Dynamic Life Cycles
The Dawn Patrš„±lā¢ļø Odyssey with Andrea Carrino
What's the secret to balancing a high-demand career, family life, and a passion for cycling? Join me for an inspiring conversation with Andrea Carrino, a good friend known for his disciplined 6am rides on Mount Fromme and Seymour. Discover how Andrea seamlessly integrates yoga and a rigorous riding schedule into his life while raising a young daughter with his lovely wife.
I explore the Dawn Patrol cycling routine with Andrea, born from the need to navigate grief and isolation during the early days of COVID-19. With humorous traditions and group stats tracking, this episode celebrates the vibrant community spirit of early morning rides.
Andrea also shares why he is meticulous about details, from matching his gear to mastering bike maintenance, influenced by a former boss who emphasized professionalism.
Join me for a delightful exploration of what it means to be part of a dedicated cycling community.
Thank you for listening
- Get in touch via my Instagram
- Hosted and Produced by Jarrad Connolly
What's the secret to balancing a high-demand career, family life, and a passion for cycling? Join me for an inspiring conversation with Andrea Carrino, a good friend known for his disciplined 6am rides on Mount Fromme and Seymour. Discover how Andrea seamlessly integrates yoga and a rigorous riding schedule into his life while raising a young daughter with his lovely wife.
I explore the Dawn Patrol cycling routine with Andrea, born from the need to navigate grief and isolation during the early days of COVID-19. With humorous traditions and group stats tracking, this episode celebrates the vibrant community spirit of early morning rides.
Andrea also shares why he is meticulous about details, from matching his gear to mastering bike maintenance, influenced by a former boss who emphasized professionalism.
Join me for a delightful exploration of what it means to be part of a dedicated cycling community.
Thank you for listening
- Get in touch via my Instagram
- Hosted and Produced by Jarrad Connolly
All right, welcome back to the Dynamic Life Cycles podcast. What a week it's been Crankworx, doing Crankworx things, the women killing it, breaking new ground, not to mention all the great people up there just making it all happen and getting it done. Such a crazy event got to catch up with a bunch of people. So, yeah, it was awesome. This week we have Andrea Carr ino on.
Jarrad:Some of you might know Andrea through the industry. Some of you might have heard of his crazy 6am rides that are now on the fifth year. We'll dive into a bunch of different stats and what the ride's about and just how good of a community, uh, that is being created around this 6 am ride. It happens twice a week, happens both on the uh tuesday morning for mount froom and then also on thursday morning for seymour. And essentially the biggest thing that I would say is it's not as crazy as it may sound to get up at that time and actually go and ride your bike. It actually is quite fulfilling. You feel awesome after you feel like you've achieved something before 8am and it just, yeah, sets you up for a great day.
Jarrad:I highly recommend, if you're in the like Vancouver or surrounding areas, to go out and try it whether you want to hit me up and I can get you in contact with Andrea, or whether you just show up and ask for Andrea. He's there 99% of the time, if not all the time, riding a yellow and white Norco this year. So get in there, ask for him and if not, you'll definitely see a group of like-minded mountain bikers sort of huddled around that area and then go from there. I do want to say thank you for all the love Once again after the second episode came out. It got shared around quite a lot and really, really satisfying to see that happening. So thank you everyone that is out there listening or watching or just getting behind it. It really makes this worthwhile doing so, thank you.
Jarrad:And as always, enjoy your listen. All right, Andrea, how are you?
Andrea:I'm very good you.
Jarrad:Yeah, pretty good, pretty good. I think this is a bit of a long time coming podcast. We've been talking about it for I don't know quite a long time Quite a while yeah like the, the steed one, and now now this one sort of it's all came about and yeah, yeah, very honored to be your guest. No, thank you. Thank you, um how's. How'd you go today? Do you get out in the rain?
Andrea:no, monday. Monday's generally my rest day. I do uh yoga at lunch and, um well, generally do maintenance monday, so I like I catch up on bike maintenance, that is, I've been procrastinating for over a week, okay, but uh, this evening I'm here, so no bike maintenance yeah, I'm, I'm the same.
Jarrad:It's like we've got dawn patrol tomorrow morning. My bike is still set up from a line which was last wednesday and I'm like I should fix it, but I think I'll ride an e-bike tomorrow morning instead, there's always like a never-ending list and then stuff goes back to the top and yeah, yeah, just like the priority list, just like works its way around in the loop.
Jarrad:That's pretty funny, yeah, um, so I guess obviously, as just mentioned, like dawn patrol big reason why I got you on but also just your life in general is insane. I feel like I feel like you're one of these people that if I was to not know you and follow you on strava, I would expect you to be essentially a professional athlete, like the amount of writing you do and, as you say, like you just mentioned, like you do yoga on Mondays and it's just like all of these other things that keep you so active, like, and then you've also got a young girl yeah, nine months old, yeah, so it's like not only is it just like your personal lifestyle, but then a full family as well yeah,
Andrea:well, I'll start saying like I have a super supportive wife that let me do all the fun stuff.
Andrea:Um, yeah, before the baby I was like around like 20 to 25 hours of riding a week and now we're like 15 17, but the intensity is much more because, like now, you have a two-hour window, so it's like go time and you're trying to be more efficient with your time and and there's too much riding to be done, so I can't stop. It's, uh, impossible.
Jarrad:It's not my fault I just, I just can't get over how much motivation you have to be able to do that amount of riding. Like I know, when I was training full-time for, like marathon, cross-country and things like that, like my, my big weeks were up to 30 hours and my small weeks were 10 to 12 hours. But to do that consistently. And yes, you do a little bit of racing, but it's not competitive focused, it's, it's all for fun, it's like yeah, mainly yeah and I'm enjoying like the training aspect, even if I don't have many races.
