What makes a person combine some metal, some rubber, and some plastic bits together into a machine? What makes people take that machine and hurtle themselves off/down a mountain? What makes this so much fun?

I am not sure but there is something about mountain biking that I will always love. Even when the sport is cruel to me.

You see, I am more than a little bummed right now. This past weekend some guys and I had planned a trip to Whistler. The trip started great, but ended up going downhill really quickly (sorry about the pun). We left on time Friday, and got to the Nanaimo ferry on time. We drove to Whistler and got there at a reasonable hour. After checking inwe watched a couple bike vids, then crashed for the night. So far so good right?

The next morning it all seemed to come apart. First Sean couldn’t find the phone number for his buddy that we were supposed to meet up with. Rain splattered the mountain on and off the whole day. We then hit the lifts a little later than planned. Then Sean had a bad mechanical with a mangled hub. The rest of us, being the bike geeks that we are, did a couple runs while he got things straightened out.

Some pics here (mostly non riding).

Then the crap started for me.

First I had a flat while riding on Schleyer. Fun trail, but I didn’t even know I had a flat until I started to ride away after a small break. Later that same run, I landed a small 1 foot pullup, it felt like my back exploded as soon as I touched down. The pain quicky subsided, but after that any time I leaned over I was in pain. Not good!

I stopped and stretched for a while, and it seemed to loosen up. After a while we finished the run, and by that point I began to feel alright. I decided to do an easy run to see how I felt. As soon as I got off the lift I knew something bad was happening. I couldn’t lean over at all, and that made riding extremely difficult. I ended up coasting down the easiest trail when I should have taken the gondola down. Damn. My day was done. Actually my weekend was done. I wasn’t in serious pain, but I was feeling enough discomfort that I couldn’t ride, and that bummed me out. I headed back to the condo to get cleaned up. I only got 3 or 4 runs in. 🙁

The guys kept riding until the lifts closed then after they got cleaned up we headed out to get some grub. The old spaghetti factory had a 30-45 minutes wait so that was out. We ended up at the Longhorn where I quite enjoyed my chicken burger.

The next day we headed down to West Van so the guys could ride Cypress while I didn’t. Along the way we came upon a long line of stand still traffic. Turned out that the Alice Lake Triathlon was happening that morning, and the ride route crossed the highway.

After meeting up with Craig I headed to HorseShoe bay and got some lunch, some coffee, and soem gasoline. After that was all done I picked up the guys, and headed to the 3 pm ferry.

My weekend really was kind of crappy, but the rest of the guys had fun. What can I say. I wished I could have ridden more. I did go to Physio on Monday too. The prognosis for my back is good. The doc seems to think that I misaligned a joint in my middle back. He did some adjustments, did some elctrotherapy stuff, and gave me some stretches and exercises to do at home. My back is feeling better now, but it is still a little tight at times.

To see the pics I did take, click here.

To top this incredibly sucky ordeal off I woke up Tuesday with a cold and have missed a couple days of work this week. Somebody put me out of my misery!