun run for me. Since it is a base week for me I didn't want to hit zone 5, I just wanted to stay in zone 4. I owed Ian a favor after he helped me out with an ejected bottle in one of the races midway through the race series. I told Ian that I'd help pace him up the climbs and give him a draft on the double track, as long as he lead me through the twisty ST. It worked out perfectly, I stayed in zone 4 and Ian got a nice first place finish.

Today was a core day, and a day off the bike. Tomorrow i'll be getting off work early and doing a 4 hour ride from Mississauga out to Guelph and back. It will stricly be a zone 2 endurance ride.

Off to bed

Monday Monday Monday...

2010-08-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning feeling much more sore then most post race days, took a day off work as I needed the rest. I guess the extra lap, as well as me racing for 2 hours at my limit had alot to do with it. I had a planned 2 hour endurance ride instead i just spun for 30mins. I needed some rest as I have 3 hours on the mtb tomorrow with an hour being the Kelso race. This upcoming week is all high volume low intensity. I'm pretty much doing a short base training week because the last 3 weeks have had 2 peaks and I have been doing mostly high intensity and low volume. I have the next two weekends off from racing so my rides will all be 3-4 hours long with two 4 hour rides back to back on the weekend. No break through workouts planned in any of those rides. The main focus is endurance. The hour race at Kelso will give me the high intensity that I need to keep my top end so it will all come together in 3 weeks whe the OMC championships at Mansfield is on.

Watching a movie tonight and then off to bed as I have a big week coming up in terms of hours in the saddle.

Provincial Championships-Woodnewton Race Report

2010-08-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

First race in the Elite Cat. Awsome race.

Ended up coming through the finish in 18th spot with a sprint finish with Tim infront and Danny in the back. I achieved my goal of top 20 and since it was the Provincial Championships, there were a ton of the top riders out so the field was pretty competative.

I started in the back of the start pen and once the race started I made my way up front maybe around 10th or 12th spot. Once in the ST I wasn't paying attention and clipped a tree and went down on my side. This caused my chain to come off the guide pulley so I spent just over a minute or so fixing that. Once I got going again I was sitting about 30th since most of the field went by as it was early in the race and everyone was close together. I spent the next lap catching back up and would pass riders on the climbs. On the 4th lap I caught up to Jamie and then we caught up to Tim and Danny. We rode together until the last lap when Tim started to hammer it up every climb. I managed to stay on his wheel with Danny close behind me. Thats pretty much how it went until the finish.

Its a lot different of a race when you're racing with riders alot faster then you and I got alot more confident and fatser in the downhill and ST section on my last two laps. It made a big difference as almost all of my lap times were consistent. Even though the legs got slower, the extra confidence and lack of braking in the ST kept my lap times close. A few more races following around better riders and I should get better in the ST. I have definately improved my ST riding over the last few months and I'm a lot more confident now around corners, but I still have alot to learn.

I didn't start cramping until halfway into the last lap, I started to stand on the climbs and the cramps went away. It may have had something to do with the fact that my bottle got ejected on the last lap minutes after taking it from Amanda so I was dry the last lap which made it pretty tough. The course was pretty slick for the first two laps and then turned tacky for the last 3. The Specy Fast Track tires I was running hooked up decently even though they're dry tires. The bikes ran fine as well except for the small mis hap in the beginning. I will definately be looking for a new bike for next year as my spokes creak like crazy when I climb even after I have tried various tensions on them, and I am finding out that a bar mounted fork lock out is almost a must. There were times when I'd stand to stay with Tim and I couldn't lock out (it got all gummed with mud and wasn't turning easily) so as I'd stand and hammer the fork was bouncing around like crazy sapping all the energy.

After the race I handed my resume in to two teams who are fairly close knit and have the same bike sponsor as well as experienced rider's, hoping to hear from either of them soon. I think a team with experienced riders will be able to help me work on my ST skills which I think could greatly improve my lap times.

I now know what I will need to work on this winter and the spring, and after a full winter of base training I should have a much better level of endurance and be able to hold my top end for longer. I would say that my first O-cup season was a succes, as I pretty much was continually changing my goals as I moved up alot quicker then I thought. I have just over 2 more months in my season and then I will start the training for next year. Looking forward for next year as I now know how to properly train in the winter, and I have one year of racing under my belt.

O-cup #7 Provincial Championships pre-race report

2010-08-20T19:17:00.001-07:00

Headed out right after work with Ian to pre ride Woodnewton. I had heard different things about it so wasn't really sure what to expect.

After the first lap all I could say was unreal! I absolutly love the course. False flat start, short ST, and never ending DT climbing. The kind of climbs where it is up to shere power. The riders who have the power and shere strength will excel and drop those riders who may have the endurance but lack the power. I have seen alot of riders who have a ton of experience and a ton of endurance get dropped on climbs like these mid way in a race just because their legs dont have the watts to keep their momentum on the climbs and they end up getting in the granny gear and slogging up the climb.

There is a fair bit amount of ST, but it is not techy at all and the twists are relatively mellow so the 29er won't be an issue. As well the ST is short so any gap made by a rider can be reeled in once on the DT as the DT is almost always going up. The laps will be short, anywhere around the 20min mark so overall it will be a short race.

Although I have to do 5 laps as opposed to 4, I'm not worried as they are very short laps and my legs are feeling excellent. Taking last Sunday off (not purposely) was definately a benefit.

Did 3 laps tonight with Ian and Harrison, first 2 at roughly tempo pace and the 3rd at about zone 4. I wanted to save my zone 5 for the race. I will be heading out tomorrow to do easy laps and put a few finishing touches on my lines.

Yesterday was a drive to Amanda's and then a ride out to Sydenham. Went solo on this ride as Carl had to work late. I did only 2 hill climbs, and instead of a balls out first one, I decided to go tempo on both. Spun the legs and felt awsome. Then instead of a 3rd climb I stayed at the top of the escarpment and did my 1.7k loop. Fierce wind at my back on the way back on the loop and averaged about 50km/h, awsome feeling, O yah and so is bombing around the corner at the bottom of Sydenham and looking at your cycle comp reading 74km/h intense rush.

Amanda will be coming to the race this weekend after surprising me and getting off work. She'll be my go to for the feed as well as inspiration.

Anyways, I carb loaded tonight a ton, back to minimal food tomorrow as I should be back around noon from Woodnewton. Off to bed.

feeling excellent about this race, something big is going down.

Kelso race

2010-08-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

This week is a low volume high intensity week for me as Im peaking for the Provincial Championships this upcoming weekend. I headed out to Kelso with the plan to do 30mins of a warmup before the race. I ended up going way to hard for 2 laps as the legs felt awsome and just wanted to go. I turned it down a notch and decided to ride out to the escarpment and sit on the bike and enjoy the view. They pedaled over to the quarry lookout for a bit. I rode around a bit more and then headed down to the chalet. Talked to some riders then went once up the grasy slope and back, with Amanda to get some burn in my legs before the race.

The race started and I couldn't clip in until the top of the grassy climb, so I was sitting 10th, not where I wanted to be. I clipped in and hammered to catch Ian and pulled in front of him befrore Ascension. I gav'er on Ascension and took a nice lead. I actually had a top end this race since the flat tire kept me sideline the Sunday before. I got into my big ring and kept a hard tempo pace. By the time I headed into my 3rd lap when I reached the top of Ascension I looked down and saw the 2nd place guy just staring his climb. I new I had a good 3 minute gap and eased off just a little to save the legs a bit. I pulled through the finish with a solid 1st place lead. The legs are back and ready to go, I am definately looking forward to the O-cup this weekend.

I did a core workout today and felt awsome, first tim in a while that I felt good doing a core workout. Tomorrow is 3 hill climbs up the beloved Sydenham with Carl. One hard balls out effort, 2 tempo efforts and a total of only about 1.5 hours in the saddle. I should have some climbing fottage to post since Amanda will be following behind me video taping me going up. Friday will be 2 hours of tempo work at Woodnewton, and Saturday I will cruise around 2 laps at an easy pace with Carl again at Woodnewton.

