Riding and Things of Life

Something I read... Good thing....

2012-01-19T10:03:00.002-05:00

So I get emails and feeds of other bloggers. Good thing I'm not like this! I mean.. My saddle does match my tape, my bars and stem are both "wet white" WCR Ritchie, and my kit for the last few years has been coordinated. But... my shoes are Black, and they do match my bar tape and saddle, even though I'm not like this guy.

The Yellow Peril

A Sufferlandrian Christmas

2012-01-11T16:47:00.007-05:00

The Sufferfest posted two days before Chrismas a contest for the Sufferlandrian flag for the best excuse why one was unable to ride on Christmas day. I took this as a writing challenge. Using my technology available to me and knowing I was only at home in the a.m. I opened Google Documents and began writing three letters to tell the story of my "suffering" on Christmas Day. I then set two alarms on my phone one for the afternoon and one for the afternoon. I had to do is cut and paste my Facebook posting with my phone (a little tricky with my fingers).

This effort won the contest for me. I and freaked out my daughter and her friend when I came out of my office, yelling "YES, YES, YES, I won a Sufferlandrian Flag!" They had no clue what I was talking about. And after waiting a week my Flag has arrived! I have hung it, with GREAT honor, in my "pain chamber" and I'm ready to ride... But wait it was 8°C outside today! What's with that?

My first letter posted:

May it Please Your Honorable Dictatorship,
I have served Sufferland many years both toiling in the barren fields and diligently on my trainer. Many times I have done great for Sufferlandria.
Alas, I failed to win on my last foray into Angles, and in your graciousness have chained me to the wall of the cave of the Sufferlandrian Troll to have the honour of preparing him Christmas dinner. Due to this privilege that has been bestowed upon me by your honor, I will be unable to ride my trainer this Christmas.
Cordially yours,
David Tuttle.

In the afternoon I posted this letter:

May it Please Your Most Honourable Dictatorship and My Glorious Fellow Sufferlandrians,
It has been brought to my attention by my most gracious host the Sufferlandrian Troll, that he owns all nine Sufferfest Video's (he still is a subject of Sufferlandria), and to my glory he has requested that I get on HIS trainer and do all nine on Christmas morning prior to preparing his Christmas meal. Technically I should bow out of this competition.
If it pleases you oh most benevolent Dictator and his most charming Mrs. Dictator, I would desire to remain in this contest as I shall be riding the Troll's trainer, not MY trainer.
Humbly yours,
David Tuttle.

And my third and final letter sent in the evening:

Oh most Acclaimed and Wise Dictator,
In your infinite knowledge you must know what Toll's eat for Christmas. I shall as your humble servant suffer once again toiling labouriously and without complaint preparing this... um, whatever it might be. It is an honour to serve the Great Land of Sufferlandria. Thank you once again for this honour.

Who the H#!! am I kidding... I shall NEVER EVER give half effort again, PLEASE release me from this duty!
And I will always IWBMATTKYT from now till evermore.

Pitifully and groveling on my knees forever your Loyal Servant,
David Tuttle.

OK, now for those of you who have never ever heard of or tried a Sufferfest, then you won't get the point of the letter. It has evolved, the land known as Sufferlandria, out of the on screen prompts and the Facebook Page. The videos have established that it is a poor impoverished country of where suffering is a way of life, with a King and Queen and David McQuillen (the creator of Sufferfest) is the Dictator, OH! and a troll.

And finally IWBMATTKYT! If you want to know what that means head over to The Sufferfest and find out for yourself.

My "NEW" winter Bike

2012-01-07T15:39:00.002-05:00

OK so it's not new. It's my old steel road bike which was in need of some major work. The cable routing under the bottom bracket was a VERY poor design by Garmin back in the day and it just dug into the metal and I never got a good shift with the bike, and could NOT get the front derailleur to ever work.

So with a "Big Shout Out" to Terry D. and Jeff K. at The Bicycle Shop to help me grind off the stuff, paint the bare metal and put a nylon cable router underneath. I also replaced the BB so I could put on an Octolink 175 crank that was given to me 7 years ago... This work took us/me a good afternoon, and I should have done this 10 years ago! Because the bike shifts! Wow! I also put on my "road" fenders and zip tied them on... even today the road was wet, and I was glad it was not wet on me. I began this morning early and had my Quiet Time, read my new feeds and the weather was nice. I began laundry and began working on putting the bike together.

Yesterday when I was working it was 8°C and sunny, if I had the bike I would have ridden... Today was supposed to be cloudy and 1°C. Our weatherman is BAD, and this time it was in my favor. By 10:00 a.m. it was 8°C outside and SUNNY! I went for a ride. The wind from the west was a bit strong but on January 7, if you can ride on the road you ride on the road because there will be plenty of Saturdays spent on the Rollers, watching The Sufferfest tracking the training on TrainerRoad. Seeing that we are just at the beginning of winter and I've only done one workout with TrainerRoad, I'll save that for another Blog. The ride was fantastic, I was dressed well and got in a good 80 kms. in just around three hours.

</div><div><a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/63284724">Imported Garmin Route (01/07/2012)</a><br/></div><div><a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Brantford">Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Brantford</a></div><div>

2012 New Years Day.

2012-01-02T13:59:00.003-05:00

It's a new Year and we're off on our tradition. This year it was raining, wet, cold and windy. Most are veteran cyclist who know how to dress for the weather others... Did not think before they came out. A couple guys had to turn back as they just were not dress properly.

I started out with the group and I was exhausted starting and my stomach ached on every climb, too rich of food on New Year's Eve! I also had a bit of a problem with my Podcast I wanted to listen to. I had planed on listening to Velocast Race Radio where the cast is half music and half news and opinion. Messing around with my phone and clothing I ended up wayyyyy behind the crew. I know my way home so I just rode my own ride and pace, and went straight home without stopping at the Tim's as my assumption is the guys would have been gone by the time I got there and nothing like being cold then going back out in the cold.... NO wait that's as bad as it gets. And if your interested in getting the Velocast RR you have to side load the podcast on Dogcatcher (Android cast player).

SO if you're wondering why two photos... our regular professional photographer is a bit AWOL and I don't think anyone else knows Photoshop as good as he does. Unless any of my readers are ace PhotoShopers I'll send the two photos.

January 2, now officially starts my off-season... I have weight to lose! Oh what did I eat last fall that made me so fat? I only have two months of Off-Season this year as I head down to Florida in March and I am planning on taking my bike along.

Sunny, -6°C with a "real feel" of -12°C

2011-12-10T15:06:00.007-05:00

Cold and windy... YUCK... Houston we have winter. But there is no snow, and the sun is always nice coming through the window. Winter on the bike is best dealt with in the Pain Chamber. Unless your Chris and Heather Shearer, they were out on cross bikes riding and Peter "there's no bad weather, just bad clothing" Schouten, though he's seemed to have this excuse that he has home renovations and can't get out, Hmm...

Me I'm from Texas and the fact that I rode up the Gateneau in 6°C is pretty darn amazing in of it's self. Plus before you think I'm a wimp my sun room is not heated... it's always a few degrees above the temperature outside, then after I've been in it riding for an hour I can raise it several more degrees.

The secret to winter training is:

1.) have a plan

2.) have video

3.) have music

At this time in the season I am not onto the off-season yet, so I just want to ride and burn a bit of fat before I put on fat a the Christmas parties coming up. This gives me choices I could ride an epic ride of Texas one has good music one does not, I could do one of the spring classics from this year which I saw in real life and have downloaded the videos and I plan to play along with Cadence Revolution music mixes, OR I could do a Sufferfest... Which even though I plan on taking easy I always seem to get into the video.

Not being too bright I decided to a Sufferfest video "easy" I picked the Hunted, and set up the computer and began my training on rollers. Now with rollers you have about one foot of "road" that you have to stay on and you have to say balanced, I've been doing rollers for so many years this is mostly second nature. BUT the Sufferfest has sprints, and I was into the video and forgot I was on rollers and began sprinting out of the saddle which was not too hard but when I began to go anaerobic I ran off the rollers and "lost" the sprint, UGH! next there was a climb and on the attack I got out of the saddle and began climbing, hitting it hard and after a few minutes I began bouncing on the rollers and rode off the front of the rollers...

The point with Sufferfest and rollers, I think, is not to get too involved and remember your in a small room on a device that you can come off of. I also have a trainer which I use latter in the off-season when I begin hitting it hard. Till then I'm going to have to play it safe and be a little less involved in the race. NOT that I am competitive at all.

Three weeks off the bike

2011-12-08T07:55:00.005-05:00

It seems that absence does make the heart fonder... Or does it just make the gut bigger?

I went back to Ottawa for two more weeks getting the IKEA ready for their opening yesterday December 7, 2011. I did not take my bike as I was traveling via VIA train, which I'm quite disappointed with. First in this modern era, VIA does not have an app, nor does their website have a mobile format, and finally with a packed train of 20-30 year old's their WiFi did not have enough bandwidth for me to use it.

With my weekend's free from cycling I had to do something so the first weekend I went to Hull, Quebec and visited the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the second weekend was spent working at IKEA, the crunch was on, all our materials showed up late and I've NEVER missed a deadline (nor has Robert). We did not have to use an infamous IKEA tool but I've spent five of the last seven weeks in the Ikea 2 meter ceiling grid.

Robert Brehn and I arrived home Monday morning about 1:00 a.m. so I just made Monday an off day. Tuesday I visited customers and have set up the next few weeks worth of work and did some books, but still tired...

SO then it's already Wednesday! I did finish early and I switched the road bike over to be a winter trainer, set up my rollers in the sun-room and put on The Sufferfest HHNF, and got in my riding... which I'll need because my gut's sticking out from my pants and I've not been to any Christmas parties yet! After the ride I took a shower then harnessed up the three dogs and took them out for a long walk, which I don't think they've been on one for a while... Whew! Then off to bed.

Off to Ottawa

2011-11-20T15:35:00.001-05:00

Taking the slow train to Ottawa

Sunny and Cold but no ridding

2011-11-12T12:52:00.006-05:00

Yes, it's single digits and I usually don't ride in it but there was a big group out today doing cross bikes... I got my bike all ready Thursday night and all I needed was a water bottle cage and air in the tires. Yesterday I was finishing up a drywall job and starting a suspended ceiling, I could not for the life of me get the screws in the wall angle. It was one of those easy things I've done a hundred of times but for some reason I just could not make a go of it. Then I came around an outside corner and the screw jumped and I jabbed myself in the palm of my right hand/wrist with the previous piece which was screwed up very well.

This was at about 2:00 p.m. my customer Brad Cotton is a police officer and quite handy at first-aid, which is good because I was in a wee bit of shock and it was a nasty cut, patched me up and got me to the hospital. Trying to amuse myself for four (4) hours was all supplied by my phone which only has so much battery life, and then I was bored, like really board.

The nurses and doctor did a great job of stitching me back up. I found out I can't shave with my left hand so I've got some whiskers on my bandage, and the cut's right in the spot where my hands rest on the hoods, so ugh no ride. I got out the notebook to set up the Pain Chamber and I had forgotten that I finally got Drop-Box set up, and it's still updating all my King's Woodwright files... so no trainer till this evening if I feel like riding in the evening. If I do ride I think I'm going to do my Epic Texas Ride with the Cadence Revolution sound track. The epicTV is good for scenery and looking at something, I prefer The Sufferfest for my HIT (High Intensity Training), but this combination or a YouTube play list of cross or my tv broadcasts of Pairs-Roubaix with the Cadence Revolution are good for time on the trainer, and working on technique when winter training starts...

For now I've got to let my hand heal, so I can work and make money...

A Sunday in November

2011-11-06T21:21:00.001-05:00

It was windy "mild" and very sunny today. So I got out for a couple of hours on the bike, then came home and took the dogs out for a walk on the trail.

Cold but I layered and layered and went out

2011-10-30T18:02:00.003-04:00

I don't like riding in single digits, and the only time I do is on New Years day because that's a tradition. But there's not much to do around here and I do have my bike with me. My two house mates went out yesterday in cold, windy and overcast weather... I went down to the market and picked up nice vegetables, and walked around a bit... There were more people out around the avenue that the MEC is on than in By-town market. Ah it did get me out of the house.

Today though it was sunny and both the guys went out at about 6°, I waited till it was 8° which is still cold but no trainer and I needed to get out on the bike. Last weekend was the last time cars were allowed in the park till spring, so once over in the park the climbing was very safe on closed roads, the only "scary" bit was a guy doing his cross-country roller skis and his poles were all over the place... shiksabob Tex was not on the menu fortunately but came close. At the top I got a younger person who understood a camera phone and got him to snap a photo at the Champlain lookout, YEA! I then made a quick decent (but not too quick or I'd freeze), and now at home making a pork roast for dinner.

