California..... who ya.!

Made it here to the "California training house" safe and sound, despite a pretty eventful drive from the Dessert to the more moist coast. The drive was roughly 900km and I had to drive through about 15 serious downpours that were crazy enough that people got very silly with there driving... Having a roof box on seems a bit more noticeable when the wind is gusting around 90-100km!
Anyways it never seems to amaze me at the sure MASS of the L.A. area, from Palm Springs all the way over to where I am at in Oxnard seems to be one massive city.

We went for a pretty solid ride yesterday (monday) as well as did a bit of filming (actually 70km of it) for the company Ergvideo, www.ergvideo.com . they link real cycling videos to your indoor computrainer and create real riding like simulation, it is pretty cool.

Matt P, Peter G (aka: wagonwheel) and I went for a MTB ride today on some very impressive cali trails. Below are some of the images from us riding amongst the coastal mountains.

I am looking forward to exploring a new area of riding, running and maybe a bit of hiking (can't forget the fact that we are living on a beach).

I will go wherever the wind takes me....

I went out for my ride today, felt kind of tight and was fidgety on the bike.. Honestly all I could think about was going for a good trail run! I ended up going home after 3.5hrs changing into my running kit, grabbing my camera and then hit some trails. I went out to Star Pass and ran and ran and ran! It felt so good to RUN! As much as I love riding my bike, there is still something so satisfying about trail running. Maybe it is the fact that you are going a bit slower than riding? Or is it just something different then pushing pedals? I stopped a few times (very quickly) and just took in the scenery around me! It was warm out, it was sunny out and I was in heaven. Maybe it was the fact that we had a rain day here yesterday, and when it rains in the dessert you can't do much but wait it out. Fortunately there was a great hockey game to watch on the toob to kill the "no exercising" anxiety.

More Riding, New Kits!

Here are some new pics of our new team kits. If I don't say so my self I think they look really great!

Life of a Athlete.

An athletes best friend and fuel source (most of the time).


The hands of Mark Batty hard at work....

15lbs of Pad Thai!

8 days of training later.... I think I may be a bit tired. It totally makes sense though, in the last 8 days Mark and I have ridden 30hrs total, not bad, not bad. A few 5hr days, a handful of 4hr days and 2 shout-outs later I am feeling it. It is a good feeling (I am sitting contemplating what I am riding today), maybe a rest day? or maybe a 4hr day up Lemmon? I am drinking coffee and maybe once I see the bottom of my mug I will get my butt in gear. I had the privileged to make 15 lbs of pad Thai last night! We had a bit of a pot luck dinner with a Chinese or Thai theme, so Mark made 10 lbs of coconut rice and I did the Pad Thai. It was so good to indulge on good food with good friends!

Can I get a Deluxe Breakfast with hotcakes please?

On the road, and in a high roller motel in the middle of New Mexico. Here are some quick highlights of our trip down to Tucson.

-Planned on leaving Wednesday morning, really left in the evening.
-Also planned on getting ripped apart at the border, we didn't.
-We were not planning on pulling any "through the night'ers", we did.
-Planned on eating healthy, uh.......
-Ran my car to a 52L fill up, it is only a 50L tank. That was close.
-Got a freaking parking ticket before we had even left Toronto. Great start to the trip.
-Overheard a conversation from a cowboy in a gas station subway restaurant talking on the phone to many people trying to cancel his credit cards. He had just been robbed at gun point! He had pulled over to try and help a lady with a flat tire on her car, he only got out of his truck, walked over to the car to find a dude with a gun, "give me everything", the robber said. He did, and now he was stuck in the middle of Texas with no wallet and no money to get home and no body had offered to help him out yet. So mark and I split the cost of filling his tank. It was a shit situation he was in, and hopefully if something like that ever happened to one of us someone would do the same.

Anyways, it is time to go and see what junk food they are calling breakfast in this joint.

Peace out.

Mark and I are going to be hitting the road around noon today, we have a few last min stops in TO before we point the car south, actually it is more south west. We are headed to Tucson and will be there for the next 3 weeks. After a few solid weeks of shoot outs and sunshine Mark fly's to the Dominican and I go dirt bagging it around Arizona/ Utah. After a week or so of minimal showers, big training days and sleeping under the stars I will make my way over to Cali for some surfing(and riding). I will keep you guys posted on what is happening in the south west. Over and out.