Video update, always best to view in HiDef...

Technogrind is almost open, kinda fun riding through the large patches of snow.



From Technogrind I headed for Milky Way.



Which had me heading down Green Door and across the highway to Lower Green Door.



Up the Wagon Road and along the golf course to hit the Rubberhead, a classic old school swoopy section.



1.5hrs of goodness from door to door.

Later in the day, the whole family hit the trails and the boys got to lead the way up to Moe's and Centennial, then over to Miner's, Roger's, Cemetery and back up into Happy Valley. Ribs and sweet potatoes sitting in the slow cooker for post ride resupply.

A great day.

Less than a week until the next 6hr race. It would be so nice to have a fully functioning bicep tendon, but the minor tear is still causing me a fair bit of pain and interfering with my normal training/riding. The bicep is hurting enough to wake me up throughout the night depending on what position the arm is in. Uugh.

I'm looking forward to the racing, but sadly it won't be at the level of intensity or aggressiveness that I prefer, a bit disappointing really. Still, a lot of the hammerheads from across Western Canada will be at the Salty Dog, and it will be good to be in the mix, as well as surrounded by that competitive spirit. Being around like-minded competitive racers is always energizing. And because I'm competitive, I will probably struggle with finding the right balance between keeping it sensible for my injury and throwing caution to the wind and hammering harder than I should. If anyone out there sees me racing hard, tell me to slow down!

If I can protect my bicep enough it will make for a good training race for the 24hr Solo at the end of this month.

The weather has been great for the last few days. I'm enjoying getting out with the boys, and at the same time helping them to dial in their hardtail skillsets. 99.999999% of the riders here in Rossland are riding full suspension bikes, typically with 5" of travel (or more), so hammering a singlespeed hardtail through this terrain is extremely unusual. Glad my Orbea Alma 29'er S-Team is up to the task. Hardtails are tricky on this terrain, and teaching the boys how to move a hardtail smartly down these trails is fun, and at the same time it's elevating their riding skills. I suspect they will both transition to full suspension bikes in the next 3-4yrs, and if that's the case they will be better riders for having learned how to move a bike like a scalpel, instead of a (full suspension) axe. Learning surgical movement on a bike is why I'm a fan of riders getting out and doing some BMX, or rigid or hardtail bike riding; the fundamentals of 'pumping' a bike through the terrain, choosing tight flow lines, connecting with the bike, energy transfer, etc, etc, etc... these are all great skills for any rider.



Following on the last video, here's another one in the same theme. You know the theme, where I ride on the back of the boy's wheels giving them an endless stream of how-to's. Some day, they'll probably look back at these videos and laugh, and I'm sure that laughing will occur right about the time they are old enough, strong enough and skilled enough to be looking over their shoulders to see me struggling to keep up with them. And when that day comes, I'll be the happiest guy on that trail.

Looking at my last blog post it's hard to believe we were skiing just over a month ago. Since then I've been riding more and more singletrack as the trails open up here in Rossland. As most of you know, I ride pretty much all year long; when the snow starts falling in November I ride through it, in the darkest parts of winter I ride through it, when the Spring melt-off hits I ride through the freezing slush and keep reminding myself that eventually there will be dirt again.

Well the dirt is here, and it is good. I've been hitting the trails pretty hard over the last month or so and having lots of fun. I've got great fitness at the moment and multi-hour singletrack rides are no big deal. That all changed today when I ended up in Emergency this afternoon after a stupid accident. The prognosis is a minor tear of my left bicep tendon, and I'm supposed to stay off the bike for a week. Further to that, considering I rely on a lot of upper body strength and reefing hard on my handlebars is necessary to race my singlespeed hardtail, I might have to take a pass on the 6hr race coming up in two weeks. Uugh! It's hard to race a bike with a bad left arm. I'm pretty stubborn though, so I'm telling myself I'll probably do the race, even though typing that sentence out is hurting my bicep.

If I don't get to do the 6hr in two weeks, I'm sure I'll be ok for the 24hr in four weeks. There's gonna be some kind of racing in May, even if I have to do it on a unicycle.

Till the next update, here's some video I shot on the local trails. This first video shows the early conditions on Cemetery, shot nearly 3wks ago. You have to watch this one in high definition as things are moving pretty quickly.



This next video was shot a couple of days ago and follows Keegan down a trail called Rogers, it's a fairly rocky and technical trail for an 8yr old on a new bike, he did great. As you will hear throughout the video, it's hard to stop a coach from coaching.