Colder than all get up.. by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-10-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

OK so we worked late last night and it was clear today... We took off a bit early for a ride at 4°C WHAT!!!??? I rode for a little bit, Rob has headed for the hills and Jeff's off in town... it's 7:00 dark and cold. I may live in Canada but I certainly like being warm in this weather unlike those two Canuks, I mean not just this but here in Canada for my American friends, when it gets below freezing we would start a fire and have hot chocolate or hot butter rum, not Canadians NO they head indoors to Hockey rinks and Curling rinks where it's cold and play all winter indoors in the COLD! I'm NOT lying it's true!

For me if it gets up a few more degrees here in Ottawa I'll ride but I'm pretty sure it's time for rollers and Sufferfest till longer and warmer days show up... EXCEPT New years day!

Colder than all get up.. by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

Mr. Tuttle goes to Parlement.

2011-10-25T20:50:00.004-04:00

We have had very productive days and today we had sun, with lots of wind. When we got back to the house two of us went out on our separate ways. I went down the river trail to see the Parliament buildings. It was a nice evening and quite a few people were out on the trail exercising or coming home from work.

Downtown I did not know Ottawa had the BiXi bike rentals. These bikes are rented right there and you can ride them around town and return them to another docking station. Montreal, Paris, and London to name a few have these bike rental sites. Cool.

Out for another ride in the Gatineau Park

2011-10-23T16:49:00.002-04:00

Today I went out solo. The other two had taken a ride downtown on the bike trail. On the bridge to Quebec I met a girl name Emily from London, who is attending school here, she's a track racer and is learning how to climb. My friend Heather's headed to Ottawa next week for 6 months and hopefully the two of them can connect.

I was hoping to ride around Meach lake today but I got far enough to take this picture, the roads were very narrow and were in VERY bad shape, so I turned around and went up and did the same climb I did yesterday. Towards the top a young guy flew past me while I tried to take a phone call, and gave me a "look" so I went after him... I sat on his wheel as he tried to pull away, and as he started to sway and wear out I put the hammer down and dropped him like a lead weight... So much for that brand new Trek Madone... Looks good but the motor is what makes the machine... NOT that I'm a real aggressive rider but I was just looking for someone to play with.

I don't know if we will get out much this week given that its dark by about 6:00 p.m. and we're working... UGH fall's such a bummer.

IKEA: Ottawa

2011-10-22T21:44:00.003-04:00

I'm in Ottawa working at another Ikea store and we have the Gatineau Park and a lot of nice riding in front of us. But it's October in Canada further north of Brantford. Today started rainy... but then it stopped, grey with a few sprinkles, so we Rob and I went out at noon. It was an easy day of a few climbs and just enjoying being on the bike. Fall up here is supposed to be fantastic about a week ago. We did see a young 30 year-old Quebecois cyclist and there was a need to catch him and make him ride the hills a little harder than he had planed on doing. It took a couple of the climbs to catch him, but once together he was happy to share the pulls and had a good little ride together in the park.

Next year I plan on traveling in a different cycling kit.

Now I need to teach Rob how to get my camera to take photos... I have photos of him, but the "picture" he took of me is not there. We will get out again tomorrow in the sun.

2011-10-15T12:02:00.006-04:00

Single digit weather (Celsius), 34 km/hr winds with gust up to 75 km/hr and rain... not fun. I could have and I have ridden in such weather but I'm off to Ottawa tomorrow and I have stuff to do to get ready, and there would not be time to clean the bike.

So today I set up my winter torchure chamber and did the new Sufferfest Video "A Very Dark Place". It seems to only take a few minutes into any of David's videos to "remember" why they are called The Sufferfest, you suffer and leave a nice puddle of sweat on the floor and on the bike, in just a mere one hour workout! I needed to have a high intensity workout so I'll be ready for the Gatineau's over the next three weeks, even if I do ride them at a "fall" pace.

Now as far as Torchure Chambers go, mine is just in the sun room which gets pretty cool in the winter but I seem to be able to heat up the place by the end of the ride, and it's far better than the laundry room. The Sufferfest website sells all sorts of "stuff" to let people know your a Sufferlandrian, and some folks have or want to put up a flag in their chamber, and I've taken a quote in full from the website from a letter sent in last Febuary... Scary part I know this guy! I was over in France with him for Paris-Roubaix and he would have waved the flag if they were available then.

"Hello fellow Sufferlandrian,

I am just toiling in my fields on sore legs after my latest training ride through the harsh and unforgiving Sufferland countryside. I am very fortunate to have been assigned to a work party that will be dispatched to Northern France this spring. During my time there I’ll be allowed to be at the side of th…e road for Flanders, Roubaix, and Amstel Gold. I would be extremely proud to wave the Sufferland flag for the moving picture cameras, so our glorious Nation could be recognize around the world in Newsreel viewings everywhere. But alas, I have no flag. It was lost during the peasant uprising of 1962. If there was a way for you to send me one, I would be more than proud to fly it high, with a tear in my eye, during my time abroad.
Humbly Your Servant,
Peter Schouten"

Thanksgiving Day (the Canadian one) ride

2011-10-10T16:06:00.003-04:00

I had looked up a ride that would have been nice to do but at 90 kms it was too far for the amount of time some had planed for the ride. So we headed up Harrisburg to Maple Manor, Footbridge Road, Greenfield to Ayr and back.

Our ride started off and going up from Harrisburg Dermot got a flat and five of us were "off the Front" and by the time we got to our turn we thought they had just turned off to leave us to our vices (we need a race radio to keep the group informed). Our group then went on to complete the ride, the others sounds like they went through St. George and back home. Our ride was just at the 80 km mark and they were at the 60 km mark.

Our group was the faster folk and I ride with them I rarely get a gap where I can turn around and get a photo so I got one of the infamous Andrew and Rob, I almost had everyone but then a car came along and I had to go back to the bars and missed a great photo with everyone in line and the autumn trees... a well, next time.

We arrived back at our Tim Horton's haunt on Paris Road and our compatriots were there and that's when we learned they were yelling at us that they had a flat... Sorry guys.

Now I would like some feed back from others. I like Map My Ride to share rides and to post (no metrics just a nice map). But for my data I'm really liking the downloading from Training Peaks, but the Garmin site is nice but slower... What are you type A people using?

<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/53883194">Imported Garmin Route (10/10/2011)</a><br/>
<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Brantford, Canada">Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Brantford, Canada</a>

Second Ride of the Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-10-08T19:34:00.004-04:00

Canadian Thanksgiving's here and we could not have nicer weather even if we custom ordered it!

Not one single cloud in the sky, cool mornings and this afternoon got pretty warm... I was wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt.

I got out yesterday with with Jacques, at 11:00 a.m. (sorry forgot my phone takes good photos), for about 65 kms. Work did not go as planed and with this weather I put no effort into filling a Friday of a long weekend with a lot of work. (I could use the work but sometimes taking off and riding is the best deal).

This morning we went down to Port Dover which is a metric Century (100 Kms). With this weather everyone was in a great mood. On our way down we had about three people who cut the ride short, one being Bob Drinkwater who is 80 years old, and is only 6 months younger than my father. During the ride he came up to the front, paced me then came back and put his arm around me and gave me a threat.... He's headed off to Portugal for the winter in 6 -1/2 weeks and when he gets back next spring I better watch out as he's going to teach me a lesson. Oh I want to be 80 and riding and "threatening" guys 30 years younger!

We continued on to Port Dover rode around the end of the pier (that's the photos of us all), and then headed home. What a fantastic day and to spend it with friends makes it all the better.

I finished off my day buy shopping for Thanksgiving Dinner with my daughter, walking the dawgs for about 3.5 kms and then supper! now its time for Dr. Who!

Improvements Physically and Spiritually

2011-08-14T13:30:00.008-04:00

First, the physical; I have a hilly loop that is a bit difficult but I enjoy riding it. I head over to St. George and do Cheese Factory Road, the cut across Maple Manor. The hill there by itself is easy but cumulative of Cheese Factory it burns a bit. Then over to Footbridge Road to Greenfield over to Ayr, down Paris Road which is now paved nicely most the way and makes for a nice head down hammer fest. Finish up through Paris and back home on Powerline (which is also a hammer fest road.)

<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/45964700">Imported Garmin Route (08/13/2011)</a><br/>
<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Brantford, Canada">Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Brantford, Canada</a>

I rode it on July 26th by myself and then again last night, August 13th. Comparing the two last nights ride was 1.4 km/hr average speed faster over 62 kms which cut 4:48 minutes off the overall time. Now what would be impressive if I could cut another 4:48 off in three more weeks... we'll see.

Now for anyone reading to give input and for me to RANT (so you've been warned). My bike computer is a Garmin, they have a Cloud training log at Garmin Connect, Which I've used for the links on the dates because if your truly interested you can see my metrics from the ride. I use Map My Ride for most postings as it shows the route, elevation and no metrics because most the time it's about the ride not how I rode. It also lets us plot out and share courses in our riding group. Finally I've been using Training Peaks because "its free" and all the cool kids use it. My rant is why does Training Peaks take less than a minute to download my training file and Garmin took last night 5 minutes? When in Denver with a bad internet connection it would not even take it. What do any of you use, if you use at all? This would be between Garmin and TPeaks as downloading everything twice is silly. OK there that complaint is off of my chest.

Spiritual training: I have been receiving the Blog from the Desiring God website and have used that as a point of prayer and challenge in my life, it is also a fantastic resource for reading and devotional material. I have read through Matthew and now I'm in the middle of John. Matthew because, the pastor at my church has been working through the book and the life of Jesus, and John because it's the most "intuitive" of the four books and the ideas of Christ's teachings come across more than the facts; thus providing me with a contrast of Christ's life.

Then on the Team FCA Endurance "The Body" website under forms the topic of fasting has come up. I've been participating in that discussion which has lead me to get the book from John Piper A Hunger for Desiring God and I have read through that, not as quickly as I would like as the Notbook's screen is a bit small, and then at the Desktop I've got the distraction of work duties. Fasting is a way to seek God and reminder to our body and soul that our true food is spiritual as Jesus said in John 4:32 "I have a kind of food you know nothing about."

So my physical training is going well, and I'm thinking it might be a good year to go out and race cyclo-cross, and my spiritual training is going quite well to, and the fruits of that are harder to qualify. But I still visualize my "life verse" 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, as I study and as I'm riding. There has to be a greater purpose in it all, and The Eternal Prize is worth it all.

Canada's Civic Long Weekend

2011-08-01T16:19:00.003-04:00

You have to love long weekends! This one has been fantastic, warm sunny and good for riding, with some rain at night so our plants don't die.

Three day weekend means three days of riding, right? Yep!

Saturday's ride was a good turn out at the coffee shop, with an age span from 80 to thirty-something. Which is pretty amazing. Bob was out with is new Cérvelo S3 SL, which he got from his son for his 80th, very sweet bike. Unfortunately we headed off to a bit hillier lands and he was off a bit at the beginning, then when I went to help him back up, he said go on without me, I always feel bad leaving him cause when he's good he's good.

Sunday was church and Andy was back with a good sermon, for those of you interested. We then took Céline out to Circle Square Ranch where she is working in the kitchen for the week, child labour is a good thing in my opinion! Back home the dawgs were waiting for their chance to go out for a walk/run on the trail, we often get out for an hour to an hour and half and with some heat they just are pooped. Home and a few beers (its a Canadian long weekend, and its a requirement). Then I get the brilliant idea that it's a beautiful evening and I should take out the cross bike and let it stretch its wheels on some single track. It was a loop that I learned years ago, going around behind Bell homestead's not so bad, but it's cutting through the trail system after Mohawk park that I still don't know the best way through, but I did make it through. I am not great off-road, and less great off-road with a few beers, but I took it slow and other than burs on my socks it was a great ride.

Today was back at the coffee shop with the "crew" and Bob was back with his bike, and we were off to flatter lands. We headed up a hill and into Mt. Pleasant a little quick, Bob was having a bit of trouble but there were several folks making sure he got through the hilly bit, once he was reconnected with the group and on the flat lands, he was fine. We put in some good efforts and had a good time of visiting. Then headed up to Harley, Craig and I turned up the speed a bit and no one was with us, at Harley we realized that if we headed home it was just going to be 60 km ride and we wanted further, so we turned left and headed West with plans to end up in Drumbro. In Brantford, most of the stores were open so we aimed to get water along the way. Well, out in the country a day off is a day off, we finally found a store that was open and met a nice lady sportif rider from Kitchener and she was stopping at the store too. So we had a nice visit, refueled and headed on our ride once again.

Summer Long weekends are good, summer's too short here and it's nice to be able to enjoy an extra day every now and then. Off to clean my two bikes so they'll be ready for the next ride.

Sometimes not ridings good too!

2011-07-28T07:35:00.002-04:00

My friend is headed out on holidays in one more day, and last night we were going to try to get in a trail ride on our cross bikes. By the time it was all said and done I wanted to give him back his 11-25 cassette and he wanted me to measure a drawer to order some good slides in his kitchen. Instead of a nice trail ride we sat out on his back deck had some Well's IPA and cleaned out his fridge. It was a great evening.

