Ok, so Monday I typed this wicked race report and uploaded it to my blog, only to find out it never uploaded. It never saved, and I did save it. It just disappeared into cyberspace. Awesome! I love typing on a mini keypad (iPhone) for nothing. Anyways most of the time I am a pretty positive, glass half full kinda guy. But lately the weather sucks. Everyone is complaining about the weather," there's to much rain", "there is never any sun"," it's cold"," it's snowing" blah, blah, blah, and all rightfully so. I have had enough rain, I want to be "to hot" before winter is back again and then it's "to cold". Anyways not to sure where I am going with this, I am just kinda rambling.
I did 100km ride in the rain today. It sucked. Poured right from doorstep to doorstep. I did a really fun Mtb ride on home turf yesterday and that was rad. It looked like it was going to pour buckets, it didn't. I blew a corner going way to fast into a massive poison ivy patch. I am not itchy yet, that's a good thing because if you know me, you know what poison ivy does to me. Yay. Monday I sat in the team van for way to long. I hate driving. I had some homemade cookies when I got to my parents house, Charlotte made them and they were good. I had a couple more. So see I am really a positve guy, cause cookies and mountain biking are fun.
I had a crappy World Cup race last weekend and I am hoping for some better legs at the next round this weekend.
Peace.
-- Post From My iPhone
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Buckwallow O-Cup
Yesterday was Ontario Cup# 5 held close to my home in Muskoka, so I did have a bit of a home court advantage. Although their are enough fast guys racing in Ontario that all are talented enough bike racers, that a "home court" advantage is very minimal. Right now Ontario has 7 of the top 15 racers in Canada and that makes our provincial series really fast. Which in the log run is a good thing because we all feed off each other and are faster because of it.
I started my morning off tired, I slept like crap, it was one of those nights where you go to bed and just lay there thinking. I hate thinking when I should be sleeping!! Anways I was up early because Meg was doing the gravenhurst duathalon and it was my turn to be the cheering squad. Yay. The clouds looked like rain and it was cold out, I was tired and wanted to be back in bed. Super Yay! That aside Meg had a solid race finishing 2nd in her catagory! Despite not getting home until 2am from a catering the night before her race. After she had finished her race we ran to the car, tossed her gear in and hit the road for my race.
We started at 130 pm and with a full pro men's field here to give'er. Most of us are heading to the world cups the next two weekends and were all probably equally tired coming into this race, from prepping with some sort of traing block the week leading up to this weekends race. I had a decent start going to the front right before the first singletrack and with Ryan Atkins on my wheel we ended up with a good gap going through onto the 2nd lap. We worked pretty good together, which we had to if we wanted to stay infront of a likely train behind with serious horsepower all wanting to real us in. Ryan was really strong, especially in the singletrack, he was riding very well. Anyways with something like 3 or 4 min before the finish I made a quick attack into the last singletrack section and tried to keep it smooth all the way to the finish and we put it one last good effort up the short finishing stretch, Ryan hot on my heels. I looked back quickly as I crossed the finish to take the win and then looked back up and BAM! I was into a crowd of people!! I skidded right from the finish line and still managed to hit Haydon Boucher's girlfriend, Catherine. I completely shoulder checked her and I felt really bad for running straight into her. It was a sprint finish and I could not get stopped in time. Obviously it was an accident, but one guy took it I guess the wrong way and maybe thought that it was intentional ?? He even shoved me and called me a "$&@!:; idiot" and that the finish line was back there buddy and that I should be dq'ed!! Not to sure what his deal was but he kinda looked like a goof trying to be tough or something? Anyways Catherine was ok and we joked about it after. And who the dude was that pushed me? No clue? It almost through me off my feet!! Oh and apparently I had a bit of an excited bottle toss in the feed zone, I tossed it up at mark, it somehow hooked straight up in the air and into the crowd of people in the feed zone, I did not mean for that to happen either. Anways all in all a solid day out and next up is the two races which I most want to be in good form for, the two world cups.
