Short bloggie.

Recently I was forced off and had to sit and work for almost two months straight. As I was returning to the sport (yet again) I noticed that my bike was running like crap which it never really does. Mainly it was the drive but also flat tires, brakes wearing out and so on , it was frustrating trying to get back on a bike that kept acting up. What I noticed as I started to get my legs and lungs back was that the bike started to run well again! What I was able to conclude from this was that as I became fit again I was able to manipulate the bike more, shift lighter on uphills, avoid sharp rocks that pinch-flat your tire and so on. I was able to right lightly on the bike which lessened the punishment on major components. A good example would be walking on grass, if you walk lightly on grass and be mindful on where you step and how hard you step then the grass should be able to spring back up like nothing really happened. If you drag your feet and walk heavy then the grass will simply die! The same rule applies to a mountain bike, if you just plow it into a rock or tree or just ride it hard without planning your line then the bike will likely let you know it. I find that the more fit I am then the more I can look ahead and plan my route and control the bike when things get rough, rather than not having full control and letting the bike bounce all over. Another thing is avoiding mud the best I can, the more dry the bike the better and I can do these things when I'm fit.

Just something I've noticed lately, perhaps being out of shape once in a while is a good thing!

In 2007 I was coming off my best season ever, I was just new to the master 30-34 group and coming off of a strong 2006 season in what would be my last year of 20-29. I ended up winning the whole Provincial title in 2007 and I was on top of the world in my opinion (even though it was only sport class at the time).

When the year ended I was not done, I was very fit, I wanted more, but what was there? I wanted something to test my fitness and that's when I decided to enter the Epic 8 hour which is held by Chico Racing and Hardwood Ski and Bike. I had done them before with a team and it was hard enough but this time it was on my own, not even a pit crew! This would be my first time doing it solo and I was thinking a top ten finish was something to shoot for but who knew as it was all foreign territory to me.

As the day of the race began I had a cooler full of bottles with E-load along with a few that had protein shakes and flax oil. My solid food was a couple of simple peanut butter sandwiches, Hop and Go snacks and I think I had some left over pizza, perfect, I thought and in the end, it wasn't that bad of a choice. What made me feel very comfortable was the fact that I had my own, little pit zone right on the course where my car, food and gear all stayed and all I had to do was stop and it was right there.

Everything was packed, the races briefing was done and the gun went off. I started very slowly and generally stayed in the middle of the pack. I passed a few riders that were just pissing me off but for the most part I left myself in the spot that I started. As the first lap closed I felt fantastic, no fatigue at all and it looked as though I was going to be able to finish the race. As I went through transition I gave a bit more gas on the open section leading up to the first single track whereas I passed a few riders and found myself at a nice pace with whom later introduced himself as Matt Spak. He was a veteran marathon racer and was about my age. He gave me a few pointers and then I asked what place he was in and he replied second and the leader was just up ahead ...what? The whole race plan went out the window and I was in third and perhaps second or even first if I really wanted it! Now I didn't know when to pit or even to that matter, how to pit! I didn't want to lose my spot! I kept Matt's pace for about 3 hours when I finally decided to grab some food and a new bottle (about my second bottle). This was not my call but rather his, he said something like "I have to stop on this lap so you might want to too" and I did. Within seconds it was over and we were back into the race and riding the same fast pace as before. The leader was not too far ahead and we made plans for a late attack. That was cool and I let him do all the thinking but that was until he had a horrible crash that would nearly knock him out of the race! Then I was in second and in panic mode, I had lost my guide and it was only the fourth hour or so and the rush of having second place put my body into Ontario Cup racing mode which won't get you far in these types of races. I knew by about the fifth hour that I was in trouble when my legs cramped in the quads, then in the calves and then in the hams and before I knew what was going on every pedal stroke was like someone stabbing me in the legs with knives. My distance on from the leader began to expand and Matt was starting to get back on his horse and catching me. By the sixth hour I was now stopping on every lap, eating and drinking and hoping that I could hold off whoever was behind me. I also noticed solo racers flying by me as I was stopped but I couldn't tell if they were lapped racers or not so I panicked again and left without taking any rest. I had some fun in the process, I passed countless team racers who asked how I was able to do the whole race and still pass them and it was wind in my sails and also made the whole effort worth it. There was also one guy late in the race who was screaming with every pedal stroke he took and I knew his day was over after the lap; it was then I knew I had something that others didn't so I kept going. It was about the 7th hour when I hit the wall hard, I was a mess, barely able to pedal and taking long breaks on the final laps. One dude who was riding a steel tank with running shoes on flat pedals and a freestyle bucket blew by me and it was at that point that I was in survival mode. Nothing was helping anymore, I had been eating, drinking and taking little breaks but the body was not performing. My issue was that I went too hard at a critical time just after Matt crashed and there was nothing left, I was ready to drop dead. I passed through the transition and I got the green light for one more lap, I went and it was a good thing as I would've lost my second place if I hadn't. Again, I coasted, not coasted but struggled around the 10 k lap and finally reached the finish where I got lots of cheers, complements, stares from people and pats on the back as I limped using my bike as a crutch. I quick glance at the results and I was in a solid second although losing time to Matt but my efforts earlier on gave me enough of a gap that I could've held him off for another couple of hours. The leader was another story, a young elite athlete named Andrew House had made us both look silly by opening up a huge lead that won him the race at about the four or five hour mark.

