Another example...

I am having a lot of difficulty getting away for much more than 45min, so my workouts have been focused on burning calories, staying in shape, and maintanence a little. If you are in the same position as me and can't build through the holidays then you may need to change tack a bit.

A good 30min workout is the 'Mod/Medium/Mad' workout. Usually you would do this in race season or preparing for it. However, this workout is handy to ensure you get a quality 30min ride in and don't turn into a blob like your spin instructor. Basically choose a gear like 39/15 and start with a resistance that will leave you very warmed up in 10min, then directly into more resistance (same gear) for 10min. Then directly following that do 10min with as much resistance as you can handle for the full 10min.

Dallas Cain and I only had a bit of time yesterday so we raced on the treadmill. We did a 5km TT. This is a high intensity workout, and doesn't feel super at this time of year, but ensures your body doesn't forget you are an athlete.

What I did today was 15min hard warmup, 5 X 15sec sprint on 3min, 15min small ring as hard as I could to completion.

Basically, be creative and go hard if you have very limited time. If you have more time, then structured training like I suggested in spin class is the way to go. Either/or though, anything less would be loser talk.

Spin class cap ?

Guys, as the spin class starts to fill up.... and we continue to get pretty rad street cred for the quality and comraderie of the classes, I am pondering something.

Right now we have 14 ST Cycling members signed up for the class, and we have about 6 (Bonnie, Tracy, Mitzie, Diana, Kim, Lindsay, plus Lisa) other spinners, plus Alex and I....that makes 22 people signed up.

Should I stop the karelo sign up for us ST Cycling members? On one hand, Alex and I were saying having as many ST Cycling members attend is awesome, since we are the only club in town that trains like a 'team'. However we want to keep the quality high.

What ideas do you guys have to fit more people into our space? We can have more people at the front every class, as well as configure a bit differently. Do you guys think the quality goes down as the numbers go up past 20?

Trailer Park Training

If you can't do the workout I suggested a few days ago, here is another one to keep your butt tough.

UFC 92

I hope everyone is having a great time over the holidays. While this may not be in the spirit of "Peace on Earth" tomorrow night (Saturday, Dec 27) is UFC 92 is an awesome card with what should be some great fights. If you have never seen Forrest Griffin fight, this guy goes to war every time. Frank Mir is on the card, he is the guy who submitted Brock Lesner in Lesner's first fight, Rampage Jackson is also fighting.

Anyone interested in going to Melrose? I will set up a table for us, we would need to be there no later than 7pm. The turn out is going to be big for this one.

Respond to the post let me know if you are in.

Michael

For Example...

As expected I haven't been able to do many workouts while I have been home for Christmas. But some people were interested in what to do when you are only able to get in a few workouts a week.

The key is to try to target most 'energy systems' every workout just to maintain what we've worked for during the fall. So....

Good warm up (15 - 30min).
4 - 5 X (10 - 15sec sprint, 2:50 nothing).
5 - 10min big gear, high resistance, low HR, low rpm set. 2-3min rest
3 - 5min small gear, high resistance, high HR, high rpm set.
5 - 10min cool down
4 X (more pumpkin pie)

Yesterday I had to cut the workout short, so I only did a few sprints and then the small gear set.

Even though I am not training like I was, doing a workout like this a few times a week will enable everyone to start our next ramp in January alright.

Of course, the more you do the better, so if you have time.... don't slack off... get in as many workouts as you can. As Rui would say "Only three workouts a week is loser talk".

Lab rats needed

Recreationally active male athletes age 18-30 years needed for high altitude study. To paraphrase, one month of 1 hour tests once to twice a day. All testing and exposures at the Human Performance Lab (U of C). Multiple cycle ergometer tests. 15 days of hypoxic exposure.

What will you get out of it: Maximal Aerobic Power (MAP), Maximal Lactate Steady State (MLSS), heart rates, blood lactates and power outputs at threshold training intensities.

Contact Jessica Kryski at 220-3479 or jkryski@kin.ucalgary.ca

Christmas party

UPDATE: I live here.

---

Time to ring in a bit of Christmas cheer! To put a good cap on a great season and year, come to my place on the 18th of December at 7pm.

There'll be some good food, good company, lively conversation (but just a warning now: not everyone will be able to tell the difference between a bottom bracket and a water bottle :) ).

This is more to catch the people I miss from not having everyone's email...if you want to come and don't know how to contact me, leave a comment and we'll figure it out.

Busy time of year, for sure, but you've got to take advantage of the week-off we get from Coach Dr-T.

Cheers,
Lockie

Holy Frick on a Stick that was cold !

Well, I didn't run super on Sat. compared to some of the dudes I am usually competitive with. But I gave it 100%

My left eye was completely frozen shut for the last couple minutes of the race! (Click on the picture to see!)

Trev - post a workout

Lance and Chris are waiting

Mon and Wed spins, and Christmas

Great AGM last Wed. Lots of new faces and great to hang with people off the bike.

For the spins this coming week, we'll be doing some longer big gear sets. These will be common in the weeks ahead in Jan and Feb. Unfortunately not as fun as the sets we've been doing, but equally as nessesary. I will attempt to make them go by as quickly as possible.

I was asked to provide a general guideline to what dudes should be doing in the gap between Spin #22 of the Fall session and Spin #1 of the Winter session. This is from Dec. 20th to Jan 11th, so it is quite a long gap. I will update the blog at least once a week with some suggestions on workouts and interval lengths. Really try to get on the bike at least 3 or 4 times a week so all our hard work will count in the spring.

SpeedTheory AGM Draws Huge Crowd

Thanks to Trev and the rest of the executive of the SpeedTheory Cycling Team for putting together the AGM tonight. As shown in these pictures, the first outside of Bugaboo Pub just before 8:30 pm and the second of Rob trying to get everyone's attention at the AGM, it was a truly large turnout. Over 15 Cat 5 riders have already signed up for next year's team as well as a large contigent of Cat 3,4 and 1-2 riders. Already we have a total of nearly 30 riders registered for next year and Winter hasn't even started yet!

The success of the team can in large part be credited to Trev who has instilled upon the team a sense of community and team work. This grssroots approach was Trev's concept from the start and it has caught on like a wildfire - bringing many new cyclists into the sport and making SpeedTheory a serious contender for top team in Alberta for 2009!

On a personal note, as a founder and owner of SpeedTheory, I want to thank all the cyclists who have trained and raced with the team in the past. You have not only been amazing ambassadors of SpeedTheory, but of team cycling in western Canada. You guys and gals have been the best possible advertising I could have ever asked for!

To the new team members, I just wanted to say welcome. Although sometimes it may feel like you are drinking from a fire hose, take as much of this in as you can. Leave your egos at home and come and learn - don't let fear of looking like a rookie get in the way of learning everything this amazing group of people has to offer!

Once again - thanks everyone - Enjoy Your Ride!

Paul.

The Sarah Conner

I've named Wed. night's workout 'The Sarah Conner'. You know when she was in the psych hospital and she knew one day all hell would break loose and she couldn't do anything to stop it? It was just a matter of time?

Well... all hell is going to break loose Wed. night before the AGM at spin. Bring protein and will to survive.

Rui... can you provide us with a heavy playlist? No pop, no light rock, and definately no "Barbie Girl".

Team Communication

Guys, this year, to keep the crazy book/record/financial keeping down a little bit, I have decided to use Karelo (as most are aware). This is a departure from previous years where I have handled everything directly and I hope the end result will be an upgrade in the 'club experience' as it will free up some of my time so I can offer other cool things.