Andrea:In the past I was doing like something like 10 a year and then with the baby like this year, for example, I've been I had three races in my calendar but even then, like the, the part that I enjoy the most is preparation, even if it's not many races. Um, and then because I'm a jack of all trade, master of none, I need to keep on top of like my physio routine, my gym and strength routine, and then if I stop riding for a week, like I will not remember how to ride a bike. So I'm not talented by any means, so I need to like keep on top of it if I want to enjoy to the level that I'd like to enjoy riding.
Jarrad:And yeah, again, it's, it's a part of the fun for me, just like being out there and and nature and in general, yeah, yeah, and then when, when you talk about like jack of all trades, master or none, you still can get down the hill very well, but how explain that? Because you're, I feel like I'm a bit of the same style of rider. Where it's, it's almost any bike goes. What is in your quiver like? What is it to keep?
Andrea:it fresh and interesting. I, my goal every week is try to ride all my bikes in a week. So that entails into mountain, of course, gravel, road commuting and a bit of dirt jumping or pump track if I can squeeze it in. But in the summertime there's too much riding to be done outdoor that the jumper suffers a bit, yeah, uh, that their jumper suffers a bit, yeah.
Andrea:And so the fact that I'm rotating and I have scheduled days that I do like, okay, tuesday and thursday are mountain, then I ride to work on wednesday and then I squeeze a road riding on tuesday and then the the weekend is kind of like mainly mountain, um, but again like, try to keep it, this rotation going, uh, so that keeps me motivated to be like oh, I haven't gone out on a road bike this this week yet, so like, let's get out here, because it's a a completely different style and discipline, of course, yeah, uh.
Andrea:So that what keeps me the motivation up and and um, and the fact that we're we do live in a in a spot where any sorts of riding is top notch. So not just like, oh, it's a good mountain bike trail, but like, you can climb up a hill, you can, you can have like forest road that goes four miles um, and all sorts of different aspects that make me more um willing to get out and like wake up early in the morning, even if I had a hard day, and just get out there yeah, and so talking about road riding versus gravel versus mountain, do you find that like mentally, that also affects you if you yeah, in the past, um, yeah, in the past has been a bit more um, like, I think gravel encompass the the two part of like mountain it's, it's fun because it's off-road.
Andrea:But sometimes, like you're, you're a bit tired, you don't want to commit to like hard trails, you don't want to ride easy trails. And then if you're on the road, like, oh, I don't want to get up at 5 pm because there's too much traffic. So the gap that I'm bridging between the two is grout, because you still get a bit of a thrill of the off-road but you just spin your legs, you're not to think about, like, you have to think about where you're going, but it's not like, oh, I'm gonna ride this, uh, this trail that has this gnarly feature. I don't want to do it, I don't want to walk around. So that takes the mental, uh, mental factor out of the, out of the equation. And now I want to bridge the gap even closer and maybe, uh, this is a good time to justify to my wife, then maybe I'll get a cross-country bike.
Jarrad:So, like, still keep the thrill of an actual trail, but not going uh crazy on a trail selection you almost need to do what I have and she might appreciate this over you getting another bike but having a hard tail set up as a gravel bike so like 40 47 mil tires that still roll pretty fast. I can keep up with 99 of people on gravel bikes, but then I can go do like a lower, yeah, like a circuit aid or a griffins or something like that.
Jarrad:That uh, I even did stairs of despair the other day and I wouldn't recommend it on 120 mil hardtail, but you can do it.
Andrea:That's a possibility, but my thing is like I like the right gear for the right application.
Jarrad:Yeah.
Andrea:So, like if I'm on a road bike and I touch a bit of gravel, I'll burst into flames. And same as when I'm on a gravel bike, my slowly goal is like to keep on off-road as much as possible, otherwise again I'll burst into flames.
Jarrad:Yeah, the whole, the whole yeah, floor is lava happens everywhere. That was something I wanted to get into later, but that's a perfect thing to talk about. You are what I want to call a perfectionist with all of your gear and every time I see you, with whatever bike it may be, you look like you are the stereotype of that rider. So, whether it be a mountain bike and you have the, the cliche like the visor on the helmet, the, you know, I mean like you have everything set up and so dialed with all of your setup. It sort of goes hand in hand with what you're talking about by having the routine of all the different bikes and how you ride them and when you ride them. But how was that to set up? Because obviously you've been riding forever in a day, but what sort of pushed you to have that as a complete setup?
Andrea:Well, one of my former boss, one of the first job that I had in the bike industry here in Canada, taught me that the fact like, even if you're whatever level of shop employee, you're like a billboard for that shop in this case, and one perks of our uh, of our industry, is like to be to like cater your, your, your style and your your your gear to the right point. So people that they're not as privileged as us and and they have to, um, they don't have access to the, the, the deal and um and the material that we have they can look up to you and be like, oh man, that guy looks styled, it must be in the, in the industry.
Andrea:Yeah, so that is my main goal. Also, like I, I don't like at all looking, look janky. So, like I made a point to like have the helmet straight and the glasses and, and like never two different brand of top and bottom and and things like that.
Jarrad:So that's uh, my, my mo, whatever bike I'm riding, yeah, yeah, it's funny you say that because I tried to give you a I think it was a poc jersey the other week for like a norco north shore poc branded jersey, and you're like nope, I don't have poc shorts, I can't do that.
Andrea:Yeah, yeah yeah, I used to have. Yeah, I need, they need to match same as for road or gravel, yeah, but maybe pocket's been doing some uh little segue, but it's been doing some uh, some good, um, soft good, and their sizing chart was all over the place and now they're kind of realigning so maybe I can fit some of those because the problem for me is like I'm you, uh, you can take a guy out of Europe, but you cannot take Europe out of a guy so like, yeah, yeah, my 28, 27.