That was it for my first race, it was awesome being up on the podium as a solo racer in front of a few hundred people whom most were team racers; I felt like an Ironman! The part after was difficult and that was packing my stuff up and driving my soar ass home where I called a few people to brag but shortly after was passed out!

I went on to race in expert class in the Ontario Cup and in my opinion became more fit. I also raced four more 8 hour races and managed to podium in all but one where I had a total blow out and finished fifth. The most recent one was the Summer Epic 8 Hour where me and my friend Dave Law battled for half the racer before mechanicals dropped him off the podium and I got a lucky break when the rider just in front bailed out late in the race and I got third. It rained very hard in the last two hours of the race and my brakes were gone and I was losing time but I managed to hold on; it was really bad out there and it took many days to fix the bike and clean my gear.

This weekend I'm hoping to race the 24 Hour Summer Solstice with a team although I'm not sure yet as I have a very important job to start on the following Monday. I know that if I can get myself back into shape then I want to race the 24 Hour on my own but with the aid of the team whom I racing with this weekend (I hope). Given what I've been able to do in the 8 Hours I think I can perhaps get a top five if I plan things out right. Till then, I train to just get myself back in the condition I once was.

Well I decided to return to the Wednesday Night Race at Hardwood Ski and Bike to get a good mid-week, high intensity ride in. I noticed that the course had changed lots and there's lots more climbing and also descending too! I opted to stay back and race with my brother Jamie who is familiar with the new course. Normally I can beat him by about 5 minutes or so depending but this time around I found myself in a struggle to keep up! It was another reminder that I was drastically out of shape. I started out by shouting out tips from behind him in hopes that he could get a faster time than normal and it worked ...that is until I began to feel the burn in my legs and actually started to fall back and crash! I felt I had lots in the tank and could've pulled away but every time I crashed I found it hard to get back up on his tail. This may turn out to be a longer recovery than I had thought; people were telling me that it would only take a few races but I'm starting to doubt that.

I have been getting out almost every day since I started back into racing and I'm doing lots of hills climbs on the road and one hour interval sprints too. I'm feeling strong but every time I find an opportunity to relax I do and that's what's killing me. I promise myself never to let things slide like this again!

Hello all! Well I'm writing this shortly after completing my second race of 2011 and I'm happy to say that I manged a better results than the previous week although it was still not great. I had a better start but my starts are never strong in Expert and I have to rely on my strong 2nd and 3rd laps if I'm going to make advances in a race. I manged to hold on to the lead group for about half of the first lap but then I ran out of gas. The same thing started to happen shortly after this and I was caught be the groups that were released a few minutes after us although it wasn't as bad as before. In the Canada Cup things were a bit different and we didn't get to race with the elite men and women so it was hard to gauge how bad it was for me other than my dismal time. This time around we did get to race with them and under normal race conditions (me being fit) I catch the elite women not far into the first lap and I'm normally lapped by the top 2 or 3 elite men right at the very end of the race. These men are active World Cup racers and I have no problem letting them fly by to the finish. This time around I was caught on my second lap going on third and I never was able to catch the women; this was a good indication as to where I was standing. There are other racers from other groups released after us that I know that would never see me in an O-Cup race that were able to catch me right on the first lap (normally I pulled away and posted better times). This was disturbing to me although I was clearly much faster than the previous week. As I mentioned in the previous blog I was saying that it would take me about the entire season to regain my fitness and confidence again so to have an improvement like gaining a spot and shaving about 15 minutes off my time made me feel hopeful that I'm on track.

As the race got under way I was able to stay with the group for a while, my legs burned a bit but not too bad and I thought that I might just have a good race. As time went by I slowed and began to be caught by the groups starting after us and it got a bit frustrating for me but I pushed on. As I began to have a bit of space I was able to speed up a bit and I started to have lots of fun for once. I also noticed that my hill climbs were very strong and I attacked most of them out of the saddle and in a higher gear. My weak points were on the single track and emerging from them to the dual track; I was slow coming out and it took time to pick up speed. My recovery after an effort and on the dual track is where I normally pulled away from others although my single track has always been slowest but coming out on the dual was where I really made time; but not here. The rest seemed to be strong but I continually was caught and passed with ease even though I was in full effort mode; I even had a super-strong finish out of the saddle and really pushing hard. I think what happened was that I felt like I was going fast but really I wasn't and this is going to be my most difficult obstacle as I feel good but really I'm still sucking ass.

