By the beach in forestville

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My bride with our new nephew!

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Construction day 5

Tiling should be done tomorrow and grout on sunday

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Day 4 of the bathroom reno

- Sent from my Bell mobility device

The tub is in!

After several months of sitting in our office, the tub is installed!

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The solution to my keyboard problem

So, another problem with hugo laying on my computer is that I can't use the computer while he is on it. Trying to push him off repeatedly proved futile, so I moved their heating pad up onto my desk, and this seems to be effective in luring them away from my computer...

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My computer is a really expensive heating pad

Hugo recently discovered that warm air shoots out the side of my laptop, and then if he lays on top of it then it just keeps getting warmer! I have a feeling that this could spell an early death for my Vaio....

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An amusing summary of French military history

So, while we were in class today we somehow diverged onto the topic of French military history (don’t ask how) and one of the guys quoted something from a site that he had seen that amounted to “France’s armies are victorious only when not led by a Frenchman” ... LOL ...  I don’t think that my bride will find it very amusing, but if you want a funny read:

 

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm

 

 

 

psychological operations course

Here is a poster for all those of you ending what PSYOPS is all about...

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Great army accommodations...

So, not only have we been placed in the same type of rooms thati stayed in on my basic officer training, and we have to share rooms, but there power and heat have been out for over an hour now...

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100 trillion dollar bill

Day 2 of the PSYOPS course and one of the guys pulled out this bill from Zimbabwe... And we get worried over 3-5% inflation!

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70.3 done!

So, we didn't get the bike split that we wanted, but we got a time of around 2:08 or so.

I am a little disappointed that I can't hang around for the dinner or hang around the expo... I had to grab my stuff right after the race and stay packing to leave tonight.

Off to kingston in just a couple hours for the residence portion of the PSYOPS officer course!

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70.3 preparations

Our prep for the 70.3 world championships on Saturday is going well so far.  We are in a hotel that is walking distance from the start line, we checked in and got our race packages today and took a walk through the expo.

 

Yesterday I marked up a map with the directions to ride the race course ahead of time so that we would know what to expect for turns, hills (not many at all) and condition of the roads.  Brian kept on joking that he thought that we must be on the wrong roads since we didn’t see a single other bike out on the course!  After speaking with one of the other guys that has done the course in the past, he said that nobody dares ride the course before the race since a lot of the course goes along major freeways with lots of traffic...  There were a couple of spots where we had to cross 2-3 lanes of traffic, but I have ridden in way worse traffic than that!

 

We went for a swim on the first day that we were here that worried us both a little.  There were waves swelling up over 3 feet at times where I felt a little like a surf board sometimes shooting up the front side of a wave and then crashing down on the other side.  Brian and I are both hoping that the waves are nothing like that on race day because we both drank a lot of ocean water and we weren’t moving very fast at all... The last couple of days have been quite calm and nice.

 

Nexus pass is amazing!

I just passed through the US customs line at the calgary airport where the line was out into the airline desks this morning and I got through in less than a minute with my nexus pass.

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The shower is complete!

At long last, the shower is ready and my dear bride will stop threatening to hire a contractor to do the work :p thanks for all the help Dad!

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KidSport board and staff

A nice group photo of the KidSport board members and staff in attendance at our first donor appreciation event.

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Day on the ranges

Today I was the range safety officer for our unit range exercise
Thankfully the weather was beautiful and nobody got shot. So far so good. I got a couple of pictures of some troops doing a jump after we closed down the ranges. Not sure how week the pictures turned out, but I attached them anyways.

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The power of ebay item titles...

so, I just sold two sales on ebay that are the same brand and close to the same model, but one retails for 2 times the price of the other because it is much lighter and mostly made of carbon. The cheaper one that I had put the msrp of 170 into the title for sold for 135 while the one that retails for around 350 sold for just 100... The only reason that I can think of to explain this would be the description that I listed... Go figure...

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Canadian military slang

So, while driving to Edmonton for ranges, one of the guys in the car said this his son came across this list of canadian army slang on wikipedia.  Quite amusuing, and quite accurate.: Appendix:Canadian English military slang - Wiktionary

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Scum of society...

We had someone break into our garage last night and steal a laptop, GPS, and who knows what else out of our garage.  I used to think that we lived in a pretty safe area where we didn’t need to worry about these things, but I guess I was wrong.  Thankfully my mountain bike is still there since we are going riding on Thursday :P  If only these wankers could put their time towards doing something productive with their lives, we would be a lot better off...

 

Our garage door opener has been flaking out on us for the last couple of years and I know that the security isn’t great on those old models so I am going to Canadian Tire to buy a new one today...  I guess the bathroom reno can wait a few more days.

proven right...

Just like clockwork!  This morning while I was picking up some printouts, there were a couple of guys standing around the printer waiting for a big print job to finish.  After only 1 hour and 5 minutes of work, the one turned to the other and said "shall we go for a smoke?  Should take about that long for this to finish" and the two of them disappeared for 20 minutes…  I rest my case.

smoking... the socially accepted reason to slack off at work!

One of the other guys on the course raised an interesting point while we were both going to get some water this morning.  He pointed out that taking up smoking might almost be worth the negative health effects in order to have an excuse to drop all of your work and hang out in the sun and get some fresh air every hour and a half or so.  If you think about it, smokers are rarely challenged or criticized for going out to smoke several times a day.  It is just an accepted practice that they need to satisfy their addiction.  If a non-smoker were to go and stand outside chatting with other non-smokers for 15 minutes every hour and a half he would be called a slacker… if a smoker does it… he's just a smoker…

Every time like it's the first time!

This is one of my favourite sayings for organizations that have no standards, templates or tools.  Normally, the army prides itself on standardization of tools and templates, however it is clear that the individuals that manage the content for AOC are computer illiterates... Every scenario uses different icons, a mish mash of screen shots and power point slides are peppered through out power point slides.  It seems asthough we spend just as much time playing with icons and formatting as we spend learning material...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Still stupid, but better....

The CF has long taken the worst of both worlds in its approach to IT security.  They make silly and unmanageable rules to follow and then provide no enforcement.  Thi provided a flase sense of security to management and really didn't improve security because everyone did what they needed to do to get their work done... Now they still have the dumb rules but they are enforcing them now... So, here I sit in front of a "scrubber" ... Which is actually just a desktop with AV installed and isolated from the rest of the network... Waiting to scan the usb sticks for my syndicate... Great use of resources!!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Home for the next couple of weeks

The building you see is the old library of fort frontenac and I have a room on the 3rd floor overlooking the lake.  Not a bad plave to stay since it is a private room with an ensuite bathrom and a LCD TV.  Only one problem... It's about a million degrees!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

AOC excess baggage...

So, everyone that I have talked to on AOC has complained about needing to get authorization for excess baggage (3 bags) but I only brought 1 suitcase and I thought that I was packing a little excessive... What am I missing here?  Either these people don't need to travel, or I am missing a lot of stuff that I am going to need...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

I am going to miss my aeroplan elite status....

So, this year I have accumulated 0 status mile points towards getting my eite status again.  It takes 35,000 and my flights from this trip will give me a little over 4000 points.  Going to world championships should give me another 6000 or so, but that won't even get me to prestige (25,000) and I will have to stand in line with the rest of the peons in the regular check-in line... No more lounge access (they are serving pancakes and bacon and there are fresh strawberries today!) and no more upgrades to executive class... Speaking of which, I think I am getting upgraded today :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

detailed time splits from nationals

So, I just got a copy of the detailed time splits from para track nationals and apparently we lost the race in the last half lap... ouch.... I wonder how the race would have turned out if we were going head to head.  It is easy to say that we could have found another 4/10 of a second of effort during the race if we had known, but on the other hand who is to say that they wouldn’t have been able to match it?  I guess that we will have to wait until World Championships for the rematch...

 

I have to hand it to Alex and Daniel, that is some pretty amazing consistency throughout the pursuit.  That was a great ride on their part!

probably just a minority... but I am still shocked

I was just watching CBC news a few minutes ago and there was a news clip where the reporter said that emergency services asked the Montreal fire department to go door-to-door to find people suffering from heat exhaustion in their homes as a preventative measure.  The city has set up cooling stations with A/C, water, and medical aid to take in people that do not have a cool place to get out of the 34 degree heat (42 with humidex).  Apparently fire fighters have the right to decline preventative services when the temperature goes over 30 degrees and several Montreal fire fighters have exercised this right and declined to help...  Of course they coupled this clip with an elderly man who was rescued from his home that was measured at 50 degrees... I understand that it is really hot, but isn’t saving lives a big part of why fire fighters join?  Again, I am sure that this is just a small minority of individuals that are refusing to help... but have they no shame?

lost by a pedal stroke

So, the track national championship pursuit is behind us and we lost by 4/10 of a second which equates to about one pedal stroke...  A bit of a crushing defeat for us, but I guess that we should be happy that it is way above the national standard for selection to worlds (we did around a 4:43 and the standard was 4:48).

