Finally did something Blog worthy.

Way too long since my last mis-adventure recap. Mostly due to no action packed activities in way too long. But the longish lay off has spiked an interest to get out of the house and get active.
Yesterday I went to Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, NY.


Packed up the Mazda and rolled out of here at 8:15. Ended up getting there at around 10:30 after a few stops along the way. I ended up getting an 8 hour lift ticket for $55 usd. Which turned out to be a great price for the number of runs I actually got in.
The conditions were great. Just below freezing and a good covering of fresher groomed powder on all the slopes, with only the odd icy spot. Most runs were open and in good shape. I was hitting some good little airs off a bunch of mounds from the snow makering. So it made for a fun day.
Here's a video I took:



It was a great day on the slopes but a little boring riding by myself all day long. But I figured I better go because I feel a touch of a cold coming on and I could ride my bike any other day.
That's it for now.
Happy New Year to All who might happen upon my page.

Extended Off season.

A great way to start the day. Cinnamon raisin bagel with PC Nutella and some Kicking Hourse Kick Ass fresh ground coffee in the press pot. Maybe it'll get me going.

So motivation in the Single Speeder camp has been real low now a days.
Leading to an extended break from the bike . I guess you could say.

Last week I rode to work a couple times. Total distance 20 km for the whole week.

This week I hit the rollers for a quick warm up then decided to head out to the canal path for a ride.
I jumped on the Kona and headed out on the streets to get over to the Rootbeer creek path up to Thorold. Unfortunately mother nature had other plans for my ride. The temp was around -6 and by the time I got the the Garden City arena my freewheel was starting to freeze on the free option. I guess the lack of maintenance after the Hespler Cx race had caught up to me. The pawls were freezing down and not engaging when I went to pedal. I barely made it home.
Lesson #1 of the new training season. "Bike maintenance is more important in bad weather." Now I see how good riding the fixie in the winter really is. I guess the flip flop hub is gonna get some use real soon.

Other than that things have been pretty SLACK around here. I did 10 sit ups the other day. And I watched a few core work out videos on youtube. So I'm at least thinking of working out. We will see what the coming weeks brings about as far as getting in shape for next year.

The reading of Chris Carmichaels "Time Crunched Cyclist" is going well. I can kinda identify with most of it so far. It sounds like the way I was training for last years CX season. Pretty good reading and learning. Planting the seeds for 2010.

Hespler Slogfest CX Fun!

So I made the trek out to Cambridge for the CX season ending race put on by the Hub racing team.
Figured it would be a fun way to remember the season and get some extra suffering in to get me through the winter months.

Rain was in the forecast, so I thought it would be a mud bath. But I was wrong. There was a ton of snow still left on the ground when I rolled in to the Hespler Arena about 5 minutes before the 11:00 race.
The rain and snow made for a good combination of mostly granular slush. Nice and heavy. Not the easiest stuff to ride through. Add that to a turn filled CX course and you get 1 long day.

It wasn't too bad to race in, just not all that fast through the deeper drifty sections. Plenty of opportunity to show off everyone's runnin' skills.

Got a few shots of the 1st race. Which was won by none other that Dan Dakin. A little sand baggin' action there. But not really because up until the last lap he was duking it out with another rider.

Got a good shot of Justin Henri with the holeshot.

But that didn't last too long. The course was too hard for him to hold everyone off. But he still looked pretty good for a few minutes there!

Later in the race, I was havin' fun firing a barrage of snow balls at most of the guys from the Niagara area. But I new I'd be gettin' the same treatment in the later race.

Here's a shot or Rob Watt on a little stroll.

I only did 1 warm up lap to see the whole course and figured I'd be better off warming up inside the arena. So I went in and found a large set of steps and did about 50 repeats up and down to get warmed up. It worked surprisingly well. I was pretty winded and producing a good sweat. All at the same time as I was checkin' out most of the hot Hockey Moms watching their sons playin' hockey. Not bad scenery!

