Just missed the peleton!

I wonder why I am always rushing?
Something I have to work on I guess.
No preparation for the ride ahead of time might explain it. Next time I'll be there on time. I hope!

Anyways this morning I got up in time. Got dressed and fueled up and started to work on my bike to change the gearing so I wouldn't be so spinny trying to hang on to the back of the Short Hills cycling club Sunday road group ride.
I got the rig ready in time but was running around trying to find all my gear to stay warm enough. Lost around 10 minutes there. Then I lost another 5 minutes trying to start the car. Seems to be on it's way out. So I decided to ride up the hill to meet the group.
Missed them by about 8 minutes. So instead of bothering them with a phone call,I figured I would bust my arse for a bit and take some short cuts and get ahead of the gang part way out there. I kinda had an idea as to the route the gang was gonna take so I just kept pushing to catch them. Well I guess I either pushed too hard or I took the wrong way to find them. It doesn't really matter because I was having a good ride on a beautiful day in the country. It kinda added to the ride to see if I could find them.
Here's the route I took for the day. I'll call it the River Rd Route

I did great pushing myself most of the time. No music just the sound of the wind and the constant whurring of my tires. Some real good solitude and meditation in the sun.
My gearing was still a little light but not bad at 42X18. I'll have to kick it up a couple more teeth in a few weeks.
Even though I didn't catch the group it was still a fantastic ride.
After a short stop at the Morningstar mill to talk to fellow local Single Speeder Adrian Palmer, I ended up getting to the Brock Tim Horton's about 10 minutes after the group. I hung out there to re-carb a bit, then headed down the hill home.

Here is my only picture I took on the ride. It's of a beer can Inukshuk I made on river road. Just in case the group was behind me. Something for them to discuss while riding.

So ends another mis-adventure of a single speeder

Solo Snow ride in the Short Hills

Rolled outta here at around 10:30 pm.

Went out the flats to the Very Berry Trail. Stopped for a night time picture with the phone cam.


Went past the Boy scout camp along the closed lower trail and headed over to the #4 trail out to the Hemlock Trail.
It was pretty Sweet. Except for the climb/ hike up the steep hill to the top of #4.

Trails were packed snow with some xc ski tracks. Man that #5 loop rocks!

Made it back to the Tim Hortons at 4th ave at 1:30ish. A little bit of carb replacement in the form of a cinnimon raisin bagel and some chocolate milk.

It wasn't all that long of a ride but it hit the spot. I couldn't tell you how far I went because a couple times my wireless cyclo comp quit working for a bit.

Then this morning at 11:30 I went to Premiere Fitness and hit the Studio for a good session of plyometrics.

Tomorrow I'll be taking my cx rig out to Welland to drop off Justins #69 race plate from the frost bike race. Kinda funny how I ended up with it.
I volunteered to marshal on the course. So I brought my bike to maybe do a lap. But when the young whipper snapper Justin Henri came walking back from 1/2 a lap, I volunteered my bike for him to do his second lap. Considering that I ride a Single Speed rigid 29er, I thought it was funny and would be an interesting experience for him. Coming off riding a 26" geared squishyness bike. Also my bike doesn't have the best brakes and my wheels are pretty budget.
But he did pretty good on it. He kept up to his starting mates and was only 3 seconds out of 3rd place in the under 35 cat.
After the race we exchanged bikes and he forgot to take his plate off. So I have been driving around for the last 2 weeks with a cool #69 race plate in the front window of my car.
I may also get the chance to ride with the SHCC on the trails in the morning so I'll try to take some pics and post EM' up.

time to hit the sack and catch some ZZZ's

Woot! What a cool weekend!

Had a great weekend. It was a blast.

I had my son Owen over for the long weekend and it turned out to be pretty cool.

First off, on friday night we were goin' up Lundy's Lane in the falls, and I noticed on the Micky D's sign "meet Ronald tonight at 6". It happened to be 5:58, so I did U turn and we squeezed in and contributed to all the Olympic HoopLa. It was actually pretty cool to see all the action. All the MILF's running around tryin' to corral their little ones. They had a DJ rockin some beats, and Owen requested Fire Burnin' for his Dad (me). I think Ronald was one of my childhood idols, and I never ever got the chance to meet him in person until now.
We got a picture too.


