Just on my way out the door but I’ve got time for a quickie post. So training today did not go as planned but in the end it all worked out. Plan was to do a gym work-out before work and then a road ride after work. Smooth. Get to the gym – hmmm, it is completely dark and there is no music playing. Huh, no power. Oh well, there are still people working out. So I start my work-out. I just get settled in nicely to a round of back squats followed by jump squats and I’m told we have to leave. Bummer.

I must admit I came home a bit cranky. I was stressed trying to figure out when I could get this work-out in. Hopped on my bike for the ride to work. That is when it hit me, missing the gym session was not the end of the world. I will try to do it on Thursday, if not no biggie. Priorities for the week are really to be well rested for the racing this weekend and to get in a solid session tomorrow on the ‘cross bike. I caught myself before letting the missed gym work-out snowball into something bigger and worse.

Got in some excellent time on the road bike today. All about recovery so it was nice to be out enjoying the sunshine and listening to some Vinyl Cafe podcasts while pedaling along. When I got home I read the second part of Jeremy Power’s interview on CX Magazine. A pretty good interview. One part question really struck home with me and I thought some of you might be able to relate:

CXM: For those looking to progress to the highest ranks as a cyclocross racer, what words of wisdom do you have?

JPow: I think the biggest thing is to listen to the people around you and what they are telling you. One of the biggest things that I do, and one of the biggest aspects of my life, is I ask people to critique me. I am always asking what can I do better about this, what do you see? People say, “Well, I see you do this when you race in the mud, and when you get back on your bike.” Work on anything you possibly can. Because you are putting in 20 or 30 hours a week riding your bike and you’re not doing those things, then you’re not giving yourself a full chance. I think it’s important to just look at yourself from the outside in and say, “o.k. what can I do to make myself better, what do I know that I am not good enough at?” If that’s running, or if that’s riding in the mud, or if that’s just power, all of those things can be worked on. You can run more, you can train harder at intervals, you can go out and wet down your back yard and ride around in circles in the mud. You can make sure that you do all these things to at least give yourself an opportunity, and if you don’t give yourself that opportunity, then you have stumbled out of the start gate as if you never even tried. I would say breaking it down piece-by-piece and then taking your game to a different level is the hardest thing to do, but you have to look at each individual piece and then focus on one at a time and just knock them off. That can take years.

You’re looking at the top end of a sport, and when you look at the top end, there is going to be a really high range of guys. Some courses may suit you better genetically than others, and you may say that in that flat grassy race you’re awesome but then you get in this mud race and it’s not that great. You just have to look at those things and try and work on them one at a time.

Some very good words to think about. I know I am. Okay, gotta jet. The new Ottawa Cross clothing is going to look hot. Many many thanks to Fearless Leader for an excellent design. I’m off to get some forms faxed to Champion Systems so I can get myself some slick new racing and training duds.

Huge shout out to Clif Bar for getting my order to me so quickly. You guys rock. Pretty jazzed about the new Shot Blok packaging and looking forward to trying some of the new flavors. Had my first chocolate brownie Z Bar today – mmm, quite addictive.

Wow – what a day I’ve had. Kicked it off with a little bit of Tour de France watching and lingering over a steaming mug of coconut chai tea. Pretty smooth way to start a Sunday. The day simply got better as it rolled along. Packed up my trusty Stevens Super-Prestige and made my way over to some new training grounds. I wanted to ride some more technical trails than I’d been riding. And frankly I’ve been feeling a bit stale riding the same general trails every week.

Decided to check out Lime Kiln. I didn’t know much about it – but I presumed from the name it would be rocky. Well, definitely got that right! Rocky. Rooty. And unfortunately a tad too technical for me and my mountain bike. No biggie though. I zipped around on the trails there a bit and then rolled down Moodie and picked up another trail. This is where the real fun started. I ended up on a flowy singletrackish trail that took me over everything. Roots. Rocks. Bridges. Mud. Pine needles. Lots of twists and turns. Still technical but less so than Lime Kiln. Eventually I popped out at Stony Swamp. I picked up another trail and zipped around. All in all, an excellent morning session on the ‘cross bike.

Bonus factors of the morning session: testing my limits, stretching my limits, being in nature, conquering some challenging mud, remembering to keep pedaling at all times, looking ahead instead of two feet in front of me, remembering to ease up on the brake, and most importantly – being outside on a beautiful Sunday morning enjoying nature!

Had a chilled out late morning/early afternoon. Got lots of little jobs done around the house and found time to sit down and ready the Sunday NY Times. How I love this paper! I now subscribe to the Sunday NY Times. What a great treat to peek out onto the front step this morning at 6 to see this paper ready and waiting for me! Nothing like sitting down and really discovering the world and what is happening around us (pair this with some chocolate mint tea and it is even better!).

