A day in the life.

Also known as living the dream. Like most days to an athlete the dreaded morning can be a bit rough. Usually feeling the effects of the previous days training can make getting out of bed a touch on the tough side. But we all get used to it. Its just the norm similar to someone who is retired getting out of bed at 5:30AM to go play a round of golf or go walk laps of the mall. With the recent and continuing work on my car and eventual trip to the track later on I thought this would be a decent opportunity to show what an average training day can look like in my shoes. I'm at least blessed to have 2 days a week that I don't have to work at all. Witch really means I can go train fresh, and then put a couple hours in at my second job if I need too. Step one, get out of bed before 10:30. This will be the toughest one today. The sports new casters aren't that interesting now that the Canucks are out of the playoffs. And yet I'm still too lazy to change the station to something more exciting or provocative like CBC or the Traffic watch. On a side note you could very easily just sum up the traffic report each half hour with "If there is a bridge, Its jammed up for miles before and after it" Descend to the kitchen only to realize that oatmeal just isn't going to cut it today, jump into the car and head off to the most over priced convenience store in Langley. Bacon and eggs look good I think. I know technically Dana Lis of Canadian Sport Center Pacific is a Sports Diet guru, but to me she's more of a "come up with meals so Jamie wont die, and are easy to make because he is useless in the kitchen" She probably wouldn't be pleased to see me eating bacon and scrambled eggs with my oats and coffee but today that's just what my brain wants. And I really don't feel like going to I hop today after spending my allowance on my car. Some days I wish I was as handy in the kitchen as I can be under the hood of an old car. The truly hardest task of this morning was to not eat all the birthday cupcakes my room mate made for me! They have little bikes on them too! Joanna you are the best!

Next is a tough one. Turn on the kettle. When boiled pour into a mug and use three times the suggested amount of instant coffee. Some people cringe at the thought of instant but my back ground story on why may shed some light. When I was in Melbourne I learnt fast that I would drink my way into the poor house just with the coffee price alone. A normal drip coffee doesn't exist there. In fact I only met one other person who enjoyed it - LP at Velocycles in North Carlton. So I started drinking instant for $8 a week instead of Americanos for $8 a cup. Now its all I can drink for coffee. When I changed shops I worked at mid summer last year I went from working next to a Starbucks to not having any coffee near by. For weeks I wondered where all my extra money was coming from..... The next step in my day is similar to most people's morning routine only I don't read the news paper. Its also a testament to my ADHD. Something I'm convinced is a quality when it comes to multitasking. I'll sit in front of my lap top reading the news, Facebooking with nine different friends around the world, searching on forums and auto parts supplier web sites for a ridiculously hard to find small part that will no doubt cost me an arm and both legs to get. Seriously......a Bolt....... one bolt that holds me back from putting bigger, better brakes into my car now that I have the wheel size to do it! Hey look, Youtube has some cool video's of engines, and planes and racing, Dam its raining, epic fails......ADHD....right. Coffee number three time. Still looking for where I'm going to get the last few bits for two or three current projects on the car, priority is to lower it some more. With the low pro's and 15inch wheels it looks a bit like a scared cat parked next to some of the other Dubz at the Tuesday night meet. I'll have to call Paul at PG to get some prices. And while all this is going on I have failed to mention the most sparatic of music selections playing in the back ground like white noise.

Time to fill up the napsack with the goodies for the day. Fresh kit? check- Thanks Cycling BC!, Tool bag? check - granted half my stuff is probably in Jake Schwingboth's tool bag. Shoes and gloves? yup, Helmet...... ummmmmm YEP! Can of rice pudding? Dam...I'll have to hit up the grocers, again. Chuck the napsack in the trunk, fire up the old VeeDubb and hit the highway, I cant wait to see how far backed up traffic is today. LA isnt as bad as Vancouver these days. In the 25 min drive I watched three near miss accidents. 2 of witch would have been fatal. And saw someone going down the off ramp.......... Port Mann bridge, you are the sore on my driving fun. A month ago or more I helped out at the track while a film crew was shooting for a commercial with a bunch of the Jr's. I was on the highway headed to the track at ten after 3 in the morning. It was nice to open the throttle fully and not drive bellow the limit stuck bumper to bumper like usual along that stretch. Some cars seem to have their plates in spots too hard for the toll camera's to get on Golden Ears bridge. I'm hoping my car is hard to photo on Port Mann when its done!

They were out of rice pudding. Chocolate Milk it is..... Get to the track, yet again is cold in there. Switch my bike to a more appropriate gear for a warm up, and got changed. I shot the shit with Jer for a bit about the upcoming Burnaby Velodrome open house on Sunday I'm helping at.I find myself helping out more and more with things like this to give back to the sport. Time for an epic dubstep roller warm up. Took three hours to warm up, get a warm up effort in. Then do five more of the same effort only on much more substantial gearing. The last three on gearing I would never race its so big. Today's work out was what I call drop in accelerations. Bottom of the track, mid turn, from 27kph or so to all out standing effort for 100meters. You gotta admit seeing your speed increase to over double what you rolled into it at in 100meters is kinda impressive. I love track, way more fun that road! I think I love the social element as much as the going fast. Between efforts myself and Eddy split conversations between talking about the show his band played the night before, to how he got his Volvo fixed even tho its still burning oil. Caution, watch for people in red track suites breakdancing!

Workout done. Today, I'm not making dinner, I'm going for sushi. Eat a sizable portion of fish, rice and some green things mixed in, down a tea and back to the velodrome I head. Im graced with being able to work there when I can. With the massive school children learn to ride clinic last week some of the poor bikes took a beating. Tonite I had to fix three of them witch isnt a bad night's worth of work. Its a hell of a lot easier than in early fall where I had forty some odd bikes to install new tires, tubes and bar tape! While working away Adam Reddy walked in fresh off a plane from Jr. Pan Am champs. The kid reminds me of a young me only he's got a cardio engine on him the size of a house. I've let him borrow my race wheels for trials and ultimo the racing recently as I knew he needed them more than I would at the time. We talked about some of the things he learnt at his first big race. Imagine you're first big race outside of your home track is an international meet! I hope to see big things from Adam. He's got the talent, just needs to keep the abbiltiy to find fun in what he does thru the painfull, gutting training. You just have to be the bigger, meaner dog. Alright, training and working done. Its time for Jamie time again. After a quick commute home I was a bit stumbled on what to do. I could head out and see some friends in White Rock I haven't seen in a while, I could just lay back and relax with a book..... unlikely tonight as the sun is out, or.......I could wash my car. YEA! Witch leads me to now, three hours later. Car washed and shined, interior cleaned of a weeks worth of empty chocolate milk bottles and lids and a new fresh pine tree air freshener. Now finally sat at my computer.... Content that my shiny red car looks good again, And that I can see out of the whole wind sheild, not just what the wipers touch. Well not that I'm back doing what I love most, watching a movie while typing away and listening to music I think its time to sign off from today's adventure. I've got a book that Gord, Adam's dad lent me to read about the Spitfire. I am a huge gear head and its scary how much war history I know compared to most Canadians. I'm day dreaming about the Audi engine I want to put into my Jetta and wondering what chaos I'll deal with at work tomorrow. I'm defiantly looking forward to the rest day too! Toodle's for now Jam!e readers! That my friends is an average day in the life of me.