In and out of town

I do not want to categorize people, but my feeling is that most runners prefer to run mostly alone, although the popularity of running events and trail races would suggest otherwise. Mountain bikers, on the other hand, are with rare exceptions social animals. Let me not even start about roadies. Every time I pull my commuter bike out of the garage, I noticed how my Ibis Mojo gets greener with envy (nuclear pesto getting greener!) and sank a little deeper on its underinflated tires. Something had to be done about that and I recruited social media for help: the Cascades Mountain Bikers Meetup seemed like a good start to help me overcome the activation barrier. Saturday being a gorgeous sunny warm day, a ride was called at Tolt MacDonald park. The group looked serious and the ride started with a  serious climb, but fortunately not too long. At the top of the ridge the real fun started: twisted singletrack, loamy soil, tons of slick roots, few interesting descents, but mostly, green mossy jungle of a rainforest.

Can you see those two riders in the middle of the photo? Often I rode at the tail of the group in one direction and the guys at the front were going by me in opposite direction, that's how those trails intertwined. The terrain was much like in BC and required a tall gear, lots of momentum, leaning in corners and using the tire side knobs to grab for traction. I had a deja vu - learning again how to mountain bike, the same as 2 years ago on Vancouver Island.

There was a little bit of an open fire road and a nice downhill back to the suspension bridge.

After 10 miles of trying to keep up with the fast group, constant manhandling the bike and standing up to power up short inclines with no time to shift, I was fried. The riders of this Meetup were a super nice bunch!

Sunday was supposed to be a ski day, but last minute duties changed the plans, but allowed us to spend couple of hours around downtown.

 Leaving the spiffy shopping centers, we walked towards the Pioneer and Occidental Squares, just to realize that on Sunday morning, this area apparently belongs to the Seattle's homeless and other street characters.

Shopping for fresh seafood at Pikes Place Market is always lots of fun. The fish is excellent and costs the same as our nearby Fisherman's Terminal. Whole foods or Safeway just don't come close in quality.

 This colorful guy did not seem to have too much fun, despite being surrounded by bicycles.

 But the Free Tibet supporters were enjoying themselves, under a very relaxed observation by the city Mountain Bike patrol.

 Cops, bikes, wet pavement and Starbucks. You don't need to see the sign below to know it is spring in Seattle!

 P.S. Due to time constraints, I did not get to visit the Seattle bike expo the past weekend. I will try to gather some information from coworkers who went and perhaps post a few links.

S.A.D.

"Snowlake Attempt Dos"
our first try to snowshoe to Snow Lake (Alpental at Snoqualmie) ended after couple of hours on the edge of a nasty looking avalanche chute. Last weekend, with a moderate avalanche forecast, we tried again. This time, we hiked high up on the eastern slope above the South Fork of Snoqualmie river, but the snowshoe track ended on the edge of badly churned slope. Not giving up so easily this time, we followed one set of snowshoe prints steeply down very deep snow to the river and tried to go up north on the western side. Finally, we reached the bottom of a very steep, almost tree-less slope, with recent signs of avalanche activity. Four skiers hiked up, but for us, on a Sunday afternoon, it was too late.

At least we saw where we need to go next time, there is the saddle on the horizon! We will get there on a sunny day when the snow is packed.

"Sudden Activity Decrease"
After Marketa's trail race where I tried to keep warm for half a day by hopping around the finish chute and calling out finishers' numbers, I went down with a bad sinus / ear infection, and it has been very slow crawling back up from the hole of inactivity. Of course, now running 6 miles is hard and I am sore the next day. With about six weeks before a planned 4-day mountain biking desert tour, I have zero miles in my knobbies and that makes me almost sad. More like mad! Despite numerous great trails in the proximity and me even signing up for some MTB Meetups, I don't seem to be able to scramble enough mental energy to plan a route, put the bike on the roof rack, drive to the trail head and PEDAL DAMN IT!
Then, there is the real S.A.D. (Seasonal affective disorder), I am still hoping the first winter in WA is too soon for that, but there are signs, just these little signs... spring is almost here.

What next?

In the last Dirt Rag magazine, Rich Dillen has told me (and thousands of other dirt rag mag readers) what I have suspected for a while:

"The cycling Web log is a dying form of expressing oneself and sharing stories in a manner that attracts sponsors. Facebook and Twitter have all but squashed the medium nearly out of existence. If you haven't already obtained a healthy legion of devoted readers, it's likely that your hard work and creativity will be wasted on your close friends and family.

OK, I don't think I work on this blog too hard or in a creative way. But the fact is that I missed the train - I did not start a blog in 2005. Another fact is that as a regular person, with a day job and little time for adventures, my posts are more or less just diary entries, and who'd be interested in that? For my family who all live in Czech Republic, this should be written in Czech, not English.

So what's the alternative? Forget twitter, can't think of a more stupid idea, texting is bad enough. Facebook is where everybody is, right? My wife has an account, but Marketa and social media is like fire and ice. One of her Facebook contacts, Stepan Lata got it right: THIS TIMELINE SHIT SUCKS! Browsing other people's pages, I see what this medium seems to be good for: "We like absolutely have to get together for a dinner date..." If somebody "likes" a picture I post, so what? Why is one click better that sending me a message, email or call me and chat?

