Doozy Bruisey

This is two days after the injections in my upper, inner thigh for my varicose veins.
Check out the injection site - they must have poked that horse needle into my leg 3 or 4 times. Yikes! No wonder the bruising. Hopefully it'll all pay off and I can begin my career as a leg model.

First real fall day

It's cold and wet outside today. Still lots of leaves on the trees, plenty of colour. I will not be playing on the bike today - in recovery mode since my injections on Thursday. Lots of bruising and the tenderness has subsided. Another 3 days wrapped up tighter than a ducks ass.

Cheers.

Legs like a nanna

I could be a model in a geriatric hosiery catalogue.



Not my legs . . . . but that's what one of mine kind of look like. Yep, I've got varicose veins. Today I went to a clinic to finally get something done about them.

They've caused problems for me in the past: pain, swelling, restlessness, scaring and some pretty close calls with cuts/bruising while riding.

Today was the start of multiple injections that will completely shrink them. I'll be pain free, not apt to clip them and cause any bleeding or hemoraging while in a cycling accident, and have much better circulation.

Only problem is that after each injection I have to lay low for five days - I can walk and do light exercise, but have to avoid anything too strenuous on the legs. Tis' the season to get the body fixed up.

Tonight's OMBA ride brought to you by the letter . . .

"S" . . . as in slippery.
What started out as moist ride, got moister with some showers, then moisterer with steady rain. Made for some technical riding on rocks and roots. Good fun was had!

King and Lenny

Scott and Tanya

Lenny's bent and twisted link in his chain . . . . so that's were all the racket was coming from!
I think that happened when he took a side trip into the woods, arse over kettle.

Wet, slippery night on the single speed.

BC Bike Race is a GO!

I've been waiting to announce this race. But the time is right. I was losing sleep over this race - hopes were high, but unsure, if this was going to happen or not. Much depended on getting a partner.

Mark gave me the nod this past week. We'll be riding together, as partners, next June 28 to July 4th. This seven day stage race will lead us on some of the nicest single track that British Columbia has to offer, from Victoria to Whistler.

BC Bike Race is much more than the challenge of the ride...it's about everything experienced along the way - spectacular scenery, fascinating culture, interesting people, and tantalizing tastes. The stages of BC Bike Race wind through nine beautiful west coast communities, each showcasing unique qualities and elements that make British Columbia a world-class destination for athletes, adventurers and tourists alike.

Man, oh man . . . . this is going to be awesome!

Happy Thanksgiving

Gobble gobble gee,
Gobble gobble goo,
Let's eat turkey,
In a big brown shoe.

Jedi Mind Tricks

Beauty day yesterday was.
Riding was primo.
Acorn fights a plenty.
Rest breaks many.

Climb you can, young bike rider? Not think, do.

Unknown rider's, on unknown trail, attempting his first vertical-like-climb.
Super steep, super steep . . . . it's super steepy.

Second attempt. A little further.
Use the force.

Third attempt. A little bit further.
Hard it may be, do is possible.

I gave up taking pictures after this one, I was laughing too hard. Unknown poacher went on to attempt this wicked climb two more times. Each time getting closer to the top. On the last attempt he was only one bike length away from making it. No matter how hard we tried to use Jedi Mind Tricks to convince him to do it again, he wouldn't fall for it.

Head up arse

I've had my head up my arse lately. Kind of slack-i-daze-ical, low on motivation to do anything that requires energy. I haven't even posed naked for the camera, as promised (I promise I will). It's been nice to take it easy. Not that I haven't been doing anything . . . life HAS been busy and full of shit going on.

I've done more racing this year than ever before. More to come next season. Maybe feeling a little burnt out from the bike. That being said, it's not that I don't want to ride . . . . just need a little unstructured, fun rides. Got one lined up today actually . . . . more to come.

Tuesday night night ride

I've forgotten how much fun night riding is.
Got out tonight for an easy paced, technical single track ride with Lenny and Ryan. The night was perfect - not too hot, not too cold, just perfect.
The HID picked up all the pretty colours of the leaves on the ground, but it was sometimes hard to find the trail . . . . or I should say that Lenny had a hard time finding the trail.
What made it more fun was being on the SS. Whoot it was a good time!

In my belly

Was gone for the weekend, spending an early Thanksgiving with my wife's family. Copious amounts of food was ingested resulting in an enlargement around my waist and general ill feeling, followed my laziness, sloth, sleepiness and finally unconsciousness.

