Welcome to the jungle

What is field work, really? 

The terrestrial crew (I was on the aquatics crew)

Going out and getting dirty? Yep. Fun/ Yes. According to plan? No.

This week I was sent out to a wildlife research station to stay for two weeks in Algonquin Provincial Park. The station itself is pretty hilarious. It’s been around for seemingly hundreds of years and you can feel (and see) the history of this rustic station around you. It turns out that my dad even went here! Sure enough he's in some photos on the wall.

Second from the top left, a "Turtler" apparently! (also known as Herpetologists)

The station is on a lake, known as “The Sass” comprises numerous cabins for sleeping accommodations, labs, and storage, some picnic tables for eating, a general kitchen and oldschool style cafeteria. Everyone at station is super nice, though it seems to be more of a drinking station with a research problem! Breakfast is at 7:30l, but you don’t see many people then, lunch is at 12:30, and dinner is 5:30. Food is unlimited. People go about their days by waking up, running their morning errands (canoe to get turtles, check plots, look at birds, etc.), eating breakfast, maybe some lab work until lunch, hanging out on the dock until dinner, eating some food, cracking some beers and maybe some more errands and social drinking. Everyone is super interesting to chat with and learn about their work, and super laid back. I like it here, though there’s no internet or phone reception.

The lab - right in front of the lake

The cookhouse! I gained weight from the unlimited food and the fact that I had no bike..

On my time off, I would canoe and get turtles out of the traps!

Being a guy who’s been put there for 2 weeks means I have to work basically nonstop to get done an insane amount of work in a short period time. Unfortunately my week went like this: it started out working out in the field, then processing the samples all night – until 1:00am sometimes [that was the night that I found my tent flooded too].  I love field work, and all of the adventures in the forest [not so much the lab work at night] – but it’s tough when I was getting almost no sleep and no ride time, by Saturday, I was much more worn out than I was willing to acknowledge, which is unfortunate because I decided to make my very first appearance in the pro/elite field.

The course is at Buckwallow Cycling Center is known as the toughest venue on the Ontario Cup circuit, much rockier and rootier than the other races and with no real down time. Typically I take a good break in the singletrack, and open up in the doubletrack – but in Buckwallow you’re pretty full throttle the whole way. Getting a bike over the rocks and the roots requires some serious upper body strength,  and with five 9km laps, you get pretty worn out. Additionally, though the trails at Buckwallow can be pretty flat ground sometimes but super twisty. If you’re feeling pretty fresh these factors just make the trails more fun, but as you tire, it’s hard to pick “the good line” through the trail, and if you’re not on “the good line” you are wasting more energy and time, which gets stressful too.

So I showed up at the course on Sunday morning, having not shaven in about two weeks (I actually can manage to look scruffy now), and been out of internet and cell phone reception for the week, to suprise the world with my debut on the “pro cycling” scene of Ontario. It was a great feeling to put my new race sign on the bike, double digits now (representative of elite riders), and how do you spell “badass”? With “ELITE” at the top of your race plate. It was a bit of a situation that got me into elite, I asked if I was allowed to race elite, and got a phonecall back saying I was now a pro/elite racer and that’s how it would have to be for the rest of the season. Well, okay. Let’s do it.

I knew that going into the race thinking I was in bad shape would obviously make for a very bad race, so I pushed it out of my mind that I hadn’t trained or slept for a week and that I was out in the heat. A foolish thing to do. In hindsight, I was in no shape to race but getting caught up in the moment causes you to ignore things and just jump in so to speak! The pace started out about as fast as my old category, but once we hit the singletrack it was evident I wasn’t racing the expert category anymore. The riders in the pro/elite field  are well rounded guys, not just cardiovascular machines. After a couple of trails, I found the pace unsustainable (especially while I was puking along the way!), I was simply not strong enough to that day handle my bike through the trails at that pace. By halfway through the first lap, I was riding my own race, but I kept my chin up and kept at it. By lap 2 I started to accept that it wasn’t just the elite pace that was killing me, and my heartrate monitor confirmed this. I was running at about 75% of my maximum heartrate, and would be right out of breath. By lap 3 I was finding myself at the end of trails with no recollection of how I got there. It was foolish of me to race, and the last half of the race (laps 3-5) I rode – not raced. Until on lap 5, where I saw another rider ahead of me a few turns in the trail! I picked up the pace (ever so slightly), smiled to myself, and worked at bridging the gap – nobody passes me in my last lap, and if you’re in my sights that late in the race, I’m determined not to lose the hard work that I had done. I caught him, and put some time in between us, managing to finish the race, and not in dead last either!  There is no way I would enter a race and then simply not finish, rather finish dead last than not at all, at least I’m proud of sticking it out.