I lined up at the back of the field for the 1:00 race. Or should I say 2nd row! There was only 8 Guys signed up for the late race. Oh well I was only there to have some fun and get some good experiences.
I was also wearing my Digi cam on my chest so I got footage of the whole race. But it will take me a few hours to find all the highlights and make a short film. So I'll post that at a later date.
I would say that the Single Speed didn't hold me back too much because I still had a good race and I managed to finish in 5th place, and won a prize. A pretty sweet Axiom multi tool and a seat post anti slip clamp by Chase products.

For a while there I was battling with Jeff Moote for the bottom step beside the podium. But I was riding smoother through the crap and managed to gap him pretty good and tough it out for the rest of the race.
I think I did 5+1/2 laps, which was just the right amount for me at this time of the year. But the low lap count tells me that the course was totally set up too hard for the conditions. I can't complain, as I still had fun sloggin' it out. And I didn't get lapped until about 3 minutes before the end of the race.

All in all another great day on the CX bike for me and all the other Die Hard CX riders. The real riders, not the wimpy cx riders The REAL RIDERS.

Sweet December Ride!

Went for my first training ride, of my new training year, Saturday afternoon.

Started out just mellow paced with no particular planned route. Just flyin' by the seat of my pants.

It was a great day for riding in December. Sun was shining and the temp was above freezing a little.

I rolled out of home at 2:00 heading south through down town. Ended up going down the dirty side of the 12 mile creek. Did the 1st part of Suzanne's trail. It was pretty sweet. Until I hit the nasty Ice sections. So I abandoned that trail and hit the double track over to the Glendale Bridge. Went and started Marv's trails. They were pretty frozen too, but I hit 1 or 2 spots that were just starting to thaw so I ended the trail ride on that side then went to the other side of the creek to head over to Hydro Hill direction. Took Lockheart drive out to the foot path up to Alphies trough. Streached a bit then put in my bestest ever climb up to the top of the escarpment. I made it about 3 yards short of making it up all the way. SWEET!

Anyways, I headed over to the fence line trail and thought it would be a good day for trail photos. So I took a few of my Kona.

Was tryin to get an action shot of me on the trail via the timer on the camera. But no luck. I need more practice. Found out takin' pics while riding is very time consuming. At least action shots.

So I continued riding. The legs felt alive after putting out a good effort up the big hill to Alfie's Trough. SO I decided to pick up the pace a bit. Besides my toes were starting to get a little cold. I ended up going under the 406 in the tunnel. Decided to snap a few pics of the rig again. Had fun crossing the ice in the tunnel. It's a good thing I only weigh 155 lbs. or I woulda broke through. The bike was actually about a foot off the ground in the tunnel.
Decided to make it a point of getting shots of my bikes in different places while on rides from now on.

Went past the Red Barn out to Allenburg Bridge and took the canal trail back to Thorold.

Did some intervals most of the way down to Lock 7. 20sX10s for about 7 minutes. It was good to open up the legs.

Saw a few boats and got a couple shots.


Then just high tailed it down the old canal path home.

All told about 40 km ride. Pretty sweet for December.

Early New Years Resolutions

Alas it is New Years Eve for me and my 2010 cycling year. The dawn of my training for next season is here.
Official training starts early afternoon, with a minimum 1 hour ride in the freezing cold that is upon the region. The purpose of the ride is to open up the legs and get the lungs working for Sunday's CX race in Cambridge. Only a fun race it will be, but I at least wanna be able to mix it up with the crowd and get some good chest mounted digi cam action to share.

Goals for the 2010 season will be to race more and to hit the podium more. Defined goals are not yet set but will be up and posted before the end of the regular calendar year.

Additional motivation will come from the addition of the R.A.C.E.R. program with the Short Hills Cycling Club, of which I plan on joining before the end of the year as well.

It should be interesting to see how things pan out with the club. A bit of a different slant in the program will come from me, seeing as I am the only full time Single Speeder on the team. Therefore having a different set of competitors to face.
I am not sure Single Speed is an easier category to race in and do well. Thus the early integration of my training program and plans for the new year.


