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 :)

Dawn to Dusk

Off-season racing fun got rolling a week ago Saturday at the Dawn to Dusk mountain bike race hosted by DCB Adventures on the Pemberton Trail at McDowell Mountain Park just outside Fountain Hills. I jumped on the co-ed quad team Cancer Sucks with George, Jo, and Todd for this great event.  I headed up early Friday afternoon to pre-ride the course as I haven't ridden the Pemberton Trail in years and luckily was able to grab a great parking spot.  Turned out this was pretty sweet as the parking lot filled to capacity Friday night and all latecomers had to park down the road and get shuttled in.  Not ideal considering the rain started falling and temperatures plummeted during the night.  We were smart and got a good nights sleep at the Holiday Inn!!!

George lining up for the start

4:30am wake-up to rain was lovely, but George loves mountain biking in the rain and it was a mass sprint start so he got to go first!! I rode 2nd with Todd and Jo in 3rd and 4th.  The first lap was a little chilly but no rain and the trail was running nicely.  We spent the time between laps huddled in the car chatting and trying to stay warm only venturing out to cheer the next rider on or get ready to ride a lap.  The sun made a brief appearance for my 2nd lap and so inspired me to really have a great lap, one of those special, totally in the groove mountain biking moments :)  Sadly the rain came back and my 3rd and last lap was pretty sloppy.

Finishing up Lap 2 (i think)

Fun weather

Base Camp

Everyone had a great time and we won our division convincingly!!! The weather only made it that much more epic.  The drive home to Tucson after the race was probably more painful than the race itself and I definitely felt like a train wreck the next morning!!! Not sure what I am getting myself into racing 24hrs in the Old Pueblo as a duo.  Thankfully my partner in crime Katie Ellis is in great shape taking the win in the solo division.

Post-race team celebration

Since then it has been nose to the grindstone getting in some great training especially on the bike.  Spend this past Sunday out on the 24hr course for the first time and pretty excited about the race in February.  Trail is in great shape and super fun.  

This is probably it for the year as far as blogging goes so Happy Holidays and wishing everyone a terrific 2012!!

Northern Californial Part II

Tuesday morning we were off on our next adventure, a trip down the coast highway to Monterey and Carmel then a day visiting the Aquarium.  I was pretty excited as the Aquarium is something I have wanted to visit for a while, surprising eh?  all those fishies and stuff ;)

The drive was spectacular and California served up another georgeous day.  We ate sandwiches on the Santa Cruz pier and rolled into Monterey an hour or so later.  Travel guide (sister) Karen had mapped out the route and we expertly found our way to the 17-mile drive through Pepple Beach.  I am so moving there (if I win the lottery or find a really rich guy to marry me).  Amazing oceans views, sea lions, sea otters, what's not to love!!! 

Monterey

Pepple Beach

 

Pepple Beach


We indulged Dad and stopped in at the Pepple Beach club house and strolled out to the 18th fairway.  I guess if you are a golfer you can appreciate the need to do this ;)

Carmel

We arrived into Carmel and caught just the last little bit of the sunset before grabbing a great Japanese Seafood dinner in town. 

Jellies at the Monterey Aquarium

Up early Wednesday morning, we weren't quite the first ones in the door of the aquarium (but close).  I was a little nervous that I would be disappointed and expecting way too much, but I was very impressed.  We started with the feeding of the sea otters, very cute, then headed over to the open sea exhibit.  The walk through the jellyfish display was impressive and watching the schooling sardines in the giant tank, well I probably could have stayed there all day mesmorized.  We moved onto the kelp forest tank which housed one of my favourites, the leopard shark.  The penguins were a bit lazy and just hung out, but I guess that's what they do most of the day.  Had tons of fun at the splashponds where you could reach in an touch some of the creatures.  I convinced a young boy to reach in and pet the Bat Ray's.  Pretty sure a future in maring biology is in his future!!  Overall very, very impressive and well worth the trip.

