Shifting

A little shift in the ol' plan today. Normally, Monday provides me with a good day for a nice longish spin. Class is done at 1, so I have the afternoon to ride. Today, between the "weather" (bad for riding in, good for the roads in the coming days) and with all the stuff on my plate, I made the executive decision to swap my rest day to today. Sorry Wednesday.. it's not you, it's me. Class, then time in the library attempting to at least start some damn term paper, bring the car to the shop for some summer tyres, groceries and bam, suddenly its nearing 4pm. Figured I don't have a lot of school work coming, with the exception of 2 projects; the aformentioned nearly started term paper, and some drafting thing. Today is to be my day to try to get a bunch done so I can ride all the rest of the week. It is now just after 6, I have somehow actually gotten some stuff done, and am bored out of my skull. My mind keeps wandering to the light rain outside and the possibility of a ride. My legs feel sluggish and lethargic, but urge me as well. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is rest. I will solve this problem with a big production of a dinner. I have some excellent salmon and mucho veggies. Little bottle of vino to get me rolling through the eve as well. School is starting to finish up. Not gonna lie, this is exciting. A few more good training weeks before the race season kicks its self unto gear.

Lesson of the day: town sign sprint means you sprint for a town sign. Apparently unless your last name is Orange. We'll work on that. Who's gonna make the leader's jersey's though?

weekend news.

Friday: ride... 5 hours.... eat.... bed. I'm really just this cool.
Saturday: early morning tt ride on the rollers... work.... out for dinner... bed.
Sunday: Ride. Time yet to be determined, but should be another 5 ish hour day in the saddle. Sun is out, moral is good and races are approaching.

Aside: Mosport is postponed a week due to snow. Pansies. Thats all I gotta say. As some one who has gone out for an inordinate amount of rides in snowstorms this year, I was very excited with my chances of crushing some souls riding through some deep snow. My dreams have now been dashed, alas, by some sissy Torontonians. Maybe you should call in the army to move the snow for you eh girls? Sorry to but women on the same level as general Torontonians, you don't deserve that. It is now looking more and more likely that my first race of the year will be Tour of Battenkill. Time to get to work. I am also very glad bike season is pretty much coming into full swing because my hockey team (the Ottawa Senators) could not beat a group of 6 year old ringette players at the moment. It is embarrassing.

Weekend

Super ride yesterday. According to the ol' SRM, we hit a high of 8 degrees in the sun, but settled around 6 for most of the day. I got a nice solid 4 hours in. Plus a real quickie of a nap. The watched Breaking Away in the evening. I'll chalk that into the "winning day" column. Legs felt surprisingly good after the previous day's leg breakers. Took a bit of spinning for them to come around, but they started feeling stronger and stronger as the miles piled up. Thinking about just riding into Ottawa today. The weather is nice again, and looks to be holding that way for the duration of the weekend (aka I also would have to ride back here on Sunday). I think this seems like a pretty good idea. Unlike last time in January when I got rained on, hailed on and had to pilot the ol' fixie through wayyyy too much slush. I don't regret it though. My bread came out awesome. Ended up being cinnamon, vanilla raisin bread. And it is scrumptious. Makes an excellent ride sammy. I gotta get to class, enjoy your weekend.

