Doing What You Can

So this past month has been pretty tough for me to motivate myself to train and think about the season. It's been a big lifestyle change living up north in camp, eating camp food...hehe, my biggest goal is to still be able to fit into my spandex come spring time....no, it's not that bad. I've had a lot of personal time to think while up north, like today I'm bored right out of my tree. Sometimes thinking too much can be pretty dangerous, but I think it's actually been really good for me. I've taken some big steps in my life, battled some big demons and made some big choices lately and I realize that I'm not ready to let go of my dream being a professional cyclist.

I've had some ask me if coming up to Fort McMurray to work for the winter would mean the end of my cycling career, if I am packing it in, and in all honesty, I wasn't entirely sure either way when I choose to take the job. I took this job not only for the great work experience, but so that I could actually afford to race and train this summer....lets face it, being a mountain biker really isn't a very profitable career.

I just wanted to send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has been supportive and understanding, not only these past couple months, but through out the past couple years.....it really means the world to me.

Now that it looks like this work term will be coming to an end in the next week or two, I'm starting to make grand plans to head down south to do some massive training in..hehe, cramming if you'd like. And try to figure out where my season is going to take me. Yes, summer is fast approaching and I am getting more and more excited by the day.

Happy Trails

The Great White North

So here I am, sitting up in the chilly white north of Fort McMurray, Alberta pondering life….I know, sounds very deep…but I think it’s more due to the fact that I’ve just had a huge cup of truckers coffee while trying to stay awake at 2:00 in the morning.

First of all, I’d really like to say that I’m super excited to be working with and riding for the Trek Toronto team this summer of ’09. Barry Near has put a lot of effort into creating the team and trying to give us all the support that we need for the upcoming race season…..huge thank you to you Barry. He’s picked out a team of relatively young racers, I’m by far the oldest at 26 (well almost 27), with a lot of talent and I’m really stoked to see what the summer brings…which is fast approaching.

What am I doing during this winter? Well before Christmas I was doing a lot of cross country skiing and climbing, not much riding as I’m really a wimp when it comes to -30 plus wind chill, but overall training was great. Christmas was great, ate lots of great food, maybe a little too much, but hey, that’s what the holidays are for. Had a very low key New Years which included a night ski by head light in the mountains, which is a lot of fun, especially when it’s dumping big gorgeous snow flakes. Followed shortly by some spicy Indian food to warm up.

Then Jan 3 of the New Year, I hopped in a small white mini white loaded down with 3 other geologists, and very happily my bike, trainer and snowshoes, and headed up to camp just south of my good old home town, Fort McMurray, Alberta. For all of you that don’t know, I finally graduated with my Geology degree in May of 2008..yippeeeeeee. I seriously wasn’t going to take the wellsite geology job, but then I thought, “You know, why not?” … besides, it’s only a 3 month contract.

No, I’m definitely not taking a step back from racing this season, I’m planning with the help of my coach Steve Neal, to train steadily but differently during the winter, and hit the summer just as hard as usual. I see pictures of friends in warm places riding in shorts and I do admit, I’m pretty jealous at times, but in all honesty, I don’t regret my decision. Training is going good, I’m getting in as much time as possible on the trainer, running, snowshoeing, doing yoga and strength while up in camp. Then, during my week off…..holy, watch out…I totally lucked out and last week and had super stellar weather, 15 above for two days, and managed some really good outside riding days. It was great, even though it was really sloppy and wet, it was so nice to be riding outside for the first time in over a month.

It’s maybe not the ideal situation, but I’ve never been one to do things the easy way J

Here’s to a great year in every way possible.

Happy Trials
Mical Dyck

A Working Woman

Good Morning Ladies and Gents. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. I definitely did, it wasn't super relaxing, but ate lots of wonderful food and had lots of good company. Did lots of xc skiing, climbing and even managed to take my Level 1 Avalanche course with Dallas.....really excited to go out and play in the snow.

For anyone who hasn't heard, I've taken a geo job...yup, my first one...up north, just south of Fort McMurray. I've been here for a week today, it's been a little bit of an adjustment, but I do have to say, things are going pretty good. They have us living in camp, and eating camp food...which for anyone who doesn't know, that can definitely be dangerous on the waistline. I've managed to get a room with satellite tv though to set my trainer up in, and pack my snowshoes, so I'm hoping that the cakes don't hit me too hard.

