It could have been worse...

Here is a shot I took on one of my rides home this week of a science experiment gone wrong at Carleton University. Remember your safety glasses kids!


I had my first setback to the season today in the form of a flat tire. I should remember I weigh 200 lb and should not be biking like a 13 year old. I should also remember that the spare tube I keep in my closet is no good to me in the closet. Anyways, this happened about 10 minutes into the ride so I already had about 4 km behind me and the last thing I felt like doing was walking home and starting my day all over again. So now I am stuck and I consider four options:
-Just take the bus: Well if there was one I might be able to. But our city's bus service is in shambles thanks to a mayor who could not manage his own paper route.
-Call a cab: I would if I had an important paper due or exam.
-Jog: Not happening considering I have a helmet, large bag filled all kinds of food and drink and gum boots on my feet.

So i settled on the Heel-Toe Express for the next 7km or so until I can put the skates on. I accepted the fact that I was going to be Late and I would have a totally unique excuse for my professor. Here is a shot of the welcome first glimpse I got of the canal this morning:



Skating never felt so good.

On another note I leave for my backcountry ski and winter camping weekend tomorrow. In order to make the snowshoe up a mountain through fresh snow with an 80 lb pack as easy as possible this has been my weekly training program since New Years:

-100 km of biking
-50 km of skating
-3 intense gym workouts
-2 hours of uphill snowshoeing with descents on my snowboard
-2 hours of x country snowshoeing

A couple of notes on this. It is very important to get enough calories and proper sleep to support this volume of training. I also save the high intensity for the gym and the uphill snowshoeing. Trying to do all these activities at break neck speed would go over like a lead balloon. My gym workout is short and sweet as I am usually in and out in 45 minutes. I am amazed by the number of meatheads I meet in the gym who look at me like I have six heads when I talk about core training and functional strength. It is also astounding how bad everyone's technique is. Please spend 50 bucks on a trainer before you start spending several hours a week attempting to injure yourself with bad form. This is why I mostly train alone and outside.

A couple of tips on winter biking before I go:
-Have a light and a back-up
-Have a bell and ring it like it is going out of style
-Have a helmet that easily fits over a warm toque
-Have an extra layer and a scarf to put on just in case
-You will want goggles for glare and for freezing ice pellets attacking your eyes
-If you do not feel cold when you start riding you are over dressed and will be overheating and dehydrating yourself
-Footwear is essential to staying comfortable - I wear insulated gum boots and think they are the cats pajamas
-Make sure you are prepared to become covered in mud and filth
-Have a fender because you do not want to become covered in mud and filth
-Try and have a good idea beforehand what the conditions are like and make sure your comfortable with them. I don't ride if there is a heavy snowfall or extreme cold because that would be asking for trouble.
-Have a good ride
-Don't forget your spare tire

I will be doing another post next week with hopefully a lot of great videos and stories from the trip.