Went for my first skate ski of the season with Brent Keen yesterday. Ok, I won't lie, I went for my first fall on my ass. How is it that I guy who used to race alpine skiing and spent years teaching it cannot stay vertical on these sticks.
I used to see speeds of 80 km/h on ice going around gates and I fall over at 15 km/h looking like a spaz.
I forgot how much full body effort skate skiing is. Of course it's more physical when your using every muscle you have to not fall over. I did find my rhythm and most of my balance after a few km's and had a good 1.5 hour workout. I'll be definitely adding a day or two of skiing to my weekly abuse.
Happy New Years everyone.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
I know I haven't written much in the last few days. There really hasn't been much happening and after still having nightmares about my brother-in-laws video the camera has me a little scared.
Got together with my coach on Sunday night and talked a little this and a little that. The big thing is getting me in that happy place of wanting to be on the puke machine.
Well after a weekend of crazy weather and almost all the snow disappeared it left the roads in great shape. the temperature was just above the freezing mark and the sun was out. What better motivation for me than a good long road ride on my favorite loop.
Headed out armed with 2 bottles a couple gels and 3 dollars. What more do you need? I figured I would be about 2 hours or so. The roads still had a hard packed layer of snow on them in places so the cross bike was an easy choice. With no really training focus I just turned my feet and checked out the scenery.
Stopped at the Big Chute for a short break and to check out water levels after the 2 days of plus 10 and pouring rain. The rapids were wild and looked more like spring than December.
This is my usual place to top up bottles etc. Who would have thought that a marina store would be closed on a Monday in December. Come on there has to be lots of boat traffic at this time. Time reference needed.The Big Chute loop is about 65 km long with no short cut back. Normally I can do this section in under 2 hours during the summer time. I'm on holidays for the next week which means that my technical thinking brain is not really working right now otherwise I would have added together a better time estimate for this ride. At 33-35 km/h while on my road bike with slicks and an air temp well above the freezing mark equals under 2 hours.
Now factor in a cross bike with nobby tires, mix that in with snow and slushy roads and add a hint of cold air. To top it off add on December legs. Yep those poor weak excuse of legs in there and my ride turned into just under a 3.5 hour tour. A bonk was doing it's very best to catch me near the end as I came into Port Severn where a sugar kick from a Mars bar got me the rest of the way home.
The rest of the afternoon was spent putting in something I've always wanted in a house. An indoor area to wash my bikes.
\Wasted space with a laundry tub. Out it goes. I bought a bath tub from the Restore store which sends all the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.
The cross bike was the first in line to get spic an span clean.
I'm getting back into full force abuse as of January 2. My next power test and a revamped schedule. More to come.
Got together with my coach on Sunday night and talked a little this and a little that. The big thing is getting me in that happy place of wanting to be on the puke machine.
Well after a weekend of crazy weather and almost all the snow disappeared it left the roads in great shape. the temperature was just above the freezing mark and the sun was out. What better motivation for me than a good long road ride on my favorite loop.
Headed out armed with 2 bottles a couple gels and 3 dollars. What more do you need? I figured I would be about 2 hours or so. The roads still had a hard packed layer of snow on them in places so the cross bike was an easy choice. With no really training focus I just turned my feet and checked out the scenery.
Stopped at the Big Chute for a short break and to check out water levels after the 2 days of plus 10 and pouring rain. The rapids were wild and looked more like spring than December.
This is my usual place to top up bottles etc. Who would have thought that a marina store would be closed on a Monday in December. Come on there has to be lots of boat traffic at this time. Time reference needed.The Big Chute loop is about 65 km long with no short cut back. Normally I can do this section in under 2 hours during the summer time. I'm on holidays for the next week which means that my technical thinking brain is not really working right now otherwise I would have added together a better time estimate for this ride. At 33-35 km/h while on my road bike with slicks and an air temp well above the freezing mark equals under 2 hours.
Now factor in a cross bike with nobby tires, mix that in with snow and slushy roads and add a hint of cold air. To top it off add on December legs. Yep those poor weak excuse of legs in there and my ride turned into just under a 3.5 hour tour. A bonk was doing it's very best to catch me near the end as I came into Port Severn where a sugar kick from a Mars bar got me the rest of the way home.
The rest of the afternoon was spent putting in something I've always wanted in a house. An indoor area to wash my bikes.
\Wasted space with a laundry tub. Out it goes. I bought a bath tub from the Restore store which sends all the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.
The cross bike was the first in line to get spic an span clean.
I'm getting back into full force abuse as of January 2. My next power test and a revamped schedule. More to come.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
a scary present
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Festivus for the rest of us.
Spending this year at my sister's place in Ottawa and we are continuing are tradition of the kids screwing off for a few hours as Mom and my Aunt make dinner. I know evil kids. Actually our job is to take the dogs out and exhaust them before settling in for dinner.
This year's adventure was a few hours of skiing. Jenn Rick and myself loaded up the puppies and skis headed over to Larose conservation area.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. Minus 2 and sun. My love of pine trees has dropped a little. Keeping grip wax on was pretty much impossible. Still a great way to spend Christmas Day.