On another note, this post is from my phone with no spelling or grammer check. Yay. Thanks all for the solid cheers!!
I started my morning off tired, I slept like crap, it was one of those nights where you go to bed and just lay there thinking. I hate thinking when I should be sleeping!! Anways I was up early because Meg was doing the gravenhurst duathalon and it was my turn to be the cheering squad. Yay. The clouds looked like rain and it was cold out, I was tired and wanted to be back in bed. Super Yay! That aside Meg had a solid race finishing 2nd in her catagory! Despite not getting home until 2am from a catering the night before her race. After she had finished her race we ran to the car, tossed her gear in and hit the road for my race.
We started at 130 pm and with a full pro men's field here to give'er. Most of us are heading to the world cups the next two weekends and were all probably equally tired coming into this race, from prepping with some sort of traing block the week leading up to this weekends race. I had a decent start going to the front right before the first singletrack and with Ryan Atkins on my wheel we ended up with a good gap going through onto the 2nd lap. We worked pretty good together, which we had to if we wanted to stay infront of a likely train behind with serious horsepower all wanting to real us in. Ryan was really strong, especially in the singletrack, he was riding very well. Anyways with something like 3 or 4 min before the finish I made a quick attack into the last singletrack section and tried to keep it smooth all the way to the finish and we put it one last good effort up the short finishing stretch, Ryan hot on my heels. I looked back quickly as I crossed the finish to take the win and then looked back up and BAM! I was into a crowd of people!! I skidded right from the finish line and still managed to hit Haydon Boucher's girlfriend, Catherine. I completely shoulder checked her and I felt really bad for running straight into her. It was a sprint finish and I could not get stopped in time. Obviously it was an accident, but one guy took it I guess the wrong way and maybe thought that it was intentional ?? He even shoved me and called me a "$&@!:; idiot" and that the finish line was back there buddy and that I should be dq'ed!! Not to sure what his deal was but he kinda looked like a goof trying to be tough or something? Anyways Catherine was ok and we joked about it after. And who the dude was that pushed me? No clue? It almost through me off my feet!! Oh and apparently I had a bit of an excited bottle toss in the feed zone, I tossed it up at mark, it somehow hooked straight up in the air and into the crowd of people in the feed zone, I did not mean for that to happen either. Anways all in all a solid day out and next up is the two races which I most want to be in good form for, the two world cups.
On another note, this post is from my phone with no spelling or grammer check. Yay. Thanks all for the solid cheers!!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Nationals, Quick update...Kind of.
Today was our Canadian National Mountain Bike Championships in Saint Felicien Quebec and on probably the best course we have ever raced on. The sky was threatening with heavy rain, which luckily only was a couple quick passing showers. Our field was stacked with the fastest, fittest and most experienced racers that our country has. Canada has a really strong field of pro men right now and you have to come into a day like today with a full book of matches and be ready to burn them all. There are so many guys with some serious horsepower that if you are having an "off" day or, if anything at all goes wrong your chewed up and spit out the back pretty fast.
I had a decent start, sitting right where I was comfortable, in and around 10th place. The laps seemed to fly by, and before I knew it we were emptying the tank going onto the last lap. I guess I was having so much fun on this amazing course!! Ya right, it is kind of hard to have "fun" while you are working so hard, your heart rate MAXED for 1hr 50min and you are feeling a pain that you are inducing on yourself, all to go a bit faster and chase while being chased. Long story short, it's business!. Anyways back to my race, I cruised across the finish line the 8th fastest pro man in the country today. I had a personal goal of top 5, and a "back up" goal of top 10. I guess I am happy with my result.
