It is so beautiful outside and I am.......Sick.......(sigh).

It is sunny out, has been for awhile now. I am stuck inside quarantining myself from all others except Meg. This November has been a beautiful month(so far) and the last four days I have felt horrible. I should be outside cramming in as many hours of riding, pole running and climbing, but no, I am sick. It seems that everyone around me has, or had some sort of illness.... oh no, cough, sniffle H1N1! Sneeze..H1N1! Headache? probably safe to say H1N1. Come on for real? Everyone thinks they had the "swine flu". There are still just as many other illnesses jumping around as there has ever been and most people who think they have had H!N! probably didn't. They like me probably were just sick with the "common cold" or maybe they happened to eat too much dinner at the Mandarin last night( possible they forgot or something) whatever, from what I have read about the H!N! is that the people that did have it felt like they were about to die. I am not ranting at anyone in particular, just the public in general.

Anyways enough about that, on a more positive note, Collingwood is great! Over the years I have lived and traveled to some cool locations. I have been all over the map, some stops for a quick visit, others for an extended period. I however have not every lived in Collingwood. I have spent a wee bit of time exploring the area in years previous, but nothing too extensive. Since moving here 4 weeks ago, I have ridden a pile of the roads(sick) ran a mountain of the trails(also sick) and climbed at a few locations that I have never been to(super sick x3).

From my door I can jam 1400ft of vertical ascent on pavement, or dirt (whatever you choose) in the first 30min of a ride! I have not ridden anything over a few hours, but I can only imagine the loop possibilities when I will venturing out over 3 hrs(I can hardly wait). I am still hammering the pole running in full force, I have just recently decided that these not too often "beautiful fall days" are meant to be enjoyed on me bike. Pole running can wait until I get into the sloppy time of year(and the lazy, note: I don't really like cleaning my bike). I have only had a couple days out on the rock this fall(also a sigh) I was really hoping to get out and climb some fantastic limestone more than just a handful of days. I am also pumped for a possible ice year(ya that's right,, ice baby!). Last year I climbed no ice..But.. this year, All the ice!

Gotta run, the kettle is boiling,, time to make some more tea(cheesy, but unfortunately true).

Peace.

This just in.....Pole Running? Old News? or New?

I am not sure where October has disappeared to? Tons of great things have happened over the last couple weeks. It has been 5 full weeks (except 1 afternoon of mountain biking) since I have done anything that involves pedaling. Yesterday was the first day since Austria that I had some thoughts about the bike. I am still not planning on doing anything about that thought for at least another month to month and a half. As much as I like riding bikes, I like other stuff too. I have been doing a good amount of running, 90-120km per week, part road and part trail. I try to keep the longer stuff off piste and with poles. People usually look at you with a weird intriging look on their face as you zip by them, easly manouvering the most technical (and sometimes wet) sections on the bruce trail with ease and stability. Pole running is a amazing cross/fall/winter training workout for a couple reasons.

1) It lowers the impact forces that are put on your body by a enormouse amount, meaning you can run longer miles with less fatigue and stress on your body.
2) Stability, poles give you double the number of contact points with you and the surface you are running on, lessening the chance of a slip or fall. (I will second that, poles have saved my ass a couple of times).
3) It fires more muscle groups than traditional running, raising your heart rate easier to your target hr zone. (burns more kcals).
4) It is faster. Simply put, pole running is quicker than regular running/jogging. (Who doesn't want to go faster?).

You don't need to go drop $200 on the most expensive poles that you can buy (although if you have cash to burn, than a nice set of carbon poles that are stupid light would be worth the investment). A simple set of downhill ski poles will work for most people. They are usually crazy cheap if not free from the lost and found at your local ski hill.

Love Fall (minus the rain).

Been busy lately. Racing wrapped up for the season and now it is back to the real world. I have been riding as little as possible, which a good thing because rest is one of the most important things to a athlete, actually make that to everyone. Rest is key. Unfortunately I don't rest very well. Sure I may not be racing every weekend, or logging serious miles on the bike, but this is the only time of year that I have to cram all the other things I like to do and in such a short time. So scratch the rest. I'll do that later. Right, so 5:45am runs (trail/ road/ Some crossfit tossed in) until just after the sun comes up. Fight traffic across a almost ridiculous maze of 50 zones and stop lights to king township where I am working this fall. It is almost funny driving from here to there cause it is so SLOW! We have been trying to find the fastest way there and back? Funny, the other day on Aurora Rd. we found a Starbucks 10 min out of our way. Well that just kiboshed the fastest route plan, because I have had way to much tim horton's. Tim's sucks and especially just after coming from a couple of weeks in europe where they actually appreciate and enjoy their coffee. Rather than North American's where the majority of our daily calories comes from a "dubbledubble" or a bloody "tribbletribble". Are you kidding me? I get a "half of a milk" half of a sugar" and that's really just to cut the crappy taste. Right, I think it's time to change topics.

I am hoping to hit up the Ishpatina ridge next weekend, totally depending on what the weather is saying though. I am also trying to get out climbing more before the white stuff comes and the the option for so many other great things arise! I have a pile of stuff to do this fall and as of right now, I am playing like it's still July!. Minus the cold rain, which snaps you back into reality that "yes it is October".

