Off-season over Nose Hill

I've started my off-season training with some weight lifting. I also had the urge to go for a ride and it was nice enough to do today. A number of paths have been added to the top of Nose Hill so I decided to see how they link up. It took me an hour on my cyclocross bike with knobby tires to complete a 20.3 km loop. I needed the knobby tires because there were a few sections with ice and coming down off Nose Hill was packed snow. It was enjoyable to descend on the snow but it was much bumpier than when I used to ride through the snow with my mountain bike with its front shock. The path on Nose Hill has also been inlaid with small rocks. It makes it a bit rough for slick tires but I imagine it's better for grip when walking in the winter when there's a little ice on the path. I averaged 149 bpm because I wasn't trying to go fast but there were 275 m of climbing and I'm not a climber.

Midweek Mayhem Finale

28 October and the last Midweek Mayhem cyclocross race of the year marked the end of my season. It was a race I probably shouldn't have entered since I hadn't ridden for three weeks before the race and I hadn't exactly been in good shape all summer. The course was fairly good with a few tricky elements. Still there were the usual climbs just to make people climb. In the weeks before, there had been a few cyclocross events on flat, twisty courses. I'm sorry I had missed those because I think they would have been more to my liking. With my bad conditioning and the sun setting early, I managed two laps before deciding to drop out. The winner did about six laps before the race was stopped. I probably would have managed about four in that time. I rode for 13:39 and covered 3.13 km for an average of 13.75 km/h.

Midweek Mayhem 'cross #3

Tuesday saw the second visit of Midweek Mayhem to Laycock Park. After feeling better during my two races on the weekend, I was looking forward to this race. It didn't disappoint as I ended up racing three women, including Tanya. I was able to stay with them for the first three or four laps. The lead was exchanged as one person would surge and the rest in the group would respond. I think I lost Tanya during the second climb of the lap. I was able to ride that climb the on the first lap but I didn't have it in my legs for the other laps. On the third or fourth lap, I plodded up the hill a little slower and moved aside for the riders who were lapping me. This allowed Tanya and one other woman to get away from me. Starting the fifth lap, the last woman in the group passed me but I stayed with her. I passed her back a short time later and was able to open up a gap of 10 or 15 seconds which I maintained until the end. Two other moments of note were me lapping another rider and our slower group getting to the short stretch of single-track just ahead of a group trying to lap us.

Hardcore Hop 'n' Hurl cyclocross

Sunday's race was also at Goldbar Park in Edmonton and I was disappointed with the course. Actually, I should say I was disappointed with the course designer. The technical guide showed a course which used the Woodchopper's Trail. I did a race at Goldbar a few years ago which used that trail and it was lots of fun. Sunday's course had a very good flat section around the small lake in the park with lots of twists and turns around trees but the second section of the course hadn't been changed from the race the previous day except barriers were placed in the middle of each hill which caused me to run up both of those hills instead of riding. A very good course but I was disappointed that something new hadn't been done for more than 80% of the lap. The stakes and tape was even the same as the previous day so it looks like it was just left out overnight.
Once again, I started at the back and toured around at my own speed. I did pass a slower rider on the first lap because he was much younger and much slower than me. On the second and third laps, I had a Pedalhead rider a short distance in front of me who I was slowly catching. Someone must have told him I was sneaking up on him as he picked up his pace and increased the gap.
I averaged 19 km/h for just over 46 minutes with a maximum speed of 45.6 km/h. I felt better than the day before since I never had any feelings of giving up after I was lapped. I don't think it was because I wasn't working as hard because I averaged 165 bpm with a maximum of 177 bpm; both just four beats per minute less than 24 hours previous.
After the race, I took Peter for a lap of the course since he bought a 'cross bike for commuting and was interested in seeing the race. It was nice to have him come and have a look. My dad was out for both races and seemed to have lots of fun playing with Julie and taking pictures. LP took a lot of pictures too and some are up on Flickr. She didn't get any of Peter though. It's nice having a few people cheering even though I'm just out for fun and won't be fighting for a win unless the top 23 out of 25 other races suffer some major mishaps.

GP Champion City cyclocross

I had been toying with calling this blog entry, "open battery surgery." Right off the top I should say that it wasn't anything wrong with me which was causing my low heart rate. My monitor got quite flaky the last time I wore it and was dropping lots of data points. I replaced the battery on Thursday and was up to maximum bpm for the races this weekend.
On Saturday, the GP Champion City cyclocross race took place at Goldbar Park in Edmonton. The weather was great and the course was fantastic. There were basically two sections: a flat, twisty section just after the start and then a more hilly section up above the park for the last two thirds of the lap. There was a good hairpin just before the start line and two dirt trail climbs which were challenging but could be climbed on the bike. My favourite corner was at the far NW end of the course. The trail had a slight bend to the left while going downhill. Where the trail emerged from the trees, there was a sharp right turn. The ground fell away slightly but very quickly and there was tape and a big side hill for anyone who ran wide.
The winner lapped me twice but the main field only lapped me once during the race. I was also able to keep many riders behind me but rode alone for almost all the race. I averaged over 17 km/h over 39 minutes and 42 seconds with a maximum speed of 44.6 km/h. My heart rate was back to normal values; I averaged 169 bpm with a maximum of 181.

