Monday, April 5, 2010

I'm just coming off the long weekend working night shifts - 9 pm to 7:30 am. Makes doing 24 hr races solo look like a walk in the park. Thank gwad I only have to do this only once every six weeks, cause if it was more I'd fade away into sleep-deprived lunacy. Hence the lack of posts Friday till today . . . with the exception of the bunny on the bike, which I did a lame-ass pre-scheduled post last week cause I knew that I'd be shattered the entire weekend.

Needless to say I didn't get any riding in this weekend. And what a weekend to miss. It got up to +29 degrees celscius here in Ottawa on Saturday. Dang. Talk about ride envy.
So all I got today is my ride from Friday, a day after my long solo loop.

From the Gameline entrance, nearly all the way to the top of Champlain Look-off was nearly snow free and completely rideable. The first patch of snow was about 1.5 - 2 kms past the top of Black Mtn.
(After this weekends soring high temperatures and wind, the snow shouldn't be around much longer. I've also heard that Kanata Lakes is bone dry - time to get your single track on.)

I started hoofing it, but came across a fellow rider who said that it went on for about half a km or so and that there was another short patch just past it. Same rider said that the backside of Fortune was largely snow covered. I can't confirm this for sure, so get out and check it out for yourself. I'll be heading up tomorrow for a look see if the rain holds off.

White is faster.

My main objective of my ride on Friday, after doing a long one on Thursday, was to tear my legs off - go as hard as I could on the climbs, keep the pace up over the top, recover and attack on the climbs again. Great to work on the base and endurance stuff, but you got to work the top end too. It's no secret that I've been feeling under-powered, heavy and slower this year than any previous year. It's also early, early in the season. Unfortunately or fortunately for me, there is a lot of room for growth at my top end.

It was my first ride out on the Desalvo this year and it felt especially quick. One reason being it weighs about 8-9 lbs lighter than my gravel/cx/do-it all road bike (that beast weighs in around 28 lbs with fenders, Powertap, seat bag and two water bottles . . . it's a pig, a stable and fun to ride pig). The other reason, the Desalvo is now dressed in white, in case you didn't already know. White 'stuff' on the bike, I'll say it again, makes you faster without even having to try any harder.



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3 comments:

Big Bikes said...

Sleep is overrated. They ran these tests on rats (who died) where they kept them up for over a month (until they died). And they were fine (until they were not...and dead).

rick is! said...

yeah, working nights should be ideal because you have hours of daylight at your disposal

Anonymous said...

Ah, yur get'n old!
When I was in my early 20s, I worked 12 hour shifts (12 to 12) then went to school full time taking bio-eng and night classes (comp sci) plus I had a part time job as well...
Could I do it now, nope. Not a hope in hell.

As I age, I find less and less time and it takes more time to do stuff...

I'm looking for more R&R time. Less work time...
And, more bike time in the sun is fine... icing on the cake!

This weekend was just fantastic!