photographer photos of me in the race here

It’s tough to make the plan now, can I race elite for the last few Ontario Cups? I don’t feel as though my performance on Sunday was a real indicator of how well I can race in the elite 5 lap race, but that’s not to say that I think I am  ready for sure yet.  I’ll work hard though, with hopes of one day earning a decent position in that category, but until then I may just be that guy who tried his best. It’s tough though, to build yourself up in less than a year to the level I am trying to compete at, while still attending University and being involved in the student and cycling communities of Guelph.  Either way – it’s time for secret training! 

Another weekend out of province

The Red Bull race was a very high-energy, high risk way of realizing I’m only human. Before the race had even started, I had fallen pretty hard and been bandaged up in a very big way by the onsite first aid. The race started off lamanz (I had to run a fair ways to my bike, then ride my bike for a lap), and in all of the excitement, I went down hard taking about a two foot drop down to a gravel turn, and because it was so early I got held up behind other riders before I could get back onto the trail. By this point I had blood all the way down my other leg, my mouth was still in pain from the tooth incident, and my confidence was utterly shaken up.  It was getting dark enough in the trails by the time I got to the singletrack to warrant a light, but I was too focused to turn mine on. The singletrack was surprisingly tough for a night race (the latter half of the world cup course), but that’s why it’s a Red Bull event, for spectators – it’s a paid event for people to do high risk things. One notable spot was going down a steep sandy rutted off camber (hill on the side of a hill) hill, then needing to turn immediately hard right and drop a few feet down some roots onto a sickeningly steep hardpack sand hill. They had a spectator section there, with lights and photographers blaring at the athletes, making it impossible to see where you were going. Needless to say a lot of guys were walking that section.  The course for the xc riders was essentially a climbing section, a quick open downhill, over a couple of bridges through crowds, climb up again, then a techy singletrack section then a downhill bomb to a ladder bridge through crowds to the finish line, where my partner was radioed to start his run down the hill.

Unfortunately, I got into a pretty down mental state, and was exhausted and in pain anyways - strung out from all of the damage to my mouth and a general lack of sleep. I’m ashamed to admit that during the race I was just dwelling on my weaknesses instead of building on my strengths, my performance was probably the worst I’ve ever done, luckily my downhill rider Andrew Gibson picked up the slack! I shouldn’t have really been racing in the state I am anyway, I forget sometimes that I’m really only capable of so much, I’m not superman – yet. The night was great though, a big dj tent, and a pumped up atmosphere, we managed to have a great time anyway.

Day two in Mont Sainte Anne was the world cup race (unfortunately I didn’t come to compete in it!), women’s at 11:45 (starring Canadian cycling’s sweetheart Emily Batty), and the pro men’s race at 2:30, with my coach and idol, the amazing mountain athlete Eric Batty.  I had a great time that day hung out with Emily in the morning; – she gave me a permanent marker and I made my “Team Batty” fanboy shirt and then I cheered. All I wanted was to show my support to Eric and Emily, especially Eric. Eric is arguably my biggest supporter, keeping me together and motivated. As my coach he keeps in touch, makes it his mission to keep up with not only how I’m feeling physically for training, but also mentally and emotionally. It’s especially great because he checks in with me, and it does really seem to matter to him.  For Eric’s race I was biking across the mountain to different checkpoints to yell encouragement, I felt just as into it as the racers!

