Tempus Fugit

In my mind there is nothing more boring that riding a trainer indoors, alone. The time just drags on and on and on. Each tick of the clock seems like an eternity. I’ve tried watching TV, no help. I’m usually listening to a podcast which helps somewhat for the first 30-40 minutes and then I just want it all to be over.

I have one training DVD that I’ve used once a week since Christmas. It’s a one hour killer workout and the time seems to fly by, but you still want it to be over, but for another reason say like so you won’t throw up, or collapse in a heap on the floor. But there is this guy pushing you on. “hurry”, “don’t be last”, “earn you rest day”, it’s sort of a love hate relationship.

BTW, does anybody know someone who speaks Italian? I’m looking for somebody to help me pronounce “Vado troppo veloce per te?“.

Back around Christmas time I purchased my first ever Spin workout DVD. I picked the Spinnervals 19.0 Bending Crank Arms. I really didn’t know what I was getting into and the first workout was a killer and I really couldn’t keep up with my on-screen riding companions. The thing I really didn’t know in advance, was the off bike work. In between spin interval sets on the bike there are squat sets off the bike. You’re commanded to do as many squats as possible in 30 seconds and then hold an iso-squat for another 30 seconds, a 30 second rest and then do it again, and again. Then the sets get longer, 45 seconds and then a minute!

Well after 4 weeks of doing this workout, I’m noticing an improvement. I can almost keep up with the crew all the way to the end, no throwing up involved, but it gets close some times. I began to wonder exactly how many squats are involved in a session. Well the pace is about 1 per second and today I managed just over 455 squats. Now some of the keeners on the DVD are holding 5-10lb. dumbbells and I’m not at that level – yet.

Not exactly a New Years resolution, but this year I’m planning on being in good riding shape when spring rolls around which means some sort of winter training program.  So, I’ve got the bike on the trainer, complete with a special rear training tire, and purchased my first ever cycle training DVD. A friend at work recommended Spinervals and I picked up Bending Crank Arms as my 1st pick. What I didn’t notice at the time of purchase was the difficulty rating, a 9.5 out of 10, a great pick for my very 1st training DVD.

I attempted the program three days ago and I’m still feeling it today. Turns out it was more that just cycling and they mix it up with off the bike squat sets. I think it will be several months before I can complete the routine in it’s entirety.

Today was a 42 minute medium intensity spin while listening to John C. Maxwell teaching session, and a 2:50 cool down to Johhny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. I’m looking for my cycling computer wired sensor for the rear wheel so I can start logging some mileage. I know it’s around here somewhere. Gli ultimi due chilometri sono micidiali

In just under a week I’ll be heading off to ride the MDH trail in North Dakota with the boys. For many years we made an annual trip to ride this outstanding single track trail, but this will be the first time since 2005.

I’ve been taking with some of the guys and everybody is getting pretty excited about the trip. Its quite the action packed weekend with a 9 hour drive thru the night, breakfast at 4am, a brief nap in the vehicles until the sun comes up and then all day riding!
I think we’ll be riding the northern section and taking in some near by trails on Saturday. Sunday we’ll ride for half a day in the Buffalo Gap area. As some would say, it should be GTs. I’m looking forward to it.

Two years ago I rode my 1st Century, and last year I missed this event but last Sunday I took part in the 16th Annual Muddy Waters 100.

This year the Muddy Waters ride hooked up with Habitat for Humanity and has over 500 cyclists take part in the event riding 25,  60 or 100 km, or the big one, 100 miles. In cycling speak a “Century” is a 100 mile ride and most serious road cyclists eventually get around to adding it to their list of accomplishments.

The ride was quite a bit different this year with a start from the Forks and a police escort all the way to the Perimeter Highway with rolling street closures all the way. So, for about 1/2 hour we had all of the north bound lanes of Main Street tied up. This made for a very leisurely start at about 10-15km/h, actually painfully slow and them up to about 30km, and then full speed ahead after the cruiser car pulled off at the Perimeter.

