Rolf Devinci

 I decided tonight would be the last Thursday night of playing ball hockey. The 2011 race season is starting with the first race on May 15th -descretion is the better part of valor. After witnessing a  teammate take a slash across the foot tonight and having the toe nail on his big toe split down the middle (and the toe possibly broken) I realized that could have easily been me. He will lose the toe nail and it is that kind of injury that would definitely sideline my cycling training. I cannot imagine the agony of wearing a cycling shoe and attempting to put pressure on the pedals with a messed up toe.  Rather than tempt fate I will no longer play the remaining 6 weeks unless they need me to play goal. Otherwise my ballhockey season is over until the Fall.Some of the lads who play aggressively (which is fine) can be negligent with their sticks. The same fella who slashed me across the achilles tendon a couple weeks ago was respons...

Heading into the first race of the season(mid May) I am feeling strong and my training rides have all been excellent to date. I have noticed a definite improvement in my climbing ability and overall wattage on the bike. I can only attribute the improvement to my workout regimen this pass Winter and Spring with a focus upon developing lower body strength and overall power in more of a natural setting..... I call it my Outdoor Gym. It does seem complimemtary to my Primal WOE; both being simplistic in approach, functionality and form.It is all about getting outside for movement, exercise, sun and air making use of whatever nature or urbanization offers along the way to help facilitate a workout.. Trail Run - I use this as my warmup from home on trails that are wooded and covered in woodchips. Very forgiving to the body unlike pavement or concrete. Sprint Intervals - I follow Tabata style sprints. Twenty seconds of hard effort followe...

 Joined some riders from the South Shore at Hubbards to ride the Aspotogan pennisula on this holiday Good Friday. Under sunny, albeit windy, skies with temperatures hovering around 4C the large group departed en masse heading counter clockwise.   As with all larger groups it took a few kilometers and some hills to separate the riders into appropriate sized packs based on ability. I ended up in a lead group of five cyclists and we remained intact for the duration of the 50 kilometre loop.   Strong riders all it was a pleasure to ride with them on relatively quiet rural roads.We were able to ride the full lane for much of the route which is a pleasant change from the chaos of HRM roads. It was a good training pace for most of the ride on a course that is quite challenging between the rolling hills and gusting winds.Despite that the scenery was grand and it was a fun morning on the bike.Ended up with a 30.7 kph average. Not too bad for April.   Fi...

  Having some kind of sensitivity to dairy and suspecting the same for my son I began doing some investigation into alternative dairy possibilities. Herein lies my challenge - offer better/alternative nutritional options for the spouse and kids but not necessarily following a paleo/primal WOE.   My family likes dairy and it remains a cornerstone of their nutrition.A sacred cow(pardon the pun) that would be near impossible to change. That said better choices can be made like switching to(fermented) yogourts from ice creams/sherberts, cultured butter instead of margerines, real cheese over processed slices/spreads and whole milk over the low fat product.   I discovered a local producer of goat`s milk with a product available in the grocery stores. Further research indicated goat's milk is a better option with less lactose and a different milk protein; Alpha-S2 casein instead of the allergenic Alpha-S1 found in cow's milk. Goat's ...

 As promised here is my sweet potato post. As my way of eating(WOE) continues to evolve(pardon the pun) along Paleo/Primal lines of low carb/high fat and protein I am aware of the debates regarding tubers online on blogs, forums and other medias.  I tend to avoid white potatoes only because the are a member of the nightshade family and they do seem to disagree with me in terms of joint pain.I can enjoy the occasional white potato but there is definitely a personal "tipping point" that I dare not cross over. http://rolfdevinci.blogspot.com/2011/09/nightshade-vegetables-harvest.html Sweet potato is not a nightshade vegetable and, therefore, seems like an ideal food source, especially for post exercise recovery. That is important since I am making an effort to limit my consumption of sugary fruits which are part of my usual recovery food toolbox.  A medium sized sweet potato baked in skin supplies about 24 grams of carbs, 2 ...

 Have you ever noticed yourself doing something or an aspect of your lifestyle that you enjoy doing but never really gave it much thought as to why? Often I field these types of questions.....  "You are almost 50 so why do you push yourself so hard?"  "I don't understand why you want to cycle 100kms?"  "Why do you play hockey when you know you will be sore afterwards?"  "You cycled how far? Are you nuts?"  "How can you be so motivated?"  " Why do you want to do sprint intervals. Thats like work?" "You got that bruise from blocking a shot from the point?Ouch!" "Why bike commute when you have a car?" Well for whatever the reason(the clarity of thought from an intermittant fast today?) I actually took the time on my windy bike commute home to ponder the whys? First reaction was because it kept me in shape and that is why I do what I do. Maybe not......the gym kept me in shape. Running keeps me...