Midweek Mayhem #2

My first cyclocross race of the season took place on Tuesday evening at Laycock Park. It was a good course run almost entirely on grass except for one very short, hard dirt trail through the trees. There were lots of chicanes on the flat and two climbs up the hill on the west side of the park. The course was well laid out with red flags on the right side and blue on the left. Some of the chicanes were a little difficult to follow and the course passed close to itself a few times which added some confusion but overall I enjoyed it. The hardest part was a diagonal climb up the hill and a 135° turn to run across the top of the hill. The barriers were right in front of a section going straight up the hill so I had to dismount there and plod up the hill.

Only one race was run since time is now limited before the sun goes down so there were Cat 2 through Cat 5 male riders and women all together. I started at the back and remained there. I was able to stay with a few other back-markers throughout the race until I dropped out at 17 minutes. I tended to lose a little time in the high-speed corners coming down the hill but I would make up the time in the chicanes.

I'm still overweight and not in shape and this was the first time I've tested myself against other riders since June. I'm still feeling tired most of the time due to trouble sleeping and I still cannot get my heart rate up to normal maximum levels. On recent commutes, I've been wearing my monitor and I start to tired quickly if I get above 160 bpm. Usually, I can sustain an effort over 170 bpm. On the last ride or two, my monitor has become a bit flakey so I'm trying to buy a new battery for it. I didn't have it on during this race. I know I worked as hard as I could but I have no feedback on my heart rate. I should have a new battery and my monitor on for both races in Edmonton this weekend.

Painting the forest blue

Saturday, 16 August found us out playing paintball. It was my first time but LP had played before in China. Rod organized the whole thing for his co-workers and a few friends. He had played before when he was younger along with Alex. Jesse made it out too for his second time or so. A few of Rod's co-workers came wearing camouflage and packing their own guns. If this was something I was going to play a lot more, I'd invest in my own gun too 'cause the flight of my paintballs was quite random. I had Jesse and Rod on my team with LP and Alex on the other team. At most, we had about eight players on each side.

We started out on a field which had two ridges on either side, sloped down in the middle towards three small bridges and fences and has some mounds in between. I was surprised that a few people shot a few rounds right off the bat at such a long range but one of these shots found LP's mask and she was out in the first few seconds. Our team held the fence and pinned the other team behind the earthen mounds until Michelle just walked across a bridge and stood in the open shooting the other team. Her move took even us by surprise but we tried to shoot a few shots from long range to keep the enemy in place while Michelle walked up close. This strategy would prove costly for Michelle later in the day. We were on an urban setting and she pushed ahead without other people knowing. Three of us were working together on that side when she came running back towards us into a house. She has a similar build and was wearing the exact same coveralls and LP, who was on the other team. Jesse showed some great reactions by shooting her in the leg as she burst back into the house he was about to occupy. It left her with a bit of a bruise.

We got in about eight games in our three hours on the field. I went through about 500 paintballs but only had about two confirmed kills. I spent a lot of time hiding behind different structures but I was usually quite far forward. I was also using quite a few shots to fix the enemy in place while team mates came up to help. I would also shoot a number of rounds as tracers so I could find the range with my gun. The rental gun was anything but a straight shooter so I usually shot a number of rounds at a person and hoped for the best. I was only shot four times. In the third game, I was out of ammo and one ball hit me in the elbow but didn't break. Since I couldn't do much at that point, I gave up. In the fourth game, my team started behind a very small van with large windows which didn't have the glass anymore. The other team started in a large house with very small openings to shoot out of. Alex shot my goggles and then my hand as I raised it to surrender. In the last game, Rod declared a free for all in the middle so we could waste the last of our paint. I got shot in the thigh from across the map and have a very small welt to show for it.

In the end, I had lots of fun playing paintball for the day despite wearing coveralls over long pants and a long sleeve shirt as the temperature climbed towards 30°C. It sounds like we'll organize a similar outing again in the future.

NIN

On 28 July, I went to see Nine Inch Nails with Alex, Rod and Robyn. Alex was a huge NIN fan at the beginning and I've been a big fan for a long time as well. I've kept up to date with their recent stuff which I enjoy almost as much as the classics. Rod was a big fan and knows the classics as well and Robyn just thought it'd be a fun thing to do.

