Fall hiking, in pictures

A little jaunt with Erica around Mt Olympia ski hill in the neighbouring town of Piedmont. Fun enough that I went for a blast there on the MTB the next day.

Cycling Northern Tucson, part deux

I've been finding that some good use of Google Maps can scope out interesting, mountain-side communities, complete with winding, baby-bottom smooth, road surfaces. This occasionally means negotiating gated community security, but fortunately their methods appear to only be intent on barring entry to car-based trespassing.


Based on this, I mapped out a route that took me up Dove Mountain (Tortolita).


View Larger Map

Turns out there are some super-impressive houses out there, built on some super-impressively steep roads. And of course they have a golf course or three.

Then my route took me west out to, well, desert. Around Avra Valley, gas stations, houses, and frankly pavement, all become fairly scarce. Luckily the Google Maps car and "google maps street view" has been to many of these places, and a little research prepared me for this off-the-beaten-track part of my adventure. But until that point, I was treated to a neat road that appeared to stretch forever into the desert. Did I mention it was really, really hot?


At the north-western-most point of my route, I came to the junction shown below:


Although it might seem somewhat crazy to leave a nice(ish) paved road and head into the dust and dirt, you might see from the photo/map that the road doesn't really head directly for a booming metropolis, or any guaranteed supply of water. At least not any time soon, when travelling by bike. So the dirt road is actually the precursor to me staying within the realm of civilization. You see, at this point I'm two flat tires away from a long, hot walk back to town, given that I have only one CO2 cartridge (the pump is on order).

So now that I've taken the road less travelled, and feeling pretty hardcore, you can imagine my surprise when I came across this sign:

Exactly how many bicycles come out this way? Apart from the general lack of pavement and water, I must imagine the gun-toting, cattle-guard-sign-shooting locals are also deterrent.

The rest of the ride went fairly smoothly. I did have a small meltdown as I arrived back at the first gas station, walking in like a ghost, typically salt-encrusted, and then proceeded to sit outside with a 2 litre cup of oh-so-sweet-and-cold pop, but apart from that, made it back barely after sunset.

Paint on a speaker, on camera

Movember

With the month of Movember nearly done, my 'stache has gotten to a respectable - some may even say visible! state. So I decided to do a couple of self-portraits...

Still accepting donations for Prostate Cancer Canada at my Movember Mo Space.

Spring time

I was out riding on the bike path on Sunday evening and saw quite a few goslings being herded across the path by hissing parents.


So I went out Tuesday evening, and riding around Princes Island park, it didn't take long to find a whole gaggle of goslings.


It had only been two days, but it's easy to see how quickly they grow.


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It was pretty cool to finally get some shots of them...after riding along the path to work in the spring of 2007 (my first full spring in Calgary) I've been meaning to get out the bazooka lens in the spring and go shoot some fowl. I haven't seen any ducklings yet...I wonder if their breeding season is a little later?

Photos from Toronto

I've heard that it's not the camera that makes a good photo, it's the person behind the camera. Possbily true for outdoor photos during day time...

Had a great time in Toronto last weekend. Met up with great friends, enjoyed the city life, and got in enough sport to make me need a rest when I got back to Calgary.


A couple of iPhone pics of the Cavalcade of Lights fireworks at Nathan Phillips Square that I went to with Nigel, Noah & Gwyn and co.
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A shot of me taken by Ed with what appeared to be a pretty phat lens, but unfortunately using a Nikon... ;)

More Photos From the Decathlon

100 - There were 2 false starts (the first from me), so my start was more tentative then usual. That didn't stop me from moving into the lead at the 40m mark, though, BAM! Finished in an acceptable 11.95 with a 0.4 m/s headwind. (current decathlon PB - 11.58, +1.0)

LJ - I was looking for a PB in this event since the the last competition was 2 cm off and after two 100m races. The first jump was a solid 6.18. This set me up for 2 nothing-to-lose attempts, a foul and a 6.24. (current decathlon PB - 6.32, +2.9)


An amazing takeoff, only to have the official raise the red flag, signaling a foul.