Off to bed, my sleep has been excellent this week, want to keep that going.

Shit Happens

2010-08-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well, out of a 79km marathon, I did a whopping 6k, the last 1k mostly walked.

The plans for the Motel fell through so i saved some coin and stayed in Innisfil at Tims. Drove an hour and a half to Tims on Saturday evening. Had an unreal chicken dinner and headed to bed. Woke up after a rough sleep at 5:15 ate the usual breakfast and headed on a 2.5hour drive solo (missed my driving buddy huge on this one) and pulled into the Haliburton Forest Center at 8:30am. It didn't rain much at all in Innisfil but apprently it poured in Haliburton, as well as on the way up the rain was on and off.

I did a 25min warmup and got poured on for about 5mins as I forgot to wear my rain jacket for the warmup. I felt good, the weather had my a little more mellow then I normally am before starts, as I love the heat and humidity, but I was still ready to go none the less. During the brief rain storm my computer stopped working and I couldn't get it to work again, which meant i was to do 80km with no clue how far I was, great.

We started out at a mellow pace which was expected for an 80km race. I was chasing around Tim ( who just came back from the World marathon Championships) for the first bit and was finding his pace a comfortable early on race pace. About 6 km in we were heading on a rocky super wet downhill when I landed my back tire on a what looked to be flat rock. I heard the dreaded hissing and crossed my fingers that Stan's would come up to save the day. No dice, the gash was too big and the sealant wasn't sealing. No big deal I carry a tube and 2 CO2's on my seatpost with the EZ strap. (awsome little thing) I was angry since this meant losing Tim as my pace guy but I knew it was a long race. I pulled to the side, took off one side of the bead and took out the valve. Put the tube in and pumped it up, with both CO2's the air filled the tube then came out. Crap, my tube has a hole in it. Kim offered me a tube, but with 6km in I didn't want her to do the rest of the 74km with nothing, so I thanked her but told her to have a good race ( she ended up flatting twice and had to DNF, rough luck). I walked to the end of the ST and found Dan at the DT with his car. This saved me a ton of walking and he drove me back to the start. I was going to grab another tube that i had in my car and do the race without an actual time, as this race was a training race for me to peak for the championships next weekend. This sounded like a good idea only that it poured all night last night in Haliburton and it was as muddy as the Crank the Swamp was 4 years ago when it went through there. Because the mud is so sandy in there it wears out your bearings as well as your brake pads. Since Im looking for a new bike for next year I don't have the money for new bearings and pads for this bike nor do I have the time to clean all the bearings myself since i need my bike running fine for the pre ride and obviously on the Sunday. I made a good choice to save my bike as people came through the finish, 6 DNF'd before Tim came through as the 1st place rider, and I could see how muddy/gritty their bikes were. I can almost say I would have had no brakes left and my BB would've been toast. Apparently there was a ton of hike-a-bike and another ton of bogs that had to be walked. Another reason why I need 2 race rigs for next year, and one as my "mud bike".

From what I did on the course it was a ton of fun, I would've loved to have finished the race as racing in the mud and bogs once in a while is alot of fun. If I finished I should have come about 2nd place as alot of guys were missing from this race. It's a little frustrating as the points from second place would've really been great for the overall, but hey shit happens.

This last week was pretty much a write off in terms of training, I more or less took the week off from Wednesday on as I felt the burn out almost upon me. My HR is back to where it should be and the legs feel better then ever. Today I did an hour ride with 2 sets of jumps and one 3 min LT interval. I felt awsome and the HR repsonded nicely. Tomorrow will be an easy 30min warmup then the Kelso race. Since I'm peaking for the Chapionships this weekend, this week will be all short high intensity rides. Next week I will be doing a week of base training to get my endurance back.

All in all it was a good thing I didn't race, but frustrating none the less.

Rough Week/ Pre Race

2010-08-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

This week had been a brutal one. I was close to burning my self out, had more stress then I needed with the whole Motel thing falling through and a whole bunch of other stuff going on. I have been stupidly looking online for a new 26er hardtail for my next years race rig and have fallen behind in sleep. Needless to say, by Thursday morning I had 12 hours sleep in the last 2 nights and I was extremely agitated, angry, exhausted, and sore. I had a planned 3 hours with 4 8minute LT intervals to do, I didn't even feel like getting on the bike. I knew my HR wouldn't want to even go anywhere close to my zone 4 but I gave it a shot. After one half assed attempt at an interval I pulled the chute. I came home after 2 hours and 60k on the bike, all pretty much zone 1. On Friday I was supposed to do some power roller training. Left the bike at home, and went right to Amanda's for a much needed dinner out. Slept in on Saturday had about 9 hours sleep, felt better. I went out on the bike for an hour and did a set of jumps, the HR responded and the legs felt better. I feel much more rested and I should feel fine going into tomorrow's 75km marathon.

In hindsight I should've obviously had much better sleep this week and I should've stayed home on Thursday instead of riding. The bike has been giving me problems which has also has been keeping me up instead of getting to bed early.

Anyways, the tires fixed and holding air, so the noble steed should run well tomorrow.

Im physically and mentally feeling much better now, I just needed some time off the bike. I have already realized many of the mistakes that I have made this year in regards to my training such as starting my high end work too early in the season and some other things. Since it was my first year at racing and training, it has given me a ton of things that I will know for next year how to do properly.

Im actualy pretty excited to hop on the bike and race for 3.5-4 hours tomorrows. I know it'll be a hurt fest tomorrows, but that is what i'm looking forward to. I will be using it as a training race as my next week will be a peak week for the championships. I am still setting a goal of top 5 overall and top 3 in the under 40 age cat.

My diet this week has been alot of extra garbage food. I was sick of dieting for the last month so i took this week off. I ate fine today and have gotten back on my diet and will be getting back to it again next week.

Im staying in Innisfil at Tim's, the motel apparently messed up so my reservation got screwed, at least I saved a bunch of money. I will have a 2.5 hours drive to do in the morning but I'll be getting up at 5:45 so I can be at the race with a 90 minute time to warmup and get ready.

looking forward to it!

Wheel sucks, suck

2010-08-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

Headed out to Kelso for the usual 2 hour ride before the hour ish long race. My tubeless rear had a leak (tape slid over) so I had to throw in a tube. Didn't get to the trail until about 4:40, 20 mins later then I would've liked. I had zero top end so I put on my "relax" play list and rode around the new course for 1:45 while listening to some Matt Good. Kept it in Zone one, the legs didn't feel too bad, but when I wanted to go fast or hard they weren't to happy and the HR would stay down.

I got into the lead during the race going up Ascension, as I lagged the top end I couldn't hold my 20second gap once in the ST as I had nothing to keep hammering in the big ring. This is the point where the wheel suck, who happened to have rested legs after a non race Sunday, grabbed my wheel. I wasn't saying anything since I didn't want to draft behind him as I was using this race, like I do with all of them, for training. I wanted to make sure I was working at or close to my top end every lap and not drafting. This course was super easy and open so it allowed for some decent drafting.

He wheel sucked for all 3 laps and then at the end decided to blow by me and sprint up the hill to the finish. Yah no problem I love pacing people around the course on dead legs. Once I realized the gutless move come around I tried to sprint but again, had nothing and I settled for a second.

I have no problem with people sucking my wheel to find some lines for a lap or 2, or even the whole race, but don't blow by me at the end as if to say "thanks for the draft/pacing, but screw you". I sucked Jamie Wagler's wheel last Kelso race, and at the end I didn't even bother to try to beat him in a sprint finish. Sure, he would've probably crushed me if I tried, but that's irelevant, outta respect for him showing me at least 2 solid lines (thanks buddy) to take, and making me more confident on techy sections, Im not going to try and blow by him in the last 5 seconds after I follwed him around for 50mins. No it's not a rule, but it's definately an unofficial rule, and more or less it's outta respect for the other rider that's letting you wheel suck.

