I didn’t buy a new bike, and yesterday–keen to learn about bicycles and avoid studying–I decided to give it a bit of a health check. It is in rough shape, but it is better today than it has been in years. It was a marathon event, taking more hours than I’d like to admit, but the result is a machine that I plan to ride to work today (despite the fact that the weather is great for motorcycling).

The Tyres
I rotated the tyres between the front and rear wheels. They use the same tyres so this was okay to do. Unfortunately they’re both in fairly poor condition, but they haven’t caused me any flats in the previous time I’ve used them so I will keep using them. I also don’t really have money to replace them at the moment.

The Chain
With the wheel removed I also decided to remove the chain to clean it. This chain has never been so much as lubricated, so it most certainly has to be replaced. But, again, I’m doing a lot with a little so cleaning is the best it got. Lots and lots of grease was removed in the soak it got in the degreaser. The chain is old/cheap enough that it didn’t have a quick link to remove, so I had to use a chain tool to do that.

When I did later re-attach the chain I did, of course, apply a good amount of lubricant to it. This was also well after the degreaser was cleaned off, and the chain was allowed to air dry.

The Chainrings and Cassette
The chainrings and cassette were coated in dirt and grime. I spent a lot of time cleaning these. The cassette had a lot of dirt caked in between the sprockets; if I had a proper cleaning tool this would have been no problem, but I don’t. I cleaned this dirt with whatever tools and twigs I could find to squeeze in there.

Both the chainrings and cassette are in rough shape; the sprockets teeth look like an Englishman’s and are in desperate need of replacement. It will only make sense to do the chainrings, cassette, and chain all at the same time.

The Derailleurs
I cleaned the jockey wheels on the rear derailleur, and reset everything you can on each of the derailleurs. The front derailleur came down a bit and had its high/low re-adjusted. The rear derailleur had all of it’s b, h, and l screws re-adjusted. It shifts like a dream now, compared to what it once was. This process took forever because I don’t have a bike stand.

Overall the derailleurs are in surprisingly good shape. I’d consider replacing them, but they’d be among the last things to replace. They’ve certainly worn over the years, but have held up well. Shimano quality, for you. The front derailleur is a Nexus series part, and the rear derailleur is a Deore series part.

The Seatpost
The seatpost has a little suspension it in that has barely functioned in years. With a little light grease and some tweaking of the screws I was able to bring it back to life. I cleaned up the rest of the post and applied some new grease to it. It now slides better than ever. It used to be that the seat was held in place by friction between the frame and the post, but not anymore.

The Brakes
I have V-brakes on my hybrid bike and do you think I’ve ever replaced the brake pads? No. I didn’t this time either but I re-aligned them and adjusted them to increase the spring-back. Their application is smoother now. My front brake has a significant “bump” to it when using it, but I think this is because the wheel is far from true. I’d love to true the wheels in the near future.

The Brake Levers and Trigger Shifters
In all the years of owning this bike I never correctly adjusted the brake levers and trigger shifters. They were angled down a bit to fit my riding position, and adjusted for a comfortable level of firmness.

I lubricated all of my cables and pivot points in the braking and shifting systems.

What Didn’t Get Done
Bearings. Bottom bracket, headset, and hubs. These require special tools to do, which I don’t have (yet), but are also bigger jobs than anything I’ve done today. When I do get to it, it will be a lot of fun.

Wheel truing. Again, a special stand is required which I don’t have. This is surely needed, and will be quite an adventure when it gets done.

I am pleased to report that the run went better than I expected. I started by pacing myself a little bit behind the 4:30 pacesetter but it turned out that this was really slow. Within the first 17 km or so I had caught up to and passed the 4:00 pacesetter. This was nearer to my comfortable pace.

At about 21 km it started to rain hard. There had been some coolness and light rain before, which was fine, but at this part of the race it was raining hard enough that my shoes started “squishing”. The next five kilometres were rather unpleasant because of that.

I remember seeing the 28 km sign and thinking “this is further than I have ever run in my entire life”. That was neat. Some months ago, before the Alpencross, I ran about 27 km (maybe a bit more) and had extreme difficulty beginning at the 23 or 24 km mark. This was part of the reason I was discouraged leading into the marathon. At 28 km I still felt quite fine.

In the early 30s I was beginning to feel the difficulty of running the marathon. I can remember taking note of the km markers a little bit more at this time. But I still continued on, likely at a slower pace, until my ultimate challenge of the day: kilometre 39.

