Anthology of Interest - Sports

Crashes can be entertaining...

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 01:13:54 -0500

but is thinking that one of the drivers you are cheering for just died entertainment?

Urgh. Yay safety innovation. Concussion and a sore (broken?) ankle. Wow.

Crashes are entertaining when you don't know who is involved, but it's pretty dramatic when it happens to someone you are cheering for. Which is part of watching sports I guess... experiencing the lows is just as much a part of it as the highs. Of course you alway want more points and less crashes in that case.

Montreal was perhaps the most entertaining race of the season, and that's because a lot of unexpected stuff happened, not because anyone drove particularity well.

Icefields Parkway

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:33:45 -0400

Photos from my Icefields Parkway trip between Jasper and Lake Louise are now up. I'll write the trip up in more detail later. Probably.

Buoyancy control

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 09:56:19 -0400

I went SCUBA diving this weekend with a friend from work. This was my first dive after getting my open water certification, so I'm pretty green. Fortunately my dive buddy was patient and helped me out with some buoyancy control exercises, which I really needed. One is supposed to be able to hover at a single depth, maybe plus or minus 10 cm, but I occasionally took a deep breath and started to rise at an alarming rate. By the end of the second dive, my control was improving, but it still wasn't that great. We also toured around at about 40 feet for a while, and saw a bunch of snails and a couple of fish, one of which was dead.

The water was about 14 C, which was warmer than when I did the open water dives. I was able to swim around for 49 minutes in a 7mm wet suit and didn't get cold though. Still, the next course I need to do is dry suit. I may do another dive on the blockhouse in Minnewanka before I do the dry suit course, although I've been cold that there is a sharp thermocline at about 60 feet. If I had access to a boat, I could dive on the town site too, which would be interesting.

Open Water Diver

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:55:15 -0400

For some reason, I have been unable to remember to take sunscreen with me whenever I do something that requires being out in the sun for a long time. The week end before last I burned by arms and ears riding from the gate to Kananskis Country to Longview and then to Black Diamond. This weekend, I burned my face, neck, and arms while sitting around doing surface intervals. At least on Sunday I was able to steal some sunscreen from my dive partner, so I didn't burn too much more. So although parts of me are now a somewhat unhealthy shade of red, I've managed to earn my PADI open water diver certification.

I was the first to arrive at the dive site on Saturday. The site was Lake Minnewanka, at the plaque site. After everyone arrived, I learned a little bit about altitude diving. Even though I had only driven up from Calgary, an altitude change that I didn't think was too large, it was enough that we had to acclimatize a bit. Actually we didn't really have to, since we weren't really diving that deep, but it gave us time to set up our equipment and do our briefing and learn about a little about diving at altitude.

A 7mm wet suit is very hot when standing around in the sun. Add a diving hood and it becomes unbearably hot and sweaty. Jumping in 11 C water helps a lot. The visibility in Minnewanka is about 20 feet when open water students aren't stirring up the bottom. When they are, the visibility is nil. One student had some trouble with his equipment (his weight belt slipped off), and the resulting commotion stirred up the bottom so badly that I could see my hand in front of my face, or my dive partner. We sat still and it eventually cleared up, and we were able to complete our skills, but all that sitting around on the bottom of the lake made me a bit cold.

I had some problems of my own. For one, I had my mask strap too tight and too high on my head, so it didn't take much water pressure to push the top of the mask into my forehead. No amount of blowing air into it help, but after a few minutes on the bottom I got used to it. I fixed that for the Sunday dives. On the first two dives I descended too fast, which didn't help.

One of the exercises we have to do is to fill the mask with water, and then clear it out again (and later take the mask right off and put it back on again). During this exercise, I inhaled a bit of water, and started coughing underwater. That was... interesting.

At one point during the dives, I found myself breathing out through my node without realizing it. I kept filling my hood with air and made my mask vibrate against my face. I took me a strangely long time to figure out that I was breathing out through my nose, and to determine what to do about it.

Now I have to do the altitude and dry suit courses, among others... and just go diving more often!

Riding Highwood Pass

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 14:58:14 -0400

On Sunday my father-inlaw, a friend of his, and I made a bid for the Highwood pass. I have wanted to ride over Highwood pass for a while, and this trip was partly why I wanted to get a new bike: a fixed gear 42-16 isn't something I want to climb a 7% grade on. My original plan was to get dropped off at the north end, and ride from one gate to the other, either getting picked up there or ride another 40 km to Longview. Riding from the gate to the top and back was a good start. Maybe next time I'll go gate-to-gate and back again or from the north end to Longview or something.