Great Trip

I made it home after a amazing trip to Europe. It was one of the best flights that I have ever had, decent food and not one, not two, not three but four movies watched! I had a mini movie marathon and it totally made up for the trip two weeks ago heading over there when the tv's didn't work and I was magazineless. I was not on the ground for more than a couple minutes and the Mandarin was in conversation. Yep Mandarin it is, all you can eat buffet. The most north American way to chow a pile of grub and a huge shock from the euro way of life. I really like the way of life that most euros embrace. They take their time and enjoy everything, the food, their family, their surroundings, it's a different lifestyle that many north Americans need to learn from. Anyways I am home and I have a eventful fall planned (weather pending). I will keep you updated on what I have been up to.

Well, that was fun.

Yesterday was the world cup finals in Schladming Austria. I have been here all week drooling over the endless amount of epic exploring that is to be had here. I am here to race my bike around a 5.5km course for six laps chasing other crazy fit dudes wearing tights. The course is a real "hilly cross race", it isn't very technical, but it is a course of pure fitness. I had a solid start jamming hard with the rest of the 180 men. The sky was blue, the temp was strangely warm and that was different than what weather we have had for the past week and a half.

Lap 1 I felt decent, passing a couple riders at each opportunity. I went into lap two feeling much better, taking more and more riders all the time. Almost at the end of the second lap, some anaerobic dude crashed in front of me, I slowed down to avoid piling into him, when some other anaerobic dude came barreling by me crashing into the dude who was scrambling to his feet and he had to put a foot onto my chain almost taking my rear derailleur out. I got untangled from the mess and got going ahead of the guys that were literally killing them selves to be where they were. A couple of minutes later I noticed my chain starting to come apart. Ummmhmmm, you have got to be kidding me? Why, and how is this happening? I felt good and was moving through a solid field of riders. I didn't really know what to do? My bike was still pedaling, but the chain was getting really bad starting the third lap, which was just after I noticed something was wrong. I finally blew it apart on one of the steep climbs and scrambled to get it fixed. Now as many of you may know, one of the hardest things to fix while under race conditions is your chain. Especially when you loose your power link in the long grass. I even had the camera men helping me look for it. We (me and the camera men) were then resorted to trying to put a old pin back in the chain. It was freaking hard and my hands were shaking way to much. I suddenly got spooked by the silent battery operated dirt bike, as he all of a sudden appeared behind me and gave me the option to either run the whole lap or dnf. I started to run, all 4km of the course. I finished, chainless and all, running the climbs and coasting the descents. I was honestly bummed about the ordeal. Like I have said before, Mechanicals suck, they suck less when you are having a off or hurting day and really freaking suck when you feel good.

Next up was a big day on Sunday following a OK night of beer and wine. Peter and I just got back from a mountain climbing day, which entailed a 4000ft vertical 1.5hr ride up to the point where we hid our bikes and changed into running shoes. We then ran another 1200ft vertical to the to of some mountain that I cannot and probably will never be able to pronounce. It was a great view and fun day out. I am now slouched here on my computer surrounded by euro smoke at a great little outdoor cafe on round two of a delicious tasting cappuccino.

I really wish yesterday went a bit better, but that's the way it goes.

World Cup #7 Champery Switzerland (stop and start)

Today was hard. Straight up, hard. The pace was fast right from the gun as we jammed the start loop and completely bottle necked once we hit the first single track descent. The euro's can hammer crazy hard on the climbs and for some they have a bit more trouble in the muddier, slicker tech sections of the course. This made for frustrating (and fun) racing as really fit guys crush it on the climbs. I had a "kind of" solid start and tried to move up from there. All I wanted to do was to pass was a couple racers per lap. If you try and pass to many racers to quickly you kind of blow up from going to hard, that is unless you are that much fitter than the racers around you and being in Europe, that is hard. I went out a bit hard (as did most) and tried to wing it, three laps in I was feeling my "wing it" tactic and while I was still passing some racers some faster racers were coming from behind. I fought it out and finished in 80th place. It was fun and is always a great learning experience to battle with the best in the world!

After the race Peter and I went for another ride and slammed out another 2500ft of climbing (total today was 6700ft ascended) as we went out and explored the region around us. The time that we have here is defintley not long enough. We are in for a 10hr drive over to Schladming Austria tomorrow and hopefully will see some cool stuff along the way (pretty sure we will). Peter and I are really stoked that and we have Sandra Walter (pedal Mag) to travel with. We decided to join in on there Privater trip over here for these two world cups and it has been great! We would of had a hard time without her (seriously). Anyways I hope all is good back home and I will try to keep you guys updated on what's happening over here.
I am having a great time here in Switzerland and I will try and keep updates flowing.

Suisse...

Here are a couple pics of Champery. I am in complete Heaven here, it is my first time to Switzerland and definitely not my last. We race tomorrow at 2:30pm here, which is 8:30am home time. The course is phenomenal!! I am really glad that I brought my Trek Top Fuel dually and I think it is the bike for the course.

Peter and I are going to go on an adventure after the race tomorrow, he says "not to think about it before the race", Puff I say to that, we are in Switzerland and all I want to do is go conquer stuff! It is seriously everything I imagined, including the amazing cheese and stuff.