Epic week on the bike

This was definitely a "breakthrough" week on the bike. The most volume I've ever done.. ever.

262 km!!

I have one more ride on Monday: Bike to school then hill intervals with the UCTC that should put me close to 800km total for the month!!

"Transforming" myself into a bike commuter is going to take some time. I rode to school every day this week and my legs are pretty shattered.

To top off this amazing week of riding this morning I made my way to the U of C Research Park to attend a cycling clinic put on by Trev for our team on the basics of Criterium racing and bike handling skills.



It was incredibly informative and I must say I'm a bit nervous about my first Criterium race next week!! On the first corner of the first "practice lap" this morning, a rider went down. Eeeps!!

My race strategy:
Have fun
Ride within my limitations!
Have fun
Stay to the outside!
Have fun
Stay near the back!
Have fun

It was a fun clinic and got to meet some more of my Speed Theory teammates. Really looking forward to these bicycle races!


~ la

A change of focus......

Last September I registered for the Great White North 1/2 Ironman which is being held on July 1st. I promised myself then that if I felt my fitness wasn't "sufficient enough" I would roll over my entry until 2008. The deadline for said rollover is May 1st.

Gut check time.

Seeing where my fitness is right now, I've decided to remove the pressure of "fighting to gain fitness" and with it the risk of over training and rolled over my entry to next year.

I feel really good about this decision. The race will be there again next year and I want to make sure I'm properly prepared both physically and mentally for the event.

My body's health is my lively hood so I need to be aware of that and not push too far beyond my limitations.

That said.... with every door that closes a new door opens!

While I may not be at the fitness level to do a 1/2 IM, I do however have the fitness to complete an Olympic distance! Especially the 10km run. My LSD runs are now consistently 10km+ so I know my legs can handle it.

I've decided to shift my focus (A race) from the Great White North to the BG Edmonton World Cup Triathlon on June 24th.

The interesting thing about this race are the AWAD (Athletes with a Disability) slots available for the 2007 World Championships in Hamburg on Sept 2nd and the 2008 World Championships being held in Vancouver.

I've checked it with my doc and the ATA meaning I'm eligible to compete as an AWAD under the" Les Autres" classification and have an opportunity to qualify for Worlds!

The next two months will be an amazing journey.

It's amazing what the Universe will provide......

~la

God this weather sucks.....

Pictures say it all....

*sigh*



ummm Spring?




and now for something to lift my spirits!




~ la

Life has come full circle... a new addition to my bike family!

Way back in 1993 while attending the University of Victoria (GO Vikes!) I made a decision to become a bike commuter.

Victoria is a small city, very easy to get from point A to point B and an absolutely wonderful place to ride a bike (even in the rain!)

For the next several years I was a true blue bike commuter. I didn't even own a car.

That remained true even when I moved to Portland, OR USA in the fall of 1997 to attend Western States Chiropractic College.

I relied solely on my mountain bike as my means of transportation. Portland has to be the most bike friendly city I have ever lived in. I loved living there, going to school and riding.

On the evening of June 8th, 1998 while riding home from the college I was hit from behind by a semi truck just before the intersection of Glisan St and 122nd Ave NE.

....................... The rest as they say is history.

Fast forward to 2006. I finally got up the "courage" to ride on the road again and began this wonderful journey in the sport of cycling and Triathlon.

Today things have come full circle.

Today I bought a mountain bike and equipped it to be my commuter this summer.

Primarily I'll be commuting every day about 40km (round trip) along the Bow River Pathway to the Holy Cross Hospital where I'm only 4 months away from completing my Massage Therapy program.

I am stoked!!!

This is really going to help my cycling base! hehe

Here's a couple of pics of my newest ride: A 2006 Rocky Mountain Hammer (with a few additions to function as a commuter.)






~ la

My first ITT

Yesterday marked the fist race of the season. The Indus "Moment of Truth" 20km Individual Time Trial hosted by our friends over at the Crankmasters Cycling Club.

This was my first ever endeavour at a pure bicycle time trial event so I wasn't sure what to expect.

I mean, no swim beforehand and no run afterwards??? What the...!!??



