Night Rides

Wednesday morning I woke up with the plan to drive to work, borrow the test bike Element and take it on a night ride. So I made it as far as getting the bike home. My sister and I then raced off to sushi for supper and off I then headed for swing dance lessons. All was going according to plan until my friend was like a few us are practicing now and we need another lead...so not being able to say no to dancing more I hoped on my bike and headed over to her place. As we were practicing I kept thinking its not that late I still have tons of great riding left. So at 10 o'clock we headed out to a small pub for a pint. So now the being home by 9 turned into 10 and was now going fast towards midnight. Most nights I would have pulled the chute and and went to bed but not Wednesday. I geared up and was riding by 12:15am.

I pedalled fast up to nose hill to get away from all the noise of the city and soon found my self in utter darkness with my new head lamp cutting a line of light along the trail. Time seemed to freeze as I rode. It was just me the stars the night and the occasional 5 point buck. That night I realized that I need to spend more time in utter darkness alone. It reminded me of home. Of truly being alone away from people, cars or any other kind of distraction. The inner peace I found was amazing. That and also the Element rocked my world, fast, smooth and easily stand up sprintable!!

All that being said now I look forward to potential new jobs that will feed my desire to race a solo 24 hour event...perhaps Old Peublo? Any takers, I would need some help.

Swing Dance

Not a lot of my cycling friends know that I swing dance. Last weekend I attended a great workshop. The teachers came up from Seattle and taught some great new moves and improved everyones skills. The more I dance the more I realize that this is a great work out. By the end of a 3 or 4 minute fast song I am out of breath, over heating and ready for a nap. The nap never happens as there is always another great person to dance with and a great song to dance to. In case you don't know what swing dance google Hellsapoppin and watch the video.

This workshop has now inspired me to head up to Edmonton at the end of the month to experience a new workshop with new and exciting classes and the chance to meet even more great people.

A Ride along Canals

I woke up early to temperatures slightly above freezing. Pretty typical for Calgary in the fall. It seems regardless of how hot the day is the nights are always cold. Put on all my cycling gear and hopped on the Rocky Solo CXR to meet Rick for a ride from the shop. The most important thing to know about Rick is that he knows the path system in Calgary better then any other single person I have met. So we head out take a few turns and wind ourselves onto the canal pathway. We decided that since we are a)using gears and b)using CX bikes we should experience some dirt and end up taking what I assume is mainly used by walkers and mountain bikers as the trail was thin, muddy and very off camber. All this being said it was a ton of fun even if my feet got soaked by the underbrush.



Once through that we made our way again on as much gravel trails as possible out of the city and onto the canal pathway south along the canal to Chestermire. It amazes me how simple it is to be on a maintained bike path and yet be out of the city. For most of the ride I enjoyed farm land, a lack of noise and no site of the city behind me. The ride took us longer then expected as we had to dismount frequently to cross roads since we were riding along a gravel road that was fenced off. It was completely worth it and we were rewarded with a short lunch at Boston Pizza in Chestermire. Once lunch was over we headed back into a head win that turned out to be more of a cross wind that didn't bother us to much. The overall beauty of the ride was refreshing even if it did remind me that I haven't really biked more then a half hour since TR and defiantly need to start.

Nose Hill CX

I have an addiction. There I have said it. It is not booze or drugs but bikes. Over the past 10 years I have accumulated a lot of bikes. I have bikes for cross country, bikes for down hill, the open road, commuting, cruising and track. The only bike I do not at this point own is a cyclocross bike. Due to this obsession with bicycles and the owning of them I have recently been scouring the interweb (that thing that is a series of tubes and spinning tops) trying to find my dream bike. For some reason I have a love of steel lugged frames and thus have been looking at a lot of custom bike builders, I might add none of which I can afford. It is because of this indecision and realization that if I don't get one I truly love, I will simply have to add another bike in the future to my ever growing collection that caused me to borrow my mom's Rocky Mountain Solo CXR. This bike is gorgeous. It is in my opinion the nicest looking bike rocky has ever made that can ride on the road and on the dirt. The more I have ridden it the more I have fallen in love. The love affair started this spring when at home in FSJ I didn't feel like loading my road bike in the van driving to pavement and then preceding to bike that I grabbed my moms bike and took it on a bunch of paved and not paved roads. It was a blast. I have contemplated buying a newer version but none of the new ones have quite the same beauty or the amazingly light Easton tubing that has caused me pause.

