Summer Break 2015

Right at the beginning of riding season (shortly after doing Paris to Ancaster) I broke my foot!
And no - not from a spectacular bike crash...just from slipping on the stairs in my house & slamming it into the metal spindles.  Really very lame.  So lame I given up even trying to cook up a better story.

After I did it I went through a period of denial.  Pushing aside the fact that my foot hurt a LOT & got worse every day.  Various friends told me it looked bad/might be broken/go get it looked at/xray/etc (even a physiotherapist & a nurse).  I ignored them. Though even to me I had to admit my foot looked terrible.  All toes were black, black on the top & left side & even black on the bottom. 

For a week I held on to the notion that I just bruised it really badly.  No way it's broken. It even felt better in my bike shoe & pedaling hurt way less than walking.  Plus the snow was gone, trails were finally dry & it was just the start of riding season!!

And for a whole week I kept on stubbornly riding like normal.  I even raced the first Ocup....

which was the final straw.

Holy $%^& that was painful.  Advil & adrenaline can only do so much.  Even clipping in my foot into my pedal  OUCH  Pedaling hard up hills OUCH  Riding over rocks OUCH... So much OUCH.

2015 Ocup #1 Woodnewton - Being stubborn - but psyched I was killing the big rock garden this year OUCH

I finally surrendered & limped in to the hospital.

Sorry it IS broken

And a cast & 6 weeks of couch time to start.  A highlight was getting switched from the plaster cast & crutches to a space boot cast. I could make coffee & carry the mug to the couch so easily without crutches!  Then when the cast came off fully I was allowed to road ride for physio.  I could carefully mountain bike too - but absolutely no falling/banging my foot around because even after the 6 weeks in a cast my bone still wasn't fully healed.  If I rebroke it only way to fix next was surgery which I was lucky to have avoided in the first place.  It still felt really delicate too (the bones were movable - so gross) and I was super happy to be able to do fun little rides again with my kids in the woods. 

So then for the rest of the summer - gradually getting back at it. Back riding.  Slowly.  Holy smokes...6 weeks plus 4 more in hard flat sole shoes only & being careful & much grumping around & probably too many cookies... thank goodness bike shorts are stretchy... feeling like I'm starting at the bottom...

But also I've come around to feeling OK with being at the bottom!  I was so upset at the start.  But realized not only was I really lucky just a minor injury but my life with bikes is a forever thing & this was just a blip.  Just another hill to climb.

And now I sure am dying out there but I am so happy & thankful to be BACK!

Aug 30, 2015  back racing again - Provincials at Duntroon Highlands - awesome tough fun course - hills were killing me but my foot felt good!

Paris to Ancaster - April 26, 2015

So I finally did it.  After many years of thinking about it…I did it!  My first Paris to Ancaster!

I knew it would be a big race but it was huge...2350 riders this year!  For sure the largest crowd of people & bikes I have ever been in.  It was even exciting just waiting in the start line!

Me & my P2A friends at the start.   

The first 60K was awesome.  I was having a great time.  A nice day riding country roads, farm lanes,  muddy off road sections of trail, some rail trail, some fun adventures too - like getting my foot stuck in a hidden-in-the-mud wire fence,  etc....all part of good times on bikes.

60k of Happy Times!

Then the last 10K happened.  What the heck? I was just riding along a nice fire road with a nice (!) NE wind in my face when my legs decided happy times were over & started cramping up.  Ugh.  I had to totally slow down to soft pedal mode to keep spinning to just get done.

 Either it's just my perception or it's actual fact - the last 10K of Paris to Ancaster is the most killer part.  I was expecting it too - but really didn't know what I was in for.  Earlier on (somewhere in the first happy 60K) was a mudslide.   I partly carried my bike & partly rode down it (proud!).  After that I was thinking this mudslide business isn't so bad.  But I learned they saved the real crazy one for later.

 The last 'mudslide of death' went on forever and ever and ever.  Thank goodness my bike is pretty light to carry but hiking down a steep chute keeping my balance with my bike on my shoulder with legs screaming at each step of deep mud sucking at my feet...was a long way from happy times.  All I could think was  "why am I doing this? what is wrong with me? I paid money for this?"

And then...not too far after that...THE hill.  I was warned about the awful hill at the end.  I knew it was coming.  I had done practice rides to include a big hard hill at the end to be ready.  But - I never practiced climbing a big hill at the end of a long ride with cramped up legs & shoes full of 100 lbs of mud.  The Martin Rd. climb at the end of those final 10k with delicate crampy legs was pretty awful.  Some hike-a-biking helped get it done & I managed to mostly stay on the bike and pedal quite a bit including the last steep part near the end though I didn't know I was near the end...

I had no idea I was at the top at this point of total misery.  10 seconds later I was all smiles!

And then it was done!
And I want to do it again.

2015 Milky Way Intergalactic Fatbike Race - March 8, 2015

Fatbiking is a big thing!  Everybody's talking about it, doing it, loving it....and I wasn't so sure.  It just looked kinda slow & weird....and so I kept not trying it.

Until this winter & I finally ended up going for my first fatbike ride at Hardwood with some neighbourhood friends & fatbike lovers...and I had a really fun time!  

But that was back in December & since then its been all about skiing - always DH for sure but the biggie this year has been XC at Hardwood & lots of it!  

Then with winter coming to the end....it was time for The Milky Way Intergalactic Fatbike Championships - very seriously fun deal - costumes encouraged, etc....and I just had to do it.  Borrowed a really nice Trek Farley from Hardwood & lined up for my first fatbike race!

Matchy matchy - Trek Farley blues!
Really fun ripping around the XC ski trails as fast as possible! (and next year...a costume & no snow pants!!) 

Woo hoo 1st place!