Human stress - let's take a quick look...

I know a few people going through some tough workloads right now so I thought I would change things up a bit with this post and maybe try and offer some insight/advice.

Everyone everyday deals with stress in his or her life. No matter how big or small the problem seems to an outsider it always somehow seems to be a big deal to you. I know I have been guilty of comparing my problems and others to say problems that others would face in war-stricken countries.  Sure it might help ease your mind and help put things into perspective, but does it mean that your problems don’t matter? First let’s look at what the body does…

The human nervous system is pretty bad at giving you information on an absolute scale. Take temperature for example. Say that you have three buckets of water, one cold, one hot, and one lukewarm. You put one hand in the cold and the other in the hot, and then you put both hands in the lukewarm bucket. The hot hand will say that the water is cold, and the cold hand will say that the water is warm. Your nervous system interprets its surrounding on a relative scale.  Now this same concept can be applied to the issues that we experience in our day-to-day life. Whether you are camping in a forest where you know there are bears in the area or if you have a test to write one day, I believe your primary stressor will affect you nearly the same regardless of how big it is. So what matters is that your problems really do matter, to you.

How can we manage this? First off I want to make the point that people get down and out thinking that they are the only one going through a tough time. I think we can all take some solace in the fact that everyone has their own problems and are stressed about them no matter what face they are putting on in front of you. So know that you aren’t in it alone. But remember these issues are relative to what is important to you, so this is where the comparison issue comes in. You can’t expect someone else to care about your issues if they believe they are or someone else is facing something worse. Having a good friend or family member that you can talk to is always a good place to go though if you want to talk it out with someone.

Ok, since it is relative and it is important to you and may only be important to you then maybe you should try and get rid of the stressful situation. Maybe it is just a test at school or possibly asking that person you have a crush on out on a date. Something like that can ‘easily’ be taken off your plate by completing the task. Other things like a past history or something else you can’t just remove from your environment will take more work.  

For this you will need to give yourself on-going care, especially if you find yourself to be someone who stresses over everything. Exercise is a great option because it has tons of health benefits and has been shown to have similar effects to taking anti-depression drugs. This will help with the important part of keeping that mood up and your outlook positive. If you aren’t a big exerciser, then just find something else that you like to do, a hobby, that gets your mind somewhere else, somewhere it can relax. Also sort of mentioned above, going out and being social with friends is another great way to blow off some stress. Forgetting about your problems for a few hours can help reset that relative scale and make it think, “hey if I forgot about it, it can’t be that bad”.  Also getting a good laugh in can help lots with this I find. For me, a good Will Ferrell movie or skit can completely flip my mood around.

I know personally, I have used cycling to get rid of my stress. I knew my problems weren’t ever that bad, but they still affected me. The more you feel about your issues, the harder you can push on the intervals and get the pain out in a way that will actually be beneficial for you. So even if your problems are only big to you, they still do matter. We all have these issues and maybe we all need to be more open to this fact that we are all fighting our stresses and they feel just as big as ever.  It is up to you to find a way to manage these stressors and to keep a smile on that face.

If you have any good ways to fight your stresses, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Update - An older me

Hey guys,

Just turned 23, so I have officially jumped ship into the tougher/deeper field of elite riders. Hopefully with my new age will come new found wisdom for this coming season. I will try to update every week if possible, some might be shorter than others, and some might just be me saying something for tips such as my last post.

For my training I have been doing more volume on the bike and cut back my running to just once a week at about 45min-1hr. I have started doing one long ride a week in the spin room (3-4hrs) and those are proving to be pretty tough. Especially since you combat dehydration more so I find indoors because it gets so much warmer and you don't have the wind to cool you down. Add in to that one day of some lower end z4 to try and get some power back in my legs. Things are hopefully shaping up to see me be my fittest for this coming season!

