Puncheur Cross

The Puncheur Cross took place on Sunday and was my worst outing of the season so far. The course was a long one taking place in the mountain bike skills park in Devon. I liked the section on the river bank and the run up the stairs but it was not your typical cyclocross course. There were some short, steep, awkward climbs and quite a bit of bumpy, wood chip trails. I ended up crashing in the sand pit early on my first lap. My rear shifter got clogged with sand and I wasn't able to get out of my lowest gear. Racing on a course I didn't enjoy and stuck in my lowest gear meant I dropped out after just one lap.

I covered 2.6 km in 11:34 with an average speed of 13.5 km/h and a maximum of 24.6 km/h. My average heart rate was 147 bpm with a maximum of 158 bpm. I crashed before my heart rate had really ramped up and I coasted from there.

In even worse news, I lost my head-to-head season series to Rich, 2-0. I think I could have beaten him at this race, especially since he fell, was run over by the race leader and had his rear wheel knocked loose. That's definitely what I call getting lapped in dramatic fashion.

Lion's Den Cross

I was back out on the 'cross bike today at United Cycle's Lion's Den Cross. The weather was completely different to my last race as it snowed early in the morning. My new wheels had arrived earlier in the week and I was watching the weather as I thought about which tires I would use on them. A Facebook posting claiming that the hill would be taken out if it was wet made me decide on my Michelin Mud 2s. Well, the Mud 2 isn't a true mud tire and the hill was left in the course, despite how wet it was.

The Sport race was actually the second one as they decided to schedule the Experts first. When my race started, the Experts had cleared the racing line but there was still snow on the course. The sun came out before my race started and all the snow would be gone by the end. The mud would definitely not be dried by the end.

This year's race was run in the opposite direction of the previous few years. This meant the spiral came early in the lap and I had to climb the steep side of the hill. On the first lap, the spiral backed the field up quite a bit as the switch from a right turn to left was quite tight this year. For the hill, I was glad for the spikes in my shoes so I could run up. On my third lap, I tried to climb it on my bike but I couldn't recover from a rear wheel slip about 3/4 of the way up. For the descents, I ran down the first little bit and mounted my bike on a little flat area. Most riders around me did the same thing. The whole way down was very, very slippery. The whole course was quite slippery and I lost count of the number of little slips and skids I had. Luckily, I didn't have any crashes.

I completed five laps in 42:21 for 10.1 km. The course was quite twisty and it seems my GPS might have missed about 400 m. I had an average speed of just 14.3 km/h with a maximum of 28.1 km/h. My average speed definitely took a hit from all the running up and down hills. I had an average heart rate of 152 bpm and a maximum of 187 bpm. The average is actually a little low as my GPS didn't record correctly for the first lap. My last four laps averaged 164 bpm each lap. I think I rode a little too relaxed and could definitely have had a higher heart rate. I sat behind one or two slower riders for much of the first lap and gave riders a lot of room to lap me on my last lap so I was giving up time in both of those situations. The only person I was really racing dropped out early on the third lap with a mechanical problem so I was on my own for most of my race.

The only other things to mention was that the new wheels felt very nice. It's a bit difficult to compare them with my old ones after one race, especially since I also changed my tires and this was my first wet race of the year. Also, it was good Marg wasn't around. Today's barriers seemed really high and I've had a few talks over the years about barrier heights with Marg. I agree that those of us with short legs are unfairly punished on really high barriers.

Red Cross

Today's race was the Red Cross. It was nearly the same as yesterday's course but run in reverse. This direction actually flowed a little better and I enjoyed it more. I also ate a little better in the morning and was feeling good for the start of the race. The pack seemed smaller today and strung out fairly quickly so there wasn't as much chaos in the first few corners. That being said, one Redbike rider decided to dismount for the difficult downhill hairpin and, when two riders in front of me had difficulty with the corner, he still wanted to push past us all and I got a good whack from his bike as he carried it by me. It didn't gain him much of an advantage and he slowed considerably toward the end of his second lap at which point I was able to make an easy pass.

