Marc's Public Blog - Biking, Running, Rollerblading and other Exercising

Current Music: ID &T; Classics - The Megamix
Current Mood: Brain no worky worky :)

Yeah, so while I had plenty to keep me at home, I just couldn't bear to skip another day of exercising. It had been 10 days since I stopped due to my cold...
I didn't get fancy, I just went to my usual spot, Montebello, happened to meet a fellow miata friend from BAMO over there (funny how I meet people in that parking lot), and went for the ride.
I already noticed on the way to the parking lot that I had forgotten my heart rate monitor (doh), and half way down the path, I see a "you are wearing your helmet, right?" sign and say double-doh (it was in my car in the parking lot).

Oh well, today was not a day I was going to use my brain apparently... I did grizzly back up in 24:48, which isn't bad (second best time), but wasn't better than my last time even though I had hopes to have done better. I guess I shouldn't have been too hopefull after having been without any exercise for 10 days and having just recovered from a cold...

At least I'm able to clear the river without stepping off my bike now, but I still can't make it through the pile of rocks on the other side (one day maybe).
Further on the path, there is that really tough piece that I've just had to step down for the last 2 times I tried it, and this time I refused to go through without making it, so I went back down and up 8 times, until I managed to clear it. What was cool is that soon afterwards, there is a really steep incline covered with loose sand, and I somehow managed to barely clear it in third gear. That one was very tricky, my back wheel slipped a lot despite the higher gear, and I was actually happy to have gone through that one without setting a foot down.


The rest was mostly uneventful, I just need to change the break pads on my protege, I've apparently managed to wear them out on my last trips up and down 84
(well down mostly, I guess :)

I've moved all my Montebello pictures in the same directory. They're all here now

Current Music: Paul Oakenfold - Great Wall CD1 - 02 Little Wonder - Eclipse
Current Mood: ask me later :)

After advise from Naomi and Xav, I broke out and went to buy some biking shoes with a clip that fit my pedals (Shimano SPDs), and I found out what Xav was actually talking about when he kept mentioning clits :)
(ok, I'll skip the lame jokes about them having to be the right size and so forth ;)
This did cost me $130 ($110 shoes from specialized, plus $20 for the plate and clip), and it felt wrong to pay that much for shoes, but I have to start living like I actually do earn decent money once in a while. Saving is good, but what's the point of money if it's just sitting in a bank earning really meager interest (yes, if I didn't hate paperwork as much I would actually be investing it somewhere).

Anyway, after riding home on my bike from the bike store, having just proceeded to lock myself out of my car (which is hard since I carry two separate keys for that exact reason), I finally made it back to my car with a 3rd key (I figured it was faster than calling AAA on a sunday), and left, quite late (past 17:40) for Skyline.
I did my usual ride, and actually scored a 24mn33secs up grizzly flat, my personal best by a whole 45 seconds. Unfortunately, I achieved that time both thanks to the clips on the shoes and to the fact that I felt tired and my legs weren't happy from the very beginning, so I did a fair amount of climbing while being out of the saddle instead of sitting on the bike (en danceuse en Français dans le texte).
Either way, who cares, I did a great time while being in a questionable shape.

Because I have questionable common sense, and I enjoy pushing myself a bit apparently, when I reached skyline back up from the lake, it was 19:40, and dailight was running out fast, but I just didn't want to ride back on the road, I took the trail across which I had taken once (white oak trail). It is reasonably challenging after a good ride, but I went as fast as I could so as not to get stuck uphill in a forest in the dark.
Long story short, I made down and up in less than 25mn, and somehow missed a turn and ended up back on pagemill instead of the montebello parking, and by then I was so disoriented that I didn't even know which part of pagemill was up or where the parking was, so I figured I'd try what looked up, since going down past the parking was a really bad plan after the sun had set (it was twilight by then).
Somehow, what I thought was up ended up being down, and going to the parking lot where my car was, so I made it back ok, with 10mn of twilight to spare :)

Summary: I was very happy to have brought my jacket because it actually was quite cold (not cool; cold). The shoes fit nicely, and while clipping them in definitely takes some using to, and is quite hard when you do an uphill start, at least clipping out hasn't been a problem. I think being able to pedal up (i.e. pull with the legs in addition to pushing) has also been somewhat useful as an alternative source of power when my other muscles were getting tired.
Overall, I do like them, I think they'll grow on me with time.