With all my will power and determination I will be stepping up my cross training and actually doing exercises besides riding. I'm talkin' about the really boring ones like core work and fighting the forces of gravity whilst lifting ferrous materials (i.e. weights). Possibly even getting into the gym and participating in Brad Andersons Boot camp. Imagine that, actually using the free membership, to Premier Fitness that I got from Brad at the Spring 8 hour relay, racing with the Thorold Trail Hogs.

O! it's gonna be a killer year. And the reason I say that is because last year was Awesome for me and I really didn't start training in earnest until July 1st. And even then I only rode my bike lots and stuck to a mini poriodization training plan.

I won' bore anyone any longer with my thoughts and dreams. But I will say that another one of my resolutions is to take more pictures of all the mayhem and misadventures I will be sure to encounter in the coming months while spinning around.

Let's Roll!

So tis' the season to rest and recover from a good season of cx racing and training.

I haven't done much work on the bike since before last weeks Subway CX. No desire what so ever. Pretty much just being lazy and bored with working out and suffering on the bike.

About the only bike related enthusiasm for riding is getting the hang of the rollers. That in itself is pretty fun and challenging. Way better than a trainer. You actually have to concentrate to ride and get some work in.

The initial ride on the rollers was on Monday. I put the road tires on my old track wheels and put them on my Specialized Tri-cross Single cross (complete with mud from last race lap). That's right riding the Fixie on the rollers. Not a big deal though, actually probably easier than riding with a freewheel. Since all I have to do to stop the wheels from turning is stop pedaling. No need to hit the brakes in an emergency. I haven't been Bucked off yet, like you'd get on the road when you stop pedaling a fixed gear bike. It must be the momentum you have going on the road that gets converted right through the pedals into your legs that kicks you up and out of control. It appears to be a good set up for putting in some mileage when the weather is shitte out. The only thing is being able to up the resistance on the fly is not possible. I have to get off and turn the mag resistance up. I might end up just putting a larger chain ring on to get the desired resistance for long endurance rides on the rollers.

So the 1st time up I had a counter on one side and my computer chair on the other. I rolled off the sides a couple times. But didn't go down. It took me about 10 minutes to be able to ride without holding the counter. After getting the hang of balancing with my body and knees, I eventually took my helmet off. :-) Total of about 30 minutes ride and I started to get pretty hot and the legs were feeling the after affects from the Subway Cx race. So I called it a night.

On Tuesday I figured I'd do a workout and get better with the rollers. This time I put them next to my comp and loaded Poker Stars and signed up for a free roll. Thinking I'd be able to play and ride. Not so! It took too much effort to hit the fold and bet tabs when my turn came up. So I ended up just going all in and busting out in 8567th place out of 11000.
It's much easier to watch some freeride videos and ride the rollers. I got in a few Tabata intervals and called it a night. B.T.W. the large fan I set up helped keep me from sweating my ass off.

In the coming days I'll be relaxing and compiling some bike cam action footage for some extended roller rides throughout the winter.

I also picked up Chris Carmichael's book"Time Crunched Cyclist". It will be my preferred reading material in the coming week of resting and preparing for training for the 2010 cycling season. Which I plan on starting with the fun race Hespler Grand Prix cx race in Cambridge.

That's all for now.

Subway Cx race report.

Finally a moment to share my experiences from the Southern Ontario CX series Season finale.

Another great day in November for a cx race.
I finally rolled out of St.Catharines @ 9:30. Made it to the venue just before the end of the 10 am race.
One minor hitch though. In my usual tradition of waiting to pack for the race in the 15 minutes before I hit the road, I got all the extra paraphernalia, but for got my shoes. I didn't realize my mistake until I was getting off the Gardner Expressway. DOH! Oh well I figured I'd hopefully find some shoes I could borrow, since all the regulars of the cx race scene are such great people, and uber helpful. It turns out I borrowed Brandon Etzl's shoes since he was racing at 11:30. But my warm up laps were lacking in intensity with my Ethnies on Egg Beaters.

