This weekend we headed up to Quebec city for a little meet and greet at LG's Ranch.
It was basically the core guys of the Quebec team myself and Natasha. We came home with 2 road bikes and a sweet mountain bike. Unfortunately for me, it's Tasha'a mnt bike. Man just when I thought I had learned everything I needed to know about road and cross mechanics now I will have to learn a whole new ball game...
It was a little chilly to ride bikes so we had an Alpine training weekend, the timing was perfect as it was the end of a training block, so I got some time off to do do whatever.
We went skate skiing at Duschnay...man I sucked, my skiing is not good...well no it sucks...good thing I'm fit or else 2 hours would have been a disaster, I still don't know how I didn't bonk.
Yesterday we went snoe shoeing, that was a little more my style...just thrash around...not a whole lot of technique, like running in mud. So we all headed out to climb up and down the escarpments on side of the lake, we basically threw ourselves down huge hills and scaled the steepest parts we could find. Natasha toughed it but when JS wanted to scale a huge mud wall covered with melting snow she feared for her life and headed back to the Ranch.
It was pretty cool, laid back, we even went out to watch the hockey game at Cage Au Sports Saturday night.
Nice to have a couple days off but still stay active and amazingly i only have a little twinges of pain in my left calf.
So another couple weeks of weights and computrainer riding and we'll be off the South Carolina...
for training camp number two, this one may invovle riding though...
DSJ
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
For my Friends...
I know lately our, well my posts have not really been bout cycling or racing...so the blog had been more of a diary than anything...sorry if it's been a little boring, but I have something to say today.
So I talked a really good Friend of mine yesterday. He has recently been trough some crazy times. I won't go into all the details, but after giving birth to their new son his wife mysteriously picked up a Staph infection that put her in the ICU where she was on ventilaor and let's say anything that could have went wrong went wrong...all those 1% chances all those "there's a small chance of "x" happening" happened. His journey alongside his wife is remarkable, he sat by her side while their newborn son had to stay with his brother 1000km away as she was sent in chopper to a an intensive care unit across the province.
You know, my heart goes out to him...I had no idea, that all this had happened.
I have given this some thought and this year when things are hard and I am tiered, I will think of my Friend, and his wife on how she fought for her life, on how he stayed awake 26 hours at a time sleeping only 2 hours a day.
I will think of them, I will dedicate my perseverance to them.
When I want to give up , I will push harder...I will feel pain until I have nothing left and I will push myself past my limits, when my feet feel like they will bleed I will push harder, when my legs feel like they can no longer turn I push until the muscle want to shear from the bone and they will be my inspiration in achieving my goals and I hereby dedicate myself to be the best I can be for my Friend Dan and his Wife Nathalie.
So when you see the fire in my eyes, know that I am prepared to crush myself, cause it can not be even close to the pain they have felt.
DSJ
So I talked a really good Friend of mine yesterday. He has recently been trough some crazy times. I won't go into all the details, but after giving birth to their new son his wife mysteriously picked up a Staph infection that put her in the ICU where she was on ventilaor and let's say anything that could have went wrong went wrong...all those 1% chances all those "there's a small chance of "x" happening" happened. His journey alongside his wife is remarkable, he sat by her side while their newborn son had to stay with his brother 1000km away as she was sent in chopper to a an intensive care unit across the province.
You know, my heart goes out to him...I had no idea, that all this had happened.
I have given this some thought and this year when things are hard and I am tiered, I will think of my Friend, and his wife on how she fought for her life, on how he stayed awake 26 hours at a time sleeping only 2 hours a day.
I will think of them, I will dedicate my perseverance to them.
When I want to give up , I will push harder...I will feel pain until I have nothing left and I will push myself past my limits, when my feet feel like they will bleed I will push harder, when my legs feel like they can no longer turn I push until the muscle want to shear from the bone and they will be my inspiration in achieving my goals and I hereby dedicate myself to be the best I can be for my Friend Dan and his Wife Nathalie.
So when you see the fire in my eyes, know that I am prepared to crush myself, cause it can not be even close to the pain they have felt.
DSJ
Monday, January 18, 2010
untitled
I have no title for today's post. Yesterday we watched Roubaix World Cup on Cycling TV...man what a mess! That is the hardest Cross race I've ever done. It was alot easier to watch it with a coffee after I emptied the tank on the trainer in the am. We watched the womens race first..we even woke up early to do so...I know we are huge nerds! Was inspiring to see Nash win a WC, just goes to show you that once you get to a certain level, you have to put a little more direction in what you do to really shine. I love seeing the joy when people like that win, you can always tell that their victory is true and pure. I'll even go as far as saying that I was inspired to push just a little harder yesterday, as I thought about June. I didn't really make it hurt any less, it just made it tolerable.
