Bella and Beyond

So Bella was itching to get out of the city. So I suggested Cortes Island, and she agreed.

Not only is spending a weekend with one of your closest friends on his family's organic farm on the ocean ideal enough in itself, but getting to take a few hours each day to ride around this little slice of paradise was much needed for both Bella and me.

And Dad I included the map for you cause i know you like em, and for all of you who know I need a map when riding by myself, even if on a small island that is basically a loop. I'm telling you it's always good to know where you are going, even if in a circle.

I spent some quality beach time with my pal Sheba, as one should always bring a trusted friend like Sheeb with you to the beach in case a ahem......squirrel comes by uninvited.

And speaking of furry friends, so I am gone for four days, I have a friend come by to feed my little purring house mate, and why, and what, and kinda how, do I come home to cat litter in my bathtub? Seriously. What the heck was she doing? Having a beach party in the tub? How can you live with a cat for 8 years and never have litter in your tub, go away for days and all hell breaks loose? I've got to get a cat-cam.

But I digress...

It should also be noted that you can get a sun burn when sunbathing naked, even in late September. Some of you might think the UV rays are not strong enough but to educate you further, purely in the name of science , a painful experiment it turns out, results are you can.

So all in all, Bella loved her Cortes ride, Liily loved her beach bathtub, my fridge is bursting with apples, tomatoes, and farm fresh eggs, Liisa is still applying Aloe Vera and all is right with the world.

Liisaxo

Pentiction schmenticiton

Now these pictures don't really do the hill climb we were rolling out on any justice or respect really. I love the idea that this shot makes me look like I was in the game, like as if I was all rolling the group out....
Now the truth is this was the ONLY moment I was with the group as we hit the climb the pack broke up hard and fast. This was the Pentiction Masters Race hill climb. It was Epic. Well it was Epic for me anyways. Steeper than Cypress, which is really the only climb I could hold it up to. It came to me I would say 4 times during the race the thought of, "i think I want to die, no not die, but give up, really you could just stop Liisa, you could stop and head to the cold beer and wine, grab some beer, and just wait for the rest of the gang to return, you could watch "So You Think You Can Dance" and just relax in Sandman Inn luxury, and just wait for the boys. But somehow every time that thought crossed my mind, it was overrode by the thought of , not yet, just keep climbing, i'm sure this pain will end soon.

There is nothing like seeing the race support at some corner cheering you on, and you see them and you smile and you ask as you pass......"am I close to the top?" and they say "yes only 4 km's to go!" and you think, "what the...how the hell is 4 km's equal the answer yes?????!!!" Yes means, like as in right around that corner and you are there, yes means, 8 more pedal strokes and you are there, yes means the pain will stop in 5, 4, 3, 2, ......" Yes does not mean 4 more KM's of pain to go!
Well to make a long story longer, I did it. I grinded it out, I made it to the top. I grabbed my gold metal for first in my category, or age range, as it's Masters racing, (this is where I am torn to reveal or not that I was the only woman in my category...)

After the Ceremony's, the fig newtons, coke cola, and watermelon provided, myself and my Mighty Riders, descended the beautiful winding mountain we had just conquered and headed to the liquor store to settle all our wine bets and order take out.

The rest of the eve was kinda sacred and more like "what happens in Pentiction stays in Pentiction" kinda thing. But I have two words for you.....Slack Alice. You will have to figure out (aka google) that one on your own to put 2 and 2 together.

All I can say is another weekend of bike racing as come and gone, and i'm kinda smitten.

Liisa

The Rookie Master

So here is a little glimpse into one of the best Sunday's ever!!!

It starts with a Saturday group ride that resulted in a crash sending two riders on stretchers in a ambulance. Which then left me shaken and thinking perhaps it's a good thing that i didn't have any Sunday racing plans as I was feeling all shook n shit.

So we are still in the Saturday part of the story, I headed home promptly after the crash and riding one of the "crashee's" home to make sure she was OK, and then headed out on foot to grab some lunch and coffee. That's when the thoughts started of, "perhaps I should slow down my zeal for riding/racing cause seeing someone head to hospital due to crashing is all of sudden a very sobering reality. So just as I was having thoughts of "perhaps i should try running instead of cycling...." my phone rang.

"Liisa it's Bill, I have a spot open to offer a ride to tomorrow's race on the island".

I thought, oh boy, I've been trying to find someone who was willing to put in the hours it was going to take to get over to the island for this master's race, but I'm still kinda sketched.

