I will elaborate later. But a pretty good photo of myself.... The photographer must have been using a Canon.....LOL
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Playing with Photoshop.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Some things people didn't know.
At the Canada Cup XC race in Canmore, emotionally it was worst race I had ever done. I felt so fatigued and slow. I recruited Tim Heemskerk after the race to see if he could give me some advice on training. He obliged me and gave me a 6 week training regimen to prepare for the provincials..
It all started off with base training to rebuild my endurance, with 12 second sprints here and there for the first two weeks of the program, 6 days a week with one off. Week 3 began the intervals twice week and the rest of the riding time was base and recovery. I had to slowly build up the intervals so that I could keep the pace at 85 to 90% of my maximum heart rate My maximum heart rate is an astounding 196bpm, not sure why it is this high, but that’s what it is. My training pace was 175 to 185bpm.. Let me tell you the first week and a bit of these intervals were tough to say the least. Trying to build up to 10minutes isn't an easy task.
Week 4 was a successful week. For my intervals I would start at the bottom of Edworthy hill road, go up to Spruce Drive and then pin it all the way to 37th street and turn right, go all the way down to Bow trail, (but go through the gas station and turn right at the next street and do maximum effort all the way back to Spruce Drive. Then after that I would ride at 50% back to the bottom of the Edworthy hill and do it all over again. Each interval would take approximately 10 minutes. I think it was last Thursday I ran into Keith Bayly riding his new cross bike (very nice Jamis) and it is 18lbs..... Anyways Keith had wanted to see this interval I was doing and started up the hill. I was on my mountain bike with 2.4's on the front and a 2.25 on the back with only 30lbs of air. I was trying to make it harder. Obviously Keith has a mechanical advantage and an experience advantage as well. But once I crested the hill I put into big ring and hammered down Spruce drive to see what I was made of. I was able to keep Keith off for a couple of minutes but I was starting to fade, and it was my third interval.
Just think when you build up to be able to do the 10 minutes each for the intervals you are riding for 40 minutes at 90%, and that isn't too bad. But after the Thursday interval session I did a recovery ride for 2.5 hours on the Friday. Saturday was to be an Elbow loop ride with my riding partner Mark Franklin. We had did this ride about a month or so prior to this one and he left me in the dust...But needless to say this was going to be a proving ground for myself. To see if all of this structured training from Tim Heemskerk was working.
I had asked Tim what I should do for training on this ride, he asked that I ride at LT for around 45 to 60 minutes. Which I did, and he also asked that I do maximum effort for the short climbs, which I did. The first rock garden climb I was able to do it in middle ring and the 32tooth...... I was quite proud, and only used the granny for two short steep climbs; the rest was all middle ring or big ring... Once we crested the summit I had known that I had already accomplished what Tim had asked for, so the rest was all icing on the cake. I kind of took my time on the rolling single track.. It is so my favourite and I was saving for the flat sections on the last bit of the trail...... (Had a plan up my sleeve)..
Once we were down on the flat section it was head down and pinning it. I felt bad, but I just wanted to pretty much hammer all the way back to the parking lot. I was able to keep my heart rate under the LT and that motivated me to pin it even harder. Glad I was able to do it, and it goes to show myself that Tim's training has been paying off. I had averaged 16 hours a week of riding up until this point, and this week won't be near as much because I am ramping down for my competition.
Since the Canada Cup I have had some good additions in my life, and some decisions that are going to change my life forever. These decisions are all for good, and I am looking forward to them. There aren't a whole lot of people that motivate me. But there are a select few that do. Like for instance Pat Doyle who is just a warrior and won't quit, Andreas Hestler who is also on the same page as Pat, I used to idolize Evander Holyfield, but I lost respect when he was still trying to fight and he so punch drunk. At least I knew when to quit fighting. I really admire Jean Ann McKirdy and I can see her representing our country in the years to come, also Mical Dyck who is another warrior. But the person who inspired me the most in my life to not be junky, alcoholic, etc etc is George Chuvalo. I met him in Edmonton and had the honour to have him work my corner in a fight. I didn't win (dislocated my elbow), but I was a fan of his before this and still am.
I so could have fallen into the trap of drugs and alcohol with the environment I was in. And to think that I am one of the very few who didn't fall into this trap of all my old friends. I have been called lots of different things in life. But there are some things I will never be, and those are, a women beater, alcoholic, and junky. When growing up I used to get the shit beaten out of me by adults in their drunkenness. Isn't it so amazing how alcohol can make people turn a blind eye?
Just think in my life to this point I have been shot at in 4 different occasions. First time was when I was maybe 13 or 14 years of age. My best friend George (known each other since we were born) were fishing on the neighbours land. I was all open field for miles with a creek running through it. You could hear the zing of the bullet go past your head, and then the bang of the gun moments after. I was never so scared in my life. Running and tripping on every little hump in the ground because you are so scared and you can't run fast enough.
The other times that I was shot at I will get into on a later date. Sorry to keep you hanging.