I had a decent start, sitting right where I was comfortable, in and around 10th place. The laps seemed to fly by, and before I knew it we were emptying the tank going onto the last lap. I guess I was having so much fun on this amazing course!! Ya right, it is kind of hard to have "fun" while you are working so hard, your heart rate MAXED for 1hr 50min and you are feeling a pain that you are inducing on yourself, all to go a bit faster and chase while being chased. Long story short, it's business!. Anyways back to my race, I cruised across the finish line the 8th fastest pro man in the country today. I had a personal goal of top 5, and a "back up" goal of top 10. I guess I am happy with my result.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Best Story Ever!
Last weekend I had off from racing. It was sweet. Great time to cram a couple more solid days of training in before Bromont and the 5 weeks after that. We are going to be racing back to back for the next bit. Nationals, 2 World Cups a US Cup and another race that I am forgetting at this moment, anyways in it is going to be the "core" races for my season.
Last week I got to play "farming", I was helping get the hay done while we had some sunshine and dry air. Being a Farmer is Fun! I mean it has its moments just like any other job, but where else can you go for a 120km bike ride, come home, then scarf down some recovery grub, grab some water and food, toss on clothes that are almost designated "bike rags" and then go play on big tractors? and there is really nobody to answer to, except if you break something. Which happens allot. It is totally acceptable to get as dirty as you want, swear as much as you can, because really, the dirtier you are the harder your working, and since you are almost wearing rags for clothes, when you do get covered in grease you get to just wipe it on your clothes! How sweet is that? Shower time sucks because heavy duty grease doesn't come off your skin that easy and it turns you into a permanent "grease monkey", and that sucks. Anyways it was a solid week of training and driving tractors chasing coyote's at midnight while stacking hay. Which brings me to my next story.
I just finished eating the best Orange ever! Not just a good orange, but one of those oranges that you are just like "man, that's a good orange"! and to really top it off, after I ate the "best orange ever" I ate one of the best Fuji apples ever too! Fruit rocks! Everything is in season and tastes better than candy! Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Wine, plums, peaches, you name it fruit is so good. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that beer tastes great too! Got a bit carried away with that last night, yes it is tuesday and yesterday was monday, but mondays are kind of like my "fridays" so it was totally fine. Tomorrow is Canada Day! Yay, Super yay! Wonder how that works? Canada Day on a Wednesday? The fruit brings to my next story....
I did a solid 125km ride today, got soaked more than once, actually like 5 serious downpours I had to ride through. The rain is fine, I really don't mind getting wet, as long as I have a rain jacket close by. In this case I was wearing it because I had no other place to stash it. My jersey pockets were full with other junk and that meant I either wear the hot, clammy, pain in the butt coat, or put it in a backpack or camelback, and I am not doing the latter. So off I went rain jacket and all, it ended up being a sweet ride, one of my favorite loops. Now just around the 105km mark I was suddenly being bombarded by this flying thing?!!! I think it was a Pheasant! and it was not leaving me alone.. It came so close to hitting me a couple of times, I was like "you have got to be kidding me, I am being ambushed by a bloody little bird"! I think finally it decided I was "alright" and it left me alone. Riding in Muskoka Rocks! I love being home, even just for a couple days. It is really one of the best road riding destinations I have found yet!. You get barked at a ton, that's fine, I can live with that. I only got barked at once today, and funny thing is it was not even a bloody dog! It was coming from a "pimped out" Dodge Neon. Oh ya, "High Roller" and after seeing the dude that was barking at me I had to laugh, because if he were to just take a quick glance in the mirror and see himself, he really didn't have any grounds to go on. It was hilarious, and the more I laughed at him the madder he got. Which made it even Funnier! Anyways I have to wrap this up somewhere, so I hope everyone has a solid Canada Day and, Oh Ya, FIREWORKS!!!!!