Thursday saw us say goodbye to the parents after a great visit while I got to stay on for a couple more days.  The weather was starting to turn a bit ugly but thankfully cleared up perfectly for the Saturday morning Studio Velo/ Purple Patch ride.  The ride was the Alpine loop with an added drop down to the coast and back along hwy 1.  The ridge road, also know as the seven sisters served up some stunning  views to go along with the seven leg burning climbs. 

Seven Sisters - Mt. Tamalpais

We wanted to head out to watch the Single-Speed Cross Worlds in the city Sunday morning but just couldn't get motivated to brave the cold wet weather.  Instead we enjoyed a leisurely morning before I headed off to the airport. 

Back in Tucson and back to work.  Getting in lots of miles on the bike and loving it.  After two weeks back on the road I decided Thanksgiving was the appropriate day to take the mountain bike out for a spin.  A bit sketchy to start out with but so exciting to be back on the trails.  Good thing because I am signed up as part of a four man team for next weekends Dawn to Dusk mountain bike race in McDowell Mountain Park.  

Hope everyone enjoyed a great Thanksgiving!!!

Northern California Part I

They say broken bones take about 6 weeks to heal but mine seems to be stubborn.  Still stiff and sore, six weeks from the crash I woke up on a Sunday morning and looked at my trainer upon which I was suppose to do a long ride and just couldn't do it, so out the door I went.  It is now coming up on almost 8 weeks and the healing process continues at a painfully slow rate.  I have been getting some good rides out on the road bike but the mountain bike will have to wait until next week.  Swimming is interesting... and running is still a bit painful as I think I irritated the bursa over my hip with the hard landing and I have just attempted one short one so far.  Not overly worried as long as the healing contines at a steady pace and just looking to use November and December to log some great bike base miles.  The one advantage of not going to Maui was that I traded my ticket into a flight to San Francisco and met up with the rest of the family for my sister Karen's best friend's wedding and a week hanging out in the Bay Area. 

Me and Dad :)

Got into SF Thursday evening, picked-up the parents, and spent the night in Sausalito chez 'little fish'.  Drove up to Sonoma Friday afternoon in the rain and got my sister to the rehearsal dinner while the rest of us enjoyed a lovely Italian restaurant in town.  Saturday, like a true triathlete, I got up early and headed out on the bike for a long ride through the vineyards over to Napa and back.  I neglected to look at the elevation profile of the route I chose and while incredibly lovely, my 3hr ride turned into almost 4hrs even after cutting out a section.  I can see why 27's and compact cranks are popular here!! 

Got cleaned up just in time to get to the wedding on time only to have my sister's bridesmaids dress zipper split open unexpectantly minutes before the start of the ceremony!! Mum's to the rescue, my sister was expectly sewn into her dress, and later cut back out of it:)))  Congrats to Jenny and Dave on their beautiful wedding and future life together!!

Benziger Winery - Sonoma

Sunday we jumped in the car and headed out to do some wine tasting.  We headed over to Gundlach Bundschu first, the oldest family run winery in Sonoma.  As it was Mum's birthday we treated her (and us) to a bottle of their Vintage Reserve Cab we enjoyed later with a great dinner.  Next, in search of a more fruity selection we stopped in at Benziger.  The estate there was beautiful and showcased their organic, biodynamic, and sustainable farming methods. The wine was pretty good as well.  Picked up a nice Sauvignon Blanc and surprisingly a Port before taking the scenic route back to Sausalito.

Monday morning it was back on the bikes.  This time my sister joined me for a great ride up Mt Tam over to Stinson Beach and back on Hwy 1.  Amazing views and lots of climbing!!! Perfect way to start the week.  After a short turnaround it was back to Muir Woods and Mt Tam with the parents for a four hour hike through the giant redwoods.  Pretty sure the legs were absolute done by the end. 


Muir Woods

Mt Tamalpais State Park

Mt Tamalpais State Park

Next up we headed south along the coast road to Monterey and Carmel....