Now enough with my obsession and on to the fun of riding a rigid cyclocross bike on mountain biking trails. So I woke up this morning geared up and hoped on my bike. I cruised into a strong gusting head wind up to nose hill and as soon as possible veered uphill on to dirt and off the paved path. It took roughly an hour of riding before I became fluid and learned how to let the bike bounce and rock beneath me. At the half way point of my ride I stopped in at a little cafe called Friends that I looked up last night. I grabbed a coffee and a made fresh this morning muffin. I sat outside enjoying one of the few nice days we have had this summer and enjoyed the beauty around me. It is hard not to have fun on a nice day with so many amazing colours around me and a bright blue sky above.

If you are reading this and don't bike, buy one, borrow one, or find that one you forgot you had hop on it and go and enjoy the beauty of the fall. It is the smell of the leaves and crisp air that will revive you in ways you didn't know and if you have the a place with little or no traffic put on some music and let it be the sound track to your day.

Life

The more I write on this blog the more I have come to see what one of my passions is. If you have read the majority of these posts you will realize a reoccurring theme, food. I love food. In fact I ride, climb and run more just so I can eat more food. Not only do I adore eating food but I love making it. The other night I got the craving for a chicken pot pie so instead of doing what most people my age do (I am 25) and going and buying a mediocre one, I made one, but alas I just can't bring myself to follow a recipe so started it like they say. I had onions, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, red peppers and chicken broth. Now for the fun stuff, I added turmeric, curry powder, cumin, and cayenne. Essentially I made a curry inspired chicken pot pie.

The cooked chicken with tons of spice

Simmering the broth down

All cooked up and ready for the pastry top

All covered up, doesn't look like a chicken pot pie...yet

The finished product, it was amazing

Then today I got bored after getting frustrated with my van, more about that in a bit, and decided to make desert for supper since my sister was making steaks. So I grabbed my cook book and read the concept behind apple crisp and again apples by themselves are good but add canned peaches from my grandma and some black berries and 'BAM' amazing. I will make one change next time which is to remove the 1/2 cup of brown sugar in favor of a bit of honey, it was a bit too sweet for my taste.

A bit runny but still full of flavor

There is something about cooking that occupies my mind and is very satisfying. It is the creation from many tastes and smells into one amazing dish. It is like life and our experiences. We are not simple just the result of a single event but the culmination of all of our experiences and the way they have changed and steered us to the individuals we are today.

Now enough about food because if I keep writing I will have to go and eat more and since I haven't been biking might not be the best idea, and on to my van. By which I mean the van owned by my sister, my brother and I. We own a 2002 Ford Windstar. Since we have bought this van, the transmission and alternators have gone and been replaced and now a leak. At first we decided it was the water pump. So being the guy I am I was like I can fix that. So I take off the alternator and a whole bunch of other items lift the engine 3 inches. Thats right had to lift the engine to remove the water pump. Once it was out the gasket took another 2 hours of scrapping and gasket remover to come off but being paranoid of a gasket not sealing convinced me it was time well spent. I then reassembles everything put the wheel back on. Oh did I mention I had to take off the passenger side wheel.  Once I added the coolant there it was drip, drip, drip, drip. So story short 15+ hours of work and nothing has been solved. So tomorrow I will wake up AGAIN, done my greasy dirty work clothes and try and figure out what is wrong and if I can't find the source of this leak then it will be fingers crossed bars leaks to the rescue. Well at least until I can get home for Thanksgiving and my dad and I can find the actual source of the problem and fix it for good. Oh and by the way, I can't wait to have a job where I can afford to own all the tools I actually need to make these fixes a lot faster.

The water pump almost ready to go or so I thought.

On the plus side this post really has calmed me down and let me get out a lot of my frustration with the whole event.

Winter Wonders

The cold winter looms ever closer here in Calgary. The weather still hasn't decided if it is going to get nice for a while and give us a long fall and great riding or if winter will come early and allow for some winter riding. I am sure that part of this bizarre desire to ride in the cold will be dashed on the first long hard cold ride or if it will awaken a new love of riding in weather most deem unrideable. Part I am sure is the idea of all the new gear I will be able to buy.