Rick is a member of Big Ring Racing. After what I saw today I'm very very happy to be a member of the Mountainview Cycling Club. Our membership criterium is just a wee bit lower than the BGR Team. If you are brave, maybe that is an understatement. If you want your retinas burned out go to the Big Ring Racing site. The link is to the right. Here is just a little preview of what you might see.
That is my future brother-in-law. I can't even comment on that because I am lost for words.
Eat, drink and be merry. Back to training in a couple days.
Later
Spending this year at my sister's place in Ottawa and we are continuing are tradition of the kids screwing off for a few hours as Mom and my Aunt make dinner. I know evil kids. Actually our job is to take the dogs out and exhaust them before settling in for dinner.
This year's adventure was a few hours of skiing. Jenn Rick and myself loaded up the puppies and skis headed over to Larose conservation area.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. Minus 2 and sun. My love of pine trees has dropped a little. Keeping grip wax on was pretty much impossible. Still a great way to spend Christmas Day.
Rick is a member of Big Ring Racing. After what I saw today I'm very very happy to be a member of the Mountainview Cycling Club. Our membership criterium is just a wee bit lower than the BGR Team. If you are brave, maybe that is an understatement. If you want your retinas burned out go to the Big Ring Racing site. The link is to the right. Here is just a little preview of what you might see.
That is my future brother-in-law. I can't even comment on that because I am lost for words.
Eat, drink and be merry. Back to training in a couple days.
Later
Monday, December 22, 2008
Screw Santa!!!!
I'm not going to wait for Santa this year. Screw Him!!! 2 bikes instead of a pony, hmmm well I can't take a chance on this request. Where were you 20 something years ago? Were you riding a bike? If you were a bet you watched this movie a hundred times.
I couldn't take a chance that Santa could read my horrible writing. After the screw up with the pony something tells me I might see this in my stocking instead of my original inspiration.
So where was I when this movie came out. Doing exactly what they were. I loved BMX and flatland freestyle. I guess it's now called street. At 16 instead of asking for a car I wanted a comp level freestyle bike. Yep I got it. A Kuwahara Magician EX. It was sweet. Yellow and fully equiped with a Odyssey Gyro, 48's and pegs everywhere. I swear I had it no less than 24 hours before I warped a wheel doing a table top of a kick ramp and landing on flat ground. Ya the art of dirt jumping was still a few years away.
That bike was my life. It started me towards the addiction I have now. Of course back then I had the other addiction of cigarettes. Ya you could do tricks with a smoke in your mouth. Ya, if I had only learned at 16.
Off Road to Athens, good movie and drama. Breaking Away, one of the originals bike movies. Quicksilver, I didn't know that Kevin Bacon could ride a bike. I think that was the start of the fixes and singlespeed addiction. 24 Solo, yes the inspiration to many, including myself. It reminds us that the best hurt just as much in these events as the rest of us. Rad. Where to start!!! Here is the link if you want your own copy of the greatest bike movie ever.
www.rad-on-dvd.com/
I'll be counting the days till my copy arrives. I've already let a few of the guys know and we will be doing the flash back premier screening on the projector. Nothing like retro 80's bmx on the big screen.
Later
I couldn't take a chance that Santa could read my horrible writing. After the screw up with the pony something tells me I might see this in my stocking instead of my original inspiration.
So where was I when this movie came out. Doing exactly what they were. I loved BMX and flatland freestyle. I guess it's now called street. At 16 instead of asking for a car I wanted a comp level freestyle bike. Yep I got it. A Kuwahara Magician EX. It was sweet. Yellow and fully equiped with a Odyssey Gyro, 48's and pegs everywhere. I swear I had it no less than 24 hours before I warped a wheel doing a table top of a kick ramp and landing on flat ground. Ya the art of dirt jumping was still a few years away.
That bike was my life. It started me towards the addiction I have now. Of course back then I had the other addiction of cigarettes. Ya you could do tricks with a smoke in your mouth. Ya, if I had only learned at 16.
Off Road to Athens, good movie and drama. Breaking Away, one of the originals bike movies. Quicksilver, I didn't know that Kevin Bacon could ride a bike. I think that was the start of the fixes and singlespeed addiction. 24 Solo, yes the inspiration to many, including myself. It reminds us that the best hurt just as much in these events as the rest of us. Rad. Where to start!!! Here is the link if you want your own copy of the greatest bike movie ever.
www.rad-on-dvd.com/
I'll be counting the days till my copy arrives. I've already let a few of the guys know and we will be doing the flash back premier screening on the projector. Nothing like retro 80's bmx on the big screen.
Later
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Winter Wonderland
It's full force winter here in central Ontario. There is not much happening here on the training side of things. Heather has ok'd me taking some time off until the next test. My body has not been to happy with me the last few days so the rest is well needed. Since there isn't much to talk about in the biking world I'm going to vent a little instead.
