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 :)

A Healthy Chocolate!!!!

Who'd a thought....but it's great. For all you chocoholics out there:

www.mmmxocolate.com
www.hclpro.com/dbdyck

Bow 80

Despite the 2km of calf deep mud/cow poop slogging, the Bow 80 was yet again an awesome race. I'm so glad that it mad a come back this year. Pepper Harlton from Juventus and I rode together for the majority of the way to the first feed zone. From the first to second feed zone I managed to put a little time gap on her on the climb, but it was never a very big gap, so the pressure was on for the whole race. The last third of the race consisted of lots of mud and lots of pushing your bike through the mud...yuck. I finished in just under 6 hours, almost an hour slower then my time two years ago when it was dry. Crazy to think that the mud may have slowed me down that much because I honestly believe I'm stronger then 2 years ago. My only consolation is that I finished up in 14th position overall, and took my first "Queen of Kananaskis" belt buckle :)

I'm now recovering from my third gut bug hangover of the season, I know, awful stats, in hopes to finish the two cross races this weekend in Edmonton..only four weekends till cross nationals.

Wrapping it up

Alas, my bum is starting to heal..yippee. Two weeks ago, the last weekend in August, was the NMBS race of the year in Brian Head, Utah...nothing like 10,000 feet to kick your butt. I had a pretty good short track, won a preme, which in turn blew me up a little and dropped back to 10th. I finished 3rd overall in the short track series for 2008, not bad considering last year I got pulled from every single short track except one :) The xc was one big loop, 5 miles of climbing off the start, and some pretty wicked single track. I was riding really well, pacing well, until hitting a corner just a little too fast. Both wheels started to drift and I went down hard, tearing off my right butt cheek and skinning my elbow and knee. It was tough getting back in the groove, but I managed to settle in again and pick off a few more riders. I think I was moving up into 8th place, with 6th and 7th with in view, and I flatted...yuck. After wasting my CO2 and the tire only holding for a corner, I ended up running for almost an hour into the second feed zone...only to find that everyone had packed up and left (they thought I'd DNFed somewhere). One of the three guys left had a pump that I used, and finished the race 40 mins back...not too bad..hehe.

This past weekend was the XC8 at Buffalo Pound, SK. Super cool race. Dallas and I drove down and camped fri and sat nights. It was an 11km, I'd say 9o% single track loop, and I managed 8 laps. I finished my 8th lap three mins before the cut off to do another lap, and the girl was like "You can still do another lap"....to which I said.."nooooo, noooo I caaaan't" in a slurred voice. I was absolutely cooked and headed straight for the hamburger stand. I do have to say, I absolutely loved coming across "the bee" aka Tory a couple of times...she definitely mad me smile :)

I've entered the working world again...for now....if you can call what I'm doing work...well, it is really busy. I'm working mornings at Starbucks again, that means 5:30 am starts..yuck. So if you're in need of a good buzz in the morning..stop in and see me.

Tomorrow we find out if the Bow 80 is a go...keeping the fingers crossed.

Ciao