Twitter

I'm am giving Twitter a bit of a test drive. It's been fun so far. I think that Twitter and the Livestrong organization must have some sort of deal as Lance Armstrong was one of the people that I was automatically "Following". Something must be going on as, Lance has, as of tonight 185,000 followers on Twitter.

Believe it or not their are Twitter rankings - who knew? See more here:

http://twitterholic.com/

The cool thing is, when you set things up, your own posts or "Tweets" in Twitter parlance, can appear right next to Lance's on your home page - which is kinda neat.

Anyway, my Twitter up-dates, for what they are worth, can be found at:

http://twitter.com/stevefleck

I have a ways to go to catch up to Mr Armstrong on the Followers front.

We'll see how it goes. Hard to know how different this is from the "What Are You Doing Now" header on your Facebook page.

Great - more social networking web-2.0 stuff

Spring Training

The snow is still piling up on our front lawn, but the days are getting longer and spring is hopefully not too far away. For those winter-bound cyclists and triathletes like us, it may still seem like a long way away. It's the time of year when many take a vacation or holiday or a dedicated training trip away from where they are, to some place warmer and nicer. This has become a very popular thing to do for both serious and recreational triathletes and cyclists. It follows the tradition of Professional cyclists who would travel from their Northern European homes to the south of Spain, France or Italy in later winter to put some early season miles in.

Many triathlon and cycling coaches offer fully supported training camps now in Southern Europe as well as southern parts of North America. In fact, we are about to head off for 10 days of riding in Tucson, AZ starting this weekend - although there is a bit of business side in for me with Trifest going on. Tucson has become a bit of a go-to place for this sort of thing at this time of year. It's long, been the winter home of top triathletes and cyclists, but now more and more recreational triathletes are starting to take a week or so and head to Tucson for some warm weather training and an escape from snow, cold and wet weather.

So, what to do on these weeks away from home? My general suggestion is that for most, if they are coming from a place where the outdoor riding has been limited to non-existent for the last 2 - 3 months, that the best use of a week or more, where you can ride outdoors in nice weather, is to . . . . . just ride. Many get all hung up on what to do and what about running and swimming, but a 7+ day block of just cycling can really jump-start things for the spring, and start to lay down a decent base of cycling miles. Don't worry so much about time and pace - just get out the door every day and ride. If their are groups of others so much the better. Part of the challenge for more than a few with this, is that they are on their own proprietary training program. Nothing wrong with this, and I am not advocating not doing what a coach has said to do, but that push-pull dynamic of a good group can be hugely beneficial. A good coach will know this and give you the green light to ride as much as you want, or as much as is realistic or reasonable during such a time period.

Cycling is good for this sort of thing - unlike swimming or riding where it is much harder to really ramp up the training in a very short period of time. It's a much more pleasant environment to spend a lot of hours doing something and the overuse injuries typically, are minimal. That's not to say that you are not supposed to pay attention to how you feel day to day and that you need to know what a serious ache or pain is vs. the good ache or pain from good training is. If you have been doing a decent amount of indoor riding - quality oriented sessions of about an hour 2 - 4 times a week, it's realistic to think that you could get out and ride about 2 -3 hours every day for a week at a decent pace and maybe throw in a few longer rides to.

Don't want to take the bike or you are going on a more family oriented vacation - then think about doing a run focus week. The great thing about running is it's portability. You can do it anywhere. Also a good run takes up far less time than a good ride. You can be up at sunrise run for an hour each day for a week and no one would know about it. For most, that would be a solid week of running!

Happy holidays!

Lance Attacks

Wow! The racing has barely begun but the fireworks has already started. At the pre-race press conference for the Tour of California, their was an exchange between Paul Kimmage and Lance Armstrong that has to be seen to be believed.

Now to set this up properly, one needs to know that Kimmage is a former Professional cyclist himself and is an award winning sports journalist who currently writes for the London Times Sunday Magazine. He is perhaps best known for his book, Rough Ride, which was one of the first books ever written that really exposed the behind the scenes drug use in Professional cycling and the hard life and indeed rough ride, that is the life of a professional cyclist. Kimmage has been an outspoken critic of drug use in cycling and is a bit of an outlier in the sport since he retired from racing and wrote the book. But much of what he talked about in Rough Ride has proven to be true, as the years have gone by, and rider after rider either was caught using drugs, confessed or retired with controversey swirling around them.