I have been starring at photos of cyclo-cross riding. Cyclists running with bikes over their shoulders in mud with snow falling. It is the purity of the snow that draws me in . The crisp cool feel of the air as you breath it in. The bite on the exposed skin as your body is warm yet cold.

But I will have to wait for the leaves to turn and enjoy as much of the riding during the fall and the yellows and reds of the soon to be slumbering trees.

Canmore

So a couple guys from work and I decided to drive out to Canmore and enjoy the nordic centers trials.

The Nordic Center in Canmore sure has some of the most amazing well rounded trails I have rode. The trails combine the right amount of pain due to climbing with the well planned downs. It amazes me the way the trails weave back and forth with small sprint climbs to help elongate the decent. In fact one of the trails I had the most fun on was this little green trail, the name of which I forget, that simply weaved back and forth. I was riding the Rocky Altitude 29er and I simply pedaled and got into the back and forth motion of the bike. It was so simple yet so beautiful. The feeling of carving, similar to carving big lines through deep powder on a snowboard. Being able to simple pedal and forget everything in your life save what is around the next corner, over the next hill makes tomorrow a lot easier to deal with.

The last trail we road was FYI. Sure it took us most of the time riding to find the trial as none of the people I was riding with are familiar with the trial, but the time spent was worth it. That trial is so fast and fun that I found a smile on my face and a heart rate through the rough. It was that trial that to me defines why I ride a mountain bike.

A beautiful day in Canmore for biking

A couple 29er test bikes and a Specialized HT

Who said downhill racers can't climb

Cookie checking fit

Zilla rocking out on an XC bike

We ended the ride hungry and read to enjoy the Grizzly Paw's amazing bison burgers and since we were sitting at the big kid table some amazing grizzly paw pops.

Victoria part Deux

On Sunday I came to two realizations, one I need to spend more time just enjoying the simple things of life. Things like going to restaurants I have never been to and look interesting and two that I need to either find more people who enjoy riding bikes or climbing. I am quite the solo athlete. I tend to do all my training by myself and have a hard time slowing down or altering the way I ride for other people. I feel this is something I need to try and develop and improve upon.

It also has occurred to me that I want to spend more time riding my bike this winter. I am not talking about short rides on perfect days I want to do day long rides to Canmore and Banff. This means two things, I have an excuse to buy another bike, and an excuse to buy winter riding gear. As of right now I don't have the clothing to pull this off but come winter I plan on having it.

It has also made me consider more endurance races. I will be checking a bunch out and seeing if I can be like a new friend and just dive into the challenge and see what the out come is.

Last thing, this is a call out to all people in Calgary I need to find a good place to have homemade perogies. I passed a little Polish Deli everyday I was in Victoria and never stopped in and now I have a craving for good perogies.

Victoria

A friend of mine got married on the weekend prompting a wonderful weekend in Victoria. I started the weekend off by leaving work a little early on Friday and packing my bike and flying out at 9pm. The flight was amazing and I got a few amazing views of the sunset. I just wish I wouldn't have forgotten my good camera so Iphone pictures will have to do for this update.

I stayed with an old roommate and his cousin. It was nice to hang out with him again. Reminded me of years ago of late nights and video games. 

            

The weekend was fantastic. Her ceremony was by Warren Island in Beacon hill park. A few of our friends are amazing singers, one of which is an up and coming opera singer. He composed the works for the ceremony and it was truly an amazing experience to hear an ensemble of people with that much talent singing in the sunshine out side in a park.

At the reception my table was mostly friends from high school so we all caught up and laughed about our child hood days. Once the food was done and the cake ready I proceeded to do what I do best which is the requirement of trying at least 1 piece of every type of cake. That meant 3 pieces in total.

After the reception I biked back to my friends place and dropped off a bag of peaches (Nicole "the bride", dad brought them from the interior) and they were amazing. After that I headed downtown to what appeared to be a Russian polka concert only it was like being part of a Tim Burton film. People singing and laughing along. Jesters and clowns all dressed up and having a great time. On stage our friend rocked out on her Tuba and made sure to give the music alot of well used bass.

