All Warmed Up and Ready to Pursue ...

Double WOW ... Team CMU and Arvid were both impressive in their just completed "Warm Pursuit" - Details Here:
CMU: 795km // Arvid: 692km ... in 24 Hrs - Oh Yeah, their ready (well Arvid's always been ready!).

Here's some videos poached from the CMU Hot Pursuit site - nicely crafted - I detect Darryl's skill(?):





Great Endeavour - Great Causes!

While at Waterton...part 2

I haven't completely abandoned Lael during our stay at the park although it may seem like it.

Trying to limit my rides to 1.5-2hrs each day. Four days 147km, I've done 1400m in elevation gain with all the rides out and back; so most of the climbing is done in 74 km out with the returns being more or less downhill. I will know my total ascent once I've downloaded my Garmin gpx files. On the last day (yesterday) I rode the same route I described in my previous post and was able to cut about 6 minutes off of the climb and 1 minute from the descent. 3 1/2% lower avg heart rate.

On a slightly different note, I've watched the calories burn up on all of this riding, but the food here is so good I think my caloric consumption is ahead of my caloric expenditure. I think the Cycle of Hope will help even things out.

Warm Pursuit - Very Cool ...

Arvid and Team CMU's "Warm Pursuit" little 24 Hr biking warm up for the Hot Pursuit endeavour next month is pressing on into the dark hours right now out in BHP.

Very cool ... like the weather right now ... but that's not stopping them. Well done lads! I had planned to go out and cheer them on, but requirements here have kept me in the city. However, I've been keeping tabs on them ... check out their blog HERE.

Arvid's a machine: " At 8:04pm (12 hours), Arvid had completed 367km. Since that time, he has completed 2 laps, bringing his mileage up to 389.4km. Not a bad tally for only 13 hours!" Impressive!

While at Waterton National Park...

Lael and I arrived at the park Wednesday evening. The weather is a bit cooler and the park is not very busy. But, enough of the chit chat, here is how my training has been progressing. I hauled my mountain bike out Thursday and rode to Cameron Lake and back, a 35km out and back that took 1hr 30min. 1hr 02min slog out, and 28min screaming return. Did the same ride Friday with nearly the same time. If these times seem a bit uneven there is 400 meters of elevation gain in 17.5km. So that is 800 meters of elevation gain in two days. That's more climbing than I do in a whole year riding at home. Just to keep me honest I've been using gearing to match my road bike, so no granny gears allowed. My plan is to ride two more days focusing on climbing before we head home. The first two days of the Cycle of Hope are the most difficult but I don't think there is anything this steep.

Member's Update

Time for a brief update on all the TrainingCoop members (in no particular order). Feel free to add your own comments, fellow members. BTW, Tom has reminded me that I need to get permanent pictures of Dean & Kara, our latest two members, in the members section ASAP.

Tom: His hand seems surprisingly functional despite his bright orange cast that must really be difficult to match with a jacket and tie - no opera nights for Tom for the next bit.

Tom's update: Hey Scott ... check out this pic of me in jacket and tie (dinner and dance Lori and I went to last weekend) with coordinating orange striped tie and handkerchief ... when in doubt - embrace the SAR orange! Gotcha :-)

Lori: Hmmm, what's going on with you Lori? How's training? You looked great when we visited briefly on the weekend.

Brian: Getting ready for the big Cycle of Hope Habitat for Humanity ride, he's been putting in lots of miles (to be accurate he's put in something like 3000km this spring). Donating to the ride is really easy btw. Just say'n.

Dean: Had a good final leg of the Manitoba Marathon on Sunday only to fall off his bike trainer the next day in his basement, injuring himself a bit - I don't know if I'm supposed to make fun of this or be sympathetic - maybe a bit of both :) The St. Malo triathlon might be up for this week but the real focus is the Ironman in Calgary next month.

Kara: Ran a good half marathon this past weekend, proving that working moms of small kids can in fact do it all.

Deanna: Injured her shoulder a little being a bit of a klutz a couple of weeks ago and has since laid off of strength training for two weeks (it seemed to be aggravating the muscles) but is back at it this weekend.

Scott: I'm feeling pretty good, getting in regular strength training. Never enough cardio but I'm getting in a ride or two a week (usually extending the rides into the office) and looking forward to some paddling this weekend. I'm leading 5 fitness classes / personal training sessions tomorrow which is a record for me I think. More than I want really, but it's just for a day.

Graham: The stitches are out and he's looking surprisingly good considering how bad his leg looked not too long ago. Still some swelling and maybe even some infection left but it's going the right direction. It'll be sore / sensitive for a long time to come I'm sure.

Cycle of Hope update

Wow, only 11 more days until we start our ride back from Waterton Lakes NP. I have not had a very good week as training goes but hope to change that in the next couple of days. Lael and I are off to Alberta, actually we will be spending about 5 days in Waterton. The plan is to do some riding while out there, especially to work on some climbing. There are a few challenging road climbs within the park to use as final preparation. I hope that will be enough.
For those interested in following along during the COH ride visit www.robcycles.com. Photos and comments will be added as regularly as possible.

New Team Kits Have Arrived!

Our new team kit has arrived! This is a decent picture but doesn't really do justice to how nicely our kit turned out. Not only do we have the long sleeved jersey pictured here, but we also each have a short sleeved jersey, a vest, a jacket, and a hat.

