Tired Already

Ok, so….I’m sitting at my departure gate waiting for my boarding pass number to be called so that I can leave on one of the most important trips of my life. For those who don’t know me, my name is Patrick Dennis. I have been working in the bike industry for about 8 years now and riding mountain bikes for about 8 years longer than that. I grew up on the north shore of Vancouver with one of the best cycling venues at my doorstep so it’s hard to distance yourself from being outdoorsy at the very least. I moved to Toronto in 2001 and quickly made some good friends who happened to work at this awesome shop on Yonge Street. The Trek Bicycle Store of Toronto (formerly Sport Swap) quickly became my second home and employment. I got introduced to racing about two years ago and quickly found myself being more and more interested in the thought of riding cross country. I did my first race in August of 2007 and despite finishing in a miserable position in a miserable category I started to get into this whole tight pants/hardtail/leg shaving culture. A race or two more the following year, then a category upgrade and a few more races the year after that brings us to where we are today, in an airport, sipping coffee and telling you all about my plans for this winter.

Having just graduated from university this June, winter time over the past 4 years has been usually a mixture of stressing like crazy over exam schedules, studying, working over the holidays and seeing family. Cycling has never really taken precedence over these things but has always been a passion so last year especially I tried to fit in more and more trainer rides, lots of great snowshoeing in Vancouver with my parents while I was home for the holidays and a little bit of going to the gym here and there. Nothing too strenuous to say the least. This year is going to be very different however. I’m leaving the depressing clutches of winter in Toronto to spend the next three months in Tucson, Arizona so that I can train, focus and structure myself around next racing season. I’ll be racing a full Canada Cup schedule as an elite and hopefully all the Ontario cups as well. The goal at the end of the season is to hopefully have enough UCI points to compete at the World Cup finals in Windham, New York. Needless to say, I’m SUPER stoked. I understand that setting realistic goals is key to success and If i was staying in Toronto for the winter, these goals would have changed and I would be hoping to maybe do well enough to race as an elite by the end of the season. But I’ve never had the opportunity to train this hard and this year the support that people have given me has been incredible so fuck it, sky’s the limit.

With all this said, I find myself in an interesting transition place. That state of an athletes life where he/she decides that they want to compete at the highest level. In this blog I’ll try my best to keep you updated on things like my fitness, nutrition (Vegetarian for 7 years), and all the cool stuff I learn on the way to becoming an elite athlete.

Tucson is apparently a pretty popular place to hang out during the winter so I might be seeing some familiar faces which I’m looking forward to.

*Alright...on the plane and mid flight. Time to watch a movie, then finish my book. One thing I hate is when people with blogs update once a month so I’m gonna try to do my best to make this a regular thing so keep checking back for updates! Here are some pictures
Love Pat xoxo