The primary reason for Karelo was for financial record keeping, but the second biggest reason was for club communication. Karelo offers an extremely simple way for me to contact you all and I am ensured I am dealing with a current list of members. I have been personally emailing some of you that are not on the 2009 Karelo list but I now feel like I am spamming you and will stop. Therefore, you will not receive any more club related emails which I assume is your own choice.

Anyway, some people are a little confused with the Karelo Club Registration, as they think it is coupled with sending in their forms to ABA. This is not the case. The form-sending to ABA will occur when you apply for your race license, and can be done completely on your own timeline. Being a 2009 CLUB member covers your insurance while training at a club authorized training event and venue as of Jan. 1st. This distinction between Club member and Race license holder is vague and was a point of discussion at the AGM. The advice given was to renew your Club and ABA Race memberships as soon as possible.

On another effective communication note: Rui flipped me the double-bird last night as I announced the second main set.

Kyle's TTX SSL for sale

2008 Trek TTX SSL for sale. Asking $3,500 (this bike retails for >$7,000)

Details:
-54cm frame (fits 5'7"~5'11"). This is the SSL frame. Trek's top of the line frame.
-Color: Orange
-A mix a SRAM Red and Sram Force components (Sram is Shimano compatible).
-Bontrager Race Lite wheels.
-Bontrager Speed Limit brakes
-Bontrager Race X Lite cranks

Used for one season.

Contact: dukyle at yahoo dot ca

Seventh Annual “Amble with Angus”

The Seventh Annual “Amble with Angus” is coming up on Friday, December 12th 2008 @ 7:30am. This is an event Angus Cowan (an individual who Sandra coaches personally), Ideaca (who Sandra works for) and CBC have organized over the past six years to support the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank. And again this year, early on the morning of December 12th, hundreds of athletes (runners and walkers) will brave the cold temperatures to run approximately five kilometers in support of the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank. Last year CBC raised over $525,000 in support of this organization during its on-air campaign. Invite your friends, family, co-workers, customers to participate. The event is a lot of fun. There are also some pretty unique costumes each year which have been fittingly rewarded.

Microsoft and Gord’s Running Store have supported this event for the past five years. Draw prizes have included Running equipment, the Xbox, Microsoft software, games, and other Microsoft goodies. This is a unique opportunity on CBC Radio for sure. The event occurs live “on air” during the peak air time of the CBC morning show, the Calgary Eye Opener. CBC opens the doors to the studio and production area after the run for refreshments.

Participant or Volunteer
15-20 volunteers are required to run this event safely.
All participants of any ability are welcome to run in the event as well.
Entry is a food or cash donation to the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank.

www.amblewithangus.com for more details. The events starts and finishes at the CBC building on Memorial Drive.

Event Details
CBC’s Seventh Annual “Amble with Angus” for the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank.

Date
Friday, December 12, 2008

Time
7:30 am - Please arrive early

Location
CBC –1724 Westmount Boulevard NW (near 16th ST NW & Memorial Dr.) Meet in the parking lot beside the CBC clock.

Route
Pathways along the Bow River.

Distance
Approximately 5 kilometres.

Entry Fee
Race day registration with a $10 minimum donation to the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank. All entry fees are due on race day.


Posted by Sandra

Stephen and Elaine video of El Tour de Tucson

Here is a unique inside look into the life of a couple that just HAS to ride.

YouTube

SpeedTheory Cycling AGM Dec 10th, 8:30pm, 2008.

OK, the date is set for Dec. 10th at the Bugaboo Creek Pub (right beside SpeedTheory) at 8:30pm. We will keep it short but I would really like most members to come, so it encourages the new people trying us out. We are going to have it directly after spin class, so we'll make this spin open to everyone.

If you are not part of SpeedTheory but would like to be, or would like to meet our members and find out more about the club... THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY !! Please come out.

Please encourage new riders to come give racing a try. We want another solid group of Cat5 racers like we had in 2008, that was super fun.

The club will pay for the first round of drinks for all who show up.

El Tour Race Report.

El Tour de Tucson

A few facts: First and foremost it’s a charity event with over 8000 participants. There are a number of distances with close to 5000 of the entrants entering the 109 mile category. In that category you can enter as a pro which allows you to line up at the head of the pack in a reserved section. If you have a CAT ½ license or have done the event previously in under 5 hours for males or 6 for females you are reserved a section behind the pro’s in the platinum category and so on. Many individuals are just trying to finish the event however the racing is very serious upfront with many races forming up within the race. (see my face in the picture, I’m suffering sprinting for the finish and I haven’t sprinted for anything all year. Ok I can’t sprint but that beside the point, there was a group of riders I was not going to let cross the line before me)

I showed up at the platinum pre-race meeting a minute late and thought I was in the wrong room. There were hundreds and hundreds of riders, at first I thought I was at sales convention. I was sort of freaked out.I was up at 4:00AM as my lovely wife Elaine wanted to be upfront in the Gold category which allowed me to get her settled and have two breakfasts. As I headed into the platinum staging area at 5:30AM there were already 200-300 riders in front of me.

The game was on at 7:00AM with the big guns leading everyone out. Now there is a reason I don’t like crits and this was sort of like a crit with 400-500 people in the peloton. Within a very short distance riders had to cross the first of 2 dry river beds. If you dared to get off your bike you would have been run over and never found again so I had to put my amazing cycle cross skills to work, I have none ,and the freak-out meter was in the red. Next the whole group was stopped at a rail crossing by a freight train which allowed the peloton to bunch back up.

The riding was crazy for me until the next river crossing. There were six crashes within 1-2 bike lengths of me and I heard many others. I was up on curbs and even closed my eyes once as I threaded my way through one mess of bikes and bodies. Then guys would get flats in the middle of all of this and you had to avoid nailing them. Lastly I just did not have the skill to find my way to the front of the unwashed masses. Every time I thought I was getting there I would get boxed in and 100 riders would move up from the other side of the road. Now I know Trev and the lot of you like this kind of Sh!!!t but there was no joy in Whoville for this Rando rider. The race was all surges, at every corner and even on the straight sections, for no discernable reason; this took a real toll on my legs.

Most , if not all riders were off their bikes at the second river crossing running like mad through the sand etc. I was still with the lead group and the motorcycle escort to that point however I picked something up in my cleat and couldn’t clip in. By the time I got that sorted out I was off the back. Now we were into my kind of racing. A peloton formed up that fluctuated up to 30 riders and was eventually whittled down to 15 by the end of the race. Lots of long hard relentless pulls with a pretty good group of guys. We had one crazy Mexican in the group, that’s another story, but for the most part people tried to do what they could. When we turned south the wind took the stuffing out of the group but it was my kind of gig so the pace stayed up.

It should be noted that there was a group of 40 riders chasing us down who eventually caught us going into the finish line which had close to 60 of us doing 2 ninety degree turns then sprinting for the finish, crazy.

So great riding, great suffering and great fun, I was done in 4:49 a tad slower than my 2004 time but a much harder ride.I think I’ll go back next year, you should all come.

Stephen

PS: Elaine was in under 7 hours earning her a Gold medal

Photo Courtesy of Steve of PBase.com

Date set for JayLap Memorial Bike Fest Weekend.

The ABA is being super proactive with forming the 2009 race calendar, which is awesome. I am a big fan of the ABA in its current configuration and look forward to this years hammering.

I would have really liked the dates to be July18/19 weekend, since this would have been the 3rd year anniversary many of us lost a great friend, however, the ABA felt they wanted to spread out the races a bit more and apparently there are already several big races in July scheduled.

Therefore we settled for Aug. 22/23 as people should be performing a late season peak for us, and a big stage race planned the following weekend.

