A ride blog entry.....Finally?

A week went by and no quality time spent on the bike..actually...I don't think I've even swung a leg over a bike since coming back from Stowe?!?! It's that time of year....chilly, a trick to dress properly for a road ride...leafy, trails that were once etched in my deep psyche now a guessing game......and the thoughts of new sports to keep me wishing for different conditions. Yup, we're talking SNOW!!

I used to ski and longed for the opportunity to load up a car full of buddies and rip ANY ski hill....why has that gone to the wayside?!?!? Last couple of years has opened up the realm of XC skiing..I'm fully equipped to take advantage of those pristine moments this winter fo shore! It's time to season this winter out with some Downhilling. Wife and I both have skiis collecting dust in the basement...time to dust these puppies off and get back to basics of livin'.

SO!..goals are a taaaaad different now. Weather dependent.....get both kids shredding on some downhill skiis and introduce them to xc and snowshoeing. Have to get away with the wifey for at least ONE wknd of skiing..don't care where ;)

Spinning in the garage is really getting harder and harder to think of as an option this winter.......I'll think it over November

Oh yeah, rode my mountain bike today, it was fun, I was tentative due to conditions and this deeply seeded concern of racking up the right shoulder with a fall...need to hit the gym to instill some......confidence again ;)

2011 Recap

Hmmm in retrospec......Hmmmm again...

Started off with a freakin bang, spinning 3 or more times in my garage with the likes of Molly, Fil, Shawn, and occasionally Frank, Randal and Pat from December right into March. Fitness was a high and tested in SC early season. Everything looking good for a big year in results. An over the bar event has dented the psyche but am ok with results. Placed better in the summer 8, although cramped and had to pull the pin earlier than anticipated..came in 3rd in 24 hour solo with holding first place from 3 am until 9 am.....happy with that. Paul's dirty Enduro entry was humbling in the 60 k category but did it at 4 hr EVEN!! Next year a fo shore event and under 3.5 hrs ;)

Overall, my desire to enroll in solo events is.........shifting........looking for a more group entry for 24...enable more fun and less sufferring and a couple of trips. Where to is the question......been able to ride some sweet parts of North America and Europe through my drop in the bucket 39 years of life. I do know one thing....a family trip to Stowe in summer is a must. I just may not return ;)

Goals for upcoming season...picked up a set of waxless saloman skiis identical to my waxed version soooooooooo...ski my ass off. Get some downhill in and continue with running and hockey. Big goal is to get all three girls skiing this winter, both downhill and xc..In a nutshell....enjoy life man......enjoy life ;)

Arrived in Stowe

A very rainy drive in from K-town this aft to arrive at our destination, Stowe Vermont. Promises of pristine road and arduous climbs keep me anxiously searching the net for pics and videos of what will lay ahead for what looks like a late morning ride up through smugglers notch. Looking forward to it.

Tommy H has had a head start, as I see from his blog, and is also enjoying the sites and sounds with his lovely wife...myself....I am with Fil and our room is smelling of very incorrect scents and we haven't even ridden. Evening festivities started off with a drive through town, quickly establishing that this is a place to come back in winter.....lots of shops to keep Jac on her never ending quest for...things....Found a pizza/bar and chilled taking in the local scene. Decided to walk vs drive to a couple recommended pubs....Rusty Nail..dead and not worth the search.......rain beginning to melt Fil into a state of growing pessimism, we made the call to grab a bottle of vino and head back to dryer land. Resting up for what is sure to be a beauty road ride tomorrow....pics to follow.

Novelty still............novel

Another pre-work run done this a.m. through lemoines point. Feeling more natural, more comfortable and less painful. Big week of activity starting with today...run, tomorrow is first game/icetime, then Friday evening-Sunday riding around Stowe Vermont. Time for snow.........stats:

5.76 km
39 min
avg spd 6:52 min/km
Fastest k = 6 min 16 sec
slowest k = 8 min 5 sec (this is always a starting walk or cool down walk ;)

Shower, coffee, and visit to Ottawa for some work related biddness

Running on actual Trail with HILLS :)

Arrived to the Sistahs place Friday night and Saturday morning was shaping to be an absolute beauty. Brooklin, north of Whitby, is an absolute gem of a location for play. It appears they are close to durham forest, mosport, and a couple little ski hills....looks about right for play ;) I got all "yeti'd" up, as my sister described my new color coordinated workout look, and headed out to run some hills at Dagmar ski resort. I recall riding these trails on my mountain bike years ago and recall LOTS of up and down.

Arrived in minutes...less than 10 k away from her door, realized that I'm overdressed and would be sweating my ba*&% off, hid my keys in the long grass, hit the "start" button on my endomondo tracking BB software and off I went. The sun was super soothing and hot. Had no idea where I would go, but that's the beauty of GPS tracking with audio coaching on. The virtual coach counts off the km's 1 by 1 also indicating my average speed per km....pretty sweet.

