The Mountains are Further Away then you would Think

So I have been in Alberta for a little under 3 weeks so far and I have already got a job, quite a job, had to turn down a job opportunity because I got lucky and found a place on a drilling rig with the help of my girlfriend and her cousin. I can't thank them enough for finding me a place on a rig. So this past week was a week of riding buses to and from Leduc and having Jamie take me all over the place to do some testing and courses so I could actually have a spot on his rig. We were origionaly supose to head up to Fort St John on the 20th but that was pushed back a week so I decided to come back down to Calgary so I could ride a few more days.

Yesterday was great, I spent some time looking on Google maps and some other bike web sites trying to figure out where to ride so I wouldn't get too lost trying to make my way from Calgary to Cochrane and back. Even with spending a lot of time looking at maps and writing directions down I was still very happy that I have a smart phone with Google maps on it. The plan was to ride out to Cochrane which included a few hills, one in town and one right in Cochrane. Then to head back into Calgary and climb over Canada Olympic Park (COP) switchbacks.

The ride started out OK, following the Bow river trail then the first of the climbs in a park I thought I was looking for a bike path not a road leading to the park so I spent some time riding around in circles there looking for a path. At the top of the hill is where I started to take wrong directions since some of the roads in Calgary are very poorly marked. I really don't know where they put street signs for some of the major roads. I ended up over in the west side of Calgary looking at the Rec center that my friend Alex works at so I figured that I was in the wrong spot, I finally decided where I needed to go and soon enough I was back onto a nice long open road headed west outside of town.

This was my view for most of this section of the ride, except that I couldn't really see much seeing as I don't have any riding glasses out here and I was riding into a 30km/h head wind. It was an amazing site non the less. I saw tons of riders headed the other direction along this road it was nice to see that many people out riding on such a nice day.

Then I was headed north on 22 hwy which is a pretty busy road but it was OK there was a nice big shoulder on the side of the road with a rumble strip between me and the traffic which made me feel safe, plus there seemed to be lots of people who do the route that I was doing. Coming into Cochrane I made my way up the hill, Kind of like riding up the escarpment in Collingwood. I decided to follow a few other riders who took the highway instead of the road that goes around, I think next time I will take the road not the highway, it was a little busy for me. And that busy road continued all the way into Calgary, I really don't understand how there is a ton of people who like to ride along the side of a 4 lane highway for that long but apparently people do, I even saw some people riding along the highway on the other side. Next time it will definitely be taking a little different route.

Now this is where I got really lost, I think I made about 2 or 3 different little loops along trails and roads just to make my way to COP I could see it for a long time I was just trying to make it there. Eventually I made it and grinded my way to the top.

After that I found my way back to some familiar roads and found my way back down to the Bow River trail wich from there I can find my way around town fairly easily.

All in all it was a good ride, 3:45 of riding time a little over 4 hours in total and a little over 100K.

A Little Change of Senery

I have been here in Calgary for a little over a week now, I arrived here on Thursday morning last week and I have managed to do quite a bit since then. I started working at a ski shop, met some of friends of a friend, went climbing, and got out for a good little bike ride when my bike finally showed up four days after I did, even though it was shipped out 8 hours after I left.

Monday morning I had a call that my bike had arrived so I headed down to the bus station unpacked the bike and go tour around the city properly. After I put my bike together I headed along the Bow River North and saw some really nice little parks and little places by the river that were really nice.

After getting home and getting some lunch I headed out for a bit longer ride, since I didn't really know where to go I decided to tour around the city some more, jumped on the Bow river trail again and headed south. Again tons of great little parks and such along the river. Tons of people were srolling around the city center when I passed by. and there were lots of people any time I came by a place people could park and get onto the trails.

When you get to the south end of the city you can see the mountains it is great, I tried to get some pictures but you can't really see then from the camera on my phone.

Twice during my ride I came around a corner to there being deer on the trail. I came around one corner and there was just a little Doe standing on the side of the trail then she ran along the trail in the woods for a bit before she could get deeper in the forest. I came around another corner and there were two small Doe standing on the side of a small hill right beside the trail. I was a little worried about them running me over since I just watched the video of the guy in South Africa the day before.