The other big part that I need lots of work on this year is my mind game. Definitely highly overlooked when people outside the sport look at it. So much strategy and gambling is required if you want to see results. I find I might have been a little to cautious and not wanting to make anyone mad/upset with me. While I am here, I do want to quickly draw the line that I am talking about going for breaks, staying near the front of the pack and suffering when I need to and talking about not cutting people off or pushing people out of the spot I want in the peloton. There is no need for stupid crashes and I don't want to be part of them. Ok, back to where I was, I think knowing I have a better engine to back me will help give me the confidence to go for it, rather than sit in and hope things will all come back together nicely like in cat4.

I have already signed up for Paris to Ancaster, and Steaming Nostril. Both races are a blast, and a great way to test your early season fitness without having to worry so much about results. If you can, try to make it out to them yourself!

Anyway I have a pile of reading to do, so I will leave you here. Hope your fitness goals are coming along as well as mine. I will leave you with a motivational quote from a quick google search:

"Stop wishing. Start doing."

Weight loss tips for the average person

Okay, so like me, most people start the year off with the goal of losing some weight. And right about now is when people start giving up on their goals. I think it is because they are tackling them the wrong way, so I am going to give you guys a few tips that will hopefully help you reach your goal.

First why should you listen to me? So many people say to me “you are so lucky you have a high metabolism and don’t put weight on”. That is so far from the truth that it isn’t even funny. I can easily put on 5lbs in a week, and every fall/winter I gain anywhere from 10-20lbs. Also each and every year I work to drop that weight to get into race shape. But before I even started racing, I was able to drop 40lbs in 4 months just by changing my lifestyle. So I have been there and done it. It is like trying to battle addiction, you have to really want it yourself, or the pressure of delicious food and Netflix binge watching will get the better of you real quick. All right here we go:

1. Why do you want it? You have to want to lose weight for a reason, and constantly reminding yourself of that reason might help you see that end goal. For me currently, it is so I can keep up with others on the hills. Back in high school when I first started to drop weight, I wanted to feel like I was attractive to my then girlfriend. So whether you want to impress someone or you are doing it for yourself, set a statement of why you are going to do this.

2. Diet or exercise alone won’t get you there. You do need both. I can eat 20 fresh cookies before I start to feel full. Where as for less calories and more nutrition I can have a nice size chicken breast with sweet potato fries and still have whatever sauce I want for dipping. Healthier food will keep you feeling fuller for longer. Also exercise helps to work down any extra calories you may have got because you got to fit your feel good food in there somewhere! Also seeing some muscle definition gives you a huge confidence boost that tells you what you are doing is working and worth it! Also it boosts so metabolism so you can eat more of that delicious food over time.

3. Cut out those damn treats! At least for a while. Easiest way to do so is just to get them out of your house. If you are sitting around and you know there is a nice bag of chips waiting for you, you might go through the full bag and you weren’t even hungry to start. Whereas if you only had an apple then you might not even go for it, and if you did, at least you are getting some nutrients. I consider weight loss simple calorie in-calorie out and it has always worked for me. So you only have to cut the treats until you get down to your goal weight, then you can enjoy them every so often again.

4. Make sure you eat. I usually tried to limit my calories to around 2000/day. With exercise and resting metabolic rate, it should still run you a deficit. If you aren’t eating enough, anything you do eat, your body turns to fat to store because it thinks it might not have food for a while. Also weight loss doesn’t happen overnight, so you need to have fuel to keep yourself positive and to give yourself energy to keep working out!

5. My last tip is the big one. For your exercises, find something you enjoy! Again weight loss is a lifestyle change, so you want to find something you like to do, and will continue to do once you finish. You don’t have to run on the treadmill, or only do weights. I would suggest however, doing a combination of weights and cardio work. For me, I love biking so I do a lot of that. For you maybe it is running, or cross country skiing. Maybe you love skating, and it is the perfect time to take advantage of all the school grounds that have ice rinks put up. Find something you enjoy and then go and work your butt off!

I could keep giving tips but I think these are the most important ones. A lot of people mention finding a workout buddy. I never needed one as I found myself very self driven, but if you aren’t that type of person, then finding someone to join the challenge with you would be beneficial to both of you and make it more fun!

