When I received my training calendar from my FasCat coach Tucker Olander, I wasn’t convinced that I needed to take a restoration week at the end of the month. After all, I was just getting started – why take a break? I’ve gone for months on end without a break before – why change this pattern? Well, guess what – Tucker was right…

After four weeks of good hard training, I was ready for a rest. I didn’t realize this until Sunday night when I was in bed at 7:30 in the evening. A restoration week doesn’t mean – sit around and do nothing. Rather it means do less than normal but still do some training. Admittedly Monday and today were pretty chilled out – all I had going on was a power yoga class at MountainGoat Yoga in Barrhaven. Wednesday sees me riding for an easy hour and Thursday is another yoga session.

Then the restoration ends… With Friday, things ramp up again and I get to become friendly with Computrainer. Yes, while most of you will be outside riding or racing on Good Friday – I’ll be in the basement riding. And you know what? I’m fine with that. There is a time and a place  for bundling up and getting outside and there is a time and a place for wearing just shorts and a sports bra and sweating it out in the basement. Some of you are still shaking your heads no and thinking “a true cyclist would ride outside”… Well, I have to do “all outs” also known as “full gas” intervals – not quite warm enough for this and it is hard to go completely all out when I have to worry about: staying upright, cars, snow, ice, and staying on the road. (Saturday is more intervals – so I’ll likely be inside for these.)

But Sunday – ah glorious Sunday – I’ll be outside rolling along wishing I could slow down time.

As you can likely guess, I’m enjoying a bit of a break from the hard training but I’m itching to get back at it. I’m super looking forward to the middle of April when I’m taking a week off from work and all I’ll be doing is riding, riding and riding. I’m going to do a mini training camp – likely right here in Ottawa so I hope the weather gods are friendly.

Suffice it to say, I’m happy with how the first month of training has gone. I’ve surprised myself and I think my coach as well. We saw numbers that I haven’t seen in a really long time (yes, I recalibrate my PowerTap before every ride) and (yes, I know that wattage means nothing if you don’t have the skills). Here’s looking ahead to April – a great month for training, riding and of course birthdays…

Happy Easter – I hope the bunny rabbit is friendly to you. Not sure what she’ll bring to our doorstep since I’m still doing the Simply Raw Lighten Up Cleanse – this is going really well. Not hard at all. I feel really good on it and I’m eating such darn healthy food that I feel super energized. Can’t beat fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds. (Of course, I am looking forward to some Easter chocolate – or should I say Easter cacao?)

The past two days at work have been very interesting. I participated in two days of agile training. Very very interesting. I won’t get into the details and nitty gritty of agile and how it makes the workplace a more functional, efficient, fun and productive environment. If you want to read about agile, take a look at this website: Westboro Systems. So why am I writing about work and agile training on this cycling-focused website? I’m doing this because of one key phrase that was repeated and emphasized a great deal:

Continuous Improvement

Hmm, pretty heavy eh? This is a theme/mantra/phrase/touchstone that you and I can apply to pretty much every aspect of our lives. Our working lives. Our bike racing lives. Our family life. Our relationships with our friends. How we interact with strangers. How we step into the unknown.

Continuous Improvement – this really resonates with me right now. As an athlete I’m striving to get better each and every day. Once I achieve one goal on the bike, I’m looking for the next one – be this achieving a target wattage number, tackling a tricky descent, or getting the pre-race routine down. Away from the bike, I’m seeking continuous improvement on a daily basis – learning to let the little things go by with no impact, to stop judging and learning to accept, to be more patient, to relax and enjoy, to simply just be.

I have a feeling that Continuous Improvement will be making an appearance on my stem this year. A subtle reminder to keep pushing that little bit more and a reminder that things have gotten better and will continue to do so. (It is important to acknowledge that these improvements do not need to be huge – they only need to be significant to you. Tying your shoes doesn’t seem like a big deal right now but when you were 5 years old, successfully tying your shoes was a big deal…)

I think central to maintaining a path of Continuous Improvement is remembering that there will be blips and missteps – this is okay. You’re human. I’m human. No one is perfect. With an eye on a long view, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve grown, improved, changed and blossomed.

