June 7th (Afternoon)
· Fluids Intake
o Morning: 1 bottle of Gatorade, 1 bottle of water, 1 cup of coffee
o Afternoon: 1-1/2 bottles of water
· Food Intake
o Morning: 2 pieces of whole wheat toast with peanut butter, 1 banana
o Afternoon: 3 pancakes with peanut butter and syrup, 1 apple
I hit the 1000km mark on my odometer today! I know I’ve ridden a few weeks without the computer, so I’m technically over the 1000km mark before today, but as of this afternoon it has been officially recorded and now documented. Cool!
Today I felt a bit sluggish. Not at first, mind you. At first I actually felt pretty good really. I made it down into Peterson’s Creek fairly well, still missing the two same switchbacks, but riding between them. At the top, I got off and lowered my saddle a bit as I always do, and then just as I started to go, I heard some bikers coming down. I barely got off the bike and pulled it off the trail in time for them to fly past me. They were going faster than I thought possible. It was very impressive at the talent they had to handle this trail with that type of speed and control. However, it was extremely annoying at the aftermath they left of the torn up trail! Plus, this trail is full of hikers, bikers, dogs and kids and at those types of speeds, there’s such a huge chance of them running into someone or causing a crash. Add to that the fact that the first guy wasn’t wearing a helmet... Anyways, they did about run over another biker who was pushing his bike up the hill, along with a hiker behind him. Their comment to the biker was something to the effect of “This ain’t a hill for pushing bikes up, Old Man”. Wow... And they say our youth nowadays are fine... Actually, maybe they don’t say that, but it was completely retarded nonetheless. Again, incredible skill, but an equally incredible lack of brain matter (guess that’s why he doesn’t wear a helmet, nothing to protect up there anyways).
Going up the other side was awesome! I made it the furthest up yet for my first stretch. I usually stop just at the bottom of the sandy switchback, but today I rode right through almost to the top of it (got bogged down in the sand pretty bad). If I can make it through that, I could essentially keep going ‘till the steep rocky section, meaning I might even be able to ride about 2/3 up without stopping. That is, if I can make it through the sandy section, and that’s a big if as it is very deep. Unfortunately, though, I lost traction on the last stretch and stopped and couldn’t get going again so I had 4 stops going up again.
I have mixed feelings about this new back tire. Granted, I only have 2 rides on it yet, and on the way in this morning I loved it. However, it felt very squirmy on the climbs this afternoon. Almost as if the back end was constantly tracking a bit off angle to the front. I think it might be a bit due to the narrower tire, and instead of floating over obstacles or dips, it gets pulled around them, bumping side to side more easily. When I lost traction going up Peterson’s creek, it was a section where the gulley in the trail (dug in by the rains) is about 3 inches wide by maybe 1-1/2 inches deep. I usually cut over the gulley right there, but today the back end slid out on me as I was pedalling, and on that narrow trail I panicked and put a foot down. I think the more I get used to this kind of thing I will be able to ride it through. So, I will withhold my official judgement for now.
It seemed to be sunny all day, but I did notice some rain around the area between Juniper and Sahali during the afternoon. However, it must have just poured like crazy. There were so many puddles where there has never been puddles yet, and lots of mud. I made it home very muddy and wet, which was surprising as I was actually expecting more of a dry ride today with the sun. Maybe with all this rain lately the ground just can’t soak any more water in? Anyways, the ride was fun once I just said “screw it” and got muddy. It does bug me that I just washed the bike, but whatever. Sometimes you just have to return to your kid-like roots and play in the mud, right?
June 8th (Morning)
· Fluids Intake
o Evening Before: 1 bottle of Gatorade, 1 glass of juice, 1/2 a bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade
o Morning Of: Nothing
· Food Intake
o Evening Before: 1 peanut butter and butter sandwich, chicken and rice supper
o Morning Of: Nothing
Another complete ride all the way from home to work! It rained all night, and was actually quite foggy this morning not to mention even more muddy! Coming out of Juniper was kind of neat, with some heavy fog right over the trail. However, it cleared up past Rose Hill and was just overcast the rest of the ride.
Coming out of Juniper. The fog was moving pretty fast through here, so by the time I stopped and took this picture, it was already clearing up pretty good. But kind of neat nonetheless!
I’m really struggling with my glasses fogging up in the mornings, and I’m not sure what to do about that yet. As soon as I slow down for a climb, they fog right over. Then, once I get going they clear up again. Really annoying! Maybe I’ll look into some anti-fog wipes, or I think toothpaste is the “home remedy” or something...
The ride down into Peterson’s creek was good and fast. The brakes were nice and grabby, allowing me to let it go on the straights and slowing me down solidly on the corners where needed. The sandy switchback still foiled me, that’s a tough corner up and down! Going up the other side I’m sure I’m over 1/2 the way walking up. I biked more today than yesterday, and I think that will only continue as I learn this trail. But, I made it to the top again with time to spare, and not too bad energy wise. Springhill is surprisingly easy. While I don’t blast up the hill (not by a long shot), I find it not too bad. There’s one section in the middle where I start getting the “burn”, but once I crest that section, the rest is a good spin in a few harder gears.
Beside the Merrit highway, on the east side, they’ve been doing a lot of construction for a new strip mall of some sort. As such, they’ve built a dirt walking path to direct those walking or biking around the construction site. This is nice and all, but it is a muddy, sticky mess this morning! There’s a quick, steep, granny-gear climb right at the beginning and I was spinning the whole way up, but at least I made it. After that, it wasn’t till I made it to work that I finally got the rest of the mud out of the tires, as from there it is mostly all climbing up Hugh Allan to Pineview. As such, there’s only a couple of sections where I can get enough speed up for the mud to go flying... :) I was pretty tired at the top of Hugh Allan, but I’m feeling pretty good now. The sun looks like it’s trying to make an appearance, so that’s cool. Granted, it won’t be very “cool” but very, very hot all too soon... Then I can finally stop complaining about the rain, and start complaining about the heat... :) Isn’t that just human nature?
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