 

Neither Brian or I had great preparation leading up to nationals so I am certain that we will be faster at worlds.  Since we are already 5 seconds faster than last year (although the conditions were faster today due to the high heat and humidity) I think that we are going to have a great race and hit the podium again.

 

We both found it a little odd that the national team coach didn’t say so much as a word to us after coming within 4/10 of a second of the national title, but it is par for the course.  I thought that we were starting to gain some ground and that the East vs. West thing was behind us... I guess that I was wrong.

2 days prior to nationals

So, we are now 2 days before the start of Track nationals and there are rumours going around that the schedule may be changed around to fit everything into 1 day.  When I saw the schedule originally, I thought that it was  a bad idea to split it up between 2 days, but we had our training plan scheduled around a 2 day event. 

 

Apparently the CCA realized that it should have all been done in 1 day and now they want to change the schedule around so that they don’t have to set up and tear down 2 days in a row... No way they would try to pull this on elite nationals.

 

Speaking of elite nationals, we are now at 7 weeks and counting before elite track nationals and the Bromont track is barely safe to ride below the blue line and definitely not suitable to ride above the blue... should be interesting.

Training in Bromont

The last couple of days on the track have been quite nice.  We've had nice hot and sunny days with just a little rain delay on Thursday.

Th bromont track is in pretty rough shape at the moment.  Pretty much the bottom couple of feet of the track are the only parts recommended for riding.  Some volunteers have replaced the bottom 10-12 inches of the track with new wood and this part is quite nice.  I found it a little odd that they didn't go just a few inches higher to get the black line replaced, but I am guessing that this was a conscious decision since it is probably a lot of work to measure out and paint the black line.

Tomorrow is a rest day when I plan to catch up on schol work a little...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

life with cats...

I have come to the conclusion that Brian could never live with cats...  Quite regularly I will go looking for a small bike part, stack of papers, or pretty much any small item one could think of only to find that it is no longer where I left it.  Our cats seem to enjoy playing with random items and dragging them around the house... This morning I stepped on a single brake pad that one of the cats dragged up the stairs to play with.  I don’t like my hopes of finding its mate...

Calgary drivers have faith...

I came to the conclusion as I was driving around today that Calgary drivers must have a lot of faith... There were at least 4 times while I was driving around when drivers in front of me changed lanes in front of me without even looking in their mirrors or shoulder checking.  In most cases, had I not slammed on my brakes, I would have slammed into their car.  Thus, I have deduced that these drivers must make lane changes based purely on their faith that they aren't going to run into another car since they clearly aren't checking first...

Enumclaw stage race

Just finished the time trial (10k and change) and I was very disappointed again.  My time will probably be about 1:30 off of the leader, similar to walla walla and cherry blossom.  I don't seen to be nearly as good at time trials as I used to be.  There is still a little part of me that is holding out hpe that it has to do with mt position on my tt bike. It has felt off all year and I have been holding off putting any time into setting up the position properly while waiting for my new tt bike to come in.  I took possession of the shiny new ride last night and houshang is going to set me up properly in aweek...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Enumclaw stage race

Just finished the time trial (10k and change) and I was very disappointed again.  My time will probably be about 1:30 off of the leader, similar to walla walla and cherry blossom.  I don't seen to be nearly as good at time trials as I used to be.  There is still a little part of me that is holding out hpe that it has to do with mt position on my tt bike. It has felt off all year and I have been holding off putting any time into setting up the position properly while waiting for my new tt bike to come in.  I took possession of the shiny new ride last night and houshang is going to set me up properly in aweek...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Enumclaw stage race

Just finished the time trial (10k and change) and I was very disappointed again.  My time will probably be about 1:30 off of the leader, similar to walla walla and cherry blossom.  I don't seen to be nearly as good at time trials as I used to be.  There is still a little part of me that is holding out hpe that it has to do with mt position on my tt bike. It has felt off all year and I have been holding off putting any time into setting up the position properly while waiting for my new tt bike to come in.  I took possession of the shiny new ride last night and houshang is going to set me up properly in aweek...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Enumclaw stage race

