Bacon Jam

Haha, yes this is Bacon Jam, and yes it is very very tasty!!!  Though I had a little miss hap with the chili  pepper flakes and it's a little hotter then I would like, it's still bacon so it has to be good.  And besides the greasy clean up, it's really easy.

Here's what you need
1/2 lb bacon
2 cloves garlic
small onion
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 cup strong coffee
1 tbsp red chili flakes

Cook bacon.
Remove bacon and dry on paper towel.  Chop bacon.
Pour out all bacon greasy except about a tbsp.  Fry onions, garlic and chili flakes (careful here, these make it hot fast) in the grease until onion is soft.
Add the vinegar, sugar, coffee and syrup.  Bring to boil, stirring and scraping up the good chunks off the bottom of the pan.
Add bacon back in, stir, reduce heat and simmer for about 20-25 mins.
Transfer to food processor and pulse.

Easy peasy!!!!!  Happy frying :-)

Dallas Monster Drag

Nothing like 20 mins of flat out hammering with a group of 20 odd (literally) fast men!  OUCH.  Thanks stuckylife for putting on all these really cool fun events.  Starting down on Gyro Beach in Cadboro Bay, picking up a spoke card on King George Terrace and finding the fastest route up to the flag on Beacon Hill.  Nothing life averaging almost 40km/hr for 20 mins.....I know, that's nothing compared to the big guys, but for me that's huge!!!  Thanks to the guy on the singlespeed who helped pull me around, lol, I have no shame!

In other exciting news, I'm starting a new job on Monday as a Geologist in Victoria.  Wow!!  With my slight change of focus in racing from World Cups MTB to stage racing and cyclocross I'm hoping this will work out good.  I know it's going to be a big lifestyle change, besides the winter months up north I've always just worked part time during the race season, so a full time job is definitely going to kick my butt for a couple weeks till I get it all figured out.  Change is good!!

Cumberland XC

Quickie update from the weekend y'all!!! Best trails around are found in Cumberland!!! So this makes for one of the toughest and but funnest Island Cup courses.......though I really haven't experienced a bad course here on the Island. Yup....riding here is better then absolutely anywhere. After hammering out the Tour de Victoria clinic ride saturday morning, I packed up the truck and headed up Island to visit Amanda and the rest of the amazing Wakeling family.

I got a very cool tour of the Eatmore Sprouts farm....it was really neat getting to see where all the sprout magic happens and definitely makes me appreciate these greens even more...BEST Sprouts ever. We raided the family garden, chowing down on fresh kale, broccoli, mustard greens (evil Amanda forced a giant really spicy leaf on me) and cabbage. Met and fed the donkeys, had a sketchy cart ride down the side of the farm with only a hair net as a helmet, and ate the most amazing home made pizza ..... with squash squashed on it. YUMMMMMM!!! What a great way to spend the weekend.

Sunday morning was race day and I headed up early to do a pre-ride of the lap. Nothing like an hour tough warm up of singletrack to get you pumped for the hard fun singletrack there!! Off the start my plan was to stick with Jamie Cameron again as long as I could (without getting our handlebars caught up again), but this plan failed really fast as I definitely couldn't hold that wheel. Each lap started with about 12 mins of hard, steady gravel road climbing, that kicked up really steep at the end. I found myself just out of reach of the group in front of me, leading out a large group of people hammering up the climb. It was actually perfect timing when Jason Binab, another Pro City Racer, past me and I was able to grab his wheel and take advantage of his climbing strength. I hung on as long as I could, opening up a small gap to the amazing Wendy Simms and Dawn Anderson. Amazing because she's pushing me hard yet again after kid number 2 not even a year old!!! I wonder if I'll be as fast as these two ladies if I have kids??

Getting in a train of 6 guys through the singletrack we hammered through the technical trails....and yes, I definitely gave more then a few yippees and yahoos on the new Tea Pot! A quick stop at my feed table to change bottles and we were off up the climb again. The second lap got a little more strung out and going into the third and final lap I found I was starting the last climb with just one other rider. 3 minutes up the gravel road climb something started "jumping" slightly on my new bike and literally as I looked down at my rear wheel to see what was going on I watched my rear derallieur wrap up and around my cassette ripping my whole drop out off. Yikes!! Fast way to end my day, but I'm really glad it was all downhill back into the start/finish.....I didn't want to climb that hill another time...lol, actually I kind of did, that singletrack is worth the pain. Needing my mechanic to get over his jet lag (hahahaha) so he can figure out what I did to my poor bike :-(

Other then the obvious mishap, it was a great weekend. Nice little EBOOST wake up, Honey Stinger Organic Energy Chews for warm up and Energy Gels for racing, and my fantastically comfortable Sidi Dragon MTB shoes on my new Superfly 100 from Trek Pro City after eating tonnes of the most delicious Eatmore Sprouts......the only way it could have been better was if I had my partner in crime with me.

Thank you UROC for the awesome Island Cup XC race, and huge thank you to the Wakeling family for the wonderful weekend :-) I love my friends!!

Photo from Amanda Wakeling (aka Sport Bean)

Spin-A-Thon

Hey all you ladies, come out and help support the BC Cancer Foundation with the Cancer Spin Out April 22 from 1:00-5:00 pm in support of the Ride to Conquer Cancer. There will be various spin classes of all levels through out that time period at the VI Fitness Centre in Oak Bay with some great coaches....like ME!! HAHA. Entry by donation, so come get your sweat on!!!