No one wanted to ride with me today

2011-07-26T20:42:00.002-04:00

I called a few friends but no one wanted to go OR had time to go... So I went by myself. I wanted to ride one of my favorite courses, it's sort of hard. Or it's hard if you ride it very fast. There are a few rollers on this and two good up bits, so it's a good workout. The weather's cooled off and it was not humid and nary a cloud in the sky it was a fantastic evening workout.

I use a Garmin to get my metrics and when it works I really like the unit, but when it does not work I get upset. HOW wet does the contact have to be on the HRM for this thing to work out of the gate? I can only get a few seconds out of 186 BPM, so I know that anything over that is wrong. Comon' Garmin I paid for this to work well, and the FAQ tells me nothing. So I rely upon my spit as I have for every HRM I've ever owned. Ugh!

For those interested here is where I went:

<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/43297672">Imported Garmin Route (07/26/2011)</a><br/>
<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Brantford, Canada">Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Brantford, Canada</a>

Home and Saturday's Ride

2011-07-23T19:30:00.007-04:00

Home again and riding in Southern Ontario. This Blog has the Map-My-Ride and photos. I've blogged a fair bit of racing and my travels but our group rides are what is the mainstay of my cycling. Today's ride was not very popular, Canadians seem to have an aversion to summer heat. It was hot but moving on the bike and drinking Hammer Heed you really don't notice. Plus once in Burlington there were A LOT of cyclist on the road, which was great to see, I like seeing other riders on the road.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/42837760"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Imported Garmin Route (07/23/2011)&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Brantford, Canada"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Brantford, Canada&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Our group was small, we met at 8:00 and it consisted of my die-hard cycling buddy Greg Niemialkowski, urban legend the "Randy Brown", and my newest cycling buddy Heather Shearer with her husband Chris. We headed out of the Paris Road Tim Horton's on our ride. Heather will be riding the provincial road race tomorrow so Chris and her were out for the first 30 kms., which included Weirs Road... OK, there are a lot of climbs in Southern Ontario I like but Weirs Road has broken me in the past, and it's not the first choice I'd make for I'll go up Weirs and turn around, I'd go to Weirs and turn around before going up... it's short but Max grade is 16%!!! So with that I took photos of Chris and Heather coming up Weirs Road, they then head home.

This now left the infamous "Randy Brown", Greg and myself, and we're off to Sydenham Hill, which I personally enjoy, we then ride the ridge and at one of the houses a dog comes flying in the road, Greg and I swerve and Randy's 3-4 meters behind and the dog stops and takes out Randy... Randy's beat up and wants to continue, the dog... Well sadly I'm not sure if she made it. Her shoulder was dislocated or broken and she had blood in her eye. Sad. Randy had road rash, but back at the Tim's his hip was swollen and he was using his floor pump as a crutch, this guy gets in more accidents... He's been run over by a Cement truck, pick-up truck, ran into a tree on a race and rode the next day... Hence, the Urban Legend... there are few people like Randy and you will always remember these guys, yet everyone thinks you're making up stories about guys like him...

Back on the bike and through the old Guelph Road, onto Burlington and Snake Road, up and around then back York Road where Randy's running a little slow (but not too slow) and Greg and I have pushed hard riding past all the cyclist in Snake Road. We decide just to come back via Crook's Hollow rather than Old Ancaster, we then cut down to the store to get liquids and come home via Old 99. Arriving back at the Tim Horten's haunt. It turned out to be a 4 hour ride and it was about 33-34°C, and a great day in saddle. Greg and I went over to his house had a beer and discussed the ride, the Legend of Randy Brown and le Tour. What a Fantastic way to spend your Saturday!!!

All the photos from this Ride are HERE! All in All we do live in a nice place for good rides...

Back home again

2011-07-21T19:08:00.002-04:00

I was working in Dundas yesterday and I just hated to pass up climbing Sydenham. It was 43°C = 109°F (or at least according to my truck temp gauge). When I came home last time it was from 20°C and sunny (where I was) to -1°C and wet (in Brantford), this time I left 35 ish and came to 43! Whew... what will happen next time I leave? Can Southern Ontario not survive without me?
The climb is O.K. and the decent is less than exciting compared to roads that you've never ridden. Its go down for 2 minutes at about 65 km/hr or go down for 25 minutes at 80+ km/hr... Never mind the heat, what's up with that? Three Climbs and a bottle and half of water. Now I had been working outside all day so I was catching up.

3x Hill Repeats by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

An Epic Ride to Finish off Denver

2011-07-18T08:06:00.002-04:00

This was one of those weekends of riding I thought I would never do because of the climbing. On Friday Robert and I did the Deer Creek Canyon clockwise from the parking lot at the Canyon. Saturday Craig and I rode from the hotel and rode the Deer Creek Canyon counter-clockwise. These two rides in of themselves make for a good weekend of riding. I have an album of all the rides at Picasa here This is amazing country, and we've seen people out riding every-time we've been out.

Then comes Sunday and we wanted to plan a ride, so I went on Map-my-Ride and found one that looked good and left from Golden, ya have to go and see some of these towns. Twenty-Twenty hindsight I've got to get on the Garmin connect as I think there are more serious riders there. Map-my-Ride has a lot of "junk" you have to sort through.

Our ride was to be a loop but we could not get it all plotted with our poor internet connection so when we got to the road we were to turn on we were told it would have a lot of climbing, we did through the day 2,564 meters of climbing we did not want to make a mountain pass again therefore we ended up with an out and back. We climbed up to the Golden Gate State Park where you are just into the mountains and the views were stunning! It was a scorcher of a day temps started at 86 and went up to 101, at least in the mountains it was cooler but thank goodness for water stops. Our first water stop was at the park office where they had a hiking trail and a pond full of trout, and many of the lakes (for my fisherman friends) had "no limits" fishing! The water here out of the tap was cool clear and tasted fantastic, we also splashed our faces, Craig poured some over his head, and Robert took a bath in it! We left the washroom a little messy... Oops.

Back on the road we had reached an elevation that was much cooler but the climbing had not stopped, but we were in the mountains on the peak to peak road, the same road from last weekend just further south. The views were unbelievable and the point and shoot camera on the web does not do it justice. There is a point when the climbing for those who don't live around the mountains becomes "old" we climbed and we descended and we climbed, all three of us began to slow some even Mr. Brehn (Robert) though he did not slow much. Craig and I can beat each other up on the Deer Creek climb this one was tough, but only half of what the pro's are doing on the climbing days at the Tour! Finally we got to descend and this time I did it without brakes and made a much quicker decent, but on this decent there are still climbs, and what felt like full out effort to pound the snot out of your buddies was not that hard because we were all lactic acid loaded legs by this time, then at the top of these little climbs descents again which are like a reward and a time of recovery, Craig and Robert are better than I am, and I hit 80 km/hr, I could have done better but my back was stiff and I could not tuck as low as I wanted. Finally, we arrive back in town and to the car and 104 F! A great way to finish off the weekend.

Now for a rest day of work at Ikea, anyone of the Brantford Boys and Girls want to do Sydenham on Wednesday?

Back to Back climbing

2011-07-17T09:03:00.003-04:00

Friday afternoon was taken off early Karen, Robert and I loaded up two bikes and went out to the Ken Caryl Canyon which is really Deer Creek Canyon, oops. Karen went off for a hike in on the hiking trails, unfortunately for her it was a bit hot at the lower elevation. Robert and I made the assent up the "harder" side stopped and grabbed a water at the break area at the top and made our decent pulled into the parking lot packed up and headed back to the hotel and picked up goodies for a pool party for the Ikea crew who were leaving on Saturday. That now leaves a few "officials" the locals and Robert's ALS team to finish up the store.

Saturday morning Craig and I plan to go for a ride, but after the Tour! I get outside waiting and realize my rear tire is worn out, threads showing! Ugh! So we had to detour to the bike shop, and wait for 20 minutes for them to open so I could buy a new tire. On our ride we once again got to ride through the southern end of Denver, oh boy city traffic. As we enterterd the canyon I finally remembered my camera, and it is a worthwhile view, and you can see Craig's lovely cyclist tan! Getting photos on a climb did not happen. The decent I took one photo but the best shot was on the stepper part and we are flying. This time we did the climb the easy way around with at a lower effort. We saw a steady stream of cyclist coming down from the climb, everyone was out riding! Pretty darn cool, and as you can see from the rest stop there were quite a few. Then Craig and I made the decent, he is still much faster than I but we schooled a lot of locals on the decent. I do know that there are a lot of locals who could school us on the climbing and descending so it's tong-in-cheek. Riding through town we had to pull in to allow an afternoon shower to pass overhead.

Today, we are off to climb the Golden Gate and ride on the peak to peak road. Three days of climbing, for someone who's not a climber! Not to mention some reason I've lost some weight over the last two weeks! HA!

Mid-Week Climb

2011-07-14T08:14:00.003-04:00

This is kind of cool that mid week you can ride across town and do a Cat 1 climb. Riding across town in a major U.S. city at rush hour was NOT cool nor was it fun, but it was the method for the madness, so to speak.

The ride across town had Robert and Craig flying across and Cam and I were a bit behind. I want to point out that last night was the Ikea "family" party and Craig did not go and Robert left early and I kept up on the dance floor with the twenty-somethings till late and THAT's not the best preparation to a long day of work and then a hard ride, when your an old guy who goes to bed usually at 9:30 p.m. I hit a level of cool "old-guy" on Tuesday night that I never have had! Part of that was I stayed with the water as the drink of choice for the night so everyone made it home safe.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/41468526"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Imported Garmin Route (07/13/2011)&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Englewood, CO"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Englewood, CO&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;

With that as the precursor, I did have trouble riding out to the valley and climb but when I got there I did very well, I kept Robert and Craig in my sights the whole time (and as I've said before climbing is not my specialty). We got to the top and turned around and Cam who is just getting into riding was not that far down the road and that was impressive because he was not drinking water last night. I posted the Map-My-Ride because I love seeing the gray area that and the little emblem that says CAT 1.

Coming home through town was "interesting" a thundershower was just in front of us, and the roads were soaking wet with the drains fighting to clear the water, so when I got in I was a wet as if I had been in the storm.

I love my 11-28 cassett!

2011-07-11T08:18:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Craig and I went for out for another ride. This one did not have the 16%'s that Magnolia did on Saturday it was a 25 km climb and on average the grade was about 6% (just guessing) there were a few 8% and one little 10% that did hurt. On a climb like this I was able to ride in my 39-28 with a cadence of 80 rpms and my heart rate in my zone 3 most of the climb, at that effort level I could have climbed all day given plenty of liquids. Which I would like to thank the people who support this climb and supply water, gatorade (which I DON'T use) and home made cookies at the top of the climb where there's a historic school house (sorry no photos).

Craig plotted out a course from our hotel which is an hour's ride from the Ken Caryl Canyon, so we had some "rolling" city riding out and back. I forgot my camera but Craig sent the photos of the entrance into the canyon, views like this just "minutes" from the city of Denver!

This climb was not without events, we were passed by a group of bikers which travel in packs and of course have no mufflers and run their mixture to rich (not a fan of bikers), on one of the switch backs it appeared one of them crossed the yellow line and was plowed into by a pick-up, a few minutes later I could hear sirens so it looked bad but I did not see the bike just the bent bumper of the truck. I was climbing a steep section, dodging 5 cars parked and the horde of bikers all over the road so no sight seeing there.

And to make the climb more eventful our decent was in rain, and that is when you really have to trust your bike, cause we were hitting 67 km/hr... which could have been faster if no rain and chance of the bike going out from under on slick road!

Sufferning on Magnolia Drive

2011-07-10T10:00:00.003-04:00

It was hot and Magnolia Drive goes UP! It is a Category 1 climb and I am not known to be a climber, and never mind that I've lost some of my conditioning. Oh, yea there's not oxygen up here! The climb took over an hour, everyone needed to have breaks and wait for me. I was a hot day and we did the climb without our helmets and I wish I did not have my undershirt on. UGH, I'm not used to being the last one! I also had to get off and walk to get some feeling back in my arms, which had turned into noodles. The last part of the climb was a dirt road, and it was more like "rollers" where I was able to recover. We arrived in Nederland and the little coffee shop had water and I washed down a bottle of water and reloaded my bottles for the rest of the ride. It is so dry up here you can feel your body losing water but there is no sweat, so you HAVE to be careful. We then rode the Peak to Peak road, and got in a Cat 2 climb, which was easy! All things are relative.

The decent was and always be the best part! we flew down along the canyon at 77 kms/hr. Then Roberts rear tire went flat and we stopped to change the tire and I took this video of the water coming down the canyon, the water is at it's highest in twenty years and several people have gone white water rafting and it's a lot of 4 & 5 ratings on the water.

Flash Floods!