Therefore, we announce:

Aug. 22nd, morning: Jason Lapierre Memorial Provincial ITT Championships.
Aug. 22nd, evening: Jason Lapierre Memorial Criterium and BBQ.
Aug. 23rd, morning: Jason Lapierre Memorial Provincial TTT Championships.

This is great news for our club and for the event. We want to establish this event as one of the premiere events in cycling for Alberta. The TTT Championships will be modified to teams of 4 with 3 finishers timed. This will encourage better participation.

We are in the process of determining a good Criterium route. I have found several good candidates, however, I am 'all ears' if you have a venue that would rock and accomodate great spectatorability and BBQability. It needs to be between 800m and 2km long.

From what I have heard through the grapevine, this is going to be a good year of racing. I am excited.

Good luck to Stephen

Stephen is racing in the El Tour de Arizona this weekend. It is a 180km massive road race. Looking forward to hearing about the race.

Sunday morning spin at 9am...and Okotoks XC run on Sat.

I am covering Scott Curry's spin class on Sunday morning (Nov. 23rd) at 9am. All Mon. Wed. night spinners and ST Cycling members are more than welcome to join us. Same place, same great tunes.

.

Also, if anyone is interested in a low-key, cheap, awesome run raced on trails, the Okotoks XC is being held on Sat at noon. I will be there.

Trev

ST Cycling AGM

We'll probably have our AGM in early December. Rob W. is currently working 23 hours a day preparing for a company altering conference in Chicago from Dec. 1st - 5th, so I am thinking maybe we should have our 'Short-and-Sweet' AGM after a spin class either on Dec. 8th or 10th. at Bugaboos pub, since it is pretty quiet at that time.

How does that sound? Please leave a comment if you could come out from 8:30 - 9:30pm on the 8th or 10th. I would like most of the club there go to over the new season and listen to suggestions about how to improve our club and it's direction into 2009.

In the meantime, I would really like to focus on getting new riders 'into the fold' and encourage them to come out and meet us. If you know of a potential rider, please let them know to check out our blog soon for a confirmed date and time. We need new riders in our never ending quest to expose people to the coolness of road racing, and now is the time to let the word out.

Also, finally found some Indoor Cyclocross action here. It's not me falling, but I bailed at the same spot about 3 times. I took out Sean's spokes around the first corner coming into the barriers.

ABA AGM

Just got back from the ABA Annual General Meeting. Sounds like it is going to be another exciting year of racing.

Two things of note I need to address:

1.) The biggest thing as usual is insurance. I need to get our club registration into the ABA before Jan. 1st 2009 so our club is 'in' for 2009 and our MEMBERS are insured for training.

2.) This means that you are NOT insured past Dec. 31st 2008 unless you are a registered 2009 member of ST Cycling. So if you haven't joined up, please do so soon, so I don't have to remember to hound you over Christmas holidays.

Insurance sucks in general and Jay used to always lament how it was killing the cool aspects of amateur sport and I agree with him. So I will try to keep it out of an 'issue' for our club by ensuring to keep us 'covered' as a club, and as long as you guys ensure to stay current as club members, we shouldn't have to think about it.

This particular insurance has nothing to do with your racing license. This is the $35 insurance fee that the club pays per member every year (outlined in the Karelo race reg. package). This covers you should you happen to have an incident while training.

So please sign up as a 2009 member at your earliest convienience.

Ride on Saturday

The current forecast for this Saturday is 13 degrees and that means it will be a great day to be outside. If anyone is interested in heading out, I am planning on leaving from the Rocky Ridge Co-op parking lot around 10 am. I was thinking about heading north towards Madden on Lochend Road and then looping back around via Symons Valley Road (2 to 3 hour ride). After Trev's punishing spins this week, I think we should try to keep it more on the side of fun than punishment. Location and time can be negotiated, I just want to make sure that it warms up a bit before we head out. Let me know if you are interested in coming along. Enjoy!

Mark

ST Cycling radness in Alberta Spin Magazine.

On page 13 of this quarter's edition of Alberta Spin is Steve G's wicked TT start ramp and Carl M.'s awesome sponsor post. Thanks again guys for making those, they'll be used again for years to come.

Also in the picture is Rob L., which now qualifies him as a star, since Alberta Spin is right up with US and People and even Voque. We can just hope he doesn't forget us little people.

How NOT to win the World Indoor Championship of the World

1.) In the first heat which was a 3 lap race in about 3min, don't crash 3 times.
2.) In the second heat, don't take out 2 of a competitors front spokes with your knee before clipping out. (Imagine how hard this was to do)
3.) General thoughts: Don't think you are a good bike handler until you watch messengers take jumps that you crash on .... on fixed gears.

Pictures to prove everything should be coming.

Ride SUNDAY

There is racing on Saturday so we head out on Sunday. Here is the scoop:

We will meet at the paper clip in front of the Olympic Oval (North side of the main entrance) at the University at 9:30AM. We will then do 15km of urban riding and pop out of the city north of Center Street and make our way to Crossfield. At Crossfield we will head west to Madden then South on the 772 coming back to town on Simons Valley. At Big Hill Springs rd we will head west and come into town on Bearspaw road via Burma, rocky Ridge to the 1A. The northern folks can head home from there the rest of us will head back to the University via numerous back roads. Total ride approx. 133-135km, fairly flat at the beginning then the hills.


Stephen

Spin:

Great long and hard spin last night. Great turnout. As expected, as soon as the snow flies, the room fills up!

Monday, Nov. 10th spin IS OFFICIALLY ON ! Originally I thought people would be in long weekend mode, but enough people said (actually promised) they would come, that I will be there and ready to hammer.

Monday's spin will be very similar to last nights but a little shorter.

Rui is providing the tunes for Monday.

Anybody volunteer as the DJ for Wed. ??

Olympic reflections by 2008 Olympian Joshua Riker-Fox

Presentation by Joshua Riker-Fox, 2008 Olympian


What: Reflections of Beijing 08 – Living the Olympic Dream. Join Joshua
Riker-Fox as he shares his story about the physical and mental preparation
required to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games (Modern Pentathlon). This
interactive presentation is perfect for athletes of all ages and abilities and
for those who just enjoy a great story!

Who: The only male athlete to compete for Canada at an Olympic Games in
Pentathlon since 1992 and one of the youngest athletes in the field in Beijing,
Joshua Riker-Fox will be talking about his Olympic experience

When: November 6th, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Where: Calgary Winter Club, 4611 14th Street NW, Calgary

Note the public is invited to this event. Tickets are 12$ per person and are
available from the Calgary Winter Club, call 403-289-5511. Light snack included.

Contact
For more information call Joshua Riker-Fox at 403-807-1737, or
pentajosh@yahoo.ca,
or visit www.riker-fox.com

Spin:

I'm going to start posting in general what we're up to at spin class. So people can have a head's up if there is a hard week coming, or a down week. The spins have been really good so far and I can't believe we've blown through 9 already. With the weather being so great outside, the attendance hasn't been amazing, but I suspect it'll increase soon. It is November, the off-season is over.

Nov. 5th:
Wed. be mentally prepared for a hard session. Focusing on short term high power generation, and big gear adaptation.

I'm not dead . . .

Hey Team. I am road tripping it up for work but I saw this and thought it must be posted:

BIKE-SEXUAL

I will be sweating it up with you all in spin soon.

Saturday ride

Guys I can't make this one, lots of marking to get done by Monday. I will head out for a spin later Suturday afternoon. I suggest people meet at the Bean at 10:30 AM as usual.
Stephen

Ride Saturday, Oct 25th

10:30 AM at the Bean. Lots of fun last weekend. Only Trev and Alex got wet and they wern't technically on the ride yet. It was tough looking at Alex in that wet, blue, Easter Bunny like outfit, a little better when he dried out. Lockie was still attacking too much. Nice to have Eric Bakke join us.