The Opening Act

Crystal Castles has to be about the worst opening band ever. There was a download on nin.com where you could get a sample of the opening acts for the tour and the Crystal Castles song wasn't bad. That was their best song and their live performance wasn't anywhere near the quality of the studio version. That was also the only song where the lead singer had her voice run through a synthesizer. The other songs had her screaming unintelligibly and wracked with posing fits to show "I'm really into my lyrics!" She was striking all your standard "my lyrics have deep meaning" poses which included the squat-down-lean-into-the-audience-and-clench-your-fist pose and the lie-on-the-ground pose. The backing back was playing music I could create in Garageband if I had a free afternoon. I'm not sure how many people are in the band because they could only afford one spotlight so I never saw anyone other than the lead singer. Bad music, bad effects. They had it all covered. Luckily, they only had about five songs.

The Main Event

Nine Inch Nails was definitely worth tolerating the opening act. Trent et al. played for at least two hours straight. They played a great mix of the old songs I remember from high school and their latest works. I can happily say I knew all the lyrics except for maybe two songs. Rod and Alex knew all the classics and Robyn knew two songs. Trent even let the audience sing the chorus to "Head Like a Hole" (I think that was the one) and Robyn just looked around with a blank stare when I noticed her not singing and gave her a poke. Watch "The Family Guy" where they go to the KISS concert and you'll know what I mean.

I enjoyed the light show quite a bit. Unbeknownst to me, they had a sort of see-through light curtain which they dropped while it was dark part way through the show. I just though the stage was suddenly a lot shallower than it appeared previously. They shone some brightly coloured patterns on the curtain which left Trent et al. as backlit silhouettes. Trent et al. retreated behind the curtain for "Breathe" which was filmed with a handicam with a night-vision effect and broadcast on the curtain. I kind of wondered what was going on 'cause you could see lights moving around behind the curtain and then Trent and the camera guy came out front briefly. The next song just had the band playing behind the curtain which was showing bright colours again. Suddenly, like they had been watching Bonanza while planning the stage show, the middle of the curtain became completely see-through and the audience could see the band playing behind it. They used this effect a few times in different ways but always enjoyable.

The one thing that struck me as odd was all the little blue lights you could see in the audience; people using their cell phones to take pictures or video or record audio. I also noticed a wide range of ages at the concert. That's to be expected since NIN has been around for twenty years or so. We did find ourselves out of touch since we repeatedly wondered where the young kids go to have a good time in the evenings when we tried to play our after-concert fun. I think we ended up at Urban Lounge but we didn't last long 'cause some needed to work in the morning and some needed to get back to their children. I bought a shirt but I was given a medium instead of a large so LP got a souvenir from my going out and having fun.

Listening to podcasts

I love podcasts. Actually, I love professional podcasts. Way back when, I listened to one Formula 1 podcast which sounded like two yokels with bad recording equipment who didn't seem to know anything about Formula 1 other than what they saw earlier that day on SpeedTV. Currently, I subscribe to one Apple podcast, three in German, four from CBC, one F1, four about digital photography, one from Gordon Ramsey, a short comedy video podcast, one from each of John Cleese and Stephen Fry, one in Chinese, one NHL, two from the Onion, one science video podcast, one from Sesame Street for Julie and Strong Bad Email. I found a solution to put all my audio podcasts into a playlist so that I don't have to select each of them individually. I just press "shuffle" and then I'm good for a bus ride downtown.
In order to have a playlist with all your audio podcasts and have them play in random order, you have to jump through a few hoops. You'll need to set up a smart playlist; a screenshot of mine is above. You'll need to match the following rules: first off, "podcast is true." No-brainer. My second rule was to exclude my Chinese podcasts 'cause I need to be in a certain frame of mind to feel like learning Chinese. The next three rules exclude videos, movies and pdfs from the playlist. On my iPod touch, video will play in audio mode but, if the Onion is trying to make a joke by telling me to "look at this shocking graph," I'll miss the punch line. I only match checked items so that I can save a podcast and not have to hear it everyday just by unchecking it and live updating is essential.
Jumping through hoops really comes when you're updating your iPod. Every time I open iTunes, it looks for new podcasts. Normally, I plug in my iPod and let it update. Old podcasts will now have a play count of 1 and new podcasts will be downloaded to iTunes. Once the update is finished, I delete podcasts I no longer need and uncheck ones I'd like to save. Once all downloads are finished, I need to do a quick Apple-A, Apple-I for "Select All" and "Get Info." At the bottom, I select "No" from both the "Remember Position" and "Skip When Shuffling" pop-up menus. I like to start at the beginning of each podcast and, if you skip when shuffling, your playlist will play one podcast and then return to your playlist menu. Annoying!
This technique works quite well for me except when podcasters use enhanced podcasts with a slide show. I have only two podcasts which do this and one announces every new picture so I know when to turn on my display and check the picture. The other, I tend to listen to once and then skip through the pictures later but I can miss why the picture is important.