Unfortunately, the end of my second lap was also the end of my race. The tough little hills cause tightness in my back and I was also experiencing a lot of pain in my left hip and leg.

I completed just 5 km in 21 minutes for an average speed of 14.4 km/h and a maximum of 24.7 km/h. My two laps were consistent at 10:22 and 10:28 plus a little lead up at the beginning. I averaged just 165 bpm with a maximum of 178 bpm. That's a little low but the first lap usually appears low as it takes a minute or two to get my heart rate up on the start.

Jim Horner GP

Today was the Jim Horner cyclocross race. It was your typical Alberta 'cross race where the designer found a hill, in this case the termination of Mill Creek Ravine, and made the riders to go up and down as many times as possible. The designer was also in love with hairpin turns, some of which were situated on the sides of the hills to add extra toughness. While I'm normally better at short, sprinter's climbs than those typically around me during a race, I counted nine climbs of various lengths around the course. As you can see from my GPS data, it was a very stop/start kind of race for me due to the hairpins and climbs. My forearms were actually very sore in the afternoon due to all the hard braking which was required around the course.

I have to say I really didn't like the course during the pre-ride but, during the first two laps, I was able to make some of the first half of the course flow a little better so I enjoyed things a little more at that point. As usual, the first technical section became a gong show at the back of the pack as some riders ahead of me fell on one of the few open corners, which was also on a sidehill. Someone broke the tape at that point and a few riders went outside one pole, avoiding both the crashes and the lowest part of the corner. The crashes bunched a number of riders back up so the next two hairpins were also very slow. The only other bit of interest to my race was the longest steep climb on the course. It was on a narrow trail surrounded by high grass. On my first two laps, I was behind the same rider who dismounted and ran up. I feel I could have run up faster than him but I didn't feel like getting off the trail so I was actually able to catch my breath a little. I had no one in front of me on my third lap so I decided to ride the hill. I was able to do it but I almost stalled at the top. I'm considering either a smaller chainring up front or a larger cog on my cassette as these short, steep climbs seem very typical in my races and a slightly easier gear would help.

I ended up doing four laps, for 10.1 km, in 44:46. That put my average speed at one of my slowest for a cyclocross race at just 13.5 km/h with a maximum of 25.3 km/h. There was a little run-up to the start and then my lap times were 10:42, 10:55, 11:24, and 11:25. I really felt fatigued after my second lap and really wanted to be pulled because I was a lap down after just three laps but, at that point, I was still on the lead lap. I averaged 171 bpm with a maximum of 180 bpm so I was on the limit of my anaerobic threshold pretty much the whole race. All the short climbs mean there's never a choice of how to pace yourself through the race.

I have an equipment update. Once again, I really felt like my rear wheel has lots of internal friction. It seems that even my old commuter rolls better than my cyclocross bike. So, on the advice of a teammate, I was back on the Williams Cycling website and saw that they do have some alloy clincher 'cross wheels. I have a pair on order and I really hope they're here before the Lion's Den 'Cross on 20 Oct. At this point, I'm leaning towards switching my cassette over to the new wheels and continuing not to have a second set of wheels in the pit.

Tuesday Cross 3

Tuesday night's cyclocross race featured a course which, I think, should suit me a little better. It was very flat with lots of difficult turns. Some turns got a little easier as the night wore on as leaves were cleared from the racing line. I'm not a good climber and I tend to go through corners faster than those around me so it should have been a good race for me.

After last week's fiasco through the first few turns, I had considered trying to be in front for the first corner but this course had a few gentle corners before the sharper turns. I did move up after the start but I was still stuck behind some riders who were slow through the corners. Lots of corners with short straights meant it was difficult to get past riders. I really tried to sprint out of corners when I thought I could overtake someone in front of me who was a little slower. Single barriers in two different spots helped me quite a bit. I'm normally faster than those around me when it comes to getting off and on my bike and I received some pointers from Aaron Schoolar the night before.