After a late night out with friends I was up early to gobble down a very tasty smoothie (thanks to my brand new Vitamix!) and make the drive out to trusty P10 in the Gatineau Park for a three hour ski… Things kind of got a bit scattered after this…

Good: homemade almond milk, ground flax seed, avocado, banana, frozen cherries and cocoa powder. Turned into smoothie magic  in less than 30 seconds thanks to my new Vitamix.

Not The Greatest: rather frosty outside this morning hovering between -15 and -18 depending on where I was. Oh well, I’ve got lots of good ski clothing – I’ll be fine.

Bit Of A Bummer: arrived at P10 by 8 a.m. to discover that I had left my ski gloves at home. I had my liners but not my trusty lobster gloves. With the temperature at -18, the liners weren’t enough. Turn the car around and drive home.

Things Get A Bit Brighter: while pondering the location of my lobster gloves and wondering what I would do for my training today, I saw something pretty awesome. A rainbow. A rainbow in March is not something we see often here.

Looking Up: arrive home to a my favourite guy laughing at me and reminding me that it is March – not a big deal if I don’t get the three hour ski in today. To soothe myself I whipped out the Vitamix and made some almond butter. Amazingly fresh and tasty almond butter in 90 seconds. Toss in a mug of Earl Grey Tea and the day was looking good.

Smiles All Around: decided to pull on my running gear and hit the suburban streets. You  might be wondering why I didn’t get on the trainer – well my coach didn’t want me to be riding the trainer today. He said it is a long time until the season starts and he doesn’t want me getting bored of riding and training inside. No problems with that. I got in a good dose of Vitamin D – let my mind go and ran around like a little kid.

All Is Good Again: stretch, hot shower and some lunch and now it is time for a relaxing Sunday afternoon. I’m off to Simply Raw Express this afternoon for the “kick off” for the two week Lighten Up Cleanse that starts tomorrow. Good steps forward on this Sunday.

The training mode is full-on now. I’m past the first two weeks of shock and awe and now I’m fully into the groove. I have to say – I’m really enjoying training again. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Apart from the structure and the challenging work-outs is the mental boost I get from training.

I just feel good. I feel good about myself. I feel good about where I am and where I’m going. Definitely my confidence was lagging before I started training again (perhaps this was the reason why I was not convinced I wanted to race again..) – but now that I’m just wrapping up week three of training, I have landed in a happy place.

It is amazing how vital it is to simply feel good about yourself.

These feelings trickle down into every aspect of my life. I seem to appreciate what I have in my life more and I recognize that none of this can be taken for granted. I count myself lucky that I’m able to recognize this. As my yoga teacher always says “Start your day with an attitude of gratitude”. So very true.

I realized that at first glance, this blog appears to be written by a person who is consumed with riding and blogging – it seems as though there not much else going on… Well, I thought that I’d take a break from telling you about my escapades in the basement riding the trainer or out stumbling around in the snow on my snowshoes – today I’m going to let you in on all the other stuff I do and that interests me. (Hold on tight – you never know what you’re going to learn here…)

Job?

Yes, I do have a job. I work as a technical writer for a local Ottawa software company. I work with very cool and smart people. My job is both challenging and rewarding. I also appreciate that it rates fairly low on the stressometer (just made this word up). I like going to work. I only work at this place four days a week. On the fifth day I flex my writing muscles and write a range of content for a bunch of freelance clients – professional blogs, article summaries, whitepapers, etc. This writing keeps me learning and thinking – it also gives me a chance to have my fingers in a lot of different industries and interests.

Books?

I like to read. Problem is, I’m a slow reader. Always have been and always will be. It seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to read a book. But I’m okay with this. I read books on my Kindle. I heart my Kindle. Currently I’m reading Canada by Richard Ford – a top-notch read. I recently finished 419 by Will Ferguson – another great read. Some of my favourite authors include: Angie Abdou, Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett. I’m not a fan of mystery – though I did become extremely addicted to Gone Girl – this was fantastic. Occasionally I read memoirs and non-fiction – one such book that I think is most excellent is Wild by Cheryl Strayed and I’m  just about to download Sugar Salt Fat by Michael Moss.

Magazines?

