Is This A Logo??

Is This A Logo??

Friday 25 December 2015

So This Is Christmas?

Yes....apparently this is Christmas!  But +15 temperatures, and muddy local trails made it a bit of a challenge to get good riding in.  Did manage an epic 112km cx road and gravel ride with Fig last weekend when it was colder, windier, snowier....included natural spring water and buttertarts!!  Also started out with Giant joining us, but he managed to extricate himself, and get himself lost (yes an entire side story there....but it IS possible to lose a Giant...)

Also managed an epic ride at Turkey Point last weekend with FatboyNation!!   The trails at Turkey Point were mint...like summer trails!!  That place is awesome in almost all conditions!!  This was my inaugural ride with Fatboy Nation...Thank you Burnsy for the invite!!


Seriously, I am continually amazed at how many good people there are involved in this sport...





Anyways, before you get all teary...the conditions had me trail running rather than riding for a couple of days this week...until yesterday managed a challenging Fatbike 'group' ride with BicycleWorks gang...






I say 'group' ride, because the BicycleWorks rides are more, 'keep up if you can' rides.  Anyways, I guess this should be a more Christmas related post, eh?  After all it is Christmas day today...





This was actually our back yard last night....




Apparently, on Christmas day ....



These two were looking for Santa last night....



Unfortunately all they saw was Lois, dressed up in her Christmas garb...




Lois in her Christmas get-up does get me feeling all Christmassy....or something...

This is actually Christmas in our house...



This one is mine...




But it is under heavy guard...





I hope it turns out better than it did for Cookie Monster...





And in a land far, far away....
KatyTee and Felix...




Actually, speaking of...MattyTee and Chris are home for Christmas from lands far, far away, so Lois dragged us out to a galaxy far, far away to see the new Star Wars movie...It was awesome!!!






Anyways....I'm getting off the Christmas topic here...although I did come home from the movie to have a Christmas brew in my Christmas chalice...







Anyways...I keep getting off topic...mostly cuz I am waiting to finish this post before I can open my present!!

So...with that, let's let this go....




To all my friends, and anyone taking the time to read this post....may you have a most wonderful Christmas, filled with much love...and any birthdays that may occur over the next week????   (It was Fig's birthday this week....Happy Birthday Fig!)

Most Merry Christmas all!!
Stay posted!!



Friday 18 December 2015

Running Fat

So after a couple of weeks off from training....and a couple of weeks of taking it easy-ish with more 'fun' based rides...it was time to get serious again with training.  What does that mean?

Well, for me, it started Saturday with a 120 km road/gravel ride on the CX bike.  And Fig joined me.  This was a moderately paced  endurance base training ride.

And it was all good....we stopped at Maddaugh Springs to re-hydrate...about 60 kms in.  And as we continued on Fig could feel a bonk coming on.  He had just recovered from some type of stomach flu or herpes or something...and he'd had a particularly stressful week or so at work.  So we stopped at Moffat...at Dar's bakery/buttertart shop...to give Fig a chance to eat to refuel....






But, food didn't help.  Fig bonked....as Fig does.  So I dragged him the remaining 45 km home.  Which was OK...cuz we came home to another firepit...




Fig provided his tasty home made cider for recovery...and all was good in the world...alcohol....cure-all.

Which must have worked cuz I signed up for this....



Which set me up well for Sunday's ride...a 50km fatfest with JeffS and his gang of fat bastages!  This was Jeff's brother Greg, Hal, and JodyFknfast.  All very experienced podium-regular racers.  4 hours of hitting every long-ass steep-ass hill possible...dragging my fat arse up Sydenham hill, through Spencer Adventure trails, through Christie Lake, over to Dundas Valley...an epic day of hurt-the-Metis!!!

Jody


Hal


Moi


Greg


Jeff

Jeff so fast...his wake carves the forest clean...



Either that or some loggers are attempting to destroy the Christie Lake trails...

Although, Jeff does ride up hills like a goat on turbo boost!!  Seriously....no idea how he does it...but every hill is a sprint...while I struggle granny ringing it all the way up....with my heart rate redlining...


We passed these cool falls along the way... (Either Webster's Falls....or Tew's....I can't remember...)



A gratuitous Riot shot...



A gratuitous money shot???






Fig didn't come on this ride cuz he doesn't have a mountain bike....but if he did...




Anyways....the training plan also called for a fatbike hammerfest on Wednesday.  And Giant dragged me around every possible hill in Dundas valley....for 3 hours.  Although Giant was too fast on the trails for me to get a pic...I did get a pic of him warming up in the parking lot before the ride...






And a pic of me and Giant...






Sorry, I'm too old to take a good selfie...






