New Cycling Shoes

September 5, 2011 at 11:46 am · Filed under Sports

I guess it was inevitable after 15 years…

Most road shoes don’t have the two mounting holes for spd pedals anymore. Shimano still makes SPD pedals, but only for mountain bikes. Their road pedals are more like Look pedals now. So it looked like I would need new pedals too.

I opted for some low-end Specialized shoes that fit very well, along with some matching white Speedplay Zero pedals.

On top of this, I had to spend $100 on a UCI road license for the privialage of doing the Vancouver – Whistler Gran Fondo in front of 7000 people in the citizens category. Who knows, maybe that $100 will save me from some nasty shoulder-to-shoulder wipe out. As well, I get to suck my friends’ wheels for as long as I can since they already had Cat 3 licenses.

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The Wheels Are Off

August 29, 2011 at 8:44 am · Filed under Sports

I went on my old cycling club’s weekend ride this morning (edit: this post was drafted on Aug.29). It was kind of cool because it was almost a type of reunion ride. Several ex-club members were there along with a couple of long-term members: Michael and Heather Haywood, David “Killer” Haywood, Dave Goosen, Alan Walrond, Joe Tam and John Tolkamp and Ryan Cousineau. That was the good part.

The bad part was that the figurative wheels have come off for me. I was exhausted during the ride and had a lot of problems breathing. This has become “normal” for me over the past several weeks. I’m not sure what is wrong…

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Spring Skiing

March 23, 2011 at 3:25 pm · Filed under Sports

This week the kids have been attending a ski camp up at Mt. Seymour. The camps run in the morning from 9:30 to 11:00 (Emma) or 12:00 (Grady). Mt. Seymour is well prepared and the kids have been enjoying it. Grady has been skiing down various runs so I’m hoping he is making some good progress. Emma is in a younger kids group and so far they have only been on a 30′ bunny hill. I’m sort of disappointed with that because I know she can ski with enough control to go down a real hill or run. She seems to enjoy it though. Grady really likes the skiing too although he get thoroughly exhausted, which then causes him to get a bit whiny.

I’ve gone for short snowshoe jaunts while the kids are skiing, and today was absolutely amazing. The temperature was close to 0C with totally clear skies. It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a sunny winter landscape and I didn’t realize how much I missed it.

I’m thinking that on Thursday or Friday I will bring my skis up and hit the slopes myself. I may bring my skins for a quick tour up and back, or I may get a lift ticket. If I get a lift ticket I can then do a couple of runs with Grady so he can show me what he’s learned. I’ll need Mercy to come up too though, so she can hang with Emma. As well, Grady may be too tired and not want to ski more. The rain is returning to Vancouver too (hopefully snowing on the mountain, so that might change things if we get wet.

Spring touring @ Mt. Seymour

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Enough of Toronto Already

March 16, 2011 at 10:43 am · Filed under Sports

Here are the NHL headlines on the front of the TSN.ca webpage. Seriously, is there nothing else going on in the NHL other than the things that revolve around Toronto? Just in case you’re wondering why the 2nd headline is about the Hurricanes, it’s because they are playing the Laughs tonight.

* Leafs recall Kadri, Lashoff; sign Gardiner to entry-level deal
* Hurricanes blank Sabres to move within two points of eighth
* NHL Standings: Leafs six points out of playoffs
* Ice Chips: All the latest roster news
* Power Rankings: Hurricanes #24, Maple Leafs #25
* Leafs’ Nonis to be named Team Canada’s GM for Worlds

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Return to Running

January 15, 2011 at 9:11 am · Filed under Sports

Since about May of last year I’ve been trying to get some consistent exercise. I’ve mainly focused on biking but it has presented it problems. First, I’m kind of lazy. That’s not a particular problem with cycling though. My second problem has been free time. I found it hard to grab 2.5 – 3hrs to go for a ride. It shouldn’t have been that hard really, looking back at the summer I guess I just had a mix of homework, school, kids and family trips to deal with. Near the end of summer I got back on the bike trainer in the garage and that started off pretty good. By the end of October though, I was again swamped with work, homework for the MET program and kids. With Mercy working night shifts, I didn’t have an opportunity to duck into the garage in the evening or morning to do a workout. So a couple of weeks I decided to try running again.

One of the biggest problems I’ve had with running is pain in my shins. Years ago I saw a sports med doctor and it was diagnosed as chronic compartment syndrome. Anyways, I went for a couple of walk/runs (1min run, 2min walk) and sure enough I had quite a bit of pain in shins. I then thought back to some things I had read on Joe Friel’s blog, and how he is a big proponent of mid-foot landing. Thinking a bit about this, I recognized that I run with landing on my heel with my front foot extended forwards of my body. It seemed reasonable to try and run landing on my mid-foot and reduce some of the stretch in my ankle (ie pointing my toes up or down). A little bit more research led me to the Pose method of running, which seemed to focus on landing on the balls of the feet and keeping the landing underneath the runner’s center of gravity.

I’ve borrowed the Pose running dvd from the library and have looked over the technique presented and some of the training exercises. One of the most interested bits about it is that they say that research shows that forward running speed is not dependent upon forces that your foot pushes forward on the ground. I think this is intuitively what we think: we move forward by pushing our bodies with our feet. Instead, the research indicates (apparently) that our forward movement is created by the torque created as our center of gravity falls forward, pivoting about the point where our feet touch the ground. So with the Pose method of running, the idea is that the leading foot should stay underneath the center of gravity, and speed is created by leaning forward and quickening the running pace. From my perspective, I was more interested in the techniques which I hoped would reduce the impact and strain on my shin.

It’s been about a week and I’ve done 3 runs, going up to a 1.5/2min run/walk split, without having any pain in my shins. I’m not sure I have very “Pose” technique yet, but so far I am cautiously optimistic. We’ll see what happens as I increase the time and intensity. I’m still finding it tricky to find time to run. My day typically starts at 6:30, then it’s work until 4:30ish when I have to take the kids to some type of activity (soccer, swimming, aikido, playdate), then dinner, help the kids with reading and then it’s 8pm and I’m pretty tired – and I might have homework to do.

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Bella Coola

September 27, 2010 at 10:55 pm · Filed under Just Stuff, Sports

I had big plans to go to Bella Coola last weekend. There was talk of great coho fishing and I was keen to do some spey casting and landing some bigger northern coho. The plan was to leave Wednesday night and come back Sunday or Monday.

Wednesday wasn’t looking promising because I decided to help out with Emma’s first soccer practice. As well, the forecast was for rain on the weekend. I didn’t feel like driving 10hrs for rain while camping. Thurday morning came, I decided to skip the trip and managed to get a couple days of work in. As luck would have it, this was a great decision. I would still be there if I had gone. I’d also be very cold and probably really tired. I’m sure I would have caught a couple of nice coho though.

Here are some of the types of flies I tied for the trip. I wonder where else these would be good? Maybe the Squamish, it has pretty murky water.

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