All in all it was a good day of riding. I got in about 60km, I never left the city, never saw a car right beside me, lots of people though, saw mountains, deer, a flock of seaguls fighting a flock of mergansers. Rode though a provincial park, and only lost my way about half a dozen times (there is a ton of trails though fish creek provincial park).

Its been a week

So it's been a week since my last ride and I am starting to go a little crazy here in Calgary, I can see some mountains, I have been looking at some road routes around the city but I can't do any of it.

My bike shipped out 8 hours after I left Pembroke I didn't figure that it would take an extra 4 days to get here seeing as it should just get packed on a bus and follow me. I like the good old days when you could just pay to take something like that with you on the bus and be responsible to move it from bus to bus on your own. Now I sit here just waiting for my bike to show up.

I would really like for it to show up before Tuesday seeing as I would like to use it to get to my new work. Plus if timing works out I could make it up to one of the weekly cyclocross races here in the city.

Well here's hoping that I get a call from greyhound today so I can enjoy some good Calgary fall weather.

Giving up one ride for another

So the past week and a half have been pretty crazy. In the spring I had decided that I would work through the summer so I could do one more season of MTB racing in Ontario. Then come the fall time I would head west for a pretty big change in my life. I am heading out there to maybe work in the oil fields maybe work for another bike shop, maybe go back to outdoor adventure stuff we will find out what happens from here.

So last week was filled with a few lasts, it was my last ride at one of my favorite trails, Buckwallow. And a last ride at simco forest behind the board of ED buildings. As well as a last little outing with my friends which may have involved gettin.g dressed up and piling into a limo, it was legen...wait for it....dary. also my last days of pretty much running my own shop, I will miss rahat a little too.

So first Buckwallow, it was a great day for riding, I was still a little tired from the 8 hour the weekend before but I was out riding with Si and his slayer so no need to go fast. It was one of my best days at buck, I had so many good lines that I usually don't hit, I rode pretty much everything. The highlight of the day was I finally cleaned all of bear bluff in one shot, I can clear many parts of it but I had never had a compleat run start to finish before. Plus it was an awsome visit with a good friend.

Then I came to Saturday after a busy week of cleaning, packing, loading, and working, I decided even though I really didn't have time I would go for one last rip out in Midhurst with the boys from work. That was a great ride, pretty fast since I think I have every root and rock on that trail memorized and I could ride it blindfolded. However that was when I realized that it would be my last ride in Barrie for a while as well it would be the last ride on the Element since I am trying to sell it. So there is some mixed emotions regarding leaving Barrie we really are blessed with some great trails weither they are 10 min from work or an hour drive in any direction.

So now I have traded my bike for a big old bus with a dog on it to travel across the country to try something new out in cowtown.

All my friends will be missed, I really did have some really good friends around Barrie both biking and non biking friends. I am also a little sad that I left a wonderful girl behind that I just met at the begining of the summer but we will make this work, I miss you Jolene. Well I will be ariving in Calgary tomorrow morning then the job hunt begins if anybody knows some good shops to work at just let me know.

Hardwood Fall 8 Hour

Four years ago I decided to try one of the Fall 8 Hour races at hardwood just to see how many laps I could do and how I stacked up against other riders, that day I came 11th and did 11 laps, I was pretty happy with what I could accomplish. From that time until now I have come to enjoy the long endurance type races and I feel like I have come pretty far with it.

This year I focused on the 8 hour series for my training and my main goal was to complete all 3 races and try to win the overall solo standings. The spring was pretty early in the season I hadn't really started training for it and ended up 5th, which surprised me a lot. The summer I focused my training a little more on that and rode though the high heat for a second place finish, I was happy with it but there was some names that just weren't around for that race. So onto looking forward to the fall and hopefully some of those names would show up.

Checking out the conformation list before the race it looked like there would be some pretty good racers out there, I counted about 6 or 7 guys who I thought would be pretty fast and hold a good pace all day.

