Long weekend = lots of riding

On Saturday did a 3hr long steady distance (LSD) ride with Todd and Charles. We went from Oakville to up and around Kelso. Lot’s of rolling hills with a couple of climbs. On the way back Todd and I stepped it up and whoa what a rush to do close to 50km/h over a rolling downgrade for about 10mins, I literally felt like I was flying....

On Sunday, got together with Todd, Mike and Steve and rode Kelso mtb for about 2hrs. It was a fun day. I led for most of it and held a pretty good pace. We only did the big climb once, spent the rest of the time on all the technical stuff (mostly extreme trail) . A new thing for the group was to ride all obstacles: little ramps, balance beams, etc. Nothing too high and no big drops (don’t think my Giant NRS could handle it). Really enjoyed doing this, riding the obstacles helps to improve technical skills. During the last downhill Mike went over this loose log jump and got a bunch of speed into a rooted 2-3ft drop, he held on and nailed it. I came down behind him (no drop for me) and then followed him down the rest of a snake and ladder section – it was so cool to watch as he dialed the whole section.

Today Ian, Steve and Ian went up to Hardwood Hills to pre-ride the upcoming Canada Cup race. It was a little cool, but a great day to ride. First lap was easy and then did about 75% to 85% race pace for two laps. The course is nice, mostly the same as the provincials last year, lots of up and down single track. None of the climbs are too long and the downhill sections are pure adrenaline. Looking forward to race day : - )

Fitness wise today was really good. I felt nice and strong and my recovery seems to be shortening. I can keep a good pace and recover quickly after climbs and sprints. I intentionally took it easy yesterday to see what I would be like today. I was happy with how my capacity is building up.

This week I’m going to do two hill interval workouts and then an LSD ride on Saturday. The following week I’ll do one hill workout and one medium effort with sprints, the Saturday before the race doing and hour ride with short sprints. I think this should set me up nice for the Hardwood race. Yummy, looking forward to it!