injury blues.....

Well its been a few days since i put my shoulder out after a fall on wet roads.

I made it out today for a quick test spin round the spit....

Unfortunatly my power outputs seems to be suffering from the injury.

I tried two 20min ftp intervals but could barely hold a tempo pace.

The pain was not too bad, mobility is reasonable considering the time since the incident, but i obviously and some what limited in my movements on the bike, no jumping holes, or standing up to power through on the pedals.

Not where i was hoping to be at this point in my race prep for KW....

still could be a lot worse i guess.

great day for team chain-reaction - Molson 67

Great day for the riders of chain reaction today at the Toronto Criterium.

Getting a 3 top 10 finishes and 2 podiums!!!!

5th In the Cat 4 race: John STEPHENSON

2nd in M1: El Capitian: Paul Greene

And 1st In M2 : El Terrier, John Provost;

who bridged to an break, stayed away and stuck it to the rest of the field.

Now if Biemme would get our feckin new kit to us we wouldn't have to photo shoot the awards to keep the sponsors happy...

way to go guys!!!

Days since my last accident: 0

Well it had to happen at some point.

and it was all going so well, i was rested up feeling strong, laying the hurt down on the Old folk at the club ride.

we got caught in a light rain storm amd then quite at exactly the furthest point from home i rounded a corner, started to pull away and WHAM!!!

My back wheel slid out and i found my self dumped on my arse on the wet tarmac. Actually it was more like on my shoulder, as i reached out to catch my self i felt my shoulder get over extended. and amidst the calls of concern and advice to pull to the side ans take it easy i picked my self up got back on my bike and kept heading home.

sorry to those that felt put out by my actions, but i knew i was going to have a long ride home in the wet and sitting around discussing it wasn't going to make it any shorter or any less painful.

so here i sit, arm in a sling , with a nice case of road rash.

I'm pretty sure nothing is broken...torn? probably...

but i'll be back soon enough (i might have to miss the crit this Sunday though.

such is the game we play....

Funny as i limped home i knew exactly what i wanted...Beer and curry.

MiD weAk cRIt....

Well Tuesdays amount to one of two things for me this time of year.....

either i go the the bluffs to do hill reps and work on my Vo2 Max.

or i go to the local "world champs", the Mid week crit race.

A fast and furious hammer fest round an industrial park out in Missisaga.

I have to say last nights crit, was not the most enjoyable, it hurt....

20mins in i was like shit i want to stop already....30mins in i'm thinking the same, hoping that perhaps i might get a puncture or something else that might let me pull out whilst retaining my honour (the minds a funny thing). it lasted 75mins and i can't honestly say it got any more enjoyable.

its takes a familiar format,, i go for a break, i get caught...exhausted i fall back into the pack to recover...regroup, work my way back to the front and wait for the next opportunity to go again or work to cover a team mates break.

Such efforts aren't easy, especially when you're going at an avg. of 45kmph (28mph) in temps of around 30c

And thats just the avg. speed with the pace and group pulsating between with surges of over 55+kmph.

Its hard to stay off the front at that speed its hurts.

Makes you want to get a puncture......

But the Toronto Crit is on Sunday, 1hr 45min of pain, with the Pro boys from Spyder tech just back form the Tour or cali, you know its going to sting like a son of a bitch!!!!

Ah but El Capitan likes it ....so i feel obliged. it is after all what i signed up for right? ;0)

race update

Well i knew there was a reason i hadn't planned on doing well at that race.

its hard to compete against some 130lb grimpeurs on that climb.

thats said we worked well together as a team

And Jeff "salto" Douglas came in 10th! restoring our honour! and making our first pay packet of the season.

i said we should put in the "Vegas fund".

toronto crit sunday, the spyder tech boys are going to be back from the tour of california, so you know thats going to hurt....

pre race blog

Ok so tomorrow is Effingham road race: the Niagara classic.

I'm not in top shape, i had been planning to do well at Burlington, but it was cancelled.

I was exhausted after that block of training so had to take a rest week.

But i had a good Crit Tuesday, worked hard (mostly at working off all the B-day excesses) and came in 5TH behind the S1/cat1 kids.

looking to do well at KW in three weeks time though But will still hang it all out there tomorrow and see what happens....what else can one do?

anyway spent the night tru-ing my rear wheel, which had some very loose spokes, and tightening the bottom bracket which had also worked its way loose again.

gathered my shit together for tomorrow and managed to lose one of my new gloves somewhere.


GRrRRRrrrr....

shit my room is so small how can i lose it? anyway after an hour of searching i gave up in favour of relaxing and writing this instead.

Oh well looking forward to tomorrow with nervous anticipation.

I'll let you know how i got on.

k.

been a while

Ok its been a while since i checked in....

did any one really miss me ?

no one called so i guess not...

anyway heres a brief overview of the past few weeks.

training is going well.

vo2 max is up, FTP is up

hit +400w twice during hard races in the same week, for 20min Normalised power outputs.

had my first Mid week crit race. got away in a break after bridging a sizeable gap early on. stayed away for 20mins, before getting caught.

another team mate got into the following break and managed to hold in for a great 2nd place finish.

Burlington got cancelled which sucks i was looking forward to that race.

I'm currently pretty exhausted its been 5wks since i took an easy week. its starting to show.

Not sure i can face another hard week of training before tapering off for Effingham.

I'm still debating what to do next...my legs might already be telling me though.


Rest you fool....rest!!!