I’m pretty darn stoked to tell you about my new sponsor…. I’ll give you a few hints: Flak Jacket, Jawbone, styling caps, super durable bags and polarized lenses. That’s right – you guessed correctly!

Oakley

Pretty happy about this sponsorship for the 2010 – 2011 season. I’m fortunate to have Oakley on board providing me with stylish and functional sunglasses, lenses, and some sharp swag to wear off the bike.

Last night when I hooked up with Skip of KingsBridge Disaster Recovery – who used his connections to bring Oakley on board, I received some new product to test out. Oakley Flak Jackets. I quickly put them on to see how they would fit – I struggle with glasses since I have a small face, small head, and my cheekbones seem to stick out a bit… These glasses fit perfectly – nice fit on my head, the arms don’t get in the way of my helmet, and the lenses have a perfect cut to them that lets them sit on my face.

The sparkly red frame looks super sharp with my red, white, and black kit as well! Last night on our mountain bike ride, I wore the Oakley Flak Jackets with the hydrophobic XLJ lens. The iridium lens tint made every blade of grass, pine needle, and rock pop out so I could clearly see them. One of the best parts was that the glasses stayed in place – no slip sliding up and down my nose!

Today during my recovery ride, I slid on the Flak Jackets again to see how they’d be in the bright light. In a word – perfect. The road surface was much more clear, the glasses didn’t fog up and quite honestly, I really didn’t notice them – they fit snugly and did a great job of preventing my eyes from drying out.

All in all, I’m pretty darn happy with these glasses. Many thanks to Oakley for the glasses and the smooth caps. No more helmet head for this bike racer – the tough decision will be choosing which hat to wear after training rides and races.

Thanks again to Skip of KingsBridge for arranging this sponsorship.

Well, this is what I hope this post will be. It has to be quick since I’m a bit tight for time right now. And it should be good, otherwise you might not come back to read more! So here goes nothing…

Three excellent days of riding are in the books. Long ride on Monday. Tempo and sprint work-out on Tuesday. Long ride today with an hour of tempo tossed in for fun. Tonight I’m out for a mountain bike ride with Skip from KingsBridge. Should be a good one. Great way to spend the evening. The wind seems to have dropped a bit and it is just the perfect temperature from some evening riding.

Tomorrow is a sweet recovery day. 90 minutes of just easy riding. Think I’ll need it for sure. And then Friday things ramp up again and close off perfectly on Sunday with a five hour ride. Lots of riding.

And if there is one thing that all this riding requires, it is fuel. I haven’t been doing a very good job lately of fueling my body. I got caught up in the same trap I found myself in last year. Afraid of carbohydrates… I know it doesn’t make sense – I’m an endurance athlete – I need carbohydrates. But call me a victim of popular culture I suppose – I read women’s fitness and food magazines and websites. And I got a bit silly. Convinced that I should be eating like these women who aren’t spending four hours a day on their bikes. So I severely reduced my carbohydrates. It was okay for a while. But then I started to get tired. Sleepy. I bonked that one fateful day. You’d think that would have been a wake-up call… So now after some stern words from Marc, I’m working on adding more carbohydrates into my diet. But it is so hard. I have an inclination to eat some vegetables or some cottage cheese rather than have rice or bread. So today, knowing that I’m riding twice and that I’d just finished a three hour ride, I added two pieces of cinnamon raisin bread to my lunch. Small steps. It is fascinating how even though I know that I need carbohydrates to fuel my sport and my body, I became brain-washed and a bit disordered with my eating. Problem is when I look in the mirror I see my abs popping out and my lean muscles – I like this, so I kind of got caught up in it. This is a hard thing to fight. But I’m doing it. I want to get the best out of my body so to do this I need to give it what it needs. Fat. Protein. Carbohydrates. Peanut butter…

All this to say – eat. Female bike racers especially – eat the food. We all want to be skinny bike racers but not all of us are meant to weigh 110 lbs and we’re not climbing mountains so we don’t need to be super skinny. It is so easy to get caught up in the cyclist trap of trying to be as lean as possible, forgetting that our bodies need fuel to keep us doing the sport we love.

