A week of not so much riding..

... and a weekend of a little bit of riding...

Calgary is not disappointing on the watery side! It keeps on raining and I keep cutting the grass (with my push machine I might add).... we got it all down to two times a week, my dream is zero... next year I hope to make it a nice urban rock garden!

So the week after Canmore racing ended up being pretty relaxed. Road to work and home a couple of times and that was it. Another weekend planned for Fernie canceled and Friday I figured I'd had enough of the rain, and went on a road trip to Edmonton, dropped off my bike for some tlc, and drove back.

Saturday happiness came back, with Jon's birthday ride! Jon, Erik, Shawn, Devin and Toby joined in for a day of play around Barrier Lake. The trails was in great shape compared to Chad's visit ride with much hiking in snow. And only a tiny bit of rain in the end, if I was Jon, I'd be very happy with the birthday ride!

Today I woke up not motivated for a day on the road in overcast and possible rain, so I canceled my plan after a mocha and dog park visit, called up Vlad (woke up Vlad also), and headed down to Bragg Creek for some play on the mountain bike again. Heather joined us as well on a last minute call. Toby thought the dog park was a sign of a day in the yard so he was over him self happy to get to jump in the truck once again.

Arrived at Station Flats and some kids race was happening, great to see  kids out on the bikes having a good time. We struggled through some mud to start, some of us more than struggled and tried to swim a bit, quickly realized it didn't work, so a quick stop at the creek to wash up before continuing on my regular little loop of Sulphur spring. Short but awesome to be out on the mountain bike, remembering the fun of riding, forgetting all the rain we've had and just enjoying the fact that we got a ride in with out much of a a drizzle. A quick stop for coffee and back home for some work waiting :(... decided to skip work and go get some food for the week, then got really drenched in the rain, oh well, no big deal. Home for some work, got a little bit in before Vlad and family stopped by for a BBQ. Nothing like two little "tornados" running around :)

Week is looking great for Calgary :) and also for Fernie, so next weekend last call before Furious3.

Happy Riding! (oh gratulerer med kanadisk farsdag!!!)

Canmore Race Weekend,

Saturday didn't start until 2:30 so I had plenty of time to get ready and goof around. Katy had suggested we leave at 11:30 to get a pre-ride in, I sort of laughed, but thought sure why not. Though as we woke up to pouring rain and it wasn't about to stop, we decided to push departure and skip pre-ride, no objection from my part.
The rain stopped though as we arrived Canmore, and I don't think it rained at all during the race. It was four laps of some pretty fun trails, though muddy, and some sections got pretty bad into the race. The start didn't feel like last year, but still pretty hard pace off the start, with Catherine Vipond and Pepper ahead of Katy and my self. Pepper on something that looked like a bike, but nothing I'd ever seen before, single speed and caliper breaks and all steel! We lost Pepper when it got to the major climbing and we also lost Catherine though in the other direction. As we started descending I sort of thought maybe pre-ride is a good thing in these short races, as I rode it like a clums and couldn't get any rhythm going. Though besides technically i was riding pretty bad, I felt OK into the 3rd lap, probably finally getting warmed up, pulled in after 4 laps in 2nd place so very happy with that. Katy lost her front break so she fell a little bit behind, but still not far, Trish had a strong day a few minutes behind me and of course Catherine took home the win a few min ahead of me. Good day all in all, and didn't feel too bad after, until I had sad down for supper and trying to get up again!!