Just finished the time trial (10k and change) and I was very disappointed again.  My time will probably be about 1:30 off of the leader, similar to walla walla and cherry blossom.  I don't seen to be nearly as good at time trials as I used to be.  There is still a little part of me that is holding out hpe that it has to do with mt position on my tt bike. It has felt off all year and I have been holding off putting any time into setting up the position properly while waiting for my new tt bike to come in.  I took possession of the shiny new ride last night and houshang is going to set me up properly in aweek...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Fine dining on the ferry

So, I am on the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, and I have to say that the ferry has one of the better breakfast buffets I have had.  Cinnamon roll french toast, those funky looking dumpling-like things in the picture, fresh fruit with organic yogourt, smoked salmon... Since I had to leave Brian's house at 540 to catch the ferry, I had planned on eating on the ferry. I got out of my car and went up the stairs and saw a line and immediately rushed for a spot in it (if people are lining up, it must be something good.. Right?)  I thought it was the line for the crappy cafeteria food that I had all of the other times I rode the ferry... Wow was I happy to see the buffet!

Last night I thought that I had lit 17.50 on fire when I made a reservation for the ferry.  I made a reservation last night because the last time I went over, I was the 3rd last car to make it onto the ferry.  A little too close for comfort. After paying the money, I was a little choked since you have to arrive at least 30 mins before the ferry leaves in order to claim your reservation.  I was thinking that if one were to arrive that early, there would be no need for a reservation because you would be near the front of the line!  Man was I wrong....Turns out it was a good idea as the ferry line was full long before I arrived. I would have had to wait for the next one today even though I was there at 620 for the 700 ferry!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Insult to injury...

Not only was this guy dumb enough to get his car stuck in the hole on the other side of the curb... But he stopped feeding the meter and got a ticket to boot!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Snowing on the 5th of May

Seriously, I was telling all of the folks that I met in washington and oregon that I had to go South to get early season racing in, but this is ridonculous!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Stage 2 cherry blossom

Today was a really tough stage, quite possibly one of the hardest road races I have been in to date.  There was pretty much no place t rest and catch your breath.  The profile of the course resembles a jigsaw blade with over 7000 feet of climbing (maybe over 8000, I can't remember) in about 70 miles.  The pace was fast right from the gun and the peloton shattered early.  There was only a group of about 20 of us together after the first couple of laps, and then that completely blew apart on the final climb to the finish.

Talking to the hosts that we are staying with, they seem to think that we finished up around 12-15th (i finished the race with their son) and they said that there wasn't really anyone crossing the line in a group.

Should be interesting to see the reults!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Cherry Blossom Stage 1

Today was a very odd race... I think it was something like 75 miles and the first few laps (4 total) were pretty slow and I think that I used my brakes more in that road race than in any other I have ridden to date.

There were a couple of hard pushes on the big climbs, but nothing that really split up the pack much.  I think that the race finished almost completely together with just a couple of guys that got off the front early in the race.  Since there was one member from the biggest teams, there were no concerted efforts to reel them back in...

Tomorrow is another road race, I think around 90 miles followed by crit and ITT on Sunday.

Fwd: Tour of Walla Walls 17 April 2010 YOUR UNOFFICIAL TIME

20:13 would put me around 15th in the overall standings for last year's times.  Again a little disappointing, but I didn't have the best warm-up due to poor time management prior to the race.  It appears to be taking me a little longer than expected to get back into the swing of things.  Like learning how to race all over again :P

Oh well, I just have to remember that this is my first race of the year...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <al@agrtech.us>
Date: Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Subject: Tour of Walla Walls 17 April 2010 YOUR UNOFFICIAL TIME
To: devon.smibert@gmail.com


Bib: 111 SMIBERT, Devon Time: 20:13.11

I iz pack filler...