After the race I met up with one of the Canadians I mentioned when I first started my blog! Ross,  the guy I met in the hostel in the mountains in Georgia went out for a couple of laps of the course. WOW. There is no way that I could ride that during a race. Its the kind of course they use to crown world champions, so of course it’s ridiculously tough. Not only is the course super techy, but it hits you when you’re the weakest. I’m talking about tough sections deliberately through the hills, or at the top of steep climbs when you are at your weakest, a truly trying event, it was no wonder that the pros were falling so much.

Day 3 of the weekend was an epic ride day. Woke up and met up with Jon’s coach Peter Glassford, and athletes Jared Stafford, and Andrew L’Esperance. Coffee was brief, then we packed up the condo and went out for our ride. We rode random trails around the hill, then went straight up to the top (a very big climb!). On the way up we met Krista Park of the United States, who rides for Stan’s Notubes, Cannondale, and Osprey packs (sweet!). She was super nice and we trucked up the hill together to the top of the gondola being used for the world cup downhill race, and took some trails down. 

Krista and I on the the way up!

This ride included rivers, waterfalls, stream crossings, and even double black diamond downhill trails. I’m very proud of my bike for staying in one piece, and of me for staying on it at such ridiculous speeds, and such unsuited trails! This was exactly the ride I needed to recharge, I got into a great groove, felt the trail, learned to trust my bike, and rebuilt confidence.

It’s off for another adventure now, I’ll in Algonquin Park for almost two weeks starting Monday the 4^th of July. I’ll be camping out at the wildlife research station, working in tandem with another Guelph student and helping out with specimen collection for the the Barcode for Life, which is a global organization trying to determine the genetic DNA sequence of every morphospecies on the planet. This will involve limited (if any) cell phone reception, and internet, and   12-14 hour work days, with no weekends! But I hope to see everybody at the Ontario Cup Next weekend!

Surprise tooth removal!

We’ll get to that later though. 

I managed to survive the 24 hour race with a *patched up* mouth. The dentists rebuilt all of my teeth, but that is not to say that all is good. They are projected to be sore for a couple of months, which quite frankly sucks. After my initial brain injury, I lost my sense of smell – though I still have my sense of taste. This means that I don’t get the entire “flavour” (taste and smell combined makes flavour) of what I’m eating, but I am so grateful that I still taste, otherwise life is pretty mundane; so food and taste is a welcome relief to my day. With my teeth out of sorts I’ve been putting myself through unnecessary pain by still trying to eat anything I want (and not taking the pain killers).

24 hour racing food was done with some thought to both extreme calorie intake and sensitivity of my mouth. Six cups of cous cous (dry) which is so nice, they named  twice! That meant 2 huge Tupperware tubs of cous cous, some pretty terrible taco salad I tried to make, some fruit, and of course jells and bars. My team had a pretty sweet campsite though the endowment from our wonderful sponsors the Great Lakes Brewery...which was apparently at the other Cycle Solutions site. After inhabiting a dry site for a while, the guys decided it was time to perform a heist. We needed that beer, and it really wasn’t going to matter what the other tribe had to say. It was shocking what we found there. Two big demo tents that said Cycle Solutions, two picnic tables, and a big tub with ice and a 60L keg of Great Lakes Brewery Blonde. No guards, nothing. We even came on it from the east side, as the sun was setting west. A beautiful mirage is all it looked like.

By about midnight we received a visit from some friends from Bracebridge, and I was getting sick of my gearing (still being stuck in my big ring). My resources were few. An old grip-shift shifting set, made for 3X9 drivetrains (mine is 2X10), but these were mountain bike veterans I was with, and nothing beats a micro adjusting gripshift shifter. Of course with beer as payment, things weren’t done terribly efficiently (my teammate Allan showed up while we were doing this right after his lap, threw up for a few minutes, but some good old “puke and rally!” encouragement got him back, he didn’t go thirsty), but after a while I was set up with a working front shifting system, using what is known as the archaic technology of “Grip Shift”.

