Canada Re-Cap

June 30 - July 3

I left for Penticton on Friday with my friend Be. I invited two other friends who are racing IM Canada, but they could not make it. Be went because there is lots of mountain biking. He just raced the Cream Puff (100mile MTB Race) completing 60 miles of it on his new full squish. We loaded up with two road bikes and two mountain bikes and headed north. It's an 8 hour drive. I reserved a camp spot at Lost Moose Lodge. About 6 miles from town, up in the mountains. We arrived about 2am and set-up quickly and slept.

Saturday morning, we woke up late. Had breakfast at the Elite restaurant - fantastic 70's decor, totally original. Headed to the Bike Barn for some chamois creme, IM map, mountain bike trails map and some other stuff. Watched the England/Portugal shootout - poor England. Asked about watching the tour somewhere, they recommended a coffee shop, but they hadn't got cable hooked up yet... So, we went to the lake so I could swim. I swam for 54 minutes in the lake straight. Water was cool, but I was warm pretty quick. Still, it was nice since it is getting hot. After that we headed up to the Three Blind Mice trail just north of town towards Naramata. Hot and dusty! I am not in mountain bike shape. I was pushing my HR too high, so I backed off which meant Be took off ahead and waited several times for me. Just wait till we ride the IM course... We climbed for almost an hour over rocks slabs and boulders. Tough, but fun. On the decent we picked our way through whatever trail headed down, the all ended at the same place. There were a ton of stunt ramps and log rides - didn't attempt any! The last thing I need is to break something. Speaking of which, Be caught his handlebars on a branch sending him to the ground. He rolled out, after hitting his elbow and shoulder hard on the dirt/rock ground. His elbow hurt and was slightly swollen. After making it back to the car, we headed to the ER...$570CDN later, it wasn't broken, just sore. We got some food and headed to camp. Long day tomorrow riding the course.

Sunday morning we are off about 8am to Skaha Beach to park and ride the IM course. We skipped the first 4 miles out of town and the 18 miles out and back for the special needs drop. We headed out along the lake to the first climb at McLean Creek road. McLean Creek climb is short, but steep. Need to remember to just spin up and get back into a rhythm. The descent is short and twisty, no need to hammer this part. Once back on HWY 97 we head to Oliver and Oyosoos. There are about 58 wineries along this road! The stretch Be just tucked my wheel as we rode about 22-23mph the whole way to Oyosoos. Ritcher Pass, the first major climb, is at the 40 mile mark of the race. Ritcher is a good climb. There are three sections, with little downhills been each. I got in a good rhythm on each working about 150bpm in 39x19/21 gearing. The downhill is fast and straight, good times! Then come the rollers, there's seven of them. There is a false flat/roller right as the end of the downhill, too big of gear and it will hurt you, gear down. The rollers are big, except #4 and #7 which I was able to big ring over. The rest are too big to BG over. The valley you are in is beautiful, orchards, vineyards and a river running along the course, very nice. After the rollers it gets flat heading into Crawston and the special needs turn around. We skipped the 18 mile out and back to the special needs. It's downhill out and flase flat back. Now we are at mile 80 of the course heading up to Yellow Lake. When I drove this last year, it seemed like nothing. It's a bit different when you ride it. It's very gradual uphill until you hit some short steep sections. There are three of them before Yellow Lake, the last being the steepest and longest. 39x23 gearing was fine. It didn't feel too hard, but i was tired to begin with and I should be more fresh come race day. It's all downhill from here, well not really. There another climb after Yellow Lake. Not bad, just mentally defeating if you expect it to be all over... The downhill is more work than I anticipated as well. I rarely get caught going downhill, so I intend to push the Yellow Lake climbs and spin the downhills to keep my legs moving. It will be important to keep them moving and not static on the downhills. Great views of the lakes and town on the downhill!

All in all, 90ish miles for the day, just over 5 hours. Finally found somewhere to watch the Tour, but we were there for 4 hours, two just waiting for it to come on. It sucks watching TV with commercials when you can't fast forward through them.

Monday morning rolls around. The plan was for me to swim (1hour) and run (2hours) and then mountain bike that afternoon. I swam and ran while Be drank coffee and read in town. My run was less than desirable. I ran miles 4-11 (15-22) of the marathon course. These were the miles with the hills. The hill at McLean creek road is the worst. Going down the backside was stair stepped while the front is just straight up. It was 85 degrees at 10:30 when I started, over 90 by the end. There is no shade and with my stomach not absorbing anything and getting side aches every drink I took, it was a tough run. I ran/walked the last fifteen minutes. Two little girls were selling 7up/cranberry juice drinks, that was very good! Hopefully they are there during the IM.

Be didn't want to really ride that afternoon, neither did I. I also had to catch a plane to San Diego on Tuesday night, so we packed up and left. We stopped at a winery Illinskillin, it had the best name. There are known for their ice wine, it was good, but only their most expensive version. The cheap version wasn't so good. I got two bottle of a Bordeaux blend, for my dad. I learned awhile ago that when buying wine, you must buy two bottles. It was a good blend. We were in a hurry, so the tasting was quick.

The idiot border patrol thought I had five bikes on the roof and gave me shit about no front license plate. Idiots! He thought I was carrying other peoples shit. Moron, there are two road bikes, two mountain bikes and two people, think about it!!! Long drive home! I'd like to thank the Kronik energy drink for keeping me awake. Is it a good thing when Taurine is the second ingredient behind water in that drink???