Evan Sherman

Lake O’Hara Camping

Tue, 4 Sep 2007 20:12:46 -0600

Well hello there! It has been a long time since i last updated everyone! I have scaled back the racing since the Canmore Canada Cup because of life getting in the way. I know, i know, suck it up! Believe me i tried! As it turns out it was more difficult than i thought to keep my fitness at a high level and work 40 hrs. per week. I now have more respect for you weekend warriors!

Now it is time to conquer the mountains though!

Criusin’

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 22:29:54 -0600

I am writing to you from the luxurious confines of my ship cabin! That’s right! I am on a cruise to Alaska with my Brother, Mom and Grandparents. We left Vancouver harbor Saturday afternoon and today made it to Icy Straight Point, a little salmon fishing town. For those of you who have done a cruise before, they will understand what I mean by the ship is HUGE! Three swimming pools, 500 seating capacity theatre, mini golf, climbing wall, basketball court, bars everywhere, and so on. There are even pool tables that automatically level themselves when the boat is rocking. Of course there is food galore and the service is top notch.

I have been riding the usual gym spin bike with my pedals and shoes. There aren’t any fans there, so I’m doing some pretty intense heat training. Speaking of riding...I guess I should update you on my race the weekend before in Quebec.

Well...I didn’t go as planned at all. Up until Thursday that week I was feeling great. Good power and climbing was top notch. Then that night I got a wicked fever and had swollen lymph nodes. Not good. It all happened within 30 min. or so. I didn’t get much sleep that night although I felt decent Friday morning. I went for a pre-ride around noon and thought I was OK (except for the sore armpit lymph nodes!)...until I hit the first hill. Legs had absolutely nothing. I would describe it as going for a ride after doing 200km first. Something was definitely wrong. Saturday morning is when I decided to give the race a go. Already paid for it and I’m way out here...so might as well, right? Well, I was definitely still sick. After three laps I decided to call it quits for fear of getting really sick...and the fact that I was waaaaayyy back!

I saw the doctor Wednesday and got a blood test Thursday, so now I am just waiting to hear back. As for the spinning on the bike here...I still don’t feel right and my lymph nodes are still swollen. Just great! Right in the middle of race season! Oh well, couldn’t have picked a better place to do some good recovery!

Check out the pictures from the cruise and let me know when you want to book a huge group together!

Quebec Training

Wed, 23 May 2007 20:41:55 -0600

After a race like that the most important thing to do is recover a much as possible. In cycling that means as much sitting and laying down as possible. Thanks to a hot tub, big screen TV and beer it was somewhat bearable! haha!

Sunday involved cleaning all of my gear and bike for a few hours and siting on the lazyboy. Oh ya, i guess i did do a 2 hour ride in there somewhere as well. Monday was a 2.5 hr. ride around lake Brome and some more sitting...this time in the hot tub...just to change it up. My legs sure were a mess though. Two days after a race they are always the worst.

Along with Bromont hosting a Canada Cup that weekend, it also hosted one of my other hobbies...eating chocolate. It was a long weekend chocolate festival! What luck! We wondered around looking at all the chocolate carvings and other displays. Roddi, Stef, Cory and I found ourselves in the chocolate museum (ya, you heard right!) for a bowl of hot chocolate. WOW! That was by far the best hot chocolate I have ever had! I think they just melted chocolate bars into some homo milk and called it a day! Well since I thought a bowl of hot chocolate wouldn’t be enough i got the bright idea to order a chocolate banana crepe...that was a bit much. The hot chocolate was so filling that I could only handle half the crepe. So disappointing. Sorry I failed you all.

Wednesday was the big 4 hr. ride that actually turned into 3 hrs. because I was so tired. (Nothing to do with the chocolate...geez you guys...) Riding up to the top of Bromont ski hill 4 times sure did me in. Let’s see...I washed my race clothes for the fifth time (can’t wait to get the all red gear...instead of white) and then forced myself into the hot tub again. I know, I know, tough life.

Today we all went out to do some fun intervals including the 2 min. max efforts. What a blast! haha. Suffered pretty good and then made my way back home to pack the economy size car. Three bikes and all our gear later, Roddi, Brian and I were off to Mont Temblant. We had a pretty smooth sailing trip since we missed Montreal rush hour (though it was 10 times busier than Edmonton).

We have got a pretty sweet place here. I originally booked a 2 bedroom place for the 6 of us but was later informed that we were upgraded to the three bedroom, 6 bed super condo! Nice! Don’t forget to click on the ‘Quebec Pics’ link!

Gotta go.

Canada Cup #2

Sat, 19 May 2007 13:25:56 -0600

My first Canada Cup of the year was both good and bad. Since I didn’t race the first Canada Cup I wasn’t ranked for a call up to the start line...so my start position was around 60th out of 85. Despite that, my start was pretty good. I passed at least 25 guys in the first 5 minutes...and didn’t blow myself up either! My climbing is much improved over last year this time which is definitely a good sign. So right around the start of the 5th lap I was sitting close to top 20 with a group just ahead...and then my right hamstring cramped right up! Crap! Not this again. I got off my bike and stretched it out a bit, waved to the camera, waved some junior girls by and continued on...this time in granny gear. Crap! The last two laps were slow needless to say. In the end I managed to hold on for 30th place. So ya, some good and bad.

On another note, the course was super muddy. It rained a week straight up until yesterday. Today was the first warm sunny day, so that was nice...but it sure wasn’t enough to dry the course out. Check out the photos. It took a good 2 hrs. to get the bike clean and working properly.

With some good training and STRETCHING this week, the next race should be a good one. Now it’s time for the hot tub!

Races and Back in Quebec

Wed, 16 May 2007 16:59:06 -0600

I’m back in raining cold Quebec for my first Canada cup of the year. As the plane was crossing the Ontario/Quebec border it went from clear sunny skies to rain and cloud. Oh well, can’t be much worse than last year!

I guess I better update everyone on the last two weekends of racing. Two weekends ago I did a road stage race in and around Edmonton. Saturday morning was a 11.8km (supposedly, i’m sure it was shorter than that) time trial with some very strong wind. In fact, during my warm-up i was just about blown right off my bike when i sprinted out of the protection of a tree shelter belt. So I was the first Cat. 2 to start the time trial so i was out to set a nice easy standard for everyone to beat. I didn’t want to be too hard on everyone and set a time that was unachievable...haha! Ya right! I got smoked pretty bad. I felt like i had a good race and definitely went all out at the end. But apparently it wasn’t that good cause I was 3rd last in the category! Probably had something to do with no aero gear, but more likely because I can’t time trial.

Saturday night was the criterium ad for those of you who don’t have a clue what that is, allow me to explain: it is a race done in a group around a short (1-2km) loop that is measured by time instead of distance. The group races around the loop for 45min. and then 3 more laps for good measure. So, what is stopping everyone from just standing around and waiting for the final three laps? Well, that just wouldn’t be good for the thousands of fans lining the course would it? Ok, ummm...i finished with the lead group in one piece and that was good enough for me. Sure was good training though.

Sunday morning was the 135km road race out of Josephburg (North West of Elk Island National Park). Apart from the incredibly uneventful course, the race was pretty fun. I got in an early break that I thought was out of sight out of mind from the peloton...but nooooo...Team Lazy Boy decided to break two guys from the group without telling anyone (i wasn’t paying attention OK) and then the rest of the guys decided the race was over. We rode another 4 laps around and around on flat boring roads to see who would finish third. Well, it wasn’t me. I did too much work earlier in the day and hung on for top 20 something. Great training again though! If all of Team United was present it would have been quite a bit more exciting.

Ok, so on to Alberta Cup #2 mountain bike race at the brand new Sun Ridge Ski Hill race course. First off...big thank you to the volunteers who built the course (Dave Whitten and crew) and to Brys Francis for such a great design! He had that in the works for 2 years now and it sure is nice to see it come to life. Wow! What a fun course! Twisty single track that puts a smile on your face the whole time! Edmontonians don’t know how lucky they are to have such amazing trails right in their own backyard.

For this race I decided to gun it right from the start...and I didn’t look back. This was one of those few races where you were actually looking forward to doing another lap. I have done two or three race courses in my life where you couldn’t care less how you finished in the race, you just wanted to ride the course and this one sure comes close. In the end I led from start to finish with my team mate, Marc Bomhoff, in second place. Great job Pedalhead for organizing that race!

Well, it is back to watching hockey for me...Ottawa better not fall apart here!