I'm not sure what I did, if anything... but I'm starting to be a little concerned.

This was a very good training week for me. Tuesday was a pretty hardcore spin class (although I have no HRM data). Everything felt pretty good. On Wednesday the instructor didn't show up, so I had to make my own personal class without music. That actually worked out a lot better than I had expected. Looking at my heart rate graph, it looks like I managed to build myself up quite well doing proper intervals, climbs and speed work. I think I'm going to try and do more solo work like that at home. Plus I get the added bonus of acquiring cadence data! W000W!

I took Thursday and Friday off in anticipation of the big ride double header weekend. Saturday was to Keswick, and Sunday was to Uxbridge again.

I showed up late on Saturday, just as everyone was leaving. I wasn't too worried though... I've been getting pretty fast lately. It's kinda crazy actually. I caught and passed most of the riders before we were out of Markham. There was one group I was drafting for a short while, until they made a wrong turn at Leslie and Stouffville Rd. I used the opportunity to fly ahead of everyone and completely lost them.

I couldn't believe how easy the ride felt. It seemed like ten minutes later I was at the barbeque at the halfway point... and after from the British guy (I think his name might have been Ian), I was the second one who had made it up. I was shocked, even though I tried to play it off. When the others came by I found out that a few of the faster riders were chasing Glenn to let him know that he had gone the wrong way. So there was a reason... but it still felt good.

On the way back a few of us took a side trip to Sharon Temple to check it out. I was burning hard climbing those hills. Both of the guys were lighter than me, so I was averaging a 160 bpm heartrate for 5k. From there it was a fairly challenging ride. At the hill going down Warden after Bloomington I was averaging 40 km/h for 10k. Crazy fast. My heart rate was pretty high there too, but this time it was fun, because I was going bloody fast.

I missed the turn and made a little detour, but I was still ahead of everyone (other than the British guy) for a little while. I stopped for some fluids since now I only carry two water bottles and saw Walter, Geoff and Steve (I think?) go past. I spent the rest of the ride trying to catch them.

The end result was that I had pulled the fastest 2-way average speed I've ever done, at 28 km/h. Admittedly there was a fair bit of drafting, but I'll take what I can get. :)

Sunday I didn't get any drafting opportunities. Most of the ride was done solo since I was late (yet again), and I don't think any of my usual riding buddies were on the ride. The good thing is since I've done the Uxbridge ride already and it was still in my Forerunner, I could actually ride against myself! This was an awesome incentive to push hard... maybe too hard.

At any given time the watch said I was within 1 or 2 km of what the Forerunner said I was at the last time, so I kept pushing... and pushing. Going up hills I was pulling up on the pedals just as hard as I was pushing down with the other foot. I was spinning hard, keeping my cadence AND torquing the hell out of the crank. It's even making a new creaking noise from all the effort I've been putting into it. Hardcore.

By the time I reached the Rouge valley I gave up on catching myself. I felt a pain on the inside of my left knee. I figured it was a hamstring. I've done it before. It wasn't pleasant, but a week of rest completely cured it. So I just concentrated on making it back in one piece.

It turned out that I actually beat my last time by 13 minutes, and my average speed went up from 25 km/h to 26.2. I don't know what was up with the watch. It pushed me hard, but because of that I might have injured myself. Not cool.

Yesterday I started pushing on the inside of my knee where it was hurting, and I felt a sharp familiar pain on the other side—my IT Band. This is a real piss off. The day after I actually get excited about this ride and say something about how I'm so happy I haven't felt any pain this happens.

I've been icing it since, stretching it every chance I get, and manipulating the area as much as I can. I'm going to try a very light spin tonight when I get home and see how it feels. It's improved a lot since yesterday, so I'm actually fairly confident that it'll be fine by the weekend. I just have to be very careful.