At kilometre 39 I felt like I was going to pass out. It was an overwhelming feeling that had me start walking in order to save myself. I remember thinking that I could probably walk the rest of the way and still finish in under 5 hours; thankfully that wasn’t necessary. I did walk to the next supply station, where I had some cola, banana pieces, a fruit bar, and some water. This seemed to help me recover so that I could run for the remainder of the race.

I finished the marathon in 4:04:46. This was better than the 5 hour time I anticipated, so I was quite pleased. I fuelled up with an isotonic beverage, some GORP, and some apple slices. I wasn’t actually that hungry at the end of the race, nor was I that cold, nor was I feeling dehydrated. In all, I felt pretty good, though my legs were a bit stiff.

I had an amazing support team help me with my things, finding my way around, interacting with race staff, etc. It made things really easy for me–all I had to do was run–and was greatly appreciated. After the race we sat on a rooftop patio and had an excellent meal, with beautiful weather, and a perfect view of the Ulmer Münster. I repeated many times that this was really great, and I really meant it.

Have you ever wondered what it feels like after running a marathon? Well, you have probably lifted weights at least once in your life. When you lift weights you often do so to the point where you cannot lift anymore–your spotter will give you the small help you need to finish the final rep. This final rep feeling is exactly what I had for the first 48 hours after finishing. To sit down I needed to use my arms for help. To stand up, I needed to use my arms for help. I held onto the banister when going up or down stairs. I loathed anything that was placed on the floor that I had to pick up.

Particularly interesting was getting out of bed the day after the marathon. After laying for hours my legs were not used to bearing the weight of my body, and around my bed I have no handles I could grab to help me up. I had to go with an “interesting angular” approach, as my legs were incapable of being bent and bear weight. It was actually kind of hilarious and fun.

Now, at Thursday, I would say I am fully recovered, though even yesterday I was feeling well good enough to run. (Time prevented me from doing so.) The sun is out and shining and the forecast looks good for this weekend. I feel great.

You’ll recall that after Madrid I had a nice gap of a number of weeks without plan before my weekend to Berlin, marathon in Ulm, and leading up to my final weekend living in Europe. I did have the goal of visiting the Vimy Memorial in France in these weeks. I was also quite pleased to have spent last weekend doing nothing at home, relaxing, watching movies. But now the relaxation is over and the final leg truly begins, with a surprising amount of travel for a guy who isn’t really interested in travelling.

This weekend I want to take a day trip to one of three destinations: either Heidelberg, Strasbourg, or Stuttgart. A colleague of mine used to live in Heidelberg so I’ve asked for him to take me on a day trip there as I would like to try to appreciate the city. Strasbourg and Stuttgart are both interesting cities, with Stuttgart winning but Strasbourg getting a boost because it’s in a different country. These are three storied cities and it is really awesome that they are so accessible to me here.

The weekend of August 22nd will see a road trip with the primary destination of the Vimy Memorial, but secondary destinations as part of the tour. The plan is to leave Germany on Friday afternoon and drive to Luxembourg to experience its distinct culture. Saturday morning we will continue to the Vimy Memorial, which is bound to be an incredible experience. We will leave France and stay in Brussels on Saturday night. Sunday will be a driving day with our return home, but I am hoping I can convince my trip mates of a lunch stop in Köln.

The weekend of August 29th will see a day trip to one of the three cities that I don’t visit this weekend. I also want to try to make pumpkin pie so maybe the spare day this weekend will go to this effort. I have seen some pumpkins on sale already in the grocery stores, but also have a source for the pre-made pumpkin pie mix.

When we hit the first weekend of September I will be flying to England for the weekend. You can ask Katy how much I smiled every time I said “we’re in London” if you want to gauge my excitement for this trip. This trip could see me in London, but perhaps not, and the possibility of renting a car and driving on the wrong side of the road is quite high. Excitement++.

On September 11 I will take to the skies again, this time going to Germany’s historic capital: Berlin. I was initially limited in excitement for this trip, but research has pointed me to loads of great stuff to see here. It also looks like there’s a great bicycle tour that I will hopefully get a chance to partake in. I’m starting to think that two days won’t be enough here.

The following weekend is the Einstein Marathon in Ulm. A frightening prospect, considering today was my first run in quite some time. Oh well–I can always walk it, right?