Triathlon Magazine Canada

Finally got my copy of the September/October issue of Triathlon Magazine Canada.  Took a while to get it shipped all the way to Tucson ;) Nice little article, hopefully I uploaded it with enough quality to read.

This picture was taken on the second loop of the bike at Xterra Canada in Whistler BC.  If you look at my left arm you can already see the bruising from dislocating my shoulder on the first lap!! Sometimes I just don't know when to quit ;)

How NOT to ride your MTB

I have been procrastinating writing this post for about three and a half weeks now.  Don't know if it is because writing it down will truly make it a reality that I won't be competing in Maui this coming weekend at Xterra Worlds.  It's been rather hard following everyone's FB, tweets, blogs and knowing that I am missing out, especially since this year there is actually going to be a challenging swim at Fleming's beach (surf beach)

Anyways, the story goes as follows. The morning after Xterra USA after a leisurely sleep-in and departure from Snowbasin back to Park City, Emma and I loaded up the bikes and drove up Guardsman Pass to ride the Wasatch Crest Trail.  A stunning point to point trails that was suppose to find us a couple of hours later back at the house.  The weather was beautiful and trails were in great condition.  We were rolling along casually on what would be considered a non-technical trail, mostly as the name would imply along the crestline of the mountains, occasionally dropping into the trees for some switchbacks.  After the quick stop for a photo op and another for me losing my multi-tool out of my saddle bag, Emma warned me of the upcoming section called "The Spine", an exposed section of sharped ridged rocks on a steep descent.  

Day started out picture perfect

Stunning views

I had full intentions of at least stopping at the top and making an informed decision as to how or if to ride this sections but caught a bit off guard I found myself already dropped in before realizing it.  Not just dropped in but dropped in and way off-line.  A moment of panic had me hit my brakes hard, big mistake, lock up the tires, slide uncontrollably, and finally hit the ground HARD.  Because the terrain was so jagged I didn't slide at all, good because I didn't launch myself over the edge, bad because instead of some road rash and bruises I sustained structural damage.  

"The Spine"

Why I should have gotten off and walked

A quick look at my elbow showed a seriously nasty cut already gushing blood which obviously was going to require some medical attention.  Too bad we were about as far away from any access off the mountain as we could get and without a medical kit.  Lucky for me the rider right behind me had a band-aid and handkerchief we managed to work into a tourniquet with the help of Emma's hair elastic.  We then proceed to inch our way down towards the top of The Canyons ski resort.  After the shock and adrenaline wore off a bit the pain really started and I did have a couple moments of thinking I am not going to make it down on my own.  I also was pretty sure that this much pain was not being caused solely by the cut and I had likely done much worse damage.  After some seriously sketchy downhill hike-a-bike we came across one of the resort trail builders and he graciously offered to drive us down to the top of the gondola then were met at the bottom by Emma's neighbour waiting to drive me to the Urgent Care.

The aftermath

To make a long story short, the urgent care facility took xrays but couldn't really tell whether my elbow was broken or not then proceeded to stitch up the cut with, what I found out 3 days later, rocks and dirt still lodged inside.  I drove home Monday with the help of some Vicodin and got in to see JT at Southwest Hand Orthopedic Wednesday with a fully infected elbow.  Friends in high places are always important :)  Back later that afternoon, got the cut all cleaned out, stitched up, and casted. Diagnosis - slight avulsion fracture and torn triceps tendon = no racing Xterra Worlds.

So after three weeks, the cut is pretty much all healed up and the cast is off.  I'm allowed to move my elbow to  keep it from completely locking up, though it is still pretty stiff and sore, but no pressure or resistance for a couple more weeks.  Crawled into a tub of chocolate ice cream (a couple actually) for the first two weeks but have started back running and riding the trainer to keep my sanity.  Already planning the next adventures and will be back at it in no time.   Not the way I wanted to end the season, but what can you do?