Liisa: "wow cool".
Bill: "Yeah, so I would pick you up at 9am and we would fly out at 10"
Liisa: "DID YOU SAY FLY!"
Bill: "Yes, I have room in the helicopter".
Liisa: now this part was totally silent..... "HOLY @#$!!!%$!!! HELICOPTER!!!!!"
ahem..."Oh room in a helicopter, so we would fly to race?"
Bill: "yes it takes about 2o Min's and we will arrive about an hour early to warm up and register etc, then race, then stick around for the ceremonies and then fly back, you should be back home by 4ish"
Liisa: again this part was inside my head..."UH YES YES YES!!!! HOW @#$!!!%$!! EXCITING!"
Liisa: "sure that sounds great, see you at 9, oh and should I be in my kit?, like do we ride to where we start the race?"
Bill: "no you can change there, we land at the start/finish line."
Liisa: again this part was silent...."BOOM" that was the sound of my head exploding.

So yes, we arrive at the airport and load our bikes into this little 'copter, we pack in and buckle up and in the safe hands of Mr Bill Yearwood, we fly over Galiano, Saltspring Island and land in Maple Bay on Vancouver Island close to Duncan in 18.5 Min's.

And yes we land on the lawn of Moose Lodge were the race sign in is and then ending ceremonies.

Now onto the race....

So it's my first Australian pursuit. Well my first Australian pursuit that was a bike race.....hee hee.

As I sign in and roll up to the start line, I learn that there is only one other woman in my age category. And I also learn that this woman was someone I used to sell flaming goat cheese with at a Greek Restaurant in Victoria 20 years ago.

We roll out with the Men who are 15 years ahead of us in age. And don't let this age gap fool you folks, cause these "old guys" drop the hammer, and they dropped us off the line. We tried to give chase which then made me realize that Australian pursuit is much like my dating life.....you try as hard as you can, pray you can catch one of the guys off the back and then hang on to him as long as you can....

So onwards we chase, my former Greek pasta and pizza slinging pal then encounters some mechanicals that inevitably take her out of the race.

So I continue on riding alone for 65 k's. I was passed by my pals from the Mighty riders, so happy to see them, i jump my tired ass on their wheels and no sooner do I grab a draft for the first time in the race, Chris starts attacking his pack and they are off.

Then who pulls up beside me in a car but my Mum! I say hello and send her back to find my fellow female racer who was stranded somewhere with no tube and walking her bike back for help.

Well the rest is kinda boring, I huffed and puffed my way to the finish line only to win...GOLD! That's right, gold, HA! That's what you get when there is only one woman that you are racing against and she flats. But a friend said something cool to me, he said you didn't just beat the girl with the flat, you beat everyone woman who didn't show up today!

Anyway, it was an amazing day, a helicopter ride to and from the race, two metals one, for 1st in my category and one for 3rd woman overall, and it took away all the shivers from the day before's crash.

And i even gave one of metals to my Mum not only for the race support but for being the one who put me on my first bike and taught me how to turn the petals in the first place.

Ova and out.
Liisa

Falling or "Springing in love"

Living in Vancouver is kinda like being in a unhealthy relationship. Especially if you are a cyclist.

You spend the dark rainy, cold, wet winter/fall cursing the city and wishing you lived in Australia or California where they are riding with their sun kissed faces all year. And just when you are ready to break up with your lover, Vancouver, spring comes.

And when spring comes, it's like the most romantic experience or relationship you have been lusting over, just walked up and smacked you in the face and said, "oh I'm sorry I'm late have you been waiting for me....".

And you look at this sexy beast, this blossoming, warm, blue sky, aromatic, saucy lover and say..."Oh darling, are you back, I barley noticed you were gone", totally forgetting like a Vulcan mind wipe, that you were about to dump his ass like a second ago.

The roller coaster of Vancouver life, of BC living.

I guess i just want to take a moment and remind myself as well as my brethren Vancouverites and stop and smell the blossoms and say, holy shit, I am madly, passionately, and uncontrollably in love with you again.

Liisa

i love it to death

This past week i took some time and went to the Island to do some riding and visiting the fam. I rode the Galloping Goose trail out to Sooke for the first time.

So why am I blogging about a nice ride in the woods you ask, big deal Liisa it's a nice trail through the trees, why do you have to write about it?

Well this is the thing...

