Not playing well with others

Ya that was my attitude this morning. The club was out for their ride at 8 and I had the "I don't wanna" attitude. Its been so busy the last couple weekends that I just wanted to take my time this morning. I also had a real craving to do particular route. It was nice to not rush to get ready and after a busy weekend last weekend I needed that. I took Molly for a 40 minute hike had breakfast and was on the bike just after 9. I've wanted to do the Midland to Barrie to Orillia back home loop for quite some time. It was perfect this morning. No wind low 20's, perfect day for a 5 plus hour ride.

I wasn't the only one with that idea. Coming down Scarlett line I passed a group of 10 or so riders heading north. Coming into Craighurst what do you know but I run into the Midland crew. They changed their planned route and were just in refueling. I threw the offer out there with my route for the day but know one wanted to do that distance. I honestly was glad, I didn't mind riding alone.

Barrie had the big waterfront festival happening this weekend so routed around to check it out for a few minutes. Ran into Preston from Sports Swap. They were busy with all the festival crowd. From there is was off to Orillia. Ridge Road is a ride that I've been on once. Its great pavement with a slight uphill all the way to Orillia. Even with the slight grade I was running in the high 30's the whole way. I ran into Don Gain from the Barrie Cycling Club. Super strong rider. Barrie puts on a team time trial a couple times a summer and he was just coming back from it. Its definatly something I would like to do this summer.

Just before running along the water was this section of road. Is that not awesome. A natural tunnel.

Now as time went on the wind picked up. Of course it couldnt be at my back. That would have be way to nice. Coming out of Orillia heading north I knew the last 60 km were going to be tough. There is a nice wide shoulder on hwy 12 but there are also rumble strips. The wind was so strong that I couldn't use the areo bars. Gust would either push me at the shoulder or the over correting put me on the rumble strips. From the time I left till Orillia I was running a mid 30's average speed. Now i was fighting to hit high 20's. What do you do when the wind gets rough? Hell I'm a mountian biker, there isn't wind in the bush. Actually i didn't mind it. I've given up being mad at a head wind. Conserve that energy for the legs.

The Giant Trinty A1 is an awesome areo bike but I will say the frame does have a lot of surface for a side wind. I finally got a very very short break from the head wind as I passed Waubaushene. Yep I even coasted for a bit. The last 60 km were all about Mr 39t. I don't like him, his big brother Mr 53t works better but not today. 5.25 hours on the bike at 160km. I had a couple breaks on the ride, refueling, a bit of socializinig but it was pretty steady pace. That is the longest ride on the Trinity to date and I think I'm going to change out the seat again. I still love the seat on my Giant road bike. Its cheap and soft but my bum like it among other body parts.

I still need to keep moving tonight. The Tri club is having a little party tonight. WOOO HOOOO A little theme party with all the canadian micro breweries. Hey anything with beer has my attention. I'll be armed with a camera to see what type of multisports these guys can do with a buzz!!!!!

close call

Wondering what that it. That is road bike tire skid marks. On my ride tonight I had some moron tow truck driver ran me off the road. Cruising along the 4th line heading toward the beach this clown pulls out to pass a car. Now its one thing to pull out and go around a car but this idiot took his sweet old time and it came into a game of chicken. I was basiclly waving both arms at this guy and he still didn't give a crap so on to the shoulder at 35 plus. So the good new to this. I got the tow truck company name. Can we say 911. Of course they sent an officer to where i was and I filed a report. The only draw back to calling was the time spent waiting on the side of the road waiting. I wanted to get on with my ride.

The tip of the day. Ride with a cell phone.

Besides the little incident which did cut into my ride time it was great to get out on the roads again. No lights not playing on our roads with out them. Still was out for 2:15 and a total of 73km. Heartrate sat in the cruise range with an average of 151. The legs felt prett fresh but I do have on big know in my right hamstring. The low back and glutes etc are still a bit stiff from the race. This is normal for me though. Stupid butt muscles.

Its Canada Day long weekend which means lots of play times. Saturday is going to be a 6-7 hour ride. I've opted to ride alone this saturday instead of with the club. The funny thing is they have a very similiar route planned to what I'm doing. Have to wave as I go by.

Rain Delay

Kinda. There is a severe storm watch right now and I've already heard a round of thunder so i'm doggin it tonight. Its also crazy hot again, I don't mind that but the storm and lighting. Ummm Carbon and rubber don't attract lighting but everything else on the bike does.

The one thing I have learned with all the training and injuries is that taking an extra day off is not going to hurt you. Hell it will be better for you with more recovery time. As long as it isnt happening all the time to take a blah day or in this case a heat/lightning day is a good thing. Maybe I can get the rest of the gear unpacked.

Unfortuantly it looks like I came home with less clothing than I left with. I had a bag setup for dirty gear and it appears to have been picked up by accident as garbage. It happens only once. Unfortunatly it had my favoirte shorts in there along with 2 jerseys, 2 synthic t-shirts and a pair of socks. Shopping time.

Tip of the day Use a clear bag for dirty cycling gear. Its great to keep you bin organized and not re use gear at a race but the mess up of someone mistaking a bag as garbage can get expensive.