Shaganappi Valley 9

On Sunday, I played my first round of golf since August 2005. I had been to the driving range once earlier this year and was surprised to see how straight I could hit the ball. I had been turning my wrist like a baseball swing which meant some big slices but I've been thinking about this flaw and my stroke seems much better. Shaganappi Valley 9 is a par 33, nine hole, public course with no par fives. There is water on three holes but it's mostly wide open with little sand to worry about. The longest hole is the first one at just 313 yards.

After hitting a small bucket on the driving range to warm up, I met up with Rob, Tammy and their friend Chris. The first hole started poorly with me slicing a drive into the trees on the left side. The longish grass prevented me from finding my ball so I had to drop a new one in the fairway. One stroke, one slice, one lost ball, one penalty stroke. My next shot was straight but aimed left and once again fell into the longish grass. Once again, I couldn't find my ball. I didn't have any help looking either as everyone else was down the right side of the fairway. Had I looked longer, I could have found it but I don't like holding up the players behind me. A wedge over the green, a chip on and a one-putt gave me a seven to start. It was looking like a long day.

The second hole started with a poor drive but I crushed a five-wood off the fairway onto the green. The greens were really slow and I was on the opposite side of from the pin so I ended up three-putting but that gave me a five. I've never broken 100 so I try for bogeys on each hole and I just got one.

The fifth hole was another seven. I hit a bad drive and just caught the far edge of the water. One more foot and I would have cleared it and been in the fairway. I had started to play better so I was disappointed to hit the water when so little of it was in play on the left side. I had to hit a second drive which I put long on the right side. I put a nine iron just over the green, chipped on and barely missed my first putt.

The sixth hole was my first par for the day. There was a little water before the hole and the green was 223 yards away so I hit a three-wood just short of the water and to the right. I hit my 56° wedge to the middle of the green and once again barely missed my first putt.

The seventh hole was a 143 yard par three. I hit a good five-iron into the wind and ended up in the sand to the left of the narrow green. A good sand shot got me onto the green and I once again left my first putt on the edge of the cup.

The eighth hole started with a bad drive over the water but I barely cleared it and was in the fairway. From about 170 yards I hit a good four-iron just off the left edge of the green and was able to chip close and one-putt.

The ninth hole was just 131 yards; the shortest of the day. I hit a seven-iron onto the left side of the green and once again just missed my first putt.

In total, I shot 43 which is 10-over for the course. Three pars, four bogeys and two triples is good for me. I'm trying to get to playing bogey golf since one-over on every hole would mean 18-over on a regular course and a score of 90 which would beat my best score by 10. On Sunday, I was only one shot over my goal. Had I continued to play like that over a full 18 on a regular course, maybe I would have finally broken 100. Then again, I remember a few times when I shot 45 on the front and 55 on the back.

Banff Bike Fest

Saturday was the Banff Bike Fest. I was there to compete in the time trial and criterium.

I've been a little tired recently because I haven't been sleeping well with Julie tossing and turning in our bed at night. I also haven't been training as much as possible due to all the rain in Calgary.

My start time for the time trial was 8:14 and, with the hour and a half drive to Banff, this meant packing the family into the car really early in the morning. I did arrive in Banff with enough time for register and get a little warm-up in before going to the start line. I felt okay off the start but I became aware that it wasn't going to be a good day shortly into my ride. My maximum heart rate is about 185 bpm and I can normally do a time trial with my heart rate over 170 bpm the entire way. I can see from my GPS record that I only hit 170 bpm once during my race and my legs felt heavy and tired at just over 150 bpm. The first half of the course has quite a bit of climbing which isn't my strength, especially since I'm still so far overweight. Still, it was a very scenic course running from Banff and going around the Lake Minnewanka road. There were even some big horn sheep on the road around the halfway point.



Things went a little worse but as expected during the criterium. Once again, I couldn't push my heart rate up very high and I struggled. Even with the motivation of trying to hang onto the pack, my heart rate peaked at just 168 bpm. The main pack could do about 55 second laps but alone I could only do 1:05 or 1:10. The course was barely over 600 m so getting lapped wasn't going to take long. I was off the back in a hurry and lapped after only seven laps.

Up next will be the Stampede time trial and road race in Calgary. I hope the weather will co-operate and I'll be able to push a little harder during that one.

Urban Farming

Yesterday evening, we started planting our garden. To give 外公 and 外婆 something more to do that just watch Julie, we all went out and bought some plants and seeds to plant in the backyard. And... Front yard. The previous owner left the flower beds full of perennials so 老婆 and I did very little in the garden last year. We mowed the lawn and pulled a few weeds but little else. Late in the year, Mom bought us a raspberry plant and blueberry bush. Those each appear to have survived the winter and, we hope, will provide us with a little fruit later this year. 外公 and 外婆 come from a small farming village and had a little garden behind the school so we thought they might enjoy some gardening here during the summer.