Took the Molly Monster on a two hour snowshoe yesterday. It was fun being out in the fresh snow after the so called winter storm warning. I find it down right hilarious when I hear winter storm warning and 10-15 cm of snow in the same line. I've lived on Georgian Bay area all my life. The snow we get now compared to years back in no where near the same. I remember my father having to drag the snow blower up on the roof of the house to clear it. I wonder what would happen if we got a real winter storm, you know the old storms of 40 plus cm at a time. That's a storm.
On a shared subject, I think the driving skills of most drivers are down as much as what we rate as a winter storm. Considering that the vehicles we drive now are so technically advanced compared to 20 years ago why are these people unable to do more than 30 km'h in the snow. Thought one, if you are driving with your hazard lights on, YOU are the hazard!!! It's illegal for one to be driving with them on and if you are that afraid that you have to have them on then you should stay home till you feel safe. Thought two, when you are going to pull out in front of someone consider two things. Will you be able to accelerate to the speed limit without making the other car have to brake and two if you can't and you pull out any ones did you leave enough space for the oncoming car to slow down in control.
They have talked about winter tires as mandatory. I don't agree on that but there are some cars out there that it is a necessity. My Honda Element is front wheel drive and I wouldn't think twice about not having the winter tires on it but the Audi on the other hand is amazing in the snow. All wheel drive with so many traction control computers on it it's almost impossible to spin out. Trust me I've tried!!! If you can't get traction spend the money and get winter tires. Even for the front wheels if you are being cheap.
A comment I heard on a talk radio show that I really agree with. There should be two driving tests for your license. One in the summer and one for winter driving. I would like to see it one step further at a mandatory retest every 5 years. Why? Because people forget and grow bad habits. They say that the young people are the dangerous drivers. Ya they are but I think it's only because they haven't had the driving experience yet to learn how not to get caught!!! I swear I see more boneheaded things done by people that have been driving for 20 years. It's funny but I think it's the older generation that uses their turn signals less than the new driver. Why, Hmmm maybe they are an option in some new cars?? Maybe they forgot they were there? I'm not sure but I wish more used them.
Hey I'll be the first to admit that I'm an aggressive driver. I like speed and have had my fair share of tickets. I also drive 80,000 km a year. Ya, I drive that much with work and some play mixed in. For the miles versus tickets ratio it's actually pretty low. So where am I going with this. Not really sure but just wanted to get it off my chest. I think it's because I have a 6 hour drive coming up in a couple days as I head over to my sister's in Ottawa for Christmas. I'm crossing my fingers for a smooth trip.
That's it for now maybe some biking stuff tomorrow.
Later
Took the Molly Monster on a two hour snowshoe yesterday. It was fun being out in the fresh snow after the so called winter storm warning. I find it down right hilarious when I hear winter storm warning and 10-15 cm of snow in the same line. I've lived on Georgian Bay area all my life. The snow we get now compared to years back in no where near the same. I remember my father having to drag the snow blower up on the roof of the house to clear it. I wonder what would happen if we got a real winter storm, you know the old storms of 40 plus cm at a time. That's a storm.
On a shared subject, I think the driving skills of most drivers are down as much as what we rate as a winter storm. Considering that the vehicles we drive now are so technically advanced compared to 20 years ago why are these people unable to do more than 30 km'h in the snow. Thought one, if you are driving with your hazard lights on, YOU are the hazard!!! It's illegal for one to be driving with them on and if you are that afraid that you have to have them on then you should stay home till you feel safe. Thought two, when you are going to pull out in front of someone consider two things. Will you be able to accelerate to the speed limit without making the other car have to brake and two if you can't and you pull out any ones did you leave enough space for the oncoming car to slow down in control.
They have talked about winter tires as mandatory. I don't agree on that but there are some cars out there that it is a necessity. My Honda Element is front wheel drive and I wouldn't think twice about not having the winter tires on it but the Audi on the other hand is amazing in the snow. All wheel drive with so many traction control computers on it it's almost impossible to spin out. Trust me I've tried!!! If you can't get traction spend the money and get winter tires. Even for the front wheels if you are being cheap.
A comment I heard on a talk radio show that I really agree with. There should be two driving tests for your license. One in the summer and one for winter driving. I would like to see it one step further at a mandatory retest every 5 years. Why? Because people forget and grow bad habits. They say that the young people are the dangerous drivers. Ya they are but I think it's only because they haven't had the driving experience yet to learn how not to get caught!!! I swear I see more boneheaded things done by people that have been driving for 20 years. It's funny but I think it's the older generation that uses their turn signals less than the new driver. Why, Hmmm maybe they are an option in some new cars?? Maybe they forgot they were there? I'm not sure but I wish more used them.
Hey I'll be the first to admit that I'm an aggressive driver. I like speed and have had my fair share of tickets. I also drive 80,000 km a year. Ya, I drive that much with work and some play mixed in. For the miles versus tickets ratio it's actually pretty low. So where am I going with this. Not really sure but just wanted to get it off my chest. I think it's because I have a 6 hour drive coming up in a couple days as I head over to my sister's in Ottawa for Christmas. I'm crossing my fingers for a smooth trip.
That's it for now maybe some biking stuff tomorrow.
Later
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