Is This A Logo??

Is This A Logo??

Friday 3 February 2012

January WrapUp

Quite the mess of weather we've had this month, not??  Making for opportunities for a definite variety of riding.  January has seen me riding in loose snow, packed snow, mud, frozen hard packed mud, all on the trails, and even took the opportunity to try a cross bike for the first time!  (The cross bike is a topic for a complete future post!)  Got some solo rides in on the local trails, and also local trail rides with the BicycleWorks crew on Saturday morning and Wednesday group rides, which are always very fast and technical which makes for a great workout and an opportunity to enhance skills.  (That is such a great run-on sentence I can't bring myself to change it.)  Got several rides in at Dundas (and even one at the Hydrocut!) with NewfieSteve, Fig, and EnglishJim (EnglishJim is quickly earning a nick-nickname of TipTop, as no matter what kind of day he is having when asked 'How is it going?')his answer is always 'Tip top, mate!")  Dundas is great for winter riding cuz the trails are well used and snow gets packed by hikers, skiers, and other mountain bikers.

 I also ended up riding the trainer more than I like to, when conditions made the trails unrideable.  Then to top it all off, conditions this week made for a perfect opportunity to put the road bike back where it belongs...out on the road!  Over the last two to three months of winter (winter??) riding the mountain bike lead me to forget just how fast and efficient the road bike is!!  Almost feel like a super hero riding that thing!  You just want to go as fast as possible for as long as possible on that near-weightless rocket, which leads to an amazing workout.  And the mind does not have to worry about upcoming rocks, roots, and switchbacks; it's almost serene.  (OK if that is too heavy for a mountain bike blog, during those serene moments I dream of beer and nachos being served by a pair of buxom Swedish twins...just before the passing school bus nearly puts me off the road and over the guard rail at the top of the escarpment).

OK, back on topic...

This weekend makes it 10 weeks from the first race of the season, which means its time to follow a formal training plan (starting Sunday).  I plan to follow Friel's training methodology (he is a well known coach, and author of several training publications including The Mountain Biker's Training Bible).  My weekly goals to begin will be to get in 8 hours of MTB, 3 hours of Road or Trainer, and 3 hours of weight training.  A fellow blogger has put together an incredible spreadsheet to record and track training progress based on Friel's methods.  He offers it as a free download, and I offer it here if you are interested (and if I got that download technology right?).

Well that's enough for now.  Close your browser and get out for a serene ride!

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