Victoria's Island

Delinquent

Terribly sorry for my absence... No excuses. Just too little time and too much to do. Seems to be the same pattern around these parts for the summer. Well, soon enough I'll be back in the full groove of daily posts.

So, what's happening? Can you believe that it is August 31st? Crazy.... Went into Staples tonight and it was a zoo, I definitely do not miss the "back to school" days. Of all the thing to be wistful for, I can definitely say that school is not on my list (okay maybe the recess and gym class parts...). Nope I can assure you that I have no designs on "going back to school". I do admit though it is cute to see the little kids walking to school with their gigantic backpacks... I don't remember having such a backpack. Mind you, Dora the Explorer wasn't around in my school days. I did have some Blondie and ABBA file folders and a bright orange backpack that my mom made me. Yep, I was one of the cool kids!

Pretty much the usual going on here. Lots of bike riding. In the final preparations for the upcoming cyclo-cross season. As of next weekend, I'm traveling every weekend until the end of January! Yep some fast and busy times. Just what I like. Looking forward to a quiet long weekend before the travel begins. We kick off the season with a drive down to Trexlertown, Pennsylvania for a race on Sept. 11 and then a race in Kirkland, NY the next day. Can't wait.

Still plowing my way through Brooklyn. I'm enjoying the book but unfortunately, every book seems to be a bit of a letdown since the Millennium Trilogy... That Lisbeth Salander has stolen my heart and imagination... Brooklyn is an excellent novel, though there are a lot of characters to keep straight - particularly challenging when I'm mostly reading just before bed. We've been television-less here for a week now. So far we've managed to survive. In fact, I'm not missing it at all. I'm still getting my Top Chef fix thanks to Marc's downloading skills. Mostly I'm listening to the radio a lot and in the evening we seem to just not plunk ourselves down in front of the big black box.

I've started holding cyclo-cross practice sessions  - a chance for people to come out and learn or improve on their cyclo-cross skills. So far I've done two sessions and both have gone really well. I'm thoroughly enjoying teaching people the tips/tricks and lessons I've learned along the way. It is also a great way for me to give back to the cyclo-cross community.

Kind of hard to believe that in a couple of weeks I'll be in Las Vegas and then a couple weeks after that I'll be in Aigle, Switzerland! Life is good. Really feeling super fortunate.

On the writing front - had a good meeting last week with a potential client that looks like it will lead to some work for another company. I'm super fortunate to be able to market myself as a technical writer and as a marketing writer - not often you find a writer with the technical skills to understand the technology and the ability to transfer this knowledge to technical documentation and marketing collateral. Guess my school  years were good for something! Not to mention being a quick study....

No new recipes to report this week. This is mostly due to my ongoing ulcerative colitis flare. This is the longest flare I've been in and I've made a real effort to cut out gluten and dairy from my diet. Some days I go for it and eat something with gluten in it or have some dairy - but often this results in negative consequences. I'm off to the doctor on Thursday for a consult to see if there is something else we can do. I'm learning to live with this status but I'd really like for this flare to be gone by the 'cross season - especially when I start doing the heavy traveling. Oh well, at least I'm not in the hospital and to look at me you'd never know I'm sick. Honestly, I don't consider myself sick - I just have something. Such is life. By the way, from September 1 to Oct. 1 you can nominate someone with Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis for the November Get Gutsy Month.

Well, it is getting late - I best be off. I'll do my best to update more often. If you want to find out more about my cyclo-cross racing/training/biking life, be sure to visit Ottawa Cross. (I've posted photos of my new race clothing...)

Up For Air

Phew, that weekend really flew by. Good thing. It wasn't as if we were out doing all sorts of crazy "stuff" - rather just had a busy but quiet weekend... If that makes sense?

Lots of bike riding. On Saturday I rode to Merrickville with my friend Skip - we had a great ride with a relaxing coffee shop stop for some refueling - can't beat a peanut butter bar after two hours of riding! The rest of the day was filled with a bunch of errands, including a very exciting one....

I went to The Cyclery and picked up one of my new cyclo-cross bikes. (I would insert a photo but for some reason the photo is displaying upside down....) Anyway, suffice it to say - this new bike is awesome. Stevens Carbon Team. Beautiful bike. Many many thanks to Stevens Bikes and The Cyclery for the amazing support. Hard to believe that I'll have two of these bikes to race and train with this year.

