Max Heart Rate - For the Ladies

I subscribe to the montly "Women's Cycling" newsletter and today it had this little gem:

If you are a lady, and use a heart rate monitor to gage your workouts, you might be working too hard!

I rely on testing to see what my maximum heart rate is but I can see now why I was justified in doing that -- the old forumla is WRONG!

Old forumla: 220 minus your age.

New forumla: 206 minus 88% of your age.

Using the new forumla, guess what! I got a number that actually makes a lot more sense compared to test results. So there ya go!

Original article printed in NYTimes

Rock Statues!

A man I met way back in the winter time, Peter Riedel, has made the Toronto Star today! Remember this guy?

Peter relaxes/gets a little workout by finding rocks' natural balancing points and piling them up into interesting statues.

Today, he was the subject of intrigue as people tried to figure out who had put new rock statues in the Humber. I knew right away who it was! And apparently it's been confirmed. Cool.

Thank You, John Graves Simcoe!

Great weekend with lots of riding and relaxing. Only complaint was that the sun only wanted to cooperate while I was on the bike ... so I'll have to take a rain cheque on the beach day I had planned I guess. Uh, no pun intended.

Hope everyone had a great long weekend! Thanks to Kim and Bryan for hosting G and I!

KL

Kelso

Opened up my email today and saw the monthly Chico report. Clicked it and to my surprise, I saw ME! A nice reminder of last year's glorious season. I've decided to give Kelso a shot afterall, hopefully to train through for provincials two weeks later. So not really carrying a lot of expectation, but I am excited because it sounds like there will be a cheering section this time. Woo hoo! Plus, I love riding Kelso (except maybe that infamous service road climb).

After email, my next stop was Chicoracing.com to see if the course map is up -- and it is! Looks like a fun old time -- I relish any opportunity to go DOWN the Ugly Up instead of climbing it, so this course is definitely Kris-approved. Hope to get out for preride on Wednesday the 4th, if anyone cares to join.

Rehab

So now that Strep in all its ugliness is behind me, it's time to get back to the business of bike racing. Such that it is. After a busy day in Niagara on Saturday, spent with Grampa, Aunt Mindy and Gerhard I got some time on Sunday to test out the ol' legs.

Since I didn't have much on the menu (just 90 minutes of endurance riding) I just rode the path of least resistance until a route formulated itself in my head. After a few right turns on reds, I found myself at the corner of Dufferin and Queen on a traffic-quiet Sunday morning. I decided to take my opportunity and tour Toronto's awesome downtown. Got a green on Queen and made my left.

Not two seconds later I was rewarded with an impaired woman, carrying a cat or something in a box with her pants about to fall down (as it was, almost a full butt cheek was visible above her jeans). Queen west = people watching at its finest. I continued, half wondering if I'd make it to the Jazz Festival in the beaches before the clock ran out.

After a few races with cabbies and punks on raleighs, I found myself on the border of the street fest in the Beach, but decided to head down the waterfront trail. And right into a marathon race of some kind! I cheered on some runners, then continued past the skate park.

Coincidentally, G was skating there at the time, but I didn't know that, so I missed the opportunity to see skater tricks. Drat. Thus deprived, I continued westwards on the Martin Goodman.

Around the CNE I met Maggie, an elderly Golden Retriever. She was suffering from heat-stroke, but her owner just accused her of being lazy. She was collapsed on the trail, with her mom yanking on her leash to try and tow her off the pavement. Naturally, I stopped and let Maggie have the rest of the my water. She looked thankful, but still thirsty. I hope her master figured things out for her, but I am satisfied I did all I could. Later, we accidentally shared spit when I took a swig from the dog slobbered bottle. They say dogs have the cleanest mouths, right?

Anyway, a couple people watching/racer cheering/dog-saving hours later, I was home with no other complications besides some slightly itchy ears. It's good to be back :)

Photo of the Day

Emily Batty, Trek World Racing (and the rest of Ontario's top athletes) is back in Europe getting ready for the return of the World Cup Racing season at Champery, Switzerland. Fresh off defending her U23 Canadian National Championship jersey, I'm stoked to see her continued success. She is truly living the dream.

There's no doubt Emily is fast becoming Canada's mountain bike darling. Everyone you talk to will tell you that not only is she obviously talented and hardworking, but she's a gal you'd want as a friend (and I won't even mention her good-looks). Always positive, and always smiling. She's so sweet, she even farts rainbows. ;)