Friday, 10 September 2010
A-Line
Holy mother of god, why didn't I start this love trio of an 8" Kona Stinky, A-Line at Whistler and I earlier in life?!
Every mountain bike skill I've tried to acquire for years took all of a run or two to transfer to this 45lb chunk of Kona on a few runs of Angry Pirate, Crank it Up, Karate Monkey, Crabapple Hits and Ninja Cougar - we felt good and were having a blast. We went straight over to A-Line to frolick all afternoon. The intro ramp on A-Line just says if you can't ride this hit you shouldn't do the rest of this run. Second run on A-Line I could take enough speed to clear all the tables, just cranking through the hairpins and feeling the g force on the suspension. Heavenly. Rolled up and did the middle GLC drop twice, then said screw it, you only live once, so took the first left and tried the bigger one. Sure, it's not huge, but it felt so damn good rolling off that rock ledge. I don't get heart in the throat enough in life.
8 of us here for the bachelor party, and no crashes yet. Two more days of downhill. This stuff is so addictive it's awesome. I wish so bad all my biking buddies could be here too, next BCBR we so seriously need some downhill time it isn't even funny.
This is the most fun I've had biking since... well... the first Tuesday night 'cross which was the last time I was biking. Love it!
Every mountain bike skill I've tried to acquire for years took all of a run or two to transfer to this 45lb chunk of Kona on a few runs of Angry Pirate, Crank it Up, Karate Monkey, Crabapple Hits and Ninja Cougar - we felt good and were having a blast. We went straight over to A-Line to frolick all afternoon. The intro ramp on A-Line just says if you can't ride this hit you shouldn't do the rest of this run. Second run on A-Line I could take enough speed to clear all the tables, just cranking through the hairpins and feeling the g force on the suspension. Heavenly. Rolled up and did the middle GLC drop twice, then said screw it, you only live once, so took the first left and tried the bigger one. Sure, it's not huge, but it felt so damn good rolling off that rock ledge. I don't get heart in the throat enough in life.
8 of us here for the bachelor party, and no crashes yet. Two more days of downhill. This stuff is so addictive it's awesome. I wish so bad all my biking buddies could be here too, next BCBR we so seriously need some downhill time it isn't even funny.
This is the most fun I've had biking since... well... the first Tuesday night 'cross which was the last time I was biking. Love it!
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Midweek Mayhem 'cross #1
Lap 1 - pure euphoria, feel the burn, everything I thought mattered in life is muted to irrelevance by max heart rate and lung exertion
Lap 2 - good god this hurts, I'm tired from riding all weekend. Wait a second, that's lame, look at Stappy and keith up there, holy cow
Lap 3 - mother of god Katy Curtis just dropped me like I'm standing still, super impressive, not just a slide by and ride off pass, a stomp past and fu-gett-about-it pass
Lap 4 - so tired, I need to taste death on these corners so I can coast 2 extra pedal strokes. Keith thanks for setting up bomber downhills with big sweeping left handers, this is like a test course for two wheel drift in the drops and the integrity of schwalbe side knobs
Lap 5 - the fraction of a second wind kicks in. Run this hill hard, make it hurt as much as you can take, you've faded all the places, just hang in.
Lap 6 - gonna make it, pin those last climbs. Who cares if it doesn't matter, it matters to me this very second. I want my lungs to burn for two days.
to borrow some pure chart pop, our collective cyclocross hearts got lit up like they were dynamite...
I love this stuff, and super great to see Cindy and Jan on their guest Polish visit, as well as the rest of the gang!
Lap 2 - good god this hurts, I'm tired from riding all weekend. Wait a second, that's lame, look at Stappy and keith up there, holy cow
Lap 3 - mother of god Katy Curtis just dropped me like I'm standing still, super impressive, not just a slide by and ride off pass, a stomp past and fu-gett-about-it pass
Lap 4 - so tired, I need to taste death on these corners so I can coast 2 extra pedal strokes. Keith thanks for setting up bomber downhills with big sweeping left handers, this is like a test course for two wheel drift in the drops and the integrity of schwalbe side knobs
Lap 5 - the fraction of a second wind kicks in. Run this hill hard, make it hurt as much as you can take, you've faded all the places, just hang in.
Lap 6 - gonna make it, pin those last climbs. Who cares if it doesn't matter, it matters to me this very second. I want my lungs to burn for two days.
to borrow some pure chart pop, our collective cyclocross hearts got lit up like they were dynamite...
I love this stuff, and super great to see Cindy and Jan on their guest Polish visit, as well as the rest of the gang!
Monday, 6 September 2010
The Whole Enchilada
Craig had a big ride in mind, despite the variable weather. I just said "in" and wanted to know where to meet. Why aim for a small ride when you can go for the whole enchilada?
COP meeting zone ended up being just the two of us, so we drove out to Barrier Lake and were on trail by 10am. Idea was for a 3 pass day.
We did Baldy, nice long climb with some snow. Paced sensibly, but there's parts of the snow covered, rooty, rocky trail that Craig climbed like a motorcycle. It was ridiculous.
From there we took the Waasatch Creek trail over toward the Nakiska road, then did about 4k on highway. From there it was up Skogan Pass through some snow and over to a traverse of Pigeon Mountain that was full of super fun technical steeps. Awesome!
Except for my awesome meter died out way before then. The slush at the top froze my feet so I was way less coordinated on the technical down, plus I started bonking.