Back at it

Yep, can't rest on the past. Solstice is done, learn from it and get ready for the next event. I did take it easy today with a hour and a half recovery ride. Off course its 100 degrees out. I actually love the heat. Wait I like all tempatures, I'm the guy still wearing shorts at the freezing mark.

It was a nice high cadence spin over to Georgain Cycle to say thanks again to Dave for his help on the weekend along with swapping bikes. The road bike is getting pimped out with some new carbon and Dave had the TT bike. Had a creak coming out of the drivetrain and tracked it down to the BB. No noise on the return trip. I will say that it is hard to ride sane when I'm on the bike. Drop in the bars and you just want to go and did blast the section of hwy 93 in the high 40's low 50 km and hour range. It's sweet pavement.

Finished out the day with some stretching and then tried out the hot tub. Ya this will be a nice addition in recovery. The low back loved it. It will be tuned down training over the next couple days to let the body fully recover. The extra time is needed to finish unpacking. What a mess.

Summer Solstice round 2

Ok so this is more to clear my mind. The results were up on the Chico's website along with lap times etc. So I will say that I'm a bit more pissed off now than earlier involving the stomach issues. I'm not going to say 3rd was ours on a silver platter but I could have seen us on the podium. 3rd through 5th were all at 22 laps. Rick and I were on pace for 24. Fuck!!!!!! Sorry.

Some said awww you went to hard. UMMM NOPE!!! To clear my mind I went back to my 8 hour and Uxbridge race. The Garmin is great for this stuff. Check heartrates, times, speed, elevations etc. I was well below max. I was actaully in my happy place. I'll definatly say that the first part of the course was a bit harder on me as I was cold but once I got my rythem I was fine. SO that was the answer to problem number one.

The cause part 2, food. Nope, now there were a few things in my diet that were questionable but nothing new that I havent eaten during this type of race. I will alter a few things like i always do.

So what is the mystry to my stomach. With lots of back tracking and some discussions with my support crew, Rick and Tobin (thanks again for that last lap!) The survey says GATORADE!!!! After a couple 8 hours I ran into the same probelm about 4-5 hours after the race ended. Major stomach cramps and vomiting. Now the fun thing is I've trained with it and never had problems. I've tried other drinks but found flat results with them so I always returned to it. Well all I can say is Buh Bye. I'm looking into some alternative fuels sources. As I posted earlier I have 2 months and 2 8 hour races before Hot August Nights.

Now Rick has also put the option to me about doing tag for Hot August instead of solo. I do have to admit that I would love to kill some demons and will consider it. I've also been thinking that if Craig and I ride together the whole race I think we could feed off each other and help each other. We are capable of riding the same pace. As I said I have a bit of time to figure crap out. Like my back problems 2 years ago this was a progressive thing that finally hit hard. Now is the time to fix it.

So on another note. Congrats Craig. I know you were stressed before the race and had some issues in the beginning. You did awesome and pushed through! Rick, you kicked ass at this race. I think thats the fastest I've ever seen you ride. I'm sorry we couldn't get you on the podium again. Tobin again thanks for all the advise. Of course I have to thank my Mom, Aunt and Sister for supporting Rick and I again. We couldn't do anything with out you three. Dave of GEORGIAN CYCLE. It was great having you there keeping the bikes inline.

Totally off topic, to get me in a happy mood I went and spent money. Hot tub now in the backyard. I wish I would have had it in on Friday so it would be perfect for today.

24 Hour Summer Solstice

It didn't go as planned. Got setup friday afternoon and preroad half the course. Nothing new just flipped around. Did the noraml prerace food etc.

Rick always does the first lap and came through our transition in an hour. I was just happy to get out on the bike. Unfortunatly there had been minimal rain in the last 3 weeks which made the course extremely dry and soft. It was a great course though with some fun flow sections. First lap was 52 minutes. The next couple laps were great but in my 3rd lap everything felt draggy. The back brake was rubbing through most of the course. Dropped my lap times down to 55 minutes.

We had the bonus of Dave showing up and he got to work on the bikes. Thanks Dave!!! Finished up my second night lap coming up to midnight. We were on track for 24 laps and at this point we were in 5th place. This is when it went crappy. My stomach went nuts and started throwing up. Things went downhill for me from there. The dizzy spells kicked in. Rick went to do a double lap to see if that would give me enough time to feel better. It didn't and we were both off the course for 7 hours.

Rick got back out at 8 and I was feeling better. In otherwords I was able to eat a bit. The body felt low and I was dehydrated. I had to stop at the water station and refill my bottle. We did manage to get four more laps in finishing with 18. C

Can you say I was disappointed. That is an understatement. How about pissed off. This stomach thing is now the new problem to deal with. I did get some great advice from Tobin. We road the last lap together and talked thorugh the whole thing about nutrition etc. He gave me a lot of great info and have a very very good idea of some of the causes to the gut rot. I have 2 8 hour races coming up next month to get this figured out before the 24 race in august.

I'll get some photos and lap stats up from teh race once they are online. Today will be spent unloading the car and an hour recovery ride.

