A trip to the pain Cave?

Well it is the eve of the 2nd Annual CDMBR. What is in store for the race?
I imagine a good time in the woods suffering on the bike.
My fitness is not as high as last year so I'll be hitting the pain cave a little more than I'd like.
MEH! What can ya do? Just suck it up and go out and have some fun.
Thinkin' of rockin the Caveman race kit. But the hair is the worst for getting in the way rippin it up. What did I say earlier? Goin' out to have some fun, so I guess the Caveman it is. The only real problem I have is how do I incorporate the Lightning bolt into the get up?

I guess we will see tomorrow.

On another note, I just came across the schedual for the Southern Ontario CX racing season. That's just what I needed to get fired up and start training more seriously.


Regardless of what bike I ride or how fast I go, tomorrow is gonna be a fun day on 2 wheels. Hangin out with cool peeps and racing a great course.

Later!

Beat the heat ride.

Not too much going on here at Camp Captain lightning.
Went for a ride yesterday. Not really a ride but a training session.
Man! This heat is craptactular for riding in.
So instead of sweating my but off and suffering in the sweltering sun, I jumped on my tricross with the fixed cog on it at 12:30 AM last night and set out to pump out a few intervals.
The temp was great last night. Not too hot, just perfect for a bit of timed suffering.
But alas the heat of the afternoon sun still affected me. After just 3 intervals my legs felt dead so I called it a night.
I should be able to get out tonight again, since I feel pretty good today.
I'll probably put on a bigger ring. The 39X16 was a little too light to be a building work out. Good for hammering on the trails but too easy for on the road. Gonna put the 42t back on, then the suffering will be better.

I just bought a 1988 Mazda B2200 truck for under a grand. SO it'll be eating up a bit of my race entry fees until I get it E-tested and safetied. But it should be better than the old beat up MX-6 that just went for a crap on me.

Here's a pick of my Zanny alter ego at the 24 hours of SS taken by Jeff K.
I had a blast whoopin' it up and adding some enthusiasm to the scene.

Gotta start really training hard for CX season now. Hopefully things will be even better then last year. Starting out the year in M1 so I have some work ahead of me if I wanna hit the top 10 and even the podium.

Gotta go now.

A good day for Puddle Dodging and Bug Picking.

Went for a little cx ride monday evening.
Seeing as the trails were water logged, I figured I'd get out and string together some double track and utility roads.

Turned out to be 2:16:00 ride time with an average HR of 125 bpm. So it was just some more milage for the base.
Rolled outta here @ 6:30 on the Tricross SingleCross geared at 39X16, so my feet weren't spinning too much, but I was more out to burn some fat and enjoy the weather. The temps were comfortable and the sun was shining. A great day to be on 2 wheels.
I really had no plan as to where I was gonna go, just wing it and see what I could cover.
I ended up close to Hydro Hill, and figured a trip up it would hurt too much , so I headed over to the foot trail up to Alphie's Trough and Brock. It was a good opportunity to practice my CX shouldering up the hill. All the while hiking up the hill. I took pleasure in checking out the terrain of the escarptment and imagining potential lines linking up the trails.
Also since I wasn't going too fast I could take a look at the ground cover foliage and see if I could spot some Poison Ivy. Since I really am not too sure what it looks like I thought I should start being more vigilant, because I got some on my legs last week.
I don't actually know where I got P.I. from. It could have been the trail building we did in the Bradley street trails or when I "mistakenly" rode the hikers only trails in the Short Hills. Probably the latter, since karma has a funny way of getting you back. Anyways, it's not to bad now. The meds the Doc gave me are working good.

Went out to Allenburg bridge and back on the Atv trails mixed in with some canal path. Saw a few dear and scared the turds out of a bunch of bunnys.
Ended up spinning down the Parkway to Glendale bridge and crossed to the east side utility road. Seaway Haulage road it's called. I stopped on a bridge by lock 3 for a quick pic. Since it's somewhere not too many people have been.

Then I went under the skyway down to Lakeshore rd. The double track part of the ride is cool because you have to dodge the puddles to stay mostly dry. Swerve left, then right, bunny hop the small ones and wheelie the wide ones. As good as flat double track gets, I guess.
When I made a quick stop for water and traffic at lock 2, thought I'd take a look at my legs to see if I had picked up any hitch hikers in the form of deer ticks. Well sure enough I had. The little bugger was crawling on my calf lookin' for a place to feast. Flicked the bastard off and continued down to Port Weller.
The only reason I thought to look for ticks is because last saturday I went to show my Moms my P.I. on my legs and found a tick burrowing in to my skin. I am pretty sure it got on me from the walk I just took my dog on. I had recently read how to remove a tick, so I flipped it onto it's back and pulled the little sucker out.

Time and daylight was running out so I roaded it back home from lock 1.

All in all a god day for a ride.