Andrea:Uh, pants needs to be tight and uh, same as for bike gear. I can't have loose stuff yeah, yeah, definitely.
Jarrad:There's a certain style that goes with that, for sure. Yeah, I remember Matteo being here and every time it was always like the goggles on the open face helmet and it was like the most euro style of stereotype you could.
Jarrad:You could have, yeah and uh, even right down to the way he rode the bike and things like that, and it was always funny riding with him, but exactly that, yeah yeah, lines that you will never even think of, and yeah, yeah, actually, in saying that, uh, as I said, like we raced a line last week and I was lucky enough to do a few runs down the hill with, uh, like the pivot boys and then a couple of other friends that were riding with them, and, um, it was actually super handy because it got me up to that pro pace speed which I kind of forgot how fast and how scary that is and how many lines that they do, that you don't even think about. One of the lines that we did that I didn't nail in my race run, but I got pretty close to it was you come down over the A-line drop, which I'm sure everyone knows about, about over that next big tabletop and you land as far to the right hand side of the track.
Jarrad:So the very outside, yeah, and then cut that next turn all the way to the inside, and it was probably one of the scariest things I've ever done on a-line and like and that includes like pre-jumping the drop and everything like that. Yeah, and the main reason being was there was all these tiny little rocks that are just like marbles on the inside of that turn.
Andrea:Because no?
Jarrad:one rides it apart from that one day. And uh, following them guys through for the first time like I'm foot out, trying to keep it upright, going at probably the fastest I've ever gone through that section because you don't normally race that track, and then looking up and seeing like eddie masters and matt walker, just like two-wheel, drifting inside with both their feet up and then hopping into the next turn, I'm like, well, I guess that's what we're doing so yeah, but yeah, like the lines mateo would do would be similar to that type of thing oh for sure it's insane but yeah, so you mentioned your wife and things like that.
Jarrad:How do you balance everything out, like what? Like? How do you get enough sleep to be able to do all this? What's your routine in that sense?
Andrea:well, I think like sleep is overrated to to begin with, and yeah, it's been proven to me, especially when Rosa was born, that now I need to be a little bit more kind with myself, because before, even with some sleeps, it's nice I can power through and call it a day and then repeat the cycle next day through and um and call it a day and then repeat this, the the cycle next day.
Andrea:Now, with like like two, three, sometimes four wake-ups in the middle of the night, when my alarm goes on at 4, 45 sometimes it's it's hard to like get up. What what I learned is, uh, as I mentioned before, like you get more efficient with your time because you have the same amount of stuff to do Plus the same time that takes takes care to clean the house and take care of the baby. So my, my wife and I made a good team and then we are pretty organized and detail oriented people. So we, we built our, our schedule around like like this new adventure and I feel like we're doing a decent job because she's still able to do what she likes for me as well. The thing I kind of cut almost I was looking the other day it was like more like 70% 73% my evening rides.
Andrea:Okay interesting Because before, before the baby, I was able to like get out in the morning and the evenings, and now it's mainly the morning, which was like maybe one evenings a week or every two weeks. Um, so, of course, like the time shrinks. So, as I said, like the the time for to play outside on bikes, it's a little less, but I definitely cannot complain like it's yeah, it's still, it's still a pretty good amount yeah, like for most people to think about, like I think you mentioned earlier, it's like 15 ish hours a week.
Jarrad:That's that's pretty solid like um from for most general adults, as it is like even to get 10 hours a week, that's still like five days a week, two hours, and most people can't ride for two hours, let alone do it five days a week.
Andrea:But yeah, yeah, that's pretty one of my fortune is like I, my office is quite far from here, so like a commute which is quite nice. I, I, um, made this route over the years and now it's like a like I will go to ride my commuting route in on a weekend because it's so nice, uh, so like at least four hours of of that type of riding is just commuting from here to work and back one day.
Andrea:Yeah, because it's like 40, 40 kilometer per trip, but when it's nice out, I do, I attack some extra uh, so at least four hours of that, even if we're just like for the purpose of getting from home to the office.
Jarrad:Um, I can, I can make it more enjoyable and I count it as a ride, not just like yeah, right on the side of the busy highway and then call it a day and are any of the rides sort of structured apart from your riding, or are they generally just like whether you want to call it zone two or whatever? But are they generally just like you're out enjoying the ride or are you actually doing structured pieces to those rides?
Andrea:so I do a very little amount of homework outside.
Andrea:I just do it in the winter when a trainer season starts and do and I do purely structure training that is catered for, like xe or, sorry, gravel or or enduro, whatever that might be. Outside, I, I really do some well, I used to do it more often but now a little less but some like skills, like cones on on a mountain bike, um, but um, no, no structure workout outside, I just enjoy and ride, and I generally try to ride fast up or down, yeah, uh, the commute. They try to be zone two, but most of the time is dictated by oh, I'm gonna tag this piece, and and then you're like, oh my god, I'm late, and then you just send your hammer, yeah or the never the evergreen, uh, commuting or racing and like you have to pace the electric scooter or the I don't know the commuter world champs exactly, yeah.
Andrea:So those one always come when you're like tired and you just don't just want to ride home, but someone challenged you so you can't yeah, yeah, exactly when.
Jarrad:When someone passes you on an e-bike, it's it's all in yeah yeah, yeah, it's funny, like I do, because I'm at the bot literally like two minutes down the hill is where the shop is, from where we, where I live, and it's like I my commute to work, I go down across lionsgate, across adenac, back across and that's like a a good hour at a decent pace to work, and then my commute home is only like five minutes, so it's kind of that happy, happy meeting, yeah, yeah exactly.
