The Hills Are Alive... and they want to kill us

Weekend wrap-up report!

Sunday was an epic day. We got up at 7:30 to prep for an 8:30 road ride. Everyone met up at our place .... Colin, Christine, Gabor (yes! Gabor!) and Kenyon all came over and we sipped some coffee and contemplated the torture that lay ahead.

And oh, the torture.

I didn't realize that the ramifications of the Blubber Burn would continue on long afterward....  apparently when guys finish last = obsession with getting fit.

We rolled out and headed up Lockside, where Cam promptly got a flat... but that was quickly taken care of and we continued en route into the depths of the Highlands, renowned for its killer hills. But I love the Highlands -- there's nothing like cycling through a cathedral of trees.

You can see our route here...

Three hours later, we made it home with growling stomachs. The rest of my day was spent relaxing... Cam, on the other hand, drove out to Sooke to hit up some mountain bike trails. That boy is CRAZY!

But nothing beats a good ride with good people -- we hadn't done a ride with Gabor and Kenyon in at least a year!

In other news...

The Barcelo Costa Resort in Cancun patiently awaits me and my sister. SIX DAYS and counting...

Hmm... it's a good thing we didn't go with our other consideration: Egypt.

Blubber Burn

Pre-race boys standing around sizing eachother up...

It's not a true cross race unless it starts with a hill climb on foot.

Haldor, our fabulous Austrian race-organizer, is always ready with a smile.

Cam in all his Hawaiian glory!

Kenyon, looking serious.

Shayne, wearing his favourite football jersey.

All I heard during this was:  "ggrrrrr....arrrgggg... $&*#@... I'm dying.... this sucks"

Them thar were slippery rocks!

Colin was chipper bringing up the rear !

And just to mix things up, below are some photos I snapped when Meghan and I ventured into Chinatown last weekend. I enjoy taking photos of unsuspecting people by "shooting from the hip" while pretending to look elsewhere. It's harder than it sounds.... there were a lot of failed attempts.

Yeahh... I think this lady saw me. But I liked her funky style.

More Words, Less Photos

I have yet to upload my photos from this past weekend... a little thing called life keeps getting in the way... however, this shouldn't prevent me from doing a post!

Just more words, less photos. Being a writer, I should be able to handle that, no?

The Blubber Burn. Those words should be enough to tell you what kind of cyclocross race we participated in on Sunday. The Blubber Burn is an annual event, meant to burn off the winter fat... although you wouldn't know it from the first place prize of a jumbo pack of beer. And by the yahoos who showed up in football jerseys and Hawaiian shirts...

(photos courtesy of Chris Reddick)

If anything, the Blubber Burn should be retitled the Motivation-Maker because it showed everyone how slow they were from lack of winter training... ahem....

But it was a great event and I'll post a selection of photos sometime this week. Hopefully tomorrow! Don't hold me to it!

Either way, the plan is to get more road rides in on the weekends, peppered with a few mountain bike adventures here and there. I've discovered a couple new gals to ride with who aren't crazy-hardcore-take-you-down-a-trail-of-death. Not that Cam did that. Ever.

I just hope to avoid any of this....

(my first foray into mountain biking and I snapped a cable... luckily I had a mechanic in my backpocket)

Last night was a get-things-done sorta night. After a late evening run to Thrifty's, Cam quickly transformed our kitchen into a Mexican hot house, complete with smoked chili pepper rice and fumes that burn your nostrils. Meanwhile, I set up the new webcam... but we couldn’t find anyone on iChat. It was lonely.

Time to practice up for my French class tonight! We're learning about food and how to order food. Did you know eggplant is aubergine in French? I shall call it aubergine from now on. Way nicer than EGGplant.

Soupe de tomate... quiche lorraine.... pizza aux raisin et poire... une cafe latte avec plus mousse.... nom nom nom....

January Adventures

My friend Meghan and I took on the challenge of Mt. Finlayson a couple weekends ago. I had no idea what was in store for me... the half hour of rock climbing at the end tested my fear of heights for sure!

But we had an awesome time, and brought along a couple companions to keep us company. Marley and Finnegan were true mountain-goats.

Yesterday, in celebration of Meghan's birthday, we visited the Butterfly Gardens where hundreds of butterflies live in a tropical paradise. I'd recommend going there even if it's just to get away from winter. The place was balmy.

This little dude was feeding the fishies! They were practically leaping out of the water to grab food.

Meghan's birthday wish was to have a butterfly land on her finger. After many failed attempts to have one land on us, we snuck up on a butterfly sitting on a leaf and forced a finger under him. And he didn't fly away!

Afterward, we all went out to Aura for dinner...

We had a private room, excellent waiters, and the food was A-MAZ-ing. Cam and I split a calamari appetizer and I loved it. The last time I had calamari was in biology class, when the teacher cooked some over a bunson burner. Hmm... this stuff was definitely better!

This morning we got up bright and early and met a couple people from Cam's work for a road ride. I've been spending most of my time on the indoor trainer, so was excited to get out on the road. Cam's been spending most of his time on the mountain bike, which isn't quite the same kind of work out. Of course the rain came down hard and we were all drenched within minutes... however, once we got going, and my legs woke up, we all had a blast! I even beat Cam up a couple climbs :)  He needs to get his butt out on the road more!

Gotta get the miles in for this little thing we're doing in May...