The rest of the race was good, 1 fall, but as I was writhing in pain on the ground Preston Wagler (one of the top ranked pro/elites in Ontario) passed me, which was motivating to get back up and I rode out a night lap with him only 3 minutes slower than my day lap times. The morning wasn’t awful either. At one point I thought we were battling for a position in the top 3, so I was motivated and rode a double lap – and then some, just to get a T-shirt from riding through a bog on a plank while spectators sprayed me with hoses and water guns. SO worth it. Unfortunately I was not feeling great after the race, the fall in the night had left me unable to really move my left arm (even needed help to get my jersey off), sleeping accommodations were simply the back of a Toyota Matrix with a 134 pound dog, but 24 hour races are fun, you meet new people, and my buddy Nico that came with me had so much fun that he even did extra night laps for another team! Mission accomplished.

Monday I registered for what will hopefully be the best race I’ve ever done! The Redbull Monte Descend race at Mont Saint Anne. This race is a promotional race in which a Downhill rider rides down the hill, then the cross country rider (me) rides a lap (apparently these are usually pretty uphill) it is done in a sort of tag team, I`ve called our team the ``Humpty Dumpties``, so watch out! The team that gets the highest total number of laps between 8:30 and 10:00 (pm, which means dark laps with lights) wins. The real grabber for this race is that first prize is worth $3000 which would definitely help with my $5000 in newly accumulated dental bills. Hopefully I can get some money, pay my bills, and still have enough to afford tuition for University.  The race is tomorrow (Canada day!), and the weekend has lots to offer.

Mont Saint Anne last year was the site of the world championships,  and a long weekend festival called Velerium. This year there is a plethora of races and events, including a world cup race on Saturday. Perfect weekend for a roadtrip to Northeast Quebec . Let’s go!

The day of departure for the race I had a quick appointment with an oral surgeon, just to talk about a plan of action for the tooth that has a crack all up the root. Strangely I was sat into an operating chair to wait. Then Dr. Watson came in, with needles. Apparently the x-rays were pretty bad, and after a quick chat and some poking it was established that I was having a tooth yanked.

Surprise!

Needles were poked, my tooth was clamped, and I saw a man giving some good effort on my tooth, back and forth until it came out. That simple! I think it’s crazy that I’m racing tomorrow, but that’s it ! The most painful tooth ever is gone!

Dave picked up a sorry solemn toothy guy after work, and the roadtrip began, until we found the Mandarin that is. I like 3 things, athletics, science, and nefarious deeds.  The mission was simple, eat as much is humanly possible, and get kicked out of the restaurant. I was unsuccessful at getting kicked out but the shenanigans were worthwhile. All loaded up with food I’m just waiting to see what tomorrow has in store! 