Soon enough it was time to hop on the ‘cross bike again and roll down to my local park for some skills and drills. I’m super lucky to have this little park down the street. It features a short but steep hill. Soccer field. A gravel/sand ball diamond. A sand box. And this kind of sloping section on the edge. So lots of great natural training features. Throw in some flags and a little creativity and I’m off to the races. Today I set up my standard grid on the steep face of the hill. I worked on riding up through the grid – making tight uphill corners. Then I worked on descending through the grid – making fast corners and maintaining speed. Then I worked on simply climbing the steep face with speed and playing around with my gearing. It was an excellent session. I learned a few new tricks. Overcame some obstacles. But best of all I learned how to maintain my cool…

So I was doing fairly well with the uphill corner drill – the last two corners were tight but with some elbow grease I was getting through them. I saw our car pull into the lot. Cool – Marc has come to watch and help out. Well, I started making all sorts of mistakes and I could no longer get through the corners. I was frustrated. But I didn’t let it get to me. (In years past I may have sulked or simply gotten quite angry with myself.) Marc showed me a couple of things. I tried them. Made some gains but still struggled. So I did something totally new for me – I moved on. I put the drill away and moved onto the next one. I didn’t let it ruin my session or eat away at me. For you this might not seem like a big deal. But for me this is massive. I think it shows that I’m actually starting to have some confidence in my skills and technique. I didn’t let one little thing snowball and ruin the rest of my training session. Probably the biggest reason for this: dudes I’m super motivated this year. I’m going to do it. I’m going to make it.

This focus has helped me see past the little blips and really keep my eyes on the big deal and the prize.

Bonus factors of the afternoon session: Marc coming out to help out and give me encouragement and advice, succeeding at failing and not getting upset, learning some new skills with regards to climbing and momentum, cornering and more cornering success, and most of all – being out there and doing it.

It is so easy to not go out for the extra session. But I have to do it. I haven’t got a lot of natural talent or raw skill to fall back on. I need to put in the hard work. Luckily I have the experience to know that the extra hard work will pay off in the end. Besides, I love training. Seriously, I enjoy training. I would train even if I wasn’t racing.

Yep, so a most excellent Sunday. Just had one of my new favorite snacks: carrots, celery and tomato with white kidney bean dip (one can of white kidney beans drained and rinsed blended in the food processor with a liberal amount of tahini, a splash of water, squeeze of lemon juice, and a dash of cumin or cayenne pepper). Now I’ve got one last “job” to do for this Sunday – iron the work clothes… The reward is good though – a trip to the big book store to touch books and sip a tasty chai tea misto and then dinner out with pals at the New Mee Feung. Yep, pretty darn fine Sunday. Extra bonus of this Sunday – seeing my man Jens Voigt ride like a machine to bring his team mate back to the peleton after a flat. Jens rules!

Wow – can you believe it is July? Let me simply say this: time flies. Even more so when I’m having fun. This summer has pretty darn fine so far. Maybe I’m still on the post-vacation high, but I like to think not. Yep, so far so good.

The vacation in St. Georges de Beauce was just what I needed. Not a typical vacation destination but it was just what I needed. We were pretty much detached from reality – no Internet or cell phone service at the house on Lac Poulin. At first I thought this might be an issue. But guess what – I didn’t really miss the Internet. Not having email was a hassle a few times but other than that I was pretty happy to be “cut off”. After a few days those web sites I simply had to check didn’t seem all that important. Instead I spent my time training, reading, sitting, talking and simply being.

After a few days I realized I was smack dab in the middle of a mini-training camp. My days were focused purely on my training. I pretty much had all day everyday to get my training in. This allowed me to really really focus on the bike. I didn’t have to think about fitting it in around my work hours or other appointments. It really was the perfect training environment.

I got in lots of long rides, a bunch of intensity work and a couple of easy recovery days. One of the differences for me was the terrain. Typically here at home I ride on pretty flat roads – the only nemesis being the wind. But in the Beauce region, it is all about hills. After a few days I was comfortable with the terrain and the mental aspect of climbing really wasn’t a factor. I actually started to look forward to some of the steep and long climbs – another way to test myself. (But don’t get me wrong, I’m kind of relieved to be going out for a flat ride today!)

So cyclo-cross season is getting close. I must say I did miss my cyclo-cross bike last week. Definitely looking forward to getting out on it this week. Hoping to do my Thursday recovery ride in the woods. Should be nice to hit up the trails and be in nature. Now is the time when I start looking at racing schedules, think about travel, etc. Exciting times definitely. Once again I’ll be looking for people who are interested in coming to Belgium and staying in the house in Blauberg. If you’re thinking of making the trip and having any questions etc., don’t be shy – drop me an email and ask away.

