Ooops

Just realised its been a while since I posted......oh well....

Workin in meaford, teaching basic training for the army can be draining at the best of times.....this week I put in a solid 70hours or so of work......pretty easy when you are working 0500-2200 daily teaching classes, doing PT, and doing the un godly amount of paperwork that these kids cause me......

Anyways, i spaked out on mansfeild due to the army seems to have once again forgot to pay me.....so I had no cash, so I just chilled at home. This weekend is the first interclub, so it will be interesting to see where the legs are, its been about 2 weeks since I did any real training.....oh, and I have some sutures in my right shin from where i tore some flesh off right down to the bone.....so all in all, normal army course....have no life to do real things....sucks.

WTF!!

So I am back to civilization....or Canada. What the hell, i drove through a snow storm to get home. I am supposed to be able to come home from the derty south, and ride single track, now its all covered in snow.

I got a decent last week in, with some good rides with benno, one painfull ride at issaqueena where I snapped my hanger like 10km from my car, and i didnt feel like breaking my chain, so i just walked out. So I am home now, hoping to get out for a fewhours today, probably go check out copeland, see if its dry enough to ride the trails there. If not just will be a road ride somewhere, maby over to collingwood.

Heading up to meaford to start working there tomorrow, so hears hopin there is time to train.

Good Clean Southern Fun

Havnt posted in a few days. Just a quick update. I have been riding pretty much every day, though I have been sick latley, so i havnt been going too too hard. I started off with a 4 hour ride with ben and jerome on sunday, monday rode isaaqueena for about 2 hours. Tuesday just spun for an hour on the road bike, stopped in seneca to get some cold medication. Wednesday did about 2 hours of either climbing or decending in Pisga Park(there is nothing flat or rolling). Yesterday did a decent day of climbing. Rode the Blue Ridge Parkway, it was about 4 hours, 115km, something around 5000ft of climbing.

Today I might just do an hour or two on the road bike. I need to do an overhaul of the BB first. Then I need to get my car into a shop. Something is up with the front driver wheel. Either ball joint or CV joint.

BENNO!!!!!!

Made it to bens. 14 hours 20 minutes. Ben said he beat me when he drove. I did it on 2 hours of sleep though, so I win. I think I found every starbucks on the way down. I am still jacked on caffeine. There is talk of a ceasars head ride tomorrow. Supposed to be nice. I will see if I am up for it when I wake up, I am exaughsted right now.

being lazy

I dont know whats come over me the last few days, but i have just not been in a riding mood. I was sick last weekend, so i missed out on the pancake ride.....then i headed back to petewawa for 3 days of work, and just had zero motivation. I would get to my room after work at around 5, and just sleep until around 9, get up, have a drink of water, contacts out, and back to sleep until wake up time next day. I think I am still battling sickness.

Yesterday was present day. Sorta, still had to pay for part of it. The new uniforms for team Total Sports the Bike Shop came in. Went, got my kits, got my derailer hangers(for the new mtb, to replace the one that lasted about 5 seconds before i crashed). I had dropped off my car to get some work done on it before I head off to the south, and i was on a road bike. It may not have been the brightest of ideas to buy all this stuff while on a road bike. So I got a bag from mark, and road home with a big bag of stuff in it hanging off my road bike.

Cleaned up, started packing(so as I write this, there is a giant pile of clothes as I am trying to decide what to take) and had some lunch. Got a text, car was done, so I thought sweet, lets both do a test on the mountain bike, and the new kit. So I rode the snowmobile trails(half ice, half slush, half mud, half super dry....kinda like man bear pig), into midland, well atleast until the top of baseline, and took balm beach rd the rest of the way. I like the kits, shorts are longer then i like, though I am sure I will get used to them, or get mad one day and just trim them. Who knows.

So today is finish packing, clean up my mess, clean up my car day. Then I head off to the big smoke(toronto) to watch the sold out jays home opener. Crash at my buddies condo, then point my car in a southernly direction for about 14 hours on saturday.

Hopefully stu will get his road bike this weekend, so i can pickup my new frame from him. It would be ballin to have a newish bike for down south. Especially because my BB on my road bike now is torched.


In other news....

Pure Domination

So for all the smak talking spak and jacob could muster, turned out to be nothing more then just that. I will have to wait until the results are posted online to confirm, but i think that Team Awesome beat jacob by a matter of like 2-3 minutes. with spak a distant third in this race inside a race.