Now onto race day. I was a little late to the start line so I lined up along the side where I could see some of the competition I figured would be pretty fast. As usual I was feeling pretty stressed at this point, there were guys with a lot more experience racing these things plus an elite racer. My plan was just to stay on my bike and not stop for anything until at least 2:30 since I had never done that before. The gun went off, we had a kilometer and a half to sort things out before the first single track. Some how it ended up that by that first single track there were 5 solo's who found each other, 4 under 39 and one over 40. It was a nice little solo train for that whole first lap with Spak leading. Second Lap went out with the other AWI racer Jacob leading the train but the train lost two members, so it was just Jacob, Matt and myself. This continued for a few laps, the three of us riding together, I would make a small little gap going up the first hill then the AWI boys would catch up though the single track by the time we would get back to the start, I just don't know how to go up those hills slower. On about lap 4 or 5 we ran into all kinds of carnage on a particularly slippery rooty corner, Jacob was in front of me at this time and I am glad he was, somehow he found a nice little line though all the bodies, bikes, roots and trees so I just calmly followed behind him thanked him for leading me though it. At this point we had put a little gap on Matt. The next lap Paul (the over 40 solo rider) had caught up and we saw Matt a few sections of single track back, at that point I think Jacob decided that he either wanted to drop me or to put a bigger gap into Matt. I followed him as best I could until he got into a longer set of single track before a small group of riders, they wern't too slow but enough that it put my back about 10 seconds from him. I could see him for quite a while and didn't think it was too important to really push at this point in time. So I just held my pace and kept having fun on the bike.

Then the pain started, legs started to cramp up I started to get those early signs of hunger which usually lead to me pushing hard but not going fast for a lap or two. I didn't want to give into that pain so I just stood and pushed harder when it would happen and I took some extra food at the next lap and made sure I ate on every lap for a while. The 2:30 mark came and went and I was still just riding though the pit area getting gels and bottles from my team, I continued that until the end of the day.

I finished up lap 12 and I think it was Glen anouncing at the time, all I really know was that I heard that I was still in 2nd and that Jacob was still a pretty steady 1:45 in front of me, so I picked up the pace and dropped 1:30 on my next lap, I was expecting to hear that Jacob was just in front of me, but nothing, later I found out that was the time he decided to go out for a "hot" lap. I ended the day in Second 5:30 behind Jacob. With Eddy coming in 3rd behind me for a second time, but this time doing the same number of laps, I am very impressed.

It was another good day on the bike, nice sunny skys, great temperature for riding. A huge thanks to my girlfriend who fed me all day long, gave me updates on where I was and encouraged me not to stop, I couldn't have done it with out her. Also a huge thanks to my parents for making the trip down to cheer me on, the cow bell was great every time I came around.

I will send out my condolences to the family of the racer who passed away of a heart attack on the course, he was doing what he loved from what we heard. 

I Need an Air Compressor

So Today I learned that I got lucky earlier in the year when I switched over to tubeless I did it in about 5 min a tire with just an ordinary pump in the back of the shop, nothing special. I don't know if it was the tires I was putting on or if it was the rims or if the stars were aligned that day. But today when looking at the forcast into this weekend and looking at all the threads bare with no rubber on my tires I decided to switch over to some new tires. At first I decided I would try the new Ikons but after riding a short bit with those I don't feel like I have the traction I have with some of my other tires. so when I got home I mounted up my speed kings.

First the Ikons I couldn't get them to go they just wouldn't seat into the rims at all, I even tried to set one bead in with a reagular tube, take that out and proceide with only the valve, but no luck, I tried two different pumps and a CO2 still couldn't get the ikons to mount up. So whatever I put some tubes in and got to go out for a fun little ride around the 8 hour course again.

When I got home after a good meal I tried to mount up the Speed Kings, i did eventually get them to set into the rim and hold air but it was a fight. I needed to use a CO2 for one of them but the rear I actually got mounted up with only the pump, but wow was that a workout. Set up the 2nd wheel set with the ikons with tubes just in case but hopefully I won't be needing them on Saturday.

So this is it, The 8 hour is on Saturday, I have my bike ready and my day more or less planed out but with about 6 or 7 fast guys who could all podium I am not to sure how the day is going to play out. However it does it will be a fun day on the bike. According to the weather network there could be some sun, there could be some rain, it might be cold or it might be warm I love this icon meaning "we really don't know what it's going to do"

Now for the part of the plan that is not going so well, I am off to bed at way to late of an hour but hopefully I can get to bed early tomorrow night. as long as I get all my stuff packed up and ready to go for Saturday morning.

