Well my "commuting" training schedule has begun and what I hope will be the beginning of my training season. I live approximately 55kms from the office which creates a great opportunity to get in some great base-mile training. The commute takes approximately 2:15hrs - my average time at the start of this season. The traffic lights creating natural breaks, which I have started to use for some interval training, but slowing down my overall pace. Once out of the downtown area it is easier to get up to  speed and maintain a steadier pace. The ascent on the ride to work is just over 250m whilst the ride home is a tougher 430m - so all in all a workout that should help get my fitness up to speed and hopefully see me faster on my bike!

My plan at this stage is to try and get in 4 weekday rides with Wednesday being my weekday rest day. That will mean getting in just over 220km during the week with the weekend rides then being dedicated to longer endurance trails ride and family cycles on Sunday.  This should give me roughly a 12-hour training schedule which will be a great base for the beginning of the season. It looks like there are a few events which begin this weekend that I would not mind checking in on. I have not been to any Canadian races yet, so it will be interesting to see how they compare to the South African events - I suspect that they will be similar in terms of turnout, however, I imagine they will be more single track/trail orientated. 

Settling into life in Canada has certainly been made easier by the arrival of Spring and this has certainly been felt by the massive increase of cyclists on the road. I clearly live in a roadies paradise judging by the number of coordinated weekday rides in the evenings - I will just need to venture further off-road to seek out the fat tire riders! 

Well another year of the Cape Epic has come to an end - which I still judge as one of the best events in the world mtb calendar. It was great for South Africa to finally have one of their own on the top spot on the podium. Burry Stander continues to be a brilliant example of the talent that South Africa has, in terms of ability. What is even more spectacular is that he has achieved all of this success by himself without the support of budget laden sporting bodies - ironically possibly the reason why he has been so successful! The event however, has made me excited at the prospect of doing another stage event - this time however the TransRockies in 2012 will be the challenge and all my cycling efforts will be focused on it.