Giver8er, Lake Minnewanka, and Some Hockey

I'm close to the back so the mayhem is all ahead of me.

Heather and I after the 8hrs.

The weekend started out on the ice Friday night. It's been a while! I dropped in at a women's shinny at Canada Olympic Park (COP) and got to play with a couple friends. The legs had to remember what to do on skates but it worked out great.

Saturday was a Spin Sisters group ride out at Lake Minnewanka. The trail is only open for a couple of months to start the season and maybe a month or so to end the season. I guess some bears move in July - September and make it a little unnerving for the humankind venturing out there. GREAT trail! So many fun ups and downs. I am really getting comfortable on the bike and that's giving me some speed and even more smiles. We were a group of 12 with 2 more following a little later on. Fun fun day with 21 kms of great trail ... 1240 feet climbing.

Today was a big day. My first mountain bike race. The Giver8er is an 8 hour lap race at COP. Categories range from solo to four person, mixed, women, or men. Heather and I teamed up as a two woman team. The mass start was fun with everyone off the finish line at once and into a climb. Lots of starting and stopping initially until the pack thinned out. I did our team's first two laps, then Heather did two, then one for me, two for Heather, one for me, and the last one for Heather. We didn't medal and we didn't finish last. Woot! For me: 38 kms, 4160 feet of elevation gain, in 3hrs30 minutes. My heart was pumping hard today. If you're interested in the details, here's the ride on Strava: Link. Tomorrow I rest ... or "actively recover."

Great times outside this weekend!

Spin Sisters on the Trail

Courtesy of brother Marc's archives: Suzanne's intro to cycling.

The Rest of the Weekend

Four of our five dogs enjoying the view.

That wraps up the long weekend. Boo! Sunday was hike day. Five chicks and five dogs made the trek out to Yamnuska for a hike. About 500 other Calgarians had the same great idea. It was a little crowded in places but it was great to be out on one of my favourite hikes. Fresh air, a little climbing, good friends, and lots-o-dogs. Then it was back to my place for a BBQ and Leigh-Ann and Karen joined in. Leigh-Ann's healing up from knee surgery so she's off the roster for hiking and biking this summer. Boo again.

Cooling off in a lingering patch of snow.

Today was a mostly lazy day hanging out with Sante. We both had some tired legs to rest up. Well, she could have probably done another hike but I was resting up for this evening's Learn to Race Clinic. My legs were pretty seized up today but after a little while in the saddle they loosened up -- somewhat -- and cooperated with the climbing practice. It was an awesome evening out on the trails at Nosehill. 20C and overcast ... nice for riding!

Back to reality tomorrow morning. As usual, I'm just happy I made the most of the weekend and spent a ton of it outside. :)

My smiley Lab havin' a play with Karen.

Saturday birthday on a long weekend ...

Just a quickie so my folks can see what I got up to today. Hey, if your mom doesn't read your blog, you're just plain wasting your time. Haha. I missed their call but enjoyed the Happy Birthday serenade over voicemail. 

It was a great day! A drive out to Jumpingpound for a couple of laps with a fellow Spin Sister and Sante. The new GPS says we climbed 1732 feet and rode 20kms. No wipeouts! (Well not for me anyway.) Sante and her long legs loved every second of it ... I think we both smiled the whole time! Then back to the city for clean up and a yummy dinner out before some wind down couch time.

It's only Saturday! Two more long-weekend days to enjoy outside. :)

That was a great day Mom.

Short rest before Lap 2.

A day in the Crowsnest Pass

Sunny, hot forest and my pro guide.

Today I was up early and out the door for a beautiful drive down to the Crowsnest Pass. No traffic, good tunes, a couple dogs, and a bike on the rack ... oh, and an almond milk mocha in a roadie cup. A great start to a great day. I got to Christine and Troy's place in time for some yummy breakfast and more coffee. (Love coffee? Try theirs: C3. It's awesome stuff!)

Fueled up on coffee and grub, Christine and I headed out from their back door with the three dogs. After a brief stop to let the dogs have a dip in the river we started to climb. And then we stopped. Dropping down into my climbing gears, my chain came off and jammed into my spokes. Long story short, Troy came up behind us not long after and took over the trouble-shooting Christine was doing for me. We ended up going back to the house so he could straighten the derailleur hanger for me. Guess I bent it when I took a spill at the end of the skills day Saturday. Troy got me back in action and Christine and I started our doggie lap over again. A few challenges for me and good times for happy dogs.

Santé thinks mountain-living would rock, since there are evidently abundant carcasses laying around for one to gnaw on. She ran with us for quite a while with a giant bone in her mouth before reluctantly leaving it behind at her owner's insistence. I think she had big plans to bring it home to Calgary.

After we dropped the dogs back at the house we carried on to Blairmore and up the ski hill trail which was about 900 feet of climbing at a grade I could manage comfortably. (I don't know how much we climbed in the dog loop but I struggled more there.) After the climb we turned the bikes around and went down what we'd just climbed. It was a great trail for this rookie!

A few new scrapes and bruises, a lot more tan, and lots of smiles and laughs. Thanks for the great day C&T!

Saturday! Spin Sisters Skills Clinic

Every weekend has to include some extra focus on Santé in some way shape or form, even when Mom's got other big plans. So the 0600 start got us to the park bright and early (after some eggs and a home made mocha! It's hard to eat that early so the eggs were shared.) so we could have a nice long romp and I could get to the Spin Sisters skills clinic for 0845. Good times were had! See photos and video. :)

Me tryin' "the skinny."

