Now to my post….

So lately I have been really busy, as seen from my lack of posts to my blog. These days I don’t have as much to write about now that I am not cycling like I use to. My life has been kept busy with work and life social, public and private. I was in school all fall doing some language course, which I quite enjoyed. I had fun working on English projects, though my grammar may not have improved…oppss!

I took the second term off from school, I needed money more. I had a car accident in the fall and my car was totaled.  I, luckily, was fine and not hurt besides a bit of bruising and shaken up. So on top of paying tuition I now have a new/used car to pay for.

I took a new job at a restaurant in Saskatoon call State & Main, (little promo shout out on my blog can’t hurt right?) I really like working here, people are great and the food is tasty. Can’t beat that? I am trying to save up some money because the travel bug has hit me again. I’m itching to go somewhere, anywhere…. Well maybe not somewhere cold. We have enough cold weather here in Saskatchewan. About a week or so ago we had a wind chill of about -50c degrees; bloody cold if you ask anyone. So as you can clearly see I want somewhere warm like Cuba!

I have looked into Cuba a lot this month, Cayo Coco mostly. What I really would love is to lie on a beach, sun in my face, baking in the warm heat with the ocean at my feet. I do not want to worry about making food, cleaning, looking after people. I would like some “me time”, as selfish as that sounds with all the travel I have done in the past I have never had a peaceful hot vacation. All the travel I have done has been for cycling.  It has been, at times, in very cold rainy, wet weather. Making life miserable for the time spent outside. Now yes I have seen some amazing places and probably traveled more than your average twenty year old, but cycling was my job at that time and traveling was part of the business. Most of my traveling was like a business trip, I saw more of the inside of houses and hotels then I did of the places I was in. It is sad, in a way, thinking of all the wonderful things that I missing seeing. I want to go back to most of the places I visited to see them properly.

So there was quite the rant that I just had. In short I am going to go to Cuba soon I think. And hopefully more stories to come.

Cheers people, hope you are staying warmer than me.

JG

Click on the link for the full list of stuff for sale

http://jgarnet.pinkbike.com/buysell/

I have a…..

Devinci Leo T2 Time Trial bike

Zipp disc wheel

Reynolds DVT 46 wheels

New Helmet

Cheers

JG

A write up about on the races that has gone on in Chicago Superweek. Saskatchewan names make there way into the article.  No race results up on-line yet though….

It was a long and exhausting drive down for everyone, we made it in two days to our first location. The farther and farther east we got the hotter and hotter it became. Every day since we have been in the Chicago area it has been over 100f in air temp. With the humidity though, is comes to anywhere from 42c to 47c. The air is very thick making it hard to keep breathing at a normal pace while riding as at lease for me, being out of shape and all. Everyone is in for some tough racing in the next 10 days in this scorching weather.

The first race of superweek was only for the pro ½ men. We had two Sask riders in the field; it was a challenging race for them. I think neither was quiet prepare for the heat that they faced. Dehydration was an issue as well as not being accustomed to the heat on top of a 27 hours van ride for two days before.

The next day started with the women’s cat ¾ races where our three sask girls destroyed it. They rode a smart and fast race; working amazingly well together as a team. In the end they ended up placing first, third and fourth.  The one and only cadet on the trip rode in the cat 3 men’s race later in the afternoon and placed 9^th, smack dab in the money!

The pro men’s race was in the evening, and from what I hear it was a fast and demanding race. A bit of bad luck hit team sask though. One of our riders crash and broke his collarbone, so now he will be out of the racing while we are down here. But that just the way it goes with bike racing, there is always that risk.

Hoping to keep the winning streak alive and have no more injuries on this trip! Wish us luck

Cheers

JG

I have people telling me that they are sorry when they find out that I am not riding anymore because of the issues that I had been having and I tell them don’t be sorry. There is no need to be sorry because I am doing what I have to do and I will be better for it. It not that I will never ride or race again. Its not like I am quitting the sport all together, all this is – is a change. It will be interesting for me with this change in my life to do something different, to do things that I haven’t done for years or put off because of cycling.

For my injuries also I have been doing a lot of yoga to stretch my body and get my body working the way it should be. I really enjoy the studio that I go to called Inner Peace Yoga, they offer a lot of different classes for different levels and needs with amazing teachers. If you live in Saskatoon or ever in the area and want to check them out, I fully recommend them.

I have enjoyed everything and everyone that I have met in my life and I have no regrets in what I have done or the choices that I have made. And I am completely excited for what is to come in the future where ever that might take me.

I have lots to look forward to like a new house, new school, new friends, new hobbies and a new focus.

I hope that I am not just drowning on and making you think what I am saying is a bunch of sh*t and just saying for the sake of saying it but I really am not. This post wasn’t really meant to be funny or lighthearted, it is just a place when I can write down and explain a bit of what it going on for anyone that is interested in reading it.

Cheer

JG

I am sure that everyone there went away fitter and with a few good stories of our time in Santa Rosa. I know that I personally have learned that eating a big meal of salad, duck and wine mid ride than climbing a 8km climb at 10% may not feel the best, and likes to make a re-appearance….

