This past week, my coach allowed us one week of recovery.  That doesn’t mean “do nothing” unfortunately. We still had some easy training, but it was so nice to get to go home to Saskatchewan.  Normally Arne and I try to get down to the cabin once a month in the spring and summer, but being Olympic year, training was shared between 2 cities and I travelled to and from Vancouver so often.  There was simply no time to get out there.

We stopped in Swift Current and visited my brother, his wife and 2 kids.  It was so fun!  Then we continued on and stopped in at my grandparents farm near Ituna, Sk.  Perfect timing because my granny’s 1 acre garden was coming into its own and we picked a pail of peas, carrots and fresh onions.  Yum!  They are in their mid-80’s and still do so much!  Finally we got to the lake.  There were notes from my parents about a million things.  They were on a golfing trip for the first part of the week, so we had free reign of the cabin.  Arne and I went into complete relax mode.  Swimming, boating, campfires and watching lots of TV!  My Dad wrote on the notes not to watch TV, but come on, we were resting!

On one of my bike rides, I went east on the lake road.  Everything was fine, no traffic and lots of fresh lake air.  About 25 minutes from the cabin a hawk started circling above my head.  It began cawing at me and it sounded like a scream.  I couldn’t figure out why or if it was even at me?  I continued on and was a little spooked.  I decide to remove the Velcro on my bike pump just in case I needed to use it as a weapon.  Five minutes later I turned back and shortly was in the hawk’s territory again.  It started screaming at me and I couldn’t see it.  Finally I spotted it sitting on the top of a phone wire post.  I started riding as fast as I could.  When I past it, it was still cawing at me and staring me down.  Finally it subsided and I thought I was safe.  The next second it dive bombed my head and I could have touched it’s belly!  I grabbed my pump and started swigging,  I looked back and it was coming in for another attack.  I didn’t know what to do, so I just screamed “NO!”  That scared it and it veered off.  I rode the rest of the way with my pump in my hand and my eyes watching everything. So crazy!  SK is wild country!  Hahaha!

This is me on a ride along the west coast.  We are in California, about one hour north of SanFransisco.  We have been on rides along vineyards because we are in Sonoma County aka wine country.  Our coach gave us a treat and we got to drive out to the coast for one of our rides.  The road was beautiful.  It was winding and rising and falling with hills.  At some points it felt like I was driving a race car!  On a road bike you can have really good control and take the turns even faster than a car.  The whole way was looking over a cliff to the ocean.  There were huge rock formations jutting out of the water and blue ocean stretching as far as the eye could see.  It was really hard, but the scenery made it all worth it!

Yesterday we did a 20km time trial.  We do it every year on the same road here.  I pushed myself to the max and finished with a minute and 40 second faster time than last year.  I also had the highest lactate reading on the whole team!  That means I was trying my hardest.  I’m happy to see that I have made some real gains this summer.

I soon return to Canada and we are being rewarded for our hard work. My coach is giving us about a week of recovery time and Arne and I are driving down to my cabin at Crooked Lake, SK.  Coach calls it our “transition period”.  After this small break we are starting full time ice training.  Can’t wait!

This Monday I left for California.  Our last cycling training camp of the summer is in Petaluma, CA in Sonoma County.  We go on cycling camps 2 times a summer.  I also bring my bike on the road to World Cups.  I always get asked in the airport, “What is in that big box?”  In the first picture above, that is all our luggage.  The big boxes standing up are our bike boxes.  Whenever we get to our destination, we all have to sit around and wait for the coaches and support staff to get the rental vans.  We just get something to eat and wait by the luggage.  Pretty funny, most peope just stare and wonder what we are doing!  Airports are like a second home to us, so we feel pretty comfortable to say the least. 

The second picture is what my bike looks like all taken apart inside the bike box.  The wheels go right above the bike with a layer of foam between.  Arne usually packs my bike for me while I am packing my clothes.  I am very grateful, but this time he decided to prank me!  If you look closely at the pic, my bike and all of my equipment are intricately tied up.  Good one Arne!