May need to exceed daily caffeine quota..

Hoping this early a.m entry gets my ass to the gym.....It is going to happen....looking favourable...gym bag packed with shaving kit...GREEN LIGHT GO!!

Made it and OH SO HAPPY that I flicked the switches. A decent workout consisting of the regular 30 min intervals on the cross ramp 10/4 and 10/12 (makes sense to all those cross ramp junkies...keeping an rpm of 130-145) and then some more jog/run intervals on the treadmill between 0 and 3 degree incline and 5.6 and 7 mph speed.

Tunes were pumpin in my ears and decided to move on over to the free weights for some standing shoulder press, bicep curls, tricep skull crushers and some rc cuff stuff. So goood. Weather looking like shit so some more indoor time bound to happen Thursday and Saturday. OUtdoor ride, perhaps a good ole road ride Sunday.

Saw some pretty sweet rolling ashphalt on drive out to Westlake for work today....may have to do some exlporing...btw...garmin eta tomorrow or next day...Yipeeeeee

Head in check.....CHECK!!!

Almost a year ago I ended up losing the battle with a mound of dirt that was positioned right after a down tree on a steep down. Right AC joint decided to fail to stay attached and I had to walk my bike out of the trails to meet up with my prospective riding companions for the day...Shaun and Tom. Immediate rehab begun day after at Kingston Athletic Therapy and the obsession to get back into full action had begun. Unfortunately....the mind, and to a certain extent the body, never did get back to proper reboot. Sketchy sections along ridgelines, greater than 3 foot drops, and any kind of log that had chainring catching potential on a downhill were usually met with some apprehension and then a quick release of a pedal....frustrating battles in the head for the remainder of the year. Recap and turn to positivity was the 3rd place result in the Hot August Night 24 hr event....confirmed there was some endurance in that shoulder. Season ended and was unsure about future of riding with the same intensity in years past.

A rather lengthy intro there.....but for a reason.....today marked the 3rd proper mountain bike session of the season. I'm droppin' like it's hot, chuckling at rim hungry cracks on steep ridgelines and cleaning anything remotely technical......Head......CHECK! Back in action. Body checked a tree while pinning it on the exit of trails while chasing Tom on the exit of CB network...confirmed that all is gooooood.

I think I got everything outta my system today and will now enjoy some lengthy road rides and some more exploring of trails around Ganaraska and Durham once I get my Garmin to help me out with the wayfinding. Kids getting restless...better bring them to the park:

2 hour 1 min
1234 Cal 35% fat
Max 178 or 95%
avg 143 or 76%
Moderate 20 min; Hard 48 min; Light 37 min

Plan....good ole fashioned workout at the gym tomorrow

22 k o FUN!

Met up with Fil, Shaun and some new cats at the local CB place o happiness! Always amazed at how Mr. Weima can party till 5 am and then show up and rip my legs off on one of these rides...imagine if he was properly recovered and lived the life of a monk vs a rock star....scary man...

Lots of stop and go but who cares. What generally is an hour loop translated into almost 3.5 including the ride out and back. Lots of banter and recovery inbetween sprints. A good change of pace....literally. Watch with "data" still on the bike...

3 hr 23 min
1839 cal 45% fat
Max 184 or 98% and avg 71% or 133 bpm

1 hr 9 min Light; 39 min Moderate; 57 min HARD BABY!

Plan...put another coat of paint on my youngest's walls and workout in a.m. with wifey. Road ride tentative with one of the "Quick Release" members for sunday..weather is in a word..BEAUTY!

If I were a muppet....I think I'd be ANIMAL!!!

I recall the most recent "family movie" that the wife, kids and I had last sunday in the basement. The movie was the muppets....man I used to LOVE that show as a youngstah!! Reason for this intro is to reflect on the character, Animal....so....he was in this anger management class before the muppets came to visit him to get the whole crew together for one last show to raise money to get the old studio back (hahahahahah...love it). Jack Black was his..."handler" or suppport guy and told the muppets he wasn't allowed to drum as this was his "trigger"....well...yesterday...I found my "trigger"...it was riding a blend of fast, technical, and flowy DRY mountain bike trails. Just as animal found his happiness at the end of the muppets banging the shit out of his drums....I found happiness ricchocheting of rocks and rim eating cracks with Shaun and Fil!!

