Hi Melanie,

First off, congrats on Keystone! I've followed your career since I saw you in a Ryders advertisement about 4 or 5 years ago and didn't know who you were so I did some searching. Trying to follow athletes in sports other than hockey here in northern Ontario sometimes proves to be difficult. (a lot of time spent on Google searching for info and results) Your site means a lot to us.

Do you train with other women/men or do you train alone? Aside from training do you enjoy heading out on your bike for "just a ride" or just heading out for a run because you feel like it? Or does your whole life revolve around training and events?

At our age, I believe I'm just a few months older than you, do you find the number of people involved in exercise and activities greatly decline? I really notice in my region because of the very low population. People here are just unbelievably lazy.

I do not race, and what I do, I don't consider training. I love to stay in shape and for me there is no greater feeling than hitting the trail for a ride. I love to run, some weeks I run 10k and ride 20k and some weeks I may run 100k and ride 200k, but I don't really pay that much attention to it. I don't have a schedule of when I do what.

I currently have three mountain bikes on the go that I use to try and attract more people to the sport. Whenever anyone sees me and asks me a question about my bike or cycling/running I always invite them out but people just aren't interested if it doesn't come with an engine or a bag of potato chips!

Is this something that you see at your level? Is there anything you do that promotes getting more people involved in sports or exercise, especially women? I think if more women were involved in cycling and running there would definitely be more men getting involved.

I noticed you said you love coffee, was Tim Hortons the sponsor when you were part of the National Team? If so, was there any perks to it?

My idea of the Perfect Life: riding endless singletrack with a group of friends and drinking a Tim Hortons ?Extra Large Black?. Now that?s heaven!

Thanks again for keeping us updated on things via this site
Good Luck in LA!

Jeff M.

Wow, lots of questions...

OK first, I train with a cycling and a triathlon group. I train with Pacificsport for cycling, and Cliff English's squad for triathlon, and occasionally will jump with the Pacificsport tri group as well. I mostly train with guys on the bike, especially mountain biking because they push me the most.

My life during the season will revolve around training, but I like to be balanced. I know a lot of athletes who are a lot closer to 24 hour athletes than I am. I can turn it off at points during the day, and I value other experiences in life as well. However, I train a lot when I don't feel like it, so it isn't all fun all the time. I have a schedule that I try to stick to, and make changes when I need to.

I like to believe that the clinics I lead at Xterra races helps get more women involved, and even having higher profile women athletes has to be helpful. I never even thought I could become a pro athlete until I heard of Alison Sydor, and then decided I wanted to be a pro as well. Women need women role models.

Tim Hortons was the national team sponsor. Lots of donuts at races and photo shoots, and Christmas gift certificates.