Mical - ONE LIFE ONE CHANCE

I'm Back!!!!!

2012-01-21T11:27:00.002-07:00

Well, almost...once I get done my work term up here in Fort McMurray, watch out I tell you. Just finished my first "workout" that consisted of intervals that raised my heart rate higher then just endurance pace!! It felt really good...and really bad all at the same time.....being a little out of shape doesn't help with the feeling bad, but hey, got to start somewhere.

Skiing, running and trainer intervals all in the same week....yup!

Quick update on recovery:
Hernia...I was 6 weeks on monday, so I'm officially allowed to lift heavy objects and exert myself. Things are feeling good, it's still a little sore and a little stiff, but starting a little core work to build up my strength and stability again.

Shoulder - well, it's going a lot slower then I'd really like it to. Trying to get into to get either an MRI or an Ultrasound is proving to be a lot harder then I was hoping. Doing some strength exercises are definitely helping, but I am still getting the "I'm going to throw up pain" when I forget and move it too quickly or too far. I found as long as I don't fall, I'm comfortable XC skiing.

Sponsorship side of things....wow, I really am not very good at this. Some people just have the right words and the right contacts and the right....I don't know. But yes, right now I currently don't have a bike or a full on plan for the 2012 season. But I don't give up that easily!!

That's all for now....when I'm done with all my trainer sessions up north here....watch out, I'm going to be an animal!!!!!! Just about done my first 3 week rotation, really excited to go home from the cold snow to the cold rain for a week :-)

Here I go again

2012-01-07T11:54:00.001-07:00

Back in the good ole great white north…only it's not too white and not too cold this year!! No such thing as global warming, really??

With camp life comes trainer time!!! I'm used to coming up north in really good shape and just maintaining. But due to a separated shoulder (which is now thought to be torn) and recent hernia surgery, I'm starting the year off in relatively bad shape.

Soooooo trainer time!!!! First couple spins my legs are burning and my but…well, it's gone a little soft in my sedintary month haha. My goal for my first rotation, get myself back in shape!!! So with the 3 week rotation they have me doing this year, big yuck, I've got lots of trainer time.

I do have my skis up here again, but with the amount of snow I'm seeing, I'm not too sure how the trails will be..... And not too sure how my shoulder is going to like that.

Here's to hoping my broken body heals and starts feeling good!!! Back to the trainer for now.

Back in the Saddle

2012-01-01T16:07:00.003-07:00

Nearly 4 weeks after surgery, I finally managed to ride outside.....for longer then 4 minutes!! Thank you Robin Farrell for riding with me and waiting for me on all the hills and feeding me with enough coffee at Starbucks to get me home. Wow, it's amazing how much fitness I've actually lost!! My walking kept me sane, but it's really no where near the same as actually riding. 2 days of riding easy and I'm sore all over!! It's only going to go up from here...hopefully.

Recovering

2011-12-21T10:13:00.003-07:00

2 week post op appointment, Doctor says things are healing remarkably well!! This sitting on my ass is paying off. She even okays an easy ride...yippee...it'll be good to get out and start using those muscles again, just "Don't push it!".

So yesterday I make a big batch of spicy chocolate peanut brittle for the boys at the shop, get all geared up for the first time in weeks!! I'm so excited, plan is to spin for half an hour, it's sunny out and beautiful! In the 2 minutes it takes to ride down to the shop to drop off the brittle, I make the decision that it's not a good idea to ride yet :( Not quite pain, but it's definitely uncomfortable, and the chamois is hitting my incision.

So, coffee it is instead, then spin home....my first ride in 2 weeks totaling 4 mins!!!! It took me longer to get geared up! Grrrrrrrrrrrr....and it's sunny and beautiful out again today. Couple more days and I'll give it a try again...fingers crossed.

Sorry I've Been Lazy

2011-12-13T18:30:00.004-07:00

Yup, I'm a flake.....where the heck did my blogging motivation go???? After my super wicked awesome fun trip to Louisville, I kind of hit a wall with the season. What you say?? Yup, long season, plus some colder weather, and a couple cans of CIL paint and I was good and ready for fat and sassy season.

The weekend following Louisville was Island Cup finals, none other then the Ricky Bobby at Western Speedway right here in Victoria. Oh my, how nice it really was not to travel. The course was muuuuudddddy, and it was gnarly cold.....but once I got rolling I had a great time and a great race. Raced with the Expert again, keeping myself in shape for Provincials and the USGP finals in Bend.

At this point I had decided Bend would be the end of the season for me, with my motivation waning for the year and my budget completely spent, it really wasn't looking very positive in terms of being able to go to Worlds in Belgium in January, and being able to train properly until then as well. But I was pretty confident I could squeeze a couple more weeks out of myself!

The following Tuesday I recieved a call telling me to be ready for surgery for my hernia on Wednesday! A hernia you say...haha, yup I've got the old man hernia!! Happened about 5 years ago from a little crash on a recovery ride, and it had finally gotten to the point that it really needed to be fixed. I guess the wait list for this surgery is 14 months, but you know, when you bat your eyelashes at the Dr...haha, noooo, due to being an athlete and going back to work up north (this Friday...uggg) I had a really small window in which I could get this done so I was put on the emergency call list. And when you get put on that list, things happen fast! So I was in full on shut down mode, one last big ride on tuesday.....only to get another call saying that an emergency, a real emergency had come up and I had to wait again.

Well, let me tell you, it's really hard to go from full shut down mode, then turn around and tell yourself you've still got a couple weeks to go....playing mind games with myself. We skipped BC Provincials, just not being really excited about traveling and the cold mud forecasted. I ended up taking a couple of days really easy and come monday I was really excited and rejuvenated to race and ride, completely ready to finish my season off! Half way through a 3 hour ride on Tuesday I get another call!!! Scheduled for my surgery now on Monday, Dec 5th....geeeez. I'm going from up to down to up to down!!!

So here I am, just over one week after my surgery and I'm dying to get out and ride or do something!!! I am really, really surprised how much this little operation has kicked my butt. I figured 2 maybe 3 days of couch time and I'd be able to function normally......nope, I'm just finally starting to feel like "normal". You'd be amazed how many movies and how much TV you can watch in a day. I haven't ever taken time fully off of doing anything, so I'm really hoping that the rest does me good. 1 week of recovery down, 3 more till I can get back on the bike.....I'm determined to let this heal properly, because I sure as heck don't want to do this again!

Not the best way to cap off the season, but it's done. I've had some good time to look back over my season, the ups and downs. I'm not really happy with how my cross country season has gone, besides my stage racing, but I really think that I've learned a lot this summer. I'm thinking next year that I may take a slightly different approach to my racing. It's always been a life long goal to go to the Olympics, but with 3 Canadian women in the top 7 in the World and Canadian women being the top ranked in the World, it's a really lofty goal, but it's absolutely amazing for women's mountain biking in Canada. I can honestly say that I gave it everything and I don't have any regrets about my career....And no, I'm not saying it's over, but different.

I've found that I'm excelling in and falling in love with the multi-day enduro races and cyclocross races....2 very different extremes!! My focus for 2012 will be races such as Transrockies and Furious3, and if I can learn how to swim better some Xterra events, with the odd Olympic distance race thrown in like Nationals and Canada cups. And I'm going to use all of this as training for a kick ass Cyclocross season!! World Championships next year are in Louisville, first time ever on North American soil!!

So again, I'm hitting the pavement looking for sponsors for the 2012 season...it'd be really cool to see just how far I can take this Cyclocross racing with some support, especially when I'm doing half decent as a fully self funded racer against those fully funded racers.... :)

Hurry up 3 weeks!!!

Louisville second day of racing

2011-11-13T22:47:00.001-07:00

After a night of relaxing, stretching and eating, I was slow getting out of bed in the morning. Day 2, whether it be a stage race or just a double header, never fails to hurt. A couple minor changes to the course made it, in my eyes, even more challenging and more exciting to race at the same time.

My third row call up ended up being a second row due to a no show ahead of me, so I lined myself up behind Merideth Miller and Caroline Mani (impressed to see her out here with her wrist all wrapped up). Off the gun my path opened up nicely, but I had my worst start in a long time and couldn't capitalize. Slipped the pedal, OUCH, got myself sorted out and worked back up, then found myself pinched into the fence about halfway down the start straight.… but I still found myself near the top ten going over the barriers, so it couldn't have been that bad.

The race stayed closer together today versus yesterday. Yes, Katie Compton did solo away for the win again, but her attack didn't come till later in the race an it was really neat to be in a train of 10+ women through the first lap and a half.

It's also really exciting going through things like sand pits with 10+ other women at one time. Mayhem can happen then, like a big crash and you could find yourself jumping clear over someone sprawled out in the sand. Something like that really can happen!!!

Personally I don't feel I had the strongest of races (maybe I need to do more Xterra training again....haha). After working my way up to I think 5th was my highest spot, I found I was in trouble and just a world of hurt from lap 2 on. You know your working hard when your arms start going numb, and not just the rough bumpy ground kind of numb.

A small battle with Chloe, but she slipped from my grasp. Then a very small battle with Laura Van Gilder, I mean she almost passed me like I was standing still. My longest battle was with Sue Butler, I always find myself around her. I was able to claw my way back onto her wheel and stick with her for a lap, but slowly she created a gap I couldn't close.

The 5th and final lap, I'm pretty sure you could have seen the mushroom cloud go off over my head. Teal Stetson Lee had a great last lap, and caught and passed me handedly. Through the last technical section I closed the gap slightly but not enough to make contact. But I did manage to just hang onto another top ten :-)

And Regan killed his category!!! Taking his first USGP win. Redemption for who ever took him out the day before. Amanda had an awesome race finishing just outside the podium in fourth!!

Stupid appointment!!!! Don't even get to enjoy my last night in Louisville. Packed bike and showered, then caught the 6:40 to Chicago (swore I would never fly through there again, but it wasn't too bad) then onto Toronto. Now I'm spending a great night in the Toronto airport (not enough time to get a hotel) then early morning Vancouver flight, followed by the little puddle jumper back home. Yaahh! The exciting life of an athlete, airports, airports, airports…but I'm not complaining…well maybe a little, this floor is cold and hard!!!

On the agenda! Island cup finals this weekend in Victoria, BC Provincials in Vancouver the following weekend, then the last USGP in Bend in December. So I've got under a month to find my "pop"!!!

Loooooeyville Day 1

2011-11-12T18:05:00.001-07:00

Oh my oh my that one hurt a little more then a little. 55 fast women starters in my largest cyclocross race ever. Third row call up isn't great for the holeshot, but I have a great start and always got to go for it. I wasn't able to move my way up to an opening fast enough for the holeshot, but I hit the grass in top ten.

Hitting the barriers really fast in the lap it jammed up if you weren't in the to 10. Then just around the next corner you hit the steepest stair overpass I've ever seen and it packed up if you weren't in the top 2!! It felt like you had to lift the bike over your head just to clear the steps…so glad I'm tall, short people would have troubles climbing this one.

Through the twisty wooded section, out through rough grassy field, through the sand pit, back into the trees section near the end of the course (where all the climbing was), one final steep decent, turn around and run up the last climb and back out onto the start/finish pavement. It is easily one of the funnest and hardest courses around. No where out there to hide, no where out there to rest!

I think I went out a little too hard. After settling into my rhythm Nicole Duke was just out of my reach…couldn't quite close the gap.

Lap 3 and 4 were rather difficult, slowly Mereidth Miller passed me, Chloe Foresman passed me, and I couldn't give the gas to stay with them. It wast until part way through the 4th lap when Amanda Carey passed me that I was able to pick it up a little. I chased her down for the whole last lap, with Sue Butler, Pepper Harlton, Georgia Gould and a couple other girls breathing down my neck. Up the steep hill into the turn around to the run up, I was thinking it was probably my last chance to pass her, so I gassed it and found a line around Amanda (only to have her roll her tire off right behind me).

Finishing 9th place in my first Louisville racing experience. And now I have nasty gel belly!! Big salmon dinner, that was funny enough all the way from Canada, with potatoes, salad and chocolate and I'm all ready to do it again tomorrow !!!

Regan had an awesome race despite two good crashes, and finished 3rd!!! Amanda "Sport Bean" Wakeling finished 8th, Norm Thibault finished 12th and Peter Wellsman finished 21st. Awesome job islanders!

Huge thanks to Pro City, Zed Wheels, Lazer Helmets, Magpie Obsessions for the tire sponsor, VellendTech for the awesome Sidi shoes and Planet Foods for my Honey Stinger!!! Couldn't do it without you all!!! And big thanks to Regan Pringle for hanging out in the pits for me (haha and telling everyone that "No, she doesn't have a pit bike")

Tour de Louisville

2011-11-10T17:45:00.001-07:00

2 days and 10+ hours of driving (ya I'm getting soft from my old Fort Mac long haul days) and we are in Louisville.

Decided to play tourist today and checked out some pretty cool landmarks. First off we hit the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum to check out some bat making. It was pretty neat, lots of history coming out of that place.

After a quick lunch in a hole in the wall sandwich shop we drove through by the mid town slaughterhouse (yuck) to sneak into the cheap seats at Churchill Downs to watch a horse race. What an amazing venue!!!! Home of the Kentucky Derby!!!

A quick trip to the venue had me sooo stoked to pre ride the course tomorrow. It looks so fun!!!

Amanda "Sport Bean" Wakeling is just making us some of her secret recipe butternut squash soup! Yippee!!

Cross Nationals adventures

2011-11-07T11:22:00.001-07:00

Here I am sitting stuffed in the back seat of the mini van with fellow Islanders Peter Wellsman, Amanda (aka Sport Bean) and Regan, on the way down to Louisville… and getting flack from Regan about doing my blog haha, so…okay.

I wasn't completely sure I'd even race nationals until the day before. Pre-ride felt a lot better then I thought it would, first ride outside since the flop on my face. Ground vibration was okay, but the torque needed for the steep climbs and fast accelerations didn't feel so stellar… wait, that's 80% of cross racing. 40 mins of pain can be handled with a double dose of Advil!!!

I had a great start, surprise, surprise, and had the holeshot. The first super steep run up I didn't have the ummpf to ride but Pepper did, passing me an putting a gap between us as I needed to run until it was shallow enough to remount.

I hammered out in second place for the rest of the lap with Emily sitting close on my wheel, and she gassed it by me on the first big climb again. This course was definitely designed for a climber with the super uber steep pitches. It's pretty amazing how much upper body strength you actually use when just trying to turn your cranks over up these nasty hills.

I was able to hold onto a third place at our Canadian Nationals. I don't think I did any more damage to my shoulder but oh my gosh it was sore when I finished!!!! I have to admit I'm a little disappointed with my placing, I was really gunning for the Maple Leaf jersey, but at the end of the day I'm really happy that I was just able to ride.

I had registered for the Sundays Nationals Revenge, but decided to take the day off and be super fan…wow, that is really tiring!!!

Now we are loaded in the minivan, 4 people, 5 bikes, 16 wheels, 1 set of rollers, and all our food and luggage…oh ya and a couple bike boxes!! Oh ya, master Tetris packer I am, just really hope they don't want to search the van at the boarder..…YIKES

Lots of happenings and going ons

2011-11-02T09:42:00.004-06:00

WOW, where have I been?? You'd think with the long hiatus I've just had from blogging that I'd have some really good stories...nope, well a few. Here's a little recap.

Recovered from the Naniamo double header weekend with a nice little head cold. But I fought it hard and ended up with only a fraction of what every one else around me seems to be coming down with. It did take a little chunk out of my scheduled long week of training.

With the help of Pro City Racing member Alex Hui, lead the first Pro City Sistas mountain bike ride!! We had 4 awesome hard core ladies out shredding the trail :) Just for future reference, my route picking abilities suck!!!! I took us on some double black diamond trails...lol.

Getting stoked and excited about upcoming nationals, besides the fact that its out in Toronto again, I did some great training last week. Then decided I needed to make things even tougher on myself then they already would be and had a great little crash during our wednesday night underground cross series. A shortish little trip to the hospital in the back of an ambulance...man I love laughing gas. It's pretty wild just how much a separated shoulder hurts!!! I was really convinced I was dying. Thanks everyone for letting me be a total wimp out there. At least I got out of moving duty...hehe...I make a good supervisor!! (Oh ya, Regan and I just moved into our very own place!!!! Yippeeeee)

So here I am day before heading to Toronto, and I've got conflicting opinions on whether I should even race or not. Might be some rotator cuff damage but haven't been able to get into have a scan yet so don't know for sure....maybe it's better not knowing. We are going regardless as I've convinced Regan he needs to race. I'm hoping a week of easy trainer riding and lots of moving pizza helped with the recovery, and I really hope I decide that my shoulder can survive the 40 min race :)

Either way it's going to be a fun trip to Toronto then down to Louisville, Kentucky for the Papa Johns USGP. It's either that or stay home and paint...which I actually really do enjoy doing, especially when it's red!

2011-10-19T17:11:00.000-06:00

Watch more video of Who's #1? North America Cyclocross Rankings 2011/2012 on cyclingdirt.org

Yipppeeee!! I made the top 10 again :)

2011-10-19T11:09:00.002-06:00

Have you registered for the Furious3 yet???!!! Furious3 is a new race series consisting of three separate 3 day events. That’s right, 3 awesome days of mountain bike riding!

2011 was the first year for the Furious3 held in amazing small mountain town of Fernie, BC, no better place to do it. Each stage of the 3 day event starts and finishes in downtown Fernie, eliminating the need to move base camp each day making it an easy event to plan and book hotels for. Fernie trails are some of the most amazing and epic trails in North America. From fast and flowy to slow and technical, lots of climbing but lots of descending, you will not be disappointed with the riding…..and 3 days of it. Like most stage races, you can compete on a team of 2, or unlike all stage races, you can also compete solo.