Dugasts. Dugasts. Dugasts. Do you want some? Of course you do! Well, The Cyclery has got them in stock. I suggest you get on the phone pronto and get yourself some sweet tires. You won’t regret it. Trust me.

Okay, I’m out of here. Heading out of the cubicle in a little bit and making the commute home. Then it is a smooth 2.5 hours on the road bike. Me, the iPod and the flat roads. Hello summer. Bring on the fall.

Back from Beauce. Kind of beat from the travel and all the training. I’ll write more later today or tomorrow about my week in Beauce and some of the traning sensations.

Today I want you to go to my other site Victoria’s Island and check out some pretty smooth photos. It will be worth the visit. The red and white jersey looks pretty darn fine on my favorite guy.

It is now Monday. Still here in St. Georges de Beauce. We are staying here for the week since Marc is racing on Friday and then again on Sunday. Nice little break for us from our day-to-day routine.

So Canadian Road Nationals were this past Saturday. Not really much to say about the race unfortunately. I didn’t have the best day. To keep things short, I did not finish. It has been a long time since I’ve had a DNF next to my name. Lets just say this was not how I had expected my race day to turn out. But as the saying goes “that’s bike racing”. I really don’t know what happened. Essentially, everyone went faster than me. I tried to catch back on – nearly made it, but close doesn’t help much in a race of forward momentum. So all in all I had a very short day on the bike on Saturday. No excuses. No reasons. It is what is.

While sitting in the feed zone watching my race, I received some good advice “put the race in a box. lock the box. put the box away. move on.”. Thanks for this DSJ. Really helped me keep my perspective. So this is what I’m doing, the race is in a little box. I’m not dwelling on it. It happened. It won’t happen again.

So onto better and more exciting bike racing chatter and talk. First off, massive congrats to the local Ottawa girls for such fine racing this past weekend. Shout out to Tricia K. for a very fine time trial on Friday and then to have a pretty darn solid road race on Saturday. Kudos to Sophie also racing for Stevens for putting together to solid days on the bike. Massive congrats to “newbie” road racer Cynthia Wilson of Ride with Rendall for racing the time trial and then following this up with a “never say die” attitude during the road race – finishing with the main pack. Congrats as well to Natasha E. for two strong days of racing – best of luck in France. Lots of inspiration and lessons to be learned from these bike racers. I’m impressed with the tenacity, positive attitudes and pure grit.

Sunday was the elite men’s road race. Cool. So you have most likely seen the results. Pretty darn fine day for Ride with Rendall – with Aaron Fillion capturing the elite men’s title. Nice ride Aaron. It was an interesting day to be in the feed zone and to be a biker racer/superfan. Learned a lot about taking chances, risks, and team tactics. All of the Ride with Rendall racers had strong days out there. Congrats guys for the great rides. Again, some pretty impressive role models and inspiration to be taken from these guys.

I’d be remiss to not send a massive congrats out to Warren M. for his most impressive time trial on Friday. Last year Warren won the Masters A national time trial title. This year he raced the elite time trial were he came a most impressive and admirable 6th place. Way to go Warren!

Osmond Bakker also had an excellent day on Sunday finishing second. Congrats Osmond!

All in all, I’d say Ottawa looked pretty good here this past weekend in St. Georges.

I’d say that one of the best aspects of this past weekend has been staying in the house with the Ride with Rendall team. Many thanks to Glen for once again offering me a spot in the “team house”. Very much appreciated. I really enjoyed hanging out with the guys and gals. Yes, I did disappear at times with my book. (I’m working on being 100 per cent social…) I really just enjoyed hanging out and talking with everyone. It was a great opportunity to get to know the new guys and to catch up with the old-timers. I find it really helps to be surrounded by a solid group of people in stressful situations and this weekend was no exception. So thanks everyone for the laughs, stories, words of wisdom and patience. I think what helped me the most were the few words I exchanged with some of you after my race – much appreciated.

Now I’m looking forward to a relaxing week of training and getting ready for Marc’s racing this weekend. Another batch of Ride with Rendall racers will be arriving this Wednesday for the Masters and Junior National road, time trial, and criterium nationals. Until then, Marc and I will have a couple of easy days of pedaling, sleeping, watching the waves on Lac Poulin and smiling.

Feeling pretty lucky right now. Have a good one. Thanks for the emails of support and encouragement these past few days – these mean more than you can probably understand.

(Best of luck to the Stevens team and to Natasha (racing for Specialized) next weekend in Fitchburg – looking forward to hearing all about the racing.)