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

Man can I be impatient. Why can't it be race day NOW!!! Yep, I still act like a kid sometimes. Got some insight on the course this weekend. One word. FAST!!!! Not alot of climbing and the is a fair bit of double track. The area did get some rain a couple days ago which will help. Albion has lots of pine tree sections that would almost turn to beach sand so rain is our friend. The tempeture is sounding pretty nice also. Highs of 24 lows in around the 11 mark. As bad as it sounds I would rather have it really hot or really cold. I like the crappy elements, makes everyone suffer. No I'm not sadistic I just train in crappy elements so it doesn't bother me.

Rick and Jenn will be here tonight and the plan is to be down at Albion around 2:30 tomorrow. Craig has planned to arrive around the same time. We are sharing a campsite. Chico Racing treats us awesome putting us again in our favorite spot. Setup shouldn't take to long and then its an easy spin preride of the course.

Looks like I will be running the Michelin XCR dry Tubeless. Very fast low rolling resitance tire. I will probably stiffen the rear suspension up for this course also. It's usually a fairly smooth course and a hardtail would almost be the bike of choice. BUT I love my NRS's

Some have asked why tag team. Ummm why not. Actually i would say tag is harder on your body. Solo is your pace, steady riding. Tag is hammer as hard as your can for an hour, recover for and hour then do it again. There is no sleeping in a tag team and food consumption is on par. Basiclly both tag and solo hurt just in different ways. Rick and I joined up as a tag team by messed up luck. The solo event 2 years agp sold out litererly the day we went to register so it we just said why not tag. Signed up that year and what do we know, we're on the podium with a 3rd place.

Craig is still fighting some kind of sickness. Hoping he is feeling better. He has decided to come down to the race regardless. Awwww get enough drugs into him and he won't feel a thing. Listen to me the anti drug guy. No internet down there so it won't be till sunday that i'll have a race review up. Till then

Oh' sorry Jack for stealling more lyrics

deja vu

Well sorta. My buddy Craig is sick. He has been training for Summer Solstice for a few months and woke up sick a couple days ago. I had the same crap happen to me last year for the same race. 4 months of training trashed in a blink of an eye.

How do you stay healthy with this type of training. For myself, its eating healthy. Leave the junk food for after the race. Lots of rest and what helped me last year and I use steady now is Cold FX. This stuff works. I take it daily and then a week before the race I take the boost system. Being all natural you can't overdose on this stuff. Hey even Don Cherry promotes this stuff.

Get healthy Craig

getting closer

Not much happening on the bike side of things tonight. Did an hour of yoga tonight and thats it. I will barely touch the bike till friday when I pre ride the course.

Now on the otherside of things, I'm already packing and laying out gear. I am way to much of a planner. I need to be orgainzed. Hell I'm already planning out clothing for laps. I went from being a complete slob 10 years ago to now a planning freak. With that said, I've already got both bikes cleaned and tuned. The only decesion is what tires to run. Alot will depend on how much rain we get this week. Its been so dry the last 3 weeks that the course will deteriate very quickly. Not planning on changing tires during the race.

The 24 hour Summer Solstice is now the largest 24 hour race in North America. Roughly 2000 plus racers. That puts alot of people on the trail. Its usually a great course. Adam and Shawn Rupuel put on the best events in Ontario and Shawn's courses are so smooth and flowy that you just want to say "thank you sir, may I have another!" They have called for some rain this week so I haqve my fingers crossed.

So back to my planning issues. I will basiclly be packed and ready for this race tomorrow night. This takes off so much strain that all I have to do Friday morning is pack the car. Now my partner in crime is the complete opposite. Rick has gotten alot better but his time management skills are still on the special side. Craig has learned this. Lucky my sister keeps rick in order when its important. Jenn has the same mindset as me. Good genetics.

one hell of a weekend . round 2

5:30 am sucks. Why do Tris start so early!!! It was the Muskoka triathlon today and thought it would be a great place to hang out with the club member while getting in a good ride. The race starts at 8ish and since Huntsville is an hour and 20 away even the way I drive I wanted to be on the road early enough to park, change and find everyone. Now the biggest piss of for me this mornign was that nothing is open at6 am on a Sunday. I wanted my coffee and some food and I would need gas. Ya I know should have filled up yesterday.

I got to Huntsville around 7:30. Lots of time. I found a few of the guys right away. Gord (who turns a bit older today, happy birthday Gord!) was looking pretty calm and ready.

I ran into Phil and Sherrie also. Caught Tim half dressed. Everyone seemed pretty relaxed.


This is a major race in the tri world, pros come into to play here. I was hanging at the exit of the swim to see all 3 Keen boys come in. Peter was just ahead of his older brother Alex with Brent about 3 minutes behind those 2. From there I figured it was time to get my ride in. I saw Brent and rode with him for a bit. then hung out at the first turn around points. I saw Phil come through. This guy always smiles and puts on a show when there is a camera around. Oh ya he is fast also!!!