One thing I’ve learned as an athlete is that plans and schedules are great, but sometimes a bit of flexibility and room go a long way. This time last year, I would have been pretty rigid with regards to my training. If the plan said 90 minutes, I did 90 minutes exactly – not 80, not 100 – 90 minutes. And if it was raining, snowing, sleeting, or all three – it didn’t matter I was out there. But this year, I’ve learned. It took me a while and I’ll be the first to admit that at times I can be a bit steadfast (okay stubborn), but I’ve added in a degree of flexibility to my training.

On Saturday I went out for the planned 3.5 hours in the cold, wind, and pouring rain. I did it because the plan said to. I did it because in some “sick” way I wanted to. I felt a sense of accomplishment with this ride and getting through the rough conditions that just weren’t that friendly. At my yoga class in the morning, one of my friends suggested it was “too cold” to be out there. My response, “well, I have to believe my competitors are out there training in the same weather – so I have to as well.”

But then Sunday came. Sunday was dry. But it was darn cold out there. Really cold. And extra windy. I had planned a 4.5 hour ride. I didn’t want to do it. It was too cold. I thought I could bundle up and get through it, but 4.5 hours in such weather is not fun. When I heard that it would be 12 and sunny on Monday, my mind was made up. I did it – I was flexible and rolled with the conditions. I switched up the training – took Sunday as a rest day and did my long ride today. Turns out it was a smart decision. I was able to make use of having the car and got a bunch of errands done and I was feeling a bit wiped out with some colitis symptoms anyway, so a rest was probably the smartest thing to do.

I had a great ride today. It was windy, but the sun was out in full force. I had initially planned on riding to Merrickville, but this would have meant a tailwind on the way out and a brutal headwind on the way home. Not fun. So I switched things up and ended up riding along Dwyer Hill for a long long time. Had a great time out there. 4.5 hours is a long time to not talk to anyone and to essentially be detached. But I really enjoyed it. I listened to some entertaining podcasts, let my brain wander, munched some tasty homemade oatmeal bars, and took in the bright blue sky. Really can’t ask for much more on Monday.

Looks like an excellent week of training ahead. Some good long rides scheduled as well as mountain bike ride on Wednesday at Kanata Lakes with the KingsBridge boys. Fun times. Next week I’m off to Creative Wheel to get some one-on-one mountain bike coaching – really looking forward to this. A few small things are coming together this week and I’m really just enjoying my bike. Sorry to get all cheesy on you, but I’m just feeling super lucky to be able to do this. And I’m working really hard on not putting pressure on myself. It is a fine balance – I have this gift to focus on my training and racing, but I feel that to “honor” this gift, I need to perform at a a very high level to make the sacrifices that Marc is making worthwhile. Yes, I know…

Today was another recovery day. Not often I get two recovery days in a row. So I decided to escape from the wind and get back to nature. Can’t quite beat riding the trails on a windy not-so-warm day. The trees really shelter you from the wind and the relentless windy noise is not present in your ears like it is out on the road.

Suffice it to say I had a blast ripping around Kanata Lakes this morning. I was careful to not dig too deep and kept things at a recovery pace. This allowed me to practice some descents and climbs that I had struggled with last week. At the slower pace I was able to really focus on riding my mountain bike technically well – my brain, body and eyes were better able to take in the trail and I was really able to focus on moving with the bike and the conditions.

It is amazing what can be done in 90 minutes of focused riding. And through it all, I was smiling and just really enjoyed being out there. It was a bit muddy in some spots but I’ll take mud over hail and rain anyday! So all in all, a great day of training.

