I feel all grown up now.

This past weekend I took part in the GGG (Guys Golf and Games) weekend. After a night of Gluttony, Games and Groaning, getting not nearly enough sleep, and eating a 'hearty' breakfast, I found myself playing golf with a few friends and my father. While walking down one of the longer holes (8th possibly), my dad reminded me of the conversation we had had a year earlier.

I was finishing up school, working at the bike shop, getting used to being a father myself after 1 1/2 years, trying to be a good husband (and succeeding sometimes) etc. I had been working at the shop for a while, and was really enjoying the work. I got to fix bikes (which I really enjoy), I helped people find a bike they would enjoy riding, train other mechanics, and do some administration work for the shop too. I was enjoying it so much that I was talking with the owner of the business about buying it from him. Obviously not a small decision.

We were talking of the pros and cons of that route. Why I enjoyed it, what else I might enjoy, what else I might not enjoy. It was a good walk in the park (something we used to do, usually when I was in trouble for something).

Fast forward a year, and things have changed a touch. Abby is now 2 1/2 ish, Natalie is now 2 months old, I have been at a new job for 5 1/2 months or so (decided there was just too much risk, with not enough reward at the bike shop), I finished the classes I needed for my degree thingy and have been even more involved in the scout/youth program I help with.

And here I am, on my very first business trip. I came here to Montreal for some training on reviewing the pricing in our database and making the needed corrections (there are tens of thousands of parts that need to be verified) I got to meet some of the people I talk with, but never knew a face. Staying in a fancy hotel (The Wyndham), keeping receipts to submit as expenses, and buying a gift for Abby.

Now, I'm waiting at the airport. I talked with Jess and Abby earlier. I got my first "love you" from her as she passed the phone back to mom. Too bad I'll be waiting longer than I expected.

I'm waiting for my first delayed flight.

Eddie Merckx TT

Had a blast at this last race for the season (unless I get a chance to try some cyclocross). The E. Merckx Time Trial race is like the usual time trial, (start at 1 minute intervals, racing against the clock) but different as they give out time penalties for some of the modern aerodynamic bike components such as aero bars (which put the rider in a more aerodynamic position), deep section wheels (more aerodynamic than regular wheels), and those funky aero helmets.

Riders were awarded a time for a vintage wool jersey. I haven't acquired any of the aforementioned parts/accessories, so my time was what it was.



Since I've been racing in the lowest category, and was the first to register, I started first (the slower riders are started first in order to have everyone finish closer together). It was interesting having someone hold my bike from behind so I could be ready to go as soon as the whistle blew (or in this case the starter said.... 3,2,1, go).

Time Trials are a bit different as you really need to know your limits and be able to pace yourself. If you go too hard off the bat, you'll blow up early in the race, if you go to easy, you'll have missed out on valuable seconds. Out of the gates, I found myself going much harder than I should, so I slowed a bit, and got into a good rhythm. Just fast enough to hurt a bit. I continued this rhythm, while staying as aerodynamic as possible (changing position on the bike can save considerable amounts of energy). This continued until 1/2 way through the second lap of birds hill park. This is where the suffering began. I was hitting a bit of a wall. My legs were burning, my lungs were working very hard, and if I had a heart rate monitor it would probably have been beeping madly at me.

After cresting a bit of a hill, I slowed a bit and tried to recover on the downhill while still keeping my speed up. It worked.... a bit. Then I just had to push harder for the last 4km or so.
It hurt a lot. Legs were starting to feel like Jello, Lungs working overtime, heart getting ready to explode. I must have been going fast......


I tried to get a hold of the photographer that was at the race that night, but no luck yet. So here's a picture I took of another racer after I finished.

Race report X2

Well, I've been a touch busy lately and have been neglecting my blog of cycling escapades.
To catch up, we had our second child (July 17th at 2:22 a.m.), another beautiful girl. Mom was a machine in the hospital. Natalie Ann Smith has been a great little baby, and Abby has been an amazing big sister.

