August 31st (Morning)

A good ride again this morning, but I think I felt a bit more tired than yesterday. However, I still made a decent time in the end of 60 minutes.

It was chilly again (9°) when I left, and a nasty wind. The good thing is the wind was mainly going south-to-north, and as my trails are pre-dominantly east-to-west I was OK for the most part. Only a few sections did I have to head into the wind. Apparently this wind is going to bring rains with it this afternoon, so I may be in for a wet ride home.

I wore a jacket and gloves this morning. By the gate at Frolek’s land, I ditched the jacket entirely, but it was nice to ride with gloves again.

The single track sections were fun, but I just cannot seem to make the down-and-up part (90° bend at the top around some rocks). I’m not sure what the key is here. I need speed so I don’t have to pedal (pedals will hit the rocks), but with the sharp corner, I can’t have too much speed or I go straight into the sidewall of the trail… Coming down it is not an issue, as gravity does the work of forward momentum and I just have to worry about picking a line.

Coming down into Peterson’s Creek was really good, and through the creek was excellent. I had enough speed to make the first section up the other side, but then went too wide and had to bail at the top. Otherwise, I could’ve made that portion. I did, however, make both of the sandy sections heading up the Tom Moore trail! Twice now, yesterday morning and this morning, my heart rate has gone over max (my max should be around 188bpm according to what I’ve read). Both times, it has been on the boardwalk section. I knew this was a tough portion of the trail, steep, long, narrow… But I have never maxed out my heart rate yet, so I suppose I am a bit out of shape after all!

Well, I’d better get cleaned up here and start my day.

August 30th (Afternoon)

Well, so much for being out of shape or anything… I may have gained a pound or two, but I must’ve done enough biking and hiking last week that I felt like I didn’t really miss a beat. In fact, I even felt like I pushed it harder than normal.

I am enjoying how I can do this ride now and still have lots of energy left for the rest of the evening. Granted, tonight I just wanted to go to sleep at 9pm, but that’s probably got something to do with the 46 hours of driving we did last week too… When I started this, I don’t think I got out of bed after supper… Hah!

I priced out some lights on www.mec.ca today. A bit pricey to say the least! However, I really don’t want to cheap out on this like I typically do. If I want to ride well into the winter (sometimes the snow doesn’t fly ‘till Christmas around here), then I will need a pretty good light to show me the way. It looks like I need to be spending around $250 for a light… Yikes! I knew this day would come, but did it have to come so soon?

The ride was really great. Excellent descent down into Peterson’s creek, as I made both the sandy sections. I just about made the technical climb out of the creek, but lost traction trying to get my rear wheel over some roots. The single track along Frolek’s land was as much fun as I remember it to be, fast and flowy. The road portion on Frolek’s land was great too, in fact, I think it was even faster and more fun than I usually do through here, so that was great! I still haven’t made the last climb on the pipeline section of rose hill, but a few feet further today! I’ll blame it on a loss of traction again… Hah!

Well, off to bed now for some rest before another day of ride and work.

August 30th (Morning)

Everything has to come to an end, good or bad. Granted, bad times seem to last so much longer… However, I’m back at work, refreshed and ready to put some good efforts into completing what I was doing, if I can remember what it is that I was doing about 2 and a half weeks ago… Hah!

This morning’s ride was cold! 10°C when I left the house, but sunny at least. I wore the jacket today, and only took the sleeves off about 1/2 way. I was wishing I had brought the gloves, is it really that time already? Even when I woke up, it seemed darker than usual… Ugghh… That’s not good, as I cannot afford a lighting system yet!!!

I felt a bit out of shape and even slightly off-balance on some sections, but overall I think the ride was pretty good. I haven’t been on these trails since about 2-1/2 weeks ago, so it was good to get out there again. I managed a record time of 59.5 minutes. I guess the bit of biking we did get in Yellowstone and the hours of hiking did help keep me on track. I checked this morning and I only gained about 1-1/2 pounds as well, so not too bad!