As always I would love to hear any questions or comments you might have. Good luck on what ever fitness and health goals you might have! 

New year, new season has started!

A long time and no update, I apologize. I am back! Just coming out of a weeklong flu that had me down and out for a few days. Hopefully I have now gotten my sick time out of the way for this winter. I thought I would use this post as an update on my training since my last update.

So the big news is that I have yet to mount my bike on a trainer. That isn’t as bad as it sounds. The McMaster gym has sweet spin bikes and I have been putting all my spin time on those bad boys. Plus, getting the spin hours in while a spin class is going on is a lot more motivating than sitting at home on the trainer. I find I sweat as much doing base watts as most participants do while working hard so it looks like I am working just as hard anyway. My volume has definitely dialed back a bunch since the fall when I ramped it up before the temperature and sunlight dropped off.

I have been working the past 3 months with my coach Jeff Kehler doing kettlebell and TRX workouts to build strength and stability. My little brother also joined in the fun, and he helps build that extra motivation on certain workouts where I maybe wasn’t feeling it. I had to make sure that he knew I was still stronger than him! I am definitely feeling a lot stronger from all of it. I also got some nice upper body strength now that will unfortunately go away over the coming months. Too bad it wasn’t beach season now as I am ready to impress! The best achievement from this was a Turkish getup with a 70lb bell. That was tough to hold up!

Finally, the last thing that has been keeping me off the trainer is running. After seeing so many runners do well on bikes, I figured it couldn’t hurt. It is also way easier to go out in the cold for a run, than a ride especially when it is wet out. It makes training a bit more enjoyable with some diversity at a time when a little cross training is encouraged. Changing sports a bit also gives you the ability to be social with people in other sports, just in case you get tired of talking to the same cyclists everyday!

Hopefully I won’t be run down with work and I will be updating again soon. Thanks for checking in!

Season stats

Being a numbers guy myself, I compiled a few numbers from this season that I thought you guys might like to see. If I am leaving something out that you would like to know, comment below and I will add it in!

Racing category: Elite 2
Number of races this year: 12
Number of pro contracts offered: Obviously a lot! (zero)
Road bike crashes: 1
Mountain bike crashes: too many to count
Number broken bones: 1
Number of stitches: 3
Mileage for the year: ~ 11 000km + over 100hrs on a spin bike
Longest training week duration: 19 hours
Shortest: Zero (does that even count then?)
Number of wins: Zero (if we don’t include club events)
Number of international/out of province races: 1, Tour of Catskills
Favourite shoes: Sidi Wire
Favourite colour combo: Black + Fluoro Yellow
Current race machine: Scott Foil
Favourite groupset: Sram red, sram’s shifting mechanism is definitely superior.
Average calories consumed/day: 3500-4000
Racing weight: 165 lbs (75 kg)
Height (for comparision): 6’2
Top 20min power according to garmin: 347 Watts (4.6W/kg)
Last years 20min: 322W

Other figures:
1 - Honours Bachelor of Science earned in Medical Physics
1 000 000 - Approximate number of calories consumed this year from brownies alone (may be inflated)
1 - Carbon wheel cracked in 2 places (damn Catskills!)
1 - Fingernail ripped off
500- Hours spent watching Netflix while recovering


