So I finished my Christmas project. After many tedious hours and the dozen trips to the Superstore for more ingredients and candy (partially because I was eating everything faster then I was constructing it), mom finally got tired of the mess in the kitchen and I got'er done. My Trek Toronto gingerbread store, which is now on the cashier counter in the Trek store in Toronto.
My chipmunk cheeks from having my impacted wisdom teeth pulled has almost completely gone away. What an interesting experience that was. I was so swollen! The pain only lasted for the first two days or so. It was funny watching people in public looking and probably wondering if it was real or not. I had to take 5days off training... could be worse I guess. I’ve been back training since last Saturday. With Adam, we've done pretty much all our hours outside. As long as we're not wet, I don't mind dressing for the cold. I did do 3hours inside for the first time today (an hour strength and two 2:15 on the rollers. Watched "The hangover" (so funny!!!).
Oh, we got our Christmas tree the other day J It’s always been a tradition that the entire family goes in our forest and hunts for a tree. Dads always said if you cut a tree from the ground, well than its dead. But if you just cut the top 8ft. or so off the top of a 50ft. tree than it will just grow back... so this is what we do. Doing it this way also means the tree is a bit of a surprise when it hits the ground. The top is nice and full...the bottom, well, its gunna have to be a corner tree this year hahaha. With everyone’s hectic schedules it’s usually hard to get all 9 of us together but when do, it’s pretty hilarious. I have a video I want to put together in the next day or so.
Tucson... the plan is to begin our 3day road trip starting Jan. 1st. Still searching for a place to live but it’s hard to believe this will be our fourth year training there.
The other night we had a knock at the door. It was the lovely random drug testers. Only took an hour of their time and 4 glasses of water later.
What else is new?? Oh yah, LOVE the iphone!!!! Greatest technology purchase I have ever made :). Twitters still fun. I thought for sure I would give it up after a couple weeks but it’s pretty cool to follow other people.
Alright, I better go eat my salad before I’ve completely picked and eaten all the toppings off
Enjoy the holiday :)
www.twitter.com/emilybatty

BODY WORLD

So its been 12 or 13 years since I was last at the Science Center in Toronto and 40 years since my dad has been. Last weekend my mom says... lets all and go for the day! So thats what the 7 of us did. The main attraction being BODY WORLD. Amazing! The pictures say it all. Real humans that have died for whatever reason, preserved and put on display to be seen by thousands and thousands of people. Being an athlete, sure gives you a better understanding of the human body and how it functions. I even saw Eric trying to diagnose his own knee pain/injury. And Adam pointing out his injured LCL. Mark had to sit down a couple times... hahahaha poor mark. We made mom stay with dad who read every piece of text in the entire museum. And Charlotte... well, Charlotte was so far ahead of everyone that she became the narrator when I would show interest in reading something haha... "this is an errupted aneursym, and thats a hip with arthritis". "You''ll never look at people the same way again".
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My Trek Toronto Master piece :) and my sad story

Hope no one from the store reads my blog in the next while... but im working on making a ginger bread replica of the store. So far, Iv got the dough made and all four walls done :)
Quick story, so yesterday I headed out for my two hour road ride, got down the street and around the corner (now only 10minute away from home). I came up over a hill and an on coming car was coming so the truck behind me politely slowed down and waited from the car to pass. Once the truck went around me and merged back in his lane, less than 50meters was a two way stop intersection (Columbus and Thorton). The truck and I did not have a stop but the black SUV that was stopped and going North, proceeded through the intersection just as the truck was entering. Headed East, I had a tale wind and probably going 40km and hour. Smash!!!
Now I know most cyclist have had there own close calls, seen an accident or even been in one but I have never experienced something as scary as this. The SUV was thrown on its side and smashed in the ditch. I was really only meters away and in less than a second I was already locking eyes with the lady behind the wheel with her GMC completely crushed. She was terrified and kept scream ``ìm sorry im sorry, I just didn't see him! Her husband who was in the passenger seat had a set of crutches in the front with him and was saying something about just had knee surgery. I had a phone so I was I called 911. What was literally 15minutes later, 3 ambulance, 3 fire trucks and 6 or so police arrived. The poor lady was trapped on her side the entire time. After a while, the husband was able to get out the back of the vehicle. Him and the man in the truck had to help hold the lady cause she was getting so tired. The couple was taken away. I sincerely hope they are alright and wish them well.
My two hour ride turned into a 2hour life changing extravaganza
Moral of the story.... ALWAYS assume people dont see you!

