Kaaa - Booooom

Warming up, getting ready to TT while watching stage 14 of the '07 Tour. Dig the double chin at the end . . . . Fatty-McFats-Alot. Tis the season to be losing weight - it's coming off surely, but slowly.

I attempted another 4.8km TT yesterday morning to help nail down my power profile. I suck at time trialing. Suck in a big way. One reason, I never do it. I have no idea how to pace myself. I guess this is something that you learn to do and having a power profile that lets you know what kind of wattage that you can push for certain amounts of time would help.

Training with the PowerTap takes all of the guess work out of how hard I should be training. I'm pretty certain I've got my endurance zone dialed in. Heavy & hard intervals are not in the plans for a little while, so I've got some time to find my high end zones. Good thing too because I blew up, in a big way, during the TT with only a km to go.
Ka-BOOM!
Big ring everywhere. Will have to do another test later in the week, which I am not looking forward to . . . I don't like hurting this early in the year.

Velo Vogue - Tall Tree Cycles

Get your urban bike fashion on at the new Tall Tree store in Westboro tonight. Word has it that it's sold out, so you may need to sneak in.
Here's an article in the Ottawa Citizen about the event.

Moasty Toasty

I figured if I'm man enough to bike to work in this weather during the day, I could be more of a man if I skied at night. Hence, making me "the man".

To be honest, my commute to work ain't that long - but it beats driving. And despite not being that long, this past week I have still managed to feel pretty bloody cold by the time I get to work regardless of distance.

So, not being the only one feeling the need to prove his manhood last night, Curvy Butt joined me. Why would we test out 'manhood' by skiing at night, on back country trails, in minus thirty degree temperatures risking freezing off our dangling manhood parts? What else are you going to do on a Thursday night? I've been sitting on the trainer the past two nights and needed a break. Besides, the wind was calm and it was a starry night - perfect for a bromantic back country xc ski romp in the woods.

My eyes nearly frozen shut. My camera died right after this photo as the temperature sucked all the juice out of it.

It's all about dressing for the conditions. Despite being all frosty in the photo above, I was actually nice and moasty toasty. You didn't want to stop too long though - thankfully waxing wasn't an issue last night. Fun ski. Lots of darkened ups and downs. Curvy Butt took a wicked header near the end of along twisty run out. I laughed so hard snot came out my nose and then froze before I had stopped laughing. Good fun.

Bundle Up

Bundle up kiddies - it's cold out there.
Had to really bundle up yesterday morning (and will have to do so all this week) due to the wicked cold temperatures - you'd think I lived in Alaska or something. Yesterday morning it was minus twenty six with a wind chill of minus 39 degrees Celsius (that's -38.2 Fahrenheit for you Yanks). Exposed skin can freeze within a couple of minutes. My tongue was actually getting a little wind burned from the cold air I was breathing in; it felt all buzzy and numb. Yes, I am wearing a toque, or touque or tuque, under my helmet.
Still, it was better riding the bike than sitting in a car, in heavy traffic,
during a bus strike - suckas!

The African Cyclist

This is just awesome to read about.

Papa G sent me this article on an African cycling project. You should read it. It is very interesting, I found it inspiring, it made me hopeful to see in the future and curious as to why this hasn't happened sooner.

You can also check out more about their journey on their blog The African Cyclist.

Some of you know that I do some volunteer work with Bicycles for Humanity. This wonderful organization ships bicycles to Namibia for kids to get to school on, nurses & doctors to make visits and enabling families to survive. On our last 'bike drive' we set aside a half a dozen or so better quality bikes for a developing race team to use. How cool is that!?

Chain me to the wall

Torture dungeon . . . . is riding the trainer really that bad?

'Tis the season to be riding on the trainer in the basement.
Torture? Perhaps.
A necessary evil? Yes, in my opinion, if you want to be fit for the season.
I am not quite as fortunate as riders further south who can ride all year long.

The PowerTap is helping the time go by faster and adds something to focus on. I am looking forward to finally getting my power zones dialed in. Once that happens there will be no guess work and no wasted time on how hard I should be pedaling.

Today's workout. I think I need to change the battery in the heart rate strap - it seemed to be all over the place (the red line) and at times it didn't seem to be picking up a reading.

After work I jumped right on the trainer. The goal was to keep a steady, one hour endurance paced ride with watts plugged in at just a wee bit above 200. I'm still running tests to find my ideal power levels, so 200 watts might be too high or too low. I'm finding that one test is not enough and am doing a few tests at different intervals to find an average. But sitting at just above 200 watts felt fine today.

Today I added in two 30 second tests to check the power I could throw down. A little disappointing in the power department, but then again I've barely been on the bike since November (this was like my seventh trainer ride), so lots of room for improvement.