I'm going to have to get some pic's of the rig I'm working on, it's a really neat experience.

No, I haven't given up racing, definitely not ready to do that yet, but I thought I was in need of a little bit of a change of pace. I guess it's public knowledge now that the Trek VW team has folded, crazy news, they've been the largest most dominant team on the North American series for so many years. All good things must come to an end...I know, a little cliche.

This season I'm really happy to be riding with Barry Near's Trek Toronto team, based out of the Trek Toronto Store. He's got a great group of racers lined up, Emily Batty, Eric Batty, Adam Morka, Peter Glassford and coach Steve Neal....so I'm pretty excited.

Well, have to run, gotta go log some surface cuttings. Ciao for now.

This past weekend Dallas and I got away ...wow, it's been a while. We headed out to Lake Louise in a desperate hunt for snow. There's only about a foot of the white stuff but the xc skiing was awesome. We had a late start to the ski on Sat, because we didn't leave Calgary till 12, but managed a good 2 hours of skate skiing. I must say Dallas, despite taking last ski season off due to knee surgery, you're skate technique has inproved immensely....I think you're a closet skier. We book a room at the Lake Louise Hostel, it's pretty nice, really log cabinish and cooked a huge gourmet pasta dish with chicken sausage. I was somewhat dissappointed with the food market in Lake Louise...I was expecting to find more then just sausages and hotdogs....then again, it's Lake Louise in not quite the winter season.

Our grand plan was to do a night snowshoe, but after skiing and supper we were both just about comatose. So we opted to tromp around in the snow until we found a big snow pile and proceeded to play "King/Queen of the Pile". Hehe, how old are we...yeah, I know. But there's something really fun about just goofing off in the snow.....I think I won.

Sunday was supposed to be an early start, but we didn't managed to hit the trails til 10, which suited me fine because it was a pretty frosty morning (-14). Because we had our classic skiies today, we went all the way to the end of Morraine Lake Road, right to the lake. I've never been down there but it was really beautiful and majestic. After returning to the car to pick up more water and drop off Dallas I headed out for another hour on a little side route that I'd never done before...day of exploring for me :) This trail ended up only being groomed for the first km or so...then it turned into rough backcountry...hehe, well kind of. There wasn't quite enough snow cover so a couple of the downhills were a little sketchy, but I managed to make it down white knuckled (not quite the body part used for skiing) and sore from the whole body tense trying to slow and steer my classic skies.

Have to say I was pretty tuckered when I got back to the car 4 hours after the initial departure....but for some reason decided it'd be a good idea to go climbing for 2 hours that night back in Calgary with Grant and Heather Eastman. I do have to brag though :) I lead my first 5.10b.

Chocolate for Life

Many of you know that cycling and chocolate go great together...match made in heaven. But what would something like healthy chocolate be like?? Is there really such a thing? And is it really possible to make money by eating chocolate....hehe...that'd be really cool.

Acai Berries

I know I put a link up for my parents chocolate sight earlier (http://www.mmmxocolate.com/) and to tell you the truth, I was really skeptical. It's multilevel marketing, which is a foul word to a lot of people (really, in truth, everything is multilevel marketing to an extent). But the more I've learned about the product and the buisness, the more excited I truely became...and now, I've joined up too and now I'm selling chocolate :)

"What do you do for a living???......I sell chocolate"

Unprocessed Cacao

http://mxi.myvoffice.com/micaledyck/index.cfm

The cool thing about a chocolate buisness is that billions of people crave and eat chocolate everyday. This past weekend there was a conference in Alberta and they sold over $400,000 dollars worth of this healthy Xocai chocolate...crazy chocoholics!!!

Healthy you ask...right. Actually it's true. There have been many labs and doctors working on this product, and repeatedly testing it and discovering new health benefits everytime. And lets not forget...it's chocolate!!!!!!!

If you've any interest in learning more about the product or about starting your own buisness center, just drop me a line (mical@shaw.ca) ...I mean, how can you go wrong with healthy dark chocolate sent to your house every month.

HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEENNNNNNN

Alberta Pyschocross

Photo courtesy of the very talented photographer Patrick "not Doyle".

Everyone did however miss a shot of me landing flat on my face :)