2011-07-07T21:58:00.002-04:00

Well, we tried to go out for a ride after work but... clouds were BLACK... and we rode around for an hour trying to miss them. We get back to the hotel and it's raining, lightly. At supper time we see that there has been floods where the clouds were black and since there has been numerous flash flood warnings for us.

So, no real rides yet.... stay tuned.

On the road again

2011-07-06T08:27:00.002-04:00

This time I'm in the Mile High City in the US. The U.S. Ikea stores have a unique system for wiring their lighting which is an over kill, but coming to Denver is the only way I can see it and become familiar with it.

We are here with our bikes so we have and will be riding. Not sure how many photos and how often I'll be blogging as the internet system is good for 2003! but way overloaded and I could not even get to my email last night. Rumors are there is an upgrade in the works and may happen as early as the end of this week!?

Recovery Week

2011-05-08T18:44:00.002-04:00

You know it's time to recover when...
This time it was a long even "roller" and my friends Greg and Robert took off on me and I could not stay with them my legs felt like I was climbing one of the steeper climbs around here with a heart rate of 170+ But my heart rate was only 156. That was Thursday.

Saturday's ride with the boys was an even recovery ride over flat roads for about 90 kms. It felt good, and today I did a real easy 40 km ride with my bike computer acting up... Oh big time love hate with technology!

On another note I've been using Logos Bible Software to do my morning quite-time. I started to use it when in France because I only packed the computer and did not pack my Bible (big and bulky).

It has drivers on the computer but the studies are cloud or synced via a cloud, so whatever computer I'm on I can get my marked versus and notes. I does tons more stuff, but I got it loaded and just now really started to make use of it. We shall see where it takes me.

Saturday's Ride

2011-04-30T17:49:00.002-04:00

Our weather's not been too great so this morning, even though it was cold it did warm up, some. It was still quite windy which added a wind chill. All that to say to find two guys to go out and ride some good hard hills was a bit difficult, I did get two. I could have joined some triathlon friends at 7:00 but is was 0°C, sunny though but too cold. We left at 9:00 with a few more degrees on the thermometer, and pounded some hills, and decided that the wind was NOT at 5 km/hr it was more a 25 km/hr so we cut our 100k short, but still ended up with a good 80k. This one will count in a couple of weeks and others will hurt. I rode my Major Jake set up for road one last time as I could not get the Tarmac finished this morning. BUT after I got home and warmed up, cleaned up and had my "breakfast" I was back out on the Tarmac, between loads of laundry and feeding the dogs and family. New bottom bracket bearings, new rear wheel bearings, both sets were a pain to get but there in now. Then I changed out the look of the bike with new cables, tape and an aluminum handle bar... at 180 lbs I just don't think carbon is made for big strong riders. It's blingged and ready to go! Next ride's a wrench ride, where you take your multi-tool to make sure everything's right.

Riding in Shortsleves and Sun!

2011-04-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

Wow two posts in one day. The weatherman was WRONG! The sun came out and I went out. I needed to get back onto my training, it's pretty hard to get motivated in cold and wet... not to mention what it does to the bikes, now the cross bike is creaking. I really like this ride as its has some good rollers and the road is pretty quiet. Though I did see my friend Heather out on her bike "hi, Heather", sorry I did not stop but I had dad taxi responsibilities that required me to stick to the schedule. BTW Heather if you look at the map this the Cheese Factory-Maple Manor you asked about... First one up Maple Manor wins...

Interval Training 2x10' z4 by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

Down and Out

2011-04-27T11:48:00.002-04:00

Well, my Tarmac is... The Bottom bracket bearing on the left side is trashed. It is an Enduro ceramic bearings but the races are steel and I'm assuming that road dirt over a couple of rainy days was pulled in. Enduro's moving their warehouse and trying to get someone on the phone is not easy. I've e-mailed back and forth but no definitive answers on the correct part, and I don't want to order something like this twice. I have to send money to PayPal and that takes time then ordering takes time.

I know that some will say they take credit cards. In 2009 the economy took a dive and so did my finances and business. Knowing something had to change I took a class offered by our church called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey, many of you might have heard him on the radio. It was time for me to do something different and to date I now no longer own any credit cards, and deal mostly with cash. I hardly even use my debit card which has cut my business' monthly bank fee down by $30.

In October I did find out my rear wheel bearings were all trashed out, so later today I'm going to check my front wheel bearings. The headset was replaced a year-ago.

This is why I love bikes and HATE cars, I can tear down a bike all by myself and I know how to put it back together. Cars... half the stuff I can't even find...

Spring will show up soon, weather finally got warmer and if it will stop raining tonight I want to get out and do a good ride.

Back home and Riding

2011-04-24T20:16:00.005-04:00

I am back home and riding my regular haunts and with my regular "crew".
My university friend John B. has gotten a Specialized Roubaix and a Garmin 500 and has been posting on Facebook via Garmin Connect which is a "cloud" training log. I have now set up an account there and I've just loaded my spring riding on. Too bad I did not know before I cleaned the memory out of the bike computer. I could have loaded all my rides on there, and had a complete log. Other than the older rides I am saying good by to Training Peaks which is also a good cloud log, and if you are really serious has some pay-per-use stuff on it (I have no experience with)

I've loaded everything up and have posted two links here more for me to see how it transfer... I still will use Map my Ride because they have mapping abilities. I have had to use an on line "converter" to get the files to the right format for the bike computer. It's nice to share courses with others.

Training Ride with Greg by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

Dundas-Burlington hills with Rob and Anja. by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

Home again

2011-04-13T20:51:00.002-04:00

We got up at the usual time this morning and Peter and I were dropped off at the train station by 7:45 a.m. I was off to the airport and he was off to Holland to see family. We had pastries and coffee waiting for our trains. Mine showed up and I headed off to board. The TGV is a great way to travel, and I was landed in Charles de Gaul, where I zipped to my ticket booth #2A, and the circus began. Waiting in this line then, no we want you to wait in this line where the ticket agents are having a chit-chat. Then to security for a posted 7 minute wait... It was more like 57 minutes! Needless to say when I arrived at the gate I was 5 minutes late, and this old ugly gate keeper started in on me, I had enough of CdG hospitality and told her so, in plane English. The other gate keeper was much nicer and I got on to the plane for the long marathon of "pond hopping"

Back in Brantford now. Heather managed to rearrange her schedule to pick me up. First thing was get all the stuff out of the truck, second was take the dogs for a good long walk, they were all very happy to see me. Saw two of my riding buddies out, Egon and Jimmy, headed to pick up another rider.

I then unpacked the bike and cleaned it, and cleaned it some more... then did a bit of mechanical on it... all in all three weeks on cobbles, dirt, and one rain storm ride it was really not all that too bad.

Then picked up Céline from dance and now home just planing the rest of the week.

Last day in France

2011-04-12T16:08:00.004-04:00

Today we worked on lights and finished early. Came home and went for a ride to connect with the local group ride. It was quite cool and I bowed out, maybe should not have but I did go back to our house and take some photos of our town before I left. And surprise I found more cobbles right next to our house and as rode down the road it had been pulled up and I saw cobbles off to the side... if weight was not an issue it'd be a cool souvenir. I came home and then packed up the bike and stuff.

Tonight was a bit eventful, first Peter got hit by a car and bruised himself in the nether regions and Robert hit a pot-hole (there here too) on the group ride and ended up with a double flat. He hitch hiked and was picked up and with little to no effort got two people to bring him straight back to the house.

Peter went off to the Emergency room, socialized medicine and he was seen, X-Rayed and back home within 45 minutes... Wow the system can work. The guy who hit him is aware and did stop...

Three total car issues in three weeks. One some guy in a BMW who was just typical "North American" type, one guy on Saturday with Robert and I where he pulled out and we had to slam on our breaks and we yelled at him, then as he was looking in his rear view mirror he hit the road furniture in the middle and flatted his front tire, that was sweet justice. Then Peter which sounds like an honest mistake and other than Pete being in some pain it'll turn out O.K.

Shopping in France

2011-04-11T16:10:00.004-04:00

OK. for those who enjoy shopping it would be fantastic...
BUT I went on a Monday evening and spent 1:45 minutes in a traffic jam (I can do that any night on the QEW) that should have taken at most 2o minutes! I've been driving on these roads for two weeks and so the pain in the @__ was not highway system which is actually very good but just sitting in a 110 km/hr zone at 10 km/hr!

I then managed to walk around and then into the shopping section 10 minutes after everything closed. NOW that's not to say that if you love to shop... You could spend the day here shopping and probably a whole lot of money. I just hate shopping at the best of times.

The square's under construction but this is just not the stuff you see in North America. I really wish I had not arrived under duress. I would have taken more time, one and two I would have stopped and at least had a beer at one of the café's, but I knew I needed to move on and get over to the mall. Ah well there's always Montreal...

I went back out and there was still some traffic but not as much and got to the mall and got my gifts in less than a "romantic" setting but I'm not a shopper... so everyone has what I was looking for and should be more than happy. (hint, hint ;)).

Paris Roubaix 2011

2011-04-10T14:23:00.006-04:00

The Hell of the North. We have seen and ridden a lot of the sections, we've been to the velodrome three times, and today Peter went down to the Arenburg Forest and rode it just before the pro's then rode hard all the way back via main roads to where we were watching. Robert, Craig and I chased the back cow paths and cobbles to see the race in three places then Robert and I headed to a bar and saw the replay of them coming into the velodrome. After section 4 there just is not that much further to go. Pete managed to find a bar and Belgium's to watch the finish, imagine that?

After watching this race and seeing the clouds of dust it's easy to understand why some riders prefer rain. To see this all this of a world class sports event, we paid only for our beer and rode a total of 45 minutes. Pretty darn amazing.

We came home and made left-overs and spent the evening outside enjoying a beautiful evening. I walked around the town, sidewalks were rolled up but still a nice little town.

Paris Roubaix and a good training ride.

2011-04-09T12:40:00.003-04:00

On the Pavé on the Carrefour de l'Arbre (Section 4). In the showers at Roubaix. and a victory salute.

This is amazing how little space it takes for this race, it just weaves back and forth. After the ride Robert and I went out for a really good road ride that is the "triangle" to Tournai and back.

Now as far a Robert goes, for someone not interested in cobbles he certainly rides them like a pro. This time I followed his lead of riding on the side and going only on the cobbles to pass.

Weather wise and Road wise, Brantford and Lille are having about the same temps... and the difference of roads are either granite cobbles or Brant County pot holes.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/31318576"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Roubaix and a good ride.&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location="&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Friday night in Belgium

2011-04-09T04:59:00.003-04:00

Last night we went out for dinner in Belgium with Kris whom we met at the tent last week at the Tour of Flanders. He has a nice Pub and invited us to have dinner at his place, we told him make us traditional food fair which was absolutely fantastic. The main ingredient in every course was beer, we had something like 7 different kinds. Our first course was North Sea shrimp, second was fresh in season white asparagus with egg and butter and a side fresh bread, third was Belgium Endive's wrapped in ham with a cheese sauce I managed to down three of them the other two were only able to get two down their gullets. Desert was good, very good, fantastic and delicious but after some seven or eight beers I don't seem to remember what it was.

I was up before everyone this morning and down to the boulangerie at 8:30 where they seemed to be out bageuttes and after waiting 2 minutes they brought me out a hot just out of the oven one, came home made my omelet and sat out on the back porch enjoying a beautiful sunny morning.

This afternoon off to more pavé and to the velodrome with our tour guide Peter Schouten.

The Hell of the North

2011-04-07T13:56:00.003-04:00

Today we rode some more sections of the Paris Roubaix. One in particular was dirt mud and some chunks of granite... Insane thinking pros do this stuff at 40+ kms/hr. We hit them a fair clip. one section I dropped my chain and went to the ditch which is the best option... Not going down's the best. My Roubaix sox now have P2R mud stained on them "what a shame". Unfortunately one or two things will happen with the bruises one they will heal before I get home or worst home will be so damn cold I'll be wearing tights and no one will ever see.

Our ride was an out and back we back tracked the course and then followed the way the race really goes.

Worst thing is Peter found that his bike's head tube's cracked... mind you it could be from last nights venture to the Roubaix Velodrome at break neck speeds. So when I leave my Major Jake's getting an extended stay in France as I'll leave it for Pete to ride. We just found out that the "crack" is tape and the headset seems to be loose so Pete's in love with everyone...

&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/31182848"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Roubaix&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location="&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Early day to work for a long ride tonight.

2011-04-06T14:59:00.003-04:00

&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/31110508"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Wendsday ride.&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location="&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Today came very early. We all got up early in the a.m. to get in early. The highways were even sparse of cars compared to normal. Robert, Craig and I went out for a long ride which is posted above it was enjoyable we hit a section of the famous Pavé and my water bottle cage broke... a well it's a cross bike. Craig and Robert road on the side like sensible pros should. What's interesting is getting into Belgium via a main roads easy, finding a way back to France on a minor road... took a while and the boarder we think was just a little speed bump.