Fall Weekends

So fall time is here and seams to mean that riding is really limited to weekends, because of work and the earlier sun set. But the best part of the fall is the weather. AMAZING nice cool weather for riding, enough rain to keep the trails around here nice and hard and tacky. I had an amazing weekend of riding bikes, all kinds of bikess, all kinds of trails/roads it was fun!

Saturday was a great ride in the Copland with one of my friends, I still don't know how he goes as fast as he does on a 6" travel bike, anything flat or down he  pulls away from me but then when I get going on the ups he still seems to be right there.

Sunday was a great adventure, one that has been in the plans for quite a while. Monovan's/On the Rocks Team rode from Barrie to Creemore. It was a great day for it, there was some good food and beer in creemore all set in some great fall weather, sunny and warm with a little breeze. We headed there on the tail end of the Centurion which ran though Creemore earlier that day.

We got there with plenty of time for a little lunch before the brewery tour so we hit up a little cafe and had some excellent food. We enjoyed the tour then some beers next door at the bar. Does life get any better then biking and beer? The ride back was nice a little bit too much of a head wind for some of us but fun none the less.

Monday was looking like it was going to rain and it was my last chance to pre-ride the 8 hour course.

So off to Hardwood for a ride that would hopefully not end in being soaked. The course is really fun, it is very similar to last year's fall 8 hour, There is a good amount of single track in it, The first half being fairly tight and twisty, but then the second half of the lap seems to open up a bit more. The course suites me pretty good, one long climb at the start, and double track and single track that you can switch up going hard and relaxing on. One lap may be chill though the single track and harder on the doubles but then the next lap you can do the opposite. For me that makes the ride much more interesting. I did get a chance to ride it both in the rain and in the dry seeing as it started to rain on my 3rd lap of the course. It gets pretty slick in parts but there was no standing water on it after a good 45 min of rain. I can't wait until this Saturday, there will be some good competition this weekend with 3 other guys at least that I will hopefully be riding with and battling it out for the podium. Now I just need a good week of rest and good food so I am all ready for this one.

Provincials Course

When I first saw the schedule for O-Cups I didn't think I was going to be able to make it to this race seeing as ExpoCycle was the same weekend. But as luck would have it the bosses had a function to go to on the Saturday night as well so we wouldn't be leaving until Sunday anyway. So it was all worked out that I could go race. Josh and I went up and pre-rode the course on Saturday, which was a huge benefit because some of the lines were pretty tough and knowing what was coming up was a big benefit. We scouted some lines made some decisions on which of the hard lines were actually faster for the risk involved, it was a great afternoon of riding.

On to race day, I was super nervous, I am a pretty good climber but there was a lot of climbing, I am pretty good at single track but this was tough, a big long rock garden, some big optional drops, and some really tight corners. I was a little worried about going down somewhere during the race.
Off the start the pace was high, at the top of the first climb I looked down and my heart rate was up over 190, but into the single track it slowed down a bit because we were pretty tight after the first climb. The single track was super fun during the pre-ride, but it was a little tougher when you are trying to recover from pushing that hard up a hill. After the first lap I settled in to a good hard pace, just being able to see a few guys in front of me and hearing a few guys behind me, going into the third lap I was passed by a few guys, caught them on the climb and there was a group of 4 of us riding together one of them being the course designer/builder. Had I known that there was a course designer curse I may not have been following him into one of the single tracks. The one hard line that we had figured was the quicker line with the least risk, Scott went down right in front of me, I knew once he was down he was hurt, grabbing his ankle, I jumped off my bike, picked his bike off of him, warned riders of a rider down, and yelled back to the people in the double track there was an injured rider.

Back on the bike I just basically rode as hard as I could again and on the last time up the big climb I saw the injured rider coasting down the hill with one foot off of the pedals. I wish Scott a speedy recovery.

Not quite the result that I wanted for the day I ended up 13th (two guys went by me in the last lap). I don't think I am in as good as shape I was in about mid season, but I will try to get some of it back looking forward to the final 8 hour race coming up in a few weeks. I just came off of a couple days of rest of sorts, and now to have some fun on the bike to get ready for the big race.