More stats from Saturday's 133k ride here:


More stats from Sunday's 120k ride here:


Update: It looks like I only injured myself because I was actually competing against myself on a completely different ride—the one to Campbellville. Haha. So much for that brilliant idea. I'm going to have to try out another ride I've already done. It certainly makes sense why the elevation data looked so wrong...

Sock shopping is probably the most complicated form of shopping ever. Not only are you expected to find the right fit without even getting to try one on, but you're forced to commit to buying large quantities or risk countless hours a year sorting laundry.

There are so many different things to look for in socks. There's fit, comfort, breathability, durability, washability, stainability... there are so many things that you can't figure out until you've worn and washed them for a couple laundry cycles.

After a Wal Mart trip I found a style that I was happy with. Or at least as happy as I could be without knowing how they wore. They were Fruit of the Loom short shocks, with a mesh top, and slightly padded bottom. Not too padded. I had a set of socks that had a bottom that was too padded, and it just made my feet sweat. These were the perfect combination of lightness, fit and comfort. I wanted more, but I wasn't quite so sure how they'd wash, so I held out a couple laundry cycles.

My new socks washed really well. They held up to the abuse, and didn't stain at all. Often I'll get bleed from my dark coloured shoes (no NKOTB white socks and black shoes... I swear), but these were still good. I had six pairs of white and three black. That normally should be enough, but lately I've had a bit of a strain in the sock and wife beater drawer—if you know what I'm saying—so I picked up another six pairs of the white.

The problem with the new white socks was that they looked the same in the store when they weren't next to each other, but when I brought them home they had a little black and grey stripe on the back instead of being solid white. So these ones aren't interchangeable at all. Not cool. So today I went on a quest to find enough socks to get rid of this discrepancy and outfit my drawer with a whole bunch of new, interchangeable white and black socks.

My first trip was to the Wal Mart in the Town Centre. They had solid black ones and solid grey ones. They black don't match mine, because mine have a grey and black stripe on the back, just like some of my white ones. I didn't want to get those. And they grey? What the hell am I going to do with those? Bust.

Next was the Wal Mart a little further east by my work. None of those socks at all. By this point I was on a mission. Besides... Pickering isn't too far away. At least they had some more of the solid black and the grey ones. It was a step in the right direction, but not what I wanted, so I headed out to Ajax for a quick look.

Ajax actually had a few more pairs, but still had the same selection. At this point I started getting disoriented. Not only was the store laid out exactly the same as the last two, but there were almost identical quantities of socks, on the same shelves. When I walked out of the store I was completely disoriented in a way I've never been before. It was like I was spinning around in circles for thirty seconds and had to figure out where the hell I parked my car. Thank dog my remote has a horn button, or I'd be walking home.

On the off chance that they'd be available in another store I tried Zellers. Nothing. So I figured I'd just replace everything I had with fifteen pairs of new solid black socks, and then figure out what to do with the whites when I found a new style I could live with next time. I went back to the one by my work, since I was already late, but I completely forgot that that was the one location that had none of them at all.

So I went to work sockless.

I might be trying too hard to make up for lost training time, but it really seems to be paying off anyway.

Tuesday was the first time I stepped into the gym since last November. My membership card had expired in February and I hadn't renewed it at all. There was still the same instructor in my spin class, but I only recognized one person in the class. I went at it pretty hard from the get go.

It took me a while to get settled in my seat. There were a lot of adjustments that I needed to make to reflect my new position on my road bike. A lot of the music stayed the same, so I knew what to expect, and I was able to push myself hard without going over the edge.

I went spinning again on Wednesday and Thursday. I had a cramping problem halfway through the Wednesday class. I don't know why, I was probably malnourished since I dropped down to 2000 calories per day on workout days again. It started in my back and it really started hurting. I straightened it out, and then my calves cramped up completely. I kept lightly spinning with one while trying to massage the other until I did them both. I was able to finish the class. I found it interesting that my average heart rate dropped in the second and third classes. I didn't know if that was progress or that I'm getting tired.

