Winterstart

Last night's Winterstart race in Banff reminded me what it feels like to really hurt... The 5 mile run at altitude, up a giant hill, in the dark is definitely one of my favorites of the season.

While I was fairly happy with my run (30:29, 3rd AG, 9th overall), I was especially happy with my post-race performance - 6 beers in 60 minutes (Big Rock is a sponsor). I'm not sure what is more sore today, my quads or my stomach.

Happy Halloween!

Danger Swimming

They are replacing the roof on the Talisman Centre pool this winter. To prepare for swimming in a underconstruction/roofless pool in the middle of an Alberta winter we've decided to take up Danger Swimming.

Euro Vacation – Part 2: Nice

We covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of things during our six day stay in Nice. In a tribute to my favourite attempted-blackmail victim, late night talk show host, I have decided to present the highlights of our six days in Nice in top ten format:

Number Ten: easyjet. We decided to fly easyjet since it was about 1/3 the cost and 1/5 the time of taking the train. I like the idea of taking a train through the Chunnel and across France, but not that much...

Number Nine: The Hotel Pool. Thanks to tripadvisor we found a great hotel in Nice. It was central, the rooms were large and they had a stunning roof-top pool overlooking Nice – what more could you ask for?

Number Eight: The Yachts. We thought the €27 million yacht parked in the Nice harbour was nice until we got to Antibes and saw one owned by a Saudi Prince. Ridiculous.

Number Seven: The City bus. This one surprised me. We discovered that you can travel to countless towns around Nice (including Monaco, Antibes & San Tropez) by city bus for only €1. The buses are frequent, clean, quick and provide spectacular views as they travel along the coast. (view from the Bus to Monaco)

Number six: Monaco. A spectacular, pristine city built into an amazing natural setting, what’s not to like?

Number five: The Weather. When we arrived in Nice we were greeted by lots of sun, a very light sea breeze and a temperature of 20 degrees (at 9 in the morning) – quite the departure from the weather in Bath! The sunny, warm weather continued with daytime highs in the mid 20s and nightime lows in the high teens for our whole trip.

Number four: Villefranche-sur-Mer. Beautiful small town build into the cliffs just east of Nice. Villefranche had a very cool Italian feel to it and was well worth the trip. Janice and I were enjoying the sea views so much that we decided to walk back to Nice (with an ice-cream stop midway).

Number three: The Sea. As a born and raised Alberta I'm not too sure why huge bodies of water have so much allure to me... But they do. We found this little park overlooking the Mediterranean in Monaco that blew me away.

Number two: The Beach. Despite the fact that you are lying on small rocks rather than sand, the beaches in Nice are still pretty good. Add in water that was still very swimmable in mid-October and you have the ingredients for many, many trips to the beach.

Number one: The Food and Wine. What is there to say? The food was great and cheap. After doing a little homework we found some real gems in old Nice. As for the wine, we are not huge drinkers, but we put back at least nine bottles of wine in six days. Enough said.

Euro Vacation – Part 1: Bath

Janice and I arrived in Bath for the first portion of our European vacation. My sister Emma has lived in Bath for the last five years and as such we had both a place to stay and a tremendous tour-guide for the duration of our stay.

Our journey to Bath took us through Paddington station in London. We had a little trouble figuring out what to do with our empty coffee cups as there are no longer garbage cans in the train station for security reasons…

Emma was a perfect host and had drinks in our hands within minutes of our arrival at her flat.

Sunday night we took a great walk along the canal to The George, our first but certainly not last pub of the trip.

Monday started with a morning run and was followed up with a great hike along the Cotswold Way with Anne Marie, who lives in Bath and is also originally from Edmonton.

Tuesday saw Janice and I visit the Roman Baths after which the town is named.

We also did a lot of wandering and looking at the classic “Georgian” architecture that makes up most of Bath, including the Royal Crescent.

Throughout our trip the weather was true to British form. Here is the view from Emma’s window, which gives a pretty accurate representation of the week’s weather.

Janice and I also discovered the allure of the British pub. Cold and damp weather combined with a lack of central heating and some incredible ales made for a lot of pub time...

I really enjoyed getting to know Emma’s neighbourhood and city and came away with a much better understanding for why my little sis loves Bath so much.

Commuting Firsts

This was a week of commuting firsts.

1) First week of commuting all five days. (six days actually as I was at work Sunday)

2) First commute sub zero. (not that bad)

3) First "double pitch dark" commute. (shorter days and a busy work schedule get the credit for this one)

4) First "with a brake" commute. (I finally decided that, while fun, commuting on a brakeless fixie was probably not a good idea)

Good times...

Bike P*rn

A few or the many, many beauties I saw at Interbike.

Lance Armstrong's Tour of California TT bike.

Andy Schleck's bike.

Andy Schleck's "Schleck Brothers" saddle - pretty cool.

Contador's Tour de France Yellow Madone.

Cancellara's TT bike. Notice the home-made spacers under the base bar.

Cancellara's Yellow Specialized.

Specialized Shiv.

Quintana Roo CD01.

Highroad Scott Plasma 3.

Bianchi Pico Crono.

Guru Crono 2.

Kestrel 4000 LTD.

Fuji D-6 Professional.