Starting new

Alright, so I m threwing another update up! I'm in coquitlam now, and man its a
big change, basically one extreme to another. From a town in the middle of nowhere, to the biggest city in BC. I m finally all settled in now and it feels good, moving is tough especially when you do it a lot, trying to stay in shape well starting a new job and moving all your stuff, but I m glad I got that over with. Anyway I ve been here for a month, my new job rocks! And the cycling here is perfect for what I want to do. Ofcourse the first month is a confusing, just getting to know people, the area, and just getting used to things. However it's all good now, and I'm ready to do what needs to be done, to get faster. I'm excited to be around other athletes and just people in general haha, 
Ive been in solitary confinement for the past year, and now I'm free and,,,,, 
man it feels good! So far it's super exciting living here, there's grocery stores, malls, gyms, swimming pools, all kinds of stuff,, even girls! 

Last year for me was basically about just hanging on, staying in shape, and proving that I can compete with the better riders in the province and country. I did that, and now it is time to move on.

This year It will be way more fun/exciting for me when it comes to cycling Ill be able to race 10x as much and I ll be get better because of it! 
One thing I ve realized that I haven't had over my life is confidence, that's starting to change very fast now, I m becoming way more confident everyday now with everything! I learning that at higher levels of competition the psychology part of it is huge. You can train all you want be as strong as possible but if your mind isn't right forget it. I ve always been shy, and scared to not do well, but that is useless and will get you nowhere, so those days are OVER now.I m definitely building confidence now and realizing I'm way better then I thought. I ve also been studying what elite athletes do for there mind set, one person I ve been learning a lot about is Muhammad Ali, and it's awesome, this guy is a genius, He is a prime example of where confidance can get you. 

I know for a fact I will get much faster and stronger, if I could do what I did in Hudson's hope, image just what will happen here! 

Anyway it's going to be another awesome year! Couldn't be more stoked! 

Anyway it's going to be another good year! couldn't be more stoked!

Almost done

Well its been awhile since I last touched basis. I am still alive and still focused and my goals. Sometimes I feel like I m in space living here, and most people probaly think I dissapeared haha. I have been extreamly busy with work and training, and all the other life things, Good news is that I got a job starting in July in Coquitlam, I m super excited to go there. I m confident that this will be a good move for myself. I feel like up for the past year I really gotten to lay the base work for my fitness and finacial goals, now its time to make things happen and get some civilized exposure. I definitly have been working hard and it is crazy that I have been here for a year now, its almost been like a blur, I m happy  with how it all turned out, I did maintained and expand my fitness which is a crazy personal accomplishment for myself, I dont think anyone would understand how mentallly hard it was to stay focused up here, unless they came here and tryed it. I mean lock yourself in a basement in hudsons hope for a full winter doing 3 hours a day on a staionary bike,,well everyone else is partying and drinking beer,,. yeah I think its definiltly time for me to get out of here haha. One thing the winter did do to me here was build mental toughness haha,, I wish I could put a picture of the basement I rode in all winter, it would take forever now with hudsons hope dial up interent, anyway it is a serious place, lets just say it would be a good place to flim the next Saw movie haha. My rommates girlfriend came to visit for a while and like many others she would not go down there, I dont blame her. Anyway that was like my office, and I proved one thing you dont need any fansy gym equipment to stay in shape haha.

  I dont believe this year will be a great year for me in cycling as far as accomplishments. My main objective now is to get into the cycling scene see where I m at, find my weakenesses and start turning myself into a real althelte if that makes sense. I know I am still in shape but I havent got to race much being up here, so it will take time to get the race skills up to par. I m also excited to ride with stonger riders that will push me, which is another important thing I havent had for the past year. I will be going to race in Quebec this year at nationals, it will be cool to see how I stand against canada's best riders, so i m excited for that.

So with all that i almost moving on I will miss this place, espeacailly the people, but like I said it time to go, and i stoked to leave,, thanks for reading, hopefully in the next year or so I can get the lead of my aohiffjhafs and start winning races, haha,,

Patrick.

Still Here

I feel like writing. So I guess I ll write here haha. Its been a while since I last posted anything so I ll give an update of my last couple months. I ve been trying to stay in shape in Hudsons hopes, however with the cold weather in the middle of nowhere with no one around, there is definitely a lack of motivation, and even though somethings I would like to push through it, it often gets the best of me.

Luckily I got to go to places like Hawaii and Palm Springs this winter, which was nice. First I spent some  time in Honolulu, where I went with a bunch of my friends and had tons of fun and partied hard. Then I spent some time in Maui with my friend Jevon, where we did some good bike riding. I leaned alot on that trip about cycling, it was great. Jevon is a very strong rider and someone who will do very well in the near future. Palm springs was next, I got to go with my friend Steve, who is a triathlete. Here we also did some riding, I really like the desert. I thought it was cool since I d never been there before. It turned out to be an awesome time, Steve is a machine, he always pushes me to go faster, he is someone else who will be winning races sooner than later.

