Rolf Devinci

A little different tonight. Geoff Poole, a former coworker in Office Services at Maritime Life was in town to bring his daughter back to Dal. We met at the rotary and did a nice Purcell`s Cove ride out and back. Yup...introduced him to some good old Nova Scotia climbs and less that pristine pavement....lol.(wink) We stopped in to visit our previous manager, Stella, who lives along the route for some catching up.....and a beer! Now that`s what I call training......(wink). It was good to see both Geoff and Stella again. Nice! Geo

After a very rainy Friday the weather dried up(somewhat)for the usual Saturday club ride. The morning was foggy but quickly became muggy as the humidity made things very sticky. I led out the second(fast)group made up of the race caliber riders who were not competing tomorrow at Brooklyn. As a result the pace was fast as we didn`t need to save anything for Sunday`s race. At Laurie Park we formed one group with the remnants of the first fast group as many of those guys didn`t bother doing the extra distance considering the tough race course tomorrow. The ride back to Bedford was fast and fun and I managed to climb well and didn`t get dropped.....yippee. The final three climbs are not big but usually are the spots where the lads attack and I typically have trouble staying in touch. Not today. The running is going well, albeit treadmill work, but my aerobic fitness seems much improved and I have consistently hovered around 198 pounds the last several days.Nice! I`m pretty happy about i...

Unfortunately I did neither on the usual Tuesday Night Purcell`s Cove hills training session but did ride them better than usual so I`m seeing improvement. I didn`t "float" over them but on the first big climb I felt good both in and out of the saddle and maintained a decent tempo. The second climb(the biggest)I got dropped by Donald,Mark and Peter but kept a steady tempo and managed to get over the crest in decent shape. I pushed hard and eventually caught back Mark and Peter nearing the turnaround. The first climb heading back is not that steep but continues for some distance, including a couple false flats that wreak havoc on the legs. I climbed it well although Donald once again rode away with seemingly little effort. Talk about "stinging" the lads. He is riding so strong this year. The remaining hills back to Armdale were tough but I managed to hang on to Mark`s wheel for the most part. Motivated by Donald`s training plan of catching the lead riders then reve...

The weather was nasty this morning...lots of rain, albeit, warm and muggy. The humidity is gross so I opted out of the usual club ride and headed to Nubody`s for a spin class. It was a hour session of simulated hill climbing, sprint intervals and steady tempo drills. Felt good...if you are gonna sweat from the humidity then you might as well work for it. The legs felt strong so I jumped on the treadmill immediately afterwards and did a 2 mile run followed by some core work with the Swiss and medicine ball. Kinda an indoor duathlon I suppose. It was a good Saturday morning training session and now I need to hydrate. I know it`s probably water loss but I did weigh in afterwards at 198 lbs which is nice. The previous two mornings I have been at 199.4 and 200.0 lbs upon waking so I am right at the bubble of breaking my personal 200 lb plateau. Looks like I`ll be able to pre ride the Brooklyn road race course tomorrow if the weather cooperates. My spouse is working the back shift so that ...

The first club time trial went off this morning in perfect conditions. I felt strong considering the big effort on Saturday`s club ride that I attribute to a good night`s sleep,carb loading and a lack of alcohol on Saturday night. The last club ITT in 2006 resulted in a personal best with a 35.6 kph average over the 30K rolling hill course. Today I ended up with a 37.5(ish)kph average over the same course in similar conditions.(Note - based upon my cycle computer....official times to follow) I prefer the time trialing discipline and will continue to focus upon it in the future. As a heavy(200lbs +)cyclist it does suit my abilities well as most courses are relatively flat/rolling hills which precludes the need to be an efficient climber. I was hoping to upgrade my bike components this winter and would like to build up a time trialing specific bike out of the older parts if the right frame/fork combination comes along. Till then my road geometry bike with added clip-on aerobars will ...

The Saturday "retro" club ride went well today in perfect weather. Some of the vets dug out classic jerseys from days past.....see pics. I ended up riding with the second group to leave as we do try and keep sub group numbers to around 8 riders to facilitate happy motorists. Turned out the second group was no touring group......we had some fast riders and the pace showed that as we rivaled the first group for speed. We used the traditional paceline method out to Fall River(lead rider drops off to the left) but switched to the increasingly popular alternative method where the lead rider is passed on the left by the paceline as that rider drops back on the right along the white line. We had some riders unaccustomed to that method but Eric and myself gave them the details and the return trip to Bedford was fast and fun. Legs felt strong today and I ended up pushing them pretty hard. That may come back to haunt me as the club`s Toonie Time Trial is tomorrow morning. A 30K ITT p...

Another Friday night but no wine. I sense the dismay as I type.....(wink). I was tempted to open a bottle of Masi red but I`m not feeling the best this evening. My belly is rather upset so spring water is the best option right now. I even napped on the couch after work which is very uncharateristic for Georgie boy. Was it the workout at the gym last night, the first in a couple weeks? I managed core work, strength training and a 20 minute treadmill run and I`m feeling "the love" today. Was it my overinduldgence today at lunch when I walked to Sobey`s and purchased a feast of fruits;strawberries,grapes, cherries, banana and pear after eating a salad brought from home. Even too much of a good thing can have consequences. It`s been a depressing week. I was really getting into the whole running thing until my knee started giving me issues. It was like literally running into a brick wall. The good news is my run last night on the treadmill felt OK (but not great) and the knee fe...

Whew! The boys were rocking this morning! Jumped in with the fast group for a spirited ride out to Laurie Park and back to Bedford this morning. Everytime I looked down at the computer we were in the high 30/low 40 kph range. The headwind on the return was brutal so the speed came down but not the workload. Yeah baby....felt good in a masochistic sense. Details available on my(George Henley)Facebook.Under Notes. Some pics from the club ride........enjoy. Geo

Tricked ya! No wine reviews tonight. It was a beautiful day and I did soak up some late efternoon sun but enjoyed a couple beers instead. Knee and ankles feel better tonight but a little beer should help alleviate the pain.(wink). My raspberry plants are producing fruit so I foraged for some all natural, pesticide free berries.MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. I originally brought some seedlings back from Mom`s garden back in the 90`s and they have thrived here in my modest liitle garden.Delicious. Natal Day long weekend here in Halifax. Looking rorward to the club ride tomorrow......nice weather and no need to hurry home so I will enjoy the ride. Geo

Got home tonight to experience Josh`s 13th birthday party. LOL.....pizza, ice cream cake and adolescent humor.Too funny! Managed to sneak out at 6PM to catch an "around the basin" ride with some buddies from the club. It was a perfect summer`s evening and the steady tempo was a perfect segue for Saturday`s club ride. Especially for me considering I went for a run yesterday and I am feeling some discomfort today in my ankles, left knee and lower back. I might need to scale back the running until I build up a better base and conditioning. Much of the run was(initially) downhill and I do find that much harder on the body. Knee is a little tender tonight but didn`t seem to impact my cycling.Lower back is now OK but ankles are still sore. I`ll back off the running till the weekend or next week/whenever the aches are gone. I`m looking forward to the Saturday club ride...the weather looks good and I have no childcare issues. Could be a fun day! Geo