Got back to Whistler yesterday morning. I was pretty reluctant to head back to the snow after spending the last month and a bit in Santa Cruz with the sun and bikes…but now that I am back, I am pumped! So good to be home! The town has this crazy energy right now. There are so many new structures around in preparation for the Olympics. One of the most impressive ‘structures’ is outside the Conference Centre which will be home to the Whistler Media Centre, it is HUGE. Over the course of the Olympics there will be around 5,000 accredited media in and out of there (there is also Whistler Media house which will welcome around 1,000 unaccredited media). Pretty cool.
I picked up my accreditation yesterday. I will be working at the Whistler Sliding Centre and the Whistler Creekside ski venue. Rad!
my site is in the process of a major makeover. i will tell you guys about it soon and my reasoning behind it all…stay tuned. exciting things on the holdenfront. :)
i am world cup bound next year and this vid gets me so pumped to shred!
So MTV premiered a new reality show called Peak Seasons a couple of weeks ago. Think the Hills…but Whistler. Pretty much the same thing. They even have the Aftershow! Kind of weird….and funny but cool none-the-less. So weird to see your home…which is a really small town on a reality show like this. In Whistler, everyone knows everyone. Anyway, my friend Jason with whom I drive to school with everyday is on the show as “Dre’s Best Friend” (Dre is Jason’s roommate). Dre is one of the main guys on the show…he is a DJ with lots of girl problems, figures. So far the boys have played pool and discussed the breaking up with the girlfriend. Played hockey and discussed the girlfriend some more. And drank a lot.
I have been hearing about this thing for the past year so I can’t believe it is actually happening…I mean I knew they were filming and stuff and I saw the cameras but most stuff that gets filmed never gets used. And I guess I never thought it would.
I guess I am just kind of weirded out by it all. I have watched it and I think its funny but VERY cringeworthy….hahah…some of the stuff that some out of the boys mouths’…so bad. Whatever, its TV and I am still watching it!
Best costume ever!! The boys dressed up as the Jamaican Bobseld team. They went all out. The sled. The skinsuits. The helmets. The chants. AMMAZING. The Jamaican bobsled team is in town right now for International Training Week but we didn’t see them!! How good would that have been…I have seen every other team EXCEPT Jamaica.
The boys made quite the scene everywhere they went, Love it.
I was a tropical fish, cool but not nearly as cool :)
So much has happened this past month, AMAZING. I can’t believe I have neglected my poor blog since Interbike!
Interbike was rad. I got lots of business done so I plenty of time to play. I can’t let the cat completely out of the bag yet, but I can say that I will be riding for Specialized, SRAM and Race Face again. The products speak for themselves and the people, I love ‘em! Yah, so obviously those three companies don’t cover everything on my bike or body…or my thirst or hunger :)…so you will just have to wait and see!!!
I got an MRI and Arthrogram on my shoulder…no surgery so that is such a relief. It has been one of the weirdest injuries I have ever had…so slow healing;. But I am a little more than twelve weeks out now and it is feeling pretty damn good.
I started school up just after Interbike. I cannot wait to be done!!!! I will graduate with my Diploma in Destination Resort Management from Capilano University in December. I was hoping to have all my course work done for my Bachelors from University of Colorado at the same time….that would have been amazing….but it will finish shortly after so I am still pretty pumped. Like REALLY pumped. It will be such a stress off my back. It is quite stressful having all that lingering over you 24/7. More than anything, I am happy that I can pursue a bunch a of projects that I have been wanting to do forever…now I will have time!!
We got our first snow here today. That was totally unexpected. I hammering away at my computer and I looked up and the snow was coming down. It started super sleety and I didn’t think it would ever stick. But it did. Almost time to huck it on my skis. Huck is such an awful word, nothing beautiful about it…but I use it and I like it. HUCK.