Last night's planting session turned out to be quite comical. If you ever view my pictures over on Flickr, you can view a picture of our latest batch of cookies where instructions weren't followed. This trend continued yesterday evening. I cannot say much since I don't enjoy gardening and didn't help very much. Still, I was out there, reading the instructions on the back of the seed packets and watching for space to be cleared and rows to be dug. From all the arguing going on in Chinese, I think 老婆 was also wondering about the rows. 外公 did most of the work and ended up planting the seeds the way he wanted.

The picture above is our front flower bed. You can see four plants were planted there but, what you cannot see are the seeds which have been randomly scattered by 外公. Onion seeds to be specific. I thought the garden was going to be confined to the backyard but it seems we'll have onions, tomatoes and bell peppers growing in our front yard. We do have rabbits in the area so we'll probably be thinking of some way to defend our plants soon. In the backyard are carrots, lettuce, green onions, a second blueberry bush, blackberries and pumpkins. The pumpkins were my idea but the location where they were planted was not. I hope I can provide pictures of pumpkins in the middle of the yard later this summer as the strip of garden where they were planted is not very wide.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how this all progresses. Random spots have been cleared and planted and not all the weeds have been pulled. I would like to add a second compost and some rain barrels to this whole backyard project. I'll keep posting as the garden develops. Just for the record, 外婆 was a school teacher and 外公 was a projectionist turned head of the village so no one here has much gardening experience.

Midweek Mayhem 1

Tuesday marked the start of the Midweek Mayhem criterium races. They'll switch to cyclocross races in the fall but, for the next four months, it'll be crits at the UofC. This week's race was a chilly one. As I rode home from work, the sun was out and the winds were light. At the start of the race, all that had changed. The wind made the only interesting corner on the course much more interesting. On the northern straight, the road bends slightly to the left before making a 135° turn to the right. With a tail wind, I entered that corner at over 40 km/h on each lap.

The first time I did this race, it lived up to the Mayhem name with four crashes and one ambulance ride. The B race had none of that this week. The race was uneventful for me. I started near the back and the pack quickly strung out due to the high speeds and wind. Like usual, the weak were dropped off the back and left to form their own little chase groups. I rode almost the whole race with three other riders. We took turns pulling for a lap and just enjoyed ourselves. The only excitement was when we got lapped by the leaders while going through the only tricky corner. That broke us apart and I rode the last few laps with just one of the riders I had been riding with previously. Still, it was enjoyable and good training. I ended up covering 19.3 km in 34:30 for an average speed of 33.6 km/h. The tail wind pushed me over 40 km/h on each straight but the opposite straight meant a 30 - 33 km/h push into the wind.

Here's a map of the course with my speed zones. Orange is over 40 km/h and green is under 30 km/h.

Velocity Stage Race Report

It's taken a while to find some time, but here's my experiences from Velocity's road race which took place on 3-4 May 2008.

Saturday

Time Trial - just 10 km and I was hoping to be in the 16-17 minute range. It was a straight-forward course on rural roads to the Northeast of Edmonton with very little elevation change. In fact, my GPS reports 30 m of climbing. My race strategy was to keep my heartrate over 170 bpm and I did exactly that. Coming into the finish, I was up over 180 bpm and topped out at 184, which is one beat per minute below my maximum. I averaged 34.6 km/h. My GPS recorded a time of 16:34 but my official time was 16:03 or so. Since riders started every 30 seconds, I think there may have been an error in my favour. This was good enough to finish well down in the standings.

Criterium - I had never raced at the Alberta Research Park but I quite enjoyed the course. I warmed up on a trainer so I didn't know the twists and turns which awaited me. On the first lap, I started towards the back of the pack and was caught on the wrong side of a break in the peleton. I felt surprisingly good and tried to bridge but wasn't able. I was picked up after a while by a Bow Cycle rider. He was strong in a straight line and I hid behind him going into the wind on the front straight for a few laps but he couldn't go through the corners. On just about every corner, he would turn in, pull out of the turn and then turn in again. I didn't feel like making such an aggressive pass so far behind the leaders so I would sit up a little early and pull back any distance I had lost by going through the corners much more smoothly. He jumped in with the lead pack when we were lapped and I rode on at my own pace. A few laps later, I was collected by two ERTC team mates and we rode together until we were lapped again. I believe it was their first time being lapped. The instructions from the marshals was that they would pull off lapped riders and I was listening for my number every time I completed a lap but I was never pulled off. When I was lapped with my team mates, they gave themselves up and so did I at that point. The leaders were on their second or third last lap. I completed 12 laps for 15.7 km at an average speed of 33 km/h. I hit 43 km/h at one point on the flat course. My cheering section was out in full force and I could hear them as I completed each lap. The pictures they took are already on my Flickr page.