Tim was about 5 minutes behind Phil. Now one thing I have noticed is that triathelites suck at bike handling. At the turnaround I saw so many riders unclip to go around the pilon. Thats not the worst of it. It was a left turn and they were unclipping their right foot. Yep you know what was going to happen. I was waiting also. It happened to a woman, her front wheel wandered off the pavement and thats all it took. On the ground. I helped her get her CLIPPED in foot out and made sure she was ok. A couple new scratches on her leg. She did smile when I told her scares are sexy. I will say one thing, there are some really hot women racing in these events. I almost want to change focus. Almost From there the next little sprint for me was about 7 km. I tried to mix up my ride with some base stuff and a couple hard effort.

I back tracked on the road course to meet up with the crew in different spots. Its a pretty hill course with some crap pavement. Hey it felt like home. The tail end of Brittania road had some pretty serious hills. Not really long but steep. This is definatly a course that strong technical riders have an advantage on, no gear mashers here. Caught up with Alex and rode the last big hill with him. He was looking really strong and was smoking up the hills. The next came Brent. He was having a great ride as he caught Peter on the course and put some time in on him. I rode a few k's with him. I learned that your not allowed to ride close to other riders. I can understand the concerns with this, I knew about the drafting rules etc and stayed as far away from al the riders I could. Since I've been training with him I kinda wanted to cheer him on. He's kinda like the little brother I didn't have. I just don't beat the crap out of him.



From here I hung out at the bike/run transition and got a chance to see everyone from the club come through.



With most of the club out on the run course it was time to spin some more and get some pictures. 15 km run after a tough 55 km ride, makes them work. I used this seciton as a high cadence excercise. Still had to mix in my own training.

Sherrie heading out on the run

Alex coming in to a 4th in age group and 70th overall

Phil still smiling, This man never lets you know if he's hurting

Nicole looking strong preping for an Ironman

The birthday boy Gord

Carol coming into to the finish

Graham finishing with high 5's

Some of the Midland Tri Club

So all in told the club did really well. Alex was 4th in his age group. Brent was 2nd and Peter 3rd in their age groups. Tim was just off his planned pace but has been focusing on a major endurance bike race. He is trying to qualify for Ironman Canada. Gord did great minus his bike computer. Should have went faster with less weight!!! Nicole and Sherrie finsihed strong along with Phil, Cindy, Carol and Graham. It was a cool event to hangout at. I ended up at just under 3 hours on the bike which made me happy. Its been an interesting weekend as I sit here and type this. Lets hope that the race next weekend is a bit less eventful. Well unless it means a podium finish.

one hell of a weekend.

I'll have to split this up into a couple sections just because of how much happened. Friday night was the typical calm night. Relaxed in the the back yard watching a nice calm movie. Well sorta, the 90's classic Natural Born Killers. Was up early as planned for a couple hours in the trails.

Unfortuatly the heat shortened up the ride since I had Molly with me and there were NO puddles for her to lay in to cool down. Either way it was a 2 hour ride and explored a new section of Tom's. I've been riding there for couple years and there always seems to be something new everytime I go. This is what I found this time.

Would love to play on this stuff but being clipped in while on e the teater totter wouldn't be a smart idea. It was a great ride.
There was an orientering race happening at the same time as my ride. It made it interesting when I would come riding around a corner and find people running in the trails. Its a great place for that type of event.

So this is where the day changed. I'd planned on driving over to Georgian Cycle to drop of the race ride for its prerace tuneup then jumping on the road bike for a couple hours. Come back north on one fo the back concession I had to smash on the brakes. I'd show up less than a minute after a major accident. An older guy pulled out in front of a fullsize Dodge pickup truck. I stayed for over 2 hours with the drivers of the pickup. They were ok she very shaken up. Unfortuntaly the old guy in the car didn't make it. From what I heard he was a local so he knew the roads very well. Why he pulled out so slowly on such a major route. I feel really bad for the other couple.

From there I did eventually make it over to Dave's shop. After retelling the events of the day to Dave I finally did make it home. On a good note My new fork, headset and stem are in for the road bike. Very sweet and crazy light.

Went into the gear room to find another surprise. My murdering cat killed a chipmunk and brought it into the gear room as a present for me. Hmmm a little scary to see this. It was a bit tough getting the mind back in training mood but pulled out the road bike and headed out of town. I took the Tay trail to the 5th line and headed south toward Vasey line. The road bike clears my mind, well actaully the hills do, can't think aoub tmuch more than breathing and turning the pedals. a left on to Hwy 12 and I was heading back home. This is where some good happened.

I see 4 people and 2 cars on the side of the road blocking traffic. Here is a big snapping turtle trying to cross the road. City people are funny as they were very afraid to get close to it. I helped to persuade the beast across the road. Both lanes of traffic came to a stop and everyone was very patient. An ambulance that was on its way i'm assuming back to its station fired up its lights to get driver to slow. It was a good feeling after the morning.

Got back in with just over 2 hours on the clock. Some great climbs and a cleared head. I totaled just over 4.5 hours of riding and an hour of stretching. So did I learn anything today. Things can happen to fast sometimes for you to control(the car accident) and sometimes slow and steady is the best way to get across the road(the turtle). Turtles do live for a 100 years.

Well that was my Saturday

Road trip

Off to the Muskoka Triathalon. Busy weekend so will update the adventures when I get back. Lots happened.