Here is a cool video made by one of my team mates Bailey Mcknight…. check it  out!

Cheers

JG

Opa dx Pedals 2008
Use for MTB or Cross
Color Silver
Comes with cleats

Asking $45.00

Trek Circuit Helmet 2011
Size Medium 56cm – 60cm
Weights 300g

Asking $45.00

Please Contact me if interested in anything

All Prices are OBO

Cheers

JG

]]> http://juliagarnet.com/2012/03/21/for-sale/feed/ 0 jgarnet bike stuff 016 bike stuff 009 bike stuff 010 http://juliagarnet.com/2012/03/17/count-down/ http://juliagarnet.com/2012/03/17/count-down/#comments Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:28:32 +0000 jgarnet http://juliagarnet.com/?p=427 ]]> The last few days I have left in Spain are winding down to small numbers. Three days left and then I’m home to the good old prairies, even though it will only be a short stay. I have a bunch of stuff I will have to do when I’m home and it will start by selling a bunch of bikes, wheel, helmets and bike parts. So if you are interested in any bike stuff for cheap check back in a week or two and I should have everything listed with pictures.

So I have my fair share of bad luck in general on this trip, with bank problems, crashing and breaking a rental bike in the only country in the world that can’t insure bikes. So I’m thinking that I need to make some new Irish friends today, being Saint Paddy’s Day and all, so my luck can turn around for the rest of the year.

The Trek Red Truck team camp is coming up soon in Santa Rosa, Cali, and I can’t wait to see everyone again! I just want to thank all our sponsors ahead of time for giving us this opportunity to train in Santa Rosa. I have never been there before but I am sure it will be an amazing time. If you want to keep up to date with the team follow TRTR on twitter. https://twitter.com/#!/TrekRedTruck

Happy St. Paddy’s Day and drink green beer.
JG

We also rode to the coast one Saturday morning, and it was amazing! I am still hoping that one of these days it will be warm enough to go into the ocean for a swim. But chances of that are not good. Facts being that the ocean would be really cold and that it is always a lot windier on the coast making the air cooler.

Well time is running out here for me in Spain, I have less then 10 days to go, then back to the snow in the prairies. Here are a few more picture of my trip here.  I also uploaded more in the Gallery if you want to take a look.

The Hiking crew

Little Garden in a town above Les Plaines

Descend into Angles

Cheers

JG

The reason for the no internet is because we moved. You would think that it would be nice not having to be bothered by the outside world but when you are having banking problems and I am not able to contact the bank back home cause Skype don’t like the internet connection in a café, it can be stressful. It is nicer though to be close to so many of our friends that live in old town, and not having to walk for a half hour just to get to the markets – those are the plus.

Now being a cyclist the one thing that you always have besides a bike is your computer. So to get our daily fix of the other world outside of Girona, we have been spending a lot of time at cafe’s and lots of money of coffee and food out.

When you go on a trip for any amount of time, personally I like to have a budget set out for myself. So that I am not spending a crazy amount of money on shoes… cause it happens. But this trip has come with quite a few surprises. Firstly my computer hard drive died, so I had to get a new one. They are not cheap here either. And now my computer programs are all in Spanish, like Microsoft Word (and every word I write is misspelled), and it likes to talk in Spanish sometimes telling me there has been an update.

Then my bike broke and needed a new part to order and it has been over two weeks now and the part still isn’t in, so I have been renting a bike. The joys of Spain, nothing moves fast, they close when they want, take holidays when they want and if they really don’t feel like working they won’t.

The funniest thing here that I have see is that one morning we woke up to a dusting of snow. We decide that we would go for a walk into the old town before going on our ride so that snow could melt. For the life of us we had the hardest time figuring out why there were so many kids out of the street and why most of the shops weren’t open. Then we got it, it was a snow day, an inch of snow closed down all the schools in Girona. That would never happen in Canada, and not in the lease in Saskatchewan, people back home would not even put one winter clothes. Here everyone is in parkas and mitts and hats and boots like it was -25c outside instead of +4c. People still wear boots and jackets and scarves outside when the temp is still 16c outside. I know that a good 20% of Saskatchewan would be wearing shorts and t-shirts in that weather.

The riding here has been amazing, it is always so beautiful where ever you have to go, and mostly you are either going up or you are going down – there isn’t much in-between. It is kinda crazy to think that I have already been here 7 weeks, seems like I just got here some days though where others feel like I have been here forever. About a month more and the spainish lifestyle is going to be over.

I went to watch one of the soccer (football) games here in a local Irish pub. I guess it was the place to be to watch the game because it was packed, people standing or sitting on the floor cause there was no more room to sit in chairs. The game was Madrid vs. Barcelona, and you really don’t know how bad the Catalan people hate Madrid till you watch one of those games. I had the best time I think I ever had watching a sport on TV, the cheers and the songs that the people were singing in the bar were so hilarious. When Barcelona miss a goal or where scored on the people in the bar acted like a puppy got run over, their life was crushed for that moment.

Other than this, I don’t have any exciting news to tell, my life is pretty routine here. I may be living in Spain, but my life is not so different if I were to be in Saskatoon.

See ya Saskatoon in a few weeks.

Cheers

JG