I stayed with the main group until after the “Big Bridge” past Selkirk which was great. Coming down from the bridge I thought I was getting a flat and as I slowed to check out what was going on, a gap opened up between me and the lead group. Turns out I’d just hit a tar strip with made the bike feel funny for a few seconds but it didn’t take much and I found my self in the second group. We worked hard for quite a while, almost to Hwy 44 to re-join, but for me, it was not to be. Stayed with the second group well onto Hwy 212, but got dropped again for some solo riding and eventually joining up with four other guys for some on again off again riding into the Birds Hill town site. From here the other four guys took a rest stop and I soloed on to Henderson Hwy. At this point another rider picked me up from behind and we rode a steady 34-36km/h to the finish. All in all a very good day. The weather was great and the ride a lot of fun.

However, I’m sure there are lots of stories of some pretty interesting events, like the crash at the front of the peloton just entering Selkirk. I was pretty close to this one and just missed going down in the pile up. To me it looked like a rider bumped an on coming car and there were 6-8 riders abreast at the time and that triggered quite the pileup. It looked like nobody was seriously injured and the organizers were right there to respond. Later, I hear a very loud “pop” and the rider next to me pulls off with a flat. I wonder how many flats occured that day. I heard of one rider getting 3! Then there was the rider with shoes off and walking at Garvin and 59. When I asked he said he’d be OK, and just needed to walk it off for a bit. Hope that turned out all right.

I followed the perscribed course to the letter, but my odometer came up a little short of the 162km required for the Century, but I’m chalking that up to the new bike computer not being set up quite right. Compared to two years ago, I put in a significantly faster ride over all and the “Trip Time” is actually just time on the bike not total elapsed time and I know I took way fewer and shorter rest stops this year. For the record, max speed was 54.77km/h

Are you practicing your trail riding skills and getting ready for MDH 2009?

Gary at the Finish Line
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

OK, that’s not me, but another “Gary” from the FOG club, with a very nice bike.

Unfortunately, there was nobody taking photo’s as I crossed the finishing line at my first ever Time Trials race at Birds Hill Park today. The race was a lot of fun and it will be interesting to see my time when it gets posted. (Photos)

This weekend was really quite a high mileage weekend with 94km yesterday on the FOG ride and a warm-up lap and two race laps for 33.9km, a total of 117.9km. Still feeling good, but we’ll see how that plays out tomorrow morning.

The first FOG ride of the year was great. It was cool at about 1°C and a fair breeze, but still a great ride, well for most of the way. About 21 of us set off at 10am and several turned back at Lockport while the rest of us headed over to Birds Hill Park for a couple of laps. After 1 1/2 laps, I decided that I needed to head back and 5 of us started the return on Hwy 59 while the rest of the keeners headed of for another lap at 35-38kph.

Thinks were good until I got out onto Hwy 59 and we were cruising at about 37-38 with a tail wind. Aerobically I seemed fine, the legs were burning a bit but there was this feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that said “slow up or throw up”. I opted for the “slow up”, and drifted back from the group and limped into the parking lot, well off the group pace for a 74km ride. A little zapped, but feeing good.

Friday was my first cycle commute of 2009 and it was good to get back on the road with the mountain bike as opposed to idling in traffic with the truck. The first think I noticed is that I seem to have neglected the bike a bit from some previous winter ride and the drive train had a little rust on it and was a little noisy, but shifting was still fairly good. I’ll need to attend to that this weekend.

I followed my usual route downtown taking the bike paths to the Niakwa park area, detouring over the Fermor bridge as the Seine flooding had the bike path bridge well under water. Only the tops of the hand rails are visible. After that it was down DesMurons, over to St. Marys and into the heart of the city. Traffic was typical, and drivers were good to me.

At work when I entered the locker room I was greeted with a bit of a mess. Some co-worker treating the area like his personal space and there is a pile of towels and “other stuff” in the corner, and more personal items left in the common shower area. Time for a friendly reminder that this is a shared space.

Today should be my first ride with FOG this year, unless it starts pouring before the 10am start. I’ll ride in the rain is it happens after we start but I’m not so big on setting out in a downpour. Gary S. is running a great blog for the club and it looks like he’ll be keeping us all in line this year. Unlike last year, I’ve been training since January and have been out on the road several times already this year, so I’m hoping not to suck too much on the first group ride. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to seeing the group agian.