Is this thing on? Hey everyone, it's been only 3 + years since I last typed anything here. Wondering if there's anyone out there still reading.

Not much to say in the way of cycling. I've been very lazy since June. I've had little drive to ride. Too busy with parenting, etc. Trying to figure out to have a decent winter so I can blast out of the gates in the spring. Pushing 190 lbs again, I've got a tear in one of my shoulder ligaments. Gotta get going on the fitness thing again.

On the happy side, celebrating my daughter's 4th birthday today. Spent a ton of time together playing. She's growing up so fast.

Check in, I'm going to try getting words down more often.

Steve

#$%!!

Not again. Another race, another shitty result.

The Summer solstice is a two lap affair on the wonderful Sulfur Springs trails. We had some new singletrack in a couple of places this year, great setup as usual. The weather was amazing, 18C when I got up this morning.

Had a decent sleep, but I had a feeling I would be sucking wind today. A word to the wise, hanging out in a closed stadium full of dope smoking Megadeth and Slayer fans the night before a race is not great preparation. But they fucking rocked, so I went anyway.

Showed up late (as usual) and checked in quickly. Got my gear on and rode back to the starting area. Chatted up a bunch of the racers and got ready to go. We were off and I was ok to start. We had a good pace, not too many spots to bottleneck early. Then we hit the climbs. And my motor just flat out quit. Again. Just like Stony Plain. Fuck. After the second steep one, I was already walking. Nothing in the tank. I just kept thinking DNF. After struggling up (loved the new Pneuma singletrack portion) it was finally time to go down. Felt sketchy as hell, had some new tires I don't totally trust yet. Had too much air in them as well, but I always ride them like that as I hate flatting.

Pedalled, pushed up the rest of the climbs and headed for the start/finish area. I had actually passed 3 people at this point (one of them had a flat). I talked myself out of quitting and went for lap two. Felt much better this time around. Maybe I need to get there early and warm up or something. 1/3 of the way through, I started getting lapped by the experts. Gabor grunted past me on the steep climb right after you cross Moose Mtn fireroad. My knees hurt just watching him kill it up there with his single speed.

Finished ok, but I had a feeling I was at the back of the pack. Got the confirmation later that yes, out of all the finishers I was again dead last. It's tough trying to train for racing and being a Dad at the same time. I need to figure out some better ways to utilize my riding time.

On the good side, got to chat with a ton of people afterward. Dallas was there and had a few tales about the RAW. Paul Phillips and I had a great chat, looks like I have a team to ride with in the 24 Hour. Met Trev Williams (good to see you back on the bike), Jon Nutbown and Tim Heemskerk as well. And all of my Deadgoat pals (the ones who aren't tat the BC Bike Race) were out in full force.

Not a bad way to spend the day, still upset about the result, though.

Giver6er?

Another day, another tough race. I’ve been looking forward to racing this one again. The inaugural 8 hour giver8er was a huge success. What could be more fun than 8 hours on a great course?

I should have known. The day started poorly. Had a terrible sleep, Julia was up a few times and was very vocal. Even poor David woke up because she was too noisy. I dragged myself out of bed and had a quick shower. I had most of my stuff organized from the day before, which was good. Had a quick and uneventful drive to the course.

Registered in the tent and got my number plate. Looked like it was going to be a very nice day, just like last year’s event. I set up my food in the solo pit area and headed to the starting area.

After a few minutes, the field was off. We had a bit of a bottleneck at the start going up a short climb. I wasn’t in any hurry, pacing myself for a long day in the saddle. We wound up the hill and entered the singletrack. This course has a ton of it, not a lot of room to pass.

I was doing quite well until I did something very uncharacteristic: I crashed. On a portion of the trail that wasn’t even overly technical. Shit. Someone directly behind me stopped to make sure I was ok (thanks!) I had done an over the bars hands first landing. I stil can’t believe my wrists are ok. My bike, unfortunately, was not.

The brake lever was toast, I had no way to fix it. My knee was bleeding and sore as well. Great. I timidly finished off my lap and headed to the COP bike shop to see if they could help me. No luck. I jumped into the truck and headed down to Bow Cycle.

The bad news: no ORO brake products in stock. Good news: he was going to try to Macgyver a fix. It took over an hour, but he finally got it running and I raced back to COP.

I knocked off a few more laps in the afternoon, turning the Giver8er into the Giver6er. My two hour break did nothing for my body. I felt sluggish and tired almost the entire afternoon. Happy I got to finish, but disappointed in the result. I was well on my way to a good 10 or 11 lap finish before I bit it.

Bacon Buffet/Trans Stony

Got up Saturday morning early to head out to Stony Plain. My son, who usually sleeps in, was also awake. I was hoping to escape before he got up. Packed up all my stuff and reassured David that I'd be back soon (he was pounding on the window demanding to come with me).

The drive was longer than I expected, the race was kind of in the middle of nowhere. The GPS didn't even recognize the roads within 20km of the place. checked in for the race and then got my gear ready. My first ever Sport Class race, I wasn't sure what kind of pace to expect. Lined up at the back of the pack and away we went. Right from the start, I struggled to keep any sort of spin going. Legs felt heavy, my energy level just sucked. I wasn't long until the novice guys were passing me as well. It was going to be a long day.