Big Congratulations for Senior Expert Winner, Josh!! and for the big overall WIN!! He worked hard for it and pushed his limits as far as they could go.

The Ottawa Valley

It's been quite the busy week, all kinds of prep for next month, some visiting with the parents and a little bit of biking thrown in there. Not nearly as much biking as I wanted but there was something.
The weekend I spent at my parents up in the Ottawa valley, so I took advantage of that the best way I could and climbed to the highest populated town in Ontario. That is highest elevation. The ride up to the top of Foymount hill is quite the ride 230meters up over close to 3 km. Definitely one of the biggest climbs I have done. I also learned that a week of bad sleep and poor eating makes for an unpleasant 4 hour ride. However when I was on the road from Foymount to Quadville I remembered why I love riding my bike, the views were amazing, rolling hills and little lakes, it was great.

 

 The next day after a really good sleep and a big turkey dinner I headed out for quite the opposite ride from the day before. I headed out for some intervals on a route I figured would be relatively flat. I learned that definitely sleep and food makes a big difference as well that fresh pavement and wind at your back makes you feel like a hero. I was flying down the road towards Douglas. I also had to take a little pit stop and grab a few pics of the Bonnechere caves.

Oh ya I almost forgot coming back down Foymount hill I finally broke the 80km/h mark, it is pretty nerve racking hitting those speeds.

Love The Ride

Tuesday was an amazing day of riding! This was the Rocky preview day for dealers at Albion Hills. With the early start to the day I repeated the ride to Albion Hills that I did last week. Since I didn't really make it all the way to Albion last week I didn't realize that I had to turn left to get to the conservation area. So I had turned right and didn't recognized where I was going, it just didn't seem right. I finally turned around and made it to the demo day presentation, enjoyed some coffee and butter tarts while we waited to hear all about the new Rocky Mountain line up. On top of riding to Albion I rode bikes all day pretty much until they packed up. then enjoyed some great beers thanks to Creemore Springs.

Two big highlights of the day, first was the Vertex RSL 970 this bike just plain and simple ripped. I have never been a big fan of the wagon wheels, I find them hard to accelerate as well as I find them a bit long and sluggish in the tight turning spaces. Rocky pulled out all the stops on this bike, they went though 55 renditions of this frame to get it perfect. Highlights include a short tapered head tube, 142mm rear through Compared short chain stays and super thin seat stays, along with a 27.2 seat tube. What does all of this mean...Well it means that we get a frame that weights in at 997 grams and is super stiff competition the descended however it is still super smooth though the saddle. This bike was super nimble but stable though corners, it climbed very well, and with the added traction of the big wheels it extreamley well. What I liked most about it because of all that Rocky did with the bike the back end is not nearly as harsh a ride.

Second was a bike that just made me giggle when I rode it, I liked it soo much that I took it out twice, in different sizes just to make sure what size I felt more comfortable on. Here it is

This bike is just amazing so comfortable to ride, it climbs like nothing else I have ridden, the kashma coating on the fork definitely makes any small bumps disappear and the front wheel track though anything. This bike was so light the acceleration and handling was insane. The biggest thing I found with this bike was the suspension would stay way more active during braking compared to my 2010 element, and the ability to make the bike go exactly where I wanted it to go was effortless. If anything the steering was a little twitchy but something I could get use to. Unfortunately I don't think I will be getting this bike next year but I will definitely be getting his little brother the Element 70RSL.

Don't Fight with Trees

Sunday's ride was interesting, first of all I swaped bikes with Josh so he could try out the full Squish ride and so I could try out a carbon hardtail for an actual ride not just a 5 minute loop.
Here is what I rode, really nice bike!
First of all I realized how much I have learned over the past 4 years of riding, I really noticed the little differences. This bike was much more nimble, as in I could move it under me much quicker, the steering was a lot quicker and easy to over steer. After some time on the bike and I started to loosen up on it I was amazed at how well this bike was to rip though the tight stuff. It also had some amazing acceleration out of the corners, especially anything with a slight berm, I found I could start pedaling out of the corner much earlier with the hardtail then I could with the FS. However I really don't see all the benefits of the hardtail, I found I had to hover over the saddle a lot more as well as I had a harder time pumping off of the backs of logs and big rocks the same way I do my FS bike. I do think that a hardtail would be great to own and go rip on to make the bike handling skills that much better but I still prefer the full squish. They are just that much more fun and long rides are that much easier on them.