One chunk of training done, today is a little easier and we end the week with a winter training camp in Quebec City where we will meet up with Louis, Christian and the boys.
I was able to squeeze in 60 km outside Saturday, not bad for a Canadian winter.
Alfie's back with Sens, Olympics around the corner, another chunk of training coming up....just enjoying things.
D
One chunk of training done, today is a little easier and we end the week with a winter training camp in Quebec City where we will meet up with Louis, Christian and the boys.
I was able to squeeze in 60 km outside Saturday, not bad for a Canadian winter.
Alfie's back with Sens, Olympics around the corner, another chunk of training coming up....just enjoying things.
D
Monday, January 11, 2010
What does saving lives and winning races have in common
Last night we watched Blood letting and Miraculous Cures. It's a pretty good show, also it's Canadian, so way to go us. Watching these kind of shows sometimes bring a a smile to my face. If you remember, I'm still a Nurse and have licence to prove it. Anyways the show takes place in an ER, similar to the one I used to work in...and there is a small part of me that misses the saving lives part. If you've never held a pair of defibrillator paddles in your hand and gave 36o joules of electricity through someones chest to literally kick start their heart, you've never lived.
The way the body jumps off the table, it's pretty intense. Or given thrombolitics to stop a stroke, reversed congestive heart failure( that one is actually my favorite for some reason, 10 minutes from gurgling fluid in your lungs to breathing normally) that stuff used to be my bread and butter. It's crazy cause the more I think about it the more episodes I can remember of really making a difference in someones life. Most of the time, they would never even say thanks, nor did we ask, cause we were the first line and people were in such a state when they saw us that we would never really remember us.
I remember when I first started racing, I would think while I was racing "I bet no one here saved a life yesterday". Then as racing took over a larger part of my life I remember thinking while I was working "I bet no one here knows that I won a bike race yesterday".
SO by now you're thinking what the hell is Derrick trying to say today...well just hold on.
Well the point is in order to do both those things, there's so much more that goes into having those moments, so much that you take for granted once your there. Yah sure there were alot great moments I had when I worked, but there were lots of times of stress chaos and 11 hours into a night shift where I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown...I would have given a million dollars just to finish some of those "nights from hell".
It's kind of like this part of the year. IT's just training, there's no glory, there's no money, just training. But the point is no matter what you do, there's always gonna be things that you love to do and some not so much. SO you just grind your teeth and stick it out.
Yesterdays training came onto the back of one of the biggest weeks we've had to date and yesterday didn't go quite as planned, it hurt more than it should have, but we did it.
I think alot of the experiences you have in something other that your sport or your work can help you deal with obstacles you face in your other parts of your life. I know we are not doing anything as"precious" as saving lives while we ride our bikes and lets face it, it is not the same.
But I hope that we inspire people to have the confidence and desire to be great in whatever they pursue in life. That's what I've learned, I've worked hard in different ways and often never received recognition for it, but it's never really mattered that much for me. For me it's been about just giving 100%, suffering, working hard to every now and then have moments that can never be matched. But I also remember the wise words of my friend DR Bishop, while we were working one time in the ER I asked him about how he made it through medical school and he said "enjoying the journey". Ok that's my Jack Handy "deeeeeep thought of the day"
Hard man training for the day.....
Monday.....So today is slap yourself in the face day, just do it, slap your left cheek...now slap the right one just a bit harder, repeat alternating sides until either you can not tolerate it anymore. Hurts eh?
Ok by now you are either laughing or crying either way, thanks for reading have a good one and I hope your work/training wasn't as bad as that.
This is proof that training as much as me will make you crazy!
DSJ
The way the body jumps off the table, it's pretty intense. Or given thrombolitics to stop a stroke, reversed congestive heart failure( that one is actually my favorite for some reason, 10 minutes from gurgling fluid in your lungs to breathing normally) that stuff used to be my bread and butter. It's crazy cause the more I think about it the more episodes I can remember of really making a difference in someones life. Most of the time, they would never even say thanks, nor did we ask, cause we were the first line and people were in such a state when they saw us that we would never really remember us.
I remember when I first started racing, I would think while I was racing "I bet no one here saved a life yesterday". Then as racing took over a larger part of my life I remember thinking while I was working "I bet no one here knows that I won a bike race yesterday".
SO by now you're thinking what the hell is Derrick trying to say today...well just hold on.
Well the point is in order to do both those things, there's so much more that goes into having those moments, so much that you take for granted once your there. Yah sure there were alot great moments I had when I worked, but there were lots of times of stress chaos and 11 hours into a night shift where I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown...I would have given a million dollars just to finish some of those "nights from hell".
