Live to ride

Resting

2010-03-23T04:19:00.000-07:00

Finally! I made it to my rest week. This week will be the last one of base 3. In other words, I'm entering build 1 phase next week! So the fun stuff starts in a couple of days... The hard part will be to wait until R&R is over... But I really needed this week and the weather is pretty bad right now so... Good thing it's here!

On the racing side, I'll be racing at St-Georges de Beauce june 13th. Last year, I ended in 7th place in my category and I aim for top 3 this year... All my training is focussed on that goal right now. I think I have somme good chances accomplishing this. I never trained this hard with that much focus for so long... I get about 14 to 16 hours a week of training and my body is getting better and better every day... Good thing!!

College level cycling competition

2010-03-22T04:55:00.000-07:00

There's a debate going on in Quebec about "how we need" a college cycling competition level. I wrote a little about what I think about that. You can see the article here.

One of those days...

2010-03-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Ever had a day where training is just not working? Those are bad.... Today was like that. In fact, the whole week wasn't that good on training side... Did all the workouts and everything was great but i'm feeling lost with my training plan and I have a little more stress than usual with my job... Next week is R&R! I think that's why they exists ;)

Core

2010-03-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

We all eared about how core exercises can help us to be faster on the bike. But... How many of us really did some core exercises other than crunchs and crunchs with twist?... A couple of weeks ago I found a nice chart on bicycling.com that proposes some nice core exercises. I decided to try them. Guess what... In a couple of weeks I'm already seeing some big improvements on the bike... Doing those almost everyday really helps me be stronger on the bike...

Going back to work... 2hrs ride later today...

So long

2010-03-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Wow. Last post was about 8 months ago... Did not forget to write stuff.. Just did not have the time to write anything... Summer is knocking at our door again training is doing great for the last 2-3 months. Simply getting ready to race.

I'll try to update more often. Even if I'm probably the only person on earth who knows that this blog exist :P

Rest day Anxiety

2009-06-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Big week behind me... Rest day is for tomorrow. This is the first time that I actually don't want to "rest". I feel that in the last 2 weeks I got to a new "level". I'm definitely faster and the pump is stronger too... Eatings habits are on the good way too(was on a diet since last year, lost 73 pounds...). I recently found out that the hardest thing when you're dieting is not the diet... Is to stop the diet once that you're done with it... Diet + hard training = bad match.... <- I got that one the hard way.

So in the end, I'm mostly proud of my training week.
1- was able to get up a 4h15AM every day to get my workout done before going to work
2- Getting stronger everyday
3- random thought: Garmin 305 = training rock star... the only missing thing is a power meter

Bike this week: almost 300km(180 miles)

Goal for next week:
1- harder intervals
2- get my rear wheel fixed...

New banner!

2009-06-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

Did a little "lifting" to my blog while I was waiting my training buddy... Hope you guys like it!

My plan for today!

2009-06-16T03:26:00.000-07:00

Big day in front of me. Woke up at 4h30 and going for a +- 100km "easy"(intervals are tomorrow) ride in a couple of minutes... After that the plan is to work... And then out again with my girlfriend for a other +- 20km ride at the end of the day.

I really love training but I've got a question: How do you guys merge your life(work and etc) with your training? I know for a long time that when you train to reach a certain level you have to put some commitment to your training but I think that the main problems are life obligations....

A other thing: is anyone here using Joe Friel training bible to plan things??

Well I'm gone on my ride! See you guys later!

Watching pro races

2009-06-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

I really love looking at pro races. When the summer come I usually listen to the Tour de France and other cycling events on TV. Lucky me, this year Tour de Beauce had a stage (a crit) that was raced inside old Quebec city. And guess what... I live in Québec city.
The race was great 90 cyclists from a lot of big teams were racing + the fact that we had wonderfull weather = GREAT DAY

Did not had the chance to stay till the end but the winner was a guy from Quebec (Charles Dionne).

Enough talking lets go back to training! Today's program = intervals... Prep for my next race july 5 that will be raced on some prety hilly roads...

Wish you all a nice day!

First post = first race!

2009-06-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

Wow I'm finally writing something on that blog! Guess what... I just did my first 2 races in the last 2 weeks!! The first one was in Charlevoix (http://parentfrost.netfirms.com/QuebecPhotos_files/Baie-St-Paul%202.jpg) this place has some totally insane hills!! We had a 21% 3km long hill to climb at one point... So in the end, the scenery was VERY good (sorry I don't have pictures...) but we(my training buddy and I) ended the ride last lol.... But at least... we finished the ride.

The other race went way better for me. I even make it to the top 10! In fact I finished #8.

General toughs about road races:
-Get up early if you don't want to rush it to the start line....
-Some of the riders are... crazy....
-Bring at least 2 more "bars" than what you thing you'll need(I've got that one the hard way...)

That's it for now! Lets get back to training!