And I'm cute too

Super Grover is up, up and away to Blue Cross for a super workout.

Fall Get Together

Hello Fellow Coop'ers,

I know Kara and I have been off the grid for a while but we were talking today about getting together with everyone for an end of season BBQ. Any takers? We would offer our house if you are all willing to drive a bit. Think about it and let us know if and when it may work.

Dean

Andy Hampston

Graham channels his inner slurpee passion to post another good showing at the local cyclocross scene.

Skinny and Strong

Note to self...don't ever make fun of skinny supermodels again. Adriana Lima's got skills, and from all appearances could beat the crap out of me:

Go Pro Hero2

Oh my, this is exciting....a new, more powerful GoPro (twice the resolution), but the really cool feature is a WiFi accessory that allows you to easily stream what you're recording live on the web. 

Unfortunately the WiFi accessory will be released this "winter" (ie. it's not available right away), and I do have concerns about the battery life when using WiFi (my guess is it will cut the life in half, much like the LCD BacPac does), but it's all still pretty cool and I've been seriously thinking about getting a 2nd camera to shoot two different angles at once anyway.  Glad I waited.

The possibilities are pretty neat.  For instance, I could take my surf ski out to the beach in the middle of the day and Deanna could watch me live enjoying the sun, sand, and waves while she was in her office at work.  Perfect!  More seriously, you could stream a POV video live in the middle of a race and let others watch the event unfold in real time remotely.  That's pretty cool.

Tom, Brian?....I'm seeing if I can place my order thru Olympia ASAP :)

Get'n excited 2.0

Well, no sooner did I make my last posting then GSP had to bow out due to a training injury, so now we're looking at a Penn vs. Diaz main event. Honestly, the perfect fight between these two would, for me, result in them knocking each other out and neither being declared the winner, but I do think it will prove to be entertaining no matter the outcome.

Get'n excited...

Your GoPro video is better than mine

Wow, this is some pretty cool footage, though getting that close to a Blue Whale is also pretty dumb (and potentially harassing to the animal). I'd be too terrified to do it regardless so not really an issue for me.  Truthfully, I'm a bit frightened by large Sturgeons.

No more lucky number seven

I broke the streak! Unfortunately I moved the wrong way on the list. I'll do better next week. Then again, it is Gary's race. You know you do it to spite me Gary. You know it.
Gary. You do.
Gary.

Embracing the Fat!

I am "FatTom" and embracing it ... on the Manitoba Fat Bike Blog.

But, if I don't get more biking in soon (like stat!) then I will be fattened up way too much ... before winter!  So I will ride Mr. Pugsley - today! :-)

Mountain Bike Hazards

Reason #253 to always where a bike helmet:

All Salsa, all the time

Picked up my new Salsa Mukluk yesterday - this makes three Salsa's for me. (What can I say? I like their bikes.) Scott and I built it up this morning, and headed out for a test ride after lunch. What a blast! I bought it as a winter bike, but what a great workout taking it out to the trails before winter sets in. The bar is much wider than I'm used to, but it makes for great handling and there's a ton of confidence regardless of terrain. On our way home from Assiniboine Park and Forest we dropped down to the lower river trails and I played on some loose rocky sections. It's amazing what you can just roll over... I'm looking forward to some great winter rides!

"It's just like riding a bike" ...

Posting Caveat:  I have been missing a lot of bike rides/races/fun times recently ... due to some family commitments, but mostly due to overlapping jobs and learning to ride (ah - actually fly!) a new airplane.  Since I haven't posted in quite a while, I thought I'd post about what's keeping me off the bike - which is somewhat "riding related" and definitely training related.

You know the old saying ... "It's just like riding a bike".  As in, supposedly once you know how to "do whatever thing fairly well" ; then even if it's been a while, "you will just pick it up again as easy as" ... well ... like riding a bike!  Right?  Well ... 

In the last month or so I have been putting that saying to the test as I slowly stepped away from flying the C-130 Hercules as a SAR Pilot at 435 Squadron over the summer and started working as an Instructor at our Royal Canadian Air Force Instrument Check Pilot School and most recently learning to fly the much smaller King Air 200 (which I flew for a bit [15 hrs air time only] back in 2000 during a refresher after a HQ 'desk job' assignment).

So Good Bye Hercules ...


Hello King Air ...


Now I've been at the flying thing for 25 years now and so both I and my King Air Instructor peers out at the Canada Wings Training Centre in Portage (where the King Airs roost) expect that I will pick up flying the King Air rather quickly ... kinda like riding an old bike I haven't riddin for a while (Wow, true on two levels ... sorry Mr Pugsley!).

Anyways, how hard could it be as I switch from a big complicated flightdeck with a crew of 5-7 to a little cockpit with two pilots - only ...


Well ... as it turns out the King Air is the sweet like twin turbo prop I remember from 11 years ago, but learning to "ride" it again ... well enough for my instructors (great guys and as picky as I would want them to be!), has been a lot of work ... in the books - manuals - checklists - computer based training - "chair flying" and some serious simulator time before jumping in the real thing ...

Simulators ... Love Them - Hate Them:


I especially "enjoyed" the emergency practice drills for smoke in the cockpit ...


Anyways ... I just recently passed my Initial Proficiency Check on the King Air and I am feeling like the old saying holds true ... but with the caveat that training hard makes it come true - better! Works for biking and flying :-)

Now if I could just get in some bike training (still have X-country flying training left to do though) :-(

Menno Cross

not a menno

The folks at FGBC put on another great race at CMU.

The bunker run up proved challenging. Not overly tricky, but I felt pretty sapped approaching it every time. And the rocks were very difficult to navigate. Some chose to run.

I had a run in with a course rope that separated me from my bike, removed my body's orientation from the correct axis and turned all my forward momentum into a small amount of heat energy between my back and the earth. No harm done other some missing bar tape though.

And Nemetchuk. Son of a gun he's a wily racer. I spent half the race convinced I was going to catch and pass him, but he just kept hitting the gas when I got close. In the end he stretched the couple bike lengths he had on me to about 200 m after I bobbled the rocks on the last lap.

Cricket isn't 3rd place Craig any more - nice racing, mate! I seem to be 7th place Graham now.

Editor's note: TuPhat (Graem Poole) posted a comment below with a link to an excellent collection of pics he took at the race.  Check -em out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63751501@N04/sets/72157627674190181/

MennoCross

You'll have to wait for the report from Graham because once again we were just spectators.  I was just finishing up building new front steps (Graham actually contributed most of the work for that project yesterday) and looked at the clock to see that we had just enough time to take a quick shower and make it to the beginning of the "A" race, so off we went.

The rumour is that Graham placed 7th again, which would make it 3 in a row.  Shouldn't there be a huge payout or something now?  Graham recently hurt his quads so I was wondering how he'd place today but he somehow worked thru it and did an excellent job of flying the Coop flag once again.