So the race order went bike, snowshoe, ski. Tristan led it out for us on the bike, after not getting taken out by matt on the start(not for lack of trying on matts part), he seemed to roll out in good position. He would have to talk more of the bike, but it seems jacob gapped the feild on the first climb, and tristan said he just took more risks on the decent, and caught back up, so we were only down a few seconds on the bike going into T1. Well obviously being a team, we were going to win the transition game every time, so a quick tag off once tristan found me, and I was off. I was going at a pretty good clip for the first 1km or so, so I backed it down a notch, and walked like 4 times. Mostly after a climb, and just for a few seconds, catch my breath, re-adjust my one peice, aero, race suit, and back to the running. Coffee run was a little sketch comming down the hills, but it wasnt the worst. I rolled in, well ran in, and tagged off to Sir Watson. Posting a respectable 12:29 on for the 3km. So I was pretty pleased, I was under 15 which was my goal time. Andrew held onto our solid lead, to finish about 1:40ish ahead of second place. So I am happy, my fun race was both fun and we won. I believe they call that win win win...the extra win is for how awesome the team was.

Now lets back up a bit, yesterday, hit up blue mountain to see a man about a mountain bike. Well loosley defined as a man. Got the new bike loaded in the car. Got changed, and headed out for a road ride, figured when in rome.........(anchorman reference for those that dont get my humour). Rode Senic Caves rd twice....its alot longer then i seem to remember. Then figured andrew would kill me if I wasnt fresh for today, so I headed down into collingwood to spin out the ol legs. I was feeling good, and going through town I was actually using the left lane to start passing cars. Without having a computer, I would have to assume I was doing around 55-60. Then again i did have a tail wind. So I continued with my little circumnavigation of collingwood. Stopped at Expresso Post for a latte, and headed back to the car. Finally rolled into home around 230-3 ish. Played with the new bike, some changes to make it mine(gold derailer housing), and slightly adjusted the saddle height.

This afternoon is going to be full of cleaning bikes to get them ready to be sold in the hardwood swap. Then going bowling apparently to celelbrate a certain teamates birthday, which was yesterday..

Seacrest out.....I mean Brandon out.....

never trust a man named tristan, when he is on a bike beside you...

Well, to be honest, i dont think I would go so far as to call tristan a man......maby pre pubescent boy.....judging by the scream as he crashed, and took out jacob today.

So started off the morning nice, got up, made a turkey and peppper omlette, some coffee, slowly got dressed for the days ride, and headed out to the magical horseshoe valley. Met up with Jacob, where he announced that tristan stopped to get a bagel, which ment he would be exactly 7 minutes late. 8 minutes late tristan pulled up....liar. We talked for a few minutes while he got ready, and we rolled out. Climbing out of the valley, we dropped tristan like a butter face you met at the bar lastnight. This seemed to set the tone for the ride, me and jacob were not really going all out on the hills, but seemingly to tristan, we were given 'er. Oh, i forgot to mention, Tristan forgot the road bike part of the road ride, so he was riding his Rocky Mantain(cross bike). Rolled into JIZ's place around the 2 hour mark. All in all, a fun, albeit wet and cold, ride.

Tomorrow will be a surpirse, as i have no idea what i am doing. Car need to get into the shop, as i think my front passenger brake isnt working, makes stopping more of a challege. Driving was too easy it seems.

Looks like I am going to head a tad south to get my new bikes this weekend....that will be like christmas in july....only in march. Oh, and pancake ride #1 in a week.....lots of training to get done for that ride....gotta fast before hand so i can eat lots of the 'cakes.

mmmmmm....caffeine

Just drinking some nice Kicking Horse coffee, wanting to try some of this fabled Inteligeista coffee.

Anywho, lastnight i finally made my way over to JIZ's house(i like it tristan), for game night. I was about 30 minutes late for the shenanigans. I came into the house, found out that it is an obstical course just to get downstairs. Then just hung out and talked for like 3 hours, there was not a single game played.....i feel upset as I was promised games.....All I got was tristan revealing he is "hairless from the waist down", matt and shannon dammed near announcing their engagement, seeing watson in a full body spandex suit, and tristan slowly sitting closer and closer to liz, until they were literally touching. It was a really fun night, lots of laughing.

