Shaking head........

This time of year in a word...SUCKS for gaining momentuum with some outdoor rides. Generally, by this time, I have already been out on the Mt. BIke and reported that first glorious spring ride. With snow, rain, and generally cold weather and the fact that I have been driving quite a bit with work as of late....this hasn't happened. First week back from vacation also had an impact and a big bottle of 12 year Appelton rum was also beckoning me after some solid 4 hour driving days. Excuses...Excuses...time to get back on track

Big Dodgeball tourney today with Friends coming in to join us for this rather strange event today. Buddy bringing his bike with him so we can tinker in the garage as well while hydrating to Mr. Heinekin.....let's chalk this wknd up to a "let's go with the flow" kind of wknd.

Excited to update we have 6 now CONFIRMED for the 24....I won't be putting any more bugs in ears as 6 is perfect for a group 24. Really looking forward to this. It's early on a Saturday morning and my body feels like an old creaky screen door....most likely from doing close to NOTHING physical last week other than one spin class and a solid lawn raking session (this counts :). Next post should be interesting re Dodge ball tourney...can't take this serious...or should I?!?!?!

Whistler BABY!!

I like the fact that booking trips 6 months in advance serves to result in a slow burning fire of anticipation that builds with each passing month. It's official, some Downhilling in Whistler for September for a week with a good group of guys is a happenin'. Will enjoy renting downhill and xc rigs while there just to make this extra juicy.

5 members of have now registered under our team name, Quick Release for the Summer Solstice 24....with Weima yet to register....anticipate 6 and maybe 7 with JC on board! Looking forward to this. Garmin 705 with all the bells and whistles coming to door next week, compliments of Winston will make the occasional solo ride out and about Durham, Ganaraska etc..a little less daunting and doable ;)

So, punched in to the gym yesterday a.m. and did a spin class.....properly....watching HR and recovery. Appears a week in Jamaica EVEN with 4 workouts there, had an impact on my recovery rate....or...I could be borderline coming down with something...nonethless...adhered to parameters and didn't CRANK up the reistance past 15 on those spin bikes during intervals. MAN...can't wait to put Garmin data in here with REAL rides! 'till then:

1 hr 28 min
880 cal 40% fat
max 180 and avg 137 or 96 and 73%
Light: 35 min; Moderate: 13 min; Hard 33 min

SO....plan is still staying solid...trail pass in Kingston this year with mtbkingston to get some regular rides in locally, bike in van to enable the occasional meet up with boys in Durham for thursday (schedule permitting), and some exploring on the road bike with the new technology to come in mail :)))) Perhaps some lake placid, Kingdom trails weekend trips as well...why not? Overall summer experience looks like this....maintain "wakeboard champion" status at the cottage this summer (master a water and air 180 both reg and fakey), ride like the wind during training sessions, enter local Kingston Substance Projects marathon bike race, group 24 in Summer Solstice, and Paul's Dirty prior to setting up for some DH'in in WHISTLER BABY in Sept!!!!!!! I like the sound and look of this plan! Now...one more coffee and some dashboard time...Ottawa and region bound today!

Jamaica Mon!

First day back and watching the weather, anticipating a great day for a ride ;)

Spent the last week at Beaches Negril, Jamaica....what a spot!!!! A lot of eating, drinking, swimming, and chillaxin'...however, about to check the watch to confirm my either 3 or 4 days of working out while there. The gym there was absolutely PHENOMINAL!!! Brand spanking new with state of the art Life Fitness cardio in a separate room with another spacious room with dumbells, and Life Fitness strength machinines....specifically an adjustable pulley machine. Won't bore myself with the details of breaking down each day of workouts....nonetheless....ensured the body DIDN'T forget to get it's Workout ON!!