Today the weather looked great! After the first lap, on a slightly longer course, including Georgetown climb, my technical ability seem to have come back. I started to trust the bike a bit more and really enjoyed the ride. It took a lap or two for the legs to sort them selves out, but during that time it helped to have Marg Fedyna fly by on the climbs to motivate me to push a bit harder. Somewhere in the beginning of the race, a couple of laps in maybe, a short, but heavy rain fall came through. It made for some pretty slick trail and I lost sight of Marg on the decent. I got comfortable in my own pace, maybe a bit too much so, as out of nowhere came Margie Smith. And she looked strong. This was start of lap five, which in my head I'd decided was my last one, I felt done! So I thought I'd just let her fly up the hill and be happy to be in second. Though, what kind of racer am I? so this other voice in my head took over and said, hang on as long as you can at least! so I did. At the end of the lap I decided to do an attempt on making a small gap to the finish to ensure first in, just in case for some reason we both did not finish a sixth lap. She didn't respond to it, so I crossed first and the clock said 1:11 left, so I had to go out for another. I slowed down and figured I'd be hanging on her wheel again, but I didn't see her coming, and figured I'll just give it what I have (which wasn't much at that point, other than adrenaline from almost being done!). Managed to hold her off and took first, very happy with that, as the few first laps my head was all about quitting, then it was all about 5 laps and that it... so I'm happy I was able to push that extra bit that I haven't been able to do before.

Happy to see lots of people out, and a good representation from the female population! Good weekend put on by the Spin Sisters and CycleMeister (or something like that)....

Now I'm looking forward to a rest day.

Happy Riding!

Lazy Friday...

Tori ready to ride!

... started out pretty good, or rather not so lazy. Got up early to head out to Banff with some deadgoaters to see Tori off on her journey down to Mexico on her bike. The Great Divide or Tour Divide race started today and seeing all the participants made me think rather crazy things, such as if I had a bike right here, right now, I'd just join the ride and figure out the rest as I go, it'll be plenty of time to figure it out...... Though for some this is the result of a year of planning and preparing, their bikes were stacked with just the essentials, and hopefully the "justs" will be all they need. Tori on the other hand, spent just over a week getting ready, and she looked very much so, and was happy to be "sleeping in the dirt" again. Good on her, and we all wish her the best of luck, and you can follow her progress by clicking HERE and of course follow her blog. She'll have two races this year when she is done this one, and 17000 km or so??
So needless to say, after watching all these riders take off on such an amazing journey I had a hard time getting any of my other plans for the day completed, my mind was planning cycling trips, while I really should have been getting stuff done.

Bikes all stashed up!

After seeing them off from the start we stopped at MacDonald's for a quick coffee and breakfast thinking we had some time, then drove up above Canmore to see them again. But we missed Tori by a few minutes so she is on a mission, flying through! I decided to take the scenic route back to Calgary and it was a nice drive through the mountains.

Had big plans on getting both my race bikes ready for the weekend, but only got started on the one I used yesterday and noticed a few things. My little impact with the plank on lap one yesterday knocked out two spokes and put a dent in my rim, my pedals are coming apart and the bottom bracket seem to be coming loose again. So quick trip to the bike shop, unfortunately they didn't have time to do it all so we stuck with the critical item, the wheel, got it fixed and should be good. Tomorrow I'll rebuild some of my old eggbeaters and that should work for now, as both Hardcore, Bow and Calgary cycle did not have CB in stock.
By the time I got all that done (all=really nothing) it was supper time!

Now getting into two days of racing in Canmore.

Happy riding weekend!

Midweek...

...mountain bike race at COP. First of 8 events, with a great turnout and the sun was out! 12km race, two laps of around 6, not my specialty and its been a while since I got my heart rate that high, brutal and painful and just over 40 min...one big interval...much needed. Toby was my cheerleader and made some good noise when I came around to start second lap, thanks buddy!

Off to Banff tomorrow to see Tori, and the rest of the continental divide racers off. Then double header in Canmore sat and sun.

Happy Riding!
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Dagens grill...

....middag. Mini burger med sot potet fries og salat...

Gratulere med dagen Pappa! Haaper du hadde en like god dag!

Klem kate
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Rest day...

...and loving the new bbq!
Easy spin to dog park, didn't get wet :)
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No race weekend...

...but still some fun on the bike.
I woke up Saturday morning not feeling in the mood to put the $'s into a race and since Chad was down and Toby's first weekend back I figured it would be great to just continue on yesterdays note. I met up with the boys in Canmore and we went up to Benchlands for a quick rip. My toe didn't really enjoy the roots too much so when back at the car to get on to the west side Toby and I bailed out for the rest of the ride. It was totally dry though, a nice change from Fridays adventure.

