Cant belive its already March first tommorow, before we know it race season will be here and the bike park will be open again. Words cant even describe how excited I am for some warm dusty conditions! This week was my last week of in the gym training with my coach Mark, he is about to undergo shoulder surgery and fly back to New Zeland for a month to heal up. During that time I am continueing my training 5 days a week via Skype. Since I have started my training I have noticed huge improvements, my cardio, overall strength, flexibility, mindset, and focus are all very different from when I started. During the winter I have been racing indoor 4x and the season just wrapped up, I was fortunate enough to finish second overall in the Junior men category.
The past weekend me and a few of the guys who I train with through Mark Bunyan went over to the coast not expecting to run into snow. Long story short, we did. Even though there was 4-6 inches of snow on the ground it was probably the best day riding I have had since the summer. Not to mention some of the fastest and flat out riding I have even done. By the end of the day we managed to get about 12 runs in.

According to Pauwels I was right on about the tactics.

Ever get the feeling your onto something big, well time is short lately with family, school, team management, and big plans for our sport, but things are happening and in the works!

So without much time my “weekend in review” is in Wattage, 10 1/2 hours of wattage to be exact…

3 hours endurance Friday

3x 30 min tempo and 1 1/2 hours endurance…244 watt avg. normalized power…not bad.

5 hours hilly endurance and definitely did not hurt as bad as last weeks ride, 10 extra watt avg. and felt fine at the end…progress.

Wonder if this will transfer well outside…and I think my electric bill will see a significant increase with how often my Fridge door is open lately .  Maybe hook that trainer up to the grid and start making some money on all the watts.

Thanks for reading!

I am back in NYC visiting the Morpheus factory as we launch a bunch of new bikes and projects. The website just went live, www.morpheususa.com and it looks great!

We had a product photo shoot this past Friday and the shot turned out great.  Ryan Books did an excellent job.  www.ryanbrooksphoto.com

Last time I was in NYC we did a photo project and it turn out pretty sweet. Vital MTB ran an article on it. Click Here to Check it out!

The last 30 minutes of this ride were BRUTAL…simulated hilly endurance on the trainer.  I had to use the biggest gear on a mag trainer to get the rpms and power to match what was needed for hills in zone 4-5a for 3 mins every half hour.  Only did the Hills for the first 3 1/2 hrs.  Probably could have done more but I was being stubborn and did not want to waste time going upstairs for more water…even though I had gone through a 1/2 gallon already.  Started conserving my last two bottles with 1 1/2 hrs to go and still ran out with 45 minute to go…coffee + indoor rides = SWEATING!  Gave in and filled one last bottle upstairs to finish out the 5 hrs.  I think I was behind on water and sugar at this point though because of trying to conserve and not “waste time” running upstairs or wake up my family.  But rides like this are all about overcompensation on the fluids and food.  Try to conserve and end up behind.  This actually wastes more time by not putting down good power when behind on energy and then longer recovery time needed the days after the ride.

Other news….and things I watch to be motivated for rides as such…

What was Sven Nys doing here?  Were those tactics to keep Pauwels from the front and away from Stybar so they could not work together?  Looked a little fishy especially with only 2 points separating them in the Series Overall?  Does Nys  usually ride that much worse than Stybar in the tech stuff?  It looked on purpose to keep him and Pauwels from the front… anyone know why the bike switch by Pauwels?

After seeing his performance in last years Tour de France I think Gesink is a man to watch.  Looks like good form early on…

And with a TT like this it looks like he may be working on what is needed to be competitive…climbing and TT’s.  Cancellara may have had a bad day, but when you can beat the World Champ you may want to count TT’s as one of your strong cycling disciplines.

Thanks for reading and watching.

Last week our new team bikes came in. Every one is supper pumped on them and cant wait for racing to start up now! So far I have done a few laps of my local mountain on them to just get used to the feeling of a new bike and how it all works, it went really well! I love the bike. Without the help from out team manager/coach Cory we would have never been this far and probably wouldn’t even have these bikes with out all of his time spent organizing all of this, THANKS CORY!

2011 TEAM C4
Lee Jackson
Jordan Gosteli
Jesse Ballhausen
Jack Iles
Zander Geddes
Cory Leclerc (coach/team manager)



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Last week Saturday I attended the BE Fitness ride again for some Computrainer time.  It was the end of a rest week, so a test of fitness was on the schedule.  My buddy Chris Franson borrowed me a book a while back called “Training and Racing with a Power Meter”.  According to this chart in the book, my first intensity ride of the year has me in the Cat 1 level for racing.  This is encouraging as I have done no threshold training yet this year in any form and it is a very trainable number.  My goal is Div. I/II Pro  by time the season hits.  The science behind this is simple, less weight and more power.  This is a fine balance, because the more weight you take off the more power you can lose if it is not done right.  I will drop about 5 LBS. to do this and hopefully gain 50+ watts.   I am pretty excited about these nerdy numbers because I have never trained this way, but have a very real fitness goal that has actual data to measure it and not just how I “feel” about a group ride or race any given weekend.

Power to weight ratios and corresponding Race Categories

If you want  to calculate your numbers for this chart it is really simple.  Just get on the scale…then scream and yell and cry …after that episode use a converter to get your weight in Kilograms, assuming you are American.  Then divide the avg watts you can hold in a 20 min TT by your weight in kilograms.  This will give you a number which is a good estimate on your power to weight ratio for your Lactate Threshold.  If sprinting is your thing, or short BMX races, or Track, then the shorter durations in the chart may be of more interest to you, but for Cross Country and Road Racing/ Time Trials the Lactate Threshold numbers are of utmost importance.

As for my training now, Base 2 has started for me and I really enjoy a bit of tempo mixed in with my endurance rides.  Looking forward to pushing the pace on group rides soon enough and maybe some road racing in about a month.

In other news, Lindsay is teaching my daughters that packing a lunch for Daddy is a part of their morning routine and as I walk out the door for school I love hearing all about what they made for me.

Here is a surprise I found in my lunchbox I was not told about this morning.

Thanks Charis (my three year old)!

I will let you all know her exact artistic interpretations after I ask her tonight.

Check out this Trans Andes article as published on Bikemag.com



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It’s basically been raining every day I have a chance to ride. When it’s not raining it’s super cold.   The Race Face Ignite Jersey has been really valuable this cold season, I use it almost every time I go riding these days. It’s nice because it’s not bulky at all, so it doesn’t get caught in your bars when you do tricks  like a hoody or jacket would . Be sure to check it out.

443 table

Check out Race Face Grassroots rider Dexter Robson breaking in his new Intense M9 on some sweet Vancouver Island trails…

Don’t forget to call in at Experience Cycling next time you’re in Duncan.

From back in the day. This video pretty much got the ball rolling. Originally sent this into NSMB.com for the Airprentice comp.