Serious inconvenience and another ambulance trip

The week started out so wonderfully! Monday was my off day, so I went to my first yoga class! Went to Bikram Yoga downtown, and got 10 passes for hot yoga classes (1.5hours each). Yoga was an adequate way I'd say of loosening up the day after a race, without straining myself too much really, and an interesting experience. It's basically like working towards being a peaceful contortionist, but without the circus. The "hot" of hot yoga wasn't too bad, my only complaint is how slippery I got (making the poses a lot harder) and my hands were wrinkly from sweating so much by the end. But I'd do it again, and you should too!
Tuesday had some hard training, 20 all out hill sprints over at the col du Watson with my buddy Nico, crawled home on the bikes, and went to his place for some good food.
It was Wednesday when things happened. I decided to head to Bulk Barn on my lunch break (Wednesday is student's discount day - making already cheap food cheaper). I got the usual; prunes, dates, soy beans, and then some raisins for my oatmeal, and headed back to work. On the corner by the Futureshop and Zellers (which I had ridden countless times commuting from my old house to campus) I took it really fast - with my big 30L pack on and groceries and stuff inside. In a split second, my back tire (700x20C and totally slick - least grippy tire possible) slid out. I went chin first to the pavement.
Instantly I could taste blood in my mouth, and feel bits of teeth everywhere. I spat into my hand just to double check, and yep big pieces of teeth and blood everywhere [uh oh.]. I grabbed my bike and walked into futureshop, with blood everywhere and thinking of the unfortunate implications of this fall. They called the ambulance, and I just sat there getting more and more bummed out about my state. My left arm hurt, right elbow and knee had hit the pavement hard, and of course my jaw hurt and chin was gashed. I don't know if you've chipped a tooth before, but it seriously hurts. Even breathing over a chipped tooth can hurt, and now half my mouth is chipped and damaged.
The ambulance guys got there and were shocked at how calm I was, and that I wasn't crying. By that point I had plenty of paper towel by my side saturated in blood and full of bits of teeth. The wait in emergency wasn't so bad- I was out of there in about 2-3 hours. Got my jaw x-rayed, and stitches put into my chin. Luckily I complained enough about stitches in my face that they only put 3 in, and the worst part of that was the freezing (I later found out that that was a tough place to freeze and he stuck me 4 times - which was much more painful than the stitches would have been, but I didn't want to feel them going through...weird!).
Now nicely stitched up, I luckily got an emergency appointment at the dental office not far away. The dentist there was shocked. He had never seen someone do this much to their mouth in one go, and assessed the damage with x-rays, and by sight. The whole time this guy was shaking his head, and trying to put it lightly that at least 8 of my teeth had been damaged heavily, would need a lot of work, and another several were damaged (mostly superficially...enamel chips gone - but not down to the really sensitive bits). Additionally I had bruised basically all the nerves in my teeth and anything to do with my teeth would hurt for weeks, even after he worked on what was left of my mouth.
By now, I'm quite familiar with what has to be done to "fix" a "tooth". He grinds at it for a little bit, scratches the surface of wound to make it more adhesive, puts some primer on it, and then some paste type stuff goes on that hardens with UV light. I complained that the top right of my mouth had the most painful spot, and he agreed that I was missing a considerable chunk of a tooth up there, so he fixed that one. After rebuilding me a tooth and upon polishing it he accidentally hit the one in front of it (which looked just fine).
This was when I thought the dentist and his assistant pooed their pants. They started freaking out and saying uh oh, oh no! That's not good!
Hmm.
They had just discovered that the tooth that I was really complaining about had a crack right through it all the way down the root, it just wasn't missing pieces so it looked fine until they touched it the right way. The dentist stayed for an hour and a half after work just to put a quick fix on the tooth. He ground away about half of it with the grinder drill thing, and put re made the top - hoping it would act as an adhesive for a bit. That one's going to have to be pulled out, and I'll need an oral surgeon.
That afternoon he got the top right back bit of my mouth to acceptable shape and said he would free some time to keep working on it the next day.
Today (Thursday) breakfast consisted of a milkshake - but that was too cold (fridge temperature) so I had to microwave it. Weird. But I went back to the same dentist,  and he went to town! I spent a long time in the chair (which isn't made for a 6'2" man), but he got all the other teeth fixed except two! The right side of my mouth isn't outwardly broken anymore (except the tooth with the quick fix - that's a whole new deal with an oral surgeon on a later date). I've spent over $1200 so far though, $500 of which is covered by the university, but this is going to continue to be very painful, and cost thousands of dollars more and take at least a few more weeks. Need that tooth fairy to come through with some magical dental insurance.. Worse has happened to me, and I can't ignore half teeth all over my mouth - they are an excruciatingly painful thing to have. But that's real life, and like I said, just a miserable inconvenience, it better not affect my racing too heavily. It's a bit of a worst case senario, I'm lucky a car didn't hit me too.
Who's racing at the 24 hour race this weekend? I am. See you there.

For those wondering about my first paid race...