I was worreid about how the bike would run this morning. It has been sitting on the back of the truck for countless road miles on the bike rack, getting covered in water and road grime. I haven’t washed it for about 3 weeks now, and have only managed some light oiling and greasing once in Yellowstone and once last night. I did a VERY quick rear derailleur adjustment last night, and all things considered it ran pretty well this morning. The shifting wasn’t that great, but really I need to replace the housing (longer) to get that back on track anyways (which I should do this weekend I think). Other than that, it rode really well.

Anyways, off to work now!

Vacation Riding–August 22nd to 29th

Well, vacation is over… After a whirlwind end to the month of August, I will be back with my nose to the proverbial grindstone tomorrow. I haven’t ridden my commuting trails since the 11th of August, so I hope they’re all still intact with no trees blocking my way…
We spent the first week heading to Saskatchewan. I did bring the bike, but on the way there (while it was on the rack on the back of the truck), I noticed I had ANOTHER broken spoke!!! In the fast trip we were taking through the prairies, I never had a chance to get to a bike shop so I didn’t get a single day of riding in that first week… We got back home for three days, so I took it into Taboo again and had them replace every spoke that seemed “suspect” this time (turned out to be 8 in the end!).
The trip down to Yellowstone was a great trip. We stayed at the Farragut State Park about 20 minutes north of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. It was truly one of the best campsites where we’ve ever been camping. In the morning, I managed to get a decent little 30 minute ride in on some trails that left straight from the campsite, and rode some great single and double track through the woods and along the lake shore. It was pretty easy riding for the most part, but just great to get back on the bike after a week off. I did notice that my heart rate was higher than I think it should’ve been, so the week off was not great… Here are some pictures I took of the lake and trails.

A cool shot of the lake with the morning sun rising over the Eastern shoreline.

Had to put these shots of the bike on the dock! They were kind of neat I thought…

This was named the “Lynx Trail”, a bit of fun, rolling single-track I found on my way back to the campsite.

Once we got to where we were staying (the Moose Meadow cabin we rented from Outback Vacation Rentals in Island Park, Idaho), Corrie, Rob, Jeff and Leanne and I all got to get some riding in at various times of the week. Tuesday morning Rob, Corrie and I went out and discovered some quad and snowmobile trails. We managed about an hour long ride, getting in close to 10 kilometres, which was VERY cold (it was near freezing that morning). The trails went every direction, but we managed to get a good, fun ride in. Unfortunately, I forgot to take ANY pictures… The trails were mostly flat, with some smaller sized hills. However, being Quad trails, they were pretty good, rolling and fun. No bears or anything! The next morning we had a lot more time to spend, and Corrie let Jeff borrow her bike to come with Rob and I. This time, we managed a 24 kilometre ride over about 2-1/2 hours. I did remember to snap a few pictures this time…

Jeff and Rob hanging out at the Big Springs Loop road, at the Henry Outlet bridge.

Rob getting a bit of air at a sweet little Quad “park” we found, with banks, drops and jumps. AWESOME fun!

Jeff attempting some air time as well…

And my attempt… No air…

I tried 3 times, NO AIR TIME!!! How did Rob do it? Must be the 20lbs less he has on me… Or the bike setup and geometry… Right???

Check out the amazingly clear water at Big Springs… Wow!

Jeff Contemplating a swim maybe? We did actually come back later with the families and swam further downstream, but it was FREEZING… Like, can’t breathe kind of cold… UFF DA…

After that ride, we didn’t get much else in for the rest of the week. Corrie, Leanne and I managed a quick 30 minute ride down the Big Springs Loop road which was fun. But other than that, we had so much else planned that we just didn’t manage another ride. Oh well, it was a great vacation! And back to the trails again in the morning… I hope I haven’t fallen too out of shape!

August 11th (Morning)

Well, I got to ride this morning! I wasn’t sure if I'd be driving or what, but Corrie and I worked hard at getting most of the truck packed last night, and she needs it this morning for running some pre-travel errands and what-not, so I got to ride. We also decided that she will load up the bike rack and I’ll take the bike with us for the trip. Sweet! As Andy and Helen live right on the river, I’m sure I’ll be able to find some great trails up and down the river bank to enjoy. Also, while camping out in South East Saskatchewan, it is a bit hilly out there too, so maybe I can find something there as well? Even if I was just able to ride an hour to make sure I don’t loose any progress would be good.