2011 Furious3 in Fernie was a huge success with a lot of very happy racers, and the organizers have worked hard to bring back the Furious3 Fernie, but also introduce two new locations for 2012!!! Furious 3 Whistler and Furious3 Moab!! That’s right, how does a 3 days stage race in Whistler in August sound, or a 3 day stage race in Moab at the end of September sound??? Sounds like I’m going to Fernie, Whistler and Moab to me!

Furious3 Fernie June 30 – July 2, 2012

Furious3 Whistler August 24-26, 2012

Furious3 Moab September 29 – October 1, 2012

Registration for Furious3 Fernie and Whistler are open, but filling up fast, and registration for Furious3 Moab opens Nov 15, 2011. Sign up now for your Best Damn Mountain Bike Race…..Period experience, I know I’ll there.

Furious3

Event Photos

Double Header on the Island

2011-10-17T10:43:00.006-06:00

Oh ya!!! First double header on the Island this past weekend, with two awesome courses in Naniamo! Saturday was our very own Island Cup Championships at Beban Park. This was the location of the my very first cyclocross national championships in I think 2005, and a very similar course....minus a gnarly nasty steep wet grass run up, and the barriers in the barn. Bright sunny and very chilly morning, definitely feeling like fall right now on the island...but I'll take the cold and sunny over the cold and wet any day!

Friday night I joined Robin Farrell at the fire fighters calender launch...hehe. Yummmmm, great food :) Late night (10pm is late for me), then early morning drive up island to Naniamo.

Warming up I was kicking myself for not bring all my winter riding gear again!! But once the race got going the temp was perfect! It was a really fun course with a great mix of fast straight aways, tight technical single track (I wish was was UCI legal), a sweet BMX course and of course some leg killin mud. After hammering the first couple flat grass corners we were shot down a rutted out gravelly decent onto a rolling tight singletrack section. Geoff Robson had the crash of the day there, I miss it but saw him rolling around on the ground for a while before picking himself up and finishing the race. Witnesses say he flew and rolled and hit the ground really hard.....OUCH. From there we moved onto the BMX track, a very technical track by cross standards. Once you roll over the starting gates you hit the steep jumps hard and fast, it was really hard to keep you bike under control while trying to maintain any speed. I cased the last double in the very last lap hard, but managed to stay up, when I gassed it to pass one of the masters men racers before hitting the singletrack again. There were a number of racers walking really stiff after not being as lucky in the BMX track......it's definitely not soft landing.

After the BMX track we headed to the short stair run up then into the mudddddd slog. It's funny, I pinned through here and I felt like I was not moving!!! But I was really happy to hear that I wasn't the only one. Once the track opened up, you had 2 corners to recover before hitting the final confusing mess of corners that switched back into itself and around it and, and....it was confusing in pre-ride, but when you hit it in the oxygen deprived state of racing, people were blowing corners left, right and center!!

photo from Geoff Robson

I had a great race, feeling strong and took the yellow winner towel for women 20-35.....after cheering Regan onto an awesome 9th place against some really fast guys....we packed up and drove back to Victoria to host the Pro City Sistas wine tasting and Rom Com party. Bridesmaids is hilarious!!!!!!

Another early morning drive up to Naniamo in the morning took us to Bowen Park, and the same really hard course as last year. This is one of the most challenging courses I've ever done, a lot of hard steep climbing, rough singletrack and deep sand! I decided to race with the big boys today....gave Regan a kiss and the throat cut...the gloves are down!!

Norm does his little pre-race talk to the group and before he's even got his bike turned around the guns goes off!!! haha, crazy start, no one was ready for that one...but we're off. My typical good start doesn't mean a whole lot racing with the men, and as we gas it up the long road start, I find myself right in the thick of the group. I had a great race, blew a little at the 40 min marker, but working through those last 20 mins are going to make me faster....right??! Finished 8th in the men and didn't get lapped, like I did last year on this course, which was my big goal.

I'm definitely really cooked today, hurried home, got fed and cleaned up in time to make the Sunday night yoga class down at Lululemon.....only it really wasn't the best recovery yoga class and I'm sore and cooked now...haha. I think I was sweating more here then during the race!!

Thanks Regan for the yet again awesome weekend!!! Less then 2 weeks till we move into our condo :)

Whats going on this weekend?

2011-10-14T10:27:00.004-06:00

Spent the night sealing my tubular tires.....and I think I'm still a little stoned right now from sniffing all that glue, and I only got one set done! It's funny how labor intensive these tubular tire things are.....but they are definitely worth it!!!

What's going on this weekend??? Cross on the Rocks double header up in Naniamo, on two pretty sweet and super fun courses. Saturday is the Island Cup Championships on the old Nationals Course, one of the hardest but funnest courses around......bmx course included.

Saturday night is the Pro City Sistas wine tasting party.....yippee, and great recovery for the Sunday race!

Plane tickets are booked for the not so stellar looking Nationals course and the wicked looking USGP in Louisville the weekend after!! I think I'm hooked!

CyclingDirt Rankings

2011-10-12T16:15:00.000-06:00

Watch more video of Who's #1? North America Cyclocross Rankings 2011/2012 on cyclingdirt.org

Fort Collins USGP

2011-10-11T10:43:00.005-06:00

My first USGP cyclocross done and in the books, and what a really cool experience. After a quick pre-ride of the course on Friday in the blazing hot blue bird sky, there was no way that I was believing the snow warnings for the next day! A fast, and very rough course on a sloping farm field, it's a different course then I've ever ridden before. With 3 relatively long steady climbs, lots of tight corners and fast rough descending, it was guaranteed to be a very hard race.

Saturday morning we woke to sound of none other then rain! Just above freezing and rain!! REALLY??? Turning on the news showed the all of surrounding towns with 2, 3, 8 inches of snow!!! Wow, even though it was forecasted, I really wasn't expecting that!! When Peter Wellsman came back freezing and barely able to move, I was a little less then stoked to go outside. After begging to borrow a trainer to warm up under the back door of the van I was warm, dry and read to go play in the mud. As I was standing at the start line I was thinking, cross is all the things you don't necessarily like about mountain biking....riding in a grass field, in the mud, in the rain, in the snow, running with your bike and carrying your bike.....but in cyclocross, it's so much fun!

Second row call up I lined up behind Nicole Duke, which ended up being a great decision because she took off at the gun getting the hole shot prime, giving me room to move up into the top 6. With the clayey mud and the tight turns, it was definitely a mountain bikers advantage course. My Challenge Grifos worked awesome in the mud on my new CrossRock AX, and my super comfy Sidi Spiders were killer with the long Sidi toe spikes in the gnarly mud. Katerina and Katie (aptly names the Clash of the Titans) put an early gap on the field, with Georgia and myself chasing and creating a little gap to the rest of the chase. I managed to stay within contact of her for about a lap and a half, but she was slowly powering away from my.

There was a lot of tri-poding, slipping and sliding going on, but I managed to have a clean run and stay up on my bike.....and even grabbed my first dollar bill hand out!!! Haha, I'm proud of that one :) My fingers were so frozen that I could get the bill stashed properly, so it ended up flapping in my face for the last lap as I finally managed to stuff it down the neck of my thermal undershirt. After slopping across the finish line in my first 4th place in a USGP, I promptly washed my bike and went straight into the shower fully clothed. That poor shower!

Yup, I slept good that night. And woke to the beautiful sight of blue sky again! The course went from sloppy mud to hard packed and fast over night. Second row call up again, I found myself behind Caroline Mani and Georgia Gould. Great decision again, as Caroline got Saturdays holeshot, letting me move up into the top 6 again......love starts! Again Katerina and Katie didn't want to have anything to do with the rest of us and took off! I found myself battling with Nicole Duke for the first 3 laps, Meredith Miller caught, passed and put some good time into us. Part way through the third lap Caroline Mani and Sue Butler caught up as well. For the next lap and a half I was hanging off the back of this group by a thread. I'd close on the corners and the barriers, and get dropped on the accelerations and straightaways. I thought I was going to crack! And I could definitely feel the little bit of altitude today with my ragged breathing.

Caroline put a gap on the chase, and I had a pop of energy to pull away from Nicole and Sue. For the last 2 laps, Caroline was just out of my reach and I was just out of Sue's, and we were all gaining fast on Meredith and the last podium position. But alas...haha, I rolled in 13 seconds off the podium in 5th place. I'm really happy and still a little surprised with how strong I'm feeling right now...maybe this Xterra training really is good for me :)

I was finished racing by 3:30, was cleaned up and bike was packed within 20 mins (thank the skies it was dry on Sunday) and we were on the road by 4 to catch our 7pm flight out of Denver.....I think that was a record turn around. Thanksgiving Monday was the 3rd Cross on the Rocks race and I had all intentions of racing, double header, sheesh, what about a triple header.....but getting up Monday morning I made the decision to just be a super fan. It's really nice sometimes just getting to run around and cheer your ass off all day! Record turn out for this island race at 191 people!!! That's something like 50 more then the previous record the previous weekend. Awesome, awesome, awesome event......definitely would be a better venue for Canadian Nationals then whats planned right now.

Thanks to all my sponsors, and a huge thank you to Regan for getting up at 4 am to glue my tubulars for me!!!!I have the best mechanic/boyfriend every!

CX Magazine

2011-10-04T09:54:00.000-06:00

CX to Xterra to CX

Lumber Cross

2011-10-03T10:02:00.003-06:00

I think this was the nicest weather that I've ever seen in Port Alberrni!! Everyone says it gets killer hot in the summer, but every time I've raced there, it's been gnarly wet and muddy. This little mid island (literally right smack in the middle) town and it's ASS (Alberni Single Speeders) association puts on a really cool race. Hosted at the historical sight McLean Mill, the course winds in and around the cool old Mill equipment and contains a mountain bikers amount of tight singletrack. The Cross on the Rocks series has the best courses around!!! And Roland and Katie are the most amazing results posters.......they had everything up last night!!!! (only hours after the race)

Super Norm convinced me to race in the Men's race as training for the upcoming Fort Collins USGP races, so I lined with with 23 men on the starting straight. I gave Regan the "You're Going Down" throat cut, then a kiss...lol. I haven't decided who is more agressive when racing, men or women. I think I was rubbed out more in this race then ever, but it's great training learning how to race with my elbows out :) I had my typical great start, found myself in the first set of singletrack in a pretty good position, and battled for the first couple laps with some fast dudes. Still feeling a little fatigue from the previous weekend I didn't have the pop to pass on the straight aways, and found myself clogged up through the singletrack, but it was actually the best that I've felt all week.

My new ZedWheels where awesome, so stiff and light weight making the already stiff Trek Cronus even stiffer and lighter (16.1 pounds), and my new Challenge Fango Tubulars were awesome...but I do think this mud tire was a little overkill for the conditions..haha...but if it was like last year (mud, mud, mud) they would have been perfect!!! Half way through the 5th or 6th lap I was sitting in top 10 and feeling good.... then there was a wonky pass, a rock shot up into me, and my front tire went flat...SOB, SOB, SOB....not the brand new tubular!!! There was some foul language coming from me, before I realized I was still racing, so I jumped off my bike and ran to the tech pit. Thank you to the guy that helped me change my front wheel, and I was up and running just in time to jump back in and chase after Russ Anderson who was also plagued with flats. I don't think I've ever seen as many flats in a race as I have on this course, every time I passed the pits there was someone different there. It probably was not my smartest idea to run my brand new wheels/tires on this course, but I was so excited to try them out. I have been informed though that they can be fixed (it was a very small puncture) so all is not lost...yippppppppeeeeee!!!

Getting back into the race, I battled back for the remaining 5 or so laps....ya, there was an absurd number of laps!! And finished in 11th (sprint finish for 10th but I couldn't quite do it!!) and only under 4 mins down. Pretty excited that I'm starting to come around and feel recovered from the Xterra adventure, hope the pop comes back into my legs this week.

I want to send out a huge congrats to Regan, 6th place in the fast dude category!!! And the rest of the Pro City Racers who raced awesome...half of which were also plagued with flat tires.....it's so cool lining up with 4 other fruit loop kits :)

2011-09-27T17:33:00.004-06:00

Magpie Obsessions

Welcome and thank you very much to my latest sponsor, Magpie Obsessions. Magpie Obsessions makes handmade custom jewelry and has some really cool creations. Everything from bike jewelry to head badges to silversmithing to chainmaille to beading. It is some of the most creative and well done work you'll find. If you are looking for a unique one of a kind piece head badge for your bike, this is the lady to see. If you're looking for a delicate titanium bracelet, yup, look here. And yes, this is my momma and her fantastic art with my poppa taking care of the background work.

Magpie Obsessions is sponsoring me with cyclocross tires for the 2011 season to go on my brand new and super light Zed Wheels which I am extraordinarily stoked to try out. The CrossRock AX is so light and stiff, and the hub sounds oh so good!!!

Thank you so much to my new and all my old sponsors for all of the support!!!

Xterra US Championships

2011-09-26T21:13:00.002-06:00

Survived my second Xterra race in Ogden, Utah, and yes, I was actually a little scared that I really wouldn't survive. If I'm ever to do these again, I really need to learn to swim properly!! You know you're not doing good when another racer stops you and asks if you are okay...haha, yup that really happened.

As a pro, we got a 30 second head start over the age group categories in the swim, which I really liked as there was probably 3 times as many starters as the Whistler race.....it was nuts. I was on the look out for Lance Armstrong, but it was really hard to tell who was who in our wetsuits, swim caps and goggles. Off the start I felt good, steady but easy pace, not worried about trying to keep up with the rest of the pack.....I figured at altitude I really didn't want to go out too hard, especially in the water, I'd be in real trouble. Everything was going great, until the age groupers caught me, which really didn't take that long :( All of a sudden I was swarmed!!! And being yanked on, hit, and I panicked again. I actually did some full on back floating this time, no back stroke, but FLOAT....and I still had trouble catching my breath. I feel like I was hyperventilating for the entire 1.5 km (it was actually longer then the announced 1.5km because the leaders were way off pace too). Half way to the first buoy I was thinking "What the hell am I doing out here!!!!!", and I still have to do a second lap.

Alas, I kind of pulled myself together a little, not much of a rhythm to be found while hyperventilating, but I managed to get a couple stretches of good swimming in. Sighting while open water swimming is another thing that really needs some attention...I keep making things harder on myself then they really need to be. I had one stretch of my "good swimming", feeling good about how it was going right then, only to run smack into a marshal kayaker trying to get me back on course .... I had managed to get myself right in the middle of the triangle course......just what I needed, more distance. If you see any of the helicopter footage of the swim and see a little pink swim cap in the middle all by itself, it's more then likely me!!

But I did survive, and I didn't trip coming out of the water this time!!! Small victories are so important at this stage. I'm also proud to say that my bike wasn't the very last bike on the pro rack, there was one more right beside me. I guess the pro guy that racked right beside me beat me in the bet as to who would be last out of the water..hehe.

Transitions are another part of my game that needs a little focus, but this one was much smoother then my first one. Off on the bike, I hammer the road section and pass a number of people, gluing my front wheel to the back of some fast dude for as long as I can hold him. It takes me about 30 mins to finally catch my first Pro woman. FINALLY!! Although the bike is by far my strength, with a 1000m of double track climbing and only 550m of fast non-technical descending, this isn't a course that suites my riding style.....and at altitude non the less. I manage to motor through a number of people, passing a couple more of the pro women before I get stuck behind a small pro descending rather too slowly for my liking. I follow behind her for a ways, but when it opens up, open it up to pass. THUNK!!! One of the 5 rocks on course, and I nail it. I hold my breath.....but it seems to be okay...so I keep motoring.

5 minutes down the trail I realize my back wheel is starting to get really squishy :( I jump off and get to finally use the Genuine Innovations Big Air that I've been riding with all year. Yup, that's my first flat of the year, and as usual, the Big Air works awesome. I throw a bunch of air in the tire, it seems to be holding, so I jump back on not loosing any positions and cruise off. Just as I'm closing in on another pro woman, I realize I've gone flat again....so I get to test out my race flat change. I can't quickly find a hole so the Genuine Innovation tire plugs aren't going to work unfortunately, that would have been a much faster fix, so out comes the tire lever and the dirty ole tube that's been pasted on my seat tube all year. I should have timed myself because I'm pretty sure I did a really good job on this one, and my Big Air had just enough CO2 left to fill the tube. Back in the saddle, I realize I'm in last place again....haha....and I'm stuck behind a long string of people. Slowly I pick off as many people as I can, and only 2 pro woman...so at least I'm not last.

I hit the run feeling pretty good. I guess the good thing about altitude is that you actually can't push your body too hard, it's physically impossible because you just can't breath good enough to go really hard. I pass a whole wack of people up the first nasty run. Ya, I can't believe that I was actually passing people running up hill.....small fast steps really work. It's an almost 10 km trail run on way more technical, rolling terrain then the bike and I find that although I crack at the 3 mile marker, I'm really enjoying myself. Around the time I crack, I'm going a little cross eyed, and I see a big black fuzzy butt in the woods......another black bear!!! Nope, MOOOOOOO......just a fuzzy black cow. The run finishes with a mile downhill singletrack running....I've been grilling everyone about how to run downhill...and although I know I'm still not great, and I probably looked anything but graceful but I was able to successfully run downhill better then my last attempt.

The killer was the last 50m steep uphill stretch just before the final small descent into the finish....this is where everyone was watching...I really hope I wasn't drooling too much at this point. Almost 30 mins behind defending super fast champion Mel McQuaid, I finished 15th in the Pro Women category.

What now???? Hmmm, I think I'm going to stick with cross for the rest of the season...hehe. Thoughts of Fort Collins are dancing in my head at the moment....maybe :)

3 Cross Races in 5 Days!

2011-09-19T17:45:00.003-06:00

Yes!! Survived 3 hard cross races and one full day of Vegas in 5 days…… now I'm sitting in the Seattle airport enroute to Salt Lake City sipping my second double americano for the day and trying not to fall asleep. Im actually feeling a lot better all things considered then I thought I would. I couldn't escape from Vegas fast enough, it's definitely not my kind of place. I would do Cross Vegas again, but I think it would even be more of an in and out kind of trip then I did this year … but you gotta do it at least once.

