Easter Eggs!

This is an email I just sent to my teammates at Sweet Petes:

Two things ...

Just wanted to mention Cycling Dirt (http://www.cyclingdirt.org/) to everyone. It's a new website, been up since beginning of this year, focussing on MTB and CX. A lot of pros are on it linking to their blogs, or blogging through Cycling Dirt. And also a lot of community members such as ourselves, too. You can write articles and submit them, post up photos and keep a personal profile where people can comment and network. And perhaps the best part are all the video features covering our events. Finally! Someone's putting the spotlight on XC! It's basically like facebook for bikes! What are you waiting for? Sign up, and see you there! (My screen name is krislake so look me up!)

The second thing is that Steve Neal (Ontario coach extraordinaire) has started a new website as well: http://www.crossfitorangeville.com/ and it has a forum. It's a great place to ask all those burning training questions you have. He's quick to respond and a huge resource. Take advantage!

Cheers all! Best of luck to those racing Good Friday and see the rest of you at P2A!!

Happy Easter,

KL

The Coke side of life

"Want a beer?" Bruce asked, holding out a Bud as we all sat down to watch He-Man: Masters of the Universe.

"I can't," I said with a sigh. "I rode three hours today, and I need to do another three tomorrow ... if I have a beer, my legs will be shot."

After the usual group-discussion about how beer is actually good for you (duh!) he relented.

"Do you want a Coke then?" he asked, and I immediately felt like a giant cliche but grateful for his understanding. Normally I'd have to resist at least five times before I'd be left alone in beerless peace.

Coke is supposed to be on my personal list of banned substances (I used to be a Coke-a-day kinda girl ... got the cavity to prove it. And not that diet crap either!) but it's lower down than beer, so I accept -- it's Saturday night afterall. Woot woot, cola!

The funny thing is, I was probably even more buzzed off that one Caramel E-150d-coloured can of carbonated chemicals than I would have been off the beer. All I know is alcohol makes my legs knot up and Coke doesn't, so it wins.

That got me thinking about Coke. It's actually got a pretty colourful history and during race season, it even gets promoted off my list -- from guilty pleasure all the way up the ladder to energy drink.


Coke Pusher

The story of Coca Cola begins in the late 19th century. It was originally used as a medicine, shedding new light on Mary Poppins' theory. It was said to cure conditions including morphine addiction, indigestion, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence.

When it was first manufactured, the two main ingredients were cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, hence: Coca-Cola (poetic license with the "K" for the marketing machine).

In 1903, the cocaine was removed (for obvious reasons) but the coca flavour lives on. There's only one plant authorized by the American Federal Government to process the coca leaves: Stepan Company in New Jersey. Coca-Cola Bottling Company gets the cocaine-free leaves, while the extracted cocaine is sent to Mallinckrodt, a pharmaceutical manufacturer in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the only company in the United States licensed to purify cocaine for medicinal use.

Caffeine remains in Coca-Cola and is in fact what makes it attractive to athletes. In a recent study at McMaster, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism (and covered on CBC news), they found that caffeine can delay an athlete's perception of pain and fatigue. It also tricks your muscles into releasing more of the calcium they need to contract and relax.

In the Feed Zone at the race course, you'll often hear riders call out for Coke on their next bottle. When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke. A coke? At a time like this? "Wtf, would you like a burger to go with it?" I wanted to yell back. However, as I later learned, the request for Coke instead of water/energy drink has solid scientific backing. The night before a race, you open a bottle of "the real thing" and put it in the fridge to let it de-fizz. Cut it with some water and you've got all the sugars and 'pop' (excuse the pun) you need to get you through the last half of your race.

Team mate Derek collects his bottle in the feed zone -- not a Coke lap this time!

I haven't experimented with a Coke on-course, but I do have one on the drive up instead of a coffee. I find where coffee leaves my stomach feeling unsettled, coke just gets me going and feeling great (sometimes I substitute a Dr. Pepper, but that's beside the point). While on course, I get my caffeine from Clif Shots. Each gooey strawberry flavoured packet contains 25 mg of caffeine. But after two years of steady Clif Shot intake, I have to say I'm ready for a change. So maybe this year, I'll be the one riding through the Feedzone calling out my Coke-lap.

Interesting Coke facts:

• It's kosher at Passover!
• It's the same forumla it's always been (minus cocaine) -- in fact, Americans protested when Coke tried to change it in 1985
• Coca-Cola has been a sponsor of the Olympic Games since the first ever Games in Amsterdam, 1928; Caffeine has been an IOC banned substance (now restricted, but check my facts)
• The Coke formula is guarded under lock and key in a bank vault. Only two executives know it
• Cherry Coke is a Canadian thing. It was discontinued in 2000 (I loved that stuff)
• Coke has been shown to contribute to osteoperosis in women who drink a lot of it
• In one night, Coke can soften a tooth and melt meat
• Coke is great at cleaning coins, toilets, blood spots and washing paint off.

So long, Metropass!

Today is the first day of April, and that means my days of avoiding city streets have come to a close. I'm once again a cycle-commuter.

Amongst athletes, commuting gets a bad rep. Hardcore cyclists call the ride between home and office "junk miles" -- because you aren't riding long enough or hard enough uninterupted to provoke a training response.

For the most part I agree and would never count the hours I spend commuting towards my weekly totals. But there are two ways to get a little more out of your morning ride than just conveyance from A to B.

