2008 OrganicAthlete Training Camp

Sorry for the long delay, below is my account of my adventures in CA with the OA crew!

Start: Victoria to Portland

It's Sunday, Feb 17th, bright and early we (being Tasha, Kevin, Marty and myself) load up Marty's cool Mitsubishi Delica, and head down to the Port Angeles ferry. Having friends and a place to crash in Portland, we decided we'd make that our half-way point.

While there was a fair bit of waiting, getting to the ferry early, and of course riding on the ferry, we found ourselves in a fairly warm and sunny Portland by late afternoon. Thanks to Robert Cheeke for letting us crash at his place!

We met up with our friend Jessi and went to the Blossoming Lotus for dinner.



That's Jessi, Marty, Tasha, me and Kevin. The food was very good, tho the chili i had was a bit too spicey!

Portland to Sebastapol, CA

Unfortunately we found that we had a flat, a long spike had gotten into our tire! So the next day before heading for CA we had to go to a tire shop.



Here we are outside the tire place, which ironically...



..was called Jim Bacon's...hehe..




There were some amazing views on the way as well.

After a long (13hr) drive, we finally made it, and were welcomed by Mark who put us up for the night, thanks Mark!!

Sebastapol to Windsor

Today the plan was to ride out and check out some of the Tour of California, Kevin and i were keen, but Tasha and Marty didn't seem to want to head out. Did i mention it was cold and rainy? Nooo!

We met at Bradley's shop at 8am (yes, we got about 5hrs sleep), and rode out to Trinity Rd, which is a pretty nasty hill, to catch part of the ToC:



There they go! It was amazing to see, tho it took all of about 20 seconds. Much longer for the procession of cars and motor bikes both before and after..holy cow...!

We rode back into town, and that evening packed up and went to the 'resort' where we'd be staying, and settled in. It was pretty deluxe, and we shared a bit 3bdrm suite with Sami Fornier and John from Bend, OR. That evening we also met the Portland crew, who are a cool bunch of people.

OA Training Camp Day 1

We woke up to...sun!! This was the best weather we experienced the whole trip..!

We met for the day's ride, and it was incredible to have over 20 other OA kits standing around, waiting to go.



It was a pretty nice ride and route, out in the country around Windsor, and mostly flat! There were a few sprints, and i maintained my King of the Overpass title. ;)



Yay! Sun! (I included more pics originally, but as i was editing the code, some got munched, and i'm too tired now to re-enter them...but there's lots more here!)

OA Training Camp Day 2

Back to the cold and rain...



This day was miserable...and to top it off, we had to stop for 45 mins for a flat from hell....! During that time, Marty tells me he rode an additional 15km, trying to stay warm...nuts!

So we rode out to a point and that was where some of the nutters wanted to go and ride longer, including hills...but the rest of us joined team 'Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home' and headed back.

Molly Cameron and i pulled our crew back into town. (And another flat or two. There's SO MUCH crap on the roads in CA!!)

A funny account: Molly and i are puttering along, and Molly pulls ahead a few inches and looks back at me, water flying off helmet splashing me... I look at Molly, and flick my head splashing water back...Molly stays ahead...and after a few more moments says 'that was quite the sprint, 270 watts!'

Turns out there was a city limits sign there...hahahaha.. Yep, some sprint! =P

Team 'Screw You Guys I'm Going Home' pulls into the resort, very wet. I volunteered our room to do the dinner that night, and we made an assortment of raw and cooked foods under the guidance of Kevin and Sami, it was well-received!

Oh yeah, and i mentioned Marty went on the longer climb, it was quite a while after before they returned:



OA Training Camp Day 3

This was the best ride of the trip!

When we started, we got a sprinkled on a bit:



..but it let off.

We rode for a couple hours, then hit the split-off point. There was Team A, and Team A Minus. Team A would do LOTS of climbing, and Team A Minus would do about 2000', which is quite a bit for us Victoria folk. Marty and Kevin stuck with me in Team A Minus. ;)

It was a pretty cool climb, lots of steep sections, and i felt solid. Getting to the first summit, i was 2nd in our group, behind Casey, who's a climbing machine. Second summit had Casey and Manny finishing ahead of me, Manny was also very stong on the hills. Both are from Portland.