Jarrad:But uh, I fully get what you mean because like I'll have a backpack on laptop, in shoes, everything in the bag, and then I get into that like race mentality almost and I'm like why am I doing this? Like I'm not training to race anymore, why do I need to be going this fast?
Andrea:but it happened. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, and also like the, again, I'm a huge fan of um, shutting it off like we're. We're all living a pretty busy life and like the commuting aspect makes me not think about anything work related or anything. I mean, just like me and my bike out for a ride. I will eventually start thinking about dinner when I cross the bridge. That's generally what brings me up the hill. Yeah, um but um.
Andrea:Another aspect of just like purely enjoy without um, without thinking, because if you're sitting in your car in traffic, you're like think about the shitty day that you had and the next meeting that you have and yeah, with bikes is all like eventually you pick up your phone and you're looking at emails and yeah and all sorts of things, but on I fully agree on the bike, it's like.
Jarrad:It's almost like you escape from reality for a little bit. I'm sure a lot of people listening can can relate to that.
Andrea:Yeah, for sure.
Jarrad:Yeah, so let's talk a bit about Dawn Patrol, because this I don't even know. Actually, let's go one step back. Like I kind of remember where I met you I'm guessing it's through Mateo, I think so and then not long after that, because that would have been around 2019, and then 2020 was when you started.
Andrea:Dawn.
Jarrad:Patrol is that? Yeah, so take me through the beginning of that and why, why you started doing that okay, so 2020, as everyone knows, like the COVID year.
Andrea:Unfortunately, my mom passed away at the beginning of it, like right before the entire world shut off, so and then, like, I flew back from Italy back here and then, and everything shut down and we started working from home and was it was a rough time for me. I was struggling being out for most of the day. I was just like needed an outlet to just like, I don't know, vent some energy to be out because, again, it was a rough time emotionally and physically, and everything.
Andrea:So because of the restriction of course, everyone was recommended to not spend uh some times around people. I I start start riding every single day, starting at 5, 30 and um, at that time there was no one. I still remember the first road ride that I did, when the, when kovic started from, I actually used to live like not far from here, but anyway from here to uh orshubay and back, and I uh on the way there and back I did not encounter a single car because I remember that was uh again like full, full-blown coven and at 5 30 most of people are still sleeping.
Andrea:So, um, and then one. I also like not just the fact of me, um able to uh burn some energy and stay outside with my, with my own thoughts. It was also super nice because I I felt like I had either the roads or the gravel roads or the trail just just for myself. No one inside, like I will rarely bump into anyone. And even back then, even if you bump into someone, you just like kind of stay far and just be kind and polite and way, but nothing else. So that started a rotation of again going back to uh, keep it fresh and rotating.
Andrea:I start on a rotation of, like road, mountain and gravel, road, mountain and gravel, throughout the week with, um, with a active recovery day of a friday that I was doing, uh, I was riding my gravel bike to a spot, a spot in the forest and just making my coffee with my camp stove, um, and then going going forward. I started pick up days. So like tuesday and thursday, you're going to be my mountain bike day. I do whatever I want the rest of the days, but tuesday and thursday are are just mountain bike and, of course, back then, um, I kept it pretty mellow because I was mainly on my own and, uh, mainly like.
Andrea:The last place I want to end up was in a hospital yeah uh, so uh, I started structure my week around those two days and, uh, shortly after I think like maybe june, june or july, no, probably june 2020 a good friend of mine and former co-worker, uh, and current um uh, pink bike, uh video and photographer, tom, uh, start join me, okay. Uh, so at least, like we were, of course, meeting separately, like kind of keep it, keep it. This isn't all that jazz, uh, but at least it was the two of us and then him as well. Like was uh itching to get out and it was kind of reluctant at the beginning, but I'm annoying enough to uh, yeah, I didn't realize.
Jarrad:He was essentially the the second dorm patroller.
Andrea:Yeah, there you go and uh tom is a much better rider than I am and I still remember how janky he was riding like early in the day, because it takes a bit to get into the groove, especially like with the technical trail that we have around uh to just like function at that at that time of the day instead of just like uh cruising along on something that you're doing on uh with no problem on uh on in the afternoon and later that year um, um and join me, join us.
Andrea:So it was just the three of us, mainly mainly by myself, but, uh, max of three people, yeah, um, I didn't keep any stats or or anything back then, but it was generally like the, the three of us doing a ride, one, uh, on tuesday on from and on thursday on seymour, yeah, um, and then the second season, so 2021, like restriction, were kind of like a bit fluctuating. So, long story short, like the most attendance we had was five people, yeah, and those five people are the one that I consider like the godfathers of of dom patrol, which is, uh, myself, tom and brett, myself, tom and Brett and Dave, okay, yeah, yeah. And then all of a sudden, from season two to three, it kind of exploded because I think it appealed to a decent amount of people there around me.
Jarrad:So when did you start doing the instagram stories? Was that in season two, or is that season three?
Andrea:I think it started already on season two. The jokes were on the, the.
Jarrad:The jokes were started in season three, when I had like a little bit more, because I think that's what got together I think that's what got my attention, because I think I started in season three. Yeah, I think it was season three I started joining and that's what got my attention because I think I started in season three.
Jarrad:Yeah, I think it was season three I was I started joining and that's what got my attention was the, the instagram stories of like these are all the people riding at 6 am and it's like all right, I guess. Yes, this is what we can do and also season three.
Andrea:Add the first sticker uh-huh and and membership card, because one and two season were just like just chill, show up, yeah, yeah and uh, yeah, I got the idea of uh making, uh making membership cards. That, um, I would tick every every time you show up and they have rewards. So, like, three times you got the stickers. At five time you get a coffee. At 10 times you get access to maintenance monday. Uh, which back then was a little bit more uh, more, um, consistent, but now it's like a bit all over the place, um, so maybe that side also uh, attract a little bit more people. But, um, a few, I would say, like Dawn Patrol, curious, came and realized how nice it is.
Andrea:Because back in I guess 2022, trail Network were still like pretty busy from like the boom of biking, covid, and at 6 am you can enjoy the trail mainly by yourself and a group of friends. At 6 am you can enjoy the trail mainly by yourself and a group of friends, and also just the fact of like starting the day with a decent ride or workout or whatever makes you feel like a million dollar. So I think that really was the key that some Dawn Patrol couriers were like, okay, let's try this once or twice and then eventually they got hooked and, uh, one of my good friends, joseph, was like I tried for two years to convince him to come out. And then when he came out, uh, the in season three, he, he just like, did not miss. I think he missed two in season three.
Jarrad:Yeah.
Andrea:And um, and now is up there to the to the top three.
Jarrad:Actually it's quite low now because he went to austria for three weeks, I don't know. Yeah, he should like check his priority, but yeah, yeah, and, and they only count when you turn up to either frum or seymour. So I guess let's, let's talk about that real quickly, what we've kind of jumped a whole step here, but what is dawn patrol?
Andrea:so dawn patrol is basically ride with a 6 am for an hour and a half, I think the the average time for this season is like an hour and 24 and 19 seconds, something around that just to be not exact.
Andrea:Yeah um, and yeah, get a good ride, no faff, um, decent pace up, decent pace down, so everyone gets on with their day, uh, but they already had a decent ride in um, and it's uh two days, like I said, tuesday and thursday, and again to retrain, like to keep it fresh. I'd like to spread the love on two different mountains so you don't ride the same trail over and over. So one it's on from and the other one's on Seymour, and I'm pretty fortunate because I live at the base of Frome. So, like the Tuesday, one starts from my house, which is the bottom mountain highway, and then we climb up.
Jarrad:Yeah, and then Old Buck car park for Seymour.
Andrea:And they're a hundred percent self-propelled. Like no shuttle, no, anything Like. Some people join us from up above based on the fact that they just live up the hill.
Jarrad:Yeah, but there's no uh vehicle involved other than just like getting there yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, once, once you're involved in the group, it's kind of like where we start is where we start, and yeah, and it's it's a pretty consistent group as well.
Andrea:As you say like, um, there's some people that are turning up like 90 something percent of the rides, yeah yeah, 92, 93, um, I think this year so far we're like 8.74 people per per episode, as I call it. Yeah, um, and then we add like a 6.4 the years previous, so like season four and then six, season three, uh, but considering that one and two, like the max amount of uh people showing up where it was five or two, yeah, um, it's quite a big increase, yeah so you've just thrown out a handful of stats there.
Jarrad:What? What is the reason behind all the stats?
Andrea:I think functionally none. I do, I don't know. I like to keep track of a lot of things and just because we have this like fairly, not fairly like super consistent group, it's nice to see like historical, like a lot of things. So I track attendance and then each uh rider as is percentage of a tendency. I track uh temperature, wind, um weather like overcast, cloud or whatever, and, of course, like uh, all the normal metrics that everyone will track, so like kilometers, elevation and duration.
Jarrad:Yeah.
Andrea:And then I do have an end of the season gala where I present my people like super, super interesting stats. So they love it.
Jarrad:And then I'm going to cut in there and the stats and the way you present them, uh, some of the funnest stats I've ever heard. That's great. It is good fun.
Andrea:Yeah, Generally like the, because sometimes if you're, if you give people numbers like, oh, we, we rode almost 600 kilometers, but you want to know like how many? Uh, Tom's van stack on top of each other is 600 kilometers. Yeah uh, tom's van stack on top of each other is 600 kilometers, yeah, and a few things like that. So, yeah, it's a way to keep it fun and, um, I don't know. Yeah, it's, uh, I'm a, I'm an excel guy so like I can every everything yeah, especially something that is so trackable like this, like you can.
Jarrad:Yeah, the metrics are so solid that that you can create a very I don't even want to call it simple database, but let's just say you can create such a database because the metrics are so like individual and like whatever you want to call it, and also use it just again, for fun, for memories, like whenever so tomorrow be episode 25, and so like I go like, oh, what was episode 25 a year ago, two years ago?
Jarrad:so do you see many patterns with that sort of thing like is, is there patterns for like certain times of the year versus certain weather, and like do you see the patterns in that stuff?
Andrea:or I just check mainly temperature to see like where was the heat wave one year, where was not. But I don't go that granular on uh, on uh, on climate. I like to see, maybe, maybe at the end, like I generally like to see, like the, the length and the elevation and the duration, so like um, for example. So we did 24, 24 episodes so far and the average of the entire year last year was 14.87 kilometer.
Jarrad:Yeah.
Andrea:And even if we're only 24, so we have a few to go. We are already around like 14.46 or something like that.
Jarrad:Okay, and it's been a constant increase of length, elevation and a shrink on duration, so we've been riding faster and faster um, yeah, mainly just and that that was one of the stats, maybe last year at the gala was, uh, the mountain highway stat. I can't remember what it was.
Andrea:I don't know if you remember off the top of your head, but oh, like the I think it was like yeah, it was like a 9.8 increase of speed yeah um, but malchanov is as a it's a tricky one to get because it's brutal and you just want to get over with, so it's not. Yeah, like it's. It was easy to like gather the attention for my presentation, kind of like a clickbait. But, um, maybe, maybe I should like cater to something like in the middle of our climbing path to see like how actually we go through a section yeah rather than just like something that is upright and you just like need to get through it.
