Have a quick read

Another useful read from http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/08/weight-loss-for-cyclists/

 a large weight loss may improve your power/weight ratio and climbing prowess, but if you lose muscle your total power (hence sprinting and TT ability) may suffer as a consequence.

Cracker Jacked

Blue skies and upper 20 temps keep blessing us.

Spun with the boys on Friday and Saturday around the usual s.corner and tunnel, these rides combined with Thursday's Hammernight turned the legs into lead weights going into yesterday's Moraine Lake ride.

Robbie, prez Jeff and I had a fast paced rip out to the lake and back, strong paceline pulls by all. Robbie is looking good right now, hope I am that strong at 50yrs old. Coffee back in Banff where I then headed up s.corner around to Rocky Resort and back 180 to s.corner. Legs were screaming at me climbing the hill home. 170 km day, just what the doc ordered.

Quite the setting

This morning we had planned to bike to the Quary in Canmore for the day. But Marn picked up Seth in a way which tweaked her back after breakfast. So I headed out with the boys for a spin around s.corner and tunnel while they slept. Legs are officially shattered now.

Saw Cory W. took Gord this past weekend in both the AB provincials race and Marathon race next day in Hinton. Too bad Gord as would have been nice to be AB Champ of both road and mtn bike in one season.

Just a bit steep

Vuelta finishing pitch up to 21%. Rodriquez the master climber

Ski vid teaser

check link to a teaser from www.sherpascinema.com  
2 years in the making with plenty of local shredders

http://biglines.com/video/allican-official-tea!ser

Record snowfalls this year in New Zealand and S.America, hard to think of snow today with another few days of sun and 27 degrees forecasted......hopefully Moraine Lake ride tomorrow!

Hammernight

Hammernight last night was my first one since beginning of June, man do I miss them. Nothing else like 10 yahoos pushing each other non stop for several hours - was like a little kid out there loving it.

Guess pulling my boys up the hills around town 4 days / week is paying off as felt well up Minnewanka and Norquay. But one thinks they have moderate fitness and then Colin comes around and simply lays it down - if only that guy actually raced.

Looks like a gorgeous weekend ahead.

Another tough weekend at Little Bow

Another beauty  3 nights down at Little Bow, blueskies and hot!

Story of the weekend, 6pm Sunday night

Tasty eats

Marn on a neighbour's paddle board

Seth throwing horseshoes

Sunrise this morning in Banff from our front door

RMCC Provincial champs

Congrats Gord and Anthony for becoming Cat 1/2 and 4 Provincial Road champions. As well to Sean for 8th in Cat 1/2, Rob 4th in Cat 3 and Robin 4th in Cat 4.

What a year to say the least for Gord, perhaps HR or Red Truck will be calling him soon.

Disappointing to see a whopping 10 guys in Cat 3, weak to say the least for a Provincial championship. Definitely the location in Lethbridge was a factor, hopefully they will bring it back N of Cochrane next year for a larger field. Wish I could have been there with those numbers.....

Bunnin's analogy from Gran Fondo Rockies

Shawn Bunnin's thoughts on the Gran Fondo. He will be a player 4 sure in the Bow 80

http://beefonabunnin.blogspot.com/

What to do when faced with a 6:45am start 90km from home?

Simple – awake at 5am, drink 9 shots of stovetop espresso, hop in the car and drive like mad to arrive before the coffee “kicks in”.

Ride 140km in 4 hours, Have a sweet catered lunch/5 brownies and be ready to go home and have a nap by 1pm? I should do this more often!

Are GranFondo events the future of road cycling? Probably. Note I said Cycling, not Racing. “Races” seem like they are being succeeded by “Events” where participation takes priority over performance. The result is bigger numbers, and a participant base that would never be seen racing. The participation numbers are so large that the organizers can easily piggyback a race onto the event and afford to payout >$2500 for a race of only 35 riders!

My take is that this is a good thing – although the events are larger, more remote, and more expensive; they tend to be better organized and offer more exciting/varied courses. The course (and cash) are what drew me down to Nanton even though I hadn’t ridden a road bike in 2 months.

Highway 533 looks big from the driver’s seat. It lived up to the expectation of being selective on the hills (~4200ft of climbing) and before 70km the selection had been made and the rest of us were left looking at each other. I was happy with my climbing but two hours was also my longest ride of recent memory, so it seemed logical to let a few others do their Day Job – the hills were going to sort it out in the end anyways (and they did).