Lake to Lake was tons of fun! While it lasted. I got off the front in a group of about 10 guys, and it started out like a road race. People pulling (which I did too much of and Anton yelled at me for), people breaking away, people getting caught back, and then my flat tire happened...
Fortunately it was just a rock puncture, I lost about half of my pressure, but the sealant on the inside of the tire kept me going. After stopping to check it out, the gameplan was just to crack open a CO2 and re-inflate the tire at the first bit of singletrack...Besides I felt like a total power house! I had managed to stay with the group even while riding such low pressure, and then worked my way back into their ranks, surely I was in contention for the money, no?
Then another flat happened. This time it brought me too close to empty to want to keep riding on, so I stopped and reinflated the tire, and yelled out encouragement at my buddy Alex, and reinflated the tire. I still felt like a champ when I got back on my bike for the second time now and pinned down the trail. Before long I was on Alex's tail and told him to follow, but I guess I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't slow down and just kept going and he didn't keep up. I was riding through some tall grassy trails and couldn't see beneath me, and suddenly bam! Flat. This one wasn't going to re-seal itself...so I set about taking off the tire to put a tube in. Unfortunately the tire was too tight for me to take off on the side of the trail and I was at the mercy of the riders going by for both a tire lever, and a pump. Alex supplied the pump, and some guy racing with his daughter (on fathers's day!) supplied the tire lever, and Don (a friend) gave me an extra CO2 cartridge (I couldn't get that pump to work!).
By the time I was back on the bike though I realized the race was over for me. It took long enough that I stood basically no chance of catching back those top 10 guys (all of whom are fast elite-level racers), especially if I couldn't ride the trails at my own pace (stuck behind the slower waves of cyclists).
The rest of the race was a time-trial with huge breaks during the singletrack (of which there was 25km - that I hadn't hit yet). I learned my lesson though, the lightest tires on the market should not be trusted on a foreign course tubeless - they just pop like balloons. 
The week's been interesting since though, more on that later.

My first race in the "money division"

...is looking pretty doomed right now! Today I had the intention of fixing, cleaning, and riding my bike, and cleaning my house for the big potluck that is going down tonight. WELL. The house got 1/3 of the way to clean, and I wandered out to the garage to start fixing my bike, to put new tires onto. I'm racing at the Lake to Lake 55km race tomorrow, and heard it's a pretty fast course, so decided to go with my semi-slick Schwalbe Furious Fred semi slick tires in 2.0 (low volume, and skinny). I sealed up the tires, and went to make them a bath. No plug. After a quick call to the land lord, and a trip to the river, I had tires that were [mostly] holding air. Then my buddy came by for a bit, and it was back to fixing my bike. Distracting things like making food for the potluck grabbed my attention, and I made some dirty rice and beans!
Finally I got to the bike, and found a broken shifter. Uh oh. A quick trip to the local bike shop found that any idea of front shifting tomorrow is out, so my drivetrain is now jimmied in the big ring, with a chain that I was told is in desperate need of replacement, and on top of that - apparently my tires are pretty bad for tubeless, and prone to rolling off.

the sleeping arrangements are kindof like burritos around here

But there's no time! No time to ride either! Upon arrival at my place, Anton was already there, and Erica came shortly after (only half an hour late, which is incredibly early!). We had a big party, and lots of cuddling.
Time for bed though, and some excruciating foam rolling. Hoping for strong legs tomorrow to push that gear! Poor bike is still dirty though...

Another weekend, and a shot for redemtion

Here we go. Another shot at a national race; the Canada Cup at Hardwood Hills ski and bike centre. This one’s not far from home (Bracebridge home) so Alex and I decided to head up north for the weekend, to stay at my old casa. I had an epic amount of stuff to pack (toolbox, compressor, bike, one spare wheel, extra tires, food, clothes, race stuff) and he obviously had his pile too, all set to fit in an ’02 hundai accent. For those who don’t know Alex’s car, it’s know as the Red Rocket, and it’s a small coupe, without a bike rack. I had my doubts as to whether we could fit everything in, but after doing enough bike race trips we have the art of packing totally dialled.  It took almost no time and we were on our way up north in good company and with high aspirations for the weekend.

Like this!

We realized we would be cutting it close to get to the course (ETA 8:30), but as long as there was daylight, we could sneak onto the trails. I announced that it was no problem, and I knew the way to the trails – so don’t worry, we won’t get lost. About 10 minutes later we drove right by the sign for Hardwood Hills on the 400 (I’m used to getting there from hwy 11) luckily there was a great option to do an ullegal U turn, which we promptly took and sped our way to the course. When we got to the course I left alex in the parking lot and ran to the administration house to see what’s up. Riding open till 9:00, it’s about 8:20. Good to go. Registered for the race, paid the entry for the trails (at total of $67.50 together – owwie!), and went to the car to put my bike together. On the way out to the start I ran back into the building for some water, and the trail master said “Wait, what category are you? You’ve have to be out of there in 32 minutes.”