Jarrad:You just go up, yeah, just grinding it out, and it's quite funny because the group almost splits into. For I don't want to say that the people that don't talk are not morning people, because they're up at 6 am, riding their bike up earlier to then get there for 6 am.
Jarrad:But it's like the people and I'm one of these that it's kind of like just get me to the top of the hill and I'll be awake by the time I get to the top and then the others, like you get like doug or someone like that, that's just like chatting away and you're like all right, dude, you've had three months of cocaine already this morning and it's like that's a great though, because our, our group is as like, everyone is his own character and and, yeah, together works pretty well, because we've been doing this for quite a lot and we last year we had 20 active riders, and active riders the qualifier for active riders show up more than once.
Andrea:This year we have 20, but with like five new people. Okay, interesting, um, uh, so like, yeah, every every year there's someone that comes and goes very few actually, um, but uh, seems before like the new, uh, the new hires are sticking around and they cope with the group and we're all different.
Jarrad:Yeah, there's not been too many that I know of in the past sort of three years that have at least come to one and then not come to any more. It always sort of it's quite a good atmosphere and you kind of get sucked into it yeah, I like hope I hope I keep it like below, below five people that do that yeah because sometimes people like try, I'm like, this is not for me yeah
Jarrad:uh, so we had, we had a few like that, but as uh, and then I guess to add to that skill level wise and trail wise and things like that, like it's not like we're riding green trails by any means, but I feel like the pace, as you said, is quite a good pace, but it's not sort of tear your eyes out fast, no, no yeah, like, everyone respect each other, so we don't because we're doing before work, everyone knows that.
Andrea:Yeah, you can like spend 15 minutes at the top talking about, uh, your cat or your expiring milk or something. Um, so everyone has the same objective to to put a good ride in and get on with their day.
Andrea:So, like, just that goal, which is across everyone, um, uh, level, levels out the playing field in term of like differences and and um expectation for the day, if you want to call it yeah um, and again, like we, we more like the, our, our skill level, of course there's, we're riding with some pretty talented riders like yourself, or or uh or others, um and so like, maybe for those kind of people some rides it could be dumbed down based on the trail choice.
Andrea:Um, but again, like, the novelty is like being out there and um, out there early in the morning enjoying the forest. So everyone just enjoy their own in their own way. Sometimes someone on the lower end of the spectrum pushing their, their limit on riding something that they wouldn't feel super comfortable to do at 6, just enjoy their own in their own way. Sometimes someone on the lower end of the spectrum pushing their, their limit on riding something that they wouldn't feel super comfortable to do at 6 am. Because there's also that part. Yeah, sometimes, like some, some we don't, we don't do warm-up trails because you just need to get on with it and uh, sometimes is that that end or the other end to uh, to push their boundary yeah, yeah, and I find like, even as you say, they're like some of the trails that we rode that weren't super technical.
Jarrad:When you're in a group of sometimes like 10 to 12 people, uh, just having that many people around just creates such a good vibe that the the trail almost doesn't have as bigger effect. I'm sure if you were to ride a handful of the trails that we've ridden um and to be honest I can't even think of any off the top of my head that I've ridden I'm like, oh, this is pretty boring trail, but, like some of the trails, I'm sure if you were to ride by yourself you'd be like I probably wouldn't ride this again, but because you're with a, group of people.
Andrea:Oh, yeah, for sure, yeah, and things like that. And also it's funny because I've been on, I know some people they have like their limit for group ride, like they don't, they don't ride on groups more than bigger than four people and sometimes we shut up on a on a from morning and it's like 12 people there.
Jarrad:Yeah, uh, but um, is is a pretty efficient group, right, like yeah, there's no, uh, again no faff yeah, and and that's another thing I don't think I've ever been on one where I'm like sitting around waiting to drop in, because by the time I get to the point where I'm like all right, it's time to move along. Somebody else has already made that call, and we're already in the trail and it's like, as you say, everybody's so there, sort of there, I guess, to already be riding, and everyone wants to get done before a certain time so they can get home, get to the office, wherever they're going, so so, moving into like the season, uh, sort of four and five.
Jarrad:I guess that's where it really sort of ramped up. Like you said, season three really ramped up and then four and five. I guess, yeah, it's still growing, yeah.
Andrea:For in terms of attendance, was like, um, again, 9.8% of uh, a 10, a 10 increase. Oh no, average of three was six, average of four was 6.4 and now we're 8.87. Yeah, so, yeah, um, but um, the, the different, the, the things that was making the graph going a bit spiky on season four is like some episodes were very numerous and some of them don't, and and so forth. And this one, even if the beginning of the season was pretty rough because, like every tuesday, every tuesday was raining and like cold, so, uh, not super enticing to like get out there and uh and ride your bike, we stayed pretty, pretty consistent throughout the season so far.
Andrea:And uh, and again, people just like incorporated that in their, their routine and I, I I try to make it easy. So like I, I know I know that some people like need like a little reminder or like a little piece of security. Be like, okay, the ride is happening, even even if the ride happens every tuesday and thursday. So I think a point of strength of this is like you don't have to commit, but you know the ride is happening, so you can like be in the dark until you show up there without um, without like sending that text like, hey, I'm coming, I'm coming, yeah uh, so like people know that the ride is happening no matter what rain and shine, so that makes it more easy to join.
Andrea:So you know the ride's always going on and people show up.