After taking Friday off I got back to the training on Saturday with a 120 km ride to Uxbridge. I got to the ride late, about ten to fifteen minutes after everybody had left, so I had a lot of catching up to do. I pushed reasonably hard until I caught the first group of riders at Kingston Rd. and Meadowvale. From there on all I wanted to do was hunt down riders and pass them, so I started pushing really hard.

It was a really nice route. Very hilly, but I've become a lot more efficient at riding them lately. Probably had a lot to do with all the spinning I was doing. It's like it took no time to get back up to speed with my training (literally). I got to the halfway point with another nice barbeque organized by Todd and... I forget the other rubbermaid guy's name. I chilled out long enough to eat, and got right back on my bike.

I could see Geoff and a few other riders about 1 1/2 kilometers in front of me, leading the ride. I knew I wouldn't be able to catch them, so I started taking it easy, conserving myself for the next day. I did have a bit of a side stitch after eating and drinking as much gatorade as I did, so that helped me slow down. My average heart rate dropped to 120 for most of the rest of the ride. To put that in perspective, that was often my resting heart rate before I started cleaning up my life, and now I'm riding at 23 km/h. Awesome.

Somehow I managed to catch them, I think they stopped for a while. They were going fairly slow at this point in the ride too... probably for the same reason. I think they stopped a bit too. I know it's not competitive (I keep saying that), but it still felt great to be in the first pack making it back, especially after starting late.

I passed out really hard, really early that night. I needed that.

Sunday's ride was just as hard and just as long. I've never done back to back 100k rides before, so I was a little concerned. I knew I had to keep my calorie intake really high to make it through. I did the day before, but I didn't know if I'd have enough to make it through the second day. So I ate. And ate. Plates of pasta for breakfast, litres of gatorade, bagels, olive oil, brownies, cookies, ice cream. Insane. But it worked.

I managed to keep up with Geoff and Luis for most of the ride. We were the first group of riders at the break (assuming the guy who passed us got lost or broke down—we didn't see him at all). I had trouble keeping up with them and dropped back a kilometre or two after the break. I had given up on catching them until I got passed by a group of three random riders. The first two flew by me, but the third was a chick (which huge honkin' legs). I think my ego kicked in, because I caught up to and passed two of them. I lost them quick.

The lead guy, Geoff, and Luis were all stopped at a stop sign when I approached. Luis chased down the lead while Geoff was adjusting his pedals. Luis was gone. The whole time I felt like I was struggling to keep up with the two of them, but the rest of the ride was a lot more chilled out.

I had an hour and a half before Cycle Therapy was closing. All weekend they were offering a special to FFLBR riders, so I had little time to look for another good pair of shorts. I subway'd it to Coxwell and managed to pick up some super comfy grey Suogi shorts and an Adidas rain jacket. Another 13 km for the ride there and then to home.

250 km isn't a bad total for one weekend. I'm glad to be having a day off today.

Click here or on the map for detailed info on Saturday's ride to Uxbridge.


Click here or on the map for detailed info on the ride to Campbellville.


If you haven't had a chance to sponsor me on my ride to benefit People With AIDS yet, you can do so here. I've talked about this a bit last time, so I won't do it again. It's just that I'm very close to reaching the minimum required for this ride, which is now less than two weeks away! I still have just over a thousand to raise to meet my goal, so everything will help. Thanks to the people who have donated so far. It helps a lot. Awesome.

Yesterday's ride was my favourite ride this year. Of course out of the five that I've gone on that's not really saying all that much. Haha. Since it was on a Sunday it's a late start, which only got later because of the lightning storm. The weather reports said nothing about it... it was supposed to be blindingly hot and sunny. Geoff had watched the weather reports before leaving and even that said that there wasn't supposed to be any storm until 2pm.

After it let up a bit we got on our way. I was loaded with lots of energy before leaving. A bottle and a half of Gatorade, a bagel with olive oil (who needs or wants butter?), and some leftover chocolate bar. I love eating for long training rides.