A few weeks ago was the 5th race for the Olympia Wednesday Night MTB race series. Weather leading up to the race were... how do you say.... wet. The sun came out and dried up some of the track. I went out to the race, and they shortened the course taking out the really rooty sections (very slippery when wet) and some areas where there was just too much standing water. So it was short laps. I was feeling great at the start, and right from the whistle I got away from my group and never looked back. 2 laps later, I took the win. 3rd in a row. This clinched the series for me as it is based on the points accumulated on your best 4 races (3rd, 1st, 1st, 1st for me). I also had my personal photographer at the race (thanks Dad), and cheering section (mom and sister). Jess decided to stay home.

Shortly after finishing, big, dark, ugly clouds started to roll in. I packed up the bike and started home. It was quite a downpour.





Race # 6
To start off with excuses... I was coming off a week of not really having an appetite for... well, any food so my energy was probably a bit on the low side. I hadn't ridden much at all since the last race (I think I was on the road once), since I finished my exam Monday. So, going into it, I wasn't feeling terrific. I did a warm up lap and was having troubles finding a nice rhythm through the technical sections. Jess, Abby and Natalie came with me to the race and Grandma came to help out too (thank you!).
I lined up at the start, and just wasn't feeling great. So, I just started at the back (sometimes if I follow people for a bit, I get into a groove.... that didn't happen). I passed a couple of the slower riders and was keeping up with the others in my category. I passed one of the other riders while going through a very muddy section (he tried to ride it, I just hopped off and ran through).
That didn't last too long though. I was hitting trees with my shoulders, over steering and hitting the brakes more than I should have. He caught back up to me, so I pulled aside to let him go by and try to catch the others ahead of me (part of MTB racing is yielding to faster riders even if you're racing against them). He was soon out of sight.
After getting out of the technical sections, I turned it up and made up some time to only finish a minute back. I was just glad to be done and not be injured.

There was an award ceremony, where the winners of each category received a nice black hooded sweatshirt. I have a nice new sweater.

Next year, I'll be participating in the sport class (more competition, faster speeds, more laps and... more suffering). I had a great time this year and look foreward to it again.

There is a Time Trial coming up (road race where it's just you against the clock). I think I'm going to give it a try. Should be fun.

Race report

Well, Jess still hasn't squeezed the baby out yet, so we went to the race tonight. She wanted to come watch me race, so we brought Abby too.
It was a little hectic getting out to the park on time, I left work shortly after 4:00, and a couple of minutes into my ride home..... BANG! I had a blow-out, rear tire. So I fixed it quick, and continued to Lifesport to pick up my new tires. So, when I got there, I tried to top off the pressure in my tire, and tore the valve off. Oops. More time needed to fix that. Strapped the tires onto my backpack, and went home to a wife who was starting to wonder where the heck I was.

A quick dinner, (mmm.... Ludine's Chicken and Potato Salad) throw the bike stuff in the car and off to the races we go! Traffic was heavy due to Folk Fest at Birds hill, but we still got there with plenty of time to register and get the bike thrown together and throw the new tires on (http://www.geax.com/vedit/pagina.asp~pagina~2316 whick turned out to be some fantastic tires. They felt just as fast as my previous ones, but had more grip and were very light too).

Then, Jess noticed another racer getting ready, that was wearing a jersey I didn't expect to see in Winnipeg. It was for "Hub Cycle" which is a bike shop in Truro, NS (where my dad grew up). I went over and said I thought I was the only one in Winnipeg with that Jersey. Turns out he was on a cross-country trip with his family and he's doing a few races on the way. Seems like a nice kid.

Well, on to the race.
Start:
Right off the bat, I got in front of the people in my class, and stayed in front. Passing people throughout the race. My favorite pass was on a sand hill, 2 people in front of me went down (very gently in the sand), I hopped off the bike and ran it up the hill (passing another on the hill), and hopping back on in one nice smooth motion without stopping, it felt great. That's where I started to pull away more from my group.

To make the rest short. I won by a minute and a half with a time of 36:35 for 2 laps.

Picture of me after lap 1.

Abby pointing at something:

Next race is July 29th.

another cold...

Seems like I've had more colds than ever before this year. I came down with something again a couple of days ago. Lungs this time it seems. I wanted to go for a nice long ride today, but it started to rain a bit and I decided against it. Now it's sunny again so I might head out to get some pictures printed.
I was fooling around with photoshop a bit with some recent pictures. Here's the results.

