Training in the Santa Monica canyons!

After my 26-hour drive I went on three epic road rides and a fun mountain bike ride with my buddy Les in Thousand Oaks, California. I met Les back in 1987 bike touring down the Yugoslavia coastline. Needing a rest day, I took the opportunity to ride with my favourite motorcyclist Dino.

brilliant action shot by Paul Herold

We met up with two of his motorbike buddies and hit the canyons in the Santa Monica Mtns. Dino's bike handling was exceptional on Super Duke, his canyon bike, with having a 100-lb monkey on his back. He surprised his buddies easily keeping the pace and one time had me bug-eyed when he decided to zoom by and pass them. Talk about warp speed. I told Dino that squeezing him by holding on for dear life did not mean "go faster"!

On the weekends, a photographer perches on the Rock Store climb and captures all the cyclists, motorcyclists and cars zooming by. I laughed when I saw this photo as I would lean into each corner with Dino like I was riding myself. One of his buddies said I was a good rider, and I guess that's what he meant!

We passed by the famous "Rock Store" which is a huge weekend motorbike hangout. There were hundreds of riders with lots of fancy machines to gawk at.

The Rock Store climb in the Thousand Oaks/Agoura Hills area is the site of Stage 8 of the upcoming Amgen Tour of California. Wicked climb and super intense technical descent. It'd be most fun to be perched on a corner of the descent to watch the riders get down smoothly.

Les & Marg checking out old town Ojai after an epic road ride on Hwy 33 north

Marg with Super Duke wearing jeans too small for Les' 13-year-old son, a youth-size helmet borrowed from the neighbour down the street, Les' wife's boots, and a borrowed motorbike jacket! I was set for action.

Running with Les on his favourite trail


Hitting the coast bumping into a RAAM racer

Typical view of the rides thru the canyons - I love it!

1987 flashback - Les 2nd from left, Marg in red

Posing on the Yugoslavia coastline in 1987... Shelley from Australia, Les from USA, couple from Quebec, Marg from Canada, couple from France, Suzuki from Japan. I was on a Europe bike touring trip. I met up with all these cyclists travelling separately when I reached Yugoslavia. We all travelled the whole Yugoslavian coastline camping on the side of the road and cooking meals together. It was a highlight of my trip!

My Kids' Projects!

Panda Flavonoid project with Jenn & Jess

Ok, so they're not exactly MY kids...

I was thrilled to get to help 4th year U of A Nutrition students get their research projects underway.

After discussions with them, I helped out creating some snazzy Excel worksheet formulas for their data analysis. They had alot of work to get everything together and did awesome.

Casey chatting about her study with the APrON project

Yesterday, I went to their Poster Presentations at Dinwoodie Lounge on campus. It was an elaborate affair with a catered meal. Each student was by their poster ready to answer questions.

What a great experience for them to get to show off their work and get challenged. Wish they did this when I went to U of A.

Getting my name in the acknowledgements!

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I felt as cool as a proud parent getting to see the hard work of "my kids"!

Bike - Hitchhike - Run

Amazingly enough, I've been on the road bike since end of February - riding on the roads by the snow-laden fields around Edmonton. Usually I will x-c ski to the bitter end of the snow season in March.
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Aaron Schooler has helped get alot of us motivated to get out cycling early as he is training for his team H&R Block's upcoming races. It's been awesome riding with the guys in the single digits above 0C and keeping warm in the sun. I have the riding bug!!

Today I went on a road ride with Steve Ferris from my club with Aaron jamming 'cause it was too cold(?)! I was happily talking Steve's ear off about raw foods when my chain broke halfway into the ride. We were way out on some no-traffic Range Road 50 km south-east of Edmonton. No problem, I actually brought my chain tool! Steve took over fixing my chain until he realized the tool was broken. The metal gave away and bent so the mechanism wouldn't remove the link in a straight manner. Anyways, I was hooped!

Steve kindly pushed me on my bike back to highway 21 a couple km away. From a main road, I figured it would be easy to catch a ride at least back to Sherwood Park the nearest town. A few vehicles stopped though not the best ride for various reasons. A service van stopped - perfect. Thanks to Bradley from Monarch Countertops, I got a ride back to Edmonton. I ran from Bonnie Doon to Pedalhead where I had a new chain put on and happily rode the last few blocks home.

I'm very appreciative of Steve for his patience and riding with me, Bradley for stopping to pick me and my bike up, and Guri for putting my chain on!!

The Canadian Birkie Adventure Race

Approaching the 5 km mark of the 55-km birkie x-c ski course, I was surprised to see a bunch of skiers grouped up at a left turn into the gated parkland we were to ski through. Apparently, a park person was late in opening the locked gate (which kept the elk in) for the skiers to cross to the other side.

It was a natural reaction from my adventure race days to just do whatever it takes. I removed my skis and poles immediately and squeezed them through the gate holes hoping no-one crushed my carbon fibre poles. I easily scaled the 10-foot fence with its good footholds and jumped over to the other side. Meanwhile, it was a little chaotic with skiers clueing in on climbing over. I quickly put on my gear and continued on. I was surprised to see my Transalp teammate and speedy cross-country skier Nikki Kassel at this part. Being quick at this adventure stop propelled me into a better position in the race.

keeping my hands warm - photo Gail Wozney

The prior day, I tested my skis at the mid-point of the race course and was pleasantly surprised at how blazing fast and abrasive the freshly set tracks were. Wow, it was going to be a fast race. Or so I thought. I prepped my skis accordingly to the fast conditions. To my surprise, the flurries that were forecasted at a teeny % and only 1 cm ended up being lots more and showing up just as I drove out 40 km east to the race site start early raceday morning.

the appearance of a fast start - photo Ryan Jackson

Thanks to ski tech Michael Kennedy helping at the Track 'n Trail tent who put on some colder wax over my warm waxes. On the start line, I was fortunate to get an extra layer of some special wax Coach Corey kindly put on my skis with 10 min to start. The start was one of the most sloppy starts in that the fresh snow had blown in all the tracks set. Skiers were all over the place though the slow start made it a safe start.

funnelling into two lanes - photo Ryan Jackson

After the adventure fence section, the field spread apart. I had two guys in red in sight and gained on them on each climb yet lost them later on the flats. I hung on to Gerhardt from Camrose for awhile then was on my own.

The feed zone people must be commended on assisting with my food intake. I would holler out "food" when approaching a feed station. They would yell back cookie or banana. I would yell "banana, out of the peel". I heard them holler "banana, out of the peel, up ahead". I would see my potential banana piece and ask "in my mouth please". The volunteer did their darndest to feed me as I skied by. I must apologize for any fingers my teeth grazed! I was impressed to get at least 2-3 banana pieces and 2 cookies this way. I heard laughter amongst the volunteers about what just happened as I skied away happily with food in my mouth.

Meanwhile, I mastered placing of my yummy energetic dates strategically on the front of my camelbak straps so I could easily grab them with gloves/poles on to pop in my mouth. They just stuck to the strap and I was surprised they stayed while I skied until I happily ate them.

heading into porcupine trail - photo Gail Wozney

Onto skiing... wow, it was going to be an extra food and beverage kind of day with the extra energy required to ski in conditions like that. The lead skiers found that it was easier to ski in the middle between the tracks set than to plow thru the snow-laden tracks. This made for a sloppy ski for alot of the course. Or only one side of the tracks was skied thru then the other so had to cross over again and again which actually made it kind of entertaining not to fall in the soft snow.

Temperature-wise, it was what sounds like a balmy race temp at -11C. The windchill was high making it feel -16C. Alot of the course is sheltered by trees though a good part of the course is open along fenceline and the section backtracking to Islet Lake is into the wind. The fact this course is a point-to-point course makes it unique.

I was adamant to finish this race as I chose to pull out at the 33-km point last year due to hypothermia. My hands/feet were warm, my chest was like a block of ice. This year I wore warmer everything and was comfortably dressed. My body adjusted to it. I even carried a windjacket in my rear pocket, just in case. Today, the cool windchill was welcome to cool my warm body. Skiing thru familiar sections, I laughed to myself as memories of last year's hypothermia had me believing we were on a "new" course.

I pretty much kept my position with only my strong skier friend Darryl who was racing in the pack division (5.5 kg pack) to pass me. I've known Darryl to "over-wax" his skis and still finish fast only this time the over-waxing worked highly in his favour. I had no problems scaling the short climbs or double-poling, Anytime I needed to single-kick double-pole or diagonal stride was when the lack of grip held me back. I used more force to plunk down the skis (my hipflexors will be crying tomorrow!).

Throughout the day I had three separate face dives into the snow. Just caught a ski in the fluffy snow and poof, it all happens pretty quick. On my face-dive in the last 15-km I felt a twinge in my right inner thigh. Yikes, it felt it could cramp any moment. Fortunately, it didn't until I was relaxing on the couch later that night.

Loved it when the trails merged back with the 31-km course that is run 1/2 hour after the 55-km start. It felt good to see skiers again and it increases the motivation to go quick again. Also, this is one of the few times, the tracks were nicely skied in thanks to the 31-km skiers.

Last turn-off on the fence-line I caught another handful of skiers. I kept them at bay with 3 km to go where one tall man from Banff Ski Runners glided a little stronger. I could hear another guy close behind and it was incentive for me to keep focussed to go strongly to the finish. I think he was surprised when I thanked him for being there as it helped me work harder, and I did keep away!

I am super happy to have finished strongly! When I was in the change trailer, I just sat in a chair for a good 10 min before changing - just slaughtered. Nothing beats that feeling!

It was awesome to catch up with old friends at the finish. The birkie brings out alot of good people.

Learning Lesson at Lake-L to Banff Loppet

Compelled with my competitive nature, I clung onto a nice pace of a neon-suit Team racer. He helped bring me within contention of super strong skier from Banff, Theresa Gawron, who sped away on Leg-1 descent.

my neon racer - photo loppet.ca, J. Bannon

Realizing I best begin refueling, I went for a sip of my yummy fuel energizing Vega Sport drink from my Camelbak. This was about 15-km into a fast paced race, yeah much too late! Yikes, the darn hose was frozen. This has happened only once to me in a race so I did what I could to save the hose, tossing as much into the collar of my shirt as possible. Unthawing was not happening. As I skied, I nibbled on the hose to break up the ice not realizing I bit into my lip getting a little blood on my race number. Replenishing with hydrating energizing liquids was critical in a 68-km race. Meanwhile I dropped off the pace as I was concerned with refuelling.

Into Leg 2, it was critical to get the camelbak functioning so I stopped. Some guys passed by. Lucky for me, I saw x-c skiing friend Mo at an intersection cheering on her teammate. I asked her to save my camelbak. Mo helped me put my jacket on and I kept onwards with no frozen beverage. Meanwhile hypothermia was setting in as I was shivering.

starting on the Lake (find little Marg!) - pic from loppet.ca

The start temp up top at Lake Louise was a comfortable -11C. As we descended 250m elevation quickly within the first leg, the temperature actually dropped to a frigid -16C. Unknowingly, this was affecting a few skiers. At the end of Leg 2, Mo was there with my Camelbak in action. THANK YOU MO! Darryl's support Meaghan left behind a cup of my special protein recovery mix. Within 10 minutes, I stopped shivering, was warming up and catching the guys who had passed me. Yay!!! Apparently, Meaghan also left me a cup of my "green" drink at the end of Leg 3 which I missed as I passed thru. Later, I heard everyone wondered what the heck it was being green and all!

Leg-3 feedzone with my designated sport drink - too bad I zipped thru & missed it! - photo Meaghan

It was close for me to have to stop my race. I would have taken the time to warm up in someone's vehicle, get beverages and food into me and hopefully recover so I could continue on. My learnings are to ensure my race food is in working order... food accessible which is was in my side shorts pockets and camelbak functioning. Most importantly to drink/eat early in the race, no matter what race mode I'm in, food is IMPORTANT. I am SO glad I brought a light jacket with me. It saved me temporarily. Whatever happens, these races are on the edge of survival in between the feedzones. I AM responsible for my well-being and will do so.

The conditions for the first 30-km were awesome. The snow was surprisingly fast with the fresh snow buried in the old tracks. The crazy technical sections were not icy and safe to go thru. Into leg 3, we had to go over the typical chopped off shrubs section where needed to be cautious to lift a ski here and there. This is where adventure skiing is at its finest. There is no other race out there with as much fun of an adventure as this one! After 30-km it is so topsy-turvy and the senses have to be on full-time "aware" for obstacles... trees, branches, rocks, ice flows, acorns, pine needles, leaves, grassy-hay(!).

Many times we crossed highway 1A where volunteers shovelled snow onto the road to help us cross. With cars passing by, the snow became gravel-laden dirt coloured.

like that is good for your skis! - photo loppet.ca

On leg-5, one section of road was not covered. The volunteer said "you MUST take your skis off". I questioned "Must I"? She quizzically looked at me and said "no, I guess not" as I walked across the road gently with my skis. We had already skied over so much crap, I was not concerned. I have officially designated these skis my "Lake-Louise-to-Banff-Loppet" skis after racing this event many times. 50m later was a train track crossing where again no volunteers were covering it with snow for us. I proceeded to walk on the jagged rocks side-stepping over the tracks to the dismay of the two men skiing with me. I laughed saying 100lbs won't hurt these skis! I then took advantage to double pole away on the short river section to the crazy marsh section as they had to put their skis back on.

Theresa Gawron finishing the Backswamp section - photo loppet.ca

Marg happily almost thru the BackSwamp - photo loppet.ca

Reaching the Sunshine overpass, I removed my skis and ran on the icy pavement 800 metres to the next trailhead. We were allowed to skate-ski this section which was perfect for the super fast flattened trail and my waxless skis by this point. Skiing to the Sundance trail was so much harder than I remembered. It was up and up and up, not that I don't enjoy that, just forgot it was there and I was tired. The Sundance trail was barely laden with snow hiding the odd teeny stone. I hit a stone slamming to a halt landing on my knees. That little stone created more damage to my skis than walking over that road.

Finally hit the river section with a few more km to the finish. A slight wind and tough pole plant, I happily made it to the cheering finish-line people. All in all, I am SUPER glad I managed to overcome the silly hypothermia ordeal and complete the event in one happy piece!

Tips for me for next year's race... make sure that my cool shorts with side pockets fit snugly overtop my tights... I kept having to pull them up as I had plumber's butt going on with them dropping down! Irritating and difficult with my nanu gloves on.

I pre-waxed my skis accordingly to expected weather reports from Sat morning when the race was Sun morning. I went a little too warm with my wax though managed to scrape off a little and apply what I needed with 15 min to spare race day morning. After base layer, I had VR50(!), VR45, VR50(!), VR45... scrape off stuff, corked it in, then applied 2 more layers of VR45, with two thins layers of VR40. Worked for me I'm just over 100lbs. Temp was -11C at start, cooling to -16C then finish at -5C.

Drink Eat Drink Eat Drink.... early into the race!

Thanks to the organizers for another well-organized event though I somehow missed out on the wicked Lagan's chocolate insanely loaded sugar brownies that provide jet-fuel. This was the first year the race offered a shuttle bus from Banff to Lake Louise at 6 a.m. which helped me out immensely with being a solo racer. Thanks for the lift!

Things I forgot to mentions in my race story...
After the Sunshine overpass in the run approach to Leg-6 trailhead, there was a cattle guard where only the middle half was covered with plywood. The plywood was too far to jump to. I had to carefully make each foot placement on the rounded grates with slippery ski boot bottoms as my pole straps were attached to my hands and each hand holding a ski. With the sketchy stability, one of my skis fell out of my hand and down thru the cattleguard. Lucky it didn't have far to go. I grabbed in, carried my skis/poles in a pile and carefully inched my way to the plywood. I felt like a little kid carrying too much stuff! After the plywood, same thing, had to be super cautious not to slip on the rounded grates. This feat would have been easy for any ski racer going across without skis/poles. It was dangerous without the cattleguard fully covered lengthwise, and not just for the height-challenged!
An interesting topic comes up for the Leg 5 to Leg 6 transition. It is known Legs 1-5 of the race are classic legs with an allowance to switch gear and skate-ski Leg-6. I overheard that a lead guy was seen skate-skiing thru the backswamp - did he not know spectators were watching him or did he just not know it was technically a classic race?! Then there is lack of clarity in the rules if a solo skier who wants to switch to skate-ski gear that they would just have to run freely 800m to the Leg-6 trailhead and put on their fresh new gear there while unsupported solos would have to carry everything. Not a big deal, just need clarity so then it's a defined choice on picking the best way for next time.
Rules help set the ground for a fair race. Myself, I had received support with my Camelbak in between legs, so technically I'm not sure where that falls for this race. Hope to get back to the organizer with some constructive feedback.

Kananaskis Haven for Skiing

Checking out the awesome local website that had this video on "skiing every trail in Peter Lougheed Park" in one day... 106 km later... I wish I was part of that epic. Made the best of it and joined a few friends Saturday skiing the Cookie Race course including the scenic challenging Blueberry Hill climb/wicked descent.

happy snap at the scenic top of Blueberry Hill overlooking Kananaskis Lakes

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Skied a total 49-km in brilliant warm weather with close to 1000m elevation gain. I was skiing (or racing) at Darryl's talking pace and finished up pretty trashed. I still had a wicked smile on my face the rest of the day!!

Whiskey Jack eyeing Darryl's food

New Years 2010 - harvest

My New Years pic for 2010 where I picked the Rune card JERA - Harvest. A very exciting card full of beneficial outcomes though involving patience to allow time for the process during a long season. Very interesting...

Whistler Olympic Park

Took a Christmas driving venture through Seattle and Vancouver stopping in to check out the new x-c ski area at the Whistler Olympic Park.The trails were remarkably fun with about 1000 feet elevation gain in a 12 km loop. I wasn't used to the moist snow conditions hovering around freezing so my grip for classic skiing wasn't the best. I switched over to skate skiing for another loop and was wowed by the speed on the descents with the wicked corners!! The grooming was excellent on these trails that came with a $20 pricetag. Cool to bump into my Transalp teammate Nikki.

visitors in Kelowna

With Blinding Speed and NO FEAR!!

I was fortunate to be invited to see Viviane Forest speak at a WFG engagement Monday evening (thanks Deb!).

Guide Lindsay Debou & Amazing Ski Racer Viviane Forest

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Viviane has 4% vision and will be on the 2010 Canadian Paralympic team for downhill ski racing. Not to be only wowed by this dynamic woman skiing at blazing speeds of 120 km/hour but by her competitive drive to be the best she can be.

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It was heartfelt to hear Viviane speak how she did not see her vision as an impairment and really thought it was normal as she was born like that. She spoke more of her drive and determination to be involved with something competitive. She loves to "go hard" and "fast"! Hmmm... sounds familar!

Viviane, like most high-level athletes these days, lack the funding to fuel their commitment to race for Canada. I got to hear her speak for free. It was definitely a super motivational talk for all guests there and worthy of any Company to take her on as a motivational partner. Check out Viviane's website and watch her skiing video.

Provincial Cross - Brian Kullman Memorial - Calgary

Speed Theory Club put on Provincial cross champs in Calgary. The course was designed by Keith Bayley who sets trademark courses for good technical fun. (awesome photos courtesy R. Haskell)
Location was in the McKay schoolyard tucked underneath the colourful children's hospital with great views of the Edworthy Park hillside. Small but hearty turn-out for a spectacular warm autumn day. The winds made sure to pick up just in time for the Women's start.
Two dismounts for most riders that couldn't power up a hugely steep incline and the other was a long staircase. I was able to attack the stairs 2-steps/1-step. The height-advantaged men racers went 2x2 impressively fast. After a few swooping sections, the sandpit was all of 5 feet in length at the base of an off-camber steep descent. Easy to plough thru.
It was impressive to watch the men power up the steep incline cleanly, or battle each other when they toppled over each other!
Off the start (I am still shocked at how fast we go) I attempted to hang onto cross specialist Pepper's wheel for all of 400m(?). Fortunately, all the corners were wide and swooping so passing wasn't a concern.
I was breathing so hard thinking it must be due to my two past sleepless nights spending time with my cat recovering from surgery (kept bumping into the walls with the conehead!). I could see Shantel and Bridget very close behind and realized we all had similar positions from races past.

After two breathless loops, I chilled at a pace I could breathe and work the technical sections well. Once thru the long grassy straight sections, it was a fun fun course with full-on action!

nice legs shot! photo - R. Haskell

Beans 'n' Barley Cross - Calgary

First race was the Sport/Citizen race with alot of first time riders including -Dilbert-. The course had nice swoopy sections, with little technical spots, one set of barriers, a couple dismounts and some open fast spots.

stolen photo from United Cycle blogsite - thanks!

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Dilbert raced in flat pedals with work shoes i.e. not clipped in! Dogbert barked commands the whole time. It wasn't easy with Dilbert's big head all mushed into the cute flower helmet and his pants falling down. Dilbert looked pretty unravelled by the end. His pocket protector and 4 coloured pens stayed intact! The inserted Sportiva spikes in the shoes helped for the hike-a-bike uphills... with even more hills to climb than normal with loss of power of not being clipped in. It was awesome he didn't get lapped! and wasn't last. It helped to have a few downhill bikers in the race.
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Proof that Dilbert raced!

Officially Dilbert has no last name. Entered him with his cartoon creator's last name Adams.

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Unknowingly, Darcy got into the role of cyclocross racer support as I had 20 minutes to switch pedals on my bike, unzip-tie Dogbert from my cables --carefully--, and get into my race gear. Darcy had previous experience being my support for a Sea2summit adventure race so was used to my short chirpy commands. Thanks bud!

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With the adrenaline rush of adventure racing transitions, I was super pumped for my race. Off the start I was glued to Mical's wheel. It was quite fun to hang and tuck behind from the wind.

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Mical's Shadow

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Shantel descending into singletrack with the blinding sun

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Witch Alana powering with the hat in the wind

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Skeleton Mical

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Marg just hanging on

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Into my 3rd lap, I was overly aggressive on the fast mountainbike-like descent cornering hard on grass and leaves and almost had a nice washout. Saved it... then almost washed out on the other side... saved it... caught up to Mical and laughed. Moments later, I had a huge energy depletion... that was too close of a call... and got gapped. Chilled, rested up then put another effort into catching back up to Mical. All in all, lots of fun!

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Annie, Marg, Mical, Shantel

photo - United Cycle blogsite

Roving Race Announcer

Dilbert blending in with the fans enjoying the chili and hanging out at the firepit