Cold winds, warm sun, sore legs and a happy heart

So after my hospital appointment i bunked off work and headed up north, for the first time in ages.

it was a chilly 1c when i got up but by the time i headed out it was closer to 5c.

As usual the wind always seemed to be coming straight towards you, but that's Ontario for you.

Still the crisp clean air and blue skies punctuated by the odd cloud and the fall sun made up for it.

I planned on doing a couple of E2 intervals but my legs had other ideas, I had a couple of hard days in the gym in the days before the ride, so when I awoke I could barely walk properly, I think the 5 sets of 20 reps on the leg press @ 400lb are getting the better of me.

anyway it felt good to go on a longer ride than the usual jaunt to work and back or down to the spit, hopefully i'll get a longer ride in on Saturday or Sunday weather permitting!

winter is , after all, just around the corner!

heres my ride details.

Mas tarde

caballo

Is Pain the new Black?

Well i know the old black was brown, before brown became white, which used to be like the old Pink but is now most certainly darker than pitch,

But one might have heard rumours that black briefly surfaced again as an off white for a short period during the spring classics until the boys from Cervelo Test team complained about it being to hot ( but unfortunatly not in the" damn boyz dat Hott!!! sense of the word) which seemed to relegate it swiftly back to the ranks of prime-colours such as red or perhaps a nice pastel your aunt might have in her living room.

Unless of course the black you're wearing is from Rapha, then lets face it your too rich to really give a shit what anyone else thinks about you, in fact you might even put a pink strip on it and still get away with claiming its a subtle shade of matt noir!

Anyway its all so confusing that I've taken to riding naked wearing only the grimace of pain across my corps! Which means today I must be looking particularly chic as I'm in considerable muscular pain after another hard day at work and down the gym.
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Black briefly surfaced again as an off white for a short period during the spring classics
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I hope to spin some of it out later on toady after what will hopefully be the last appointment i have at my physio (for my broken finger).

convention unfortunately dictates that i wear at least a semblance of clothing whilst appearing at the hospital so they may not realise just how cool I really am.....

DAMN shaMe ReaLLy...

PiMP MI rIDE!!!

Heres my main bike getting esembled by my friend Lee in Atlanta Georgia:

i bought the parts online via ebay, craigslist and various online stores.

Its a LITESPEED titanium frame with carbon forks and Campagnolo Chorus components.

She's a great ride and super tough and durable (good seeing as how i crashed 5 times during last season.)

She great and responsive on the tarmac, and just as happy on dirt tracks north of the city. I even took It (inadvertently all be it) on a 30 miles back country fire break adventure as part of a 90 mile loop 4hrs north of Toronto and ended up fording rivers and getting eaten alive by bugs).

i learnt that day not to always trust my garmin GPS, the old basic base maps showed a road heading north between two larger roads so i took it only to end up quite literally in the middle of no where! thinking well i had better just keep going as after 15 miles of it getting progressively worse and worse, i figured it was going to be just as bad to keep going as to have to turn around and ride the same tortuous 15miles back to the main road again.

oh happy days.... anyway i guess I'm trying to say it can stand some abuse and come up smiling!

today in brief.

OK just a short ride in and out to work, enjoying the warm weather,

Then as its dark about 30mins after I get home I headed straight out again on my single speed for a blat to the beaches and back.

didn't even bother to get changed out my work gear (I ride home in shorts, knee warmers and cycling shoes anyway).

My legs ache from yesterdays gym work but it was good to get an hour or so in despite the restrictions nature is throwing up against me, and the single speed has fenders (mudguards) fitted and pretty much stops you going too hard as well.

Still i like flying past the lycra clad roadies looking like a cycling vagrant, even better if i have my work bag on my back..it confuses them.

Ok early night. rest is training too! I'm going to watch hard ride!

life at the bottom of the road safety food chain.

I find the irony amusing...... who ever did this picture has obviously never ridden or raced in Toronto or with my club.

Aleksandar "Kazakh Thunder" Simonovic.

being the latest victim to pay the pavement piper.

I think our new team should be called "team bounce"
sometimes, it seems to be a speciality sometimes.

anyway barring a little road rash and minor bruising Alex is expected to make a speedy recovery just in time to go off the front before Christmas gets here.

KEEP the RUBBER-SIDE DOWN KIDS

and pray that evolution speeds up the process of moving cyclists eyes to the sides of their heads as speedily as quickly!

its my blog and i'll write what i want to!!!

Been an interesting week, got ill again (FUCK!) luckily it only lasted 3 days, beginning to end still a bit to close to the last one to be taken lightly (still god bless cold FX)

The weekend has had some great weather, so I spent my training time indoors running on a treadmill (of course!) and pumping iron.......BEEFCAKE!!!!

Squatting 20 reps of 400lbs in the AA phase so far with a goal of 600lbs by the MS stage....BEEEEFCAAAKE!!!

Been keeping up the diet and protein shakes!
Down another notch on the belt though the weight is teetering around the same mark. But so far its an improvement on last year so if I can keep it up I'll be on target for next year...... BEEFCAKE!!!!!!

Also things are definitely looking up on the team front, but its still to early to lay all my cards on the table right now, but in general despite the short illness life is looking pretty good at the moment!!!! Combine that with a 93% average grade on my night school class and things are certainly going well.

Must be about time to get run over by a truck or something... you know coronation street stylee!!!

"Oh I've never been happier!!!...splat!"

And to top it off my team captains wife had her new cyclo-cross bike stolen Friday morning from their garage, and then 24hrs later I stumbled upon it in down-town Toronto. Some frantic phone calls and a short confrontation later I had it in my possession.

An hour later my other mate calls me to let me know my favourite bike has finally been liberated from its American capturers and is safely back on Canadian soil!!!

We were reunited earlier today...props to all those involved in its rescue (Jamie and Lee from Atlanta, and Yonton from my home town Toronto, I throw scented flowers in your general direction!!) .

A plague on those behind the torment of bikes and their owners everywhere else in the world....you know who you are!
Me and MY baby! (the bike that is): SHE'S GREAT AND DOESN'T MOAN IS I DECIDE TO SPEND HOURS RIDING SOMETHING ELSE!

Oh and i got my powertap back at last!!!!!!

gym rat

So with my new Gym membership I'm starting to get my strength training ramped up again..

I kind of hate those places all pert asses and testosterone fuelled Bone heads, well I guess the pert butts aren't too bad at least about half of them.

But overall I enjoy getting back into the swing of things and it helps to keep me focused as the night draw in (its pitch black by 6pm now the clocks have gone back).

Anyway with my 40th B-day only a few months away I decided that I would probably benefit from maintaining my strength program through out the season not just through the winter base period so i took the plunge and got a 12 month membership!!! OMG.

for now I'm working on my X-training starting at 20mins of running at around 155bpm about 10bpm above my LTT.

and working on the AA (anatomical adaptation) phase of weights mostly focusing on my core and legs as I'm spending so much time working my upper body at work.

I ordered a few books from Amazon.com

Bicycling Medicine: Cycling Nutrition, Physiology, Injury Prevention and Treatment For Riders of All Levels

The Cyclist's Training Bible new edition

Weight Training for Cyclists: A Total Body Program for Power & Endurance

So I'm looking forward to their arrival to gain some new tips and tricks on training and nutrition.


Its crappy night out there, but i have some new fenders fitted to my single speed so my ride home was decidedly more pleasant tonight, off to the gym again in a bit for a late night blatt.

And god damn if my power tap hasn't finally been fixed at the shop its only been two month I've felt naked without it!

look for lots more numbers coming this way very shortly!