Almost there

The weekend is coming. woohoo. No club ride this weekend. I'm going to spend some time on the mountain bike instead before it goes in for prerace service. Its also a crazy weekend for other events. A few have left for Rideau Lakes Tour which I wish I could be at but time conflicts always mess this event up. Its a 360 km road ride over 2 days but its starting in Ottawa. Unfortunatly even as fast as I drive you still need to take the friday and monday off and as much as I'm the boss business still comes before play. Rick and Jenn are riding the event, of course I will hear all about it next weekend.

The next big event in the area is the Muskoka Trialthalon. This is huge with pros coming for this race. I'm headingup on Sunday morning to cheer on the club and get some miles in some new areas. Should be fun. To top it all off the Canada Cup is at Hardwood Hills. So anyone left will be at this event. I would love to be at both events above but getting in my ride is a priority over sitting in the spectators area.

With that means I flip things around. I'm planning on being on the mt bike by no later than 8 tomorrow and be out for 3-3.5 hours. Its supposed to be warm again and I want Molly to be able to run the whole thing so at that time the tempature should be great for her. i'll get a road ride in after that.

I did ride Thursday, just an hour on the road. My normal loop around Midland sith my favorite climb up William street. Its a massage day!!!!! woo hoo so tonight is all about stretching and recovery. One week counting down.

another night of playing

It was the Hardwood Hills weekly mountain bike race tonight. I got down early enough to have a great warm up ride of an hour. They changed the course tonight and the first 2 km are a lot tougher. Between the extra couple grind climbs and the new soft punky trail it was a great mix.

Like usually there was alot of riders out. Tonight there was 71 and like usual off the start people go to hard to early. Coming into the first single track section i was around 20 to 25 riders back. And like usual I passed a dozen of them after the next big hill. When will they learn. It was crazy hot tonight which I have to admit I like. I felt great during the race. I consistently kept pulling in riders till I got stuck behind 2 riders. Now this was the fun part. A guy from Gears Racing was behind me and we started talking about beer. It was hilarious. After about 2-3 minutes of this in the single track I finally said to the slower riders that we needed to get by.

In all finshed 8th out of 71 riders in a time of 31:45. heartrate was way up there with a spike of 192 and an average of 183. i love this Gamin 305 for training. I can actaully see the spot where I was having the conversation about beer as the heartrate and speed dropped. Total time on the bike was 1 hr 24 minutes.

I'm really happy with my body right now coming into Solstice. The legs feel really strong and are recovering quickly. Why can't the race be this weekend? Matt wants to play!!!!

getting there

I know my focus is endurance mountain biking but this time trial thing is fun. The bike is pretty much perfect now its getting used to the geometry differences. I'm still doing some minor tweaks, more in the bar height. With that said hit a new speed tonight at 37.3km/h. With some seat time and a good recovery week I will definatly be scraping the 40 km/h mark. I know the legs were a little weak on the false flat section and getting used to climbing on a TT bike is an art. Standing is not easy as the arm rests are catching my knees. Ya not nice means I have to climb almost bull legged.



Things felt like they were coming together though. Got the new graphics for the bikes in today. This is the reason i went faster. The bike was on fire.


I road home with Mark tonight. Nice guy, a local teacher. He is getting ready to do the Tour for Kids Ride again this year. What an amazing event. Cancer is cruel, I learned this and it must be even harder to deal with when it happens to kids. If you can give a donation to this charity.

Total ride time tonight was 1 hour 36 minutes with an average of 32 km/h. The time trial course is 15.09 km long which was done in 24.12 tonight with an average heartrate of 182 and a peak of 190. Our course is not an easy one. No flats here and crap pavement. Makes you work hard and you can really smoke when your on good roads because of it.

Tomorrow is another day closer to solstice.

Some props to my Peeps

That still never sounds right anytime i've ever heard that on t.v. or movie. Anyways, mellow night tonight, weight yoga etc. The normal Monday. I'm feeling pretty good right now and am happy with my strenghts coming into this race. So with no riding tonight I figured it was a good chance to say thank you to most people that help me during the season.

Ok have to start out with Dave. He owns Georgain Cycle and keeps the wheels turning underneath me. He is a former o-cup and canada cup racer in the 90's who slow developed a love for the road. He is the best wrench in the area and a guy that takes pride in his work. He treats me awesome.

My sister Jenn is the biggest reason that I ride, let alone race. She took me to my first 24 hour race and hinted for me to quit smoking and then topped it off buying me a bike the following spring. Can you ask for a better sister? Didn't think so.

My aunt for adding onto the 24 hour support crew. A woman who thought it was crazy how someone could spend a few thousand dollars on a bike a few years ago to being addicted to the sport. She came, she saw, she got hooked. Plus she is the best cook to have in your team pit!!!!

Pierre Perron was the first person I knew to do a 24 hour solo. After watching him I was like. I gotta do that. He has already mentioned that he may come back for one more year of it next year. I wouldn't mind kicking his ass!!! Well atlest trying would be fun.

Rick Clancy my tag team partner. We curse and swear at each other pretty much steady and I think thats what makes us a good team. We know each others limits. Here to a run at the podium again.

