Bee Sting at 62km/h

So today I had a new experience on the bike... I got stung by a bee!  I was coming down the steep hill on HWY 17 (South Fraser Perimeter Road) right where is comes down from HWY 1 and all of a sudden I felt something hit my "upper inner thigh" and then, ouch, a sting!  I think the little guy got stuck between my thigh and my seat and then nailed me.  I was hoping the sting would quickly go away but after a km or so I had to pull over and check it out.  I pulled over on the side of the highway (in a somewhat safe place) lifted my leg onto the concrete barrier and tried to pull up my shorts to see if the stinger was out (I can image this probably didn't look very good to the passing motorists and truckers).   Anyway, there wasn't much to see other than a white and red circle and there wasn't much I could do at that point, so I kept going.  After about another km the pain went away and the rest of the ride was uneventful.

In my last post I mentioned I wanted to get some longer rides in.  Today was my second 130+km ride.  It felt quite good and my average speed was quite a bit higher than I expected.

On Saturday I went up to Seymour.  My goal was to ride up and down it and then see how far up I could get a second time.  However, the fog/cloud was so dense just a third of the way up that I got totally soaked and on the way down started shivering so bad I couldn't make it stop.  So I figured I better get home before I got sick or anything.  I didn't stop shivering until I pretty much made it home.  Note to self, just because it is sunny at home does not mean the mountains will be clear :)

Biking vs. Life

Hello again, for those of you still checking my blog I apologize for not writing for the past couple weeks.  The truth is is that things have been quite busy the past couple weeks and it has been all I can do to find time to even get my weekly km's in.  Between writing papers and trying to finish up a course I am taking, starting a new course and reading for that, prepping for a sermon I preached on Sunday, and of course riding, life has kept me on my toes lately.  But I am not complaining, I just haven't had much time to write.

Things in terms of riding have been going pretty good.  As you can see in the right column, I am still getting some rides in and over the past week have been trying to focus on longer (100+km) rides.  The problem hasn't been doing the rides, but more finding the time to do them.  Doing 100km's usually takes over 4 hours so it is a bit of a commitment.

I am a little nervous because I have not been up the North Shore mountains yet.  By this time last year I think I had already been up there twice.  I hope to make it up this week, I just hate having to drive somewhere in order to go for a ride.  When things are busy I would rather just jump right on my bike and start pedalling than having to drive 45min to get to the mountains.  But I know that training on the mountains is important so hopefully near the end of the week I will make my way up there.  Also, I want to get in a loooonger ride...somewhere around 130-140km's this week  But so much of this depends on the weather and how much work I am getting done in other area's of my life :)  I hope to head out on a good ride tomorrow so we'll see....I'll let you know how it goes and maybe force myself to take some picture again.

Thanks for reading!

GearUp Spin-A-Thon

So last Friday, May 2nd, I participated in a GearUp Spin-a-thon in downtown Vancouver to raise funds and awareness for CF and GearUp.  May is CF Awareness Month and this event was a great way to help kick off the month.  As you can see we got some great media attention and the whole event was a lot of fun.  I was not interviewed for this event but you can see me in the background, I am wearing the white hat.  The video below is 18min. long but there are some amazingly moving interviews done by parents and family members of people with CF, along with a 12 year old who also has CF, this guy is a pro!

Oh yeah, I guess I should say the event was pretty difficult, we were basically spinning our tires for 4 hours, it wasn't a real spin class or anything but by hour 3 I was definintely feeling the burn...not to mention I had to get up at 4am to be spinning in downtown Vancouver by 5:45.  Needless to say I have taken couple days off the bike since then.

 Click on this link to see the video, hopefully it will still be up for awhile.

When the body says, "Rest!"

I begin this post by saying that I never thought my transplant would go this well.  To be able to get to the level of fitness I am currently experiencing is just absolutely amazing.  I don't know if I have ever been this fit in my whole life.  But the reality of what my body has gone through to get here is always lurking the background, and last week was a perfect example of this.  Last Tuesday morning I had gone for a 50km ride to Ladner where I had a meeting to attend.  I was facing a pretty strong headwind all the way there.  While in the hour and a half meeting, the wind pretty much did a 180 degree change and I found myself also riding into a strong headwind on the way home.  Though I didn't want to push myself on this ride, when you have a headwind like that you don't really have much choice.  I thought all was fine, however after lunch I sat down with a coffee to do some reading from a class I am in and as soon as I was done my coffee I was out.  My body decided to take over and there was nothing my mind could do to stay awake.

This lethargic state ended up lasting for about 2 days in which I basically laid in bed for half the day, watched movies and took naps.  I wasn't feeling sick, my body had just had enough and made clear I needed some rest.  This kind of thing usually happens once every two or three months.  It is a good reminder of where I have come from and that though I am feeling good my body has been through a lot and doesn't have the energy of a fully healthy person.  It is a good wake up call to have every once in a while, just to check myself and my ambitions and make sure I am not taking too big a bite out of life.