More to come tomorrow as I am barely awake after waking up to early and working all day but alas I will tell you about that tomorrow.

Reservoir Riding

One of my long time friends is soon leaving off to Winnipeg to follow her boyfriend to law school. So as one of the last times we have to hang out we decided to get up early meet at her place and go for a ride. Calgary does have one thing going for it besides it proximity to the mountains (Yes I know you are closer Keith) and that is its fairly nice bike paths. Sure they aren't the place to go if you want to train as they do have speed limits which the pedestrians like cyclists to some what abide by but they are great for a nice summer day ride. The temperature was nice and hot for a change and the res was crystal smooth and quite beautiful. I am sure the people trying to sail on it were a little bored but the day was nice and to be on the water I am sure was a lot of fun even without any wind.

No set of photos is ever complete without one with a sexy bike

Once we got back to her place it was off to an all you can eat Indian Buffet at Surya downtown Calgary. So Billy (her BF) Alex and I all headed over by our leg power, which apparently is a lot slower then riding a bike, who would of thought. The food was amazing and the meal only cost each of us 13.00 plus tax and tip pretty cheap for how good the food was. Once we gorged ourselves to the point of pain we started the long and very bright walk back as I forgot my sunglasses at their place.

Once back we quickly got our stuff together for the bike ride back up the hill to my place being as if we stayed sitting at her place for more then a few minutes I am sure we all would of ended up taking a nap. The ride was nice and hot and quite pleasant as Calgary hasn't really had a real summer yet this year.

We decided to make Tangerine marinated Tofu and chicken. She is a vegetarian so we thought we would humor her. Once that was ready to go I started up my smoker and got it nice and hot and ready for the main dish. I used a Cherry wood chip for the smoke. We also made a big bowl of fruit salad, some sliced veggies and heated up the left over filling from my perogie creations yesterday. Last thing to be cooked was the corn. Living close to the prairies in August has the huge advantage of some amazing corn. The meal turned out wonderful and to top it off we convinced our mutual school friend Jamie to venture from the deep SE to the NW for supper as a final dinner as we spent many Sundays eating brunches at my place together studying for various tests and exams.

After supper Jamie Alex and I headed off to top the night off with a bouldering session at the U of C bouldering wall. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end the evening.

Perogies

So this afternoon while at work I decided that I would try my hand at cooking perogies from scratch. I mean not just buying some perogies and altering what you have with them but making the dough, the insides and cooking them up. So first I went and found a recipe online. Not hard to do with this amazing series of tubes that make the interweb that allow us to find everything we need. So I made the dough exactly to the recipe. I figured I wouldn't want to adjust everything instantly. Now the fun part the filling. First I made mashed potatoes. I then cut up Jalepeno peppers from my garden and fried them up in some olive oil with onion and mushrooms. Next I mashed this with the potatoes added a bit of salt and pepper and some crushed peppers. I then decided that spicy goes well with some feta cheese. So I then added a bunch of feta to taste. Sure I know this isn't exactly what my Polish roots would call for maybe a bit more like what a Greek would make but let me tell you the final result was amazing. Next time you want an amazing meal try some home made perogies 100% worth the added preparation time.

The boil is full of the delicious filling, to the right the dough

A few perogies ready to go in the boiling pot

The final product, add a bit of salsa and sour cream and wala!

I must say that it was a nice change to a normal dinner. Also the filling I will be using tomorrow. It is amazing how potatoes with some onion and it just tastes like a perogie should.

Staying Active

Now that my knee is behaving itself again after the Transrockies I have started enjoying my daily commute to and from work. It is so much fun to be fully rested and strong again. Being able to max out my single speed and not be in my red zone has been a lot of fun.

For a change last night I hit up the local univeristy for some Monday night bouldering. It was a lot of fun to get back into the short super focused activity of climbing. The hands are raw today but it was totally worth it. Hopefully I can keep climbing a couple times a week to keep the upper body and core nice and strong to help ward off injury on the bikes.I also find that the act of visualizing the route helps me to improve on my focus for cycling and the ability to shut out the pain and do what needs to be done. To the push the limit of ones body and mind. It is after all the reason I train and ride now. The fun of learning new things about ones self. I find the moment of most pain and hardship I learn something new about myself mentally in the ways my thoughts jump around. Below is a sweet 4 point dyno by my friend Craig:

After reading a friends blog I do have the sudden urge to go find a nice tall climb and run or ride it as fast as I can just to get that amazing endorphin rush. It is a feeling I have missed this past week. After doing TR with that feeling multiple times a day I find it lacking in my life.

