Why is it that everything that is supposed to make you feel better seems to hurt. ALOT!! Isn't recovery week supposed to be enjoyable. No intervals, no power pedaling, no super sets. Quote the word Recovery.

Today was a great massage. Now that's not to say it didn't hurt. Cindy is a very nice woman but there were defiantly times I could have called her anything but. This was mainly when she hit this nasty knot in my hamstring. Now I know I always feel better afterwards but during the moment I really wonder why am I doing this to myself.

I know that Monday night during my treatment with Dr. Bill that if there were not other patients in the building there would most defiantly be a few four letter words coming out of my mouth.

Even tonight I rolled around on the newest fix me up tool. That thick foam roller looks closer to a kids toy than to some type of torture device. I guess that saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is true. Maybe the person who wrote this should get their I.T. band riped and see if they still feel the same way.

Rest, Rest, Rest!! Well lets just at recovery into that line also. Yesterday was a day of that. Rest and recovery. I took the day off and took full advantage of it. I was able to get to my friend Heather's (www.dharmayogawellnesscentre.blogspot.com)yoga class. Awww just what the body needed. New poses and stretches.

Later in the day was recovery of the different sort. Dr. Bill riped my legs to shreds. The fun thing was I liked it. My hip flexor were feeling it this morning. We also had some time to go over where my riding was at along with weight training. This included some additional activities. My skis are now away for the rest of the season.

As bad as this sounds but I'm not that disappointed. This weekend is the 4th annual 24 hour x-c ski race at Mountainview. I raced in this last year. Lets just say I have a totally different respect for the guys in the race. I was on a 4 person team and I was pretty trashed at the end of the event. There were 3 soloist. Yep 24 hour solo on skis. Sick bastards.

At least on the bike I can coast and sit down. There is no real rest on skis. You just keep pushing along. I had planned at doing this solo myself last year but I had little mileage in.

of course 4 days before the race I get that call asking me if I want to race, their short 2 skiers. Doctors orders. My knees are great right now and we are not taking any chances. I'm thinking back to the adventure race that pushed them over the edge. It was a win that I would give up to not have just dealt with what I have over the last 4 months.

http://www.mountainviewmidland.com/

Check out there site if your interested. Probably still room for more teams.

Today was a nice recovery ride to the gym. There are times that I wish I didn't live in such a hilly area. This was one of those times. Do you know how hard it is to keep your heartrate in zone 1 on a 12 percent grade hill!!

This is a week of double duty. Rest the legs, easy training and get that annoying list of chores done. I'm definatly hiring a house cleaner once the riding hours start to increase.

Tomorrow is masage and yoga.

The sun is shinning and I'm indoors. This was one of those days I wish I could have bailed on the club
and played outside but I stuck to my duties and ran the spin. I'm into a recovery week so it was 3 hours of
base.

From there I did a yoga session with the club. I've learned the hard way about recvoery and the need to
stretch. A couple years ago I had to drop out of a couple races with Siatic nerve problems that were brought
on by tight muscles. Hell I was lucky if I could touch my knees a couple years ago. Yoga is a great
addition to any training program. List it as your active recovery if you need to put in the hours.

I've also found that it helps on your focus. Focus is everything when it comes to endurance racing.
Yes it is goign to hurt adn yes you will sometimes want to get off the bike. This focus will help
you get through it.

It was interesting hearing the growns during yoga versus the ones during the workout. I think
everyone found it opened their eyes to their weaknesses. Recovery is as important as the training
itself. You get stronger when your resting.

Now with the sun out and teasing us with the thought of warmer tempatures on the way I spent the an hour or
so in a Muskoka chair soaking up the rays. It's time to start getting some of those tan lines. Hell I have
permanent jersey tan lines on my arms.

Is it spring yet?

One hell of a great day. All I did today was train but it was the way things happened. I was dragging my butt first thing this morning but the sun was up and I started to get the craving to play outside. A little bit of coffee helped that.

The temperature was hovering at minus 10 but the sun felt warm. Out comes the cross bike. Well the plan was great. Get an hour loop in on my way to the gym. I got less than 10 minutes in when the headset froze. That's it, it's time to replace it. I tried my best to ride back to the house.

You never realize how much corrective steering you do until you can't do it. Well a quick swap of wheels and I'm off on my XC. The roads are clear no worries about much cleaning is what I said to myself. Hit the gym with a smile on my face.