Peter on the other hand went out and rode the course of the Paris - Roubaix seven sections came home very very late we were quite concerned... Not Pete he was singing coming in, talked to neo-pros, coaches, took photos at the velodrome... got a map of the race from someone else. Silly us for being concerned. If your of the Paris Road cycling group you will hear more about this ride and I will leave it to the true author of the story.

Any how today was one of those fantastic days when we went through the square of Tournai everyone was out dinning and drinking. So after our ride we went out into the garden of our house and had wine and beer and Robert, Sigrid and I chatted... well Robert and Sigrid chatted and I butchered the French language as only I can. Then Robert and I went off to make dinner and be worried sick about Peter who was having the time of his life... Phtt! on Peter. He's home and you'll have to ask him for the details.

Tuesday, Rain and Group Rides.

2011-04-05T14:59:00.004-04:00

Peter had wanted to get out to ride the Pavé of the Paris-Roubaix which circles around us and Roubaix velodrome is only a few kms from us. On our way out, we found a group ride of about 40 riders. All was well, but traffic cars and hills... I was with the lead group and then dropped back to help Robert but old guys trying to deal with the jumps of 25 year-0lds just was just difficult to keep up. It was cool and pouring down rain and it just did not happen.

Now we were accused of being hung over and not able to post yesterday after Sunday. I mean really guys a beer tent like this with Peter... Do you really think beer was consumed in Belgium when a Belgium won... Please, what are you all thinking? Really, we had to do the mundane chore of buying groceries, well, for Craig and Peter, Robert and I enjoy shopping for food. Afterwards Robert and I made our dinner. Tight I'm working on a pork roast with fresh herbs from the garden and some fresh green beans.

Flanders and some Bike Racing... That I remember.

2011-04-03T14:28:00.004-04:00

We rode part of the Flanders course today. Mr. Peter can make friends any where! We watched two climbs and then headed to a beer tent where I can say "no" and Robert's says NoOK. and Pete talks everyone and they all want to buy him a beer... So guess who the driver home was? It was supposed to rain, and it was a bit cloudy but as you can see the sun came out and it was a gorgeous day, Peter rode up the climb before the pros and was supprised at the noise of everyone cheering him on, and loved it. Robert and I waited till it was over and rode up the climb to say we did it. Climbing up hills on cobbled roads is just not something you get to do in Southern Ontario.

We ended up with about nine flags of the lion of Flanders... I'm not sure what we'll ever do with so many souvenirs... Things that make you go Hmm...

Our Ride to the hills of Flanders

2011-04-02T11:03:00.002-04:00

Robert and I rode up to two of the hills of Flanders, Knokteberg & Oude Kwaremont. Knokteberg was a good little climb, but Kwaremont was 2.5 kms of rough cobbles. I'm pretty sure I'll have ridden my fill of cobbles by the time this trip is over. We put in a a very hard 108 kms. and I'm pooped. Tomorrow we watch the pro's ride the hills.

going and coming through Belgium there's a town call Tournai and a beautiful town square. On the way back the parades were starting for a festival and everyone was in costume.

Friday's in France

2011-04-01T16:43:00.003-04:00

Today was what seemed a long day a work. We were quite productive but the areas were quite dirty. It seemed like a long day and there was one section that Craig and I pushed through to get done and did to say that it was done! Came home and showered it was dirty work today.

We then set off for a ride to the sports store so Robert could get his bike fixed, but along the way he got a flat... I was wondering whether we would get a ride in. Then off to Roubaix again, but this time through town in rush hour traffic. This is a BIG differance between France and North America, it's rush hour and people stop and allow bikes to turn left or have a right of way... we'd been dead in any city in N.A. on those traffic circles! Not here...

Robert wanted a local club kit sooo... bad. He was zooming straight to the club house. But I wanted to ride the Paris to Roubaix route into the velodrome on the cobbles down the main street so I took the "proper" way into the velodrome, but did not go in because the track team were motor pacing and when track bikes are on the track road bikes are a BIG no no in any country.

I followed him upstairs and I purchased a pair of socks and was given a water bottle, another pair of sox and a cap. Pretty darn good deal. The sox have a pattern of the Pavé on them, as does the water bottle. Robert's club kit is ORANGE! he won't be missed... and yes he's seen the velodrome in Roubaix and Yes he's ridden around it and Yes he's been to the local club across the street.

Coming home we came back pretty much the way we did last time but this time we took a short cut which ended up going across a cobbled section of road and I powered off the front just like Fabian and left Craig and Robert riding way behind me! Take every advantage you can! Ha-Ha

Rest day of cycling

2011-03-30T15:49:00.003-04:00

Today was a full work-day and just when you think you have a system down you get to a point where all the rules are new and different but Craig and I pushed through and finished and won!

Tonight it was raining when we got home so we had a nice supper and a good little debate on how to train. We're in a little town called Sainghin-en-Mélantois and or cottage is quite sufficient for three guys. Every night we take turns cooking a good meal even after a good bike ride.

Finally the carpenter David lives in Arenberg has invited us to his house on April 10th for some beers and to watch a little bike ride that goes through his town. I think we just might take him up on his offer.

Tuesday March 29

2011-03-29T15:03:00.006-04:00

Today was working around the store fixing all the lighting. We then went for a bike ride... Oh surprise! On our ride it was decided to go out and do a loop... with no further planing. On our ride we went across the Belgium boarder and seeing an old WW2 bunker at the border as the only marker, which was along a road that they tried to pave the old cobbles... it does not work. We wove through several old towns, all agrarian in nature. Cyclists of all sorts out, people out walking beautiful country side. Alas we headed home to find out the boulangerie's closed on Tuesday and so we did not get our fresh baguette for tonight's dinner... I know all who read this will feel our sorrow. Life's rough and one must press on without... Oh the horror!

Tomorrow's more work and it looks like rain so a bit nicer meal and a trip to Decathalon the sporting goods store for bike bits... and of course the boulangerie's open and we can have our fresh baguette, whew...

Sunday Races

2011-03-27T16:20:00.002-04:00

This was Sunday no work and no real stress. We slept in a bit, had a good breakfast and then drove over to a friend's of Robert's who is a pro cyclist on Steve Bauer has started. Lots of good cyclist on that team up and coming pro's who's names will be heard in the future.

Then we came back dawned our cycling kits, we both without knowing have our Paris 1880 team kits so we look like totally cool. We drove to the other side of Lille parked and rode in to Belgium to watch the Gent-Wevelgem race, our plan was to "jump" the loop but we got out of the house a little late so we rode to the Kammelberg climb and watch from the bottom the riders. After Cavendish went by we hopped on our bikes and rode to another point on the race then we ascended up the backside of the Kammelberg and the final bit was a 22% cobbled climb and we watched the pros and the took the second lap. After this we rode out and around for about an hour then came back and rode the Kammelberg ourselves, beer tent patrons were there to cheer us on, almost like we were in the race... At last we then descended the hill and rode back to the car. With some computer problems turning off during the ride we guess we got about a 3 hour ride in.

To night we drove into Lille's one of two train stations and picked up Craig and are ready for work tomorrow.

In France Now

2011-03-27T04:06:00.003-04:00

We have arrived! Yesterday was getting into our home, unpacking buying groceries getting the bikes put together, eating and sleep (I did not sleep a wink on the plane).

The store in France had an AMAZING produce section, I think I spent 45 minutes looking a food, picking produce, and Robert's not a picky eater so we're going to eat some fun food here. The beer aisle is HUGE! and some of the designer beers! And not to much Euro's. The wine aisle is twice a big and cheep!

Today was daylight savings and we were able to sleep in. Out in this little village there's a rooster crowing, I did not hear that wake up call I had to get the David its time to get up. We just have to deliver a laptop to a cycling friend and then we'll have to ride some 100 kms to go watch a pro bike race in Belgium.

The only current problem we have is our internet, we are the first people staying the cottage and the internet connection is poor... this week we will be up to speed on that, and the back deck will get built and the mud will be landscaped.

I will have to post photos when we get a faster connection to the web.

Bike Packing

2011-03-24T12:59:00.006-04:00

One day and counting. My friend Rob has gratefully loaned me his bike box and we packed it at his house last night. I've opened it to take a photo for my blog and my lacking memory so it can make it home packed the same way. And as I'm packing Miss Eli Mai had to approve of the bike box.

Even keeping it all to a minimum cycling stuff takes up a lot of space and since its early spring I've got a few extra's that I would not normally need. Jackets, long-sleeve jersey, under shirts, knee warmers, booties... the list goes on, one whole extra bag! My shoes had to go into the bike box instead of the suite case. To top it all off I've got big ol' 35mm tires to handle the Pavé through the Arenberg Forest, whew! Summer road riding easier... I'd hate to have to pack a mountain bike.

First Group Ride of the Year

2011-03-19T21:16:00.003-04:00

We all got out for a ride, I left early with a couple at 9:00 and got in a good 89 kms. We all rode pretty good and hard it felt good.

Next week I'm off to Lille, France to work, watch the spring classics and ride my bike with my friends. I will be using the Blog to journal the trip and I will have photos to make it more fun to read.

Down for the count

2011-02-19T10:50:00.003-05:00

The last two weeks have been quite busy and hard so at night I've been too tired to get onto the trainer... and today I've got the lovely bug which has been going around... When your eyes hurt ya know your a bit under the weather... Better in February rather than when in Lilé!

Busy Work week

2011-02-12T12:41:00.002-05:00

Well, this week was quite busy with work and when I get home late after a long day of construction makes training hard or impossible. This was to be a third week kick-butt week, but now I need to make next week a "third week" then I can look forward to the following week being a recovery week... Getting ready for Lilé

But today I did my core work and rode the Sufferfest "Fight Club" Ooh I like the attacks. I've once again loaded the data up to Map My Ride where I've got a nice little training log and stored routes for the spring and summer rides.

Suffering to the Sufferfest

2011-02-05T16:12:00.004-05:00

Today's work out was my second week, of my second month of off-season training. So I wanted it to be difficult, I did my floor workouts in the morning while I did the laundry... I'll be sore from those! Then I put myself through "Downward Spiral" from the Sufferfest. I have the software which came with my bike computer but it's pretty basic so I've been recording all my workouts on MapMyRide and the amount of info in the computer is revealed... its much better and when it's a road ride and mapped I can see the climbs and know what's a CAT 5... pretty cool!

The "Brantford Boys (and Girls)" were out in -10°C and I just could not, I'll work in the cold but come the weekend I want to be fairly warm. I have moved my "Pain Chamber" out to the unheated sunroom but it has no wind and it is usually much warmer than outside, and after 60 minutes I can warm it up a bit. Last year I did not have an off-season training I just could not get into it, and I kind of sort of rode myself into shape. This year's going to be better I've got my off-season planed out and I am now at my halfway mark.

This year I need to remind myself why I ride, which is 1 Cor 9:24-27 which is the stem cap on my road bike, and I'm thinking of getting one for my cross bike to keep it foremost in my mind. I ride to win The Prize!

Best laid Plans of Mice and men

2011-02-02T17:35:00.003-05:00

Oh, how I dislike winter (almost said hate). I have been working my butt off to cover a miserable year in 2009... but in a month and one half I have an opportunity to work in Lile, France during Gent-Wevelgem, Flanders and Paris-Roubaix; so I have been on my trainer busting my butt twice a week on three week builds with one recovery week between.

Training's going well, yesterday I had to take my daughter to dance as it's between semesters and so there's no bus route from our house to the dance studio, I thought of going back to work and go late, as I KNEW there was a storm coming today... Well, I came home and did my trainer work-out got up this a.m. at 5:45 and, yep big snow storm. And I could not and still can not get my trailer down my street... I HOPE I CAN tomorrow. Which means I could have been well rested and done a complete bust my butt trainer ride...

I have to work and finish this job to get bills paid, but since 2009 I've taken Dave Ramsey's course on Financial Peace, I don't agree with all he says' sounds a little prosperity gospel to me but budgeting no credit, no loans etc. Does! He does mention God owns a cattle on a thousand hills, but I've taken Matt 10:29-31 as my verse for my business and when I'm not sure how everything's going to get covered a job "pops" up and I get by... Once everything is paid off and creditors are no more, as the economy is turning around here then it will be easier... But I do have to remember to trust God for all my needs...

Recovery Week

2011-01-18T22:12:00.001-05:00

Recovery weeks are sometimes the hardest weeks of all. Just having to spin, and stretch. It's all about those cool Sufferfest video's which are exciting but too upper end for recovery.

Trying to dress this up

2011-01-08T13:15:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to figure out how to post my mapped walks and rides. The garmin gives some nice data.

Anyhow, just getting on the trainer two to three times a week and some core work is going to be my goal this off-season. I've got a business that requires me! and I've got to get completely out of the woods from 2009, cause if we end up with another recession I'm going to be ready for it (OR to retire one day before I'm 80.)

