Doug calls me the human wrecking ball because I can manage to break anything. The first time I met Doug’s parents we were staying at their house in White Rock south of Vancouver and I managed, on the first day, to pull the shower curtain down from the wall. I was intimidated by Doug’s family in those days as they all appeared very rich to a kid from a working class family whose father worked two jobs from the outer ‘burbs of Sydney and the fracas with the shower curtain was distressing.
Doug and I have been together over 30 years now and the number of things I have broken is uncountable. Right now, of course, both my paddle and the Big Foot in my kayak are broken which is why I’m not out paddling with Nick and Doug right now and how I’ve dodged a bullet because the wave rider buoy off Batemans Bay peaked at around 5 metres at 10 am and the wind is gusting to 20 knots. These are just the kind of days when Quick Nick emerges from five years of house renovations to paddle.
I took the mountain bike out for a run on the Mogo trails. It’s Sunday so the E-bikes were out. Times have changed; 30 years ago, when I was 30 people who were 30 would be ashamed to use a motor to ride up a 100 or so metres on a well graded trail. But here we are. Giving up our vitality for convenience. My legs were sore because I’ve started the Delorme protocol again. Which means I did 50 weighted squats yesterday. But it’s endurance training season so it’s critical that I try and maintain my rather paltry amount of muscle mass.
From Round Mountain I rode down Spitfire but my legs were shaky so I walked that dratted dip that has thrown me off the bike every time I’ve been down Spitfire. The body remembers. The day before, while training, I had a mountain bike video on and for the first time I actually thought “Why not try to get better in a more planned way rather than my usual haphazard I’ll work it out way?” First thing I did was wear shoes with decent tread because, apparently, having good soles on your shoes that grip the pedals increases the control you have when biking. I usually wear my oldest running shoes which have a nice smooth worn out sole much like a bedroom slipper. Turns out grippy shoes do work. I went faster than normal even though my legs were a bit shot.
Secondly, I tried deliberately to lean the bike while keeping my body upright. Apparently, the side lugs on mountain bike tyres are aggressive and meant to “grip” the trail as you cant the bike over. Of course, I felt like the bike was virtually touching down I was leaning it that far but, that’s beginners mind I’m sure a bystander would barely notice bicycle lean at all. Anyway, it was diverting. I added a bit more distance and elevation gain by zooming down the green trails to the Botanic Gardens which was terrific fun.
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