Ed Hunt. This is the guy that started it all. And I mean everything. 24 hours of adrenaline this 17 year old kid said he wanted to do the race solo. He did it and it started the whole endurance race scene. Everyone should thank this guy. I get to do it personally since Ed is a friend who lives here in Midland and his gym HUNT FITNESS is a main sponser for the Midland Tri Club.

Everyone from the Midland Tri Club and MountainView Cycling club for all the group rides and off season training. Makes all those long training days alot easier.

The biggest thanks definatly go to my parents. Unfortuantly my father never got a chance to see me race but I think he would love it.

Mom is my biggest supporter. She was the initial reason I rode a bike 30 years ago, got me my first mountain bike 18 years ago and almost has more fun at these races than I do. SHe has been been there since my first 8 hour solo race and has learned about this style racing as much as I have. I never have to think about anything when she is in the pits for me. She also has learned some of those special words to get me back on the bike. I won't write those out since some minors maybe read this!!! I know she was disapointed that she wasn't at the first 8 hour this year but of course I had to call her at the end of the race to let her know.

The number one golden rule for all endurance racers. You are only as good as the people who support you. You cannot do these events on your own so thank your supporters all the time. They are giving up there time for you!!!!

mmmmmm smiling

It was a great mellow day today. I was feeling a bit sore this morning. Both I.T. bands were tight and pulling but I know the cause and know the cure. Loaded up the NRS1 and Molly and headed down to Tom's for a ride. Kept it a bit lighter today and turned it more so into a spin ride. An hour and a half and I was back to the car. On route home called Brent to see if he dragged his butt out of bed yet. I knew he would be hurting a bit from yesterday but a flat spin ride is the best way to recover.

Dropped of the gear switched shoes and pulled out the Alliance A1 to get some seat time on it. Now that i've got it dialed in (I think I do, will see soon). Brent got his new time trial bike last week and with the Muskoka Triathalon next weekend he needed to get some time on it for those minor adjustments. We made a run out to Port Severn and back. No major hills. After yesterday no hill locally seems to major. It was a nice pace in the low 30's which kept the heartrate down to an average of 138.

Total time today was 3.5 hours of awesome play time in the sun. Tomorrow is a rest day whcih means yoga. Curing the I.T. problem, this does it. Why can't the weekend be longer

13 days and counting

Wow the 24 hour of Summer Solstice is right around the corner. Man does time fly. I'm hoping Rick has been putting in as much seat time as I have. Tag Team is a whole new experience. Think of doing an O Cup race atleast 10 times in a row with only an hour recovery. Its one thing to be really fast but you also need to contine with those times for 24 hours without much sleep or even rest. This is where I never have to worry about Rick. The guy is a bull.


I've already be researching to see who we will be playing against. I know for sure that our biggest threat is Jeff Shikaze. I'm assuming that he is racing with his brother. They are both extremely fast and mentally tough. They will be tough to beat. There is a crew coming out of Misfit Pcyles. I don't think that they will to much of a problem. Single speed for 24 hours just plain hurts and there is alot of fast sections on this course.

I'm hoping to get a night ride in before the race. Its been a long year not playing in the dark. We are coming into this race setup beyond the last 2 years. Rick is on a new ride this year. This will be a huge difference for him. This also means that I have my backup NRS for me. I might even ride it once. Also his lighting systems have been updated. This is definatly important. Can't ride fast if you can't see.

Long range forcast are showing no rain for the next 2 weeks. That is a bad thing as the course will be crazy dry. It's also hard on gear with fine dust floating in the air. Hell sucks on the lungs to. I thought I hacked up enough of it after the 8 hour.

I'm hoping Craig's training is coming together. Hopefully he isn't getting stressed out. We are sharing a campsite with him this year which is pretty cool. We also have the regular Ottawa teams surrounding us. Either the Chico Racing guys are great at getting us our favorite spot or they like to keep us in the corner away from everyone else!!!!! We don't smeel the bad at the end of the race do we?

Tips for tag team. Control!!!! Like all 24 hour races nothing is won or lost until it gets dark. Usually around 3-4 am you will see the layout of the top 5 teams. Its the opposite of solo riding as you basiclly need to hammer every lap as hard as you can but reserving enough to go again and again and again. We watched one year as teams went full out and we were in the middle pack and by midnight most of them went and curled up in the fetile position from exhaustion. Its just as much a mental game to. As it gets later into the night the course seems to clear up which is where you can gain lots of time. Everyone slows down in the night. Some more than others and this is where you need to be strong. I usually only lose 4-5 minutes in the dark. Rick with his new system should be very close to that. I'm hoping.

What a day!!!!

So the club went on a road trip today. I will say that I'm kinda sick of all the roads locally. You can only make so many different loops. About my only complaint was waking up at 6 to walk out the door at 7 am to pickup Brent. I'm a morning person but when the weekend comes I like to take my time for atleast an extra hour in the morning. Met up with the rest of the club to do the hour drive to Pretty River Trail parking lot just south of Collingwood. It was going to be a good day, we had some of the local riders join up with us. This put our pack at around 20

Nothing like starting out witha climb. Not just a little climb mind you, how about 9km at an average of 7%. This of course split up the pack so we regrouped at the top.