My lap times turned out to be very different from my expectation. Traffic usually slows down my first lap and my second lap was affected by pulling off to the side right in front of one of the most difficult corners to let the leaders of the A group go through. It ended up costing me quite a bit as two or three riders in my group had just been passed and I couldn't jump back on the track right in front so I lost a few positions. In retrospect, I shouldn't be such a nice guy. I actually pulled off to the side again on that second lap. I think I was pushing the limit of low air pressure in my tires and my rear actually felt like it was going flat. It seemed okay when I stopped so I ended up completing the race. The stops were fast enough that my GPS didn't end up recording any rest time. I thought I might have been pushing a little too hard for my fitness level on the first two laps but, if I did end up backing off, I must have picked up speed through the corners as my third and fourth laps were, by far, my fastest. My heart rate was about the same for all four laps so there isn't much proof that I backed off.

In total, I covered 7.2 km in 24:49 for an average speed of 17.4 km/h and a maximum of 30.2 km/h. The maximum came right at the finish line as I thought I had someone right behind me through the last corner and I didn't want to give up one more position at the end. I had an average heart rate of 168 bpm with a maximum of 179 bpm. My lap times were 6:15, 6:24, 6:07, and 6:02.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my current cyclocross bike. I have a feeling that there's something wrong with my rear hub and it feels like it has some internal resistance. It's not an obvious problem but something that I feel is there. I'd also really like a new bike, as mine is nearly 8 years old, and I'd really like to get a new one with disk brakes. My club's bike shop doesn't have any bikes with disk brakes in stock and I don't know when they might get any. I have a friend who tweets about her great wheel sponsor but they're out of stock until 22 Oct and my season ends 11 Nov. Plus, new wheels doesn't get me a new bike with disk brakes.

Tuesday Night 'Cross 2

I did my first Tuesday Night 'Cross race today. I missed last week for some meet the teacher time. I liked the course though I found there were long, non-technical sections where I needed better fitness. There were two good sections of turns, one on the side of a hill and one while cruising down a slight downhill.

I covered 7.32 km in 27:24 for an average speed of 16 km and a maximum of 33.4 km/h. I averaged 166 bpm with a maximum of 178 bpm so I was pushing fairly hard, for me. My heart rate was a little low on the first lap because I started towards the back and the turns on the sidehill slowed down the group severely. I tried a few aggressive passes but I would get halfway beside the rider in front of me but then I would get cut off and have to get back in line. It took nearly a lap for me to get to my pace without someone going slower than me through the corners. My lap times were 7:15, 6:34, 6:42, and 6:53. My average heart rate was over 10 bpm lower on the first lap, at 157 bpm, than my other three laps which were 168 - 170 bpm. I'm thinking about starting at the front next week so I can get through the first corners at a good pace and let everyone else worry about passing me.

Hop 'n' Hurl cyclocross

Hardcore Bike hosted the Hop 'n' Hurl cyclocross race on Sunday. The course was quite a bit different than most 'cross courses with lots of pavement stretches and some single-track. There were a few corners with roots which I just couldn't get right. Still, it was a challenging course and it was good to be out racing.

I covered 10.3 km in 40:27 with one fall. I averaged 15.3 km/h with a maximum speed of 28.9 km/h. My heart rate averaged 162 bpm with a maximum of 177 bpm so I probably could have pushed a little harder throughout the race. I put in four consistent laps of about 6:40 but my lap times fell off at the end to 6:50 and 7:03 though my average heart rate was consistent over all of the laps.

School of Cross

The first true cyclocross race took place today with my own club hosting the School of Cross race. Last weekend was an enduro-cross race but I'm not counting it. In the past, I haven't liked the School of Cross course because the school grounds where it's held drop away into a ravine. This usually means long grass, very bumpy trails, and up and down a steep hill too many times. However, this year the ravine section seemed to flow better and it was a more enjoyable course for me.

