"Peak" Performance...

I'm sure all of you know the benefits of warming up before exercising. Get the muscles warmed up and ready for a work out. There's also long term warm ups where you train for a particular activity so that when you get to it...you might make it to the end. This past weekend we did not warm up...

I can't remember if I posted this before but I recently bought a new Kona Kula mountain bike. Absolutely love it but hadn't done more than ride around the paved streets of Calgary. That's why when Jeff called early last week to say "Mike, we're going to the mountains, you're coming" I said "Sweet! Um, just wait, I have plans with Noel. Hmm, give me a second..."

Here's the part where I say what an amazing girlfriend Noel is. I called her, explained the situation, and she said "You can go, this is something you've wanted to do for a while...but you owe me!" Yup, I'm a pretty lucky guy.

So Friday I headed out to the mountains with Terry to hold a spot while we waited for Jeff, Sat, Doris, and JR to show up. Jeff and JR didn't arrive until midnight, which wouldn't normaly be a problem except for they had both tents. Luckily we had beer. Thirsty Beaver Beer. They found a few drunk campers around a fire when they arrived.

Anyway to keep this from getting too long: Saturday morning we head out with all the bikes, leave the van at the end of the trail, and start off. The very first part of the trail is a 700m vertical climb through switchbacks. This would be a challenge even with paved trails, I would have even settled for dirt. Instead we had loose rocks and roots. Ugh, terrible. Took a few breaks. At the top of the climb we realized that Doris, due to a time commitment, wouldn't be able to finish so she and JR retreated back to the first car. The rest of us continued, bit of flat, bit of trees, and then another climb to the peak. We broke for lunch there, enjoyed the view, and let our hearts calm down. Unfortunately, a few other things calmed down and stiffened up. Ass and leg muscles. Very painful to get back on the bikes but we managed. The next part of the trek was a few kilometers along the ridge (flat and finally fun) but then a dip and another 500m climb. Thankfully this is when Terry rolled his ankle and Sat and I went over our handle bars all simultaneously (all about 30m apart on the trail). We knew at this point that we should be calling it quits. We took a short cut trail down to the road, Jeff and Sat going on ahead to get the van and I stayed with Terry.

In the van it was a pretty quick and unanymous decision to pack up camp and head back to Calgary. Basically we did the kind of ride that you would do at the END of the season when you're conditioned and in shape. Not on the first trip of the year. Beer never tasted better. Also, I managed to make it up to Olds to see Noel after all. Funny how things work out. I think she predicted this from the beginning and just wanted to laugh at me limping around for the evening.


Feeling better today, going to be back on the bike soon...but key word will be "easy" trails.