Very uneventful flight and travel today. This is a good thing. Flight was smooth. Everything made it on (thanks Dave M.). We were well-equipped with food for the flight so we didn’t get sucked into the bad and expensive plane food.

Loaded up my dad’s truck with seven bikes and some assorted bags. All was good – it was a tight squeeze but this probably saved the bikes from flying out of the back on one tight corner! Grabbed some lunch and then the boys built bikes. I offered to help, but…

Anyway, we rode over to Argyle Park – dug up a course map and rode around what we “think” is the course. Hard to know. Nothing is marked and these things change over night. Anyway, it was good to get the legs moving – test out some tires and just be out in the fresh air.

One thing to say about the terrain – dry, short grass. If it stays dry (please no snow!) then it will be a super fast day. The course is open for riding on Friday at 4:00 so we’ll roll over then to check it out.

I’m sticking to coach Steve’s advice and I vow not to do too much tomorrow. Five laps maximum. I’m also staying mindful of Nick’s advice to not get to wrapped up in the course discussions. Just need to wait – ride it, fine-tune sections then do a good pre-ride on Saturday. A lot will change between Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon.

For some interesting reading, check out Zone of Excellence. Some good reading. Thanks Nick for the pointer.

Okay, stomachs are rumbling – time for some food and then a trip to the grocery store. I’ll post up tomorrow night with more. Thanks very much for the emails and support – it is really appreciated.

Hope you are getting into a good Thanksgiving weekend. Have some pumpkin pie for me.

Massive shout out to Ross for driving us to the airport this morning. Thanks so much Ross.

Thanks for the kind comments and emails regarding my bike incident on Monday. I’ve been out for two rides since and I’m relieved to say that the knee is doing just fine. No pain while riding. There is some pain when it gets stiff and as well the bruising is starting to come out. But really, there is no issue.

Got in a solid interval work-out yesterday. One of my fave work-outs – really gets the legs and lungs acheing. Today I went out bright and early for an easy two hour endurance ride. Nice way to spin out the legs and feel some recovery time. Certainly was a bit brisk. Ah well, soon enough there will be snow on the ground! (Hopefully we’ll have left for Belgium before seeing snow here in Ottawa!)

Thought you might find this article interesting. Thanks to Sheri for sending it to me. Cyclocross Racing Tips

Reminer about the Ride with Rendall training session this evening. Same time and place. I won’t be out – got some bikes and clothes to pack up. Have fun. Learn lots.

The living room is a shambles right now with the “to take pile”, the “might take pile”, the “to be folded pile”, and the “what the heck is this pile”… Sigh. Ah well, I’ve got a bunch of lists so we are organized (at leat on paper).

The three of us: myslef, Marc and Fearless Leader fly out tomorrow morning to Edmonton. Lucky for us, my dad is coming out to Edmonton so he is going to pick us up with his super truck. Thanks dad! Looking forward to the trip. Psyched to be racing. Bonus is we get to hang out with Shaun – a super guy we met in Belgium last year. Maybe even a trip to the West Edmonton Mall – I was last there in the ’80s – suppose it isn’t as fantastic as I remember it.

Okay, I best be off. I’ve got some work to do. Some appointments. And the packing…

Send me some speedy vibes 2:00 Edmonton, Alberta time on Saturday. I’ll post while in Edmonton – let you know about the race course, etc. Thanks for the encouragement and suppot. Can’t do this alone.

Yep, unfortunately as the title reads – that is what happened to me yesterday… Sucks. I was 13 minutes into my 90 minute recovery ride when an eighteen wheeler decided to occupy the same space as me. And if there is one thing that I remembered from high school physics – two objects cannot occupy the same space…

To make a long story short: I turned right on the just-turned green light, the truck ran his red – ostensibly because he was going too fast and didn’t see a car…. So now we are both in the same lane – I have no where to go – the truck has squeezed me out of my lane – problem is there is a very high curb running along this section of Strandherd Rd. And no I couldn’t bunny-hop it – I don’t know how to bunny-hop my bike onto an object I’m running parallel to. (Not that there was time to even try this trick.)

