Alternative Measures

For those who don't know it has been cold and snowing for the last little while here in Calgary. After coming back from Victoria I took some days off the bike completely and then eased back into the training regime with some rollers, weights, skiing and squash to break things up. Yesterday I did what I call the "Poor Mans Winter Coping Triathlon" which is named for the fact that I can't afford to move away from this blasted place and thus have to take nature in stride and come up with alternatives that keep me sane. The triathlon consists of riding the rollers for as long as you possibly can until your brain is so numb you start to enjoy watching curling, running up to the Oval the long way (about 20min), doing weights and core for 1.5hrs and then running home the really long way along the river (45min). The entire training session can take up to 5.5 hours depending on how long you survive the rollers. Yesterday I managed 2 hours on the rollers, my record is 3 hours 20 min. As you can see this is not the most stimulating of workouts, but the weather yesterday was cold and the roads were brutal.
Today the sun came out in the afternoon and the mercury revealed 5 degrees above freezing in the sunshine. After swapping out the wheels and pedals on the cross bike I was set for some snow riding action. I ended up riding out to the canal and back. All the way from Inglewood and out the path was snow covered and sparsly travelled making for some fun riding and cross skills development. Not many people have walked past the bird sanctuary so the going was really slow. It felt like riding through a several km long mud bog, never had my heart rate so high riding on a dead flat road in my 25t before. The track along the train tracks at the east end of the Douglas Fir trail was especially fun as the runners have packed the narrow trail down hard making for good grip and a smooth, icy blast through the pines.

Spooky's are the ticket to winter fun.