Blog List and new header picture

On the right hand side of this blog you can now see other BAMF athletes blogs and when they last updated their blog and the title of their last post.  VERY COOL!  Check it out!

I also changed the header picture above.  That picture was taken about a month ago at a Teck Cominco Kids of Steel camp in Trail, BC.  I flew into the interior BC for a day to help out at the camp.  I had an awesome time and all the kids were great ... there were some future stars in that group!  WATCH OUT!!!

Some blogs and a bad driver

Jordan Rapp (my roommate and training partner) wrote a good post today on his blog about what it means to be a "team" in this individual sport.  Click here to check it out.

I also wrote another entry for the Slowtwitch series "Road to Beijing" in which I write about my journey to the start line in Beijing.  You can check that out here. 

Training has been going well lately, if you do not count me getting hit by a car today.  I ended up on the rear hood of the car ... luckily no bad damage to the body (other than a couple cuts and a sore knee) and more importantly no damage to the bike!  I always say that it would be cool to get hit by a car and sue for millions ... well it is not as cool as it sounds anymore and I did not even sustain permanent damage.  I will not be saying that anymore!

A trip back in time..

A couple of days ago Lisa and I went to check out Craigdorrough Castle.  I'm not really sure what its all about but it was owned by a rich Victoria couple.  The castle has been used for many purposes since it was built in the late 1800's.  One of the uses was an early home for Victoria College, now known as the University of Victoria.  It was neat to go and check it out considering it is literally less than 2km from where I live right now and I never knew that it was there.  Yes I know that is pretty pathetic.

Lisa has now gone back to Ontario and the training has started to ramp up again.  Saturday and Sunday were solid training days including riding 5 hours on Saturday with 60min steady which I averaged 336 watts.

Today is a easy/rest day of just a swim and bike.  I am not sure what the rest of the week is going to be because I am supposed to be racing in Des Moines this weekend but as I am sure you are all aware there has been some major flooding in the area lately.  On top of being flooded, most of the bodies of water are polluted from the runoff of all the rain.  As of now the race organizers still have not said anything about what is going to happen.  They have changed where the race is being held and changed all the other races to a duathlon that weekend which is what I think will happen to our race.  Duathlons are not my thing so I doubt that I will be making the trip to Iowa and instead get some solid training in.

Click here to check out this guys sign that he made for Worlds ... pretty awesome!  

Vancouver World Cup and a ticket to Beijing

I will not write much about the Vancouver race ... it was very hard and pretty cold.  The week leading up to the race I was never feeling "on" and just thought that I would come around on race day, but that never happened.  The whole race I felt like I could not relax and that I was always at full throttle and could not recover.  Even when the paced slowed at times the recovery just seemed to be nowhere.  This just made for a very painful 2 hours but the crowd there was absolutely amazing!  When I was out there running (not very fast or near the front) the crowd was cheering so loud that it was deafening.  I remember thinking "don't these guys know that I am so far back ... do they think that I am winning?  Oh well, I will just imagine that I am winning and take it all in!"  It definitely gave me some much needed energy out there and made the run just a little more manageable.

So a couple hours after the race I got a phone call from the High Performance Committee to come meet with them in their room.  I went up in the elevator all nervous about what their decision would be and as you all know, I got the nod.  It was just an amazing experience to hear that I will be representing Canada at the Olympics, something that I have been dreaming of since I started sports over 15 years ago.  All the hard work that I have put in since then has paid off!

Of course none of this would have been possible without all the support and encouragement from my family, friends, and sponsors.  It is amazing how many people have been behind me all these years and I am glad to show them that it has not been all for naught.

Most of the thanks should be going to my girlfriend for putting up with me moving away to pursue this dream and putting her goals and aspirations on hold so that this moment would be possible.  YOU ARE AWESOME LISA!

My training partners and coach should be getting just the same amount of credit for my success.  It is easy to say that all my success is because of me, myself, and I but that is simply not true.  Our squad is the best in the world and all of our success is because of how much we push each other everyday day in and out.  We have built a certain attitude and "code" over the past three years that we are all accountable to and because of this we are all better.  BAMF.

Now comes more of the same ... lots of hard work because there is only just over 2 months until we line it up in Beijing.

I have also been writing a blog for CBC that you can read here.  I will be doing regular blogs for them as well as for Slowtwitch (I will get one up there soon).

Thanks again to everyone who has sent their congratulations and encouraging words over the past couple days!

The Resurrection of the Blog

Only a couple more days until Worlds.  I am heading over on the ferry tomorrow morning and then picking my Dad, sister, and girlfriend Lisa up from the airport who have all come over from Ontario to watch me race.  After the race they are all heading back to Victoria with me to visit and hang out for a couple days.

Here is a video that I found on the web today.  So funny to hear Paul Regensburg commentating (or trying to).  I think that they just ended up cutting his microphone because he was just babbling away (none of us would have done any better in that position ... it was a very exciting time!).

If the video does not work below try clicking HERE.