And so ends the racing summer of 2011 – Next stop “Bow ~80” and Cyclocross…  

Unexpected active day

Yesterday randomly provided some needed grinds.

AM jog with Rory up and around s.corner / tunnel rd and hill home.
Afternoon bike with Rory up Mt. Norquay rd and hill home.
Evening 2hr grind on the road bike - s.corner/tunnel rd/various directions around minnnewanka with 2 bombs down to j.lake/back around tunnel.

Legs are hurting this morning.

Bow 80 - 1 month away.

Miss golf

Hilarious round of golf Wednesday during Men's night at the Banff Springs. Thought the round in Whitefish was fun, this was right there with it - the amount of bevvies consumed probably helped put smiles on our face.

Played with Mark and Brad where Blake drove up from Calgary and spent the night. Wind was howling which made holes 10-14 even longer, tailwind coming home produced some large drives. Side game of snips kept things entertaining, Blake's 50 foot putt on #10 for 7 snips was $.

Tough to beat this backdrop

At least Blake looked good in the rough

It has been a week of entertaining with Marn's cousin in town and seeing friends which unfortunately has resulted in one ride with the same to come.
We are off to Little Bow Saturday afternoon for 3 nights. Jack and Christie took Seth this morning, feels strangely quiet in the house without him right now with Rory sleeping.
Jack's B-day was yesterday with Marnie's on Sunday. So should be a fun weekend, weather looks beauty.
After over a week with no rides, will get back at it next week...oh well at least I am not over training.

Action jackson day

Action packed day yesterday on Marnie's day off.

Family walk up to Stanley Glacier in the morning, best value hike out there. Open fire burnt forest with loads of fireweed flowers, above the tree line within 30 minutes with Stanley Headwall right in your face. Another 30 mins or so is where we stopped in a grassy area for food with beauty views. Starring at 'Waterman's Couloir' where I thought of Kevin's pics last fall when they skied it - no fall zone to say the least from the top.

Kevin's pic - clipping into skis hanging off anchors at the top - don't drop your gear 

Seth was too much in his hiking outfit as he called it

Can't beat this

Drove home, 30 minutes later we were at the Banff Springs for a swim soaking up the sun in the outside pool.

Home again, 20 minutes later Marn jets off to yoga. I play with the boys, feed and bath them getting  ready for bed. Marn gets home where 30 minutes later I am on the road bike for 2.25 hrs before dark sets in.

What a perfect day in paradise!

Golfing men's night at the Springs on Wednesday with a few buddies, so excited to get out there!  

Seth loving his bike

Cannot get Seth off his bike lately...which is a good thing :)

Marnie's flowers looking good 

Still out with boys on the bike in the afternoons while they sleep, around Tunnel and / or Vermillion lakes. Beauty 1.5 hr ride last night after putting them to bed. Tougher to log the hours at night as dark now at 9:20pm.

RMCC guys doing well at Trans Rockies in the various categories, someday will take part in this race. Should be a beauty ending in downtown Canmore today.

Bought a whole new drive train for my mountain bike yesterday, sure needed it. www.jensonusa.com is a reliable website, all my parts were 40% off.

Wildlife in www.mongoliabikechallenge.com

Cascade Ponds and evening 1A ride

Biked out to meet Seth's buddy Cooper and his parents at Cascade Ponds yesterday afternoon. Being the boys fell asleep 5 minutes after leaving the house, made a little bit of a ride going out there - up and around surprise corner/tunnel. Several hours relaxing with the kids playing in the sand and water.

Spur of the moment evening ride with Keith on the 1A. Both of us were on a mission which resulted in fun non stop surges against each other. Made it just shy of Lake Louise due to needing to get back to town before dark, luckily made it by about 10 minutes - nice 3 hrs of riding time. Devoured some yummy turkey burgers then crashed.

Solid day in the sun with 4 hrs on the bike. 

Another beauty weekend

This was our 5th weekend out of town in the past 7 weeks. We sure have lucked out each time away with hot weather and sunny skies.

Left Banff with overcast and 21 degrees, arrive at my parents in Fairmont to blue skies and 29. Dad cooked up some yummy chicken lolipops with yams/squash on the BBQ to start off our trip.

Mini golf next morning, Seth loved it!

Picking their raspberry bushes

Soaking in the overflow hot spring creek

Mom sure got her 'fix' this weekend

Monday morning drove to Fred and Kelsie's trailer in Windermere, straight to their boat for the day. Marn and I tried surfing for the first time. Fred sure made it look easy with 360's and other assortment of tricks. Much harder when trying for 1st time, but once up it was a riot! Thanx for the day on the boat guys.