So yesterday I somehow hurt my back pretty bad doing weights at the Y. So i blame the Y and the fact that the only changeroom to have no hot water at all was the Mens Plus changeroom. The one that you have to pay almost double to use, good thing I didnt pay to get in....

This morning I was feelling better, so I ran some errands this morning, then after i had a little bite to eat headded out on the ole' bicyclette. I headed to Total Sports to check on my order, and when the new team kit will be in. So it looks like my new MTB shoes will be in this week, my fancy shmancy road shoes looks like they wont be in until mid april....that blows. Though nothing i can do but be mad at Trek for not making enough of their RXXXL road shoes to get me a pair when i randomly decide to get buy them. And the team kit will be in sometime from this week to the end of the month. If I have it before I head to bens I will be happy.

Tommorow looks like I will be heading out with team shake and bake for a ride. Though they dont know when we will leave or to where. So I will just be ready at some point, and wait for a call. Though Jacob seems to have announced to the bloggosphere that senic caves is an option. I like it, I have literally never ridden up senic caves road, i dont konw how that has happened.

So I think I am off to bed now.

Brass frigen monkey

So did the brass monkey ride with the velocity crew this morning. Gord and Alex Keen were there, tristan, jacob, andrew, ron, and 3 other guys that i didnt know. We rolled out and about 5 minutes into the ride andrew decided to try the rail trail, we got about 50ft in, and bailed on that idea, soft slushy snow isnt condusive to a group ride. So we headed out into the backroads in oro. It was a really fun, albiet an icy, ride. Jacob needs to make a ruling, but i think that extra man points should go to me, jacob, tristan and alex for passing a car during this ride. The manondale was complaining pretty loudly, probably something to do with a lack of an overhaul after the muddy cross season i put him through. So i have some work to get done sometime tonight, or tomorrow.

Next up is a 4hr ride with spak tommorow, i dont think it will be another cooch loop ride, as we just rode the shit out of that cooch yesterday.....haha, puns. So i will just ride and make turns when he sais to.

The pole pedal pound is starting to look like it might be a pole pound pound at best, as the weather forecast is for a bunch of warm warm weather, and lots of rain. So we will see.

I was playing around the ol' interweb, and came upon this jem. Now I want to try it, all i can think of is that tremblant would be perfect for this.

cooch loop

So after yesterdays rain/wet snow filled 2 hour ride, i figured i would pray to the weather gods for better weather on saturday, well then answered in the form of overcast, but no snow. Me and the spakinator headed out for a nice easy 4 hour tempo ride....just kidding, it was only a base pace, so like 30km/hr ish. We headed up to orillia, stopped at Velocity, ran into the keen boys getting bike fits on their fancy new Ridley road bikes, talked a bit, matt had his first of 13,000 pees, and headed back out to ride. We rode out of town on Hwy 12, then headed up rama road, got honked and yelled at by a few motorists who believe that a cyclist doesnt belong on the road, or that they were really really gay, who knows, they were loud, and were ignored. After we passed the casino, the traffic fell to almost nothing, which was nice. We rode on, amid matt promising he knew the route back through the back roads, and i trusted him...once we crossed the highway, the roads got a little dicey, with ice still on about half the road, though at this point the sun was starting to come out, which was sweet. We ended up coming out around the upper big chute road, and took quary rd back to waub(the center of the world).

All in all it was a nice ride, and the first ride longer then 2 hours for me. I was definatly feeling that in the last hour, but i have to get some long rides in the next 2 weeks, to get ready for bens. I am just about to jump in for a nice warm epson salt bath, talk to you later web viewers!

crazy weather

Just sitting in a starbucks, thought i would shoot a quick update. Riding about an hour-2 hours a day, with some running and core training mixed in. Down 5lbs in last 2 weeks. Weather is all over the place, 34 one day, 2 the next. I am home in about a week. New bikes when i get home.

I will be happy to be home, planning on some epic length rides, like 4-6 hour days. Gotta be ready for bennos.

rights and lefts oh my...

So today was my day off. So i figured I would sleep in a bit. Got up at about 830 feeling pretty solid. So I packed up my bike and boards and headed off to Va Beach. I got up to the race site, and no one was there. So I headed off to the AWI sanctuary(aka starbucks), and checked what was up on the ol IPOD, seems the start time of 1130 was moved to 130. So i drove around lookin at crap.