StarCrossed on Saturday was as usual, great!! Unfortunately due to booking conflicts at the velodrome the race was moved to Lake Sammamish park instead. It was still and awesome event, but the course at the velodrome is really cool. Being at a park too, it wasn't quite the night cross it was last year, but the beer garden fans at the barriers were still amazing!!!

I really wasn't sure how I would feel. Walking around Interbike (the big dumb bike show) all Thursday really kicked my butt, and my warm up was very sub par. I lined up thinking, okay, just have fun with this. Two Alberta girls, I won't name names, lol, missed call up so I was able to squeak up into a first row start position…SCORE!!!! I couldn't remember if this was one of the races that had the holeshot prime, so off the start I took full advantage of my great starts (and no, no holeshot prime here) and gassed it. As a mountain biker I like to be able to ride an open course and not have to fight around the corners, so I charged to string out he field. Katherine Nash (Luna), Sue Butler and Caroline Mani (French Nat Champ) stuck to my wheel like glue, and it was pretty neat hammering out a lap and a half with those fast women. Half way through the second lap, Katerina passed me through the sand run (ya, I dont know why I'm so slow on the run, I'm tall I should be fast!!!!) and I was able to stick on her wheel for a couple corners, but she just had more gas coming out of the sand then I did. We would hold pretty even through out the lap, then she'd put time on me through the sand and out the other end.

She stretched out her lead and I stretched out my gap over Sue and Caroline who were working together and charging, through out the race. With 2 laps to go I come down the fly over ramp and getting a little lazy, end up landing on my saddle causing the seat to rotate nose up…NO!! Figuring I can ride it out to the sand pit, then hammer the saddle back into place on the run, I continue pushing my pace not wanting to give up any time. Then in a moment of lapsed focus I take the corner into the pits a little too hot and go down hard! My bike skids into the pits and I power slide right along with it. Jumping up faster then I hit the ground I'm back on my bike and trying to pedal. My chain had fallen off and while trying to get it back up on the front chain ring it sucks back up into the frame and jams.… flash back to Cross Vegas, though not nearly as bad. Sue and Caroline fly by me, I get my chain sorted out, and decide to hit my saddle back into place (everyone was yelling at me here to relax and chill out… haha, I guess it probably looked bad, but I really didn't wan to ride with the saddle tilted up) and got back in the race. Lap and a half to go, I hammer as hard as I can to chase back up, and not loose more time to the girls behind me, but in the end I finish just off the podium in 4th place.

Sunday I wanted redemption!!! It rained pretty hard all night, so although it was the same course, it ended up being very different. Second row call up (no squeaking into a front row today), I settle into a group of the same 4 of us from the previous day. Going through the start finish after a lap I look behind me and see the chase group closing, so I launched and attack… yup, mountain biker brain again. Katerina and I charge off and the race ends up looking almost the same as StarCrossed. No crashes and no mechanical today!!!!! I end up on my first big cross podium in second place between the Czech and the French national champ.

I am super stoked with all my races, but really excited I was able to keep it all together for the last race. Regan had 2 amazing races too, with a really solid 3rd and 2nd respectively!! He's back!!!!!! And a super solid presence from the rest of the Pro City Team and numerous other Victoria racers! Junior racer Amanda Wakeling kicked butt in the women's cat 4 and cat 3 races!!

Huge thank you to all my sponsors, Trek Pro City for the super awesome Cronus, Lazer Helmet for of course the Helium Helmet, VellendTech for the super sexy and super confortable cross specific Sidi Spider and Honey Stinger for the best race chews, gels and protein bars for warm up, staging and recovery nutrition. After a week of practically no swimming, this Xterra in Ogden is going to hurt!! Maybe some TRX to get me back in shape.

Cross Vegas!!!

2011-09-15T08:08:00.003-06:00

First kick at the cat for Cross Vegas!! Pretty neat event for sure. The course is nothing special, wide open power course with wide sweeping turns, short run ups, long straight aways and lots of rowdy fans. After raining all morning I was a little scared with my tire selection of file treads (and that's all I traveled with … the forecast leading into my departure was hot and dry with 30 % chance of showers.… not the flood warnings we were getting. Only in Vegas can a 30% chance stack up against you. But the sandy grass drains remarkably well and my tires were perfect.

I had my typical awesome start and was feeling really good. Sitting in about 5th in a small group half around the first lap i rubbed the wheel of the girl in front of me and went down. No biggy, rubbin's racin, jumped back up and on my bike, no time lost.… but my chain had jumped off, and somehow managed to get jammed. After some frantic tugging and cursing and pulling I finally managed to get things straightened out and haha, I was DFL ain!!! The whole field had zipped past me :(

Well here we go!! I actually had an amazing race, I felt really strong and road everything clean and solid. The one thing about starting from the very back, its a nice feeling passing everyone!!! Managed to claw my way back up to 15th with top ten within my sights.

Checking out Interbike today and hopefully going to hunt down a chain guide!!!!!

Cumberland Coal Cross

2011-09-12T21:31:00.005-06:00

Phew.....first cross race of the season done and out of the way!!! Cross bike arrived Thursday afternoon and Regan spent Thursday night and Friday morning putting my sexy new Trek Cronus together for me...yippee..just in time!

Oh ya, it's purdy for sure :) With Cross Vegas fast approaching I needed to test out how file tread tubulars react to grass and gravel corners, so the boys from Trek Pro City let me use a classic 1980's set of sweet carbon Zipp wheels.....so stiff and fast and I'm really liking the tubulars. So very excited for my very own custom Zed WheelWorks CrossRock AX...I think I'm ruined for clinchers now....oh no, only expensive tires from now on!!

Early morning wake up and a 3 hour drive north up Vancouver Island to the cute little town of Cumberland...one of my favorite mountain towns. The Cross on the Rocks series has gotten completely out of control! It's amazing how many people are coming out to these races now. There were even enough women to break us up into 2 categories for the first time...keep coming out ladies and bring more friends!!

This race is a fast, flat, all out power hammer course, with wide sweeping corners, the largest whirly-whirl ever (I was getting dizzy in it) and a trip through the BMX track and the pump track every lap....and as always, it's soooo fun. With a large women's field, the first cross race of the season, and my first race against many of these ladies this season, I was nervous race. It's funny, no matter how many times I've raced, what I've raced, who I've raced and where I've raced, I still get the pre-race jitters....it's probably a good thing, means I care about my race :)

I had a great start, took the hole shot and with thoughts of Cross Vegas in 3 days, I hammered, boy I do love my starting kick. Dawn Berg Anderson as always was fast, and grabbed my wheel as soon as I went by. I managed a small gap through the first lap, and road hard and steady for the next 4 laps. My bike felt dialed and I felt great!! I think all this cross training is good for me.

reganpringleshoots

Regan moved up from intermediate to expert, and raced some wicked fast men. I'm really proud of him, suffering through the 30+ degrees (I think the long sleeve skin suit was not the right choice...for me either) and finished 17th in his first expert race!! Coming off his broken collar bone he's of the mindset to just throw himself right into the heart of racing again and race himself back into fitness....if this is any indication, watch out guys!!!

Now I'm frantically packing my mountain bike and my cross bike to get ready for my action packed 11 days of holidays??? Haha, how about 4 races in less then 2 weeks....now what am I getting myself into??????? Here's how it's going to look: Tuesday fly to Vegas, Wednesday night race CrossVegas, Thursday partake in Interbike, Friday morning fly to Seattle, Saturday evening race StarCrossed, Sunday race Rapha Gran Prix, Monday fly to Salt Lake City.....take a couple days breather and get used to altitude, Saturday race Xterra USA Championships (haha, yup, I'm doing another one), Sunday fly home!!! Then I might need a real holiday...YIKES.

Pic's of the awesome weekend

2011-09-07T09:41:00.003-06:00

Getting ready to take the plunge along side another former mountain bike animal, Tanis Banks-Tomlin. I totally look like a swimmer, so we'll just leave it at that, no more swimming pictures!!

Oh ya, way more comfortable on bridges then in the water.

Huge congrats and a big thanks to Mel McQuaid who waited at the finish line to make sure I finished in one piece. Yah!!! Reigning Canadian Champion on one of the toughest courses!!

A bunch of super fast ladies.
Of course me on the left, Brandi Heisterman (2nd - yah mountain bikers!!!), Mel in the middle, Danelle Kabush (3rd - another mountain biker), and Emma Garrand (4th).

These awesome pictures and many more from none other then Regan Pringle of reganpringleshoots

My First Big Cheque!!!

2011-09-05T14:47:00.000-06:00

Swim, bike, run.… does that make me a tri geek now?? Hehe. I did my first ever Xterra race this weekend in Whistler, BC !!! Not sure if I already have racers amnesia or what, but I had a great time. Painful yes, but it was a lot of fun, and I only mildly embarrassed myself in the swim.

Okay, ya, the swim......this was basically my second swim in the wetsuit and probably my sixth swim since I decided this is what I was doing.… and my first mass start swim (yuck!!!). First 50m of the swim actually went really good and I was thinking "wow, maybe this won't be that bad". Then someone's foot knocked that idea out of me and replaced it with a throatful of lake water. So in the middle of the swim I come to a complete stop, sputtering and chocking. Didn't take me long to remember i was still in a race so I got moving again, but all that drowning I was doing took a lot out of me. All I could manage to do was a little breast stroke and yes, I did some backstroke in the race. Finally I got my rhythm back, only to realize the group I was swimming with had completely missed the first bouey!!! Doing extra distance was the last thing I needed, but I turned around and swam back…ugggg. I did notice not everyone was silly enough like me to backtrack back on course. Finishing the first 750m we had a short beach run, the most painful 30m ever, then back into the water for a second lap around the lake. My second lap went much smoothly and I was a little surprised when I made it to the bike to find mine the last lone bike of the pro rack, haha.

But I get a head of myself.… no one told me just how hard it would be to walk let alone run out of the lake. Pulling myself out of the water I was thinking "smooth, fast transition onto the bike, no problem"........pulling my arms out through the wetsuit I miss judged the set up from the beach to the grass, yup you guessed it, I tripped!!!! Arms stuck in the wetsuit I fell flat on my face and T-Rexed around on the grass for a couple seconds before I could get myself back up!!! Haha, I really hope someone got that on tape!!!! Transition wasn't so smooth either, buckles on bike shoes are not the easiest thing to do up while you're trying to go fast!!! And my honey stinger sponsor Clay was standing there cheering, and more then likely laughing his ass off at me the whole time…way to impress the sponsor!!!!

The bike was a hundred times better. Once I managed to get my gloves on, which was another difficulty, and get moving I felt pretty strong. And this course is a mountain bikers course without a doubt!! Tight and technical and lots of bridges....yippee!!! I started the bike the 13th woman (last pro) and finished the bike in 3rd place......unfortunately my great transition time is added to the bike time so it really doesn't look ad impressive as it felt.

Heading out on the run I really didn't know what to expect, but I knew Danelle Kabush was hot on my heels. This was a really tough run up and down a lot of great and very hard mountain bike trails. Danelle caught me really fast and passed me like I was crawling so I ran in fourth place for most of the run. Had a couple good tumbles on the run.…tripping and staggering all over the place. An finishing the damn run on a long downhill!!!! Super yuck!! There is an art to running downhill fast and I don't have that yet. With less then a km to go Emma Garrand caught me, please let me note she is a runner, and I lost fourth by 9 seconds!!

So all in all, I finished 5th in my first Xterra and had a blast. More then a little cooked right now, but excited about learning how to swim better. When you start more then 8 minutes down right off the bat it's a long day of catch up. Huge congrats to Mel McQuaid grabbing another Canadian Championship title very handedly! And to fellow mountain biker Brandy Heisterman who had an awesome day in second place. Mountain bikers 2 Xterra Pros 3. Not too bad

Now I'm getting myself in cross shape for Cross Vegas in 9 days, yikes!! But first I'm going to enjoy an ice bath back at Alta Lake in Whistler!

Huge thanks to all my sponsors for helping through the weekend. Pro City Cycle, Lazer Helmets (which are actually very easy to transition with, VellendTech for my Sidi shoes, Genuine Innovations, Oakley and Planet Foods with all the Honey Stinger products that helped me get through the day. Also a big shout out to my mechanic Regan, Pro City Sistas Jen for the awesome wetsuit (though I think I needed the model with the built in propeller ) and my mentor and superstar Mel (thanks for the gentle nudge to give it a try)!!

Zed Wheels

2011-09-01T15:55:00.004-06:00

I send out a huge thank you and big yippee to my newest sponsor, Victoria's very own custom wheel builder Brad Head of Zed Wheels.

I'm really excited to rock his new CrossRock AX tubular wheels at Cross Vegas!!! Look for them!!

2011-09-01T10:50:00.001-06:00

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

What am I getting myself into!!!!

2011-08-29T18:29:00.003-06:00

Nose is healing good!!! Scar isn't too bad, and I don't think I'm going to loose the end of my nose...though I did cut through all the nerves and I can't feel the right side of my nose, very weird feeling! I've been back swimming, and good thing too, the big Xterra race is this weekend...YIKES!!!

My big goal is not to embarrass myself, by doing something like drowning in Alta Lake. Though I think the wetsuit will save me there, hopefully I don't trip trying to get out of it...or, oh my...haha, could be very exciting. The swim is 1500m, which I'm hoping will take me less then a half hour. It's hard to make a goal because I haven't swam that long continuously yet, but I think that's a safe goal.

The bike is 30 km...yippee, and it sounds like it's going to be really technical. PHEW!!! May be able to make up some time there....probably not much on Mel McQuaid, she's a beast I tell you!! And incredibly strong!! I have been told that the main route for the bike is on the trail "River Runs Through It", which is a slow, twisty singletrack with a number of bridges and low stunts...good thing I'm turning into a west coast rider.

The run is 12 km (why the extra 3 km from last year I really don't know...and I don't know that I like that!!!). I've been slowly upping my running, but I know it's going to be painful regardless at the end. Running and cycling muscles are completely different and my running years are very far in my past, hopefully there's some running muscle memory left in me. My first goal for the run was an hour, but after a couple of runs, I'm think more like an 1:15 would be realistic!! Regan, you're going to have to carry me back to the truck!!!!!

And now I've gone and signed up for Cross Vegas for Sept 14...yipppeeee. Nothing like a Wednesday night cross race, the biggest cross race in North America, to start off the season!!!! Then I'll fly right to Seattle where I'm hoping I can get Regan to pick me up at the airport so we can go do StarCrossed and the new Rapha Focus GrandPrix on the weekend!! Can't believe it's already that time of year again....Here we go again! Busy, busy, busy...I'm looking for a job for the fall too, yuck.

150km

2011-08-25T08:26:00.002-06:00

Nothing like a nice little mid-week ride up and over to Duncan and home with Mel McQuaid. That's the first 5 hour road ride for me for the year! Yup, not ashamed to admit I sat in Mel's draft as much as possible while she hammered out her intervals on her spacey looking TT bike.

Today I'm going to get back in the water, I think my nose is good enough to go (maybe not in the lake yet). And, yipppee....getting my stitches out!!!

Xterra Training

2011-08-21T18:04:00.004-06:00

All recovered from the TR3, and feeling strong. I have to say that stage racing is the best training ever for me, I always seem to come out really strong afterwards, especially if I manage to keep myself healthy. And it looks like I finished up just in time!! The second half of the Transrockies had more of the typical rain (though not nearly as bad as the last two years) that makes the clay really slick....yes, I weenied out this year, and I'm okay with that.

Huge thanks to the guys at Trek Pro City for hosting the ladies night at the shop on tuesday. Nothing says a great night out like a chocolate fountain (ya, and Bill gave me the chocolate to melt...that's dangerous), cheese and crackers, wine and manicures!!! Ya, that's right manicures.....my first one and I love the hot red nails.

Xterra training is going great, 2 weeks to go and I'm excited, very nervous, but really excited to give this a go....and Whistler is always a really fun venue. Thanks to one of the many great Pro City Sistas I have my very own super spacey wetsuit that is going to make me super fast (well hopefully not last) in the water!!! Along with a couple really good runs (with blackberry picking detours) and rides I'm feeling really strong for this time of year...

Friday I had a bit of a set back......a very painful and scary set back. Hanging up my bike in the bike room, rear wheel up on the wall, I manage to hit the big heavy glass ceiling light cover and smash it. It happened really fast, and didn't feel a thing, but next thing I know I have blood spurting out the side of my nose and all down the front of me. I'm usually pretty calm, and blood really doesn't upset me too much, but I panicked when I saw myself in the mirror. Calling Regan, cause I know I can't drive myself to the hospital, I end up freaking him out so bad that he calls the ambulance for me....yippee, another trip to the hospital. The glass was so heavy that it actually managed to slice right through the cartilage, but was stopped by the thick cartilage that separates my left and right nostrils...sorry, I know it's gross. You know it's a little serious when they get you in right away...I think that was my fastest hospital visit ever. 7 stitches in my nose, and 3 in my temple (didn't even know that I'd cut myself there) to add to my overall count.

Regan wrote me instructions for my ride :)

But I really am lucky not to have hit my eyes!! After a day off yesterday (the nicest day of the year!) I set up the trainer today to make sure I didn't end up blowing a stitch and watched good ole Transformers....that's a great movie for trainer riding. Couple more days of easy then back at it. Hopefully I get some feeling back in my nose!!

2011-08-12T11:30:00.002-06:00

Awesome pictures from the awesome photographer John Gibson !!!!

Day 3

2011-08-12T11:25:00.001-06:00

For those who say, Day 3 couldn't have been that hard!!! HA!!! I say, here's the course profile!!!!!

I love this race!