Abby at the park, on her favorite slide (A park that I built! along with other friends/family members). It's a compilation of a few shots...


And this one of Ben (nephew) pitching.



I might head out in a bit for a short ride to get my legs moving, it has been a few days.
Next MTB race is Wednesday at 7:00pm. But, I may have something else to attend to...

I'm a winner

Just thought I'd post a report from my MTB race this past Wednesday.

Started off as a beautiful hot day, got to the park (bird's hill) and there was a gentle breeze with plenty of sunshine.

There were more racers there than at my previous race, so that was cool. I recognized a few and said hi, exchanged pleasantries and wished each other good luck (while secretly wanting to crush them).

I decided to go and do a warm up lap and found myself holding back, not trusting the bike or myself. I slowly got through the lap and got back to the start area. Upon getting back, I noticed some dark clouds starting to roll in... not good. slippery roots are not fun.

Racing started, I was in the 4th group of riders to start (fastest start first), and right off the bat, I forgot about holding back and was just concentrating on keeping my speed up and smooth corners. First lap went off without any mishaps, passed a few guys, one guy went down in front of me and ended up pulling out after the first lap.

I was following one guy who was cruising pretty good until he clipped a pedal on a rock and broke it (there were some nice sparks from that one). He eventually pulled off to the side and let me by because he was having troubles with that pedal. So off I went.

The rain started falling shortly into the 2nd lap making some nice slippery mud and roots, making my tire choice for the race a bad one (relatively smooth for the fast sections). In the "root cellar" I ended up going down again, on the same knee, but it was a smooth landing this time and after a quick check to make sure I hadn't opened it up again, I was running through the rest of the section with my bike. I hopped on and kept going, I passed a couple more people from a different group and crossed the finish line.

I thought there was one other person from my group up the trail from me, but after checking the results yesterday, it turns out I won my class (which is where all the new people race, so I beat all the noobs).

The organizers supplied some hot dogs and marshmallows after the race and we all enjoyed them in the rain.

Just after getting my bike loaded back onto the car, the downpour hit and by the time I was home, I had a clean bike.

Another fun night of racing. Next race is July 8th.

Birds Hill ride

I've been starting to feel kinda lethargic since I banged my knee up last Wednesday at the MTB race, so I decided it was time to get back on the bike and see how my knee would do. It had been feeling pretty good the last couple of days. So, this morning I got up, got my bike ready, had a delicious waffle for breakfast (thanks Jess), and hit the road.
Weather forecasts were for sun all day and a high of ~20 deg, beautiful riding weather. However as I was leaving the driveway I looked west and saw quite a dark cloud. hmmm.... better ride faster. Off to Birds Hill park we go!
My knee felt pretty good the entire ride, no pain, just a slight discomfort on every pedal stroke. I hadn't ridden to birds hill before so this was a new trip for me, the roads were pretty good for the most part, but there were a lot of sections of pretty rough pavement. Nothing I that I couldn't handle though.
Time from our house to the park was just over an hour (1:01), once there, I did a lap of the park where there were a bunch of triathlon folks riding, and went home.
The roads on the way home seemed to be smoother than on the way out for the most part. and I was able to finish the 74.5km ride in 2h35min. It was good, I think I'll do it again.

race results...

DNS.... or did not start. I registered and all, but 1/3 of the way into my warm-up lap, my rear wheel caught a nasty root and it slid out from under me. My leg hit the bolt that holds my brake lever on and it made a nice hole just an inch below my knee. I took a quick look at it, and hopped out onto the road to get back to the starting area. Asked for the medic and got most of the mud out. He seemed kinda scared to touch it (probably because his kit didn't contain gloves), so I actually did most of the work. The adrenaline was still pumping at this point so there was no pain either. I asked him what he thought, and said to bandage it up and it'll be fine. I didn't believe him.

So, I withdrew from the race I had signed up for only 15 minutes earlier. Called a doctor (who shall remain nameless as he's not licenced to practice out of the hospital), went and watched the end of his sons baseball game, then went to his house to get it cleaned up properly (local anesthetic and everything). If he had the equipment he would have stuck a stitch in it, but all he had was medical grade crazy glue. That'll do.

