Training Log Archive: carbon

Toady we experienced some of the steepest climbs of the week. One climb averaged 16% over 2.5km. You could feel that one in the legs. The break was had at the top of San Marino, an independent country similar to the Vatican. The climb up was long and the views were stunning. You could see all the way down to the ocean and beyond. Dad rode really well and managed to climb up the very steep hill with only one little break! Not bad for a 66 year old! After our ride I took dad out for pizza and beer. Good times.

C • Great! 3

Another very beautiful day took us into the hills of Italy. Had a few fun climbs and actually rode for a bit longer than expected. Instead of serving us a lunch buffet at our hotel this afternoon we rode to the hotel owners summer house in the mountains for a BBQ. The owner and the hotel staff cooked everything in the garden by a very old house. They had an olive tree garden overlooking a beautiful valley. After lunch all the various groups rode back to the hotel together. What a great week this has been. Tomorrow will be our last day of riding before starting our return trip to Calgary. It may be a while before we get to ride through scenery like this again.

Climbing, climbing, climbing! Today was awesome! I loved it! The scenery was absolutely stunning and the weather perfect. I had a solid ride and for the first part of the ride we were with the race group. On the first long climb they pulled away a bit but I nearly caught them when I decided to back of and not let myself blow up too early in the day. Once the two groups parted we headed into the most beautiful part of the day. A long climb up a cool mountain followed by a descent down along a steep hill side. A few very beautiful villages were tucked away on a mountain side off to our view point. Once down we climbed right back up again on the most difficult climb of the day. A granny gear climb where it got so steep at times you reached down to your shifter to see if you had another easier gear you could use. I was having fun riding with the guide all the way to the top. Mike, the Swizz guy and a Norwegian were all right behind us. The last 30km were mostly downhill or flat which was the only part of the day that didn't steadily climb or steeply descend. This day wil be hard to beat.

Today I learned something interesting. I'm not sure this applies to all Italian cyclists or just to our Italian guides, but they are very much fair weather riders. We set out to do 100km this morning and had a very windy and hard morning. The group was smaller today with mostly fast riders so there were never any breaks. We had a great time out there when a predicted rain storm moved in. It rained pretty hard for about 30 minutes and with the wind it felt pretty cold. Though I was still fine in just my shorts and a rain shell thrown on for upper body protection. The Norwegians, Swedes and Canadian all seemed comfortable despite the rain. We climbed up a little mountain and pulled over at a cafe for a cappuccino. At the cafe we ran into one of the slower groups from our hotel. The guides chatted and it turned out that they really didn't like the weather. Even though the rain had slowed to a tiny drizzle by the time we were ready to head out agin, they took us straight back to ur hotel and cut the ride short by 20 km. They were complaining about the cold. The race group's ride was cut by even more as their guide (who is a famous tour rider) also wimped out. The group kept going without the guide to get their desired training done. We still had an amazing day and the afternoon break has been nice. Tomorrow we are doing a bigger ride with 2700m of elevation gain, taking us through the regions of Amelia Romagna, the Marche and Tuscany. We are promised some nice views.

C • Principesse 11

Second day of riding. Today they had two long rides available. One for race pace and one a bit slower. I joined the slower one which was the case of most hammer heads from yesterday. Many guys were tired today. I had a great time on the climbs. We had two really long ones and a couple of medium climbs. On the longest hill I sneaked in behind the guide and stayed with him for the full climb. Two superstar Norwegians blew by us, racing each other early on, but our steady climbing gained on them and a few minutes before the top we passed them. Great times. The scenery was stunning today and we had a cappuccino stop in a beautiful town with cobble stones all around. Just before we got back to our hotel a girl in our group slid out in a round about and got a bit of a road rash. Hopefully she will be okay for tomorrow. Many of the twisting and narrow downhills are a bit intimidating as you never know what kind of vehicles you will meet aroud each corner. This trip is amazing though and I can't wait to see where we will ride tomorrow. I feel great on the bike which has been a bit of a surprise as we haven't ridden as much this winter as last year.

A short run right off the bike. Felt good.

