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.
Today there was another triathlon, the Tri of Compassion. Sox has done this race many times, under its different names. When the alarm went off at 5:30, I began to question if these races were really necessary. We got ready, and headed to the course, but were a little late in meeting up with KaptainK. Oh, no pictures from the event since I was part of it. I was on a team with KaptainK and JJ (I did the bike leg). Team muddylaces. Wonder where that name came from eh?
The race organization was a bit of a gong show. When I arrived, I couldn’t find the rack I was supposed to put my bike in, and the volunteers I asked had no idea since htey just go there a bit of walking around, and I found that the racks were numbered, but the numbers were only on one side. Since I came in from the wrong direction, I couldn’t see the numbers.
I realized I had forgotten JJ’s number for the run, so thankfully Sox was able to zip home and get it for me. Meeitng up with K and JJ, we got hting sfigured out, and got body marked. The race meeting was supposed to be next, bu I couldn’t find my way in there. The lady at the front desk said it was through the mens changing area, but when I went to find it, I got lost. I knew it was through the showers, but I there was only one door there that said the steam room was closed. One other competitor told me it was actually through that door, but that I probably shouldn’t go that way with my bike shoes on. Making my way back to the front desk the lady said I should just use the door the swimmers run out of. When I got there I was blocked by a volunteer saying she wouldn’t let me through unless I took my shoes off. I wasn’t about to take my shoes and socks off and get my feet wet ride before my ride, so we were at an impasse. Next time I hope the organizers hold the prerace meeting in a location that all team members can access. That was very frustrating, and I got a little snippy with the volunteer. I am sorry about that. It really wasn’t with her, since I am sure she was just doing her job.
JJ and K gave the low down on the meeting, and in retrospect I didn’t really need to be there. Weird.
I made my way back to transition, only to find that my bike was sandwiched between two others. Since I had no equipment on the ground, the other competitors left me no space to get my bike in and out of the rack. While K swam, I waited in transition. Very specific rules in transition. I couldn’t unrack my bike, unless my helmet was fully fastened. I couldn’t unrack my bike until after K and I had tagged off. After my ride I had to fully rack my bike before I could tag off.
I saw K round the corner after her swim, so I mentally prepared myself. Tag then unrack. Run, but not too fast. K passed a few people while running down the hill, and the announcer said “and the first woman out of hte swim is … K”. Haha, she wasn’t actually the first woman out of the swim, but she was the first down the hill. Tag, I was it. I grabbed my bike, and took off. I got to the road was told I could mount, I jumped on and took a couple pedal strokes. I then went to clip in, and discovered my shoes were clogged with grass. I smacked my pedals a couple times to fre the grass, got clipped in, and started to power away. I realized I was pushing a little too hard for the beginning of the race, so I settled down a bit. Turning onto Esquimalt Ave I had a long straightaway.
While fully up to speed I caught a bus that was at the side of the road letting people off. When I got close he turned his signal on and pulled out. I had to hit the brakes and downshift to avoid hitting him. Shaking that off I spun up to my previous speed and kept going. It was a fun bike course, and I passed lots of people. I felt a little bad since I was passing them with quite a difference in speed. I wanted to tell them that I was part of a team, but I couldn’t get the words out. As I passed the lap marker Sox and Lisa were there cheering for me. I was working hard, and didn’t want to break concentration too much, but it was appreciated. Finishing lap one I felt good. I was breathing hard, but I wasn’t out of breath. I felt strong, so I kept pushing.
On lap two I passed more people, but I had a bit of a surprise. Ahead of me on Gore street was a large tanker truck. Thankfully he turned left off the course before I got to him. At I made the turn at the base I could hear a whine approaching me from behind. I knew Todd was working the race as a marshal carrier, and sure enough it was him. He sailed past me at the crest of a hill while I was standing on the pedals giving a good effort. Lap two finished without issue, so I was on to my thrid and final lap.