A few more rides like that but twice as long, then I'll start to do some interval work to build up my LT in time for the Canal days mtb race August 1st. I hope to hit the podium again this year.
Well off to bed now for me.
Until the next post, keep yer wheels rollin' and watch out fer those damn ticks.

Replied to a PM about SS conversion or a road bike. And figured that I don't wanna waste all this typing one just on person. So I put it here to help others waste time on the internet.
Here it is:
"Talk to Willie Coyle about the crank length. I don't know about fit for crank lenght on the physiological side of things.
I'd just ride the 170's. It'll improve your spin. But you won't have as much leverage on the climbs and sprints.

As a mtb SS, I try to get long cranks for the steep ups. But on the roads you wanna spin lots.

As far as converting the Bianchi, you can just use the same chain for now. You need semi horizontal drop outs to tension the chain. You can buy a Single speed chain or a 8 speed chain, if you want. It'll be stronger. I've broke a few 9 spd chains.
If the wheel has a cassette then you gotta remove it and get a spacer kit ($40)that'll come with a cog. Or ya can ghetto it and I'll give you some pipe to make your own spacers, and use a cog from an old cassette.
If you have lots of old cassettes you can take them apart and use all the spacers and do it that way too.

If the wheel has a freewheel on it. Most older bikes do. I'd take it off and and put on a bmx free wheel. Then I'd respace the hub and redish the wheel. I just raced the Sprague brook this weekend on a wheel that I did this to. You gotta be pretty handy with a spoke wrench though.

Take off the front ring you don't wanna use then you have to get some bmx chainring nuts and bolts and mount the chainring. Inside or outside is fine. But I go with inside most times. You can also grind down some longer bolts. But watch out it gets pretty hot on the fingers while grinding.
One thing you have to worry about is the chain line. You wanna look from the back to front to see if the chain is straight, from cog to crank. Flip the bike upside down and look along the chain to see if it is straight. you may have to adjust the spacing on the hub or the spacers. Which ever one you have.

You have to rip off all the all the gearie junk. Try and take it off with out cutting the cables so the shifter is still attached to the deraileur. Then go outside and throw it up and wrap it around a telephone wire. It really adds to the neighborhood. =-)"

I have more stuff to spew about later. But my forearms are stating to cramp from typing.

TTFN
Jason

Captain Lightning rips it up!

YEE HAW! What a Hoot that was.



A rockin' good time, I had at the Paris to Ancaster bike race today.
Finished it it a respectable 2:14:13. 1st in the single Speed Cat.

I'll start of with a bit of pre-race happenings that contributed to the good time I had.

I finally registered for the race on Thursday evening. Last chance for online registering. Meaning I would have to start in the 3rd wave. Which would have been a lot harder to hit my goal of 2:15 finish time.
I figured I'd hit the wave transfer table on Saturday and wait for the 1st available spot in the 2nd wave and hope for the best in the race.
Saturday I went to register and was thinking positive about getting in. Well it went better than I had hoped for. I got to Ancaster at 1:15, registered and went to the transfer table and started the line up waiting for a spot in an earlier wave. I was 1st in line to transfer and I told the girl who was doing the transfers that "I was willing to wait all day". Then I heard a rumor that there would be no transfers up because all the spots were full. It wasn't looking good but I was still hopeful and thinking positive.
As I was waiting, I was explaining to the next people in line, whom had now started to line up as well, how the transfer process works. Then out of the blue, one of the organizer dudes walks up to the table and starts talking to the young lady. Then he says "just give the spot to the first in line". YES! A spot in the first wave. Sweet! Better than I had hoped for. And I only had to wait for 10 minutes. Pretty Cool!

Now on to the race prep. So on the way home I hit up Value Village for some material for a good get up to wear in the race. Since the Cave Man costume would be too much of a handicap for 60 km. I ended up getting a good sized piece of yellow stretchy fabric for $2. Then I went home and turned on the hockey game and busted out my room mates sewing machine. I quickly cut out a cape and fabricated some shoe covers and matching arm warmers. Lastly I cut out some lightning bolts to add some flash to the out fit. Now I was ready to fly through the race using my super Single Speed powers, and bring some enthusiasm to the event.

Everything went as planned for my warm up and I got staged pretty good in the 1st wave. Off the horn I just went with the flow and passed when I could, but mostly just took it easy and stayed out of trouble. I'd say that when we hit the first climb up the rocky hill I was in the top 150 and feeling pretty good.
Now things were getting stretched out a bit more, so I just tried to work with the other riders when we hit the road sections and I would pull away in the off road sections only to be caught again on the roads. I mostly let myself get caught, so I wouldn't have to work all by myself. I'd usually get dropped on the steeper hills, since I was pushing 42X16 for a gear ratio. And climbing was a grind.
I was feeling good for the most part and the kms were just flying by.
I think I got passed by around 50 riders all race, but I passed a few who fell off the pace.