So, I finished 74 (I think) of 107 in the first road race of the Tour of Walla Walla yesterday.  I didn't have high hopes going into the race as I have been sick since I got back from Cuba and wasn't really able to do any intensity for the last couple of weeks... But still... Bottom half! Ouch!  I can't remember the last time that I finished bottom half in a race.  A bit of a hit to the ego, but I hope to redeem myself a little in the ITT this morning (starting in 2.5 hours from now).  I also made a bit of a bone head move early in the race.  There is a tactic that PO Boily told me about where you shoot off of the front of the pack early in the race and then get caught relatively quickly so that nobody will chase you if you do the same thing later in the race... Well, it backfired bad when another guy came up and joined me and we ended up riding by ourselves for about 30km :P  As coach EvDE likes to say... you only have one pack of matches per race and if you burn them all early in the race then you won't be there at the finish.  I burned too many matches in the wind :P

walla walla day 1

Yesterday was pretty much the 13 hour epic road trip I had expected (including gas and food stops).  It was really nice to be welcomed by a very friendly host that was gracious enough to open up her home to me for the weekend. This is a really great thing that some of the races hosted by smaller communities seem to do.  The race organizer contacts several members of the community and finds individuals that are willing to host athletes coming into town for the competition.  This helps the race organizers to attract some of the bigger teams that are trying to stretch their budgets and helps out poor schmucks like me that are trying to stretch their own budget with limited funding from a team :P

 

I am really glad that I was able to come down the day before the first stage to give myself time to check in, clean my bike, and take my time to get ready for the race.  This is my first solo race in close to 2 years now, so I have to say that I was a little bit wound up last night as I was trying to go to sleep.  I guess that this is a good sign, it means that I am excited to get back into the game again J

 

I picked up my race package this morning and was quite surprised to get hit with a 30USD fee for one-day licenses to race in the US.  I guess that this rule has been around for a long time, but it has never been tightly enforced.  If an individual from just across the border was coming down to race, most organizers would simply ignore the rule in favour of helping attract more riders.  I am going to have to figure out how to get this UCI license out of the CCA as there are a couple of races coming up where they will not offer 1-day licenses and I have already paid my registration... learn something new every day!

Cost savings vs. Hassle...

So, while we were in Cuba for the training camp, I thought that going down there to an al inclusive resort was a brilliant idea to save money and get some good training in.  The food at our hotel was terrible (helped me loose a few lbs :p) but the weather was great almost every day and it worked out to be a lot cheaper than staying in the southern US as we have done in the past.

After chatting with Brian and reflecting on the health issues that I have had in the last couple of weeks following the camp... I think that the monetary cost savings are outweighed by the loss of training that both of us have suffered due to some sort of bug that we both picked up down there (presumably from the food).  Training in Tuscon and Florida were both a few hundred dollars more, but in both cases we were ready to resume training after a few days of rest at home... Perhaps a higher class resort may not have had the same issues, but I am a little reluctant to gamble with another few weeks of my health and corresponding training time.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

over training + travel stress = sickness

So, while we were at the Cuba training camp, national coach Eric VDE kept on harping on about how we should be sure not to push ourselves too hard while we were there or we would get sick and end up having to take time off when we get home to recover... Well, that is kinda what happened to me.  I was feeling good while I was there and really went for it thinking that I needed to make the most of the warm weather for training.  This is a common mistake among athletes that is a little counter-intuitive for those looking into the sport from the outside, but I have taken a little comfort in the fact that even the pros tend to fall into the same trap from time to time.  I have been reading an autobiography written by Bradley Wiggens called "In the pursuit of glory" where he talks a little bit about how he drove himself into the ground when he first went pro on the road.  Great book, highly recommend it if you are looking for a good cycling book http://www.amazon.ca/gp/search/ref=pd_lpo_ix_dp_go_uk_ca_en_in.020the.020pursuit.020of.020glory.020wiggins_gl_book?keywords=in%20the%20pursuit%20of%20glory%20wiggins&tag=lpo%5Fixdpgoukcaenin.020the.020pursuit.020of.020glory.020wigginsgl%5Fbook-20&index=blended

BoosterJuice to pass a pee test?

The stupidity of the massess never fails to amuse me.  I was at TD Square waiting for the battery in my watch to be changed so I went to BoosterJuice to grab a smoothie while I waited.  While waiting for my smoothie to be made, this guy (early 20's) goes up to the counter and says 'I hear you guys can make a drink to pass my pee test'... The girl behind the counter looks stunned and replies 'what?'... The idiot continues 'yeah, I have a drug test tomorrow and my buddy said you make a drink that will make me pass my pee test.  I smoked some marijuana yesterday and I have a drug test this afternoon.  What do you have that will make me pass the test?'  The girl behind the counter giggles and grabs one of her coworkers that was making a turkey panini behind the counter... He replies 'we don't have anything that will guarantee you to pass a pee test, but the green matcha tea smoothie has a lot of anti-oxidants in it'  The idiot says 'yeah, gimme one of those'...

