SundaySpeed

Putting yourself back together after a 5h ride isn't easy, but I recovered somewhat respectably. I didn't have Cindy's added effort of indoor soccer later Saturday night which wiped her out completely. I made a big breakfast for us, then got dressed up for a closer meeting spot at Kawa... Craig and Kate were there, and the Spanish barista took an interest in discussing riding - turns out he's from Spain, and was intrigued that we were headed there in a month. Kate had new windproof pants and was ready to go.

Then Shawn showed up, followed by Jon. Jay dropped in for coffee on the way to work, and shared his shoulder assessment... then we spotted a man in all black riding by, then looping back after spotting the coffee shop. Pat Dodge!

Suffice to say, once we got rolling, this was the fastest ride I've been on this year...

Did as many hills as we could before Priddis, of which I spectated fast hill riding on all of them from the back bench.

Priddis always delivers great mid ride food - then it was Shawn and I taking the direct route home so I could get to the post office before it closed. After riding yesterday I worked on bikes for 3h, and stripped down the Strong to go back for a few tweaks, including disc brake tabs. Exciting!

That's a tiring two days. We rode home at "reasonable" instead of fast pace - but today was still hard.

Blacksheep v2.0, awesome Saturday ride with friends

It's hard to beat a Saturday morning Cadence Coffee rendevouz. Cindy, Andrea, Shawn and I rode together to meet Kate, Craig, Cesar, Sam and Jay. Cool start to the day, but we had reason to believe it was going to warm up. Tuscany Ravine was primo, the roads out to Cochrane were great, and as usual, the soup stop was second to none. We split groups and went back "fast" and "long" ways home, but in the end Cindy and I got home 10 minutes apart, both with stories.

We headed west, perhaps onto lands with differing legal rights based on who lived their first. At our furthest spot from home, a chain reaction occurred that led to one shoulder dislocation and one bloody leg. Fortunately it went back in within a minute and was "rideable", and the leg scratches were manageable. Jay and Kate would both survive the ride home! Close. And not the kind of epic we were looking for.

Made good time rest of way back, till Shawn and I found it necessary to hike a bike down Paskapoo slopes. After making it out we did a few errands at Bow, then home.

Cindy, Andrea and Cesar went home the Glenbow park way, and then suffered navigation issues in the city to get home late.

All that's a bit of a preamble to Blacksheep 2.0's maiden voyage. I loved the frame before. I had a smile on my face for 5h just feeling the pleasure of riding a machine of such artistry. The Dura-ace 9000 stuff is such a pleasure it's hard to describe. The switch to disc brakes is amazing, I can't believe how long I held out (plus the fender and wheel mounting is so clean). Lastly, the carbon wheels are stiff, wide and comfy. Entirely happy rider here! I'm biased, but I think it's beauty as well as incredibly functional.

Curling

It seems I only curl about once a decade, but it's fun when I can get out. It'd actually be fun to get good at it for a while - it's neat when a whole office goes to see who has an innate feel for ice buried within them. I think the authentic curling sweater helped!

Awesome weekend of riding

This weekend was amazing, just what weekends are supposed to be.

Saturday a half dozen of us got out for some riding, and some adventure.  Jon and I had to scale this wall, essentially to avoid wet feet.  And cause core strength training should be part of riding.  It was a tenuous moment when his hand hold gave way, I was holding two bikes, and I tried to reach up to support him but my feet slipped on the ice.  We almost became a two dude, two bent bike pile of mess in ice cold water, but fortunately disaster was averted.  There's something about riding with Jon that always yields extra little bits of fun.

This ice was no match for us.  Craig (behind me) and I made it just fine.  It's not so much about traction between rubber and ice, as it is about focus with relaxation.  "Use the force, Luke" comes to mind.  Studded tires just add weight... who needs those things anyway when 35mm of rubber will do?

Sunday after sufficient caffeination, we headed west into a strong headwind after a loop around Glenmore park.  Shawn, Craig, Gary, Jay and I hammered it out to Coal Mine Road at probably 9.2km/h, then did the big climbs and were finally rewarded with some speed on the way home.  But beauty day, and talk about quality tempo intervals all day.

Bakke's Blends: Shakes and smoothies

This is time saving part 2. A blender. We had one that came apart in 7 pieces to clean, this one is sealed and cleans easy, therefore it's more usable. And I admit this shows the limits of my culinary skill (or time devoted to such things). But cyclonic smashing is fun!

Spud brings me non processed foods. This blender contains a kiwi, an apple, a banana (only the banana needs peeling) some kale, a chunk of ginger, some drinks, a couple little tomatoes, some peanut butter, hemp heart seeds, plus a couple of my secret flavour ingredients. That takes two minutes. The ginger is really a key one for a nice flavour that lifts it out of the "blah" zone. I just top up water through the hole in the lid to get a sensible consistency.

My other staples are Red River, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, peanut butter, almond butter, tahini, yogurt, oranges, pomegranates, carrots, a few bike potions, chunks of chocolate, green tea, broccoli, coffee grounds, and once some Kahlua snuck its way in.

On my to-do list are celery, garlic, onion, colored peppers, "mexican" flavoured ones that are taco flavoured/inspired.

Cindy asserts that in no way does she feel nutritionally deficient after consuming one of these concoctions, however she also advises that not all natural flavour combos are blender-able and has warned me off my "wine and cheese in one" idea. Beer and wings might be too fizzy.

There's no need to peel stuff when there's 1500 Watts of cyclic power. A minute later I can have all the servings of fruits and vegetables I need. Bam! I've been advised not to forgo chewing all together though.

And 30 seconds later that jar is clean and ready for a reload. Amazing!

Spud

One of Cindy's Christmas presents was credits for Spud.ca, which delivers groceries. So it's like Christmas every week.

In the past, I ate solely at work. I mostly still do, so from my perspective, a fridge with mustard, beer, and some powdered milk in the cupboard is functional. For Cindy, this ain't cool. She wants food in the fridge, not just Stagg chili cans in the pantry.

As a side note to this, our 3 block away Safeway is pretty poor considering the areas it serves and relative to other grocery stores. Limited stuff, and we found lately that produce all spoiled fast, which is telling me something about duration in inventory.

I like saving time, and since I try to opitimize time spent at races, I thought I'd bring it to my home life. This takes at most 10 minutes of clicking, and delivers to our neighbourhood each Thursday. That's a win.

Free delivery over a certain (reasonable) amount. Prices don't seem off to me for items.

Cold

Well, it's not really cold out, but I'm cold cause its comparatively cold out from the last week for me.

Cindy and I rode to meet Craig and Kate. Cindy turned around in Bowness park as she wasn't feeling good. We rode frozen reservoir, frozen river, frozen path, frozen cow patties to Cochrane, then rode to Big Hill Springs park. After that we rode frozen gravel road, frozen northwest community Tuscany which bears such little semblance to its namesake that it's laughable, and now I'm frozen and lying on Kate's floor trying to warm up.

You'd think I'd have learned after all these years, but I need to be reminded - bring lights when riding with Craig and Kate.