Marn just getting up on her 1st attempt

Seth doing what he loves best, being the driver

Life is great!

RMCC killed it this weekend!

I would have to think what the RMCC guys did this past weekend at the Jason Lapierre Stage Race was a first in Alberta for a bike club, sweeping 1st place in 3 of 4 categories. Would have to think we are the top club in Alberta this year?

1st and 3rd place Omnium in Cat 1/2,3 and 4 with 2nd in 5. As well 5th Cat 1/2 and 6th in Cat 4.
Gord taking Cat 1/2 is so impressive with Sean's 5th no slouch result either!

But madman Eric in the Cat 3 road race broke away and caught up with the Cat 1/2 field 5 minutes ahead, needless to say he won the race. Quote from Speed Theory's blog
The story of the day was Eric Jensen dismantling the Cat3 field and soloing for almost the entire race. See you in Cat2 Eric.

fbgfd

A fair amount of this in biking news lately

Carb depleting articles are more common these days. Makes sense to put your body in carb depletion for say stage races where you will be depleted but this way your body has experienced it before so more adaptable to the lack of energy.....in theory. Hear 4 or 5 days out of a race to try a depletion ride but eat plenty following the ride. But definitely not for the beginner cyclist to try.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/fitness/exercise/fitness-research/why-exercising-on-an-empty-stomach-can-mean-a-better-workout/article2021546/?service=mobile

Keith just has to out do me

Told Keith about my Bow Summit ride, next day he heads out with Bobo and 5 other yahoos to Bow as well. For fun he just has to add in 2 laps around Minnewanka/Tunnel when they return to make it a 260km day - just had to out do me :). But he laughed when I told him my riding time where it was 45 mins faster than 7 of them together.

Prime training time for Bow 80 right now. Read some informative articles this winter/spring where come race day, what you did 4-6 weeks back is your main fitness base.

Keith and I had a nice several hour spin last night with laps around Minnewanka/J-Lake/Tunnel to flush the legs out, love the flying descent into Johnson Lake with the new pavement!

Will go hard with the boys this afternoon while they nap in the Chariot for an hour or so around Tunnel. Off to see my parents in Fairmont tomorrow for some golf and dad's smoked food. Stop in Invermere Monday at Marn's friends place to chill on the lake and their boat - supposed to be blue bird and 30 degrees. Will be 4 days off the bike but the legs need that rest after this week of riding.

Made the Outlook paper yesterday for the Fondo race, too bad the reporter misquoted several lines - "only biked 4km last 5 weeks" - told him 4 hard hrs last 5 weeks with 1 hr spins with my kids....

Eat up

Interesting article on nutrition www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/08/sports-nutrition-strategies

I highly recommend following this blog, I have learnt heaps on everything about cycling....killer pics as well.

Great job boys

Wicked job RMCC boys at Tour du Bowness. Gord & Sean Cat 1/2 Omnium

Eric 3rd & Jason 1st  Cat 3 Omnium

Not going in this race was a huge pill for me to swallow. Courses suited my climbing, was a great opportunity to get out of Cat 3, oh well next year. Nice comeback Jason from your injuries!

After the Gran Fondo and rides this past weekend, excited to get back into shape to rock and roll at the gnarliest race of the year   www.bow80.com    No drafting or tactics, just what do your legs have when climbing thousands of feet in K-Country.

Bow 80 mud fest 3yrs ago

Bike to Canmore Quary

Another blue sky day where Marn and I biked with the boys to the Quary in Canmore. Nice recovery ride after yesterday, though the legs were screaming at me climbing up to the Quary pulling 50lbs of kids behind. Packed some food and made a full day out of it, nice to see Darren Anderson and friend Jodi with their little ones.

 Seth had a riot playing in the sand and water.

Marnie pulled the boys back to Banff into the strong headwind, good haul baby :)

Bow Summit goodness

"Go for a ride, I would like a day with the kids", words to me from Marnie Monday morning.

I jump on this and end up on a beauty 204km solo ride to Bow Summit and back. Not a cloud in the sky the entire day, the mountains looked artificial. Hwy 93 is one of the most scenic roads in the world. 4,000 foot mountain faces jetting up from the road side, makes for non stop climbing and climbing.

Hector Lake Views

Descending Summit to Bow Lake

Splashed my face in here while grabbing a pastry and brownie at Numtijah Lodge

Obviously somebody else's pics as had no camera but had to show the epic views. Up there with one of the top rides of my life!!