The course was a great setup, nice twisty singletrack with some roots and logs thrown in for good measure. And the Houffalize climb at the end was killer. I did manage to ride it my first lap, not so much after that.

I just kept going, telling myself that quitting was not an option. My bike wasn't helping things as it was shifting poorly the entire time. I was experiencing the lonliness only the guy at the back of the pack can feel. Dead last. Well, two guys DNFed. But for everyone who finished, I was at the bottom. Sigh. Very disappointed.

The Trans Stony is a 6 hour race held on the same course. Well, almost the same course. This time, we did it in reverse. The weather forecast wasn't great, we hoped the rain would stay away for at least most of it. I chowed down a huge breakfast with the other Deadgoats. I was worried it would be too much.

Got to the venue and checked in. This time, we got to go down the Houfallize, which was awesome! Today, I felt about a million times better than the day before. A decent pace, I felt energized, the bike was shifting well. Lots of friendly encouragement from my teammates the whole way. Craig, Devon, Erik, Pat and Geoff passed me many times. Saw Tori a number of times as well as Dustin.

All in all, a much better result. The last few laps were a little sloppy. The official results posted had me at 8 laps, but I know I did 9 (Tori was shortchanged as well). So with that, I placed about 25th out of 35. Not too bad for an old fat guy. I still have some work to do.

Back in Blog

I've been a little lax at posting (yeah, six months is a long time). What can I say? I've been busy. Our 3 year old boy is ripping around with no shortage of energy and our little girl is 6 months old.

It's finally getting nice outside. Which means I have no excuses to stay off the bike. I've been cranking out the commuter miles in the past few weeks and my legs are feeling better everyday. I got a racing license this year so I need to be out there as much as possible. I should have sucked it up and rode Lethbridge on the weekend but I wussed out. I signed up for the Bacon Buffet and the marathon race the next day. Can't wait. I'll keep you posted as to whether I survive or not. Winter was not good to me. I'm at a not-so-svelte 182 lbs presently. Shit.

It's a Girl!!

The weather hadn't been very co-operative, so I was stuck taking the bus. Somehow, I managed an amazing connection and got home at 5:45pm. Kelly and David were out, picking up our cat who had teeth pulled that day. I put some dinner together and my family soon joined me. Tuesday the cat looked hilarious in her little T-Shirt (to keep her from going after her tiny drug patch). She was dubbed "Teen Wolf" by my sister. Perfect.

Kelly mentioned she was feeling some discomfort. I laughed and told her she was in labour most likely. I got the watch out and the contractions were about 13 and a half minutes apart. No worries. We continued on, getting David ready for a bath. Kelly kept me up to date on the contraction situation (still 13 minutes apart).

In the middle of the bath, with little warning, she was suddenly down to 6 minutes apart. I wasn't aware that they could change this quickly, I figured it was more gradual. We had to kick it up a notch. I got David out of the tub and ready for a road trip. We gathered up all of his Hot Wheels cars, made sure we had our own provisions and loaded up the Nissan.

In the car, Kelly was in obvious discomfort. And the contractions were now 3 minutes apart. Shit! I was really worried we'd have the baby in the car. Got to Grandma and Granpa's house and unloaded David and his gear. Kelly foolishly came to the door, barely able to walk. David cried and didn't want Mom to go. We sped off to the Peter Lougheed. It was around 8:35pm.

I really hate the check in system when you're giving birth. How stupid is it that Dad (me) has to go down 2 floors to check in two different times? Don't we need to be by the side of our better half? Anyway....

It didn't take long for them to figure out we were not going to be leaving without a child. Kelly was now in the delivery room. Our nurse was a champ. Thank you for all of your help Ingrid!! Kelly's contractions were really intense, lots more pain than with David. She hollered for some drugs for pain. Little did we know there just wasn't going to be time.

Ingrid was the only one in the room with us, no doctors were there yet. Kelly's contractions were very close together now and very painful. Ingrid told us the baby would be here very soon (I thought she was kidding, just being a good coach). She got on the intercom and asked for a doctor ASAP.

At 9:39pm on Nov 5, I became a father for the second time. Julia Ann weighed in at a healthy 7 lbs, 4 3/4 oz and was just over 20 inches long. Mom was amazing!!! We both shed tears of joy as I cut the cord and baby Julia was set down on Mom's chest. 3 and a half hours between supper and birth. holy cow, Kel, you don't waste time do you??

What an amazing few years it has been. So many ups and downs, stressful times. 2007 was a tough year, dealing with the pitfalls of parenthood and a failed pregnancy. We got through, baby. I'm more proud of you, Kelly, than you can possibly imagine.

:-)

The passing of a legend

the word "legend" is a little overused. But I think it's fitting for this man. He's entertained us for over 50 years. And has given some $200 million to charities. Paul Newman had died of Cancer. I think I'm going to have a personal film festival in the next week or so. From The Hustler to Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, Slap Shot, the Color of Money...right to his last picture, Cars. You were the best in the business, we'll miss you.