Sunday was a quiet day with some cyclo-cross training with a friend of mine. We hit up my favorite training grounds and ripped it up in the sand and singletrack. Definitely an excellent training session. Rest of the day was pretty quiet - bike cleaning, web surfing, Secret Project work, and a tasty dinner of turkey/chickpea burgers and a subtle yet tangy tomato/avocado salad. We watched Up in the Air last night. A decent film. Very different from the book. Both film and book were different enough that I enjoyed them both separately. I also read the book while in Belgium last winter - so long enough ago to stop me from doing the direct comparison...

Still reading Brooklyn. Really enjoying this book. Definitely a slower read than my last book. The character development in Brooklyn is pretty extensive. To the point where I can almost picture the main characters. This is a good thing!

Not much else going on. Working on some different contracts and have a couple more that should come together this week. Not thoroughly jazzed with this rain.... Soon enough we'll be away pretty much every weekend racing our cyclo-cross bikes. This is something I just so look forward to. Marc and I always have a great time traveling to races together and supporting one another.

In the ulcerative colitis front... Well, I'm still in a flare. Things are better but definitely not "normal". The new medicine seems to be helping. As well I've cut gluten out of my diet and really really cut down on the dairy. This week I'm going to attempt to make gluten-free bagels... I'll let you know how these turn out. (Keep your fingers crossed.) I'm really hoping this flare goes away soon. It so hard to know when I will transition from flare to remission. It would be nice to start the 'cross season in remission. But this might be asking too much. All I can do is do what I can with my present situation. Through all this, I still consider myself to be super lucky and still much healthier than most of the general population.

Alright, I best be off. Some more writing to do. Also need to start looking into hotels for the upcoming trip to Switzerland and Czech Republic. Really looking forward to this trip. I'm pretty sure my dad is equally excited. Oh, did I tell you I'm going to San Diego and Las Vegas? San Diego with the KingsBridge team for a trade show and Las Vegas for 'Cross Vegas and Interbike.

Getting Things Done

I tried to think of the word that is the opposite of procrastinating... But I couldn't remember the word. So instead you get a three word title...

Anyway, suffice it to say, I've dragged myself out of my rainy day funk. I did end up having a not bad day. Got some excellent progress made on the Secret Project. Spent some quality time with Mr. Murphy and the Food Network. Really just chilled out. But I tell you, I was pretty happy to see Marc come home on Sunday night. He had a really good race, lots of hard work in the first 1/2 of the race and his legs and brain allowed him to have an excellent finish. Super proud of him. Racing 249 kilometers is not an easy thing to do!

Life this week has been good. Busy but good. Lots of excellent training rides. I did ride to Merrickville on Monday. Had a great four hour ride there and back. Got in some excellent time on the 'cross bike on Tuesday with Marc and young Karl. Even strapped on my running shoes and hit the pavement for a jog and then some hill sprints. Wednesday was another good hard day of intervals on the bike. And today? Well today is a recovery day. This means 90 minutes of slower paced riding. Normally I go out on my 'cross bike on recovery days but today I'll stick to the open road.

Finished reading The Best of Times and now I've moved on to Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I've just started it but, so far so good.

So this is where thing stand. Started doing some research for the upcoming trip to Aigle and Plzen. This is going to be a good trip. I've discovered that Switzerland is very very expensive. Especially when compared to the Czech Republic! I guess we'll get a taste of both ends of the spectrum on this trip. Before this trip, thought I do have the trip to Las Vegas! Yep, Vegas. I've never been before. Should be an eye-opening experience. I'm racing at Cross Vegas on Sept. 22 - this race is part of Interbike, a very large bicycle trade show. Unfortunately Marc can't come on this trip but I'll be well looked after by the KingsBridge boys - thanks guys! Oh, and I can't remember if I told you but I booked my flight to Belgium - leaving Nov. 8 and returning Feb. 7. Only piece of the puzzle left is the car situation... Might just have to bite the bullet and shell out the $4000 for the Renault Kangoo. I'm still hunting around for better options though.

But most importantly, I'm not letting these little details stress me out. Life is too short for stress. Well, I suggest that you get off your computer and make the most of today. I don't know if you've looked at the calendar lately, but it is August 19 - summer is nearly over....

Procrastinating

Sigh, I'm not normally much of a procrastinator.... but today I've been struck with the procrastinator bug. I just can't seem to get going and do anything. I had planned to do a long ride today to Merrickville but it has been pouring rain and thundering all day. So no ride today. Swapped out today's training with tomorrow's - Monday was a rest day, so instead I'm resting today. But think I think this has made me restless....