Stats:
March 18 (day after arrival) 10:07 am, 1 hr 33 min, 806 Cal 50% fat, Max 179 or 96% and Avg 129 or 69%

March 19 (calves KILLING me from new cardio old school crosstrainer vs CROSS RAMP i'm used to) 10:20 am, 1 hr 2 min, 478 cal 55% fat, max 152 or 81% avg 115 or 62%,

March 21 9:43 am, 1 hr 50 min (by far best workout of trip!) 1041 Cal 45% fat, max 173 or 93% and 129 avg or 69%,

March 23 9:09 am, forgot to stop watch sooooo 8 hr 52 min is a bit of a stretch...

Summary: 3 of 4 workouts consisted of 30 min Elliptical and then 30 min jogging on treadmill. 30-45 min strength training specifically geared towards shoulders, chest and back. Love the fact that I managed 4 sessions while AWAY!!!

Now the great news....received an email from a guy who knows his toys and plays extremely well about the fact he was unloading a Garmin 705 with all the goodies for an extremely reasonable price...Boom DONE! Should be getting this in the next couple of days. Bye Bye Polar bits and pieces...will sell this shit off on ebay etc and expect to see some more exciting links to Garmin routes etc in the near.

Plan....Let summer begin....regular rides will begin....shortly...no more trainer

Whipping not required

Early a.m. workout yesterday consisted of a solid hour of cardio with some intense interval runs on treadmill and finishing with some squats and hamstring curls to failure....well...failure without a spotter ;) No workout today as it is a "get my sh$& together" prior to departure for Jamaica for the next 7 days. There will be sessions done in the gym while there...can't go backwards now....

Slacking......HARD!!!

Workout tomorrow and Friday a.m. If this doesn't happen....I will drink a potion of a warm mustard solution and beat myself silly with a Sage Brush!!

First Road ride of 2012

Sunny and characteristically windy Kingston day brought on a gathering of three....Me Fil and Frank with the goal to test the legs. I equate the first road ride to that first time on the ice for hockey tryouts...deepdown...you know ya got "tha goods", but you still need to get through the first session to re-assure yourself that you haven't plummetted into a deep dark spiral of non-fitness

After trying to rustle Fil and his gear together in time to meet Frank, sometimes it's like herding cats, we met up with Franky at Timmies..he was looking borderlined panicked with cellphone in ear and the sound of Fil's phone ringing as we rolled up. The usual banter from Fil....MAN, you need to get a new bike...ME: Why? I'm still climbing hard and pulling harder and until you can consistently Kick my Ass on that Cervelo R3....there's just no need ;) Some subtle trash talking and we were off.

This ride was supposed to be mellow and we...mostly...kept the mellow in the equation. A RRRrripin' tailwind all the way out Hwy 2 was a pure lift. A left at Deer Ridge, a Left on Joyceville side road, right on middle (holy sh*& climb), a left onto 15 and a roll back into K-town clocks us in to just over 50 k. Headwind was borderline....INSANE from Deer Ridge home but pace was not the priority for this ride. All in all a glorious ride:

2 hr 10 min
1421 cal/45% from fat
Max 179 or 96% with Avg of 139 or 74%
Hard: 48 min; Light 37 min; Moderate 43 min

Now....to address cadence and avg speed....looks like I need to send back my watch...a good time to do this is when I'm in Jamaica in T-minus 5 DAYS!!!!!!!!! Great plan.

Jamaica just around the corner

Got our Saturday routine workout in...essentially beat the pulp outta myself on the treadmill after 30 min of the crossramp. Carried on with some dumbell bench press 40-45 lbs superset with single arm dumbell curls 30-35 lbs and finishing with some RC ex's....spent...30 min interval runs on treadmill with 5.4 mph/4 deg up to 6.8 mph/0 deg was a good sweatfest.

First road ride of 2012 happenin' tomorrow!!! Will keep it super mello and looking forward to assesing the new wheels. Stats for today:

1 hr 23 min
801 cal/50% from fat
max 162 or 87%
avg 130 or 70%
Light: 41 min
Moderater: 26 min
Hard 13 min

On a side.....just finishing book number 5 since getting my Kobo..."Power of Now"...great read ;) Good Ole Huxley and the "Island" will most likely be my book of choice while sipping jamaican rum in the near. A state of the art gym at Beaches Negril will have me pouring some sweat all over their floors...GUARANTEED!!!