This last video follows Evan down Cemetery, which is further on in the same ride seen above. Evan has a nice flowy style that is heavily influenced by riding a lot with a certain singlespeed racing dad. He's still got quite a few things to learn but overall he's pretty fast for a 9yr old, and it's fun to watch his style develop.



I'm gonna sign off here. I still have lots to talk about but instead of typing (which hurts), I'm going to test a theory that quality IPA's have magical healing properties. I'll be sure to drink the IPA's with my right bicep.

Here's some ski footage from three weeks ago. I forgot to post it up as I was scrambling to prep for 24hrs of Old Pueblo.

This one shows the boys heading down War Eagle and War Eagle trees, it's a double black diamond that looks easy on video, the Go Pro isn't really demonstrating how steep it can get in spots.



Keegan isn't in this video, as he hurt himself in the prior run, so he hung out at the ski lodge while we got another couple of runs in. It's War Eagle and War Eagle Trees again, with Doreen along for some fun.



This run is down Beer Belly, another fairly steep run. It's fun to watch the boys move through the trees towards the end of the video.

I've been a competitor for as long as I can remember. As a young boy growing up in England I liked to compete, whether it was throwing rocks the furthest or kicking a soccer ball the hardest, competing came naturally. I enjoyed the spirit of competition, the camaraderie of competition and learning to explore my limits. I didn't know it at the time but my early childhood days in England and Canada were setting a good foundation for the next phase in my life.

When I joined the military I was a physically fit kid with lots of potential and I had a strong drive to be the best at everything I did. I didn't always come out on top, but I had my fair share of successes. Those 'wins' made me confident in my abilities and that allowed me to push even harder to see what I was capable of. As luck would have it, I somehow managed to get on a rare and challenging military career path that would (on a variety of different levels) test and teach me about myself and those around me. Even when the suffer-o-meter was high, and the odds seemed insurmountable, I embraced the grind and got on with the challenge in front of me. I liked the hardships, I liked solving the tough problems, I liked learning more about what I had inside of me.

That theme of pushing myself hard and embracing the grind has continued every year for as long as I can remember. It's my 50th birthday this year and I'm still pushing myself like I'm 20yrs younger. Looking back to when I was 30yrs of age I thought I was indestructible, now 20yrs later I realize I'm not indestructible but I still take risks and push hard. 40 years of competing, grinding it out and pushing hard. Why?

I'm not sure why it is that I want to compete and push as hard as I can. It's a question I've asked myself more than once. Whether I'm competing against myself or against a thousand other people, it's always the same thing - I push myself hard. An easy answer might be that I'm simply wired to be competitive and that wiring was further reinforced as the years unfolded. There's a good chance the real answer is probably more complex than that but ultimately I guess it doesn't matter because it is what it is.

In its purest form, competition isn't a neutral position... you either win, or you lose, there is no such thing as kinda win. Going for the win has got me in lots of trouble over the years as I bit off more than I could chew time and time again. But I wouldn't change any of that because I've learned more from losing than I have from winning. I've learned more from failure than I have from success. Sometimes an epic failure teaches you more than an epic win.

At this years 24hrs of Old Pueblo I had an epic fail. Did I learn anything?

24hrs of OP started off decently with a punishing four week training camp leading up to race week. I put myself through the meat grinder of two-a-days and winter night riding on Ice Spiker Pro's while wearing a ski helmet and goggles. It was miserable training in the nasty winter conditions, until it eventually became 'normal', then I started to like it, then it was time to pack up my bike for the trip. Along the way I did all the little things that signify a new training block/new race season, like replacing old gear with some new gear, check out this super fancy $15 PC-870 chain. ;-)



It was late by the time I left Rossland on Wednesday night. Too much to do and not enough time. Eventually I arrived at Spokane International airport and pulled into long-term parking. By 0100hrs I had climbed into the back of the Pilot with my sleeping bag setup next to my bike box and I set my alarm for 5hrs of sleep.



Half a day later I was standing in the Tucson sunshine with Julie, Steve and Dave, all of us stoked to ride on dirt instead of snow! Last time we had been together was at the 24hr Solo down in Texas at the end of October, a great race along with great results, you can click here to read about that one. We grabbed some supplies at Whole Foods enroute to our accommodations, which turned out to be more difficult to find than we had anticipated. It was quite late by the time we unpacked the rental minivan and settled in for the night.

The next morning had all of us excited to get out on the race course dirt!



After a reasonably uneventful pre-ride it was time to head back to our 1940's ranch cabin and get prepped for the following race day. That prep included all the usual things necessary to race a 24hr mountain bike race, including eating big and enjoying a tasty beer.