2011-08-09T21:49:00.000-06:00

Okay I know I missed a day..... But I was so gooned yesterday I could barely walk straight!!! I'm uber pooped after todays stage so this is just a quicky.

Yesterday, Day 2 of the Transrockies was one of the harder days of racing. Almost 2 hours of steady climbing is definitely not my forte, I think they need a Clydesdale category !! I was able to keep Mel McQuaid and Catherine Vipond within sight up till the first feed zone, but I cracked pretty hard here and found myself barely moving over the rolling doubletrack and mossy slow singletrack to the summit of Porky Blue.

Porky Blue is this gnarly fast steep switchbacked descent where you loose over a 1000m elevation in something ridiculous like 5km....talk about boiling brakes!! From the top of Porky to the finish I was in no mans land....it kinda funny how you start to loose focus when you're 2+ hours in and buy yourself....and it's kinda lonely. Missed my mule (Jeff Neilson) from the past two years.

Finishing 3rd behind Catherine who stomped the day, and Mel who also had an awesome ride, I lost my pink jersey to Catherine.

So enter day 3 of the TR3 and I have just over 2 mins ahead of me to Catherine and 2 mins behind me to Mel.... Day 3 was a battle from the get go. Course profile for this stage is pretty nasty with 5 major very steep climbs, a couple of which have 2 summits, and 4 long fast and technical descents.....oh ya, and 90% singletrack, this was one of the best stages ever....and killer hard.

It was a slow climbing day, spending most of my time in my easiest gear, sometimes barely even turning the pedals over. But each and every downhill was more then worth it!!! So fast, so long and so technical (thank you Troy soooo much for letting me use your dually, I would have been suffering a lot more on my hardtail....man I'm soft!!!) each trip back down the mountain left me giggling like a school girl.

The last climb up to Island Lake Lodge wasn't the most enjoyable way to finish the stage, haha. Leaving the gravel road at the bottom we entered an old rail grade trail that was just littered with huge roots, making the riding very rough and slow. Thump thump thump Ouch!! Popping back out to the gravel road for a little reprieve, we finish the final stretch up a steep, seemingly never-ending grass climb. I was moving so slow at this point under the baking sun that the black flies had a royal feast of me. My biggest thanks ever to Crazy Larry for his motivating yelling that helped me get up the final stretch!

I had a great ride and was able to grab back the pink jersey!!! Jean Ann had a great day and I could feel her breathing down my neck all day. Mel unfortunately missed a corner and went off course, it would have been incredibly hard riding with her up those climbs!!!!

My fourth TR was a success and yes, I will likely be back next year! Thanks momma and poppa for the great support as usual. Thanks to the girls for pushing me hard for three great days. And a huge thanks to entire Transrockies crew for hosting a great event yet again (and for the great weather this year....finally!)

One month to get myself in shape for the Xterra in Whistler...yikes.

Sweet Singletrack in Fernie!!!

2011-08-07T17:17:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it's that time of year again already!! Transrockies! Yippee. I've opted for the TR3 this year instead of the full seven days of riding.....which I'm actually kinda sad about because the course in the Kananaskis uses all the best trails!!! TR3 this year is all on the super duper awesome trails of Fernie!!! Oh how I love Fernie riding:)

After a big mint chocolate chip ice cream with my old TR and BCBR partner and his wife last night, and a delicious organic supper with my folks, I was stoked and feeling good!! Day 1 was a 32km (my gps says 34km) TT with 1 min gaps. Based on UCI points Catherine Vipond started ahead of me and Jean Ann Berkenpas behind me....and Mel McQuaid somewhere in the mix behind her. 400m out of the gate I heard the train blowing it's whistle as is rolled through town and right over the course .... Uggh. Thankfully they let me start again and reset my time, but now Catherine had a 6 min gap on me...outta sight outta mind.

I had a great start, feeling strong climbing up the first hill, yup starts are my forte. Up over the first climb, crossing a chunck of road about 10 mins in I go to shift into a harder gear in the back ..... And nothing. Ahhhhhh what the???? It's like the shifter is empty, pushing all the way through the lever but nothing is engaging. Big double BOOOOOOO. Stopping quickly I can't find anything jamming the derailluer, so I give a little sob and a swear and come to terms quickly with the fact that I'm running a really expensive two speed for the next 30 km. Thankfully the my big ring is only a 38 tooth (which is pretty small) so I'm able to use my big ring a lot.

I'm stuck in the second easiest gear in the rear, so glad it's not one of the harder gears or that first climb would have double sucked. Long uber steep grind of a climb, almost 500 m in about 2 km.....ouch.

As I crest the mountain I switch to big ring and I loved the super fast steep technical descent....didn't even need to pedal for most of it.

Through the feed zone, thanks poppa for riding out to give me a feed, the up into the second half of the course. This half is a lot more rolling and fast, with some short hard steep climbs and fast open sections. I was definitely hating my gearing on the flat to slightly downhill road section!!! Haha it's probably the only time you'll ever hear me wish for a climb. Spin spin spin tuck spin spin spin tuck. I was looking over my shoulder the whole way running scared.

Looking at the profile, the majority of the run back into the finish was predominately downhill, and this spin spin spin thing was just wearing me out. By tightening the cable on the barrel adjuster I was able to get my chain to stay in the fourth gear in the back. Once I got it there I didn't want to risk changing gears again so I was really suffering on a couple of those final climbs haha. Regardless of the gearing these trails are incredible!!!! And way more fun this year when they aren't so soggy and so slippery that you end up tripoding everything like last years TR.

So spin spin spin tuck spin spin spin tuck, spinning in fear looking over my shoulder the whole final stretch into the finish!!! Yippee I survived!!!! And I actually did a lot better then I thought I would pulling off the first stage win :).

Yah clean jersey for tomorrow!! And a new rear shifter.....upgraded from a 2 speed to a 20 speed....

Can't wait for supper I'm hungry!!!!

Liittle Sunday Ride

2011-08-04T12:18:00.000-06:00

Thanks Mel for helping me get my endurance back!!!

Moving!

2011-08-04T10:18:00.002-06:00

Wow, moving is a pain in the butt!!! But I think this move is very worth it. Our new pad is about 4 times the size of our last one, and we can actually stand up in the bedroom!!! Crazy I tell you, crazy!! Almost done, it's wild all the stuff we kept pulling out of the crawl space in our old place, when you stay in one place for any period of time you just amass junk!! Purge time!

Tomorrow, yikes already, I'm heading over to Fernie for the TR 3. Nope, no 7 days of slogging through the mud for me this year, going to keep it to the Fernie trails instead. Pretty excited!!

Canada Cup Finals

2011-07-25T12:57:00.004-06:00

reganpringleshoots

That was the scene at Canadian Nationals last weekend, but this past weekend in Edmonton for the Canada Cup finals was far from sunny and dry!! The course runs under the high level bridge just off of 109th ave, right in the heart of the city, so it's an extremely cool venue. But for anyone who know Edmonton and Edmonton mud/clay, when it rains it's next to impossible to ride. I pre-road on Friday in the pouring rain and it was actually almost a little better then because the ground was so saturated that the water was just sitting in puddles on top of the trails....but the roots were nasty. It stopped raining sometime during the night and race day Saturday was sunny and warm......so the mud started turning to chunky peanut butter.

After 4 weeks of rest, only small training rides and racing on the weekends, I was well rested for the weekend. I felt great off the start, having one of my strongest starts to the season, hitting the first singletrack section just ahead of Jean Ann. I managed to open up a small gap along the open road section leading to the back half of the course....and the really muddy section. Once we were forced to dismount and start running Catherine Vipond made up the gap and passed me.....I was trying to ride too much and just should have kept running. You'd think with me being the tallest rider out there I'd have super long legs and be able to run really fast....but that's actually a myth!!! I have pretty stubby legs for my size...haha....and Catherine looks like she's turning into a runner.

On one of the steep technical descents (one that is usually no problems at all) I decided yet again I needed to try and ride it....haha....smart move Mical!! Half way down the muddy rooty slope I lost full control and smashed a tree nice and hard....it was a big thick tree too, one that didn't have much give....with my leg and the side of my face. It took me a couple seconds to collect myself, Jean Ann passed me running, followed by Sandra and Rebecca Boumont. Sandra slide out just as she was passing me so I was able to hop back up and slide back into position in front of her. Once we got out of the muddy singletrack onto a stretch that I could actually ride I noticed that my seat was twisted almost 90 degrees around....yah, that's uber comfortable to ride on. Stopping to fix my seat Sandra and Reb passed me and I lost contact with them in the 30 seconds it took to loosen off and re-tighten the seat clamp.

And that's where I found myself for the rest of the race...haha, seems I'm always in no mans land. Through some of the switchback sections I would see the pick bikes of Jean Ann and Sandra, but never seemed to any time difference with them. In the last lap I noticed on the open sections that Reb was slowing down, and I'm gaining on her fast. I catch her on the last climb and give a burst of speed to pass her and put as much time into as possible. There is over a km of flat straight gravel/road into the finish and I pop out of the last singletrack well ahead of her, but as I look over my shoulder I see she's not ready to give up without a fight!!! Awesome!! So I have to work hard to stay ahead of her and hold onto my fourth place finish.

I have to yet again thanks to my Lazer helmet for saving my noggin from the tree and to my Sidi Dragon for being comfortable like slippers while running through the forest! Thanks to Clay at PlantFoods for the best tasting sport nutrition HoneyStinger products, Genuine Innovations for always being on my bike even though I hope to heck that I never have to use it and Steve Blick of Oakley for the awesome new Radars with really cool new photochromatic lenses (these are a must try!!!)

Getting ready to head home for two weeks, yippee, to hang out with Regan and whip him back into shape. Have to take my bike in to the boys at Trek Pro City to get it all tricked out and tuned up for the TR3!!!! Huge thanks to my momma and poppa for all the support the past two weeks....see you in two weeks for another week of fun!!!

Fast and Female Canmore Clinic

2011-07-20T21:57:00.002-06:00

I didn't know they caught us dancing!!!!!

Still Racing

2011-07-19T16:02:00.004-06:00

Ya, I know, I've very much fallen off the blog bandwagon....okay, back in the saddle. A fair bit has happened in the past two weeks since Mont St Anne, week trip down to Windham, NY for another World Cup, then out to Canmore for Canadian Nationals.

First off, Windham World Cup. Oh wait, we stopped by Lake Placid on the drive down to take in some post Olympic magic, and enjoy a good old American 4th of July. It was a pretty jammed packed overnight stay. Did some awesome trail riding, went swimming (or flouncing in the Lake), ate at one of two remaining Howard Johnson restaurants (9.95$ all you can eat taco buffet....oh ya!!!), and watched the 4th of July fireworks.

On to Windham, it's one of those classic mountain bike courses that the US is known for, with one long climb and one long decent. I really enjoy with course, the climbing is long and steady with only a few really steep sections. And the downhill is fast and rough, and a little technical through a couple of sections. I had a much better race here then at Mont Ste Anne, finishing 40th, but I know I've still got better in me somewhere.

This past weekend was Canadian Nationals in Canmore, Alberta......miss this place for sure. It was probably one of the funnest courses that I've ridden. Technical climbing, tight fast technical descending and of course Soft Yogurt.......the fast new pump track inspired descent!!! Overall, it kinda felt like there was more descending then climbing....of course I'm gonna love it!! Matt Hadley and his crew did an awesome job of building the course and Ed Garvin and the his Cyclemeisters did an awesome job of laying it out and hosting the weekend.....Thanks!

After another week of rest, I felt good going into the race. I had my typical good start, but I right off the bat I was having troubles pushing myself into the race zone. I found myself racing back and forth with BC's Brandi Heisterman, she'd smoke me on the climbs and I'd make up time on the downhills. We played back and forth for most of the race, but at the end she a had a little more gas then me and ended up pulling away. Jean Ann Berkenpas had an early bike issue and I could tell she was charging hard to catch back up. Going up the final climb into back into the stadium I found a little more in the tank and pushed myself to stay ahead of her. I held on to 8th place, and totally gooned at the finish. Not the placing I was aiming for, not the feeling I was hoping for, but I left it all out on the course and it was the best race I could have had on the day.

Sunday was the team relay I had the opportunity to race as the last rider for team BC. One lap of a slightly shortened course, all out as hard and as fast as you can go!!! Neil Kindree got us off to a great start, Evan Guntrie continued to extend out lead and Quinn Moberg hammered hard to give me a minute buffer going into my final lap. Of course, I had Adam Morka and Derek Zanstra chasing me down, but I was determined to hold them off as long as I could. I hammered hard out of the gate and up the climb.....which at full gas feels a lot longer and harder then I remembered. Adam caught just before the top of the climb, shortly before hitting the singletrack descent, and I didn't have the gas to respond as he passed me and hammered by. Popping out near the stadium to loop through the eye dropper and down into Soft Yogurt, I had about a minute lead still on Derek. It's amazing how fast that minute can disappear, I was ready to give him a shove off the trail when he passed me on the final climb back into the finish. We managed to hang on for a great 3rd place!!! Thanks guys.

After the relay podium, we all scrambled to get changed and help out as ambassadors for the Fast and Female clinic hosted at the Canmore Nordic center. 40 plus, 9-19 year girls learning different mountain bike skills and that it's fun to be active. It was a great turnout and a really cool event to be a part of!!!

Now I'm hanging out in Calgary, relaxing with my parents and their new dog :) I've got the Edmonton Canada Cup this weekend, then the TR 3 in 3 weeks, then......I'm not really too sure what the rest of my season is going to look like right now....but I'll keep you posted.

My Mont Ste Anne debacle

2011-07-03T10:07:00.000-06:00

Mont Ste Anne

Wow I really don't know what that was!! Definitely not my fast though. From lots of past experience I know first hand that this course can eat you up fast if you go out too hard so I made it my goal to keep myself in check off that start. This is one of the most challenging but also rewarding courses on the world cup circuit.....or any other circuit for that matter. It's what you call a "real" mountain bike course with technical climbs and descents. And let me tell you there is a lot of steep climbing here too!!!

So onto race day. Nothing like 29 degrees and super humid to shock the system! Making starting easier even more important. I had a great start keeping my heart rate low and not pushing into the red. Everything was going perfect and I felt really good. Actually a lot better then I usually do on this course.

Near the end of the second lap, not even 40 mins in, it was like a switch and my body just started to reject the idea of doing anything. It truly was a strange feeling, legs felt cold and tingle. Ya strange!!! I know a lot of racing is being able to push through pain but today I didn't have what it took to push through this. I slowed my pace trying to get things to come around but things just kept getting worse. I ended up started my 3rd lap but going backwards fast. At this point it seemed my brain signals were almost getting crossed and I couldn't ride in a straight line.

Finishing lap 3 I was pulled, first time in a couple of years and let me tell you, it's really not a very good feeling. And I have to admit I almost just booked my ticket home to forget about the next world cup in Windham, and take the time to sort myself out. But I truly am a sucker for punishment and keep coming back for more.

So plan for this week is to recover (even though I only raced for an hour yesterday it feels like I've done a 4 hour hammer ride) and try to calm my mind and come to terms with what happened this weekend. I know I'm a better rider and a faster racer then any of my results have proven this year. I just to keep remembering that but at the same time reminding myself that at the end of the day it's just bike riding......which I LOVE to do.

Thanks Regan for being my rock through all this self discovery. Thanks momma and poppa for your continued support. Thanks to all my sponsors for helping my out this season. Thanks to everyone who believes in me :) sappy I know haha.

Alright fast, where are you!!!!!

Fast and Female

2011-06-25T17:09:00.000-06:00

Fast and Female Mountain Bike Camp July 17 !!!!

Pro City Sistas Ride

2011-06-25T16:30:00.003-06:00

Pro City Sistas out of the Trek Victoria Bike Store. Thanks for the great ride this morning. That coffee back at the shop at the end of the ride was ohhh so good and well deserved!

The Test

2011-06-20T11:38:00.005-06:00

ReganPringleshoots

I wasn't feeling the blog this morning, but as I'm sitting here drinking my coffee and listening to Regan groan behind me (okay, it's not what is sounds like, he's lying on the couch with a broken collarbone and shoulder blade for those who missed that info)....I just downloaded my Garmin from the race and reflecting on the ride. This was my first year at the Test of Metal, and it was a pretty neat experience. I think the past 2 years of BCBR covered almost everything on the course except the 9 mile climb (which isn't quite 9 miles but feels like 47 miles!!), but I've never ridden it put together like this so it was a new and exciting experience.

Over a 1000 starters for this one day race, sells out in something like 10 mins, this is one of those events that every cyclist has to try at least once. In my infinite wisdom, haha you'd think I'd learn, but how I do like to suffer....I thought I'd try to ride with Catharine Pendrel for as long as I could. Sounds like a good idea, right, but the start was incredibly fast (faster then day 6 of the BCBR), and I seem to have racer's amnesia and forgot just how long the start climb is up through the residential neighborhood. Needless to say, I was able to hold pace for the majority of the climb, but definitely blew a little around the 10 min mark. At this point local Brandi Heistermann and Jean Ann Berkenpas passed me and I was pretty near in survival mode for the next 3 hours.

I started coming around a little through Robb's corners, I mean how could you not get a surge of energy bombing through, what, 30 bermed downhill corners!! Coming through the feed zone for the first time and starting up the dreaded 9 mile climb I saw Jean Ann only 100 feet in front of me. Not quite 9 miles of slo-mo chasing brought me to within a stealthy 15 feet of her, but I wasn't able to close the gap once we crested the final road stretch of this climb and I found myself all by myself as I watched the pack in front of me disappear up the road. By the time I reached the final climb, with an absolutely amazing view overlooking a remote valley, the group and Jean Ann were no where in sight in front of me.