I am getting better at the Twitter thing…you guys should follow me. www.twitter.com/katieholden Check it out! The more I get into it, the more I love it…I am a bit of an information whore…useless or not, I love information so Twitter is good to me…
Yah so thats the latest gos’ on the Holden front…. :)
The trail running kept me busy for awhile…after that race I became a trail running machine but then the weather started to turn cold and nasty and I was over it. It has really started to look like fall in Whistler recently, the air is crisp, the leaves are changing and things are slowing down. Under normal circumstances September/October are one of my favorite times of the year because the riding is incredible and the change of season is nice. Well, not riding and racing and training was really starting to do my head in so I packed up my bags and drove to Seattle to visit my mom. From there I decided to go to San Francisco to visit the bf. And from there I decided to go to Mexico because I like Mexico. Mexico was definitely a good change of atmosphere…no bikes in sight. I just hung out at the beach, went to the gym and visited friends. Its so nice to just get caught up in a good book and lounge at the beach….and eat a lot of guacamole. I am a bit of a guacamole whore, I ate sooo much guacamole! Now I am on my way back to Seattle for 8 hours only to go to Vegas in the AM. Interbike, the big annual North American bike trade show is located in Vegas. I am pretty excited for Vegas…the Interbike/Vegas/the slot noises are a bit overwhelming but its a one time a year thing so I welcome it with open arms.
Yah so thats about it, I have been a bit off the radar as far as racing is concerned but I have definitely been in the social loop. Love the socializing. Steve Peat won Worlds like 2 weeks ago which was absolutely amazing. I was soooo happy for him. We had a sweet worlds party…watching peaty win in a room of 20 english boys is something I will never forget!
Being injured sucks, especially when you don’t feel that hurt. Not a fan. At least I have all this built up drive…mentally I am ready to go full bore into training as soon as I am healed. :) I cannot wait.
So its been like 3.5 weeks and my shoulder is still causing me grief. I missed Crankworx and now the Fluidride Cup (I won’t get the overall now!) and I have been getting some major ants in my pants watching everyone ride and race. I was dreading another day off the bike just hanging out while everyone rides and I heard about this trail running race while working on some event stuff at work. I don’t really run but its something to do, right? So I decided to enter this running race called Salomon 5 Peaks. They had a sport course and an enduro course, I thought, if i am going to do it, I might as well just do the whole thing so enduro it was…11 km up in Whistler’s alpine.
The race was tough but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I saw on the elevation map of the course that there were 3 downhills (proceeded by uphills of course) before a massive climb, which was the last big push of the race. Just knowing the order of the climbs was pretty good help. I thought that it was all downhill after the big uphill which it mostly was but there there was a lot more uphill than I saved energy for so that last km was so hard. We ran down this steep fire road for about a km, that was painfull….it just jarred every bone and muscle in my body! From there we went into some tight single-track which I was so relieved for but my legs were mush after that downhill so it was hard to make my legs go where I wanted them to go. The last km of single-track was rolly/uphill to the finish…I was so beat.
Anyway, it was such a fun way to spend a saturday. I was thoroughly worried I was going to come dead last because I thought that all of the people who race enduro run loads and train but I am happy to say that I was not last. I was 13/19 in my class and 173rd out of 241 overall. Pretty far back…but not last =). I think I am gonna have to try another one soon!
Its been just over two weeks since I crashed on my shoulder in Bromont, I thought for sure that it would be good enough to race for Crankworx but its not. I was planning on racing everything- Slalom, GarbanzoDH, AirDH, GS and the Canadian Open but I thought that it would be too much for my shoulder so I cut it down to three. I guess I was a little too optimistic, I registered (without having ridden since I hurt my shoulder) and then went up for Garbanzo practice…not so good. I was determined to just push through it all and race but after some hard thought, I decided to withdraw. Realistically it comes down to this- I can ride with my shoulder the way it is but I can’t ride fast, it hurts and it is dangerous because I don’t have a whole lot of strength in it right now. You have gotta have your shit working to pin it. I really want to go and just shred with my friends even if I can’t race but its not fun because it doesn’t feel good and cruising is so boring…especially with everyone in town- all I want to do is pump out 15 pinner laps on get loose on roots and rocks and corners. Seriously though, I thought long and hard about this all- I don’t think that there is any point in racing to be in the mid-to-the-back of the pack, when I race, I am racing to win and I know that my body is not capable of a solid performance right now. I think I made the right decision.
Definently bummed on not racing on my home trails that I have on lockdown but I have accepted it and moved on and I am having a good time just hanging out, talking to people and representing my sponsors. I have met lots of new people and I am already getting pumped for next season. I mean the season isn’t over yet but I am so excited to get healthy and strong and apply all that I have learned this year towards next season. Big goals!!! I am so excited just thinking about it….!!
Anyway, I will try and get some pics and twitter stuff going on for the rest of Crankworx to keep you all updated on the happenings.