Once we got to the race site on Saturday morning we had to setup a pit area for three Solo racers, and because we had all flown down we didn't have a tent, or tables/chairs, or any of the comforts that make 24's a bit easier. So instead of pit luxuries we got to pit out of a spiky thorn bush... 5 star accommodations!



With approximately 2000 racers at the event things get a bit crazy, Julie, Dave and I were all glad to finally get on the start line and get ready to do what we were there to do - race! All the travelling and administration leading up to a big race can be a distraction at times, once the race gets going things get a lot easier, you just have to race. And speaking of racing, the conditions were great. Hey look, I'm not wearing winter hiking boots and ski goggles.



A few hours into the race and I was putting out decent lap times, good enough to put me on the podium. I felt strong and confident... a great day on the bike... until I had a nasty little wipeout. Normally I do a pretty good job of staying upright during training or in races, but this wipeout took me by surprise. I went down hard in a sketchy corner. It was totally my fault, and I paid the price by leaving some of my elbow and leg on the rocky dirt as I did a high speed slide off the trail and into a variety of cactus. Here's a photo of my elbow a few days after an infection and then some healing.



Grrrrrrr, cactus! Along with the blood running down my arm and leg, I had cactus needles everywhere, but nothing was broken so I jumped straight back on the bike and took off down the course. Approximately one minute later I began to notice that cactus needles come in many shapes and sizes. The ones that look like small green ping pong balls with needles sticking out of the ping pong were easy to pull off, the long hypodermic cactus needles with fish hook barbs that were stuck in my shoulder wouldn't come out no matter how hard I pulled on them (which isn't easy when you are racing one handed down a singletrack course), the cactus that caused me the most amount of discomfort came from the tiny little needles that were buried in my hands, in my gloves, in my legs, arse, etc. Anything that rubbed on those little needles was annoying. Medically I knew I would be ok but the needles in my hands were making my hands throb and whenever I would get out of the saddle to attack a hill on my singlespeed the weight-bearing pressure on my palms was causing a lot of discomfort as it drove all those needles deeper into my hands. I'm sure I was quite a sight as I raced along the course one-handed, while using my teeth to bite out tiny little needles.

Eventually I bumped into some medical support further down the course and they used a type of medical duct tape to pull out most of the little needles in my hands, excellent! Sadly my gloves were filled with tiny needles, so I stashed them in my jersey pocket, not to be used again. By the time I got back to my pit I had discovered two new problems. The first one was minor and required another trip to the medical tent, it turns out I had a few of the long/thick needles buried in my hands which couldn't be taken out with tape, so out came the medical tweezers and while they were at it they used pliers to pull out the fish hook cactus needles in my shoulder. The bigger problem was my fork, it wasn't functioning properly during compression or rebound and it was causing some steering issues. Maybe the wipeout created the fork issue or maybe it was just bad timing, either way it was jeopardizing my race. I did some quick brainstorming with Steve in the pit and he suggested increasing the air pressure in the fork, effectively turning it into a rigid fork. Good idea, so we threw a bunch more air into the fork and off I went to see if it would fix things up. One lap later and I knew that solution wouldn't work, the fork was still steering poorly and with no suspension properties up front my telemark-injured left wrist was miserable, I needed some suspension. To increase the frustration level, I was now racing with my big black winter insulated cross-country ski gloves in the Arizona mid-day heat, because my other gloves were a cactus needle disaster. Nice.

At this point I'll compress the story... I fought with that fork for another 8hrs. In between laps I was visiting various mechanic tents, or anyone that might have an opinion or genius idea, I would apply any potential fixes and head out on the fork to see if it was race-able. Attempted fix, more racing, another attempted fix , more racing, another attempt, more racing... you get the idea. Nothing was working. By midnight I called it quits after trying everything I could think of to make the fork work properly. 12hrs into the race and I was done. Uugh!

So where was the epic fail?

I have two identical Orbea race bikes and I should have taken both bikes to this race, period. Sure, airline travel by yourself with a second bike is a hassle but that's what I should have done. With two bikes at a 24hr you can instantly swap to a reliable backup or cannibalize parts. Not taking that second bike was a calculated risk that cost me a race performance. That mistake was totally my fault.

Once my race was terminated I switched into coach/support mode for Julie and Dave, but I really didn't have much to do since Steve had everything under control. Based on that I managed to get an hour of sleep in the middle of the night, and a sure sign that you might be tired from all the travelling is when you find yourself in a nearby Solo support pit, in this position, using a Tupperware container as a pillow.



