24 Hours of Adrenalin

Nine years ago, as I rode back along the 1A from Cochrane to Calgary on an 8-year old second-hand GT Aggressor, I debated with Annabelle if I should by a new mountain bike or go with a hyrbrid. Someone along the way...or maybe it was a few weeks later...I decided to buy a road bike instead. Since I bought Cabra, skinny tires were my sole (soul) ride. But last weekend I got lured back on to some fatties. Mick lent me his Specialized Epic full-suspension and I email transferred $300 to Chad. After a 9 year hiatus, I had a one-night stand with mountain biking.

24 Hours of Adrenalin was a hella good time. Not surprisingly, my technical skills on single-track are useless. But fitness from the road translates over to the dirt. The 17.5km course at Canmore Nordic Centre was a tough one - lots of climbing and some technical descents. I held my own on the way up, but got left in the dust (literally) on my way back down. Riding on a 5-man team, I got in 3 laps including one night lap. Riding 17.5km in 1h 30 minutes is not what I'm used to, but as I told Chad after finishing my night lap:
1. I suck at this sport
2. This sport is so much fun.

Fortunately no one on our team ended up with a serious injury nor a trip to the hospital (I can't say the same for our campmates and biggest "rivals"). Our bikes didn't fare quite so well.

So will it be another 9 years before I ride bike built for the mountains?  Highly unlikely.

Just the Bike

I got my butt kicked this weekend. Like, really kicked. Hard. 

It also feels like I got my quadriceps kicked. Really, really hard.

It was awesome. 

As you may know, I've put triathlon aside this year to focus on bike racing. (My sole foray into tri this year will be Challenge Penticton as a relay team with Kilah & Rick. In other words, I  just have to run a marathon). My decision was partially based on just wanting a physical and mental break (although some may argue bike racing and training for a marathon doesn't warrant much of a physical break), with my coach moving to hot & humid Houston certainly making the decision easier. 

The first night I rode with my new club Bicisport - a one-hour session in April - I realized triathlon does not prepare you for bike racing. Pace-lining. Punchy accelerations. Seeing that gap extend to a couple of bike lengths when you're already red-lining and then watching those riders in front of you get smaller and smaller, And smaller. 

Fast forward 3 months and I finally got a taste of the action. Saturday was the Bicisport-organized Individual Time Trial in Dog Pound, AB. The hilly 16km TT was something I'm more used to. Except I had only been on the Flying Scotsman twice this season. I left something on the course because my legs didn't scream as much as they should have. Middle of the pack, caught my minute man, and didn't get passsed. Not a bad day. But at only 35km/h, it wasn't my best day either. The event itself was organized very well. You should do it next year (shameless plug).  

Next morning we headed out to race essentially the same course...but this time 5.5 laps for 114km. As I was looking down at my pedal trying to clip in with my newly shimmed cycling shoes, the race started. I never contacted the main group. Being Masters provincials, we were in with the elite guys. And it looks like the Lead Out Project team held true to their name, getting their Master's guy the win by setting a crazy fast pace from the word go. Rick held back a bit for me and we started to work our way up, grabbing on to our old TCTC teammate Jason and then eventually contacting another three racers to form a good group of 6. We worked well for a couple of laps and then Rick and I popped (well I popped, Rick had some minor mechanical). With each passing lap and each passing hill, I finally had the screaming in my legs I was looking at yesterday. I told them to shut up. I finished 39 minutes off first place, but was happy to hold on for the finish and managed not to get lapped. This will be my last race on Cabra (my Opus), so I certainly couldn't send her into retirement from competition with a DNF. 

Next up on the road will be the J-Lap weekend, with a little side exploration into mountain biking with 24 Hours of Adrenalin. Goal: don't get injured and mess up my marathon training. Sounds simple enough. I'll let keep you posted. 

Cheers,

D.