Four weeks in

Today is day one of week four. Trainings been great so far. Not to cold and only a couple days of rain. Coffee stops on the cold days and rain days id rather not freeze and be soaking wet so I've been sucking it up and doing a little indoors. Below is a picture of a me riding in/outdoors (couldn't find a fan for riding in the basement and got way to hot) so I just road under the patio outside. Strength is coming along pretty good to. Three weeks ago I could do 3 sets of 10 sloppy push ups but now i'm back up to 3x 20. Adam also bought me a beautiful 20lb pink kettle bell (picture of it on twitter from the other day)
Still no cell phone.. :S Starting to go stir crazy. I dried it out for days and days but my hopes of it coming back to life are very slim. I think I maybe getting the iphone instead of replacing my blackberry... be a little more like Adam. Ill never be as obsessed with it as he is with his though. Would make for easier twittering :p
Headed down to Fonthill today till Friday or so.
Just saw a beautiful doe (female deer) out the window. Bambi's mother. She was pretty :)

Whats the point of Twitter???

Good question...! I asked myself the same thing. So, I did a google search and found out that literally thousands are asking and writing the same thing. Apparently there's roughly 50 million Twitter users worldwide (anywheres from 750- 3,500 a day).
The best stories have no point and most people use it for simple entertainment.
If Lance does it... (2,236,837 followers) than its gatta be cool :p So im a tweeter now to... :)
I did drop my blackberry in the toilet the other day... and have been without a phone since. Gross, yes I know but I dunked my arm in the toilet so fast it wasnt till I pulled it out that I realized my hand was even in the toilet. Thank god it was clean water (haha to much info).
Charlotte told me the trick of sticking it in a bowl of white rice to soak up its moisture. 24hours later and the water behind the screen is gone so it must be working.
Female Athlete of the year :)
Mom, dad, Charlotte Adam and I went to the Ontario cycling celebration this past Saturday night. Its always nice to visit and catch up with everyone. Great turn out and great dinner. Thank you OCA

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Dear diary,

Late start to the day, sippin on my now cold coffee waiting for my breakfast to digest before we get ready for our workout.
If you hadn't already read in Adams blog, the other night the two of us went to Peaches concert in Toronto. Very "interesting" concert to say the least... nothing we had expected and definitely the craziest performer of all time :S Amanda Blank opened for her (who was a million times better). Still an awesome night and believe it or not, we ran into Adams sister Chelsea and Ethan her boyfriend just as we were leaving. Of the millions of people in Toronto it really is a small world!!! To finish the night off with even more fun, we hit the dance district for a couple hours :)
We went a little earlier in the day so we could make a stop at Trek Toronto. Got mad at Barry for not having his own personal blog (not that he has time in a day to blog anyways) and last night we went for a hike in the bush in the poring rain. Discovered an ancient forest in a valley that had trees 15ft (5metres) around.
Seeing as everyone blogs about what they eat for breakfast, I will leave you with a picture of my breakfast this morning... :) my favourite breakfast... compliments of adam.

Our Secret Cross training...

Going mountain biking for an hour and a half on our free ride bikes. haha yup, that's what Adam and I did for a workout today. All 35lb, flat petals, a down fill vest on with no water... I laugh just thinking about it. It wasn't easy either, we gaver... or at least I was (Adam being able to do catwalks for 25 meters at a time is a good indicator that I was the only one that was given'er haha). Makes me appreciate a cross country race bike that much more. It was a chore to get up the littlest hill. We did run into at least 12 deer along the way, saw a really big buck with huge antlers, and ran into a dog that scared the crap out of me.
Alright, im whooped... calling it a night
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Training Week #1

oh Sunday morning :) Which means waking up to pancakes and waffles at the Morkas mmm! Theres nothing like the smell of home-made waffles and a plate flooded with maple syrup.
Right now I'm being entertained by Adam as hes getting super frustrate and mad at Windows Movie Maker for having a thick green line down the center of his video and randomly pausing throughout it from yesterdays workout.
So today is training day 6. I've been surprisingly not to sore... just a little tight here and there but so happy to be started. The last few years Iv taken 2+months off before starting cross training after the season but this year 1 solid month and a bit was enough.
We pretty much stick to an endurance day, followed by a strength-agility day and so on.
When we were done our 45min trail run yesterday, we went back to the house and hopped on our free ride bikes for a few minute spin... which turnder out being the highlight of our day.
Adams such an awesome teacher! I brushed up on my wheelies... which I can actually kinda do now :):) I learnt the basic concept of a "nose manual", how to pick my front wheel up on a wall and balance there, I "attempted" walking backwards on my front wheel which was a big disaster haha, I can wheelie onto a bench.... and thats pretty much it. It was so much fun... not to mention the plus +16 weather we had. This time last year we had the snowmobiles out. I'm not complaining :)

apple fever..

I never want to see another apple.. for at least another 2weeks.
Dad and Mark thought it would be nice to have apple sauce all winter long so they picked 200lb of apples from the trees in the pasture to get mom, Charlotte and I to peel and cut them up...ughhh!! haha This was yesterday.
As for today... I'm down at Adams and we are about to start a workout. Time to get my butt kicked back into shape...
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An absolute must see...

if you havnt already...