Bike Plow

My back hurts and I am sick of shoveling snow this winter. Maybe will have to try this instead:

- looks like a piece of stove pipe cut open to create a plow-of-sorts.

Or this:

- yeah, he's really getting the job done; much faster than shoveling! At least the guy is actually moving some snow around instead of driving over it like the dude above.

Both are pretty lame when it comes down to it and don't seem to work too well at all. On the other hand, I bet a lot of inventions came out of people doing stuff like this.

Back/Track

Second ski of the weekend yesterday - little bit of back county and a little bit of track set made for a good ski.

I was feeling down yesterday and really didn't feel like doing anything. It's been one week since we said good-bye to Jacks. It's been a long, quiet week in the house. Everywhere I look there are memories of him. I come into a room and my eyes, out of habit, look for him expecting to see him laying in one of his favourite spots.

I knew that sitting around the house is no good for me, physically or mentally, so I forced myself to hook up with a group skiing yesterday. Tobin, Rick, Tanya and Al were all heading out for a long day of skiing in preparation of the Canadian Ski Marathon in February. 80km of skiing, back-to-back days for a total of 160km AND spending the night under the stars . . . . hardcore.

Tobin, Rick (both shooting for their Coureur des Bois Gold), Tanya (skiing for her first CSM and Coureur des Bois Bronze) and Al (who has done this many time will be helping out race staff by skiing as a sweep both days).

The trails were in pristine condition yesterday. Demsis is finally starting to learn how to groom properly. I didn't complete their 5+ hour ski, and opted to turn back after a little over an hour into the trails = just over two hours of skiing.

Anonymously Famous

After the last day of work, before Christmas break, we were heading out the door when the mailman arrived with a big envelope. Inside it was this . . . .

Remember The Goat? Well, he up and left North Carolina for the high mountains of Colorado. One day back in late Summer/early Fall he was flipping through Mountain Flyer Magazine (Number 10) - a Colorado specific mtn bike magazine which is published quarterly - and came across a report on The BC Bike Race and this photo.

He instantly recognized me and Curvy Butt's ugly mugs.
This photo was taken during stage six - it was a wicked fun stage: Squamish.

Despite not stopping us for an interview and taking our names (and I probably would have stopped) we made our way into a cycling magazine. Personally, I figured I would have stood a better chance of making it into a different magazine.

". . . . two riders enjoy another stage of the BC Bike Race."

I'm not sure how much 'enjoying' we were doing after five previous days of racing . . . . but it really was a wicked day.

Thanks Jeremy for sending up the magazine!

Changes

I made a few cosmetic changes to the blog last night. Nothing too drastic: font change, '09 race schedule, new sponsorship links, etc. Just trying to keep busy this week.

After catching up on some of the blogs I follow, I realized that I have not done a 'year in review' or 'best of' type post yet. I believe last year I did it one year from the start date of my blog. So, that's what I am going to do this year too. I'm not really there yet in terms of feeling the 'best of' anything after the past week.

Endorphins

Exercise is supposed to release endorphins that make you feel better, so this is what I did today after work for an hour. I also got out for a skate ski last night. Anything to occupy the mind and keep me busy right now is good.

Fisticuff

The Fisticuff

Thank You

The past few days have been pretty difficult to get through, but have been made a little easier by all the e-mails, blog comments, phone calls and people dropping by the house to let us know how sorry they are for our loss. Chris and I very much appreciate the thoughts and prayers sent our way.

Jacks

Jacks
December 1, 2000 - January 3, 2008

Today Chrissie and I said good bye to our Jacks. He passed away this morning with his head in my hand, rubbing his ear, telling him he was a good boy, surrounded by love. We spent the last four days of his life constantly by his side, taking him for short walks, rubbing his belly and playing with him and all of his toys. We are so full of sorrow, with heavy hearts and tears in our eyes, but are managing to get through this very sad time with all the happy memories we have of him. Our home will be a little quieter, a little emptier and not quite ever the same.

We love you very much Jackie Boy and will miss you forever.

We have had an unexpected medical emergency with our beloved family member and returned to Ottawa for treatment. It has been very upsetting and stressful and therefore will be away from the blog until it is resolved - hopefully soon and for the best.

In case you missed it

You'd think it was Christmas or something . . . blog hits were down, really down, this week. What's everyone doing? You'd think over the holidays people would be trying to escape their relatives and in-laws by isolating in front of a computer and surfing the web. Doesn't appear to be that way.

And since I am feeling fat and lathargic due to over indulgence during the past couple of days, and don't feel like putting up a proper post, you can re-visit (or visit for the first time if you haven't already seen it) "How To Shoot A 'Naked Gear Review' Part I and Part II".

