August 5th (Afternoon)

FINALLY I got to ride home this week… Wasn’t sure if it was going to happen! It was a good ride, the temperature was lower than usual (26°), but the sun was actually out. We’re getting a bit of wind now, so the smoke is actually blowing away this afternoon a bit, and I could see some of the long-lost Kamloops skies!

It was a good ride. I noticed that going down all the way ‘till the bottom of Peterson’s Creek, I really only averaged about 65% of my maximum heart rate. No surprise, really, it truly is pretty much all downhill minus two sections on the streets. However, coming up out of Peterson’s Creek I was hovering around 95% again. The rest of the single-track trails were pretty good. I felt pretty good for speed, but slightly off-line in many places so I wasn’t 100%. Once I hit Frolek’s lower road, my heart rate then probably averaged around 75% all the way to Juniper. That stretch is fast, where I can push hard on the straights and flats, and really don’t allow myself to recover much ‘till the end.

As I crested the hill and came up to cross Rose Hill road, a guy on a scooter (yes, a scooter!) came down Rose Hill and turned and went ahead of me on my regular trails. Hah! Looked pretty funny, actually, but hey! There are no signs saying not to, so why not? Granted, I would think that spending his hard earned money on a mountain bike would’ve been a much wiser investment… Actually, spending his money on ANYTHING but a scooter would’ve been a better investment… But whatever floats your boat, I guess.

August 5th (Morning)

Another good ride this morning. No ride yesterday, as Corrie came and gave me a ride home due to the rear tire coming apart. I put on my old IRC tire last night and hopefully it will last me until Taboo gets me another WeirWolf! Hopefully that is soon, as the IRC tire is pretty cracked, which is why I replaced it in the first place. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to keep it as a spare, though.

Physically, the ride was good but mechanically it left a bit to be desired. The rear derailleur was out of adjustment (I thought I had tuned this up?), and it had trouble shifting from the 5th cog on down to the 8th. I think the cable is just a bit too tight, so I’ll see if I can line it up better this afternoon before my ride home. The front brake is noisy and rattling too. I think the pads are just barely touching the disc, and therefore they “rattle” ever so slightly, but enough to annoy me. I did find, however, that if I pulled the lever in about 1/4” max, it would stop. So maybe just that little bit of tension takes away the rattle. Still need to fix it, but I’m thinking for today, I’m just going to set my levers in a little bit.

The hill going down into Peterson’s Creek was really good. I am feeling more comfortable getting back off the saddle more lately, and this hill is really helping me in that regard. In high school, I remember dragging my butt on the rear tire, but now I just can’t seem to convince myself to do that anymore! Chicken…

I was able to keep my heart rate around 75% on average today, which was cool. That is where it is supposed to be for the best fitness results. I also noticed that after my heart rate peaks (on a hill or whatever), it drops back down pretty quick which is apparently a good sign. The climb coming up out of Peterson’s Creek again had me hovering around 95% for the last half of it again. This is the highest my heart rate gets on the morning ride, and it is only for about 5 minutes or maybe a bit more, so that’s not too bad. I did discover something kind of neat about this, and that was on Howe Road I noticed I was sitting around 60%! Hah! So, I kicked my lazy butt, shifted to a couple of gears harder, and managed to maintain a 75% the rest of the road up to Hugh Allan. So, not only is it good for seeing the maximum, but also for getting my butt in gear when I start getting lazy!

Anyways, it’s been a rather poor week for riding, as it is Thursday and I haven’t even ridden home yet, but hopefully I’ll be able to get some good and consistent riding in the rest of August! If and when I do buy another bike, I really think I need to keep this one as my “spare” for events like I’ve encountered over the last couple of weeks. That way, if my bike does go down, I can still ride to work. Oh, and on that note, the latest repairs and money I’ve had to spend on this bike maybe have a positive result… Corrie said last night “You need to just go and buy a new bike soon.” Well, if you insist…

Aug 04 (Morning)

FINALLY back on the bike again this morning! Friday’s ride home was cut short due to my second broken spoke. Then, Monday I didn’t ride as it was a holiday (and we were touring the Highland Valley copper mine that day). Tuesday Joe and Tammy came to visit (they’re from Nova Scotia), so I went to work early to leave early and thus I took the truck. So, this morning I finally got back on the bike.