We had originally planned to ride the pass the weekend before, but rain made us reconsider. From the outset it was agreed that we would go at our own pace. After the first hill climb together, I set off at a faster pace. I didn't make as good a time as I would have liked, but it was ok for my first major ride in a long time.

After about 5 km I started thinking to myself that I should stop and go to the bathroom somewhere. But then I would look at my computer and think, I just go to 10 km. Ah, I'll wait until 15 km. And so on. Until I was at the last climb before the pass, and I had to stop and eat a cliff bar because I was running out of energy. That put me back in it though. I did have to chant "almost there" in my head though...

Gallery is having issues, so I'll post the pictures later.

UPDATE: Photos are now available.

Back on two wheels

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 01:22:46 -0400

Lots of stuff has been going on lately. I've started riding to work again, on a Norco CCX cyclocross bike. I ended up getting that one over the Trek or the Devinci because it has a short top tube. I felt really stretched out on the Devinci. The Norco was also cheaper. I'm pretty happy with it so far. It has developed a squeak somewhere in the bottom bracket area, so I've got to try to figure that out, otherwise it's been good.

The ride to work is pretty good, but I have make sure I don't go too fast, because we don't yet have showers at work. I should probably be having bird baths anyway, since it's pretty easy to get sweaty, even on a 4.2 Km ride. Especially when I try to stay ahead of the buses so I don't have to play leap frog with them. When I'm feeling lazy I just hang behind them and breath diesel fumes. Yum.

At the same time I got my new bike, I got parts to replace the things I broke on my fixie. Kona Bulge cranks and bottom bracket (on sale!) from Bowcycle, and a 44 tooth chain ring non ramped chain ring from MEC. Since the Norco came with different pedals (egg beaters), and the fixie has SPD's, I either have to swap pedals or swap cleats, and thus far I've been to lazy to do either, so I haven't really tested the new set up yet. That and I started sanding the frame where the chain ring took a bite out of it, and then started sanding surface rust, so now I should probably paint it or something before I ride it too much....

It feels great to be back on the road!

Stronger cranks and chain rings are in order...

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Mon, 08 May 2006 01:07:47 -0400

I went for a ride with Stephen today. We made our way along the river and ended up at Bow cycle, where I scoped out a new cyclocross bike for a bit. On my way home, coming down a pathway to 19th st, I was slowing down by resisting the pedal rotation, and my crank turned into a marshmallow. The arms that hold onto the chain ring tore off and the chain ring bent and then broke. I'm glad that it bent in toward the frame (there are some significant gouges in the frame) instead of out toward my leg. I also glad that it didn't do it when I was riding up hospital hill. Fortunately I wasn't going to fast.

Pictures of the wreckage are in the gallery. I guess I'll have to find a new bike until I can get new cranks, chain rings, and bottom bracket. That bike needs different wheels too. I guess I'm taking the bus next week.

MANTA RAYS

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 01:54:19 -0500

I finished my last SCUBA lesson tonight. Now I just have to do the open water dives to be certified, which can be done anywhere. Some place warm would be nice. Tamara is already planning a trip to Hawaii apparently. The Big Island this time:

Subject: I'm so evil
From: Tamara Hughes
Date: 19:00

Big Island has the nicest dives.  So:

http://www.oceanecotours.com/dive.html
http://www.konacoastdivers.com/index.html
http://www.jacksdivinglocker.com/training/certupgrades.htm
http://www.wanna-dive-kona.com/take_your_classroom_and_pool_wor.htm

Tamara heard about people diving with the sea lions off of Race Rocks in Victoria. But apparently manta rays are scarier than sea lions...

Subject: HOLY SHIT
From: Tamara Hughes
Date: 19:01

This terrifies me more than the sea lions.

http://www.wanna-dive-kona.com/manta_rays.htm

So. Very. Scary.

Subject: well, I know what I'm having nightmares about tonight...
From: Tamara Hughes
Date: 19:05

MANTA RAYS.

Going to Hawaii again would be cool.... Anyway, the diving course was a lot of fun. Travis and I were the last out of the deep end today. Too bad I can't do the open water dives around here for at least a month, probably more like two or three. Besides, I want to get a bike before I start buying SCUBA gear.