The one highlight of my race was some Wicked air I caught over a driveway beside the highway. I hit it hard and almost cleared the whole thing. My back wheel cased it a bit, but I got around 3 feet of air. It was so fun.

The whole race I was getting cheers for my cape and the lightning bolt I put on my helmet. There was a few people who said "way to go Superman". But I quickly corrected them and said I was "Captain Lightning".

After the last feed station was a bit of climbing. I was feeling pretty good still only a little tired. Then some dude passes me at the top of the climb and asks me haw I was doing then suggests that I was cramping or dehydrated. I says No, but he sabotaged me and now I felt the first twindg of a cramp right after that. Just prior to that I had taken some power gel, a banana and the most of my water. So I had just barely staved off the cramps with 8 km to go.
Shortly after that I hear "MCGYVER" being yelled from behind. It was Jon Toews and Sara Byers-Oglvie. Fellow Short Hills Cycling teammates. I didn't really have the power to keep up with them but they never really got too far ahead. And they were only 100 meters ahead of me on the final climb. So I had the opportunity to cheer Sara on and it was a good distraction from the suffering of the steep pitch ahead.
I dismounted for the steep part but managed to not cramp and keep my speed up so my cape would flow in the wind. As evident in the picture Derek Mc took at the start of this post.

On to the finish. Well I crossed the line and noticed the clock wasn't showing a time so I looked at my cyclo computer and it said 2:14...
After a bit of a rest to catch my breath. I went over to the hill to cheer on a few riders and see some friends finish.

Later on inside, I got my food and was hanging out with the SHCC gang. Then I went to check my placing. WHAT! I wasn't on the list where I had finished. So now I had to go and get it straightened out. Mostly because I was the 1st Single Speeder across the line. After a bit of nervous explaining and confirmation from the guy who finished ahead of me. We figured out the timing sensors didn't catch our chips and everything got fixed. WHEW!

WOO HOO! I took the top spot on the podium and won a cool "race winner" Paris to Ancaster jersey. Awesome!

A thanks goes out to everyone in the Short Hills Cycling club who helped out. And a thanks to the officials and volunteers who helped make the race happen.

And so ends another mis-adventure of a single speeder.

What's that I smell?

That's the smell of a stale blog. One of the millions on the web.
I figured I'd at least post to make sure it doesn't get deleted.

Well we are 18 days away from the Paris to Ancaster race. Will I be ready?
I imagine I will be stronger than last year. but how strong is the Question?

I'm thinking I will get my UCI racing license before the race. I need it to get into the 1st wave, and it turns out the Southern Ontario CX series upped the license requirements for the series , so I need it anyways.

Well I gotta go.

Riding in the rain is fun!

It was rainy today. I didn't ride much. Only a short sprint to work. I barely got wet. Mostly road spray.

But the topic I've been hearing about lately is riding in the rain. It reminds me of a lost blog entry I posted on another site. I resurrected it for here. It was a good ride, one of many rainy rides I've had.
Here it is:

"Today I felt the feeling of being alive.

Sep. 27, 2007
I did it again today. I felt truly alive.
@ about 1:00pm today I went to do a lap on the We Need more Cow Bell cyclocross race course.
There I was alone in Bergoyne Woods. Just me and my bike.
Dark clouds looming off to the west. Temperature was warm so I decided to ride anyways.
I get to the imaginary start line and wait for my heart to settle a little before I do a hot lap.
My clock ticks past zero and I am off. At the same time the drizzle starts to turn into a steady rain. Here I am sprinting along the grass in the middle of the field for no apparent reason. I don't feel the rain yet. All I feel is my legs getting tired and my lungs calling for more air. My brain says go go go.
Turn left, turn right, sprint, go go go over and over again.
About 5 minutes into the 2 mile lap I am starting to get tired and now I feel soaked. It kinda feels like I am riding in a pool.
The rain is now pouring from the sky. The wind whips it into my face as I speed along.
I am bombarded by all my senses at once. I guess the self exerted pain of racing along and the extreme weather has magnified all my senses. Across my face is one of the biggest smiles I have produced in many days.
When I realize that I am smiling and I see the situation that is creating such glee I can identify the feeling now of being truly Alive. I think it might be that all my senses are more acute and right there. There is nothing else to feel but the moment.
Looking back on the ride, I might say that it was a pretty crazy situation. But I had a blast. It was 15 minutes in my day where nothing else mattered. Just get to the finish line was all there was to worry about.
Maybe that is why I ride/race my bike?
While I race along all the worries and troubles of this world disappear. I feel alive to my senses and my surroundings.

Hope you enjoyed the read.
I hope maybe you to will get that feeling of being alive soon."

I'll probably get wet tomorrow morning. It's alright. I enjoy riding wet.