This morning’s ride was pretty good. I’m seeing improvements in my technical skills, albeit slowly. However, there are sections on the trail where I’m consistently making it where I used to have to dab, or sections that I can clean much easier or faster than before. So that is good! I didn’t, however, make the climb up the east bank of Peterson’s Creek today. I bounced around, ended up taking the completely wrong line, and then just about flipped up over backwards back into the creek… I got my foot out behind me just in time, and just missed dunking it ankle deep by about 4 inches…

I did feel more tired today, and my legs felt like they didn’t have a lot left in the tank on the climb up the east valley trails. But, I still made all the sections up. At the end of Summit Drive, the light turned green to cross the highway while I was a ways back. This is a rather short green, but very long red, so I stood up and sprinted the distance. I made the green, but the next hill was killer…

At the top of Howe road, I decided to take my “Peak 2 Peak” trail instead of cutting through the trailer park. I felt I had to do it. Let me explain. I have a colleague named Dustin. A young guy, newly married, who started riding his bike to work once I did. He lives just over in Aberdeen, so it’s a short 15-20 minute ride for him, but he does it fairly consistently, even in the rain. However, when I discovered this new route up Howe and my “Peak 2 Peak” trail, I told him about it and he was pretty excited. So, for the last few weeks he’s been taking this trail. Unfortunately, his ride in on Monday he went over the bars after hitting a rock and scraped his arm/shoulder up. He was a bit sore, and sounded rather discouraged about the ride. Since then, he hasn’t ridden! Now, I also haven’t been riding that trail as we’re trying to get a proposal done right now and I have to get to work as soon as I can. But, this morning, it bugged me that the trail was sitting there laughing at me, feeling superior that it had successfully “bucked” us off. So, I took the trail just to make sure it still realized that bikers rule…

Yeah, anyways… The trail was a blast again, and a lot of work. I came up behind a guy hiking with his dog and a coffee in his hand (quite a sight). The dog spotted me as I came around the bend behind them and freaked out, causing the poor guy to practically jump out of his skin! I apologized for “sneaking” up on him like that, and he said he thought his dog was after a bear or something… Hah!

Well, not sure when my next ride is for sure, but ‘till then, see you later!

August 10th (Afternoon)

The weather didn’t warm up that much today (22° or so), but it was still rather warm for a long sleeved shirt… The ride was really good, though. I caught up and passed two ladies on mountain bikes (and in matching green shirts ) on the Hugh Allan hill. They caught up with me as I waited at the light at the old Merritt highway, but after that I never saw them again (slow pokes!). Going down into the Peterson’s Creek valley was a blast. The two sandy sections were still a bit wet, meaning they were firm enough to easily make them through without any troubles.

I then made the east bank down into the creek (without putting a foot down) and even made it through and up the other side, only dabbing once (I’ve only actually made this 1st section once to date). Then, I even made the second section up, but had to dab once (normally I just walk the whole thing). It was great! As I was going down this morning, I realized that I always ride the middle, over the tree root, but when I try going up, I take it wide (left) to avoid the tree root. As such, I have to swing around quickly to stay in the middle of the trail and usually end up not cutting it tight enough and trying to climb up the side of the trail. So today, I got enough speed to easily make it over the tree root in the middle and was able to keep the bike in the middle of the trail the whole way up. Now that I’ve managed this, I know I can make this entire little section so that’s pretty sweet.

The rest of the climb up out of the valley was tough as usual, and I took the bypass trail. I didn’t make it nearly as far up as I usually do, unfortunately! However, once at the top, the rest of the single-track was pretty sweet. Fun, fast and somewhat in control!