Gravity and is cruel and unpredictable mistress

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 11:57:18 -0500

The second time I went skiing to Sunshine, I took my camelback along so I could have some water without going to get my water bottle out of a locker. It worked pretty good, despite having no insulation on the tube, as long as I remembered to blow the water back into the reservoir. I decided that I was feeling confident enough that I could take my camera along and not seriously hurt myself or the camera, since I don't fall down as often or as hard anymore (pictures in the gallery).

So tempting gravity, as I was, I of course caught an edge and fell hard on my back. I didn't notice at the time, but the zipper on the water reservoir had popped open. I rode to the bottom of the run and leaned down to unstrap my bindings, and water poured out over my neck. Fortunately it didn't come inside my jacket, but I did get enough on my boots and pants that there were a few damp spots. The camera was also damp, but not soaked. The camera case seemed to have soaked up all the water, and the camera still works, fortunately.

When I was in Cuba last year, I tried out SCUBA diving at the resort, and then went on a trip to the Bay of Pigs. For Christmas this year my brother in law, who I dived with in Cuba, got a bunch of gift certificates to Adventures in SCUBA. We finally signed up for the PADI open water diver course, which started on last Monday. It is going pretty well, although the class is almost twice as large as normal. We got some pool time, where I found that I really need to work on my buoyancy control. Damn gravity. Four more weeks to go, then we'll have to find a time and place for the open water dives. Maybe when it warms up a bit.

The title is this post is courtesy of Jeremy Clarkson, in Top Gear's Winter Olympics special. It made me laugh.

More snowboarding!

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 02:47:47 -0500

Went snowboarding again today at Fortress Mountain. There was less snow than last weekend, but the conditions were still pretty good. Unfortunately, Fortress has only one lift open right now, and all the runs off of it are black diamonds, unless you want to carry your board along the ridge to a blue run. It's been a bit of a trial by fire to learn to snowboard on black diamonds, although the green run I did over and over again at Sunshine gave me just as much trouble. For a different reason though.

Last week I rode a run with a lot of powder, over and over again, just practicing my turns. I stuck to the powder for the soft landings, since a couple of hard falls at Sunshine turned me off of groomed runs for practicing. I hadn't quite figured out my boots, so I spent quite a lot of time sitting around trying to get the feeling to come back in my toes and feet. Perhaps part of that was having brand new boots. I think I did about 4 runs last weekend... it was pretty dismal. I was able to improve a bit though. It wasn't only my feet holding me back... I spent a lot of time falling down and trying to get back up again. I did a few face plants; instant brain freeze! One of the guys I was with lent me some goggles, and that helped quite a bit, or maybe I just didn't do any more face plants.

This week I had almost no problem doing 7 or 8 runs in a row, before we stopped for lunch. After lunch we probably did 7 or 8 more. I think we were the last non-employees on the hill actually. I even kept up with Stephen, so he wasn't able to get two runs to my one in. The last two times he told me a lot of helpful stuff about balance and how to turn and so on, and drilled me even. TURN! TURN! TURN! It was like a 60's folk song. This time out, I knew I had to practice my turning. Particularly since the snow wasn't as powdery and less effort was required to twist the board around, so that balance and weight distribution played a bigger role. So I made some progress on that. We stuck to an interesting run under the chairlift, one with powder, little gullies, a bit of groomed. Playing in the gullies was fun, but I had a hard time turning from my back edge to my front edge. I finally figured out that it was because I was too far back on the board, and I wasn't leaning into the turn enough. It felt very strange to lean forward. More practice is required.

The green run I was working on at Sunshine gave me a lot of trouble because parts of it are quite long and not very steep. This meant that I tended to want to ride along flat on the board; the trouble is that little bumps in the snow can cause an edge to catch and an unpleasant fall. A couple of those convinced me that I needed a helmet, which has helped a lot. I still have to figure out how to handle that terrain, which is probably just a matter of keeping up on an edge at all times and move from edge to edge fairly quickly.

So far it's been a lot of fun learning to snowboard!

Beginners need helmets

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:50:26 -0500

Stephen and I went to Sunshine yesterday to get our slide on. We have Fortress passes, but the opening has been pushed back a few times due to regulatory things and other holdups. I wanted to go boarding this week, since I'm not working, and Sunshine currently has the best snow in the region. Not that it really mattered, since I mostly did the same green run over and over. I fell down a lot, and resolved that my next snowboarding purchase shall be a helmet.