I am also spoiled, the biggest thing I noticed with this bike was the coasting and pumping though flat sections, it seemed like I always had to be on the gas to keep this thing going, the wheels just didn't seem to roll as smooth or as fast as the ZTR's I have built up.

Now as far as the ride went, Copland has to be one of my favorite places to ride in Ontario! so many fun trails, a lot of big climbs wich result in a lot of fun long downhills. I think we were able to hit up all of my favorite sections in one ride without riding the same single track.


That is what happens when to try to get in a fight with a tree. I was going over a small skinny across a small wet spot on the trail just came off the edge of it and headed for a tree, I saw a broken off dead limb since it was too late and no way of saving the crash I tried to make my helmet take the blow but instead it was my ear that took it. It almost knocked me out but I was able to shake it off and finish the ride. I am pretty glad that it wasn't my eye.

All in all it was a good ride finished as always with some good company and some good beer.

A big ride followed by a good race

Tuesdays are days off for me right now so that usually results in me doing silly things like riding my bike for way to many hours in the day. This past Tuesday was no different. I decided that I need to get some good long training days in to prepaid for the fall 8 hour, and next week I am going to be down at Albion hills for a little riding of some fun bikes, but since it will be demoing bikes I figure I won't be able to get a good solid ride in. I have decided to bike to albion next Tuesday so to make it a bit easier and so I don't get lost on the way down I decided to make the round trip this week. It was a pretty good ride I put a little wider tire on the cross bike and planes out a route of road, rail trail and dirt road. I figured at least it would be an adventure. And that it was! Nothing overly exciting happened but I saw some good country side, a lot of birds flying out in front of me, I forget what they are called but they have white bums Jo told me about them not long ago so they kind of stood out to me. I also ran o dt a snake in a narrow section of trail.

The ride was good all the way out straight into the wind, and stoped to turn around at Rotary Park in Palgrave.
The way home I got a few calls and messages, aid I couldn't talk because I was on my way back from albion, which confused people since I don't have a car, then I would explain I rode there and back which results in the "you are crazy" response from some of my friends.

All in all a good day on the bike my longest road ride, I hope to do more of those soon.

On to the good race, Wednesday nights at hardwood, always a good night, rode hard and fast but still not able to break that elusive 40 minute time on Gnarly, put in a good effort but not quite there.

Tonight was fun started training Denver, pushed him hard enough to get a little pasta sauce on his jersey but he did well and I hope he learned something. The lesson I tried to teach was when doing interval  recovery go SLOW if you try and recover at 60% your next effort will only be 80% but if you recover at 30% your next effort can be at 100%.

My First Post

Here is my attempt at blogging, I don't know if I will keep it up but I will try...

My goal with this is to have some new type of motivation for riding, maybe start taking some pics of what I see on the trail and on the road, or at the vary least my parents can follow so they can see what I am up to on my bike. So I hope that I can learn to wright some good stories take some good pictures and get some followers along the way.

What better way to start a blog then with a race report.

Yesterday was a first for me, Hardwood was hosting an Xterra Duathlon. 3.8k run, 16.2k bike, 3.8k run. Going into the race I hadn't really been running much just jogging once every couple of weeks with Rudy (my dog), but I have been training pretty good for o-cup and 8 Hour races. My plan was to keep the leaders of the first run in site then get as much of a gap as possible on the bike so I could have some cusion for the last run.

Well the plan worked perfect, I was a min back from the leaders in the first run, started the bike and I couldn't believe how quickly I caught the runners. I put about a 4 to 5 min gap between myself and the runners, as well as a good minute and a half between me and the next MTB'er. The last run was quite slow for me mostly since I had no idea how fast to pace the run, so as a result I had a pretty slow 2nd run time, a lot slower then I wanted. But the gap I had put in during the bike was good enough to win the overall by 1:30.

For the first time ever I got to stand on the top of the podium and get a medal!! I was pretty happy about that.

Thanks to Hardwood for putting on another great event had a blast and a great BBQ after.