Well, the first road ride outside in 2010. Scott and I did a few laps around Birds Hill Park this afternoon. The road was mainly dry and clear and the temperature was a pleasant +3 with light winds. It felt good to get back out on the road and off the indoor trainer. However, I suspect there will be a few more indoor sessions before I’m able to make a full return to the open road for the season.

Next time I’m going to let those nice guys who road by and offered to take the picture do it. Scott is looking good, and I look like a dork holding camera taking a picture of himself, which I was. Oh well, next time.

It was a long, slow painful demise. First he went blind (lost his button eyes), then he suffered through a double amputation (both his stick arms fell off), but a remarkable surgical procedure managed to re-attach one of his arms. Then, he suffered a stroke (fell over), but made a good recovery for a few days and was up and about. But in the end the overwhelming sunshine and hot temperatures took him out and he layed down his life.

Snowman, we’ll miss you.

I have one training DVD that I’ve used once a week since Christmas. It’s a one hour killer workout and the time seems to fly by, but you still want it to be over, but for another reason say like so you won’t throw up, or collapse in a heap on the floor. But there is this guy pushing you on. “hurry”, “don’t be last”, “earn you rest day”, it’s sort of a love hate relationship.

BTW, does anybody know someone who speaks Italian? I’m looking for somebody to help me pronounce “Vado troppo veloce per te?“.

Had a great ride at Icebike 12 today at The Forks. I did the usual Abominable class race which this year was 3 laps for ~15km. Turnout was lighter that usual. Not sure if it was the snowy conditionsor the Super Bowl or what. Lots of years it’s been much colder.

I was surprised that even after road riding late into the fall, and doing some workouts on the trainer, the 1st 1/2 lap was a killer. My legs were burning and I seemed to be sucking wind a bit. After that, I settled in and felt pretty good for most of the race.

The St. Boniface hospital side was the main challenge with all the fresh loose snow on the slope of the river bank. This section of the course required a little off the bike running which was just as fast as trying to ride it.

The other interesting spot was dropping down to the lower part of the trail after crossing the Provencher Bridge. The drop wasn’t too bad inspite of the loose show, it was that big rock half way down that was ready to greet anybody who lost control.

A good day all in all especially with Scott, Mandy, Shirley & friends cheering me on. It always helps the keep you pushing hard when you’re feeling like easing up. The results will be up later in the week, so we’ll see how I finished up them.

However, this was yet another year where I didn’t win a door prize! Dozens of prizes each year, 8 or 9 years of being in the race, and so far they have yet to pull my number. What’s up with that?

Bookstores are the worst. Who reads all these books? Too many of every kind which makes it hard to decide between all the stuff that you can’t possible use or consume or enjoy. Frustration sets in and its easier just to walk away. Easier on the wallet too.

Back around Christmas time I purchased my first ever Spin workout DVD. I picked the Spinnervals 19.0 Bending Crank Arms. I really didn’t know what I was getting into and the first workout was a killer and I really couldn’t keep up with my on-screen riding companions. The thing I really didn’t know in advance, was the off bike work. In between spin interval sets on the bike there are squat sets off the bike. You’re commanded to do as many squats as possible in 30 seconds and then hold an iso-squat for another 30 seconds, a 30 second rest and then do it again, and again. Then the sets get longer, 45 seconds and then a minute!

Well after 4 weeks of doing this workout, I’m noticing an improvement. I can almost keep up with the crew all the way to the end, no throwing up involved, but it gets close some times. I began to wonder exactly how many squats are involved in a session. Well the pace is about 1 per second and today I managed just over 455 squats. Now some of the keeners on the DVD are holding 5-10lb. dumbbells and I’m not at that level – yet.

Hoarfrost A deposit of interlocking ice crystals (hoar crystals) formed by direct sublimation on objects, usually those of small diameter freely exposed to the air, such as tree branches, plant stems and leaf edges, wires, poles, etc., which surface is sufficiently cooled, mostly by nocturnal radiation, to cause the direct sublimation of the water vapor contained in the ambient air.

I just think it’s pretty.

Every year we try to make at least one trip out to the cottage to experience beautiful Lake of the Woods in the winter. This year has been the warmest ever with temperatures above 0°C. Arriving last night we hauled the gear in and fired up the furnace and the fireplace. Things were warming nicely when we noticed the furnace had stopped. Oh yeah, the circuit breaker was acting up last year and we didn’t get around to replacing it. In the past, it would run for quite some time and then trip off. After resetting a couple of times it generally started to stay on and work fine. Tonight it’s flipping off ever 5 minutes, and its not really getting any warmer. After some serious electrical panel investigation is seems more cooperative. We head off to sleep and the furnace runs most of the night and by morning it’s nice and toasty.

On Saturday morning, it’s actually raining! The trees are getting coated with ice and I imagine the roads are getting pretty exciting for driving. First order of business is a coffee, followed by fetching some water from the lake.

Watering Hole
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

Getting water from the lake has traditionally involved about a 1/2 hour of very aggressive pick axe chopping of a hole in the ice. As the ice can be around 2+ feet thick, you start choping a hold that’s about 3′ across which narrows in as you go deeper and you hope you break through before its to narrow to swing the pick in. If this happens, its more work, widening out the hole to about 4′ across. Many a year I’ve worked up a great sweat and taken off my jacket even at -20C while chopping he hole.

This year, brains over brawn has kicked it. I purchased an ice auger. That bad boy put an 8″ hole through 11″ of ice in under 30 seconds with very little effort. It was so easy and fun that I drilled a second hole just for the heck of it.

Water acquired and breakfast consumed, it was time to explore the neighborhood. Not to much to report, as very few people are around. It looks like all the local residents have gone south for the winter. Given the wet conditions of the snow we decided to do a little building.

Standing Guard
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

I’ve had this clock since I was about 14 and at that time is was already an official antique, being appraised a just over 100 years old. It was originally in the train station in Rennie, Manitoba near Brerton Lake in the Whiteshell. So, how did I get this little treasure? Well one weekend my Dad and one of his friends were doing some maintenance work at the CGIT Camp on the lake and that meant I was helping. My assignment that day was to paint and immense dinning hall floor a very nice shade of battleship gray. Wow, just how I wanted to spend my Saturday at the lake. The clock was hanging in the hall and as I painted, it caught my interest. The varnish finish was all cracked and pealing and it didn’t run. Well, with a little negotiating I managed to obtain ownership of the clock in lieu of payment for my days labours.

Once I had it home, I began the re-finishing process and stripped off the varnish and replaced it with a nice soft oil finish. The clock mechanism was another story. Upon investigation, one of the brass gears had a tooth broken off, something that a 14 year old wasn’t going to be able to fix. Dad to the rescue! He took the clock to an old school clock repair guy, probably one of the last in the city ,and a new tooth was fashioned and soldered into place.

Did I mention that it ticks rather loudly? The clock was installed in a place of honors on the wall at the foot of my bed. It took me a night or two to get used to the ticking, apparently it took my parents much longer to get used to sleeping with the rhythmic tick, tock, tick, tock, but everybody survived.

Ever since then the clock has been in our home. A while back the rod attachment that holds the pendulum in place broke off, so there was no more ticking. And then, during a recent redecorating spree I was informed that it’s place of honour in the living room was no longer “appropriate”. Since that day the clock has been in storage. So, this weekend the restoration began again. A fresh coat of oil finish, some brass polish and re-attaching the rod for the pendulum has it in tip top shape once more, and restored to a place of honour in my office.