Did the long loop on the way back and passed my friend Sherrie on the highway. Out for a long run and a high five as we passed each other. At least there was another crazy out there in the chill. The whole time I have this huge grin on my face. I just wanted to keep going.

Well my wish was going to come true. About an hour after I got back one of my Blue teammates was ready to get out for some km's I also coach Brent on the mountain bike side of things but he is moving up quickly in the Triathlon ranks.


Of course by now the sun is gone and it's reading minus 5. Who cares, better than being on the trainer.

We made the run up to Port Severn which round trip for me is 50 km. Great views.


Of course Brent and I are a little competitive and the pace did turn pretty nasty a few times. It's a little early in the season to see who will break first but it's always fun to hear those words "can we back it down a bit" I was just happy they weren't coming out of my mouth.


2 hours later I rolled back into the driveway. So much for the clean roads, I had some ice to clear off but it was well worth it.

All told today was 3.5 hours total of riding with the gym mixed in there. The legs feel awesome, a little tired but no knee pain at all. I'm starting my recovery week now. Indoor training tomorrow. More on that later.

Gotta roll

Yesterday gave me more cravings for singletrack. Was able to geta late afternoon snowshoe in. The sun was out (for a change) and the tempature was hovering around minus 6. Nice. The perk of snowshoeing, park the car, pick a direction and just go.

About 30 minutes in I came across a huge grid of pine trees. GRRRR I love pine trees. The eyes just started looking for the lines. The mind started thinking about sections of Tom's Forest, Albion Hills, Hardwood Hills, actually just about everywhere I love to ride. Where ever there are pine trees it's usually a fast flowing section of trail. Ok snow you can melt now!!!


Just over an hour later the Molly Monster was back to sane and I had a greater craving to be on the trails.

Tonight was on the bike, unfortunatly it was indoors. Did hit the gym this afternoon but bailed on the idea of riding in. I think it was more the idea of cleaning the cross bike afterwards that discouraged me more than the weather.

Being a peak week the gym workout hurt, wait the gym always hurts. The gym BLAH!!!! I will say that the new workout is showing good results already. My knee is feeling amazing. I still wait to get a bit of pain in certain movements but it's not there. The new workout is really working on VMO. The rest of the leg has become more balanced now it's time to work on the last weakness.

Back to the bike. Tough intervals tonight BUT I have to thank Mr. Reznor for the distractions tonight. I ended up watching the 2006 NIN With Teeth concert while doing my workout. Do you know how hard it is to recover between sets while listening to this music. Either way it made the 1:30 go by very quickly. Much better than watching a tour video or movie.


One more tough day then into a recovery week. I'm hoping to get some real miles in this weekend. Lets see if the weather allows it.

gotta run

Was a bit upset this morning. Watching the morning Toronto news this morning at 6 am armed with my coffee when the big flash of a fire downtown comes up. Major fire, 6 alarm fire which from their description means huge. I continue seeing the highlights for the next hour. Smoke everywhere, additional buildings catching on fire. So far the only good thing is everyone got out of all the buildings.

About 15 minutes in the truck listening to the am talk/news radio show (yes I'm a news junkie) on my way to the first service call I hear something that indirectly affects me. Duke's Cycle is one of the businesses that was in the fire. I've never been to the shop but they are a major sponser for most of the mountain biking here in Ontario. It's a family owned and run company that has been in the same location for over 90 years. The owner was on the radio station giving his outlook on the situation.

We had a fire in our storage/shop a year and a half ago and it disrupted our business, I can't even imagine what they are dealing with. Hopefully they will be able to rebuild quickly. I've heard that they are a great bike shop to deal with. Would hate to see a great family business stop because of this.

http://dukescycle.ca/

Sleep and ride. That was what the last few days has been filled with. That dam cold rolled it's way back into my life on Friday. I did manage to get my gym and bike time in on Saturday but spent the rest of the day staring at the tv or laptop. The Molly Monster and I did get out for a short snowshoe on Saturday evening. The fresh air did me well. Of course the 2 plus feet deep of fresh snow that we had in the previous days helped tire the dog out.

Sunday was another day of train and sleep. 3.5 hours with an hour of high intensity intervals pretty much drained my desire to do much more. Of course the lingering cold didn't help much but it was nice to not feel guilty about sitting on my ass staring at the wall.

