Sunday Jan 29 Ride

Five hour ride today for Darcy, Rob, Jay, Harley and I. We went Old Banff, Springbank Airport, Highway 22, Horse Lake, Big Hill Springs and back into Calgary. The only sign of winter out there was at COP where there is some World Cup event going on (See Jaya watching the World Cup Arials).



A couple of cross bikes, two road bikes and a nice custom steel winter rig with Brooks saddle and fenders under Rob got us around. The ride up Highway 22 was an adventure, crosswinds were harsh, every now and again it seemed to slap you in the side of the face but we made it. Lets hope we can continue to get out on a regular basis.

Speed Theory X-Country Ski Day -- Sunday, January 29 -- CANCELLED!!!

IT'S GOING TO BE 10 DEGREES TOMORROW. FORGET SKIING. CHECK OUT THE RIDE IN THE TRAINING RIDE FOURM.

Join me and Marilyn T. for a day of skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Here's the details:

Meeting Time: 10:00 am
Meeting Place: At the fireplace in the CNC daylodge

We'll ski for a few hours and then probably head in Canmore for some apres-ski lunch. Classic and skate skiers are both welcome. Need rentals? Trail Sports at CNC can set you up.

Alberta Cycling Super Week. Updates and meeting.

The concept and implementation of the ACSW is coming along. The Crankmasters have agreed to host a race on the Wed. evening and have already assigned a race director!

This is a week worth planning for! Phone your BC and Sask friends and tell them to book the week.

August 3, 4, 5, 6 will be the Niklas TdB,

Aug. 8th will be a Crankmaster ITT,

Aug 10, 11, 12 will be the Jason Lapierre Memorial.

AWESOME !! We are hoping to have prize money for the entire Superweek not just individual events.

If anyone is interested in helping us out in the initial planning and concept development, please come for beers THIS Friday night at 7:30pm. Any and all help is much appreciated, come out even if you can envision yourself with a small role.

Meet at the west entrance of the Glencoe Club and you will be signed in. If you are a tiny bit late, phone me and I will come down.

Leave a comment if you plan to come and we'll wait for you. See you Friday night.

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Stuff Cyclists Say: Sad, But All True...

So, what's missing? So far I have:

- "I'm just riding base today".
- "Time trialing isn't my thing".
- " I'm taking it easy because I'm trying new nutrition"
- "I'm doing brick..."

Four STC and two potentials in one shot.

How many cycling teammates can you pack into one run picture?

'JC' Godfrey and I manned the finish line timing clock today for the Nose Creek XC race. Simon brought his kids Sarah and Matthew to race the 4km and Shelley (the red behind Simon) ran with them.

Not in the shot were Carl Miiller, Marilyn Taylor, Melody Switzer, and Marie Michalski of STC and Brad Barron of the Crankys.

Sarah wore the GPS camera for me!

Great weather for a race and a ride. Thomas got out with a solid crew for a 6.5hour ride into the Priddas area and Marcy and Cate went north for a 3.5hour ride towards Cross Iron Mills. Hopefully some others were able to get out to enjoy this great weather!

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Sunday, January 8 Ride

Seven of us got out today for a ride in brilliant conditions. We had a brief stop in Cochrane to rehydrate and cool down. Everyone is showing good signs of fitness, we had a few sprints, hill climbs, time trial efforts and brief periods of getting dropped (me). Thanks Harley for getting us out. Keep your eyes on the training ride forum, if this weather holds up we will be out again next week.

Roads are in good shape. The highlight of the day had to be the weather, the moose sighting came in as a close second. 

200KM Brevet - got'r done

See my previous post, only Paul and Trev took me up on my offer to get in a few base miles (sort of). We arrived in Tucson Wednesday night and although the focus was the 200 km event on Saturday, Trev immediately felt it would be a good idea to rest our legs by riding up Mount Lemmon on Thursday. Paul and I being slightly more mature opted to only go to the 14 mile mark (Windy Point) while Trev, being less mature and more excitable, headed up to the top, a 92 km day for Paul and I, 112 km day for Trev. Of course the next day, Friday, we would recover and get dialed in for Saturday. After recovering by riding 113 km we were well rested for Saturday.