Who needs TV when you can get great entertainment like that by mingling with the unwashed masses?

Fool's crown

So, apparently I was the most gullible member of the team today as our fearless leader played an April Fool's day joke on the team.  The picture below is the copy of the "proposed" new team kit for the year that was accompanied by a semi-plausible story about a clothing store owner that created the design for us...  I drafted a very politically correct response to the various e-mails flying back and forth across the team and was given the 'fool's crown' for my efforts :P  Shame on you Scott!

3 days into cuba training camp

3 great days of training under my belt since arriving in Cuba on Tuesday.  As indicated by some of the reviews that were posted on some travel sites, the hotel that we are staying at would definitely not be up to the standards of either my wife or Brian's, but it is great for cyclists on a budget!  There is plenty of food, it is pretty healthy, and the poor taste and bland food helps to cut weight!  The rooms are clean, we have A/C and we can drink the water out of the taps, so I am happy as a clam.

So far the weather has been great.  We had a little bit of rain this morning, some cloud yesterday, but most of today and Tuesday were sunny and hot.

Some local riders latched onto the group pretty early and have been showing us the local routes and pushing the pace to see if they can crack a few canucks :P  It is really interesting to see the gear that these guys have because apparently there isn't even a bike shop in varadero to buy any cycling stuff even if one has the money...  Looks like most of the locals have been gifted cycling kits from Canadians and other riders that come down here for training camps.  It is really interesting to see a guy riding tires that are shredded and patched on a carbon fibre frame and then the guy next to him is riding a full steel bike 10-speed (not the 10-speed in the sense that the cassette has 10 cogs, but 5 cogs on the rear... a true 10 speed!) with steel handlebars and no bar tape!

I think that my father would love it down here in Cuba.  There are lots of old classic american cars that look like they have been pretty well maintained, the beer and cigarrettes are cheap, and people smoke everywhere!  The people are friendly, the food is cheap, and the weather is beautiful year-round.  I have to say that I like cuba a lot better than Mexico so far for everything except for the food (but it may be better at nicer hotels).  Probably the crowning jewel of Cuba... no loud obnoxious Americans!

Internet runs around 8CAD/hour and is pretty slow, so posts are likely to be a little on the thin side while I am down here.  Not to mention that the weather is so nice that I don't particularly feel like sitting inside on a computer during the day!

So far, this is definitely the best training camp I have been on yet and for the price, I think that this might be a good way to get onto more training camps while it is cold and snowy in the winter without upsetting my dear wife by being on the road all year long.  I am thinking taht I could probably sell her on a couple of weeks/year at an all inclusive in Cuba or something comparable... :D

Travel preparations

So, as I am starting to think about getting ready to travel to Cuba for the CCA Para-Cycling training camp on Monday, I thought that I would weigh my bike box to see whether I will be able to travel with it under the charter flight baggage restrictions.  About 5 years ago I purchased this really nice hard case that can carry 2 bikes in it so that I could protect my gear and save money by cramming everything into one box.  About 2 years later, all of the new baggage restrictions came into play and I was still able to put 2 frames with wheels into the box, but I had to strip cranks, pedals and seats out of the box and put them into my suitcase to meet the weight limits.

 

Going to Cuba, we are flying a charter flight run by SunWing and apparently we can have 2 bags at a max of 20kg each and one bike weighing a max of 20kg for a fee of 30$ each way.  I threw my bike box onto a scale this morning with the padding that I would normally put into the case and it weighs 19kg... My bike weighs 7kg... so, at a cost of 12$/extra KG I could use this bike box for a mere 72$ each way. 

 

Off to Bow cycle to get a cardboard box for free...  Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best ones.

World championships moved again...

So, I got a phone call from Larry last night letting me know that Columbia has bailed on organizing the para cycling world championships this year. The UCI really needs to get its act together.  Last year spain bailed with only a few months notice and then this year the same story again!?!

So, road worlds will be in Quebec (I am really tired of going to that province) and track worlds are to be held in Nov or Dec at a location to be determined at a later date...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Contintental breakfast?