It's no different then when Contador was getting shit from Schleck for sucking his wheel up the whole climb (not to mention the complete gutlessness of his attack after Schlecks mechanical) Im just venting,and there's no hard feeling as yes it is still a race, but man up and have some class. If a rider is stronger then me on the flats o has better form for a race then once they catch me after a long climb then go ahead and blow by me and set your own pace, and see if i can keep up. I have way more respect for someone like that then someone who knows I don't have the legs when they're rested and they suck my wheel, it's pretty low.

O yah, and my bottle was ejected on the first 500m bumpy downhill, started getting the shivers just after the first lap, not fun. Too bad Ian wasn't behind me, last time that happened he pulled off a classy move and tossed me his half used one after the first lap before he got a new one. Stand up guy for sure.

Thats it for my ranting, what's done is done, all in all I got my zone 4/5 in for the day and it went alright.

On a side not, I will end up racing Elite at the Chapionships next weekend. I was going to try for another 1st place podium finish as I hear the course is really hilly which is awsome, the more hills the better. But after talking to Jamie and some other people, and for my development, I will be emailing the OCA and getting bumped. I do not want to go into my winter base training riding 4 hour days on the trainer and saying to myself "I wonder what it's going to be like in elite" I'd rather be on the trianer knowing damn well what I am training for and what I need to do.

I have done enough marathon's and longer distanced races to know what I can push for a 45km race. I've put the training hours in on the road bike and Im confident in my ability to be able to do another lap at roughly the same pace as my other laps. I will be going into the championships with the hope of a top 20 finish. Most importantly my goal will be to finish but not DFL and certainly not a DNF. I'll still keep in mind that it's my first year racing and if I don't reach the top 20 in my first elite race then it's not a big deal. I have all winter to prepare for next year and I will be hopefully much faster going into next year.

Tomorrow is a day off the bike, I'll be working at the gym and doing my usual core workout. Back on my diet, will do a weigh in on saturday am.

Go Tubeless!

2010-08-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

Today I stayed indoors on the trainer as the rain was on and off and I only had a 2 hour recovery ride to do. It's always easy to keep a steady HR pace on the trainer so I don't mind doing the revoery rides on it. I stayed in my recovery pace the whole 2 hours and the legs felt decent. I only got about 6.5 hours sleep last night so tonight's sleep will be at least a solid 8 to get ready for the 2 hour ride at Kelso and then the 1 hour Kelso race. A total of 3 hours tomorrow.

Looking back on the Kelso race I saw more then enough rider's with flats, so I figured I'd let everyone in on an easy and cheap solution to going tubeless. I was running tubeless during the race and had only 26 psi in the rear tire for grip for going up Ascnesion, I hit the rim at least 10 times during the race and never flatted.

Here's the not so secret, secret:

The best option is if you have tubless rims, like most mavic rims, which have no spoke holes drilled into the rim. Just put about 1/2cup of Stand No Tubes sealant in the tire and use a compressor to pump it up. It doesn't even have to be a tubeless specific tire.

Option 2, for those with rims that have spoke holes drilled in them. You can either buy Stans yellow rim strips, they work awsome but it is costly at about $30+ dollars and you only have enough for 2 rims.

For about $5 you can go to Rona and go to the tape section. Pick up some strapping tape which is just clear tape with threads in it. Get the wider width of the two. Put the tape around the rim, but do not pull it so tight that you cannot fill the middle groove in the rim with the tape. This tape works just as good as the Stans tape for sealing and you get 4 times as much per roll, it's also just as light. The only down side is if you have to remove the tape to replace a spoke, it doesn't come off the rim as cleanly and you will have to use a knife or something to pick part of the tape off. After the tape is on put some Stans in and you now have a tubeless tire.

I havent run tubes for 2 years now and I have never had a flat. I carry a tube and CO2 with me during races in case I gash the tire on a rock and the sealant won't fill up the hole. So far I've been lucky.

Anyways, just a bit of info in case anyone is on the fence about the tubes or no tubes debate. I say GO NO TUBES!

Off to hit the pillow, Kelso tomorrow and I'm looking for another 1st place finish to secure 1st overall.

When the bike runs well usually the rider does too

2010-08-08T15:43:00.001-07:00

What an awsome day, ended up finishing 1st in the Sr Ex cat. by 3:02.

The day:

Amanda decided that she wanted to race today which was awsome news to hear, so I headed up to Kelso for 9am to give her some pre race talk and a little motivation. She pulled across the line after 2 laps and ended up coming 4th in the women's Sr sport cat. She would've been 3rd but apparently there is an OCA rule that states that if you're a Cat 1 road racer then you are elligable for any placing age 19-40. So a 32 year old women cat one racer got a spot ahead of her bumping her to 4th. Dumb rule but solid race Amanda, as well as an unreal new bike she picked up from a guy who brought it to sell. An 18lb full carbon 26er hardtail, it must be nice to ride a small frame with the weight savings.

I got about 7.5 hour sleep last night as the nerves were going crazy, felt pretty good in the am had the usual breakfast and headed out the door. After watching Amanda race I talked to a few more people and then got ready to warm up. I forgot to bring my Ipod with me on the warm up, but it was no big deal as I was warming up with Ian. Total warm up was 30 mins with 4 sprints and a 2mins tempo ride in zone 3. best warm up I've had, thanks Ian for the excellent warm up route. I got to the start pen at the front row, not making the same mistake that I did at Bucky. I talked to Justin and bayden at the start which calmed the nerves a bit although I was still having second thoughts on how well my legs were rested and if I did my peak properly. We'll find out.

We took off up the first grassy climb at a decent pace, but no one was absolutely hammering. I gave it some gas and broke out in front before the downhill, I picked it up some more and started climbing Ascension. Now, my goal was to hammer at my limit so I could get ahead and the field would lose sight of me. Hoping that they wouldn't make up the time back in Extreme trail and Rough trade and catch me. I hit the gas hard up Ascension and looked back when I got to the flat part after a spectator told me I made a decent gap. I realized I had about a 20 second gap so I went harder and hammered on Quarry trail. I got slowed up a bit by the Masters cat who heads out before us but everyone was awsome and let me by when they could. I was worried that Bayden or Alex would catch me in the ST so I continued to giv'er on all the flats and any climbs. I did this lap after lap until I finished. The plan worked. I loved this course as it is super fast and the climb really strips it down to fitness. Who has it will stay with the group those who don't fall behind. There was little techy ST to do any catch up for the non climbers.

The bike finally ran perfectly, first time for that at an O-cup. My HR only hit 178 BPM and not my 184 BPM max, so I may have been a little over worked this week, but it was my first Peak (except for my DNF at the Canada Cup) so I'll try and get it right next time.

The chocolate milk after the race was unreal. Thanks to my parents who came out to watch as well as Anne and Dan, Dan showed them all over the course so they could watch at different spots every lap, I think they are starting to understand the sport a little better, it definately helped having them cheer me on at the top of Ascension. Thanks to Mark and Kim for their great encouragement when climbing that weird left turn climb, helped a ton. As well thanks to anyone else who was yelling at me to go faster, it does wonders.

Congrats to Ian who placed 2nd in cadet Ex cat. And Bayden and Alex who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Solid Job to Aaron who finished another O-cup in Elite, you feel any lighter? haha. Andrew, great race in the single speed cat, tough course on a single speed and still pulled off a 3rd. Congrats to anyone else who podiumed who I missed.

All in all a great day on the bike. I now have enough upgrade points to move up to Elite. I will probably stay in Ex for the championships, and see if I can grab another podium spot before moving up next year. I will also now be able to race Cat 3 road next year, and hopefully I can upgrade into Cat 1-2 by the end of next year.

Off to crush some pasta and chicken, then back to the diet on Monday for another few lbs gone hopefully. I think being 7lbs lighter today helped a ton on Ascension, so I'll be looking to lose a few more by the championships.

