Weekend? I'd like another one of those ...

Where did this weekend go? Can hardly believe it's Monday again already. Didn't even get anything into the slow cooker! BUT -- it was fun nonetheless.

On Friday I watched the English Patient and tried to unwind. Had a great chat with my sister on the phone -- she's excited because she got a new fridge. I also heard that Emily Batty has been signed to Trek World Racing! Huge congrats to her -- what an opportunity! If you don't already know it, Emily's is a name you should learn because she's going to be a Canadian mountain biking hero in the 2012 Olympics.

Saturday I went up to Brampton to see Baby St. Jacques digs, and chat with his parents who are patiently awaiting his arrival. Everything looks great there, and it must be so much fun to get ready for your first baby. Think of all the toys you get to pick out!

Then it was off to North York for a visit with family. It was supposed to be "girls night" but somehow it expanded and there were at least ten of us for dinner -- boys too. Awesome catching with family but I'm sure they were happy to see me go because I couldn't stop talking about the amazing benefits of raw food. Yep, I was that girl.

Sunday I went to spinning and rolled out some more individual leg drills, spin ups and then some muscular work for an hour after that. Base miles are so glamorous.

Then mom came down and spent the day with me, took me out for lunch and other mom stuff before we had to say "so long". It's nice in the winter when family comes to me, because it's so hard to drag myself away from spinning class.

So that's all folks! Yoga tonight :)

My First Power Test

Instrument of torture

Last night I completed my first-ever 20 minute power test at RPM. It was a nasty, nasty thing, and it was a really surprising trip to have that third number staring back at you. I think I have a long way to go in really harnessing a power-reading as a tool, but I can see the benefits already.

As Mike explained later on, when you do a workout based on power instead of heart rate, you are using much more "honest" numbers. Your heartrate can change depending on how stressful your day was, what time you're completing your workout or even just as you become more fit. So pegging your progress on that alone can be misleading.

Enter "Power" and you can see the point at which you're no longer doing yourself any good, and switch to just beating yourself up. That's also the point where you stop, by the way, so that you can still get something out of your training the following day.

I had a great time beating myself up last night in order to get a baseline for more workouts. I'm really excited to add this new dimension to my training. And now that it's over, 20 minutes didn't seem so bad. ;)

Here's my test -- don't judge. Obviously, consistency is an acquired art. haha.

Power Playlist
Stronger - Kanya West
Paper Planes - MIA
Sweet Dreams - Beyonce
No Heaven - Champion
Little Secrets - Passion Pit
Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap (Tiesto Remix)
Broke my Eyes - Donkeyboy

PS - to learn more about Power from the CycleOPs "Power Training Experts", click here.

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

I'm very, very, super-duper pleased to announce an enhanced partnership with RPM for 2010. As I mentioned before, I've been a member of their 12-week base camp program for a number of years now. Mike and Daffyd do such a great job with it; if I had to point at one thing I do during the winter that helps me in the summer, I'd be madly gesturing to RPM. On top of regular, focused training, we also hear from special guests ranging from chiropractors to nutritionists.

This year, I've been invited to consider RPM "Training Headquarters". This Thursday, they're going to set me up for some power testing, which will be revisited throughout the season to make sure I'm on the right track. I'll also have some power based workouts to complete at the studio in addition to our regular twice-weekly sessions.

To keep up with strength training I tried their Gravity class, which I have also mentioned. On top of that, RPM has the perfect mix of free weights and core equipment to get my muscles firing and core stablized. As far as training is concerned, this is "home, sweet home."

2010 is going to be a great season, and I'm so excited to have RPM's support.

Learn more:

• Find out what classes fit into your schedule.
• RPM is located at 2109 Bloor Street West (on the west side of High Park)
• Spin class is approximately $15, and Gravity $20, but you save by buying in bulk with the RPM Card System

Any Given Sunday

Woke up early: spin class. 2 hours of spin ups and then low cadence work plus one legged drills. quote of the day: "Pretend you're going to be on display at Body Worlds and you want to be the one with the awesome hamstrings."

Got home, finished winter vegetable stew in the slow cooker, moved on to yam-and-butternut-squash soup so lunch is ready all week. Out the door for night skiing.

James was kind enough to do the driving tonight. He also helped me with my ski technique which was long overdue and got me back into the groove, literally: side cut anyone? Awesome night "shredding the gnar", jumping off boxes and discussing the bigger questions of life over hot chocolate and -- yes, I admit -- Wendy's.

So tired I can't sleep. Goodnight anyway!

Outside Ride!

Not sure where Winter went, but today, it wasn't here! Hopped on the bike around 2pm with a teammate. Our plan was to visit the horses up at Sunnybrook. However, despite the dry, amazing conditions on the city streets, the rec paths were not faring as well and since my training partner today was on a road bike (while I opted for my mtb since the road bike is all trainerized) she vetoed any further attempts at exploration.

Thus, we decided to head down to the CNE and see what could be seen. The boat show, I think! Or at least that's what I'm guessing from the blue Yamaha bags and a dude walking out with a sweet wake board. Ah, dreams of warm summer days!

Since the CNE was kind of a zoo, we decided to just keep on riding the "Blue Edge" ... ie the waterfront trail. I lost my training partner to cold hands and feet at the Roncesvalles bridge. Since it was such a nice day, I continued solo.