I could feel myself slowing down a little. I checked my pace, and it was certainly slower than the first two laps, so I chided myself and sped up. The third lap I wanted to be my fastest. I thanked each of the many volunteers as I went past them, but I kept up my pace. Down Head street, on the biggest hill, I spun out my top gear. I got up to 58 KM/H down there. Past our house for the third time, back towards the base for the last time. While I was cresting the second to last hill, someone started to pass me on my left. I hadn’t intended this, but when the hill turned downward, I continued my pace, and geared up. I dropped them, and felt a little bad about it. I glanced behind me, saw they were a good distance back, so I moved over so I could turn back into the base.
The last hill I sped down knowing I was almost done. I clipped out, rested my feet on the pedals, and saw the marshals and aimed for them. They were frantically waving for me to slow down. D was there point to the (imaginary) dismount line. I think I gave the marshalls alittle scare since I came in so fast. I stopped easily though, jumped off, lifted my bike over the curb, and jogged to my spot in the rack. Jogging felt weird after riding like I had. Racking my bike I turned, tagged JJ and he was off.
I was out of breath at this point, and feeling the strain of a hard ride. I grabbed my water and walked it off. A couple people mentioned that my ride time was pretty fast, but I still am not sure how I did with that.
JJ was fast on the run though. His 5KM run, which is very hilly, took 21 minutes. Overall our time was 1:12 and we held the fastest time for a bit. There was some confusion on the announcer as JJ crossed the line though. K had signed up our team, so our team number had her name beside it. He was confused seeing JJ cross the line and reading K’s name. My ride time on my bike computer said 41 minutes 8 seconds, an average speed of 27.9 KM/H, max speed 58 KM/H, and a distance of 19.16 KM’s. I am pretty happy with my ride. I don’t think I could have pushed any harder than I did. It was pretty fun too, but I really can’t imagine having to do a run after that ride. Yeuck. I will stick with biking only thankyouverymuch. 🙂
Yesterday I had an excellent ride out at the dump again. A co-worker and I headed out and I chose a route that had lots of climbing. We powered through the ride pretty hard. From the parking lot we headed over towards the far end of the park. We eventually hit South Ridge, and started the big climb there. Up we went until we the top of Birth Control. We headed down the walkup trail, then went over to the switchbacks. Up the switchbacks and up waterworks. I actually cleaned the waterworks again.
We then took twister around then went up to Daves Dementia headed for Snakes and Ladders. For the first time in a very long time I cleaned the last climb before Snakes N Ladders. Woohoo! Been a long time since I have done that.
Down SnL. Then a couple more small trails, and we were back at the TTA. A 2 hour climb fest that was lots of fun, hard work. Trail conditons were excellent. The recent bit of rain helped the dirt pack in a little, but the rocks were still dry with lots of traction.
I was in a big riding slump for quite a while, but I feel like I have turned the corner. I am enthralled with riding again. I want to spend more time riding than I can reasonably afford. I am really looking forward to the race in September. I have that race to thank for the turnaround in my riding.
The first was a little red car on Broughton right before Wharf. At first all I saw was garbage truck backing up, but that turned out to be to let oncoming traffic by since the red car was stopped. As I approached, the red car started backing up, evee though there were no reversing lights on the car. I stopped in the middle of the lane, ad car length back. I couldn’t see what the driver was doing, because of glare on the rear window, but I did see an arm flying about. This chick was wacked. She would back up a few feet, stop, then wave her arm about. I finally figureed out that she had missed her turn, and was trying to back up the road to get to it. By this point there were other cars behind me. Despite thinking otherwise I got on my bike, and rode around this crazy woman. As I was passing she was rolling down her window. Not sure what she was trying to accomplish. I think she missed the turn into a parking garage. My strongest advice to her would be to fix her reverse lights, and next time go around the block. It would have taken less time.