Blow Street cross

I had a blast contesting the Blow Street Cross race today. My entry wasn't without its controversy...I had to deal with my bike being called a mountain bike, despite it not having suspension or disc-brakes (they said that I needed drops, but I think secretly they were afraid that if I won, I'd make people look bad riding a 25kg beater). I was prepared to argue the point, even though my bike was probably going to sulk after being implied it was "beefy", and it sounded as though they were let me, but a couple of dudes were awesome enough to offer their rides. Austin Miller (bici) offered first, cheers buddy, but Lorie Holte (BowCycle) ended up lending me his, and he found tools to switch his clip-in pedals for my flats (old school, baby!). Lorie, you're a friggen champ!

Despite my plan to get the jump on everybody with my borrowed feather-weight rig and no need to clip in, it didn't quite work that way, and I found myself bringing up the rear pretty much straight away. Negotiating the first hurdle solidified that position. But I managed to make it through the first lap without quitting (although I was tempted!) and moved up to 3rd last, woohoo! I almost made it up to 5th last, then crashed, and hung in there for the remainder to get 4th last. Big thanks to inspiration yelled from track-side by Mike G (Speed Theory), D'arcy (Bici) and Jess (Team Holmes).

All in all, super fun - kinda like crits, but you bleed less when you crash. :)


So I just read that Trev came a solid 9th in the Elite category. Way to go!

Bill Quinney's fine camera work (more here):


[edited by admin] And Erik Bakke's fine camera work:

NOTE: Notice any similarities between Trev and Lachlan's bikes?? Weird eh?

Wicked Dry Ride-new team contest

Well Trev,

I too had an awesome ride. Not like you guys braving the cold, I was in my warm basement watching Raw Deal. A 1985 Arnold Schwarzenneger bust them up classic.

It's not like watching the Tour ripping up the Alpe Duez, it will do though.

Maybe that should be the start of the next contest for the team. The "Best Ever Movie to Spin To!"

You get one vote and after all the talleys, we should have to watch that movie at someone's house. No rules apply so it can be Disney, George Lucas, biography, whatever.

Any takers? Post if you got some comments.

Slayer Dan

Wicked ride today.

Today I rolled out of my driveway at 10am into a blizzard in the sky and rivers crossing the roads on the ground. By the time I had decended from my house by the prisons to the river, I was covered in snow, filthy, soaking wet, and frozen.

I continued riding to the Bean only so I could have a warm place to sit and call my wife to pick me up. By the time I got to Bowness, it had stopped snowing/raining. By the time I got to the Bean it was sunny out.

I met the 4 dudes there and they were dry, in happy moods, and ready to hammer. My Gortex winter boots were full of water and didn't have any holes to drain ?!?

We then laid down over 100km and it turned out to be a wicked ride. Thanks guys for making me not quit and putting up with my endless rants about how soaked I was.

When I got home, I called for the scale, and was 155.2lbs with clothes on, and 147.6lbs after I had stripped. Wow.

Provincial XC running Championships in Calgary

First off congratulations to all of you who competed in Kona. It's great to hear the stories from all races, no matter what your day had in store.

For those of you looking for a good cross country race in the near future may I suggest Stewart Cup. The race is Saturday Oct 25 and is provincial championships for all age groups. Please see attached link. Entries are due Monday Oct. 20.

Everyone is encouraged to wear plaid! Hope to see you there.

http://www.athleticsalberta.com/UserFiles/File/X-Country/2008/2008AB-XCChamps.pdf

Ride Saturday 2-3 hours

Meet at the bean at 10:30AM. Lets try and get a few more guys out. Last Saturday was a ton of fun mostly due to Trev's route curiosity that kept us traveling up and down fresh new roads. We finally had to say "no" to going to look at some mansion he and Alex found on a previous ride. I was four hours on the bike by the time I got home. On top of that Lockie kept pushing the pace so I was trashed.

Stephen

Road to Red Mountain - 2/3 Kona RR

Well I started the off-season/ski season about 42.1 kilometers early. It would be great to just forget the bad races, move on and not even think about them. This was a race I could put in that category but I guess we need to learn from mistakes and try and improve ourselves from all experiences. Or something like that…

Race Report: Well the swim wasn't great. It was a rough start, even treading water for 10minutes was pretty congested but when the gun went off it really got wild. I had improved my swimming this year, swimming 1:04 at IMC was a break through and I thought I would add about five minutes to that with no wet suit. Nope. I was hitting it after I found some clear water and I thought I had to be up near the front when it happened… I was passed by a brest stroker! Not even kidding. This guy would was huge, and he would breast stroke along and was moving ‘fast’, then switch to free style and drop way back, anyway bad sign. Then I run into the back of a guy who stopped to eat a power bar. Seriously, in the swim. His wrapper floated right by me. OK swim 1:13. Ouch. but time to get on the bike.
Bike was easy to find again. Here came mistake one: make up for a bad swim by riding a little above race pace. I didn’t feel good but I was sure I always feel like that starting the bike so just get going and it will come around. Mistake two: have a time goal without considering conditions. I wanted to start the run at around 6hrs into race. Although math is almost impossible when exercising I though that would mean about a 4:45ride. Things were going along fine; I was picking up wheel suckers like I had a “free ride” sign on my back. I never usually care too much but I had one German guy in a bright green race suit with compression socks, compression arm coolers, and I am sure a compression speedo under the suit that I had trouble dropping. We had a good argument at one point where I was trying to make fun of his costume and he was yelling at me in German from my back wheel. Anyway, I was starting to crack a bit from the wind and heat heading up to Hawi. I went through my first nutrition bottle way faster that usual and needed bottle two and my salt pills from special needs. I hit special needs and they couldn’t find my stuff. I even stopped and waited for a few minutes well they looked. No luck. Mistake three: I am not good at problem solving I decided to get a lot of gel at the next aid station and try to catch back up on calories. I took three or four gels and tried to get back on pace. The gels stayed down for about ten minutes and came back angry. I have puked off the bike countless times before but this was different. I had to stop and really get it all out. Anyway, long story short I tried over and over to get something in and everything was coming back, by the time I hit town I was along way down in the well. I saw my wife and pulled over to let her know I was in trouble.
T2: Made it about 20feet and had to sit down to avoid falling down. I laid down for a bit and couldn’t get moving. Done-zo.

I really, truly admire people who can go out and suffer through the hard days and get to the finish line. I have seen champions reduced to hobbling and not quit. Its honorable. I don’t think I have that drive. At home feeling great I would say I would never quit, but there and then I never even had a choice to make.
We watched my brother run a 2:59 marathon to finish up a great race, celebrated after, and went on to have a great vacation.

So, get em next time.

Thanks Trev and everyone at Speed Theory for letting me write the blog. It was a lot of fun.

*the speedo pick was taken but I might spare everyone….

Dallas

The man who took on Armstrong

Great Video!

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=aaa6461ca9afe8fbf46274a1fb6514b13b928ae5

Yes, there IS spin tonight, Oct 13th.

I had Thanksgiving dinner last night, as did Alex, so those wanting a workout tonight, we'll be there.

CycloCross Nationals

The weather was chilly and feet were frozen but I had a blast anyway. I ended up 7th place in the Master Women and battled out most of the race with Carolyn Soules but she got me in the end. The course had a lot of fast flat sections, one area where there were logs and you had to do a run-up, two barriers and a very crazy technical section off camber. To be honest, I really have liked the Calgary courses and really did not like this course as much. I found the Calgary courses more technical, challenging and exciting. This was a roadie course and kind of boring.

