In Arizona and California with Team TWENTY16

Lex, Greta, and Abbey. Team TWENTY16

Team TWENTY16 kicked off the 2014 season at Valley of the Sun stage race in the Phoenix AZ area.  The 3 day race was a perfect event for us to get to know eachother, get dialed in on our new Felt bikes, feel out the eachother's riding styles, and ENJOY racing!

It was also the perfect time to get familiar with the nutritional products we'll be using this season.  I've fueled with CLIF over many years, but this time around I got the chance to test out some new CLIF products.  I wasn't familiar with Kit's bars, and they're my new favourite I think!  We're also hydrating with MRI's products.  I like to start the race with a half-portion of MRI's mix in one of my bottles, and grab a full-strength one in the feed-zone during the race.

Kit's Organic cashew and fruit bar is my favourite flavour so far, but they're ALL so good!  They're so soft and moist.

Next, we're off to southern California for our team camp.  Our first priority is to get some great training rides and drills in together. There will be a lot of awesome things going on with our sponsors during camp, ant that will be a lot of fun too.  Then, Murietta Stage Race in Southern California will wrap up this first block... and I'll head home to my trusty eMotion Rollers, and my espresso machine (I'm all about living in the moment, but okay, okay, I admit, I'm missing that thing...)

One of the final espresso shots that I pulled before leaving Montréal...good memories. I'd still rather be here with my team though ;)

Climbing Gibraltar!

NOW and Novartis for MS Women's Pro Cycling team climbs Gibraltar on one of the 2013 Team Training Camp days in the Santa Barbara, California area.  A great day for fitness, and riding together on our new Specialized S-WORKS Amira road bikes.

Team director, Kurt Stockton, followed in the Ford C-Max hybrid team car.  Check it out!

I love fish.

I'm at training camp with NOW and Novartis for MS Womens' Pro Cycling Team. 

My life has been changed forever.  Okay I'm kidding.  But I tried something new.  A few years ago my dad told me that I "needed" to try a fish taco in California.  I'd never heard of a fish taco before, and it sounded like a greasy, deep-fried  fast food item on a value menu to me.  Had he not suggested I try one, I probably would have just stuck with eating pickled herring out of a jar.  Mmm.  My favorite.

So after riding, we took the FORD C-Max Hybrid team car and drove out to State Street Santa Barbara, and found me a fish taco.  I had been putting it off for 3 years, and that was long enough.

 So what's the verdict?  Ah, they're alright.  But they sure do not come close to beating NordSee's pickled herring sandwiches.  I hope franchises start opening up on this side of The Pond ... SOON!

Team Training Camp

Check out a few of the things I did at the beginning of NOW and Novarts for MS Pro Cycling's training camp in Santa Barbara, CA!

Experts at Training Camp

I just finished up with Canada's National Team spring training camp in South Carolina.  The weather was chillier than expected but whatever, I came prepared with a whack of clothes.  After a few years of trial-and-error, I'm getting good at this packing for bike trip deal.  Minimal casual clothes and one piece of clothing for every type of riding weather, good strong embrocation cream and you're (pretty much) set.

We had a lot of great resources to make this trip one of the most quality camps ever.

1. Trionne Moore, holistic nutritionist came from Toronto and stayed a few days to cook up some amazing recipes.  They were not only healthy and delicious, but EASY to make.  I like to ride my bike and need to stay strong and healthy to do it.  But I don't like cooking.  Trionne gave us some good ways to deal with this issue.

Trionne taught us new recipes and was a great inspiration to experiment with our own creations

2. Craig DeVeer, a super soigneur based out of Ottawa, Ontario took great care of us during camp.  I worked with Craig for the first time at the World Championships in 2012 in the Netherlands.  I was happy that he noticed the improvements that I made since then with my new Travel Roller.  I'm a lot less stiff! Thanks for noticing ;)

Myofascial release with my TravelRoller: I LOVE IT

3. Shawn Marshall was our mechanic and worked his magic fixing technical issues, and was also a great wheel to follow going down the twisty descents in South Carolina.  Shawn has a lot of riding and bike mechanics experience.  We used to work together at Bikeland, Barrie (Ontario, Canada) Barrie's coolest bike shop.  He now owns Velolab Cycle Works in Dartmouth (Nova Scotia, Canada)

Shawn getting the final touches taken care of on the bikes

4. Denise Kelly, Canada's women's National Team coach brought in a professional yoga instructor to lead us though some really beneficial stretching sessions 3 times through the camp.  The instructor was excellent.  In my books, yoga is for stretching and getting all "zen".  There wasn't any draining upper-body strength stuff, no frustratingly impossible poses, and she was hardly fazed when she sliced her hand open on some stray glass during one of the sessions.  10 points. Awesome.

Ready for yoga!

5. Jenny Trew, a previous teammate of mine who has become a coach, was an excellent part of the camp as well.  Jenny shared some "life lessons" with us girls, led an excellent sprint session (her expertise) and had plenty of feedback on and off the bike to help everyone improve.  Thanks for shuttling us back and forth from the grocery store too JT, it was great to be out on the road together again after 2 years!

What Else is Training Camp for?

Denise Kelly, National Team Women's Road Coach (Cycling Canada), asked the athletes in South Carolina what they learn at training camp.  Training camp is for a lot of different things like racking up volume and accumulating fitness before the race season starts.  Everyone knows that. But this another way I like to see it:

I'm a big fan of Toastmasters.  I was a member of St. Lawrence Toastmaster's Club in Montréal.  It's the place to practice public speaking.  You can try new things, mess up, and make a bit of a fool of yourself in front of everyone, and it's 100% okay. You're not presenting to your boss or a potential client.  You have nothing to lose if you choke-up or stutter, just a heck of a lot to gain.

Marie Paule Gagnon welcoming Lex as a new member of Toastmasters a few years ago (http://www.toastmastersmontreal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lex-albrecht.jpg)

Training camp is very similar.


It isn't a championship race, you're not defending a teammate's jersey, and you don't have any UCI points on the line.  There is no podium and no results sheet. Training camp is the place to try out new things.  Pushing yourself a little hard, testing different climbing and pacing techniques, cornering, descending, working on team time trialing, lead-outs... and if something doesn't work, it's 100% okay.  Just like at Toastmasters.

It's also an ideal opportunity to benefit from the strengths and experiences of the other riders, and use their feedback to improve.  Just like fellow Toastmasters constructively evaluate eachothers' presentations, riders can offer other athletes the same type of valuable tips.

You often have to fail about a zillion times before you succeed.  Training camp is a great opportunity to trip up a little bit.  You can figure out what works and what doesn't, so that you'll be ready when it counts most.