SLACK'A'LACKIN'

Ahhhh this explains why I am feeling so lethargic this morning. Not that it's 5:30 am and I've been up since 4 compliments of my 3 yr old thrashing around in our bed once again...but the fact that I haven't been to the gym since MONDAY!!!!

We need to rectify this immediately. Plan...attend spin class and back to back CX core class! Saturday will be regular gig with wife and kiddies drop at gym and FIRST OUTDOOR RIDE OF THE SEASON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Dates for Moab/Utah are getting closer...hoping to secure these by end of day and submit that oh so important vacaaaay request! More coffee needed.

Oh yes...why has it been so long...Wednesday should have been a workout day..but was on the losing edge of a curb with the work van = punctured right rear tire/bent rim = van in shop for repairs until Thursday...today is Friday and the tides will now be in my favour!

Winter...Summer...WHEELS ARRIVED!!!

My Mavic Ksyrium Equipe's arrived via Canada Post today...always exciting. Will take pics of the new goods this wknd when I get a few seconds to make this happen. No time to play with them though as feeding kids and getting ready for hockey takes precedent. Workout this morning was pretty routine with a 40 minute run on treadmill while catching up on TSN bulletins and then meander over to squat rack and hamstring curls.

Feeling pretty solid with squats now. Warming up with 130lb for a slow 10 reps, holding at 90 degrees for a good 1-2 second before exploding up. Another set with 140 and third with 150 and finally returing to original for reps till failure...failure in that, without a spot, the last rep I felt I could get back to standing without being a scene failing to complete the rep ;) Given I weigh 155....need to get that squat weight up to 160 for reps...will choose to stay at this weight and focus on super slow eccentrics, static hold at end range and then explosive concentrics. Will bump this weight up next week...recalling the university years where I was squattting 205 for reps....

Getting closer to making a committment to the season. The question still stands...only event registered so far is the SS in a group. Need a good long road ride to make up my mind I think!

Change in plans...Hungover

Can't hang with our new neighbours......27 yrs old...made me feel real OLD..DOMS setting in from last couple of days...more coffee and remote control kinda day...now to grab me a kid to cuddle ;)

A Proper Spanking

It's Saturday, which means the routine of getting an early start and heading to the gym with the kiddies was once again...a successful mission. Had forgot that the day before a 2 hr routine of threshold spinning and core work was done...realized and was reminded during cardio sessions that included the usual Crossramp and jogging on the treadmill. Decided 45 min of cardio was enough...call it a recovery day and an arm workout followed.

Winds are wicked and threats of snow may result in some indoor spinning tomorrow. Fil transferred two coach troy vids onto this laptop...Hillicious and Muscle breakdown. I think Hillicious sounds like a pretty good cocktail...trying to recruit a couple others for the "ride"...looks like I'm doing this one solo...may just take the mt. bike out for a spin instead...road ride errr.

Beaten up by a plank!!

Back on track! Managed a spin class at the gym and then quickly followed with a CX class a.k.a planks, squats, lunges and crunches till all you can do is laugh and collapse into your own puddle of sweat!! Reflection...yeah yeah yeah...spin classes are not like the trainer...but man!!!! hit 99%!!!!! that can't be all bad Saturday morning, regular punch in with the wife and weather dependant.......well we'll just see. SSSSssssTATS: 1 hr 51 min 1224 cal/40% from fat max 186 or 99% (during spin) avg 139 or 74% Mod 25 min; Hard 42 min; Light 41 min Good news..just registered for the 24 hour summer solstice.....in team.....this should be a little different than battling the psyche solo...just need the rest of the boys to commit. A team of 6-8 is goal with 9 invited and 7 firmly committed (without paying...yet) Also...just checked ebay and Mavick Ksyiums Equip have cleared customs...should arrive early next week! Speaking of weeks....two more weeks until Jamaica baby!!!! So pale an so don't care ;)