Enter Ring Creek Rip (I think that's what it's called)....a super fast, super long, super loose and super rocky double track, that seems like a single track decent. With a little hooting and hollering (how can you not have fun ripping down almost 10 km of uber fast trail...especially after having climbed for a good solid 50 mins) I put it in my big ring and hit speeds of 50 km/h on this section...giggle, giggle. I don't think I can count on both hands the number of people I passed in the bush with flat tires...thank goodness to tubeless tires!!

After bombing through these trails, we were kicked into the plunge which was rougher then I remember (though this was the first time I've ridden this on a hardtail) and pretty greasy. The infamous plunge is a pretty steep tight section of singletrack with a lot of wet roots and rocks. Having done this in the dry and on a dually the past two years without batting an eye, I wasn't prepared for how hard this trail can be when wet. Haha, nope, I definitely didn't clean it this year, and after 2 hours of hard riding up to this point I was more then a little tired and bouncing all over the trail.

Popping out onto the gravel road climb back up to the feed zone for the second time, I finally had the chance to do some solid pedaling, and what to my surprise, a muscle starts to cramp...my quad, I've never had that muscle cramp before. But after 45 mins of descending after almost an hour of climbing, yup, I guess that's to be expected. After hitting the feedzone for the second time, we move into Crumpet Woods for the last twisty flowy and fun singletrack of the race. At this point I think my lack of planning with regards to nutrition intake during the race really caught up to me, one more Gold - Honey Stinger Gel would have really helped. I struggled through this fun section and was pretty relieved once I popped out on the pavement for the final push home.

Crossing the final road and hitting the long gravel path back to the finish, old BCBR and TR partner Jeff Neilson caught me, and just like old times he pulled me into the finish line. Finishing at just under 3:07, I missed my goal of sub 3 hours, and finished 4th in the elite women's category (57th overall); but I did end up having a really fun ride and like always, it was a great day to be on the bike.

2 weeks until the next World Cup in Mont Ste Anne, 2 weeks to find my fast!!!!

The good and the bad

2011-06-13T13:32:00.005-06:00

So much going on the weekend!

So tired and sore from the Thursday night hammer ride. For some of those guys it's just an easy ride, but I was pinned most of the night so I was definitely feeling the effects of the effort. Friday was my active recovery day, so why not go for a little run (haven't been running in a while so that's always a good idea), then a little TRX (haven't done that in a while too....man, I'm falling behind), then I went and signed up for the final Friday night Hotel Grand Pacific Harbor Sprints (haha, never done that). Great combination for already sore legs....I couldn't walk properly the next day.

So the friday night sprints were really cool, and there was a huge turn out. Because these are set up by the huge fixie crowd of Victoria, and probably half of the racers are riding fixies, on of the few rules for us geared riders...NO shifting gears. I've learned that I really don't have a great start when i have to start from big and 3/4 of the way down the cog....freakin hard gear. First round I was faced up against a super fast kid who practically walked away from me..haha. But thankfully there was a repassage (okay I really don't know how to spell that, but it means a do-over for us losers), and I managed to take the win...yippee. In my third round I kinda stalled out powering off the start, and by the time I was up to speed I had a lot of ground to make up.

This is me on my only win!!

Saturday morning I was moving a little slowly, but was excited when Regan and I geared up and headed out for a great mountain bike ride. I was definitely really slow getting going, but after I did the intervals Dan had scheduled for me (yes, they really sucked) and we ended up in Partridge Hills on some really wicked and gnarly trails. After both of us were significantly gooned we hit the road (after a coffee and cookie break at the Red Barn Market) to ride home.

This is where it turns from the good to the bad. I know I'm sponsored by Lazer Helmets but I can't emphasis enough just how great these helmets are. Not only are they the most comfortable lids around, but I have first hand (well I guess it's still second hand) experience with how good of protection that they provide. While powering up and over a small rise along the road, easily moving 40 km/h, Regan's chain unexpectedly exploded and the next thing I know he's going down hard and fast. After an ambulance ride and a 6 hours in emergency I get to bring him home with some really good road rash, and a broken scapula and clavicle.

Regan was trying out one of my new helmets on our ride, and it's not till later that night that I actually get to have a good look at the Lazer Helium , but the whole back end of the helmet is blown out. And he doesn't even have a concussion, or head pain.

Thank you Lazer for making the best helmets that do exactly what they are supposed to do. I'm definitely a Lazer fan for life!

Regan Pringle Stunt Double

2011-06-09T22:48:00.003-06:00

Tonight was my first Thursday Night Ride. Thursday Night Ride you say, yes, every thursday for the past 100 years (well not quite, but a long time) a large group of fast dudes get together, rain or shine all year, and the testosterone flies. I've been hearing stories about these rides for two years from Regan and I finally decided I need to try one of these infamous rides out. Unfortunately Regan was stuck at work, so I was his stunt double for the evening. My Mom would be very proud of me, riding with 20+ spandex clad men ;)

Ya, 20+, I'd say closer to 30 people, one of the largest group rides that I've ever been on. The typical start to this ride is up and over Cairn Park, a small park in the middle of Esquimalt, then we headed out of town. I won't even try to describe where we were, cause I was completely lost for more then half of the ride. It's a great way to find new trails around Victoria.

Somewhere in the back stretches of the trails, we managed to loose half the group and I found myself with a group of 12 of really, really fast guys climbing up the backside of Finnlyason arm. I was out of my comfort zone a couple of times on the road, definitely, but that's exactly what I needed to work on. Once we hit the trails around Thetis Lake on the way back into town, the pace really started jumping. A couple guys attacked off the front....all I could see was the backside of Johnny Fokema, Carter Hoovey and Tom Skinner. I managed to slip into a group with Troy Woodburn and a tall guy from Oak Bay (sorry guy).....And here is the training that I really needed!!! Pinning it for 20 mins on the Goose (haha, the awesome recreational trail through Victoria)....with jumping efforts to grab back onto the back of groups and pulling through when it was my turn...yup, road racing essentially. It seems that a lot of the racing that I've done this year has turned into more of a road style race, so this was perfect and painful.

Rolled home after almost 3 and a half hour evening ride, covering just under 60 km...ya! Yikes. And Regan had a wicked pasta super waiting for me.....now, I'm going to drool all night, so glad I have a recovery day tomorrow!!!

Thanks TNR guys for letting this girl ride with you!!!

Up and Over the Malahat...

2011-06-08T21:51:00.001-06:00

Why not :)

Sun Finally!

2011-06-08T10:53:00.006-06:00

Finally some nice, like really nice, weather in Victoria. I came home just in time!!! Had my first ride in Victoria for the 2011 year in short sleeves and no arm warmers....in June. Yikes. You have to take advantage of the warmer weather whenever it comes. After recovering from the European jet lag that had me falling asleep at 8 and waking up at 3 every day for the past week, I got sick. Haha, yup, good old airplane germs and recycled air, gotta love it. But when it's 25 + out and sunny, a little head cold won't hold me back.

Did some really awesome mtb riding with Pro City Racing's Jamie Cameron and of course my very own training partner Regan over the weekend!!! Not a stitch of mud anywhere, I love it.

Last night was the first official "Pro City Sistas" group ride, and what a great turn out!! It's kind of a continuation of the Tour de Victoria clinic group, but geared just towards women. We headed out with a group of 12 ladies to the Prospect Lake loop (one of my favorites - feels like you're out in the middle of nowhere) and managed to pick up 2 more random women. It's amazing how many people look at the large group of women riding and ask "Is this a group ride? How do I get started?". Go talk to the guys at Trek Bikes Victoria to get all the info and sign up on the mailing list. And just wait till we get our jersey's!

Thanks for the riding everyone!!!

Bakeries everywhere!!!

2011-05-31T17:00:00.002-06:00

Offenburg is one of my favorite courses and favorite venues (that I've attended) on the World Cup circuit. Nothing beats a super fun course, with vineyards as far as the eye can see as a back drop, and rowdy fans with German beer and sausage!! I say it every year, but it's pretty wild how much cycling is part of the European culture compared to North America...I love it.

We stayed in the most idyllic though not ideal house at the top of a mountain overlooking the Durbach valley. It really was like a vacation with amazing weather and a big hard bike race at the end of the week. Each morning I'd get up, make a big Bodum of coffee and sit out on the front porch eating my oats and berries, reading and checking out the vineyards. I mean, how much better does it get....maybe internet would have been nice, but you can't have it all. If I stood out on the porch and held my phone out as far as I could, I could send and receive the odd text with Regan (did I mention I love my iPhone!!!!!)

Friday, being 2 days out of race day was a rest day and we spent the day poaching internet outside a nail salon in downtown Offenburg....the only unsecure network we could find, Germany is totally locked down with it comes to wifi. And it poured, and hailed, and poured most of the day...like...it was really nasty. Turned the hardpack dusty trails into super slick rooty and slimmy trails, and the Saturday pre-ride was funnnnn. Picking up a little too much speed through a couple of sections I thought I was going to die, once you get going, there's no stopping....no slowing down for that matter.

The focus of this week was rest and recovery, trying to get the most out of my legs for the race as possible. That being said, after the short early ride on Sat, we were house bound on the top of out mountain for the rest of the day with no internet and only one english channel (and about 78 channels of various other languages...and if you know me, I'm useless when it comes to language). It was funny, by the end of the day, everytime we heard a tractor or vehicle driving up our mountain we'd all run to the window like eager dogs just to see who was coming.....maybe someone was coming to visit!!!! Haha.

The course dried up amazingly for Sunday, back to the hard dusty conditions, there actually wasn't even a stitch of mud. At plate number 55 I was I think the 3rd or 4th row from the back, but off the start I had my typical great start and moved up to 35th....ish. I really have to figure out how to keep that pace up...then I'd be unstoppable...seriously! With the great start I was able to avoid all the bottle necks, except the Wolf's Drop which is, in my opinion, the scariest drop on course. It's pretty straight forward, but super rough and rooty and nearly a straight down drop for 12 feet. Here someone in the group stopped, so people were off their bikes running (no matter how gnarly this is on a bike, I don't think you can actually walk this drop, you'd have to take a jump and pray not to land on a root and roll and ankle). I managed to stay on my bike and pass a few people trying to decided what to do...really wish someone would have gotten a pic of that mess.

From there I was able to settle into my own pace, which unfortunately meant loosing about 10 spots back in that second lap, but I found myself moving through the race with some of the same people back and forth. Third lap in I was really starting to feel the effort in my legs, and was super happy with my Coke feed. It's the first time I've tried Coke and I actually really enjoyed it. Fourth lap I found my pace again, using a continuous mantra of "Easy Power" to help me find my gear.

On the last km of the 5th and final lap, I noticed USA's Chloe Foresman gaining on me, and I threw the last of my gas into the final long steep double track climb, going cross-eyed near the top, to stay in front of her and finish 48th. I'm actually really happy with how my race went, as per cliche, I left it all out on the course....though not super happy with my placing. It's funny, I know I'm getting faster, but sometimes it really feels like I'm just going backwards. I think the whole women's field is just progressing with leaps and bounds as everyone is striving for Olympic spots.....the question is "What can I do to be there too??"

Dally Forest

2011-05-27T02:53:00.000-06:00

Dalby Forest World Cup

Ya, I'm a little slow with this post, I've had to take a couple of days to think about and reflect on race for the weekend. In short, things didn't go as planned, and I'm not super excited about how I performed. It was a pretty neat course, a couple tough technical drops and some fast singletrack, but a lot of fast double track sections. Oh ya, the wind was so gnarly!!!! So the race ended up being very much a road style race, with drafting being extremely important.

Off to a relatively good start I found myself in top 30ish and feeling good. Jockeying for position through the tight sections and along the road sections a felt pretty in control of my race. The longest climb on the course was a double track section just under 4 mins long with a steady grade. I powered up the first quarter of the climb and then settled into a nice healthy rhythm for me. I lost a couple positions but was confident that it was a sustainable pace. Down through the bmx course I railed the jumps with a little air and cross up... Haha not quite....

Well yes to the air!!

I held my own and was happy with how things were going up until the third lap and then I started to suffer. Not sure what the trigger was but I really started to fade and loose touch with people I was riding with.

Being mentally tough and staying positive is something that I have been working on and something I really need to continue working on. This day was particularly hard for some reason. But to take a positive out this situation, you really learn a lot about yourself. I finished 51st on the day so hopefully I learnt a lot!! Haha.

Monday after the race we had the opportunity to ride the London Olympic course in Hadleigh. Hadleigh Essex not Hadleigh Suffolk where our gps took us, but that's another story which includes speeding along Englands highways at 150 km\h in order to make the venue before it closed. It was really neat to get the opportunity to ride the Olympic course, kind of gives me chills to think about it.

Tuesday we headed across the water on one of the roughest flights ever. And now we are chilling in the most beautiful area I've been to in Europe....Durbach just outside of Offenberg in Germany. We tucked up in the top fold of a valley and all you can see are rolling vineyards.

This is the third time that I've raced here and this is the hottest and driest that I have ever experienced. But as I speak it's starting to rain....but I'm really not complaining, the course really needs the moisture!!!

Trainer Time

2011-05-16T15:04:00.004-06:00

I can't believe that I pulled out the trainer yesterday!!! Yuck, middle of May and it feels like winter. I've had a month at home, wow time flies, and I'm packing my life up again to head over the pond to my first World Cup of the season in Dalby Forest, UK. Where's that you ask...haha, all I know is that it's about 5 hours north of London, and the forecast is looking warmer then here. Regan did an awesome race prep job on my bike yesterday, looks cleaner and shinier then it ever has and shifts oh so nicely. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

I've had a good solid last week of training leading into my travel, it's funny though, I find I'm always doing more then I'm supposed to. Is it a bad thing that I just love riding my bike?? Working in a little swimming in between riding on recovery days to mix things up and work different muscles. Last summer I re-learned how to swim (very painful process haha), and I've found it's been great for working on core and upper body muscles, and keeping me overall more balanced and injury free. I think I may have to invest in a new swim suit though, my 10 year old, wait, 12 year old, swim suit is starting to get a little saggy in places.

Did my last Tour de Victoria clinic ride on Saturday, the forecasted rain ended up being warm and sunny all day. It was a great ride, but I am horrible at keeping a group together as we rolled out of Trek Pro City at 830 am with probably 20 people, and finished at the Qoola frozen yogurt bar with only 5 people, including myself. I think I need to invent a tracking system that keeps people within a 50 m radius, if they escape, they get zapped...haha...jj.

Sunday I was super stoked to head out for a mountain bike ride, but woke to the sound of rain hammering down on the sky light...yikes. It rained hard all morning, and with an interval workout scheduled, I reluctantly pulled out my trainer, dusted it off and threw on James Bond's Die Another Day to get me through my workout. Yup, the rain kept me inside. It's really not that often that I'd admit to that, but it felt like winter in May....not motivating at all. Though I have seen pictures from the Tour de California.....haha....cancelled first stage due to SNOW!!!! Ya, I guess I could be skiing in Cali right now.

Tomorrow morning will be another early flight, 6:45 am outta Victoria. Trying out my new iPhone Air Canada app...electronic boarding pass....hope I did it right. It's going to be a long day, leave Victoria at 6:45am Tuesday, May 17 and arrive in London at 6:45 am, Wednesday, May 18...yuck, then we have a 5 hour drive north. Really wish I was first class!!!

Got my Robin Farrell Team Canada bell and I'm ready to go!!

2011-05-11T17:53:00.000-06:00

Nothing like a 3 hour mountain bike ride in the rain to make me tough!!!!! I guess it can't be nice all the time here.

Great weekend of riding

2011-05-09T11:30:00.004-06:00

Two days of great riding, what better way to spend the weekend!! And it didn't rain on me...yippee. Maybe we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, maybe..hehe.

Saturday was but of course, the Tour de Victoria clinic ride, and we had some good hills planned. Heading out to Metchosin to battle the first half of the 140 km course, which just happens to have probably half of the climbing on course. Nice sunny, but very windy day, lead to a great day of riding with a fun group of people.

Sunday, Regan was my chauffeur and photographer extraordinaire. With a late Sat night decision to go up to Port Alberni for the 6th Island Cup race of the season (I was watching the forecast all week.....it gets REALLY muddy there), we got up early Sunday morning and made the 2 and a half hour drive up and in island. Huge thanks to Lee and the guys of Ozzie's Cycles and ASS (ya ASS - Alberni Single Speeders)for the awesome course design. The trails in that area are so fun, so well made and maintained, it's really sad that that whole area is scheduled to be cut down this summer :( Last time riding those trails.

I've been looking forward all week to getting a chance to race Catherine Vipond again on some local island trails, but when we finally showed up to the race, I remembered that Catherine and Matt have just moved to Canmore.....so I was racing the guys! I had a great start, as per usual, sticking with Craig Richey and Drew MacKenzie for the first......ummmmmm 400 m, into the first climb. Haha, I had to rein in my effort from there because there is a lot of climbing and it's a long course..blowing on the far end of this course leads to a long painful ride back. The super tight, slow and twisty singletrack doesn't allow for any recovery either.

That grin was plastered on my face the whole race!

I ended up climbing the first lap with Simon Tremblay, back and forth through the corners and straight aways. It was good to have him there, as I definitely pushed myself to stay with him. Know that I needed to get into the singletrack before him, he bobbled near the top and I hammered into the singletrack. 20 mins of climbing to get to that point, then pretty much 30 mins of singletrack back to the lap point. The top half of the course was super fun fast descending (can't help having a super big s*$t eating grin), and the bottom half of the course is the slow, tight twisty singletrack (still with the grin). This kind of trail you end up better off dialing back a hair and just riding, seems the harder to push, the slower you go (bouncing off of everything, running off course), so by the time you circle back through to start climbing again, you've had a lot of fun trail to erase the pain of the climb.

How true

The rest of the race I was in no mans land (where I always seem to end up), with Drew getting farther and farther away from me, and Craig Gillette and late starters Martin Vail and Carter Houvey gaining fast on me from behind. Finished 3rd guy and first girl on the day. One of the funnest courses out there, well I actually haven't ridden an island course that I haven't liked.