On Sunday, in the second race (same course) I ended up 4th and felt better than on Saturday. Part of it was that when I arrived at the venue to look at the National results from the previous day, they had me in last spot and down a lap. They were reluctant to hear my appeal until the winner said noone had been lapped and the riders who were behind me confirmed my story. After that they pulled the officials lap sheet and saw that I in fact did place 7th. It made me race harder as I felt I needed to prove myself. So far, I have yet to be placed properly in the cyclocross races in the race results. It has not bothered me until now as at Nationals I don't think the results should wrong. Expecially when they check your helmet and bike twice to ensure you are completely legal, have a row call and assignment of lanes, and at least 10 officials on the course recording your number on sections of the race course. I raced hard and just want my placing to be accurate at the National level. Sorry for venting!

This coming up weekend is another two races here in Calgary. It will be my last two races. I am eager to race hard to finish things up for the season. Great venue on Saturday at COP!

Cross Nationals and Kona World Championships

Sandra and Andrew B. hit up Edmonton for 'Cross National today and raced the Master 30+ women and Master 50-59 divisions respectively. Thanks for representing ST Cycling !

In Kona, Kyle finished with a respectable 9:35, with a tough last half of the marathon,
while Ryan Cain, Dallas' brother finished with a time of 9:57, but closed it of with a 2:59 run !
From the looks of it, Dallas was DNF, but he may have lost his chip, so we'll have to wait until the morning.

Sat, Oct 11th...meet at 11:30am at the Bean.

2 to 3 hours...moderate. May stop for hot chocolate :)

MIke Godfrey... 8th in the Crit in Huntsville

Wow what a fast race, pancake flat, hot super strong cross winds (first time for wind down here). Two of the top three guys from the TT hit the front at about the 100 metre mark and started hammering (remember the guy who won the 40K TT did it in 53 minutes) I hung on for about 3 laps, looked at my HR monitor which was showing 187, that is WAY in the red for me. So after about 10 minutes I was thinking I should really drop out and save some shred of legs for the RR. But just about that time the race desintigrated into about 4 groups, the lead 3, me and 2 others and a bunch of stragglers. I could only hold on to the two I was with for about a lap and ended up with another guy in the 3rd group on the road, we picked up another guy and worked together to the end. We got lapped by the lead three right as we hit the finish line to start our bell lap. I didn't contest the "sprint" for 6, 7 as the guys I was with probably could have dropped me if they had wanted to, but I think they were happy to keep me around as I was at least contributing to the group effort, versus simply hanging on.

Insanely fast and hard, not ideal prep for the Road Race, we will see how that one goes. Something I have observed down here the Americans are really strong on the flats, I am riding with guys we are generally a lot bigger, more power type riders than what we would typically see in Canada. There are some guys with major engines at least in my age group/ability group. The way the games work, they have age groups from 50+ at every 5 years, then within the age groups they have ability levels, if you are a licensed racer you are in the Elite group for your age group (likely the only time I will race Elite!).

Michael

Mike Godfrey's 2nd race report.

Well not quite sure what to make of today.

I did the course in 59:44 took 12 seconds off my previous best over the same distance, but I screwed up the turn around point, had to turn around again and go another couple hundred meters down the road. Totally my fault as a rider needs to know the course, but in fairness it was poorly marshalled, the guy was directing me to turn, not to go down to the turn around point, if that wasn't bad enough on the last big hill (about 8k from the end) I threw the chain so I had to get off, put it back on, get back on the bike and try to get back up to speed and into the tempo again, damn.

Bottomline I probably cost myself 30 - 45 second, which wouldn't, however, have made a huge difference in my placement, the guys are a lot stronger on the flats than the climbs! The winner broke the old record for the course by more than 3 minutes, did in just over 53 minutes (we're talking Copeland fast and these guys are all 50 - 54) the guy who was second also broke the old record by about 2 minutes, so a medal wasn't in the cards, even if I had ridden a minute faster, which would have been my absolute max.

Tomorrow in the crit and Friday is the RR, two big climbs (one of them is basically the Killer Kilometer, but 2 k long) and the final 5k is descending down the HC route, which features speed bumps and a huge off camber turn that has a history of sending riders into the sagebrush, cactus & rocks. Fortunately that part of the course is a closed road for the race!

Michael

Grant is selling a 58cm Trek

Click here for details.

Mike G., 4th in the Hill Climb at Huntsman games.

Mike is currently abroad racing like crazy. Here is his race report from the first day (yesterday), today is the TT.
Here is a link to 2 pictures he took of the area.
---------------------------
It is hard to describe how beautiful this place is, imagine someone dropped a town in the middle of the Grand Canyon. The 1st picture is the view as you hit the finish line for the TT, the second is looking down the middle section of the hill climb. I just finished my 1st race, ended up 4th in my category. The guy who won is one of the guys I raced against in BC when I was on holidays. He beat the old course record by almost 2 minutes! I was a minute off the old record, 25 seconds out of 3rd and about a minute up on 5th. Tomorrow is the TT which is my focus race. I held back a bit today, as in didn't bury myself as I want to have some legs for tomorrow. Mind you I thinkTrev might just have been at the side of the course, about 1/2 up just after I passed my minute man a guy said "Go for something speci al today" now if that doesn't get you jacked (at least for a minute) Michael

Link to 2009 Membership and ST Member Spin Class Registration

Here is a link to the 2009 membership.
Here is a link to the Fall Spin Class. I have placed a max on these to ensure quality.
Here is a link to the Winter Spin Class. I have placed a max on these to ensure quality.

I would really apreciate if everyone could sign up as soon as possible. This will give me an idea of the numbers of our returning members so I can start planning bigger and better things for next year. Feel free to leave comments in the registration 'notes' section for constructive critisism, helpful ideas, cool ideas, etc.

Dark Night Cross: A Rookie Perspective

Saturday evening marked Calgary's first ever evening cyclocross event. Hosted by the fine folks of the Bow Cycle team and held on the UofC grounds this race may have eclipsed the noteworthy hype of it's namesake. The Dark Night cyclocross goes down as the most fun I have had at a race in ages. More on this later.

Many of us can remember the mountain biking heyday with personalites like Shaun Palmer, Missy Giove, Ned Overand. Gravity cycling has quieted down in years past and endurance MTB has taken a new flavour with events like Transrockies. But Cyclocross is a sport for rockstars. I cannot put it any other way. Venues that are spectator friendly and accessible and then throw in a DJ with some thumping tunes, hot chocolate, and a bunch of awesome/rowdy spectators and I dare you to show me a better time. I arrived early enough to catch up with Sandra and take a few laps around the course. Sandra is a seasoned CX expert in my books, she covered the basics and had some excellent tips. She also witnessed my bailout over the barricades and didn't laugh too hard. Those of us that have been racing on the road exlcusively were in for a treat as CX courses seem to love off camber turns, 90 degree bends, loop-de-loopy things and sand pits. Clearly not normal features of our typical race diet in the summer. Did I mention the hills? Short-sharp gut busting climbs. I might still be picking some of the course tape out of my teeth.

But wait, I need to digress on the technical side of CX here. Parts of the course demand that you get off your bike. Unless you're Hans Rey. Chances are you're not so you have to head into the obstacles at breakneck speed, clip out at a full sprint, run and then get back on your bike. See, that's the tricky part, getting back on. The CX experts can do this in the blink of an eye and it involves jumping like superman and catching the saddle on your thigh, clipping in and sprinting for glory. Well, some spectators were in for a treat on the third lap coming out of the sand pits because I missed my remount something fierce and squarely crushed my manhood. Another important skill is the bike carry. Shelly was out to yell and scream for Sandra and the speed theory crew. Needless to say, Shelly was a drill Sargeant in a previous life and from the sidelines she convinced me to carry my bike like a man instead of a girly man. Many thanks for that. Mike Chui and Mike Healy were out hooting and hollering as well. Chui kept me going in the sand pit.