I have seen many beautiful wonders of nature. From old growth forests to rocky mountains, expansive desserts, tropical blues oceans etc etc etc. And when i stop and catch my breath at these beautiful sites there is one particular thought that doesn't go through my mind that is like the reoccurring one that does when I am in Sooke BC.

And that thought is not only how beautiful and magical it is but it a knowing, a knowing that when i leave this ol earth that i am quickly lit on fire and then become a nice little pot of ashes. And that i want this little pot of Liisa to be spread somewhere in the forests of Sooke.

What i found so interesting is that when i was a kid and spent every summer at the Y camp in Sooke and we did over night hikes into the Sooke hills, this thought went through my mind then. What a strange thing for little Liisa roasting marshmallows singing camp songs to be thinking. But i did.

And then growing up I would swim in the summers at Sooke Potholes, which i kinda always thought was heaven.

This past week when i was riding alone through the trees on the Goose trail, the thought hit me again. I can't explain why this area makes me want to end up here eternally, it just is this crazy strong sense.

So I figured that I would blogg about it in case i never get my shit together enough to write it down anywhere officially.

And you know what, i don't even know if it really matters that it happens. I just think it's kinda cool to feel that way about somewhere.

Perhaps Tourism BC should use this tag line: "Beautiful Sooke BC, the kinda place that makes ya wanna leave your dead self behind".

What can i say, I love it.

liisa

xo

Barack in BC

So here i am again Bloggin. And i still don't really know if anyone is reading this or if I have to "send" it to people.

So as I kinda guessed about myself, I knew that the inspiration to "blog" might be erratic.

Tonight I finally felt like bloggin again.

Today being the day that our neighbours, the big bully to the south, our "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" pals across the border, our I hate to love you, fair weather friends, the Americans, had a big day.

Which means we had a big day.

A few days ago I was walking down Commercial drive on my way to work in the morning and I strolled by a camera crew and host situation where they were doing the whole "streeter" bit where they stop average folk on the street and ask them their opinion on something.

I always get nervous when i walk by this kind of situation. "oh god, please don't ask me" is the first thought that goes through my head. Even though I don't even know what the topic is or if i have an informed opinion on it.

Then I start to think why am I so scared to be interviewed when I have a background in performance. And of course I always come back to, because they don't want to talk to one of your characters Liisa but they want to talk to you, you Liisa.

Anyway, back out of my head....

So I overhear what they are asking as I pick up my pace when I walk by.

They are asking, "what do you think is the biggest mistake Bush made in his time as President?"

I immediately think, whew, I'm so glad they didn't ask me, because the last thing i think I can speak intellectually on is politics.

Then after knowing that I'm not going to be asked, I start thinking about the question and what my real answer to it is.

And I panic thinking I should have some big intellectual, politically astute answer. And the first and only thing that comes to my mind is....

I think Bush made a mistake thinking that the majority of Americans are as dumb as he is.

And as I ponder how that answer may have sounded to the news reporter. I kinda think that my answer doesn't sound that intelligent either. And I mostly am just glad that i dodged the whole event.

And then tonight when I watched Obamas inaugural speech and saw the masses, and i mean masses of people who came to hear and support him. I had a swell in my heart and thought....see, see Bush, there are soooo many Americans that are not as dumb as you are.

thank god, thank you America. I think you proved to me that i am not as dumb as I think I am or as I think you are...

xo

why i ride
A co-worker the other day was commenting on how impressed she was that I ride to work everyday. And I thought about her comment, and replied that I was impressed that she didn't.....
Sometimes I think that I am the weak one. I am the minority. I'm one of the few who can't seem to be ok with being on a packed bus sitting in grid lock traffic. Breathing in all the exhaust from the surrounding idling cars, all the stupid chatter of the teen cel phone conversations and the loud guy letting the whole bus know he talked to some hot chick at the bar last night and he got soooooo wasted etc etc etc..
"Liisa, just put on your ipod and daydream, look out the window and daydream".
I've tried it. All I can daydream about is GETTING OFF THE BUS!!!!! I daydream about riding past all the rush hour gridlock. I daydream about summer rides.
I can't hack it. I admit I am weak.
Even if I am wet, or a bit cold, I'm not in the sardine packed bus that is stuck 50 cars behind me.
And the best part about riding to work everyday, by far is, even if you had a crappy day at work, or fought with your boyfriend/girlfriend/bestfriend/boss/customer/coworker, you get to twice a day take one hour to fit in your favorite thing. Riding your bike.
If everyone spent one hour a day just doing whatever their favorite thing is, I dare say we would be in a happier place.