So, so far I'm at 1/3 for races. Started three, finished 1. We'll see if we can improve that record.

roads are clearing up

Got out for a quick 50k ride out to St. Adolphe and met a nice guy named Dan, he's a teacher. We did pretty much the whole ride together. Just chatting about bikes, school, work, weather etc. It was good, I haven't been able to get in many rides with other people (let alone rides period). It was a nice brisk pace of around 32-34 km/h. enough to get the lungs working and heart pumping, which was all I was after since I'm still getting over a nasty little cold.

The roads were finally all opened up from the flood waters (the pic below is from the week before when a section of road was still under water). There was quite a large amount of debris scattered all over lawns, which showed just how high the water was at one point (picture 2).

I apologize for the crappy quality, my new cell phone has a terrible camera. My last one actually worked pretty well. I don't really like taking my real camera on the bike since I could drop it and it would be done.... then again, if that happened I'd have to go camera shopping ;)

I have another MTB race next Wednesday, should be fun again.

Birds Hill MTB race #1

Had my first mountain bike race back on the 29th, had a great time, lots of nice people there (all the more souls to crush). It was kinda chilly and threatening to rain so I was questioning my tire choice (I went with fast rolling lower grip tires as it's a pretty fast course). My group started last, and I was able to get into a pretty good position going into the first turn and passed the other 3 riders within the first 1/4 of the course, I then passed a couple of people from the class ahead of me (had 1 minute advantage) and was able to hold everyone off for 2 laps...

Which is where it gets interesting. I thought I was supposed to do 2 laps of the Bur Oak trail, but my category was only supposed to do 1. So when I checked the results after, they said it took me 46:21 (follow the link for official times, I'm at the bottom)for 1 lap... that's slow. So I contacted them and asked if they could add a note saying that I did 2 laps. So they did. I feel better.

Looking at the times, I would have been about 10th out of 14 in the sport category (where I'd like to be racing, but I bought the cheap license so I'm in the citizen class). Not too bad. I'm looking forward to the next one on June 3rd.



Oh, and I've fixed my wheel on my road bike so it's all ready to go again.

Well, It's been just under 3 weeks.

This morning I participated in my first ever road race, I havn't competed in bike racing since I lived in Lethbridge Alberta when I raced BMX. I decided with a friend of mine that we'd give racing a go this year. So early this week, I bought a "Civilian" racing licence, which allows me to compete in most races, but doesn't allow for accumulating points towards a the manitoba cup series or participate in the provincial championships.

The past few days I've been a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, how many people would be there, would my extreme lack of preparation result in me being dropped right away? Or would everyone else be equally unprepared? (Highly unlikely). The race started at 11:00 am, registration was from 9:00 to 10:30, after driving around the entire park looking for the sign in (Birds Hill Park), I found the sign-in place. There were lots of signs that there was a bike race on today, but nothing directing where to go to sign in. Jess and Abby got out and walked around as I searched for someone I recognized.... no dice.

At the sign in, there were a number of people there, and they kept coming after me too, I went to the table, signed in and picked my number. #245 (I picked the highest number available). Everyone seemed very pleasant and it was a nice atmosphere (despite the snow earlier in the morning and the chilly air). I pinned on my number, got my bike ready, and took off for a warm up ride to check out the finish line, and get the blood flowing (and get a good luck kiss from my two favorite girls). Being sure to arrive back at the parking lot. There were a few details missing as to where the race was starting, so Jess and Abby were at the "Start/finish" line, which wasn't actually the start line, so she missed us taking off.

The riders were divided into 3 groups, the Cat 3s, Cat 4s, and Cat 5s/civilians. I was in the latter of the groups which is where beginners go. The 3s were the first to go, then the 4s, then we were let go shortly after that.

We started pretty gently and worked the speed up a bit (I don't know how fast we were going because I had removed my computer, but it didn't feel fast or slow so it would guess we were going around 30-35 km/h. My legs were feeling good so I got up to the front of our group (about 12-15 people I think), and was testing myself a bit. I decided to go a bit harder on the hill, and as I came around a corner, the wind hit me like a brick wall... still trying to get up the hill.

