My Brother in the Boxing Day 10 Miler

My 53 Year old brother just kicked butt in the boxing day 10 miler back home in Ontario. Proudly wearing the ST Kit (which he got for Xmas) - Chris put a beating on many of the other "old guys" as shown in this photo.

Having taken up Triathlon at the young age of 52, Chris is now well on his way to a having the fitness this year to achieve a sub12 hour Ironman at IMC!

Maybe he can motivate me off this couch.

Get Back in Shape or Change Sport?

Given the excessive amount of weight I have gained since Jake was born I have a tough decision to make. Should I try to get back in shape or take up Sumo wrestling?

Spin Sessions...be ready for Jan. 7th

Spin goes from Jan. 7th to the end of March. We will be focussing on specific TTing skills in Feb. and March. Spin is going so awesome it's great to come everytime. I love the creative playlists everyone is making and think it adds tons to every workout. Bonnie and Tracey have promised us they will be cooking up an awesome playlist in the new year, and we will have to get on Murray's and Andy's cases as well. James and Celine, and Kim will have to step up soon as well ! You too Mike if you keep coming, which we all hope you do !!

We will have a post up here in the next 2 weeks regarding membership to the team and where and when you have to sign up. We will be offering an awesome amount of radness this year. We hope to host a race, have specific club goal races, and will have an official wicked kit. We will make our presence known at races with an official tent and meeting place, as well as specific team tactics. These tactics will include an instruction of NO FALLING, which I left off last year for Pigeon Lake and I feel stupid for not including it.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Trev

Jedi Running and Racing.

Last Sat. at the Silver Springs 8km XC, where Luke Way taught me I was slow and fat, I practised my new art of Jedi Running. As you can see, I did the course with my eyes closed. I only tripped once.

Also, the next pic shows one of our new Cat 5ers, Dan Sigioun, enroute to a successful first XC race completion. I managed to sucker him out for some zone 10 pain!

Last night, and Wed. night.

Rob provided the group with a great playlist and some verbal entertainment last night. Great work.

I have a 'special' workout created from you guys Wed. night. It is a combination of everyone's favourite sets. It is long and hard, but it is just what everyone needs before the Christmas break. Rick is DJ for the evening and I know we won't be dissapointed. Try to make it out, for a killer sweat fest. 2hour workout.

Trev

90km on the Cross on Sunday!

Hey guys, with the beautiful weather, a small group of us (Steve, Franky, Don, A-Train, and I) headed outside for a great ride yesterday. We targetted the gravel and had some awesome moments like when I took this picture with my cellphone. You can't ask for nicer terain than this !

Thanks Rob.

Well, the workout was as hard as a coffin nail tonight and mostly due to 'Rob's set'.... oh and the 2 X 20min big gear set after it :)

Everyone experienced the drastic physiological differences between big and small gear high wattage sets.

Rob and Dan, hopefully you can do the workout some time this week and report back here as to how it felt.

Should we?....

Could we?.....
get some styling glasses like this for our new 'team kit' ?

Maybe we'd be as fast as 'The Mario'?..... or maybe it's his hair that made him so fast.

If this was the case though, Carson Bannon would be the new Mario.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carson

Audio parts to donate?

Guys, it would be cool to take our spin classes to the next level.

Does anyone have an old stereo receiver and/or big speakers.

The little multimedia speakers we have now were good when we were playing music for music sake, but now that we have taken things to the next level... let's raise the game of our system!

If you just want to donate them for 'spin season' that would be perfect too.

Mon and Wed night workouts.... should be good.

Monday night's spin's playlist will be covered by Dan Sigioun. Expect it to be hard and awesome.

We will be doing 3 sprints, and then 4 6min big gear intervals.



Wednesday night's spin's playlist will be covered by Alex 'A-Train' Shaw. Expect solid tunes you can turn a big gear for, it should be awesome too.



Anyone that wants to volunteer to make a playlist, that would be great. Everyone has been enjoying the diverse selection we've all been rocking out to.

Bad news for Alex the 'A-Train'

It was leaked yesterday that Tom Boonen has an official girlfriend.

Alex will now have to hope they are incompatible and possibly catch Tom on the rebound.

Pete Lawson returns !

Guys, Pete is making a career change and is moving back to Calgary as of Jan.

Of course he is fired up about being able to ride with Speed Theory again and will be coming out to the Mon, Wed. spins in the new year.

Welcome back Pete.

Meet the Wrench: Dale

Most of us have bikes and these bikes require some form of professional attention given our penchant for abusing these hightech pieces of carbon/aluminum. Or, if you recently snagged a bike from SpeedTheory (if you're snagging your bike from elsewhere there best be a good reason) it was likely in the hands of a man simply known as Dale.