First ride at the Belvedere bike hotel in Italy. I signed up for the long ride and was the only girl in that group. We rode out of town along the sea and then up a long hill into the country side. On this first climb the testosterone was running pretty height in the boys. Some were breathing pretty hard. I was just doing my own thing and crested at the top in mid pack. Downhill through some tight corners at high speed was pretty thrilling. I was passed by the fatter guys that usually took up the rear. I'm not a very fast downhiller. At the 50k mark we caught up with a few other tours and got mixed up with them. Some people didn't seem happy that a girl was passing them, or perhaps that anyone was passing them. We lost sight of the top pack of our group who was about 200m ahead of us and the lead guide was a bit wrapped up in racing with the fast boys and thus forgot to wait for the rest of us at a turn. When the tail guide caught Mike and myself he thought the group would have gone straight as the rule is that you wait at turns. We went straight but after 7km we realized that the group must have turned. We back tracked and looked for the tail group but didn't find them. From that point and on we were on our own to work out our way back. We bought a map and picked some fun country roads with some good climbs. The tail guide was a guide in training and didn't know the way of the group ride so we made our own day out of it. We came back to the hotel only a couple of minutes and 2km shy of the main group. The lead guide apologized but he didn't seem all that worried about it. Hopefully we can stick with them tomorrow. The terrain is beautiful and the riding is awesome. The food is top notch as well. What a place!

Oh, yeah! Finally got a workout in and it felt awesome! Ran along the shore in Riccione and the lungs felt like superstars at sea level. Missed my turn on the way back and had to backtrack a bit to get to our hotel. Also managed to loose Mike who is not back yet. Wonder how long I'll wait before sending out a search party.

The Belvedere bike hotel is so far awesome! What a cool place. Everyone here, staff and guest alike are so nice. No wonder they have such a good reputation. Can't wait to see my dad who arrives this evening and can't wait to head out for our firt ride tomorrow. Due to Calgary's long winter it will be my firt ride outside.

C • Is he back yet? 2

Haven't been road running for a while. Reminds my how much I prefer the trails. Still an okay run. Felt more energetic than on Wednesday night. Now off to the airport. Hope our pilots show up. I heard many of them are calling in sick. We are flying Lufthansa but it looks like the flight is operated by AC.

C • Have a fantastic trip! 4

Nose Hill Run.

Last ski day at Sol Mountain lodge. Today was very, very warm at 8C. Saw some huge death cookies rolling down the slopes, but we still managed to find some good snow. The last up track had us roll up pants and shirts to try to keep cool. A great week with great people. Life is good.

Spring skiing at its best. Found some super sweet runs followed by nice walks up in the sunshine. It feels strange to think that this is the last skiing for the season when there is still 4 meters of snow here.

A 10hr beautiful day in the mountains. Stunning weather, awesome turns and perfect company. On the way home we traversed a ridge and the clouds opened up all around allowing us to see some Thor, Oden, the Golden chain and more.

Another fantastic day in the mountains. Didn't bring enough water today and felt really dehydrated by the end of it.

First day at Sol Mountain. Had a few great runs with a fun crew ( Revy, C-Bass, Carbon's O, Kevin, Sarah, Jim, Lucy, Kim, Chris and Steve. Despite the warm and somewhat wet weather, the snow was pretty good. Fun to be back on the skis.

Another run on Nose Hill in the kick butt16C weather! First time in shorts this year, but with 20 cm of snow expected in town tomorrow, it was a short lived experience. Lots of good hill climbs in there. Steady and solid run.

Glutes strengthening and physio work. Meant to do my weights too, but packing for the ski trip used up the rest of the evening.

C • Ski trip!! 3

A day on Nose Hill.had a very steady run. On the first lap around I walked a couple of the longer, but less steep hills which I should have been running. On the second lap I only walked the very steepest of hills and ensured I kept at least a shuffle on the other hills. I missed my cutoff at the car by 30 minutes and poor Carbon's Offset was sitting inside the trunk of the car like a dog, stretching, when I returned. It was too windy for him to stretch outside. My mistake was that I took a different trail back which turned out to be longer than I though.

C • The important thing... 3