Finally get up to the race site, sign in, get dressed and start my warm up. It was starting to warm up, so it was nice that the race was later. Watched the girls race, seemed pretty solid. The course was dead flat, 2 hard corners, one with pretty sketchy pavement on the inside line...stayed the eff away from that sucka.

So the mens race got started right on time. Rolled out at a pretty chill pace. There was 3 primes in this race. I when for the first one about half a lap out, and no one followed, they wernt chasing too hard, so i was away for about 2 laps, but because this was less then 10 laps in I let them catch me. The race was pretty relaxed, hard accelerations out of the two hard corners, but nothing bad. It was kinda sketchy because there was no lapping rules. So if you were lapped you just kept racing. Like cross, but in a crit, this gets a little hairy. I went for the other 2 primes, but there was one dude who took the other two, i was second both times. The last lap saw the pace pick up like expected, and the acceleration really went at about the half way throuh the lap. I was sitting 5th wheel in the last corner. I stood up to catch the acceleration out of that corner, and thats when my lack of intensity training kicked in. I had nothing. I went as hard as I could, but got caught by a group just shy of the line. Finished 11th. Next race is in 2 weeks, so it looks like I am going to be doing some interval training in the next bit, see if I can finish better. Set me up better for SC.

In other news, I saw Unknown with Liam Neeson last night. Pretty much what it is is that he is a doctor that is going to berlin to give a speach at a Bio Tech convention. He is in a car acciedent and when he wakes up 4 days later he knows who he is, but everyone else is acting as though he is not who he thinks he is. Cue 1h30 of him trying to figure out what is going on, and who is responsible. Good movie, I like Liam Neeson, and he didnt let me down in this.

Intensity for all...

So i had found this local bike shop called Fat Frogs, the guys in the shop seemed pretty chill and told me about a group ride they have wed/sat/sun every week at 0730. So today was my day off and i figured I will make an apperance. I rolled out with the A+ group(22mph +) to see how I would do at a higher intensity. Well it started out fine enough with all of 5 people. We dropped one about 4km into it, later on i was told he is taking some diet pills and latley since he has been on them can hardly hold and high intensity. So we were down to 4 of us, and only 3 of us doing any real pulls(longer then 10sec, which is cool as that one person not pulling long was a girl, and she still did some pulling, so it let us recover). We did a nice ride through the country roads, that was about as flat as you can get on roads...max elevation would probably be measured in inches. We rolled into the start point at around an hour, so we averaged about 24ish mph. I forgot to ask the other guys what they had as I dont have a computer on this bike.

I grabbed a coffee from starbucks(convienently located next door to the shop), and headed into the shop with the rest of the guys. At this point the slower(or less fast if you do the midland group rides) groups were rolling in. Spent about 45 minutes in the shop talking about the local race scene, training, and just cycling in general. Pretty chill group of dudes and dudettes. I am looking forward to getting some more riding in with them. Just have to make it work at work now.

Now that I am all showered up and smell pretty, i am going to head to to a local outlet mall to check out the sales at oakley, under armour, ect.... I think my credit card might get worn out if i stay too long.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my

So I have been reading all about cougars and elephants..... Even seen pictures and hears of accounts of fights between the two. Seems the horseshoe valley area is getting quite interesting. All I have to contend with is black bears, possums, snakes and spiders.

Got out for a hour and a half run last night, about 15km with some hill sprints. Well as much as I could on the ol' dreadmill. Happy that the run really loosened up my hip after the trauma of last saturdays ride. So it's back to getting in all those base miles before I head off to bennos.

In other news I have started training for the pancake ride. I am up to 37 flapjacks in one sitting. Also doing some sprint training just to beat out the shake and bake.

Tristan was talking about so
E bike to be announce today on here.... So I wait for that now.

New whip

So it looks like I am going to be a new mountain bike as well as a new road bike. Going with the 2010 Norco Team Carbon and 2010 Norco CRR SL. pretty stoked on them, but looks like I am going to be waiting atleast a month for them as they are in Ontario and I am not.

So this morning I woke up to about 6" of snow. I thought I had escaped winter, but alas. If the snow melts away in time I might head out on the road bike, if not I will probably just go for a run or something, see how the hip feels.