A man of few words, most of them surly, Dale is usually found in his tool-laden fortress of solitude at the shop humming along to various rock tunes while delicately cabling some high performance ride. Strangely, not much is known about the origins of this bike guru. Over the years various unconfirmable rumors have surfaced including a year spent in the East-Asia Co prosperity sphere living underwater learning how to kill a man with a chain whip or a 5 mm Allen wrench.

We caught up with this intrepid man of international mystery after a month long stint as a lederhosen farmer in far reaches of California. Here is what he had to say:

So, Dale, thanks for talking with the SpeedTheoryBlog. Let's get into the tough questions. If you could be a bike part, which bike part would it be and why? Which frame would you have to be attached to?

most people would answer this as wanting to be a hot chicks bike seat but not me. The shorts get all the glory anyway. I would say a Chris King rear hub as they are complicated beautifully machined and most people don’t understand them but I would have to say a Thomson Masterpiece seatpost. I can be kind of lazy and I don’t want too many demands put on me. As for the frame I would be on, it would be Dario Pegoretti’s last frame (not that I hope he loses his battle with cancer).

Chris King does make a sweet hub. How about this: Picture yourself in a darkened alley. Stumbling drunkenly is a cycling parts designer that you've always wanted to slap because of their silly and unservicable parts designs. Which parts company would this designer work for?

Ah parts designers, I do strongly believe that the bicycle industry is where most engineering students go to work after they have failed or been kicked out of school. Picking one is so hard……

Ironically, you're likely right about the engineers. Ok, try this one: You're in a swank hotel room with the do not disturb sign on the door, were it legal, what parts group or specifically which part would you make sweet love to because it is so awesome?

I would say it is a toss up between Epidermis or Galoshes…. Oh! Sorry! Wrong question. Sweet love? I’m not sure most bike parts are kind of pokey and I am more of a take you home, have my way with you and not make you breakfast kind of guy. If I had to choose and it wasn’t going to steal my wallet when I fall asleep it would probably be a Chris King rear hub. A pink one!

Ha, the CK hub is getting a lot of attention Dale. Next up: What is the weirdest thing you have ever seen done to a bike you've been asked to work on?

I don’t know about weird but gross definitely comes to mind. There is one guys tri bike that I worked on that I had to replace the headset bearings on as they were kind of seized. They weren’t damaged from years of bad weather or road salt but URINE! I needed a hammer and screwdriver to get them out of the frame! Seriously guy, pee OFF the bike not ON! How did he pee there anyway? didn’t he get any in his aerobottle?

That may be the most frightening thing I have ever heard, a urine-seized seat post? Ok, let's shift topics: In a battle to the death Trevor Williams is pitted against Ursus arctos horribilis, commonly known as the grizzly bear, who would you bet on to win? Would your answer be different if Trev had his beard?

I actually know the true answer to this question. Trev Williams WITH the beard can easily defeat the bear. He just gives the bear that look and rips of his shirt and presto! Instant coronary for the bear. This is how he earned the nick name Tha Killa! Without the beard he is like a rosemary sorbet that the bear would use to cleanse his palate between courses.

Folks, I can't make this up . . . speaking of associates . . .Mark K comes into the shop and announces he's leaving cycling/Tri behind and joining cirque de soliel, how does that make you feel?

I would feel kind of numb as I would instantly envision those small female Chinese contortionists, Mark is the one with the green ribbons dancing magically through the air.

Well, I think Cirque de Soliel is ruined for me. into the life of Speed Theory's wrench. And Folks remember, if it needs fixin' Dale is the guy.

Wicked Wed. Fatigue (WWF)

WWF style smackdown will be the main event tomorrow night.



It will be a NIN versus Ministry cage match.

VS.

Last night's spin

Sophia did a great job of the playlist last night ! Thank you very much Sophia.

Wed's workout will focus on short power generation.

Steve and I hitting it at the Tri Club Challenge

Here is a shot of Steve and I racing the 15km TT at the Talisman last Sat.

Steve put on a great show to go 23min flat, while I rode a 26:16.

Kyle Marcotte, who was across the room WITHOUT an aero helmet, casually rode a 19:22

I am pretty sure that's Paul Anderson on the red bike in the background.

Off Season Activity

Early 80's steel frame bike, converted to fixed a few years ago needed a makeover. I stripped the ugly blue paint, sanded the frame, applied 5 coats of rattlecan paint, sanded between coats, about 20 hours of work in total.

Litespeed did an advertising campaign this summer called "mediocrity in motion" where you apply one of their fake "carbonello" logos over your litespeed logo so that you blend in with the multitude of carbon frames on the market - mediocrity. The campaign was a bust but I found a use for the sticker.

Worthy of Fixed Gear Gallery?