May 5th (Afternoon) and May 6th (Morning)

May 5th (Afternoon)

Slightly on the chilly side again, even though the temperature says 11° or so. A bit of headwinds from work ‘till Berwick (Peterson’s Creek entrance), but nothing too bad and not really noticeable on the trails after that. I made it down Peterson’s creek without stopping (made each switchback) and up the other side with the typical 4 stops. However, I did not make it as high each time as I had the last couple of days, so I figure I was back to about 1/3 of the way walking the bike.

 

Nothing new to report across Frolek’s land. Same sections are still torn up, but as more vehicular traffic occurs, I suppose this will eventually smooth itself out. I have found the best lines, I think, so there are only a few sections that cause me too much grief. Nowhere near as fun, though, as it used to be!

 

The pipeline hills before Rose Hill were good and fast (and no logs/sticks in my way!). I made it pretty far up the last peak, actually, and if I’m recalling correctly I believe it was my best attempt to date. Probably over half way? Whatever it was, it was enough to make me think I’m not too far (maybe a month or so) away from making the entire hill, which will be nothing short of triumphant! I will let out a whoop then for sure!

 

I picked the gas pipeline section after Rose Hill to Juniper again, and that was a lot of fun. Definitely a couple of doozie hills, but all in all still a blast. Taryn’s soccer practice was today down in Valleyview. Normally on Wednesdays, I’ll ride down Juniper’s hill on the street. Today, however, I thought I would finally brave the Kamloops Bike Ranch trails! Well, without the proper planning, Mr. Murphey’s law would have me pick the Black Diamond trails by accident!!! Yep, I ended up walking a lot of extremely steep sections and complete drop offs! Even if I had the skill to make the jumps and drop offs right now, my bike would surely split in two with the air time that would be required!!! Brutal! Still pretty fun, but the fun is always significantly less when walking is involved! I checked the maps, and found out where the blue and green trails are, so next time I’ll try a blue and see if that is a bit better!

 

May 6th (Morning)

I felt not too terrible this morning, and with no head wind on the first stretch to Lansdowne, I was in the big ring most of the way again so that was really nice! I also made the second steep section of trial coming out of Juniper finally! And it really wasn’t bad at all, not sure what I was so nervous about... :) The first section has a nice fat tree awaiting me if I screw up, so I may still require some confidence to attempt it. ;)

 

From TRU, I took the trail beside Hillside as soon as possible. As the hill is so steep, I’m only going about 7-8 km/h so I have been riding the sidewalk in an effort to not get run over on the street (very busy and tight two lane street with no shoulder for biking, so I’d be right in the lane with no room for cars to get around without cutting it very close). However, as riding on sidewalks is illegal (and I really don’t wish to walk the whole thing or what’s the point), I skipped onto the trail right away. So, I still ride the sidewalk from the mall ‘till Canadian Tire and will just risk that I don’t get grief for that part of my ride. After that, I can ride on the street as the lane is bigger and there is room for cars to get around me without running me over or off the road entirely. In doing this, however, I did manage to shave 0.1km’s off my distance, hah! Still 28 minutes of riding though. However, I did feel that I was spinning in a faster cadence at the end than usual, so that’s a good sign!

 

Yesterday and today my legs have been really sore. Up ‘till now I haven’t really felt that sore except for on the weekends when I finally let them rest. It seemed that if I kept riding every day that it would keep them from getting too sore. But they’re definitely letting me know lately that they’ve been getting a work out. I’m not sure, but I guess this is probably my first week of riding the complete route home every day (no dog obedience training to go to on Tuesdays) and riding from TRU every morning. Last week was only three days of hard riding with Avery coming on Thursday. The week before that I only rode one day from TRU as my derailleur episode kept me off the bike that Friday. So maybe this week with a consistent, full schedule, is catching up with me?