A dozen reasons that I might rather workout during the senior hours at the gym!

12 You hear all of the latest news and weather in the changeroom before/after the workout!

11 Its funny to watch a few old men shave together at the gym, though inconvenient if you need a sink.

10 Listening to their banter in the changeroom will teach you new (very old) slang

9 You always hear a good story in the sauna after a workout.

8 Working out; if they can do it then I damn well can too!

7 The flip side of 8: you are almost guaranteed to be the fittest person in the gym

6 Seniors never try to be intimidating with ripped shirts and lifting too much, they just smile.

5 They don't drop weights loudly.

4 The men don't peruse the women at the cardio machines.

3 They trudge tirelessly on a 100m track, which is quite endearing.

2 it really is motivating And I hope that I'm still working out when I retire!

1 they love the "student atmosphere" at this gym (sport and wellness center in Peterborough), and love to chat and listen to almost anything you will say.

My race bike is for sale...

Those who I am lucky enough to have had supporting me this year whether through reading my blog, asking about my races, or just saying hi at the races know that I fell in love with my bike this year. Reality hits when you break 12 teeth though, and about $4500 won’t be covered by insurance of any sort...

I am selling my the bike that I rode back into the sport with. It’s a sad thing but I’ve got to sell my one of a kind bike. We’ve had a great season, and anyone who read my blog knows that my bike never left me hanging for a race. I custom picked all of the componentry and paint, the bike was handmade in Bromont Quebec out of Columbus Zona Megatube, it is size Large.I got it at the start o this season and have taken meticulous care of it (as I am an elite xc racer and need my bike to be in perfect shape). It was only ridden either in races or pre-riding for races. Everything in excellent condition. All components are either carbon or white (component list below) and the sales guy for the company told me at a Canada Cup that I had the nicest looking bike on display at their exhibition. The steel frame is incredibly durable and the most comfortable ride you can find - my buddy on a niner wants the frame, but the bike is selling as a complete. This bike feels like a 26er because it is so light and the head tube is so steep, but still rolls as fast and flawlessly as a 29er. I've ridden everything on this bike with no problems, from Mont Saint Anne Worldcup trails to southern Ontario hardpack tight turning tracks. It is sitting in the factory right now waiting to hear what colour it will be painted, you can choose the new colour if you want to buy it! Looking for $2500, let me know if you are interested, we can talk about the price.

Components:
Fork Reba RL 29er, lockout included 
Seat clamp Fsa Seat post SL-250 SBS SB20 WHITE 
Saddle San Marco Ponza 
Headset FSA 1-1/8 orbit-MX white 
Stem Truvativ Stylo World Cup white 
Handlebar Ritchey wcs "wet white" 
Front derailleur SRAM X.9 2X10 
Rear derailleur Sram X0 10 speed 
Shifters Sram X.9 
Chain Sram PC 1071 
Crankset Sram X0 2X10
Brakes Elixir CR white 
Cassette SRAM PG 1070 
Wheels Shimano XT WH-MT75 (we can talk about my race wheels too)
Tires Hutchison Python Tubeless Light 
I love this bike and don't know what I'll do to race or ride mtb with next year but I have no choice at this point. Email or call if you want pictures! 
519 362 3421

cfruetel AT uougelph DOT ca

Most recent picture that I have of what she looks like, in action!

A Transition Towards a Training Blog

I guess that I’ve been neglecting my blog lately; nothing terribly interesting to say! I haven’t really been training since the Ontario Cup race at Kelso; I’ve just been keeping active in my cycling community! This week I got back on board with my training plan, and am so stoked for next season. I’m coached by Eric Batty at Mountain Addict Athletics and am super stoked. He’s got me doing a huge variety of stuff, 

everything from hiking to rock climbing, biking to skiing, and don’t forget the rest days.

One off season ambition of mine is to improve my rock climbing abilities and get into a couple of competitions. I have started training with my good friend David; he’s the co-president of the rock climbing club here at the University of Guelph, and is getting a “team” together for the very first inter-university climbing competition. It is my ambition to be on that team, and kick ass! It’s going to take a lot of work.

The workouts are pretty intense, we start up with traversing the gym

Here it is:

Start with traversing the gym – this means that you climb your way around the whole gym, not going more than 8 feet above the floor.

Next a rotation of five exercises;

leg raises on the chinup bar until you can touch your feet to your hands

chin-ups on what are essentially two wooden balls hanging from the ceiling

plank

standing in the same spot on an inclined wall (inclined overhead) and you have to change your hands to different (very slim) holds 40 times

push ups

Quick break then we went on the wall for 15 minutes all at once climbing around the “new gym”. If you fall off it’s 20 situps and then back on the wall. This is an excellent endurance test, and it’s funny when people have to climb over eachother in the process.

