Full-on day!
We had to fly from Newfoundland all the way to Toronto, which added about 10 hours to our original booking. Frustrating for sure, and I got zero sleep on the flight squished into a middle seat and completely uncomfortable. Is it just me, or is modern airplane travel absolute torture?
0 Comments
It's been a while, but we made made some major changes towards the end of 2018 and relocated from the desert to Newfoundland!
There's been some assimilation coming from the +40c temperatures in Qatar to Canadian Winters, but we're super excited about living here and the opportunities for new pedal powered adventures :-) Pretty much as soon as we landed we invested in some Fat Bikes from Canary Cycles in St. John's and we're complete converts. It has made the winter so much fun and is a welcome break from training indoors on Zwift. We'll post more thoughts on our introduction to Fat Biking very soon. Thrilled with this year on the bike!
Check out my Strava video showing my stats for 2018. I've accomplished my goal of hitting 10,000km in one year - a first for me! I know it’s not (just) about the miles, but my goal definitely kept me moving forward when things got tough. And I am healthier (physically and emotionally) for all of those pedal strokes. Thanks for all the kudos and support throughout the year! Let’s get out on the bikes together in 2019 if you’re in our neck of the woods. Our first fatbike in the snow!! A beautiful day and lots of learning.
It was rather special to be the first on the trail, but we learned that’s not necessarily a good thing when fatbiking as you can see in the video where JHH can’t get going and is up to his knees in snow. What an effort for just 6km!! Looking forward to many more of these! Who wants to come with us? Short solo ride out to Blackhead this morning. The fog threatened to roll in but it stayed beautiful! Would have gone to Cape Spear, but too much to do today. You really have to earn your kilometers here on the rock, b’yes! 😓💪🏼😜 Squamish I’ve got about 7 minutes to write this 🙄🙄🙄
Don’t get me started on the WiFi availability at this race. We finished!!! It was a crazy day. Sechelt to Langdale 49km, 1403m elevation Today was not my day. It started when I realized I had sent my race bag containing my bike computer, heart rate monitor and sunny day lenses on the truck going across to North Vancouver. But I didn’t mind that too much. I haven't been able to upload to Strava anyhow with the limited WiFi, so it doesn’t really matter anymore. I started out really well today. For the first 30km I can say I gave it everything I had and I was enjoying just trying to move forward every chance I got. The girls from Calgary kept saying I was “consistent” every time we passed one another. But the final 10km or so were not my cup of tea. It was beautiful in the forest but I just couldn’t enjoy it. There was far too much climbing again today, and because our days have been so long everyday and we haven’t had much time to recover, today was probably harder than it needed to be. And then, by the time we got to the “downhill” section, I was shattered already from all the climbing. There were about 2 minutes of lovely flowing switchbacks with the most beautiful berms. But it didn’t last.
I attempted a super steep rocky downhill section and ended up coming off the bike. I braked hard so luckily wasn’t going at speed, but I still had a lot of momentum when my whole right side connected with the ground with a thud and slid a bit on some loose rocks. I was so tired and disappointed and in pain, so I immediately burst into tears (first tears of this race! ). Then when I tried to ride, my wrist and chest and hand were so painful every time I braked, and it made me cry even harder. Bike patrol and a few other riders stopped to see if I was ok and I insisted I ride the remaining 3km or so to the end. It was pretty at the last bit and you could get some flow again, but every root made me utter OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!! The rest of the way to the end. But leading up to that, there were still sooo many punchy rooty rocky climbs and little wooden bridges and steep drop-offs into the abyss. One wrong move...! If you know the trail, or have the skills to ride at a high level, you could probably have some fun on that route. But for those of us at the back of the race, today was a bit much. I couldn’t seem to get the power, speed or correct gearing to quickly get up and over the short steep hills that appeared every two seconds around every fun corner. The smooth ones were fine, but the technical ones were soul-destroying for me at a certain point. Tomorrow is the individual time trial in North Vancouver, which everyone is saying is the most technical. I don’t have high hopes for an enjoyable day on the bike, or a good time. I expect some walking. ☹️ Maybe Squamish (Stage 7) will be better!🤞 Earl’s Cove to Sechelt 62km, 1758 Today was sooooo long!! We woke up in Powell River, wolfed down breakkie, took a bus to the ferry, arrived in Sechelt where all of our bikes were waiting! We hopped on and started the stage. You have to admire the coordination that took to get all of those bikes organized and moved overnight. We started the race around 11:25AM. John and I crossed the line holding hands under the BCBR finishing arch around 6 hours later! And we worked hard the entire day. Soooooo much climbing!!! It was crazy. At the top of the worst sloggiest climb there was a Rasta guy playing guitar and singing and a woman taking our photos! It seemed very surreal and pretty cool! That was the climb that felt like it would never end. It was beautiful all around us - the greenest most diverse forest! And lots to keep us challenged. But switchback after rooty rocky switchback and I started to feel like I was getting a bit light-headed! I made sure to eat and drink whenever I could, but the altitude and lots of pushing my bike uphill led to some stupid missteps and I started to wonder if I was stepping on the biggest loose rock I could find every time I put my foot down! One particularly comical incident happened on the final downhill section to get to the finish. I approached a rather high collection of gnarly roots sticking up more than most. I decided I could make it - I had successfully made it over much worse today.