I've felt my best during races where I slurped down a Clif shot a little before the start. I was eating them last week during my race and felt good and I had one left so I ate it about 20 minutes before my race started. If any of the three people who read this know where I can get Clif shots by the box, please let me know. Anyway, I was a bit surprised to feel pretty good throughout the race. My heart rate did spike each lap as I came out of the valley which meant not pushing hard on the easiest section of the course but the urge to cut the fun a lap or two short never came. It might have helped that I had two teammates nearby for the opening. I lost track of Wes behind me late in the first lap and had Bruce right behind me going into the barriers for the second time but I could hear he had some trouble on them and I noticed a good gap on him the rest of the way. After the finish, I saw that Wes dirtied both of his knees during the race and Bruce said he had problems on two occasions. I don't know Wes very well but I know Bruce is a good Cat 4 racer. He's much stronger than I am on the road but it was only his second 'cross race so it must have been my experience and maybe a little better off-road bike-handling skills that kept me in front of him.

I completed four laps in 35:39 and was one lap behind the leaders. I covered 9.2 km at an average of 15.5 km/h and a maximum of 26.1 km/h. I averaged 170 bpm, which is just two bpm below my anaerobic threshold, and had a maximum of 183 bpm. There was a 30 second run up to the start/finish line and I had laps of 8:40, 8:38, 8:54, and 8:57. I thought the first lap was slow, due to all the traffic on the first lap. I then thought I picked it up for the second lap but this doesn't appear to be the case. I was expecting my body to start telling me to stop so I backed off a little on the third lap, thinking I would have two more to do. I was a little surprised to see two laps to go as I started my fourth lap and I expected to be passed soon by the leaders so I knew I'd probably just have one lap left to do. I was pretty set in my position so I just did enough so no one would catch me.

Kettle 'Cross

The cyclocross season started with a different format on Sunday. For the first time in Alberta, an endurance cyclocross race took place; the Kettle Cross Enduro. The course was a 37 km loop in Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area. While most racers would do the Full Kettle, a two lap, 74 km race, I decided to do the Half Kettle. I did a lap of the course with four ERTC teammates about a month prior to the race and 37 km of bumps seemed like it would be enough for me. There was also a 15 km Tea Cup option.

The race began with all of the about 170 riders starting together with a one kilometre neutral start. I seeded myself towards the back of the starting pack and a few riders moved past me during the neutral start. I had made a tactical error before the race by taking my bathroom break too early before the start. When it came time to stage for the start, it was too late to go again. At about 10.5 km into the race, I was relieved to see, and use, an outhouse.

I knew the race was going to be, for me, about two hours of tough riding. I could tell I wasn’t into the race mentally right from the start as I was content to either sit behind slower riders or not try and push a little to stay with some slightly faster riders. I should have used the beginning to get a little ahead of pace instead of trying to save something for the end.

From my pre-ride, I knew that the bumpiness of the course would take its toll on my body. My triceps and shoulders became sore towards the end of the race but it was my back that was a major problem. Even though the entire course has a variation in elevation of just 45 m, my GPS recorded 200 m of climbing. I wouldn’t say there were any flat sections. I was always climbing or descending. With no flat sections and the constant bumps, I just couldn’t relax my back and was quite sore from about 10 km on. This meant I was constantly trying to stretch and relax on all the downhills so I didn’t carry speed into the next little climb and I also couldn’t attack the climbs too well.

I didn’t have any issues with the course itself. At my slow speed, I wasn’t surprised by any of the few tight corners and I bunny-hopped two of the bigger ruts across the course. I did have one rider crash nearly right in front of me when her front wheel slipped out.