Apparently I need to make a modification to my P2C (moving the seat to the back 2nd position) to make it UCI legal so I brought out my Soloist for this race.

I arrived early, registered and got the #2 start position. Yikes!!

I honestly didn't know what to expect but I remembered some folks mentioning that in a TT you want to keep a high cadence (95 + rpm) so I started my race with this in mind.

First let me say a pure time trial cycling race is a VERY different event then the bike leg in a Triathlon. I fully didn't appreciate this difference until yesterday.

I seriously burned my lungs out yesterday! It was a lung.. and a gut buster!



The course was a 10km out and back. East then West so I knew we'd have strong Westerly winds to contend with on the return leg so I wanted to conserve my energy. I did the first 5km pretty conservatively.

I hit the 10km turn around at about the 16 min mark and felt pretty good. My legs (and lungs) weren't burning too badly then I hit the wind.

The 11-16km mark was brutal. My speed dropped right off to around 29-31km/h and my HR shot way up.. I was red lined all the way. Breathing became very laboured.. it actually hurt to breathe!

By the 17km mark I just wanted it to be over! LOL The pain was that bad. I put my head down and just gutted it out until the end. I probably pushed a bit (well ok a lot!) too hard as I wanted to puke my guts out at the end. I made sure to do a decent cool down and hydrated and ate at the car.

Looking back it was an absolute blast! I wasn't entirely comfortable on my Soloist (not set up at all for TT'ing) but I did manage to come in under my goal of 35 min and clocked a ~ 34:35.

Met some really cool people from the Crankmasters, saw some SaWeet TT bikes and I finally got to met some of my fellow Speed Theory team mates.

It's going to be a great experience riding with Trev and the other guys on the team.

~la

Easter Sunday Ride... outside!

Ahh springtime in Calgary


Hmmm what is all this white stuff?

The thaw begins!

Melt baby melt!!

Calgarians woke up to a balmy -5C Easter Sunday morning. Paul Dunphy (Local uber weatherman for Global) assured residents that this day would see sunny skies and a high of 12C.

Today is a good day to ride!

First I popped over to the Y for an easy swim. I am still nursing a shoulder injury... strained Ant Deltoid and inflamed Biceps Tendon (Long Head) thus haven't been in the pool much the past 2 months. I took things pretty easy.

1500m workout consisting of lots of drills and a few easy 50m sets.

Duration: 45 min

Raced home and waited for the weather to warm up to at least 0C before heading out. I was pretty stoked! Today I was going long.

Getting dressed for the elements I ended up putting on 4 layers + my winter cycling jacket + my ski gloves.

I ended up looked like a cheap knock off of Venom.

rock on!

See I'm so excited about riding outside today I can't even hold the camera steady!

In the end it turned out to be an amazing day! The weatherman was FINALLY right for once and it did warm up to +12C and light winds.

Thank you Paul.

My winter cycling base training is paying dividends as I hit a new PB for my 90km split!

3 hrs 9 min

....and I wasn't even in "racing mode", so I definitely have the potential for a sub 3 hr Bike split in me for Stony.

It was an amazing Easter Sunday spent outdoors in the beautiful foothills west of Calgary.

Stats from my Long Ride (yay!)

Duration: 4 hrs 12 min
Distance: 118 km
AvHR: 144 ( 73% MHR, zone 2)

~la

Springtime??... ummmm

There is a saying... "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"... while that may very well be true, I'd contest that (for this year anyway) Ol'man Winter wins top honours in the furious department with no sign of letting up.

As I type this, I'm watching the 3rd round of The Masters on CBS. Ahh the course looks so beautiful, so green... now there is a colour I miss.

Green.

Seems like all we've (us Calgarians) have seen these past few months is white.

Bleh I am SO over winter.

My first cycling race of the season was canceled today because of the weather so The Speed Theory Team will have to wait one more week before we can stick it to the Crankmasters.

**insert Dr. Evil laugh here**

So tomorrow is Sunday and a bunch of us were planning to do a nice long Easter ride but unfortunately because it's still a winter wonderland outside I'll be on the trainer, in my livingroom watching the 4th round of The Masters.

Go get em Tiger. You're grrrreat

Happy Easter! :)