Global BC Interview

In case you missed it, here is an interview I did last week for Global BC to help raise awareness for organ donation.  Sorry for putting this up here so late.

Live Life Celebration Ride (Part 2)

Well I am happy to report that yesterday went quite well.  I caught the 7am ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay and began thinking about the long day ahead.  However, before getting to worked up I ended up meeting a fellow GearUp rider on the ferry, Bill Markvoort, who was also going to the ride.  Bill graciously offered me a ride to Victoria and I gratefully accepted.  Once we got to Victoria the wind was blowing like crazy!!  If I was still pre-transplant I don't think I would have been able to breath in that wind.

The ride was a lot of fun.  There were about 50 people who showed up so it was a big group...Paul is quite the popular guy.  Over the course of the 100km's we all got pretty spread out, but it was nice to ride in a group again, I do miss that on all my long solo rides.
We finished the 100km's around 2:30pm, meaning I had a half hour to rest up before riding back the Ferries (40km's).  I took a designated bike path back and I am proud to say I only got lost once...who builds a bike path that disappears in the middle of a subdivision anyway??
Riding from Tsawwassen ferry terminal to our house (25km's) was more of a mental struggle thing that anything else. I had a bit of a tail wind so I didn't feel too tired, but for some reason the road just looked so looooong in from of me.  I just kept watching my Garmin counting down the km's till I would make it home.
All in all, it was a great day.  I did 165km's on the day which I think that is the most I have ever done in one day.

Here is a short video of the day, again, sorry it is so shaky, a lot of that was due to the wind.

Live Life Celebration Ride

If you are following along with my training rides you will of noticed I haven't notched any km's over the past couple days.  Part of this is the rain, part of this is that I am trying to make sure this post-nasal drip I currently have doesn't develop into a cold (!), but this is mainly because I got a big ride ahead of me tomorrow!
Tomorrow, on Good Friday, my good friend Paul Underhill is celebrating this three-year transplant anniversary. Paul also has CF and in 2011 received a double-lung transplant out in Toronto.  To celebrate his transplant, Paul has organized a 100km "Live Life Celebration Ride" on Vancouver Island.  We will be starting in Victoria and riding around the peninsula...I don't really know what the peninsula is called or where we are going... I'll just follow the other riders :)
It's going to be a big day, I'm riding over on the 7am ferry (Kim will drop me off) and I intent to bike to Victoria (33km) and then do the ride.  Depending on how I feel I will then attempt to ride back to the ferry...we'll we see how that goes, I may need to hitch a ride somehow.
For those who don't know, Paul is quite the entrepreneur.  After his transplant, Paul, along with some colleagues, created a nutritional drink called Rumble.  This past fall they were featured on CBC's Dragon's Den and had all five Dragons make them offers.  Rumble is currently in stores across Canada and I believe they will soon be launching into the States.  Give it a try sometime, I think I drank about two or three of them everyday last year during GearUp and they are what got me through those nine days!
Anyway, I hope everyone has a blessed Good Friday and I'll let you know how mine goes...

This is a picture from the GearUp start line last year.  That is Paul on my left and my other good friend Clarke on my right.

Suffer Fest

If you look at the right hand column of my blog you can see my training rides.  On Saturday I went for my longest ride of the year (ride called "Sunscreen Needed") and I must say I think I bit off a little too much.  Lets just say the first 25km's went well, I felt good, the last 95km's...not so much.  Okay, it wasn't that bad, but the final 30km's were quite horrible.  In those last 30km my average speed for the ride dropped from about 26.5km/h to 24.9km/h.  Of course it didn't help that I was facing a pretty strong headwind most of the way back...but that is no excuse.  I was surprised that the ride hurt so much considering the week before I did 100km's and the legs felt pretty good...I guess some days just aren't your day!
Here are a couple pics from the ride.  The first one is of my bike in front of the Fort Langley Museum, I think?  Or the old Town Hall...I forget what the building is called...but it is old.  And the second two are taken from below the Port Mann bridge with the old bridge being taken down right beside it.  Looking at it now that old bridge sure looks small!

Delta Ride

So I figured I would try something new on my ride this morning and take some video footage.  This is my first attempt at filming while riding so it is a bit bumpy.  Delta is a great place to ride when you want to get some good km's in but don't feel like doing any hills.

 I hope this works...sorry it is so small, I will do better next time.

ps. the camera on my phone kind of sucks.