Even feeling like crappy from the cold my legs have been feeling amazing the last couple days after the work outs. No knee pain at all. Keeping my fingers crossed that we are getting on the top of the hump and ready to coast to the land of painless. With me being in a peak week this is a great test for them.

About the only other productive thing I did was start finalizing my race schedule. My but Rob called let me know that the Enduro Series will be back into full swing this year. They are only keeping it to 3 races, one of those being the icebreaker but will have the championships in October. To cool thing with the timing of their events is that there are no races that conflict.

Now with that said this spring is going to be crazy busy leading up to Summer Solsitce. I think I have 2 weekends off in the 12 weeks but most of the events are used as training. The peak is still SS. After that things are still a little open ended.

Now where is my brain at. HMMMM I really need to get some dirt rides in soon. Hell just even some good long road miles would be nice right now. The weather has been completely nuts. One day its snowing so hard you can barely see your hand in front of your face to Sunday where it was plus 7 and pouring rain all day. Those nice soft powder filled snowshoe trails are not skating rinks as it frozen again yesterday. I think Mother Nature is having hot flashes.

Alright enough complaining. The plan is to play outdoors tomorrow. The intervals tonight with the gym workout was great but I need some fresh air again. Hopefully mother nature is in a good mood tomorrow.

Later

Yep I think it's time to shoot that stupid little rodent who gave us hope that spring is coming early. Another snowstorm is rolling in this afternoon to pack more snow on top of what came down last night. So much for me having a relaxing 4 day weekend.

Last night's ride to the gym was great, it was the return trip that was interesting. That perfect combination of tempature, slush and wind made it a bit sketchy. Another frozen headset added to the excitement. Time to rip it apart. Still better than sitting on the hamster wheel. Another tough weekend of training but at least I have no other commitments besides time on the bike.

Today is my day to get all the crap done. The company has been busier than it's ever been in the last 30 years. Not that it's a bad thing but I have been running around like a madman trying to keep up and still get my hours in training. Today is a mental healthy day. I really need it. I think it's time for another coffee.

A crazy week it coming to an end. Woo hoo. Last night was spent playing in the snow for a few hours. Met up with Heather and her partner in crime Dharma(dog). The Molly Monster is back to full speed so snowshoeing was the choice for the evening.

We have had so much snow in the last couple weeks that all the trails are amazing. Scout Valley was tonights play ground. I've never been here and of course going at night always adds to the challenge. The weather was perfect at around minus 10. This was definatly the type of workout I needed to get the mind cleared and get that love of teh winter going again. The trails were amazing and the company I had made the night perfect. We met up with another freind of Heather's. 3 people, 3 dogs.

Just under two hours of steady pace tromping left this huge smile on my face. Some great conversations were had during this adventure including someone bringing up the fact that most people were probably staring at a t.v. numbing their minds as we were out enjoying what the earth has to offer. Aww there is my deep thoughts for the night.

Molly is trashed and slept all day. It's been great. For myself the body felt amazing this morning. The knee has been feeling good with the new treatment and the revision in training. I'm starting to like winter again.

Gotta run

Comfort food. Fall to the dark side. I didn't bring this up on Monday because I didn't want to show weakness. Feeling drained from the weekend I really didn't feel like cooking a good meal after treatment. I was hungry and tired and borderline grumpy. Beer, wings and pizza. MMMMM good.

Back at it last night with a recovery ride and yoga. The legs are feeling amazing today. The Molly Monster is recovered and the plan is to play in the new snow tonight with a couple hours of snowshoeing.

Are rodent, opps sorry groundhog has predicted an early spring but the way it's looking outside today I think the little rat is lying. It's finally come out of the minus 20's but they are still calling for steady snow all week. Not sure if I will get any outdoor mileage in over the next week. I'm hoping.

Time for work.

A day of rest. Thank you. This weekend really did knock the crap out of me. I'm not complaining at all but I'm really enjoying this mellow night.

Sunday was spent on the trainer. I ran this session twice with the tri club and of course I'm going to work my self a bit harder than everyone else. Self drive can be a bitch. This was a power session with low cadence high resistence but also included Squats, 3 times 3 sets of 1 minutes reps. Just going for a minute with high rep hurts, I had to step it up a bit with 50 pounds attached to the arms. All in all I probably did well over 500 squats over my 2 hours with the club. Finished up with an hour of base miles.

