Tag: ride

Different Consequence

Today’s rides was a lot different than last week. I decided to ride out to the dump even though it was pretty cold when I started. I warmed up pretty quickly, though my hands took the longest to unfreeze. I met up with a friend at the dump and we started to ride.

Pretty soon I realized there was a lot less standing water over last week, but it was still pretty mucky. The rocks were also stil pretty slick, a combo of still being wet, and lots of moss. My friend pointed out that even though it hasn’t rained, it really hasn’t been warm enough for everything to dry out properly.

The first route we talked about was a trip to Trillium, then down South Ridge. This changed into a trek to Green Ribbon/Hot Cherry. I then said no to those since I was starting to get a bit tired, and those trails do require some mental acuity (they are pretty technical with some high consequence). We ended up going down South Ridge, hit some trails lower down, then I made my way home.

My plan for getting home was to take the parks Southern exit over to Munns Rd, then take the Goose home. I wasn’t sure if that would be longer or shorted, but it would be different than going home along Interurban (flat and boring). The downhill on Munns was fun, but where I hit Munns meant a couple big uphill sections, which on my mountain bike, really weren’t all that fun.

Overall, great ride. Would recommend 🙂

Donation Uncoordinated

Since I am doing spin class on Thursdays, I thought it would be a good idea to move my blood donation to a Friday so that I could still do both. My first test of this happened this past Friday. I donated for the 77th time, and other than it taking a while to get through the process, the whole thing was pretty easy. 
Sunday however was a different story. Originally I had planned to ride to the dump, do a tour, then ride home. I evicted against that for some reason, and in retrospect I am very glad. On the trails I felt pretty bad. My heart rate would shoot up and I would easily get out of breath. It reminded me a lot of riding at altitude in Rossland actually. I felt slow and sluggish and uncoordinated. The ride was also very, very wet.

  
Still, I was glad to have gotten out for a ride and to get some fresh air and exercise.

Dump Bump

Last night I had plans to ride with a couple friends today, but sadly they had to cancel last minute. My plan was to ride out to the dump, do a loop, then ride home again. The road ride felt really slow and hard, and on one of the flat stretches I could feel a weird clunk while pedalling. On the hill climb up Hartland Ave I looked back and noticed my rear quick release was open!  Ooops. Tightening that made a huge difference.

 

Once I got to the parking lot I happened to bump into some other riding friends out in the parking lots, so in the end all was good! We climbed up skull and I heard someone mention my rear tire looked  a little low. Sure enough it was pretty soft (again explaining why the road portion felt so slow). The trail ride was great, though while climbing some of the trails, I could sure feel the road ride exertion in my quads.

 

At the end of the ride, someone suggested we stop for coffee, but since I was pressed for time I was about to back out. But then a ride home was offered. Yes please!

Leaking Trillium

I got out for a ride yesterday, and it turned out to be more fun that I was anticipating. I had texted a few guys to see who was up for a chilly morning ride, but in the end it was just me. Getting my bike from the garage I discovered a flat rear tire, which was unexpected given that I have switched to tubeless tires. I inflated it, but could hear air leaking out still. In less than 5 minutes the tire was nearly flat again. I quickly added more Stans reinflated the tire, and tried to get the liquid everywhere inside. That seemed to do the trick and I was off.

Once at the dump I wasn’t sure what route I wanted to take. I meandered a bit before deciding on Trillium, then back over to Snakes and Ladders. The route was just what I was looking for.