Dean also has a couple of triathlon specific items - we think he more than deserves that little extra seeing as he hooked us up with his employer, Puratone, who paid for the whole kit. Much thanks!

Now, must start riding!

Deanna and I will deliver the kits to Training Coop members in the next few days. Ours fit perflectly so we trust yours will too.

Canada affects World Cup game outcome

Hey look, Canada made the World Cup news. For the record I was probably in the best competitive shape of my life shortly after my girlfriend dumped me back in high school (this comment will make sense after you read the article). A few years later that girlfriend married me.

24 Hrs of Falcon Ridge - Promo Video

Finally had me some more free time since the Spring Ride and edited down some of my video footage from our Falcon Ridge trail riding into this Promo Video for the 24 Hours of Falcon Ridge Mountain Bike Race. It's on 24-25 July and the FGBC, RRR and Birch gang have a whole lot of fun planned! It'd be Crazy to Miss It!

Check it out below and here:


Crazy good times ahead for sure ...

World Cup Lego

Lego and soccer: Two of my favourite things. Now if only it wasn't England who let in such a bad goal :(

Resisting Temptation

It's no secret that what I want to eat is is almost perfectly inversely proportional to what's good for me to eat, but most of the time I resist temptation, deny my taste buds, and eat what I'm supposed to. I guarantee you I'd be 50 lbs heavier otherwise.

So here's my frustration: I just finish grocery shopping, avoiding all the danger isles and stocking up on clean foods, fruits and veggies, and some sparking water, I get thru the checkout area full of chocolate bars and candy without making an impulse grab, and I decide to treat myself to some lunch at Quizno's (don't tell Deanna) because the grocery bill was well under budget. I order a grilled chicken flatbread thing (don't know exactly what it's called) instead of the much tastier and higher cal / fat stuff on the menu, and the food prep person asks if I'd also like some fried bacon on it, no charge. I resist, and then she asks if I'd like extra cheese, also no charge. I resist again. "How about Parmesan?" she asks (isn't that just more extra cheese?). Again, no.

Then while paying the clerk asks if I'd like to make my purchase into a meal, which means I get a big cookie and a soft drink. I ended up paying more for adding just a bottled water instead.

It was a successful trip for me, but do we wonder why there's an obesity problem?

Scrub-a-dub-dub!

Thanks to one of my SAR Tech Squadron buds, I now am able to shower 'avec cast' through the use of his miraculous "arm condom"! Btw, I am just borrowing it! ... :-)

More Trg Coop Injuries ... Our Secret HTFU Program ;-)

At the Training Coop it's all about the injuries right now ... Actually, it was our Secret Trg Coop HTFU Program ( not so secret now though ;-)), which Scott started a while back when he broke his collarbone biking in town, then Deanna stepped up and did a number on her knee while mountain biking near Las Vegas and of course Graham just took the program up a big notch with his attempted leg amputation while "hiking" near our Spring Ride gathering this past weekend!

Not to be outdone and miss an opportunity to HTFU, I did a wee bit of damage to my left hand while biking the Falcon Trails this past Friday on day one of the Spring Ride weekend. I slid on a wet off-camber rocky section and ended up twisting my left pinky finger WAY back and a very swollen left hand, which I nursed that night with beer libations and an icepack (thnx Matt). I didn't think I had done any significant damage, but it was very swollen. Then Graham does his HTFU move that night and displays to all present his Hard fortitude and calmness under pain and pressure ... hmmm ... I was impressed and newly motivated to press on with biking the Ingolf Trails with the gang the next day ... which I did with a few fingers and thumb gripped around my left bar end (my front hyd disc brake was shot anyways).
Result - a great ride and just a bit more swelling:

Then I get home and try to get past my Flight Doctor this morning ... hmmm x-rays don't lie:


Result ... this for six weeks:

Our HTFU Program just keeps growing ... ;-)

A quick update on Graham

Pictured here, Rhonda gets Graham ready to head back home - he's finally discharged from the hospital.

No more IV, no more drainage tube, and no more of another other tube I don't want to think about.

Hopefully this is his last hospital stay for a while.

Motorized bikes in the peleton?

The newest pro cycling controversy - motorized bikes in the peloton. Seriously. Well at least that's the accusation. If it's true my deepest concern is regarding where I can find one of these systems - I feel a strong cyclocross season coming on :)

Ingolf Spring Ride Video & Pics

It was an eventful weekend out at Spring Ride VIII in the Whiteshell hosted by the FGBC gang, along with RRR, Olympia, ABES and other associates. The weather was less than ideal, but the times were great, with plenty of challenging riding on wet, rocky and rooty trails, plus a ton of social fun at it's best. Having the Falcon Trails/Ski Hill Cabin for our group use was a big plus (kudos Bill). We are all very relieved that Graham's injury turned out to be less complicated and serious than first thought ... get well bud!

I'll make a weekend report, to include an overall video, but for now here's my helmet cam video creation from the Saturday 29 May group ride on the Ingolf Trails ...
"INGOLF SPRING RIDE - 29 MAY 10" on My YouTube Channel:



A few pics from the Ingolf Ride:







This great group shot of all 22 of us, courtesy Chris H.