Sunday

Road Race - The weather was nice leaving home but was cold and windy at the start of the race. The race started late and all the categories stood around in the staging area for a long time. Being the second last category to be started, we stood for about 30 minutes. The rolling start had a big tailwind and I was nicely positioned on the edge of the road. When we made our first turn, my position turned out to be very bad. The peleton put in a big sprint after the first corner which I was able to do but I was now caught pushing against a large crosswind. I tried to find some shelter but, as I wasn't able to stay on the wheel in front of me which wasn't giving me any help anyway, other riders came past my left side using me as their shelter from the wind. About 7 km into the race and I was already off the back. I was caught by two other riders and we worked together over the next lap. The bicisport rider didn't seem to understand drafting very well and that made life interesting when we were passed by Cat 2. We were just starting our second lap and were heading south with a crosswind from our right. Ideally, the leader should be riding on the very right side of the road and the best place to draft was on his left hip. The bicisport rider was riding down the middle of the road and I was second in line. As Cat 2 caught us, some started yelling for us to go left and some yelled right. Just as they passed us, they yelled for us to hold our position and they went around to both sides. I didn't feel like I was pushing very hard while riding. I dropped the other two in my little group when Cat 3 passed us and rode off on my own. It was nice to feel strong and be able to ride away from someone for a change. The only other excitement in my race was just before the start/finish straight at the end of my second lap. Someone let their Rottweiler out into their front yard but, out in the country, they didn't have their yard fenced. The dog decided to run out on the highway and chase the riders. Luckily, there was someone just in front of me and the dog had just turned off from chasing him as I rode by. The dog still decided to come after me and I put in a little extra effort to get past without incident. As I came on to the start/finish straight with one lap to go, I was thinking of another 50 minutes on my own, the long drive back to Calgary that afternoon and a left hip which was getting very sore. I decided to pack it in at this point. The drive back proved tiring and the hip pain was just a sore muscle which relaxed soon after I quit. All in all, I was on the bike for 1:40, covering 48.7 km at an average pace of 29.4 km/h. The wind was pretty fierce because I could maintain about 25 km/h going into it and about 40 km/h when it was at my back.

Little trouble in big China

I was in China for the last two weeks of April. 老婆 and Julie went two weeks before me because the plan was mostly to relax around 老婆's village. From what I've heard, 老婆 was pretty bored during her two weeks alone before I arrived. For the week I was in the village, things were still fairly boring. After the week, we moved on to Wuwei for four days and spent the last few days in Shanghai. Besides the following, it was an uneventful trip.

老婆's grandmother is 91 and in poor health. One of her daughters decided that the end was really, really near and summoned the family back to the village for the funeral. Reports of the grandmother's death were greatly exaggerated. The grandmother is aware of little around her but she knows that everyone is waiting for her to die soon. Countless times she's said she will not die any time soon and, if she does go, she's taking everyone with her. I hear she was very tough and stubborn throughout her life and it seems she'll carry these traits right to the end. I did get to see a few preparations for a traditional Chinese funeral though. Once she passes away, there will be a large procession with her body. Every family member is required to wear a cloth hat; the colour of which indicates your relationship to the deceased. As the grandson-in-law, I would get to wear a white hat. The hats are now made of small hand towels since you can get them in a variety of colours and you can pull out the stitches and use the towel afterwards. I would have enjoyed participating in and photographing a traditional Chinese funeral. I realize it's a bit of a weird thing to look forward to since someone has to die in order to have the funeral. There was one up side to 老婆's grandmother's poor health: there was a large family gathering to celebrate Julie's first birthday a little early. It was nice to see some of 老婆's family who were out for our wedding but have since moved away from the village.

The second bit of excitement was helping 老婆's parents move. They borrowed some kind of three-wheeled, electric wagon (pictured above) and I was the only one available with any kind of driving experience. 爸爸 rode along and pointed where I needed to go as we covered the 15 km between the village and Wuwei. The road near the village and the streets of Wuwei were fine but there was about 7 km worth of the worst potholed road I have ever seen in the middle. For that section, we slowed to a crawl and bumped along. At one point, a teenage girl riding leisurely on a normal bike passed us. I guess I could have gone faster but I didn't want to break the in-laws TV and dishes. On the return trips, we went a little faster but the bumps knocked the chain off a few times. I regret not getting a picture of me driving the thing. It was fun driving in Chinese traffic though. When you turn left, it's best to turn early and spend a little time in the oncoming bicycle lane before crossing over to where you should be. No one seems to obey traffic laws and there are all sorts of bikes and vehicles on the streets. My favourite was an old man on a bike riding slowly through a red light and in the middle a busy intersection while all the cars swerved around him. No one seemed upset by this either.