I decided to take the main trail through to Juniper as I was running a bit late, and I threw it in the big ring and really cranked some good speeds through there. Unfortunately, there were thousands of black flies swarming all over the place, pelting me all over as I rode. They made it rather difficult to breathe, as I had to keep closing me mouth to keep them out! But, after only swallowing about 1/3 of their population, I made it out and home in a great time of 42 minutes!

August 10th (Morning)

More rain last night! This morning was actually a chilly 14°, I even wore my long sleeved jersey this morning…
Upon arriving home last night, I hosed the bike down and even hosed my shoes off. As such, my shoes were nicely cold and wet this morning when I put them on… Nothing like starting a ride with wet shoes!
On the flip side, I did re-adjust the rear derailleur last night and oiled the chain again, so everything was working nice and smooth again this morning. It wasn’t raining, but the roads were pretty wet so I did get a lot of spray up in the face on the streets. And, of course, any weeds, grass or trees hanging over the trails were soaking, so by the time I got to work I was pretty wet again…
It was a really good ride, though. Again, I found myself in the big ring coming down the main Juniper trail so that was fun. Some of my favourite pictures of mountain biking when I was in high school were of John Tomac cranking out a race in the big ring… Man that guy could push gears!

John Tomac in his glory days... These were my high school heroes! I actually did get his autograph once, but I have no idea what I ever did with it... All I really remember was how small he was... :)

The Peterson’s Creek crossing was good, a few rocks moved around into different locations, and I almost made the climb up the west bank which was cool!
Corrie and I may be heading to Saskatchewan for Grandma Mansuy’s funeral. As such, I’m not sure when I will be riding next, but hopefully I can maybe take the bike with me and get some rides in while I’m out there. At least keep the exercise up so I don’t lose a week…

August 9th (Afternoon)

Well, the rain was supposed to come Thursday and last ‘till Sunday. However, I managed to avoid it, as it didn’t rain ‘till Saturday and a bit on Sunday. This morning’s ride was dry, with some clouds. However, shortly after I arrived at work it started to rain, and it rained and poured all day. By the time I left work at 4:45pm, it was still raining (although only drizzling at that point). No big deal, I thought, I’ve ridden in rain before. However, not wanting to get stuck at the Peterson’s Creek crossing (if the creek was too high/fast), I opted to go home on my old route. So, I headed down Hugh Allan with rain and road spray covering my face (making it very difficult to see anything, or even breathe as I had to have my mouth shut most of the ride). I got to the intersection of the Merrit highway and Roger’s Way and contemplated going down towards Wal Mart, as the dirt path beside the highway has been known to get pretty slick. Well, I chose the path (how bad could it really be?).

BAD CHOICE.

It was extremely muddy and slick, and I was grinding and pushing, spinning the whole way up the little climb. My tires ballooned about twice their normal size with mud, my brakes were completely blocked over with mud and the chain and derailleurs fast started hopping and jumping all over. Near the top, the chain actually ended up jumping right into the spokes again… This meant I had to dismount and walk in the 2 inch thick mud! Now my cleats were jam packed with mud, I got the chain back in place and then pushed the bike to the top where the ground was a bit more solid and I was able to stomp some of the mud out of the shoes. I rode the rest of the path down and across to Gleneagles, where I thought some pictures would be a good idea…

It was shifting so nicely this morning! Was that ever short lived…

Things just don’t work as nice with this kind of build up…

Well, the ride down Springhill wasn’t that much fun, to say the least. It took most of the hill just to ride the tires of the mud (most of which ended up in my mouth… ). At the bottom, the light was green at Summit Drive, so I decided to go left and take the trail down into Peterson’s Creek that runs along the north side of the highway, not wanted to attempt the steep trail (Billy Minor North) with brakes that may or may not be working as they should. The ride down into the creek was really quite fun, but I had to go the long way around the first little creek (not sure what creek it is or what it’s called), as it was VERY full and most likely I wouldn’t be able to get across it without taking a swim (although the bike washing would’ve probably been a good thing at this point).