Dawg Walking and Garmin

2011-01-02T18:02:00.001-05:00

Dawg Walk Perched Fen

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Brantford, ON

This is more of a test of the program and showing map my rides. or map my dawg walks

2011 New Years Ride

2011-01-02T12:57:00.004-05:00

OK so back at it. This year I am going to try to blog again. I'm going to try and "map my rides" for this too and use it as my journal. The first ride of the year was warm that would be 10°C and Rain... What weird weather for Brantford winter. Below is the link of our map from the Garmin of where we went. That garmin is pretty cool, I got it primarily to replace my Polar which was not so good but went for "bin fodder" this summer and I wanted to tack my metrics. For that alone its a little pricey but when you can see where you've gone and check out the hills and google earth the rides, it's pretty cool.

How to get started again...

2010-01-18T12:46:00.002-05:00

I have to say that Sufferfest is a lot of fun, but I like to know what I'm doing and Graeme's Cyclo-SPIN 9 is a kicker. This year has been a tough one to start. Last year I had a lot of stuff that happened (broken collar bone for one in my best year yet).

Any how, I did Graeme's SPIN 9, and boy I can feel it still cooking away at my body which prompted me to write this blog. I've let my metabolism go into a lull and boy it feels great to have it firing up. If you've never looked at his stuff he has a bit of a different approach than may others... Though it seems that a few are starting to issue out "new" ideas that seem to be what I've been doing with Cyclo-CORE/CLUB since 2004.

Now to get this stupid Polar software to work!

New Years Day Ride

2010-01-02T12:21:00.004-05:00

Snow, Rail Trail, and Friends... Can't ask for a better way to start the YEAR! We had two rides this year... Three of us headed out at 10:00 a.m. as we had stuff to do during the day. The rest headed out at Noon. We were back by noon and had coffee with the guys before they headed out. This is a running tradition for me since I moved to Southern Ontario in 1995!

Today, was sunny but very cold and I began my off-season training, by busting my gut on Cyclo-CORE & Cyclo-ZEN (UGH!) I then went on the trainer and did a technique based trainer ride with the MP3 Plugged into my ears... dreaming of winning the Westover Race and getting through the Mudshoot at the P2A.

The Sufferfest had a challenge to ride the two new training rides back to back.... but that was going to just kill me and it's still very early in the season so reason won over the challenge today!

Where Oh Where did my Core go?

2009-12-28T13:46:00.002-05:00

I just did the Cyclo-SPEED Aero Ab Blaster and Cyclo-CLIMB. Boy in just a month and a bit, that workout got hard... I still love the cyclo climb, I took it easier than what I normally do and worked on keeping the 80rpm, We are supposed to focus upon our technique not our VO2 Max in the off season.

Now to decide if I want to do the New Year's Eve Cross Race... Anyone want to go?

Off Season

2009-12-27T14:18:00.002-05:00

OK. I've gotten on the trainer about once a week and hard this off season so far. But I don't have any real plan set up for training yet.

I know my core is wishing for a little more work and a lot less Christmas goodies. I really like Graeme's Cyclo-SPEED core blaster. The power wheel can make those abs hurt. I think my fitness has not slipped too far, but the need to get my off season plan started is beginning to rear its head. I know that I'm enjoying the Sufferfest video's, they are different that most anything else out there and feel less like a work out. The Cyclo-SPINS are focused and very very good to get one focused on training schemes.

I've ridden the trainer once this week... UGH

2009-12-06T21:34:00.002-05:00

But someone sent me this YouTube... Monty Python makes it all good... Till tomorrow a.m. when I need to get some core work done.

Bike Commuting

2009-11-22T09:04:00.003-05:00

We are on the one car experiment. And I am getting more and more conscious of how much junk and pollution we throw or belch (via our autos) into the air.

The abusurdity of North America and autos, the Cash for Clunkers in the US the largest majority of trade-ins were Ford F-150 FOR... Ford F-150's for the total savings of 1 m.p.g. I have a 2003 GMC Pick-up which pulls my work trailer, would love to have a more economical Sprinter Van. That aside, the 2003 Pick-up is smaller than than the new GMC pickups by about 4" and a good 10" smaller than the new F-150's I'm comparing 2WD's only. The 4WD's are considerably larger. Why? Up here in Canada everyone's so politically correct sounding, BULL Canadians are just as Red Neck, prejudice and wanting to be Macho as Americas... NOW don't get me started on SUV's They are ABSURD! and the largest majority of the drivers DO NOT know how to drive such a large vehicle.

OK... Onto bike commuting. I logged in 50 kms. this week commuting, most trips 5 kms or less one way (all destination stops). I saw, and I've got to find the research or I'm going to do the math, that everytime you start your car it costs $35-$50 then add the fuel, and at 5 kms city driving, and I hit all the lights red, fuel economy is low. Math says I saved myself $350, not immediate savings as part of that calculaion is tire wear, oil, etc. Plus immediately about $10 in fuel. I'm spending this winter about $35 to re-cable the old red commuter, and looking into getting a trailer to get groceries and other consumables... What about showing up at a customers house ready to trim the house with a chop-saw on the back of a bike? I don't think the guide-rails would fit, but other tools would... Hmm...

I think I may find an alley here in Brantford, have a cameraman walk right in front of me while I rant waving my hands right in front of the camera and make Dramatic sharp turns...
The write a book titled "A Book, about stuff" NOT that I would be copying anyone in particular...

Wayyy behind in posting

2009-11-11T11:18:00.002-05:00

I'm way behind in posting, I raced Cross this fall, and that kept me busy. But The off-season's coming. Cyclo-CORE has new Spin Classes and The Sufferfest is HD this year.

The Ride for Refugees

2009-09-27T18:45:00.002-04:00

I am planing on doing The Ride for Refugees next weekend October 3rd, and currently I'm looking for sponsors! This raises money for International Teams which in turn supports and helps relocate refugees around the world. I have participated in this the last two years and have enjoyed the ability to use something I love to raise funds for something so important that makes such a profound effect on people's lives.

I have raced the last two weekends and will be doing a write up on those later this week but with time and days short, I've got to get out and service and clean my cross bike tonight.

Cross Season starts WHEN!!???

2009-09-13T20:31:00.003-04:00

Well, this season crept up on me quickly! I have ridden my cross bike twice since the Paris to Ancaster (back in April), and both times have had problems with the rear derailleur, it was problematic in the P2A. So Saturday last week I took off the barcon and put on a 105 9-speed (if anyone has a 9-speed Dura-Ace or Ultregra, let me know) One week and counting. Monday I applied a fresh coat of Latex to my Grifo sew-ups made sure the glue was good FOUR Days to go.

The shifting was good on Saturday but I never adjusted the limits on the derailleur so on Tuesday night before I hoped to ride I worked on the bike and it was dark by the time it seemed OK THREE days to test ride left. Wednesday I went to Pairs Lions park and rode the "cross" course to practice turns and descents (my weakness). Shifting was jumping, so a friend let me barrow his XT rear TWO Days to test ride left. Thursday I put on the less used (never been in a cross race) XT rear and the shifting was nearly perfect, off to Paris Lions Park with tools in the car. Got the shifting smooth as silk. And I was going up the hill quite nicely and beginning to go much faster down the crappy sandy hill. ONE Day to clean and find all my cross paraphernalia (I have a big mean cow bell to be loud!). Friday night everything at the door, directions on the PDA to the More Cowbells Race, which is one of the few true Euro cross style races in Southern Ontario..

Saturday, up and coffee, run the dogs with the bike, back home have a protein shake, pack and leave by 9:00 a.m. ON the road the PDA has a Fatal error (2003-ish Palm) and I had to turn around turn on the computer and print out the directions...

I get to the race, go register, get my numbers, head back to the car pin on three number plates, change inflate tires to 40 psi (seemed a good starting place). and off to the course, rode around about half of it and then off the start line as I see everyone already there! (No real warm up).

Get a poor start, and figure OK I can get warmed up and catch back up and at least get through most the field... First 180 corner I roll my rear tire... snap it back on, the guy in front of me wipes out and I squeak past him. Next corner is 180 so I don't pile around, and of course everyone's been MTB Racing so I'm off the back again. Catch up and another 180, caution again because of rear off goes the pack... OK I'll catch everyone on the strait a ways get ahead and then drop down a bit in the zig-zags... I do pretty good on the technical bit but I'm not warmed up and I don't even feel like I'm racing. I can pull right up to the pack pretty easly but the motor just in warm up mode. This goes through the end of the first lap on through the second lap. Right after the lap mark is a double barricade, and on the third lap I remounted and bounced back on the saddle, and rolled the rear tire completely off... OK I'm not going to get into the pack and take out anyone just take out stragglers. I'm now on a training ride. Lap 3, 4, 5 I'm riding around and on lap six I felt the motor kick in and then I was getting upset I could not hit the corners hard but I flew on the strait a ways. I had no intention of being Lapped if I felt this good, rear tire rolling or not. I ended up not getting lapped 17/20 (w/ one DNF). After the race I felt like I was just ready to start (with fresh wheels of course!). ARGH!!!

I got home and took the Tires off, and cleaned the rims, with lacquer thinner, and went to bed with a headache! Monday I'm buying a can of Victoria glue tomorrow and I do believe I'm going to be doing Tubular Gluing the Belgian Way.

Next week I'm headed for the podium... at the Valley Park Cross Race. I like this race but they seem to put out barricades everywhere, I think every club member makes one and they use them. It won't be easy seems a lot of M1's are racing M2 this year, but that did not seem to stop me last year.

Just a note on Tubular glue, its not what it used to be. I had a pair of wheels in the basement which I took off 25 year old tires about 5 years ago and I had a hard time, my other cross wheels which I glued up two years ago and inadvertently left a home, the tires came off like they weren't even glued on. SO Note to self, next year reglue tires, before first cross race!

The First Annual End of Summer Brantford Century

2009-09-02T09:06:00.003-04:00

Have you ever tried to organize a group of human beings? Fathers, spouses, shift-workers, and on and on... (we at this time only have one woman that rides with us). We finally chose a date, of August 29th, with no rain date as I was the organizer and I want to race cross and it's coming up on the 12th of September!

Back to the Century. Our group has developed quite the spectrum of riders who are in shape and fast to those who are not, so we have been riding to Roberts Rules of Riding... Robert is one of the riders who has been cycling as long as I have been but been constantly racing, he lives by the bike almost. RRR states that the first forty-five to hour is to stay together and then "fast guys" can take off. We have discovered Map my Ride and now people are mapping rides with a longer and often more challenging ride, and a shorter version which often cuts off at around the hour mark, for the Saturday and Sunday rides. Everyone's been happy. So I mapped two rides out one was the almost Metric Century which in reality had some pretty good hills on it, oops. and the Imperial Century or for the pure Canadians in my group a plain ol' 162 km ride.

Day before the ride, Thunderstorms! all night long, that morning at 8:00 gray and questionable... what the hell, it's taken all summer to plan this and darn if I'm letting the opportunity slide and if does rain, we can bail. Everyone showed up... but only four w/ bikes and a ready to ride, one of them was on his cross w/road wheels and going to cut off a the shorter version... So out we went in the rain with possibility of thunderstorms, what were we thinking? On the hills we went strong and Robert (of RRR fame) spoke to all that not to get near your LT! around in the wet we went all feeling great, it was nice and cool and little wind, with light rain, no real sign of thunderstorms. We dropped off Andrew on the"almost metric" and the sun just creeped out, Jacques phones and says he is going to meet us on the road, which after more than a few phone calls and Jacques zig zagging trying to get us we connected in a town called Harley (we always end up there for some reason), I missed a turn and we ended up riding this route instead. By then the sun was out and it turned out to be a FANTASTIC day.

The only thing of this ride is of the three of us who did the full century, Robert bonked or got sick and was one sad kitten and had to be pulled in... Now he's had been out for the last two years with a major break in his leg with an on going saga of infections etc. So for the fact he is able to ride and is back racing all is good. Despite this we hit kilometer 162 (which is 100 miles) at 4:58, and that was one of the desires was to do this in 5 hours. We could have done it in about 4:35/4:40 if all had gone well. I ended up with 180kms. under my belt and felt I could have kept going, as could have Randy the other one of the three, last night Jacques was kicking himself because for his 110km jaunt around he felt fantastic and wished he had just faced the rain and rode.

What did I do for fuel? Well, last year I had a couple bottles of Hammer Heed and a 6 hour bottle of Perpetuem, but for some reason Hammer Nutrition is not being that well distributed up here and I was not going to make a special trip to the one bike shop I knew had the product. So I took and mixed 1-1/2 scoop of whey protein, six E-Load electrolyte "portions" (Just and aside E-Load is now a sponsor of my friend who is a very fast and good marathoner), and about a teaspoonish of Glutamine (Graeme suggested it for winter training to keep the mind clear in the 1hr spin classes)... It did not taste too good but I felt great and I felt like I was well fueled. I also had my Hammer Gel as needed.

