I was just riding along when

So I half way dogged it yesterday and took the day off work, sorta. I did work and I did do company time work as I spent most of the day siding the shop. Things are coming along nicely considering what I had to start with.

Old building and nothing was square etc etc. This was where it was at before I started. Inside there is new hydro line, new walls, company style setup. Outside, has seen the new steel roof, door etc. Still looked pretty rough outside.


The change is coming. It will eventually be board and batten. Have not figured out the colour for the outside yet since I may be painting the house also. One step at a time. Lots to do before paint. It's looking a little Uncle Tom's cabin right now. I heard banjo's a couple times.

Ok so back tot the biking side of my crazy little world. It was a short work out, stomps to build power. I have this short hill that is on a very quiet road that I like to do these on. After a great warm up, great because I was wearing only shorts and a jersey and open finger gloves for the first time this year, I love the warmth. I made my way towards the hill.

Nothing to exciting in the workout, 5 repeats 5 sets, 5 minutes rest between sets. The first four sets went fine. Same routine etc. Now the lead up to all the things going bad was this. Have you ever noticed that you always turn around in the same direction. Always to the left. Look over your left shoulder to make sure it's clear then lean left'. I know you are on the right side of the road and by law that is what you are supposed to do. Apparently in life you are also supposed to rock the boat, step outside the box, voice and opinion and rebel from time to time. Well that is what I started to do.

So I would still look over my left shoulder, I'm brave but not stupid, then I would proceed to swing wide to the left followed by the 180 degree turn to the right. I know it doesn't sound complicated but something like that seems to crash out all the Nascar drivers so I'm very proud of myself. So I did this randomly after an interval or during a recovery session, not to improve my technical riding, obviously it doesn't but more to keep me amused. So this is when it started to go bad.

Last set, 1, 2, 3 repeats done at the top of the 4th one I do the anti Nascar turn, next thing you know I'm on the ground. I'm a little stunned at first, it was the holly shit what happened type stunned. Then it was the did anybody see this happen thought closely behind. The wonderful part of early spring riding is sand. Lots and lots of sand. They like sand here more than salt. The road I was riding on was that old pavement that is faded to a really light colour of, well sand colour of course.

I wasn't going fast, just a little more than not moving speed but the combination of that, a slight banking of the bike and full slicks on just the smallest patch of sand that I didn't see led me the ground. There was no forward motion just a straight down thump. The bike is fine, a small scratch on the shift lever, as for me, well. I came down hard on my ass, which doesn't have much in the line of padding anymore, hip and then my right shoulder. To say I'm sore would be an understatement.

I apologize now for the horribly graphic photo of part of my ass. Please don't send any hate mail and don't let your children see this as they may be scared for life.

I've had worst road rash but this seems to hurt a little more because the fact I wasn't moving forward. You can see all the brusing that is showing up already on my side. I opted not to show the whole thing in fear that I would be linked to porn sites instead of cycling. That'll teach ya for not following the rules, they are there for a reason, there will be no anarchy while following the coaches orders. I may be breaking my no drugs except during races rule along with my plan to ride in some single track tonight. We will see how the body feels in a few hours.

The couch was calling

And I listened, as much as the temptation was there to go and play in the trails with the boys for the weekly MNS ride I used the excuse of a broken wheel, my dog ate my homework and I have a note from my Mom. The simple answer was I was tired from the weekends activities and with one more build week ahead some chill time was needed.

Of course me being the busy beaver that I am I couldn't fully crash and burn for the evening with out some sort of production. A little more work was done in the kitchen as the count down of inside renovations comes to an end and the outdoor projects begin. I have this rule about when certain renos should be done. By the time the last granular of snow has melted any indoor construction comes to a screeching stop until the fall, or rainy days. A little bit of trim work was all that was needed to keep me content for the next few months.

Sneaking in a mid week day off today, some major construction on the shop to be started and with great weather in the forecast I'm hoping to get a big chunk of the work done before the end of the long weekend. The count down to the race season is on, only a couple more weeks till the first race which will be out in Mansfield area. 50 km will be a great way to test the legs. I'll be attempting to battle it out with Jacob and Tristan at this one.

Coffee to drink, gotta run

Ride, Eat, Sleep, Repeat

And then crash and burn. I'm tired, it was a busy weekend between riding and house domestic stuff. After studying the previous days ride I determined that I had the intensity training in and that Sunday's ride could be a little more sane.

My original plan went out the window when I snapped a spoke nipple on the hardtail 30 feet down the driveway. Being that was the only mountain bike that is ready to ride (or that I want to take out at this point) my plan to ride to Copeland, check out the conditions and return home wasn't going to happen. I could have fixed the wheel in a reasonable amount of time but there were predictions of rain and I knew I would but rubbing the curve on time.

Quick change and back out on the TCR with a half way figured out route. Started out with a nice tour along the rail trail. There was some purpose in the ride so tour meant not riding at vomit pace, The rail trail was perfect for me to play a bit with the powertap. Smooth, flat trail made it easier to settle in on a specific wattage. Still learning to set things up and one factor is it's reading time, need to change it.

Made my way to the backside of Midland for what used to be a long climb behind Mountainview. Let's just say I was laughing at the top after the previous days ride. It was so short in comparison my legs even tired felt strong. With the slightly warmer conditions the speed seemed to increase which meant more distance in a set time. After taking the long way around Penetang followed by the old Midland Triathlon road route I made my way back home with 73 km's in 2.5 hours. The rain rolled in not to long afterwards.