We headed up to Case Grande Friday night where the ride started and were ready to roll with 30 other brave soles at 7:30AM Saturday morning. As usual the ride was well organized and supported by the AZ Randonneurs with a special big thanks to Susan Plonsky. This was a fairly flat course, only 1580 vertical feet of climbing, the weather was outstanding, the roads quiet. The pace was fast over the first 70 km then it got really fast. We covered the 204km in 5:58 with a moving average of 35 km/hour. Trev and a guy named Scott laid down long hard pulls, Paul was right in the mix and I suffered to stay in the game. By the time we rolled into the finish there were the three of us and Scott left of the group. I can only say that I did much better post ride as Trev could barley get through dinner and was hammered on two margaritas. Paul had a lot of gas. A few games got played to drop an unsafe rider but otherwise it was a full on grindfest, I mean regular base mile ride.

Stephen

Rides this weekend.

Just wanted to let everyone know that there are a few rides posted on the training forum for this weekend. Check them out and hopefully everyone enjoys the weather this weekend!

Harley

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I wanted to take a moment to alert all the Speed Theory team members about a crazy phenomenon that is sweeping Calgary right now. This will be of particular importance to team members who are currently doing some cross training at a gym.

There I was at my facility and the entire place was packed, weights, treadmills, ellipticals, zumba class (never attended, but don't mind watching), spinning class, pool everywhere. And overwhelmingly with people I have never seen before (bear in mind I am at this gym minimum 3 times a week, year round).

At first I thought maybe Wednesday was a stat I had missed. The whole experience was puzzling so I decided to do some research. According to Wikipedia (so it must be factual) a lot of people make "New Year's Resolutions." Apparently vast numbers of people make plans to change their lives and set January 1st as an arbitrary start date. I guess something along the lines of "New Year, New You" (as some of you know I work in marketing, I have heard that slogan before, I now know what it really means).

Yes, I understand for you "locked in" focused athletes who train year round this may seem odd. But trust me it is going on.

While I wholeheartedly and with every fibre of my being support anyone making positive healthy changes in their life on as big or small as scale as they choose, sadly the research doesn't support the "resolution" thing. At least 35% of all resolutions will be broken by months end and only 23% of all resolutions are kept (roughly 80% failure rate).

So the bad news is your new friends at the gym won't be there long (as in don't count of forming a life long bond). The good news is in about 10 days you will notice the crowds thinning out and by mid February the gym will look just like it does the rest of the year.

Please let me know if this trend is happening at your gym.

PS my resolution is to see you at the AGM!

With this crazy awesome weather....

...many of us are getting outside to ride! Remember your ABA, STC, and UCI license expired on Dec. 31st 2011.

To be covered by insurance on your training rides, they have to be 'Club Training Rides'. So post them in the Training Ride Forum or on the website and they become official. You also have to be a current STC member.

Here is the link to register for your 2012 STC membership.

Here is the link to register for your ABA race licence.

If you want to offset the two costs a bit, I have paid the ABA our 'club' dues which (along with your STC membership) will cover you on all official training rides. So get your STC membership now, and then your ABA license closer to Prairie-Roubaix (April) when racing starts.

ANNUAL AGM IS JANUARY 19th !! Please plan to attend!!

If you know of any riders that have expressed interest in our club or 'a cycling club', please forward them this post and invite them to the AGM. They can meet our club members and start getting to know us. If you are reading this and are a potential club member, come to the AGM and mingle with current members over free pizza and beer (with a DD).

Potential Team Sponsors?

We have decided to look into adding the logo of corporate entities onto our jersey which will go DIRECTLY into subsidizing race/training kit for all our members (all equally). If you work for / own a company that would like to be represented please direct them toward me.

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Ride tomorrow the 3rd

I've had too much turkey as you can see. OK, there was some chocolate involved as well to get to this state.