Twas a glorious weekend and many o'times that I looked up from the feeding trough and out the window I would wish that I was on my bike. Time away from what we love is a good thing though. Looking back to getting in some Autumn riding (my favourite riding season).

However, I am back home and back to routine. I love routine.

Haven't been on the bike, besides commuting, since the enduro. Planning a night ride tomorrow night.

What say you?

*This week: naked review (promise!)

Off-air for a couple of days - back on-air Sunday. . . . .

. . . . talk amongst yourselves.

Bicycles for Humanity

Came across a brochure at a local bike shop . . . .

Bicycles for Humanity–Ottawa is a newly-formed initiative founded by two friends who found inspiration in Pat Montani's grassroots organization Bicycles for Humanity, and who share a deep desire to make a difference in the developing world.

Pretty cool stuff happening. Check it out.

A jersey just for me . . . . almost

TV sucks . . . .

I was able to nab a couple of these stickers at the race on Saturday. I've got one just for you. Want it?

Well you lazy f*cker, you're going to have to work for it.

QUESTION:

I did a long road ride, by myself, back in Spring. I took a picture of my cycling computer/heart rate monitor and stuck it up on the blog. What time did it say on my heart rate monitor? (hint: it was either in April or May)

First correct answer (e-mail me - I've got an e-mail link in under my profile to the right) will win the sticker. If you're the winner and live outside of Ottawa, I'll mail it to you.

Good luck freaks.

Paul's Dirty (& sandy) Enduro Race Report

Thursday night I was up late, frustrated with the mechanical issues I was having with the Niner and then the unexpected problems I had with the Surly. . . . it almost sent me over the edge of giving up in frustration. It was a long week and I was beat.

I almost didn't go to this race - I'm so glad that I did though. It was more like a big group ride for me than a race. I spent the first quarter of the race riding with different groups of riders. You'd catch a group, then drop them, then someone would catch you and drop you - all the time chatting away. I met a tonne of really cool people Saturday while riding.

This event was extremely well run, the course was fantastic (despite many sandy sections) and everyone, racers included, were laid back.

I hooked up with Kari and Roland at the start of the race and was going to ride with them and just make it a fun day. Standing at the start line I hit 'play' on the ipod and I was off flying, full race mode, pumping the legs to an ACDC tune. Whoops. Slow down. Try and ride with Roland and Kari.

I was in this speed up, slow down pattern the first 15-20km or so. I feel a little bit bad, but I got into a section of single track and hit the gas. It was too much fun not to. I decided then to just ride my race. Once I made the decision to go, I tried to make up for the time I lost at the start. So happens this was right about at check point number one.

Check point #1 to CP # 2 was just brutal. There were many climbs and it seemed like most all of the single track was loose and sandy. Speed and soul sucking sand. I had a difficult time getting up the climbs on the single speed. If I didn't get bogged down in sand, I ended up getting slowed down by geared riders who spun up the climbs easily, while I wrenched on my handlebars to get enough leverage just to turn the pedals over. 40km to 59km just killed me. Every now and then we'd cross a fire road that was 6-8 inches deep sand. Soul sucking sand.

I managed to eat something at cp#2, but it only made me feel worse. Took me about a half hour to start feeling better, just pedaling easy, walking many of the steeper, short hills and one little rest (though I was going to barf).

It was after cp # 3 that the trail changed - it got smoother, faster, not as much climbing and hardly any sandy sections at all. About 5km into this section, I caught up to a few of the ladies on the True North team who were doing the 60km race and sat on their wheel, letting them pace me as I recovered. I was still pretty wiped out from that sandy piece. It didn't take long, and I was feeling better.

Alana, Mari (both on the True North team) , me and their roadie friend Kat (who could climb like a hopped-up mountain goat!).

The girls set a really nice pace, not too comfortable to be easy, but I wasn't killing myself either. It was just perfect. It wasn't long before we got to talking. While riding I got a chance to sit behind each of them and chat a bit, making new friends. They were a hoot to ride with and it was one of my highlights of the day. Two of them were riding full rigid, single speed 29'ers. They could push the big ring and they handled them like pros - fast and with good technical skills.

It wasn't too long after cp#4 that Mari started to have some stomach issues and told us to go on ahead without her - hoping to maybe recover a bit. It wasn't until I was at my car loading the bike on the roof that I found out Mari had to DNF due to feeling like crap.

Alana, Kat and me rode pretty much together for the last 35km or so to the end. The last couple of 25-30km of trails were really good and seemed to go by much easier than the first half of the race - I was feeling better and stronger than I had all day. Weird. I crossed the line somewhere around the 7hr, 20 min. mark. I didn't see the results board after the race - will post once I find out.

