Friday, March 5, 2010

Hotel Workouts

Hilton is big on pushing their precious new 'gym'.
Really, it's still a hotel gym. A couple treadmills and elipticals with TVs. A nice collection of dumb bells, a few weight benches and a multi-use machine. But the big bonus - a set of weighted medicine balls and sticks that you can do Crossfit workouts on.
I spent an hour in the gym yesterday and today and am getting worked.
Something that might be a great added bonus is a DVD that shows you how to do more exercises with their machines - but alas, maybe one day :)

Goal - to get on cruise ship at 185 lbs and come off at 182!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Count Down's DEAD

OK - so getting back on the bike didn't quite work as planned.
It seems as though I was a better professional cyclist than weekend warrior.
Looking at my stats from the last five weeks, my average trainer time is a pathetic 5 hours.
Even if I'm VERY generous with myself and say "one hour on the trainer is worth two on the road" (which isn't true so please don't quote me on that!) - I'd still only be at 10!

WOW - so much to learn.

1. How to be married ad GET OUT OF BED!
(Honeymoon's over but I still like to stay up late, talking, and cuddling in the morning)

2. Set stronger boundaries at work.
If I go in at 7:30am - I do get a two hour lunch break to RIDE, not to get caught up doing other work.

3. I'm still young enough to kick it but if I keep letting the years slip by...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Supergo Sam Searches for a New Ride II

Living near High Park Toronto, there's a lot of snob, and non-snob bike shops around.
Some are good and just 'feel' snob but it's just because they kick butt.

I may have visited one of those today in Racer Sportif.

This is an excellent Sales Shop. They understand value, but if that's not what you're after - you'll pay a pretty penny for whatever you're actually looking for. Meaning - GREAT SALES, but not on what you want. Knowing that I went in with an open mind to be persuaded by price and there were two items that stuck out.

Colnago CLX - $2190, 105 mix, FSA cranks, junk Cane Creek Brakes but a HOT frame!
Scott CR1 Team - $2190 105 Groupo - solid build.


Mark Cavendish - likely the greatest sprinter of our time, at least the 'current' time rides a Scott frame... I had a CR1 LTD in 2004 before they were available on the general market and it was FAST. Like Fast Freddy Fast! And yet when I switched to a Kestrel Talon SL, I was FASTER because it fit me better. It was a little heavier, a little more aero, but signifigantly more comfortable. (psst - there's a lesson there folks). It was still tempting because Racer Sportif was having their never ending "Great Scott Sale".

Colnago makes a beautifully comfortable frame, and I've kind of always wanted one, but just never made the leap for one reason for another - but THIS was a bike I could have. It was in my price range, the component group was 'tolerable' and left lots of room for upgrades - but the frame was just SOOOO sexy!

As I was deliberating, mostly in my head with a little pacing, the atmosphere became a little pushy. Before I could pass by the bike a third time the "oh there's not many left, give us your credit card and we'll hold it on a 10% deposit" began. This was the complete opposite of the first bike shop I visited and made me feel a little uncomfortable. The prices WERE really good so usually I could justify a bit of salesmanship and pushiness.

History however came into play at this point to possibly cloud my judgement. While I'm not usually one to carry a grudge, this shop struck a sore spot with me in 2007. I had dropped off my bike to get a quick "Pre Race Tune-Up" that was listed as $50. When my girlfriend went to pick up my bike, she ended up paying $125, the price of the invoice. I called and asked what happened, and they said the wheels were out of true and it needed a new brake cable.

Did they call to ask about performing additional services? Was there a waiver to sign saying they could increase the bike exponentially as they saw fit?

I had a sweet set of Reynolds DV's that I was regluing prepping for the race, which is why my crappiest wheels were ON the bike.

Even though the Colnago is the sweetest deal I've seen in Toronto -they still won't get my $$$.
However - if you can rock what they got on sale - you'll leave feeling like you won!

Day XX Summary

OK - so I've officially fallen off the blog band wagon.
Likely because my training has slipped from 8 hrs per week to 4 hrs per week.
The new job is making life a little too crazy.

Alas, I've been posting some decent training numbers on my rides, my legs hurt, so we're obviously getting somewhere. (I hope)

Pro Gear for Sale

A pro friend of mine is clearing out her closet to help pay for last years racing schedule. Check out the amazing deals!!! (Prices in Canadian dollars, include shipping)

SRM Dura-ace power meter V- 170cranks - $1850

• This system is in very good condition and was only used for racing, never training. It was recently factory serviced so you will not have to get it serviced for at least 2 more years. Everything works great. The professional Powermeter Durace Compatible has 8 strain gauges & an accuracy of +-2%. Cadence is transfer automatically with the crank. If you want to train better, this is what you need.
Comes with either 54/42 aero rings or 53/39.