Avoiding  sugars, including fructose, is one of my four dietary objectives along with avoiding grains, legumes and industrial veg/seed oils.Since I limit/avoid processed foods HFCS was not really an issue so I was self deluded in thinking avoiding fructose would be easy. Wrong. Fructose is(obviously) found in fruit, albeit not in the levels one would find in HFCS(high fructose corn syrup) but it is there and, depending upon the type of fruit, potentially in high(er) amounts.I did some research and found this list of high fructose fruit. "The following fruits are highest in fructose (per typical serving size)*. They contain more than 4 grams of fructose per serving. • apple • banana • cherries (1 Cup) • grapes (1 Cup) • mango • melon (2 wedges) • orange • pear • pineapple (2 rings) • watermelon (1 large slice)" Well color me stupid.Needless to say I have been limiting my fruit intake but eating all the wrong ones. Bananas, apples and or...

Under sunny skies, no wind and mild temperatures I participated in an early season club ride today. A decent turnout for the early season we fielded about four groups of riders upon the roads. Roads that were busy with traffic as I guess we were not the only ones taking advantage of the nice day. Despite some intolerant motorists, including a motorcycle who swerved pass my group while having the nerve to tell us to get off the road(odd....usually our two wheel brethren are quite cool) it was an excellent  ride. My legs were feeling pretty good but the Giant race bike was a little twitchy. It will take some time to get re-used to it as I cycled this past winter exclusively on my MTB and venerable Devinci road bike. We did have a motorist pass us then slow down substantially(on purpose) which created a sudden de-acceleration of the paceline but the group I rode with were solid riders showing good early season form and the ride out to L...

 It's Friday night and I'm checking out some Tragically Hip songs on You Tube when I stumble upon Vacination Scar - a single that pretty much flew under the radar but is a kicking tune. This line always struck home with me...... "The one thing I remember is this tear on your bare shoulder   this little silver boulder, this slowly falling star....   the start of enough, a tear dropped in a vacination scar...." I can remember clearly the gothic(isk) dread of queuing up in the old(now demolished) Bridgewater Elementary school  to receive the vacination needle. The fear was palpable and heavy with some kids in tears, fainting and others on the verge of nervous breakdown. I remember seeing the line end at the door to the principal's office where you would wait in abject terror for that stern faced nurse to escort out a crying classmate then beckon you in to your own unavoidable meeting with the syringe. It was horrific and I remember it as cl...

 Yup..........bacon! Bacon, bacon and BACON! Not that commercial paper thin processed stuff but good local home cured bacon. Delicious thick slices of bacon! How happy was I to see this past weekend at the market that Getaway Farms was now selling bacon. Does it get any better...grass fed beef and now home cured bacon at one stop. Score! Nuff to make this caveman cry.......(sniff) Turns out they also have a FB page. Cool! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Getaway-Farm/155035047869905?sk=wall#!/pages/Getaway-Farm/155035047869905?sk=wall

 Diabetes - the next pandemic? Found this interview while spending a quiet Sunday morning surfing the blogosphere. Definitely worth listening too the podcast(13 mins) http://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/132745785/how-western-diets-are-making-the-world-sick Dr. Patterson's article on Afghanistan, Polynesia and Northern Canada...... http://maisonneuve.org/pressroom/article/2010/nov/15/the-diseases-affluence/

 The basic premise of my paleo/primal/low carb dietary journey that began in 2010 was to identify the foods that work for me(and conversely those that did not), keep me healthy, physically fit and happy(satiated). As a result I didn`t always fall within the accepted parameters within an assortment of paleo/primal ideologies.   Like any umbrella (nutritional) concept there are always variations and assorted methodologies ranging from rigid adherences to general consensus. Needless to say the latest post by Kurt G Harris on PaNu definitely resonates with my personal experience. Regardless of all the variations within the paleo/primal worlds there are some fundamental concepts that we all agree upon. Rather than focus on and debate the differences I prefer to accentuate and advocate those universal elements when building my personal way of eating.. "We can strive to use science and our reasoning to emulate the important elemen...