Good Ride-day on Easter Weekend!

Ah, long weekends rock! With Friday off and some warm sunny weather, the interest in a ride was bigger than it's been since October! Five of us, who happened to be Spin Sisters, set out from Cadence at 9:30 to do a Cochrane loop. Cindy turned back at the Buffalo Road as she had plans back in town; seeing that she was the only one on a road bike that suited the situation well because the road had recently received a new layer of gravel and we were sliding around a little on the cross bikes, trying to get out of the way of a handful of cars as they came upon us. Only a few cyclist-haters on the day but I'm sure we didn't delay any motorists by more than 2.5 seconds at any time throughout our ride. You'd think we'd caused them severe hardship with our mere presence. We forgive them their F-Bombs ... yes, there were two on the day.

West, west and then more gravel and the hook around and north into Cochrane. We passed Sandy's kids in a park on our way to Java Jamboree, in town for the hand-off with Ray. Mom and Dad both getting their long rides in for the day! Yay for station wagons and bike racks. After some grub Sandy left us and then we were three.
Michel and Ramona and I climbed out of Cochrane via Glenn Eagles and east on the 1A into Tuscany and some suburban riding to get us all home. Michele and I split and went through Bowmont, before I left her at Home Road and she was off for her final climb up Edworthy hill and home.

Great day! It was about +2C when I got up, +7C by the time we started out, and the Garmin peaked at +19C on the climb out of Glenn Eagles in Cochrane after lunch. I was happy with the legs if not entirely happy with my back. I was tired for sure but after a surprise birthday party for Kate I got a good night's rest and felt pretty good the next day.

I did a couple of shorter warm rides in the city Saturday and Sunday and some doggie walks to round off a weekend outside! Yay for spring! Here's to more group rides!

Get outside! And happy birthday to the Norwegian cycling machine, who turns 40 on Tuesday! Killin' it in a new age category now! :)

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Fishcreek Loop

I guess it's been a couple weeks since last post. I've been slowly trying to get back to normal activity levels. Had a little set back last weekend with the plague briefly returning. A new round of antibiotics seems to be taking care of that nicely. Big bug? I've heard this has happened to others so I don't feel the bug targeted me for any particular reason. Equal opportunity bug. :)

We've had a couple nice warm Wednesdays surrounded by a whole lot of March winter weather. Typical for Calgary. I rode outside both Wednesdays and enjoyed the teasing spring smells of wet earth mingled with dog poop. Other than that it's been spin classes and hockey. Today was the first bigger ride outside in a while.

I had in mind to do a 45 minute trainer workout in the basement today and get caught up on some work, after a thankfully painless run to Ikea. But Anna was in for a real ride so, how could I pass that up? With my booties, toque, and hand warmer packets in my lobster claw mitts, off I went to meet her. I am still trying to get my lungs and legs back so I had in mind a two hour ride. We never really talked about it though. After an hour and a half I suggested we turn back. Hey, three hours wasn't that far off the mark. Anna suggested we keep going though and make it a loop ... the idea was we'd spend the same time to get back and it'd be a 3 hour ride. We didn't count on the hour or so on and off the bikes as we navigated the ice covered pathway in Fish Creek and Weaselhead. Anna actually dubbed it Icecreek park.

Througout the first couple hours of the ride I had been pleased with the decision to ride knobbies and skip the studded tires. I still think that was the right choice for the ride overall but I sure would have loved to have my studs through the hilly shady wooded pathways covered in thick glossed ice. Much of it we walked. For some of it, the walkable area was narrow so I carried the bike (cyclocross style, yeah!). There was one section where we put our mad skillz to the test and rode for about 10 minutes or so on the snowy crusty ice. That was the end of it. After that we popped out of the Weaselhead at the 37th Ave parking lot and made our way north to Edworthy and down the hill to the river path.

I don't have my legs fully back and I was pretty fried by the end of it, but it's alway good to be worn out after a sunny day outside on the bike with a like-minded friend. No grouchiness, lots of laughs, and no one wound up on their ass! A great day.

Get outside!

 

 

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Nipika: Out of my PJs and into Paradise

This weekend I felt like I rose up and out of the ashes -- or my pajamas anyway. After being laid up with my back out, then getting the worst flu of my life, that turned into a respiratory infection, I got off the couch, out of town, and into the fresh air with some great women. This trip has been in the works since about October so I was glad not to miss it.

Eight of us -- including three Spin Sister Race Team members, Sarah N, Gloria S, and myself -- arrived in Nipika Friday afternoon, brought together by Martha, who coaches most of us, for a ski training weekend. Wow. If you've never been to Nipika, it is truly a slice of heaven. Especially if you're a dog. Dogs are welcome and, in fact, encouraged to be offleash. XC ski heaven for a dog owner.

Still feeling run down and affected by antibiotics I didn't think I'd want to ski much, but after getting there and seeing the beautiful track set right outside our cabin, I wanted to give it a try. After Lyle (our host at the lodge and a former olympic coach) set my skis up with some Klister for the spring conditions, I joined the girls on a light evening ski. I was short of breath a lot but the pace was light and, with some stops and an undue amount of sweat, I made it. It felt awesome to be out in the fresh air. After some supper and a glass of wine, I slept hard that night.

Up the next morning and I joined the slower group for the morning ski, figuring I'd loop back to the resort if I couldn't handle it. I did well though to keep up a decent pace and was happy with my effort. The sunshine was warm and glorious and the coaching help from Martha was great. (I've been doing this classic ski thing wrong for 30 years.) I wish I could say the forest smelled amazing but I couldn't tell through all the snot. I'm sure it did though. I was done though after that. My afternoon ski was short and without quality but Sante seemed pretty dang happy to be back out in the woods with me for a third time in the span of 24 hours. In between skis we had a wax clinic from Lyle. If you think you know anything about waxing, have a look at the photo of his wax kit. Yipes! The skate skiers also got a lesson from the pro in the meadow.

Lyle and the gang.

After a gourmet group meal that night, some Lyle-provided spiced rum, and some enthusiastic encouragement from everyone present, I opted to take Lyle up on a skate ski lesson Sunday morning. All winter I've been hearing from all my cycling friends that I need to take up skate skiing. I've had zero interest. It looks ridiculously hard to master. And if anyone tells you that being a hockey player will make you a natural at skate skiing, just flip them the bird.

Sketchy the cat.

Seriously ... my years in size 8 hockey skates did nothing to prepare me for skating on 185cm skis. However, to my surprise, a seed has been planted. I plan to take a couple more lessons in the fall on better snow (not icy spring snow) and see if I like it. One of the big appeals is I live 5 minutes from Canada Olympic Park and could get out for a good skate ski workout once or twice a week after work. Efficient and outdoors. Could work for me!

It was a fantastic weekend with some great ladies in a very special place in the Rockies. It was just what I needed after being laid up and sick for so long. I'm feeling about 85% of the way back to healthy, here's to getting through the last 15% quickly.

Get outside!

I should mention we saw evidence of awesome singletrack while we were there. Including the "Blow Your Chamois" trail. Yeah we'll be back! Kootenay Crusher anyone?

Friday arrival ski.

A lesson in the meadow from Lyle.