The other disappointment on the weekend was Dave losing his eyesight about 18hrs into the race. The winds were quite high on Saturday so a lot of dust was getting blown around, that fine dust hung around a bit throughout the night and combine that with a lot of campfire smoke around the pit areas and it was affecting peoples vision. When Dave was late to return from an early morning lap I went looking for him and eventually found him at the medical tent where they had already radioed in his race termination. Dave said his vision had been reduced to a haze that had him riding off the trail because he couldn't see the terrain he was riding on, up until that point he was in the money. The good news out of the weekend came courtesy of Julie, she secured a 2nd place Solo Open Female finish and a cash payout. Steve, Dave and I are patiently waiting for the all the beers she's going to buy us with that prize money. ;-)

Once we got our spiky thorn bush pit gear packed up we hung out for the awards ceremonies. While waiting, I had a good chance to catch up with Al (and Duchess) where we got to compare new wounds and have a laugh or two.



After the awards ceremony we headed back to the 1940's ranch cabin to clean up and hit a nearby hole in the wall Mexican restaurant, yes!



They let us bring our own beer and wine, yes!



With our bellies full of assorted goodness it was back to the cabin to nurse an IPA and fall asleep on the couch.



The next morning we woke up to a gorgeous sunny Arizona day and a nice casual breakfast was a treat after the intensity of the previous days. Shortly after breakfast, Steve made an interesting discovery in the kitchen, this little guy was wandering around on the floor.



After de-scorpioning the kitchen, Steve got a good shot of Julie and I drinking coffee on the front porch before we all got on with tearing bikes apart and generally getting ready to fly that afternoon. Sadly, it was only 10 minutes of coffee drinking, it should have been longer. If I could have, I would have spent another hour on that front porch, not moving, just sitting in the sun with another cup of coffee.



Scrambling to the airport, returning the rental minivan and getting through the TSA nonsense is always a test of character. After a short flight we found ourselves in the Seattle airport terminal with just enough time to grab a beer and then hop on our separate flights. Does anyone out there think that a bunch of condensed travel, racing and staying on top of a pile of athlete files makes you tired?



The remainder of the drive home from Spokane was unremarkable. I pulled up to the house sometime after midnight, did some more athlete files and I think I was in bed by 0300hrs. My phone alarm to get the boys up for school went off and the first thing they said was "How was your race, dad?", immediately followed by "Wow, look at your elbow!", and then we got on with the normal routine.

Two weeks after the race and I'm still thinking about unresolved business at the 24hrs of Old Pueblo. I want another crack that event. I don't mind being beaten by another racer, it means they raced smarter and harder than I did and that's a good thing, I can respect that result. I surely don't like being beaten by bad luck (or my own stupidity), and though I've raced enough to know that things happen and races get derailed, it doesn't mean I've got to like it.

When I line up for a 24hr race I want to test myself for a full 24hrs. After all, I'm a competitor... always have been, always will be.

Things are pretty normal around here right now, the boys and Doreen have been getting in some cross country skiing up at Blackjack and we have been hitting the mountain for some downhill. Here's a quick photo update of the last few days.

Doreen and Keegan cross country skiing up to Gibbards Cabin.



The boys and I hitting a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant.



Sunny day on the mountain.



The boys baking some cookies with Doreen.



Wednesday night I drive down to the Spokane International airport, to sleep in the back of the Pilot, so I can catch an early flight to Tucson for the 24hrs of Old Pueblo race. I'm going to be hooking up with Dave Franks and Julie Kelly who are also going to be racing in the Solo category, maybe some repeat fun like last October?

I haven't had much time to train and with the snow conditions up here there has been a lot of this:



And this:



And to ease some of the suffering there has been a bit of this:



I'm really looking forward to this upcoming week; getting back on some dirt, racing against some tough N. American competition and having a lot of laughs with like-minded athletes who are friends. Let the countdown begin...

Today was the John Heintz Cup, what a great day! I got the pleasure of accompanying Evan while he raced SUPER HARD as a Solo racer. It took him 46 minutes to complete the event which I thought was really good considering he lost time to all the transition points. The average time for the 5 kid teams was around 35 minutes and as you will see in the video, it takes time for Solo racers to swap between the various disciplines. I didn't help him do any of the physical stuff, I was just there to help pull off boots and put on other boots, make sure he was ok and coach the best out of him. He stepped up, all by himself.

To watch our 9yr old dig deep and suffer, then dig deeper and suffer some more, in a continuing loop of dig and suffer... was really inspiring. Gritty determination and solid work ethic helped him push through the tough parts near the end of the race. It was so good to race next to him and watch it unfold, I couldn't have been prouder.

