I got up this morning and being Friday I get to wear jeans to work. Wooot! I grab a pair from my closet and find them a little hard to put on I had to struggle some to get them buttoned up. Now I know I've not been great this week, I ate a large bag of peanuts so figure the problem with buttoning them up has to do with excess salt in my body, plus the pants have been freshly washed & dried, so they have also shrunk some.
I figured that over the day they should stretch out and they have gotten a little looser but not a lot; so hoping they aren't my larger pants (36) and that they are my smaller ones (34) I check the tag . Well they are actually 32's, which means I've a pair of stolen pants on my hands. I musta gotten them from my gf's kids some how. And instead of being a bad week, looks like all the biking I have been doing has been working well for me and I'm still a Big Ole Looser!!!
Now my question is how do I get my stomach to reflect the same losses; I remember as a teenager never having as big of a gut. Which by the way is the last time I could fit a pair of 32's.
Friday, January 29, 2010
January has been a success
January is almost over and for training its been a great month. I started biking the first week of January, the last 2 weeks of January I biked every day to work doing 150km. I am definitely getting stronger in the legs and faster in my biking (I think). I have been biking from Souldice park to down town (8.4km each way), I have been wanting to tackle the hills in Cochrane but they are still quite daunting and after biking all week I think its good to let my legs recuperate.
So my goal for February barring the expected and dreaded winter blast is to start biking from COP to downtown. http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ab/calgary/392126470803483132 is a link to my planned route. It will be just under 14 km each way so I'll be doing 140km a week, nearly doubling my distance and adding a small hill into my training. First week I want to just do the extended route once, but as the month progresses its my intention to add 1 extra day of the longer route each week, until I am doing the longer route as my standard route. As an added bonus the new route will burn about 700 Calories, not as great as running but that's okay.
Sadly my running has been languishing, I have really not put a lot of effort into my running, so I've decided that starting next week any day I don't bike the extended distance I will run at lunch instead. Now this is also contingent on no winter storms, blizzards, or getting side swiped with a flu.
I am still very pumped about my bike ride trip this summer and think I will be in very good form to accomplish it. There is fund raiser for Cancer this spring in Alberta called "The Ride to Conquer Cancer" which Cenovus is participating in, its 200km over 2 days and I think this could be a great practice form me as well as help raise awareness for Cancer. Now this event is not specifically for Prostate Cancer, but I think its still a great event to raise money and awareness for Cancer.
Sign up today on The Ride to Conquer Cancer Website:
http://ab10.conquercancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_now
So my goal for February barring the expected and dreaded winter blast is to start biking from COP to downtown. http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ab/calgary/392126470803483132 is a link to my planned route. It will be just under 14 km each way so I'll be doing 140km a week, nearly doubling my distance and adding a small hill into my training. First week I want to just do the extended route once, but as the month progresses its my intention to add 1 extra day of the longer route each week, until I am doing the longer route as my standard route. As an added bonus the new route will burn about 700 Calories, not as great as running but that's okay.
Sadly my running has been languishing, I have really not put a lot of effort into my running, so I've decided that starting next week any day I don't bike the extended distance I will run at lunch instead. Now this is also contingent on no winter storms, blizzards, or getting side swiped with a flu.
I am still very pumped about my bike ride trip this summer and think I will be in very good form to accomplish it. There is fund raiser for Cancer this spring in Alberta called "The Ride to Conquer Cancer" which Cenovus is participating in, its 200km over 2 days and I think this could be a great practice form me as well as help raise awareness for Cancer. Now this event is not specifically for Prostate Cancer, but I think its still a great event to raise money and awareness for Cancer.
Sign up today on The Ride to Conquer Cancer Website:
http://ab10.conquercancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=reg_now
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Week Progress
My new bike came in last night, and I got it all assembled and did a token ride down the street. I did have to use the junk peddles they gave me at the store. Today I bought many of the important accessories for the new bike, and brought my old bike in for a desperate tune-up. I now have a bell (briiing, brrrring), odometer, bike-lock, water bottle holder, seat bag, and a tool for doing bike repairs. Still need air pump, bike seat and a set of peddles for it.
Biking this week has been fun, I've biked Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs for a total of 120km. The trails are mostly good but there is some icy patches and then there are some rough icy patches (not fun). I've been biking from Souldice Park to downtown Calgary (15km each way). I started biking to work mid December with a few weeks of doing just 2 bike trips a week, and some running thrown in. This week I biked and ran Monday, but thought I should let my body work at building up my biking legs as I've been exauhsted most evenings this week and have gone to bed early (10-11pm) which to me is very early, I'm usually a night owl.
Tomorrow I hope to do another lunch run, of 6.4 km. I am not sure if I'll bike in tomorrow or now as I probably should let my biking muscles have some rest breaks as well. The funny thing is that its faster (and cheaper) for me to bike in from Souldice Park then to drive to a C-station (LRT) and take the train in.
