Yesterday really was a top day. I did an easy 75 minutes on the road bike in the morning – I took it easy as prescribed by Coach Steve. I really am trying to take it easier on my easy rides. Funny it seems like it is harder to go easy than it is to go hard! Slowly but surely the benefit and value of these easy rides is sinking in…

Now what wasn’t on the schedule was a second ride for the day… (This will be our little secret – don’t tell Coach Steve…) Marc had an easy day yesterday so we decided to get out on the cyclo-cross bikes for some fun in the woods. You see yesterday was kind of a special day for us. Tomorrow (Sunday August 7) is our seven year anniversary of being married and marks 17 years of being together. But Marc is racing on Sunday so we decided to celebrate our anniversary on Friday.

What better way to celebrate than kit up and go out in the woods for a roll around on the trails. So this is what we did. And it was just some of the most fun I’ve had on the bike in a really long time. I was eager to show Marc all of my new skills and to get some more pointers from him on what I can work on. Well, it was a ton of fun. We rode around on a new training loop I put together and then worked on some specific skills – carrying more speed, always pedaling, learning how much speed is just enough to carry into and out of sections, flow, accelerating up steep climbs. Yes, it was an action-packed ride in the woods.

Perhaps the best thing to hear from Marc during the ride was “I just want you to know that I’m impressed. You’ve improved a lot over last season.” Uhm – wow – this is huge. Yep, feeling pretty stoked. But I know that with improvement comes more learning and more improvement. As Marc reminded me – “You can always improve.”

It was a truly enjoyable ride in the woods with my favourite guy. Riding our Stevens Carbon Teams and just enjoying nature. To end off our anniversary celebration we went to The Works for big burgers and then to Starbucks for an after dinner treat and just enjoyed sitting out taking in the evening. Couldn’t have asked for a better evening.

Thanks Marc for being here. You put up with a lot and I really do appreciate it. I’ve said it before but it needs to be said again: if it wasn’t for Marc this website and my cyclo-cross goals wouldn’t exist. Words can’t really describe this emotion.