From there it was flat to slighlty down hill for the next 25 km. Talk about amazing roads, smooth and fast. About the only problem was the roadkill. There was alot of it along witha very alive snapping turtle who didn't seem to impressed with us as we riped by him. They have this road split going right between 2 lakes and the view was awesome.



Louise our World Champion Ironman Triatlete and Kevin enjoying the view

From there came the first big descent. Hey what goes up gets to go down. FAST, like 67 km/h for almost 3km. Ya well what goes down has to go back up. This picture does not do justice to this hill. Its 6 km long at just under 5%


Then there was the otherside. Hit 76 km/h on this coasting section.

After a quick food and fluid stop it was off to Senic Caves Road which was going to be the climb for points. At the top of the hill everyone dropped waterbottle, tools, hell if they could take off parts of their bikes to make this climb easier. Its only 2.1km long but it continues to get steeper the whole time. Ok 39-25 umm not happening for me today. All the time training for mountain biking i've made myself stay seated on almost every climb. this one I couldn't and didn't have the extra power to stand. Average grad is 12%, of course Aaron our freak of nature was first to the top. I think he has 3 lungs. yes that is an old KHS and he is almost untouchable when it comes to climbing.

Aaron on his retro bike still kicking our asses. I'd be afraid of him on a carbon bike

Eric continues to shock us. This kid can climb!!!

Tim preping for a 332 km ride in two weeks. this was definatly a great prep ride

Kevin loving that 29 tooth cog. I want one!!!!

With my training this year I've found that I don't have mass power in the climbs but I recover very very quickly and great endurance. A few started to fade after this point. Brent has seen better days. He did great on the Caves climb but that pretty much sucked the rest of his energy out of him. Hell he is only 15 and is pushing along with the big boys.

The rest of the ride was great and we finished with a long downhill along Grey road 19. Yep we were sprinting downhill at 80 km/h. I love coasting. Thanks to Tim for coming up with the idea and the route. Total time was 4:15 and 120.2 km. We had to back the last 30 km down a bit becuse of a few people feeling a bit rough. When is the next road trip????????


1700 metre of climbing which was awesome. Matt likes to climb!!!!

The weekend is here

Not like I will get to sleep in though. The club is going to Collingwood for the ride this weekend. A change of scenery will be nice. Only one sprint this week and its a hill climb. Senic Caves road which is a 2.1 km climb at an average of 12.1 percent. Should be fun. Those hill repeats earlier this week at 18-23 percent grade should help, I hope!!!

With the road trip it means up a bit earlier to pick people up so I'm outta here by just after 7 tomorrow. So much for rest. That was tonight. I'll be taking lots of pictures since there will be some awesome views!!!

Vroom Vroom

Yep thats the sound that I was expecting to hear out of the bike tonight. With the 8 hour race come and gone and recovery time I really haven't had much time to play with the Time Trial bike. Well tonight was the night. I've pretty much got dialled in now. FINALLY!!!


Headed out of town stopping a couple times with some minor tweaks to bar angle and height etc. From there it was out to reeves road. Thought this would be a pretty good run to get some seat time in. I used the ride out as a warm up thinking I would hammer the return trip. Hammer is right. There is a nice little downhill run at the begining of the concesion then gets into a nice level runout with amazing fast pavement. SO the numbers!!! 43.8 km average for 7.5 km. I ran out of gears in a few places. From there just motored around the outskirts of the harbour onto the bike path and back to town. Even with the first 20 minutes of stop and go tuning i still averaged 32 km/h including the stops. Ya the bike is fast.

Total ride time was 1:17, then got into the upper body weights along with an hour of yoga. Total workout time tonight was 2:45. It would be great if I didnt have to work and could just train. hmmm well not fast enough for paid sponserships so maybe it will have to a super 7 lottery ticket!!

It was nice to finally see the speeds that the bike is capable of doing. I definatly need to get a couple 3-4 hour sessions in on this thing.

On another note, a few friends that I have raced with that are semi retired are now checking in on me. Hopefully you guys can get your retired potato chip butts off the couch and start racing again. Just buggin Pierre and Tobin, you guys are part of the reason I do this. Could there be a showdown next season? Summer Solstice run for the podium?

playing in the dirt

Fun ride tonight at the weekly series. There is a awesome level of riders in our area and they all seem to swarm Hardwood Wednesday night. The course I was racing tonight had 71 riders. I'd say a third of them are ontario cup racers. I got a good warm up of 25 minutes with an average heartrate of 162.

Hardwood has the cruelest start of any place I've ever raced. Even that big climb at Mansfield isnt this mean. The first half km is wood chips and when its not wood chips its up hill on hay. Nothing like peaking the heartrate early. Like usual there are always a few young racers that go to hard right at the beginning and then start losing it in the first section of single track. Once past them it was pretty clear sailing. Finished the 10.1 km course in 32.22 and placed 8th. My legs felt great and got into my rythem about half way through the course.

Heartrate for the race was 181 average and spiked to 191.

Guess what I did?