The other note of interest was the beds. At the school, 老婆, Julie and I shared a bed which was composed of five benches pushed together with a 3 cm thick mattress on top. During the day, one bench had to removed as it was needed for the students. In Wuwei, we had a proper bed but no mattress. We did have some blankets under us for padding but, on my side, they stopped progressively further from the edge of the bed. Since 老婆 and Julie are always trying to push me out of bed, the slope towards the edge created by these blankets made my sleep a little more treacherous. I usually pulled the top quilt over and tucked it under me to prop up that side of my body and prevent any rolling out of bed. My next bed was a folding couch at 姐姐's place. If I slept on my back, I had to sleep spread-eagle since I'm 1.76 m and the couch is 1.765 m between the arm rests. Add in a little bit of pillow and blanket on either end and there wasn't quite enough room for me. The mattress also folded flat but the seat and back weren't flat themselves. There was a comfortable groove to sleep in though. The last bed was actually two single beds in a hotel. They were a bit hard but the best beds so far. Julie slept in one and 老婆 and I shared the second. In the middle of the night, 老婆 brought Julie over for a feeding. Julie fell asleep like usual so we left her in that bed and moved to the other one.

Earth Hour Results

As you can read, Calgary actually used more power during Earth Hour than just before it. I'm not surprised but these numbers could be misleading. It was still light out when Earth Hour began so I would expect an increase between the reported times of 19:45 and 20:15 since some people, like me, didn't turn their lights out because they were already off. People who were like me but didn't participate in Earth Hour, would have just turned on their lights so they would cause pre-Earth Hour power numbers to be low. I would like to see some power graphs for Earth Hour and some other recent days. Since it was definitely dark when Earth Hour ended, a power graph spanning 21:00 would show if consumption quickly picked up. Still, it's a poor showing by Calgary as photos show most of the buildings downtown with just as many lights on as any other day.

Observing Earth Hour 2008

... or, "Lights on in Hidden Valley."

I observed Earth Hour today. I turned my lights and TV off and my computer spent almost the full time asleep. I did take my daily shower in the dark but, with my glasses off, I don't see much in the shower anyway. I also spent a little time snooping on my neighbours. Photojournalism is something that interests me quite a bit since I like photography and I don't believe anyone in politics or the media with the exceptions of Rick Mercer, Bob McDonald and Peter Mansbridge. I might believe Rex Murphy if I could understand what he's saying. Since I'm such a skeptic, I have to see things for myself and I'll be watching Futurama reruns during The National.

Since I was alone and bored in the house and too lazy to go out in the cold to get a good set of pictures, I aimed my telephoto lens out my bedroom window to see if one of the newer communities of Calgary would be turning out their lights. As you can see in the during and after pictures, the answer is pretty much, "no." I count about four lights coming on afterwards and one turned off afterwards. It would have been interesting to see the view of downtown from the top of Nose Hill and see a wider sampling of Calgary but, as I stated, I'm feeling lazy tonight so my sample is whatever I can see out my bedroom window. It's kind of like deciding the Cola War by asking one person if they like Coke or Pepsi.

From my small sample area, I'd have to say I'm disappointed. Turning out your lights for an hour is a token gesture so, ergo, it's not a tough one. One of my neighbours even had their backyard Xmas lights on. Oh well, next year I'll try to get some better pictures. I feel like a Barq's or a Dr. Pepper.

Julie Walks

After a few little steps this weekend, we finally got some of Julie's first steps on video this afternoon. Two days short of ten months and six days from her first plane ride to China, Julie's getting around on her own two feet. More to come as events warrant.

So far, so okay

Commuting to work is going well so far. Three weeks in and I'm averaging three rides per week. There have been a few days with snow and a couple days that I drove so that I could pick 老婆 up from the doctor but, otherwise, everything's been good for riding. The numbers don't sound impressive and I lose a bit of recorded distance when my GPS doesn't know where I am but I'm getting in some distance and lots of climbing. I'm feeling better and better on the bike so, hopefully, bringing up the rear in Cat 5 won't kill me. I've managed to eat a little better and have dropped two kilograms. Only twelve to go until I feel I'll be at a good racing weight! I've got eight weeks before the first race I'm thinking of doing but two of those weeks will be in China.

My recorded totals for 2008 are 270 km in just under 12 hours with almost 2.8 vertical km of climbing. My maximums so far are 56 km/h and 181 bpm, though I rarely wear my heart rate monitor. I wear it for all racing and training but maybe I should wear it commuting occasionally.

Lap one

It's that time of year again! Time to punish myself on the bike and prepare to languish at the back of Cat 5 all summer. Despite eating a little better and lifting weights, I've managed to pack on a little more weight. 老婆 doesn't know how I can eat so little and still get bigger. It's got to be something I'm doing. I've done well cutting down the sweets recently but I obviously need to give them up completely. That's the game plan, at least.