The race itself was a riot. I haven't worried about a hole shot in 5 years and definitely missed it. Not that it mattered, CX races are all about knowing when to hold'em, fold'em and lay 'em down. If you're not in the first group you're not seeing those guys unless they pop. I was happy to chase people down and I think I exacted a wee bit of revenge on Darcy of BiciSport for his beatdown at the HC provincial (Darcy, we are going to tear up velocity in the spring). As well, I managed to pass Kevin of Calgary Cycle (he's a notable XC guy but nearly dislocated his shoulder in a lap one pile up) but he caught me in the last lap. I will say this, it's a workout like nothing else. I haven't hurt that hard for 40 minutes ever. There's no rythym, no steady pain that I am used to in road racing. By the second half of the race I was barely able to get into the big ring at all, I am ashamed. ;-)

Post race, I bumped into Slayer Dan, T-rev, Jenn and the lovely little Jaya. I want to get Dan on a CX bike because I think he would destroy people. After watching T-rev and his blinky lights of doom chase people down I wobbled home and iced down my bruises. What a night.

road to kona - heading out

I think it is going to snow here so time to get going. Packing everything up tonight and heading out in the morning with a final long ride. We are flying out of Spokane which is about 200km south of us. I am planning on riding for about three hours and if everything goes smooth the wife will pick me up along the way. This plan has huge potential to fail as she can be easily distracted and lose track of time. I won’t go into detail but fingers crossed anyway.

This is my second trip to Kona. I went to last year unsure of what to expect and really just excited about the experience. The whole scene there is wild, everyone looks fast and there is some serious attitude. I had never seen anyone wearing a heart rate monitor and speedo and not been totally joking before but low and behold… they were everywhere. This year I barrowed a speedo and threw in the hr strap and the first blog post from Hawaii is going to be a picture of a 6’5” 170 pound lanky white dude doing high-knee sprints on Alii Drive. Hold your breath.

Anyway, last year Trev had told me to expect a slow swim time. I usually do anyway so my swim expectation was low. I started near the front and after a very rough swim came out of the water feeling pretty good, looked at the watch for a 1:14ish time. Meh, not too bad. I was bike racked out on the end of the pier with all the people around my age group. I went through the change tent and was yelling up to the volunteer my race number so they could direct me to my bike. The guy kind of laughs as I come around the fence and says “it’s probably that one”, …. Friking only bike left! “Where is everyone?” … “Long gone bud”. Tough start, welcome to the big leagues. The rest of the day was great though. I had some trouble on the bike and then the run went well, but just being there was pretty cool.

This year, I am looking forward to the whole week and everything that this race is about but I am not going just for the experience. No excuses, I have had a good build up, no injuries, I want to race this race. I want to get out of the water with the main field, have a Speed Theory worthy bike split, and run the run like a runner. Go till you Blow.

Holding it down until the Speedo update…

Dallas

Cyclocross Racing so FUN so HARD

I cannot believe it took me until almost my 47th birthday to find this sport called cyclocross. What an absolute blast!! My season started with trying out the Tuesday night races, and basically getting lapped twice by the guys, falling over on steep climbs, figuring out how to mount my bike at high speed, becoming fearless at descents on slippery grass, learning proper tire pressure, and what gears to use. With practise in hand, I spent the last two weekends racing on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, adding to the difficulty and challenge of cyclocross, was a night race. What fun that was! I was scared out of my mind but had my best race yet. I managed not to be lapped and finished up about mid-pack. Each race I have gotten stronger, smarter, and my skills are improving. I have gained lots of confidence over the last week and am geared toward having a great race at Nationals on October 11 in Edmonton.

This is truly the best sport I have ever participated in. Every weekend I am so eager to race and to put myself to the test. If you have not seen this sport, it is an awesome spectator sport as well. If you are eager to try the sport, the Tuesday night races are a great introduction. Hurry though, there are only a few left.

Trevor and Rob raced awesome. Trevor held his own with the Elite guys and Rob was with the Sport men and had his first introduction to the race. He said he had a blast. And of course, I cannot wipe the smile off my face from taking up this sport.

Speed Theorists we need to put on an event next year!!!

Cross... it's THAT hard.

We are currently awaiting Rob and Sandra's accounts of 'Dark Knight' Cross that took place Sat. night. As for me, I managed not to get lapped by the skin of my teeth, but finished the event on the current lap, which I am pretty pumped about.
Photos courtesy of Bill Quinney's Flickr site

Congrats Ryan and Kyla!!

Jordanna was born on Sunday, 100% natural and healthy!

Here is link to Ryan's web album of the event he wanted me to share. He is excited to be entering this phase of his life and everything is going super rad so far.

Trek 5.9 Madone For Sale

2007 Trek 5.9 Madone, size 58cm. In good shape and well maintained. Brand new headset bearings, cables, housing, bar tape and race xxx lite tires. Fairly new chain and cogset. The bike has never been crashed and just has a few paint dings on it.
Trek OLCV 110 carbon frame and fork
Full Dura-ace componenets
Bontrager race xxx lite carbon stem
Bontrager race lite handlebars
Bontrager race xxx lite tires
Bontrager race x lite wheels
Bontrager race xxx lite carbon seatpost

I am thinking $3000 for it. Please contact Grant at grant.thegforce@gmail.com or 403-999-7028 if you have any questions or if you would like pictures.
Thanks

'Cross how-to's

A couple of neat videos about cyclocross-specific skills. The first one about gear is just a glorifed ad, but the rest are pretty cool.
http://beta.velonews.com/article/83882/velonewstv-cyclocross-how-to-videos

'Cross.... it's wicked.

My airtime alone should entice people to come and try it out!

This Sat. is 'Dark Knight' Cross at the UofC. Should be a fun spectator event. If you're not racing, then come and watch!

Overtime: road to kona

Although the buildup Kona training has gone well so far it definitely feels like the post season. With my training partners moving on to other interests and our tri group shutting down for the season I have officially become a robot. The long sessions now are all business. There are lots of great rides I can do right from my house. In every direction there is a different style of terrain, we live on a mountain pass so there is no shortage of climbers routes, the Can/US boarder is only 10k away and there is lots of good flat fast riding down there, and a good mix of both heading towards Nelson. I realized on my ride yesterday that I have ridden the same route 9 times in a row, not on purpose, just simply unaware. I am excited to race in Hawaii and I will do everything I can to have a good day there, I am also excited to start the off season. A good break from Gatorade, the Ipod, and aero bars is sounds good.

This season was a great season of racing; I had fun at every race I entered. I like to set the “happy with” goal and “BigShow” goal before most races. I don’t write them down or really tell anyone what I am thinking but I always have them in the back of my mind as I am sure everyone does. Things went well early with running races, I hit the times I wanted and results I was hoping for (other that when Trev crushed everyone in our home town 10k with a 33, showoff).
The races I picked were; Barebones, Wasa, Ososyos, Nelson Cyswog, IMC as the giver races. There were some fast dudes at Barebones, I ran the first 5km with T1 in 18minutes and was heading out on the bike in about 20th, wtf. There was a headwind on the bike and I made it in to about 3rd off the bike and finished in second (BigShow). Wasa, I would give race report from Wasa but there must have been fifty SpeedTheory people there and lots of them ahead of me. I wanted to break two hours, at the run turn I was chasing a ST guy and I though if I could catch up two hrs was a possibility, I never caught him, I missed by 6 seconds, Ryan Murray who I couldn’t catch up to was comfortably under. Osoyos was a week before my wedding. I raced well and went home. It was a great race and so well organized but we had other thing on the mind. Cyswognfun is our local Olympic race in Nelson. This will be a huge problem for the Calgary IM 70.3 as they fall on the same weekend and the draw from Nelson could really hurt the 70.3 ;). This race is never easy as the run course is hilly and at least one fast guy always shows up to make it hard. Last year Seth took a big lead out of the water, held it on the bike and it took everything I had to catch him on the run. This year same scenario with Scott McMillan. Very fun race.

