Monthly Archive for February, 2008

Happy Leap Day!

I hope you are all enjoying your extra day.  I nearly forgot about it.  But I realize I did manage to turn it into a pretty good day!

I went back to work for the first time in at least 2.5 months!  It was good.  Good to say hi and remember all the people.  If I forget your name and/or your drink, I’m sorry, just remind me.  Then I met the “jedi” for some tips on training and cycling and preparation for the rest of my goals!  Thanks Tim!  It was great!

I also had a great, and very productive, meeting with Bruce yesterday.  I think we figured out a few things and just had some good chit chat.

Then I went to visit my good friends at PRW.  Good to say hi and talk shop!  Thanks!

I had my first massage in well over 2 months as well.  Unfortunately my right leg was neglected due to the still-showing wound from my jit crash on Sunday.

Then I did a little wound/healing/treatment and intestinal cleanse research.  Next up is a talk with my doctor, full physical, and hopefully blood work.  Then I’ll be set for a wicked season!  Can’t wait!

Insuadibilis

!!!!!!! (I used a lot of exclamation marks today, so I threw in a few more for good measure…)

Motivated?

After I had to keep myself from jamming the whole way home yesterday, I told Bruce that I was feeling super motivated to ride right now.  That came as a bit of a surprise, but it was good.  Then when everybody was super tired today, Jay said I could go do whatever I wanted… Oh crap, what do I want to do???  I don’t really feel like riding by myself…

But then I talked myself into riding Shawnigan Lake.  I put the tunes in my ears and headed out the door.  I was feeling pretty good and not having any problems keeping the tempo up.  As I rolled into the far end of Shawnigan Lake, I stopped at the store for some more delicious cream soda!

As I was riding away, I was eating and made a dumb move instigating a minor spill.  Oh man!  That sucks!  I pulled myself together and rode home.  I wasn’t really feeling up to jamming as much as I was before, but I still made it home no problems.

I remembered that you should always wear gloves and that I have absolutely no pain tolerance for cleaning wounds…  Oh well, I’ll pull through.

One more day of riding here and then it’s back to real life.

Insuadibilis

"Let's go guys!"

We had a bit of an epic ride today. “It’s all part of the adventure,” as my mom would say.

Dustin had to turn back early with knee problems, but Alex, Anthony, Nic, Jay, and I ventured on to the ferry terminal to catch the 9:00 ferry to Salt Spring Island (where the fire trucks say, “Let’s go guys!” It was super cool. And the weather held up quite nicely, with an overcast morning clearing into beautiful sunshine in the afternoon.

The route started off with a rolling loop around the lake. On the north side, there was almost nobody around. Then we rolled in Gange for some lunch. Delicious!

On our way back, we headed up Mt. Maxwell. Unfortunately about halfway up it got a little too muddy for me. Nic and Alex ventured on. While we were waiting, a girl from the local paper asked us what we were doing and if she could take picture. Of course, we’re pretty much male models!

Back onto the ferry. Alex and Anthony had a bit of a nap. I tried jamming on the way home, but Nic’s knees were hurting really bad.

10.5 hours later, we were home.  Only 2 more days…

Insuadibilis

Come back just for the halibut

No, we didn’t have any halibut, but yes, we did go to Port Renfrew yesterday.  We drove out to Sooke to knock off about 50kms from Victoria.  It was a really nice hilly ride and one of our hardest yet looking at the power files.  The rain held off and we just started off with a few wet roads.  It was a great ride!

We’re taking another rest day today.  Maybe that means I can catch up on some life.  I’ve been having lots of good talks here, mostly with Jay, and I have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head.  It’s good.

Happy Thursday!

Insuadibilis

You know you're living in 2008 when…

I got this in an email and thought it was really funny.

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list.

Insuadibilis

Good eye Horner

I have to say I’ve always liked Chris Horner.  He’s always seemed to work hard, look good, and have interesting things to say.  When there was talk for a while about him having a tv show, I was very very excited!  Even though it probably would have only aired in Belgium…

But he’s at the Tour of California with his new team, Astana, and he had a very interesting take on stage 1.  Check it out here on Velonews tv:

http://www.velonews.tv/?Art_ID=1972&Cat_ID=16

Insuadibilis

Riddle me that one, Batman

I’ve always liked that phrase. I’m not too sure why, but I do.

And I’ve been on this kick to watch the Batman movies. Not the really old ones, just the 5 newest ones. I think it may be due to the fact that The Dark Knight looks unbelievably amazing! I can’t wait for July 18!!!!

Insuadibilis

Cream soda is delicious

Why yes, yes it is.  We had a wonderful and lovely ride out to JR yesterday.  Brooksie even graced us with his presence.  The line at Shackie’s was super long, so we moved onto this other place a couple hundred meters away and had a great coffee and muffin.  Mmmm…  On the way home, I got a cream soda in Sooke.  It was delicious.  It made me smile all the way home!

The rice tarts are still holding strong.  Even on a light day today on the waterfront.

The camp shrunk a bunch after today and this next week should be awesome!  We have some good plans, some hard rides, and a lot of fun on tap!

I’m still learning and growing lots as a person.  I’m getting opportunities to do different things.  I think I can see myself doing this more in the future.  And I’m slowly figuring out what kind of coach I would be and how to be the best at it as I can be.  Lots of learning…

Insuadibilis

Media

I’ve been forgetting to post this article about me.  Thanks Sandra for the interview and Pedal for posting it.

Insuadibilis

Lacking

Sorry the adventures have been lacking in the blog department.  My 5 days at home didn’t warrant much blogging and since I’ve been in Victoria it’s been go go go!

But I did have some excellent thoughts on the big picture on the flight over here (ps. I had another great seating arrangement, with 3 seats to myself!).  Now I just need to remember what those thoughts were.

After all my stressing about where I’m going to work, I think I’m going to spend most of my time back at Transcend.  I did apply at Murrieta’s and I’m still trying to figure out when and how I can get into the lab at the UofA, but I know covered at Transcend.  It was exciting to go back and see everybody and everything again.  And I was happy to pull myself a nice espresso!

The SRM and trainingpeaks software that I thought I had figured out has still been giving me trouble… Why the heck don’t they just make mac-compatible stuff!  Mac’s are the way to go!  And there are so many forums about how to make it work that it just seems ridiculous!

The riding here has been good though.  We got some good hills in yesterday and some good riding the rain today.  We also managed to run into the red bull girls on the way back.

Oh, and my first attempt (Thanks Brittani) at the Belgian rice tarts worked out pretty good.  A few more tries and I’m sure they’ll be perfect!  They’re working quite well for ride food out here in February!  I’ll have to see how they do in a race situation…

Yup.  Things are good.  I wonder what Tim Heemskerk is up to?

Insuadibilis