Today I skipped the mountain bike ride to see if I can get this toe on recovery way again. It was much better but started going the wrong way on Jewels roots, and then Canmore did it in. So today I planned a road ride after a Toby ride to Cadence for coffee. Wearing sandals and limited mountain biking helped the healing before so figured that is the recipe for pinkie toe success, much needed so I can ride Fernie next weekend if the weather holds up.

I decided to do the regular loop to Cochran which breaks up the road ride with some gravel sections. Though, not knowing that since my last ride, when the gravel was smooth and hard packed, someone had fixed them all up, and they where now loos and the little rocks made for a rough ride. Not what my little toe needed! It made for a long ride (not in terms of time, just in my mind), and then headwind special as I turned to go east and back to Calgary :)
I road nice and easy through COP and was happy to see all the kids out on the hill, looked like they all had a great time. Stopped for a sub at Subway, but for some odd reason they where out of all subs, but the flat break!? How can Subway be out of subs? Anyway the flat bread tasted great so no complaints.

Continued the day with cutting the grass, second time in a week! A bit of bike tuning, not without trouble and a second visit to Bow. And never got to the bike that it all started with.
Toby and I just ended our day with a pedal over to Angles for an ice cream with Alana. Well deserved for her after a full weekend of racing in Canmore. For me, well I don't usually need any excuses to have ice cream, but it was a nice day in Calgary today, so for that reason everyone should enjoy a huge ice cream! Mondays always come to quick!

Happy riding!

First real ride..

...of the season. And I'm back in love with mountain biking! I could have done without the snow, but the hiking in knee deep snow was all worth it for some great trail riding.

Chad and Mike is down from McMurray and I took them out to Barrier Lake to do my regular loop, including Prairie View up, partly down, hook on to razors edge, climb back up quaite, and down Jewels.
The climb up was great, not too wet and no snow. As soon as we started descending we hit snow, so it was more or less hike down to razors edge and most of the start of it it, but then it the fun began!


Chad on the bike...



Something with the fresh mountain air, it does strange things to people...



Couldn't have asked for better conditions coming down!



Toby looking for something to chase.



The climb up from the highway (Quaite..) was not ideal, but still a good grunt and some snow hiking, I didn't mind it after the fun I just had coming down.

As we hit Jewels I got a bit concerned, as the trail was covered in knee deep snow as well, but thankfully it didn't last too long, and a supper enjoyable decent again! Big smiles and tired dog! Toby had a great ride, and had a grin from ear to ear the whole time. He must have been training hard in McMurray the last month as he kept up like champ!

After a good ride we figured a good ice bath of the legs in Barrier Lake would be good. Not so much! it was very cold and feet did not do so well, so my 7 min did not happen. Chad got in a second try but not sure he lasted 7 min either. Toby on the other hand enjoyed several swims to catch a stick and didn't wimp and cry like we did.



Chad chilling out!



Now I'm ready to try my new BBQ if it would stop raining for a minute. Then I need to figure out weekend plans, race or ride??

Happy Riding!

My boy is back:)

After a too long time Toby made it home and back in the navigator seat...
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Trips done..

...and now I'm ready for weekend BBQ!

No rides to speak of this week, but another mine visit. This time CA, after a few flight issues I arrived to LA and had a 2 hour drive to the Mojave desert. Arrived passed midnight so didn't get to enjoy the view but on the way back yesterday I quiet enjoyed the drive back to LA. Think I spotted some great potential mtb trails. Though after last weekend at home I decided to bring bike and stay. I quiet enjoy weekends at home and better yet, Toby is back tonight!
Chad and Mike is driving down for a weekend of riding and was kind enough to let hairy Toby join them...probably regretting already, as I'm sure he magically have pushed him self from the rear to the front, and left many white hairs behind to make sure he won't soon be forgotten.
Finally got a BBQ, only took me a year, but the assembly took my ride time so that's not so good.
Not decided on riding or racing this weekend. See what morning brings..

Happy riding!
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