I rode up to my old trail coming out of Peterson’s Creek and started the climb up. It was a good effort, but I did end up having to push the one climb in the middle that I had managed to make the last few times I had ridden this way. All in all, though, I felt really good. If the trail wasn’t so slick and the drivetrain so caked with mud, it might’ve been a different story.

In the end, the ride was still fun. Even though I had sand in my eyes, mud in my teeth and I was soaked to the bone. Even though my shoes weighed about 10lbs EACH. Even though the chain just hopped from gear to gear willy nilly… It was fun, and I felt pretty good. I think I will just take my new trail next time, though. Peterson’s Creek didn’t look that bad when I rode by, and the trails are generally much sandier, meaning they’d be much drier with this weather. We’ll see what tomorrow is like!

August 9th (Morning)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! I hope you have a great day, and wish we were there to share it with you.

Well, welcome back great Monday morning rides!!! Today was a really good ride. A great time, good speeds and I felt good. I used to have some of my best rides on Mondays, but lately Mondays haven’t seemed any better ‘till today. I knew right away it was going to be good, and the bike was so nicely tuned and clean. The shifting was amazingly crisp and fast and quiet! As I rode up the first little climb on the Juniper trail I was in 8th gear at the back, so I cranked up to the big ring for the downhill and was able to really get moving down the first stretch. I haven’t hit the big ring while on the trails yet! So that was cool for sure.

The only complaint I had with the bike was that the brakes weren’t even. The rear brake connected much sooner through the lever pull than the front, meaning I tended to grab much more rear power before the front would kick in. Other than that, it was really good.

The climb up from Peterson’s Creek was OK. I was way off balance on the boardwalk section on the Tom Moore trail for some reason, and ended up grabbing onto the railing for most of the climb over it. I also ended up dabbing on the upper sandy section, which is the tougher one of the two going up. However, physically the ride felt pretty good. My left knee bothered me worse than usual today, which I think basically means I wasn’t pulling enough with each pedal stroke during the climbs. Gotta work harder on that

August 6 (Afternoon)

Weather warmed up to 31°, and still lots of smoke. It was supposed to rain yesterday and today (with chances of thunder showers), but both days have come and gone with no moisture!

I had a really fun ride home. The trail down into Peterson’s Creek was fun and fast. In fact, the Billy Minor South section going down was maybe a bit too fast as I had a few little scares getting too close to the edge… I keep forgetting to say anything about the two sandy sections. I’ve been consistently making these sections without dabbing or stopping quite a few times in a row now. I think I’ve maybe dabbed once since the last time I mentioned them. It’s been good, learning how to sit back, give the front wheel some freedom to find it’s own track and power through when needed. Nice to see some skill improvement there for sure.

Today, for the first time, I made it down, through and up the 1st section of the creek bank! Normally I go down the bank slowly, with a foot down, then ride through the creek, and then walk up the other side. Today, however, I rode the creek right down (faster than before), which gave me good momentum to make it easily through the creek and then even up the other side! It was pretty sweet. The 2nd half of the bank is much steeper, longer and tougher and I still need to work at making that section (haven’t done it yet to date). I guess I was feeling pretty good, so I attempted the long, straight and steep climb up out of the valley instead of the usual bypass trail. I don’t know, but looking at this hill from a distance I kept thinking “Is it really as bad as I remember it to be?” As I’ve only attempted this climb twice, I figured maybe I was suddenly Superman now or something, so I gave it a whirl. Yep, it still sucks! I made it about half way up before completely bailing… I guess I’ll keep this climb to maybe one attempt per week at the most…

The rest of the trails were good. I made the one section around the fallen tree where I normally dab, so that was another first. I also just about made the down-and-up switchback (which has many rocks jutting out the side) without dabbing, but had to put a foot down at the last section. But, still better than I’ve done yet!

Overall, a really good ride. I had an awesome average speed, and really kicked it up a gear through Juniper’s pipeline section which was a blast. I can’t wait, though, to finally get this bike up on the stand to clean, grease and adjust it! It’s pretty rough right now… Another weekend is here, see you all on Monday!

Charts

Here’s some charts I made today of the data I have been tracking. They are very general (per month averages) for the most part, but I do notice some interesting trends.