I'm racing the Haliburton marathon next Sunday and will be staying in a cottage at Base camp, anyone heading up and want to split a room, let me know?

Weigh in and pre race things

2010-08-07T12:49:00.001-07:00

Weighed in this morning at 157.1 lbs. Weird, I have been told by a few people how much thinner I look, and looking at myself i have noticed alot less fat around the obliques. Yet the weight only went down .3 from last week. There are a ton of factors that come into play when looking at a number on a scale so im not too worried about it. I will be continuing my diet and hopefully go into the provincial championships at just around 150 lbs. I started a few weeks ago at 164 lbs and change and ended at 157.1 lbs so I was about 1 lb short of my goal. Aaron wins,I lost, he takes the cake. Although we were both successful at losing weight so it's pretty much a win win for both of us.

Headed out this morning down my usual 30k recovery route in Milton and felt pretty good. Did a set of jumps and the legs recovered very quickly. I am hoping by tomorrow my legs are 100%, they felt about 85% this morning, but that should be fixed by tomorrow. I had an 8 hour sleep last night and I'll get another tonight. I'll be working on my resume tonight and will be rolling my legs to smooth out a couple knots and get them feelign loose.

I just finished fixing my car and cleaning the bike, now I just have to lube everything up on the bike and then Im off to Amanda's for the evening to relax. I love going there the nights before races as it always relaxes me. Amanda will be racing tomorrow which is awsome so I'll be at kelso about 9:15 to watch her race. I'll watch a few buddy's go out and walk around to keep my legs loose. I'll be bringing a big cooler with a bunch of food to munch on all morning. I'll be starting my warmup at 12:30 and be done by 1:00, eat my last minute stuff and head to the start pen at 1:15.

My plan is to get in the lead asap and hammer at my limit up ascension. Once in the ST get into the big ring and get my momentum going. I will recover once in extreme trail and rough trade. I'll be trying that every lap and hopefully my climbing ability will make up for my lack of ST skills. I'll be getting a feed after the 2nd and 3rd lap and just drink gatorade. I'll have 2 gels aswell, this should keep my energy up throughout the race.

Looking forward to it!

Another pre ride

2010-08-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

Headed out tonight with Carl, Dave, and Sean to do a few laps of the O-cup course at Kelso. I had planned on doing 2 hours and about 4 laps at a tempo zone 3 pace. As it usually is when you don't train solo, some people were late getting there so we only ended up doing 3 laps roughly 2 laps at tempo and 1 easy lap. Not really what I wanted but thats what happens when you ride with people. It's fun to ride with friends but at the same time plans get changed when you ride with other people. My rear tire had a leak so In had to stop and pump it up to about 45psi each lap, which made climbing ascension unbelievably hard since I couldn't grab any of the rocks on the climb. I will be putting in some more stans tomorrow when I clean my bike and hopefully that will fix the problem. I'll be running a lower pressure during the race to get some grab on the rocks.

The course has changed a little bit as I thought, no more road to ruin, now just straight up ascension which is awesome. A few more changes here and there as well but nothing to serious.

Got 8 hours on the pillow last night, legs felt good today, diet been excellent will check the weight tomorrow morning. I'll head out tomorrow for an hour spin in the am. and do 1 set of jumps to get the legs fired up. Im real excited for this race and feeling good about it. I hate the feed zone though as its bumpy as hell and over grass which slows you right down and you lose all your momentum, it will make a bottle change pretty difficult, but we'll see.

off to crush some pasta and chicken...yah

Looking for a Team...

2010-08-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

Headed out with Carl today from his house out to Sydenham. Did a few fun sprints against Carl on a few rollers just for kicks. Did 2 hill climbs up Syd. first one full out and the second one a training tempo which I felt pretty good doing. On the way home we did a few more up hill sprints and I did 2 jumps. The legs felt not too bad, but the last two nights have been just over 7 hours sleep, not bad but not the 8+hours I need. Tonight I will be getting an 8 hour sleep which should rest the legs nicely for tomorrow 2 hours at Kelso with Carl doing the O-cup course. I'll try and keep it in zone 3 at a tempo pace.

I am in the middle of making my resume for the year as I am looking at joining a team for next year. Preferably one that focuses on performance and development and has riders in the Elite category. I need 83 points to upgrade to Elite for next year, hopefully I will get those points this weekend at Kelso and be able to ride in that cat. next year. I will post my resume on here as soon as I have it completed.

If anyone is looking for a rider or knows of any team looking for a rider let me know

trevor.montague@hotmail.com
647-238-3960

Tues race, form's coming around

2010-08-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

I woke up on Monday with the 3rd day in a row of 8+ hours sleep and decided to head out and do an hour ride at a recovery pace. I wasn’t feeling too bad after the 182km the day before, but the legs were feeling a little laggy. I did 2 sprints and felt much better then I had the week before. I headed out later in the day up to Kerns road and went hiking with Amanda, Dan, her sister Heather, and her friend. We were out for about an hour which was basically another recovery session so it worked out great.
Woke up Tuesday after 8 hours on the pillow, legs felt good but I felt tired. I guess after 3 days of 7-8am wake ups a 6am one takes a toll no matter how many hours I slept. By the afternoon I felt much more awake and was pretty excited to race at Kelso with the O-cup course. I hadn’t raced at Kelso with fresh legs for about 4 weeks now so it was a great feeling knowing I’d have the legs to actually hammer.
I showed up at Kelso about two hours before the race and did about 1:20 at an easy warmup pace checking all the techy sections. Since it’s a race week I have only about 8 hours on the saddle, most at a higher intensity. This meant I wouldn’t be doing my 2 hours before the race, so it was nice to be able to talk to some people and relax a bit. There was a decent amount of Elites racing since they also wanted to pre ride the course, some 2 Wheel Express guys, 3 Rox racing, and some fast guys from New Zealand staying over for the summer. My goal was to finish with some of the Elites if I could and drop all the guys that normally race the Tuesday series. The pace started out fast as expected, with the two 3 Rox guys leading up Ascension. I made my way into 4th behind Jamie Wagler and stayed there most of lap one. The 3 Rox guys took off and dropped everyone and I was in about 4th or 5th with one of the New Zealand riders who joined us in the ST. I lost Wagler’s wheel on some of the downhill sections and then grab it again climbing. I passed him on ascension but then he caught back up and passed me, I figured I’d sit on his wheel as I knew he was much faster then me in the ST and there was no sense in working to get in front on a climb only to have him pass me in the ST. Mid 2nd lap Anton Passed us and Wagler chased and drop me, I caught him a few mins later, but Anton was gone. During the 3rd lap I felt Wagler do a few quick acceleration and try and drop me, he’d make a bit of a gap but I’d barely manage to catch him again. I stayed with him until the downhill on Fire, he made about a 5 second gap and I caught him again on the bottom of fire but he still had a bit of a gap on me, he pulled across the line a few seconds ahead of me. He was riding a good pace and following him really taught me a lot. I found a new line when going down Ugly Up and it gave me a little more confidence to not hit the brakes.
I think Anton crashed out of the race and same with the New Zealand rider because Wagler ended up coming 3rd and I came 4th only behind the two 3 Rox guys. The one thing I noticed about the speed of the Elites is not so much the speed while climbing, although they are fast at that, but they are extremely efficient when they are going over rocks or roots. Their bike doesn’t get thrown around, they find their line and go for it and then they’re gone with barely any loss of speed. The race was only 3 laps, I felt I could have done another 2 laps, obviously I would’ve slowed down a bit, but I felt good. I was at my limit while climbing but I’d be able to recover in the techy twisty sections and then be able to hammer again.
My form is coming around nicely for the O-cup as my HR was responding great during the race. I was actually hitting my max 184 BPM once or twice going up Ascension. I hadn’t hit my max HR for a while as I was so tired it wouldn’t go any higher then 174BPM sometimes. The recovery was great too at the top of Ascension I would be able to hammer and my HR would drop a bit fairly quickly.
I will have some work to do if I want to race with the Elites next year. I will be working alot on Endurance throughout the winter but I also need to work on being much faster on downhill’s and much smoother over the techy stuff. It will come with experience as I already have found, but I’m still behind.
All in all I’m very happy with my performance last night, the legs are finally starting to come around and they should be at their peak come Sunday. Im pretty excited to race this Sunday as the course is extremely fast and we go up Ascension. Hopefully I can squeeze out a 1st place finish.
I did the usual core workout tonight, felt good, I think I’m down another couple pounds but I’ll do another weigh in on Saturday before Kelso.
Off to work on my sticky brake piston and get rid of my brake rub.