It's kind of like this part of the year. IT's just training, there's no glory, there's no money, just training. But the point is no matter what you do, there's always gonna be things that you love to do and some not so much. SO you just grind your teeth and stick it out.
Yesterdays training came onto the back of one of the biggest weeks we've had to date and yesterday didn't go quite as planned, it hurt more than it should have, but we did it.
I think alot of the experiences you have in something other that your sport or your work can help you deal with obstacles you face in your other parts of your life. I know we are not doing anything as"precious" as saving lives while we ride our bikes and lets face it, it is not the same.
But I hope that we inspire people to have the confidence and desire to be great in whatever they pursue in life. That's what I've learned, I've worked hard in different ways and often never received recognition for it, but it's never really mattered that much for me. For me it's been about just giving 100%, suffering, working hard to every now and then have moments that can never be matched. But I also remember the wise words of my friend DR Bishop, while we were working one time in the ER I asked him about how he made it through medical school and he said "enjoying the journey". Ok that's my Jack Handy "deeeeeep thought of the day"
Hard man training for the day.....
Monday.....So today is slap yourself in the face day, just do it, slap your left cheek...now slap the right one just a bit harder, repeat alternating sides until either you can not tolerate it anymore. Hurts eh?
Ok by now you are either laughing or crying either way, thanks for reading have a good one and I hope your work/training wasn't as bad as that.
This is proof that training as much as me will make you crazy!
DSJ
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Little reminders
Right after I finished writing my last blog update, we received word that an interview we did in November was published...it's a great interview by Lyne at Podium insight.
It is a good reminder as well, reasons for both of us to try and stay on track, slowly rebuilding our strength, and narrowing down the focus for 2010.
Also, yesterday Jan Safka, sent me a few pics from NJ GP. He is working a new post photo technique. I guess he's not mad at me anymore(at the Toronto UCI race, I came through a corner really fast and skidded my rear tire over and a small rock and dust flew up hit him in the eye and gave him a corneal abrasion). Sorry.
Oh yah, we just saw that Tasha was voted 8th best Female Cross racer by Cyclingnews.com...not bad...not bad.Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Once apon a time last year...
Today had me thinking a lot of last year's trip to Belgium. As I'm sure you've heard me moan and groan about it, let's just say it wasn't easy. About 1 week from now is the time I started to crack and realistically I was fed up. Not too much happens in January in Europe, race wise. There's a pretty big gap from the X mas Cross blitz to Worlds. Well if you're European you've got Nationals, but there are a few World Cups and that's about it. I think the plan next year will be to come home in January and maybe send Tasha back just before Worlds.
So what do I remember about Belgium? Well I remember buying lots of canned tuna. Easy to find, healthy, and most importantly cost effective. Our classic Belgian meal, cook whole wheat pasta, mix a can of tuna, frozen peas, sprinkle a little cheese. We eat that over and over, cause we could make it for like 3-4 Euros.
I remember walking to the Delhaize and freezing my ass off walking home with groceries and getting an arm workout in doing so. Felt like college all over again (without the hangovers).
I also remember riding the Roubaix World Cup and just sucking really bad. People talk about going over for "the experience" but for me there is only so much ass kicking I can take. There are definitely good things about these experiences, but realistically , I think I learned more this year racing at the front of races in North America. Perhaps the courses are not quite as technical in North America, but unless you win on a pretty consistent basis there is obviously something challenging enough about the courses that makes it tough. Right? Sometimes we'll go through a course and Tasha will say that she didn't think it was too technical, then I'll say "did you have to use your brakes" if there answer is yes, well then try going through the section full gas..."now is technical"?
So do I miss eating mud and freezing and being poor? No way. Maybe I miss the spectacle of races, cause for sure that can not be matched. But even with Sponsorship it's an expensive endeavour to get your ass kicked, repeatedly. We are still paying for last years trip on our credit cards.
Not to say that we are any richer here, cause if I was I would not live in my parents basement.
But at least it's warm, well in the basement anyways.
To tell you the truth June does seem like a long time from now, but really it's not. Realistically once you get to a certain level you have to push really hard to get that next few seconds, couple watts or what not.
But that's what our sport is about. It's about trying to beat people that you are not supposed, it's about lots of people being in awesome shape, but having a day, a race a week where your awesomness is more awesome.
I don't really have a big conclusion to this. But I know this is the year where all the pieces of the puzzle come together.
I had great races last year, I still think about the Toronto weekend, attacking the Cannondale boys leading the race thinking wholy shit I have a gap! I think about Tour de Beauce attacking on the last lap up La Grand Allee in QC city, just shy off the win. Man, there were a few times I was really close. But that's why I'm at home putting days of work in, so that those "almost had it's" turn in to "got it". I just have to do the work. It hurts a lot, but so does loosing.