The last planned workout was one where our hands were banded by elastic with a partner, and we had to climb the wall like that. This works out one arm a lot more than the other (the non banded arm), makes you work on finesse, and go slowly. Trust and teamwork are also essential. I was working Jen, and climbing is a great thing because men and women seem to be pretty equally good at it due to the finesse involved (she's way better and stronger than me though!).

This girl kicks ass, I'd be lucky to climb as well as she does!

I wrapped up the workout with minuters, climbing up and down the wall as many times as you can in a minute, then doing a minute plank, and repeating the process three times.

These workouts are happening every Tuesday at 10:00am, and anyone in the climbing club is welcome! If you don’t know about the climbing club it’s in the bottom of the athletic centre, where it occupies two fortified squash court rooms, and the small training room. Membership is $50 for the year of $30 for the semester, and your first visit is free. It’s a friendly great bunch of people and a nice atmosphere all of the time down there, open from 1:30 to 10:00pm. Happy climbing!

A big start to a big new season!

Well, schools back in and rolling in full force, which means a change in focus; my focus and effort on a bike go to the University of Guelph Cycling Club! For those who aren’t familiar, we have a superfantastic club here at the university with a very driven and talented race team component! There is a series of four races run by the University of Toronto (specifically Dave). UoG has been quite a powerhouse race team since its establishment (some 8 years ago) and we just keep gaining momentum every year. Our success is undeniably a function of how awesome friends we are our ability to help eachother out at races and with training, and the drive of the individuals in the club to train, and to achieve.  I am so excited to see so many new faces out this year at the events we hold and racing!

Half of the team here, cheering for the brave racers on the course!

The first race in the University Cup mountain bike race series is at Mansfield, and in my opinion it is one of the best races of the year. Mansfield is a two day event with three races; a criterium (an incredibly short course that you do two laps of), a time trial (another short course (about 3.5km) which each rider completes on their own as fast as they can), and Sunday is the typical cross-country mountain bike race.

We arrived on Saturday in the morning, set up camp, and registered for the races, fixed bikes, and then raced!

This tent needed some fixing, green wood and a roll of electrical tape got it up though!

The criterium is such an awesome event to compete in and to watch, because from the middle of the loop you can actually see the whole race. Riders are let out 3 or 4 at a time and must complete 2 laps; the top two of each heat move on to the next round. Shoving 4 racers at a time on a trail and telling them to do it as fast as they possibly can makes for a bit of a gongshow and some close calls – but everybody survived. Guelph had some really awesome results, with our boys Scott (a varsity Nordic skier) and Mark finishing 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. By the end of this event I was already losing my voice from yelling, cheering and heckling to the best of my ability. Next up was the time trial, which was a beautiful course of almost exclusively singletrack. After finishing Scott and his twin from Queen’s Brett came out to the biggest hill on the course with me to cheer people on. Weekends like these make me want to cheer more than I want to race sometimes, and we were told afterwards that it was very helpful to the riders.

Just a blurry streak of gold flying by in the crit!

After all the racers were done and everyone was either packing up for the night or setting up camp, a few of us guys from Guelph as well as a couple of U of T riders went out to the race course and cleaned it up. We cleared sticks, fallen logs, and half fallen trees (you should see Scotty W. with an axe!). I was pretty stoked that the guys from Guelph helped out with this (even our Alex, who hadn’t raced U-cup before was raking the trails with his bare hands), and it earned us free dinner from U of T. It’s so great that we can all camp and help each other out with absolutely no animosity between the teams.

Scott, later at the campfire while trying to wipe a smudge off his face ended up with a very smudged face

That night was one of the most fun nights that I’ve had in a while. We were camping out in a cleared area on the property along with University of Toronto, Trent, and maybe some other small university groups as well. One teammate in particular made the effort to ensure a great camping experience for everyone; our perpetual Rookie Dan. He brought bacon, trailmix, sportsdrinks, chips, and possibly most importantly, an axe and a saw. I don’t know where the energy came from, but soon I was out in the bush sawing fallen trees, balancing on fallen trees and sawing their branches, and chopping trees down. Dan was dragging the fallen branches out to near the fire pit would be, and soon more guys jumped in. Kelsey, Kyle, and our new first year Alex (who is dangerously fast) came out for the fun. Between us we demolished a bunch of dead trees, made a vine rope swing, and chopped through a log that was almost two feet in diameter (which took a few hours and about 10 coordinated guys to drag out). I have no idea where any of us got all of that energy from after racing twice that day, and how we managed to race the next day either! Once a substantial pile of wood was taken out, a tepee was set around a decrepit picnic table, and a fire was light both below the table and on top of the table. Needless to say this had flames greater than ten feet high, kept all that were near nice and warm, and brought the schools all together.

