Climbing & Bears!

We rode with Schwartzee and Mr. Bulmer today. Forgot our camera, so you just get to see our Gamin profile for the ride. Which is too bad because we climbed lots today & had some amazing views. And part of those views included two (2) bear sightings -- about 10km apart.

The first was a little baby cub. Katie was sooo funny -- she says, "hey there's a cute little cub!" And I swear she almost rode over to try and put it in her backpack before she realized that mama bear wouldn't be far off. The cub b-lined into the bush without incident. The second sighting was of a bigger bear, but still not full size. We were only 3km away from our vehicle when Schwartzee saw what first looked like a dog making huge time in the trees, but when it got closer it was confirmed no dog!

We were riding near Canmore on a fun set of trails -- had lunch overlooking Barrier Dam and had a grunt of a climb afterwards for about an hour. Some sections were 40% grade -- as you can see from the map.

Beautiful weather - just beat a thunder storm coming over the foothills.

TDF Fantasy Team

I've been playing the Tour de France Fantasy Cycling Challenge -- where you get to pick from all the riders at each stage and pick the guys you think are going to do the best. There's different points for each of the special jersey leaders and for each stage finish. Players each cost different amounts -- so you don't have enough $$ to buy just all the best riders.

I'm currently sitting in 2228 place. My best standing was during stage 10-14 where I managed to rank as high as 1774. I'm kinda proud since the announcers on TV are players too and they are always bragging about being in the top 5,000! Still not bad when you consider that there are more than 30,000 people playing!

We biked a few days this week to work -- beautiful and warm. We rode our favorite trail (Elbow Loop) with Ed last weekend. He has an awesome fitness level and even pushed the pace at points -- nice work! This weekend we are hooking up with some friends to ride a great mix of trails which takes us from Lac des Arc to Barrier Dam and back -- lunch is always good overlooking the water.

Plus my folks are here for a few days on Sunday -- and I think Terry is sticking around for Tuesday night ball -- I think we'll try and get him to pitch a game for us!

OK -- that's your update for now. Enjoy your weekend.

Amazing!

Have you been watching the Tour?

We have and we are amazed by the young rider (23 years), Mark Cavendish from Team Columbia. He is amazing to watch sprint to the finish line. And what a great score for Columbia Clothing & Gear -- they only sponsored the team weeks before the Tour started. Nice investment, don't ya think?

He's won 3-stages so far (as of Thursday night) don't spoil it if you know who wins Friday - we'll watch tonight.) And despite all the doping still happening in the Tour (3-riders have tested positive) this year...he has tested clean.

We hope he continues to do so!

Play Ball & Wednesday Night Bike Group

We were able to play ball again on Tuesday night with our team - -the Corked Bats -- and believe us, we came to play!

In the first game of our double-header, we were home team. We had a tough start and couldn't get our bats going. Down 15 runs in the bottom of the last inning, our team put on a batting clinic!! Katie struggled all night, but came thru when needed - as she connected for a couple of great hits, totally catching the other team off guard, as they had moved in and she popped it over their heads! Scott was lead-off batter all night and only had 1-at-bat where he grounded out. He had several doubles and well hit singles in the gaps. The team scored 16 runs on the final inning to beat our opponents 21-20!

In our second game, the bench was a buzz with excitement (OK it was probably mostly beer buzz for most of the players) but we used our comeback to easily take the second game in only 5 innings - mercy rule. -- yeah!

Katie wants to hit the batting cages before playoffs start in two weeks, so she can harness the power she enjoyed pre-bike race.

On Wednesday, we met 3 friends at our place and did a very fast 30km ride (nice work everyone!) on one of our favorite 22X highway rides. Then we had everyone in for dinner and tons of laughs. There were loads of riders out that evening -- but no one passed us and everyone felt good. Our little group had some sweet bikes, we must say -- The Bulmers in their Wilier's were looking smokin! And Lauren with her brand spanking new Cannondale Full Carbon bike was impressive. Of course, Mrs. Boyd had her new Titus frame and carbon set-up which is very wicked. And Mr. Boyd, he "suffered thru" on his Cannondale to round out the pack! It was the oldest, heaviest and least expensive ride in the group...but don't feel sorry for him, it's a great ride and maybe in 2010 when he's done his Masters Program, there will be a new bike waiting for him as a reward?!?

