Spring is coming

What signifies spring to you?


To me what signifies spring is the spring Bike Show in Toronto. 

The bike show is this weekend and i can't wait.  We always see people that we haven't seen in a while or usually the year before bike show.   It seems like we seem to see a lot of people from our mountain biking days.  A little reunion every year. 

Now my cycling world and circle of friends is getting bigger every year and I am loving every bit of it.

I can't believe Georgia is only 29 days away.  Yes the count down is on.  I love the people of Rome and their cycling community is so huge it's unbelievable.

On another note training this past weekend was great and horrible all in one weekend.  Started with an unforgettable ride on Saturday.  I was quite surprised with my numbers I was able to pull off in this ride.  Then came Sunday.  Wow Sunday was a test of my will to stay on my bike.  I knew if I just got off the bike that that would not have helped me.  By the end of my last interval I was starting to come around getting back into the groove.  My last interval was 45mins.  It's funny cause it seems like once I get past the 20min mark of this interval I just start counting down in 2.5min intervals in my head and then finally that last 5min comes and oh my.  Well that's enough about that.  Looks like more 2 by 20min intervals this week to improve my time trialing.

Good night all.

Shell :-)

Testing is over and first hard weekend out of the way

My testing is done for this block.  I have been told by my coach that I am right on track for where I need to be. Looking at my last results to this results I was quite happy with some of the areas of improvement. 

That being said my first hard rides after my tests were just plain hard but on the other hand I am looking at the positive only 4 more weeks before the Georgia trip but even before that I will need to get outside and get some balance back. 

Which brings me to rollers.  I tried them.  They scared that lyrca off of me.  I know I need to embrace rollers but I am just not ready for them yet.  I know if I just put my mind to it I will do it.  Many people have told me the tricks of the trade for how to use rollers I just have to implement them.

April is coming so fast and first couple of races also.  I can't wait but I am also nervous as per my normal over thinking everything way.  My coach tells me not to over think things just to do the workouts and you'll be fine.  I know i'll be fine I just need to get outside.  The winter blahs are terrible.  I just need to get outside and ride and the weather just has to start cooperating but now my bad weather bike is ready to be used fenders and all so there really isn't an excuse now.  Oh right there is still not enough sunlight after work to get in a suitable training ride.  Soon though.  Weekend training rides will be coming soon outside i hope.

Shell :-)

testing weekend

Well another testing weekend done thankfully.  More testing on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week going to be fun.  Let's see how this goes this time.  Last time I did this testing was 6 weeks ago at the beginning of my last block.  This is my last block of training before my first 3 races and a mini spring training camp in Rome, Georgia.

Georgia is a second home for training.  Found Rome Georgia through a forum and a wonderful person who was very helpful now probably 6 years ago.  What a hidden gem we found so many years ago.

Short one tonight.  Recovery day tomorrow. 

Happy valentines day tomorrow.

Shell :-)

Active recovery day

It's amazing what goes through your head during an active recovery ride on the trainer.  Your mind is a allowed to wander because you know you're not going to fall over or run into a car while doing this kind of ride.  I much prefer recovery rides outside but in the middle of winter in Canada i don't really have no choice. 

Then my mind tends to start thinking about the coming race season.  At the end of last season I came upon a choice for my next race season.  I raced in the Elite category for my first year of racing.  By mid season I was able to move up from the Elite 3 to Elite 2 and with Nationals coming to town the next season I had a choice of categories to race, either elite or masters.

Then my brain switches over to the music i am listening too.  Coldplay, Muse, Metric and Silversun Pickup tends to help deter my mind from the normal aches and pains that come from a recovery ride.  All in all rest and recovery is the key for healthy training and gaining strength.

Tomorrow is a day i love while on a recovery week....massage day.

Til the next time.

Shell

Rest day Number 2

Mountain biking in TN.

So hmm yes this is my first blog entry for real.  If you found this blog you probably know me some how or probably i posted it somewhere and you are visiting from there.  You'll have to bare with me as I may stumble through posts and such.  I figured this would be a good thing for me to do a blog over this year to sorta remember the things that come up in this year.  I thought I would start into this blogging thing on my rest week to give myself something to do and think about while trying to keep myself busy.

A little background in my little cycling career.  I started mountain biking in 1999, with my future husband on  Fridays during summer at the office we worked at for my coop semester.  We mountain biked for many years together and raced a few citizen mountain bike races together and separately.  Some of the races that we did was The Squeezer race, The Lake to Lake race and Harrisburg to Ancaster Race (half the Paris to Ancaster).  We mostly mountain biked in the Milton area, at Kelso and Hilton Falls Conservation.  Milton was great for being able to ride from home to get to great trails but we then moved to Dundas.  Dundas is great for the recreational mountain biker but we were getting heavy into the cross country type mountain biking.  So Dundas was great for stringing along a good 65k home to home ride but in the end we started traveling a lot to go to trails to ride.

After about 6 years of mountain biking, many crashes, some thoughts of changing over to road and a back injury that didn't seem to want to go away resulted in my husband and i switching over to riding the road. 

We found our pretty red matching road bikes at the spring bike show in Toronto many moons ago.

My husband and I have been riding the road now for about 6 years and putting in many many kilometers on the bikes.  Then a couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to start trying road racing.  We decided what better way to start in road racing then to start dipping our toes into the local club races.  We did their time trials, hill climb repeats and pursuit road races.  Then last year we started on a road cycling team to really race.

During last winter I started with a coach over seeing my program.  I saw many changes over that winter with my strength growing and many hours on the trainer.  That spring we invested in some power meters to help better connect my training with my coach.  I raced most races with power which helped build my goals and better help my coach understand what I was capable of. 



I started doing the regional races and ontario cup races.  I also did my first stage race last year (Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont) and I was happy just to finish it.  I represented 2 different teams last year and this year I will be racing for the city club.

I guess now I can call myself a racer and not a cyclist. :-)


Now I am going to fast forward to this year to this winter.  This is my second winter season training with a coach.  Every thing is planned pretty structured and I love every minute of it.  Spending many hours on my trainer from short rides to long 3hr sessions.  As i entitled this my rest day 2 i am on my second last recovery week before the season starts.

I can't believe spring is almost here. 

I have one more 6 week block before the race season starts. 

Hope i am ready for the season.


Shell :-)