Jarrad:Yeah, and I think, even, like, even for myself. I think last year I only did like seven or eight rides at most, but same thing, it was always like I knew it was on and if I wasn't doing something that particular day then I would go yeah, but there's no judgment if you turn up and do two rides or if you turn up and do 40 rides. Everybody's of that same respect level and it's like it's.
Jarrad:It's good in that sense. So tell me, because one of the questions that I got asked how do you go about people that turn up sorry, that say that they're going to turn up or send you a message and ask, cause this was? This was a question that I got asked from multiple dorm patrollers on how you go about this Cause. It's quite a funny story but essentially if somebody asks you, yep, I'm keen, when is it? How do I do it? What's the backstory to this?
Andrea:yeah, no, no, like my my wife, I think, is uh not very polite, but I think it's quite funny. Like I, I started in season three where we're like the things were really like ramping up, so we're we're getting a little bit more attention, uh, from from people, and I had so many people 69 actually, to be precise uh reach out to me like when is this, uh right, happening? And I had like in my nose already a pre-made message because I was getting so many I didn't want to like tap it all the time. Uh, so I started screenshotting the message saying like, okay, I'll join you next time, yeah, yeah. And then at the end of the season, I was incorporating this stats in my presentation at the end and that is actually quite decreased, because it was only 17 in season four and I got only one this year.
Jarrad:Really. Yeah, maybe people started knowing that they get screenshotted, yeah, so it's like a full that. Yeah, I didn't realize there's that many in season three. I knew there was a lot, but uh, yeah, I didn't realize it was like yeah, yeah, quite a few people yeah, yeah, yeah. So anybody out there listening?
Andrea:uh, yeah there's probably someone that has a screenshot, but yeah, I always keep it uh, anonymous, anonymous and just in my gallery.
Jarrad:Yeah, it's all the privacy act and that's all with the admin team. So tell me a bit about the admin team.
Andrea:Well, yeah, we're lucky enough to have good staff behind us all operation. I think now this year there's like 25 of us just working full times on managing the jokes, the media. There's some merch that is being managed by this team and, yeah, I've been surrounded by great people and yeah, we try to keep it going. Sometimes it's a bit tasking because, like managing again a group of 25 is and it's all volunteer.
Andrea:Yeah, volunteer, unpaid intern. Yeah, um, yeah, the media, the media team, is like already like a big team in term of like um, resource and uh, and also like tasks they have to do because it's like the the video at the beginning, two joke pictures and to be one beside each other and then there's a copy copyright, people that works on the joke. Uh, they publish all that, put all the data in the spreadsheet and then move on for the next day so tell me where the jokes come from, because why did?
Jarrad:why did that start? Where did that start? Is that a bit of a clickbait attention grab to to get more attention on the ride, or, um, not really?
Andrea:no, it's, I don't know. I like, I like puns and I like dad jokes. And uh, I discover this passion for jokes even more when I move to canada, because I can always like camouflage my sarcasm and my jokes with my accent, so some, sometimes people don't get it yeah.
Andrea:So then and then I I tried to leverage that and uh, I think, uh, when, uh, I think that the first few dawn patrol jokes were made when someone wasn't there, so like if, for example, it was tom and I, maybe ann was coming in the joke picture, I remember like drawing her hand, drawing her, okay, and everyone telling a joke, and then when more people show up, like I didn't have to do that because before we're, just if it was just me and tom and and didn't show up with just like a picture of tom yeah, saying a joke to himself.
Andrea:So yeah, uh, and then I kept going with uh, with the amount of people showing up, but um, with the amount of people showing up, but um, with like a bubble, uh, kind of like comic style, yeah and uh and yeah, I have a joke calendar. I follow a few instagram accounts that are very useful for, for for this kind of stuff, and uh, yeah, just keep it fun yeah, yeah, no, it's.
Jarrad:It's almost like one of my favorite things on a tuesday or a a Thursday morning is to see what the joke is that you come out with. And it's like so consistently just like bang on exactly what you want to read at 8am in the morning. Yeah, and it's good. And then everyone shares it around, which is even better.
Andrea:Yeah, so the admin team last year try like also like all set of memes around like inside joke on the ride, but that took a, took a lot of resources and time, so maybe we'll bring it back, maybe not, but that was another part of the workload of the admin team, without posting it on anywhere social media, just internal. Because, again, like mainly there were jokes that no one would, uh, would understand because we're like such a inside thing that happened during that ride or and things like that yeah, no, definitely.
Jarrad:And then, uh, I guess one of the other big parts of the whole ride is the whatsapp chat, which, for one of the other big parts of the whole ride is the whatsapp chat, which, for such a large I don't even know I should should have looked this up as a stat you made me know off the top of your head but for such a large whatsapp group, in the sense of how many people are on there, um, and you can look it up now. But, uh, yeah, it's like such a fun chat to be a part of and, as I say, like I'm not participating in every ride, but it's like 20, 20 is it 20? Now? Okay, a fun chat to be a part of and, as I say, like I'm not participating in every ride, but it's like 20, 20, is it?
Jarrad:20 now.
Jarrad:Okay, I thought there would be more than that, but uh there's some people that like to be off okay yeah, um, but still it's like it's a good chat, like there's so much bike talk that goes on, but it's not. I guess it relates very much to the way that you ride the group in or in the group. I should say, but there's no faff in the chat, it's, it's not. I guess it relates very much to the way that you ride the group in or in the group, I should say, but there's no faff in the chat, it's, it's good quality chat yeah, like again a group of people that work together.
Andrea:there's some rabbit holes that people tend to go down to, um, but I keep it as a the. The main purpose of that is like a channel of communication throughout all the riders, so that's where I send the rider reminder or any sorts of communication, like we tend we try to do. Like one official photo shoot per year, thanks to, again, tom and the media team, again tom and the media team, um, and then a few other bits and pieces of actual communication that are, uh, related to the ride. The rest of just like chit chat with friends about everything pretty much, yeah, yeah, and that's.
