A Perfectly Imperfect Run...

One of those days, wake up to a rainy ride to the office. Co-workers on holidays and off sick. Increased workload, and stress. Decreased motivation to work, or do anything else for that matter. Lunch time gives you the option to just close the door and melt into your chair, or do like I did today and counter attack the dulldrums with a run or ride.

None of my usual loops sounded fun today (This I am sure has everything to do with the first paragraph). So I went to Dailymile route's and started clicking. I made a new route (out and back along the Iron Horse Trail in Kitchener). Grabbed my GPS (Blackberry with Endomondo installed) and off I went.

This is where the imperfect starts. Apparently endomondo failed to launch and in effect completely deleted itself from the Blackberry. I decided rather than troubleshoot I would just leave it behind. Another glance out the window shows that indeed the road is mostly dry and the rain has cleared out. Once I started running however the rain began again (not enough to bother me just enough to tell me it was raining).

When I run sometimes I fade away to another place. The mind drifts and I am just taken. This was the case today, I had drifted so much that I missed my first turn (The entrance to the trail from Queen Street). Once I realized this I decided to do a little loop through Victoria Park and back to the office. Once I had completed a portion of the loop I decided this was to be too short of a run and took a different turn than I had ever taken in the park and after the path went from paved, to gravel, to singletrack it eventually landed me at the Victoria street entrance to the Ironhorse Trail. I had eventually ended up where I wanted to be. I completed the rest of my planned run and took in some great scenery and then back to the office. This afternoon is truly looking up...

Back to work, I'm out...

Over The Bars

You know the feeling. Helplessness, Impending doom, questionable amounts of pain are coming to you soon. In the next elongated seconds you will question your mistake, come to terms with pain, Attempt to avoid something, excrete adrenaline into your bloodstream, maybe even experience clarity. This whole experience will take only seconds, it will likely make you think of unpleasant thoughts, anger, fear, etc. These few seconds will likely be the most memorable seconds of your ride. When you complete you will say something to the tune of "awesome ride", "amazing day on the bike", etc... Followed quickly by "did you see that bail?!?" or "oh man, you missed my OTB!!".

The question now being is an over the bars something we secretly hope for on a ride or something we fear?!? Maybe both, maybe neither...

Enough with the deep thoughts after my OTB from last nights race...

I'm out...

Image borrowed from http://www.thebikebook.com

The race I Almost Didn't Finish

The night before the race I had all the usual excitement of a pre race. I even stopped at The Epic Ride in Orangeville and picked up a new Chain, lube, a tool, and a cycling computer. That night once we reached the cottage I tore the bike down and did some fixing. I lubed up the new chain in the morning and was headed 30 mins south to the race. We were a little behind on time so I was stressing a little but all would be well. I finished off my registration and picked up my race package. From there I dropped off my 6 pack for the 6 pack throwdown of the Solo Singlespeed group (A fun side race which includes beer and conversations after the race). Back at camp I got in my gear gave the bike one lst go over and headed down to the start line.

At this point everything was normal. This is what a race start feels like. go Go Go, wait for a bit then go. Nothing out of the ordinary except for the large beads of sweat building all over me while standing still. Then the race started and off we went. A cloud of clay dust immediately lifted from the course and our eyes and lungs were filled quickly. I passed by My wife and kids smiled and waved and then put my game face on and rode.

The first four laps were awesome even with some course congestion on the first two. It was a fun course but most of the trails had just recently been cut and we had been in drout mode for well over 2 weeks. The trails needed some wet and a pack down. It ended up being very washboardy and dusty with loose corners and a decent amount of technical challenges. All in all fun with only a couple real climbs and the rest was just short ups and downs. 1'st half of the course was a gradual climb and second had more decent. You always finished off each lap with more energy than you had 1/2 way.

All in all writing this I am beginning to wonder what went wrong?? About 4 hours into the day I let the heat get to me. Even with sponge baths and watermelon at the Solo transition area i was overheating. I was drinking lots and even dumping more water over myself in solo pits. When the heat got to me it got into my head. I unfortunately was also studying results at the transition each lap and finding myslef further back than I wanted to be in the results. If I had been paying more attention I had had a slower first lap than many and was actually fighting back well.

I met up with another rider who had caught me in the solo pits after I had a fairly long rest period. I thought he was a slower rider but he ended up being the eventual 3rd place rider in the race. I rode with him for most of our 8th lap and picked up on some of his tricks for riding this course. Late in the lap i decided to pass and loose him. I hammered out most of the rest of the lap and when getting my sponge bath and looking back there he was. A crucial mistake had been made. I used more energy than necessary. I should have waited a few laps to try to pass. A lap or two later I met another rider in the sponge transition and assumed he was in position 1 or 2 and I was being lapped. This tore me down a little further. I went to camp and ran into another Singlespeeder who had just dropped out due to heat exhaustion. I had heard just before that my family was coming back in a couple hours and that they were making signs.

I think the only thing that kept me in the race battling the heat and my mental demons was the idea of those signs. When they arrived I had a surge of energy and finished stronger than I had been. All in all those two guys I let pass between lap 8 and 11 were 3rd and 4th place. I was happy to come in 5th in the singlespeed solo category as I had thought I was riding around 8th or 9th all day. It is amazing how much of a race is mental.

Looking back I would have been really pissed at myself if I had quit and I am glad I pushed forward. I thank my Family for their support.

More photos over on my tumblr here...

The Endurance Fuelling Mind F#@K!!