Last week I got to play "farming", I was helping get the hay done while we had some sunshine and dry air. Being a Farmer is Fun! I mean it has its moments just like any other job, but where else can you go for a 120km bike ride, come home, then scarf down some recovery grub, grab some water and food, toss on clothes that are almost designated "bike rags" and then go play on big tractors? and there is really nobody to answer to, except if you break something. Which happens allot. It is totally acceptable to get as dirty as you want, swear as much as you can, because really, the dirtier you are the harder your working, and since you are almost wearing rags for clothes, when you do get covered in grease you get to just wipe it on your clothes! How sweet is that? Shower time sucks because heavy duty grease doesn't come off your skin that easy and it turns you into a permanent "grease monkey", and that sucks. Anyways it was a solid week of training and driving tractors chasing coyote's at midnight while stacking hay. Which brings me to my next story.
I just finished eating the best Orange ever! Not just a good orange, but one of those oranges that you are just like "man, that's a good orange"! and to really top it off, after I ate the "best orange ever" I ate one of the best Fuji apples ever too! Fruit rocks! Everything is in season and tastes better than candy! Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Wine, plums, peaches, you name it fruit is so good. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that beer tastes great too! Got a bit carried away with that last night, yes it is tuesday and yesterday was monday, but mondays are kind of like my "fridays" so it was totally fine. Tomorrow is Canada Day! Yay, Super yay! Wonder how that works? Canada Day on a Wednesday? The fruit brings to my next story....
I did a solid 125km ride today, got soaked more than once, actually like 5 serious downpours I had to ride through. The rain is fine, I really don't mind getting wet, as long as I have a rain jacket close by. In this case I was wearing it because I had no other place to stash it. My jersey pockets were full with other junk and that meant I either wear the hot, clammy, pain in the butt coat, or put it in a backpack or camelback, and I am not doing the latter. So off I went rain jacket and all, it ended up being a sweet ride, one of my favorite loops. Now just around the 105km mark I was suddenly being bombarded by this flying thing?!!! I think it was a Pheasant! and it was not leaving me alone.. It came so close to hitting me a couple of times, I was like "you have got to be kidding me, I am being ambushed by a bloody little bird"! I think finally it decided I was "alright" and it left me alone. Riding in Muskoka Rocks! I love being home, even just for a couple days. It is really one of the best road riding destinations I have found yet!. You get barked at a ton, that's fine, I can live with that. I only got barked at once today, and funny thing is it was not even a bloody dog! It was coming from a "pimped out" Dodge Neon. Oh ya, "High Roller" and after seeing the dude that was barking at me I had to laugh, because if he were to just take a quick glance in the mirror and see himself, he really didn't have any grounds to go on. It was hilarious, and the more I laughed at him the madder he got. Which made it even Funnier! Anyways I have to wrap this up somewhere, so I hope everyone has a solid Canada Day and, Oh Ya, FIREWORKS!!!!!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Canmore Canada Cup
Short and not so sweet. I had a off day yesterday, I had no problems with my bike, my body just didn't want to fire. I had a solid first lap and lost it from there. It was a amazing course to race on and I tried to make the best of a not so great day, at least I could enjoy the "mountain" descents. I tried to regroup my body and mind on lap two and three and tried to gas it on the last lap, it didn't quite play out as I had invisioned it, but on the other hand it was a fast race in a field with some serious horsepower, and if anything goes wrong or your body is just not cooperating there are 20 plus guys ready to gobble you up. I still finished 12th. On another note I had a great time over the last few weeks with a great crew from Alberta. They organized a solid event in Edmonton and were quite hospitable, thanks Kirk for the wicked accommodation. I am sitting in the airport writing this with my feet up, compression socks and all! I am ready to go home for some down time and a BBQ or two. Cheers.
-- Post From My iPhone
-- Post From My iPhone
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Jasper!!!
The riding in Jasper is Phenomenal! There is a huge abundance of amazing trails, all right from town. We have had a couple solid days of MTB riding and seen some really cool sights. The town is definitely one that I have have to remember as I could spend more than only a couple of days here! We are heading down the parkway to Canmore tomorrow to get ready for Canada Cup 5 this weekend.
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