Sunday 27 June 2010

Day 0

BC Bike Race has commenced. Spent $200 in ferry fees, had to get up at 5am, stand in reg line up for 2+ hours, race the prologue for 9 mins, eat really good Mexican food, see my baby brother (6 foot baby brother), meet up with partner and old friends from Calgary.....all in Day 0. I'm not complaining...but maybe I am a little....a lot of work and expense on our part for a 9 min TT.....but everything is on a roll now :)

Day 1 - Naniamo to Naniamo!!!

Super pumped to get to ride with Jeff again for 7 days, and all the Calgary folks. Really stoked that Regan gets the opportunity to be apart of BC Bike Race again...this time as a racer. And really happy that my brother Casey gets to take a "vacation" on the west coast and ride some really cool trails!!!!

Here we go again!!!!

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Pineapple Fix

Costco run today...grab some salty snacks and other goodies for the BC Bike Race......when what do I see but a big juicy Pineapple calling my name....yummmyyyyy.

Chopped it up....salivating a little............but it's a little sour :( not quite ripe.....so I thought I'd try something different :)

Grilled Pineapple

Pineapple
2 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt
pinch pepper
hot sauce (all to taste)

Cut top and bottom off, cut skin off and all the sharp eyes. Don't worry about coring, cut into thick slices crosswise. Brush one side with oil mixture and put that side down on grill (medium heat)...then brush other side. A food network show said that once the pineapple doesn't stick it's good to flip. Totally grilling time is about 4 mins......yummmmmmy


Ride Guide TV

Ride Guide TV is shooting on Vancouver Island for the next week. First Stop: Geoff Pendrell Michael Dick hit up Victoria's legendary Waterfront road ride. TweetPhoto



Hahaha......sooo many problems with my name !!!!

Monday 21 June 2010

Bars!

With less then a week to go until the 7 day west coast adventure, I've been busy today making healthy squares to take...for either on the bike or afterwards.
Some pretty good sucess with some new recipes.

Fiber Rich Flax-Oat-Almond Bars (haha, that's a mouth-full...gotta come up with a better name)

1cup Whole rolled oats
1 cup flax meal
1/2 cup Almond flour or meal
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup agave nectar or maple syrup
2 tablespoon fruit juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoon canola oil
1 egg

Soak raisin in cold water for 5-10 minutes.Drain all water.
Coarsely grind the oats in a blender or grinder.Transfer in a large mixing bowl.Now coarsely chop the raisins in the blender. Whisk egg and combine it with processed oats and rest of the ingredients until well mixed.
Line the baking pan(8x8) with parchment paper or lightly grease it with oil.Spread the mixture evenly on the prepared pan.Bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes until firm to touch.

Pretty tasty...it was actually a Vegan recipe but I am a big fan of edible animal products so I added the egg for a little extra protein and it holds everything together better.


Fruit Chocolate and Almond Granola Bars

2cups cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup Almonds or Pecans
1/4 cup honey or 1/2 cup agave nectar
2 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried fruit, any combination of apricots, cherries or blueberries
1/4 cup Dark chocolate coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 Egg

Place the oats and chopped nuts on a cookie sheet,toast in the oven for 10-15 minutes, turning occasionally.
Transfer them in a mixing bowl and let cool for few minutes.
Mix in the chopped chocolate ,cinnamon and flour
Whisk the egg in another bowl and stir in the the honey,Olive oil and salt.
Add the egg mixture to the oat mixture.
Spread the mixture on the baking dish(9x8 inches) lined with Aluminum foil .Press down evenly distributing the mixture.
Bake for about 25-30minutes at 325F.



Oh ya, I've been very much on a Hemp Heart kick so I added hemp hearts to both of them :)
Next.....momma's secret steroid squares....uber easy and super tastey...mmmmm....but not very healthy...hehehe...but during 7 days of riding I think it's okay :)

Friday 18 June 2010

T-9 days

...to BC Bike Race...yippeeeeee

I'm loving this Garmin Connect feature that Regan showed me.....haha.....here's the profile from the North Shore Mountain Bike Festival 2 weekends ago :)

Thursday 17 June 2010

Chocolate, strawberries, grapes...what else?