Then their is Lance Armstrong - his story is well known and his comeback out of retirement has many people again focussed on the seven time Tour de France Champion. In a radio interview last fall when he learned of Armstrong's return, this is what Kimmage had to say: "The Cancer of the peloton has returned. It has come out of remission". Have a look at the exchange between Kimmage and Armstrong:

http://velonews.tv/?articleID=2591

Ironic that another big anti-Armstrong proponent, Greg Lemond introduces the news-clip on the VeloNews web site!

It's an extraordinary exchange. In particular, it shows Armstrong at his best, when the heat is on and backed into a corner, is when he takes his performance, be it on the race course or even in a press- conference, to another level. I am guessing that most other athletes under similar circumstance would be absolutly dumb-founded, but Armstromg takes it all in stride and does not miss a beat - even making the whole thing a bit of a joke. Indeed, the look on George Hincapie's face to Armstrong's right is telling - he doesn't know what to make of it all!

The season has barely started and already, the stakes and the excitment is at a high-level. Bring it on!

Love!

Paolina and I met on a bike ride - yes it's true. It's remarkable, beyond the fact that we are both keen triathletes( Well, has been a keen triathlete for me) and cyclists. Had I turned right on that road at HWY 9 and Dufferin, north of Toronto, we may have never met. But I went left and that's how it happened. I had seen Paolina coming along the road, so I did turn left. We rode together that summer day for about an hour. Truth be known, I was in dreadful shape at the time and was killing myself to keep up, while at the same time trying to look relaxed and carry on a conversation, as we rode over the roads of the Holland Marsh - a hard thing to do!

We parted ways and I went home and recovered( !!), but I was smitten. I followed up with her, did some telephone tag and then their was a first date - lunch at the Soho Bistro on Yonge St. And it grew from their. The timing was good but not great for the both of us. We had both been through a lot in the few previous years, and neither of us was looking for something else - just friendship. However it quickly went way beyond that and a love bloomed that I think caught both of us by surprise, but it was a powerful force that we came to realize was important to us. Together we were better!

I really do love her. Paolina has been such a wonderful and amazing influence in my life and I feel lucky and grateful every day that we are together.

Happy Valentine's Day Darling - I love you!

Today's "Training"

Forty-five minutes on the rollers this morning. Most of it, spinning in the 53/12 gear. Legs felt good. Then did the mini core routine afterwards.

I had been getting very excited about the prospects of some outdoor riding this weekend after a week of spring like weather here in Southern Ontario ( snow is almost completely gone), but we are back in the deep-freeze with a temp of -10C this morning and only slightly warmer weather forcast for the weekend. Maybe xc skiing. Have not been skiing in over a month now. Should be icey and fast at either Hardwood Hills or Horseshoe Valley

Call me a wimp but my lower threshold for outdoor riding is around 0C. If it's below that, I am indoors on the trainer or rollers - as boring as it is, it's a far better use of the time.

"Traning"

Back on the Train-er Gang!!

Did about an hour today on the Trainer. Warmed up for 15 - 20 minutes then, rode at about 40K TT effort for 20 minutes. Felt great until 3 - 4 minutes to go. Spin easy for 5 minutes then 5 X (1 min. all-out then 3 min easy) Tried to keep RPM's on the hard bits above 80. Spin easy for 10 minute warm down. Think that was actually more than an hour. Lost track of time - time flys when you are having fun!

Was getting those little twinges in the medial aspect of my calf muscles on the 1 min all-out sections that I sometimes get late in a road race when I am just maxed out and setting up for the sprint.

"Training"

As noted, my health has taken a turn for the better. Still not sure what I had, and I am not back to 100%, but it's getting there. Whatever, I have been back on the bike for three days now. First two days was spent riding the rollers for 50 minutes each day, just working on keeping the spin smooth. The rollers bring back the smooth spin nicely after a bit of a lay-off.

Yesterday, I rode the trainer for an hour with 40 minutes of 2 min. on and 2 min. off. Was surprised with how good I felt on the hard bits and was pushing a decent gear for most of it. The goal between now and the trip to Tucson is to be on the bike 5 - 6 days/week.