**Adding to this, a cool feature a friend found for those that upload their rides to strava. A heat map for all your rides. Helps you see that you really don't ride that many different roads unfortunately. Here is my heat map for my last 100 rides! Check yours here. Note it takes a little bit to compile.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully everyone was able to enjoy the nice weather that came with this long weekend. It is great time to look upon your life and be grateful for what you have in your life and what you have accomplished. Also it is a great time to show your appreciation to all of those in your life that have helped shaped your world into what it is today. I am definitely grateful for all my friends and family that have been there to support my cycling. They put up with my long training hours, not-so late nights out and busy weekends racing and still find time to hang out with me like a normal person. Without them I would probably become a zombie with no social life. I am also grateful for my coach Jeff Kehler for helping develop my skills over the past three years. I have grown past what I thought I could personally accomplished and because of this he has helped me aim my goals even higher than I started out with. And I think my mom deserves a special shoutout because she does so, so much for me. There is probably a lot of other people that I should thank, but people might get bored reading through and I don't want to upset any one by having a list and leaving out an important person or two. If you have touched my life and helped make a difference or pushed me in anyway then you are definitely on the list of people that I am grateful to have in my life. Without you guys I would never get to improve and become a better person and athlete.

Injury update: One more person I am very grateful for is Richard Bartolo for putting up with my shitty circumstances in the states with my crash. He could easily have left me there at the hospital and told me to get my parents to get me. But he stuck around and made sure I was as good as I could be!
On that note, everything is healing pretty good. Getting some neck pain I think from increased volume and trying to hold my head up in an aggressive position. I have attached some pictures of some of the scarring. Started a regimen of bio-oil to see if it helps clear it up. Has anyone else tried it with any results?
I posted weekend-of pictures in a previous post you can compare to if you wish.

elbow marked up

two puncture spots in my shoulder (from rocks maybe?) and remnants from the road rash. 

knee with its few deep gashes all filled in

Knuckle is all filled in and finger nail is half way back!

Thanks for stopping in, and make sure you take time to appreciate what you have, and show the people close to you that you do appreciate their efforts!

Prov TT and Injury Update

So it has been a while since I last posted. I have been busy with starting my Masters, getting back on the bike and trying to be a bit more social. I found some time this evening to write up an update for you loyal readers.

So I was almost ready to call it quits after Catskills for the year, but I didn't want to end the season that way. After the crash I was off the bike for a week and a half. Then I got in on a spin bike, doing 5 hours of training the second half of that week and 7 in the following week. I finally got back out on my bike towards the end of the third week and combined got 11 hours of riding in. So overall not what I would call a great training block leading up to provincials. The course was very hilly with only two short flat sections in each of the 20km laps. My garmin was in for repairs so I was going to do this TT completely on feel. I was also lucky to have a friend lend me a disc wheel. The 'whooshing' sound of the wheel always adds to your confidence I find.

At bike check, because I was just under 190cm I had to move my extensions in 5cm. This was complete crap! Because I can't afford electronic shifting, my knees now hit my elbows if my shifters are not sticking straight out. The UCI rules are complete garbage for tall riders and I am sure short riders probably have similar things to say. Anyway, this was not favourable with the hills as I very rarely found my shifter in the ideal location. It was either up too high to climb, or down too low on the descents. It was hard to get into a good rhythm I found as well on this course but I gave it a good go, with no numbers to judge my effort. I ended up 6th in U23. Overall I was happy with it because my expectations were very low going into it. Also comparing my times from this year to last year, I was a lot closer to the overall winner which I am telling myself is a sign that my fitness is improving! Had I not crashed, and had my garmin I think I could have knocked some time off, but no one will ever know. I finished in one piece and that is a much better way to end a season! Can't wait to come back next season even stronger and with more knowledge and experience.

Photo cred: Jeremy Allen

Results:here

Injury Update

So this past Tuesday I finally got my check up appointment and X-ray. Doctor said it healed well and I am ok to resume activity. I didn't tell him that I started 3 weeks ago. I have had some shoulder pain, but it has mostly felt like muscle pain, from trying to build the strength back up. Range of motion is pretty much all the way back now. Took about two weeks to get it back after I stopped using the sling. Now all I have left are some scars and a missing half a finger nail!

Left is healed, right is broken. You can see a bright white 'line' in the left one where the new bone has grown. Kind of hard to tell, so maybe I was just faking it?

Hoping to get out and enjoy some fall riding. Might get out to the UCUP mtb race this weekend and might try my first cross race this fall due to peer pressure. Thanks for checking in, as always!