Another busy weekend. Spent Saturday morning bottling wine. MMMMMM MMMM good. Need something to warm the inners after x-c skiing and out door winter rides. Did a 40 minute ride to do some setup on the hardtail. More on that in a bit. Of course it was still pouring rain. Went and say Into The Wild last night. Great movie, I've read the book and I think I'll read it again now that I have some visual effects to it.

Today was supposed to be a sunny day. Ya right. We did see the sun a couple times. Heather and I went to Tom's Forest for a couple hours of play time. This is my first time back on the mountain bike and in real single track since the crash. Things felt great. Now here is where the fun started. SNOW!!!!!!



This started about 15 minutes into our ride and stayed pretty steady for at least half an hour. I guess it is expected for this time of year. Tom's was in great shape and there have been alot of riders in there to set the trails. Even with all the leaves it was really easy to stay on the trail. Things were a bit slick but it was just great to be on the bike riping through the trees.

Molly and Dharma had a great time and got the exercise that they needed.

My legs felt pretty good considering the lack of training. We spent 1.5 hours out there and I had an average heart rate of 150bpm. My back didn't bother me at all. Even with bumps and twists which was my biggest concern. What does this mean? Means I will start training again in the next couple weeks. Still taking it easy but I'm just happy to be able to mountain bike again. I'm thinking that a couple night rides may be on the list. For now its time to relax and warm up. If you hadn't guessed with seeing snow it was chilly out, 4 degrees.

Rode the XC Carbon full review tomorrow.

Free To Good Home!!!!


Well not ready. Bye bye NRS. Hello XC Carbon. This poor guy is off to a new home tomorrow. This frame has been ridden more by everyone else but me. Rick has used it at the 24 hour races and I've loaned it out to a couple friends. I would be surprised if it has more than 500km on it. I'm still keeping my NRS 1 since Blue's full suspension is still in the final stages of development. Plus I just can't come to selling it. Its such a sweet looking bike that looks fast just hanging on the wall.

My CX6.5 cross bike is being built as we speak and just getting the final sizing done for the XC Carbon. I will have one for the next week to play with and I'll get a few pics up along with first opinions of the bike.

Snap, crackle pop is what my body is doing right now. I'm starting to get some flexibility back and with that comes alot of realignment of bones. Its nice being able to twist again with out cringing and I'm able to sleep on my side again which will be help my rest. No riding till the weekend.

Now all you endurance racers this will catch your attention. If you are looking for a coach that can help you reach your potential you need to continue reading. Heather is not one of those coaches that sits on the sidelines. She has been there including winning a 24 Hour of Adrenaline solo race. She has also coached a racer go to the 24 Hour World Solo Championships this past summer. She knows what it takes to compete in endurance mountain bike races and can design a program that will work with your lifestyle. If you are looking at pushing your riding to the next level get in touch with her at the link below.

http://www.endurancecoach-heather.blogspot.com/

Another mellow evening. Spent an hour stretching. My right knee has been bothering me the last few days. I have a massage this Friday and I'll defiantly have it looked at along with loosening up the back. The rest of the parts for the cross bike should be here Friday and the XC Carbon frame for the first mountain bike build is on order and should arrive in the next couple weeks.

Its coming into that time of year that I find it really hard to motivate myself. Its been a long summer with riding etc and now that its dark early its hard to want to do much more than sit on the couch. I'll have to start doing a couple night rides soon because I'm just not ready to spend time on the rollers or trainer yet. Well the couch is calling and I'm feeling way to weak to argue with it.

The only thing that let you know it was a fall day were the amazing colours of the leaves. Sunday was amazing weather. Not your typical cool fall day. It hit 24 degrees Celsius. Some new temperature records set in the area and I was out playing in it.

Started out with an easy ride with Molly. She needed a good run so grabbed my backup mountain bike. My race NRS has been in the shop until today with no time line for repairs. Yesterday ride was the closest thing to trail riding that I've done since the crash on September 29th.

Molly st 23 km/h. A little to much energy?

At the mid way point. 10km later we were back home with her being much calmer. Total of just under 20km. I will be able to do some real trail riding soon. The back was not to bad, only a few bumps bothered it. Crazy rocky technical stuff is defiantly waiting till next year.

Got changed and loaded the car up with the road bike to meet up with Heather for a few hours on the road. Her town, her route.


Heading north towards the Trent Severn waterway and Lock 42. What a nice route. Some good rolling hills and some great scenery. The bigger bonus was the complete lack of traffic on this route.

The views were awesome

Finished up with a this cool section of bike path.


The total for the day was 3.5 hours of riding with low heart rate average. 117 with the dog and 126 with Heather. My knees were a bit achy but I know that was a combination of the yard work the day before and still not being able to sleep in a good restful position for them. Soon!!! Now I will say that I am feeling a bit weak on the mountain bike. I don't feel like I have alot of power and even the technical feel was down with the minor bit of single track. I guess 3.5 weeks of doing next to nothing will do that to you.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun and just enjoying life. We are having another warm day today and I'm on the back deck typing this wearing shorts and a t-shirt. They are calling for frost this week so might as well enjoy it while I can.