July 2011

Finally some consistently nice weather, as well as some consistent training.
A record month for bike miles, smashing the 1000k barrier!
I managed this by exceeding 300k per week since the final week of June. In fact, since Banff Bike Fest, I've seriously increased my volume and focused my training sessions on the bike. I've been able to do this in large part due to my cessation of running. I was finding my lunchtime intervals/hills were really causing me enduring difficultly with the day in day out cycling.
I started doing the 40k weaselhead loop to work as my default route, and due to construction on the regular bike path, my ride home was often between 25-30km.
On top of that, once a week I managed to get in a metric century! I did one all of last year, and in the last 4 weeks I've done 4! Once was the Stampede Master's race, the other three involved riding from home to work via Bragg Creek, or the reverse.

A couple of mechanical issues this month; first I split my front derailleur in half during one long ride just after the Spring Bank hill! Didn't know they could break like that! Had to ride the next 30km in the big ring - reminded me of my old Schwinn mountain bike!
Then I had my first flat tire of the year this week. No biggie, I had all my gear and swapped it out in about 10 minutes.

Other notables this month is that I rode over a snake, lost about 8 pounds, and got "mooned" one day riding home! Couple of punks skateboarding on the path were taking up both lanes. I rang my bell to pass and they looked at each other, one dropped his shorts at me! I had just watched that same behaviour during the Tour De France so I was not phased by this.

Stats:

• Run: 2 runs for 16.6 kms!
• Bike: 31 rides, 1240 kms, including 5,800 meters of elevation gain

Stampede Masters Road Race

Sunday, July 10th

5 laps of ~23 km. I counted something like 15 starters being in cat 1/2 out of the registered 22. Few 3's, 4's, and not too many 5's. Wonder why....??

It took about 5 minutes for me to find out.
Lap starts with a gradual climb that lasts around 5km and gains nearly 300 feet. Then it turns to the right (into a headwind), and after several kms turns 90 degrees right and bam, straight into a wall (100 feet climb in about 1 km.) This followed by more rollers and fine steep descent to round out the lap.
Now take a dozen semi-pro riders trying to shake the rifraf like me and Mike. Surge after surge.
I literally survived the first lap by sheer will. Some stigma about getting dropped within the first lap.
Not long into the 2nd lap, as we get back to the climbing, I'm working hard to stay on the back. Another surge and I shift down, chain slips. I lose a second of momentum, and a ton of self-doubt knocks me down.

I'm solo, but not for long. Couple guys in front also popped off, 2 from Bicisport and a cat 3 guy from a team I can't remember named Craig.
Craig threatens to bail but we manage to drag him through one more lap. We are working together to make the kms pass. Not really reeling anybody in but at least getting somewhere.
The bici guys struggle with the climbs, and around the beginning of lap 4 I get passed by Darryl Parry. I ride alongside him up the hill to the finish where he calls it a day, after having been involved with a crash.
The pace of us chatting and going up the hill has left my bici bros way back and out of sight.
I ride that last lap watching 2 Master B riders about 500m in front of me the entire lap but I can't bridge (not that I would have been allowed to ride w/ them).
Nor can I see anyone else behind me.
I keep thinking I see Mike way up in the distance, but I never do catch him.
Turns out he popped off too during that 2nd lap, somewhere on that "wall" or the roller after it.
A discussion with my previous auto-bus friends planted a bug in my mind about them not allowing us to finish the 5th lap since we were several minutes behind the leaders now, and although they made no mention or attempt to prevent me from continuing, my mind had decided that my legs,feet,back,ass had suffered enough for one day!
From chatting with other folks post-race time trialing seems to have been a common theme for this race.

For anyone interested, here is my garmin report:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98338965

June 2011

Well, finally starting to get the numbers up... this despite several weeks' worth of daily rain, and flooding of several main pathways on my route.
I've invested in a good rain vest and helmet cap(?), and my booties mostly work, but more importantly, I've given the big middle finger to mother nature and decided, training in those conditions may actually pay off when a race weather turns sour.
Lo and behold, Banff Bike Fest 2011.

I've written at length about those disappointing but fun events, so no need to add more to that, except to say that I've come away feeling a desperate for redemption. I've immediately adjusted my commutes to include a 40km tour of south Calgary in the mornings, and varying changeups after work, time permitting, including some extra hills.
Also, Darryl gave me a dose of running intervals last week.Man that hurt... took me almost 3 days for my legs to feel normal again!

To wrap up the month, Mike and I decided to get in a nice 100km ride from work to home, via Bragg Creek. But why make only 2 people suffer when you can make 3? And what better way to pay back Darryl... muahaha.
So off we went, at 2:30 sharp, from the IStock HQ. Skies were clear, a little drizzle had come and gone and hour earlier, but it was dry now. A little windy, it would seem. Casual pace through downtown to pick up Mike, and off to Edworthy (shudder).
The hill did not disappoint. Though unstated, there are certain bragging rights for cresting the climb first. Virtual mountain points, if you will. Mike handedly took it, although I did put in a little kick at the end to try and catch him but he sped off with around 40m to go. Darryl "Anarchist" Penner was starting to show some cracking at this point. Poor guy has been marathon training all year, not exactly prepped for this stuff.
The subsequent 5 km are all climb, all the time. And into a crazy headwind. According to environment Canada, the wind speed/direction around 4 & 5 pm was WSW 24 gust 39!
Guess which direction we were going... West, followed by Southwest, eventually East.
So we hit Springbank Road and it hit back. Top speed on the steep descents was a whopping around 34 kmph! Should have been almost double that... Mike commented that if he stopped pedalling he felt like he was being blown up the hill in reverse!
Darryl was looking pretty hurtin' at one point and decided to gracefully turn back. Great job man hanging in a long as you did in that crazy wind with hardly any saddle time. You'll be back...


I was actually feeling pretty good in this section. Perhaps thanks to my rest day yesterday, maybe it was the big bowl of Bev's macaroni at lunch, but I did a lot of the pulling on that Springbank road. That didn't last into  the Hwy 22 turnoff though, as both Mike and I were reeling from the now nearly 2 hours of defying Ma' Nature. A snail pace into Bragg Creek as gust after gust of wind was taking it's toll on our spirits.


Finally made it to Bragg Creek! We only stopped for about 5 minutes to eat a Honey Stinger waffle and stretch the back a bit before heading off, but that did a world of wonder.
Not to mention the roads around Bragg Creek are well protected by trees, and you could start to feel our direction become inline with the wind.
On to 22x and we started flying. The two major climbs out of B.Creek barely dented our pace (yes, more virtual mountain points for Mike!), as we started averaging speeds of 50 kmph. 
So nice to see my trip average speed climb steadily from 24 back up to 30 on the 2nd half.
Gotta hand it to Mike that for all the pulling I did on Springbank, he made up for on 22x!


The final unspoken target was the Cranston/Mackenzie turnoff. Mike looked to hesitate at the Chapparal intersection and I hammered past him, down into the valley and up the last climb to the finish. Victory!


Great ride, no mechanicals, no rain. Definitely got a workout today!
See garmin report below (stupid thing includes my morning commute too though):


http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95975170

Anyway, some stats for June:

• 41 total workouts
• 952 kms on the bike
• 72 kms running

Of note is that this is the first month I've soley relied on my garmin for maps/stats. No more MMR!