How many times have you been to a hotel with a free "continental breakfast" that turned out to be some stale pastries with instant coffee?  I am at The Matrix Hotel in Edmonton (thanks to my lovely wife's tip) and what you see is only half of the spread included in the free breakfast. The service, the rooms, and the location are fantastic and if you use expedia to book, you will get a discounted rate.  Www.matrixedmonton.com

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Last day of the camp

The photo above is actually from yesterday when we rode out to Saguaro national park where we had a photo shoot with canadian cyclist and Louis Garneau.  Apparently, Louis Garneau is going to be putting photos of national team athletes in a bunch of magazines this year...

The photo shoot ended up breaking up the ride and most riders stopped for a coffee and then went back to the hotel.  Something that I learned last year is that training camps can be great for augmenting one's training, however discipline is required to avoid common trapping that could throw off your training.  Earlier this week, we were climbing to the top of Mt. Lemmon and at one point the group started to ride itlike a race.  During a training camp like this, it is important to ride the pace that you need to ride even when other are going faster or slower than you need to go.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Tan lines..

So, after seeing this guy (Spencer Smitheman) my dear wife should never complain about my tan lines again!  She once threatened to hold me down and rub fake tanner on me to get rid of the tan lines.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

recovery ride before the climb

Today was a pretty easy recovery ride, just over 2 hours on pretty flat terrain.  My legs were still a little fatigued from the 5+ hours yesterday, so the rest was welcome.

 

Tonight we are having some sort of a photo shoot for all CCA athletes that are at the camp.  This means that the CCA will stop using that terrible photo that they took of me almost 4 years ago!  I am pretty excited about that because I really hate the photo that they have been posting on web sites and using for accreditation at events...

 

Staying at the new place that is closer to the CCA hotel has really made a difference in allowing me to rest and recover after training.  Today I was finally able to get in for a much needed massage.  My shoulders and legs were a total mess from going the first 10 days of training without any massage.

 

 

new accommodations and a great ride...

No pictures today as I don't have internet access at the new place I am staying at (I am actually borrowing someone's computer to make this post).  I finally bit the bullet and paid for a place in Tucson that is pretty close to the hotel where the CCA is staying to avoid the 50 min commute each way from Green Valley.  The chateau McD was awesome while I was riding on my own (why didn't I come down here sooner!) but all of my stretching, recovery, and other things that I should have been doing were suffering due to the commute.

Yesterday I missed the group ride since I was moving my stuff over to the new place, but I did a pretty solid 3.5 hour ride up Mt Lemmon.  It is a pretty famous climb among cyclists in North America as it is close to Tucson and it is a pretty steady climb for 25 miles!

Today was a pretty solid ride as well as we clocked just over 5 hours and something like 145km.  Between the two rides I burned 6500 calories :)  I am hoping that this training camp is going to help me in my efforts to lose some weight and get a little more competitive in the 2010 season.

First IST Session of the camp

As the limits of athletes are continually being pushed farther and performance differences on the podium are often in the fractions of percentage points, the role of sport specialists is becoming more pronounced at the elite level every year. As part of the support provided by the Canadian Cycling Association on this camp, several sport specialists have been invited to share their expertise with the team on topics ranging from nutrition to recovery strategies. Today was the first IST session with recovery specialist (and former Speed Skating Olympian) Susan Massitti (Far right in photo)

The first topic being covered off was contrasting baths. I am guessing that most people are aware of the concept of applying cold to injuries, however this technique is supposed to help with flushing out all of the bad stuff that builds up in your muscles during intense exercise.

The first ones to jump into the garbage cans filled with ice and water were these brave ladies. Bravo! Unfortunately, my swim trunks were a 45 minute drive away so I was unable to participate... darn!

Here is where the contrast comes in... into the hot tub, before hitting the ice bucket again!

Chillin' at the summit

Here with a few of the others in the lead group chatting, eating and drinking before heading down.  It was waaaay warmer than at the observatory yesterday.

The time passed a lot faster on the ride today since I wasn't out all alone.  The 45 minute drive each way will get tiresome very quick though...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

First ride with the cca camp

Once we hit the base of Mt. Lemmon, we split into three groups and the first couple of groups went up 14 miles and then turned around.  I stayed with the first group, but the extra 15 pounds around my waist were very apparent as we were climbing.  Total ride time was 3 hours 20 minutes.  Tonight we have a specialist that is going to talk to us about recovery techniques.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

I heart mountains....