182km

2010-08-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

Headed out bright and early about 7:30am knowing the first 50k would be an easy except for a few townline sprints. The legs were feeling better after another solid 8 hour sleep but still a little more burn then normal. I sprinted a few town signs but then went back to ride with Amanda and Dan for a bit. Amanda had some brake rub which got really bad so there were a couple problems with that.

Once out to Niagara Falls the pace didn't pick up as usual like it normally should. Everyone kept complaining we were going to fast. 34km/h in a peleton is warmup pace at best but we slowed it down to 30k. Got into the Falls and rested and ate. headed back out hoping to start setting a good 40+km/h, no dice still being yelled at to slow down. Since none of the guys who wanted to hammer, knew how to get back we sat in and went slow for a bit. Finally once on the service road Zach, I and 4 others started a paceline. Hammering about 44km/h we dropped Dave and another rider and then Zach backed off. We got about 5k from Nan's and eased off. I found out later that Carl headed off from the Fall's early with Loui and hammered the whole 60k back. I wish I would've known and hammered with them, it was what I was looking to do except I needed someone who knew how to get back. I guess looking back on it it was probably a good thing that I didn't go hard to an hour and a half. my legs were fine after the ride and after tomorrow's 1.5 hour easy spin I should be good going into my kelso race week.

I at alot of food at the BBQ afterwards as I needed to get some carbs in me. I will go back to my normal diet tomorrow and hopefully lose a few more before Kelso.

Off to crush some DQ. nice

R&R day with a weigh in

2010-07-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

Today I had a nice sleep in until 8. About a 9 hour sleep, so I felt much more rested as I woke up Friday after a 8 hour sleep. I wandered over to the bathroom scale to a good surprise. It read 157.0 lbs The last time I checked which was roughly 2 weeks ago it was 164.3 lbs. So far so good, if I stay on track for the next week I am looking at getting down to just above 150lbs before the Kelso O-cup.

Thursday was 4x8min LT intervals. The legs felt terrible heading out, but once I was out in Carlisle and started the intervals, they felt a little better. Nothing great but at least I was able to do all 4 intervals. The HR did respons to the efforts, but it wouldn't go any higher then zone 4. The ride totaled 3:15 and about 108km. I got a good 8 hour sleep Thursday night and woke Friday with the legs still sore. I headed out to Guelph and did my roller training. By the 2 hour mark my legs had nothing and the HR wouldn't move from the low end of zone 2. I did 1 set of jumps on the way back to Amanda's and again, the legs were fried. I pulled in to Amanda's with a time of 3:15 and about 106k. I didn't bother stretching last night as Saturday is usually my day off stretching, I decided to take Friday off and get some rest and stretch Saturday instead. After last nights excellent sleep I will be heading out around home for a short easy 1 hour spin with maybe one or 2 jumps to see if the legs are any better. I'll come home stretch and then start working on the mtb. If I get a good sleep tonight my legs should be ready to go for the 187k Brant Cycle ride tomorrow morning.

I figure if I can stick to the diet and not eat everything I see at the BBQ after the ride tomorrow, then it should help me with the weight loss.

The Kelso O-cup course is up on the site. Im loving the long grueling climbs and the flat fast DT sections. The only slower part will be rough trade and extreme trail. It's tough to move a 29er through there, but I've ridden it enough to know the right lines. Im super pumped for this up coming O-cup, it's the biggest race of the year for me and now that I've seen the amount of climbing there is, I looking forward to it even more. Now I just need it to be 40 degrees and humid and that'll be perfect!

Off for my recovery ride.

False Recovery?

2010-07-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

I headed out on Monday for a 1.5hour easy spin. I felt surprisingly good and managed a few jumps to test out the legs. Other then a little more burn then normal, my legs felt pretty good and my HR was responding. It seemed to good to be true that in 2 days I would be almost fully recovered from the 8 hour on Saturday. Sure enough I headed out Tuesday to do 2 hours at Kelso before the race. My first warmup climb up fire was enough to tell me that my legs had nothing. It didn’t help that I only had about 6 hour sleep the night before, but my legs were toast. Instead I spun around the course in zone 1 for 2 hours as the O-cup course won’t be up until this weekend. Once the race started I was way off the back from the get go as everyone wanted to hammer from the start since there were so many cameras there from Milton TV. My legs had other ideas. I managed to get inot 3rd position right before the start of Fire and caught the leaders as well.
About 1/4 of the way up fire the trail is made up of just flat rocks and it gets really steep. To the left is a car sized rock like wall, and to the right is a drop down the ravine. I was fatigued and took this part for granted as I’ve done it hundreds of times before with no problems. I didn’t even realize my front wheel start moving towards the right, next thing I know I had to quickly unclip as my whole bike went off to the right and I just missed going down into the ravine with the bike. I knew I had nothing in my legs to hammer a good pace up the climb so I didn’t want to pop out infront of riders to get started again. Alot of guys were stopping to let me back on saying that I would just pass them anyways down the trail. I appreciated it but I knew I wouldn’t be catching anyone today and let them go. Got back onto the trail about 8th or so. Hammered what little I could and made my way back up to 4th before the start of the second. I caught up to Alex who was going unusually slow and I knew something was wrong, I went to pass right called the pass and he decided to go right as well and took me down hard on my right side. I think Tyler must’ve told him I was behind him and to take me out! Haha, no just a miscue, no big deal, so back on my bike now apparently in second and now about 4 mins behind Tyler. I just sucked it up and finished the race knowing as bad as I wanted to call it a day, I needed the hour of some high HR work as it’s my peak week. I ended up second by much too far back.

I managed to fix my freehub and I saw what the problem was. It was a stupid metal ring that bends out too grab the cam which moves the pawls to engage the freehub since it a springless system. I thought the metal ring was bent so I flattened it out. Bad move, that was why the pawls weren’t engaging. Now I know American Classic hubs inside and out, I always learn best through trial and error anyways. Now my hub nice and noisy and engaging how it should. I found out yesterday that my rear brake has a sticky piston causing the pad to stay out and rub the rotor. It’s not slowing the wheel down much but it making a high pitched whirring noise when I ride. I will be working on the bike all day Saturday after my easy 1 hour spin. I’ll clean the piston out and re lube it, it should hold off for the rest of the season.
I won’t be doing hill repeats tomorrow as its a peak week. Instead I’ll be doing 4x8min LT intervals and Friday will be roller training, where I’ll attack every corner and roller to mock a race. Next week will be higher intensity hill repeats with a break from intervals.

I have decided to save my $50 and take Monday off and not do Tour de Terra Cotta. It’s not an Ocup race so it won’t matter for upgrade points. As well, Brant is having their yearly 187km ride to Niagara Falls and back and apparently this year it will be like a race. Since Im trying to save some money to pay off my road bike and get a new race rig for next year, I will do the 187k ride and attack as much as I can to mock a race, then take Monday and do a recovery ride like normal. I don’t want to miss as road race as I haven’t done many this year, but my next big focus is the Kelso O-cup and I need the sleep in on Monday as well as the recovery spin. The road race just doesn’t fit into my week very well for preparing to peak for kelso.

Enough ranting, time to get some rest and see how my HR reacts to my intervals tomorrow.

8-hour solo at Hardwood

2010-07-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well for my first ever 8 hour solo I will have to say that it was definitely a success. I ended up finishing 2nd in the under 40 solo, as well as 2nd overall solo. I had an awesome time and it was a little different then I thought.