According to my GPS, I covered 36.4 km in 2:01:51 though my official time was 2:09:07. I spent a few minutes in the outhouse and I had four or five minutes at the side of the course lending out my tire levels to someone else who had a flat. I noticed quite a few mechanicals, including a few who had some long walks to either the start or somewhere that they could get a ride to the start. I averaged just 17.9 km/h and had an average heartrate of 167 bpm with a maximum of 181 bpm. I expected my heartrate to be lower as I really felt I could have pushed harder over the last half of the race if my back wasn’t bothering me so much. I also was on my own and, when you don’t have people around to race, it’s easy to lose mental focus and start to coast.

Near Potato Famine

We harvested our barrel potatoes yesterday. As you can see in the photo, it wasn’t quite the bumper crop we were expecting. The stalks and leaves weren’t nearly as brown and dead as I was waiting for but some people were very eager to see how things had turned out. There were lots of smaller potatoes and dozens of little nubs which could have developed into potatoes so the potential for a better harvest was certainly there. I didn’t see where our larger potatoes appeared vertically in the barrel. If the big ones were mostly at the bottom, I would guess that the others would have fattened up if they were harvested a little later. If the big ones were at the top, I’d guess that I added soil too quickly and should have given each level more development time. If it was just random, then our small potatoes could be blamed on either of those reasons or planting too densely, not adding plant food, or a number of other reasons. We still have many other potato plants planted the traditional way in other areas of garden so we’re not about to starve. I also don’t expect Superstore to be sold out of potatoes for the next year.

In the end, it was a fun experiment. Everyone in the house had fun watching the potatoes grow and getting out to water them. I’ll plant another crop next year. I’ll have to check how to preserve my starter potatoes from year to year though. There are other plans for the garden so there won’t be as much room for potatoes next year.

Barrel Potatoes

While driving back from a conference, the conversation turned to urban agriculture. My friend suggested I try growing barrel potatoes. That is, potatoes grown in a barrel. Luckily, soon after moving in to my house a year ago, the City slapped a warning sign on my seldom-used garbage can. It has been sitting inside my fence ever since with nothing to do. So, I decided I would try and grow potatoes in it.

I drilled some holes in the bottom and cleaned it out. Now it was ready for a little soil at the bottom and a little bone meal. I bought some Yukon Gold seedling potatoes and placed some in my barrel. I then covered with soil, watered, and waited.

I’m now twenty days into growing potatoes and I have a number of plants coming up. The only hard part is that I need to keep the soil just under the leaves of the plants but they’re growing at different rates. One is about 25 cm tall while I just noticed a new one coming out today.

It looks hopeful that I’ll have some potatoes in the Autumn as long as I don’t keep the soil too wet and my potatoes get mouldy.

Disaster Averted

Alberta's provincial election occurred on 23 April 2012. The polls had predicted a tight race with the ultra right-wing Wildrose party winning a narrow majority over the right-wing Progressive Conservative (PC) party which had been in power for 41 consecutive years. The polls turned out to be wrong as the PCs captured 61 of 87 seats in the provincial legislature with 44% of the vote. The Wildrose were second with 17 seats and 34% of the vote. The Liberals (five seats, 10% vote) and the New Democratic Party (NDP, 4 seats, 10% vote) took the remaining seats.

It may appear like the PCs won in a near landslide though they only had a minority of the votes but how close were the Wildrose to forming the government? A visit to Elections Alberta to download the results and the electoral districts (ED) shapefile leads to some interesting answers.

As the map above shows, the Wildrose dominated southern Alberta but they had narrow loses to the PCs in a number of other EDs. The red EDs are where the Wildrose lost to the PCs by less than 5%. That means, if one in 40 of all the voters in that ED was a PC voter who decided to vote Wildrose instead, those nine EDs would have gone to the Wildrose. Together, the red and yellow EDs represent where the PCs would have lost if just one in 20 voters selected Wildrose instead of PC. There are 24 red and yellow EDs so if just five percent of the electorate in just those 24 EDs switched their vote, the PCs go down five percent, the Wildrose up five percent and those EDs fall to the Wildrose. That makes the results of the election a Wildrose minority with 41 seats to 37 for the PCs.