This weekend I may mix it up a little and go for a cross-country ski trip or perhaps throw on some rollerskates (yes skates) and jump back to the 80's at Lloyd's. Although I may try and do "the hill". Cochrane is mostly in a valley. Now there is 4 ways to leave Cochtrane, but to leave the valley you need to bike up a hill in 3 directions, and in the fourth its a narrow road with minimal shoulders that takes you into the reservation. So I have for 10 years been handicapped on my biking and have not done anything too significant. So I may start to bike up the hill as far as I can make it and then turn around and come home, I am sure over time I'll build up the muscles and endurance to take on "the-hill" aka hwy 1A that goes up to Glen Eagles.
Biking can be a very expensive sport, it just seems cheap! Those accessories add up in no time and some of them are fairly important. Like the $50 bike lock.
Biking this week has been fun, I've biked Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs for a total of 120km. The trails are mostly good but there is some icy patches and then there are some rough icy patches (not fun). I've been biking from Souldice Park to downtown Calgary (15km each way). I started biking to work mid December with a few weeks of doing just 2 bike trips a week, and some running thrown in. This week I biked and ran Monday, but thought I should let my body work at building up my biking legs as I've been exauhsted most evenings this week and have gone to bed early (10-11pm) which to me is very early, I'm usually a night owl.
Tomorrow I hope to do another lunch run, of 6.4 km. I am not sure if I'll bike in tomorrow or now as I probably should let my biking muscles have some rest breaks as well. The funny thing is that its faster (and cheaper) for me to bike in from Souldice Park then to drive to a C-station (LRT) and take the train in.
This weekend I may mix it up a little and go for a cross-country ski trip or perhaps throw on some rollerskates (yes skates) and jump back to the 80's at Lloyd's. Although I may try and do "the hill". Cochrane is mostly in a valley. Now there is 4 ways to leave Cochtrane, but to leave the valley you need to bike up a hill in 3 directions, and in the fourth its a narrow road with minimal shoulders that takes you into the reservation. So I have for 10 years been handicapped on my biking and have not done anything too significant. So I may start to bike up the hill as far as I can make it and then turn around and come home, I am sure over time I'll build up the muscles and endurance to take on "the-hill" aka hwy 1A that goes up to Glen Eagles.
Biking can be a very expensive sport, it just seems cheap! Those accessories add up in no time and some of them are fairly important. Like the $50 bike lock.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Selecting the bike
Over Christmas break I was in Nelson BC and stopped into a great little store, even tough they were swamped with skiing they stopped to help me with questions related to their bikes. Gareks is a great shop with knowledgeable staff and reasonable prices. The bike that caught my eye was the Giant TCX 1, it rode great on the snow covered streets of Nelson and after calling Calgary stores I determined it was also a very great price. So late New Years afternoon I decided to purchase the bike, which began a new adventure.
I used my debit and the machine said the transaction failed. So I decided to use a local bank machine to pull the money out directly, alas the machine declined me so I called my bank. They told me that I didn't have any funds available as I had just spent the money at Gerik's. Stunned moment. I went back to the store, to explain the predicament. They said there was little they could do that day, but would look into it Monday and would ship the bike to me for free. It turns out that the interact company had taken the money from my account but had not put it into the stores account. They had unfortunately had done this to millions of other transactions and I was told it could take weeks to have the funds returned to my account.
Well its been a little over 2 weeks and I decided I can't wait any longer so I've ordered the bike, which should arrive some time this week. For those that like bike gear.
1. The stock seat sucks so I'll be getting the Specialized Toupe Gel 143
2. It doesn't come with peddles so I'll be getting a pair of Shimano A530
3. And of course a CatEye
4. New Road tires and mud flaps.
Now my current 20 year old Trek-920 Mountain Bike could have done the trip, but I wanted something newer and more suited to long distance rides with good components. After taking a look at the components on my antiquated bike, I think it desperately needs dentures as its missing a lot of teeth. So even my old bike is about to get some work done on it, perhaps today as now that I noticed, its starting to show me how desperately it needs that cane & dentures....
I used my debit and the machine said the transaction failed. So I decided to use a local bank machine to pull the money out directly, alas the machine declined me so I called my bank. They told me that I didn't have any funds available as I had just spent the money at Gerik's. Stunned moment. I went back to the store, to explain the predicament. They said there was little they could do that day, but would look into it Monday and would ship the bike to me for free. It turns out that the interact company had taken the money from my account but had not put it into the stores account. They had unfortunately had done this to millions of other transactions and I was told it could take weeks to have the funds returned to my account.
Well its been a little over 2 weeks and I decided I can't wait any longer so I've ordered the bike, which should arrive some time this week. For those that like bike gear.
1. The stock seat sucks so I'll be getting the Specialized Toupe Gel 143
2. It doesn't come with peddles so I'll be getting a pair of Shimano A530
3. And of course a CatEye
4. New Road tires and mud flaps.
Now my current 20 year old Trek-920 Mountain Bike could have done the trip, but I wanted something newer and more suited to long distance rides with good components. After taking a look at the components on my antiquated bike, I think it desperately needs dentures as its missing a lot of teeth. So even my old bike is about to get some work done on it, perhaps today as now that I noticed, its starting to show me how desperately it needs that cane & dentures....