Anyways...as adaptive off-season training CoachRob also has me trailrunning...so Tuesday and Thursday were running days...yay....not.  I'm not a big fan of running...it hurts.  It is jarring to the body.  But the benefits so out-weigh the cons...and I want to be better at this game...so I run.

One positive thing about running...for me anyways...is you get a much better opportunity to notice trail features, and the surrounding nature than you do while mountain biking.  For example this week...

 Borers Falls



Stairs, steps, rocks and roots up and down the escarpment wall...





And there is always all sorts of wildlife...always squirrels, bluejays, the odd hawk...

Often deer...



Raccoons...



And every now and then, something totally unexpected...





OK...maybe I hallucinated that last one.  That's what running can do to you...





Wow...OK...anyways...apart from training...
Lois had my good friend JJMisfits make this for me in the spirit of the season...





Isn't that cool!?  My fatbike, and my superdy-duperdy orange jacket!!  (And a deer!)  Yes as well as a very talented MTBer....she is a very talented artist.  I have another ornament she made for me last year, and a sketch she made hanging on my wall.  Thank you Lois and JJ!!

Anyways...back to training...today is a recovery day....then tomorrow is another loooong CX road/gravel endurance ride....and Sunday another fatbike hammerfest.  And a firepit!!

Who is going to join??  Pinoy guys?  Fatboy Nation??  I'm sure Giant will...and Jaimie....but Fig??  If he does will he bonk??
Who else?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Buehler???

Stay posted!!


Friday 11 December 2015

Riot on Waxing

So there appear to be more off season races popping up.  (If there become enough off-season races, does it become on-season again??)

DanofSubstance has a fatbike series starting in January.  Then these also popped up this week...




So maybe the off-season will be somewhat on??




So I coaxed a few of the regulars out for group ride last weekend.  This guy even joined us!!



In case you don't know...that's EnglishJim (I know, hard to recognize him in his Fall/Winter samsquanch costume)...he has been missing from the scene for some time...still gets lost from time to time.  Yup....he is quite remarkable....like a whiteboard.

And as per usual this group ride ended with a firepit recovery...


With rehydration and refuelling.  And JeffH cooked up a Saskatchewan hotdog...




Actually there was real athlete type food...sort of...
Mostly just good times with good friends...waxing poetic too much?

Actually, after riding the fatboy almost exclusively for the last 3 weeks, this week I got out on a couple of other bikes.  At the direction of CoachRob, I got out for some road training...but in the fall conditions I prefer to use the cross bike even on the road...


Thank you to JeffH for this pic, that he plaqued...
in fact he did one for each of the 5 of us on this ride!!


At Maddaugh Springs (formerly Puslinch Springs), 
a common rehydration stop on one of my regular routes.


Also to change things up bit, I broke the carbon race mtb out again...because conditions allowed it.  While it doesn't hook up like the fatbike, it just felt so light and nimble.  It reminded me how much I love this bike...and how everybike has it's own distinct attributes.

Oh-oh....am I waxing on too much again??  Better than the opposite I guess...
Don't worry, poetic is the only thing I wax...   (Sorry, Fig)
And anyone who has ever found themselves in the wrong mtb ride/race parking lot knows that EnglishJim doesn't wax anything!!



Apparently Felix is appalled...
Wax??  What???




Shadow is just embarrassed...
 
Oh the humanity...


Anyways...I am also still doing the occasional trail run for adaptive training...at CoachRob's direction.  Apparently CoachRob is doing alot of running...because he has this...




Seriously, he has that.  He claims he got it crashing in a CX race...but I think he got it hitting the guy who gave him this tatoo...






Actually CoachRob has me back actively training and is all over me about keeping my winter weight in check, but its all good....I need that.

Especially knowing that guys like unglued are still actively training...or claim to be...although it seems to be a little too much indoor training (does that still count??).  And JeffS is still out there regularly ripping it up fatbike style.  Word is JeffS wants to join TeamRiot...




Although the qualification is tough...(bottle of 40 Creek??)

Speaking of...I think BobM and serious are either into party mode, or secret training; either way I know they will come out blazing ahead of me again next season.  I'd like to know what their secret is...

Giant just keeps getting faster...I think his secret starts with an 'A' and ends with a 'navar'....but that's just conjecture.

And this guy is always, always fast...and used to training.  Check out this old pic...you recognize him??




And although they are not Olympians (yet) the Rock & Road race gang is still getting out there.  So, yes...I need to stay on top of my game as much as I can.  And amid the training I would like to get out for some rides with Fatboy Nation, and Pinoy Pedal Pushers!!  Let's make it happen!





OK, not really sure what that means, but anyways...

The only other significant mtb related event for me this week was I got this new bike carrier...





Which was pretty much a necessity to pull the bike trailer....




Anyways...that's about all I got for this week...I guess it's time to make things happen for next weeks post??  So...what could that be???

Stay posted!