IMC. The most fun I have ever had in sports. The swim is the swim, get in – get it over with – get out. The ride was rad (I know “rad” but it was), old school rad too, not the new kind of lame rad. I needed a bit of breathing room in the run to hold of the runners. I rode in control and steady and it felt smooth. My older brother is one of the runners. He is about a two-thirty-fiveish marathon guy and I have never come close to beating him in a run (not from lack of trying). Every time we train together we race, every time we do pretty much anything we race. I knew he would be running well. I came off the bike 5th in the am race with 8minutes up to the lead and 27minutes back to my brother. At the run turn I was in third, I saw all the fast runners n there way as I headed back. I never did the math or looked at my watch just kept moving. I saw Paul heading out looking good, he yelled “you are tearing this race up”, that got me fired up. I caught the second place guy around Skaha, he had red compression socks on as if I needed more of a reason. I passed the last guy right where Steve King was set-up, perfect. I ran the rest into town shoulder checking every 100meters, Peter Reid would not be impressed. The finish was unbelievable, thousands of people, my family, amazing. Two hours in the med tent later and it has been a crazy ride since.

Wow, that got long. I am sure no one has made it down this far. Sorry for the long blog I will take a break now eh.

Last quick note. CEEPO Venom size L for sale. Complete or frame only. If you buy it before next Tuesday it is a killer deal. At 6’5” it is a little small or aggressive (hence the positive rise and spacers)...

Dallas.

Ride Saturday

Meet at the CO-OP north of the 1A on 12 Mile Coulee Road at 10:00AM. 2-3 hour ride out toward madden, brisk pace although we need to socialize and talk about the woes of the single guys in the club. I'll be riding close to the 3 hour limit.
Stephen

Race Calendar updated

I just updated the race calendar on the right. Check out all the racing ahead! Especially the 'Dark Knight Cross' on Oct. 4th.. how fun is that?!

Trans Rockies Day 5 "Thunder In Elkford"

Hey everyone,

Does everyone know how to cross over logs when you are mountain biking? The common way to cross larger logs is wheelie your front tire over and then dig your chain rings into the log, use momentum and pedal over. It works pretty good if you have good balance. Remember this.

Anyways, on Day 5 of TR we had the dreaded gravel section of Dante's 9th ring of hell known as "The Rock Garden". Of all of my TR 2007 memories, the Rock Garden was a stand out low point for me. I walked most of the way down and the photos from Spectrum Image show me as a defeated piece of dog meat walking down.

Dennis and I swore revenge this year on this fabled section of the course. With all of our solid miles of training behind us, it was make or break on the Rock Garden.

We rode another very solid day that day with completing some long climbs fast and working with other groups to keep pacing along. We were making great time and we both felt good. The heat wasn't too bad and we were well stocked with gels and hydration. Getting to the Garden, teams were starting to slow and we had passed lots of them. We even had time to stop and help the first aid motorcycle who couldn't climb the hills to get to the Garden. I wanted him in front of me in case I took a header and would need his help later. Always planning ahead!

Getting to the top of the Garden, Dennis and I decided that we would let air out of our tires to see if that helps and we tested that morning, 2 seconds would let out about 5 psi and we could easily descend at 25 psi in the tires. It was like magic, like butter, like nothing. What took last year about an hour with blood sweat and tears, took about 8 minutes riding. We were like downhilling rockets.

We were so excited getting done with no wipe outs, no issues, no scratches, no flats. It was a sprint to the finish. We had just 6km to go and we were pumped. Heading to the last corner I yell to Dennis, "Big gear it in!" We were just stomping our way up the hill to the last corner. The final volunteer is waving to us and yelling "Good job boys!" and holding her hand up to High 5 me. Sometimes I am kind of a celabratory guy so I raised my hand to match her gesture. I didn't even have time react. She tightly holds my hand and pulls me to the ground on the pavement. Helmet and bike bashing into the cement, flesh burning, pain searing, I am laying on the ground, 25 feet from the finish line. 

Just when I start to wonder where Dennis is, it hits me, lime an Evander Holyfield kidney punch. Actually, it was the Dennis Marineau riding over his partner at the finish line punch. he pulled the perfect log crossing right over my rib cage. He perfectly placed his pedal (which dug into my hip) and used all his momentum to bridge over me at the line. I am extremely thankful that he was in his big chain ring in the front, that was the only thing preventing his teeth of his chain ring from not sawing me in half!

I really can't say enough how lucky I was the Dennis practiced that move, the chain ring pattern on my back was cool, it would have been about 300 stitches if he wasn't in his big ring though.

The stunned silence at the finish line was great. Bike mechanics came running to help us and we made it to the line. The pile up delayed us by about a minute, we didn't get caught by any teams and the day was over. My pride took a serious beating that day. I felt so embarrassed. I lost concentration for one second and I could have ended the race for both us. Not the smartest move on my part. The race announcer called me and told me to go the first aid tent for a look over as Dennis and I had a fair bit of road rash. 

With my head hung low all I could say. "Unless the first aider has a band aid for pride, I think I'll be okay."

It was another fun day at Trans Rockies and it adds more information to the mental race book, don't even look at the volunteers, like watching a guy weld steel , look away and smile!

One note about the volunteer. Apparently her ring got caught in my riding glove and I nearly tore her arm off. I hope she's doing okay.

Slayer Dan

Interesting Results and video coverage from our embeded spy

Here is a link to video coverage from Hal. I think he was drinking due to the quality.
Here are some pictures from the event too.

Here is a gallery of shots from our spy, some great shots here.

Not news from our team but still interesting. I am sure most people would be pretty excited to finish 1 spot behind Lance.

Also an awesome job by Tuft today to get the silver even with a reported bike change.

DC - The Road to Kona

In the world of internet and triathlon I feel bad crushing the release of the P4 by debuting the "dallas cain - road to kona blog" on the same day. After seeing the bike I think this could be a tough day for Cervelo and me.

I am excited that Trev asked me to do this but my writing is right up there with my swimming so you will have to bare with me a bit. I will try and keep these as short and interesting as I can. I enjoy reading other peoples blog entries on their racing and training, so I hope this isn’t as lame as it sounds to me.

Quick introduction, I grew up in Cranbrook, BC. My athletic background is in hockey, skateboarding, and mountain biking. I work as a metal fabricator in Trail, BC and live close by in Rossland, BC. My family runs, a lot. I started running when I was twelve, usually at night so none of my friends would know; always for fun and have kept it going ever since. I started triathlon a few years ago after running in some team events at Charlie’s races around Cranbrook. I met Paul , Trev, and Charlie the first year I started the sport and even though I was riding a 62cm, bright yellow, 650c wheel Cannondale, they where willing to give me some tips and let me ride bikes with them.

I wanted to keep these short so I will break them up a bit. I want to write about this summer; with racing and a wedding and IMC it was a long but fun couple months.

Almost bike porn and sponsor stuff; I picked the mail yesterday and the CEEPO Venom has arrived. I will post some pics once it is built up. I would like to give a Slow Twitch worthy build report with the Red, Zipp Vuka, SRM, and ZG brakes, but in real life I took my road bike + wife’s tri bike in and will piece together a new whip.

