January Update

So its already nearing the end of January, kinda scary and exciting.  Haven't been too good about updating the blog so going to cheat again and do a photo essay of sorts.  We kicked off the holiday season with Gord Fraser's Christmas sweater party complete with DJ and Caryn's jello shots!!  Good times where held by all, such a good time that I had to skip my bike intervals the next morning and simply concentrate on making my afternoon flight home to the Great White North ;)

Sam, PT, Noreen, Marilyn, myself and Justin

Arrived in Canada Sunday night before Christmas and got to enjoy some great family time.  Did a bit of baking and finished (well started and finished) my shopping while fitting in some easy workouts here and there.  Everything was cruising along nicely until the evening of the 22nd when my sister and I were enjoying the hockey game and she suddenly started feeling nauseous.  I headed to bed feeling pretty normal but woke up 1am or so and the two of us tagged teamed the bathroom for the rest of the evening.  Needless to say we both spent the next day in bed feeling more miserable than I have felt in a really long time.  It hurt to even roll over in bed!!  We thought at first it might be food poisoning but judging by how many other people came down with the same thing it was likely just a really nasty flu bug :(  

I was finally able to rally mid-day on the 24th in time to get out for a short ride on my hometown trails before heading into Toronto for our family Christmas dinner.  Always fun to ride the trails where it all started for me on the mountain bike. Sadly my sister was still feeling horrible and had to miss dinner.  A funny article floated around the social media sites about the truths of health clubs and one item said the only way to lose 10 lbs in 24hrs is food poisoning.  Well, it took me for about 6lbs and Karen for 14lbs.  First Christmas holidays in a while that I have lost weight 

Guelph Lake MTB trails

Arrived back into Tucson Wednesday and jumped right back into the training.  Fellow Xterra triathlete and good friend Branden Rakita is spending a couple of months here training this winter and the weather has been nothing short of spectacular.  New Year's Eve Leanda Cave and I celebrated by getting in the first long ride of the season (at least for me it was!!)  I had never done the Madera Canyon climb, so the two of us enjoyed a nice leisurely 10am start and a good 5hrs + in the saddle.  The climb was a "little" steeper than I had anticipated and the legs were definitely feeling it, but it was well worth it for the view at the top.  Leanda managed to do the climb one handed and taking pictures, I however needed both hand firmly gripping the bars ;))

Riding up Madera Canyon

After a quick clean-up and power nap on the couch it was out for a great dinner with Leanda and Bill before heading over to the west side New Year's Eve party.  Wasn't sure if I was going to make it all the way to midnight but the dance floor got going and soon enough it was well into 2012.  Once again the Sunday bike intervals got a pass ;)) I think it should be a rule not to have hard workouts on Sunday during the holiday season.  No matter, it's a long season and plenty of time to get in all that good training!!

Jumping ahead, it was time to get some testing done to set up the training plans and see if all the extra miles on the bike during November and December had paid off.  Lucky for me Brian Grasky is here in Tucson with a great set-up and indulged me in helping me inflict 30mins of pain on myself.  Good news is my bike is doing awesome, like better than last year in late March awesome.  

Lactate testing at Grasky Endurance Center

Bad news is the next week after riding the first MBAA mountain race at McDowell Mountain Park with a bit of a sore throat I came down with a full blown cold and major congestion that knocked out a couple of days of training.  Then true to me being unable to sit around and relax and recover I headed out for a mountain bike ride not quite feeling 100% and had a total high speed crash resulting in a chipped lower front tooth, some serious trail rash, cuts and bruises and likely a slight dislocation of my left shoulder :((( Yeah, I got to spend the next day sitting in a dentist chair then took another couple of days off training, boo.

Racing at McDowell Mountain Park MBAA #1

Tucson Mountain Park - my backyard MTB playground

So now, a week post crash, I am finally feeling better and getting the training all fired up again.  Berk is sending me Turkish Evil Eyes to put on my bike so I won't crash anymore, anxiously awaiting those ;)  Waffling a bit on whether or not to still do the 24hrs in the Old Pueblo, but excited to see everyone that is headed down this way next month.  Until then keep the rubber side down!!!

More Tucson Mountain Park!!

Therapy!!! thanks Jess :)