Weight loss

Weight loss is always on a cyclist mind… Well this fall it was on my mind too. I came back from Italy where I had been eating like it was going out of style and I wasn’t eating salad that’s for sure. Pasta, pizza, cheese, bread and more bread was on the menu for three weeks, I found the weight just jumped on, it didn’t creep. So when I got back from my trip I had it in my mind that I was going to lose the weight. The first five pounds were quite easy then I stopped paying attention to the amount I was eating because I started a new job and the five pounds popped back on.




I found that it really wasn’t what I was eating that was the problem but it was the amount that I was eating. I was still eating like I was training for peak season and training hard. I had to start cutting back slowly on what I was eating because at first my body thought that that I wasn’t feeding it enough and was storing the food rather then burning it.



I wasn’t really training much at this time maybe 1-2 hours a day for 5 days out of the week. It was my off season and the job I did have, had me working quite hard outside for 8-10 hours a day. I started to watch what I ate and when I ate and worked with a nutritionist to plan out the things that I could eat. I cut calories down to about 1200-1500 a day. I stopped drinking juice, stopped eating pasta, more fresh veggies and cut down on the meat I ate a day. I never thought that I ate a lot of meal; I only ate it for the protein. But what my nutritionist told me that you only need four ounces of meal, about half a chicken breast. I worked on the plan my nutritionist set up for me for a while but truthfully I got bored with it, tried of eating the same kinds of things and having the craving for fried, sweet, chocolate, cheese and beer whatever. The plan stopped working after awhile and I had to create something that worked for me.



It turned out that I didn’t have a problem with the things I ate; it was the quality and the amount that I needed to watch for. I hating seeing diets that cut fat, carbs or sugar out of your diet cause those three things I cannot live without. I still eat cheese, I can’t live without butter, bacon, cheese burgers, fries, chocolate all things that really aren’t that health but every once in a while are pretty damn good. Once I started this the pound slowing started to come off, then I started training again and they rolled off. Right now I am the lightest I have been since about late 2007. I am sure I have put on about at lease a good six pound of muscle since then also.



I am lighter then I was at race weight right now this year, that doesn’t sit well in my mind as I know that I should have been like this in the racing season. I did get injured and sick quite a bit this year and did put a stop on my training – and I was still eating like I was training. I eat when I am bored, thus I am writing right now so it keeps my hand busy and I will not eat more. With Christmas in a couple sleeps I still want to continuo the weight loss a bit farther, so that means it might be tough saying no to the extra dessert and chocolate. But that by no mean that I will not be splurging Christmas day, it will be on Boxing Day that I will hope on the bike or in the gym for a couple hours of guilt training to burn the calories off.



I am not saying that just by watching what I ate that the pounds came off, I have been working out at the gym or pool or on the bike very hard the last couple months anywhere from 2-5 hours a day. Between running, weights, swimming, biking and yoga I have kept pretty busy as well with throwing work in when I could. I have never, ever been a person to get up early and go work out; I have preferred to do them at night. But lately have been getting up early at 6:45am, (by my standers this is very early) and at the gym by quarter to eight for a couple of hours for running and weights. By the afternoon though I have to have a nap I am so tired I start falling asleep anywhere. That is unless I have a double shot cappuccino, dry, of course; then I am twitchy and giddy for a couple hours.

Cheers
 
JG

'Tis the season

It’s quite funny how time sneaks up on you and boom, it’s another Christmas, another birthday, another summer and another winter. Before you know it another year is up before you knew you finished this one. It’s come to the point with my self that I realize that I have choices to make and plans for the future to form. I’ve known this time was coming but like anyone just tried to put it off. But this doesn’t mean that I will be slowing down and getting a real job, a career for the future. It just means that I am planning for the time to come when life hits me over the head and says hey I think I’m ready.




Cycling, I think, will always be a big part of my life but there will come a time where I’m too beat up or old or both to keep up this training life style. I have been seeing some career planers lately just to get an idea where to take me life and to continuo my education. I’m not sure what I want to do once cycling is done, I’ve toss ideas around and every single idea has the same fact I have found, it that I want to be creative. Photography is what I have always been interested in – it has always been the one constant thing in my life that I have had a passion for. When I was a kid I always wanted to have different jobs such as a vet, a designer, sport therapist. But while my ideas changed and my sports that I was into differed from year to year, my love of pictures always stayed. I have a very good idea of the type of photography that I love to do, it’s very natural, I don’t want to start sounding like a hippie here, but its very earth based, natural lighting. Here’s a better way of putting it, clean and simple.



Well enough about that, Christmas is coming! What do you want for Christmas? Better yet, where has the time gone? I remember last years Christmas very well, it only seems like it has been a few months not a year! We are just staying around home for Christmas, no big family get together like the old days of Christmas in Cupar where we would pile 30 people or more in to G-ma’s and G-pa’s house. Back then, it was loud with crazy card games that lasted way, way too long, and a ton of food… oh and jam jam cookies by the gallon. There were no cookies left for Santa, we would stay up till midnight eating cookies, they were just too good to be left for a man that eats a ton of other cookies that night anyways.



I’m off to a semi-xmas party tomorrow night with the crew from Champetre Country, which I am very much looking forward to. It’s nice for a change to go to a Christmas party rather then work one. This year I hope I have the chance to have a night time horse sleigh ride because it is one of the most wonderful things to do around Christmas time. Snuggled under all the blankets, fresh air, power snow, the sound of the horses, ah it’s just perfect, not much more to say then that.



Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays



Cheers

JG

New BIke

Here is a picture of the new shoes


and the lovely pedals


And here is the look of the bike, My will be a bit different but heres the idea

Face Lift

As the two of you can see (hi mom, dad), just gave my blog a face lift trying out some new ideas. Like it? Hate it? Love it? Bopp it, Twist it, now freeze! Sorry could help but put that game saying from the '90s in. Any ideas on things I can do better or can change or am I just that great with putting together an amazingly awesome blog!

      My blog really doesn't reach that many people and in the winter I think that I might even forget about it myself. I don't have it linked to facebook every time I post, guess I'm too shy and who would really read it anyways... I have had a few people ask me if I had a website, blog or something along that line and I say yes, and give the url.  I think I have only been ask that three times before, Yeah for my three fans!  And for the longest time my parents didn't know I had a blog, I didn't feel the need to tell them at the time because if I could only get my parents to read it I would be in trouble. Not trouble in the sense that they wouldn't approve in what I was writing but that I was worried that only two people for ever read it.  Not that I need people to read about my day to day life and my cycling and travel and my odd rant and spew on the weather, but it is kind of nice to know that your voice, (my voice not yours) was being heard now and then from an othersider other then family.