The camfire, and the bench that we chopped, and dragged out.

The next morning was cold, and I am very glad that when I finally did get out of my tent, there was bacon already cooked (courtesy of Danno) and the fire was still nice and warm. That day it wasn’t the race that I was really looking forward to; it was the totally awesome fun of cheering the racers up the hill. Guelph had a great showing, and the competition was stiff. For some reason the Men’s A field is now packed with elite men (almost all of which seem to be engineers; who I guess need some outlet and relief from school), and the other categories are quite serious as well. At the end of the weekend Guelph had two racers on the podium, and I am very proud of everybody. We did it all this weekend, we camped, we raced, and we built a stronger team. Looking forward to next weekend’s race at Boler Mountain in London! I dare some riders from Western to come out!

A seriously good kickstart to my fall semester!

Why am I an environmental scientist? It’s not because I’m a treehugging hippie, not because I really think that I’ll save the world with my science, and it’s not because I love to do schoolwork. I am an environmental scientist because I love the outdoors. I want it to stay the way that I can remember it when I was a kid, and I want everybody to have the opportunities and experiences that I have been lucky enough to experience myself. I also believe that anybody can make a difference, and that I can have an influence for the good.

One of the compulsary components of my program (Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences, majoring in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) is a field course component. I chose to do the geology field course which involves a week up north in a small place called Espanola living out of tents and mapping the rock formations up there.

Which was awesome!

We all arrived early in the morning to meet out behind the Earth Sciences building on Monday and crammed our gear into the vans. We are a group of 21 students, a professor, a lab coordinator, and a teacing assistant. Upon loading the vans (mine was full of 7 guys) we found that ours had a flat tire. We arrived at the rental place with a caravan with a flat tire, and left in a gigantic Chevy Suburban. All it took was for me to make a comment to the guy in charge there and he upgraded our vehicle free of charge! Even in the suburban though it was a tight squeeze; I was sitting on a bench seat with my friends Kent and Scott (who is about 4 inches taller than I am). At least Kent was a good sport and took the middle seat.

When we got to the campground, I was thoroughly impressed! A beautiful campground on the shores of Lake Apsey, a few km from town and at the end of a dirt road.

One of the sites we camped at

 We had a great group of people, everybody camped, cooked together, swam together, socialized, and played games. Nights were eventful, but we all got lots of sleep and kept it together for the full days of hiking through the rocky northern terrain. We got to subdivide ourselves into groups of three, each group was designated an area to map. Me and my buddy Peter managed to convince another geologist friend who spends his summer in the Yukon working to be in our group, and we all worked well together splitting the jobs (strike guy, map guy, and diary guy).

Pete and Chris on Penguin Island

Our group got the most beautiful area to map; some would say an island, some a peninsula – depending on how long your legs are and how far you can jump. Our site was the furthest from the drop off point, and just hiking out there was a job, we had to use landmarks like the elephant rock, and avoid swampy areas. When you get out to where the island (Hereby known as Penguin Island), all that you can see is rocky shores, with few trees – most of which are jackpine trees (which I found especially endearing because they remind me of family camping trips when we lived in Thunder Bay). Not only were the rocks interesting in composition; but they were amazingly shaped as well. These are almost all sedimentary bedrock, which is prone to weathering (being worn down easily). The last glaciations carved pipes between the bottom of the ice and the rocks to let meltwater out which left half-pipes, tubes, quarter-pipes, and interesting striations everywhere.

Glacial pipes

 I would have a field day there with my bike for sure. The best part of all is that you couldn’t see any people or buildings out in the field. The east side of the island had some cool cliffs to jump off of, and to enjoy the view of the surrounding features from.

East side off the cliffs

Our group had a good dynamic; we kept up lively conversation the whole time. These guys have some senses of humour and after a three days in the field you wouldn’t believe the conversations that were taking place! It was tough slugging through the bush which is good because I consider that great training for the upcoming University Cup race series, so I have nothing to complain about! The weather was fantastic, however almost too fantastic. Unfortunately I’m covered in heat rash, but oh boy am I ever nicely tanned!

Looking up onto the island

I think I’m a bit weird compared to my colleagues though. Personally I can’t get enough of camping, and being away from society. The nice calm feeling of independence and the open possibilities of exploration that I feel when I’m camping is just phenomenal. I could live like this. When I mentioned this, everybody said it was about time that they got back to Guelph, and were getting sick of “roughing it” I guess. It took us three full days of mapping to get that island mapped (rock types, contacts, dykes, faults, etc,). And I’d do it all again!

