Friday with the MMR camp I had offered to go and do Sprints on Sunday/Monday with anyone who wanted to. So far, I haven’t had anyone take me up on the offer. I did, however, have people take me up on the offer to go XC riding with anyone.
I’m not quite sure why I offered to go XC riding. I hate uphills. I hate climbing so much, I moved to live where I don’t need to climb! The thing is, my fitness level is so low, I need to climb.
How long should you wait after having a cast removed before you return to riding major DH trails?
If you’re normal, … Okay, lets be honest…I don’t know the answer to that one. If you’re me, 4 days…but only because Shaums wouldn’t let you ride DH on Friday.
Friday’s MMR camp was the first one since getting the cast off. It’s somewhat funny to see how long it takes people to realize I don’t have a huge cast on anymore. I guess, since I’ve been riding regardless it’s not that surprising I showed up with the bike.
First off was what we’ve been calling “the warm up loop”. It’s a 7-8min loop involving both up and downhill. Shaums and I hiked up the downhill to watch people’s technique, and Sam (who’s also out for the moment) took care of timing.
it’s been a few days off the bike at this point, but I loaded my bike on Shaum’s truck at 5:45am to head to the Ferry Terminal. Shaums, Colin, Scott’s Grandmother and I were heading over to Gibsons to meet up with the rest of our Squamish team for the Rat Race. The Rat Race is the first race to start off B.C.’s racing season.
It was supposed to be just a small group of us heading out to go riding. We figured if we were nine or less it would be perfect, everyone fits in the van then with their bikes. I don’t know when things go out of hand, but I suppose if we had actually left at 2pm instead of 4, the group might have been smaller. If half of us hadn’t eaten Mountain Man breakfasts…we might have been able to ride earlier…
I got an email from my Dad the other day…”David, please make sure you don’t take Jeff on any crazy trails out there.”
We woke up on Thursday to rain, lots of rain. Jeff had been asking the night before “how can it rain so much?” So I guess he was pretty surprised to see that it had been raining all night and still all day Today. We waited a while for the rain to let up, but being the wet-coast, there was no luck. If we were going to ride, we were going to be riding in the rain. Ignoring the wet Trevor, Jeff, Tyler and I headed up towards the top of diamond head for a ride.
Wayne skipped a jump competition today due to rain on the island, but there was no rain here. We agreed to meet up in the afternoon for a ride, but before I could call him we passed each other on the road. A quick u-turn had Wayne following Tyler and I into the Outlet store for a fashion make-over. Okay, it was my fashion make-over (by Miranda) but whatever…
After dropping a few dollars on some jeans, shoes and shirts, we hit my house where I promptly fell asleep on couch number 1, and Wayne on couch #2. So far, this ride wasn’t getting off to a good start!
I’m coming off the worst crappy week ever. The past few days have been bad enough that today at work I couldn’t even pull off the fake smile. It’s not often I can’t shove life behind me and pull a smile out for work. But not today. Today I was done. It’s not my style to put the reasons why up here, so I won’t.
At 7pm today, when I was picking up a new chain for my bike, I had hit the wall and gone well past it. I was pretty sure I was just going to head up Diamond Head for some time alone to think, and coast down on the bike. Not quite sure what changed between Corsa Bike Shop and the house, probably the annoyance of having to pull the plywood board out again. Instead of riding I worked on fixing the car’s oil leak. Tyler was home, so he hung out in the garage.
We arrived in Ashland OR last night at 3am. After sleeping at the Best Western we showered and headed out for breakfast…
Mmmm..Morning Glory restaurant for breakfast. Two eggs, bacon, raspberry muffin and a HUGE bowl of crean of wheat…all smothered in lots of Mple Syrup. Reeeal maple syrup. Oh how I love maple syrup., its the eastern part of me I don’t need to give up.
Shaums needed to head to Kamloops to pick up the Yota (his toyota truck). At first he was going to borrow a trailer from a friend of mine, but then Wayne and I figured we might as well go along for the ride. “Wait, riding!” I said. If we were going to go to Kamloops we had better bring our bikes and make a trip out of it!
Monday night after work Tyler, Shuams, and Wayne picked me up in Whistler and off we went to Graham’s House in Kamloops.
Tuesday we rode Rose Hill for three runs. I was riding Shaums’ world-cup bike, which was still set-up for Miranda. Tyler discovered on run number one that his front brake pad was down to the metal, so he sat out run #2 while he had new brakes installed on the bike. Personally, I would have just run the metal-on-metal for two more runs. Not gonna kill it too much. Well, maybe.
Run number three was my arch nemisis. I was following Wayne down, finally feeling really good on the Marin. I followed Wayne off a rock he was using as booter, bottomed the rear suspension out on take-off, and got bucked up over the bars. What followed next was not pretty, but for the record I rode it out to the parking lot.
13 stitches, on my 13th day of riding this season. Ouch. Now, 6 days later, the swelling is down and the bruising is starting to subside. Stitches come out on Friday, and I’m supposed to be able to start riding on the weekend. JUST in time for California.
(cue phone call/email from mom when she reads this)
Wayne, being Wayne.
Us, from Wayne’s camera…
Tyler, making decisions that got me a sweet deal on some Hope M6’s.
A LOT drier in Kamloops this past week…
Graham…itching to ride.
Pretty much the only riding photo that ‘turned out’. Wayne, somewhere on Rose Hill…somewhere in the photo 
The ‘one-week-after’ shot. 13 stitches, and check out how high up my arm the bruising went!! shot.
-Dave
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