Till the next climb and ride I say adeiu.

Bike Rebuild

The Monday after Transrockies I started the dreaded bike rebuild. I was expecting the worst and the bike stood up amazingly well. The drive train was all in tact with the exeption of a chain. A few other parts needed replacing and a bit of love to make feel nice again but I won't bore my few readers with the details. The best part of the entire process was the fun of learning how to do a few more things on my bike. Sure I can strip a road bike and rebuild it but a full suspension has a lot more moving parts on it. It still amazes me how many small parts need to be checked.

The bike minus the rear end. Tomorrow it will have new bearings and be like new.

The cranks and my clean bucket and wax. Trying to make it look pretty again.

The 3 peices I can carry to work to put new bearings in since without a vehicle the bike is a bit hard to transport and not fun to commute on in the city.

Haze

The forest fires in BC have turned Calgary into a haze. All day it appears that the city is covered in smog or if you want to think of cleaner images fog. The ride to and from work cause a slight sore throat. It is really making me look forward to tomorrow when the smoke is supposed to clear out.

My knee is still acting up. I am just grateful it decided to mess up after the race was over. It really has given me a small look into what my partner had to go through and I don't think I would have been able to do anything different then what he did. I have physio booked for Wednesday and hopefully that will fix it so I can start riding my bikes again and start riding with a bit more effort and suffering.

For those who have never had the joy of night time commuting I strongly recommend it. Put some mellow music on you enjoy and just start pedaling. It is one of the best ways to enjoy a bike. It amazes me how different my thoughts and the things I contemplate while riding at night vs. during the day are.

Till we ride again

Tim

The Pursuit of Pain

After reading a friends recount of her Transrockies experience I was forced to ask myself the question of why I ride the way I ride. It is weird for an individual not only to ride a bike for fun but to pursue the feeling of leg pain and lung suffering. I tell myself it is just a left over feeling from my competitive speed skating days where pain meant improvement and without it we become stale. I have been two years out of skating and yet I still feel the same need to hurt. It is also one of the reasons I want to race the Transrockies and not simply ride it. The accomplishment of suffering is what truly gives me satisfaction in an achievement. I look forward into the future and wonder if my perception of riding has been skewed and if I will be able to learn to enjoy long easy rides or continue to look forward to the feeling of going fast, hurting and conquering the next hill as fast as possible while inflicting as much pain on myself and anyone riding along beside, behind or in front of me.

A few days later

Went for a nice easy road ride yesterday. Felt fine. It still amazes me how 1.5 hours on a road bike can now feel short and actually by the time I got home I was just starting to feel warmed up and ready to go.

Today my knee is a bit sore. I guess that is the cost of 7 days of hard riding, mountain hiking, and mud slogging. The event was totally worth it though. I will try and make a physio to double check that everything is as it should be and so that once training time comes I am ready to go.

Talked to Keith about training and I think I will take a spin class from one of members of the top mixed teams. I think it will really help to force me to put in the hard training time during the cold months of the winter where just getting on a bike become difficult.

The views of TR

I thought that I would post a few pictures of my most favorite views that I actually stopped long enough to take photos of. It is because of these places and the fact that most people will most likely not be able to ever see these things that make TR the ride of a life.

This was at the top of Porky Blue in Fernie just before the descent. Worth the climb and the down is epic!

This was at the top of the continental divide at 2350m. Lots of pushing the bike required but an amazing view.

The line of walkers. Tough hills make for pushing the bike. Plus so many people walking even if you wanted to ride it was easier just to push.

Grass Pass. Beautiful...enough said

Yay, this is where we got to ride!

Night before the hardest, wettest day of my life, and yet looking back it was fun.

The guys who kept all our bikes running by staying up till 3am and only ever getting 3 hours of sleep. The real reason we all finished TR!