Here we are at the 2nd summit:



The ride back into town was spectacular, along the water.. We came down the road on the hill:



Wonderful day of riding, best day there for sure.

That evening, after dinner, i gave a little presentation on veganism to the group, discussing how it began with Donald Watson in 1944, and how veganism isn't really a diet or lifestyle, but a philosophy, or perspective on life, advocating peace and respect.

OA Training Camp Day 4

This was quite a day. I woke up feeling like CRAP! I'd gotten some of whatever illness had been floating around (thanks Oregon riders!! ;) and the weather had turned to crap again. It was even more cold and rainy than a couple days ago, and could compete with some of the gross days we experience in Victoria. This is supposed to be California!! Oh, and it was my 32nd birthday as well. =)

The plan today was to ride to the shop, those who were keen would ride off to do more gnarly climbing, and the rest would head back to the resort. Of course, about 30mins in, there was a flat:




Not much else to report that day, besides another flat or two..we made it home, i chilled out, feeling progressively worse. That evening after dinner they had a delicious chocolate cake for Cat and me (hi Cat!!) That was really awesome. =)

I went to bed with chills and sweats...gross......

OA Training Camp Day 5, Drive to Ashland

The original plan was to ride to the shop, and then get photos, but the weather was so crappy we mostly drove, and then had the photo shoot.

I was feeling pretty awful, but tried to hold it in. My nose had gone ballistic, running like a faucet. Yum.

After the photos, we went for a final group dinner at a local vegetarian joint, and said our goodbyes..it was sad to leave, it was so inspiring to be around so many awesome vegan people...maybe the OA chapter here in Victoria will get this big some day!!

We had originally planned to spend the night in Sebastapol, and then drive to Portland, but figured it was better to break all the driving into three days (instead of two), and so decided to drive until late, and stop at a motel. It was something like Ashland that we stopped, and crashed at a motel. My memory is pretty hazy, and i was drifting out of consciousness the entire time.

I haven't had an illness like this in a while, here were my symptoms:

* nausea
* head cold
* runny nose
* sore throat
* cough
* very weak, barely walk
* very achy joints
* chills/sweats
* eyeballs were sore! Could barely look anywhere but straight!
* zero appetite

There were prolly a few more too, but i had these ALL AT ONCE. Simply awful. I'm guessing i had a fully on flu/influenza. It took well over a week to get back to semi-normal, and even as i'm writing this several weeks later, i can still feel a few remnants of this beast..bleh..

Ashland to Portland

We got up, hopped in the Delica, and were off! (I was still feeling like crap, and was the rest of the trip, but i won't bother bringing it up any more!)

It was another pretty drive, and was greeted by Robert in Portland, he was away when we came through earlier, but was there this time, nice to see him!

We settled in for a bit, and then went out for dinner...memory fails *where*...but i had a smoothie and it went down well. Jessi also joined us, as well as some of the other Portland locals, some of whom i know from message boards.

Portland to Victoria

The next day we went out to the Vegan Plaza, where there are a few vegan shops all lined up, including Herbivore and Food Fight - here i am with one of the legendary BIG containers of Earth Balance:



I picked up a few treats, tho i should have gotten more, i wasn't thinking very straight. =(



Liz Lovely cookies are my favorite...mmmmmm....

Here's a shot of the new OA kit:



Pretty sharp!!! And now there are nine of us sporting these around town, how cool is that? Woohoo!

So, that's the trip, no doubt i missed a million details, but it was really fun hanging out with the Victoria crew this much, and so great to finally meet so many other OAers whom i've been in email contact for years in some cases, but to finally meet in person. And finally, thanks to Bradley for organizing this, and bringing us all together under an amazing organization. Hurray for OrganicAthlete. =)

(And if interested, my full photo album of the trip can be found here.)