We came out of the rifle range and into the Husky gas station restaurant where we asked the girl if we could eat and pay with credit card number from memory. The excellent server said sure, then it didn't work so well as my fried mind couldn't regurgitate the number properly and the store manager didn't see it as all ideal, but we got it figured out with promises of good intention, exchange of info, and promise to call it in when we reached the car. Note: carry more cash, ID and credit! Oh well... the 2 cokes, 2 hot chocolates and stack of three pancakes with ham and eggs changed my world. Craig gorged on a similarly delicious quantity of calories and we were off.
TransCanada trail back to Heart Creek then up Quaite Valley was good, except for the 4 times I had to stop and dink around with a tear in my tire. Finally got it rolling, coincidentally about the time the pancakes kicked into high gear, and also coincidentally the same time we started the Quaite Valley gravel climb. Bam! Best energy level of the day, finally felt like a real bike rider, couldn't empty myself if I tried.
We crested Jewel Pass and I had one of the little Belgian gels the guys left me - as far as I could tell it had a mild dose of "A" game in it. Railed the downhill, then powered through the Stony Trail climbs along Barrier Lake like there was no tomorrow - those things usually hand us our asses at the end of a long ride, and today we were having none of it (pancakes flatten hills...).
Sprinted in, jumped in the lake, and realized how awesome 8.5 hours of adventure on two wheels is. With probably 6.5 moving on trail, plus just short of 2 hours of single speed at Nose Hill yesterday, I'm actually feeling like a bike rider... should be about 16 hours in three days.
Also, some totally generous mystery bike magician did some trick upgrades to my bike while I wasn't tuned in - a new rear tire and granny ring that doesn't chain suck endlessly. Life is good (and thanks)!
COP meeting zone ended up being just the two of us, so we drove out to Barrier Lake and were on trail by 10am. Idea was for a 3 pass day.
We did Baldy, nice long climb with some snow. Paced sensibly, but there's parts of the snow covered, rooty, rocky trail that Craig climbed like a motorcycle. It was ridiculous.
From there we took the Waasatch Creek trail over toward the Nakiska road, then did about 4k on highway. From there it was up Skogan Pass through some snow and over to a traverse of Pigeon Mountain that was full of super fun technical steeps. Awesome!
Except for my awesome meter died out way before then. The slush at the top froze my feet so I was way less coordinated on the technical down, plus I started bonking.
We came out of the rifle range and into the Husky gas station restaurant where we asked the girl if we could eat and pay with credit card number from memory. The excellent server said sure, then it didn't work so well as my fried mind couldn't regurgitate the number properly and the store manager didn't see it as all ideal, but we got it figured out with promises of good intention, exchange of info, and promise to call it in when we reached the car. Note: carry more cash, ID and credit! Oh well... the 2 cokes, 2 hot chocolates and stack of three pancakes with ham and eggs changed my world. Craig gorged on a similarly delicious quantity of calories and we were off.
TransCanada trail back to Heart Creek then up Quaite Valley was good, except for the 4 times I had to stop and dink around with a tear in my tire. Finally got it rolling, coincidentally about the time the pancakes kicked into high gear, and also coincidentally the same time we started the Quaite Valley gravel climb. Bam! Best energy level of the day, finally felt like a real bike rider, couldn't empty myself if I tried.
We crested Jewel Pass and I had one of the little Belgian gels the guys left me - as far as I could tell it had a mild dose of "A" game in it. Railed the downhill, then powered through the Stony Trail climbs along Barrier Lake like there was no tomorrow - those things usually hand us our asses at the end of a long ride, and today we were having none of it (pancakes flatten hills...).
Sprinted in, jumped in the lake, and realized how awesome 8.5 hours of adventure on two wheels is. With probably 6.5 moving on trail, plus just short of 2 hours of single speed at Nose Hill yesterday, I'm actually feeling like a bike rider... should be about 16 hours in three days.
Also, some totally generous mystery bike magician did some trick upgrades to my bike while I wasn't tuned in - a new rear tire and granny ring that doesn't chain suck endlessly. Life is good (and thanks)!
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Bow 80 Pre Ride
Sun, fun, friends, good pace, gravel road, purple clouds, big climb, lightening, thunder, rain, rain, wind, cold, descent, water stop at the Dawson drop, mud, cows, mud, walk, mud, drivetrain pains, cows, mud, pace, pace, patience, home.
7 hours of adventure with Chris, Craig, Dallas, Shawn, Keith and Lockie who made the loop. Lockie and I pulled in roughly a half hour after the other guys by the sounds of it.
7 hours of adventure with Chris, Craig, Dallas, Shawn, Keith and Lockie who made the loop. Lockie and I pulled in roughly a half hour after the other guys by the sounds of it.
Friday, 3 September 2010
"Nugget-off"
One of our summer students from the trading floor is on his last day today. He earned fame and notoriety, and the rest of the firm actually knowing his name, by taking a bet with our trading floor early in his career about eating a flat (33 cookies) of Chunks Ahoy cookies in under some pre set time limit designed to impress. He got to only 32 with the aid of a blender, but went down with pride.
In commemoration of this last day, corporate finance was teeing off on a bet with someone to eat a Mondo Burrito a day for an entire month, with a good book of odds built... when we received an email from the trading floor...
... where simultaneously a "nugget off" was happening. A new-ish guy and a brand new guy were eating as many chicken mcnuggets as possible in 30 minutes for what amounted to be a sizeable prize pot. A desk of nuggets, dip and water were present, as were garbage cans. Throwing up is ejection... err... from the contest of course. It's good this is after market close - but a sprint finish earned someone the pot.
Suffice to say, winning a nugget eating contest by a margin of 42 to 37 does not at all sound like victory 5 minutes afterwards in the washroom... good god. I think the victory here is new guy taking on the the tough bet and coming out on top... way to mark an entrance to the firm.
Replacement Vehicle
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