I had so been looking forward to the ride today. I kind of had my day "planned out" and now I'm at a bit of loose ends. Of course add to this that Marc is away this weekend. He is racing from Montreal to Quebec City right now! I sure hope he is having a great ride. So I have this free day, but the weather is unpleasant, Marc is away, and I don't have a car. So I'm feeling kind of trapped and lost.

Yes, I know shake out of it and get going. I have done some stuff. Cooked up a bunch of burgers so I have some easy protein sources for the week. I find it helps to have some easy meat cooked and ready in the fridge so when I'm struggling to figure out food, I can easily throw something together. I also made a batch of egg muffins. I found this recipe here: http://everydaypaleo.com/2010/03/24/egg-cupcakes/. In typical Vicki fashion, I modified the recipe... I only used six eggs and I added only one can of beets (chopped), a package of chopped spinach and some butternut squash. I sprayed the muffin tin with cooking spray, filled them up with the egg/veggie mixture and baked them for 20 minutes at 350. These are good. So easy to make as well. They feel really heavy but they aren't that dense in your stomach! If you are a fan of eggs, I definitely suggest these egg muffins. I put six in the freezer and the rest are in the fridge for more quick go-to protein sources. Hmm, I wonder if I can slide these into Marc's lunch?

I had a great day yesterday. Awesome ride in the morning followed by some relaxing time on front step with Mr. Murphy. Then I was off to the movies. I hopped the bus and hooked up with my pal KC for a Saturday afternoon matinee. I'm sure you can guess the movie? Eat Pray Love. I had so been looking forward to this movie. It did not disappoint. I read the book in 2007 when I was in Belgium racing - the book really spoke to me then. I'm actually thinking of reading this book again - maybe while I'm in Belgium this winter. So the movie was excellent. My pal hasn't read the book and she still enjoyed the movie. To round out our Saturday we went to Moxie's for supper. A great night. Lots of chatter about all sorts of topics. Some excellent food. I decided to have tandori chicken pizza. It was very good. Only problem... I kind of forgot that I had stopped eating gluten. I find gluten makes my ulcerative colitis symptoms pretty vicious... The pizza was excellent. But lets just say, I had a very rough and sleepless night. Big lesson learned - gluten is not for me! Anyway, the day was excellent. Very relaxing. Good time spent with a very inspiring friend. Can't ask for much more.

The book I'm reading - The Best of Times, is very good. A perfect summer read. At times a bit predictable but a very engaging story. Good change from the Millenium Trilogy. We haven't watched the second movie yet (Girl Who Played With Fire) - Marc is still reading the book. Hurry up Marc!

Oh, big news - I booked my flight to Belgium. Flying out on Nov. 8 and returning on Feb. 7. Got a pretty good price on the flight. Nice relief to have this booked. Still working on the car situation. I think I've come up with a plan for how to raise some funds so I can get the last part of the trip sorted. If you read carefully, you'll notice the following "raise some funds" - so stay tuned for what I've got planned. Hopefully everything will come together - and believe me - you'll want to be part of this.

Alright, I best be off. All of a sudden I'm feeling reinvigorated. Maybe it is having The Next Food Network Star on in the background - listening to people chasing their dreams. Hmm, I best get back focusing on my dreams. This means some solid time spent working on the Secret Project.

Happy Sunday! Hopefully yours is a productive - yet relaxing one.

Thursday Already?

Yikes, this week is whipping by. My apologies for taking so long to update this site. Remember back in the good 'ol days when I would post daily? Hard to believe I could come up with something new to write about each day. I'm sure once the 'cross season starts again and I'm back in Belgium, I'll definitely be posting daily. Right now, it just seems as though there isn't a lot going on.

As usual, I'm busy riding my bike. Getting lots of excellent training rides on my road and cyclo-cross bikes. In fact I'm going to head out in a few minutes for recovery ride. I'm going to hit up the singletrack and doubletrack over at Merivale Gardens and Slack Road. Might strap the small and might camera to my head and film some of the riding. I did this last week and posted a YouTube video. You can check it out over here. Looking forward to getting some good long and hard rides this weekend. It is that part of the training cycle where the intensity takes on a different focus and extra things like running are added to the mix.

I'm busy working as well. I'm working on a part-time basis for KingsBridge and I also just picked up another contract with a local company. So this is good. Nice to keep my fingers and brain busy - writing, learning, creating - can't go wrong with any of this.