The Spin Sisters Mountain Biking Club vision is:

Inspire a world where no woman fears rocks or drops, by bringing women of all abilities together for super duper wicked riding in an environment of camaraderie and support whilst building leaders, and being a positive force in the community.

Cool eh? And it's true. There were 60 or more women there today. 50 learners, plus 10 or more instructors and assistants split into seven groups. We owned Bowness Park today! The morning consisted of basic skills in a nice soft grassy field. In the afternoon we hit the single track in Bowmont. I heard one guy say, as we passed him, "Is there a race on today?" Ha ha! Nope, just our bike gang. Look out!

We basically rode some trails and stopped at anything that challenged us so we could talk about how to tackle the situation and then we'd practice it a few times. I am master of nothing but I had some successes to celebrate personally today, I faced some fears, and I really learned a lot. Plus it's a great feeling being with a bunch of women as excited to improve as I am. Let's face it, this is a male dominated sport and it's pretty great to feel the girl power sometimes. I met lots of great ladies with great spirit and I smiled all day long under a glorious warm sun. (Did ya notice in the photos how green it's getting around here?! Yay!)

The morning was off trail.

Analyzing the loose, rocky, steep down.

Practicing some climbing.

Another of the 7 SS groups is up the hill behind us.

Coffee anyone?

I finally got around to visiting "Coffee Machine Services Inc" on 14th Street after work today. I came home with my new espresso machine! Kate took her Saeco there to be serviced a month or so ago and discovered a great little hole-in-the-wall spot owned and run by Predrag. While creativecookware.com has some great Canadian pricing on premium machines, Predrag knows what's what and will make you a better deal too. Plus, he spent at least an hour showing me how to make espresso, steam milk, calibrate, and clean my new machine. While he instructed, and I learned, we drank strong espresso and whiskey (he tucked the bottle away when I got set to take this photo) ... I think that makes us family by Yugoslav tradition? What a great guy! Go see him if you're looking for a great cuppa at home!

Come over for a brew! I'm all set for serving up lattes, Americanos, espresso, and I even know how to serve up a machiato now!

All set to start the day tomorrow!

Club Rides Begin

Doggies get to romp too; they get to enjoy the park before I go ride.

The weather's been great this week! Right up until this evening, just prior to ride time. Ah well, it's good to practice keeping the rubber down in slick conditions. :)

First club ride. Fish Creek ... sunny and warm.

Wildlife on the trail... and a deer.

Tuesday was the first Spin Sisters ride of the season. I haven't ridden Fish Creek Park before. It was a sunny warm shirt-sleeves-and-shorts evening and I enjoyed the trails there. Lots of practice on roots and some steep, fast, fun downs and a few climbs. 17 girls showed up so we split into two groups.

Tonight's ride had a split too, but not on purpose. It turns out that we (two ride leaders and three newbies, including me -- 3-4 others left because of the rain) were at the wrong parking lot at Nosehill. I was wondering where the heck Cheryl was! Turns out a bunch of girls were up the road at the 64th Ave parking lot, which is where I meant to go, and where I thought I was. I feel there's irony in the fact that I couldn't find my bike GPS for tonight's ride. Hmmm... at least I wasn't the only one in the wrong spot! We just thought 20ish other people jammed because of the nasty weather. I'm happy to report a larger, equally hearty, group rode too. Oddly, we never ran into them on the trails. I was happy with the small group as it happened ... Erika and Gwenyth were great ride leaders and they offered up some great tips. Learn. Learn. Learn.

Soaked through.

Wind, rain and hail from the right.

Nosehill is nice and close to my place so I was soon home and into some warm, dry jammies, and the company of a couple of warm puppies who seem happy to have me home. Well it's off to bed ... I see the temperature is now 3C. I'm going to go out on a limb and bank on snow overnight. Ah, springtime in Canada!

Get outside! Don't wait for perfect weather!

Abridged Weekend

A weekend really flies by when all you've got is Sunday. I spent Saturday in Day Two of my Advanced Learning Design workshop and then flew home from Denver. It's always good to come home! I spent today catching up with Sante, Toby (Toby's with us while Kate's racing in Portugal) and Heather for a while this morning ... we had some quality time over coffee and at the park for a long romp. (Thanks for minding the pack and the house while I was gone Heather!) Then it was time to finally get on my bike for the first time in a week! I've been feeling pretty lazy and gross after the bad weather and travel kept me off the bike last week.

Happy to be home with my buddies!

Since Calgary suffered a soggy Saturday with snow and rain, I planned a road ride rather than a mountain bike ride on muddy wet trails. I climbed the COP switchbacks and did a short tour along Spring Bank Road before coming back down the hill and doing some of the river pathway. I've got a full week of commuting on the bike and Spin Sister mountain bike and road rides this week, so I didn't want to put in a huge day in the saddle today. It was just as well anyway, because after that I really only had time to get some groceries, make some dinner, and head out the door to Bow Cycle for my bike maintenance clinic! I learned about limit screws and made a happy adjustment to my rear low limit screw. This fixed a problem I was having with my chain skipping off the big cog. Yup!

A quick business trip ...

I landed in Denver last night. I'm here for a two-day workshop on Instructional Design. I'm running out of certification programs I can take related to ID ... this might be the last one. Does this mean I need to reinvent myself professionally? Career change suggestions are welcome...