Big crowd of folks sticking around after the race for the award ceremony and draw-prizes.

Kari and Andre. Andre's second ever race - did the 60km and ate his body weight in free peanut butter sandwiches and bananas at the cp's!

Check out Alana's beautifully painted True North 29'er. She designed the scroll work herself.

Beauty!
You could only be so lucky to ride for True North - amazing bikes and a super fun team filled with laid back and cool people. They do it all: track, mtn, road, cx.

Returned home to my mother-in-laws house (Jeannie Beanie) and was greeted with this! Says, "Congratulations on your last race" Since my beautiful wife Chrissie and mother-in-law couldn't go to the race to support me, they did this. Isn't that crazy?! Check out the spectators - that's them! Dig the candy heart road!

My wife has a wicked sense of humor!

I was able to control myself and my appetite and only had one piece of cake after supper. I finished the rest of it off at 3:20am with a big glass of milk.

I figure that 90% of this race was single track, that's 90km of single track out of 100km! We only doubled back on about 10km of trail for the entire race. This was super fun and I had a blast. I figure that I could have easily have scrubbed off 30 minutes if on the Niner and if I had just raced from the start - probably putting me in or near a top ten finish.
But you know what? I wouldn't of had as much fun as I did if I had.

I will definitely to this race again and so should you!

Cheers.

Late Edit:
*This just in . . .

* 98 riders doing the 100km - 48 males, 39 yrs and under, 42 males 40 years + and 8 female riders.

* my time = 7 hrs. 38 mins. 50 sec. (thought I was a wee bit faster than that)

Suffering to come

Whoas me.

Took a hard knock to my rear rotor on the weekend - can't be straightened. So I put on another rotor on the Niner. Setting up the brakes. Outside piston is sticking, lever pulls all the way in, brake fluid leaking out of the master cylinder. Peachy.

I'm not having very much luck lately with my 29'er : drive train - chain jumping issues, oil spewing fork, bent rotor. Now this . . . .

My drive train parts didn't come in on time anyway, so I would have been stopping to fix a thrown chaing. Besides, I can't get the brake fixed in time for the race - am leaving tomorrow after work. So . . . . that means I'll be riding this


for the 100km race this Saturday. Aproximately 7000 feet of climbing, single track and sand. All perfectly suited for the 29'er. *Sigh*

Maybe it's fitting that I end my race season on the single speed, considering I opened the season on it at Uxbridge. Hopefully I won't end up with hypothermia this time.

Wish me luck, it's going to be a supersized suffer fest.
Cheers!

More naked bike gear reivews mid-to-late next week

. . . . lucky you!

So . . . . you voted for him?

If you were one of the few who would have "chased that all day" . . . . you voted for the fellow's bum to your left.

Feminine as it may appear, Testicle's ass more closely resembles a female Yugoslavian weightlifter. You know that ones that I'm talking about . . . . big, hairy hulking mass of a woman in the Olympics, with the tight track suit on performing the "clean & jerk". Despite their manly physique due to years of steroid abuse, their hynnies are still recognizable from behind as "slightly" feminine.

Well, that's what this guy's ass looks like.

Paul's Dirty Enduro

This annual event is a tribute to a mountain biker, named Paul who took his own life. As a memorial to Paul's memory his friends organized this event to help the CMHA raise funds to be used for suicide prevention and mental health issues in the community.

Proceeds from Paul's Dirty Enduro are donated to the Canadian Mental Health Association in Paul's memory. The goal is to increase prevention and awareness about the tragedy of suicide.

Will be doing this 100km ride on Saturday in the Ganaraska Forest. This is my last race of the season (unless a CX bike lands on my lap sometime soon). I'm wishing for good weather, bike parts to show up in time!

Flip that fork

Dropped my leaking, oil spewing fork off at Tall Trees yesterday afternoon and what do I have in my hands right now (exactly one day later)? My completely overhauled fork. Whoo hoo! Thanks Will and Thom.

Apparently, White forks need a good cleaning/semi-take-apart-and-clean-job every 20 hours or so. Two 24 hr races, two road trips and loads of riding in between probably put me over by a wee bit. Enough dust and dirt got down and penetrated the seals, causing them to stay open and hence the spewing oil. Glad it was just that - thought that it might have to be sent back to White Bros for service work.

All I need to happen so that I'll be racing the Niner this weekend is for my drivetrain problems to be cleared up - here's hoping that the spider for the Middleburn cranks turn up so that I can swap the bb and cranks over from the Surly.