On the Secret Project front.... Remember I talked about this earlier in the summer? Well, I've made some good progress on this. In fact a large part of today is dedicated to the Secret Project. Soon enough I'll be able to let you in on my little secret.

For the first time last week I made homemade burgers. We're not much into barbecuing here but with it being so hot, I simply couldn't handle turning on the oven or standing over the stove. So thanks to my Clean Eating magazine hoard, I found a most excellent burger recipe: turkey and chickpea. This is the easiest recipe ever: toss a can of drained chickpeas in the food processor, add some chopped green onion, cumin to taste - give it a whir around until everything is mushy and combined. Dump this into a bowl and add one package (500 or so grams) of ground/minced turkey. Mix this all up with your hands. Shape into burgers - I made eight burgers with this mixture. And then easy part - cook them on the barbecue. The only change I would make to this recipe is to add an egg - the burgers were a bit dry and crumbly. But very tasty. They taste excellent with some spicy thai sauce, bit of cheese and a slice of avocado.

Not much else going on. Finished reading the Millenium Trilogy so I do have most of my life back now... Amazing how this series took over my mind. Terrible as it is, I can't remember the name of the book I'm reading right now. But I can tell you that it is very good! Sorry this doesn't help much does it?

Pretty happy to see the movie Eat, Pray, Love opening this weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've read most of Gilbert's work (except the recent book about marriage) - she is a very engaging writer. I only hope the movie does the book justice.

Lots of little details for the upcoming cyclo-cross season are clicking into place. Though did make one nasty discovery last night... Last year I leased a Renault Kangoo for a little over $3,000 - this includes taxes, unlimited mileage, insurance, and it is a brand new vehicle. This year, the same car costs $4,400. Yikes - this is a big jump in price and a lot of money. So I'm trying to come up with an alternative. I really like that car - perfect for 'cross races - lots of room but not too big that it is intimidating to drive. Hmm, time to do some research and figure out what my alternatives are in the vehicle department. Thoughts?

Well, I best hit publish or this post will keep going on and on and on....

Six Years

Today is August 7, 2010. Today is our six year wedding anniversary. Amazing. We have been married for six years and together for 16 years. How lucky am I?

I thought that in honor of this grand day, I'd post some pictures of Marc, myself, and us from over the years.

Happy Anniversary Marc! 

 

Can't hardly wait to see what the next six years holds! Looking forward to experiencing more of life with my favorite guy.

Sorted

It is has been a whirlwind few days here at Ottawa Cross world headquarters.... Lots of planning, phoning, research, and hand-wringing. But I'm happy to say that a big part of my early cyclo-cross season has been sorted (to steal a phrase from across the pond...).

Thanks in large part to my dad, my travel plans and peace of mind for an upcoming trip to Aigle, Switzerland and Plzen, Czech Republic are taken care of. I have a race in Aigle on Oct. 17 and then a race in Plzen on Oct. 24. A big trip. One that I was prepared to do myself, but really didn't want to do myself. Marc had the idea of calling my dad and seeing if he was up for it. And yes, he is. So we've got a fancy schmancy RV booked, plane tickets booked and two races to get to. We're flying into Frankfurt on Oct. 14 with the first stop being Aigle and then a bit of time until we need to get to Plzen. Tacked on a couple days at the end for some sightseeing. All in all, it is going to be a great trip.

Kind of seems a bit surreal at this point. Suppose this is because I'm normally not this organized and booked so early in advance. But since we needed to arrange an RV, plans had to be made. This is a good thing - one less thing to rattle around in my crazy brain....

I guess I really haven't talking much about cyclo-cross on this site. Suppose really because I've been doing this a lot over on my other web site. Suffice it to say, this is going to be another awesome season. Lots of racing on deck, with the first race on Sept. 11 in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. I've got one chock full week where I race in Catamount, Vermont, hop a plane the next day on Monday and fly to San Diego to do some work with the KingsBridge team, then driving to Las Vegas and racing at 'Cross Vegas on Wednesday, back home on Friday and then driving to New York for a race on the Saturday. So that is a busy one. But a good one. No complaints here. Beats the alternative - cubicle land and contemplating the world outside the grey walls...

Before I know it I'll be back in Blauberg, Belgium (Nov. 9 it looks like) and the racing will be full-steam ahead. The difference when I'm in Belgium is the travel - I don't have any eight hour car drives to make - usually the longest is a couple of hours. This makes a big difference in the fatigue, logistics, and time it takes to race, recover and get ready to do it all again.