The bad thing about going this week was the number of people there. The road up to the parking lot from #1 was solid traffic, moving at between 0 and 15 km/h. I'm not exaggerating. It took about half an hour to drive 7 km. We even considered turning around, but we sucked it up and parked near the back of the lot. Lunch was burgers at Bruno's pub, since my sandwiches were in a locker and Stephen forgot his in the car. The pub was so packed that we asked to share a table with someone, which turned out to be good because we met some nice people from the U.K.

Stephen helped me out with the boarding, telling me to transfer my weight and lean into turns, and to twist my body around to make the turns happen. Finally I started to get it, and I improved noticeably over the course of the day. Riding the lifts into the snow, I discovered that I needed goggles. I put on the cycling sunglasses, which helped there, but I discovered that I tended to breath on them and fog them up very quickly while actually boarding. Well, more like while I was crashing. Once the sun started to go down, I found I couldn't see very much definition in the snow... the rose lenses I had in are supposed to help with that a bit, but between the moisture and the fleece fuzz, they were pretty much useless. Goggles must therefore be aquired.

Sunshine has a nice ski-out, vaguely following the gondola route. It was quite crowded, and I fell down a lot, but we managed to make it to the Goats eye mountain gondola station without getting run over. There, we were informed that the rest of the ski out was quite icy, so I decided to take the gondola the rest of the way down, and Stephen continued down the ski-out. Stephen said I would have had a hard time on the ski-out, my taking the gondola was the right thing to do. I was on the gondola with an expert skier and his family. He complained loudly about beginner snowboarders stopping in the middle of runs, that they should get out of the way immediately, which is hard to do when you are dazed from a crash and your legs are attached together. People standing about talking in the middle of a black run is rude, but on a green run one has to expect newbies falling down all over the place. Isn't the person above supposed to avoid obstacles?

By the time we got back to the car, it was pretty much dark and the traffic out was almost as bad as when we came in. We went and got some coffee and waited it out. All in all, a good trip, but I definitely need a helmet.

Spellchecking reveals that I spell goggles g-o-o-g-l-e-s.

Stuff

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 15:18:08 -0500

Well, what have I been up to lately? I've been watching a rather lot of TV: Laurie hooked me on NCIS several weeks ago, which is a bit of a cartoon show, but it's very entertaining anyway. Laurie also showed me clips of Fifth Gear, and then I started watching Top Gear, which isn't politically correct or environmentally friendly, but which is highly entertaining. They have silly challenges, like a Range Rover Sport vs. a Challenger 2 tank, and a race between a Bugatti Veyron and a Cessna 182 from Italy to London. They also play soccer with two teams of Toyota Aygos (Yaris in Canada?), all highly silly and highly entertaining.

Jeremy Clarkson's review of the RX-8 even convinced Tamara that I'm not completely mad; I think she liked the suicide doors, and the fact that it feels like it isn't running on anything as coarse and vulgar as petrol, but that it feels like it's running on double cream! Realistically though, were we to get a new car, I have a feeling it would be some kind of family sedan or wagon... probably a used one at that.

Since I got back from Victoria, I've been bouldering with Ryan quite a bit. Finally, after two and a half months, my balance is coming back, and my finger tips are getting calloused. Yay! Maybe I'll actually be able to climb something outside this spring. Heart Creak in the spring fellows? Maybe we'll wait until the snow melts this time?

I have fallen off the cycling wagon though. I got sick and figured it would be a bad idea to ride in cold weather with bronchitis, so I started taking the bus, since both the 72/73 and the 20 go right by my house to Brentwood Station which is very close to work. Now that the roads are clear, I could ride my bike again, but somehow I haven't gotten around to it. On other hand, riding the bus gives me time to read a bit. I've been working though The Philosophy Gym, which are short philosophical problems that I can get though in a day, but which are a lot of food for thought. Does God exit? Should I be eating that (meat)? What is knowledge? The problems in the book are very short introductions, with references to larger discussions.

Watching the English "debate" Tamara taped last night. Someone in Edmonton asked why the Liberals and NDP and Bloc are pursuing a child care program and wouldn't it be better if Canadians had choice? Paul Martin's response reminded me of Henry Ford. "You can have any colour you want, as long as it's black." Martin said something like "sure, Canadians need choice, and that means making more spaces available in day care..." Yes, that gives so much more choice. Especially if one parent stays home with the kids. Or if your a single parent who works nights. A 8 to 5 daycare is so helpful then. And then he goes and says, when asked about personal income tax reductions vs. GST reductions, that the liberals "believe in putting money into your hands and letting you decide how to spend it is the way to go." Except they don't actually believe that. Or something.