Recently I just got back from a 2 week vacation where I basically spent one week in Nanaimo and Victoria, and one week in Powell River. It was cool to see my family and friends again. Man I miss it there haha. I also got to see some other cyclists, and I realized how slack and out of shape I must be compared to them. These guys are super dedicated which  is really cool to see. Although I don t think they realise how lucky they are to live where they live with the oppurtunity to ride outside all year, I noticed they seem to have great focus on there goals in the sport which is very motivating. One thing I didn't like however, which is more of my fault. It is how my brain reacts to all this. I can be a very competitive person, and when I hear of how hard everyone is training, how good everyone is eating, and how perfect all these cyclist do things, my brain goes out of control, cause I want to try and do everything at once. Luckily I m smart enough to know I cant. All I can do is chill out, do what I think is right and what I have time for. It is very easy to get caught up and addicted to this cycling business,  just like money, but at the end of the day, as corny as it sounds I always remind myself that there is more to life then just those two things.

I always like going home, I find it to be like a check point for me to see where I m at. And so far Hudson s Hope may of not turned me into Lance Armstrong, but I ve enough new and interesting experiences in the past year I can very well start a tv show or something, but I ll save that for later, haha.
Anyway  with all that being said, its back to my igloo, where I have to get some serious focus going, cause I have lots of catching up to do in,, mmmmmmm everything, haha, especially cycling, thanks for reading, keep it real ,

Patrick,

September

Well another summer is almost over, and it was an interesting one for me, living in Hudsons hope and all. So far has been a different experience. Trying to stay in shape here so far has proven to be a challenge mentally that’s for sure but I m getting use to it. I recently just finished my last bike race that I ll do for this year. It was in Revelstoke this is a good race for me mainly cause it gives me an idea of how my fitness is compared to last year since it is a hill climb time trail. The race went okay I ended up falling short of my goal time but I still beat my time from last year by 2min and 31 secs, it took me 1hr 13min and 16 secs this year. My goal for next year is to go under 1hr 10min. If all goes as planned it will happen. So with that said its feels good to know that I maintained my fitness up here in the north. In a way I think most people would have thought I would slip away form trying to be in shape, but it feels good to keep it going. I remember 6 months ago when people told me in a negative way “its sure going to be hard to train up there,All Alone, and in the winter.” Well I say good,, cause when has training to be your best ever been easy. Getting better and better at something is always hard and always will be.

Anyway looking back so far things here have definitely been interesting, I ve gained lots of interesting experiences and stories. From seeing cool wildlife to encountering crazy people, getting chased by natives on my bike, to the drunk cheering squad I have when I do hill repeats up signal hill, the list goes on, this place is hilarious.

Looking forward for this winter I m excited, I am planning a few vacations to go riding to such places as Hawaii and Arizona. I ve also made friends with a good group of people to do lots of trainer riding over the winter, I m even going to try putting snow tires on my mountain bike. This year will be a little more intense. I m getting older and there is no time to mess around anymore. If I want to reach my goals I ll definitely have to start pushing myself out of my comfort zone more often. However the key will be to have fun cause really that’s what matters,, yeah I know that sounds a little gay, but its true. Anyway should be a rad winter, I hope,,,, bring on the -40 degrees haha..

Patrick,,

July

Well that’s 2 months in Hudson’s Hope done. My time at the lodge is over . I will definitely miss the lodge. Come to think of it now it was like a dream land. A huge house, I was treated like a king, lots of cool people, in the middle of nowhere, awesome lake views, full of a bunch of young European girls. But its over now, I guess all I can say now is that is was a pretty cool experience, that lots of people would pay a lot to do.
Anyway I guess its back to reality, I just moved in with a roommate into a small house in downtown Hudson’s Hope. It ain’t no dream land, but I think it should be fun living here. I will be riding my bike to work from here, that alone will keep me busy, it’s a about 25km and mostly up hill all the way. I really want to ramp up the training this month. I m finally getting settled into this town it usually take me about 2 months to get use to everything when I move to a new town, like work and way of living,, etc. I feel a little more comfortable now so I m hoping to get in the more of a fixed training schedule on the go now. I definitely want to make this month tough, the time is perfect, right in the middle of summer, so for me this will be a month to remember when it come to training/biking.

