In the bag

with Sandy
Today will be a special feature on what's in Sandy's pockets when ride time rolls around. Since I returned from active racing duty in the land of cobbles and beer, I have not touched an "engineering food product" whiles riding. Keep in mind I'm not counting the dozens of calorie laden sticky buns and the like from South Carolina, I mean those bars and gels. I am quite happy about this and will continue along my merry way in such fashion, maybe packing the occasional gel for the end of a race. My stomach has been quite happy. This week in Sandy's bag-'o-ride-food I have eaten:
-nutella sammies. well, actually, PC brand Chocolate Spread sammies. It's cheaper.
-Apple butter sammies. Delicious stuff this. Goes brilliant on my cinnamon, raisin, vanilla bread.
-fruit. apples, bananas, pears. Whatever is in the cupboard.
-fresh chocolate chip cookies. Compliments of my grandmother. Sooooooo good.
-chocolate chip banana bread. Another pick-me up reserved (at looked forward too) at the end of a long ride.
-nuts. I love almonds. Fatty little buggers, but packed with energy. Try mixing some chocolate covered peanuts in the bag too.

Also in the pockets...
-iPod. what are long solo miles without some background music?
-tube/pump/multi tool. You never know.
-$$ not much, but nothing worse than a bonk or a cinnamon bun craving 2 hours from home.
-rain cape or layers. lately, not so much the cape. But it's nice to room to shed layers or bring some extra stuff. Sometimes I think I'm hard and don't wear gloves. Then I realize my hands are cold, its 8am and pull them out of my pocket when no one is looking.

Welcome to my pockets, where there is enough food for me to eat once an hour, 20 something gigs of music and some bike repair equipment. Today was a good day to ride. Along with all my gear, I packed in an excellent 5 hours in the sun. Still leg warmer and long sleeve, not to mention tuque and neck warmer, but sunny, warm and excellent none the less. I figure when its 15 when I start, then we'll consider knee warmers or just a regular cap. That is all. The weekend is in sight, and so is by association the first weekend of racing.

Desicions

Weekend plans are changing by the second. Team ride is now off due to crap weather and missing teammates. Ah, the early season. So far I am fairly certain I will be heading direction Montreal on Friday to pick up my new bike. Exciting. Then I plan on racing. Weather seems kinda shitty all over, so the best option seems to be heading south to the land of smog, also known as Toronto. Mosport on Saturday, Hamilton on Sunday. Still not sure if I'll do both, or one. I think it will be one of those near the end decisions, but Mosport is leading due to being closer driving wise. If I feel good during and after, then maybe continue along to the dirty Hammer. We'll see, maybe bed bath and beyond. I don't know if we'll have enough time! Back on track and away from the Old School quotes, I mostly just want to stay healthy and get some racing miles in my legs pre-Battenkill. Today provided me with some excellent weather and even better riding. Honestly, 16 degrees by 10am in April is pretty good in my books. 2 hours with my super secret training in the AM, class/recovery time followed by a super chill 2 hour spin in the PM after class. About 5 minutes of light rain at the start of the second ride which quickly gave way to sunshine and lollipops. Nice steak for dinner. Was planning on salmon, but a few of my food items have recently disappeared. Never saw them claims the roomie.... I am unimpressed and quite unhappy about this. Should be another nice day tomorrow though, which means one thing: more quality miles.

Write off

Due to my incredible slacking and procrastinating skills, I took yesterday off the bike. Really had to finish the stupid term paper and get rolling on this stupid estimation assignment. Overall, Sandy was not a happy camper yesterday. Luckily the weather appears to be nice again, so I will be hitting the road shortly for a good spin and workout. Things are looking more and more likely like I will be able to score my new bike this weekend, so pictures and reports to come. Plus, ideally the blog should once again become quasi interesting with the start of race season visible on the horizon. For whatever reason, I seem to find myself excited to race, but unexcited to have to drive hours to get to said races. I think I should be back in Belgium. Time for a final pre-ride temperature check. Note: apple butter is a delicious topping for breads AND meats (such as pork).

closed? "expletive deletive"

