Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

Moose Mountain with Becca.
Rode up Pneuma to just before where it gets really ugly. Down Family Guy, a fun green downhill trail that leads you down to the Ing's Mine road. Turned around and climbed back up Family Guy. There are a couple of pitches that you have to push unless you were really really strong but the rest is a good climb, quite doable with some good flat breaks . Probably best to only climb it late in the day, otherwise you are dodging downhillers. Then down a little of Pneuma which is a really fun descent (I've never descended Pneuma) to reach 7-27. 7-27 is an absolute hoot!! They built this trail a couple of years ago, everyone has been raving about it and I have been dying to check it out. It is like Soft Yogurt on steroids. A huge flow track with big jumps along the way that are designed perfectly so that they launch you really smoothly and then flow right into a perfect landing on the transition on the other side, then into a big bermed corner, then another jump that sends you perfectly and another ideally-matched up landing, repeat, repeat. Everything flows perfectly and makes you feel like a superstar!
Then we realized that it spits us out onto Sulphur Springs and we had to do a couple of the ugly climbs to connect back to the bottom of Pneuma and ride back to the car. Oh well, bonus workout. At that point, it started raining and the roots got really slick. Darn, the bikes had stayed clean up to this point.... The return down Pneuma was much longer than we expected and started looking unfamiliar in the other direction. It gives me a good appreciation of what we had climbed.

Hit Fergus and Bix on the way home for awesome burgers.

Highline, Quebexican (including the last two descents) and back, midline but missed finding the best single track, and then rode home.

16.6

Montane Traverse with Krista and Carbon.
From Cougsr Creek, climbed up and all the way over to the radio tower descent. The descent down the right trail wasn't bad. Maybe I'll have to try the direct line down the left. Climbed up Meander etc to Montane again and down Johnny's. A fast section, plus a cool smooth bobsleddish section before Johnny's. Then onto the Bench and Krista and I tried descending the nose off the bench. Bad choice, it was covered in baby's head boulders and it was hard to keep the wheels under control. I intentionally swerved off onto the grassy slope but it was also challenging because you couldn't see the dips and drops in the grass. Then rejoined Carbon and climbed home.

Had time to hit my gym at work today. Their most intense class happens on Wednesdays. After several good, hard days, an intense class was not really ideal but what the heck, I figured I would go for it and see how baldy I would die. Hung on, fell a bit behind on the strength stuff but then would catch up on the stair running which felt like recovery.
Again the toes did not too bad.

Hmmm... I didn't believe in glucosamine / chondroiton / MSM for joint pain but was taking it anyway just in case because it seemed harmless. After reading enough studies that say there isn't clear evidence that it works, I was thinking of quitting it. Then I ended up being off of it for about a week or two and my toe started aching more. I figured this was just the cortisone shot from a month ago wearing off. I restarted the G/C/MSM and the toes are doing better lately. Possibly just a coincidence but I'll keep an eye on it.

C • Glucosamine etc. 2

15.9

Saw Slice for another round of treatment. The treatment on Thursday made a big difference so it felt like another visit could take it even further. More IMS and stretching, hitting the left side again and also hitting the right side this time.

My schedule allowed me to catch a Canmore Trail Culture run for the first time in a long time. Fun to see a lot of good Canmore friends all in the same place.
I wanted to push myself so I decided to see if I could hang on to the tail of the fast group. Credit to Slice's Physio, I was feeling good enough to be up near the front of the fast group.
A tough run, we kept ascending the trail on the far left that heads way up above the Horseshoe trails for about 20 minutes and reaches the very high traverse with great views of Canmore and the valley. A narrow traverse trail that is slightly off-camber...not so fun in the Propulse ... Thank goodness I didn't wear the Hokas I was thinking of.
I thought all of the hard running up the steep incline would really bug my toes but they did well and weren't very sore after or the next morning.
Started getting a little tired toward the end. A great workout. A beautiful warm night.

16.0

Distance and time are estimated.
Our road racing friend Jenn rented a bike and tried mountain biking for the first time. Carbon planned a green loop to start but we cut that short when Jenn was doing great and rode blue for the rest of the day. Rode Odyssey, Blue Coal Chutes, I went down the steepest lower black coal chute again. A great time had by all, weather was awesome, a fun crew. Carbon, Jenn, Jason, Devin, Jenna and Cailee.
Then lounged under a tree on the grass for a while.

Again the distance and time are estimated.
Went for another loop. Up onto EKG East and rode most of EKG, continuing right on EKG instead of dropping down the blue coal chutes. We don't ride this part of EKG as often so it was fun to see some less familiar trail.
Then lighting up the speed as Jason and I ripped through the last section of Orchid which is fast and flowy, my pedal snagged a little stump at the bottom of the pedal stroke, and launched me in a full superman. Fortunately I didn't meet any obstacles and had a fairly harmless slide on my side in the dirt.