Webcore LEOPARD Frame: Size XS $ 750
Details at www.leopardcycles.com

Stan's NoTubes ZTR Race 7000 Series MTB Wheelset $ 875

Up for sale is a lightly used set of Stan's NoTubes ZTR Race 7000 Series MTB Wheels. I got these days prior to leaving for Worlds so I would have a back-up set. They have been raced once and ridden for a couple training rides. Weighs just 1210 grams!!!

Cycling Shoes $ 55+

I have an assortment of different high end road and mountain bike shoes for sale - some used, some new, some size 36, 37, and 38. Specialized, Pearl Izumi, Lake, DMT, Sidi.

Easton EC90 SLX3 CNT Carbon Road Bbar-40cm - $155

CAT - 9 Queen Tent System $2500

Queen sized tent (walk-in style - 7.5 length x 7 width x 6 feet tall) with a CAT-9 air unit. At sea level, the CAT 9 can reach 9,000 feet, but in Colorado, it can get pretty high. With this bigger tent it can get to about 14,000 feet. It's in great shape, works perfectly. All manuals included.

This is a bit of a fire sale to make some $$$ to pay for a very successful race season. If you're interested in something but the money's not quite right... Please let me know and we'll see what we can do!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Day 68: Jan 16, 2010 - LSD (Base)

Today I accomplished a new feat. For the first time in a LONG time I kept my butt on the trainer for 2 hours in Zone 1. Well not exactly, I did have to take a bathroom / water bottle refill break but other than that - it was just me and the bike.

The heart rate stayed surprisingly low for the duration; even with trying to keep the wattage near the top of Z1.

AND

With staying at Keiser M3 gear 10 AND Zone 1:
Lap 1 = 30 km / hr
La 2 = 32 km / hr
I like very much :)
The bust is that it was all done at 0% elevation. Check out pics from next week to see how we combat this one :P

Friday, January 15, 2010

Day 67: Jan 14, 2010 - Mixer

Today was kind of a fun one.
A little bit of building, and I got the work out right :)
The bust is I forgot my Polar 720i @ home; but at least the Keiser M3 helped keep me in line :)

5 Min wu
20 MIN Z1
10 MIN Z2
20 MIN Z1
10 MIN Z3
5 Min Rec

Good times. My RPMs were a little all over the place so I need to work on a smoother cadence; but other than that I feel great :)!

Day 65: Jan 12, 2010 - Z1 + 2

Some days you think you know your work out . . . then you get to the gym and blank out that was me today. Nothing too major.

The work out WAS 60 min Zone 1, 30 - 45 min Zone 2.
I did:
8 min wu
45 min z1
30 min z2
10 min z3
5 min rec

I think I feel a little bit like Prefontain. I'm not doubling my mileage (yet) but I'm definitely pushing the envelope as much as I can with the time allotted to me. (oh to get to bed earlier to be able to rise earlier!)

Monday, January 11, 2010

Day 64: Jan 11, 2009 - Yiiii

OK - so today was great.
I was up before the sun, wish it was a little earlier but it wasn't too bad.

If you still eat dairy (which I do in winter) wake up extra early so your milk or yogurt has time to digest. Otherwise you'll have to take a 5 minute poo break during your warm up (or at least I did this morning)! Other notes.... pre-pack EVERYTHING the night before if you're planning a 6am start. My body works a little slow in the morning so my last 5 minutes of packing / prep took 15.

On to the work out:
15 min warm-up (low)
15 min zone 1
05 min zone 3 + 05 min recovery x 5
10 min warm-down

With help of the Keiser M3 I was able to do every other Zone 3 at 70ish rpms to get a real cranker in (and tried to keep everything else at 105 rpm avg). I found however after the masher interval, I'd have to spin at like 115rpm to get my legs back. Which in turn meant my watts dropped (even as low as 100 some times) but hey, I was recovering ;)

Unfortunately with working on a spin bike it doesn't 'save' my data so I record it as best as I can, and have to judge by heart rate and perceived value for record keeping... but it's in the moment I know I hurt.

Keiser Averages:
RPM: 87
Watts: 178
Dist: 33.7km
Time: 70:05

(total work out was longer, but I lost a few sets of data along the way *bathroom*, however, this was the bulk of the work out.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Day 62: Jan 9, 2010: Watts are BACK!

I can't even describe how happy I was today!
New gym had the new Keiser M3 spin bikes - WATTS, CADENCE, TIME, DISTANCE... everything you want in a training partner.

Anyhow, here's the photos and stats.

Distance: 27.2km (if it was miles I would have been smokin fast!)
Avg Watts: 181
Avg Cadence: 102

This was an easy ride where I just went for a spin but had to play with the watts a little.
Next week I'm starting the 'real' base again, so this was just a play day.