WOW

After the race we packed up fast for a dinner date at Gina's, yumm, yummm, yummmmmm. Then drooled the whole way home...hehe. After running around taking pic's all day, Regan still had energy to do a write up for the race for Canadian Cyclist. All photos by reganpringleshoots.

One more week till I leave for my first World Cup of the 2011 in Dalby Forest, UK :)

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T14:09:00.002-06:00

...to everyone. Hope the Easter Bunny was good to you!! We found chocolate Easter eggs yesterday on out ride out through Thetis Lake yesterday!! Yummmmmmm....haha. Ya, I did snag them and I did eat them:)

I had an absolutely wonderful week home so far, with some really great training and super fun riding. The weather in Victoria has been great (well, minus the rain today) since I got home, and even reached high teens on Sat. Definitely signs of summer! I have officially put away all winter gear for the summer, and no matter what the weather it's not coming back out!!!

Saturday I went on a long easy road ride with the Tour de Victoria clinic group down to the William Head prison. As the road out is a dead end road, the prison guard came out to make sure that we weren't lost ;) Then the long climb out. It's amazing how much a warm sunny day can increase the mood of a group, and make the climbing seem not quite as daunting.

Sunday, Regan and I went out for an amazing mountain bike ride (profile posted below) on some secret trails up and around Mt Finlyason. I've missed doing long steady climbs living here on the island, ya I've missed long climbs...haha, but this is definitely a good trail to fix that. Long, steady, steep loose double track and techy singletrack climbing.....you say, how can that be fun??? But the long fast twisty descent is definitely worth the effort. It's funny how rewarding a ride like that can feel once you've hit the top and let your heart rate and legs settle down.

Monday's are generally my active recovery days, and today being a kind of snotty day outside, Regan and I decided to go swimming. I've been trying to get back into swimming a little through out the past season. I used to do a lot of swimming as a kid, and was actually quite good, but it's amazing how "gone" those muscles are when you don't use them for a while. 15 mins and I'm pooped now.....but it's a great strength workout for the upper body and core, and helps to balance out all the cycling muscles. And it definitely makes me sleep well at night!!

2011-04-25T09:40:00.000-06:00

Thanks for the awesome ride Regan!!!

2011-04-21T14:08:00.004-06:00

"Pain is Temporary

Quitting is Forever"

That's what got me through my hill intervals today!!

Fuel for the season

2011-04-18T22:08:00.006-06:00

I'm home in Victoria for a month.....the longest I've been home, by 2 weeks, all year so far!! Yup, definitely more then a little excited. I've got 3 good races under my belt so far this season, well 4 if you count the short track, and I definitely count that as a really really ......ya, really good work out. It was really neat to race Friday and Saturday at Sea Otter this year (we usually race Sat and Sun), so I actually got to be a tourist and check out the venue without being worried about "saving" my legs for the race. So after my typical bad post race sleep I got up early, had a big hotel continental breakfast and road back up to the venue to do a lap of the old long course. The old long course you ask...ya, the XC at Sea Otter used to be a pretty neat 21 mile loop out and around Laguna Seca. The course is a mix of double track, gravel road and lots of sweeping buff singletrack (which was very rough and chopped out after 1000's of racers/riders on course over the week), and I do have to say, was a lot more fun then the current short course that we do which consists of more road then trail. I had an absolutely great fun ride, taking advantage of as much of the dry, sunny, warm riding conditions that I could.

After riding I worked up the energy to wander around the venue for a couple of hours....WOW!!!! That is definitely an experience! I have a whole new respect for all the people out there working the tents and vendors, especially in the heat. I was wiped right out after wandering around for 2 hours.

So now I'm home, yippeeee....and I have one month to the day to get myself in wicked race shape for the World Cups in Dalby Forest, UK and Offenberg, Germany at the end of May with the Canadian Team. And what to my super duper delight, but a wicked athlete package from Clay at PlanetFoods!!!!!!

I think we need a bigger pantry

I'm so excited to start my day off tomorrow with the best coffee from Kicking Horse Coffee, and fueling training rides with Sharkies and HoneyStinger gels, protein bars, energy chews and the new WAFFLES!!!!

Sharkies (I'm addicted to these from Transrockies)

Protein Bars and Energy Chews

Oh ya!!!! That's right, Waffles!!

Kick Ass Kicking Horse Coffee.....oh soooooo good!!

Thank you so much Clay and Planetfoods for my race season fuel for the season.

7 times around

2011-04-18T17:45:00.001-06:00

Check out the aerial view, you can see Laguna Seca Raceway....too bad it didn't show the venue!!!

Sea Otter yet again

2011-04-17T21:58:00.000-06:00

I'm laying on the couch curled up reading a book and reflecting on finishing my 6th Sea Otter.... Ya 6th!!!! It's one of those events as a cyclist you need to experience at least once in your career. The sheet volume of other cyclists and bike related activities and vendors here at Laguna Seca for this weekend is a little mind blowing. Every cycling discipline, minus track, is raced in one form or another at multiple levels from pro to ametuer this weekend. It's really neat to have so many people who love cycling at one place for a weekend.

So what did I do? Friday was the short track race, which is essentially an off road crit with a course of I'd say under a km, and today, sat was the XC. Had my best finishes at Sea Otter to date with a 10th in the short track and a 9th in the XC. I felt very strong but was definitely lacking the "pop" in my legs to put out the efforts to stay in the pack.....makes for a very long and painful TT in no mans land...... Great work out though!!

My Lazer Helium helmet was so great, really comfortable e well vented to keep my head cool in the scorching sun. My Sidi Dragons were so stiff and of course oh so very very comfortable. And my Genuine Innovations Big Air was there in my pocket for the just in case.....always really glad when I don't have to use that guy!! Thank you Regan and the great guys at Pro City Victoria for dialing in my wicked Trek 9.9!!!!

California Dreamin

2011-04-12T00:11:00.000-06:00

Alright, now that I've moved into the 21st century with my new iPhone I have absolutely no excuse not to blog .....oh poop. Haha.

I am currently sitting in a loaded down VW van with fellow Victoria racer Peter Wellsman speeding along the I-5 enroute to beautiful Monterey California for non other then the Sea Otter classic. It's funny, I've done this race so many times that it's kinda started to loose it's appeal for me, but I'm actually really excited for it this year.

I had a good week of recovery once I got over my fear that I was going to have the equivalent of last years Guatemala gut and be really ill for 3 weeks.....Colombia gut only lasted 3 days. One really gnarly set of max intervals up the back side of Willis Point ......haha, I had a good swerve on at the end of that workout. Then I had an awesome road ride with the Tour de Victoria clinic. Topped the weekend off with the first mountain bike ride that Regan and I have been able to do in...yikes...a month.... Thanks for suffering out there with me!!!!

So now we are about 3 hours into our 17 hour drive and my phone is loaded with lots of Suduko so I'm set!!

Oh ya!!!! Got my new Pro City Racing kit and it looks awesome. Hopefully I can someone to get a pic of it;)

Bacon Cheddar Waffles

2011-04-10T11:08:00.004-06:00

Haha, ya, a little bit of a strange combo, but I really wanted waffles and I really really wanted bacon!!!! Oh my, did it ever taste gooooooood!!!!

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup shredded cheese
6 slices bacon (fried up and chopped)
1 green onion (I didn't have green onion so I used a Serrano pepper....oh wow!!!)

Mix all dry ingredients, then add:

2 1/4 cup milk or water
1/4 cup butter

Let stand for 10 mins then throw on your waffle maker.

I wasn't sure what to put on the waffle, grilled tomatoes would have been tasty, fried eggs too, even salsa....but I decided pear...haha, ya another strange combo, but tasted good.

1 pear sliced up
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Saute pear until soft. Add honey, sugar, and cinnamon. Marinate on med heat, stirring constantly for about 3 mins. Add butter. YUMM!!!!

Now unfortunately, I'm in a little bit of a sunday morning food coma. With the weather not looking so hot outside, it's going to take a little while to motivate myself to go for my ride today. Maybe I'll go play with my new phone....I've entered the world of the iPhone. It's a huge change from the very very basic flip phone and I'm probably one of the most technologically challenged person around, so if anyone has any user tips to make my life easier....Please help!!!!

2011-04-08T10:21:00.003-06:00

Genuine Innovations

Super Cool !!! Check it out :)

2011-04-05T17:14:00.001-06:00

8 Hours in Houston

2011-04-04T13:59:00.003-06:00

Team Canada catching some shade, waiting for the course to open

Ya, I have a great little 8 hour lay-over in the Houston airport....but I have to say if I'm going to be stuck in an airport for 8 hours, this is not a bad one to be in. There are lots of choices for some pretty good food, and everything is bigger in Texas. On my way home from my first big race of the season, Pan Ams in Chia, Columbia. It was a really, really neat venue, with an old drug cartel castle as a back drop to the course. Haha, ya, I guess the park where the course is was the stomping grounds of a big drug lord before the Colombian government did a big clean-up of the area and "took back" the castle to make it a pubic park. I will definitely get a picture up of it.

So, I learned the very hard way that racing at over 8000 feet while living at sea level really, really hurts. It's funny because I really didn't feel too bad with the lack of oxygen with every day life, but I really noticed it while climbing and sleeping. Haha, I have found that at high altitudes I don't sleep well at all, and when I do sleep, I have really weird dreams.

This particular course would have been extremely physically challenging even if it happened to be at 500 feet as it was definitely a climbers course with long steep, and I mean steeeeeeep, climbs, followed by fast, rough, point and shoot downhills. We arrived in Bogota on Thursday evening, and had two days of slow pre-riding to save the body and dial the course before our race on Sunday.

Off the start I was in a really good position, sitting just behind Americans Mary McConneloug and Heather Irmiger, not pushing myself hard, feeling actually rather comfortable. But things went a little sideways about 10 mins in when we started to really climb. I knew that I would have troubles sticking with the lighter climbers, but I really tried hard not to push myself too hard to keep up as I new that with the altitude that it would be really difficult to recover from any efforts. 10 mins in I ended up gearing down to my easiest gear and going straight into survival mode, ya, yikes!

I had a little panic moment when I felt both my gels slip out of my shorts (I have a little troubles getting at my gels when they are in the pocket of my skinsuit so I had them tucked in the leg bands of my shorts.....bad idea!) I managed to hold my own, lost a couple of positions, gained a couple back. It's funny when your riding slowy up a climb and you get the bright idea that you should push yourself a little harder, maybe you have a little more in your legs, then 20 secs later you nearly fall off your bike because you can't see straight...haha.

Going into the last lap I was sitting in about 11 place, with 2 rider right a head of me and 3 right on my heal. I managed to keep my pace steady up to the top, passing Katie Compton and a Mexican rider on the climb. I pushed myself hard up the last climb to close the gap to the Colombian rider a head of me (which again left me seeing stars and barely able to hold on to my bars on the rough descent). I tailed the Colombian the whole way down, trying to pass a couple times, but getting pinched out. At this point a Brazilian rider had closed the gap (it's funny though because for some reason I think we actually lapped this rider but oh well), and there was a train of 3 of us looking for the pass.

Finally with about 500 m to go I made my move to pass, maybe not the best move but it was my last chance, and she cut me off taking both of us out. MY POOR BIKE....it's okay, but it lost a little paint on the top tube :( The Brazilian made it around without going down, and the Colombian rider managed to get herself together faster then me, but by the time I got myself figured out and back on my bike the Colombian had gone down again in the next corner.

So a 9th place finish is all I could manage on the day. Honestly I'm happy with my effort on the day, definitely couldn't have gone any harder, but I'm more then a little disappointed with how I felt. I mean, come on, I'm super woman, altitude shouldn't affect me like that!!!!

So now I'm doing my airport recovery day in the Houston airport...always great for recovery. For some reason us Victorianites got really bad tickets home and we end up having to spend the night in Vancouver and have to wait for the 15 min hop over the water early tomorrow morning. Oh well, It'd be too late Monday night for our burger date. Yummm!!!!

Super coach Dan Proulx

Cobble Hills Island Cup

2011-03-28T16:12:00.002-06:00

Race number 1 for me...yippee. Haha, it's so funny how nervous I still get, even for an Island Cup race, you'd think after doing so many larger races that these wouldn't phase me, but Regan had to make a couple nervous belly stops for me on the drive up to Cobble Hill. The course was great, long steady climb up, sweet singletrack loop at the top, and fast flowy descent back to the start, repeat. As you know, I've been on the trainer a lot this winter, and it's funny how much you forget that climbing hills really really hurts....haha, but it came back to me really fast.

Catherine Vipond raced as well, so it ended up being a great battle all day! Mass start (great turn out!!) straight up the climb. As per usual, I always have a great start, like really good starts, and I found myself 4 spots back from leader Matt Hadley, thinking 'WOW, this is awesome, I feel so strong'..........fast forward 10 mins later near the top of the climb......bouncing off of every root and rock, the metallic taste in the back of my throat, and a quick glance back shows that Vipond is gaining on me fast. I crack pretty hard right near the top of the climb and she passes me like I'm standing still....which I pretty much was, and manages to put 3 or 4 guys in between us. On to the singletrack, I finally recover a little and start to find my groove, but I'm stuck in traffic and I watch her slowly get farther and farther ahead of me.

Awesome fun downhill, with some tight twisty corners and a few places to get a little bit of XC air!!! I've been practicing my XC air, so fun. At the bottom of lap 1 I have a split of almost a minute down, and as I round the corner and start to climb, I can see Catherine ahead of me just turning out of sight. I have a great climb on the second lap, start off with a lot more......ummmmm...of a realistic pace for me, and close the gap to about 20 seconds by the time I see Regan snapping pic's on the downhill.

I chase again for the whole climb up the last lap and manage to catch and pass her on one of the last climbs of course....and I hammer. I'm usually a really strong descender but I was struggling a little (blaming it on my trainer time and being on a borrowed bike), and I couldn't shake her. We rounded the last corner into the straightway for a sprint finish, with me in front and Catherine right on my wheel. I stand and hammer to the finish, only to find out later Catherine took the last corner really aggressively to try to set herself up for the sprint and skidded out. Thanks Catherine for the battle!!!!

Regan treated me to an awesome Noodle Box feast and I passed out on the couch while he cleaned the bikes....yup, he's a keeper. Haha, I can't believe how trashed I felt after that race, I haven't pushed myself that hard in a long, long time. Intervals just never do race pace justice! It was great to blow out all the gunk from my legs and hopefully set myself up for a great race next weekend in Columbia. One week to go, fly out on Thursday.

Pic's to come :)

2011-03-26T15:57:00.001-06:00

Slowly coming together

2011-03-25T17:01:00.009-06:00

Yipppeeee... I Want to officially welcome Lazer Helmets to my team of sponsors for 2011. These are the best looking, most comfortable helmets out there with the really, really cool Rollsys system to tighten the helmet onto your noggin, and the new magnetic Magic Buckle clasping system. Regan bought me the sexy pink and black Helium last year and I feel in love with these helmets. This year I'll be rocking most of the year either the red and white or the black and red Helium. But Chris from Lazer also provided me with an awesome black and white Genesis and Nirvana to try out too. My head thanks you so very much :)

I want to send out a huge thank you to all my sponsors that have come through so far for me this year, helping to make my season that much better. Including Vellendtech with my oh so comfortable Sidi shoes, Genuine Innovations with the tire inflation swag and TRX with the awesome portable suspension training system.

Atomic push-up with the TRX (I can only manage about 10..hehe)

I also want to thank Bill Fry from Trek Pro City for getting me into a frame and for letting me use your little bike for training on while I wait for mine :) Huge thanks for Melanie McQuaid who has bascially been my biggest parts sponsor for the year ... haha.. love raiding her garage, and now Peter Wellsman for digging out the "old" Sid for me.

Most of all I really need to thank my boyfriend/mechanic/biggest fan (besides probably my parents) Regan Pringle for making it all come together. It's been a pretty stressful couple days as I realized things aren't working out the way I thought they were going to and we've been madly searching for parts to build up the frame. He's been great at trying to keep me calm and focused on Pan Ams in less then 2 weeks, while taking on the majority of the stress. He's spending the night tonight putting it together (while I go for sushi) so I can race it this weekend at the Cobble Hill Island Cup race and work out all the kinks before I have to box it up for my trip south.

Oh ya, mom, here's the picture you wanted of the abomination that was my truck for the winter up north (love the 400km on 120litres of diesel..yuck!!!!) parked in front of the shack I called home....glad I'm done there!!!!

Tentative Race Schedule 2011!

2011-03-24T10:20:00.004-06:00

Yuppppp, it's go time now! First race this weekend on the Island, get some race intensity before I head down to Columbia for Pan Ams!!!!

Mar 27 - Duncan, Island Cup
Apr 3 - Pan Ams, Bogota, Columbia
Apr 10 - Cumberland, Island Cup
April 14-17 - Sea Otter, Monterey, CA
May 8 - Port Alberni, Island Cup
May 22 - World Cup, Dalby Forest, UK
May 29 - World Cup, Offenberg, Germany
June 12 - Port Alice, Island Cup
June 18 - Test of Metal, Squamish, BC
June 25 - Hornby, Island Cup Finals (yah, that's so early)
July 3 - World Cup, Mont St Anne, Que(missing BC Bike Race this year :( )
July 10 - World Cup, Windham, NY
July 17 - Canadian Nationals, Canmore, Alberta
July 24 - Canada Cup, Edmonton, Alberta
Aug 7-9 - TR3, Canadian Rockies (this one is still up in the air a little because of next weekend)
Aug 14 - World Cup, Czech
Aug 21 - World Cup, Val di Sol, Italy
Sept 4 - World Championships, Champrey, Switzerland

And then mass amounts of cyclocross including Starcrossed and RadRacing weekend again, some USGP races, lots of Island Cup race (wicked series) , Canadian Nationals, and maybe a late winter trip to Belgium :)

Finding motivation

2011-03-14T19:02:00.004-06:00

Racing, racing everywhere. First US Cup was this past weekend in Bonelli, CA (congrats to all the Canadians there!) and the first Island Cup race was in Victoria, BC.....and I missed them both. At first I was okay with not being able to make these races, being trapped up here at work, but after looking at all the photos posted from the weekend, I'm a little bummed....yah, I'll admit it. I am so ready to be done up here on the trainer and get outside to really ride again. This time of year I find it always seems to really, really drag on. Part of the problem maybe stems from the fact that I don't have a set finish date, it could be a couple days, could be a week, could be longer.