1) Sprint off every stop light. This will work a system most of us rarely spend enough time on. I don't know what the technical term is but I know it's the one that mother nature gave us to optimize our chances of survival in a surprise sabre-tooth tiger attack. It means you can go as hard as you can for about 12 seconds without drawing on your glycogen supplies, and before lactic acid build up can be perceieved. **Please note this blog is not edited by anyone scientific, so any clarifying or correcting is welcome in the comments.

2) Ride nice and easy. They say that a ride in your recovery zone will do more to repair the strains of training than doing nothing. So spin your legs out, get your blood carrying that oxygen to worn out muscles and be that much more prepared to stomp your next set of intervals during your workout.

I recommend starting your day with option 2 and then going home using option 1. That way, when you get to work, you won't be a sweaty dirt bag.

And finally, if you're not among the lucky Toronto commuters whose employers appreciate the odd bicycle in the office, you'll need to remember the "Rule of 50". That is, bike + lock = 50 lbs.

So if your bike weighs 10 lbs, you need a 40 lb lock. If your bike weighs 40 lbs, you need a 10 lb lock. If your bike weighs 50 lbs, you don't need lock.

Amsterdam, 2004: a city all about bicycle-commuting.

A commute that I will always remember: Paris to Versailles with my sister, by bike

My First Bicycle.

Today in Toronto it is sunny and the temperature is 10°C. I'm stuck indoors for only a few more hours and then it's off for an afternoon ride on the new bike. Bliss!

This time of year, when we're all just getting back to the streets that were covered in ice and snow only a month ago, I always think back to my first days on two wheels back in Port Elgin.

I have a lot of great memories of riding laps around our cul de sac (first crit?) with my sister and all the neighbourhood kids. I remember the sound of the leftover sand between my tires and the pavement, the smell of the lawns thawing from the deep freeze and the joy of finally ditching the winter coat for a new spring model.

And I remember my first ever bicycle. The picture above was taken right after bringing it home from the store. As you can see, the protective foam is still on the top tube. It's a Rainbow Rider. My twin sister is beside me on the red one. We thought these bikes were the shit. It came with a banana seat (which has a very pretty rainbow on it) and not content to just ride stock, we added on our own honker horns and upgraded streamers shortly after this picture was taken. The training wheels came with it.

At first I was hesitant about choosing the Rainbow because all my friends had "Blue Angels" and so I of course wanted one too. But I'm glad I went with the Rainbow Rider (although I still opted for the blue ...). I remember every moment of picking this bike out. Important stuff. I thought the best part was that when the sun shone through the reflectors, little rainbows appeared on the concrete. "How cool is that?" I thought ... then found out later that this is not a unique feature to Rainbow Rider reflectors.

My first bike was the ultimate freedom for a 6 year old. I remember the first time I made it off the training wheels. All of a sudden, the ride was quiet -- the clatter of the worn out trainers silenced -- and I really felt like I was flying. My dad saw that the time had come, and he took them off. Although I was super nervous, and not quite sure about his judgment, I pushed off and with every pedal stroke my smile widened til I was laughing my way around our street.

I spent all my play time riding that Rainbow Rider, making sure to be home when the streetlights came on. Thus began my love for bikes.

Since that blue Rainbow Rider, I've had the pleasure of riding:

• Yellow Supercycle I crashed on my first dirt jump (I wasn't dirt jumping on purpose ...)
• Purple Raleigh Tarantula which I had for years and years until it got stolen in Toronto
• Red Rocky Mountain Fusion I bought to replace the tarantula -- my first race bike
• Red Giant NRS -- my first bro deal
• White Giant Anthem 0 -- my first pro deal

I hope they're happy, wherever they are.

Toronto Skills Park

Attention Toronto riders. We need you.

Turns out that the City is actually trying to make good on all its trumpeting about cycling-advocacy. That's a good thing. A really good thing.

For the mountain bike community, that translates to a proposed skills park that's already got a lot going for it. Word is locations have been scouted. Top builders have been approached. And IMBA Canada is backing it.

The only thing missing is the kind of support a park like this needs from the community. It needs riders, builders and people willing to help out keeping it maintained. It needs you.

If you think Toronto needs a Skills Park, then you need to fill out this form. It's been posted on Dropmachine, PinkBike, blogs and sent around on email, and now it's reached you. So please, put down your name.

If you don't think a Skills Park has anything to do with you because that's not the kind of riding you like, then you need to fill out this form. This is just a first step in truly making Toronto a bike-friendly city. Be a part of it.

If you have kids who ride, who might ride, or who just don't ride yet, then you need to fill out this form. Hanging out at a skills park sure beats a lot of the other 'extra-curricular' activities Toronto's youth have found to fill their time.

So that's the bandwagon. Get on it. See you at the park!

Race Tracks

The robins hopping around on my front yard tell me Spring is here and that means that the time to pack up the trainer is just around the corner. Oh, how that makes me happy!


During the trainer season, I owe a lot of mornings to "The Collective" and Seasons. That movie makes it worth getting out of bed. Perfect length for a spin before work and somehow I never get sick of it. I especially love the part with Peaty racing MSA to "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine. Perfect pick, and definitely a Race Track.



And for fun, here's the Seasons trailer. Pick it up at your LBS.

Days of Dirt - Coming April 2009

With more and more filmers moving to HD these days, action sports films are that much more fun to watch. Days of Dirt features sick tricks, fast lines, tight pants, racing, stunts, crashing, shenanigans, boobs and beer. Rad rad rad, thank you very much.


Days of Dirt Trailer #2 from allout productions on Vimeo.

Original here.