Zoo....?

Yesterday I went for a really fun road ride, I basically toured around all of my "Local" roads close to home. I did something like 120km, without leaving a 20km radius from home base. I had to soft pedal the 4 hrs it took, but if I didn't I would just start coughing. I really just needed to go for a scenic ride. I had the pleasure of seeing most of the Animals that Muskoka has to offer, 1 Bear(BIG), 1 Coyote, 1 Fox, 2 Deer, 1 Baby fawn, 1 Owl, 2 Hawks, 1 Turtle, 1 Raccoon, 1 Flock of Turkey's and a handful of hicks(Pick-up truck and all). Now the funny thing is, almost everything that I got to see was either into garbage, or on-route to some garbage (including the hicks). So as cool as it was, it was kind of sad... The only animals I missed were Moose and Wolves. Anyways It was mostly a solid ride up until I decided I was going to drink an "un-opened" brand new can of Red Bull that I had found (I was thirsty and I was out longer than I had planned on being riding for). Turns out expired Red Bull doesn't taste so good after it has gone down. Oh and a quick note: When someone is yelling to get out of their Garbage, it is probably for a good reason. I now know how Raccoon's feel...

Horseshoes Anyone...

I am sick... I have been trying to avoid admitting to myself that I have a chest cold all week, but finally after 5 days of me trying to convince myself that "No, I am not sick," and "Ah, it's all just in my head", I have finally acknowledged defeat. There is nothing worse to a serious athlete than the dreaded four letter words,, "Sick" and "Cold" and especially right in between some big races. I survived all winter with not even a slight hiccup, and almost all of the spring until last Monday, the day after Baie Saint Paul, at around 5pm, I felt it, the worst feeling imaginable. The "Tickle". Quick pound all the Natural remedies out (Ginseng Root, Greens etc), all in hopes of getting ahead of something that can take a whole pile of work and crush it in a couple of days. Now what is important is that you keep moving forward and work with what you have. In other words, once your sick, get better..

Canada Cup #2 Mont Tremblant. I had nice call up(front row), and went out at a decent pace on the first lap, I was in the top 10. After about 20-25min of racing, I could really start to feel what I was dreading all week, my chest was closing in on me, I was hacking crap out of my lungs and my head wanted to explode! I hung in for another lap hoping it was just going to be a "bad lap" and get back into the game. Half way through the third lap I heard a little ppssssss, looked down and I could see tire sealant coming out of my tire. I had a flat, maybe a kind of blessing in disguise? I felt like crap and had a flat. Maybe better than having a flat and feeling great? Ya, I think so. I fixed my tire and cruised in to the village. I was not in any mood to start a serious battle to try and catch back up, I was ready for bed.

I am frustrated right now because I finally feel like I have some legs after Canada Cup #1 and then bam! Here ya go, deal with this.. As much as crap like this sucks sometimes, you have to look past and keep moving forward. Hopefully I am feeling much better at Hardwood this coming weekend. On another note it looks like a sunny gorgeous week in the forecast and hopefully everyone is able to get out and enjoy the sunshine!.

Tremblant Tanning!

So this is as close to the beach that we will be seeing this race season. The ingredients: 1 warm sun, sand, and instead of water you can substitute with a handful of black flies. And be careful not to overdo it on the black flies, which we did.

Canada Cup #1 Baie Saint Paul (Short Story) ( Kind of)

Today is the kick off to our National Mountain Bike Race series. We Had 6 laps to do today, and of a fairly hard course. Tons of climbing and some single track that seemed to be a bit harder once your heart was high from the climbing that you had been doing. The field was stacked, with all of Canada's fastest, and some from the neighbors beside us at the start line all coming out to test the winter past of hard training. We had some serious rain on the Saturday night, which led us all to assume that we will be racing in the mud. When we showed up Sunday morning the course had somehow drained all the rain and was in impeccable condition. So dry tires it is.

I Had a front row call up,(based on UCI points) and that was nice because we only had a small start loop and then bamm! into the fun stuff. I started a bit conservative, I wanted to make sure that I would have some gas for the second half of the race. Going through on the first lap I was in around 10th'ish place. I had a small group of riders up the trail in front of me and many chasing hard from behind. I slowly tried to up my pace, or effort each lap, trying to pass at least one racer per lap. It doesn't always work out to one racer per lap, it maybe one lap with no moving up, then one lap with two racers passed. I cruised along most of the race kind of by myself, other racers were always in sight, just not super close. I rode in today for a 7th place finish, Happy and ready for next weekend, uh and, the 5 weekends after that.

On another note, passing lapped riders was kind of tight, I never like trying to make passes in the tough stuff, it increases the risk of both of us for something to go wrong. But because it was tight, some tight passes had to happen. And that always is tough on its own, if you look at it, you are riding along a trail at race pace, then to make a pass in single track you have to go from a nice fast trail to slow soft dirt with moss and sticks. Yay, and then to make the pass you have to up the effort. Yay again. Sometimes some of the racers that are getting lapped understand the situation and sometimes they don't. And hopefully they realize that we are racing too, and sometimes we "really" need to come by. Anyways just a quick note to no situation in particular, I just wanted to put it out there.

See you in Tremblant.

Albion Hills O Cup 2

3 Mud holes per lap times 5 laps equals 15 times through a mudbath. There was a couple muddy climbs tossed in per lap which made up the best Albion Hills course I think I have ever raced on. Despite the two inches of rain on Saturday the race course was in decent condition. I came into today's race right where I wanted to be, tired. I have had a couple really solid weeks of training in and I am stoked for the next three Canada cups coming up.

Back to the race, the pace was set high right from the gun. Derek Z. Pinned it and never let up. The first lap we had a mini train jamming which ended up with us all slightly spaced out. I raced for almost two hours by myself. Yay super yay! It always seems more fun when you have someone else around you to jam with. Sometimes racing out in no mans land is hard, you end up having no clue if you are going hard enough and no clue as to who is ripping around you. I raced my own race and croozed in for 5th place. I had a solid training day and even had the pleasure of taking my bike for a quick dip in the warm pond after the race. Na it was cold, and my bike was still dirty after we got out of the water. See you in Baie Saint Paul.

Scrap That.

So the Ishpatina ridge is going to yet be put on hold. Things didn't work out and we were unable to get there. Oh well I am planning to go back in the fall, once the bug season has long since gone. It would be worth your life to try and get in there in peak black fly season, and for some reason the pests are drawn to me more than everyone else, or at least that is the way it seems.

On another note I wrapped up a great week of training Sunday, rolling just over 700km over a 7 day block. I was really spent come Sunday night, grumpy and groggy. I had day after day of blue skies, big miles and big watts.! We had some dodgy weather through the week, but missed the rain on all rides but one. Oh well, life goes on.

Yesterday Meg and I went for a hike into Torrence Barrens, which is how we found out that black fly season is upon us. They were freaking annoying. It always seems like the first wave of black flies at the beginning of the season are the dumb ones. They are not to sure how to find their way into the cracks and crevices in your clothing yet. They just seem to just fly around you waisting energy. Bbbzzzz. And for the odd smart one that seems to somehow luck into landing on, and squirming it's way into a nice warm piece of flesh they don't know what to do yet. I guess they are similar to crows and ravens, where each generation passes on one piece of knowledge to the next up and coming pests. Or so it seems that way.

This month is Photography month on TVO and there has been some really good programs on everything about capturing images. I know it has gotten my wheels turning and I am not to sure if this is a good or bad thing. I think anything that inspires you is a good thing and you must run with it while you can. Cheers.