“Senior expert sir! Don’t worry, course can’t be more than 25 minutes!”

“Okay if you’re that fast then go. But you only have 32 minutes.” He said somewhat reluctantly.

Would he actually have said no if I told him I was in one of the open categories? Harsh.

Loved the course, it’s fast, good flowwy trail – and they didn’t put any huge hurting climbs in it like normally! None of this climbing BS like Tremblant. There are some definite tricky spots – that I’ll want to try again and dial them in, but for now we just had to do a quick ride.

Some aspects of my bike made this ride more “fun” than others. Firstly I was testing a hypothesis involving the ideal gas law (PV = nRT) or in layman’s terms pressure times volume is equal to a constant. Essentially, this constant is the force necessary to hold a rider off the ground and keep the tire from flatting or rolling. Since I’m on a 29 inch wheeled bike, that’s a higher volume, and if the hypothesis I was testing (H₁ I will be able to get away with less air, thus more traction) is true (vs the null hypothesis H₀ that I would mess everything up and flat anyway), then I should be able to rock out with very little pressure, and thus sticky tacky grip.

I let a bunch of air out and then rode, never checked until afterwards, but I was riding 17 psi in the rear, and still less than 20 psi in the front (which had a tube). For those non-cyclists, that’s about half of what most people ride at, and I’m heavy so I should actually ride higher than most. Indeed the ride was sticky tacky, but my tires were rolling a lot – I couldn’t be as aggressive as normal. But I didn’t flat, and the tires stayed on the rims, so I did prove something – just don’t ever let them THAT low. I was losing power because my bike was bobbing with my pedalstroke even.

The other bit of fun was that my front shifter actually broke off while I was riding. The metal bracket just simply broke.  This left me laughing in disbelief, and wondering what the heck to do with the flopping front shifter that was only loosely attached to my bike with a cable. Oh well, I paid to get it, it’s Friday night, and I’m finishing my ride – in under 32 minutes! I wrapped it around my handlebar and left it hanging out front and watched it like a hawk. There is very high potential that this could flop down into my front wheel and end my life I guess. (stupid head injury.) I kept one eye on that and one on the trail – it’s a good trick, you should learn it sometime.

Weak (but light!) Dye-cast metal..

Saturday rolled around and I had a list to do: fix the bike, and ride more laps of the course! Ah, life is tough.  I managed in the end to use an old brake and an old shifter bracket to secure my front brakes and shifter – it was a bit uncomfortable and tighter to the grip, but it would have to do. Riding laps was fun, I practiced some stuff and looked at the different ways to approach obstacles – the course was weird in that the most daring way through the trail wasn’t always the fastest.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with my coach, Eric Batty (who was signing autographs) and discussed the course with him. He hopped on my bike and gave me some good advice. Because I’m so lanky and my hands are huge, I had my brake levers and shift levers pointed almost vertically down. This is not good because it forces them to be flexing the whole time that I am riding, and it does indeed get uncomfortable – but I always just thought I needed to toughen up.

That night Jon, Alex and I wen’t back to my Mom’s for a great meal. She’s awesome! Shrimp and veggie pasta with baguette, guacamole, and a really nice salad with pears (not to mention some serious dessert!). Jon was a bit of a last minute addition to the crew but Mom reassured that there would be enough food. But we ate it all, and threw another pie in the oven. Gooooood pie. Gooooooood times!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is now how you treat grips. Just buy lock-on.