So, in short, I'm going to have the most trouble with the mental part of thinking I'm going fast when not, getting my recovery back after a hard effort (hill or single track) and my power back on the flat dual track.

Buckwallow is a month away so I'm going to start the Wednesday Night Races at Hardwood Ski and Bike and see what else I can do to get out there.

I'll post again when I start these races.

In September of 2009 at Kelso Conservation Area I had what I think was my best race ever. It was my best year ever with consistent results that earned me a 13th overall in the Ontario Cup as an Expert racer. My legs were stronger than ever and I had great endurance and I manged to hold off some racers that I had never beaten before in previous years; it was a break-through race for me and I had so much momentum heading into the next season that I could very-well have been a top racer in my class of Master Expert 30-39.

As it turned out I decided to return to school at the tender age of 33 so that I may upgrade my skills in the arts (post-grad course so most students were not much younger than me). The result was both good and bad! My new skill was computer animation and I managed to be a top student in a school that is ranked within the top ten in the world for animation training. In the process I fell in love with it, moved to Oakville and forgot that I even had a bike! Well, not really, I continued to go to the gym and get out on the bike for light but long rides that helped take the stress of school off. The result was not pretty as I lost muscle, gained about 10 pounds and lost all my cardiovascular. I'm still a student although it's all done after-hours on my own and will be that way for 15 months. I have mentors from all over the world helping me fine-tune my animation skills but it only made matters worse for my fitness. As time went by and the weather improved I began to become restless and eventually I started to race again. I missed two races already and had no real training but decided that I should join the Expert class again just to see how I measured up; I didn't measure up! I was 35 minutes off the pace when I'm normally about 10 minutes of and I had no confidence, no power and barely enough strength in my hands to hang on to my new and much smaller bike that is very demanding to control in high speed downhills! It was a nightmare right from the get-go when I hit the first uphill about 500 feet into the race and noticed things were very different. The racers in my group just pulled away like I wasn't even racing and eventually (about a minute later) they were gone so far up the trail that all I could hear is the slapping of the chain and a few miss-shifts; I could even hear some chatting away as if it were Sunday ride whereas I was about to fall dead due to lack of O2. How could this be? That wasn't the end because the other riders from the groups starting later were soon to make my day even worse! I forgot that the super-fast do eventually catch me late in the race but not just a few kilometers into the first lap; I had to pull over and let them all go by because I was moving so slow! With them by I began to ride again, sowing gaining confidence thinking I was starting to get my legs back already ...nope! The next wave came through and the same thing happened again but then it was followed yet again by the next and the next and so on. I was now aware that I could very well be in last place of the whole damn race! As it turned out, I pretty much was and there were no more racers passing me. It was then that I was able to settle in and do my own race and eventually caught a couple of racers but was too chicken-shit to pass and they eventually pulled away again. I just wanted out, it was over and I thought about just pulling out after the first lap. As it turned out I didn't as that's just something that I don't do and is the reason why I excel at ultra endurance bike races. I started to pick it up on the third lap and reeled in a few racers and actually made passes but it wasn't enough and I crossed the finish in what seemed to be slow motion with all the other racers who were already out of their gear, pacing up and preparing for the awards watching me. I made a quick exit and went to my team trailer where I had to explain my dismal results. It was then I knew it would take me all season to return to what I hoped was my mid-pack results.

What happened? Simple, I stopped racing! Racing is the best way to get yourself in shape for successive races and so on. Training is also critical but without practical training (real races) eventually your body just adapts to that training and forgets about racing. I even noticed that I was having food energy issues and before my body could easily survive a race without something like this. So now I have to start again although muscle-memory will make things return to normal a bit quicker of course but it's frustrating having worked so hard only to lose it all in a matter of a year. It took me from about 2006 to get to this level so that's about 3 years. I'd say if I had taken just 6 months, even three months I'd still be in the same situation. So in conclusion, if you plan on racing in the future but want time off then you'd better be prepared to have to start from scratch! Do what you can to stay on the bike but perhaps reduce your racing to a lighter schedule, rather than racing every week then perhaps change it to once every other week or even once every three; it's better than what I did and now I'm paying for it.

Hello gang, well I hope all is well with everyone and that you are all ready for a great season of racing and awesome training days.  I know Mansfield is next weekend and I'm sure your all pumped up for it, Marianna and I sure wish we were there to support you all and give you that smack in the ass your going to need on the last lap.  Training camp is going to be great The coaches are working hard to give you a great weekend of fun and fitness.

Hello every one, just want to let you know we are one steep closer to starting and all female race team.  Julia Christina Josie Volpe Knights was born today at  six a.m.  six half pounds.  We are now home and doing fine Marianna was a trooper and very strong as we knew she would be.  I'll send pics asap. 

All the best, Greg