Need Motivation?

 
If you need help with motivation please check out the link below and, do yourself a favour, play the video. This guy is inspirational!



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/nyregion/cyclists-embrace-a-handless-cuban-who-wants-to-race.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=damian&st=cse

Muskoka Training Weekend

A awesome weekend of training, drink and weather came together for Victoria Day weekend. Our long bike was memorable for many reasons:

We rode the majority of the ride, 120k plus, with the group intact. We had one rider, Evan, top out at 180k. We had four riders complete 166k, and the rest of the spandex army got 120k plus in. We had a nice break at Robinson's General Store in Dorset where we refueled on bananas, powerbars and yuppy mix (popular item with the group). We had 2 wipeouts (courtesy of Tom or "Sausage Tom" as he soon became) - not to worry, though, Tom came out unscathed,

Here's a game - take the picture to the left and above and spot the differences.

Here's Logan at the Port Sydney waterfall - it's supposed to be a lot of fun sliding down when warm enough. I'll have to try it when it's less frigid.

Cute geese family at the Clyffe House.

We had dinner at the Eclipse restaurant at Deerhurst Resort, site of last year's G8 summit. Our waitress, Denise, actually served the President!

Here the boys are looking after their recovery with an "ice bath" and ice-cold beer(s)!!

The gang enjoying the fruits of the labour and more beverages!

Next stop - Lake Placid Ironman training weekend.....

Cheers!

Hey Rob, Where You At?!!

It's been a busy few weeks and I haven't put out a decent post in a bit. So this is what I've been up to......first off, I turned 45 on May 6 so HELLO new age group!! Here's my opportunity to appear fast with the old boys. My birthday landed on a Friday and a rather busy workday. I flew up to Thunder Bay for the day and never stopped moving until I arrived back home at 7:30 in the evening. My present to myself was coming the next morning at the Personal Best long distance triathlon training day. The day would consist of a 75 min swim, 3.5 hour bike and 1.5 hour run back to back to back. John "the Beast" Ceko and about 25 others signed up for the fun.

The home base was the David Braley Centre at McMaster University, an awesome facility.

We had the full 50 metre pool to ourselves. John and I, however, mistakenly assumed this segment would consist of a 75 minute continous swim. Instead we were put through a gruelling workout by Andrew Cole, the McMaster swim coach. Our main set consisted of 2 x 50m all out, 2 x 50m easy, 150m all out, then 100m easy - we kept repeating this until our time was up or our arms fell off. Both John and I could hardly move our arms by the last 150m interval - it was not pretty!

Swim now over we gathered for the bike. The plan was to make our way from Mac to Flamborough where we would do 20km loops, some in pacelines, some individual time trials and some pursuits. It was a lot of fun despite the ever present cool weather we've been having.

Now on the bike the Beast was one happy camper as evidenced by the giddy look on his face!

The guy with the yellow jacket is Hans Porten. He's in the 50-54 age group and is an amazing athlete. He also has a very sterotypical German accent. During a paceline where we were in pairs I had the pleasure to ride with Hans and he repeatedly told our group to "stay togezzer!!" I was expecting the followup "we have vays of making you tawk" to come out of his mouth. He routinely wins his age group and I would kill to be in the shape this guy's in.

Beast getting antsy because we stopped for a pee break - "when are we going?!!"

Pro Karsten Madsen guided us to the run loop.

A shot of the group running - it was tough running and taking pics but I'm such a dedicated blogger and I told myself to HTFU. Incidentally, the runner in the white shirt is retired NHLer Scott Thornton who's right into triathlon now and I believe is gearing up for Ironman Austria. YouTube his name and MTV Cribs and you'll see his sweet indoor tri-themed workout area in his house - very cool.

This was part of the run loop near Cootes Paradise. By this point it started to warm up but this stretch of trail remained nice and cool.

I thought the Beast was going to hug high performance member John Rasmussen when he arrived with water as the Beast was a little parched. How John (not the Beast) rode with the case of water on his handlebars I'll never know. All the pros were great and totally supportive.

Another pic of the Beast and I.

The following Friday I took advantage of the nice weather and set out for a long ride. I started riding at 6:50 am and went to Brantford and back for 61 miles (Go Imperial Man Go!). I came back and headed out again with Sara to Grimsby and back for some more riding fun. By this time it was 23C and 30 with the humidity - it felt great!

Sara slicing through the wind. If only we had race wheels.......it was amazing to not have layers of clothes on.

Nice Face!! I took a picture of myself while riding no hands - probably not smart but I'll do anything for my craft! All in all I covered 102 miles on the bike (163km for you metric folk) - my first century of the season. John and I met up the next day and banged off 16 miles (26 km) of running with lots of hills. I felt pretty good so my training must be on track. We have our Muskoka training weekend coming up this Victoria Day weekend so I'm looking forward to another smashfest. That's all for now and remember "if you can't be good, be good at it!"

Have a good one - Cheers!