To Ride or Not to Ride...that is the daily question

Now this may come as a surprise to many of you who know me, but despite my amazing physique (wow, I can actually hear you laughing through the internet) I am actually not a natural athlete, I know...right?!?...I bet you didn't know that!  But it's true, though I have excelled...okay...maybe...done okay(?) in sports in the past, cycling doesn't actually come naturally to me, at least not this much cycling.  So something interesting happens to me on many days I plan to go riding.  I wake up in the morning and right away I am excited about going for a ride later in the day, usually after lunch.  I have some breakfast, sit down and start studying for a couple hours, and soon it is time for lunch.  At this point I emerge from behind my computer and books, go into the kitchen and all of a sudden my earlier excitement for the ride begins to wobble.  I make my lunch, eat it, put away my dishes, look outside, then look back at the couch and coffee maker and all of a sudden my earlier motivation seem to fade fast.  But no, I push on!  I head to the bedroom and pull out my cycling shorts, jersey, arm warmers, and leg warmers.  I take the plunge and force them on...taking a look in the mirror I see that the amazing physique I referenced earlier all of a sudden disappears completely :)  I grimace and turn away as quick as possible (tight spandex-like clothes just aren't my thing).  I head back into the kitchen, grab an energy bar, fill my water bottles, slap on some sun screen (curse myself for putting it on my forehead again as I know in about 45minutes it will be running into my eyes), slip on my windbreaker vest, buckle up my shoes, put on my helmet, look once more in the mirror by the door (this time just simply laughing...am I starting to sound vain?) and head into the garage.  From here I know there is no turning back yet there is always a part of me asking, "Do I really need to do this?"  I grab my pump, put some air in my tires, and carry my bike outside.  As I stand outside, the longer it takes for my Garmin computer to find its satellite connection the more that couch and coffee maker weigh on my mind...but then something changes.  As I set my pedal and hear the "click" of my shoe locking into place all of a sudden I begin to get excited again.  As I push off and hear the sound of my second shoe clicking in...IT IS ON!!
I make no defence, I am totally one of those annoying people who knows he will enjoy something yet sometimes finds it so hard to bring himself to do it.  As hard as it is to sometimes force myself into my biking gear and out the door, as soon as I clip in I am always happy to be out there...unless it starts raining, but that is a different story.

200 people at $25??

So I figure if I am doing this ride, I suppose I need to start getting a bit serious about my fundraising.  $0 just isn't going to cut it any more!  Here are the straight goods.  I need to raise $5000 to be able to participate in the ride and I would really like to raise it before June 1st as this brings with it some incentives for me :)  But this year I want to do something a bit different in terms of fundraising.  I am very aware that this is the third year in a row I am asking for support. I also know that many of you have other causes that are very close to you and your family which you obviously want to and are supporting.  So this year my fundraising goal is $5000 and in order to reach that I am simply looking for 200 people to donate $25 each (I hope I did the math right on that).  Instead of quantity of donations, this year I am going for quantity of sponsors and more awareness.  So if you would like, I would be very grateful if you wanted to sponsor me $25 and I would be equally grateful if you would forward this blog and message to others who may want to sponsor me.  If you are not able to sponsor me this year that is totally fine, but if you could still pass on my message to someone you think might want to sponsor me, that would be awesome!
Here is the link to my fundraising page.

Don't forget, if anyone would like to join me for the first day or two of the ride, our team, "Rumble Riders Redux," would love to have you on board and I would love to ride with you!  Just let me know and I will send you the sign up page and info.

Below is a video from last year's ride shot by one of the riders on Day 5, and it explains why we do this.  I hope you enjoy.

Zero Ave.

Zero Avenue is one of my favourite roads to ride on.  It is excellent for training as the section I usually ride on is 16km's of rolling hills.  I am always amazed at this road, that is is right there beside the U.S. and sometimes not even a ditch is there to separate the two countries.  Now I am not a world traveller by any means, my passport is fairly blank, however 0 Ave. must be one of the more unique roads in the whole world.  A bare open road running along an official national boarder with nothing but dirt and tree separating the two sovereign nations.  If I fall off my bike I will literally roll into another country!  Now of course it is not the kind of road I would want to get off my bike and take a piss on, I  always wonder how many sensors or cameras are picking me up while I ride that section.  It is just a unique ride with not much traffic.  I guess deep down I am always reminded to be thankful that we live in such a peaceful place in the world, that we can share an unprotected border with a world superpower and not need to be worried...at least I don't think so ;)