That about sums up my ride yesterday. Pretty wicked anyways. Went out for a solid 5.5 hour loop with a perfectly planned Saint Cinnabon stop en route with about 2 hours until home. Apparently the clowns at St. Cinnabon decided to screw me and are currently closed on Mondays for winter hours. Hey, wankers, its spring. And Sandy is very hungry. Needless to say, I spend 3.5 hours looking forward to some icing covered glory, and instead, got chased by several dogs on an empty stomach. Not to mention the sun seemed to be holding some kind of grudge. At least it was warm and the route was good. Plans are beginning to take shape for this weekend. First team weekend of the year, get my new bike(s) and see who else feels like going for a spin. There is even a chance that I may be making an appearance at the Almonte-Roubaix now. Don't get you hopes up too much, but there is a chance. Almost makes me wish I had participated in some of the course riding going on. Today is some essay work, some school then an after class ride schedule. Good times.

tales of akward forehead tan lines

Good solid weekend. Got a quick ride in Friday in the frigid slush which promptly chilled me to the core and made me question my will to ride outside on such days. A quick tea, some warm clothes and an extra garlic-y chicken schwarma brought my spirits back up and kept me going through an afternoon of working at the shop. A quite and tame evening of tea, some reggae and some bike maintenance finished off the day. Up early Saturday morning for a nice tt bike ride out to the Peak Center and then back into work for the rest of the day. Just a little under 2.5 hours on the tt bike left me feeling really good and perhaps even jovial. I think this will be my new thing: tt bike riding for recovery days. Mix it up, freshen it up and use some slightly different muscle groups to leave the legs feeling glorious. Went out with Geoff and some other characters for beers after work, kind of welcome and goodbye ceremony for Geoff and a general excuse to go out and re-develop some aspect, or veneer, or a social life. Needless to say, I was a little late starting my ride on Sunday, but the sun and warmth was beckoning so I grabbed a coffee and went for a spin until Geoff was able to drag himself out of bed to join me. Pretty sweet loop complete with the necessary gas station refuel stop and a quick break on a patio in the sun. If there was a better coffee shop/bakery en-route this could have exemplified all that is glorious about spring miles. In the end, a hair under 6 hours for yours truly and some pretty ridiculous tan lines. Note, if you wear a tuque while riding in the sun, move it around some. I now have this horrendous tan line across the middle of my forehead and some nearly quality wrist lines due to no gloves and long sleeves. Back in Perth now, and just preparing for a second nice long day in the sun. Another nice one, 14 degrees and sunny it would appear, or perhaps not quite that warm yet. Maybe I'll find a different hat to wear. My testing went decently as well. Not super happy with the numbers, but don't think I ever have been or probably ever will be. They are looking quite decent for this time of the year though, time to focus on week or simply unstarted areas.

Its spring?

Man, another sunny warm day. It was quite literally all my will power to not push my ride long and go to class. Unfortunately, I will be doing some testing action tomorrow now so we'll chalk this up as a win for class. A glorious ride it was though. And this weekend looks even better. I wonder what the chances are that Vince doesn't need me to work on Saturday? Or perhaps need me on time? At this rate I may be able to show more skin than my face during a ride. Maybe begin developing a tan again. As just reported, I will be finding out where I stand fitness wise tomorrow. I really dislike testing, but it seems to be one of those helpful things to do. Also the added advantage of making my intensity training create the desired benefits will be nice too. But the act of sweating on an immobile bike while some dude keeps telling you to "push harder" and removing blood from your ear/finger is less than exciting too me. Enjoy your weekends, I know I will. Now if only I could get started on my term paper...

Let the classics season commence

With the arrival of the wind and rain today, I find myself reminded that the true classics season is starting to switch into "hard man" mode. I'm referring to the cobbled classics of Belgium and Northern France. Back here in Canada, we seemed to be creating our own version of the classic's weather. Starting off with some good solid rain and leading into some pretty ridiculous wind. I chose to do my ride in the wind instead of the rain. Kinda took a chance and really just wanted to take full advantage of the 10 degree temperatures. 3 hours of full on head wind or tail wind. At least I didn't get blown off the road this time. Other wise life is good. School is not terribly stressful, but perhaps I should just get more focused on it. Then again, it's somewhat hard to focus on school with only 3 weeks left and warm weather on the horizon. Such is life, I just need to squeeze 2.5 more weeks out of my "learning" section of my brain. Tomorrow is Wednesday, interval day, and then only 2 days until the weekend. Then only 2 weeks of class. Woopee.