If this weekend was epic the talk of the plans for next weekend are sounding historical. Fixie ride for beer, group road ride for beer, regular training possibly followed by beer. Luckily it's a 4 day weekend. For now it's back to work.

Hills turn into mountains

After a talked about adventure during last weekends pancake ride another group ride was planned, this time in the Collingwood area. Again Mr. Watson setup the logistics of who, what, where and when. I guess this time he forgot to tempt the group with food because the pack was a little smaller. Andrew, Jacob, Liz and myself. Liz had some altered plans for her ride so we were down to three. Should have told the pack we were riding to get steak!!

After having some stare downs with the skiers and snowboarders we were off. Just riding with a group again is enjoyable, I love drafting!!! We made our way over to the first climb of the day. Andrew had an agenda for the day, Jacob and I looked at each other and shouted, we'll see you at the top. Pretty River road is a long climb, I can't tell you how long but your longest climb you've ever done, this is longer. It was so long and high that we were riding over glaciers, ok maybe it was just frozen melt run off. We all commented on that ice and were happy we were going up when we crossed, downhill was for sure instant death.

Before making our way to the next decent/climb we chased down a horse and buggy and ran it off the road. Our little revenge for having to avoid the big pile of shit on the road. I'll steal the quote of the day from Andrew" I could be in the desert not seeing anyone for days and stop for a piss and a car would come by" Yes he was right, every single time anyone had to stop and go (mainly me) a car or person would show up. It's hard to do the pee pee dance on a bike.

Heading up the Epping climb we all felt like super hero's, tail wind, smooth roads, no traffic. Ya we went up that way to easy. We paid for it only a few km later when we turned right and took the head wind on. Nothing like drooping your speed by half. The thoughts and decisions on which way to head back to the resort were made by my comment of" I have to ride this long" That was my gentle plea of don't make me ride around in circles for 45 minutes in the parking lot to get my time in. The long way it is as we headed to the backside of Grey 19 where Andrew started the next interval. Why is it that the smallest guy who is the hardest person to draft is the fastest amongst us. Jacob at over 6 foot couldn't tuck in enough to Andrew's 5'6" so I got in the middle and getting as small as possible became the middle buffer.

The pay off with any climb is the decent, the only problem with really long climbs is that the really long decent is almost more uncomfortable to the body than the climb itself. Tucking down 19 my body started to not like me. The neck got sore, etc, no road racing for me. We headed to the last climb of the day, Scenic Caves as I was informed after is a steady 10% grade to the top of Blue Mountain. I watched the boys go and play and I kept things to a steady grind to the top.

We stopped have way down to do the tourist thing when things went bad. It was one of those " I bet you can't ride over that, it would make a great video, I bet I can!!" type conversations. No sooner was it a double dog dare which lead to this.



Followed by this.

The Giant versus Norco debate started, on pure acceleration Giant takes it. After a very nervous decent down the rest of Scenic Caves, all tires packed with sand, pine needles and snow, I think I was still in the upper 70's we called it a day. 4:15 riding, 5200 feet of climbing, 106 km's. For me almost 3000 calories burned which needed to replaced quickly. Some random restaurant that we made fun of the name over the course of the ride did a good job at refueling me for the hour drive home.

I'm started to like these group road ride things, unfortunately I'll be out riding solo today. More tomorrow.

Evolution to Revolution

I'm currently sitting on my couch sucking back probably more coffee than I should be, like usual, before heading out for today's ride. Looking out the window I was pondering random thoughts, more it was, what the hell am I going to write today. It was a rest day, had a massage, did some stuff, drank a little wine. Not really exciting. Then it came to the ride today.

The evolution of me, well at least in the last couple years. Every year I seem to take things a little farther in my performance. I'm getting older shouldn't I be getting slower?? Why?? I'm not complaining that I continue to get faster but I started to wonder why. The last 3ish years I've put in about the same hours of training a week, of course having Heather keep me on a leash has helped dramatically. The interesting thing is that I am actually racing more events now than in the past, group rides with finish lines!! The big thing is I'm not exhausted from all of it.

What about my body. This has been a big thing. shaving a few grams off a bike here and there is a great but no where near as impactful as dropping pounds off the body. 2008 my race weight was floating between 165-168lbs. I still looked lean. If anything overall stronger. I had slightly bigger arms and chest. I'm skinny regardless but I was big for being skinny. 2009 I thought I would take it up a level and drop some weight. More for one of the 24 hour races so we lots of discipline I was able to drop a good chunk of weight. Went down to a light weight 155-157. I felt the difference, and it showed in my riding.

Then there is this year. Well I stayed discipline on my eating, no bags of potato chips for dinner or eating till I was stuffed, mmmm I miss that. Eating more veggies, wine instead of beer etc etc. Well the end result is a current 153 lbs this morning and as the outdoor miles increase a few more drop off. Again I feel it on the bike.

The gear of course always helps but I've pretty much always ridden high end bikes. The only other factor is who you ride with. In the past I've ridden with strong average riders and usually been one of the fastest, now it's been riding with the fastest elite/pro riders and been fighting not to be the slowest. I'm happy that I can keep up with the guys considering that most of them are at least 10 years younger than I am. Yep, I'm the old man but my thoughts, cycling has kept me looking, feeling and acting younger than I really am.

SO what is my conclusion. It's everything combined that made the difference. Eat better, get a coach and ride with really fast friends. You have no choice but to get faster, if you don't you will end up on the side of the road after being dropped, alone, starving, knowing that you will have to explain your actions to the person that can be meaner than your Mother. I'm eating lots this morning, looking like it's going to be a great ride of pain as we venture to the mountains of Collingwood for the day.