Superfunkomatic - Observations of the Socially Inept

The ‘Deets’

Ride Distance: 736 kilometre
Max. Temp: 26 celcius
Min. Temp: 10 celcius
Time: begin 10am - return 5:30pm (stop for lunch, pee and gas - otherwise, ride like a demon!)

wow! what a gorgeous day today. i had the day off, so i decided to take a spin through the mountains. as a ‘warm-up’ i did my columbia icefields loop ride.

left calgary around 10am this morning. it was 23 degrees and stayed warm and sunny throughout the day. it was even remarkably warm in the mountains for this time of the year.

oddities:

• a troop of children walking on the highway by caroline, alberta. they were walking two-abreast and the leader was carrying a 10ft tall cross of some kind. picking up the rear was a priest-like feller. not sure why they would be walking down the side of highway 22. i should have stopped for a photo - something just didn’t look right.
• discovered that there is a place called ‘westward ho’ in alberta. how can you ride/drive past that sign and not want to yell like a pirate or seafaring bloke - …westward ho. next time i’ll get a picture.

the temperature around the icefields dropped from 24 celcius to 10 in a matter of minutes. it is unbelievable the immensity of the glaciers - they actually cool the air and create unique weather patterns at their base. now that’s power!

saw a whole group (about 50) bighorn sheep, at, you guessed it, the bighorn dam. this is where the north saskatchewan river culminates and begins its journey.

i’m no global warming expert but every year i go through this area the dam is lower and lower. it looks about 1/2 full right now even with the recent dumps of snow. pretty scarry shit, considering this is the place where most of the immediate eastern and south-eastern cities receive their water from.

really nice first ride of the season. i’d like to venture up to jasper for a ride this summer, maybe that will be one of the next full day trips.

Tags: columbia icefields, day ride, icefields, loop ride

made an attempt at a mountain ride today. the weather promised to be sunny and around 13 celcius. unfortunately, that was not the case. it was bloody cold and windy.

i’d planned to go riding with a few students from my motorcycle training class. their first ride on the highway, stop for lunch, chat, then return from canmore.

when we reached the city limits towards highway 22 the temperature dipped and there was light snow. i’m a diehard rider, but riding at 0 celcius is a bit too cool for my liking.

a quick jaunt to bragg creek for some warm soup and a drink, then we returned home back to the city.

this spring has been pretty disappointing for riding. the weather has been cold and unreliable and we’ve had many late snowfalls. i’ll have to hang in there a bit longer. maybe next friday will be nice enough for a mountain spin.

Tags: cold, nasty weather, ride

The challenge – to write a memoir of your life in only six words. Can it be done? Oh yes, it can.

The lovely and talented Fiona at Confessions from the Home Office has tagged me with a very interesting challenge: to write my memoir in six words.

If you look at her post, it provides some of the background about where the idea originated. But basically, the idea is to sum yourself up in six words or less, post it, and then tag someone else:

• Write your own six word memoir.
• Post it on your blog.
• Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to this original post if possible.
• Tag five more blogs with links.

without further ado, here it is:

Explore everything, leave no stone unturned…

Tags: 6 word memoir, challenge

Just downloaded the latest Nine Inch Nails album – “The Slip.” Really good stuff and it ventures into new territory on the commerce of music front - it’s absolutely free. A treat for fans, like me, who have been rabidly consuming Trent Reznor’s music since the late 1980s.

A nice way of a successful artist saying thanx to fans. Sometimes art is just that, art for art’s sake and not for making a buck.

Download it for yourself at NIN.com, and Play It Loud Mutha!

Tags: free download, music, nine inch nails

well, since the beginning of december i’ve been on a quest to get back into reasonably good physical condition. and folks, it’s working!

i started at a plump 212 pounds. after two and a half years of knee injuries, shoulder injuries and general malaise i was finally able to start training again. man, i didn’t realize how shitty i felt. no wonder i felt like such a lazy bag of turd.

i’m much closer to my ‘fighting weight’ now at a much leaner 194 - float like a butterfly, or moth, and sting like an, um, wasp (not quite a bee, yet…).

my initial attempts to run were a disaster - 5 miles (too much), and really started to screw up my knees. it took 65 minutes to run five miles. being that i’m a very polarized personality (all or nothing, go big or go home) - i thought more of a good thing would be a good way to get started, not so much!

so then i started building from 1 kilometre and working on speed and adding more distance each week. in 16 weeks i’ve gone from 12+ minute miles down to about an 8:50 mile. i’m up to 8 kilometres in 44-49 minutes. pretty significant improvement.

so i’m nearly ready to run 10K distances - maybe in about 4-6 weeks.

Tags: forest gump, running, training