That night, I got pretty jittery. Maybe because I was talking to my coach Saturday, but I really had the race on the brain. I stayed up just lying in bed thinking about the race, then stressing about not sleeping, then having a nose bleed. Well that's not ideal! 1:30 in the morning and I've got a gusher coming out of my nose! After a while it stopped bleeding and I resumed my attempting to sleep, which was more just contemplating why I had a nosebleed in the first place? Probably because I'm still so sick (spent the other night in the emergency room), and congested and I kept blowing my nose? Who knows. All I know is that there was blood before, during, and after the race.
I woke up way too early for this junk. 6:30. But I milled about the house and got bikes together and helped out here and there - always drinking water though, because I had sweated the whole night before (window open was too cold, window closed too warm...but more comfortable). Made some good old fashioned steel cut oats (with craisins in them because I was at home and had the resources!), packed up and rolled out.
Arrival to the race was a bit frantic; I had to track down my front wheel from Scotty, and only had an hour to do that, organize feeds, and warm up.
Luckily, I was told that the start was delayed 15 minutes! Yay! The only problem is that whoever told me that was sabotaging me! Start was at 1:30, and I luckily got worried that I saw nobody warming up any more, looked down at my clock, and saw it was 1:32. Better get to the start to investigate. I asked somebody along the way about the start time, and of course it was supposed to be 1:30, so I made my way desperately through the crowds and got to the start corral about 30 seconds before the start. Bad seating yes, but warm legs at least!

Guess who's not waiting for the start?? (stolen from Kyle's facebook)

Start of the race was a pretty brisk pace, but nothing I felt I couldn't handle. I was worried about the potential bottleneck at the top though, and soon found myself in the middle of a 40 person pack, riders in front, behind, and on both sides. Not good.
I made my move out to the right side, throwing accelerations, brakes, and buzzing a tire or two (not a good move). But when I got out I moved up a few spaces, and tried to get back in.
Unfortunately nobody was making room for me in the trail, so I was forced to ride in the bush beside the trail, which was soon turning left. The only thing I could do was to muscle in, and I managed to get in right beside (and into) my friend Kyle Schaltz, who asked what the heck I was doing? (He was sandwiched in between me and some guy from Quebec, the Quebequois guy fell..Ooops.
So I managed to get a spot on the trail, and to make some enemies in the first few minutes of the race...Interesting. The pace through the first few trails wasn't what I would say I'm capable of, but I wasn't about to throw down too many dirty passes, and I was working hard enough that I didn't feel like singing a song. As the group thinned out I realized how fast we were really going...FAST. By the end of the first lap there were already guys blowing up and falling behind fast, but I kept pace.

riding down the boneshaker, with my lover Anton watching (photo stole from Jame's facebook)

Lap two came with a surprise, a nice guy Alex and my old buddy Evan and I rode together, Evan stayed ahead (but not far enough that I couldn't see him) and Alex would lose me on the double track , but I was capable of catching his wheel in the singletrack. Alex is a fast guy, and I made it my goal to stick with him and see if I could edge on him by the end...I had a funny time that race in that I was always able to talk, just my legs couldn't put out the top power. It was as though my legs were not up to my cardio, but nonetheless my legs were still pretty quick. I striked up a conversation with Evan, let him know that the superior court for the guy who assaulted me and put me into the hospital for so long was the next day. He asked if I was racing angry? I just said racing stressed...Which I guess is true, but the best thing about cycling is it can take my mind off the pressures of the rest of life.
By the first big climbing section in the third lap though, I showed more power than the other guys, and that was the last we rode together. I kept an eye behind me on Alex and worried about his positioning, but eventually was at the point that I could see neither Alex or Evan. By that time I decided to ride conservatively, not taking more risks than I needed to, keeping the bike intact and not risking my head. This strategy paid off, as I placed 6th.  Even with a bit of blood coming out of my nose still, and despite dismal sleep, guess I should just not worry about that stuff anymore.
Hearing my position made me happier than ever! That is faster than I had been before the injury, without a doubt my best placing in an Ontario Cup, oh wait - this is a Canada Cup. YES!
All of the work that I had been doing paid off in when I realized how I had done, and I am so greatful of my coach Mr. Eric Batty (3rd in the pro/elite division!). I'm his athlete, just a meathead that does what I'm told, and he really deserves the credit for my outstanding improvements. Maybe I'll reach my goals this season after all. Stay tuned!