Jarrad:I think that makes the ride almost go full circle like a bit of a whole whatever, like complete thing, whether you want to call it a bit of a club or just a group or whatever, but it's. There is that aspect of when you get brought into the ride and you start participating more and more everybody's so inviting and everyone's adults about it and everyone just understands like okay, like this person wants to get up at 6 am to ride their bike with us, they must be doing something similar yeah and then all of a sudden it's like whether it be a mechanical question or like I've seen, and post a bunch of mechanical questions how do I do this?
Jarrad:yeah, we don't need to go down the questions, but, um, there's been some good ones, and then there's been like other questions of just events and like different sponsorships and with certain people being sort of deeper in the industry than others. There's also like, uh, you've almost got your nerds of cycling that look at pink bike every day, and then you've got the people that work at pink bike every day. That balance out all of the content and comments and things on.
Andrea:There it's yeah, and also it's a good platform for not just those rides but like rides in general yeah um, because, uh, I think we're as a group we're pretty lucky, because not many people can say they see twice a week all throughout summer, you're their best friend twice a week yeah, yeah, exactly so, um, and yeah, like the, the group is not much different that, uh, the people that would like to surround myself for a dinner or or um, or a weekend, uh ride out of town or something, so it's uh it's a good platform to like, encompass everyone yeah, no, I completely agree.
Jarrad:And then, uh, before we start to sort of wrap it up a little bit, tell me a bit about the the photo side of things, like you just mentioned. Then, like tom, obviously he's pretty heavily involved in a lot of the the pink bike content and I guess I think he's 100% behind the camera. I don't think he's ever in front of the camera, is he?
Andrea:No, no, he does not. Yeah, he's always behind. Yeah, always behind.
Jarrad:But luckily enough, with him being one of the originals and, as you say, like the godfathers of the Dawn Patrol people, he comes out and does a bit of a photo shoot, which was only done a couple of weeks ago, I think. What is that for? Because we don't really see the photos until the gala and they don't really go out publicly. But it's a cool.
Andrea:No, they go Well. They do go out publicly. They are released first to me and then to the public yeah, okay, to the public, or just to Dawn Patrollers to to dawn patrols and then they can do whatever.
Jarrad:Whatever, yeah, okay yeah, it's sort of.
Andrea:It's a fun thing to do and yeah, like is, is ease kind enough to like volunteer in stein for for that, and I think from uh, as as a rider, it's also pretty fun to be in front of the camera, so like um, because we can take so many not so nice iphone picture of each other. But, um, when you see like the flip side of like actual professional photography of you riding, they make you feel good, yeah, yeah, you have uh, your own, uh, your own little piece of like uh tom's photography art that you can print and uh and hang it up somewhere yeah so no, not really like a purpose in term of like second hand, just like pure, pure fun and uh, because, yeah, you, you can, uh, I'm sure you can relate, but it's quite nice to see like a nice picture of you riding there.
Andrea:You kind of look all fast and yeah, shreddy, and and there's.
Jarrad:It's funny because I've done enough photo shoots to understand that there's no speed in photo. Yeah, um, which sounds like a really weird thing to say, but some of the photos that you look like you're going as fast as a world cup racer yeah, you may be going at walking speed, and or track standing, all track, yeah, exactly and there's so much art that goes in behind the camera work, it's insane.
Andrea:So to have him out there is just like yeah, it's next level, yeah no, we are pretty fortunate that he's kind enough to, especially like we always fit in a in a time slot where, like, crank work is about to happen and summer uh, pink bike is of course very, very busy in the summer and he managed to like fit, um, fit, like those two-hour photo shoot, uh, regardless, and and then sacrifice a ride, because when we do a photo shoot it's just like a yeah, one trail, a bunch of walking and not an actual ride yeah, exactly, and I think everyone appreciates it so much that it's like he.
Jarrad:He gets to share his like, skills and talent for sure yeah, I think um yeah so um. So anybody out there listening what's the best way to get involved in the ride? Contacts what like. What do we do? What do they have to do?
Andrea:yeah, just reach out to me. Instagram is the best platform to do so. It's at Andrea Carrino, um, or you can reach out to if you, if you have a friend in common, reach out to them and then, uh, I'm sure I'll get um, I'll get um. You know, there's no like actual, uh, official invite, like you can just show up. There's no yeah that's like you. Okay, you're in, you can show up yeah it's, uh, always tuesday.
Andrea:We meet at 550, we leave at 604 by the soccer field of mountain highway and same meet, meeting and start time, but at Old Buck on Thursday.
Jarrad:Yeah, and that's it. And the big thing is it's just a ride. There's no special entry, there's no special sign-on.
Andrea:There's no. Actually, if you show up even once, you get the membership card.
Jarrad:Well, this is true, yeah, and the membership card is free, the membership?
Andrea:card is free. Yeah, actually you get perks because the if you show up three times, you get the sticker. It's probably quite a cool sticker and and then a coffee for you show up five times yeah, yeah and that and that's it, and that's that's what I mean.
Jarrad:It's just like such a fun, fun ride yeah, yeah yeah, um, have you got anything else you want to add before we we close it up?
Andrea:um, well, not really. Yeah, no, I'm um, I'm just very thankful that you invite me over and listen for an hour me blabbing stats, and uh, heard my story and yeah, no, it's great.
Jarrad:No, well, thank you for coming on and sharing and thank you for consistently riding your bike every tuesday and thursday. Thank you, I'll try my best, all right, cheers.