I think the best part of this workout, besides hearing everyone curse my name near the end of the workout was spending the time on the mountian bike. I've been staring it so much that I needed to get a bit of seat time with it. MMMM feels good.

With the craving to be on the mountain bike comes the craving of dirt. I'm planning a trip to ride the Don Valley Trail system in the next couple weeks. Toronto got hammered with snow. Ok let me repharse that, they got about a foot of snow but for them that is being hammered. The 5 foot snowbank in my front yard is my defense. Normally its pretty clear down there so the trail systems are very much rideable. It's some crazy off camber stuff and it really only takes about an hour or so to ride everything BUT! it's better than sitting on the trainer and a lot easier than making a trip to the southern states.

On the body issue front, Dr. Bill has a few revisions coming for me involving my weight training program. I wonder how much he enjoys making me hurt. Between the workouts and treatments he really does like to make me hurt. It's all worth it though when I say the wattage numbers after the test. I also know there is more power sitting there hidden under the knee iratation. It's no longer a problem but more an annoyance. It hurts but not much as it did and only when I'm at full power.


The photo side is working sorta

This is the new toy. I'm getting a bit anxious for it.

The last couple days have been interesting. ok better an description, just down right busy. Work, well work is work which is always busy. Now the training has been the different factor. It was 2 das of testing happening in my basement. I had Heather pack up her gear and set up shop in my lower apartment for some mild abuse on some of the local cyclist and triatheltes. Great results for everyone tested and this included moi.

Lets just say that I am very very happy with where I am at. Wattage was up, way up. I'm still being held back a bit by my right leg motion. The knee/hip thing is still an issue at the max side of things but was able to go much higher since the last test. Dr. Bill if you are reading this, we are getting clser to being fixed, watch out once I am. Body weight and fat% were the same.

Not much else happening. With the test Friday night I did just over an hour this morning in zone 3 then spent the rest of the time helping atletes get setup and tested. This included me drinking a vast amount of coffee. MMMM. My knee is annoying me a bit today but it's very much understandable why. I have multipule days of treatment/a.r.t. this week and a slightly revised training program now which should help.

Couch time, 4 hours on the bike tomrrow. Need my rest. More updates tomorrow

When is enough enough? So 24 hours don't seem to be long enough for you? Here comes the next step. How about a 36 hour race? Hey adventure racers have been doing this for years so why not take it over to the mountain bike world.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=4066307&posted=1#post4066307

I know the guy behind the scene and he is very capable of putting on a great event. His 9 hour last year was still one of all time favorite courses. Does this get me wanting to go longer than 24 hours? I really don't know. A tag team would be interesting for sure and the tactics into this distance would definatly change. It will be interesting to see how this event develops.

Ok back to the present. Finally got some outdoor miles in on Tuesday night. AWWW the feel of speed. Hell any forward motion is fun after 4 hours on the trainer. Climbing felt amazing and was happy at the pace/heartrate I could hold on the steep climbs. Guess all those hours of mind numbing base is paying off.

I've kicked myself in the butt again about my active recovery time. Mainly getting more yoga back in the mix. With so many different things going on with the company, the bike, the new car and getting the rental apartment ready something had to give and it was yoga. Yep, the one that shouldn't be cut out and I've paid for it a bit. Back at it now.

Test day is coming. The house is going to be packed this weekend with riders. I'm holding a test day here and there will be steady flow of bikes coming in all weekend. Atleast I won't be the only one suffering this time.

Alright time to go dig myself out again this morning as there is a foot of fresh snow sitting in the driveway.

The Molly Monster is down and out. My poor poor puppy is crashed. Well literally crashed into the side of a snowmobile. Mom was puppy sitting and walking the trails with her and Molly's addiction for chasing fast moving things took over. She is used to chasing me. Man did my head just swell.

Well the snowmobile was going slow atleast and she lunged after it and took the worst of it. Nothing major just a nice gash to the top of her front paw. Maybe that will teach her. Probably not. She is obessed as much as her master. Of course she is so sweet when she is drugged up.

Me on the other hand. I say my own Dr. tonight as Dr. Bill bent the shit out of my legs. Have you ever noticed how high a threshold of pain you develop because of racing. It's actually a bit sick when I'm saying harder to both my physio and massage therapist. Hmmm sadist massicist? Well we do inflict a lot of pain on ourselves during 24 hour races. Now I have yet to see any wips on the course but lots of chains and now that I think about it some of those tree branches have definatly whacked me once or twice. \

Legs are feeling fantasitic today. I'm hoping that the roads will be clear enough tomorrow for me to throw some slicks on the cross bike and squeeze a couple hours in before the gym. I really need some speed in my diet. If I can't have dirt some fast times on the road will definitly give me another boost.