Quick shower and then I hooked up with Marc for a relaxing lunch. Afternoon has been spent in a local Barrhaven coffee shop called Two Monkeys. Uber-focused on my writing project today. Got lots of words down on the page and just like the progress on the bike I’m seeing, I’m seeing progress with my secret project. Can’t beat these feelings.

The weekend is shaping up with some solid rides. Three hours on Saturday and close to five on Sunday. Sweet! Whatever the weather brings, I’ll simply roll with it.

Today’s ride was definitely a mixed bag and I have a feeling today’s post will also go down the mixed bag road… (So consider yourself warned!) Anyway, down to business with today’s ride. The schedule called for a recovery ride. Initially I wondered why I needed a recovery ride after only doing two days of intensity… But when I got on my bike and started pedaling, I learned why. The legs – they were tired. Another reminder of why my coach is such a darn smart cookie.

It would have been really awesome if the weather had co-operated with the recovery focus of this ride. Lets just say when I’m pushing 200 watts and only moving at a speed of 15 kilometers an hour, recovery is not really happening. Nope. And to drive home the point of how fierce the wind was today – I was in the small ring. Exactly. And then the rain came. Driving pounding rain. Luckily I had my trusty rain cape but no sooner did I put it on (no small feat with the winds whipping that cape around) and it had stopped raining. Fine, stop and take off the rain cape. Then a mere 20 minutes later, it is raining again. I decided to give it a few minutes (subscribing to the motto of “this too will pass”) but the rain turned to hail. Not good. I yanked the rain cape on, looked down at my bare legs and hands, and focused on getting home. Sigh. Definitely a ride of the mixed bag variety. I do have to admit the push home with the tailwind was appreciated but the hail kind of wiped the smile off my face!

I’m sitting here and I can’t remember if I posted to this site yesterday… Pretty scary – must be getting closer to that 40 year old brain. So if I did post yesterday, then I’m guessing I told you about my ride. If I didn’t post yesterday, here is what happened – good solid three hours. Rocked the tempo intervals. Got pushed around by the wind again. Had some excellent company on the ride. Developed a new found appreciation for a the taste sensation of cream soda at the 2.5 hour mark (thanks Shaun!). Got a wicked sunburn. My arms are bright red and stinging. So that was Wednesday. (Apologies all around if I already told you about this!)

Recently I’ve been poking around on the web looking at different cycling sites/blogs and listening to a variety of podcasts. One thing I’ve noticed is an obsession with doping. Now I’m not an advocate of doping in any way/level/terms or practice, but this being said, I’m getting a bit tired of reading and listening about it. Yes, like all professional sports, there are cyclists who dope. And sometimes these people are caught. But what we should really be reading and listening about are the athletes who don’t dope. The athletes who are out there racing, winning, struggling, striving to be better, making a name for themselves, and just plain old pressing down with the right leg followed by the left. This is more interesting to me. I know there are cyclists who dope. Fine. And I know that some of these people will get caught. They’ll serve their suspension and most likely return to bike racing. Fine. So lets get on with it and talk, write, read, and listen to the good stuff. Seems like the dopers get more publicity than those who don’t…

So what else is going on? Well, I’m working on my sponsorship proposal again. I received some excellent feedback so I’m going to make a few changes. If you’ve taken a look at my proposal and have some suggestions/thoughts – definitely fire them off to me. I’m open to any and all suggestions. If you want to sponsor me or know someone who does – well, get on your email and contact me!

In other news, don’t forget to hit up your local M & M Meat Shop on Saturday May 8 for the annual Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada barbecue. For a mere $2.50 you can snag some lunch and do some good for your community. Here’s what I’m going to do on Saturday: go to yoga, watch the opening prologue of the Giro D’Italia, go for my three hour ride, shower, and then visit my local M & M Meat Dhop for a well-deserved burger or two and then come home for a nap. See how easy it is to get it all in on one day – ride, watch the Giro, help the community, and get in a power nap – doesn’t get much better than that!

Hmm, speaking of nap, I think I might just go take one. Seems like a nap fits with a recovery day….