Not two blocks away was incident 2. I was riding along Wharf at a pretty good clip, with no traffic around me. As I got close to the cross walk at the foot of Yates a pedestrian approached. Before I knew it, dippy stepped off the curb and crossed right in front of me. Dippy never looked left before crossing the street! Dumbass. I was in a high gear, and never got to gear down before stopping for this guy. Taking off was difficult.
Two clueless people withing a couple blocks within a few minutes.
Today was that day.
I was riding home from work along Esquimalt road. As the light at Head turned red, I stopped in the right hand lane, about a metre from the curb (as is suggested by the BtWW pamphlet).
From the left hand lane a minivan starts creeping right, and ends up diagonal across my lane. I look at the driver (male around late 20’s I would guess), who looks back at me. The passenger is looking at me like I am an idiot. I watch incedulously as said futtbuck motors around the corner, then honks at me. Apparently he wanted me closer to the curb so he could get by. Lameass.
Why do people do crap like this? I hope it isn’t to save time since he would have only saved 30 seconds or so. People tend not to do stupid actions like this when there is a motorbike in the same situation, so why do it to a cyclist? Use your head and think a little.
Then, while I was waiting for the light at Esquimalt and Lampson I can see that in the cross traffic someone was turning left. The traffic behind them was changing lanes into the right turn only lane, and proceeding through the intersection. One guy in the opposing traffic almost got smacked because he turned left also, but someone had done the deak maneuver, so both cars honked at each other.
Morons.
Having espoused how much I like the warm weather, I must admit that riding in really warm weather isn’t always a great time. The ground is really dry, so traction is an issue, and sweating buckets isn’t a lot of fun. However, nothing can beat the views on a clear blue sky kind of day.
Yesterday Sean and I (and my two bike buddies) tackled the dump. We wanted to get a jump on the days heat, so we started the ride around 9. Good time. There was hardly anyone parked in the lot when we got there, and the temp was just about perfect. Stoping before the bottom entrance to Skull there was a nice gentle breeze flowing along the fireroad that cooled us down. The warm sun beating down on us, and a cool breeze to even things out. Hand me a beer, fire up the barbeque, set out the lawn chairs, and I would have been in heaven.
Instead we kept going and I had a great ride. I am feeling pretty good on the bike these days. It feels like my training is paying off. I feel strong and fast on the climbs, my balance is the best it has ever been (I think), and I am generally just having a lot of fun each and every time I get out on the trails. Sean was having a good ride too (as is evidenced by him riding C-Section in the pic).
Up the switchbacks we went, still not knowing what our end destination was going to be.
Such a gorgeous day.
We played on the log ride at the top of the switchbacks, and I got a couple shots of Sean riding it.
We chose to hit Snakes and Ladders. It is always a fun rip. Also, because it was warm, neither of us was wearing arm armour, so Snakes was a way to keep ourselves safe. We both knew htat if we took a more advanced trail that we woul be tempted to ride something big. Crashing without arm protection sucks. I have done it a few times, and it just hurts. The trip down Snakes was good. Every time I hit that trail now I think back to the DH race that was on that trail. That race was so much fun, and I always have good memories of what happened on my race run. Yesterdays ride was no exception.
At the end of the ride, and after loading the truck I did my post warm ride ritual of hosing down my head. It feels so good to get the sweat off my face, and the cooling action as the water drips in heavenly. Another great west coast ride.
Forgive me mountain bikes for I have sinned. And I have sinned good. Today I went for a road ride with Todd and Duncan (and a couple of Duncan’s training partners). It was good, it was fun, and it was a great workout. I have never ridden my road bike that far before.
We had planned to ride the New Balance Half Iron Triathlon road coarse. After looking at the map I wondered what I had signed myself up for. Then I learned that the Half Iron did 3 laps. If I did one lap I would cover around 42 km, 2 laps gets you 67 kms, and the full 3 laps is 92 kms. Woah. More than I was expecting. I decided I would try for 2 laps, and see how I feel after that.