DSJ
So what do I remember about Belgium? Well I remember buying lots of canned tuna. Easy to find, healthy, and most importantly cost effective. Our classic Belgian meal, cook whole wheat pasta, mix a can of tuna, frozen peas, sprinkle a little cheese. We eat that over and over, cause we could make it for like 3-4 Euros.
I remember walking to the Delhaize and freezing my ass off walking home with groceries and getting an arm workout in doing so. Felt like college all over again (without the hangovers).
I also remember riding the Roubaix World Cup and just sucking really bad. People talk about going over for "the experience" but for me there is only so much ass kicking I can take. There are definitely good things about these experiences, but realistically , I think I learned more this year racing at the front of races in North America. Perhaps the courses are not quite as technical in North America, but unless you win on a pretty consistent basis there is obviously something challenging enough about the courses that makes it tough. Right? Sometimes we'll go through a course and Tasha will say that she didn't think it was too technical, then I'll say "did you have to use your brakes" if there answer is yes, well then try going through the section full gas..."now is technical"?
So do I miss eating mud and freezing and being poor? No way. Maybe I miss the spectacle of races, cause for sure that can not be matched. But even with Sponsorship it's an expensive endeavour to get your ass kicked, repeatedly. We are still paying for last years trip on our credit cards.
Not to say that we are any richer here, cause if I was I would not live in my parents basement.
But at least it's warm, well in the basement anyways.
To tell you the truth June does seem like a long time from now, but really it's not. Realistically once you get to a certain level you have to push really hard to get that next few seconds, couple watts or what not.
But that's what our sport is about. It's about trying to beat people that you are not supposed, it's about lots of people being in awesome shape, but having a day, a race a week where your awesomness is more awesome.
I don't really have a big conclusion to this. But I know this is the year where all the pieces of the puzzle come together.
I had great races last year, I still think about the Toronto weekend, attacking the Cannondale boys leading the race thinking wholy shit I have a gap! I think about Tour de Beauce attacking on the last lap up La Grand Allee in QC city, just shy off the win. Man, there were a few times I was really close. But that's why I'm at home putting days of work in, so that those "almost had it's" turn in to "got it". I just have to do the work. It hurts a lot, but so does loosing.
DSJ
Sunday, January 3, 2010
2010
New year, but not a whole lot changing. I'd like to say that we made a bunch of resolutions. But we didn't. New years we stayed in and I cooked up some Shrimp Curry, Nan bread and some Thai rice. MMM...so good. No racing right now so we are not living large by means, as income is pretty much zero. But it's not that bad, we had a 50$ dollar cap on Xmas gifts for each other, but it just makes for more thought in what you do. If you ever want to appreciate the value of money, just get by on as little as possible an you'll see there is a whole other World out there. Don't get me wrong any time we're winning races and money is coming in it's great, but we're really well trained on streeeeeetching our dollars as far as possible.
So every year I really have to work hard to find some good music to bust up the monotony of indoor computrainer riding, a couple years ago it was Tiesto, last year we were into David Guetta and trance of all kinds. But it just wasn't cutting it so I searched and searched and found some new sources of musical enhancement...and I found it for new...PLump DJ's release under the Global Underground label. This stuff is fat! I even had to dig out an extra set of tower speakers in the den. Coupled with the boombastic sub woofer it's loud...man if I don't blow an ear drum or break the windows in the basement it's gonna be like going to the club. AH the things we do to entertain ourselves. Of course Tasha's not really into it, as she's more of a top much music countdown top 30 kinda music lover and she's not really into "extremely loud music" but she loves me and I think she just puts up with it.
ok have to finish watching the USA Swede game to see who the boys face Tuesday.
DSJ
So every year I really have to work hard to find some good music to bust up the monotony of indoor computrainer riding, a couple years ago it was Tiesto, last year we were into David Guetta and trance of all kinds. But it just wasn't cutting it so I searched and searched and found some new sources of musical enhancement...and I found it for new...PLump DJ's release under the Global Underground label. This stuff is fat! I even had to dig out an extra set of tower speakers in the den. Coupled with the boombastic sub woofer it's loud...man if I don't blow an ear drum or break the windows in the basement it's gonna be like going to the club. AH the things we do to entertain ourselves. Of course Tasha's not really into it, as she's more of a top much music countdown top 30 kinda music lover and she's not really into "extremely loud music" but she loves me and I think she just puts up with it.
ok have to finish watching the USA Swede game to see who the boys face Tuesday.
DSJ
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