The weather is looking great for Saturday! We’ll leave from Colchester Hall at 11am for a 60km ride around Half Moon Lake and the Cooking Lake Airport.
You’ve got the option of riding an extra 5km Time Trial Challenge at the end. There is a 5km Velocity Strava Segment from the hall, west to the cul-de-sac and back. If you don’t have a Strava account, you can just self-time yourself on the segment. I’ll marshal the start for everyone.
If you make this a best-effort paced challenge, you’ll have a good estimate for your starting outdoor FTP this season. Take 90% of your average power on that 5km segment, and use it as your first FTP estimate for the start of the season.
Please see all the details on our Event Calendar entry:
Racer and Rider Clothing Orders
Our Jakroo Clothing Store will be open from April 18 to May 1.
All the details are on our Clothing page:
ABA Learn To Race Clinic
Next Saturday, April 15, I’ll be teaching the ABA’s Learn To Race Clinic. If you are new to road racing, and want a good start to your experience, please register for the clinic.
Spring Riding Camp
At the end of the month, we’ve got about 10 or 11 riders heading to the Penticton Spring Riding Camp. We’ll be sending an email out soon to everyone who has said they’ll be going. The camp is a great way to kick-start your overall riding fitness for the season and to experience some climbing we just don’t have available in Edmonton.
There will still be scheduled Saturday rides here in Edmonton those last 2 weekends of April, but attendance will be down a bit.
Any last-minute Riding Camp attendees please send me an email with your plans: coaching@velocitycyclingclub.ca.
Jasper Climbing Camp Weekend
It looks like we’ve got plenty of interest in a Jasper Climbing Camp this year! Plans will be shaping up for the weekend of June 16, 17 and 18.
We’ll pull together the itinerary over the next few weeks. In the meantime, please go ahead and start to look at accommodation plans. If you’d like to camp, it’s best to look at the Parks Canada website for camp bookings sooner than later.
It’s not too late to drop me an email if this interests you: coaching@velocitycyclingclub.ca
Kids With Cancer Tour of Hope
Looking for an even bigger challenge in June?
The Kids with Cancer Society is hosting their annual fundraising event, the 2023 Tour of Hope, Pincher to Pigeon, from June 6th to June 11th. The 2023 cycling adventure begins in the breathtaking mountain views of Pincher Creek, cycles through majestic Waterton, heads north on the iconic COWBOY TRAIL featuring Longview, Cochrane, Sundre, Rocky Mountain House, and finally Pigeon Lake.
The ride will be a huge total of 584km!
Read all about what the event entails at their website: Tour of Hope
Recovery Skills Study
PhD candidate Stuart Wilson, from the University of Ottawa, is looking for research participants.
Training for endurance sports takes hard work, and hard work takes recovery. Online, most info frames recovery as a list of tools you can buy, but if we look at it from the perspective of the athlete, deciding why, how, and when you recover is just as important as any one tool you might use to get there.
Participants in the study will be asked to complete two hard workouts on Zwift, 48 hours apart. In the 48 hours leading up to each workout, they’ll be asked to complete a series of short questionnaires throughout the day addressing their thoughts, actions, and feelings around recovery.
Stuart is looking for cyclists of any skill level, 17 years or older, who have previously completed a race on Zwift and are able to do workouts on Zwift (i.e., they have an account and indoor trainer). Participants will get an individual report of their personal results, tips on how to improve their recovery, and full results of the study when it’s complete.
Those interested can sign up for the study here: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/RSKsignup
For more information, explore the study website: https://sites.google.com/view/recoveryskillsstudy
If you have any questions, or you would like to discuss the skills of recovery further, please feel free to reach out to Stuart at Stuart.Wilson@uOttawa.ca.
What’s Your Cycling Performance Pathway Type?
Are you curious what stage you’re at with your training and what next steps you should focus on?
I’ve created a 60-second quiz to help self-assess yourself and get a few tips about how you should be training this year.
You’ll also get a coaching package offer from me, but it’s not a high-pressure sale or anything. Until the end of May, you’ll get 50% off your first month of coaching, and then you’ll get the reduced 20% off monthly rate I reserve exclusively for Velocity members.
Find out how you should be training using this 10-question quiz: