Wine and Cheese with University of Guelph Cycling

Just arrived home earlier this afternoon from an amazing night spent at Guelph partying with the UGC (University of Guelph Cycling) team, which turned out to be quite the experience. Graeme and I from the Queen's team headed out yesterday afternoon, stopping to grab wine for the wine and cheese party and our fellow team member Etienne at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto. After being slowed down by an accident on the 401 near Guelph Line we arrived fashionably earlier for the party at around 6:30.

Chris took the other guys to get Mexican food for dinner and pick up some party guests and then the wine and cheese and UGC awards night could begin. The party got better and better as more delicious wine and palm bays were consumed along with some amazingly prepared cheese dishes and fondue platter and then it was time to hand out awards for the season. Highlights of the award ceremony included best male and female athletes to Schmidty and Stacey and most improved to James, as well as some heartfelt speeches made by the team captain Chris.

Everyone could then head downtown to a classy bar called Opus where the cycling teams of Queen's, UGC and U of T rocked the dancefloor until close, which made for an epic night. It was a tired drive home today and I am really looking forward to some rest tonight before a hectic week of school coming up...

Say goodbye to the halo

Alright so as of this past Wednesday my halo is now removed! I went down to Toronto for the day and got the ok from the Doctor to switch to a neck brace for the next 4 weeks. Currently, I am just in a soft collar neck brace that can come off when I need to such as for sleeping, showering and eating, which is a major improvement. It's been a long 12 weeks but things are now starting to head in the right direction.

Post-halo pic

I got on a bike for the first time in a while today with my first trainer ride of the off season and I was actually a lot more excited than I've ever been while riding indoors. It was just for half an hour but it sure felt great to be back at it again. It's only a matter of time before I will be out riding on the open roads again, can't wait!

First blog post - Life in the halo

Thought I'd start off my first blog post with a recap of what's been going on with me lately. If anyone has read Chris Fruetel's blog they probably saw the story or heard it firsthand but basically I've been restrained to wearing a halo to repair a broken neck for 12 weeks. I now have 2 weeks left and all I can think about is when I can ride my bike again whether it be road or mountain. Just to have that comforting feeling of the road underneath my two wheels again will be quite the triumph for me.

All of that aside, I will first be looking forward to a decent night's sleep and being able to turn my head from side to side again. November 7th is the big day when I finally get the deciding x-ray and the halo vest is removed for good. I will be in a neck brace from that point on for a few weeks until my neck is strong
enough to hold my head up but that will be a major improvement to now.

I'm not sure whether or not I will be back on the bike before the snow flies but I'll keep hopeful that I will be able to before I resort to the trainer. I look forward to a trip to Florida for Christmas time to visit family where I will get to enjoy some warm weather as well as enjoyment of the time spent seeing the relatives from down South again. I will also be able to get my bike legs again with the flat terrain there and that will feel pretty nice after the time off I've had. Also in the near future there is the February reading week trip to Peter's dream house in California, which is always a great time and I'm just planning out the flight details now. Turns out I get out of exams super early this year too on December 10th so I actually won't have an exam on my birthday this year!

I will try to keep this blog going but I haven't been doing anything super interesting lately with being confined mainly to my schoolwork (tons this year in my 4th and final year!) but I'll give a few updates when cool things come up.