It's supposed to be a great weekend, so hope you get out to enjoy it!

Cool Photo . . .

We just found a cool photo that someone took of us on Day 1 of the BC Bike Race. We're wearing our green jersey design that day and it looks like total camouflage!

Relaxing!

This week we have just relaxed and it's been so nice!

On Tuesday, we had Scott's parents driving thru Calgary on their way to Winnipeg. Katie's mom and dad came over for dinner and a visit.

Then Thursday, we had Adam and Roxcie over for dinner -- to catch up and see how the 4 of us are recovering after our respective races.

Each night we have watched the Tour de France from the cool comfort of our basement entertainment area -- there have been some great stages already and the hills have just started!

And Friday night we treated ourselves for finishing the bike race. We started @ the Hyatt Spring Water Spa for a 75 minute massage -- the bangs and bruises had healed enough that they weren't sore to touch anymore. Then we walked down to Eau Claire and crossed the bridge to Princess Island Park where we had dinner at the River Cafe -- food and atmosphere is always amazing. We enjoyed Elk, Bison, Mussels and Salmon between our appitizers and main course, if you can believe it -- yum! And then we finished the night with a stop @ DQ for blizzards! It was great fun and a big treat for us.

Today we are going to Katie's dad and brother's Open House for their new Office Building -- tour and free lunch : ) And then we have a walk planned by the river -- it's gonna be warm again today -- yeah!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Marathon Accomplishment!

Today we got to be the cheering section for a change! We went out to support Katie's brother Adam and his wife, Roxcie as they did the Calgary Stampede Marathon!

They both did excellent. Roxcie looked so strong coming across the finish line in her 4 hour time! And Adam's story is truly mind blowing as he only did 12 km of training since running their half-marathon in April! Crazy, as he came in just shy of 5 hours!

Enjoy some rest -- we're really proud of you two!

BC Bike Race Summary

We are back in Calgary -- we are a little sore and mending the bumps, bruises, cuts and minor infections that developed over the last 7 days of riding. Thank you to all of you for your emails, phone calls and in-person appearances @ the race for encouragement!!

Here's a few reflections from the 2008 BC Bike Race:

FACTS & STATS:

We rode more than 43 hours and 400 kms. The winning team in our category did the entire race in just over 29 hours.

On average, Scott burned an additional 5000 calories each day of riding. His largest calorie burn was on Day 2 when we biked 127km and he burned 8393 additional calories in the +39 heat.

We routinely saw 20% to 30% grades on the climbs. The steepest grade was 50% during a hike-a-bike portion of the trail!

WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE FOR TRAINING:

Our cardio was there to help us do the race. Our legs recovered better than we thought. But the problem for us is pace and technical skill. The single track was amazing, but very, very technical - loose rocky descents, tight turns and roots everywhere -- true BC fashion. Due to the weather, we didn't ride trails as much as we'd like to build those skills. And we'd have to train to increase our pace -- we could always get to each point, but being faster would allow us to meet all cutoffs, be on our bikes less and, thus, allow for more recovery.

OVERALL REFLECTIONS:

We are truly amazed by experience -- in awe of the trails we experienced, how we pushed each other beyond our limits and how difficult the race was.

We didn't have any flat tires for the entire race! And overall, the bikes were in excellent condition (Katie's bent rear rotor on day 1 in 15km was the only major mechanical - and her legs suffered dearly, as the tire wouldn't spin freely!)

Thankful for no major injuries and just happy to have experienced this epic ride together!

We are going to do NOTHING for the next 7 days -- except eat, watch the 2008 Tour de France and oh ya, back to work! We don't plan to touch our mountain bikes for several weeks -- although we do have a few favorite trails we are eager to ride now that we have good weather. After our week off, we'll start commuting to work again on our road bikes. And we have a few other bike accomplishments to try and check off our list to take advantage of our level of fitness -- one of the coolest will be to do the Highline 100 (One Day Century of 100 MILES on our Road Bikes!)

Here's a few photos of some of the challenges on the trails...

Here we are on Day 1 before racing -- ah, smiling and fresh! And here's all the great swag we got from the race -- the Dakine bags are wicked and the keep-sake handle bar, sunglasses, jersey, t-shirt and socks will be great reminders of our amazing experience!