Weight Loss to Date:

This line should always go down, I hope! As you can see, in March I made little progress (loss of 2lbs) and in July as well (another loss of 2lbs). However, generally the weight is going down steadily. In fact, I checked this morning and I’m down to 223.8, so in just the first week of August I’ve already doubled the weight loss of July! Not sure what’s going on there…

 

Distance Ridden per Month

This one is neat, I think. I did not have my computer in March, so I don’t have any data for that month. But from April on, you can see the gradual increase in kilometres ridden (for a total of 1790.8). June I had a week of illness where I drove or missed work, and it shows by a sudden dip on the graph. My computer actually says a total of 1873, so I’m missing about 80km’s somewhere… Some of that would be in March, some of it on rides I didn’t record on this spreadsheet.

 

Average and Maximum Speeds (both averaged per Month)

Hmmm…. Speeds are going down as the months progress? At first, I wasn’t sure about this. But then I realized that as I discovered more and more trails, and rode less and less streets, my speeds did indeed decrease. The highest speeds I can record (anything over 50km/h) are on streets. Such as when I used to ride down Juniper hill to the bus. I’d get 75km/h down that hill! Or, when I would ride to the Billy Minor North trails, I’d get 70km/h on both the Hugh Allan hill as well as the Springhill one. Now that I am not riding those streets, I’m not getting those speeds. This also, obviously, would affect my average speeds as well. Now the real test will be when I chart this data in the fall, after having ridden the trails I’m on now for a few months. Do my speeds increase then?

August 6th (Morning)

Another good ride again. I did feel more tired and lazy this morning than the last couple of mornings, but in the end I still had a decent time of 61.25 minutes.

Heading down the Juniper main trail, I came across my Weinaramer (how do you spell that?) again… This time, I took off my glasses and stopped as he came bounding up to me (he did appear less threatening today). I waited for him to run back to his owners (who took their time even noticing I was there and didn’t start riding again until she had a grip on his collar. He didn’t growl or snap as I rode by, but he did pull against his owner for sure. Again, I didn’t say anything to them, what do I say really? It still bugs me that the dog is 100 yards ahead of them and it takes them a few minutes to even realize someone is on the trail and that they need to get their dog…

Anyways, I managed a speed of 50km/h coming down the first hill at Rose Hill. Rather dumb, really, but so much fun it’s a temptation I cannot seem to overcome! I know, I’ve got an entry level bike with spokes breaking left and right, a tire with more cracks than the Sahara desert floor, and a front fork known to bust it’s caps right off and send springs flying into the rider’s face, but… I can’t help it!

I did notice today that at the top of the climb up from Frolek’s lower road my heart rate had managed to hit 95% of maximum. The last couple of mornings, I’ve been around 85% here, so I’m not sure what I did differently. Maybe just more tired this morning? Less oxygen in the air because of the smoke? Speaking of smoke, coming home yesterday the skies had started to clear, or so I thought. However, this morning, they were just as bad as ever. Apparently BC is battling 411 wildfires right now across the province, and additional firefighters from Ontario, Alberta and even Washington have shown up to help. Crazy!

I was going for the “cool” effect through the front wheel… I don’t know, I think it turned out OK! Anyways, this shot is looking North, that’s Paul Mountain on the right. I can hardly even see Westsyde, and for sure I can’t see Rayleigh…

The rest of the ride was good. The neat older gentleman with the black and white Collie that I see on the Tom Moore trail often I actually met up with today near the end, right at the Castle Tower’s entrance. This time, however, he had a lady with him. Maybe wife or girlfriend? Either way, it was cute to see them both sniffing and picking flowers! The only negative was that the trail right there is very narrow, and I just about knocked them over trying to squeeze past…

Well, it’s Friday of a short riding week. Which is good, because the front brake noise and the rear derailleur mal-adjustment is really annoying, and I can’t wait to completely clean, oil and re-adjust this thing for next week! Let’s see if I can make the ride home tonight with all 64 spokes intact!!!