The race course was a real good track. Plenty of corners in a maze of tape right close to the spectator area and finish line. The turf and trails were a little slick, so it kept you honest in the tight 180 corners. There was mud on a few climbs that were there and it made you work to stay hooked up and ascending. The only draw back was the parking was pretty far from the course, but just a minor detail.

So when I got there I got ready in my Crazy CX Fanatic out fit. Sliver USA bell bottomed jumpsuit. Full faced Riddler mask and ski goggles. Completed with some big foam spikes on a helmet. I also made a cape, but I couldn't find it at first. It was quite the get up. I was ready for some HECKLING!

I went over and registered and searched for some shoes and did a little course recon. I could barely breath with the mask on so I just hung out and waited for the 11:30 race to start.

Here are a few pics I took of the race. But I didn't zoom in close enough on most of them since I was wearing the mask.




So after the race I went put on my regular riding clothes and did a little warm up on the road. I then got the shoes from Brandon and did a harder warm up lap. The last rip to the car I found my cape, put it on and and went to the start line for 1:00 along with the other 17 m1's and the Senior Men.

I lined up in the second row, since I knew I was under powered for the faster class. And figured I'd just get passed on the start road sprint any ways.
So the whistle went and we were off. I actually had a great start and turned off the road in 4th wheel. It was pretty confidence inspiring to see that I had some power on my SS Kona. But it was all to be smashed with each pass coming out of a bunch of corners and all through the 1st lap.
After the lap I ended up in about 15th place with a few chasers close behind.
I went as hard the whole time. No time for resting when you are a single speeder racing geared riders. I had to push for as long as I could and hope everyone in front of me blew up or had a mechanical.
The cool part of the tape maze, that you went through it twice on different parts of the lap. Not the same side of the tape each time but still in the same grassy area. It made it a little confusing, so ya had to concentrate on the line and not the tape. And I could cheer on my faster friends.
I was having a good race, as far as staying up in the corners and getting up the climbs. The long flat sections took their toll on me though.
The steep up at the top of the walkers path was tricky. My 1st couple times through I had to dismount. But it was my goal to ride it. And I finally did on the 3rd lap after I was fully warmed up. And maybe a couple times after that.
In the last 1/2 of the race I started to reel a couple guys in and pass. I only got passed by one guy at about the 4th lap. And there was a couple mechanicals too.
I think I got lapped by the leaders of the Senior race, on the 6th. But I am not too sure because usually my ability to count is greatly diminished whilst in the pain cave. As I was about to get passed though, I put an all out effort into the section through the pines and double track behind the finish. I think the leader Erik Box was pushing me a bit and getting a little bit of a pull from me, as he had a gap on 2nd place Jarrod Stafford, after I let him pass. Man it was pretty hairy going that fast. I was on the edge of wiping out the whole time. After they passed I knew I would be doing 1 less lap than them, so it wasn't that hard to swallow.

Throughout the race I was getting lots of encouragement from the fans because I was the only one with a cape. I also got the Heckling from Ted Ingram on the muddy climb. The first few times through I just concentrated on the hill and the cheers from the spectators. But later I answered Teddy's chants of "GEAR DOWN" over and over again, with "I don't need no stinking gears" & "ONE GEAR NO FEAR". It was fun.

At the finish line I had another good idea for a crowd pleasing finish. I ended up doing a Superman ride on my saddle over the line. It went well with my new cape.

So I finished the race in 7 laps 1:00:16 and 13th place out of 17 riders. Not too bad considering I am the newest kid in the master 1 cat. I would have been top 3 in the M2 cat.

After wards we went over to the Dark horse pub for some eats and socializing. It was a good finale to the official Southern Ontario CX season.

In this race I learned that I am not too far back from doing well in the M1 next year. I just have to double my training and it will be a good year.

Next race will be Dec 13 in Hespler. And it will just be a fun race with only 2 starts and more mixing of categories. Hopefully there will be snow and real CX conditions.

So ends another adventure of a Single Single Speeder!