Fired up to coast

It started with ladies night, doesn't it always start with ladies night???? It was a fun night at Joyride 150 and Shannon had a blast. For me the bike park is always fun. There was very little riding actually done on my part, more of a social visit and when a chance to get on the pump track or skinnies arouse I did so. For the women that didn't go, you missed out. It was extremely successful from what I saw and I wouldn't surprise if they do another one before the end of the winter.

Now as for me, well the time I did ride it helped get me fired up to ride my bike with actual forward movement. The trainer is great, ok I'm lying, coasting is where its at. This brought on the idea for Saturday morning. The weather was absolutely perfect for outdoor adventures of the two wheeled kind. -8 and sunny with only a slight head wind. The roads were clear, so clear and clean that I left old faithful winter beater in the basement and pulled out the pimped out cross bike. For what I had in mind it seemed like a better choice. A quick phone call to try and twist the arm of someone else to ride with meant at least one extra stop on the ride.

Found myself taking the hilly route south, up to Vasey line and continuing south towards Mt. St. Louis ski resort. Yep some pretty good hills heading this way and with a training mindset still working lots of low cadence up the hills at tempo pace. Much easier than pushing the increase button on the vomit machines display. Well at least better scenery. There were lots of snowmobile trails in this area and an uncountable number of waves from them. An hour and a half after starting a quick stop to persuade someone to ride with me. I felt like a little kid calling at the window, "Can *$@^($ come out and play????" No he has chores to do on rollers.

Next stop came an hour later for a quick top up fluids and energy at a store that doesn't sell Giant's even though they make their bikes. Some jealousy of the fact that I was riding and I was. To this point the ride was completely uneventful. Clear roads, nice drivers, etc. The sketchiness came getting through town, with many drivers focusing on anything but driving. To be expected, most are not expecting to see a cyclist on the road in February. The real thrill of the day came as I made my way on a out of town concession.

What is the thrill of honking at a cyclist as you pass him? Are you hoping that I will wobble and crash? Have you ever thought of the results of what could happen? What if it was a young kid that panicked? Some inbreed redneck hillbilly jack off in a burgundy mid 90's Chrysler Cirrus with a shitty rear window tint job did this. Yes I know your plate number too. Of course I wasn't able to give him the finger because of my dam mitts, the whole hand just doesn't give the same affect. I did give him the big hands in the air with the "What was the point of that" expression. The stop sign was approaching fast, a short sprint was made to try and catch him. Unfortuantly a normally busy intersection was not at the time and the little punk was able to turn away before I caught him. HMMM but I know where you roughly live.

I continued along and looking at the time knew I would be short of my planned ride. Many extra lefts and rights were made adding in distance. This seemed to be the hardest part of the ride. The intensity dropped a little, I was slowed because of in town congestion. This also brought on the cold feet. To this point the body kept pretty comfortable, the sun warming what needed. The clouds had rolled in, the slushy wet roads showed up and my body started to get mad at me starting at the toes. From there it was the bottom of the right foot, quickly making its way to the top of the foot. As the minutes needed counted down the pain threshold started to drop also. Cooling down took a whole new meaning.

Success, I rolled into Shannon's driveway at the 4 hour mark. A trip from Waubaushene to Innisfil complete. The rundown, 2200 feet of climbing, most of that in the first 2 hours of riding, lots of good tempo time put in. Distance is limited because of winter speed, 90 km in 4 hours. This is easily a sub 3 hour ride in the summer. It was great riding outside again, it will make jumping on the trainer this morning a little harder. After more coffee of course.

Time to play

Short post as there is much to do in very short time. Yet another great ski last night. The trails were perfect. Now comes a weekend full of wheels and women. Yes I said that right. The car will be loaded up with a couple bikes for the women's weekend at Joyride. Shannon is excited to be on her mountain bike and being the super smart man that I am I feel it's much better for her to get some tips from other women than me teaching her. Of course this also gives me a reason to play on the bike built for Joyride.

This bike, the bike that has no carbon on it, no stickers, no shifting devices what so ever. Looking forward to it. Hopefully some pictures to follow. For those men in the Toronto area, come ride with me.

Insider trading (training)

The evil snowstorm came and went. I think it showed up, took about 20 minutes longer to clear the driveway and that was only because I wanted to play with my snowblower. This wasn't anything new and like normal snowplowing my driveway could have been considered training. Of course it's boring in some cases so I loaded up the dogs and my classic skis and headed to the backyard. I'd had an insider tip that some place had just been rolled after the snow. Unfortunately for me that great info came 2 plus hours earlier and Mother Nature decided to drop a few more inches of snow. Just enough to make glide almost non existent. It was like skiing into mash potatoes.

This didn't stop me though, with 2 strung out dogs and a craving for movement I headed towards the end of the north trails. This happens to pass my inside informers place, the dogs ran up and pee'd on their door step for the questionable information. This brought out revenge from above. Chalet homes are fantastic, usually with large windows overlooking something. Most high class resident hang something nice from these windows, my friends. Well.


This was the tail end of seeing Tristan hanging his ass out against the window. The interesting thing is he sat like that for a few minutes. I wonder if he thinks his actions might attract women. HMMMM. Lucky for most of the local are away. After finding my eyes what was left of my burned out eyes lying in the snow I motored along. The conditions didn't really improve but that was understandable. Things will be amazing today.

2 hours of shuffling along, distance I would normally cover in this time was cut in half. I forgot how shaky race skis can be on non track set trails or in most cases un anything trails. It didn't even cross my mind to grab my back country beaters, next time.

Trusting a rodent

It's ground hog day. A simple warning you little rodent, don't get it wrong. There are many that may kill you if you do. For me, well it's yet another scary snowstorm out there. I'm looking for it, like all the other ones this year it's either missed us or I was to busy rolling my eyes on what is considered a snow storm. Will we be on clear pavement in a few weeks, will there be 6 more weeks of snow? Will the new pair of classic's I just ordered in get lot's of play time or will I be pulling the Chuck Norris bike of the vomit machine to start riding real hills?

I'll be honest, I really don't care either way. I've been in loving the skis, a couple man rides have now begun and sessions on the it vomit machine have been a bit easier with some company in the room.

Yet another love

Oh coffee how I love thee, let me count the ways. I can't count that high without help. Mornings would be horrible with out it. I would have never become a morning person if I didn't have some additional help of the liquid form. Since it's not recommended to crack a beer at 6 am and for some reason I've just never had a craving to do that coffee became that liquid of choice. Of course as tastes grew and my wonderful stomach failed with lactose rejection the old common coffees just didn't seem to cut it. Coffee from that hockey player based shop started to taste like the crap that it is. That's when I came across the good stuff.


Well the good stuff just got better, with new good stuff. It has a chain ring, it must be good.


I've yet to open either, I must finish the open bag first. Self control is key. I wouldn't want to take a chance of wasting, kittens and dolphins would dies if good coffee was wasted. MMMM Coffee, I love you.

In the training front world, life took over from play. It will be another busy week of training and adding in a trip to Joyride limits the amount of time I could spend being a grown up and do grown up things, like laundry and cleaning. For some reason once you hit your 30's it's not even expected it's required. You receive a letter a day after your 30th birthday warning you of this. I did manage to spend some quality time with the Anthem and it's in the final stages. It's fully assembled, just needs tuning. That's about the same when talking about the shape of the body. It's together, it's just needing a little tuning. The hip flexor's are beginning to cave in and release back to normal positions.

Training resumes tonight, coffee resumes this morning. Mmmmmm Coffee!!!!!