that good ol' blood in the mouth feel

Ok, so as previously reported, I am making an attempt towards getting faster. On a bike. Now from what I understand from previous attempts, this involves some amount of pain and suffering. So keeping with that in mind I set myself up on the trainer this morning for some suffering. Keep in mind, I actually kinda prefer to do long rides versus intervals on the trainer. At least outside you can look down the road and pretend you are chasing something and GO SOMEWHERE. Inside, I find myself staring (in this case at a tough as nails Phillipe Gilbert) at a bike race on my computer screen. By the way, 2008 Het Volk - wicked. Due to a few conflicting issues, I found myself testing my resolve and hoping on the trainer. I would also like to add that I'm pretty sure I look like a sweaty, mentally challenged kid in spandex while doing intervals inside. Luckily I have the house to myself. Had my workout layed out so "no excuses", I told myself at this somewhat unpleasant hour of the morning, "its time for a DJS/N workout. I named my interval workouts this in honour of a certain pair of wacked out cyclists I know. After a recent convo with one regarding intervals and hurt, he proceeded to explain how his goal is pretty much to bleed out his ears and want to puke. I figure, as he seems quick enough, that this sounds like a sound idea. Keep in mind the mentally challenged bit and ability to turn off my brain. So I set out with this workout and quickly reached aformentioned tasting of blood/bile/unpleasant feelings. I was dripping. After the first set, I decided that a "electrolyte replacement" beverage was just what would keep me going. There also happened to be an old tub of GU2O just out of reach. Perfect for my lactate hazed eyes to focus on. Though after, getting up to fast to refill my bottle did result in an increase of dizziness and nauseousness It was quite spectacular and very worth it. I cracked myself a little earlier then hoped, though not much (see gummy legs) and spun for a while before getting mad at myself for stopping 2 intervals before prescribed so decided to do 2 beyond full out efforts as a punishment. This is where my brain gets me in trouble. On the plus side, the numbers I was staring at cross eyed are much bigger numbers than I remembered staring at last season. On the other hand though, I was cross eyed and therefor may have been looking at the completely wrong set of numbers. Oh, and I drank about 24 1/2 liters of water in my class this afternoon to try to replace the fluids I lost to the floor. Now, I nearly went of for a ride as the weather is glorious, but held myself back. Longer ride tomorrow and I need to recover. So I'm going to bake bread. I've been meaning too for the last little bit, and this happens to seem like a better time burner than the internet. If I sit here too long I will for sure end up riding. Oh, and I bought some tortilla chips as a treat and to try and convince myself to eat them instead of ride. And salsa. Hopefully some baking pictures to come. No Sandy on trainer ones though, I don't want those getting on the net. And its hard to focus the camera while sweating so profusely.

Wicked and wild.

Wind anyone? Did my morning spin on the trainer due to some fairly below zero morning temperatures. But spent a good portion of the ride time (2 hours) staring out at the sunshine planning how incredibly, wickedly awesome my afternoon "real" workout would be. Went to class, hit some nails, cut some lumber, and arrived home to find the dark clouds, hurricane force winds and threats of snow/slash rain. No matter, I am pumped to ride right now (after the last week or 2 of questionable training) so loaded up on wind proof layers and hit the road. Luckily (?) I was heading out into a pretty much straight on headwind, which when gusts hit allowed me to hold the nice easy 400+ watt pace I was looking to hold. Needless to say, after being blown off the road 3-4 times, I opted to do my workout on a 20 minute long (yet slightly sheltered) stretch of road. I basically went back and forth on it for about 2 hours. Exciting eh? On the plus side, did not need to kiss the ditch. I have also decided I will need to add some weight to my 142 lbs frame if I intend to do anymore of these ridiculous rides. Wrote myself out a general plan-line for my training last night, as I figure this should help me keep to a better riding schedule. Also got the word from above that I am cleared and set for Tour of Battenkill. 80 some miles of the worst roads in NY state. Big crowds from what I hear, and some pretty gnarly back country roads. Needless to say, this (along with last nights planning) has kicked 'top-sporter' Sandy into gear. 3 more weeks of school and I can get myself fully focused again. Time to enter the hurt box.

Waste

What a terrible weekend. Cold, windy and generally un-riding friendly weather. Weekend was mostly good, some decent roller riding (side note, I have not learned to ride my tt bike on the rollers. I'm impressed with myself.) and generally seeing some friends back in town. Went out last night to see the Sens game at a local watering hole, and woke up this morning feeling like death. Not like I even drank that much. I have this feeling the food wasn't quite kosher.... unfortunately this lead to me puking all morning. Pretty much every 30 minutes on the money, I would have to roll out of bed and make a dash for the ceramic. I then promptly fell asleep and woke up at 6pm. What a waste of a day. I now find myself back in bed watching the final of Milan-San Remo in Italian. What a beaut of a race. I again went with my gut and Gilbert, but my boy could not close in the flying Swiss giant pulling out a respectable 3rd anyways. Hopefully the body will be back on track again tomorrow.

Quick

Quick little update from Ottawa. Made it home, no issues. Mostly due to the lack of a snowstorm this weekend, feels little odd to be able to make it through the alps (aka the snow banks along my lane way) without getting stuck. Found this hilarious and very un-politically correct diary on velonews about the basic differences in racing styles around the world. I would like to add one thing, when the racing get hot in Belgium (I swear this happens on occasion) the Belgies as well pile on the cologne to beat the heat. Side note, it works. My body is still adjusting to the fact that today is not Friday and I don't have to work tomorrow. The possibilities are nearly endless. As long as they include a decent ride. And some quality food. Happy birthday mom, hope you enjoy the soon to be dinner. Enjoy your long weekend, don't eat too much chocolate. I for one will be seeing how little of the processed stuff I can eat, I'm thinking of creating some kind of easter chocolate-fruit thingy to eat instead with the family easter dinner. Ciao.