Best of luck to everyone racing in Maui Sunday, wish I was there...... next year :)))

Xterra USA Nationals

The Xterra USA National Championships was held for the 3rd time at Snowbasin Ski Resort, just outside Ogden Utah.  This race, on top of being the championship race, was the "must score" sixth race in the Xterra USA series.  The other 5 scoring races were your best 5 of the 6 regional championship races.  I had just squeaked onto the podium taking 5th at last years race, also finishing up the series in 5th, and was looking to better that placing and hold onto my 3rd overall ranking in the series.  Mel and Shonny with their amazing racing and consistency had put the top 2 spots in the series out of reach.  With the altitude (5,000 to 8,000ft) and lots of climbing and me being a lowlander and one of the larger athletes at 5'10 this course would not be considered one that suits me.  However I had managed to work in a 2 week training camp in Park City prior to the race to adapt and now living in Tucson had Mt Lemmon to work on the climbing skills and so was feeling pretty good going in.  I knew my running was still a little behind where I wanted it with the time off due to injury before the HyVee race but it was coming around nicely and, well, I would just have to Canada UP!!!

All smiles setting up T-1

Emma, Mel, Mical and I rented a condo Lakeside, another edition of the Villa of Fast Chicks, right near the swim start so race morning was a breeze even with two separate transition areas.  We were expecting a media frenzy with Lance Armstrong in attendance and weren't disappointed, thankfully they seemed absorbed with everything he was doing and had little effect on anyone else's pre-race rituals.  The only issued ended up being three times as many boats, kayaks, jet-skis, etc that made the already difficult buoy sighting with the sun directly in our eyes downright impossible.

Beautiful morning at the Swim Start

The weather shaped up to be beautiful, a little chilly warming up but guaranteed to be perfect racing weather once we got onto the course.

All ready to go!!! (me on the far left in pink cap)

The swim, except for the trouble finding the turn buoys was fairly uneventful.  Aussie Ben Allen killed it and got out of the water almost a minute ahead of the field and I tucked myself nicely into the first pack of guys for a nice draft.  I finally had a speedy T1 and was out of my wetsuit and onto the bike with a nice gap on the chasing women.

Into T-1 just ahead of one Lance Armstrong!!

The bike course starts out with a short section of pavement to get to the start of the dirt and climbing.  Up Wheeler Creek I swore I hit the rim on my rear tire going over one of the rocky sections and was desperately hoping I didn't have a leaky back tire.  I jumped off quickly at the first road crossing to double check and while it felt a little soft it didn't seem to be going flat.  Still in the lead I started up the singletrack climb hoping to keep Mel at bay until the top of the first descent.  No such luck, she passed me a bit before the top.  Even after checking my back tire I still couldn't shake the feeling that it was going flat and ended up babying the descent.    

The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful (and my back tire never did go flat!!)  I slowly got passed by the mountain goats and rolled into T2 in 6th with 7th through 9th right on my tail.  Emma caught me pretty quickly and we both slowly reeled in Shonny (who was amazingly racing with knee brace on due to a 90% tear of her ACL, she definitely gets the Canada Up award)  With all the twists and turns on the run course it was hard to tell exactly how close the race really was but in the end 5th through 9th ended up being separated by only 3 minutes or so.  I held onto 6th, unfortunately the first spot off the podium, but did keep my 3rd overall in the series.  Congrats to all the chicks out there, the depth in the women's race just keeps getting better and better.

Xterra USA Series podium 4th E Garrard, 2nd Shonny V, 1st M McQuaid, 3rd C Jeffrey, 5th S Snyder

I would love to say that I am putting in a great block of training leading up to Xterra Worlds in a couple of weeks, but that is a story for the next blog entry....

Thanks for reading and as always huge thanks to my friends and family, coach Gareth Thomas, and all the sponsors who support me; Fuji/Breezer Bikes, Rudy Project, Extreme Endurance, Champion Systems Canada, Nineteen Wetsuits, Maxxis Tires, Honeystinger.