Well, the small gap I had developed over the others, quickly disappeared. As we got up over the hill, I dropped back into the pack a bit, and as I was drafting the biggest guy I could find, he decided to hit the brakes for no apparent reason, so I had to hit the brakes as there was someone beside me. The kid behind me wasn't able to slow down in time and hit my rear wheel pretty hard. Neither of us went down, and I fell back to apologise and explain what happened to him (brakes are not good in groups, you only use them in an emergency), he said he was fine and got right back in there.

My rear wheel however, was not fine. I tried to continue, but the broken spoke meant the wheel was way out of true and rubbing the brakes alot, and wobbling so much that I could fell the back end was a bit loose. That was the end of my day, I turned around shortly after the start/finish line after the first of 3 laps, to let them know I was done. Found my family, hopped in the car and went to costco for a hot dog. (here's a picture of me pouting after my day was done.)


Fun? definately. Will I be back? Yes. Will I be more prepared? I plan to be.

Replacement spoke should be here this week so I'll be able to rebuild the rear wheel quick.

Next scheduled race is a wednesday night MTB race. Should be fun, the MTB crowd doesn't take themselves as serious as the road crowd does.

Just under 3 weeks

Well, I've made the decision. This is the year, and it all begins in just under 3 weeks. Boy I'd better get busy. Started tonight, 1 good hour. Stay tuned....

First ride outdoors of the new year

I rode to work the other day (and home for that matter). It was around -22 degrees out with a bit of a wind (so it felt closer to -30) I finally got the chance to try out my new tires on my commuter bike (some schwalbe cyclocross tires), and I can say that I was impressed, enough grip for riding in the snow, but also smooth enough for riding on the road and not losing too much speed.

As far as the ride itself was, the balaclava I had on (a Ninjaclava from Outdoor Research) was restricting airflow a little too much for my liking, so I had to uncover my mouth. Not too big a deal, I just covered as much as I could and I was warm enough. My fingers did get a bit cold, and so did my toes, but aside from that, it felt nice to get out on the road again. It reminded me of how much more fun it is to ride outside than indoors on a trainer watching old episodes of Top Gear (brittish car show).

On a more family related not, we went to Birds Hill park with the family to feed the birds and walk around a bit. Here's a couple pictures from the day. Abby really was enjoying the birds being so close.

My Bike is Famous (not really)

Well, we were over at the Barfuss's'ss the other night just hanging out watching some T.V. when a program on discovery channel came on called "How they do it" about how things are made/done etc. They had a piece on bikes, and the manufacturer that seems to have sponsored the segment was none other than Marin (the maker of 2 of my bikes). There were a few riders going up a hill in San Francisco (I think) and 2 of them were riding my exact bike (the one pictured in the title bar of this blog, 10 points to whoever can guess what is wrong with that picture). I was quite surprised as I've only seen one other owner who posted one in an online forum.

I was also introduced to a funny show called "Big Bang Theory". Very funny. Must watch again.

Officially too long

Well, I guess it has been far too long since I've updated my blog, so I thought I at least put something up. Might as well start with a picture, everyone loves pictures....

Is there a better subject to post a picture of? I know a few people that could argue no (at least a couple of grandparents can be counted on to side with me there). Abby certainly does like to wear her dad's cycling caps, her favorite seems to be the Lampre team cap (pink & blue) of the current world champion's team (that may or may not have anything to do with it, maybe she just likes pink).

I guess one reason there hasn't been much activity going on in this blog is because I have generally been posting about cycling. Surprisingly, that seems to take a back seat during the long winter months of Winnipeg. I was riding (outdoors) into the beginning of December, but then it started to get really cold, and aside from a few warm days here and there, it has been a very very cold winter. Often too cold to even go skiing.

I have however been riding a bit indoors ( and I really do mean a bit) in an effort to stop my legs from turning to mush over the winter. However, there are few things more mind numbingly boring than riding a trainer indoors. Videos and music help, but after 45min to an hour, I just have to get off. I guess it could be worse though, it could be a treadmill.... uggg...

On the brighter side, things are winding down at school and I will be finishing up this semester, finally being able to graduate and move on. It seems to have been going on forever, but has really only been a few years. It will be nice to have one less thing to worry about, and more time to do things I enjoy.