Gorgeous day for a ride. Warm, sunny, no wind. Perfect conditions for riding to work. No issues today, although some drivers continue to astound me.
I had one van start to pass me, only to slam on the brakes to make a turn. Why didn’t they just slow down a little before getting to me? They wouldn’t have to hit the brakes then. Wierdo.
Now, about the brakes? Are there any?
What happens when you make a pointer laugh? The pictures tell the story.
Actually this is just Yoshi yawning. I happened to catch him on camera doing this, and thought the shots looked kinda funny.
The 2006 Bike to Work Week is upon us. Today’s ride in was no problem at all. There didn’t really seem to be more bikes out than normal, but that didn’t surprise me. The ride home I did see lots of riders, and that was great, but they are scary to ride behind sometimes. The occasional rider really doesn’t know how to ride in traffic, and that can be dangerous.
Mix together inexperienced riders, unhappy traffic, and you get a dangerous situation.
Anyway, I hope the rest of the week is just as uneventful.
Here, Yoshi is using a flower pot as a pillow. Yeah, that seems comfortable.
In these pictures, Aphro has situated herself between the duvet and the duvet cover. Just because the duvet cover itself was not comfortable enough, she had to get right on the duvet.
Friday night Sox and I had KaptainK, e, and JJ over for dinner.
Saturday I got out for a fun mountain bike ride in the morning, then I managed to get a few hours of yardwork in.
Sunday Sox and I headed to Bullen Park for the Victoria Highland Games, specfically the pancake breakfast. Mmmm. After eating we went home to return later in the day with KaptainK, e, and JJ to check out the activities. Fun times.
Today it was a dog walk at Beaver Lake. But wait, to make it more fun we awoke to a rain storm. Ahh, wet dog, stroller in the rain, mud puddles, and wet shrubbery.
All in all it was a great family type long weekend.
Ever been on a picnic, and have no place to put your wine glass? Grass just has no consistent support and the ground ccan be very uneven or sloped. What you crave is a table. What you need is this picnic wine table. Drive the stake in the ground, attach the top, and voila, you have a suitable place to prevent spillage.
Reflecting back on my Island Cup DH race season I can be reasonably happy with results:
Victoria 7th of 43 racers
Parksville 33rd of 68 racers
Duncan 25th of 29 racers (32 with DNS and DNF’s thrown in).
Riding as fast as you can is an eye opening experience. It is mentally challenging as well as physically challenging. The mental game was a big part of the results for Parksville. Mentally I wasn’t “on” during the race. I tapped the brakes before the jumps, and took it easy through spots where I have previously crashed. I probably could have moved up a few spots if I had let go of the brakes more. 2 years ago I certainly flew more than this year. I think the reason for that would be sprout. Either that or I have turned into a chicken 🙂
Duncan was a physical problem (then mental). I added air pressure to my tires the day of the race, and I think that messed me up a bit. Then I crashed and mentally I couldn’t hold it together. The goal of a DH race is to get down the course as fast as you can. When you crash you aren’t moving. This is bad. Getting up from a crash the instinct is to get going as fast as you can. The opposite should be done though. I tried to grab the bike, seat myself, calm myself then go.
When I just jump on and take off, the adrenaline is flowing so hard I push too hard and am in danger of crashing again.
It is a hard mix but definitely was fun. If I had been a minute faster in the Duncan race, I could have placed around 9th. That could have been a huge improvement.
Victoria was the perfect race. I knew the course extremely well. I was in decent shape, I got in some good practice, and I didn’t need to chicken out on anything.
The thing I like about racing DH is the fact that the whole goal is to push yourself and go as fast as you can. I just can’t bring myself to ride like that on normal trails, but during a race, this is not a problem.
I guess I am a little sad that the season is over for me (I can’t make the last race), but I am looking forward to next year.
Thanks Cliff.