I stayed the night with Amanda at Tim's out in Innisfil, about 20 mins away from Hardwood. I had a huge pasta dinner and a decent 8 hour sleep. Woke up the next morning and got to Hardwood about 8am. I unloaded both bikes and got my pit area ready. Listened to the team meeting then headed back to the pit to straighten out some more stuff.

My plan for the 8 hours was to hammer a bit at the beginning for the first 3 hours without getting into zone 5. I was told by Tim (whos done a 24 hour solo) not to go to hard from the beginning, but I knew my heart could recover if I stayed under zone 5. Dan had a good idea to stay with the solo leaders as long as possible and see if I could pass them at the end. I lined up about 15 mins before the start and was about the 2nd row back. I was behind Matt, Logan, and Box but I knew alot of riders would be dropped on the long double track climb at the start loop, and I'd grab their wheel before the single track.

I didn't pre ride the course as I figured it would keep me nice and slow for the first few laps. That was my first mistake. Logan was leading after many riders got dropped on the first climb. Box was behind Logan and then Matt and then me. I had no problems staying with them on the DT and the climbs but in the ST they gapped me a bit and I'd have to work to catch back up on the climbs. I had a nice crash the first K in as I was following right behind Matt and he went over a short skinny that I didn't know about. I went off it on the right side and went down hard on my left side. I got up fine other then some scrapes and rode back to the lead group with a now mildly bent front wheel and a bent bar end. Somewhere on a DT climbs Matt got dropped a bit and I started riding on Box's wheel who was following Logan. I wasn't hurting after the first lap but due to my inexperience with 8 hour solo's I felt I should back off a bit. Starting the second lap I let Logan and Box get a head a few minutes. This was my second mistake. I should've hammered for a few more laps and stayed with Logan. By the 3rd lap I was used to the fast ST and it was gone as a weakness. My laps were more efficient by this time as well.

I felt good until the 3.5-4hour mark, by this time I hit 60 ish k and I felt the thought of "what the hell am I doing" I caught back up to Rod, a team mate from the 24hour race a few weekends ago who has a ton of experience doing solo's. He told me having a full susp. bike is a must for a solo race. He also said to find my groove and ride in it. That bit of info helped and I found my groove in my zone 3 HR and held it. The next thing I knew I was at the 6 hour mark and holding well onto 2nd spot, as Box took a bit of a rest in the beginning and Matt had a crash that put him out. I was about 10-12 mins behind Logan, and decided to just focus on staying in 2nd. At the 6hour mark my freehub started to slip. It wasn't too bad at first so I decided there was no point on switching bikes. By the end of the next lap I could barely get it to engage and it was starting to hurt my lap times as I was loosing my momentum. I came back into my pit extremely frustrated and wanted to pack it in. It's tough enough riding 8 hours at your limit let alone doing it for 2 laps with a non-engaging freehub. Thanksfully Amanda and Matt got my plate switched over to my 26er full squish bike and I was on my way for the last 2 laps. This bike (which is now for sale) is about 4-5lbs heavier then my race bike and had Nevegals on it front and rear so it doesn't roll to well. But it is dependable and it ran fine otherwise.

I finished with a time of 8:20 and 15 laps. About 12 mins behind Logan. I was very surprised with how well my body ran after the 4 hour mark. I was expecting to just hang on after 4 hours but I was holding zone 3 with ease and hitting the top end of zone 4 on the climbs. I had no cramping and on the last 2 laps I was standing on the climbs with minimal burn in my legs. Did I not go hard enough? I had a great time and was happy how everything turned out except for my disaster of a bike. Another reason why I need a new race rig.

My nutrition was excellent during the race and I had no stomach problems or any hunger or dehydration issues. After doing this race I realized that I physically wouldn't be able to do a 24hour solo, not without sleeping at least. Huge kudos to anyone who had completed a 24hour solo. They are much harder then 3x an 8 hour since you have to deal with the dead of the night, the lack of sleep and the toughness of sitting on a saddle for 24 hours. As much fun as I had today I will unfortunately not be doing anymore 8 hours of even 24 hours as my focus next year will continue to be mtb, but I want to move up in road racing and I have missed too many road races this year due to 8 hour and 24 hour races. If I was to do more solo races I would definately buy a 26er fs bike, that would make a huge difference.

Huge thanks to Amanda for being the best one man pit crew ever. She made no mistakes and made some of the best smoothies I've ever drank! She was there every lap and had my bottle ready to go, she was a great help and made the 8 hours go by much easier.

Today I decided to give my arse a rest and stay off the saddle, tomorrow I'll head out and do a 1.5hour spin to test the legs. I'll also be re-servicing my free hub tomorrow and hope to get it running for the kelso race on Tues to try the O-cup course out.

All in all, very happy with how the race went.

R and R week

2010-07-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

Finally a week to take it easy... some what.

I took Monday off and got a bunch of things done around the house. Tuesday was only a half hour spin before the kelso race. It went well as I got another 1st place finish. My legs still weren't fully recovered and were burning too much but in a few days that will go away.

Today was a core day and a day off from the bike. Tomorrow I will be riding out to Sydenham with Carl and doing the HCC hill climb up Sydenham 3 times and then ride back to carl's for about 2.25 hours on the bike and only 3 hill climbs. I have the 8 hour solo on Saturday at Hardwood so friday will be a day off from the bike and I will be heading up to Innisfil with Amanda's to a Buddy's to stay there Friday night. I just finished fixing up my full susp. 26er Giant Trance 1 and tomorrow I will be washing the 29er race rig to get it ready. I will be brining up both in case I have a problem or it gets way to muddy I'll then switch over to the 26er. I love that bike as it's unbeliveably smooth on techy trails, but sadly after the 8 hour I will be selling it. If anyone wants a trail/race bike let me know i'll be selling it for $1550 it's got x-9 and XT components with crossmax wheels and brand new stroker brakes that have not been used. The thing can withstand a ton.

I'll be buying a new race rig for next year, most likely a Cannondale flash 29er, and I'll keep my Specy as a back up/ rain and winter bike, and I'll use the other set of wheels as a back up in case I flat mid race. I'll benefit more from having 2 race rigs as opposed to one and another that I find to heavy to race with. As well I hate climbing on a full suspension bike. Too much squish.

This weekend will be my last 8 hour race as next year I will not be doing any 8 hour or 24hour races,and I will be racing a bit more road. This year I missed out on a ton of road races due to the 24hour and a few other mtb races that I shouldn't have been doing. Ill do one 8 hour solo and then I can say I did one then move on. Sadly Im stilll racing S4 in road which i desperately need to get out of next year.

Off to bed for another 8 hour sleep I should be almost fully recovered going into tomorrow's hill climbs.

OMC#2

2010-07-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning after a nice 8 hour sleep in an awsome comfy bed. Huge kudos to my parents for getting an awsome hotel which allowed me to get my first good pre race sleep in.

I got to the race about 1.5 hour before and signed in and got some stuff out of the car as the parents had to head back to the hotel and check out. I went to head out for a 30min warm up and then I realized my rear tire was almost flat!? I guess when I added air this morning in the hotel room I loosened a seal or something. I filled it and got on with a 20min warm up instead. 15mins zone 1-2, 1 min zone 3 and 3 sprints. After such a great sleep my legs felt a little better but I still had no sprinting legs, not that I'd be needing them too much in a mtb race.