No Time Trials tonight. It was cold and crazy windy here and I got home early from work so I said screw it and went climbing instead. Awww the perks of the area I live. I did a 25 minute warm up from here to Midland then went to the best route for hill repeats. From fourth street to 8th street there are 7 awesome hills. Shallowest grade is on the first hill which is 10% and they continue to increase to 23%. Pretty sweet I must stay. Except for the hill at 23% I stayed seated for the climbs. Even with a 39 front 25 rear I can only muscle up a hill for so long before being forced to stand.

Total ride time was 1 hour 11 minutes. I felt really good after the ride. Here is the elevation.


Happy with the results, The Time Trials are always fun but the focus is now on the 24 hour tag team. Tomorrow is the weekly series at hardwood hills. Should be fun.

Monday, ugh

Not much to report on tonight. Weights ,yoga, etc. The normal Monday night. Started cycle testing my lights tonight. They have been collecting dust all winter and I like knowing of any potential problems with batteries early. For my support crew I write how long each battery will last so there is no guessing games in the middle of the night. Well its a rest/recovery day and I'm off to do just that.

Updates from the TT tomorrow. Hoping the legs will be willing.

Put a smile on your face

Yep stealing song lyrics again. Sorry Coldplay, please don't sue!!! A much much better day. I still kept the mileage and pace a bit lower after the crap ride yesterday. I still make some mistakes with my training. Hopefully some of you learn from it and don't repeat .

Today was going to be a fun ride. Just something to get me happy. The mountain bike does that for me. Loaded up the car with the bike, dog and gear and we were off to Tom's forest.


No real set plan for training, just playing. 2 hours later I was feeling great. Now Molly on the other hand was ready to call it a day. It was really hot in the bush today and she wasn't her bouncy self. This picture was taken at around the half way point of our ride. Happier than a pig in $hit.



I had fun also. Had some Rise Against riping on the MP3 player. Great music for cutting up single track. Fast and agressive beats, makes you want to go faster. I still did keep myself at a sane pace. Average heartrate was only 134 with a max of 170. In otherwords there was no gasping for air this ride. There are only a few big climbs there but its such a fun fast, flowy trail system.


Tom's was really really busy today. I thiink that everyone and their grandmother has found out about it. Hopefully the trails hold up. At the end of the ride this thing was parked at the trail head. I really want one of these things. Gotta love the old vw bus.


Its a rest day tomorrow which means upper body weights and yoga.

Good Intentions

Went out feeling great and anxious for the ride. I thought the legs were fully recovered from the race. Far from it. I rode in like usual and things felt pretty at that point. About the biggest thing was the heat.

As mentioned it was a climbing day with the club. Wrong choice, maybe by myself but the boys wanted to push The first long grade was the 5th line, its not steep but its almost 4 km of steady grade. Then came Vasey line which is a 1km climb at an average of 8 percent with a peak of 15%. I was still ok at this point. About 30 minutes later was the next killer which basicly told me this route was to early after the race. 2km at 9% totally destroyed me. I'm usually at the fron tof the pack and I was spinning at the back. Everything just felt tired. This is where I split from the pack to return back home. I knew it would have been a bad idea to push on. When I'm climbing a hill with my head down that is a bad thing. I love climbing, especially on the road bike but today was a reminder that it takes time for the body to heal.

I still had an hour ride to get back home which I pushed along at 30km average but checking my heartrate after it was even low. The body said rest. Actaully thats what I did when I got in. I had a 2 hour nap which did help. I know I was drained when this happens.

Now one thing I have noticed a pattern with though involves my massage. I usually ride like crap the day after it. With that I have to be aware of when I schedule them.

Tomorrow is going to be the ride that I need. Going to play on the mountian bike in the morning in Tom's forest. Of course I'm bringing my number one training partner.


I feel like I'm making excuses for why I shortened up my ride. Blaming the massage, the heat, the pace, hell even the hills. I was tired, thats it. I still have to look at the long term, Especially for the next race. Tag team at Summer Solstice. I'm not just riding for myself but have responsibilties to a teammate. I know Rick will be ready for the event and that we will be one of the teams that will be watched during the event.

Me and my big mouth

Alright, I got my couple days of rest after the 8 hour, its back to work. Of course I mentioned to the boys from the club that I wanted to get a couple good climbing days in so that meant I picked the route for the club ride. It was modified a bit bit we are basiclly going to hit every killer climb in the area over 120-130km. This includes the Horseshoe Valley Road climb. Cars have hard times getting up this hill in the winter. Should be fun. I've climbed it many times. UMMMM Ya I like it!!!!

The legs are feeling really good this morning and thanks again to Cindy for another great massage. Hurts like hell at the time but its well worth it in the long run. Dave did some minor changes on the road bike and has it setup for climbing for me. Pulled out the 11-23 rear for a 12-25. Of course he did his magic on the tuning and its smoother than the day it came out of the box. Lets see if the rider is as smooth.

There are 3 sprint points today for club points. One is a hill and I know everyone is going to grab my wheel for it. I've going to try that Armstrong trick today and stay near the back for the first half of the climb and then blow by everyone at the steepest point. 12 points up for grab and I want them all. Its funny how competative this inner club thing is. The prized Stinky Helmet.

Time for breakfast. I'll post the elevation and distances this afternoon. What goes up gets to come back down!!!!!