So, it's back to normalcy again and the urge to be on the bike every sunny day and.....this long wknd the foreceast is calling for nothing BUT SUN!!!!!!!! Riding today with a rather large group at 10 :)))))) Saturday...family day with hopes of getting to gym with Jac (kids at jump room) and...Sunday will be a road or mountain ride ;)

Just a few more days of these POLAR stats.....Looking forward to Garmin and this Strava app:

1 hr 30 min
1201 cal 30% fat
max 99% or 185....specificity time :)))
avg 83% or 155
Hard 1 hr 3 min; Light 11 min; Moderate 15 min

Stats show a pretty intense session....it was....reason number 1....trying to keep up with Mr. Weima...reason number 2...had Fil with a GOPRO behind me most of the time ;)

Ahhhh Freshly Calibrated

Finally redirected the deviancy of slackness. Luckily kept my gym bag in the van and decided to meet my wife on my way home from work today. Solid hour plus of cardio. All that was needed. First official Mt. bike of the season tomorrow, road ride Friday and Sunda...perhaps a little workout in on Saturday...that was a deep dark place the last two weeks...the slackness seems to be good for the motivation though...felt gooooood today.

1 hr 18 min
766 Cal 54% fat
max 168 or 90% with avg 136 or 73%
26 min in Light; 24 min in Moderate; 21 minute Hard...nice little balance of intervals

Really looking forward to hooking up that Garmin...fingers crossed it gets here before wknd...may not...but that's alright...anticipation is always welcomed!

Week 2 of Fitness reversal

Perhaps it has something to do with 2 kids to get prepped for school daycare in the morning and a wife who hits the snooze button at 5 am EVERY MORNING. This makes an early morning workout....damn near impossible unless I want to have my wife have a nervous breakdown. Perhaps the travel that is required to make appts between Scarborough and Ottawa also result in the ability to get an early morning workout...impossible. So, this leaves the evenings....well...lately, road travel results in my return back to Kingston for 5 or 6 pm...so an evening workout is in the cards but will have to make a commitment that revolves around kids swimming and wife's HR meetings. When did it get so hard to make this happen.....ahhhhh, it just came to me...I had an EXCUSE in the past. The EXCUSE was the necessity to get the hours of time in to prep for 8 and the almighty 24 hour SOLO races. This is the denominator that has resulted in a weak link in the training chain..what to do..planned races this year are group 24 and a couple fun ones with Paul's a given and the Kingston Marathon mt bike race incorporated in here as well. In a word...mello..

Well, I sit here typing this while the kiddies are finishing their meal and is almost 8 pm...behind the 8 ball as they had swimming tonight...so let's take Tuesday's out of the equation. I'm going to plan to meet a local group for wednesday evening night rides at the Farm....this will begin to get some consistency..Will also plan on an early a.m road ride once a week..will have to pick this day of week and make it happen. Can't forget the gym....say goodbye to Saturday workouts with wife as this is Easter wknd coming up and we will be in Belleville..hope to get an afternoon ride in, fingers crossed. Ideally....once a week should be spent in of doors with quality core work. This Sunday is also Easter with the Folks...will plan on riding with Fil this day as well....weather is up in the air lately...we'll see.

All in all....week two of return from Jamaica...discouraged with lack of activity....sipping a G&T doesn't help matters but it is....oh so tasty....it will all right side up itself in a few days. Oh yes, I know what will help and it is coming in the mail shortly....a Garmin 705 with maps, cadence and HR monitor...this should get me geeking with technology and exploring with a new found curiosity with some of the local landscape.

Dodgeball soreness...WTF?!?!?

It was like watching a bunch of senior citizens withdrawing from their pain medication Saturday night and Sunday morning after me and 6 others finished playing in a Dodgeball tourney. 4 x 30 minutes of whipping balls as hard as you could at teams that WERE IN A REGULAR DODGEBALL LEAGUE!!!! We were rogues...misfits but having fun. We were well hydrated via the cooler in between games....did not improve our game. The competition was strangely heated....these guys take this game firmly!?? Came in 7th out of 8 teams...fun times :)

Nothing remotely strenous or forward fitness related resulted this weekend. Should have been a great day to get a ride or early a.m. workout in...didn't happen. Spare time resulted in getting christmas lights off of house, cleaning exterior windows, setting up girls trampoline (looking forward to seeing their excitement tonight), and just punching in for a solid administrative work day. Hopefully a couple motivational switches will get tripped back on....need some warmer weather for this to happen I'm afraid. Will shoot for the gym a couple times this week and perhaps bring a bike with me this wknd for a visit with friends in Belleville. Perhaps a night ride....will wait until I pay my trail dues before venturing out on this membership only set of trails...if only this could happen sooner than the scheduled 12th....