The field was a little different from the race in the Ganny, still alot of elite level competition though, so my goals stayed the same. I started out about 6th right behind the leaders but once in the ST I found I couldn't hold their wheels and backed off now in about 5th or 6th and on my own. In the ST I got passed by one or 2 guys but once out on the DT I hammered by them. Apparently another new found strength is DT hammering. Hmm Time Trials maybe??? I sat back in about 4th or 5th. The course was not in my favor as there was no climbing and it was all very techy tight ST and the DT was very bumpy which didn't allow to hammer too much. My upper body was extremely sore but my legs were fine as I couldn't push my limit in the ST. After 15km my rear tire was down to about 8psi so I yelled for my mom to get Amanda to get my pump. As I came through the feed I had to go off course and fill my tire, luckily it held air for the rest of the race. A min and a half later I was back on the course. I passed the 5th and 6th place rider to regain myposition and hammered away from them before the ST. About 15k to go I hopped off my bike to run a really rocky section and as I put the bike down again the rear wheel came down on its sisde really hard on a rock. Snap went another spoke and my rim was so out of true that my tire was now rubbing my chain stay. Pretty bad to the point where my tire would'nt spin more then 2 times around before stopping. I just rode harder and dealt with it.

I came in through the finish 4th place by myself about 1 min behind the 3rd place guy. All the top 3 were under 40years old so I also podiumed 4th. None of the top3 had any tire problems so maybe without a flat I could've podiumed? Woulda coulda didn't that mtbing for you, shit happens. Considering that my form was at its lowest and the course really suited none of my stengths but all my wekanesses, I would say I was very happy with the results. I made my goal of top 5 even with a flat. Other then that my bike ran great the drivetrain is now perfect and my wamrup was great as well as my pre race food. It was a great idea to bring up the road bike and get a ride in on saturday.

That caps off my second build week and I am now starting a recovery week. This means only 8 hours on the bike and my main focus will be sleep. I am now looking at getting reay for my peak for the kelso race. I have then 8 hour this weekend but Im doing it for training and more or less just to do.

Big thanks to the parents for heading up to watch and putting a roof over my head the night before. As well as to Amanda despite getting Laser eye surgery a few days before still headed out and was there screaming at me to "pedal Dammit". It helped huge epsecially climbing that grassy climb mid race.

Off to bed can't stress enough how important sleep is for me this week.

Kingston

2010-07-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Pulled into Kingston this morning around 11am. Parents and Amanda went off on boat tour and I headed up into the room to work on my road bike before I headed out on a 1 hour spin to test the legs. After toeing the pads and getting rid of some annoying brake squeal I headed out onto the un known roads of Kingston with hopes of finding my way back within the hour. Found a nice stretch of rolling highway with a paved wide shoulder and stayed on it out and back. I only ended up doing 2 jumps since I got some other zone 3-4 in with the few hills I hit. I was riding my bike on an angle as the 50km/h+ gusts were ridonkulous.

The legs felt a little better but better then that, the HR was responding. I will not be in top form for tomorrow's race, far from it but that was expected as this will be a training race for me and the last day of a second build.

Went out for dinner the off to the Casino, which I normally hate as I can't stand gambling money on something that you have no control over. I neded up walking away with
$225 after I only spent $5 from a voucher. not to shabby, still dont like gambling though.

The MTB is ready to rip tomorrow, we got some nasty rain up here in the evening but the night should be clear well into tomorrow so the trails should just be tacky and allow my dry tires to grip well.

We'll see how tomorrow goes, Im hoping the distance of Kingston kept most of the field at home so Im still shooting for a top 5 GC with a top 3 in age cat.

As well kudos to Schleck in the Tour, still wearing the yellow and riding strong.

will update tomorrow evening.

When in doubt leave er out

2010-07-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Since this is my last week in Build 3 I was headed out for a 3.5hour ride with 8 hill repeats on Sydenham. I always look forward to hill Thursday's as they are always hill repeats no matter what the weatherman says. I knew 8 would be a chore. I hammered up the first one with the new bike and clocked it at 3:10 7 secs faster then last week. I also found out that the HCC start line is about 20meters behind from where I have been starting from. This means that I have not been crushing the HCC hill climb record. I will be joining then next week and I figure it will be a really close one. Hopefully I can beat the time by a second or 2.

It took 1:30 roughly to get to the bottom of Sydenham and about 45k. I did my 8 repeats and even though I had 4 tall boy water bottles with me I could've easily finished all 3L by the time I was done. I headed home and severely underestimated how long it would take to do 8 repeats. I got home with a total of 110k and 4 hours in the saddle.

I started Fridays ride with a plan of doing 3 hours instead of 3.5 due to Thurs ride being so long. I had absolutly no legs and I tried to do one of my 4 intervals. No dice the legs burned and the HR wouldn't even respond. I packed it in just under 60k and 2 hour of riding, it was tough to do but trying to do aything else would've just put me further into over working the legs. When in doubt leave it out. Best advice I have ever got, not so easy to follow.

I just finished getting everything packed for tomorrow as the fam ,Amanda and I are heading to Kingston. They are doing a boat tour and I will be lubing the mtb and going through some last minute wheel truing and checks, as well as getting in a 1 hour ride with 1 set of jumps to test the legs.

I hope my form comes aorund a bit, although I am at the end of my second Build week and my form will be as low as ever, I am hoping taking a rest today will help a bit. The Marathon this weekend is much shorter then the last one of 74k. This one is only roughly 52k it not even a UCI legit marathon as it doesn't hit the 60k mark. This should work out ok as I dont think the legs could do 75k.

I will be heading to the hotel tomorrow morning and will be finishing the mtb then heading out for a short 1 hour spin on the road bike. After that its fuel up and then float a round in the pool and then relax in the hot tub followed by a ton more fluids and then a nice stretch.

I will be heading to bed early tomorrow to hopefully get more out of my legs. My diet this week has been great and I think I may have lost a pound or two but I'll check on Monday. Tonight I carbed up a bit with a DQ blizzard 2 cinnamon buns and a bowl of granola cereal. That should've brought my Glycogen stores back up from a week of lean food.

We'll see how I feel during tomorrow's spin, it will give me a good idea of how I will feel on Sunday.

Day off

2010-07-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today was an easy core day and the only day off the bike for me this week. I will be trying to get some rest as this week is the 3rd week into my Build 2 so it has the highest volume of any week in my schedule. Tomorrow I am looking forward to as I have 8 hill climbs non stop up Sydenham and a 3.5 hour ride total. I'll be trying to beat my time of 3:17 on the first climb, we'll see if I can squeeze out a 3:15. This will be the first time climbing on the new bike. On the way home I'll do 4x5 jumps and test out the legs.

I just finished signing up for the 8 hour solo for next weekend, I'll be doing this once and trying to podium and then next year I'll replace the 8 hour and 24 hour races with road races as I havent been doing much road racing at all this year.

Yestrday I was out a Kelso again. The legs were still not recovered from the O-cup and I eneded up leading the whole race from the start. I was followed by Tyler and on the up hills I would make about a 1 minute gap which he would close down to about 25 secs throughout the rest of the single track. By the time we were bombing down Momentum Flow on the last lap I had a good 30secs on him. There was a young kid about 15 or so infront of us that i repeatedly yelled at to get out of the way. No dice the kid wasn't moving. Tyler caught my wheel and we slowly went down the last bit of downhill behind buddy. I new the race was lost by me since Tyler rested this weekend and watched the Ocup instead and I knew he had the legs. I didn't and sure enough as we hit the last grassy up hill I tried to hammer but had little excelleration, Ty came flying by me on the right.

I am still the overall series leader and I am looking forward to the O-cup course which will be raced either next week or the week after. I should have no problem with anyone catching me as there will be a long climb at the beginning of each lap and a shorter steep one in the middle, this will allow for me to build on my lead each lap and use my climbing strength to my advantage.

I re-overhauled my free hub tonight and it isn't slipping anymore, I just used a lighter lube. I also cleaned and re lubed my head set bearings which were all gritty from a while ago when I did some hill training in the rain. I will need a new head set, but it will have to do for the rest of this season as im still paying off my road bike and dont got money for that right now. It's working better but it's still a little gritty.

Anyways off to get some much needed to rest for tomorrow.

Failed badly

2010-07-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was O-cup #5 up at Buckwallow and it was a total disaster.

I headed up with Sean on Friday to do the pre ride. I hated the course from the start, it's one of those courses that are fun to leasurely ride but not to race. Fitness was almost a total write off as it was very technical and there was only three sections of double track, 2 of them being very short. The rest was techy ST that didn't allow you to hammer.