Alright time to go check in on the Monster. Vet said she will be up and at it tomorrow with no movement restrictions. Back to her crazy self.

No pictures either, having a problem posting

Tough day today. 3:45 spent on the bike with an hour of hard intervals. Yep the legs are a little tired but in a good way. I think someone lit a fire under my ass his morning since I was drinking coffee at 5:30am on a Sunday. I think I need to give my head a shake sometimes.

I do enjoy these Sunday club training even though the only one who seems to stay with me for the full four hours is my buddy Rob. He is coming back from torn ACL and really wants to be back racing Expert again. The guy is motivated and it's nice to have someone to talk to during the base mileage time. Off course during the power intervals all that was coming out of my mouth was alot of huffing and puffing. Can't be an easy ride everyday.

The 08 race season is coming fast. My mind is getting into things a bit more everyday but after watching 24 solo after the main work out I am really craving sometime in the trails. I know that Toronto got hammered with snow this weekend but I wonder what the Don Valley Trail is like during the winter. ANyone? Not sure whether to trying and do a long weekend drive down south to get this dirt craving under control. Just the fact of not wearing 3 layers of clothing for a ride would be nice let alone the half hour of cleaning needed after the ride.

We have another short heat wave coming over the next 3 days. Plus 8 and pouring rain. Nice weather eh!! Not warm enough to melt everything in the bush but just enough to completely screw up snowshoeing and x-c skiing. Should make things interesting for the crew that is heading to the Canadian Ski marathon in Quebec next weekend. Last year the course was cut down dramaticlly because of the lack of snow. Will be interesting to hear the stories.

Alright its SuperBowl Sunday Go UMMMMM who is playing? Later!

It was one of those life draining days. Woke up and everything was going good. Great cup of coffee in the morning. Checked some emails etc. Got preped for the morning session on the bike etc. A typical Saturday. With the mass amount of snow that we had I was forced to the rollers this morning. The plan was for some interval training.

I've yet to get a wattage trainer. Next season. Did the next best thing. Increased tension. 4x5minute intervals with an increase in gear ratio each interval. One minute recovery between intervals. Lets just say at the end of the last set I had to get of my bike and just sit on the ground for a minute or two.

From there things went downhill. Not in a destroying everything way but in a frustration with everything way. My monster snowblower was ready for pickup, Again. This is the second time it was in the shop since the first time didin't fix it. 2 weeks away this time. Did the grunt work of emptying the Element to be able to load it in. Got back to Mom's and the shop. This is where the frustration began. 15 minutes into clearing her driveway the chain blew off. Same problem Again. It's going back tot he shop on Monday. Getting a wee bit pissed.

The next part of my day was supposed to be fun. A trip to Toronto to start searching for my new car. I had a few dealerships marked out that had the cars I was interested in. The first place I hit had one of the cars I really really wanted to test drive and possiblyu buy that day. Lets just say that the salesman was the biggest idiot I've ever met and if I ran my company the way this guy treated me I'd be out of business very quickly. I'm not sure if its just the way salesman are in the city but holy crap. When I asked about tested driving a car he said straight out that he doesn't test drive cars until we start negotiating prices and I put a deposit on it. Ummm ya I'm going to drop a huge chunk of cash on something I've never even driven. Lets just say I won't be dealing with this guy. To bad so sad Sorry about your luck. Of course the other dealerships were not much better.
In the end I did get to do what I needed to and got in touch with a local dealer who gave me the good vibe of customer service. I'm going with a car a year or two older than intialy planned but it has a ton of amazing toys on it that i like. An Audi Allroad will be sitting in my driveway in the next couple weeks.

After the b.s. of the car search was a trip to the evil place. Mountain Equipment Co-op is a great place to drop a huge chink of money without even breathing. I was controlled today and stuck to the plan. The Molly Monster had fun with all the attention she got. I even ran into an old friend there.

Another 1.5 hour in the car and I was home. Sore back from to much driving and starving. A beer killed the appetite. It's late, I'm tired and I have a long day tomorrow. bed time.