Gee, as I type this, I'm feeling pretty darn lucky. Lucky that I can be doing this. This is of course, all down to one person. Most of you know who this is... But in case you don't - Marc. Marc is the one who makes all this possible. He is the one encouraging me to chase my dreams, to soak up life and get out there. I'm so fortunate to have such a tremendous person in my life. There are days when I feel awfully guilty that I'm out riding my bike in the middle of the day and he is at work, wishing he could be out riding as well. Really, this makes me push on the pedals harder, knowing the sacrifices he is making so I can do this.

I can only hope that you have someone in your life who helps you chase your dreams. Life is way too short to put dreams on a "to do" list. I just received news this week of a friend's sister-in-law passing away - at the age of 56 - much too short of a life. Take a close look at your "to do" list - make sure there aren't any big ticket items on it that you keep transferring from one list to the next. Things like "buy plane tickets", "buy travel book", "research trip", "go back to school", "sign up for online course", "take kids to the park". These are the things that make life worth living - the laundry, groceries, emails, and errands really can be pushed to the next list. Life can't be pushed off....

Long Weekend Monday

Ah, nothing quite the Monday of a long weekend. Particularly when it is the August long weekend. Something about this date on the calendar that makes for a much-longed for break from reality. Not sure if it is because the kids have been out of school for a while and both parents and kids are feeling a bit restless? Could it be because the summer is now into its last gasp and we're desperate to do all those things we said we'd do? Or maybe it's the recognition that time really does move fast - faster than we'd like, so we use this extra day to sit back and simply savour what we have?

As for us? Well we elected not to travel to Toronto this weekend. Truth be told, we simply found the costs of the two exhibitions we wanted to see to be a bit prohibitive and as is typically the case with us, we tend to lean more to slow times than fast times (bikes not withstanding). We have had a fabulous weekend. Some excellent meals. Relaxing times on the front step with our respective ebooks - we're both in different phases of the Millenium Trilogy... We hit up the downtown on Saturday night for the busker festival and some tasty dessert at Oh So Good. A most excellent evening out, just relaxing, laughing, and soaking it all in.

Sunday was a really really good day. I had a three hour ride scheduled but elected to stretch this out a bit longer and ride to Merrickville. If you're an Ottawa person, then you most likely are fully aware of the charms and draw of wee little Merrickville. This little town is nestled along the Rideau Canal and features  a number of quaint shops, antique stores, as well as artists-in-residence. Of utmost importance it also features a most excellent bakery that sells the best peanut butter bars I've ever had... Typically by this time of the year, I've ridden to Merrickville a number of times, but not this year. I've also never ridden there alone. But on Sunday I was determined to make the trip. What a great ride. I had an easy ride out, purchased and consumed my peanut butter bar along with a ice cold can of Coke. Chilled out on the main street watching the people and talking with strangers about my bike and how far I had ridden. A great mid-afternoon. The ride home was a bit eventful - Marc and I had planned to meet up on the ride home and ride together... Well, it turns out we weren't riding the same route - so we missed each other! iPhones to the rescue and after a bit more pedaling we were connected and had a relaxing and chatty ride home. A tasty supper at our fave Lebanese restaurant and then more time spent sitting on the front step reading, Interneting, and trying to solve the mysteries of life.

As for today, this much-anticipated Monday? I'm guessing there will be some reading. Some cycling. Some Interneting. And above all else, the best efforts will be made to stretch out this day and make it last as long as possible.

Hope your long weekend Monday is going along just as well as ours.

(I must admit that my thoughts have been somewhat scattered this weekend with some feelings of sadness as this is the weekend when two years ago our little Miss Minou died. I think about that cat everyday and I swear that sometimes I'm convinced I can hear her purring in my ear as I sleep. I didn't realize how much I missed her until Stuart McLean made me cry during my ride on Saturday - I was listening to his podcasted Vinyl Cafe show about the passing of Arthur the family dog... Next thing I knew I was gasping and heaving along the road, trying to hold back my emotion about losing Minou and just generally thinking about loss.)

All this to say, savour your long weekend Monday - don't get caught up in "to do" lists and chores - take time to sit and relax - enjoy the company of those around you and appreciate this grand life we have all been gifted with. On my other blog, Ottawa Cross, I wrote a post recently that discussed in part the tattoos that a couple of amazing Canadian cyclists have on their forearms: We'll Never Be Here Again and Last Chance. These tattoos made me think about what I would get, I tossed around a number of ideas but it was my friend Deb who came up with the appropriate two words: One Life.