Saturday long ride

Friday night, I installed the XLAB Mini Wing that I got from Triboutique.ca a couple of weeks ago on my Kuota. Having only the capability to carry a single bottle on my bike was a bit of a roadblock on my road to longer ride. I'm not really an heavy drinker when exercising so I can do with 0.8l for a 4hrs ride (unless it's particularly warm) but since I'm hoping to do an unsupported 200km ride before the summer is out, I definitely needs to carry more liquid with me. Also, I probably should get into the habit of drinking more ... which I did the following morning by riding 133km with 2 bottles.

I didn't drink all, but alternated between both bottles at each of my feeding slots (every 30 minutes or so). In one bottle, I had my usual homemade energy drink (minus Maltodextrin since I'm out and need to get more at the store), and in the second one I put a bit of Agave Syrup with one tab of Nuun for electrolytes.

Between the energy bites, the drinks and a couple of dry apricots, I didn't feel low on energy but however, my legs started feeling heaving (and painful) at the 100km mark, so the last 33km were not super enjoyable.

I'm planning to extend the ride this coming Monday (which is an holiday in Canada) to make it over 160km. Assuming the weather collaborate since it's kind of looking wet this week :-(

Thursday long ride

In the last post, I was complaining about the weather being wet and cold ... but that was nothing in comparison to how wet yesterday ride was. Why ride you may ask? Well, once again I got fooled by the weather forecast which called for mostly sun ... The sun did came out, but too late for an early morning ride. Oh well ... Rule 5 & Rule 9 come to mind 8)

Just like Tuesday, I didn't have my homemade energy ball, so I took some dates and a single fruit&nut bar (Kind brand). I, however, didn't forget to make my energy drink ahead of time.

I wasn't particularly sore after the ride, not the following day. I guess my body is getting used to frequent endurance ride. 

Tuesday long ride

As you may recall, I alternate between Sunday and Monday when it comes to doing longer ride, but since the weather forecast for this past Monday wasn't looking too great, I pushed the ride to Tuesday as the forecast was better ... Except, it wasn't. It was colder and wetter than I had expected, and while there was no hard rain during the +3 hours I spent on my bicycle, it wasn't super fun. Still, managed to beat a few PR and my average speed wasn't too shabby:

For some reason, I was a little off that day and the previous night as well, and on top of not having prepared any energy balls, I totally forgot to prepare my energy drink the night before. As the result, I had to rely on 4 dates and an (store bought) energy bar, which I had half way. I had one date every 30 minutes after the first 45mn of the ride.

Planning on doing the exact same ride tomorrow morning, weather permitting ...

Coconut Apricot Energy Ballz!

For my long(er) ride yesterday, I decided to make my own energy bars using a recipe I had stumbled upon a few days ago from Read Food. Real Deals. Aside from the Apricots, we pretty much had everything already and the recipe is pretty easy to do, and vegan 8)

I tweaked a little bit the recipe, though, by reducing the amount of coconut shreds and adding 1/4 cup of chia seeds (which was too much). Also, I used oven-roasted almonds for a better taste.

Since the goal was to eat them while cycling, I used a 15ml measuring spoon to form small balls. It worked well, although maybe the balls ended up being a little too big. I may put some hemp seeds in the ball next time.

Ride wise, I was planning on another 100km ride, but the wind in greater Vancouver was so damn strong (and dangerously strong at time), that I had to settle for only 80km :-(

Good case of the Monday

Yesterday, I went off on a long ride before going to work. This is something that I have started doing last year late in the season (I just didn't think of it before!) and which allows me to do one long ride (+80km) every week by alternating Sunday ride and Monday ride. This gives me a bit more flexibility but also, and mainly, gives room for more family time.

Anyway, I was planned a 90km ride, but it ended-up being 95km. Considering the pain I have felt in my hip/groin area (mainly when running, mind you), the ride went pretty well and I didn't feel any particular pain (aside from the usual muscle burns), although my neck was a little sore by the end of it.

Contrary to the tradition, I didn't run with my wife after getting home yesterday afternoon. Which was probably a good move considering I'm still recovering from that possible injury. My legs didn't feel particularly sore (neither did they this morning when I rode into work) but I was kind of tired (and went to bed at 10pm).

Spring is here!

Hullo! I'm back ... Okay well, I didn't really left but there wasn't much to report since last November. Here's a brief TL;DR of what happened until today:

• As the weather got crappier I had to wind down my usual cycling commute to work (and week-end rides)
• I increased my running to compensate, running to and from work at least once a week (at one point, my total odometer for the week was 70km, I had run to/from work twice that week)
• Since winter was kind of mild this year, I resumed commuting to work on my bicycle early February (that is a good month earlier than usual)
• In March, I restarted cycling longer distance on the week-end (and/or on the way to work)

During the off-season, my weight went up a little (+1.5kg), but it's back down to my race weight (55kg) since last week :)

This year, I was planning (if you recall) to enter two Duathlon in my area (Vancouver, BC), but I kinda dropped the ball and missed the first one and won't be in town at the time of the second one :( So no racing for me this year ... Which isn't that much of a bummer really, considering both events had ridiculously small distances. I wish Duathlons were as popular as Triathlons and had longer distances ...

My goal for 2013 is to do a couple of century rides (mile ones, so +160km) as well as maybe a half-marathon in the fall and I'm participating to this year Vancouver Sun Run (late April), but it's only a 10k so not much of an endurance challenge ...

The saddest part of the whole Lance Armstrong vs. USADA thing, is that it cheapen (maybe discredit is a more accurate term here ...) his most of the pro-cyclists achievements of that time. Did they cheat? Most likely, but that only allowed them to take their performances a little beyond what they were already capable off (that 2% Jonathan Vaughters talked about a couple of weeks ago) ... They still had to bust their ass off on a bicycle (on and off season) to get to the top of a race like the Tour de France.

Old school jersey

<3 Castelli

Compression FTW!

Training schedule reality check ...

Wade Wallace, over at Cycling Tips wrote a post on a training schedule which had me somewhat flabbergasted ... The total volume per week is over 18 hours! Granted, that's a cycling only training. Still, it's way more than what I'm doing currently. At best, I'm putting 7 hours per week on the bike (including commuting to worm 5 days a week) ...

Obvsiouly, I'm doing it wrong.

Untitled

I wish cycling cap were more popular ...

Hello World!

Well, here we go! A new blog for my musing into the art of Duathlon (as a flexitarian)! In case, you are wondering, I've had that cycling bottle since 1999 (and it's from HP Bike Works in Kona, Hi).