Then on Saturday, after Owens Karate at the Y and my short 35 minute run while he was learnin' how to kick some butt. We jumped in the car and went to Toronto to check out an indoor skatepark. Cj Skate school and park in Mimico.
Both Owen and I are just beginner skate boarders, but we give it our best shot and are learning more and more every time we skate.
It was a pretty wicked place. Tons of masonite every where. There was 2 mini bowls with a spine. There was a 3' mini 1/2 that I had some fun on. They had a HUGE 15' 1/2 that some big dudes were riding. They had a terrain park area with a cool roll in 1/2 pipe with a little mini 1/4 on top of the other side. there was tons of banks and 1/4 everywhere.
They had cameras set up all over so you could see the line and trick ya just did. All you do is press a button then start rippin' it up and by the time you got over to the other end you could see the replay on a big screen TV.
And the funest part was a huge 15'roll in across a flat to a 6' 1/4 pipe launch into a big foam pit.
I dropped in and hit it full speed and it threw me up about 8' above the top of the 1/4, and landing in the pit was cool because it was nice and soft, but a real bitch to get out of. here's a video of it:


I'm going to make a slower motion version of this movie. It got fast forwarded in the conversion process from my phone to my comp.

On sunday we laid low for the first part of the day and recovered from the beating we took at the skate park. Then in the afternoon we went for a free skate at the Garden City Arena with the NRP and the NHL oldtimers before the game. Since Owen's step dad was playin in the game for the NRP, we got free tickets.
Here's Owen and his Bud with Gaston Gingras


Then on Family day Monday, Owen and I went to play some real pond hockey in Niagara falls. It wasn't a real pond just a huge puddle by the park on Kalar rd. But it was the first time that Owen had ever been on the ice with a hockey stick in his hands. He had fun and I really had fun because it brought back memories of my childhood and all the time I spent on the ice.

I was glad to spend the whole weekend with Owen, and doing some of the fun things there is to do. Just DAD and SON.

Time?

Never enough time for everything I wanna do.
Hitting the gym every so often.
Work.
Play with son, Owen. Headed to CJ indoor skate park in Toronto, this afternoon after his KARATE! Might try out the Y while I am there.

Will post pics later tonight.

Check out a good warm up routine I've been doing before most of my workouts.
It really helps warm up my hips when they get sore from running.

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Stay tuned for more action from your friendly neighborhood Single Speeder.

Actually doing some work!

Well, It's been a while since the last post.

Blogging takes time, and most days I am too busy to sit in one spot for very long. Riding, sliding, spinning, bowling, lounging, swimming, you know all the fun stuff there is to do.

Recently I've been doing a heck of a lot more working out than last year. Actually last year I am pretty sure I didn't do more than 50 sit ups/crunches for the whole year. Practically Nothing!

I only rode my bike a bunch. For the first part of the year I really didn't train. Just riding a bit here and there.
I started training on July and only did like a 1/2 sized peroidization training plan. Ya know Base, then Build, then Race phases. I would say it worked out pretty good.
I came 2nd at the CDMBR in the 35+ cat, Won the SS cat in the Squeezer (36th overall), Won a CX race in the M2 division (riding single speed of course), got enough points to upgrade to the M1 division then upgraded and didn't come DFL.

This year so far I have actually been to the gym and lifted a few weights. Did a few core workouts and now I sit with sore muscles. It feels good. Tomorrow I will be purchasing an annual gym membership at Premiere Fitness. I actually plan on going and getting my whole body stronger so I can do even better this year.

If this working out doesn't provide results, I am pretty sure it will, I have a new plan to get stronger on the bike.

The Time Crunched Cyclist Training plan by Chris Carmichael. Tomorrow I embark on the plan, with a test to base all my workouts for the next 11 weeks.

The book was a good read and a good motivator to get better.
I should be hitting my first peak of the year right around the the first couple big CX and MTB events in Southern Ontario. And I plan on doing the cycle throughout the year to see if I can meet some even bigger goals.

The spring will tell if I can use the TCTP to my benefit. If I don't get results then I can always revert to a periodization plan again. We will just have to wait and see.

L8R I gotta run!
literally, going for a short 5 km run before bed.