The weekend that Sunday did not go as planned..

Gearing up for a pretty serious weekend, started with my buddy Dave coming to get me in his sweet new car. Dave had just got a brand new off-the-lot black Kia Forte 5 hatchback, it’s got a 6 speed manual transmission, power everything (even heated seats and air conditioning!), and just looks so nice! Needless to say we were stoked to get started on a very ambitious and adventurous weekend. We got on the road to Meagan’s place, she’s the best host and best cook around! Meg lived pretty close to where the race was going on, and I was stoked at being able to see her again. She had some wicked pasta, pork, and grilled vegetables ready that I ate in outrageous quantities (fuelling up for a weekend with a doubles shot of racing – what I thought would end up being more than 120km), and then a prompt bed time.

It was nice to be calm and close to the race course the morning of, and with such awesome food! That morning was an excellent chance to sleep in (until 8, wahoo!), and spend some time with Meg and Dave. We got to the race course, and luckily Cycle Solutions was a sponsor of the event, so I finally had tents and a trailer to hang out at, with food, drinks, company, and tools! There was a bit of an exhibition area; teams and clubs with tents set up, as this was a whole weekend festival.

The atmosphere was great, but the race wasn’t so much for me. After being called up by name to the start line of the “Pro Race” (which made everything worth it – I mean who doesn’t want to be called Pro in front of other racers, spectators, and some cameras??). About 100m into the race I realized that the “Pro” pace up the hill (about a 15minute climb up hill right off the start) was pretty ambitious, and maybe I should just ride my best and save my legs for the planned marathon race tomorrow. The course was pretty crazy though! Hills like no Ontario race, I could see Wasaga beach all the way across the bay from the race course! I had a fun time riding the terrain, but I wasn’t racing. Huge props to my buddies and teammates on the course though!

Can anyone pick out which rider I am? At least I'm still in the photo frame!

That night Meagan fed us well, and it was early bed time for Dave and I. We woke up, made some serious oatmeal (my favourite pre-race meal), and began to pack to the car for the marathon. Dave was the first one outside and all I heard was “Oh my god”. I rushed outside and couldn’t believe what I saw. Somebody had smashed the rear window of Dave’s beautiful new car in; it was parked right beside the house too. Needless to say that was the unfortunate ending to our weekend. Poor Dave. Meagan was shocked, and said nothing like that happened before, but there was nothing that we could do other than clean up the broken glass everywhere, pack the car very carefully, and drive home.

That marks the end of my big race season of 2011, though I am incredibly stoked for the University Cup Bike Race season, and school comes soon too. Unfortunately with the coming of school means the dreaded tuition monster, which I have to sell my bike for. For anybody who is interested it up for grabs for $2500, a hand-made in Canada Xprezo. This bike took me to where I wanted to be in terms of my race season, and on the trails. Post up if you are interested, price includes a free paint job any colour you want! It sucks to have to sell my baby like this but life happens, and at least I hope that somebody else can enjoy it as much as I do!

Uhh, now what?

When you’re out for a bike ride, typically after a ride, when you get back home – there’s always that dog that is from the house that is about 80% of the way up the hill. This is a nice little dog, but he never ceases to engage you in the famous “dog sprint” where you have to haul up that hill as fast as possible because this little ankle biter is on a mission! What would he do if I stopped? Well, nothing I bet - he just chases. This is a very well motivated and driven dog, intent catching you – but I don’t think he’s thought too far ahead and of what he would do next. I liken myself to that dog, this summer, since getting the green light on my cycling career from the doctors again; I’ve been dead set on cycling, with the seemingly unattainable goal of racing well in the elite category with the pros. I might not make it in the end, but I sure enjoy that ride!

The night before the race, my good friend from the University of Guelph Cycling team and I made up a feast before the race, we fixed and cleaned bikes ate like champs, the usual. At the end of that night as Dan was leaving I mentioned how all I wanted was to hang onto the elite riders up the hill (Ontario Cup 6 is tomorrow and it involves a gruelling climb up the escarpment, once at the start of each lap all the way to the top) on the first lap. Dan said that I would have no problem, that I am a different guy now than I used to be when we first met, that now that I am riding I exuded purpose, direction, and determination, and he was quite happy to watch me grow into the rider I am now (Dan was quite exorbitant with his words I felt, but nonetheless that comment has stayed with me, and it means a lot to me).

I kept nice and calm before the race, mostly because I was already definite dead last, and the only reason that I’m racing elite is because if I back down I’d lose integrity. Without integrity what does a person have?