Right now the most important thing is to stay positive and excited about with I'm doing. Staying in the right head space is just as important as the actual physical training, if not more important. It's easy for me to follow my program, do great workouts and intervals, but training my mind to stay positive and focused has always been a big struggle for me. Though I have found that a great workout, like the 2.5 min max intervals ride I did the other day is really great motivation for me to plug on.

Haha, ya, my first max effort intervals workout for the 2011 season got me really stoked. Of course it hurt, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed pushing my body that hard again. I've made it my personal goal for this year to try to take motivation and positive energy from every situation I am faced with through a day, good and bad. Like inspiration from a hard workout instead of dreading it, energy from climbing instead of worrying that I'm not as good of a climber as other racers, and motivation from being able to work all winter in Fort Mac on a rig and still be able to compete at World Cup races. This year I am going to try to turn every adverse situation in and out of cycling, into positive energy to fuel me.

With that being said, there are currently only 3 weeks until Pan American Championships!! I am sooo excited to be able to ride outside without layers upon layers of gear. Workouts are starting to become a lot more race specific, and training has moved from volume to a lot more of fine tuning of my body and it's systems.....I'm itching to race!

I have so many people and organizations to be thankful to for being there for me throughout my career, but I really want to take this time to send a huge thanks to my family who I know I would never have gotten nearly this far without them. Thanks poppa for lending me your road bike for my trainer rides up north here. As well as my boyfriend, who has been so supportive and understanding with me working so far away from home in order to be able to fund my dream.....a very necessary evil for a privateer racer.

4 weeks to go time

2011-03-07T19:18:00.004-07:00

Oh my goodness, 3 weekends till my first major race of the 2011 season. It's wild how fast the winter flies by. Really disappointed that I'm stuck up north and going to miss the first Island Cup race in Victoria, and possibly the second race in Powell River, but fingers are crossed that I'll make the third race in Duncan the following weekend. And that's it, cause the following weekend I'll be in Bogota, Columbia for Pan American Championships. Yah, haha, Columbia, Yikes.....armed body guard transport too and from the venue. Actually, I've done a little looking on the internet and it looks like Columbia has done a lot of work in the last couple years to "clean up" the image of the country.

So coach Dan has me doing some great interval workouts up north here, trying to get my legs, body and mind ready to race. All I need now is a bike, fingers are crossed every which way that they show up soon and Regan can have the, all built up and ready to go for when I finally get release from my great white prison.

Last rotation till bumdom

2011-03-05T08:30:00.004-07:00

Been back up north for the past couple days for my last rotation, in a different camp a lot farther north then usual...and farther in the boonies. It's a bit of a different set up then I'm used to and I actually have to stay out at the rig. I think 3 days in I'm finally used to the 24 hour constant sound of the rig and can get some sleep. Don't know if I'd ever get used to the guy next door smoking....nothing beats a lung full of smoke while doing some 90-100% intervals on the trainer.....yummmm.

I'm heading back south to my regular camp.....I'm really excited ...haha, never thought I'd say I'd be excited to head back to camp.....and to cell service.

Snow Dayssss

2011-02-28T19:13:00.005-07:00

Nope, SNOW, it ain't going to stop me from enjoying my time back in Victoria, no matter how hard it tries!! After one day of creative cross training, including walking in knee deep snow for hours on end, swimming and other gym activities, I threw in the hat and headed back outside to ride. Being an Alberta girl I figured -4 in the snow wouldn't be too bad...ya -4 in Victoria, for 3 days in a row!!! Well, I was very wrong, the cold damp wind off the ocean made for a couple really really chilly wet rides. But I MUST do volume so I am proud to say that I managed two 3 hour mountain bike rides without crashing on the gnarly ice.

Saturday I managed to con Regan into a mountain bike ride with me, which actually ended up being really really great. The snow packed singletrack trails added that little extra technical and physical demand that left us both whipped at the end of the day. Sunday wasn't as enjoyable, with warmer weather it was raining instead of snowing, and the soft snow was turning to thick wet slush. .....very, very hard to ride in.....on the other hand it turns into a great strength workout (both upper and lower body).

I want to welcome Genuine Innovations to my team of sponsors for 2011. Genuine Innovations is the World leader in high pressure valve products such as CO2 inflators. Not only as a racer, but just a rider in general, nothing can put a kink in a great ride like a flat tire, and although you never want to have to use their products, it's inevitable that you're going to need to at one point in your career and nothing beats having a Big Air CO2 to re-inflate your tire and get you riding again as fast as possible

I do have to say, my new favorite product is the Tubeless Tire Repair Kit!!!! I've been a cyclist for 8 years and I've seen the beginning of the tubeless tire revolution, but for some reason this cool product eluded me. About a month ago, I was mid way through a 4 and a half hour mountain bike ride with Regan and Melanie McQuaid and I flatted, small rip in the tread of the tire to which the Stans seemed to just not want to plug......something that has been happening a lot to me lately. I was getting ready to put in a tube and pump it up....when Mel said "Do you want a tire plug??" Well, I've definitely heard of those for vehicle tires, but I really didn't realize there was such a thing for mountain bike tires. I've been riding that tire hard with the same plug in it for a month now and I haven't lost any pressure. If you know me, I have a hard time getting rid of something if it still has life in it so this is awesome. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't start a race with this tire (that's just tempting fate), but I am thrilled that I can still train on that tire!!

Just when I thought things were looking up, it starts snowing again...haha.

Got them dirty!!

2011-02-24T19:28:00.001-07:00

But man oh man, these Sidi winter shoes are awesome in the cold weather. Decided to brave the snow today, and my toes were very happy!!!

Really? REALLY???

2011-02-23T19:07:00.002-07:00

Yup, just planted seeds in my garden yesterday...haha, must have stepped on a spider.

So much for my week of volume. Today's workout...
Walk to the gym, in mid calf deep snow...30 mins
Spin bike for 90 mins
Elliptical Machine for 30 mins
Swim for 20 mins
Walk to Pro City Cycle in almost knee deep snow....30 mins
Grab a Timmy's half and half on the way, all this snow was just screaming Canadian coffee
Walk to Blockbuster and the grocery store, still almost knee deep.....10 mins
Walk home, definitely knee deep in a couple places.....50 mins

I am pooooooooped....haha

Oh ya, this was the view on the weekend, what a change!!!!

Fitness Anywhere

2011-02-21T20:32:00.003-07:00

Back in Victoria, and of course, I brought with me the cold weather....oh well, gonna make me tough!!!!! Did my first set of intervals outside for the season...OUCH!!! I actually don't mind doing intervals inside on the trainer, but I can never seem to push myself as hard inside as I do outside. I don't think that I actually end up pushing myself harder outside then I do on the trainer, but intervals outside just feel more satisfying.

I want to officially welcome TRX Suspension Systems to my team of sponsors that are helping me meet top fitness and performance for the 2011 race season. I am pretty excited about this little tool from fitnessanywhere.com, for it's versatility and ease of use. It's a really neat network of heavy duty webbing that can be anchored to the ceiling or with a small attachment can be hung off the back of a door, that offers an unlimited number of possible exercises. I always find it really difficult to maintain my strength workouts while traveling, but the TRX packs up so small it can go anywhere I travel this summer. Using just your body weight and the TRX, you can work out and strengthen pretty much every muscle group in your body.

I just got a physical assessment done today by Paul McIntrye of the Broadmead Physio clinic in Victoria, the first one that I've ever done. For some reason I've never thought to get something like this done before, but it makes perfect sense as a professional athlete trying to maximize my performance and minimize my down time due to injury. All and all, I'm in pretty good shape....PHEW....a little tight in a couple of areas and a little week in my butt muscles. My butt, really!!! If I work my butt out anymore it's gonna be huge; I really hope Regan like booty! Off to watch the TRX demonstration video to see which exercises will help me with my butt.

Happy Trails

More then just cycling

2011-02-14T20:21:00.006-07:00

With three days left in my second rotation up north, I've almost finished my interval block, along with a lot of cross training filling in the gaps in my days. Running, snowshoeing, strength and my favorite, cross country skiing. Skate and classic skiing are absolutely great full body workouts, no matter how hard or slow you go. It's one of the few activities that employs major upper, lower and core muscle groups all at the same time. Due to the fact that all these other muscles are being fired to propel myself forward, rather then predominately just the leg muscles as in cycling, it's a whole heck of a lot easier to get my heart rate up into the endurance zone (or way way above). No wonder a one hour "easy" ski feels very similar to the body as a 3 hour endurance ride.

Why, you may ask, would a cyclist want to workout non-cyclist specific muscles such as arms? You'd be surprised how often, especially as a mountain biker, the "other" muscle groups are used while riding, particularly the core. I have found through trial and error that my core strength is inversely correlated to my lower back pain; the stronger my core, the less likely I am to experience back pain on longer rides....funny thing.

Oh ya, another great thing about cross training other then just working out and strengthening all other stabilizing muscles..........I am sooooo excited to get back outside on the bike again!!!! Three more days till West Coast Heaven.

I have to send my cross bike back to Trek Toronto, so I'm left with my Trek 6700, and it's gonna get lots of road and trails miles chasing Regan around.

Switching Gears

2011-02-07T19:24:00.004-07:00

Being stuck up in the frigid white north again...however am I going to get myself ready for racing in...WOW....just over a month!! I can not believe, and I say this every year, just how fast the "off season" goes by. I am also very surprised and pleased with how good I feel after 2 weeks and 40 hours of good riding. The human body is a wonderful machine and it really is amazing what your body can get used to. Not even 2 years ago I know that I wouldn't have survived that kind of solid volume without getting really sick or burnt out. I'm not saying that it was a walk in the park, there were a couple days I woke up feeling that I'd be okay with just staying in bed, but once I got out and riding I was good. That's when good riding partners are extremely important, if you know someone is waiting for you to ride, you're a lot more motivated to get out and ride.

So now here I am back at work, definitely not able to get nearly as much volume in. I am most definitely not one of those people that can do repeated 3 or 4 hour trainer rides. So now what??? Well, shift my training a little into an intensity block. Lower volume and higher intensity (yes intervals) with some strength, cross county skiing, snowshoeing and running thrown into the mix. I actually love and really value any time that I get to cross train, almost as much as cycling.

This is where the magic happens.

It's pretty funny, after taking 2 weeks off of "planned intensity" and just riding, I was actually really excited to start doing some structured training rides again. So there it is, I'm currently in my 2 weeks of intensity, then back home to the beautiful Victoria for some more volume!!

On a separate note, this season I will be riding for Trek Pro City out of Victoria, BC, and I am very excited about this opportunity. I want to send out a huge thank you to Barry Near from Trek Toronto Store for everything that you have done for me over the past 2 years. It has been great working with him, however the goals of the team and myself are going in slightly different directions and I felt the need to pursue my goals as best I can. I will definitely still be flying the Trek logo and riding the wicked Trek Bikes!!

Cabin Fever

2011-02-05T17:38:00.003-07:00

So I've been stuck back up north in camp since wedesday and I'm going to admit I'm getting pretty bored. Things are moving pretty slow with the current well, so needless to say, I'm spending a lot of time "relaxing".....good thing it's my rest week. But today, I finished my trainer workout (intervals!!!!), did a good stretch, ate lunch and I was really bored by noon......so I asked "Lee, got anything that I can do?? I'm getting cabin fever (or trailer fever in my case) here!"

So I went hunting orange tape with my snowshoes...good way to get some extra base miles:)

Italian Shoes

2011-02-03T11:54:00.007-07:00

Oh ya, nothing like a bunch of hot Italian shoes to make a girl very, very happy.....yes, bike shoes make me very happy, Sidi shoes make my feet very, very happy!!! I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of wearing Sidi shoes before, but it's like wearing your most comfortable pair of slippers.....but they look like your sexiest stilettos.

Yup, giggle giggle, that's right, 3 pairs. In the middle is the Sidi Carbon Dragon SRS, with super stiff carbon sole, Sidi's comfortable soft instep strap system and their adjustable heal retention device that can be tightened down easily to prevent heal slip....amazing!!!! These are going to be my XC race shoe for 2011.

The black pair on my left foot....oh, I'm excited about these guys....the Sidi Mountain Diablo Gore....ya...Gore-tex!!! I think these shoes were made for winter riding in Victoria!!! 3 velcro straps over the foot and a large velcro strap around the ankle seals the shoe right off. Wish I had them all winter.

No, my excitement over the Carbon shoes and the Gore shoes definitely doesn't dwarf my excitement over my new red shoes! The new Sidi Spider SRS are going to be great for cyclocross. Rubber toe cup to protect the shoe front bumps, such as hitting barriers, and a more relaxed heel cup great for dismounting and running. And the great SRS (Sole Replacement System), also found on the Dragon and other models, helps to prolong the life of my favorite Sidi shoes. And did I mention...RED!!!!

I want to send a huge Thank You to Rob at Vellendtech for hooking me up with these Sidi shoes for 2011...I am so excited to rock them all year. Definitely will have shoe action shots coming in the near future.

pictures from reganpringleshoots

Volume time

2011-01-30T17:38:00.003-07:00

Nothing like a big 18 hour week training camp with the National team (would have been more but the friday night spent hugging the toilet....well), followed by a solid 22 hour week with 2 great mountain bike rides, to make the most of my 2 weeks off!! Yup, a little pooped right now, but not as bad as I thought I'd be. I think the mass amounts of good food this week helped to keep my energy levels high to have 40 hours of good quality riding. I've done the long weeks before, but usually in the past I've felt really drained near the end of the week, so I'm pretty stoked that I was able to finish off my week with a wicked 4 and a half hour Sunday mountain bike ride, chasing Regan, Mel McQuaid and Bill Fry around (though we managed to drop and lose Bill somewhere a long the way). Love trying to keep up with Regan for 4 hours.....he's a lot stronger then he'll admit too.

I have to send a big thanks out to Dan Proulx for keeping me positive with my training and work schedule. I've always thought that having to go up north for weeks at a time to work, in which my schedule is so random that I could work for 36 hours straight or be off for 3 days andwhere I can't do any good solid training.....would be a detriment to my training. But Dan has put such a positive spin on my predicament that I can't help but feel his energy and actually be excited about my training. Volume when I'm home (what better place to get hours on the bike in the winter then Victoria), and intensity up north, short trainer workouts plus a few runs and cross country skis when it's not -40 out! It works out perfectly....just gotta stay away from the baked goods and mystery meat!!

Two more days in paradise, then back to the grind.

Belgium Waffles

2011-01-26T18:00:00.003-07:00

Got an early birthday present from my momma and poppa....a wicked Cuisinart waffle maker...and of course I gotta make waffles. And what better way to start a winter day ride then with Belgium waffles with Nutella....very much screams winter ride (minus the snow). Next on the waffle list, Gingerbread Waffles!!

Met up with Catharine, Matt, Max and Cory Wallace, and proceeded to get hammered for 3 plus hours!!! Shoulda eaten 2 more waffles!! Unfortunately my Garmin was dead outta the gate, so I can't even begin to explain where we went, I was lost for over half of the ride, some pretty cool secret trails though. Thanks for a great ride guys!!

Now, I'm gonna pass out on the couch till my yoga class....hopefully I don't fall asleep in corpse pose.

Cronus

2011-01-25T20:35:00.004-07:00

Nothing like a team Canada training camp to bring about 18 hours of riding time (it would have been 22 hours if I hadn't eaten some bad meat and spent friday night ......well, lets just say SICK). Thanks Dan for putting together this awesome camp, it was really cool getting to ride with so many fast Canadian women like Catharine Pendrel, Catherine Vipond, Sandra Walters and Jean Ann Berkinpas (formerly McKirdy). And definitely what better way to whip myself back in shape after 2 weeks up north. Also a huge thanks to Regan for getting my bikes ready after 2 weeks of sitting in their own filth and thanks to Bill of Trek Pro City for letting me borrow his sweet Trek Gary Fisher Edition Cronus.....what an awesome ride!!!! Sorry for getting it really really dirty.

Going to be making the most of my 2 weeks off, getting in as much volume as possible, eating as much healthy food as possible, and working on plans for the 2011 season....things are slowly coming together. With less then 2 months till the first race of the season...which just happens to be right here in Victoria in the middle of March.....it's crunch time for training and all other prep. It's amazing how fast the "off" season goes by, especially when you race cross till the end of November.

Down to the wire

2011-01-19T18:19:00.004-07:00

Oh my goodness, a positive 40 degree shift in the weather is definitely good for the brain, going from -35 and overcast to +5 and sunny.....I like it!!!!! Back home on my days off...yippppeee... even though it was only 2 weeks, it seemed to drag on. I was really excited to get some cross country skiing up north, but I'm definitely a wiener at those temperatures and ended up spending a lot of time on the trainer in my trailer....definitely not as exciting. Oh ya, I've officially decided to become a vegetarian while up at camp after my last meal of mystery meat gave me a funny belly....learning how to cook tofu hard and fast.