SP - 8.43. Technique was off despite a PB a few weeks ago. If only those legs (as seen in the photo below) could be harnessed! LOL. (current decathlon PB - 8.54)


HJ - During the pre-comp meeting with the official, I asked for the heights to go through 1.66, a 1cm PB. I missed the first attempt at 1.63 but the second was an excellent jump. I couldn't repeat it at 1.66. (current decathlon PB - 1.65)

400 - 1. The lane draw sucked. I got lane 6... of 6. 2. Competitors in lanes 4 & 5 pulled out. 3. One the guys that pulled out false started... Despite this, I managed to stay out in front the entire way. The time so just how out of shape I still am: 53.57 (current decathlon PB - 51.44)

So this was a solid, but not spectacular Day 1. My score at this point was 2837. Current PB is 3030.

110mH - The second attempt at getting 3 strides between hurdles was much more successful than the last - 8 of 9. With this new stride rhythmn it was almost impossible to get a huge new PB - 19.83, +1.0 - previous PB, 21.22.

DT - Argh! The warmup was very good. There was lines marked out at every 10m, so I could easily see that I threw more than 30m during warmups (that would have been a massive dec PB). What happened in the actual competition was a bit unfortunate. The first throw felt a bit off coming out of the back of the circle - foul. The second - foul. I needed to make sure that I got points for this event, so I had to do a standing throw - 25.09 (current decathlon PB - 26.10)

PV - I didn't have access to a stiff enough pole, so I was in the right frame of mind from the beginning. Cleared my starting height of 3.51, but not 3.71. Disappointing. (current decathlon PB - 3.80)

JT - Here I could have easily set a new PB, but I didn't take the time to clear my mind after the pole vault and set up for the next event. I just wasn't feeling it. During the first approach I let my arm drop and the end of the javelin clipped the ground (26-something), on the second I overstrode and fouled the line, the last was a barely acceptable 30.49. (current decathlon PB - 33.22)

1500 - I chose to follow the pack. First lap was done in 71, a little faster than the goal of 76. During the second the athlete leading the pack pulled out, and had I been more experienced in running the 1500 I would have passed and lead out at this point. Instead I needed to heard that the last lap was done in 86. I made my move and finished in a surprisingly easy 4:42.6 (current decathlon PB - 4:39.7)

Due to the massive hurdles PB and unusual (for me) occurence of a decathlon with reasonably solid (for me) results for all the events, I hit a Day 2 PB of 2186 and an overall decathlon PB of 5023 - the first over 5000 points. Woot.

Coming, in 4 weeks time: PBs in LJ, SP, HJ, 110H, DT, JT, 1500 and overall. BAM!

Tim's decathlon

Haven't got time to do a full report of all the butt-kicking Tim did on the weekend at his "practice" decathlon, but here's a teaser: Tim on his way to his first win of the weekend.

First race of the year

April 15th or there abouts was the first race of the year, but more significantly, was the first race since:
a) I bought a TT bike, an uber-expensive (for me) Cervelo P3C
b) I bought a skin suit
c) I came last in a race, in my cat 3 debut at the end of the 2008 road season
d) I trained my guts out for 6 months over winter in warm (not!) sunny (not this year!) Calgary

So I was pretty nervous...if it didn't go well, then I was threatening to throw my TT bike in the dumpster and take up mini-golf.

I rode the course on the Friday before. When the guy from Crankmasters said it was hilly, well, he should have said really, really hilly. But custom made for a light-weight like myself.

The ride itself didn't go totally to plan...I just couldn't bring myself up to a "PHD level of suffering". I felt fast on the way out, but assumed that the way back would be a painful slog into the wind. Turned out that the way out was into the wind...huh. So I came screaming over the line with about 20km worth of energy left.



But once the results came out, it turned out that I did really well. In fact, I beat my race result from Strathmore, which I did the same time of the year in 2008, only, the race was two kilometres SHORTER! Looks like the hard yards (and big bucks) were not in vain.