New Defence Against Red Neck Drivers

Seriously, you can buy this pepperspray at competitivecyclist.com.

Crazy?

Does pepperspray smell like pepper?

Mike

Night and Day

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday I think I could have fallen into a coma after my 3+ hr ride outside on the road yet today I felt like I could keep going and going and going.  Route change for this past Sunday’s ride.  Instead of heading east towards Ardrossan we did the most popular Devon route.  A group of 6 of us braved the slippery city streets to head west looping around thru the town of Devon.  It was a good ride with great company; spirits were high since we were riding 3+ hrs outside – in the middle of January.

It was pretty motivating for me to feel my legs again, especially after the way they felt yesterday.  But after an evening of rest and recovery, the 30 yr old legs were rarin’ to go Sunday.

Got some coffee education for Anto as well.  Best way to store coffee beans is in a ceramic container.  Second best is glass – but keep it in the dark.  Also, I learned about the AeroPress – a relatively new way to easily brew espresso.  I’m going to have to try it!

PicS:

Trevor – Roddi – Brucy

Not just for Washing Windows

Do my recovery socks make me look cool?

Mike

Welcome to the Pain Cave

Yesterday was a super nice weather day for January here in Edmonchuk, so Roddi TOO Hottie and I ventured out for a little road riding.  It’s pretty much unheard of to hit the roads here in Northern Alberta anytime in January, so we took full advantage of the above zero temps and headed out.

Then at about 2.5 hrs into the ride, I ended a small, but pungent Pain Cave.  Basically, I didn’t eat quite enough on the ride and I under estimated the caloric requirement of our stead-paced road ride.  Once I navigated home I devoured everything in sight.  Jimmy Legs were ordered for the rest of the night and I had no problems falling asleep after the days effort

Here is the pictoral:

Clean bike – preride

Roddi keepin it upright

Nice Day

The “over the shoulder”

Pitstop in Ardrossan

I’m really sweaty – is that normal?

Mike

Gotta do Whatcha Gotta Do

I joined up last night with R-Dog and Codes to get a few base miles in the snow.  We managed about 2 hours outside in the dark and needed only one stint of ‘jogging’ (pronounced w/ a soft “j”) to warm up the toes.

My hands got soo cold looping back from Snow Valley but lucky enough, there was a ‘gang’ of horseriders having a big bon fire in the parking lot near Fox Drive.  After a couple of minutes my hands were toasty warm – just my luck!

Roddi in all his winter glory

Do the extra layers of clothing make me look fat?

-Mike

So It Begins…

Today starts the “official” training plan / scheme of ‘09 for me.  Not too much, not too little is this campaign’s slogan.  Last year this time I quit training with any sort of plan all together and although I wasn’t moving very quickly during May, I came on strong in August.  Strong enough to rejuvenate my desire for racing and training.  So it begins…

I’m a pretty busy guy, so I’m thinking that consistency is going to be the key for me this year.  I’m looking forward to a training camp in Vic – sounds like it will be the transplanted home for a few Edmonton racers for that one week in Februrary – so I’ll have some familar faces to train with in the great Canadian cycling oasis of Victorialand!

I’ve been spending a lot of time here lately:

Liesje and I have been hitting the gym on a regular basis for a couple of weeks now.  Good quality time.  While the doggies have been preparing for their dogathon:

Am I strange because I excerise my dogs?

-Mike

Snowy Day

Yesterday was pretty windy and snowy, but the dogs didn’t mind…

Lance is preping for Triathlon…

New Year – 2009

Okay, so welcome to 2009. 1st goal for ‘09 is to blog more. I’ve got a new bomb proof (or almost) camera coming care of a sweet online boxing day sale at the Futureshop so I aim to blog a bit more on my personal site. ‘08 was busy with BikeAlberta.com so my blog sort of suffered.

We rang in the new year with ’bouts of Wii and Goldeneye. Yes, it was quite a throwback to 1997…

I’m just watching the Half Ton Man doc on TLC – man I’d better hit the gym right now.

All the best in 2009

-Mike