And that leads us to my final weekend in Germany. I was planning on saving this weekend–to use the time to make final preparations, relax, try to really enjoy my local scene–but then discovered that the Karlsruhe SC football club will be playing a match against the famous 1FCK in Kaiserslautern. I cannot imagine a better activity than to go to an 1FCK match on my last free day in Europe.

I guess I should keep that overnight bag out.

In Oberstdorf I got an idea of just how big the collection of mountains known as the Alps are. Doubt, worry, concern, and excitement overwhelmed me. We had a nice place to stay while we waited until the next morning for the rest of the group to arrive.

Day 1
The three of us leisurely made our way to the train station awaiting the arrival of Erchan, Martin, Stefan, Ansgar (Navigator), and Jörg (él Patron). Their arrival marked the beginning of the dramatic film, hopefully available this fall, filmed and directed by Holger. After some group photos and final checks we were off.

The first pass (and only pass I remember the name of) was the Schrofenpass. This pass is between Germany and Austria and was destroyed during the Great War. Today it can be crossed but only with the addition of some metal bridges and rope to secure yourself along the side of the mountain.

The weather wasn’t great. It was very cold and, after the Schrofenpass, the path was really muddy. We made our way to a hut in Austria where we stopped for lunch. Unsurprisingly, my lunch was an Apfelsaftschorle and Spaghetti.

At this point we split up–Holger and Ansgar went on to do the originally planned route to St. Anton, while the rest of us took a wellness day and saved a few hundred height metres. At our highest point in the second part of the day it was really cold. I was wearing leg warmers (we all were) and I remember commenting on how it felt like I wasn’t.

Day 2
We left St. Anton to some more cold and light rain. It was on this day that I learnt to never ask how many height metres we had done as I was always disappointed by the answer. Again we had some pushing and carrying of the bike getting ourselves up to about 2300 metres. It was cold up there but we stopped for lunch (Apfelschorle und Spaghetti!) and continued down and up again.

We had an ambitious day planned, with hopes of crossing into Switzerland that afternoon. Unfortunately the weather and the difficulty made this not possible. It was cold, and quite windy. So after we were at about 2000 metres above sea level we took a break and our Navigator planned a new route to Schruns Austria.

Day 3
Our good friend Erchan decided to depart on this day, but not until he climbed a few hundred height metres with us on our way to Davos Switzerland. We started the day with a big climb, with even more pushing and carrying, up to a hut just on the Austria side of the border. After eating our lunch and walking for about 15 minutes we reached the border to Switzerland, and encountered snow directly on our path for the first time. I was even subjected to a snowball, after falling for the two-thrown-in-rapid-succession trick.

The weather was better on this day, to the point where we were able to go downhill without leg and arm warmers. There was some beautiful cross-country trails before a very fun downhill on pavement. And, being a group primarily made up of boys, there was a little bit of a competitive nature to us.

It was on this downhill that I crashed an otherwise perfectly excellent bike. After being unbelievably far in front of everyone else I looked back; when I looked forward I saw that I was heading off the road and into a bush. I have speculated that I hit the bush at 50 km/h, but I’ll never know for sure. In any case, it was enough to render the bike “kaput”, as the Germans would say. The gentlemen were able to stretch out the frame enough that I could coast, dangerously, to the next village. Here a very nice Swiss couple drove me to Klosters Switzerland where I was able to take a train to our final destination for the day: Davos.

This was emotionally the hardest evening for me. I wanted to continue the Alpencross but it was dependent on getting a bike in time. And while I was mostly okay, any additional physical challenge would add more doubts to my ability to complete the Alpencross successfully. Also, I felt terrible about crashing Holger’s bike, which I had been using, and am anxious still to replace it and right the situation.

Day 4
The day started with a trip to a local bike dealer. He was more than helpful, selling me a new bike and preparing it in less than an hour. He also dismantled the old bike and shipped all of the components (sans-frame) back to Holger. It was amazing–the Lord’s blessing for me to continue the trip. You can imagine I was quite happy.

From Davos we went to Livigno Italy. There was lots of snow and pushing, with some really, really difficult trails. This was the day where we climbed to nearly 2700 metres–a personal high for me. This climb was particularly difficult, with nearly 400 metres of straight up the side of a mountain in the hot, hot heat. But the reward was great: Italy. We immediately stopped at a hut and had an Italian coffee. It was brilliant.

