hahaha. I don’t honestly think 15 laps around the pump track by my house counts as a riding day…but Connor stopped by on his way home from work for a quick session…so maybe it half counts.

Connor can out pump me, and that darned teenager energy keeps him whipping around the track lap, after lap, after lap…long after I’m spent. It’s actually kind of depressing when I think about it. I need to start spending some time sprinting and pumping, instead of typing away on the computer. Connor is making me feel old! On the other-hand, though, I can make it around the track without falling on my face and scraping up my elbow. Ha! Take that you energetic pumping machine!!

Even though it was a quick twenty minutes, getting out on bikes with friends makes the whole day better.

…yes, that’s right. I’ve hit ’summer’ and I’m stoked on riding 24-7.

-Dave

Placeholder for my R&Z ride with Connor

But I’m calling it one!

I’ve been a grumpy stressed out guy all weekend. Who the heck thinks that stripping and painting a car, in their GARAGE, over the course of a weekend is a fun project? What the HECK was I thinking?? Forget the fact that it needed to be done, forget the fact that I had tonnes of help and only by the grace of my friends did I actually survive…what the HECK was I thinking!?!

Poor Eric, Wayne’s buddy who doesn’t even know me but came down to help. He saw me stressed that sanding/body work was way more then we planned for. He saw me stressed when the primer ran in three spots. He saw me absolutely destroyed when the first coat ran on EVERY panel. And yet, he just kept sanding out my mistakes. He seriously must have thought I’m the worst attitude person he’s ever met.

And then I layed coats two and three.

Coats two and three are full of orange peel, but they are safe and they are without runs. Coats two and three will mean the car is only about a 20/20 paint job (looks good from twenty feet or passing at 20mph)…but coat one wasn’t even a 100/100. I went upstairs, changed out of my painting gear and into some casual shorts and t-shirt…walked out on the driveway, and Eric got to meet me again…for the first time.

I found a smile, I was happy. It was awesome.

…and I wanted a Tim Horton’s coffee.

We rode our bikes to Timmies. Me on the hardtail, Scott on the Prophet, Wayne on Connor’s bike and Eric on his new Transition. It’s probably a 7min ride across pavement and gravel trails to Timmies, but it wasn’t sanding. It wasn’t the garage. It was on a schedule. True, it’s not really a pedalling day…but it’s going down in the record books as one! It was a day on the bike that made all the difference!

About the only one to lose was Connor. He had called me earlier in the day saying he could ride until three, would I be interested? I said no, as I didn’t think the car would be finished for hours. So instead, he took an early shift at work. Then the sun came out. Here he was stuck behind the counter at Timmies, we not only came by to rub it in…but outside was HIS bike that Wayne was riding!

Ouch.

-Dave

It’s no secret that I hate uphills. In fact, I hate uphills so much…I really prefer not to ride them. There is an INCREDIBLE network of trails in Squamish that require climbing, and truthfully I avoid most of them due to this small fact. It’s not the climb I hate, necessarily, it’s that gassed-out painful exhaustion feeling that simple tells me one thing…If I worked out more, and trained, this really wouldn’t be a problem.

And see, that’s just it. I know I’m not training enough, I know I’m not working hard enough. I know I was in WAY better shape in previous years. Do I REALLY need to be reminded of it!?!

But, alas, climbing is necessary. Climbing also takes you to some super buff trails that make diamond head seem down-right painful. With that in mind, Connor and I agreed to head out for a Pedaling ride today.

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What do you do on a Weekend? You could sit around and enjoy the sunshine…you could get a bunch of chores done…or heck, why not go for a ride!?!

I’m writing this over a week later…so forgive me if I’m a bit fuzzy on the details. I remember do remember that Harrison, Clinton, Trevor, Scott and I ended up over at Shaums’ place. There we did the traditional wait for everyone to get ready…which (thank goodness) didn’t take much longer then what I’d call “stupidly long”. Forgotten helmets, missing grandparents, bikes that weren’t ready…you name, it, we had it in spades. Soon, however, we loaded up Shaums, Mark, everyone’s forgotten gear and we were on our way.

Our chosen trail was deliverance, which requires either a long pedal (the usual route) followed by a steep hike…or a lengthy shuttle followed by the same steep hike. With a trail length of about 4 riding minutes, its not a trail we ride very often. Wheezing my way to the top, I began to rethink my lack of pre-season training…but that was soon forgotten as we dropped into the trail.

I think I was following Clinton as we dropped into the trail. He’s been riding a fair bit of Deliverance, and knew where he was going. There was definitely a benefit to that, as I was half watching the trail and half keeping an eye on where his bike was so I would know where the corners were. It’s been over a week, so my usual account of riding down the trail has gone fuzzy. I can only remember that deliverance is fast, and I absolutely LOVE the technical rocky sections. They’re short chutes with tight corners at the bottom. The trail rewards those who are looking ahead, but hands out awards if you’re able to put the front wheel on one side of a rock and the rear wheel on an other. It’s half plan, half dodge, have muscle and half float your way through the sections. …and yes, you do need a couple of extra halves to do it well!

Trevor had started the ride unsure if he wanted to join us on 19th hole. He was riding a wolf ridge (6″ bike) and this was one of his first rides of the season. Deliverance makes much of 19th seem like childs play, so I imagine he was having a great time on our opening run!

For run number two Scott and I agreed we would head down 19th hole. Shaums had flatted on Deliverance, so he was out but the rest of the crew was crazy enough to join us for a snow ride. Heading up the mountain it was looking pretty good…the truck was filled with comments such as “there won’t be that much snow…ahh, this is brilliant…” and similar. Then we got to the top. Snow? Just a little. With Scott plowing a track for the rest of us, we made our way down the mountain.

Snow riding takes a particular attitude to be successful. You need to laugh about it, because it’s not going to be easy. Time and time again the front wheel sinks into the snow and you’re up over the bars. Mark launched himself a good ten feet at one point, which was probably the best bail of the day. If you’re laughing, and enjoying the plight of others, it’s actually quite a fun process! Eventually, however, you do get a little bit of dirt riding in, and it all becomes worth it.

Our ride ended with a rip down lowdown and the usual expecting to fly, pseudotsuga and cam’s trail combination. I’m quite sure we were all smiling…and really, that’s the point of the whole thing!

The morning started early for Shaums, myself and the rest of the MMR coaches. We were eating breakfast by 8am, and heading out to Bootleg canyon by nine. With the morning spent sitting around a table going over coaching theory, we were all stoked to hit the bikes for the afternoon.

It’s sometimes tough coaching, especially when you haven’t been able to ride for months at home. But the Afternoon wasn’t as rough as I expected…we’d be doing more riding tomorrow too! We started with the standard body positioning and movements, and went over the 10 fundamentals we use for all our detection and correction. Even with my coaching feeling quite rusty from a winter hibernation, it was good to see things coming back to me quickly, and the effect that had on the riders we were working with.

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