Inspirational - A Perspective Review

http://www.penmachine.com/2011/05/the-last-post

The above link is from a BC man who recently died of colorectal cancer and was a frequent blogger. This was his last post that was sent out following his death. It is estimated to have received 8 million hits. Makes me rethink about the whining over gas prices!

Friday Funnies and UFC 129!!

A little dose of funny to brighten up yet another cloudy day!

Royal Wedding?!

Have a great weekend and GO GSP at UFC 129!!!!

When Will The Rain End!!!!

So after a killer long day of eating yesterday, a career day which included steak, ribs, ham and all the fixins, it was time to detox. My detoxifying technique is washing down my food with a few glasses of wine. I didn't have the greatest sleep following this act of gluttony and I was pessimistic about the prospect of having a decent ride before yet another rainfall. I headed out at 9:00 am with lots of layers and a plan to ride a couple of hours solo followed by a ride with Sara and her friend Cynthia and finally some additional solo time weather permitting. The picture above and below are taken from Ridge Road looking out over Stoney Creek and Hamilton - quite a desolate view as it has been these days with lots of rain in the forecast to come.

I managed to get 39 miles in (yes I am Imperial Man - no metric for me!) before meeting up with Sara and Cynthia. I rode ahead for a bit due to the fact that I'm a man and cannot quite understand women-speak. Their topics didn't include sci-fi, movies with guns, hockey playoffs or general triathlon talk so I felt like I was in an alien world. When I returned I quickly realized that they were still speaking in women tongue so I hung back in the draft and snapped off a few pics. Despite not contributing a lot to the conversation it was nice to have company for the middle part of my ride.

They're smiling here but alas the rain was just starting to fall (surprise, surprise) but the girls were on their way back so it wasn't a big deal.

Just before returning home we had an unexpected treat! Now I'll be honest - I seriously thought that the "Hammer" was just an urban myth as I had never crossed paths with him. I was sceptical but today I was proven wrong! We encountered the "Hammer" close to home along Golf Club Road. For those of you not familiar with the "Hammer" he is the one in orange on the left and he happens to be Cynthia's dad. Her uncle (in the red) was also out with the "Hammer" and most likely learning a ton. I've had the pleasure of chatting with the "Hammer" at a few social gatherings but this was my first time seeing him in his full glory. The "Hammer" got his nickname from many rides and races where at a key point he "put the hammer down!" The "Hammer" has no shortage of race stories where the phrase "I put the hammer down" is mentioned. The man will entertain you for hours and you"ll feel like a domestique by night's end. For those cycling geeks out there,  he can be booked for parties and the organizer can receive a "I got hammered by the Hammer" T-shirt with each new booking (you'll have to speak with his manager/daughter Cynthia if interested). I wonder if I'll ever see the Beast and the Hammer at the same time - now that would be mind-boggling! From here I went solo into the rain for an additional 45 minutes. I did not enjoy this at all but I needed to get some distance in. I'm happy to say "mission accomplished" as I managed to get 71 miles in altogether (you metric people will have to figure the kms on your own). My butt was pleased to be removed from the bike seat and I was happy to have a hot shower to unthaw.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE CAN I HAVE SOME SUNSHINE!!!

Cheers!

Training Update

I've just gotten over a virus which has plagued (nice pun eh?) my training of late. Besides increasing stock price for Kleenex I've been diligently studying the weather network for any glimpse of ride-worthy weather. Last Sunday, Sara and I joined the ride with All the Right Gears bike shop. Sam the owner is a great guy and he's the only one I believe in to service my bike! We managed 65k and had some "attack" fun on the way back - yes, the Beast was involved. I followed up the ride with another hour on the trainer to build distance.

I also "had" to work up in the muskokas this week so I tried to take advantage of one of my favourite places on Earth. Here's Port Syndey beach on Mary Lake looking cold. The ice won't be reciding for a few weeks yet.

I was staying at Deerhurst Resort so after a 2.5k swim at the community center I bundled up and headed out on the bike for some hills. I followed North Portage to South Portage and headed right. I took South Portage to Brunel, turned around and headed back. I managed to get 52k in but I was pretty cold by the end. It never ceases to amaze me how taxing riding here is - I was cooked.

Here's the big hill on South Portage. I had a blast going up and was a little cautious on the trip down as there's lots of sand on the road from the winter.

This is the fast downhill on North Portage just before you go right on Canal Road back to Deerhurst.

One thing I noticed were these signs that were throughout the area. It's really cool to see the community promoting respect for cars and cyclists alike.

I noticed this sign on Canal Road and just had to take a shot. I rounded out my time here with a 16.5k run on the Muskoka 70.3 course - more hills! Saturday I managed to get 32k outside on the bike before getting wet then did an additional 2 hours on the trainer. Today, Beast and I did 19.3k of trails, hills and 60km gusts of wind - very epic!!

Hope everyone's well and healthy - Cheers!