It turned out to be a great day and it is always great to get a goal accomplished!

Tegaderm and Funny Video

2009-08-14T09:20:00.003-04:00

Well, the plain old Manila Tegaderm patch was quite nice, on the road rash on my shoulder and hip, they sat there for the allotted seven days, rather than a new bandage every day. It kept the "goo" from soaking through my cloths, I had a "window" to look at the wound and see that it was healing well AND it's a lot more cost effective! Learn something new every day... If it was bad, I would have gone with the fancier pads.

Just a reminder when your in the slumps, or trying to get in something before the hectic day starts Greame's Cyclo-IN-5' series are the ideal... Just ended up doing a mix of 4 this morning hitting some specifically needed area's as Cross Season is JUST ONE MONTH AWAY. I've got to get on my cross bike YIKES!

Here is a YouTube Video that will help your Performance! It's not me now that I've got my carbon Bling machine.

Road Rash and a new Discovery

2009-08-02T14:15:00.003-04:00

Well, our roads are just falling apart in Southern Ontario. I was going around a corner quickly which I've gone around a dozen times this summer... But there was a pot hole, and it popped my front wheel; and I got Road Rash. Nothing bad, fixed the flat and went home.

I went to my LBS to get a new tube and bar tape. Jeff "the mechanic" (he has no last name... LOL) told me about Tegaderm Hydrocolloid, I just got the Tegaderm film which is about a third of the price as the ones with Hydrocolloid. These are thin films which let the air and moister get out, keep out bacteria. I did get one with a pad for my shoulder which is still oozing. There is a pharmacy in town which sells fancy bandages by ones'. In Canada the one with Hydrocolliod in a 4" x 4 3/4" was about $7.00 (I did not see it at the store), the plain Jane was $1.60. My wounds are not that deep, I think the Hydrocolliod is for deeper, but not too deep. It was a bike shop guy who told me, and the pharmacist (I assume that's what he was) was not too knowledgeable on Road Rash and the Hydrocolloid pads. I Googled it and got a bit more info.

I now have a thin film on my butt and shoulder and they are flexible and are not curling on my undies or shirt. I'll keep you posted on how much quicker I heal (I have two scratches on my knee, one covered and one open).

FCA Video, This is just cool.

2009-07-29T06:36:00.001-04:00

Peace in the Pelaton

2009-07-26T08:39:00.005-04:00

With the Tour doing Mont Vontoux yesterday, even with looming rain clouds one needs to get out and ride. This was a really good ride. As I've gotten more specific on training, and hence faster, some guys just ride. Never mind we are all getting older. Today was absolutly fantastic Greg and I met at the local coffee shop. Rode the first hour chatting with everyone, and when we turned to the hills, they headed home. Great guys, and to be able to have an understanding that we want to ride hard, and also visit and chat... All sorts of warm fuzzies guys' aren't supposed to have.

I had on my very cool FCA Endurance jersey and when work picks up again I'm ordering the shorts (gotta look good). We finished up by stopping at another coffee shop and had a double espresso and cheese fritter (not true recovery fuel, but hey once and a while).

I'm playing around with Map My Ride... not willing to pay for the bouncing around it does, I assume it'll get better but it is a pretty cool way to share a ride.

Not Racing this Weekend.

2009-07-23T21:16:00.004-04:00

OK so I'm wimping out of racing this year, that road is hard, the weather is wet and I can't afford to break it on Sunday and fix it on Monday (old school racing rule taught to me by my "guru" back in the '80's). But I entered map my ride w/ the Tour this week... and the site's pretty cool and I rode the course to make my final decision. This is it, easy but rain and a down hill finish.

I only rode the course three times, the race is 8 times. I "Mapped" the ride three times instead of one for the Tour competition.

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/canada/on/burlington/114124839765690395"&amp;gt;07/23/2009 Route Provential Road Cors.&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/canada/on/burlington"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Burlington, Ontario&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Le Tour

2009-07-21T17:38:00.003-04:00

I've been busy watching the Tour, and I've come to the conclusion that I could make one stage with the pelaton IF (and a big IF) I had two days rest before and a week recovery afterward.

They have been showing the power output and HR on the climbs. I have figured that I could do what they have, sitting in the pelaton, not doing any work. BUT these guys are doing day in and day out. So don't look for me to be in the pro pelaton anytime soon... Darn my hopes of a come back are shot.

On a more realistic note, the Provencal road race is this Sunday. It would appear the finish is down hill, but I think that it will finish fragmented, and I can stay up towards the front. The big concern is the weather, rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast. This summer if there has been a rain forecast it has rained. Riding with buddies in the rain is good, as you almost have every move they will do memorized, racing with a bunch of older guys, in the pouring rain stoked on watching the Tour for three weeks... Priceless. I have a lot of reserve on racing in such a race... especially after some of those pro's have taken nasty spills.

Power to the People or at least ME!

2009-07-01T11:26:00.005-04:00

A friend of my wanted to know my power output, so he let me borrow his Power Tap.

To do this I figured I wanted to get a good hard work out. Days are longer so I took a good long warm up and rode out to my favorite hill ride. I did 3x z4 8' up and over hill repeats (this hill climb takes me about 4.5 to 5 minutes to get to the top then a false flat and then down on the "ridge" so it's a climb and a true interval effort. I finished up going home via "Old Ancaster Road" a nice winding hilly road.

Results my climb was at 425 for the 4.5 minutes except the little dip on the climb, so I should go easier at the beginning ride harder at the "dip" and then back at it, and I would climb the hill faster. Then on the last 3.5 of the interval I dropped to 300. My HR stayed at a constant upper end of z4 moving +- 2 beats. On Old Ancaster at the really good climb part I had 650 for 2 minutes, HR in z5 I just wanted to see how much power output I had on that route.

What do I think of power? at about $1200 its expensive training tool. Would I like to train with power? Yes, if the price comes down, I can get my hands on a wired used unit, or my business just takes off (see NEW website below) and I have disposable income. All that said and done, HR training using the tried and true build method with recovery periods has put me at the top of my game.

I like being Chunky

2009-06-14T16:49:00.004-04:00

Last year in Cyclo-Club Josh introduced Chunk Riding (I think it was alos mentioned on a CD in SPEED when, but I don't recall that one as well), I put the idea on the back burner as I had some pretty short times to train. This summer, I'm less busy, and when the weather's warm (not too often so far) I want to spend a little longer on the bike.

So Tuesday night I knew I wanted to do something w/ hills and my favorite hill interval takes 30 minutes drive to get to (which cuts into riding time). So I picked a ride with a lot of rollers, now I should mention I tried a shorter version the Tuesday before but I was way too tired from work and I was not dressed warm enough, so this week I made sure I had my leg mojo on (Sports Blam) so I would not wimp out. I took a nice long warm-up to get to the really good rollers, and did 3x 10' z4 rollers (10'); then rode through a couple of the nice little towns in Southern Ontario, and got headed in the direction of home, and did one big massive flatish road 20' z4 interval, and then cooled down for 25' on the way home. So I had an 80 km ride that was very enjoyable and was a fantastic workout.

NOW I do wish I could sound like a Cyclo-CLUB fanatic and tell you all that I did COOL in 5' when I got home, but "My Bad." I did do my SPEED AB work out and BREATH on Wednesday a.m.

Saturday's group ride I rode a few Massive effort chunks and made everyone wounder what the heck I was on.

SO, I'm training a little less structured this summer than the past two but I'm defiantly stronger, never mind add in the new (to me) bike and not many people can keep up with me... Oh I love going FAST!!!!

My Road Bike

2009-06-08T21:03:00.006-04:00

With this year not working too well as far as getting work, I bartered for a very nice 3 year-old bike. I like it a lot. I wanted to race some more but that's money spent on entry fees and on travel, the closer races I could do are just a little boring, a 17 lap "road-Crit" I did crits when I was twenty, I won Crits then, I want longer loops, some kind of strategy. Not offered in Southern Ontario w/o travel and over nighters. May be next year.

The bike... a Specialzed Tarmac S-works. It's sweet w/ 404 Zipps. I plan on a pair of Nuvations when work picks up once again. It helps me beat the snot out of my friends. (along with a few hill intervals, CORE work, and staying on FUEL!)

Not so Good things

2009-05-23T20:47:00.004-04:00

Today we rode HARD. This was one of those rides which is almost harder than a race. On our last 10 kms of 120 kms Greg touched my wheel... rode for he thinks about 2 m trying to get straight then went down hard, and broke his clavicle, and trashed his knees (they look bad). This took place doing between 45-50 kms/hr so it was that kind of hard. One nice thing about breaking my clavicle in a Cross race is the grass stains washed out of my jersey...

The next bad thing is the guy behind him went down too, and thought all he got was a red mark on his leg from the wheel, tonight his wrist is swollen. They were both in a pile when we turned around. Its one thing to see the pro's go down but when its in real life and your buddies its not good.

Today could have been one of those days you talk about for a week feeling good about yourself, now its "The Ride" where Greg has been installed into the "I broke my clavicle while riding club".

May 17th Race

2009-05-09T13:26:00.002-04:00

I've been busy with work and even a bit of training. Next week is the Niagara classic, with the dreaded Effingham hill. My race is 6 laps for a total of some 75 kms. I've been training like a mad man, I'll save the total details but z4 Hill repeats have been one biggie. I've included what I think is from Map my Ride elevation from the race PDF, and from my Polar "the Hill" itself. Last Saturday I was able to pull away from everyone... several guys were out preriding the course. I will have a race report next week. I might even get photos of my bike in there too.

Getting Ready for the next Race

2009-04-26T18:07:00.002-04:00

I began Monday a.m. Cyclo-ZEN 30' Recovery Yoga to get the stiffness out of the Paris to Ancaster mud, and final 2.5km feared "climb".

Tuesday morning I started the day with SPEED-Ab Blaster (I always do this at least once a week) and as the day cleared I tossed out my trainer ride and did 4x z4 Sydenham Hill (8'). Whew.

Thursday a.m. I began the day with 3x ZEN 8' Power Routine, and finished off the morning with IN 5' Loose. Then in the evening I was going to do SPIN class #7 that night but it was warm and nice and I fired up the BBQ and had Steak, potatoes, green Beans and a BEER (YUMMY)

Friday Morning I knew I wanted that SPIN Class #7 under my belt and did it. NOW so far this week I've not felt tired and have slept well and recovered well.

So Saturday morning was planned a group ride and these tend to be "moderate" Phtt. not this morning, the weather was warm (first day w/o arm warmers, wooly booly's, beanie or anything else to keep me warm. But the WIND. I pounded the peddles... we lost two, and on the way back with a tail wind my friend had to have me give a 5' breather so everyone could recover... I came home and realized I was tired! I did a myofacial release that night and this morning I still woke up stiff and did my ZEN 30' Recovery Yoga. Tomorrow's off the bike, just abs work, then on again Tuesday!

Paris to Ancaster

2009-04-20T10:43:00.004-04:00

We had a COLD & WINDY ride. I had on three layers on top and my leg mojo to keep them warm. I ended up getting bumped back 20 (121/1315) places from last year overall, and then remained the same place in my age group which is 33/361. With that I did finish with or ahead of my fellwo M2 category crossers and rodies. Lots of new young bucks I guess. I love cross but I sure rode the mud sections poorly. That being said, I had not ridden off-road since my broken collar bone last fall, and I did not set up the bike for riding the race till Thursday night.

My good training buddy Greg is just behind me there in the blue. We converted his road bike to handle the course, he ended up getting stuck in the mud toward the end; but I think I've convinced him that he should get a cross bike and possibly do some racing this year.

Well, a friend sent me a connection to a video of the 2008 P2A at the Powerline mudslide, I'm at 3:23. It was muddier this year and I had a nice little endo going down.

BTW this morning started off with Cyclo-ZEN 30' Recovery Yoga so I could get some of that stiffness out of my body.

I am Specalized

2009-04-13T13:29:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I bought a used '06 S-Works Tarmac (photos to follow), and I raced it in the Good Friday Road Race. My first road race in 23 years, out of 78 riders, I was chasing the 3 in the break in the main pack, I ended up letting myself get boxed in and finished 21 st, 1 min behind the break. I'm ready for more road racing, only one per month, too much time and effort otherwise.

Work is going well, and I've been busy so the blog suffers. I'm hoping for race photos to show up somewhere, lots of people were taking picks, otherwise I'll just post a bike photo.

The "New" Club

2009-03-24T21:10:00.002-04:00

The 7 Day training plans have now given me the freedom to do what I've been doing for the last couple of years. I have been faithfully writing out each week of the Intermediate Training plan down and only getting 1/3rd done. So this week I wrote out the 1/3rd of the workouts, with a few indoor options as its still March and cold.

This is good. Tonight with cold weather 1°C with a strong head wind 27 km/hr ave. going out, 45 km/hr ave. coming home. I got in my two 15 minute zone 4 intervals. whew... I'm ready for summer, warmth, and a lot less clothing!