I've lots to discuss, but until next time, Merry Christmas...

Mt. Douglas is steep

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Mon, 06 Sep 2004 21:18:13 -0400

I tried to ride my fixie up Mt Douglas this afternoon. I got maybe a third of the way up by zigzagging and huffing and puffing as I have never before huffed OR puffed. Then I went a little too far on to the shoulder of the road and my front tire slid out when I tried to zig my zag. So I ended up pushing it the rest of the way up. Which is probably good, because it didn't get any less steep, and my heart and lungs would have given up sooner or later.

So I took some pictures and walked around, then headed down. There were actually quite a few people up there. On the way down, there were cops and fire trucks and ambulances, due to someone having managed to flip thier car. I'm not sure how they did it... but maybe people can take a look at the picture I took and offer a theory.

I took the "seaside" tour route, which offers very little in the way of seaside and rather a lot more in the way of residential side streets. I wanted to find my way to University by a certian route that avoided "Cardiac Hill", but unfortunatly I found myself at the bottom of... Cardiac Hill. I should have taken my map with me. I couldn't make it up Cardiac Hill last time I tried, and had to push this time too. Gah.

Oh well, by the time I can make it up Cardiac Hill and Mt. Douglas on my fixie, I can be sure that I have made significant gains fitness wise.

In case you think me mad, the Victoria Wheelers cycling club holds hill climb competitions, which seem to have been annual up until 1999. The Mt Douglas one was done in record time in 1999, 5:02. A goal to aim for I guess (haha).

Coasting Is A Pernicious Habit

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:50:00 -0400

For some irrational reason (fun), I stripped the derailleurs and back brake and stuff off of my bike, and got a wheel with a track hub. I also replaced the bottom bracket and cranks, which were totally shot anyway. So now I have only one gear, I can't coast, and my legs are sore in weird places from using my legs as brakes. And I can almost do a track stand (which is possible on a normal bike if you are on an incline), except for my pesky lack of balance (which is improving).

There are a bunch of supposed benefits to riding fixed, but the most important is fun. If I get stronger, that's good too. This Sheldon Brown guy has lots of good info on all things bike related, and even helped me out on Usenet by telling me what tool I would need to remove the bottom bracket bearing cups (very old non-standard Shimano stuff).

So far I've ridden only two fixed trips, but we plan on going to Sydney tomorrow, so that will give me a chance to really get a feel for it.

There are photos from out little trip downtown available. This was the first time I ever took pictures from on the bike. It was set on the wrong mode though, and we had more than the usual number of rejects. Gallery generated with Ryan's Cornice mod, but the plain jane template is my own. Cornice mod is cool.

Bikes and terminology

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:42:00 -0400

We went around to the local bike shops and got Tamara on a few bikes today. She tried out a Cannondale touring bike and some hybrid. She descided that she would prefer the drops (ram horn handle bars) to a flat one and that a proper touring bike would be better than a hybrid. Only one shop actually had bikes built in her size; another shop is putting one they had in stock together for her to try out.

My bike needs a new bottom bracket and cranks. There was a bit of play between the bottom bracket axle and the left crank, which is what I think used to cause it to "clunk" on occasion. When I got the clipless pedals they exacerbated the problem and the crank actually started walking off the shaft. So there's been more play in it since. I can't decide if I should fix it, which would be at least $100, or just get a new one alltogether. You know, one for which parts can actually be found, without having to replace huge chunk of the component group. I should see how much rust there is in the frame. Might as well chuck it if the frame is going to rust out from under me in a year. It wouldn't be bad to replace it. The top tube is a little bit too long for me anyway.

Some one was wondering where I got the term "brevet", which I also misspelled as "bivet" in my last post. The cycling use kind of lines up with the dictionary definition. From the Randonneurs USA site, I stole this definition:

brevet (bruh vay) - Literally, the word means "certificate", "patent", or "diploma" in French. In "randonneuring", it means two things: certification of having successfully done a randonné, --indicated by a small numbered sticker placed on a completed brevet card --, as well as, by extension the long-distance event itself (at least 200 kilometers in length). Completing a successful brevet means one's ride has been certified and registered in France, and the rider's name is added to the roll of honor, going all the way back to 1921. These challenging rides can also entitle the rider to enter longer events such as Paris-Brest-Paris or Boston-Montréal-Boston. As used in the "randonneuring" world, the terms brevet and randonnée are often interchangeable, but in common cycling usage, a randonnée might be considered to be less structured or formal than a brevet.