The entire ride was a little wet and it was much chillier than expected, but it was still nice. I left behind the entire group while I waited for my GPSes to acquire signals, so I spent the first half catching and passing. I love getting the red mist in my eyes when I'm approaching from the rear. [ewww, shhhhh!!!]

I had caught up to Geoff at the first break in Kettleby, who appeared to be in front of the pack. Lunch was awesome at the Italian bakery. Veal sandwich with all kinds of vegetables on top, like two full potatoes of wedges, and a super sweet butter tart. Life doesn't get much better than that.

Looking at the logs it appears that I was pushing myself way too hard after Kettleby. Before the break my average heart rate was in the 150 range, but as soon as we hit Canal Rd., I pushed it up to 160. It's crazy how such a small difference in numbers made such a big difference in how tired I was. I was completely exhausted by the time I got out of Holland Marsh.

I caught up with Geoff again just before some big hills. I tried to keep up with him, with my heart rate back in the 150 range, but I couldn't for long. His light weight and better shape made him fly up the hills, so I laid off and finished the last 25k at my own pace with my heart rate almost consistently at 137.

It was an awesome ride overall, and I'm really starting to look forward to the next one on Saturday. Uxbridge was my first 100k ride back in high school, and it sounds like there's going to be another awesome barbeque waiting for us.

You can check out the stats and route of the ride yourself on Motionbased here.

Since becoming a facebook addict I've been spending no time blogging at all. Part of it is because I've been having so much fun there, and my posts have been automatically been crossposted to my notes on there which has opened this up to a wider and much more interested (relatively) audience.

I suppose that might be why I've been avoiding posting anything about my training or fitness lately, which has been pretty much what I've used this blog for since the beginning. I don't really want to own up to how far off the wagon I've let myself get. There have been a lot of personal reasons that have contributed to it—both really good and not -quite-so-good—but ultimately I just have to own up to it and start over again.

Since my "woo hoo, I hit 160 pounds" post I've started to be less active. Over the winter it was pretty much expected, especially with my bad IT band, but I've been eating pretty badly lately too.

Yesterday on my training ride it became really apparent when I completely lost a lighter rider going up some hills. It was crazy to see how much distance he gained by the time we hit the top. Then today after hitting the scale I gasped when I saw the readout at 169. Ouch. I know I ate a lot late yesterday after the ride and that's still weighing me down by a pound or two, but still. Not a good position to be in, and it's time to get serious again.

Now that my IT band is feeling mostly better, I'm going to get some serious training in. We only have three weeks left before leaving for Montreal! I've only got in 350 km of training this year, which is much lower than I was last year at this time when I did the ride to Ben's cottage and back again. I'm planning on riding to work at least twice a week, and doing both training rides in the next two weekends, which should give me at least an extra 600 kms of training before heading out on the ride.

Speaking of the ride, there are only three weeks left to help me reach my fundraising goal! I've been a little slow in canvassing for sponsorship. I really hate to ask people to give money, but this actually for a really good cause, and it's a win-win situation for anyone who donates. The Toronto People with AIDS Foundation is a non-profit organization that raises money to help people who are living with HIV/AIDS. It's not a nameless, faceless corporation [I'm air quoting here if you can see me] "raising funds for research." They help regular people who have had their lives affected by the virus.

As an example, if you contract the HIV virus and don't have enough medical coverage through a health plan at work, you can expect to pay hundreds of dollars a month to keep the virus at bay. Even if you only have to pay 10% of the cost of medications, that can have a huge impact on your income. PWA offers food bank services, income support, health services and a whole lot more for people in need.

If you'd like to help people who have been affected by the virus, and help me raise enough money to participate in the ride, please feel free to sponsor me here: https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/personalPage.aspx?EventID=9755&LangPref=en-CA&RegistrationID=264513