We met up at 8am at Hamsterly Beach near Elk Lake. Hitting the road I was a little nervous. It was a little chilly out, and I wasn’t sure on the entire route we were taking. This ride was supposed to be a relatively slow pace for the group. I just hoped I wouldn’t get droped too quickly.
It turned out I didn’t get dropped at all. I felt pretty good the entire ride despite my legs feeling very tight. They never really loosened up and maybe the weather played a part in that.
At one point I was starting to feel some pressure building, and I knew I would have to pull off the side and relieve myself. The next thing I knew Duncan was doing the same thing. Phew. The other three continued on then Duncan and I played catch-up.
The ride itself wasn’t too strenous. There weren’t any heinous climbs, and even if there were, I wasn’t worried about my climbing, I was more worried about my endurance. I was also worried about how my butt would hold up spending so much time on the saddle.
While coming up on the lap point I took stock of how I felt. I started to debate if I would do a second lap, then someone spoke up and said I was doing a second one. Ok, problem solved. I continued on.
On the second lap I was out front of our group, and I heard a strange noise behind us. I turned to see what it was, but others were in the way. Then I heard rider down. Uh oh. I slowed, looked for traffic, then turned around. Todd had a little spill, and was just picking himself up. His tires had dipped off the side of the road onto the gravel shoulder, and as he tried to get back on the pavement, his tires slipped, and down he went. He wasn’t too scraped up but he had a flat front tire.
I agreed to stay and ride with Todd while the other three continued their ride. After replacing the tube, we hit the road again. After that there was just a lot of spinning.
Once we got to the lap point I bid farewell to Todd (since he was planning on 4 laps), and I headed back to the truck.
According to my bike computer, in all I rode 68 kms, over a span of 2 hours and 47 minutes (average speed of 24.4 km/h). The max speed was 61 km/h (and I remember the hill it happened on too). In many ways riding a road bike is more scary than a mountain bike. Going 60 km/h on pavement, and not really being able to hit the brakes if something goes wrong is very scary.
Fun way to spend the morning, but I have been drinking water and eating the rest of the day!
The first real climb up Regional Trail was a little difficult. My legs were feeling a little tired, but they quickly warmed up. We went all the way up Regional to Old Payoff. Then it was up to South Ridge. Following that we next took Fun Trail. We then took a meandering route along the lower trails, then headed back toward the truck.
A couple hours later, and a lot of sweat and the ride was complete.
The ride was great for a number of reasons. We treated it as a training ride, so we rarely stopped, but if we did, it was just long enough to catch our breath, or stretch out the aching muscles. I climbed almost everything I tried, and made all the descents feel super smooth, even on the hardtail. The trail conditions were absolutely stellar, although some of the roots and rock faces were a tich slippery due to the rain earlier today.
I can tell already that I am going to need to get a big ring back on this bike. It won’t be long until I am spinning out my highest. I feel like my training for the 24 Hours of Whistler is going pretty well so far, and there is still lots of time before the race.
On the way home I called home to see what Sue was up to. Turned out dinner was almost ready. Good timing. Mmm, Sweet N Sour Cashew Chicken. That hit the spot. Follow that up with the post ride shower, and I am feeling rather awesome right now.
Went on another wicked ride today with Mike from work. It was a bit of a training ride, so we tried not to take any breaks. We met up at Tim Hortons, and after getting some coffee and food out of the way, we headed up to the dump. Next we had to sort out a few mechanicals but then we were off to the races.
We started off on Shock Treatment which was very, very overgrown. It rained earlier in the day, so I got rather wet from brushing against the grass and bushes. Heading back to the parking lot we turned up Regional Trail.
Climbing Regional I was feeling pretty good. I had dropped down to the granny ring at one point, so while we were waiting for the third person in our group, I zipped down the first hill, geared up to the middle ring, and hammered up the last climb a second time. I love attacking hills like that. Very fun.