Graduation

Crazy its almost already been 2 full months since I ve been in Hudsons Hope. And all and all my opinion of this place is that it is not bad at all. Just far away, sometimes too far away. It is very important to keep busy here and have you own things to do or else this place will eat you alive. So far its been really easy to make friends and have stuff to do. It just gets a little lonely for me when I do 4 hour bike rides or hill repeats. Nobody here wants to do that for some reason haha. I find my self saying this place is the best one day and the worst another, I guess that’s just what this place is all about there’s no in-between, its one extreme or the other. The last little while for me I ve been kind of busy with work,,trying to finish up strong,, (I just graduated my program today as a hydro electrician). It feels good know that I m done that, although I still have tones to learn, this job has been cool so far, of course there are boring days but lot of challenges come with this job which makes it interesting. Its been one of my goals to get a job where I can  be financially stable and today it feels like I just checked that off the list haha.
So as for the riding its been going okay I feel like I m getting stronger, today I did 7 hill repeats up signal hill about an 8 min climb at a hard intensity for me. I felt really good, previously every Friday I do hill repeats up signal hill and the most ive done before this was 5, and my average time is usually about 9min, Today I did 7 with average time of about 8min. Recently I kind of changed the way I train. I think I was doing too much I was always tried and burnt out. After getting help from different people and reading stuff, I got a different view . I used to just have one speed, go ``hard`` all the time, and I was always tried, so basically I thought I was going my hardest but I was not. I just doing useless training. What I learned now hard training days should be serious, Hard should mean all out till you get dizzy, and don’t feel right, And easy days means barely putting pressure on the pedals. Before I was always training somewhere in the middle all the time which wasn’t getting me anywhere. But it makes sense to me now that you need easy days to allow your body to be rested for the serious hard days which should make you faster. So hopefully that’s works better . I have another race next weekend in Edmonton It is a 4 stage race I never done anything like that so that should be fun, Prolouge, TT, Crit and Road race. Just wish there were more hills in Edmonton, I feel really strong at climbing right now. Anyway I will get to see my Dad, Sister, nephew, and niece, Its awesome when we can all get together, so I m excited about next weekend.
So hopefully I can really start to train more  and focus on riding now being done my school and
work stuff , anyway guess I ll see how it goes.

Feeling Okay

Well it was a decent weekend for me about 16 hours of riding most of which was easy. I feel like I am finally recovering from all the riding I ve done up here lately. I think my legs just need to get used to it. There are great people to ride with up here,(not many, but there still great haha) and I ve learned alot from them already.I got to go for a  long ride with a one of Canada's top speed skaters, Jay morrision, It was pretty cool to listen to his experinces,the way he trains, and to get an idea of what it takes to be top 10 in the world at a sport. That's one of the positive things about being up in a smaller area, I probably would have never been able to have an awesome one on one converstion with someone like that in a bigger city. We got to ride around Fort St John which was pretty damn awesome, surprisinly. I always went by what other people told me "Fort St John is a dump" but it was again one of the best places I ve ridden. Super nice roads and very quiet no cars, beautiful farmland mountain views, and all that crap that we like. I guess I m starting to really learn dont just listen to what other people say , you really need to see it for yourself first.

When I first moved here I knew I wanted to stay in shape and ride my bike. But I m not stupid, in the back of my mind I did have a doubt that it may not work out and I may not enjoy it as much cause I would have no company or whatever.However as of right now I m stoked again. Its all I think about haha, Today I can say I ve never loved cycling this much, it does feel good to have something I love to do up here in nowhereland.

I feel like my training is going okay, I feel excited and ready to go race, Its almost the same feeling I had back when I played drums. I d practice, practice, and practice, and when I knew I was ready it felt exciting to show everyone what I could do. I think just like most people who are competive it always feels good to know you did as much as you could to get ready for a race. This weekend I am doing a race in Edmonton. It is called the Pigon lake Road race. It will be a mostly flat course, (not really for me) I seem to be better at hills for some reason. Either way, I may not do well at it, but one thing I will make sure of is that I go until I am competely red lined and dizzy, THATS A MUST. Really for me the rest dosent matter, that will all take care of itself.Being up here talking to famliy and friends, and having time to think.I realized what my goal is for cycling.To enjoy it and at the same time know that I did my absoulute best.Basically in 20 years from now I want to be able to say "that was the very best I could have done, when I trained and raced I put every once of energy I had into it". Wheather my best means it makes me come dead last in some bozo northern race, or wheather it takes me to the Tour de France. If I know I went my hardest I ll be able to sleep at night.

 So it has been 24 days here, and I still have not gone completly crazy, but its still early I guess haha,
anyway should be a good weekend I'm super excited to go to Edmonton and vist my big sister and see my nephew, Carson and Niece, Carys. Carson just started playing soccer so I really want to see him run around, he is a funny kid I love hanging out with him cause he says some funny stuff and it reminds me to have fun and to not take life so serious all the time haha,,

Patrick,,