Not long after her departure, I met a man who was playing with his RC car in one of the parking lots. I was going to challenge him to a race, but thought I'd be embarrassed: that thing was quick. I think I missed a good photo opportunity. Oh well.

The next interesting pause came when I met Peter. By the time I'd arrived he'd only been there for about an hour and already he had an army of balanced-rock formations. I stopped to take a photo of his masterpieces, and got to meet their maker at the same time. When I got home, I looked him up online, and he's done some pretty amazing stuff. A Toronto treasure, for sure. He rocks.



Today was the first time I'd been that far west on the bike trail in a long time and I was happy to find it was just a little bit longer! On the way back, I turned off to get a photo and found the Humber River Trail (Number 15, people). I'd come down it once before, but never up. I figured I'd give it a shot. A bit snowy/icy in spots but totally navigable on the Trek and a really lovely ride. As I was exiting "The Old Mill", a man rolled down his car window beside me and said he'd "never seen a cyclist take on this hill!" which kind of made my day. (Although, caveat, it wasn't a particularly nasty climb or anything.)

After a quick street ride down Jane, I was back on the waterfront path. I decided to go see what was happening in Ashbridges Bay. Mostly, people were out doing the same thing as me: enjoying mother nature's little gift! I saw runners, rollerbladers, other cyclists, some tennis players (for real!) and even the skaters were out at the skate park.

With the sun going down, it was time to head home. Although most of the roads were dry, some weren't so nice so I had to figure out a way to clean up my girl so the salt and grit didn't do too much damage. I've seen it done ... but never had the guts to try it myself, seeing as I live with two others. So shhh, don't tell them but ...



After I cleaned the bike, I cleaned the tub and then I had a shower too -- one of those ones where the warm water makes your frozen toes feel like they've had too much hot sauce.

A snack, some stretching, a flop on the couch and that's a day folks.

Time for bed now -- spin class bright and early! ... and I'm cooking this in my sleep:



Here are some other shots I snapped along the way ...

From left to right (click to enlarge): 1. "And I thought my feet were cold!" 2. The Humber footbridge 3. Peter's people 4. A gull over the skyline from the base of route 15 5. The Humber 6. Bridge over frozen water 7. Tennis. In January. 8. Sun going down over Ashbridge's 9. A pile of kids were at the Ashbridges Skate Park.

Gravity.

I had to work late on Wednesday, so I missed the workout I had planned to do, thus decided that I'd try one of RPM's Gravity classes before our regular spin Thursday night.

OMGithurtsomuch.

Gravity machines are cool because they use your own body weight and ... um ... gravity to give you a full body workout. The first thing we did was legs: squats, lunges and hamstrings. My quads felt like hot butter: it was intense. The second half of the work out we did abs and upperbody.

Best of all, it kind of feels like a carnival ride at first. That slide board can be a lot of fun.

After Gravity with Trina, it was time for spinning with Daffyd. He didn't have such an easy ride in mind so with Gravity and a morning ride already under my belt I was worried I'd really be digging deep. Sure enough, on our third of four 3 min efforts, I exercised my gag reflex.

But to be honest, a little bit of tummy upset and a celtic-slash-heavy-metal song was all the discomfort I encountered -- either I wasn't working hard enough, or I'm in better shape than I thought! Good legs.

This morning I slept through my alarm, and as the day goes on I'm only getting more sore. Ah, the gentle hum of recovery.

Can't wait to get home and spin out some of this junk.

Olympic Update

One month 'til the Games!

I've been working with VANOC to get all my pre-Olympic training sorted out as well as uniforms and accreditation. Looks like I'll be Vancouver-bound on February 11, then making my way up the Sea-to-Sky. Luckily, as a volunteer our transportation is all taken care of once we're in BC, so that's a relief. They feed us too, which is always good news. I will work for sandwiches.

So here's my home for the Games: the Whistler Sliding Centre. Our events include some of my favourite Olympic sports: Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton. And just over at Creekside, hopefully I'll be able to catch a little Alpine to round it out. Still waiting to get my work schedule confirmed, but I'm expecting a minimum of 13 shifts over the entire Games, 8-10 hours each. I'll be earning my sandwiches, that's for sure. I'll also be begging someone (anyone!) to let me try sliding down on one of those sleds!



On the uniform, we're all issued a specific set of outer-wear and unfortunately, my glow-in-the-dark party pants are not invited. Bummer. But I think it's all for the best anyway -- our crew is going to look very professional. Smurfy, but professional.

The uniform consists of:

• an outer shell jacket
• a vest
• two long-sleeved T-shirts
• a pair of pants (I'll be in "Mountain Pants" I think, vs "City Pants")
• and of course, a toque (no, it's not white.)

I think we are also issued a "beverage container" and it is the official, exclusive volunteer-bottle of the Games. Even our drinking will be professional. ;)

I'll be sure to post photos, modeling the whole ensemble.

In order to prepare myself for the elements, I'll need a new pair of warm dark mitts, and dark boots. Apparently my white snow boots aren't invited either so if someone has some good, warm, dark coloured ones I can borrow (size 8.5) please let me know! Mom?

Another exciting turn of events: Nancy is now a confirmed volunteer too! She'll be rocking the same uniform, but with "city pants" (hahaha) at the medical centre in Whistler, massaging the rippling muscles of international sports superstars.

To sign off, is anyone interested in renting "Cool Runnings" with me? We'll call it research! Let me know!