But as I compressed my front wheel in the approach, my back tire slipped a bit and while I cleared the roots, I didn’t quite have the momentum I needed to get over them! I braked to avoid falling off but I then remained frozen in place and couldn’t seem to move in any direction!! It would have been funny if I wasn’t so close to the finish or so exhausted. I grabbed the tree to my right but it was a big one and I was too close to it to get any movement. I tried to fall the other way but I couldn’t without falling a long way. I tried to roll backwards but my wheel was so stuck it wouldn’t budge. Finally I unclipped and even then, swinging my right leg over the saddle was nearly impossible. My legs felt like they were wooden and heavy by now, but I finally managed to get my leg over in time for the bike to rock forward and I ended up eating a mouthful of the soft mossy BC soil. My only crash of the day and it happened in slow motion. 🤣 And then we were off over some more downhill and finally to the gravel roads where I love to dig in and get some speed whenever I can. Because it was such a late start and such a long day on the bike, we arrived very late to camp. We had a choice of walking 10 minutes to dinner or eating from some food trucks at the camp, so sausages and tacos it was!! 😆 I was too late to book a massage but I am hooked up to the vitamin IV at the moment getting some vitamin C, B, magnesium and some other stuff. I hope it will help somewhat with recovery! I’m recovering very well in general, but my knees are starting to swell and stiffen up and my back is getting tighter and tighter each day...the climbs are killing my back! John waited for me again all day. Will get some photos up as soon as we can! I had zero WiFi tonight - there just isn’t time for all the things!!!! ☹️ Moving up slow and steady from the back of the race...I’ve gone from 589 to 582 to 552 in the first three stages...but who’s counting? 😂 Today was perfect riding in Powell River! 52km, 1046m elevation gain, and a feature trail called Death Rattle! It was my best day yet at this race, and proud to say I rode the whole thing! My Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt BC Trail Edition was the perfect bike for these trails. The riding challenged me, but was manageable with my cornering, descending and braking skills all improving day by day. Aid stations were fantastic today, my highlights being the 50’s style pin-up girls and diner theme complete with flat Coke! And the tiki-themed area where the volunteers were wearing grass skirts and serving shots of pineapple juice was pretty special, although placed mid-climb so difficult to stop and really enjoy it. You have to love the volunteers and their dedication to standing out in the heat all day cheering us on and helping us stay hydrated and fed. There were some swoopy singletrack sections today, some pretty technical rooty sections, as always, loads of climbing. My skills are improving exponentially and I was sending it over anything and everything today! Roots were invisible to me and I only stopped to let faster riders pass. The forests of Powell River are lush and green, and as I write this, it is pissing it down, so it’s not hard to see why! John was amazing again today. We weren’t registered as a team and they wouldn’t switch it at the end, so we’re technically riding solo, but John’s been riding ahead and waiting ages for me at the end of nearly every section. Taking photos, cheering me up steep climbs and just being wonderful. Because we finished earlier today, and we are camping in the same place as last night, we were able to actually enjoy the camp after our ride. We had beers at the Rocky Mountain Bicycles beer tent, I had a dip in the Pacific Ocean, and we are now chilling in the tent for the first time other than sleeping. Buses will shuttle us down the road for dinner and tomorrow morning we wake up, eat, take a ferry to Earl’s Cove and expect a late finish as the stage doesn’t kick off until 11AM. Because we finished earlier today, and we are camping in the same place as last night, we were able to actually enjoy the camp after our ride. We had beers at the Rocky Mountain Bicycles beer tent, I had a dip in the Pacific Ocean, and we are now chilling in the tent for the first time other than sleeping. Buses will shuttle us down the road for dinner and tomorrow morning we wake up, eat, take a ferry to Earl’s Cove and expect a late finish as the stage doesn’t kick off until 11AM. |