Yup, It's almost race day. Saturday I have my first real workout for 2011 an 8 hour mountain bike race. All of my other rides and races this year have been either shared team pain or short races. This one is 8 hours of pain in heat and humidity. I have been here before but I am feeling the same thing I always do. A routine question keeps popping in my head: "What do I eat?!?". I am racing in the Solo Singlespeed category and although I am not truly vying for a podeum position I don't want to bonk either.

Last year in this race I did the Perpetuem and Heed thing and it worked ok but I ended up with late day gut rot as usual. The next race I added Endurolytes and even though it was fall and cooler weather I think they actually helped. This summer at the Summer Solstice 24 hour I cut out the Heed completely and had no gut rot. I did include endurolytes again though as well as some new foods.

Sometime this spring I was introduced to Powerbar Gel's. The first one I grabbed felt kinda weird and liquidy compared to the hammer ones I had had in the past. Examining the packaging I was pleased to see there were more caffeinated flavors and varying amounts of caffeine options per gel. May 1 I ran my first Marathon and decided to fuel with on course refreshments and these Gel's. It felt kinda bold as I had yet to eat one as i generally don't train with Gel's and powders. I had one 1/2 hour before the run, it was awesome (well as awesome as a gooey substance in tinfoil-esque packaging can be). It was much easier to ingest than any hammer gel I have ever had. On course I had 2 more during the run and found the same. I also found the energy did not die off quickly on me.

When packing for the 24 hour I decided on an interesting mix which worked well for a 5 man team approach to eating. 2 hours before lap one I had a Peanutbutter and Banana on whole wheat wrap(Race Taco?!?). 1/2 hour before the lap I had one Powerbar Gel which I was preaching to my teammates about and gave them each one to try, and Endurolytes. I then took water on the bike and stuffed a just in case gel in my jersey pocket. The lap felt great so upon finishing I had a Race Taco, a scoop of Perpetuem, and a can of Pepsi (I know that does not sound right). Before each lap Powerbar Gel and Endurolytes. On each lap Water. This became the routine until approx 3am when the pre-lap cocktail started to contain a little RedBull (eh well). Anyways during and after the race I felt awesome and my lap times were more consistent than they have ever been at one of these events.

So I am writing this and learning a bit at the same time. From what I have said before my body seems to like: Race Taco's, Powerbar Gel, Perpetuem, Endurolytes, and Water. It seems to dislike Heed for some reason.

Saturday I will likely try to pre-fuel with a solid meal and go with the powder/gel mix mentioned with a backup plan of Race Taco's in the cooler if I need something solid. As always apre-race I will be craving grease/salt/beer but what can ya do?!?

Thanks for listening to my notknowingness of it all... I'm out...

Important Message About Tonights City Council Meeting

Here is a message sent to me today regarding cycling in my city. If you know people in the region please urge them to attend. Thanks

"
Dear fellow cyclists,

Please consider attending the Kitchener City Council meeting tonight, Monday evening, June 13. Your presence could easily be the difference between success and failure regarding cycling development in the city for the foreseeable future.

The City of Kitchener's Cycling Advisory Committee will make a brief but important presentation to this meeting of City Council. The point of the presentation traces back to Council's last-minute decision to cut the cycling funds that had been called for in its new Cycling Master Plan (passed in August 2010). Of course, with neither staffing nor discretionary funding, the Cycling Master Plan is largely reduced to words on a page rather than an action plan for developing Kitchener into a cycling-friendly city.

When news of this slashed funding got out in February and March, many cyclists and non-cyclists alike contacted Council members to let them know of their unhappiness with the decision. The Cycling Advisory Committee also urged councilors to fix the situation at the earliest opportunity. As a result of these efforts, councilors have now approved in committee the hiring of a permanent half-time staff person to act as Cycling Coordinator for the city.

This is a crucial part of implementing the Cycling Master Plan. If it's nobody's job in particular to see that cycling development is maintained, it just won't happen. So getting the staff in place, while only part of the battle, is a very important part of the battle.

But the staffing decision has not yet been formally approved by Council, and recent events have proved that a last-minute change of heart or loss of commitment cannot be ruled out. With this in mind, I urge you to attend the meeting and bring your cycling helmet with you. The City of Kitchener Cycling Advisory Committee will be one of several delegations to speak, so arriving for 8 pm is probably safe. It should take little more than an hour of your time; but your support may have positive effects for local cycling that last for decades.

Thanks for your time,


Brent Ellis
Waterloo Cycling Club
and
Tim Kenyon
Chair
City of Kitchener Cycling Advisory Committee
Contact: cycling@kitchener.ca
"

A taste of why I love lunch hour

Lately I have been doing a lot of lunch running. It was just the way through winter and this wet spring. I was experiencing the "runners high" and it kept me coming back for more. The urge to get out and bike has been there but not as crazy as in years gone by. I have had great commute rides on the fixed gears and a few lunch rides too just the drive has not been quite the same. So I ran, and I ran, and I ran and experienced the fun in running. It has truly been great.

Yesterday Paul said to bring in the MTB today as it has been dry for two days. I was a little nervous about weak legs after the Marathon Sunday but what the hay I brought it in. The morning commute was awesome. High cadence + extreme oxygenation high. Then I made my way through the morning hungrier than usual.

Then came lunch time....



Yeah I think I just had a taste of the preverbial Herroine of MTB. I may not be running for a while (I likely will tho). Talk at ya later... I'm out.... Might just go riding again ;-) If original video does not work in your location try this one... (Thanks EMI for region censorship)

3 days til I run...

Should be hard! Should be interesting! Should be fun!