So I got squeezed into the curb. Horrible sounds from the carbon hitting the cement. Then even worse sounds as I went flying – crashing right knee first onto the sidewalk and bike collapsing in the middle of the road. Stunned I picked up my bike pretty quickly – had to since not one motorist stopped. No the truck driver didn’t stop – I doubt he even saw me. (And if you’re not going to stop for a red light…)

Gave the bike a quick check. Picked up my water bottle. Noted the massive rip in my favorite tights. Rode home. Darn. After some consideration I went to a walk-in clinic to get the gash on my knee cleaned out – lots of road/sidewalk in my knee.

So the doctor was super nice. Until she poured about 250 ml of hydrogen peroxide on the open bleeding knee! Yikes. But surprisingly it didn’t sting that badly. I think I was in shock from the events. Crazy.

So yesterday’s training leading up to the race this weekend did not go as planned… Well, it could have been worse. Luckily for me I came out of things okay. I’m just about to head out for my last intensity work-out before cyclo-cross nationals.

The timing on this is not great. But such is life when you live an active life. Last year I crashed the day before ‘cross nationals and badly sprained my thumb. I felt no pain on race day. I fully expect to have the same experience on Saturday.

(Honestly I wasn’t even sure if I should tell you about this incident. I don’t want it to sound like I’m making up an excuse. But then I thought, well I write about all the positive stuff that happens so this should get the same exposure.) Lucky for me I’m meeting with Nick from Summit Consulting tonight – perfect timing.

Okay, best go. Sorry for being such a downer so early on a Tuesday morning. Good news is the photos from the race on Sunday are up.

Many of you have seen my new race and training clothing. One sponsor that is displayed prominently is Kingsbridge Disaster Recovery. Thanks to the support of Kingsbridge, i am fortunate to be able to travel to and live in Europe for the winter months – training for and racing cyclo-cross.

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Kingsbridge Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Blog

Massive thanks to Kingsbridge Disaster Recovery for their support this season. It helps so much to have these guys cheering me on and helping me out with my travel and accommodation expenses. Thanks guys – here’s to a fantastic 2008 – 2009 cyclo-cross season.

Wow – what a blast I had yesterday at the Ottawa Bicycle Club madison race. It had been two years since I’d raced the madison. So much fun. Lots of people – 76 teams! Lots of people out cheering us on. Solid course. Amazing volunteers – thanks Bob, Cheryl, Ian, Bryan, Connie, and all the other people I don’t know. Your hard work on Sunday morning was much appreciated.

The day started off a bit brisk but it quickly warmed up and racer were peeling off layers. Some even agreeing to remove the second neck tube!!!

The madison is always a bit of a question mark – will there be some “stacked” teams?, who is partnering with who?, etc? Initially Marc and I wanted to partner together but we kind of knew this wouldn’t be permitted. So when Natasha suggested she and I ride together – this worked out really well. Though there was some grumbling that we were a stacked team as well. Ah well, can’t keep everyone happy.

Honestly, I had no idea who was winning or losing. There were so many people racing, so much cheering and a lot of smiles that I really didn’t care about the score sheet. Since this was my last race before ‘cross nationals, my goal was to get in some very hard and intense laps. This I accomplished. I focused on riding hard to get that “leg ache” and to always work on getting back up to speed as quickly as possible after an obstacle or corner. Worked. I was pretty tired after each lap. Got four laps in.

The most fun was chilling out/recovering on the “off” lap. People were cheering, chatting, and re-hashing their previous lap. Good times.

At the end of the race, Bob and I awarded two Ottawa Cross jerseys to a spunky and determined team of two little girls riding their mountain bikes. So awesome to see them out there racing their hearts out and really giving it their best shot. That’s the future of bike racing – all these little kids out there just riding around having fun. Great racing girls – definitely an inspiration to me.

The results from the race are posted. Click on 2008 results and download the PDF.

Congrats to everyone who came out to enjoy a beautiful fall day and to get some racing and cheering in. Thanks again to the organizers – the Ottawa Bicycle Club series is all volunteer run – so remember to say thank-you.

Have a good one. I’ll post a link to the photos on the Photos page as soon as they are up. If you have a race report or some photos from the racing action – send them to me and I’ll get them up on the site.

Big shout out of congrats to the Ottawa crew who raced in Quebec yesterday. Robbie O – 2nd, Keirnan O – 2nd, Thomas – 3rd, Aarron – 4th, and Glen – 5th. Nice riding guys!