Weekend Fun

I had a great Saturday last weekend with a day filled with good stuff. It all started out with a solid sleep and upon waking, knew that I just needed to get out on my feet. I haven't been running at all lately and felt the urge to get out there for a nice short job/run. It wasn't long before I was good and warmed up and headed down to run along the sand and gravel beach of Cordova Bay. I'm lucky to have this nice beach just a couple of blocks from my house and will definitely be enjoying more this winter than I have recently. The tide was fairly high and the water was like glass. I should have been out kayaking! At the end of the beach, I hoped out to the road and found myself heading toward Mount Douglas. I hadn't been there in quite some time and thought that I'd just do a nice loop around the base and back along the Lochside Trail. Well, once I hit the trails, I just started to go up and up, and by the time I knew it, I came out to the road and figured, what the hell, lets go to the top. While I've been to the peak before by biking or hiking, I've never actually run up. The view was gorgeous! After taking it in, I took and nice winding way down and looped back home. A little longer than I thought I would go but when your having a good run, you just don't want to stop!

After some a good breakfast and relaxing early morning, I lubed up my mountain bike which hadn't seen any use since the Cumberland MOMAR. She was getting pretty lonely in the garage and was happy to get out.

I met up with Sleepmonster's Doug Doyle and road out to the dump to get in some technical riding. We should have stayed home. At least that what I thought when we entered the grey darkness that overshadowed our destination. It was going to be a wet ride. Now, had it been raining at my place, I may have not even left. But, once your out there, it's never as bad as you think it will be. Especially when you get under the heavy tree cover; even a fierce rain can seem like nothing in the thick BC forest. We took the back way in (up Meadowbrook) and met up with some other riders at the main parking lot including Shane Ruljancich (2nd in MOMAR Shawnigan), and Brent Chan who was demoing a sweet Gary Fisher 29er courtesy of Oak Bay Bikes. The ride was just what I was looking for; relaxed. We maybe stopped too much and eventually all of us got cold from yapping but it was a good ride anyway. It was the type of ride that makes you think "yep, the summer is definitely over now. Time to bring out the lights soon." Can't wait for some sweet night time fun!

After the ride, I hooked up with my friend and co-worker Mike Sanborn for some kayak technical training in the Crystal Pool (which is put on by Ocean River Sports). Pool sessions are a great way to practice your rolls, bracing, and sculling work. While rolling seems second nature to me now, I still cannot get the hand roll down. I guess I've never been shown how to do it properly though so that could have something to do with it. As Mike has a background in whitewater kayak racing (think skinny fast boats not a chubby playboat), he was able to put his old skills to work and even managed to do some hand rolls while he was at it. Maybe next time...

My day finished with some X-Box zombie killing with Pizza and beer at Mike's place. It's been forever since I played any video games so it turned out to be a pretty fun evening. I dreamed of killing large rats in a Dungeon with my enchanted arrows. Need I say more :)