Corrie and I bought a couple of heart rate monitors last week used off of Kijiji (well, opened but never used really so in great shape). They are Bios Fitness wrist watch monitors with chest straps. They’re nothing fancy by any stretch, but for $8 each I couldn’t argue. What better way to get into heart rate awareness than that? So, this morning’s ride was my first with the monitor. According to the basic formula, may maximum according to my age should be 188bpm. I hit about 190 coming down a hill out of Juniper (what?!?). Other than that, I was probably running about 85% the majority of the ride. Apparently, for losing fat, I’m supposed to keep it around 70%, but I find that unrealistic. Well, maybe I could do it if I took another 30 minutes or more riding to work very slowly… I did find it interesting, though, that the entire climb up out of Peterson’s Creek I was hovering around 175-180bpm (about 90-95%). I mean, I know it’s a tough climb, but I thought some of the other climbs were harder, yet I was usually around 75-80% elsewhere. Apparently I work the hardest up this section.

The ride was really good, a lot of fun. I just about made it up out of Peterson’s creek (about 1/2 the way up the bank), but I did make the rest of the climb which was cool.

Unfortunately, as I started riding up Summit I felt a bump bump bump on my back wheel. I got off and checked it out, and now my rear tire has started to separate from the bead!!!

Already my third setback in less than 2 weeks!

I did check, and I’ve put on 850kms on this tire since I bought it. Is that good? I don’t know. I would think that separation like this shouldn’t happen this quickly. The tread wearing down, maybe I could understand after close to 900kms. But to be falling apart? I wonder if I shouldn’t write WTB and complain? I know that this tire is a bear to get on/off the rim, so maybe in doing so multiple times these last few weeks I damaged the bead with the tire levers, I’m not sure. But now with 2 spokes, and this tire, I’m starting to get a bit frustrated. I am just about at 2000kms so far on this bike, so I suppose that’s a lot for an entry level bike with a Clydesdale rider on top, eh?

As the tread was getting low, so I did ask Brad and Taboo to order me in a new one while I was there this weekend. However, I will now have to throw on my old tire (the IRC which was cracking pretty good, why I replaced it in the first place). So, Corrie will come up tonight and give me a ride home (I don’t really want the tube blowing out, both because I just bought this tube, but also because if it does so while I’m riding the edge of Peterson’s Creek, I don’t relish the thought of being flown down to the bottom without my consent…). Well, another day another setback, here’s to hoping I have another good, trouble free month ahead of me after this though!

July 30th (Afternoon)

Well, today was a short ride, and I mean real short!

I left work, cut up through the trailer park and was just heading down Howe when I heard a metal ping. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, as it didn’t sound the same as something popping up and hitting a rim or the frame. Then I thought about the spoke that Taboo had installed last weekend (that I didn’t think looked quite right) and wondered if maybe it had snapped again? I looked down, and the back wheel was doing quite the jig back there! I stopped, but the new spoke was fine. However, another spoke had snapped this time!

What is going on? This time the spoke snapped at the hub (last time it broke at the rim/nipple end). Are these spokes just that cheap? So, I called Corrie and then coasted on down to Tim Horton’s to wait for her. I didn’t want to go any further, as the wheel definitely didn’t feel right around corners and what not, and I figured the rest of the spokes might all start breaking! I guess I still need to loose more weight… Actually, these spokes do have just under 2000 kilometres on them already… And they’ve taken a lot of abuse to say the least!

Anyways, while I was waiting for Corrie, I snapped some pictures of the Kamloops valley and all the smoke that poured in today. Maybe its a good thing I didn’t ride today, it was a bit tough to even breathe at some points!

Looking North out towards Rayleigh (although you can’t see it at all)

 

Looking over at Mt. Paul and Mt. Peter. At least you can see them now, at lunch time you couldn’t even see that far!

 

Looking a bit North-East out towards Harper. Juniper is on the right above the trees, but you wouldn’t know by this picture!\

 

Monday is a holiday, so I probably won’t be posting here again ‘till Tuesday (unless I go for a ride on Monday morning), so have a great long weekend for all of those that get one this week!

July 30th (Morning)

I met another mountain bike commuter this morning, only this time it was a female biker! I saw her ahead of me on Qu’Appelle going through the round-about while I was riding past the park. I caught up to her on the hill and we talked a bit about where we commute from/to, and what not. However, I was a bit late this morning, so once we hit the trails, I had to get moving so I said good bye and rode off. It is great how fast and hard I can ride when I’m motivated to not let someone catch me! That Juniper stretch was pretty fast…

Anyways, so what is that now? I’ve met Phil, Brian and now recently Jonathon. I’ve met another younger gentleman when I was coming down from Frolek’s upper road beside Rose Hill and he was going up (didn’t get his name, though). I also met one of the Dad’s of Taryn’s schoolmate (Darcy) who commutes on these trails (although I haven’t met him on the trails yet). And now this lady (also didn’t get her name). So my count is up to 6 commuters plus myself that at least ride from Juniper to Peterson’s Creek. I really wonder how many there are actually? It would be very interesting to just sit on the trail one morning for about an hour or so to see how many commuters ride the trails to work. Pretty impressive, Kamloops!