I got out for 60K today and it was awesome. No frozen toes or numb hands at all. Plan to do another ride tomorrow. Departure time is not firmed up yet but will be around noon or 1:00. Social ride or hammer, whatever you want. Expect at least 1 - 2 hours or around 40km. I'm a little slower with all this extra weight.

Stay posted for start time.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a great time last night, a good Christmas, and some great holidays.

Today I volunteered for Kimberley/Cranbrook's traditional 'Fell' Run put on by Malcolm Sargent in Wycliff (which is right in between the two towns). I was perched on the first of two peaks counting runners to ensure no one was lost. Marilyn raced along with teammates Jay and Cathy Rankin who are staying in Kimberly.

Here is a shot of the 16 racers who braved the amazing backdrop of Mount Fisher and a few hangovers to take part in today's event.

The next shot is from a head cam just coming into an aid station where mulled wine is forced upon you. It's a rule to have at least 1 cup. That's just how we roll in Cranbrook.

SAVE THE DATE !! Jan. 19th is the night of our AGM. It would be great to have all club members, and POTENTIAL club members there. We will go over our successful 2011 and ways on how to improve for 2012. Please come, enjoy the free pizza and beer, and hang out. I will post a rough idea of what you can expect soon but for now... SAVE THE DATE !!

2012 Current Members

27 Women
Allison Morley
Ana Grubor
Andrea Hansen
Brenda Guebert
Cate Hydeman
Cindy Luntley
Cheryl Oga
Emily Jobson
Heather Buxton
Jenn Joss (A)
Jennifer Mansell
Lara Wegleitner
Lesley Matthews
Lisa Isley
Marcy Kimpton
Marie Michalski
Marilyn Taylor (A)
Meghan Brown
Rebecca Morley
Sam Stuart
Sarah Foster
Shelley Bender
Tanya Saloman (A)
Tessa Pagalilauan
Teri Majer
Tomo Tsuchida
Wendy Kimmel

95 Guys
Adam Zinatelli
Alan Oickle
Andrea Battiston (3)
Andres Perdomo
Aryeh Rosenberg
Benn Edwards
Bob Woodward
Brad Wolff
Brent Seefried
Brent Thumlert
Brian Feick
Carl Lapointe
Carl Miiller (4)
Carlos Salas (4)
Charles Bougie (2)
Chris Hooper (3)
Chuck Johnstone
Corran Hockey
Dan Alboiu
Dan 'Slayer' Sigouin (4)
Darcy Gullacher (4)
Darryl Parry (4)
Daryl Beatty
Darshan Dhillon
Dave Holmes (2)
Dave Pederson
Dave Robertson
David Baker
Dennis Bland (2)
Derek Jobson (4)
Doug Jamieson
Erik Cramer
Ernie Cosman
Frank Cosman
Frank Woolstencroft (2)
Greg Soltys
Harley Borlee (2)
Henrik Kristensen
Ian Watts (4)
Isaac Beall (3)
James Szarko
Jared Green (2)
Jason Buijs (4)
Jay Rankin
Jeremie Greene
Jeremy Luntley
John Olsen
Keith Ingstrup
Kevin Aitken
Kevin Stenner
Kyle Marcotte (2)
Lampros Antonio
Larry Welch (4)
Lawrence Zalasky
Mark Enter (2)
Mark Michalski
Matthew Joss (3)
Matthew Hanrahan
Matthew Mendes
Michael Godfrey (4)
Michael Rannelli
Michael Waldhuber (4)
Mike Healy
Nick Corcoran
Patrick Allan (4)
Patrick Brick
Paul Rosenburg (4)
Paul Connolly
Paul Valenti
Peter Doig (4)
Peter McCrory
Peter Regier
Reinier Paauwe
Rick Courtney (4)
Rob Lukacs (3)
Rob Ordman
Rob Woolley
Ryan Kennedy
Ryan Murray (3)
Scott Bratt
Scott Mcgeachy
Sean Fournier
Simon Forman
Simon Spanswick
Stephen Kenny (4)
Steve Waters
Stuart Black (4)
Suchaet Bhardwaj
Thomas Yip (2)
Tom Kenny
Trev Williams (2)
Waleed Al-Rabeh