Perhaps I will take the leap into the future (somebody younger please tell me if Facebook is a dying form of social media, what's hot these days?) and move my brief updates about bike rides, occasional races, runs and hikes to an FB page. It's kinda scary. Others have done the homework, I should read it.

Source: http://www.bydatabedriven.com/social-media-flow-chart-blog-vs-facebook-vs-twitter/

Third and last trail duathlon

That's it. The third and last of the Fort Steilacoom trail duathlons is history. It was a beautiful day, even if slightly chilly. The trails were either hero dirt or dry loose (!), enough to make my rear wheel slip a bit if I did not pay enough attention when powering up at the middle ring. The rear Specialized Captain tire is bald, too.
I have to say, I have enjoyed all three races, the second one despite a bad middle ear infection, but today was just perfect: I have gone too fast out on the first running leg, and predictably paid for it with cramps on the last running leg with 200 yards to finish. The bike laps in between were fun. Overall, the whole idea of running after you get off the bike instead of going to a jacuzzi with a beer is kind of masochistic. I really respect anybody who has done an Ironman. And swimming? Give me a break, I love to lay down on a hot sand after a swim... I might have shaven some minutes off my first race time, official results are not posted yet. Results are now here and I can proudly say, I have bettered my time by 6 minutes over the first race and 13 minutes compared to the second one!

Mountains and flowers

Apparently weather in Seattle (is the word weather in each of my recent posts?) is either Alaska - grey and drizzle, or California. Today was definitely California, and during the first step outside of the building on the lunch break run and the first breath of the outside air, there was clearly spring in the air.
In the middle of Blaine stairs, there is the hidden gem of Streissguth gardens and the crocuses were going crazy:

Once at the top of the water tower, I always check the first window on the right for views of Mt. Rainier:

 On the opposite side of the tower, looking north, Mt. Baker could be seen clearly (88miles away). The iPhone could see it less clearly, so after some massaging in iPhoto, you get a "painting":

 A quick detour into the greenhouse, the correct name is Volunteer Park Conservatory, to check out some orchids:

 And finally a "cactusarium", or a piece of a desert under the glass panes:

On the way down Howe stairs, the Olympics just beg to quit work and drive there (it is "far", 2 hours at least by car).

Lunch break over.

Weekend play on the snow

We have been waiting for more powder, but got more of the Cascades concrete. Earlier this winter, I thought of expanding my snow gear either into XC, or backcountry AT gear (big expense!). Somehow I could not decide which I would like better, so we ended up buying snowshoes. First, it seemed really silly to scramble uphill wearing these bear paws only to use them to slow you on the way down. But during a few short hikes on snowshoes, I slowly started to change my mind.

Among the minor advantages of snowshoes, I could name no lift lines, no freezing on a chairlift, no $$$ for lift tickets, but these are all the things that are necessary parts of downhill skiing. So why would snowshoes be any better than XC or backcountry skis? You move faster on skis and going down is definitely lots more fun than digging the crampons into snow to fight gravity.

There is one advantage of walking, hiking, jogging or whatever pace and form of movement you take on snowshoes: you can actually access terrain that would be unthinkable on any kind of skis in the winter, and actually make your own trail at places where there would be no trail, or even a chance of getting through, in summer. A big log across a creek with enough packed snow on it becomes a bridge. Snow covered spruces? Just walk over them! Boulders, rocks? Five feet below the surface!

The best part? Awesome places 45 minute drive away. As Marketa pointed out yesterday after our three-hour intense aerobic outing at Snoqualmie Pass, it takes less time to drive to this beauty than it used to take us to reach Santa Cruz from Silicon Valley.
I still miss a knee deep powder and steep slopes, and if I am patient, between now and June I'm sure we will get some more.

Trail Duathlon Race 2

Weather:
Overcast
Temperature 5 Celsius (40F)
Light steady rain

Bike setup:
New bottom bracket bearings (XT, previous FSA MegaExo lasted 4 years)
New wheelset - American Classic Terrain 29 Tubeless, 2013 model, very sweet!
New Shimano XT disc rotors
New rear brake pads
Old Specialized Captain 29x2.0 2Bliss tires, rear one will be gone soon, but this rubber snapped onto the tubeless rims upon inflation with a floor pump in no time
One and half scoops of Stan's in each tire, 32psi

Personal setup:
Old (untreated) sinus infection, maxillar, frontal...
Brand new otitis media with effusion
Slight lack of balance
Screw the weather and middle ear infection attitude
Wool base layer, Twin Six bike jersey for running and a Goretex jacket for the bike laps
New Endura neoprene wet weather bike gloves - probably better for cold weather surfing than mountain biking

Race result:
A negative improvement (similar to the current economic term "negative growth") of 8 minutes over the 1st race.
Looking forward to the 3rd and final one on February 17!