Well, once I got up to my single-track across Frolek’s land, I felt a bit tired. Mainly because I had pushed it so hard to make sure I stayed ahead of the lady I had met (although I never even saw her again, so she was a ways behind me). By the time I started my climb up from Peterson’s creek, I could feel myself slowing down a bit. However, in the end I had a record time of just under 59 minutes, so the speeds I got through Juniper were obviously pretty impressive! It was a fun ride, and my last morning ride now ‘till Tuesday as Monday is a holiday (BC Day here). Oh, but I can’t wear this shirt again that I did this morning, at least not on hot days. Rob bought be a soccer jersey when he was over in Europe or Israel or wherever his grand adventures have taken him. It is a really cool jersey, but never fit me (sorry, Rob, I was just too “round”!). Anyways, it now does fit me with the weight I’ve lost (), so I’ve worn it a few times riding. This morning, though, the name and number on the back as well as the advertising logos on the front just stuck to me like glue and didn’t breathe at all… Made for a bit of a warm ride!

July 29th (Afternoon)

Another really good ride. Nothing new to really report, actually. My time was pretty good again. I did see two bikers riding/walking up the east side of the Peterson’s Creek valley, but didn’t see them after that. I didn’t get a good look, but I think the rider in front was Phil and if so, he typically takes a friend or colleague with him on Thursdays or Fridays and goes up to Upper PC and the Sticks and Bones trails. Maybe I’ll follow him up there one day, but typically our paths do not cross at the right time or the right place to do so!

Going down into Peterson’s Creek was good and fast again, and back up was about average. I couldn’t make it up the bank, and then up the east side of the valley climb, I only made it about 1/2 the distance I did yesterday. The single-track from there was good. I didn’t feel as good and fast as yesterday, but I didn’t feel too bad I guess. I got some pretty good speeds coming down to Frolek’s lower road, though, so that was good. I also have been able to maintain some really good paces through the corners on Frolek’s lower road too, which is making it fun and easier on the climbing out of each corner. The last hill at Rose Hill pipeline section was tough, and I didn’t quite make it up to the sandy section this time. However, the pipeline section through to Juniper was a blast, and I got some really good speeds through there. I also discovered that the bears hanging out in that area obviously found a rabbit to enjoy… The piles of berries, seeds and fur that they’ve left on the trail now are rather disgusting…

July 29th (Morning)

A beautiful morning today! No fires behind me this time, as they managed to get the one fire put out and so Juniper and Barnhartvale were both spared thank goodness.

I think the temperature was around 15° or less this morning, as I felt rather chilly at first. I caught up to a group of 4 women jogging east, and while passing them another lady jogger came towards us. Shortly after that, I passed another female jogger and then another group of about 6 or 8 joggers (two males this time in the group) came towards me. At the end of the Juniper trail, I met up with a hiker and his dog, and even noticed another hiker up above the Rose Hill pipeline section. My goodness but it was busy! Not sure what was going on, but at least after that I didn’t see anyone else. I stopped at the tree that had fallen over the trail and it didn’t look too bad, so I grabbed an end and managed to wrestle it off of the trail, and then kicked the broken branches into the bush. Thankfully it was that easy and didn’t require a chainsaw this time!

Right after that, I came over the second peak and a rather good sized buck was standing in the valley below me. He just looked at me, straddling the trail. I reached for my phone to take a picture, but realized I had forgotten my phone at work… Of course! Anyways, I hollered at him, and started down the hill. I was probably about 1/2 the way down before he finally decided to take off… Not sure what I was going to do if he didn’t leave, but I had images of the psycho dear in the movie Are We There Yet?… Luckily this dear wasn’t so psycho…

The rest of the ride was really good. I still didn’t make it up the west bank of Peterson’s Creek, and I ended up dabbing a couple of times on the second sandy section on Tom Moore (but didn’t stop or get off, so that doesn’t officially count as a “stop” I say…)

The paved sections were good, and in the end I had another really good time of 60 minutes again and I feel really good. I think I’m finally starting to get comfortable on this bike, and starting to feel it well so that’s cool! Just in time for when I upgrade to my new 29er… Hah!!!