On the race startline I was shocked again that I was sitting with the top riders, about to do 5 laps, and people would really watch my race. I made some cheerful jokes about all of us holding the pace until the top of the hill, and a couple of the guys joked back that that was a great idea! Too bad nobody did. Race started up and I was at the back of the pack; I surely wouldn’t keep pace up that hill, so I decided not to get in a pro’s way.

Back of the pack, off the start, figured that I belonged here (Rick Melhoff Photo)

Once we hit the bottom of the hill however, I got muscled out to the right side, where I knew that there was a skinny line with good traction to chug up. The hill can be divided into three tiers, the first is the longest, with the steepest section, then it flattens for a little bit and you cross over a creek (which I rode through the deepest part every lap to try to cool myself off) then it kicks up to another tough section (by this point you are very tired and feel like dying), it flattens out again, and kicks up one last very steep section. 

My wicked fast friend and fellow Xprezo racer Jon Slaughter (Rick Melhoff Photo)

I was in utter disbelief that by that first relief section, I had passed about four guys, and was sitting back to mid pack. I continued up the hill after that at the pace of the pack, not wanting to burn my matches for the five lap race. At the very last tier of the hill were spectators and a commentator. The fans were amazing, and the commentator was awesome! I didn’t even know some of the people cheering my name, but that shows how great the atmosphere at one of these races is!

Even organizer Sean Ruppel, having fun at the top of the hill with the megaphone!
(Rick Melhoff Photo)

Lap 1 of the race I struck up a friendship with another rider; Cory Hancock, his calm racing style kept me in check, and calmed me down. I remained in good shape until I decided that I was too fast for Cory (my appointed chaperone for the event) and bolted off on my own to catch other guys. Suddenly I was riding sloppy, and about a lap later Cory came up

“Look I caught you again”

Hmmm. Obviously I’m doing something wrong here. The last three laps I brought my pace right down to something that I figured was easily sustainable and rode mostly on my own, yelling at the 17-18 year olds if they passed “Lousy Kids! Hey...are you guys going to university in the fall? Guelph is nice!”  I had some issues with my bike through the race however; my rear shifting seemed pretty compromised. The best plan of action with this I figured was just to switch my front gears, and leave the back one in an ok ring. Obviously this slowed me down a bit, but not as much as a broken chain would...

Feeling the trail, the bike, the groove, and luckily not that tree! (Rick Melhoff Photo)

Until going up a hill on the last lap, about 1.5km from the finish, I shifted, and kept riding. About a minute later the shifter finally responded, and snap there goes my chain! I didn’t even have time to think! At least it was the last lap! I decided to run instead of fix the chain, and coast on any downhill sections that I could. I managed to run up the rest of that hill, coast down to the bottom of the ski hill, run across it and up the hill a bit more, coast down, and then run up to the finish line without being passed by another elite rider!

I finished 17^th. Unbelievable. You’re kidding right? No, really?

Yep. 17^th place. This is beyond where I thought I could ever be while I was in university, let alone the first year back after my head injury! My goals since I was about 17 years old and started riding have been accomplished, I’m that dog that chases the cyclists, and now it’s as if somebody has stopped and given me a treat, now what?

At the top of the escarpment, feeling good. Feel like this picture's appropriate here (Rick Melhoff Photo)

           Thanks are what! Thank you to everybody who has supported me on my way back into cycling! For the Eric Batty, one of my biggest supporters, he is an amazing coach, and managed to bring me back into the game after a horrible month of July with weeks off my bike and my breaking teeth fiasco! His continued support and flexibility is just amazing, because I know that I am not organized to get myself there on my own. Thanks to my family, always helping out financially, or at the races physically, you guys helped me through everything every step of the way! Emma, Johnny, and my sponsors have been wicked, hooking me up even with no past results; I hope that you have found the investment worthwhile! My friends have been wicked support too, thanks for putting up with my crazy lifestyle, and huge shout out to Dave Paradis who has been on a number of last minute road trips with me this summer, without him I wouldn’t get to some the best races and weekends of my life, and without everybody’s support, I wouldn’t have had a good time doing this!

                Unfortunately, I won’t be making an appearance at provincials, so this ends my Ontario Cup saga for the year. I managed to reach my goals, and overshoot what I thought was possible. Before the race I was scared, and talked to my buddy Aaron, a veteran of the circuit. He said no buts, defy the odds. In my opinion, I have, but without provincials to build towards I’m rattled up! Eric had a simple solution for this, a crazy and simple solution. The East Coast Open and Ontario Marathon Championships are both on this weekend. Big races and big opportunities.  I’ll be at both, here we go!