After the second lap of my pre ride I felt better on the course as Sean had already been up twice and showed me most of the good lines. We pulled in on Saturday at 10:30 and I layed in the van for a bit, went over my bike and then watched Sean start his race and then got my gear ready, went to feed Sean and then started my warm up. Now, my warm ups used to be just 2 or 3 sprint efforts and that was it. I started doing a 20-30 minute spin with 1 minute at zone 3 tempo, and then 3 sprints. I felt much better after this proper wamr up. My diet has been clean the whole week since I had started the little competition against Aaron, so my stomach felt great. Here's what went wrong. I had been getting 5 hour sleep the last 3 days since my new road bike came in the mail and I was building it up. I can always tell how well my form is for a race when i pre ride the day before. When me and Sean went up on Friday my legs had the dreaded burn from barely even spinning the pedals. That night I told Amanda that I would not be having a good race and I really could only blame my self for the lack of sleep. I tried getting some sleep Saturday night but with pre race jitters I could only squeeze in 6.5 hours. I woke up Sunday with sub par legs which didn't have my confidence too high.

My second mistake was mis calculting the number of startes in the start pen before the race. I heard many racers skip Bucky due to its techy trails so i figured I wouldn't have to be in the start pen too early. I ran into Tyler and Alex after my warm up and we got talking about plans for next year and something about a team etc. We got into our convo and then realized that it was 1:38, we were starting in 4 mins. I got to the start pen and saw it was nearly full. I ended starting in next to last place which I should'nt have been epecially with my 5th place finish with 3 chain drops at Midland. Normally all the other O-cups start with a grueling up hill DT climb where it's not a huge deal starting in the back because the weaker riders get dropped and since Im a climber I can usually make my way up to the lead pack. I forgot that this start was the only O-cup that was flat/slightly dowhill. When we started there were riders 4 wide not holding their lines what so ever. I went into my big ring and got up to about 15th or 20th out of 32. I got to a short sharp up hill and was still in the big ring. There was a set of 3 logs in the middle of the up hill that weren't there on Saturday (strange) and I got caught in the wrong gear and couldn't turn over the cranks. Something happened and my quick ling snaped loose and my chain flew off the crank. I went over the bars and then got up unhurt and pulled over. I looked around trying to look for my qick link. 2 mins later I realized that I had taped one to my seat post after having this same situation happen at Kelso and I learned from it. I put the new quick link on and contemplated DNF'ing since my goal of top 5 was out the door. Since it wasn't a peaking race for me and I was also there to get in some training/experience I decided to grow a pair and continue on now 4 mins behind the last place guy. My new goal was now do not DFL. By the start of the second lap I caught up to the last few guys in my cat. By the end of the race I went from 32nd to 15th. This also was a crappy course to play catch up with since there was very limited DT to hammer on and no climbing to catch people with. Usually I catch my team mates from the Masters cat. at the middle of the 1st lap, I didn't catch them until the middle of the 4th.

I at least got my zone 5 training in and gained some experience on some techy trails. Looking at the leaders in my cat. I should have finished well within my goal of top 5.

What I've learned from this race is:

1. Stick with the clean diet
2. Continue with the longer warm up.
3. Get to the race 2 hours before
4. Start at the front of the cat (get to the start pen at 1:15)
5. Get a second feed after the 3rd lap
6. GET ENOUGH SLEEP!

Although this is by far my worse race of the eason so far this season, I've actually leanred alot from it. I still have a chance of getting enough points to upgrade to Elite next season. Ill need a top 3 at Kelso and and equally good result in the championships. I will be peaking for Kelso as well as be at least 5lbs lighter and I train on those hills. There will be a ton of climbing and i've been on all the ST a ton so it won't be a weakness. My goal is a top 3 with me secretly wanting to come first.

Today I spun for 2 hours and will be getting at least 8 hours of sleep. Tomorrow I head up to Kelso for the race and I'll be talking to Alex and Tyler about the team thing.

Hopefully my form comes around for tomorrow.

M.I.A.

2010-07-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

So its been a few days since my last post I've sort of been MIA. Monday was the usual 2 hour recovery ride which had me feeling felt decent, and almost 100%.

Tuesday I headed to Kelso and rode for 2 hours before the race. I was finally feeling great and I was in zone 2-3 instead of zone 1-2 before the race. I should've taken it down a notch but I was too happy about finally having me legs back. I ended up finishing first at the race, I finally felt more flow on the new course but Im still a little rattled about the lack of climbing which doesn't play to my advantage really well. It was great having a full response in the legs when I wanted to power up Fire and at the top.

Wednesday was a core workout and a day off the bike, this was much needed espcially since Im on the bike 6 days a week now. My bike came in this week and I just finshed building it as I had another rain day at work and got off early, Ill take it out this evening and give it it's first run.

Thursday had me out for a 3 hour ride with 6 climbs at Sydenham hill and 4x5 jumps which I shortened to 3 sets only. Sydenham kicked the crap outta me especially with the heat. I lvoe riding in the heat and I'd choose that over cold or rain any day, it makes you know that you're working hard and my joints always feel warm and ready to go. I was pumped to get out and climb yesterday especially since it was so hot. My new bike wasn't ready yet so I took Carl's out for the last time since I'll be giving it back now. I did my first climb in 3:17 which was after a 45k trek to get there. That time beats the HCC's record by 10secs. I'll do their hill climb in 2 weeks and make it official, by then I'll try to do it in 3:15. I lvoe using Syd as a training hill, its a great length and the perfect grade, as well as no too busy with cars.

Im in a competition with Aaron
to see who can lose the most weight by August 5th. We both want to lose about 10lbs and we've both been slacking so this should help us get it done. I've been eating fine the last 2 days and have basically cut out the ice cream sundae's and junk and just eating the good stuff I always eat. I've been a little more hungry lately but that's expected. The only time I'll eat some starchy foods, is right after an intense race that last at least 2 hours. This is to get my carb stores back to where they should be.

Today i'll be heading out to Guelph and then finishing at Amanda's in burly to show her dad my new ride as well as finish watching all the saved tour stages that I need to catch up on. Me and Amanda will be having a relaxing night tonight. I'll be doing 4x8min LT intervals, but we'll see how I feel with my lack of sleep.

First Sunday off...what to do

2010-07-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

So the Crank Cracker was cancelled which opened up a Sunday for me. I called up Carl and we decided to do the Brant cycle ride. A couple of fast riders were absent so that left Carl and I to pull and start any sprints. We rode out to Nan's in Stoney creek which was about 28k away from Amanda's (where I stayed last night) and then started the ride with the group. We rode for about 85k which consisted of one steep then not very steep but long climb. I decided to attack at the base and then take turns with Carl pulling until we got to the top. It was a great workout since the wind was in our face the whole time. I pulled for a while and did some sprints when I felt like it. Carl got a call and headed off to work once we got back to Nan's and I decided to ride home for a total trip of about 130k and over 4 hours on the bike. I did some tempo zn 3 work on the way home against the wind along the service road. I actually felt good today and I had alot more power. I got up to 52km/h with a side wind on a quick sprint, so my legs are finally about 90% recovered.

I dont expect to be more recovered then that since I am starting a second week of Build 2 and I will be increasing my intensity now for another 2 weeks. At least I had no problem riding in zone 4 and zone 2 didn't feel like a chore.

I will head out for an easy zn 2 2hour ride tomorrow after work and then my bike should be here so i'll start peicing that together. I should be ready to go for the Tues night kelso race but I'll know more after tomorrow's ride.

An early night for me as I want to start this week off with a ton of sleep since my legs are actually feeling better. 9:15 and Im ready to turn the lights out, nice.

Tour news:

Everyone had the same time, a ton of crashes but im definately pumped for the mountains as it will be fun to watch Andy Schleck tear it up and make up his 1:00 deficit thanks to a weak prologue.