On Tuesday, I'm hoping to start riding to work. I've got 11 weeks until the first race I plan to enter but two of those will be spent in China. In an ideal world, I can get in about 500 km of commuting before the first race. That's just 18 commutes, an average of two commutes per week, but a big snowfall (not unheard of around here in February, March and April) can put me back on the bus in a hurry for a few weeks. I'm not actually going for quantity but I like all the climbing near here which will get my legs and lungs in shape more quickly than doing 10 000 km leisurely on the flats. I can get in about 5 km worth of climbing in my 500 km of commuting which is not bad for a non-climber like me. I also have a nice little training loop in the area with lots of hills to climb.

Let's hope for dry weather so I can get some kilometres in before races begin. The two weeks in China will then be relaxing and I always lose weight when I'm there.

Going Green Party

It's expected that Canada's New Government will soon be Canada's Old Government. Since there's a virtual tie in the opinion polls between the Liberals and Conservatives, the Liberals were threatening before Xmas to bring down Canada's New Government and force an election. If there is an election, I think I'll be voting for my fourth political party.

Twice, I've made the strategic vote. When I was living in Sunnyside, I voted for Joe Clark as a Progressive Conservative. Since the PCs weren't going to do anything in that election, it was good to vote him in and deny a seat to a Reformer. Last election, I voted NDP. I might have my socialist leanings but I also cannot stand unions. The NDP candidate had great exposure and I thought this meant he had some support and the possibility of defeating the Conservative. He came third and the total of his votes and the second place Liberal's didn't add up to the votes for Jim Prentice. In Calgary, you only need to put your name on the ballot for the right-wing party and you'll get elected.

Ergo, if I'm going to waste my vote, I'm going to waste it properly. After Stephen Harper's minion was the worst obstructionist (except for the U.S.) at the recent global climate change talks in Bali, it's clear that someone needs to let the Conservatives know that Canadians accept climate change and would like to do something about it. The Green Party won't form the next government but, if a few get elected and the Party gets recognized nationally, maybe Canada will get back to working the rest of the world and not being an obstructionist. It's hard to believe a Canadian Prime Minister invented peace keeping and now we're a rogue nation on environmental issues.

There is only one problem with my plan: according to the Green Party of Canada website, there is no candidate for my riding. Hmm... Maybe I should try voting for myself.

The Abolition of the Canadian Government

The Canadian government should be abolished. 308 people arguing and then doing what Stephen Harper wants them to do anyway. 27 ministers in the cabinet and a similar number shadowing them. As far as I can tell, the backbenchers are mostly used to boo and otherwise stifle discussion and create interest for C-SPAN viewers who can try and spot them napping. Canada's New Government hasn't done anything productive except giving Canada a black eye by siding with the U.S. at the climate talks in December in Bali, taxing an insufficient child care benefit and hiding upper-class tax cuts as a reduction in the GST.

Tax-payers would save a bundle of money if we threw out those 308 MPs and replaced them with just one person per province or territory per party. 13 provinces and territories and one Conservative, Green, Liberal and NDP each. By my count, that's 52 people; just like a deck of cards. I guess we'd have to let in one joker from Quebec to represent the BQ.

The good part of this idea is the direct democracy. Currently, you vote for someone in your riding in the party you like. Even if your constituency wants public day care and your Conservative promised he'd convince Stephen Harper to implement public day care once elected, as soon as your MP got to Ottawa, Steve told him to go to his desk in the back row, sit down and shut up. I'm suggesting that all decisions be made on-line in a referendum. This isn't as stupid as Reform's idea to hold referendums on everything if they got a petition asking for one. (I'm looking at you, Doris, uh... I mean, Stockwell Day.) This is 13 people for each party coming up with ideas about how to run Canada. One party submits an idea and then there are two weeks to lobby the position of each party and two weeks for Canadians to log in and vote. If logging in to do your banking and file your taxes is secure, then logging in to vote for the GST going back to 7% or being removed completely has to be possible. Estonia votes on-line! In the West we think they're a backwards, former Communist country yet they can go to their computers and cast a vote in elections. If a public voting computer was set up in every Tim Horton's, you'd easily beat the usual 40% or lower turnout on federal elections.

The best part is that Stephen Harper can no longer stick his fingers in his ears and sing, "la la la, I'm not listening." You wouldn't get John Baird going to Bali, refusing to co-operate with the rest of the world and then returning home to lament that more could have been done. You also would be saved from a government which won't think more than four years into the future because that's the time-line for the next election. If 90% of the population logs in and votes to agree to the next agreement after Kyoto, then 90% of the population realizes that they'll have to make some sacrifices to meet the country's goals. I wouldn't have to hear Harper complain that Canada's New Government will become unpopular because they happen to be governing when Canada starts to realize we need to make some big steps to fight global warming and some people might get upset when you ban their SUV from the road.

Of course, the absolute best part of this plan is that I don't have to see thousands of campaign signs on the side of the road every two years when the latest minority government gets ousted.