I felt a little like I did at the summit of kilimanjaro today as I wanted to sit down and enjoy the view... But I didn't bring enough warm clothes to do so...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

But what a view!

The view during the climb was quite spectacular.  On the way down I was a little more focused on keeping the shiny side up as I watched for sand and ice of the road...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Yes... That is snow

So, it is amazing how many of the little things one can forget after riding in a basement for several months... Like bringing a warm jacket to put on for the ride down the mountain while you are all wet and sweaty from the climb up...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Ride pic 2

About 75km and 5000ft of elevation gain later.... There is the litttle white bump again!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Ride pic 1

Today was a real bag drive of a ride.  In this photo, I am already 15km into the ride and headed to the observatory on the mountain behind the one centred in the foreground of this photo.  There is a small white bump in the distance and that is where I am headed...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

View from mid point

Yesterday was 72.5 km, almost as long as the day before, but less climbing.  Headed to the SW towards Arivanca Lake and met a very friendly bunch from the border patrol.  The border patrol has quite an imposing presence near green valley.  I see at least a dozen patrol vehicles each time I head out.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

First ride outdoors of 2010!

Yesterday was the first time out on the road for me in 2010.  It felt great to be out on the road rather than fixed to a stationary trainer in my dark home theatre room.  The day started off as quite cold and wet with some hail in the early afternoon.  I chose to stay inside and relax for the first part of the day.  Thanks to the wonders of the hour-by-hour forecast, I was pretty confident that things would clear up and I could have a nice ride just before sunset and I was right!

 

You can see in the photo that I took of myself that my phone is not easy to take photos of yourself with... have to hit the middle of the touch screen, which is not easy while riding! (see shadow in background)

 

 

test photo upload

Testing a feature for uploading photos since my last post didn’t work...

 

Cold and rainy in Tucson

So, I landed in Tucson last night for the start of my 2 weeks down here, first on my own and then as part of a Canadian Cycling Association training camp.  Thanks to the McD family, I have a great 3 bedroom condo with a car to stay in!

 

The plan was to come down here to get away from the cold and get some serious base miles in.  I went shopping this morning while it was cold and raining hoping to wait out the rain before riding.  Came back, started putting the bike together and it started hailing!  I am happy to see that I am nearly 20C warmer than Calgary, but shouldn’t it be a little warmer here than in Victoria!?!

 

Rain is supposed to break at 4 and then I’ll hit the road...

Devon's Fire Sale!

In an attempt to make some room in the house and to fund by 2010 cycling season, I am clearing out some of my older gear.  For anyone that is interested, please e-mail me and I will combine items and discount (ie, if you want the TT frame with SRM and carbone wheels...)

 

SRM Power meter dura ace pro 175mm cranks PCV (wired) – $1500 (Used, but like new condition)

Zipp 808 tubular USED (incl tire) - $650

Zipp 808 tubular NEW (incl tire) - $850

2005 Giant TCR Composite Time Trial bike (Large Frame 58cm) $1500 (paid 6k with wheels 3 years ago)

(no wheels, but could include wheels for $)

all DA components (less cranks),

ceramic pulleys and BB

same frame as http://www.honedesign.com/sites/giant/magentareign/tcr_composite_tt.html

minor scratches from travel, never crashed

nokon cable housing

Giant TCR advanced road bike (Large frame 55.5 compact frame like 58cm) $2500 (MSRP frame only, no components over 3000usd)

(no wheels, but could include wheels for $)

Full DA components (less cranks)

                Ceramic pulleys and BB

                Frame is brand new from warranty only a few hundred KM on the frame

nokon cable housing

Guru 60cm track bike w/Miche chain rings $600

(no wheels, but could include wheels for $)

Zipp 202 rear only ~300km on wheel shimano hub - $650 (MSRP over $1100)

Mavic cosmic carbone wheel set USED $1000

Zipp Vuka aero bars new in the box - $850 (MSRP 1200USD)

 

 

 

Blog resurrection!

So... as my lovely wife as pointed out, this will be my third attempt at maintaining a blog.  All of you who know me personally, know that I am not terribly good at keeping in touch with friends and family, but everyone keeps asking what is going on with my racing so... third time’s the charm, right?

 

Who knows... maybe now that I have a shiny Palm Pre to post things easier this one might work.  Only time will tell!

 

Time to put in some quality time with my stationary trainer!