Truth be told, I used to be a magazine whore. I bought every magazine under the sun. So many magazines that I didn’t have time to read my books and eventually the magazine pile just became too big. But then when I took a break from full-time work to focus on riding my bike, I learned an important lesson – magazines are expensive. So I stopped buying them. Instead I would go to the big box book store and read them for free (deal!). But now that I have some disposable income again, I like to purchase a magazine or 17… No really, I have cut back a lot and often will choose to keep my $9 and read the magazine for free… But if I were to loosen the purse strings and spend, you’d likely find magazines like Outside, Peloton, Singletrack, The New Yorker, Ryerson Review of Journalism, and a new-to-me magazine Cyclist in my hot little hands. In fact, I bought Cyclist yesterday and I did so for one very specific article – a profile of Marianne Vos (my fave cyclist).

TV?

We don’t have traditional television here. We have a nice fancy flat panel tv (thanks mom and dad) but if you turn it on it doesn’t do much. We watch tv thanks to Netflix and some acquiring of programs. The rotation include House of Cards (love Kevin Spacey), Homeland (yes, it jumped the shark but so what), The Amazing Race, anything TopChef, anything MasterChef (though the New Zealand hosts are a bit lame), Modern Family, and a smattering of food-related documentaries. I do most of my tv watching while riding the trainer. So I expect in the coming weeks, this digital consumption will grind to a halt – and I’m okay with this. I don’t miss conventional tv – in fact I’m glad we got rid of our 200 channels. I find I’m less compelled to buy things since I don’t have advertisements shoved down my throat, I’m not in touch with popular culture and I’m okay with this, and I don’t find myself sitting in one spot staring at the black screen in the corner for hours on end. (Though I do admit that when we travel to races and stay in hotels, I quickly become a Food Network zombie and Marc is left to fend for himself.)

Radio?

Love the radio. Love CBC. Love NPR. As a kid I hated CBC radio – I felt it was boring and just for “grown-ups”. Well, I guess I’m a grown-up now since I really like to have CBC radio on all day when I’m home. When Marc was in Belgium, I found myself talking back to the CBC radio hosts and guests – yes even Murphy the cat raised his eyebrows when this happened. Due to my affinity for the radio, I also find myself listening to a lot of podcasts. Some people listen to music when they ride – not me, I’m all over talk radio and talk podcasts. Even for interval work-outs I listen to podcasts. If you looked at one of my ride playlists you’d find stuff like: CBC Radio’s Q, CBC Radio’s DNTO, NPR’s Fresh Air, the ClifCast, NPR’s All Songs Considered, CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter, and anything else that gets my brain churning.

Food?

I like to eat. I like to learn about food. I like to try new recipes (in fact I try to cook one new recipe a week). I eat a primarily vegan diet – this transition has happened over the last few years. This happened mostly due to my health concerns and trying to figure out how to keep myself in an ulcerative colitis remission. I’ve also found that since I’ve become sick, I just can’t handle digesting as much meat as I could in the past. I try to eat a mostly gluten-free diet and I’m most definitely dairy-free (added some in due to the recent dance with gout but the side effects of the dairy were unpleasant). I do eat meat once-a-week – this is on advice of my doctor and his concerns for my B12 levels. Along this journey of changing my diet I’ve read a lot of books and learned a lot about how valuable it is to achieve an alkaline state. Some books that have taught me a lot are Brendan Brazier’s books, Scott Jurek’s book, Natasha Kyssa’s book The Simply Raw Living Foods Detox Manual, and the book Becoming Vegan. So what do I eat? Fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and some grains – this means I drink smoothies, make super salads for lunch, make amazing veggie soups, stews and other meals, and for dessert I might have fruit, a date ball thingy, or chocolate. This might sound boring but it isn’t. Thanks to some awesome cookbooks and food sites, I eat awesome food. I just made my own rice milk – thanks to a recipe posted by cyclo-cross superstar Mo Bruno Roy on her site The Vegan Delicious and yesterday I also made my own sunflower seed butter (so darn good).

What Else?

Hmm, I’m not sure what else there is to know. Life is good. And I try to keep things simple. We don’t go to fancy restaurants (though we do like to eat out – big fans of anything Asian, the odd Shwarma Palace visit, and a hearty burger (veggie for me) from The Works). I like to hang out at coffee shops – drinking a decaf latte and reading or chatting with friends. Weekends are pretty chilled out – training, reading, groceries, cooking for the week and hanging out with friends. We have a cat – he is old (18) and he is our pride and joy – Murphy is just a big ball of love. So that’s really about it.

Now you know a lot about me. I hope I haven’t scared you off from returning to this site…