Lions and tigers and bears, oh my

So I have been reading all about cougars and elephants..... Even seen pictures and hears of accounts of fights between the two. Seems the horseshoe valley area is getting quite interesting. All I have to contend with is black bears, possums, snakes and spiders.

Got out for a hour and a half run last night, about 15km with some hill sprints. Well as much as I could on the ol' dreadmill. Happy that the run really loosened up my hip after the trauma of last saturdays ride. So it's back to getting in all those base miles before I head off to bennos.

In other news I have started training for the pancake ride. I am up to 37 flapjacks in one sitting. Also doing some sprint training just to beat out the shake and bake.

Tristan was talking about so
E bike to be announce today on here.... So I wait for that now.

New whip

So it looks like I am going to be a new mountain bike as well as a new road bike. Going with the 2010 Norco Team Carbon and 2010 Norco CRR SL. pretty stoked on them, but looks like I am going to be waiting atleast a month for them as they are in Ontario and I am not.

So this morning I woke up to about 6" of snow. I thought I had escaped winter, but alas. If the snow melts away in time I might head out on the road bike, if not I will probably just go for a run or something, see how the hip feels.

Well back to work

What to do with your time off

So I had been thinking, I listen to alot of music. So why not let those of you who are less adventurous with your music know what I am listening to now. My tastes are extreemly varried and I can easily have country, rap, punk, classic rock, folk, and even acoustic stuff all in the same playlist. I will be the first to admit, I use my iPod when I ride. I am in base mileage season now so I really get to enjoy some good chill music while I just push the pedals for hours. So let's see what my most recent music purchases have been.
Mumford and Sons- Sigh no MoreI really liked their single Little Lion Man, so I grabbed the album. I have to say that listening to the album makes me think of the album title from Sum 41, all killer no filler. They are a Four price folk group from England. they combine well thought, powerful lyrics with a cool mix of instruments. From stand up bass, to accordion to banjo to guitar, and alot in between. Their new single The cave is another good track, though my personal favorite is the same as the album name, Sigh no More. they are a good chill out band, though the nano stuff really can get you going.
Florence & the Machine- LungsI was a big fan of the strong vocals from the single Dog Days are Over. so I picked up the album Lastnight. I have not had a chance to listen to it all yet, but it is pretty slow stuff. More like good recovery or streching music. Slow is not bad, powerfull vocals, just not for everyone.
Punk Goes Pop vol.3- various artistsI also grabbed this, it's coversongs of pop hits by punk bands. Fun album, cool cover of MIA's Paper Planes. I really Nike the Punk Goes series.
On the uncomming front....Rise Against has a new album out on march 15th. Lookin forward to that, rise against is always good to ride to.
That's it for now, gotta atleast pretend I am working.

promises

So i think that i am back on the bloging bandwagon, as it seems to help those sponsored/looking for sponsorship. That and i feel that the world definatly needs to hear what i have to say...it may be the ramblings of a mad man, but thats what you get.
So those of you that arnt on my friend list on facebook, probably dont know what is up with me. In the last year since i blogged, i was riding alot, as i had no car, and had to get to work somehow. Then work took me to areas that i couldnt race, so i didnt race MTB in 2010....sad. Then in the fall i bought 'The Manondale' and took up cross racing....happy. I was doin ok, won my first begginer race at the hillbilly hustle(our own mr watsons favorite race as he is rewarded in about 6 years supply of beer). So i decided to stop sandbagging as i was a few minutes ahead of second place, and like 15 ahead of 3rd. The rest of the season was like if Tyson fought an infant....just havin the elites hand me my ass all season long. Not training for 4 months before and drinking alot of beer didnt help. Certainly i dont think doing about 99% of my cross racing in true cross form....aka hungover helped either.
So i am now in the lovley southern united states for a few months with work. I was starting to ramp up training for what is shapping up to be a busy busy year filled with racing. On last saturday i was doing some interval training on a loop around where i am staying, i looked down just after a hard set, breathing hard, and i didnt see the speed bump comming. My right hand slipped off the bars and i went down pretty hard. The cost, one UA shirt, my tri club wind jacket, new derailer cables and housing(was due anyways), and the right brake hood on my campy record brake levers. Right now it is electrical taped in place while I wait for a replacment. The rest is all fixed up..... for fun look at my hip....
Lesson learned, look where I am going....oh, and you use your oblique muscles for just about everything, it still gives me alot of pain, so i am taking a few days off training to let it heal up.
So I am in the wanting a new bike phase. I am about 99% going with a Norco CRR SL for my road bike this year....and that dammed Stu Alp is temping me with his Norco Team Carbon mtb from last year for a good price....problem is i just dont have the cash for it all.....dammed drinking habbit....i have quit drinking by the way, well almost. I have one beer left from a 12 pack i bought 5 weeks ago, so I think I am doing really well. Just need to stop crashing and breaking my bikes and in theory I will actually start making money.........
So my work is over on the 31st of March.....what am I going to do after that you say? Race the Icebreaker, P2A, ect......eff that ess....i am going south again sucka. I am going to Mr Bennos place in the derty south for the month. So I have to get all my base milage in over the next 2 months, once i get to socar(i am going to start this i think, like socal, but not as cool), its time for the intensity. I forsee lots of racing up the many mountainous climbs in the area with the many fine residents of che ben. I have races to win when i get back in May, and categories to attain...
Anyways, i just noticed it is now 0049hrs, off to bed.

Ok, i just spent 10 minutes trying to post a picture....no dice, so just imagine a bruise that is literally about 8" long and 4" tall with a bunch of road rash in the middle....i am impressed with it....almost to the point of framing the picture, anywho, off to lollypop land.

Back from Hiatus

So I havnt trained really since late october, and am feeling fat. Well being freshly back from the artic, I think its high time to get back into the swing of things. Seems that I am now #7 of the fastest one lap times on the XC loop at Joyride. See here- http://joyride150.blogspot.com . Not to shabby with no training under my belt. On that note, I should probably get on my trainer before I get lazy and play some xbox instead.

cant sleep in

So day was my day off, a day to sleep in and get stuff done. Well Kona(my parents dog that I am sitting) saw to the sleeping in. At about 7am she started with the barking and nocking things over. Then we went out for breakfast, got some plants, me and ange planted them. Now ange is sleeping.

Yesterday I got out for about 170km...that was a long day.

C-Cup #3

So It was cold as hell. I lost feeling in my hands on the warm up(not really much of a warm up). On the plus side my knees were frozen. I dropped my chain off the top of the crankset on coffee run riding on saturday, and smashed my knee into the bolts on my shifter/brake clamps. It was really sore to ride. So that was a bonus.

I think I went out a little hard, I felt like I burned too many matches in the first half lap, but I was in the lead pack. I think I was last in the pack and there was like 6 of us. I just didnt think that I would survive at that pace, so I let off a bit. I came through the first lap, didnt get a bottle cus it was then that i noticed I almost hadnt drank at all. That mistake bit me in the ass later on. I was back and forth on the second lap with some guys from Two Wheel express(including Zoltan Pop who I raced against in road last year, and is a funny name so I always reconise him in results). Comming through for my last feed I effed up and dropped my bottle, I just kept going as I didnt want to loose too much. that hurt having nothin to drink. 3rd lap I was feeling effing great for the first half. Though not having that bottle sucked. I was making up alot of time, and had pulled the two wheel guys back. Then we ran into the Master Sport Women(just for Erins sake, it wasnt all of them, just the slow ones). Nothin against them, just annoying having your flow interupted by them. I just rode as strong as I could, turned out that Zoltan had faded a bit, and had I pushed harder on the last bit, I might have caught him. Ohwell.

I also found out that not only do I have enough points to get up to expert, but so does Erin and Ange. I dont think they want to go up to expert, but I hope they do. I also think that Lee has enough points to get to Elite now. Good on him for killin the Senior Ex feild. I was check lap times too, I figure that if you add about 3 minutes to the average lap time for having to do bone shaker, I was right around the same average lap time as spak. I am considering upgrading for Boler, though i might wait until mountain view.