Nothing like finishing the day off with a little ocean side chocolate fondue....hehe



Sunday 13 June 2010

Rumblefest



www.cheknews.ca
Scroll through the picture bar for the "Port Alice Bike Race" (sorry the embed function isn't working)

Yup, this was our weekend :) Team Pringle (Pro City Racing) and Dyck (Trek Canada) had our 15 secs of fame..hehe....and a really fun hard saturday ride.

Island Cup finals were in Port Alice this past weekend.....far north island. Neither Regan and I had been up that far, so it was a pretty neat adventure. So beautiful...and the most amazing and hard xc course...gnarly steep climb with super fast fun downhill. It was a lot of driving in one day, but the course and the amazing salmon dinner after (how could a fresh salmon dinner from a small coastal community ever be bad) was definitely worth it.

Regan had his first win!!!!!!! Sweet!! And I took the Island Cup overall, being the only elite woman to show..haha....one of one baby!

No matter how many big races like the World Cups, US Cups and Canada Cups that I do, I always love having the opportunity to go out and ride these really cool local races where you get such a wide variety of people (guys in dress shirts and knee pads), wide variety of abilities (11 year old girls in jeans and a luge helmet), and wide variety of activities (custom funny bikes that I was told were later used for fire burning). Grassroots is where it's at!

Friday 11 June 2010

Grrrr

I really love computers.......nope, not really. Nescessary evil sometimes though. They are a huge convinence...when everything works....haha, but when something goes wrong....for the general computer illiterate user like myself....oh oh.

Last night my computer did one of the those automatic updates...and somehow ended up delating all my e-mails. Haha, normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but being the smart computer user that I am, or not, I hadn't saved all my recipts from the year....I was just storing them in Outlook Express....bad idea.

Thanks Regan for keeping me calm and helping me find most of the important ones late last night...hahaha, spending sometime this morning trying to find the rest of them.....why when you recover an e-mail from the recycling bin doesn't it go back to your email?????

If anyone has sent me any important information that I need to know/read in the past couple days.....Please send again...hehe....Grrrrrrr

Monday 7 June 2010

I totally look like a homeless person !!!!


So, I'm in the process of selling my car. Since I've moved to Victoria in Nov, I've only put 2 and a half tanks of gas in it...and Regan can't drive it cause he doesn't really fit well in it...hehe....plus the Titan is waaaay more fun to drive. Soooo, this is how I've been grocery shopping and doing chores.......I love it...though I do get some really strange looks ... hehe

Where in the world is Mical?

Okay, first off I am so sorry for being so lazy this past week. After the race in Hardwood Hills, my blogging ambition was pretty near zero....still is pretty low, but I think a quick update is definitely in order.

The Team Trek Canada Meet and Greet went off great! Huge turn out of kids for the hero card signing...hehe, yup, I have a hero card now...haha. Race on Sunday was good, super hot, super tough, but good.

I hole shotted into the first single track and got to fully enjoy the flowy singletrack for the first lap without getting jammed up in corners that I'd normally be able to use momentum through.....momentum is my best friend. Emily Batty, Amanada Sin and myself road together for the first 2 and a half laps. Half way through the 3rd lap Amanda put a small gap on Emily and myself, Emily let me in front to try to chase her back (team tactics)....we were making good ground on her then I dabbed in a tight corner, Emily went by and attacked Amanada.

The last lap I was chasing Amanada and finally got her in a cloud of dust down coffee run.....sorry for running into you Amanada!!!! In the end, Trek 1 and 2..... Thanks so much to Barry Near for everything that weekend.

Fast forward a week...a little work, lotsa laundry, lotsa riding, lotsa hanging out with Regan.....I am so glad we finally had a little "US" time. Friday morning, madly throwing clothes and gear into a bag, friday evening head over to Van for North Shore Mountain Bike Festival.

What a great event..Thanks Obsession Bikes for hosting, it's probably one of the funnest events I've been to all year.....and the North Shore riding definitely worked me over.



Finished 1st, won a really wicked Lezyne floor pump. Regan rocked it on his fully rigid Mary and finished 13th......half way through I was wishing for more suspension on my 4 inch fuel......awesome job Regan!!!!! It's pretty cool, he had people coming up to him after shaking his hand and calling him nuts...haha, that's what I say....love it.

Big thanks to Eric Lalonde for giving a place to crash!