And the Kona training build up. Everything so far has gone well. I will get into the numbers and goals if anyone is interested, maybe more for the feedback than anything else.

If this is already way to lame then let me know and I will bail early. I look forward to being a part of the ST Cat 5 team next year and riding bikes with you guys.

until next time (I hope).

Dallas.

Hal from Interbike delivers !

Here is Lance riding CrossVegas....live !!

The new Cervelo P4, directly from our spy at Interbike!

Hal Kuntze is 'on the scene' as our exclusive embeded spy in Las Vegas keeping us up to date on big news items like this. As of the time I posted this, Cyclingnews.com doesn't even have this info yet !





Also, we have pictures coming in from Hal while I sit at work today. I will try to post them in regular intervals.


2009 Ceepo Venom



2009 Max Lelli

The Road to Kona series.

Future 2009 Speed Theorist and good friend Dallas Cain is going to chronicle his journey from winning 2008 IMC AG Overall to the IM Kona World Championships.

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Wait with baited breathe for what will undoubtedly be sporadic updates on his training, his new ride, the big island, and the race itself.

Dallas and his brother took IMC by storm this year with times of 9:18 and 9:28 respectively.

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Dallas got the coveted spot of 2nd OA female, only 11seconds out from Belinda Granger. This should be fun following someone still ramping for a big event while the rest of us get fat for Oct!

TEAM BBQ THIS THURSDAY Night

Thursday September 25th at my place, 32 Rosery PL NW. BYOB, salads and desserts, embellished war stories and any special food for your kids. Burgers and dogs will be supplied. RSVP here in the comments so I can get a head count. 6:30pm.

It was a great season let's celebrate together.

Stephen

'Cross Action

Some SpeedTheorists were out representing on Tues.

Here's the link to where and when to race!

Sandra and I raced, while Andy did a reconnaissance viewing, promising to race next week. Also, a workmate of mine, Jeff Sill flew the ST colours for us.

How is this for a game face?

Muskoka 70.3 recap

Seemed simple. Head to Muskoka with some friends for the first ever Muskoka 70.3 tri. The rumour was that the bike course was hilly. Having never been to this part of the world I wondered how hilly it could really be?

We drove from the Center of the Universe (the mighty TO) to the race site near Huntsville, ON Friday afternoon. The scenery got better and the hills got hillier the further north we drove. Once we arrived at the host hotel to get our race packages we all remarked at how this race felt very Ironmany - everyone looked super prepared and focused on the race.


Race day morning didn't start too well. We woke up to the sound of rain falling; the good news was that the temp was already 20c at 5:30a.m. The first wave to start was the pro men. Pretty impressive line-up with Craig Alexander & Simon Lessing among others. My wave started 15 minutes after the pros with approximately 250 of my closest friends. The swim was pretty typical for me - get the crap pounded out of me for the first 200-400 meters, thank God when the pummelling stops, swim aimlessly between buoys and limp out of the water in an incredibly average time. The swim exit for Muskoka was pretty cool - a purpose built set of stairs brought you to the tee box on the 9th hole of the golf course that lines the resort. Strippers (wet suit strippers, not the other kind) lined up to help with wetsuit removal. I should have guessed that the rest of the race would be tough when we had a 400m uphill run to T1 - on Saturday I joked that there should be an aid station between swim exit & bike racks. On Sunday I was convinced they should put an aid station on that segment.

Rain continued as I got started on the bike. From driving the course the previous day I thought the first 10km would be twisty, turny, hilly and slow. Unfortunately I was right. Good news is that I discovered where all the really crappy bike handlers in triathlon come from! Wow have these people never taken a tight corner before?? We would do this section at the end of the bike getting back to T2 but some people decided it would be easier to walk up some of the steeper sections! The 74km in between was a series of relentless rolling hills. Nothing epic, just rolling enough so you couldn't get into a rhythm. Basically the bike course was sort of like doing hill repeats on the wall in Springbank for 94 km. Here is a profile of the bike course:

The run was sort of like the bike- nothing shattering or epic as far as long climbs, just nonstop terrain changes. Like being bitten to death by a gaggle of geese. The last 5km were through the golf course, passing right by the finish line at 18km mark. Sort of disheartening to have to run 3km away from the finish. Really disheartening when it is pouring rain...

In the end it was the hardest half I have done. Feeling pretty good about my result though - 3rd place in my old guy AG!

Awesome volunteers & crowds the whole way around which was surprising given the weather. Hopefully Calgary 70.3 next August will be this well supported.

If you are looking at a late season Half Ironman for next season you should give this one some serious thought. Just train for a ton of hills!!

Many Thanks

I think a huge round of applause should go out to Trevor and all the others involved in the running of the team this year, we went from 15th to 2nd in one year.
It was awesome to see the team earn the respect of other teams this year and not be thought of as just a bunch of Tri guys.
Of course the riders who rode the races get credit for doing the work but without ( in my opinion) the motivation and leadership provided by Trevor the results would have been far different.

Race Report: HC Provincials at Mt. Norquay

Hello again racing fans, I am pleased to report on SpeedTheory's race efforts at the final race in the ARC standings, the Hill Climb Provincials hosted by Cyclemeisters (Bow Cycle) at the lovely Mt. Norquay in Banff National Park.

Before we get to the meat of the matter a huge props to the Speed Theory crew, attending in force were: Sandra, SteveG, MarkS, MikeG, RyanM, RobW, AlexS, TrevW, AndyH, CarlM, and MikeH (our own casey gibson). Compared to years past this turnout is epic. Thanks for coming out, it's possible this thrust of attendance may have put us in a position to catch HnR Block in the team ARC standings . . .

MASTERS:
Sandra and Steve raced in the Master categories and put on some serious hurt. SteveG returning from some serious back injuries burned up the hill in 17:30 and placed 5th while Sandra stomped to a 19:30 and placed second. Fantastic work!

CAT5:
MarkS showed some serious grit racing a hill climb after hiking hardcore in the mountains the day before. Despite having enough lactic acid in his legs to kill a bear he stopped the clock at 21:15 and clinched 15th. Andy Hill, racing pain free for the first time this season thanks to an errant pot hole, powered up in 18:54 to take 12th. Carl, taking what could be his final ride on his Giant (aka le Tank), stomped up the hill in a furious 17 minutes to take 4th. Rob, riding a borrowed Cervelo R3 SL, scampered up the hill in 16:43 and took 2nd to the wily Darcy of Bicisport. Congrats to our cat5s who represented strongly all season long.

Cat4:
MikeG was in Cat4 and spun furiously under the radar to 9th place in 16:33. A great show by our stalwart veteran.

Cat3:
With FrankieFastLegs out splashing around in some triathlon-type activity the door was open in Cat 3 for someone to take HC honors out of his foamy clutches. The A-Train stoked the fires and powered up the hill in a blistering 15:25 to seal 5th place. Ryan Murray came out of an IMC imposed retirement and put the hurt on to take second place. Ryan is now training hard for his next big race, parenthood!

Cat 1/2:
Trev was our lone operative in cat 1/2 and put in a burrito powered 14:02 to take 4th. Gideon of HnR took the top honors and a huge congrats to him, especially for making Trev ride like he stole something in the last section of the race.

Hill Climb Photos Part 2

Mark:


Mike G.


Alex


Ryan


Trev

Photos from Hill Climb Part 1

I have lots of high res of everyone. Let me know if you want me to email them to you. Here is a selection.

Sandra:




















Steve smiling for the family:


Andy:


Carl:
















Rob: