Victoria and Valya Boutenko of the Raw Food Family are in Calgary this weekend. They are speaking on the value of green food in our lives. More information at AwesomeRawsome.com. They speak from experience creating healthy lives with the power of raw foods. I've read a few of their books and am empowered to put immensely more of the marvelous greens in my life. Back in 2006, I started supplementing my diet with Brendan Brazier's protocol of hemp, flax, chlorella and maca. I was racing at a high level with the multi-day endurance races, with the continued stresses of life in general and the extra ones of race logistics, housing and funding without a good strategy for chilling out time. These all added up and impacted my health with weakened adrenals for recovery. Using Brendan's protocol was the only boost my body got at that time; and I believe got me thru the extra stress.
Currently, Brendan has a series of *free* videos which highlight super health and nutrition. Sign up for the series at: thrive in 30
Valuable life information that I wish I had known years ago... and definitely a way of life for me now.
I did some yard work at Mike's place. The darn pine needles are a foot long, let alone how huge the pinecones are! 
When I went on the roof to clean off the pine needles, much to my surprise a raccoon scampered away. I assume he was the noise on the roof I heard the last couple nights. He had ripped away shingles and made a little hole under the rooftop. Mr. Coon just glared at me for discovering his new home. I covered the damage and nailed in a huge piece of plywood. These little guys are smart and go chalet to chalet until they are discovered. Thankfully, I got him before he dug his way into the chalet. The next night's sleep was peaceful...
I was unsure how my body would like jumping from x-c ski season direct to a 100-mile bike ride. This was the inaugural ride on my spiffy new Madone that I had purchased off Ebay. My transalp bud Matt from Seattle had bike-fit me superbly on it as my ride felt awesome from the getgo. The teeny saddle he put on was comfy, especially with the cut-out section. It was long overdue for me to get this "women's specific design" (WSD) model for my monkey type body (long legs, short torso).
Stayed at the hostel in Santa Barbara for Sat night. Another minimal sleep night and I was off checking out the mountain climbs behind SB. Talk about climbing which went on and on. 
It was a surprise when all of a sudden my left crank arm was dangling from my shoe still clipped into my pedal. The bike store at home switched over my compact crankset to a DuraAce 53/39 before I left for this trip. Hmmm... I had an allen key to tighten the bolts of the crank arm though somehow the threaded crank arm fixing bolt was missing (or had not been threaded in??) hmmm... Fortunately, a small truck was coming my way on this no-traffic road. Victor kindly drove me back down to the bike store in town and I got it fixed. Strange indeed!
A day later, I visited Leslie in Newbury Park - a guy I met in Europe when I was bike-touring in 1987. Les was kind to take a couple days off work to show me the best road riding in the Santa Monica mountains.
Les and I also checked out Highway 33 north of Ojai with its amazing pristine mountain views. This was part of a 90-mile point-to-point course that is mostly uphill. We had a wicked time riding back on the descent, though abit of work with the headwind.
Checked out my first Raw Food restaurant in Santa Monica with Sue who I know from my track & field days when I was 16. Sue is now Dr. Susan, a dermotologist in L.A.
I was very impressed with how good everything tasted. Looks pretty good in the pic!
Sandra got me interested in Native Indian art and we went shopping for a Zuni fetish at Universal City. I brought back my very own Badger fetish made by Zuni Tyler Quann.
Great dinner with Sandra & Dino, and visiting cyclists Gaby & Rene & Pappy before I packed up all my gear. Overall, I almost rode 500-miles/800-km in 8 days including 1 rest day - awesome! It was a great week to visit and ride.
Julie helping shovel the snow
Overnight, it snowed a record 25 cm in Calgary for my arrival home! The view out of the airplane window was wowing with the city unrecognizable covered in a blanket of white. Darcy, Ying, Julie and a soon to be little ox picked me up at the airport.
Team Bikes & Beyond - Paul, Jeff, Philip and Marg
Kayak Christmas Lights!! (surfski on the left)
Black & White Christmas!
I've been out 5 times in November. Each week getting better and better. Minimal snow levels with excellent conditions.
The bonus is training at a mild temperature around freezing with the brilliant sun shining.
Kamren showing fine classic form of single kick-double pole! 
The view 9 km up on Morraine Lake Road 
Lake Louise frozen over
Tuesday paddle upstream in the North Saskatchewan River. Notice the bits of frozen ice on the shoreline. It was nice to get on the water again!
Photo - downtown Edmonton from Goldbar bridge
Photo - Kamren riding up Kinnard Ravine
It felt good to do something different when Sandra gave the option to hike or ride. The sunshine made the hike pleasant. We passed many people on-route similar to the masses that climb up the Grouse Grind in North Vancouver.
At the top, we took a break at the "restaurant" for some delicious pumpkin soup served in - a pumpkin!
The 360 views showed endless rolling farmland and mountains with villages all over. On the descent, Sandra had a bound in her step with me hurrying to keep up with much less bound. My legs were abit sore the day after from the steep descent.
The view from my airplane window upon landing near Edmonton. Downtown visible in the far upper left side. I was trying to describe to my European friends how flat it is at home with riding square grids for training. The pilot announced that the temperature was 27C. I thought he was mistaken though surprisingly correct for Oct. 1! Nice!! and the leaves are still on the trees!
View from my top floor room with the mountain Bristen. The hotel was age-old, wooden and creaky kind of like the Old-Timer's Cabin in Edmonton. It made the whole wedding event cozy being far away at this place.
The teeny church up the hill.
Alex and Ruth - post ceremony. The service was both in English and Swiss-German. Some of the songs were sung at the same time in both languages making it unique to listen to. I didn't understand Alex's vows as he spoke in Swiss-German. Ruth's vows were in English and were the most touching interdependant vows I've heard. Very cool!
Alex's triathlon group Tri Uri rode their mountain bikes up and gave them their wishes!
Rare pic of Marg in a dress (and those darn nylons!) with Alex and Ruth. It had been nice weather earlier. A fog blew in and it was super cold at photo taking time. Alex and Ruth posed with each guest for a photo.
Alex, an accomplished Swiss mountain guide, was encouraged to show his skill with his mountaineer climbing gear over his suit. His Swiss guide friend set up ropes for him to use ice-picks and crampons to climb high up the tree for the wedding guests.
The dinner at the hotel was great. Each guest had a teeny rock "cairn" with their name on it marking where we were to sit at the table. There was an English translation and a Swiss-German translation for all the British, Canadian and Swiss-German guests. 
After dinner, there were many entertaining games played which had Switzerland (Alex) versus England (Ruth) in competition. It was good fun and with many laughs. The dance started with Alex and Ruth, then they split off and gathered more partners until almost everyone was dancing. I had a great time meeting Ruth's relatives and friends from England, and more of Alex's family and friends.
It was an adventure to make my way to Alex's and Ruth's wedding, and I'm super glad I went.
Within 10-km, I reached the start of Furkapass. Ultra-scenic as I snapped a lot of photos. The 900m climb seemed to fly by with the open exposure and views. At the top, I put on extra clothes and slowly descended the steep switchbacks. The views were outstanding and jaw-dropping to see where the heck they built the road into the steep mtnside. 
Reaching the bottom, the next pass climbed immediately from the village. Fortunately, I bypassed this one and kept descending into the lowlands. The scenery began to look Canada-like with many evergreen trees. 
After abit of flats in the warm sun, the next pass began Nufenenpass. This one seemed to linger as the scenery was not as spectacular and the road just climbed relentlessly. Approaching the top, I passed two guys from Germany on a training ride. They stopped for lunch at the top. I put on warm clothing and flew down a super long descent at a gradual grade. It went on and on until I hit the village where Gotthard pass began. From afar I could see the pass roads way up and was surprised that I’d be up there soon enough.
This pass flew by as it was ultra scenic with the twisty cobblestone road. A strong headwind made one direction super difficult and I looked forward to turning a corner to get the tailwind for abit. On and on, bump bump bump, I reached the top. Threw some warm clothes back on for the final 13 km descent to Andermatt. Fast gentle descent. 
I stopped by the sports store to let Adrian know how the ride went. He said my 5 ½ hours for the 100-km, 3000m elevation climb was pretty good. That was probably the longest 100k ride I’ve ever been on, though also most scenic and fun.