Well back to work

What to do with your time off

So I had been thinking, I listen to alot of music. So why not let those of you who are less adventurous with your music know what I am listening to now. My tastes are extreemly varried and I can easily have country, rap, punk, classic rock, folk, and even acoustic stuff all in the same playlist. I will be the first to admit, I use my iPod when I ride. I am in base mileage season now so I really get to enjoy some good chill music while I just push the pedals for hours. So let's see what my most recent music purchases have been.
Mumford and Sons- Sigh no MoreI really liked their single Little Lion Man, so I grabbed the album. I have to say that listening to the album makes me think of the album title from Sum 41, all killer no filler. They are a Four price folk group from England. they combine well thought, powerful lyrics with a cool mix of instruments. From stand up bass, to accordion to banjo to guitar, and alot in between. Their new single The cave is another good track, though my personal favorite is the same as the album name, Sigh no More. they are a good chill out band, though the nano stuff really can get you going.
Florence & the Machine- LungsI was a big fan of the strong vocals from the single Dog Days are Over. so I picked up the album Lastnight. I have not had a chance to listen to it all yet, but it is pretty slow stuff. More like good recovery or streching music. Slow is not bad, powerfull vocals, just not for everyone.
Punk Goes Pop vol.3- various artistsI also grabbed this, it's coversongs of pop hits by punk bands. Fun album, cool cover of MIA's Paper Planes. I really Nike the Punk Goes series.
On the uncomming front....Rise Against has a new album out on march 15th. Lookin forward to that, rise against is always good to ride to.
That's it for now, gotta atleast pretend I am working.

promises

So i think that i am back on the bloging bandwagon, as it seems to help those sponsored/looking for sponsorship. That and i feel that the world definatly needs to hear what i have to say...it may be the ramblings of a mad man, but thats what you get.
So those of you that arnt on my friend list on facebook, probably dont know what is up with me. In the last year since i blogged, i was riding alot, as i had no car, and had to get to work somehow. Then work took me to areas that i couldnt race, so i didnt race MTB in 2010....sad. Then in the fall i bought 'The Manondale' and took up cross racing....happy. I was doin ok, won my first begginer race at the hillbilly hustle(our own mr watsons favorite race as he is rewarded in about 6 years supply of beer). So i decided to stop sandbagging as i was a few minutes ahead of second place, and like 15 ahead of 3rd. The rest of the season was like if Tyson fought an infant....just havin the elites hand me my ass all season long. Not training for 4 months before and drinking alot of beer didnt help. Certainly i dont think doing about 99% of my cross racing in true cross form....aka hungover helped either.
So i am now in the lovley southern united states for a few months with work. I was starting to ramp up training for what is shapping up to be a busy busy year filled with racing. On last saturday i was doing some interval training on a loop around where i am staying, i looked down just after a hard set, breathing hard, and i didnt see the speed bump comming. My right hand slipped off the bars and i went down pretty hard. The cost, one UA shirt, my tri club wind jacket, new derailer cables and housing(was due anyways), and the right brake hood on my campy record brake levers. Right now it is electrical taped in place while I wait for a replacment. The rest is all fixed up..... for fun look at my hip....
Lesson learned, look where I am going....oh, and you use your oblique muscles for just about everything, it still gives me alot of pain, so i am taking a few days off training to let it heal up.
So I am in the wanting a new bike phase. I am about 99% going with a Norco CRR SL for my road bike this year....and that dammed Stu Alp is temping me with his Norco Team Carbon mtb from last year for a good price....problem is i just dont have the cash for it all.....dammed drinking habbit....i have quit drinking by the way, well almost. I have one beer left from a 12 pack i bought 5 weeks ago, so I think I am doing really well. Just need to stop crashing and breaking my bikes and in theory I will actually start making money.........
So my work is over on the 31st of March.....what am I going to do after that you say? Race the Icebreaker, P2A, ect......eff that ess....i am going south again sucka. I am going to Mr Bennos place in the derty south for the month. So I have to get all my base milage in over the next 2 months, once i get to socar(i am going to start this i think, like socal, but not as cool), its time for the intensity. I forsee lots of racing up the many mountainous climbs in the area with the many fine residents of che ben. I have races to win when i get back in May, and categories to attain...
Anyways, i just noticed it is now 0049hrs, off to bed.

Ok, i just spent 10 minutes trying to post a picture....no dice, so just imagine a bruise that is literally about 8" long and 4" tall with a bunch of road rash in the middle....i am impressed with it....almost to the point of framing the picture, anywho, off to lollypop land.