I also worked reaaaaaaaaallly hard on this, so you need to look at it and tell me how great it is. With all the weight gain and slothfulness my self esteem is at an all time low and need all the kudos that I can get.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

How to Shoot a "Naked Gear Review" - Part II

How To Do A Naked Gear Review - Part II
(not to be confused with the children's story book of the same name)
- by the original big ring

Ask Yourself, "What Do I Want To Review?":

You must also choose what you are going to review. It needs to be something that you feel worthy of getting your gear off for. For example, my Vassago Bandersnatch - totally worth getting naked for. I'm also waiting for a very special Vassago product to arrive sometime soon to get naked for! Time will tell.

The facial expression captures your readers attention.
My facial expression in this photo is saying, "Yeah baby! This bike is the cat's meow."

It's All in the Eyes:

You may also notice my facial expressions. Try mixing it up. The same boring bland smile may have worked on your significant other, but it ain't going to work on tech savvy bike geeks looking for a little skin. Use your money maker and sell the product!

Camera Angle:

Stan's No Tubes

Try different vantage points. Shooting from the same location gets boring. Mix it up a little.

Product Placement:

The use of strategically placed objects help cut down on the need for 'blocking rectangles'.

A wheel works well.

From a recent review, my knee/leg creates the perfect "My eyes! They burn!" shield.

In this review that I am presently working on for Citra Wipes, I photoshop'ed a towelette to be much larger than it actually is so to act as a cover up. It also 'exaggerates' the product - an advertising trick widely used.

Get Creative:

Playgirl centre fold? Moi?!? Awwww, shucks - you're making me blush!
What cycling related piece of gear could I possibly be reviewing on my sofa? My heart rate monitor.

One last tip, try taking some shots in unexpected places. Most all of us will be in the workshop or on the trail when taking photos for your review of cycling gear. Be creative and get out of the workshop and off the trail.

Good luck, have fun and I'll be keeping an eye out for you on the web!

How to Shoot a "Naked Gear Review" -Part I

After reading Dicky's post last week about wanting to take some semi nude photos wearing a cycling jacket (personally I would have loved it, grrrooooooooowr), but feeling he may be infringing slightly on my creativity rights and naked theme, he opted to keep his clothes on.

Originally, I thought I don't have a trade mark on this, a reality show or even a spot in a magazine (though I have hit up Dirt Rag with the idea -and if you'd like to see that happen, let 'em know!) . . . . so why not use my experiences and knowledge to pass along to you how to do your own 'naked gear review'?
Better yet, hopefully my own teammates, who have yet to do a 'naked gear review', will get one done.

How To Do A Naked Gear Review
(not to be confused with the children's story book of the same name)
- by the original big ring

Get Comfortable:

Rwwwooooooooar!!

First, you've got to feel comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera. No one wants to see some one all stiff (if you're into that sort of thing you need to look at other places on the internet) and uptight. I like to loosen up my going in my backyard and bouncing on the trampoline for a wee bit wearing nothing but a ten gallon cowboy hat. It feels good and my neighbors love it. But with it being winter and stuck indoors, I like to pretend I am an animal, wild and free. Rwooooar!

Loosen Up:

Next, I like to limber up so that I feel loose and won't pull a muscle while I get into my poses.

The calf muscles are especially important to stretch. Doesn't my bottom look taut!?!

Reveal Your Goods Without Blinding Anyone Permanently:

Face it, if you're as ugly as me, no one wants to see you naked. So, you're going to have to use some sort of "blocking" device to cover up your junk or be prepared for people to send you nasty e-mails telling you to put your clothing back on.

You must decide how generous, or modest, you are going to be with your cover ups.

Here I am in one of my earliest 'naked gear reviews'. I was fairly modest with my rectangle. What can I say, I was feeling a bit shy being new to the 'naked gear review' thing, the basement was also very cold that day so there was 'shrinkage' involved - hence the smaller square.

Here I am wearing a very nice vest that I picked up in Switzerland this past summer

The shot above, however, I was feeling relaxed and the workshop was at room temperature allowing me to 'hang' how I normally do. Hence, the need for an appropriate sized rectangle.

Penis nosed elves are perfect "Ewwww! My eyes! They burn!" shields

Also, don't limit yourself to just using black squares and rectangles. See More on this in tomorrow's Part II.

Lighting:

Lighting is very important. The above shot is during a review I am working on for my lighting system. It didn't work so well. When shooting outdoors, make sure you do so in enough light.

The sun is providing perfect lighting to show off my lilly, white taut bum as I ride off in the distance on my Vassago Jabberwocky.

Choose a Theme For Your Review:

Besides the obvious , I have a running theme in all my reviews: I am wearing my helmet, socks and shoes, and sometimes gloves and glasses. Wardrobe changes are important too. Notice I am wearing different items in my photos? It keeps the reader coming back for more, "What won't he be wearing this time!?"



* Part II of "How to Shoot a 'Naked Gera Review'" is tomorrow.