Here's the video I shot during the race, I had to chop a pile of footage out to keep the length below the YouTube restrictions, so just imagine this going on for 46 minutes. ;-)

I know it isn't a very good editing job but I had too many other things to do this evening so this only got half my attention. It should give you an idea of what happened during the event.



As you saw in the video, I didn't record much of the running portion of the race, just imagine a lot of this...



Don't let that last photo freak you out, kids are tough and they can go hard when they want to/need to. Here's a shot taken 10 minutes after he completed the race, hot chocolate will solve most things.



Lots of participants, especially kids teams which was nice to see.



All of Evan's hard work paid off as he got up on the podium with Jojo, a female Solo racer who is only 7yrs old. Seven Years Old... how awesome is that?!?! Here's a fun little video.





Keegan got in on the action with a 5 kid team, he was responsible for the biking portion and of course he had lots of fun. He's thinking of doing it Solo next year, I hope he does. Here's one of him on the podium with some teammates.



Ultimately, it's all about them enjoying the moment. And they did.

I've been busy trying to squeeze in some training hours this week. Lots of day and night riding in the cold and snow. Here's an example of what's been going on, along with an update (during the audio portion of this video) for the rest of the weekend. Sorry about the brake squeal, it's what you get when you combine wet and icy cold rotors.



It's not all smooth sailing, fast snowy descents can get you in trouble. I had my head fully plunged into the snow and had to blow snow out of my nostrils to breath.



Just one more hour of trainer time tonight and I'll be sitting at nearly 16hrs since Tuesday. Lots of vertical gain and cold temps have worn me down a bit, I'm looking forward to a day off on Monday.

Keegan and Evan are having a good time this weekend during the Rossland Winter Carnival. Today they were racing in a street ski race event, both of them did great considering they were racing on borrowed skate skis instead of using their own cross country skis. They were racing together as a two-kid team, lots of fun to watch and cheer.

Evan with the game face and Keegan EXCITED. ;-)





Tomorrow should be another good day for the boys, they are both racing in the John Heintz Cup. Keegan is going to be on a 5 kid team, he's going to be doing the bike portion. Evan is going to be racing it Solo and I'm going to race alongside Evan to cheer him on and help him with the transitions between the various portions of the race. You can learn more about the event here:

http://www.rosslandwintercarnival.com/EventRules.aspx

I'll take my GoPro camera along to get some video of the excitement!

Doreen is hitting the resort tomorrow morning with her new alpine setup. She went with a pair of Blizzard Sambas and the Marker F10 Tour AT binding to match up with her Tecnica Cochise W100 boots. Looks like a slick system, pretty soon we'll be trying to keep up with her in the trees.

People ask me what lights I use for night riding/racing. I've been using Dinotte products for a few years, I like them a lot. The Dinotte in this video is called the XML-3, it uses three of the CREE-XML LED's and puts out approx 1000 lumens on its highest setting. It's a really light package with a small footprint, perfect for helmet mounted racing.

This video was shot an hour ago using my Android phone, the video doesn't display how really bright this light is but the video does a decent job of showing the difference between the three light settings.



You can learn more about the light here:

http://store.dinottelighting.com/dinotte-xml-3-headlight-p174.aspx

In case anyone is wondering, Dinotte didn't pay me to do this, the video is for all those racers/people who ask about my light system. Hopefully it helps.

In the video I mentioned how I know the trail really well and I'm quite comfortable bombing around on it in the middle of the night but on occasion I get a bit off track... like I did yesterday. ;-)



Whether it's daytime or nighttime, blasting down a tight hard packed snowy trail is soooooo much fun.

It's been cold here for the last few days, well cold for Rossland. We were up on the mountain yesterday and it was -13C which isn't common but it was a nice sunny day so it made for some great skiing.



Today it was -17C so we decided it was a no-go for the mountain and basically relaxed at home for the morning. In the afternoon, Doreen and the boys went up to Blackjack for a couple of hours of XC skiing while I got out and rode my bike.

I ended up making my way to Blackjack and Evan wanted to show me a trick he was working on. As always, the videos are better if you click on a higher resolution.



The next one went a bit better.



The trails were cold today and it was pretty narrow riding, here's the start of Moe's trail.



This one is longer and finishes off Moe's trail and gets into town. For anyone worried about the speeds I'm doing on the road, don't worry the Ice Spiker Pro's are great traction in winter and I'm quite used to them.