I saw a sign for XC skiing trails which quickly appeared to be a better choice given my relatively few runs under my belt than sprinting up and down a ski hill.....The trail was wiiiiiide and the grass was super dewy and about 10" tall...translation, soaker in about 10 minutes in. Great run wih some big climbs. Returned, walked downtown with the crew and back...nap became inevitable ;)

Sunday was planning to night ride...body tired...may have had something to do with wine and beer during the Toronto-Ottawa game...Monday is here and first cup of coffee going down quickly, eyes opening..road ride scheduled with Fil for 2 pm.

Leave for Stowe Friday afternoon for a quick Saturday/Sunday surf and turf road/mt riding...why?....why not ;) Stats for run are pretty interesting..confirms there was some actual climbing here:

5.07 km
38 mins
avg spd 7.39 km
fastest km 6 min 34 s/slowest 9 min 19 sec

Almost forgot...end of run..sun beating down, sweating like a mofo..the sound of some kind of fuel injected machine at redline, and climbing, very fast Northbound on lakeridge road...what was this...must be a motorcyle...waiting...waiting..a blue Lamborghini screaming in the left lane..lets off on accelerator and horrible sounds ensued from an engine that was pleading for an upshift...the people that are able to get behind these wheels....I didn't think much of it until I got onto the road and made a right turn. The road this idiot was wide open in a Lamborghini was a full on blind hill..this dude was one car away from being a statistic!?!?!?!? Must have had a spotter car ahead because if not...a pure suicide mission!! Hang on....now that I recall...if I didn't take the 20 seconds to snap this photo (above), I would have been helping this guy become a statistic as I would have been in THAT left hand lane.....................................

My new outlet, release, whatever you want to call it. Some people take smoke breaks...others surf the net...I chose to get a quick run in. This weather is absolutely beautiful. Plugged in to "endomondo" to track this workout and hopefully figured out a way to export this into blog....nope can't do it so here goes:

5.08 km
35 min 1 sec
6.56 min/km avg spd with fastest km being 6 min 10 sec

This is Thursday...should really rest tomorrow. Bring the bike with me to my Sisters as she has a double cougar bike stroller....take the little farts out for a rip on Saturday :)

Fall Ride, sweet, but unnecessarily tough :)

Having a hard time coordinating time to go for rides with weather, kids in gymnastics/skating, and work demands. Fil poked and I responded with the proposal of a dawn ride yesterday. 6:30 am...still dark...7 am Fil arrives and we are off. What was supposed to be a quick out and back turned into a nice loop west, north, east and return through town to get 70 k in. Forgot how the body quickly loses conditioning as the ability to keep a 30 k/hr pace was just plain fatiguing, in a good way. Realize that after this season, I welcome the out of the saddle burning now knowing worst case scenario is a cramp....cramps can be dealt with ;) I forgot to mention, a welcomed flat rear tire interrupted the building tempo that was growing as the sun was warming out legs..pretty happy it was a slow leak vs a blow out as I noticed some squishy feeling as I was climbing the hill just south of Glenburnie. Fil on his macked out R3 generally pushes me on every hill now with that rocket of a carbon rig, but this climb seemed a tad harder to keep up..a couple of km's of flats and then a right turn down Kingston Mills...a full blown narrow grip of bars and forward thrust of chin over the front wheel resulted in 60 k/hr.......about 2 k later, a rear tire change...quite happy I don't have any further story to share about THAT one.

I brought a CO2 dispenser and a tube, but no C02 or tire iron...now normally Fil would be equipped with NOTHING. But there is a new Fil, every since he's invested about 20 grand in bikes this season...he had a 16 oz C02 and tire iron...all was good and we rolled on ;) Was pretty wiped for remainder of day, lots of driving to from Cobourg and inbetween....hit the hay early and recharged.

No stats as my freakin polar is kaput...no more excuses....a garmin for next season fo shore. Plan for today, squeeze in a trail jog vs run throughout the day. Sit in front of a laptop and keep plugged in to my BB to continue with this employment that keeps me smiling on a daily basis.

Let the transition.............BEGIN

The transformation from cyclist to runner/jogger/can't wait for snow to transition to xc skiier/downhilling on occasion......has begun. No idea how long this novelty will last, however, from today's experience, a good stable pyramid of hope and expectation driven by an extremely pleasureable 35 minutes of trail "running".

The epiphany came to me last week. I needed something quicker than a 2-4 hour ride that would be more consistent to perform regardless of weather. Remember...not getting paid to ride a bike so.....will continue to get those indoor spin sessions i, probably as soon as November but, in the meantime.....taking on trail running vs suburbia pounding of the pavement is looking promising.

My gadget driven desire has me looking at alternatives to tracking my runs now. I'll give the BB another chance. Something about running with that bulky and heavy piece of machinery takes the FREEDOM of trail running out to the equation.....however.....hearing my avg pace and seeing the distance and driving to better my time is.....too enticing NOT to. So hear goes. New passion...lots of trail yet to be RUN. THis should make the local bike trails a bit more beefyas my regular route of 30 k will definitely be altered to accomodate the pounding aspect of controlled high speed falling attempts :)