Fired the Autoblogger

Yup, that's right, she got the boot, not doing a very good job of posting...so I'm gonna try to do a better job.

What have I been doing the past month, well, lots actually :) But I'll just do a little recap. December was surprise, surprise, filled with lots of great riding. Even bought a new set of lights (my old set were about 6 years old, weighing in at about 20 pounds - I'm not kidding, and I was lucky to get a 30 min charge out of the battery) and have been doing some really great night riding.

Christmas eve, I got off work (worked as an ATM processor in top secret RBC processing bay for Decemeber) early, picked Regan up from Mac's Cycle and headed to the dump. We actually got out early enough that we didn't even need lights for our 2 hour ride, fantastic. Cooked up a huge thing of ribs on the BBQ, watched a movie and hit the sack early. I have been trying my hand at yeast bread lately, something very new to me, and on the BBQ none the less (for those who don't know...we have no oven..hehe) and made a cranberry walnut bread (which turned out surprisingly good) which I thus made baked french toast with for chrismas breakfast....I am patting myself on the back for that one...hehe. Christmas day was a balmy 10 degrees and sunny in Victoria, so what else do we do, saddle up for an awesome 4 hour mtb ride.

Boxing day, we took the Victoria Clipper over to Seattle and spend a couple days playing tourist around there. Wish I would have had my GPS because we managed to walk for 9 hours one day...I would have loved to have seen how far we'd gone. I had never been to Seattle before and being from a land locked province my whole life, to see the infamous Pike Place market in action was pretty cool.

New Years eve turned out very similar to Christmas eve, except that it was pouring rain and I actually got to use my lights for our ride. Dealing with the cold and rain for a couple of hours can really knock you out, and we barely made it to midnight...hehe.

New Years day we of course went for a quick ride in the morning, and I packed myself up for a couple of weeks of work in Fort McMurray. Stopping in Calgary on the way up for 2 days to visit with the family (this was my first Christmas away from home...if I didn't have such a great time it would have definitely been a little sad), go skiing with my poppa (I do admit I have been missing the snow a little and xc skiing a lot while living in Vic), eat some of momma's home baked goodness (yummmmmmmy always miss that), and pick up my skiis and work clothes.

Fast forward to today, things are going pretty good, I defintiely can't complain about my job. I work really long and hard when they need me, but it gives me the flexibility to skip out and go skiing or snowshoeing in between. Skiing in -40 makes you tough....or puts hair on your chest (though I'm not sure how I feel about that). I've managed to get out either into FMM or just around camp skiing about 7 times already, making up for lost time. I don't have my bike up here this rotation, living in the land of no snow I've been doing a lot more riding in Nov and Dec then I am use to, so I thought a couple of weeks off the bike would be a good idea....avoid the early season bike burn out.

With just over 2 months to the first race, wow, that's scary when you actually say it, I'm really excited for the season to start.

Off I go, try to get a little nap in before I pull another all nighter.

Havin a little sulky night.....

just found out I've been passed up for the ever elusive Canadian athlete carding.......hmmpf :(

Cleansed

This past week Regan and I decided to do a somewhat intense 1 week intenstinal cleanse, for me, mainly to rekick start my nutrional regiment. The past couple of weeks I admit I've been enjoying a little too much sugar and coffee and spolumbos. The main premise behind the cleanse was to cut out processed sugars, caffeine and gluten...everything I love. Along with a couple of nasty shakes 2-3 times a day and some colon cleansing pills.

Well, super happy to say we're done and didn't cheat once. Besides the colon blow I actually felt pretty good through out the whole process (hit my partner in crime a little harder), but I'm happy that it's over. Enjoyed a nice cup of coffee this morning (I think I missed that the most)....and well, I've been bouncing off the walls ever since, some serious shakes happening, I totally know what a junkie feels like now..hehe.

Double Header

Nothing like a nice sunny dry 3 hr ride out on the island....only wish Regan coulda joined me. This weekend is the first weekend without a cross race since....wow, the end of September...what to do...what to do....what to do.

Last weekend was a double header in Vic, which I quess doesn't happen very often so it was awesome I was here for it. Saturdays course was a little north at the Sluggett Corn Farm. It was a really neat course, very flat, very wet and very very very ...did I say very muddy. It had rained all night leading into the race so things were quaranteed to be at least mucky, but when you're sent about a 100m straight through a corn field, things tend to get a little more interesting. Despite of the course being really flat, there was a lot of running...I'd actually venture a guess that each lap was about half running half riding (grinding slowly through soggy grass). Oh yeah, the corn field running was knee deep...haha....no, I'm not kidding. There were only about 10 women, but Allison Sydor just happened to be one of them....Canadian National Champion...wait for it...at the age of 43....she's so amazing. She took the lead off the start and I gave everything I could just to stay with her...but she quickly pulled away and mixed in with all the master men (they started with us). It was quite comic trying to run through the muck, more like stagger...even better when someone beside you trips up and lip skids into knee deep mud (...though I do have to wonder how much poop was mixed in as fertilzer...don't want to know). I ended up finishing 2nd, 2 and a half mins behind Allison.

Sundays race was held at the Juan de Fuca recreation area, and this course, although slightly less mucky...at least before we started racing, had a lot more climbing. Again, off the start Allison took the lead and I managed to stick with her for the first half a lap. There was a slick mossy rock climb part way through the course, in which Allison was the only person I saw to climb (including the men)..she gapped me slightly here as I ran up behind her...but still managed to keep contact with her. However the downhill, switchbacking grass corners, which should be relatively comfortable for a mountain biker......I was totally useless at. After wiping out hard a couple times I ended up having to tip toe around each corner...I felt like a total beginner...oh well, it was really fun flailing in the mud :) Again I finished 2nd to Allison, this time a good 4 mins back.





Regan didn't have to work on sunday...yipppeee....so I dragged him kicking and screaming out to race as well....okay, not much persuasion needed there. He had a really solid race, up against some stiff competition....it's amazing how large the scene out here is considering the limited population to draw from. Finishing with his best cross finish yet...12th...yippeee.. Awesome Job !!!



Big thanks to Wendy and Norm for hosting the weekend...great job.

Victoria

So here I sit, satuarday morning, enjoying a warm cup of coffee, listening to the rain sprinkle on the roof....and trying to work myself up to getting geared up for the double header "Cross on the Rock".

Monday Regan and I stuffed ourselves and more then half my life into my little Sunflower and drove west from Calgary to Victoria. My first couple days here called for rain, but I think I was getting a nice west coast greeting and had some super stellar weather.

Yesterday was my first real taste of coastal living weather though.....3 hours mtb ride in the rain (pretty good rain...but surprisingly warm), zapped my energy and I spent the rest of the day job hunting semi-comatose...hehe.

Today, Slugget Farm cross race...tomorrow, Juan de Fuca cross race. I'm not sure, but I think this might be my last weekend of racing for the year..it's been a long season and I'm excited to start getting the longer miles in.....we'll see.

BOOOOO

HAPPPPYYYY HAAAALLLLOOOOWWEEEEEEENNNN!!!!!

Training has commenced

For the 2010 season. With the first testing interval session last tuesday, I'm really excited to start training for next year. Yippee....though I was definitely grumbling at coach Steve while hammering up the Edworthy Hill..hehe.

Got some exciting news.....gonna take my training to Victoria this winter :)