We turned up Old Buck, then took the first right onto North Ridge. We followed that then took off onto Sidewinder. So far I was having a great ride. I was climbing everything without a problem, and was still feeling pretty fresh. On Sidewinder there is one really technical siwtchback where you need to swing the back end around to be able to ride through the turn. I made it. Always a good feeling. Specially since I had to swing the back end to the left, which I find more difficult.
After Sidewinder we decided to check out Mind Bender. The sign on the tree said that it was best to ride it top to bottom. We were at the bottom and wanted to check it out anyway, so we headed up. It was pretty difficult riding it, but it was a good challenge. Halfway through I started getting tired, and really, really hungry. My stomach start making some pretty loud grumbly noises. I started walking more sections since I was starting to feeling more and more tired. It was very slippery on the trail due to the wet cedar roots and I really didn’t want to hurt myself so I didn’t feel too bad for walking.
At the top of Mind Bender we took the road back to Who’s Yer Daddy. I know I rode it yesterday, but today I was on a different bike. Different trail on a hardtail. I didn’t take the big rock face like I did yesterday, but I still had lots of fun flowing the trail. Log drops, rock faces, twists and turns. Still fun.
We took the road back down to Skull. At the end of Skull I said goodbye to the guys, the headed back to my truck. Mike and Mark were going to head back up for another climb to kill their legs. Crazy.
I felt hungry but good after the ride. Definitely a great ride. I kicked the climbs, and zipped down the descents.
Sean and I headed out for a rip at the dump today. He brought Bosley with him, but I was Yoshi-less. Yosh needed a timeout. He overdid it a couple days ago, and was still a little sore.
The ride was fantastic though. The weekend was supposed to be rainy and gross all weekend, but the weather held out for the ride. Actually, the weather was quite nice all day. Blue sky, fluffy clouds every now and then, but muggy.
We headed up skull, up to C-Section, then up the switchbacks. So far I was feeling pretty good. My quadricep was a little sore, but I took it easy until I was really warmed up. The climb up the switchbacks was tough, bu tI made a few more corners than I normally do.
I set a new personal record on the log ride at the top of the switchbacks. I rode it completely 4 times in a row, including one time in the reverse direction. Very cool.
Taming twister we headed up towards phase 2, but cut off for Jelly Roll and Lumpy Pants. I had been on Lumpy Pants before, but this was my first time on Jelly Roll. Both trails have some great features. Each has a couple jumps that can be quite big if you get enough speed. Slow it down enough, and the drop is only 3 – 4 feet. The Jelly Roll drop is definitely the bigger drop on the two trails.
After eyeing up the jump, I decided that I was definitely going to do it. I got my feet set on the pedals, and started the roll in. As I neared the lip I was about to tap the brakes and chicken out. Mentally I told myself NO, and moved those fingers away from the brakes, and planted them on the bars. The takeoff was quite smooth. As the landing rushed towards me I extended my legs to get the rear wheel down first.
The impact wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Quite the contrary actually. It was pretty smooth. My back end did buck up a little, but a jab on the brakes, and everything was under control. Woot. It was fun, and I wanted to do it again. I refrained, and chose not to push my luck.
I must need to change my rear shock setup. That landing really caused a bad bucking action. Later on Lumpy Pants, on a similar drop, the same thing happened. On landing the rear shock rebounded very quickly, and control was limited. This time I turned into the slide, and regained control. I came very close to running into some logs laying on the fall line, but it was all good in the end.
After Lumpy Pants we followed the road back up to the top of Who’s Yer Daddy. I don’t this trail very often, and I always forget how much fun it is. After the first rock face that ends at the fenceline, the trail descends, and picks up the flow. You just let the brakes go, and weave throught the trees. Drop off a few logs, jump a few rocks. Fun, fun, fun.
At the end of tha trail, it was just down the fireroad, and a quick burn down Skull.
Lovely little ride today. I am feeling pretty fit these days, and am really enjoying riding. I just want to get out there and ride some more.