Livigno is located at 1800 metres above sea level, and is the highest point I believe I have ever slept overnight. I must also emphasize that food is incredible in Italy. I remember eating a real pizza in Livigno and it made all of the pain from the day fade away.

Day 5
Livigno to Edolo. I hated this day. We had three passes, nearly 90 km, and about 2600 metres of height this day. I remember being the last who completed the final 1100 metre climb and literally cursing during this time. It was hot and uncomfortable.

When I got to the top I did something that you are told not to do in motorcycle courses: I rode with my emotions running high. The downhill was all pavement and I went downhill, fast. I remember this was the second time someone in our group said “you drive your bicycle like a motorcycle”–a great compliment, you can imagine. At about 2/3 of the way down él Patron and I stopped and waited a minute or two for the others to catch up. By this time I was feeling pretty fine.

And remember what I wrote about Italian food making you forget the pain? That’s the way it was in Edolo. I had mushroom ravioli and, even though I don’t like mushrooms, it was amazing. The pizza that followed was also amazing.

Day 6
This was the first of the cool down days, or so I thought. We started the day with a 30 km ride via highway, slightly downhill. We did this because we cut out the originally planned Day 5 due to the Day 2 detour. During this ride there was rain so we took a break at a little restaurant/cafe along the way. This, of course, cut into riding time.

There was only one hill here but it was to be about 1600 metres of straight upward riding. When the rain subsided and we got to the base of the hill we started our 2-3 hour ride up hill. We actually took a break after about 500 or 600 metres and ate lunch. Here I remember they had the most amazing iced tea–or what we thought tasted like the most amazing iced tea.

After lunch I felt like I had something to prove. I put some music on for the first time on the trip and powered my way to the top. I still finished behind él Patron, but that is to be expected. I was surely the fastest Canadian to ever ride up that hill.

At the top we split up, with Holger and Verena taking the road down to Anfo Italy, along side Lago d’Idro. The rest of us took the path down, which was initially a stony, dirt, and gravel road but eventually lead us into thick bush–for quite some distance. It was more than a little uncomfortable. This was the nail in the coffin for my shoes–my right shoe lost part of its sole on the trail. I also fell into the water when trying to fill my water bottle.

When we finally got through the trail, hours later, we started our downhill on pavement. Ansgar had a high-speed fall in a curve, earning himself some real battle scars on his knee and elbow. He was quite okay and we continued on to the spectacular Garden Grill. It was a real treat to stay here after this day: 5 huge beds for 7 people, with two complete baths, balconies all around, and a spectacular kitchen for both dinner and breakfast.

Day 7
A true wellness day; and how could it not be? We started for Torbele at Lago di Garda, initially taking some highway to the bottom of the mountain. We split up again, with Holger and Stefan setting out for the large lake (and the Nalini shop) ahead of us. The remaining five of us went up the 1500 metres to our final summit on the trip.

It was really a fantastic ride down. We had some gravel road, but some really nice single trail with lots of nice exposed rocks and tree roots to ride through. It’s worth mentioning that it was often the case that forgetting to break, or slipping too far to the right would have caused an unsurvivable fall–I think that was part of the appeal.

When we finally got down the mountain we had a really, really pleasant ride along Lago di Garda’s west side, through Riva, to our final destination at the hotel in Torbole. I cannot describe to you the amazing feeling that you have at the end of such a trip. The riding experiences on the trip were wide ranging and the views were nearly out of this world. I am quite grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of such a trip.

Days 8 and 9
After the Alpencross we enjoyed a day at Lago di Garda. The weather was quite nice. We walked around Torbole, then over to Riva for lunch. In the afternoon a few of us took our bikes to Arco where we enjoyed another great cappuccino. There was a bit of rain before we went to a fantastic restaurant for dinner, and finally the Wind’s Bar for drinks. It was a relaxing and fun day.

The follow day was spent travelling; travelling back the way we came but this time by shuttle bus and then train. We left at 9 a.m. and I didn’t get home until 11 p.m. The weather was terrible all day, and we saw snow as low as 1500 m above sea level–this would have been a problem for us.

In all, an amazing trip with such an incredible variety of riding experiences. It is truly a vacation I will never forget. Thanks to all of those who were there, to those who wished me well, and for the many prayers that brought me home safely.