24 Hours of Adrenaline – Lap 1

Lap 1 of the 24 Hours of Adrenaline has come and gone. I was chosen to be the lead rider. The choice came down to who would hurt themselves least by doing the run. That was me.

Lap 1 was a little slow, but there were some major traffic jams in the singletrack and trees. The double track is smooth and fast with a couple turns to keep you on your toes.

No real problems for me on my lap other than the slowness. The next few laps will be crucial though. I rode all the sections I wanted to, but had a little trouble keeping my heart rate down. I rode some sections I had planned to walk, and walked some I had planned to ride (roots plus hardtail plus lots of riders = bumpy).

Recovery is in order now. That and getting warm. Shower, hot coffe, water, powerade, food (not in that order).

Lighting Solder

night ridey goodness

Just got home from my first night ride in a very long time. I needed to get out and test the lighting system out on the trails at least once before the big race. Everythign works great, even the new battery that I had to solder into place. I had forgotten how much fun night riding can be too. I am starting to look forward to the race. Although, I think that getting out of bed at 2am to go ride my bike might be a little painful.

Maps Located

Surely by now you have heard of Google Maps. Very cool technology with an open API for programmers like me. Not that I have the time to play with an API like that.

In any event combine Google Maps with and IP Address locater mix it with a dash of web site logging and you get gVisit, a Google map generator that shows where your sites visitors are physically located. Very cool.

You owe it to yourself to play with gVisit. Here is my map.

Landlord Response

not my address

Just got some great news the other day. Recently Sox and I were beginning to wonder about the house we rent. We haven’t been in a lease for a while, and have been giving our landlord cheques three months at a time. The last time we had to give him the cheques, we asked if he wanted more, but his response was no. He had to travel out east, and wanted to talk to us when he got back.

My immediate thought was that he was going to put the house up for sale. Crap. I don’t really want to move.

Well, Tuesday night I talked to him, and found out the news.


Turns out that he wants us to sign another year lease! Excellent news. He actually has to move out east for a year and wanted a little reassurance that we would stay for another year. Woohoo! We don’t have to move.

Shoot Colors

log end at McNeil Bay

The latest meeting of the camera’s was last night at McNeil Bay here in Victoria (this is located on Beach Drive). It was an interesting place to shoot, but since the tide was up so high, there was no beach to shoot on. With a little difficulty we were able to get onto the sand in an area that wasn’t about to be submerged. Add in the gusty wind, and it was definitely a night for the tripod (which I made good use of). I am quite happy with a few of my shots. I wished the colors of the sunset weren’t the drab grey. Oh well. Just before we were going to pack up and leave, I spotted a cool grate and an interesting green door. My shots of the door didn’t do it justice.

Pics are here.

Secret Tigers

mmm, cake

Last Sunday K and JJ had their reception to their secret wedding. Secret wedding, not so secret reception. Beer, food, clowns, kids, family, and friends.

While the clowns entertained the kids, the adults got to eat. Then it was down to business. The happy couple laid down the ground rules for the crowd.


“Thanks for coming. Hope you got enough to eat. Let’s have cake. *

When the clowns were done, there were few kids left, only ferocious tigers, cute little bunnies, and beautiful flower children.

Of course, I was there, camera in hand, enjoying myself and taking pictures. Thankfully the weather cooperated for this event, unlike the last one.

Lots of fun this event was. Playing with frogs, drinking beers, catching up with friends, until the wee hours of the night (really only 10pm).

Once again, congrats to the happy couple!

* My words, not theirs back

Captcha Commenting

mmm, cover up what's happening

Just activated a new module here on muddylaces. The Captcha module.

Question: What is a captcha?
Answer: A method of distinguishing between people and computers (bots – something spammers use).

This will allow me to turn on anonymous commenting again, but hopefully regulate how many spam comments get posted. I’ve noticed that some of them are a little hard to read (one was impossible), so the module just generates a new one. Pretty nifty.

Oh, one note. You can’t leave a comment in someone else’s name, if they have registered at this site. This also means that if you have registered, but are not logged in, you can’t leave a comment in your own name (just login would ya?).

We’ll see how this works.

Physio Tubing

attacked by an evil octopus

I have been to physio a couple times recently to get my shoulder back in shape. Going to physio it a time consuming venture, but the results are worth it. After my first appointment it was feeling a lot better. This last appointment, after the elctro-shok therapy (not sure what it is really called, but they put these little stimulators on your skin), I was off to the workout area. Using a rubber band I exercised my shoulder for probably half an hour. Wow. Tiring and difficult.

I was given some of the rubber tubing to use at home. Something I will have to be vigilant about. I want to be totally healed before the big race in September.

After the workout it was a little ultrasound treatment, then I was on my way.

I haven’t had a lot of good experiences with regular doctors, but these physio guys have always made a huge difference in the healing process. Sometimes it is hard to know when to see them versus a regular doctor. One more appointment to go, then I should be good enough to continue healing on my own at home.