Today was my first ride outside in over 2 weeks and it was awesome. Team Canada (western edition) training camp in Victoria this week so I'm going to get lots of good miles in. Today we started the day with some technical training, learning how to jump .... hahaha.... a group of cross country racers on cross country rigs learning how to do drops!!! Pretty funny to watch. Downhill coach Mr Pendrel came out to give us a quick lesson and teach us a few tricks, he even got a bunch of cross country racers to drop our saddles!!!! Super fun and definitely a little scary the first couple times (I think my heart rate was just as high as if I'd been climbing), but it's going to be a great skill to master....3 feet, that's nothing, give me 10!!! Right!!!! Soon I'll be able to keep up to Regan on the downhills especially now that he has suspension :)

2011-01-12T20:20:00.002-07:00

Looks like I gotta be careful tromping around camp this winter....there's a large family of these guys here.

First Classic Ski of the season

2011-01-10T10:55:00.002-07:00

Round and round and round we go....haha, I think I covered every trail that the Fort McMurray Nordic club has to offer. 2 hours 45 mins and I only did a couple sections of trail twice, not too bad if you ask me.

Fort Mac again

2011-01-06T14:01:00.002-07:00

Yup, it's that time of year again for me.....just getting settled into camp life, unpacking and moving into my trailer. As well, it's also my time to get my snow fix for the year!!!! and as much xc skiing as I possibly can.

Original plan was to try a 3 hour skate ski....but I should know better, and I only managed just over a 2 hour ski and I'm fried!!!! Just enough energy to battle the Fort Mac crowds at Walmart to pick up some last minute supplies.

Still have some time before I have to go to work, maybe I'll go for a run :)

January riding...yes, no snow here

2011-01-03T19:47:00.003-07:00

Ummmm, ya, my thoughts exactly.

Snakes and ladder corner....I finally cleaned it, not pretty, but still.....

A couple firsts!!!!

2011-01-02T17:31:00.005-07:00

Awesome mountain bike ride today, a chilly 2 degrees and sunny makes for perfect crunchy trail conditions. Had a couple big firsts!!!! Cleaned 3 sections at the dump that I've struggled with in the past....yipppeeeee....Regan had my Trek 6700 was dialed......Super big thanks to Bill Fry from Trek Pro City for the ride!!!!

Two more days till I head back up to the wintery Fort McMurray for a couple months of working on the rig again.....I'll admit I'm excited to do some xc skiing :)

Happy New Years to all!!!

Cheese Pancakes...

2010-12-26T13:05:00.002-07:00

Why not!!!!

Sauce:
1/2 cup diced apple
1/2 cup diced pineapple
1 lemon juice
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp tarragon

Mix ingredients and set aside (I heated in a pot on the stove so it was warm on the pancakes)

Pancakes:
1 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
dash of salt
2tsp sugar
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp fresh chopped tarragon or 1 tsp dried tarragon
1 1/2 cups grated gouda (I didn't have gouda and used swiss emmental and it tasted really good)

Mix dry ingredients.
Wisk eggs in separate bowl, add milk, vanilla and tarragon.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth.
Add cheese and stir well.
Cook like normal pancakes.

YUMMMY

December fun

2010-12-25T12:27:00.002-07:00

December Ride In Victoria from Pro City Racing on Vimeo.

Nothing like a little December mountain bike ride.....one of the soggiest yet !!

Merry Christmas to all........ now going for our annual Christmas day ride :)

Cross Contamination

2010-12-07T20:41:00.003-07:00

Super cool event this past weekend called the Cross Contamination put on by local fixie rider Clay. What was it?? An urban cyclocross scavenger hunt of sorts. All we get is a map, with a few hints, and we have to race around finding check points and collecting chips. Got to see a lot of really neat places that I would never have known were there, and ended up going in about 47 circles getting so lost......but it was really fun and there ended up being about 30 people out!!!!

Stick + Spokes and Fender = Bad News

2010-12-04T19:33:00.003-07:00

Found out the really hard way what the pavement tastes like on my way to work on Wednesday. Yes, endoing on the road is a little tricky but with the right combination of a stick magically jumping up, getting wrapped up in supports of front fender, then proceeding to get jammed between spokes of thus front wheel and fork, all without any sound of forewarning, you too can achieve the rather non-enjoyable feeling of sailing head long over the handle bars. Despite going from over 30 km/hr to 0 in a split second, I actually fared relatively well. Both elbows are extremely sore to the touch, still after 4 days of healing, but I didn't even break the skin. One really good hematoma on my left thigh...I'm thinking from my handlebar, bruise on my left hip....pavement for sure, and my whole upper body feels like it's been beaten by a 2X4.

Thanks to everyone who stopped to help pick me up and pull my fender outta my front wheel!!!

Provincials and the season is all over

2010-11-30T21:35:00.004-07:00

With the Island Cup finals race canceled due to snow the previous weekend, my motivation for a final race was a little low to say the least. I shamefully admit that if Regan hadn't promised me an Ikea date I probably would have opted to sleep in all weekend and enjoy some relaxing mtb miles. But I can't pass up Ikea!!! Haha.

After a quick couple laps of the course on Mahon Park in North Van, we quickly shower up and head out to Ikea!!!! Yippee...hehe. In our excitement to go shopping, yes Regan was actually excited to go shopping, we didn't really plan our food very well. About an hour into our roaming the huge store we were so famished that Ikea meatballs were about I could think about.....but they definitely weren't as good as I remember them being. Yes this was part of my pre-race meal...haha, but we did go out for some real food after we finished with Ikea.

Race day....chilly 5 degrees, but no rain :) Not sure what to wear, definitely jealous of the thermal skinsuit. Unfortunately big guns Wendy Simms and Catharine Pendrel were no shows, but the field was still filled with other fast mountain biker chicks. Off the gun I found my pedal quickly and powered out of the gate....I know I have a good start so I try to take advantage of it as often as possible. Through the first corner, a quick glance over my shoulder shows Jean Ann Berkenpas (formally McKirdy) right on my wheel. She's breathing down my neck, tight on my wheel for the first lap and I urge my legs to keep the pressure on.

Through the tight grassy corners I find sweet spot and flow the corner surprisingly nicely, making putting a little time between us. Through the nasty soupy mud blog and up the back side of the course which is all slightly up hill and momentum sucking, I keep the pace up, well as much as possible through here, standing out of corners and pushing myself on the uphills. Slowly I find myself opening up a gap between myself and Jean Ann, but I also find myself getting a little fatigued and the start/finish corner almost tosses me twice in a row..haha, that woulda been good to see :) I won my first BC Provincial Champion Jersey.

Regan's race was an awesome battle for 3rd place, with 3 guys, Regan, fellow Islander Jamie Cameron and another Steed Cycles racer were back and forth continuously for the entire race. In the end Regan finish 5th in his first ever Provincial Championships race, then was so stoked when we got home that he had the energy to do a great write up for Pedal Mag.

reganpringleshoots

For my sad bitter news, I just received word that I'm being passed up yet again for carding :'(

Island Cup Finals.......

2010-11-21T16:49:00.002-07:00

is cancelled :( due to snow!!! It's a cross race....geeeez. Haha, yup, we got snow on the island and it's staying for a couple days. So what better to do then head out for a mtb ride in the snow. Haven't done this in a while, but it's soooo fun. Regan and I spent most of the ride ducking under trees, endoing into snow drifts (oh wait, that was just me:) and skidding around corners unclipped......so much fun.

picture from Jamie Cameron from the Lumber Cross (Port Alberni)

Lumber Cross

2010-11-12T21:19:00.002-07:00

What else to do on a day off of work.....cross race on a thursday, why not. Oh ya baby, the lumber cross was held in the island logging town of Port Alberni.....where else would it be held but the historical MaClean Mill !! The course wound around old buildings and machinary in one of the most enjoyable cross courses (none UCI legal makes for a much more exciting course).....and one of the muddiest courses as well. We've really lucked out this year with dry races so I definitely can't complain about one really really really muddy race, it actually made it really really fun.

Due to near freezing hard downpour I spent most of my warm up in the bathroom huddled by the heater drying to dry my gloves and shoes....haha, 20 min spin with some sprints and as good to go as I'm going to get for the day. I was really surprised with how I felt off the start, and once we got moving I warmed up quickly (well, except for toes and fingers). Dawn was breathing down my neck for the first lap and a half, bit I was on a mission, needing to hammer out my frustration from nationals and I pushed myself hard to put in a small gap, and slowly with each lap I extended the gap to take my second Island Cup win :)

Regan found a pre-ride derallieur hating twig and almost didn't get a chance to race, but Norm swept in at the last minute and offered up his spare mini bike (56 cm is mini for someone who usually rides a 60-62 cm). He had a great race, winning his 3rd of the season and we ended up taking home another two 6 packs of beer, delicious fudge and some Port Alberni canned Salmon (I'm really excited about this).

5 hours of driving for under an hour of racing, yes, cross racers/fans are nuts, but it was well worth the day. One day of work and today is friday!!!!! Here we come weekend !!!!!!!

Cyclocross Nationals

2010-11-07T07:32:00.005-07:00

Every year, about this time of year, I'm powering down, coming to end of my racing season...I get excited about probably my last big race of the year....Cyclocross Nationals. I've had great prep coming into the race, and I was really looking forward to it.......though not really looking forward to spending the weekend in Toronto. Within 12 hours I already had a parking ticket, almost got smoked by a car running a red light, got so turned around (yes even with a GPS) on the one way streets, and I'm wearing my 700 fill down coat....big city life is not for me.

Warm up was great and the start of my race felt great. I found myself in with the lead group, behind Wendy, Katy Cutris, Pepper and Natasha. I managed to squeeze around Natasha and grabbed Peppers wheel......at which point I found myself being repeatedly t-boned in corners, rubbed into the tape and yelled at by Natasha...hmmmm. Mistake number one by me during the race...at this point I should have just attacked and moved away from her, but I was so shocked all I could say was "I'm sorry"......FOR WHAT, I didn't do anything!! She managed to push around me on a long steep climb and I held onto the back of the lead pack, just out of reach for the first lap. I'd bridge up on tight corners and loose ground on the steep climbs.

By lap 3 I felt a little bit of a bonk coming on......Already...yikes. Catharine Pendral had come from far behind on the first couple laps to overtake me going through the start finish. I tried to jump and stay with her, but by this point I was definitely in trouble. From there on I road completely by myself and I watched as my hr dropped lower and lower with each lap.... definitely a sign of a good bonk.

Can you really bonk in a 40 min race....I just proved to myself that I can. I managed to hang on to a disappointing 6th place.....not so disappointed by the 6th place as the field was really strong, but definitely disappointed by the 2 and a half mins back from Wendy who battled Katy to the line for her 4th Canadian National Champion jersey!

Looking back at the race and my prep going into the race I can easily see a large number of things that I did wrong, even though I know better. These definitely aren't excuses, but errors that I made in my race prep, which for some reason I neglected to take into consideration. Lessons learned the very hard way.

Today, Sunday, is Nationals Revenge, and it's exactly what I need. I'm well rested and well fed today, so I'm already off to a better start :) Wish me luck!

No rest for the wicked

2010-11-02T21:11:00.004-06:00

Yup, fat and sassy season has so far been busy, busy, busy .... but really I'm not complaining, it's keeping me outta trouble. Two Victoria cross races, big halloween bash at the bike shop, parents in town (first time coming to visit!), feeling really tuckered still.

Raced the Expert Men's race on Sat and didn't get lapped!!! Haha, yes, that's my goal for those races. Felt great for the first 30 mins, going hard and battling hard, and cracked pretty hard on the second half of the race.......but with the women's race's being only 45 mins I'm hoping this extra 15 mins are going to do me good. Regan won his second Intermediate cross race...one more of those and he'll have to race me ;)

reganpringleshoots

Saturday night was the big Pro City Cycle halloween bash.....wow, they sure know how to through a party. Here are some interesting and maybe incriminating photos...hehe.

Sunday my poppa raced the beginners race, first race in 2 years??? and finished 2nd place!!!!
I decided to race with the women today and Dawn Anderson put the boots to me. Off the start I took the lead and put the hammer down trying to put some time between us, but I couldn't shake her. As we crested the only hill on course in the 3rd lap I was really starting to hurt...Dawn, sensing my change in pace attacked and I couldn't stick grab her wheel. For the remainder of the race she slowly moved farther and farther away from me. Thanks for the awesome race! Note: Ferry wings are not recommended for tight corners....I thought I was going to get ripped off my bike a couple of times!!

This week recovering for the uber busy weekend and getting ready for another whirl wind trip...this time out to Toronto for cyclocross nationals. Definitely not going to be an ideal time line, getting off work at noon on friday, arriving around 10:30 pm in Toronto on friday night, Cross nationals on Sat......at least I get to sleep in a little.....go, go, go, go, go

Canadian Cycling Magazine

2010-10-24T09:36:00.001-06:00

Grab a copy of the newest Canadian Cycling Magazine, page 34...hehe....
Thanks Dan Dakin :)

Crazy Busy Weekend

2010-10-18T22:06:00.007-06:00

Battle Royal (aka ding dong battle)

photos from
reganpringleshoots

In the left corner, sporting the purple Frontrunners skin suit with the swanky new Ridley X-Night, with all bolts tightened and finally getting a warm up consisting of more then just pushing Tycho around, 3 time (I think that's right) Canadian cyclocross champion.........Wendy Simms!!!!
In the right corner, sporting the white (yikes!!!!) Trek Canada skin suit riding the not quite as new hot 2010 Trek XO2, with new lower tire pressure of 30 psi (yikes again !!) and the new wicked Bill Fry bike fit, gaining an extra inch of seat post.......Mical Dyck!!!!!

Racing with the big boys again....definitely great training that's for sure. It's funny, I didn't conscientiously plan to race just Wendy, but out of the first corner I ended up just 2 positions behind her and I was really motivated to try to stay on her wheel as long as I could. For the first couple laps she yo-yo-ed just in front of me....I had some sections dialed a little more cleanly and she had other sections better dialed.

About half way through I felt really strong so I attacked and pulled out ahead for a lap, and charged as hard as I could. She stuck to my wheel like gum, matching my corner speed, matching my straight away speed, matching my dismount/mounting....though slowly I noticed a small gap so I attacked again as hard as I could. Up and around a long sweeping uphill corner I was coming to the end of my attack, readying to settle back into the steady hard pace, getting ready to peek over my shoulder....when all of a sudden Wendy blew by me like I was standing still......What the!!!!! How the !!!!!!!

Shift, shift, shift....hammer to grab her wheel. I managed to stick with her for almost another lap, but noticed that I was starting to make more and more small mistakes...getting tired. Going over the barriers.... cleared the first one, knocked my wheel on the second one, clipped my shoe on the 3rd one....haha, that was a frantic stagger as I scrambled not to fall on my face......right in front of Regan taking pic's.....that woulda been a great shot though.

The last 20 mins I started fading and the gap between us slowly opened up and I think I finished about 30 seconds back....but didn't get lapped this weekend!!!!

Regan had an amazing race, taking his first cyclocross win!!!!! Watch out, a couple more of those and you may get the "gentle nudge"... hehe. Awesome venue for a cyclocross race, thanks to all the organizers and volunteers...........and thanks for the great garlic dog at the end of the race too.

After the race we bolted to Naniamo to catch the 5:45 ferry to Vancouver to catch the Murder City Devils show.....that was super cool show !!!

Kona Cross

2010-10-16T10:51:00.003-06:00

I know, it's a lil late with this one....but better late then never right :)

Last weekend, Thanksgiving monday was the Kona Cross up in Naniamo, BC.....and it was one of the coolest, but toughest courses out there. Lots of climbing, lots of corners, lots of sand...what else, oh ya, lots of people. Record turn out with 134 people!!!!! That's awesome for an island cup race!!! I love it.

I decided the night before that if I had any chance with staying with Wendy at nationals that I'd better race against her as much as possible leading up it.....which means racing with the Expert Men. The women's race is usually about 40 mins long, so the extra 20 mins of the hour long men's race was guaranteed to be TOUGH!!!

I was able to hold my own off the road start...just barely....finding myself mid-back of the pack as we turned left to climb the tight steep switchbacks. As per usual when you hit the first singletrack in a large group, as soon as one person dabs, everyone is off running.

My main goal of the race was to not get lapped. It was a relatively long lap so I was pretty optimistic that I may be able to fend off the leading men. With 3 laps to go I saw the leading Craig Ritchey gaining time on me fast :( And he seemingly effortlessly passed me like I was standing still...thanks guy...hehe. With him passing me that dropped me down a lap, so I gave it all I had left...not much at this point.....for my final lap. Drew MacKenzie caught me half-way through the last lap, and Tyler Trace caught me just before going up the stairs right near the end of the lap. Finished 11th on my first Expert Men's race, and yup, that was definitely good training :)

reganpringleshoots

Regan had an Epic battle with Pro City's other ugly skin suiter Scotty, finishing 8th ;) Look at the cross monster I've created!!!!!

After the race we boogied back down to Victoria, and ate the biggest turkey I've ever seen!!!! Topped off with Pumpkin Cheesecake!!!! No wonder I was in a food coma for 3 days. So glad my second week of work was a short week :)

This weekend we have today, Sat to be bums and do all the Suzy Homemaker stuff, with the 3rd cross race of the Cross on the Rocks series in slightly up island in Duncan on Sunday. Workout for today is short and sweet...hopefully I can convince Regan to ride hard around a grass field, jumping on and off the bike!!!

Christmas came early!!!

2010-10-09T10:29:00.003-06:00

Santa Dave and Mrs Brenda Claus surprised us early with a wicked new BBQ!!!! As some of you may know we don't have an oven, and I love cooking, so I've been perfecting my skills on the BBQ. At the beginning of the summer our wicked little 3rd hand-me-down generation Weber finally died......that was a sad day :( A frantic search through the many Victoria free ads and we found a nice looking little BBQ.....nice looking doesn't mean it works very well. Baking and just BBQing became a lot harder.....hehe....and I know my mom was worried that I wouldn't be able to make my BBQed christmas bread this year......so.......

Best new BBQ initiation, Red Barn beef bacon directly on the grill....oh my goodness!!!

Now I gotta bake pumkin muffins, apple crisp, banana bread, pistachio cookies.......