      My blog is millions of years away from ever going viral, which probably means that my grandchildren will have to keep up the writing for me, only if they loved me enough.  I will probably put in my will that if they want to get any money from me, and I planning on having a lot but spending it on bikes, cars and castles and men servants with accents before I die, if they want any money which is left over, which I know already by the rate that I spend at this point in my life won't be much, they will have to write in my memory about me in this blog.  They can update it and make it look nicer and maybe put some famous photos of me up too.

    I try pretty hard in my blog not to rant too much, because as much as people love rants and reading about them they can get annoying.  But there is some time nothing better then a long pointless rant that goes on and on forever and never finished.  I am a good rant listener, I am a good listener in general and I find rants in some people to be very funny.  Rants about their pointless lifes, dead end jobs, their crappy car, their bitchy (fill in the blank) person in their life.  I really don't like to rant because all that a rant comes down to is a person spewing the anger/ trouble/ problem to people that really don't care what you are talking about but find it funny to listen to you. (and no this little blurb what I just wrote is not a rant, rather its just a fact not a theory because I'm a girl which makes me right - plus its my blog)

     I must really have a sad little life right now becuase here I am writing to people that don't read this about a blog that no ones read, at one o'clock in the morning.  These pain meds that I am on from getting my widsom teeth out must really be making me go for a loop. If you knew me in person, which some of you might know, or maybe you don't because you don't know me as well as you think you do, that I'm really not like this kind of weird loner that writes in a blog to all hours of the night.  Heres the deal with me today, for those of you still giving it a shot to try to follow along with my mess of writing and spelling mistakes - bless you, you poor soles that have nothing else better to do than to read it. If I were you, which I am not, I would have quit reading this after the first paragraph. It is much more funner, yes I used funner, its one o'clock in the morning I can write like I want, for me to write then it is probably for you to read this.  Back to topic, heres the deal with my today, I got my wisdom teeth out this morning which I have said in the past blog post and this present one, the meds that I am one are super strong and I have no idea what they are called, all I know that the warning of drossiness is a lie, I have never been more wide eye awake.  Its like I'm jacked on caffine, though I haven't had any for like 40 hours! Must be some kind of record for a cyclist too!  I did have a long nap after I got out from the surgery, from 11am to 2pm.  That IV drip was still working for quite awhile after it was taking out.  So now I am not tired at all and my teeth and mouth hurt like hell, so I don't think that I even want to try to sleep. 
         
        I am sooooo bord (see the repeat of the "o"'s that means I'm really bord)  I watched a lot of TV today and I am sick of it. And that is sure saying something because its takes a lot of Tv before I ever get sick of it.  I can go 5 hours watching TV and not get sick of it, (yes I can be that lazy).  By 8 or 9 o'clock tonight I was going crazy, I even got my mom to play a game of battleships with me which I won I am proud to say. I haven't played that game in years. Truefully I haven't played board games in years, any game!  Then again I haven't read a book in about 8 months either, I can just see all the english teacher in the world shuttering at that fact.  Its not that I don't have books to read, I do.  I have about 3 or 4 unread booked in my room that haven't been touched yet.  The problem is that I always fine something else to do that is not nearly as heathly for me as reading a good book, like watching TV on the TV. Or watching movies and TV shows on my computer.  I have just started watching Glee in the past two week and I am now in the second seasons and have almost sank to becoming a Gleek - not yet though.  I have other shows  like supernatural, and america's next top model, community, gossip girl, being erica, the big bang theory and amazing race that I watch too.  As you can see I have too just time on my hands, with working part time and training full time and not going to school.  I need a life, like a real social life... any ideas?
     Wow I just looked at all that I wrote tonight, I really hope that you didn't read all of it because it was pretty much the most pointless thing that I have ever in my life wrote. Ah maybe if you look back at a post title weather that might just be the most pointless thing that I ever wrote, but this is sure coming in the top 5 I think.  Creative and pointless, wow my creative writing teacher in school would be so proud, this was just the kind of thing that she loved, loves? She still teaches I think...

G'night for now, look forward to a new post in a months time because that's about the time I will remember again that I have not writen for a long time.

Don't let them pull your wisdom teeth outs, it sucks
JG

New Team, New Stuff, No teeth, Old life

Well as usual I not good at keeping up to date with my blog. Here are so things that are new in my life. I newly join a team in the Vancouver area called Trek RedTruck Racing. I very happy to be on a team for the whole year, it will be a new experience and a good stepping stone for my future. I know all the girls that will be on the team so it’s not like I’m going to be thrown into a new group again. As happy as I am to be on a team I wasn’t that trilled to be going back to raining Abbotsford. I was hoping for a team down in eastern Canada but that will come soon enough. I did have a chance in joining a team in France but I figured at the time that it was just a little too far to travel for my first team. I really don’t speak French either so that would make life kind of hard in the beginning. At lease I will be in Canada when they speak English and it might give me some time to learn how to speak French better.


Since the team that I am on is sponsored by Trek I will be getting a Trek bike for the first time. I just ordered the new Trek bike, at a time saying that I have a Trek or rode one at a time would have left a bad taste in my mouth but I have come to face the fact that I will be riding one and there really isn’t a choice in that. Along with my new bike, I have ordered a new pair of pedal, Time Speed and they are white… classily right? Well I along with getting a new pair of pedals and bike, I am getting a new pair of shoes, which also are white and black to match my white and black bike. Matchy match aren’t I fancy.



Today though I have real news which doesn’t involve cycling of any kind, drum roll please…. I got my bottom wisdom teeth out today with a bit of surgery. I went in at nine this morning a little freaked out with the whole, needle, pulling, blood, teeth thing. I was frozen my well, it took about ten hours before I could feel my bottom jaw again. Being a bit nervous, that’s an understatement, I got an IV drip put in and I don’t remember anything which makes a good story not very good because I don’t remember the cracking of the teeth or the drill, the blood or the mess. But it is a good thing for me because I am now not scarred for life!

I only remember them putting the IV in and the doctor talking to me a bit, then I closed my eyes and could hear them talking a bit about nothing to do with pulling my teeth out. I think they might have been talking about how their weekend was, or more likely it was my imaginational making things up because of the drugs that I was one. The next things I knew, the nurse was telling me to open my eyes up and helping me up and out of the room. It felt like it only took 5 minutes which is not possible because I was in the office for at least an hour and a half. I am really hurting now though…. The drugs are all gone (sad face) and the freezing is gone (happy face) I can feel my lips and eat and drink without it going all over the place and making me a mess. I am just going to be on pills for the pain for the next few days. I will not be training either because of the meds and the stitches in my mouth because it could lead to more bleeding.

This is the first time that I ever got stitches, I think I have four to six of them in my mouth, I really haven’t wanted to look at them because its nasty. I was too jacked on meds at the office to ask how many I got, or how long the surgery took or to see my teeth that they pulled because that would have been kind of cool to see. Imagine the money that I could have gotten from those teeth from the tooth fairy!



Now totally off topic, here is a joke from my brother – What do you call a dog with no legs? Don’t matter he ain’t going to come anyways.



Well that’s it for now, cheers my wonderful people.

JG

present life

Back to present life, cross season has just finished and I have finished pretty much unscathed. Besides a couple minor crashes I’m good. The last crashed that I had was in the pre-ride of cross provincials; I hit a hole that was covered by leaves and bit it hard. I messed up my neck and shoulder a bit, but the race still went pretty well.



I’m hoping to get to Tucson this winter for some training. It so hard to plan everything for a big trip, and get people organized to come also. But that’s life it’s not always going to be easy. Wow look at me getting all deep haha.

cheers
JG

Italy

Oh wow that’s all I can say, I’m so bad with keeping up with writing and updating my blog. Though in my defense I did break my computer screen and have to order a new one, but at the same time we did have three other computers in the house. I guess I can continuo off where I let off.

ITALY

The Race - We went to Italy for world juniors; it was thousand times better than going to Moscow the year before. The races didn’t go as well as I had hoped, looking back on the races I think that I didn’t get the right training this year that I need to do well. I was injured lots and sick about every two months like clockwork. In the month before worlds I was mostly was racing and resting and traveling there are not much training for Worlds.

The Food – The food we ate at our hotel was amazing, tasty and delicious, though we did have pasta lease once a day. When I got home I never ate pasta for three weeks. There are a couple nasty story about food from Italy. I ordered fried fish, thinking that I would be a fillet of fish. What came to the table was a school of baby fish with eyes looking at me, fins and everything. Let’s just say that I had a panic attack and couldn’t eat anything that night.



The Landscape – Italy is beautiful, whether you are in Roma or the seaside of Gradamara. I have the pleasure of being on both coast and I must say I love the “east coast” and there beaches. I only got to the beach once in the day time. That one time on the beach I burned so bad.



Well that’s it for now, Italy in a nut shell

JG

France

FRANCE




We were in France only 5 days for the race Tour feminine de limousine. This race didn’t go so well for me thus no race report on my blog. Here the deal, the food there wasn’t great; the French really aren’t naturally that great of cooks. So I got sick from either the water that I was drinking or the food. I did the first stage thinking at the start that I not feeling good was just nerves. Boy was I wrong. I was in some major pain and it was from my stomach. I’m on this big loop that’s only about 80km long. I can’t quit simple because the fact where the hell would I go? I’m in the wild countryside of France and the finish is 80km away and that’s where the Canadian team is. I had to choice but to finished.



Feeling no better the next day I raced the time trial. I hadn’t eaten well the day before and was pretty much cracked from the long road race so my legs had nothing in them on this day. I was climbing hills in my easiest gear still barely making up them… they were not hard hills either, people could big ring them but I was just so done.



We didn’t get to look around at all while we were there so I think I kind of missed the true beauty of france.

Cheers
JG

Belgium

BELGIUM




Belgium is a neat place to see, the culture that they have gives a small town feel. While I was there I stay in a town call Tielt-Winge and it was a super small town. But here is the interesting place Eddie Mechrx was born not too far from the house we were in only about a 1km or so away.

Everyone rides cruiser bikes in Belgium, the older and more rust on the bike and the flatter the tires the cool the bike is. If doesn’t matter if you are 10 or 80 years old, everyone has one. At the house they had a couple of old cruiser bikes that we would ride to go to the eurospar, with is the local grocery shop. I loved ring those bikes, it make me feel pretty European and I couldn’t wipe the stupid grin of my face.



We didn’t do much in Belgium and we were bored lots are live was kind of a ride, eat, internet, sleep routine. One of the days we went to Leuven to the square. It was a beautiful place to go and see with huge big castle churches and coffee shops on every corner. That day we were in search of vegan food for one of the girls. Being vegan in Belgium quite tricky, being vegan in France while “camping” worst. I could never be vegan just because there are too many good kinds of food that I enjoy eating way too much.

Cheers
JG

Europe

My Europe trip is coming to an end, I have seen many places and met lots of new and interesting people.  I have been to Holland, Belgium, France and Italy in the 5 weeks that I had been away. As much as a love seeing new and exciting places I am glad to be coming home soon.  Living in hotel and eatting meals out everyday is not all its cracked up to be.  I am dying for some Canadian food.  Food in Europe has been okay to say the lease, only a million times better then Russia but you can't beat our Canadian cooks! Today was the first day that I had a good salad, a salad that I could eat and say wow I ate something green.  Itlay is not big on salads or veggies for that matter. Pasta, bread, pizza, I think I had enough carbs for the rest of the year.

I don't had wireless at thsi hotel that I am staying at, but writing this from the hotel computer. European keyboards or a bit different from the one that we have in Canada, it took me a bit to figure out how to work it, so please bear with me on the grammer. 

Italy is a wonderful place, one of the nicest that I have been. I have traveled from one coast to the other.  I must say the I prefer the Italy country side to the city.  Rome was nice to see but i would never want to live there in a million year. Its too busy and the people aren't as nice.

This is about it for now, cause I really don't have time to write anymore because it is time for bed.  I have a early flight in the morning to Brussels, Belgium.  Going to be one step closer to going home.  I will try to get more writen up soon as there is a lot to tell.

ciao
JG

Dwars Doors De Westhoek

       Dwars Doors de Westhoek was the race Team Canada did on Sunday. This race was combine of 5 pro teams, 2 National Team (yeah Canada) and about 14 club teams for a total for 141 racers. This is the largest group that I have ridden in to date. I didn’t find that there are much of a problem riding in this group besides the fact that if you aren’t continuously moving up you will get shot out the back. This was one of the technical road races that I have done; it had about a million corners in the first lap with was about 50-60km long. When the girls were taking the corners everyone would be slamming on their breaks creating one big yo-yo motion. At more the one point in the race I was sliding kind of sideways with the breaks almost locked up to avoid the girls in first. Remarkably there wasn’t that many crashes in the race and most happened towards the end of it. I was never in a crash nor did I see any, I was told about the crashes in the end from some of the Canadian girls that went down.

     The roads were very narrow I found, they were like paved dirt roads, there are only about enough room for four girls to ride beside each other and then there would be no room to get by. In other words it was tight.

      There are five King of the Mountains in the race all which were in the first 35km of the race. They weren’t very long but some did have a max grade of 13%, I got dropped on the first hill which they all powered up. Me and a group of girls chased to get back on and caught on by the time we hit the fourth hill.

     Once we finished the one big loop we started on a small 10km loop which we had to do 7 times. Part of that loop consisted of, not cobbles but these bricks that are damn close to cobbles. I forget what the words in is French. There are about 2.km of these ‘bricks’ along the start and finish line and feed zone. I have no idea guys can do a whole race on them; I would just get shake to bits and fall off my bike – two km of them was enough for me.

      This race was one of the hardest things I have done. I don’t think I have ever hurt that much in a race before. My heart rate at one point in the race hit 199bpm – Now I know a lot of people would say that that’s not that high for my age, but I have never, ever seen numbers that high for my heart rate. I highest HR that I have seen in the past was 193 and that was in a VO2 max and a time trail. My first reaction when I saw those numbers was ‘oh my god I’m gonna die’.

     It was quite hot out and along with the distance and speed I was really starting to suffer after about 80km’. I ended up finishing with the main pack and placed 76th. Only 91 people got classified at the end of the race, that means that the 50 people either didn’t finish, got pulled or where 5% behind the winners time.

 
       I was so glad when the race was finished and couldn't wait to get off the 'Bricks'. The Bricks that the bikes are on in the picture above is like the stuff we had to ride on but worst. This race was really an eye opener to the racing in Europe and it shows me that I can handle it. I may not be the fast or the strongest but I can suffer it out and mentally not crack till after the race.
          We are off tomorrow morning at 6 am to France for a stage race, Tour Feminin en Limousin. There will be one time trial and 3 road races. The courses are very hilly and it is most likely going to be super hot down there. It’s going to be a hard couple of days




Cheers for now.



JG

little bit foggy

Now I really don’t have anything new to talk about but I’m bored so I decided to write a bit. I won’t talk about weather that subject has been dried out like an old….. I’ll leave that blank, haha. My brain is in a real slow mode right now, I’m having a hard time keeping one thought going and writing it down fast enough that I remember it. I had a nap today and I’m now wondering if that is the cause of it… damn nap but it felt so good when I woke up. But I now just can’t seem to get over this dreaming foggy state. I’m going to have to quit writing because it’s just too hard, I might have to stop and watch family guy the most mindless show around.

JG

Belgium

I have made it to Belgium in one piece and so did my bikes though the airline did manage to break my monster of a bike box. How they did this I have no idea; they would have had to through it out of the plane to bend it like they did. I was hoping that since I paid 550$ to get my bike on the plane they would have taken better care of it. Never fly Delta they are crap, so expensive for bikes to fly international. It didn’t have a good flight never slept at all.


My first flight was from Saskatoon to Minneapolis, and it was on a small plane with only one flight attended. I was on the same flight as a bunch of pro weight borders. Of course I didn’t get a seat next to them, I got a seat next to an old 85 year old man, that couldn’t see and couldn’t hear. And if he wasn’t 85 year old I would have thought that he was trying to feel my ass up by “searching “for the seatbelt. Yuck….



Belgium is a very neat place to see – very European of course. The people here are friendly and make an effort to help you. The first day we got here we had a major thunder storm and the rain was coming down in sheets. I never saw rain quite like that is such a short time. The house we are staying in is more like a loft; it’s pretty nice and homey. The first night jet lag hit me bad I woke up at around 4 Belgium time and was up for about an hour and half before I got tired again and went back to bed.



The riding around here is super nice though I got shaken to bit from the rough roads today. The roads here are very rough but there are interesting things to look at along the way. The change of scenery is refreshing from the prairie plains. It is very flat here like Saskatchewan with a few popping rollers. The last couple of days here have been very winding, not that different from Sask but combine that with rough roads it can be quite difficult.



The first race here is on Sunday at 2 o’clock and it’s a 130km, which is the longest race I have will have to do and have done it this year. It’s a UCI 1.2 race which I must admit that it’s kind of scary. There are going to be about 170 women in the race which is by far the biggest race that I have ever been in.

dat is het voor nu
(thats it for now)


Cheers

JG

the plan

I was told today regarding my trip to Italy and I quote “Watch out for all those Italian men”. Well there is no problem with that, I’m going to keep a look out for them; I won’t miss them. I was planning on going to Australia in the fall but I’m thinking now that I might end up staying in Italy if all goes to plan. I need to find a rich good looking Italian man at lease twenty years my senior that can fund my pro cycling career and take me to all the European fashion shows. Uh ya that’s my plan.

Haha
JG

Offida

Worlds for juniors this year are being held in Offida Italy. And as far as I know it is a very small town but I quote “the treasure of Italy”. I was kind of surprise to find out that there was only one hotel in this town, which kind of looks like an upscale farm house. I think there are only 4-5 bedrooms for rent. There are no hotels other hotels around this place but there are farm houses that can be rented. I know when I say farm house you probably think, old, shabby, hay and life stock. But I am talking about a modern dream house in the heart of wine land.

Though I don’t know where we are staying I know that where ever it is, it will be very nice because it’s Italy. But here comes the problem of where to eat. Since there are no hotels close by that means no in hotel restaurants. I’m really not a big fan of having to cook for myself after some long tough races. I have no idea what we will do for food. The food itself should be wonderful – Italy is the land of pasta and pizza and let’s not forget, the wine. Last year worlds were in Moscow and the food was so bad, there really are not words for it – this year there is no way but up for the food.

I am so excited to go to Italy, it’s a place that I have always wanted to go and see. Offida may not be a big city or have lots of things to do but it does have some amazing history and culture. The buildings from what I have seen, on the web of course, are mind-blowing! I will be in Italy in lest then I month from now, but I will already be in Europe. I am leaving for Belgium in four days…. More updates soon to come.

Europe please




JG

 
 

one more thing

Totally forgot to put this in my first post today (or tonight).
I made the World Junior Canada team - off to Italy baby!!!!!
And Canadian cycling wants me to go to europe early to race and train before worlds. So I am now going to be going to Belgium and France!!!! A whole month in Europe? yes please :) My jaw was probably somewhere on the ground when I heard this. I was grinning like an fool, and the most the came out of my mouth was maybe a "yes" and "oh really" "thats awesome" more smiling and nodding of the head. I must have looked like a idiot....

JG

Nationals are done

Nationals are now done and all is left is the crit tomorrow which is not a national event. Which is my significant opinion is too bad because some of my best races this year have been in crits. But that’s the way it goes and I will just have to face (over time of course) to that’s the fact. Truthfully I really don’t care that it’s not a national event I try to look at each race as an important race. A race is a race whether it be a local provincial race or a world cup – they only differences would be the goals that would be se for that race.

Well I am the Canadian National Time Trail Junior Champ again, but this time it was by default with isn’t quite as nice as winning it a 100%. Personally I would have like to come in second knowing that I did my best and that the better girl won that day, doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have like to beat the girl. But here’s the thing rules are rules – a person that is not a Canadian citizenship cannot win a Canadian championship.

I gave the TT my best shot, I had not had a good TT all year and it really turned out well in the end. I was really hurting up the hill in the course. I hate to admit that up the second hill I was hurting more then I should have been – seriously I was in my granny gear, I had no more gears on a junior geared bike. Oh and it wasn’t a steep hill maybe 6% maybe a bit more.

The road race… ya… we will leave it at that…. Grrrr.




Cheers
JG




Oh and the bubbly its not real... apple juice, too bad

Nationals UH-OH

Right now I am sitting in my hotel by myself in Edmonton because I am the lone junior rider from Saskatchewan that is racing Nationals. I never really had a hotel room all to myself; I have always shared with someone. It’s kinda weird and more than a little bit boring. It wouldn’t be so bad if this hotel that I’m staying at had wifi that I could watch some videos. But the internet is so slow here that Facebook is so slow. Still there is a TV so I won’t die and So You Think You Can Dance is on, what girl doesn’t like that show?

I’m a bit nervous for my races that are coming up. First race is on Friday, the most importance race, the ITT. I am going to be meeting up with the BC junior Team tomorrow morning to go for a ride in Devon. I think we are going to be riding the road course. Though, I will still need to ride the ITT course tomorrow, so I might not ride that long with the BC group tomorrow. I will still need to talk to my coach and find out what the plan is for tomorrow but it’s not that late right now so I have time to figure this all out.

PEACE
JG

.....Ah can't think of a title for this post

It’s been a long time since I have wrote here is the break down in what has happened since then.
- Raced
- Hurt my back and couldn’t race
- Rode the track
- Raced Westside (back gotten better)
- Packed up my car and drove a long 9 hours to Calgary (4 hours faster than my ETA on my GPS
- Drove home to Saskatoon the next day
- Did the Tuesday nighter the day I got home… can you say keener
- Raced Regina with the boys
- Home for a couple days
- Left for Banff
- Got sick and wasn’t able to race Banff
- Tried to get better
- Tuesday : hardest work out ever
- Wednesday: correction today hardest work out of the year
- Beautiful lighting and thunder storm
- 15km time trial
Well this is up to date with all the more important things that when on in the life in the last 4 weeks or so. This, people is my life so exciting. I haven’t traveled anywhere that has been crazy interesting. I am thinking about going to Australia in the fall for a while. I might not even do school this year.
The next big race that I’m doing is Nationals and I will be leaving in the next couple of days. I will try to write a bit about it afterwards but I might not have time cause I will be driving straight to BC the day Nationals is all done.

Wish me luck
JG

Race reports

Race reports here they come….
Maple Ridge was a local race held by Local Ride, which had three races in two days. First was the road race, and in my humble opinion one on the tougher Canada races in the West. There was a good size field of women ready to tear it up. The road course was a lap course of 10km. We have to do seven laps in total. Oh how I hate lap courses, ‘cause you get to do the same hard stuff over and over and over again. It doesn’t just hurt once on a killer climb it hurts seven times. By the time that the five laps rolled around, I was in some major pain and was pretty close to cracking on the hills. The race wasn’t that exciting and finished in a group up hill sprint. Now that’s really never a good thing for me because my sprint is average and my hilling climbing is below average and put those two things together you don’t get above average that’s for sure.

The time trail was about 3 hours after the road race which doesn’t give a person much time to recover. But everyone is in the same boat so suck it up princess. The TT went, bad, terrible, it was one of the worst TT that I have done. I was anything but unhappy about it; it was like I was doing intervals and decide that I wasn’t going to work hard. I was pretty mad at my self but while riding there wasn’t much that I could do about it besides finish the race.

The Crit the next was tough; I wasn’t able to get in a break off the front so I tried to settle into the three spot in the main group. My legs weren’t feeling it so I really couldn’t get any good attacks in off the front. I tried on but I went wide on a corner and jumped the sidewalk… people went scrambling.

Wenatchee!!!
Wenatchee was so hot and warm for the whole time we were there, got a good sun tan. The TT was the first event and it was one of the best time trials that I have done this year. I this the reason why this one was a lot better then the others was that a) it was warm and b) I got a very good warm up in. The last few TT have been in cold wet weather and I think my legs just really cramp up in that weather. This TT was about 14km long and it was a fast course. I really enjoyed it. I didn’t get great places nor was I in the points but I was pleased with the feel of how I rode it.

Wenatchee is a neat little town which has a big river running through it. After the TT we were still really hot so we found a place on the river that had a dock and jumped in. The water was so cold that your hands went numb very fast but it was so nice. I really want to go to the beach now.

The crit was later the night and it was still muggy and hot. I knew that I had to do something in the crit because I wasn’t in the points and it was going to move up in placing I only had 30 minutes to do it. I made an attack early into the race and I was able to get away and was out front on my own for a couple minutes till one girl bridged up to be. We worked together for about 10 minutes or so till the group caught us. I was pretty cracked when the pack ate us back up and almost fell off the back of the group. I was able to hang in till the final sprint and I got 8th place which I was happy about but I would have like to have stayed away in the break.

Ah the road race… it was tough. Being a non hill climber when I see that there is an 8km climb in a course I shutter. With these types of climbs I have try to stay with the pack for as long as possible. I got dropped from the lead group on the first time on the climb about 6km into it. I was able to work very hard on the down hill and flat part and I caught the group of 10 rider. The only problem was that I caught them at the base of the climb… and the climb started and about 2km into it popped off the back again when a girl attacked. I never lost sight of the group on the climb, they were only about 50m in front of me but there was nothing that I could to catch them at this point. After the climb I time trialed after them for about 10km and I caught them with only about 7 km from the finish line. By this time there group have split into parts and there was a group on 5 girls up the road a ways. I was able to sprint a bit in the end got 9th place.

It was a good weekend I really enjoyed racing in nice weather.

Life as I know it

I’m not very good about keeping my blog updated; I seem to find other things to do instead of writing like watching TV and ya that’s about it. I’m usually too tired to think at the end of the day and therefore if I do try to write it doesn’t make any sense at all. An example of think would be “Rode bike today, legs were tired – thought about food, I need to pick up food, why is food so expensive here? Fruit apples and bananas, monkeys eat bananas – I wonder if they have monkeys in BC?...........” And there you have it, my mind jumps from one thing to another to coma blankness.

Living on my own is pretty different then from living at home. I never would have thought that I would have moved out at eighteen and technically I haven’t “moved out” but have just been living somewhere else for the past two month. I will be going home in the beginning of June which I’m pretty excited for. I will be so nice to see everyone again and not have to ride in the rain.

One thing that I hate, I know hate is a strong word but I really, really don’t like (you) rain. (I don’t know if you got that quote from the band Plain White T’s, but that song sums up the way I feel about the rain). Being a prairie girl we almost never have to ride in the rain – and if it does rain in Sask I stay indoors if I can help it. Since I’ve been out in BC I have started to melt in the rain and not in a good way. Give me wind, hills, cold, snow, ice, even heat (I really melt in heat too but I get a nice tan from that so that’s ok) but rain just kills me every time.

I’ve been getting a lot better at hills since I’ve been out here (well duh), there are not too many big long hills around where I am living in Abbotsford but I make do. My sprinting has come along way too. I feel that it’s only my time trialing at has legged a bit behind this year. Overall though I have been improving greatly from where I was last year. I have done more races in the States this year then I have in Canada. I got a late start on racing this year, I wasn’t sure it I was ready to move up to the cat ½ and start racing with the “big dogs”. I have only raced 4 stage races this year with my first race been in April. Last year I started racing in February which is very early I know but it would have been nice to maybe start racing is March so that when the time came the bigger races started I wouldn’t have feel so nervous.

I don’t have time to write any more right now, so I’ll save my race report for another day. If I forget here is a note to self – Race the Ridge and Wenatchee Stage Race. Reports MUST be written. There shouldn’t forget now.

Cheers
JG

Update

Well the Penticton camp is now over and base miles are done with for the mean time. The camp was pretty fun it was nice to see every one again. I got a little bit sick on the camp after being out in the rain and snow for a couple hours on one ride, but just took a rest day and I was ready to get back out there. Also Advil works wonders.

After the camp my mom was going to come pick me up in Penticton and we were going to drive up to Abbotsford on the Saturday but as mother nature had it, she made a blizzard in Saskatchewan. It was pretty crazy to hear some of the stories about the white out highways and crazy high winds. All I can say about that, is that I’m so glad that I wasn’t there when it happened. So I was a stuck in Penticton by myself for a while so I camped out in the hotel room watching TV. We were only a day late with going to Abbotsford which wasn’t bad.

I had my first stage race of the year a couple days ago. We drove down to Walla Walla Washington. I was pretty nervous for the whole race because it was going to be my first time racing as a cat ½ woman. It was a lot of fun being there. It really reminded me why I like racing and reminded me that I was crazy for liking racing and the pain that comes with it. We had a bit of a Saskatchewan reunion down in Walla Walla, there were a few familiar faces that I ran into.


JG

Train Camp day two

It was day two in Penticton today and we were looking for some good riding up into Oliver than onto Twin Lakes. The ride started and my bike was making noise and jumping gears every pedal stoke or so. We stop to check it out, I just thought that the gears were off but it turned out that my chain was bent. There was nothing to fit it with right at the moment so I thought that I could ride it to the next town that was 15km up the road. It was annoying, yes, a pain and a half in the rear end, yes. The noise of the chain was driving me crazy but I made it to the town without breaking the chain. Mike Horn had to take a couple links out of the chain which meant that I couldn’t use most of my gears in the big ring. I was hoping that I would have a new chain by tomorrow but I just check that the one bike shop in Penticton is close on Mondays… Joy, oh well I’ll have to deal with it one more day. Grind or spin are my choices for tomorrow! Who needs middle gears, not me!

The trip out two OK Falls was a long and tiring trip. Seventeen or so hours it took to make it here from Regina Saskatchewan. I was going crazy by… mmm 3 hours in. I wasn’t a good start to the day. I ended up watching movies for about 5 hours of the trip, read a mag front to back and when my eyes couldn’t focus anymore I stared out the window for hours. The mood in the van was pretty mellow; it was sleep, talk, and look out the window. It was a slow trip because of the van’s monster intake of fuel. The first few gas stops were only after about 2 and a half hour. I was so nice to get to the condos and crawl into bed… I was so sleepy and tired.

Well I’m going to talk about the weather now, groan! I know. Well the weather here hasn’t been treating us that nice. The first day of riding it snow and rain… in other words it was wet and miserable. I wasn’t looking forward for a wet ride but it turned out not to be that bad, we missed the worst of it. Today it was cloudy but no rain… hopefully there will be no rain for the rest of the trip, fingers cross. On the way home the wind really picked up and bit back at us. Mother Nature seems like she can’t make up her mind this year.

Well this is it for now; I can barely keep my eyes open…..

JG

Only Weather

The weeks have been uneventful from the last time I wrote. The weather has been warming up bit by bit. Today was the first rain of the year. I was very happy to be around to see it otherwise I wouldn’t have believed it. The weekend was beautiful though, got lots on riding in, about 9 hours in total. The days all have been very windy but that’s spring in Saskatchewan. It seem like it’s almost t-shirt weather…. Wow this is lame talking about weather.

I’m off the Penticton in a couple days for the Sask Cycling climbing camp which should be fun. I hope to get lots of miles in and get faster at climbing and not go backwards for now on. I could touch on the weather and say that it’s going to be cold and wet but I won’t because I’m not going to talk about the weather any more.

Well this is all for now, hopefully I have more to talk about other then the weather…

JG

Spring Riding

Well I'm back in Saskatoon and the weather has been treating us great by Saskatchewan standers. I've been able to ride outside twice on the weekend and besides getting a bit dirty and toes freezing a little bit, it’s been fun. I think that the cars that drive beside us think that we are just a little to keen for spring to come. But the snow is melting and will hopefully (fingers crossed) will continue to. Looking at the weather forecast says that we will get into the low teen by the beginning of next week, then in the spare of two day drop to -4c and freeze everything once again and make a nice icy skating rink of the city!

Riding outside this spring seems hard, I found that it was much easier to ride in warmer weather and not be as tired. But I guess that you have to take the good with the bad. I’ve been riding my cross bike, with weights about the 23lb mark, its like biking with two people holding onto your ankles. It’s heavy and slow but it makes you work harder, or just makes you more tired, and hate that bike more. I think it’s the latter. Haha.

Today was a busy day for me; I rode for about 3 and a half hours then grabbed a bite to eat and then was off to the pool. I still swim and run in the winter, I find that its good cross training and it gives me more options other then the bike. But as soon as the snow all melts or that it becomes nice enough to ride all the time outside those other sports get put on the back shelve.

Life is like riding a bike, If it's easy , it's a sign that you're going downhill!


Cheers
JG

Tucson

Well it has been about a week since I got to Tucson and started riding. We have been very lucky with the weather here; it has been above 20c every day when riding. Our hotel is great, with pool and hot tub, but it’s a bit far from rides. We have to ride through the city for an hour or so to get out.

First day was mount lemon. Talk about easing into it; that was a slap in the face to try to climb that after 3 months on the trainer. It hurt; I hadn’t climbed a hill for probably 6 months. I was pretty dead after it.

I saw a funny commercial on TV, it is for a California milk co. and the cow says “guess we’re not in Saskatchewan anymore” I don’t know but I found it funny. Sorry this was kind of off the subject.

I wasn’t feeling that fresh for the next day of riding. It was a beautiful ride out to Gate Pass, and the view from top of the mountain. But coming from the prairies I haven’t been outside much, and just being out in the fresh air so much was tiring.

Cheers
JG

Trying to Leave

Well this is something new to write about. I was ready to fly to Tucson, all pack and set. Now the problem was to try to sleep. I don’t relish going to bed early, but I tried, it didn’t work. I had about an hour or so of sleep before I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning so that I could make my flight. I drove into the city, and the highways were extremely foggy and hard to see (this should have been my first warning sign). We are at the airport waiting in line and the line has not moved an inch in the 30 minutes that we have been waiting. They tried to move the people going to Toronto to the front of the line and get them moving, that didn't work. Why you ask, we were asking that same thing. We looked up my flight - it was cancelled! We waited another 30 minutes or so in line and finally get through and I get the craziest flight that the man could think of. Serves me right, for booking with air Canada. I am now flying as far west as possible to go south??!!?? I still don’t understand it myself. The flights were Saskatoon, Calgary, Denver and Tucson; I was OK with this. It was a bit long, but I could make do – I wasn’t too thrilled with the stop in Denver because last time I was there, they lost both my gigantic bike boxes and my bag. And I kind of needed them ASAP, because I was flying out again in a couple of days. My flight now is Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, San Francisco and then Tucson.

Anyways the reason why my first flight was cancelled was because the pilot didn’t want to land in the fog. I promise that Saskatoon does not have any monsters that lurk in the fog. But then again it is Air Canada (Jazz)/ United Air… that should say it all.

So here’s what happened so far. My flight out of Saskatoon was late, surprise, surprise! While we were flying in the air, we did circles above Calgary. And when we did land there wasn’t room to dock. No big deal, I still had 15 minutes to make my flight before it took off. Calgary to Vancouver was uneventful, though we did have an Olympic athlete from Belgium on the plane. The weather in Vancouver looked nice, and things were green. Wait… this is the winter Olympics right… where's the snow??? I love Vancouver customs, the people are so personable and I don’t even have to open my bike box up xoxox. Well I still have a couple of hours to burn in the airport and I have nothing else to talk about. Once I get to Tucson there maybe some more news.

Miss you Saskatchewan… See you in the spring

Cheers
JG

Leaving Soon

Well I thought that it was time for another entire for this blog. This past week had been very busy for me – I finished my grade 12 (yeah!!!) So now that means I’m done school (high school that is) and I have more time to train and do some of the things that I never get to do. The first couple of days after I finished school I didn’t know what to do, I walked around that house completely bored. – You only can train for so many hours in a day.

I’m going to be off to Tucson in a couple days now and I’m super excited to be going. I’ve never been there before but I’ve heard that it has great riding. I will know Tucson by that time I leave there – going to be riding there for a month! The first two weeks of the camp I will be riding with the Canadian Team, road and mountain will be there. And the second two weeks will be with Team BC. I've been trying to pack my bags for the last few hours and not making much progress with it. I start pack too much and then too little – I can’t take my cycling cloths out because I need them all, but then at the same time girls got to have a few choices with regular clothes too. I still need to pack my bike but that will only take about an hour or so, so there’s no rush with that.

There is nothing new with my life right beside me going away. I have no new bikes, but as a true cyclist I’m looking into a new road bike again. My BH has been good but it’s getting old and I have been replacing a lot of part on it. I pretty much replaced all the part on it besides the fame and fork. I’ve been saving up and I started a new business, catering, with my mom, so I’ve been making some good money that way. So hopefully I will be able to have a new bike by the fall or the winter of 2011.
Well that’s all for now

Cheers
J.G.

Review of 2009

Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.....

I thought that I would start the new year of 2010 recounting the past year. My first race was in the month of February, which being from Saskatchewan would be impossible because of the snow and cold weather, but I was lucky enough to be in sunny Phoenix AZ. As with most first races of a new year, I was a bit nervous not knowing if I was up to snuff. I was racing as a cat.3 woman but with the pro ½ women. It was the biggest race that I had yet raced with 85 racers, and I had no idea how I would do. I ended up doing pretty well to my surprised, coming in 3rd in my cat. And in the pro women I would have been in the middle of the pack. The race was different from the races in Canada - firstly more racers and secondly lots of crashes. There were crashes left right and center and for no reason other than being sketchy and not paying attention. I missed all of the crashes some just by the skin of my teeth hey but still a missed crash is still that.

After the races, we drove to Palm Springs - who doesn't want to go there eh? So I'm in sunny Cali and guess what it rains the whole first day... in the desert. When does that happen? Well I guess in February it does. I got a cold the next day and got pretty sick felt like crap and didn't get as much riding in as I would have liked. I was ready to get home by the end of the camp. I was flying into Calgary, and the plane just got colder, I knew I was back in Canada. I was pretty thrilled to land in Saskatoon until I saw the snow had not gone, and it was still terribly cold. I can't say that I wanted to make any snow angels but would have liked to go back to Cali.

I was not able to ride outside for a long time. We had an awful spring, and the snow and ice decided to stay a long time. It was around May by the time that I could start riding outside - up to that time I didn't want to ride outside and had to make do with the trainer which is not fun after having a chance to ride in warm weather.

Between the time that I got back from the states, May rolled around and I went to BC for some track training and some of racing in the BC spring series. There wasn't much dry weather in BC which is normal. It rained lots and being a prairie girl I'm not a fan of racing or riding in the rain. The first race that I did there it poured rain and I was frozen by the end of it. I could not feel my hand nor my feet or my leg or arms for that matter. All in all though I was satisfied with the way things went - I rode strong (I think). There were no hills which was surprising for a BC race, but that was OK with me.

My next "major" race that year was Bikes on Broadway, the showing in the women's race was not great with only 16 or so. I was thrilled with my time trail, I was getting more, and more into the "zone" as the year went the year on. And my focus on the bike was getting better. I was able to ride at a higher heart rate and go faster. I place 2nd in the time trail which I was thrilled about been that was a monumental step up from the year before where I crashed and burned... bad. The road race the next day was in rural Sask and the course was rolling as much as a Sask course can be. I can't say that I was climbing well because there wasn't a hill as such to actually climb - but I was feeling enthusiastic and ready to race. I honestly burned my legs up toward the end of the race and had nothing for the sprint finish - which is typical for me. I need to learn to be a bit smarter in not burning myself out and save some for the sprint or make sure that there is no sprint to sprint for. The next day was the crit, and I was tired as ever and not feeling raring to go. My legs felt like lead warming up, and I was a bit worried that I would not be able to perform as I should. But soon as the race started the legs were fine, and all was forgotten.

I not sure which race I did next, but I think it was the Enumclaw stage race. I race in the cat. 3 women's but raced with the pro women. I wish that Canada had more races like these. It was on the smaller side and was more of the local teams that came, but there was still good competition and lots of strong racing. There's not much to say about the time trail it was a straight forward course that looped around in a 13km circuit. I didn't feel fabulous in the time trail - my legs felt slow and I was not pleased with it. I thought that for sure that I would not have a good time and to my shock I had the second fast time.

The road race was a tough course; it had a 2km long hill that was steep enough that no one could start sprinting early for the KOM (or queen of the mountain as it's called in a women's race. Pfft I don't care, I call it KOM anyways) at the top. We had to do the lap about 4 - 5 times I can't quite remember, but I was sure starting to suffer by the time the third lap rolled around. I got dropped from the group in the, second last, lap to go on the hill. I was seriously hurting, and my climbing form had gone for garbage. But at the top of the hill I had to grit my teeth (bit the bullet or any other form of cliché you want to use). Anyways it was tough and I yelled at myself a bit to get moving faster. But in the end I was able to chase about 5km to make my way back on to the rear of the small lead group right before the downhill. I had to sit at the back to get my wind back... but then the hill rolled around again.

Most people were feeling the hill this time and though those few lucky girls that are able to fly up hills without pedaling, attacked and got away. The crit was later that night. I always inwardly cringe when I see two races on the same day - what are people thinking...! I'm not a machine nor do I ride a motorbike. I like to rest after a race, put my feet up maybe watch TV but that was not the case. I had about 4 hours between races that was about enough time to ride back to the hotel, clean up, change and eat and then head over to the next race sight. Though as much as I was complaining about two races on the same day I was feeling really strong - I wasn't tired or feeling like crap. During the race I felt strong and surprised myself by doing a few attacked and getting away. It was a fast course; we were averaging about 43km an hour which is pretty decent for a local states race. What I found more shocking than the energy that I had in the race was that I had a kick at the end. I just want to touch a bit on the food here... fried and tasteless or teriyaki lots and lots of teriyaki (inward shudder).

I race the Banff Bike Fest stage race. It was not a fun week - it wasn't that the racing was too hard or the completion too tough it was the fact that I didn't sleep for 5 days. Not sleeping for 5 days can be challenging at best but then you through racing into the mix and you get an angry, mad, and cranky and pissed off girl. My racing did suffer because of this fact; I do think that it is a possibility that it could not. My time trial was just awful, I was slow on the flats and hills alike and for me this was a bit odd. I didn't get a proper warm up and I think that really killed me on the hills. It was one of the hardest time trials that I had done to date. I don't know if it's that fact that I had not slept or not gotten a good warm up but the thing that I think that it was a bit of both. The two days before though I did the hill climb and it went quite well but my climb in the TT was dreadful. The crit was fast and I was able to stick in there for the sprint getting 4th place but after I was not feeling too hot. I had a terrible headache and wanted to sleep but couldn't. The Road race was the next day and the best way to describe the way I was - the walking dead. I wanted to cry I was so tired, I didn't want to race on this cold wet day.

I don't think that there could had been anything that could have made me feel worst, well maybe snow and hail storm but then the race probably would have been cancels so that would have been a terrific thing but it had to be June so snow was mostly out of the question, unless, climate change went crazy and in this day in age you never know.... So from the start of the race I was suffering, a few girls got off the front and a couple others wanted to chase but I was in no way able to. There was no cool down for me after the race I put my bike away changed into dry clothes and got a warm decaff coffee and went and lied down in the van. If I have to find something good about this race, it at lease was memorable and I won't soon forget it.

Ah nationals - they were the next race in jolly old Quebec. We got lucky for the girls time trial, it was looking like it was going to rain but it held off till the afternoon so that the course for us was not slick. I had been working tremendously hard up to this point and the goal was to win (I guess I set the goal high). The few days before I would fly out, I was having second thought. I was quite stressed and feeling burnt out - not a good feeling going into a National event. I didn't think I was ready, I was unusually tired from training and to be frank worried on if I could meet the goal that I had set for myself. It was more than just the goal of winning the time trail, that was part of it, but the other part was to make it to worlds. I had to take a couple days off before I would fly out.

In Quebec I admit that I was pretty stressed with everything. It like the time trial was sitting on my shoulders and kicking me in the butt laughing. The day of the TT I tried to keep everything else from getting to me. I was able to focus and get a good warm up. By the time I got to the line I was just starting to get nervous again and got that twitchy jump in my muscles. I rode the start of the TT hard knowing that I had to climb the hills fast and make a decent split time. I was feeling good and hurting at the same time. By the time I had about 2km to go I finished the last part of the downhill and I started to crack hard. The ground leveled and started going up and I died, my legs got so slow and I had to put my gears in the smallest and spin it out. In the end I won that race and was super happy. It was one of my fastest times and I was able to ride at an average heart rate of 180 which was a new high for me. The road race... well it was just that. A one-person team against a team of 8. I wasn't able to get away nor do anything that would have a changed the race greatly. The race was terribly wet... not so cold but with the wind it wasn't fun.

I got to Worlds in August. I was surprised that I wasn't more nervous than I thought I would be. I was treating it like any other race. Sure the stress of being away from home and being in a country that is neither helpful to non Russian speaking people. The ITT was my best race yet... I was able to break my 40km an hour goal. Well the RR was short for me to say the lease. I got crashed out in the first 1km or so. I got some killer road rash, ripped up my bike a bit... though luckily nothing broke. I made the first lap trying to chase back onto the group but it wasn't possible, I just got too far back. I was in a lot of pain, bleeding, angry and to top it off I was out of water because some time in the crash the follow cars ran over then. Lucky me!

Aw Canada games what can I say that hasn't all ready be said by the hundreds of kids that were there. It was hot and muggy, the wind never stopped and the food was crap. The rooms were so small, like a prison cell but with 6 girls in the one room. The rooms were messy and cramped and to top it all off 10 girls to a bathroom. I just cringe at the thought of it, luckily we were all nice about it and there were no cat fights, haha. The races were good, nothing to say about the mountain bike though, I just spun. I have never not raced a race before, it was weird. Felt like I was cheating or something like that.

Well that kind of sums up my year of road. I did do cross but just for the fun of it. I raced didn't train, I crashed and fell ripped up my road rash 2 or 3 more times which is not fun. Waited at the medi clinic for an hour by myself while I bled. This time it was no biggie because I had gone so many times over the last couple of years I knew that drill. You would think that I need to learn to ride my bike better or something?

Cheers
Julia *