Saturday, January 16, 2010
My Goals for the trip
Biking to Vancouver from Calgary will be a great personal challenge for me to accomplish; but many people struggle with even bigger challenges. I wanted to use my ride to bring light to one of these challenges that doesn't get the lime light it deserves.
A couple years ago I randomly met a fellow in a check out line and I mentioned "oh its breast cancer month". (Hard not to notice with the entire grocery store decked out in pink). And he told me how little money is raised for Prostrate Cancer compared to Breast Cancer. This passing comment of his as he departed the line has actually disturbed me greatly as no one talks about prostrate cancer, but you go to Facebook and all the ladies are posting their bra colour on their statuses as part of bringing awareness to that worthy cause.
If you go to Google and do a search for "Breast Cancer" it returns 40 million hits compared to doing a search for "Prostate Cancer" only returns 10 Million hits.
Here are some Canadian stats comparing both diseases.
Do these statistics surprise you? They sure surprised me, before that passing comment in the check out line I was blissfully unaware at how overlooked Prostrate Cancer is. I had the impression that breast cancer was far more common and far more deadly than prostate cancer.
I have decided that I am going to make Prostate Cancer a awareness a goal of my ride. I am going to shed light and bring awareness to this devastating cancer that should be just as well known as Breast Cancer.
A couple years ago I randomly met a fellow in a check out line and I mentioned "oh its breast cancer month". (Hard not to notice with the entire grocery store decked out in pink). And he told me how little money is raised for Prostrate Cancer compared to Breast Cancer. This passing comment of his as he departed the line has actually disturbed me greatly as no one talks about prostrate cancer, but you go to Facebook and all the ladies are posting their bra colour on their statuses as part of bringing awareness to that worthy cause.
If you go to Google and do a search for "Breast Cancer" it returns 40 million hits compared to doing a search for "Prostate Cancer" only returns 10 Million hits.
Here are some Canadian stats comparing both diseases.
| Stat | Men | Ladies |
| Diagnosed this year | 22,000 | 22,000 |
| Most common Cancer | Prostrate | Breast |
| Odds of being diagnosed | 1 in 8 | 1 in 9 |
| Death from | 1 in 27 | 1 in 27 |
| Google Search | 10 Million | 40 Million |
I have decided that I am going to make Prostate Cancer a awareness a goal of my ride. I am going to shed light and bring awareness to this devastating cancer that should be just as well known as Breast Cancer.
Friday, January 15, 2010
There was a dream
I think back to my childhood to the many trips we made into BC from Alberta and have very fond memories of seeing cyclists who were doing the trip via bike. I would say "I want to do that when I grow up".
I was always a kid on my bike, I would cycle everywhere in FortMcMurray as a kid. In Jr High I had on many occasions biked from BeaconHill to school in Thickwood, which I am sure was an oddity for most people as I never ever saw another bike whist I treked off to school or home. Now it could have been the hills at either and as they give cars a challenge.
We moved to Sherwoord Park when I was in gr 10 and I biked all over Sherwoord Park and on one occasion in the middle of summer, on a rather hot day I rode accross Edmonton and back.
Well I grew up many years ago and still bike frequently, but have never ever even attempted to realize my dream.
Over my 20's I became robust 300lb guy and it was only near the end of my 20's that I brought that down to a respectable 230lb. Which at that time with a new baby daughter a road trip never fit into my life.
Last summer I started jogging, I was back up to 250 lb, and the jogging nearly daily was really make me feel good, to feel energized, and one day in August I was sharing how as a kid I used to dream about biking to Vancouver. The next day I told her I was going to do it next year.
So my goal is to bike from Calgary to Vancouver the first 2 weeks of August 2010.
I was always a kid on my bike, I would cycle everywhere in FortMcMurray as a kid. In Jr High I had on many occasions biked from BeaconHill to school in Thickwood, which I am sure was an oddity for most people as I never ever saw another bike whist I treked off to school or home. Now it could have been the hills at either and as they give cars a challenge.
We moved to Sherwoord Park when I was in gr 10 and I biked all over Sherwoord Park and on one occasion in the middle of summer, on a rather hot day I rode accross Edmonton and back.
Well I grew up many years ago and still bike frequently, but have never ever even attempted to realize my dream.
Over my 20's I became robust 300lb guy and it was only near the end of my 20's that I brought that down to a respectable 230lb. Which at that time with a new baby daughter a road trip never fit into my life.
Last summer I started jogging, I was back up to 250 lb, and the jogging nearly daily was really make me feel good, to feel energized, and one day in August I was sharing how as a kid I used to dream about biking to Vancouver. The next day I told her I was going to do it next year.
So my goal is to bike from Calgary to Vancouver the first 2 weeks of August 2010.
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