Should an election be able to change so much on what appears to be such a small change in voting? Proportional representation in Alberta would have brought a PC minority with 38 seats to 30 for the Wildrose, nine each for the Liberals and NDP and a single seat for the Alberta Party. A 10% swing between PCs and Wildrose in just a third of the EDs would not have changed a near landslide into a minority.

Proportional representation would also have allowed many voters on the left to avoid strategic voting. In the run-up to the election, there was lots of talk about how to block the Wildrose and their regressive policies from becoming reality. It’s impossible to know the true support of the PCs in Alberta due to strategic voting and the apathy in the first-past-the-post system where people don’t vote because the outcome of their ED is nearly guaranteed. I had hoped the final polls before the election would show the intentions of many Liberal and NDP voters who then switched to the strategic vote for the PCs at the ballot box. The last polls don’t show this as Liberal and NDP support is nearly the same as in the election. The polls only indicate that borderline Wildrose supporters had second thoughts about making a deal with the dev… er… Danielle Smith and went back to the PCs.

Speaker Series

On 10 April, I was finally able to see Elizabeth May speak in person. She was in the city for the day and the UofA Greens hosted her for a talk in the afternoon. Her talk focused on the recent budget and all the horrible things it included. I was able to ask a question about whether this budget is the final stages of a "starve the beast" conservative policy. The best part was I was able to get a few minutes of Ms. May's time after the talk. I would have loved to have chatted longer with her but a small crowd was forming so I shuffled off. On 16 April, I attended the book tour lecture by Jarrett Walker, author of humantransit.org and the recently published book, "Human Transit." If you have an interest in how transit works, the book is an excellent read. Jarrett's talk was also excellent. He covered a few things in the book and a few things he said will be in his next book. Some of the questions afterwards were insightful but two "questioners" were just looking for validation on their personal views of transit. One went on and on and on about the proposed LRT line through Chinatown. She was concerned about seniors in the area being hit by the LRT. It was much more of a rant than a question and I don't think Jarrett agreed with her logic. In fact, he believes people around sixty should think about their future mobility as they age and might not be able to drive. The other questioner seemed to wonder about mixed-use around LRT stations but it took him about three minutes to get around to something which was nearly a question and he never used the term, "mixed-use."

Coyote scat on a map

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This is just a little test of what I could be doing with ArcGIS on-line. I've gone into the river valley twice now with Peter as he volunteers his time to help with a coyote research project at the University of Alberta. I walked along with my camera and GPS so I could geotag any interesting photographs I might happen to take along the way. Also, for a bit of fun, I'd take a picture of Peter as he collected a sample. I've used the GPS track and the location of each photo to create this little map of where Peter collected a sample. If there's great demand, I can configure the pop-ups to show the image of Peter bending over taking poop. It's your call.

I did get one interesting picture of a woodpecker.

2011

I set a personal record in 2011! I logged 3240 km on the bike with my GPS. That beats my previous best of 3138 km in 2009. The most striking difference is the amount of climbing I did those two years. Last year I did just ten vertical kilometres of climbing while I did over 25 km in 2009. The main reason for all my riding was commuting. I rode most of the winter months which I didn't do in previous years. In total I commuted for nearly 2800 km. I didn't race very much in 2011 which is why I only logged 277 km of training and 95 km of racing, all of that cyclocross. My highs in training and racing were 290 km and 459 km, both in 2009. The final 68 km I classified as recreation and that mostly consisted of pulling my girls around in the bike trailer. Other than commuting, those are some pretty bad numbers for someone who likes to race bikes.

In 2012, I think I can set another personal best in total distance. I'm just one week into January and I'm already near last January's total will lots of more good cycling weather in the forecast. I'm planning on commuting a lot more for the rest of the Winter and into Spring. I didn't do much in January, February or March last year. It should be easy to beat 277 km of training. Thursday hills are about 35 km for me and a weekend ride is easily over 60 km; 80 km if I start from home. I'll have to see about racing but I would like to at least do cyclocross again in the Autumn.