Anyways this whole post is on how people change over time, some people don't change at all, but I sure the hell did. For the majority of the people in mountain biking, they have all been a positive aspect in my life, and especially the DeadGoats
It all started off with base training to rebuild my endurance, with 12 second sprints here and there for the first two weeks of the program, 6 days a week with one off. Week 3 began the intervals twice week and the rest of the riding time was base and recovery. I had to slowly build up the intervals so that I could keep the pace at 85 to 90% of my maximum heart rate My maximum heart rate is an astounding 196bpm, not sure why it is this high, but that’s what it is. My training pace was 175 to 185bpm.. Let me tell you the first week and a bit of these intervals were tough to say the least. Trying to build up to 10minutes isn't an easy task.
Week 4 was a successful week. For my intervals I would start at the bottom of Edworthy hill road, go up to Spruce Drive and then pin it all the way to 37th street and turn right, go all the way down to Bow trail, (but go through the gas station and turn right at the next street and do maximum effort all the way back to Spruce Drive. Then after that I would ride at 50% back to the bottom of the Edworthy hill and do it all over again. Each interval would take approximately 10 minutes. I think it was last Thursday I ran into Keith Bayly riding his new cross bike (very nice Jamis) and it is 18lbs..... Anyways Keith had wanted to see this interval I was doing and started up the hill. I was on my mountain bike with 2.4's on the front and a 2.25 on the back with only 30lbs of air. I was trying to make it harder. Obviously Keith has a mechanical advantage and an experience advantage as well. But once I crested the hill I put into big ring and hammered down Spruce drive to see what I was made of. I was able to keep Keith off for a couple of minutes but I was starting to fade, and it was my third interval.
Just think when you build up to be able to do the 10 minutes each for the intervals you are riding for 40 minutes at 90%, and that isn't too bad. But after the Thursday interval session I did a recovery ride for 2.5 hours on the Friday. Saturday was to be an Elbow loop ride with my riding partner Mark Franklin. We had did this ride about a month or so prior to this one and he left me in the dust...But needless to say this was going to be a proving ground for myself. To see if all of this structured training from Tim Heemskerk was working.
I had asked Tim what I should do for training on this ride, he asked that I ride at LT for around 45 to 60 minutes. Which I did, and he also asked that I do maximum effort for the short climbs, which I did. The first rock garden climb I was able to do it in middle ring and the 32tooth...... I was quite proud, and only used the granny for two short steep climbs; the rest was all middle ring or big ring... Once we crested the summit I had known that I had already accomplished what Tim had asked for, so the rest was all icing on the cake. I kind of took my time on the rolling single track.. It is so my favourite and I was saving for the flat sections on the last bit of the trail...... (Had a plan up my sleeve)..
Once we were down on the flat section it was head down and pinning it. I felt bad, but I just wanted to pretty much hammer all the way back to the parking lot. I was able to keep my heart rate under the LT and that motivated me to pin it even harder. Glad I was able to do it, and it goes to show myself that Tim's training has been paying off. I had averaged 16 hours a week of riding up until this point, and this week won't be near as much because I am ramping down for my competition.
Since the Canada Cup I have had some good additions in my life, and some decisions that are going to change my life forever. These decisions are all for good, and I am looking forward to them. There aren't a whole lot of people that motivate me. But there are a select few that do. Like for instance Pat Doyle who is just a warrior and won't quit, Andreas Hestler who is also on the same page as Pat, I used to idolize Evander Holyfield, but I lost respect when he was still trying to fight and he so punch drunk. At least I knew when to quit fighting. I really admire Jean Ann McKirdy and I can see her representing our country in the years to come, also Mical Dyck who is another warrior. But the person who inspired me the most in my life to not be junky, alcoholic, etc etc is George Chuvalo. I met him in Edmonton and had the honour to have him work my corner in a fight. I didn't win (dislocated my elbow), but I was a fan of his before this and still am.
I so could have fallen into the trap of drugs and alcohol with the environment I was in. And to think that I am one of the very few who didn't fall into this trap of all my old friends. I have been called lots of different things in life. But there are some things I will never be, and those are, a women beater, alcoholic, and junky. When growing up I used to get the shit beaten out of me by adults in their drunkenness. Isn't it so amazing how alcohol can make people turn a blind eye?
Just think in my life to this point I have been shot at in 4 different occasions. First time was when I was maybe 13 or 14 years of age. My best friend George (known each other since we were born) were fishing on the neighbours land. I was all open field for miles with a creek running through it. You could hear the zing of the bullet go past your head, and then the bang of the gun moments after. I was never so scared in my life. Running and tripping on every little hump in the ground because you are so scared and you can't run fast enough.
The other times that I was shot at I will get into on a later date. Sorry to keep you hanging.
Anyways this whole post is on how people change over time, some people don't change at all, but I sure the hell did. For the majority of the people in mountain biking, they have all been a positive aspect in my life, and especially the DeadGoats
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