Neuro "break-outs"

2009-03-21T18:46:00.002-04:00

Last year I did not always use the Neuro workouts, I thought a good hard workout is way more important. UNTIL my dad was up visiting when I have the Texas Bar-B-Q (Second weekend in September, right before cross), and I have to watch the smoker all day long, so I had a Neuro/Cyclo-CLIMB day. Well, was he impressed about the whole Neuro workout, I did the Warm-up, Climb, then 3 sets of 8' ZEN and then SPEED 4, and finally finihsed with the Gauntlet.

Well, dad was impressed, he is a M.D. and reads a lot, and he read a study done on people who have done "ballancing" tasks during their life and how much mentaly healthier they were, and the had exersize recomendations (not as exahustive) to do. He could not say enough good words about that workout routine.

That said, today when it was cold out, rather than bundiling up and just riding, or doing Spin class #7, I did my week 1 of Build Neuro workout, and used my rollers for the cycling section to make me that much smoother and "more in touch". Good ride, and I can stand out of the saddle on the rollers now for 40"!

First Day of Spring

2009-03-20T19:55:00.002-04:00

A fellow Blogger on my follow links Ride Blessed is a bit of a science geek, and she admits it, I love her post as I have an engineering degree and it's right up my alley. But also having a Master in Divinity I've been working on a theological blog on why I ride. In the end all that aside, I've also got three dogs. I came home today from work and they were WIDE EYED AND TOO BUSY TAILED! I took them out for a Long walk! tonight they are laying around the house tired, I love being tired on Saturday nights, when I can just lay down to bed and SLEEP through the night because I'm tired from riding like a mad man in the morning.

End of Fat-Loss

2009-03-16T09:05:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm rebooted and considering if I weigh myself through out the day my weight fluctuates by almost 6 lbs. I'm guessing I've lost 3-4 pounds of the unwanted stuff. This a.m. after coffee, water, and a recovery stretch 178.6 lbs
By following the Hammer Nutrition riding protocol I would weigh in at 177-8 lbs ready to race. Which is VERY good given I've got 5 weeks before P2A, which is an A-Race.

On to real work...

Fat Loss Boot Camp Day 1

2009-03-09T20:29:00.002-04:00

It seems the disk is full over at Cyclo-Club, too many people trying to get into the best shape possible, Graeme's becoming the new "Jack O'Lane"

For my Fat-Loss week I chose to do the Cyclo-SPIN 5 to try and test my LT/Zone 4. The first time I thought it was just a Zone 4 workout, this time I went back and did the testing again.

With such a short warm up my first round is just the warm up, the second one was "OK" I thought my LT was around 171-2. on the second run, never felt like I was going to get in trouble, nor did I ever feel I was pushing that hard, I was 1 minute behind Graeme on the second round and two bpm below him. My uncertainty is either:
1.) I'm so used to thrashing my body I don't feel trashed out,
2.) my LT is higher than I think and I should try to "pop" during the test...

So to date I don't know if I'm doing this class right or wrong.

Day one done on the Fat Loss Bootcamp.... Frustrated.

A change is a coming

2009-03-08T14:20:00.004-04:00

I just made my first "formal" training plan for the new season.

This week is going to be a Fat Loss week. I went to the boot camp Advanced and its "kicked up a notch" from the Cyclo-FUEL plan. Food still the same. I should have expected this when Graeme said the Spin #5 would make a great day 1 workout, and since I did not understand that it was to be the upper end of z4 not a z4 "training" class I haven't gotten a good maker yet. Tomorrow morning, first thing after doggies been fed. The labs will behave I hope Miss Mai (Elli-Maihem) will. See above when she got in the garden last summer. Back to training... This will lead up to the Following week beginning Build.

All that in anticipation of the Paris to Ancaster which is more than a month away. I have set my goal very high in lew of last falls success in Cross (san broken bones), and I'm feeling what Cyclindad felt this morning already. I was 109th with the wrong gearing and a slow start, I had to run the whole of the final hill (not good it is ridable, especially with the new 11-32 cassette I have. and slow running for me). My goal is to get into the top 50 that's 10 minutes off of last years time, no mistakes, no mechanicals, and a better mindset than what I have today...

You CAN NOT do a recovery ride with the "Guys"

2009-03-07T12:15:00.002-05:00

Second day outside riding. Yesterday Greg and I went in the afternoon, sun cool but still nice. When I ride with him, he's just happy to be on the bike, kindred spirit there. So I was able to pace myself up the rollers rather than pound them. He's going to be a force to recon with this summer, he was smoooooth going up the hills.

Today was the first coffee shop ride with the "Brantford Boys." Ah... Ed N. I know better, but I started out keeping up and then told my self, NO NO NO, the Paris to Ancaster is far more important than being up front "where I belong" so I dropped two zones and flew off the back, and did quite nice. The irony is a was not much more than a minute behind the guys back to the coffee shop.

Now in November, I got a pair of Ironclad Cold Condition Gloves from Cyclo-Club and Josh. Yester day it was +14°C and the gloves were good, and comfortable. Today it was +3°C and I have come to the conclusion that an Origon Winter is a lot warmer than a Southern Ontario Spring. My hands were sore, I was cursing, they hurt so bad (they still hurt). Now in the fall at +3°C they would be great, but the grounds still frozen and ice is still in the woods so the wind is cold plus it was wet out there today.

Time for Recovery

2009-03-02T08:17:00.002-05:00

On Saturday I finished a pounding on the rollers, I managed to stand out of the saddle for the first time ever! Last week was my last pounding week of the official "off-Season".

Saturday night I did the full Spa treatment to get all the garbage out of my legs, and boy I was amazed how good my legs felt afterward. Sunday I did Kates ZEN-30' Recovery Yoga. Today I plan to do Cyclo-ZEN Fix the Back Flexibility. Any time on the bike/trainer/rollers will be a z1-z2 easy spin!

This weekend is supposed to be +9°C! Which means a nice ride outside. Next week my desire is to to the Fat-Loss boot camp, to drop just a bit, and get ready for a build session and the first two races of the year. I think I'm going to start racing some road again this year (after 20 year absence from it).

Beans, beans good for your heart...

2009-02-26T08:28:00.003-05:00

Thought I would share a recipe which the whole family liked (there have been others, some good, some bad, but these are the ones the family eats). I've been getting my bean recipes from the book Full of Beans by Violet Currie, and Kay Spicer. The link will take you to Amazon.ca (.com might have it, its a Canadian publication). Great book tones of bean recipes, some deserts too, bean flour and all. They have all nutritional info for each recipe, and many are marked gluten-free.

Beans 'n' Rice

beans, main dish, Rice

1 tsp canola oil
1 onion; chopped
1 clove garlic; chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp celery seed
114 tsp black pepper; freshly ground
1 can (19 oz) tomatoes
2 cups red kidney beans; cooked
1 cup brown rice; or white, cooked
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 green sweet pepper; chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cheddar cheese; shredded
fresh cilantro; chopped or parsley

- In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; cook onion and garlic,
stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onion is translucent. Stir in
chili powder, cumin, celery seed and pepper; cook for 1 minute.
- Add tomatoes, beans, rice and Worcestershire sauce; stir well. Bring to
boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until most of the
liquid evaporates.
- Stir in green pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes or until heated through.
Season to taste with salt.
- Garnish each serving with cheese and cilantro.

VARIATION:
CUBAN BEANS & RICE
(sometimes called Moors & Christians)
- In place of kidney beans, use 2 cups (500 mL) cooked black beans.

Notes: Full of Beans, 95

Yield: 6 servings

One day its going to be warm

2009-02-23T21:31:00.000-05:00

This winter is just giving more joy. Snow yesterday morning and COLD today. One of my riding buddies had a set of Aluminum milled rollers he does not use.... So next Saturday I'm going to tackle the Sufferfest 5 and I watched the whole thing last night... I was up a little later than I wanted, old school footage.

I have been enjoying the IN 5' series, as they can be pieced together and make a good 10' warm up and cool down. The Sufferfest does not teach you anything but pain... I know what I need in warm up and cool down. I then grabbed my foam roller afterward and worked out all the nasty bits.

There is HOPE of spring as I'm being asked by several of the gentry class who now have bought cross bikes and would like to race in the Paris to Ancaster Race this spring. This race has become HUGE, and it's a lot of fun. Here in Southern Ontario when you buy a cross bike you have to sign a waiver saying that once in the bikes life it will ride in the race... So when the trails melt, and turn to globs of mud, I'll take them on the 60km tour over a two week period. Most years it drys out by race day, but even up to the week before its a mess.

I need warm weather!

2009-02-21T13:46:00.001-05:00

Well, I broke my 20 year old rollers today... so trainer only to the end of this cold weather... What a winter so far...

Some workouts are better than others

2009-02-20T09:59:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been working in my office this week, and getting to watch the Tour of California. Boss does not mind ;)

I had planned to do Cyclo-SPIN 1 last night. I went down in the basement set up and had Cycling.tv open in one window and Graeme in the other, I had to turn down Manguns and Marty. So I did my workout and did my best to "watch" the race. Anyhow the point of this post is when the final "push" from Graeme came and I'm hammering away, the sprinters are getting their leadouts and when Graeme said "ok cool down" Cavendish just went accross the line... Needless to say if I was there, I would have beeten Cavendish, NOT that I'm competitive and even a Video sprint can get me going that much harder or anything like that. :P

Riding outdoors

2009-02-18T09:46:00.003-05:00

Well, on Family Day (President's day in USA), I rode with my friend Greg. "Easy" in the cold weather. Road were clear, sun was shining, wind was blowing, and other than I had thin gloves on it was a beautiful day! Now as per last post I had pounded myself last week... and I think I was still in recovery. Greg just flew up the hills, and oh he looked good and smooth, he is going to be a force to recon with this season.

Then yesterday night I went down to the basement and did three (3) rounds of the ZEN 8' workout, followed up by SPEED Areo-Ab blaster. So now today is recovery and tomorrow will be an easier trainer workout.

Today is staying warm in my office quoting jobs, and staying out of the snow AGAIN.

Oh the Pain, don't ya love it.

2009-02-14T17:48:00.005-05:00

OK I've cheated on Graeme! I've been doing the spin class and enjoying this off-season as much as sitting in the laundry room pounding yourself can be "enjoyable". Well, this Friday I opened my Road Bike Rider weekly newsletter, now I've not read it in a few weeks, Though I always like "Scott's Spin". But this week they introduced a site with video workouts for free. He does ask if you download and use his workouts buy a mug or a shirt. It's a lot of you-tube footage, and older recordings, well done to proper tempo music

The Sufferfest and yes he lives up to it. They do not replace Cyclo-SPIN as the cyclo-spin is not only work-out but a technique class too, it takes the off-season plan to the next level. Any way back to the Sufferfest, I started with video 3 as the guy does stuff on the roller, wow, I can ride sitting up but I've never tried to get out of the saddle. I got out my rollers and did the 55 minute work out, and I used all the visulizations used in the spin classes, Waggon wheels, shoe scraper, knee thruster, and popcorn, and one test of the bull-whip. Three exhales to two inhales breathing, and just pulling my head up or pulling my body straight to maximize my breathing (which if you try these "sufferfests" you will need to maximize your breathing).

OH, I'm toast I started the day off with In 5' Breath, then In 5' Warm, finished the workout with In 5' cool, and being smart I got my protien drink and came back and got out my roller and did the myofascial release, and boy did I need it! I did the Spin class 4 Tuesday and Spin Class 3 Thurday, I had other workouts but for streching ZEN Power yoga on Friday.

I'm going to look for a benafactor, as my bike is just wore out! The #$@ front derailur won't always shift up, and on rollers it's a PITA.

Forget Lance, Eddy rules!

Spin Whipped

2009-02-10T21:29:00.002-05:00

Well, I did my month end books, met with my accountant and reviewed my Year end, And made a bogus trip to Toronto, thinking I was going to collect on a bad debt. So I was a wee bit stressed by the time I got home.

Cyclo-Spin 4! I did the 8' routine through twice and then Cyclo-SPEED Core this morning, and I had planed on blowing out anyhow, but after the stress of the day I ripped up the bike and my "cottage of wattage" is burned out... gone nada, just made it up the stairs... Which when spring comes (and we are getting teased this week), I'm going to be so ready to romp my friends.

I have been working on memorizing scripture, and I've started with 1 Corinthinans 9:24-27, now Paul refers to running not cycling (I'm a purest, I don't run), but still it has a great transfer for both the Christian walk and for training. I've posted the TPV (tuttle paraphrased version) before. I often get frustrated at "church" people who don't comit fully and do the "junk miles". Paul is calling on those people that it's just finishing but it is running to win. Serving God with everything. Study and pray till your Spiritual "cottage of wattage" is burned out, "can you feel it keep going, 5 more minutes"

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. ²⁷No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (1 Co 9:24). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.