6 weeks to go

With 6 weeks till my ride to Vancouver, I will know next weekend how close I am to being in condition to biking 1,200 km.  Next weekend is the Ride to Conquer Cancer, and I have now met my donation requirement of $2,500.  I took a look at the top fund raisers and was astonished to see that there were quite a few that had earned up to $60,000.  I found raising $2,500 to be a challenge and would have no idea who to raise even $10,000 let alone 60!

I have been training most days, but have slipped from my goal for daily rides.  I had planned on biking from Calaway Park to downtown every week day about mid May.  It is now near end of June and I have ridden from Calaway to downtown, but it has been rather sporadic.  I do need to bump up my riding a little and with school ending it will mean that my Monday / Wednesday evenings will have a little more leeway to them.  Currently I need to be home to take my daughter to soccer M & W so that limits my rides somewhat. Most days I ride from COP, which makes for a nice ride.  Here are the distances of the rides I do.

Daily rides to Downtown

• Shouldice – 15km
• COP – 30km
• Calaway Park – 50km

I have decided that I have to take the main route to Vancouver from Calgary through Golden, Kamloops then to Vancouver.  I had been interested in taking a southern route, but it adds 3-4 days to the trip, would be much hillier and a lot hotter (40C).  So I’m opting for a more northerly route. The only part that is still to be decided is if I should go through Case or Whistler as both routes seem about the same distance.

The other part of my plan that has changed is that initially I was going to have a road crew to take care of the daily logistics.  Currently it looks like I will be packing my gear as well, so this will impact my rides making them longer if I want to maintain 100km a day. With 6 weeks left I now need to start planning what I need to bring along for this ride, as well as minimizing what I take as well. I’ll try and note what I’m packing or planning on packing in my next post.

I had expected that with the biking and running that over the winter I would have lost weight.  There are 2 ways to make your ride easier, you can by very expensive bikes and gear that are very light, or you can lose weight. I had opted for the weight loss as a 10 lb loss in body mass would be a big increase in my ride.  Alas I’ve gained a little over the winter which has me puzzled but also accepting that I won’t be as physically fit as I had hoped to be for my Vancouver trip.

Well it’s Saturday, and sunny out, and I hear the trails calling my name.

Time has really been flying, at this rate it will be June before I know it.  So last weekend I went out with the Cochrane RedRockRunners again and I did a 10.5 km run with them in 1h 15m, not a really fast run, but still a great distance for me to have accomplished.  And later that night my body told me in no uncertain words how much I have abused it.  I had already planned on taking Sunday off, which turned out to be a great rest break for my body. 

Monday I attempted to work from home, but due to technical difficulties connecting to the work environment I gave up at noon and went for a bike ride.  Initially I was only going to bike from Cochrane to Hwy 8 (the roundabout) (20km) but when I got there I felt I still had some legs left so decided I was worth an ice-cream cone and persevered another 10 km to Bragg Creek. I have to say I was quite shocked that while enjoying my hard earned ice-cream cone that I was attacked by hornet.  I thought that early March was waaaaay to early for them. It took me 1.5 hrs to peddle to Bragg Creek, its a very gentle uphill grade after the hwy 8 junction. My return trip took just a hair over an hour to do with it being a lot of down hill especially after Cochrane Corner (junction of hwy 22 and hwy 1). 

I was very pleased with myself for accomplishing this mental hurdle, as 60km is a long distance that I've only biked once prior.  About 20 years ago when I was attending the University of Alberta, I dragged a friend along and we peddled from downtown Edmonton to Leduc and back.  Sadly we had a nasty head wind that drained us on the way back, so even with a tail wind it was a brutal bike ride, and one that I've never done again. So it was a great achievement for me to have accomplished.

Tuesday I woke up to a massive tail wind so my bike ride to work was amazing, I was able to easily achieve and maintain 35km/h on my mountain bike for the entire trip.  I just wish I could do that every day!  Sadly the wind had not diminished over the day and alas I had a 50-70kmh head wind peddling back which nearly killed me.  I was lucky to get 16kmh, and was very frustrated at all the bikes that simply peddled by  me as I struggled.  I counted 11 bikes that made it look easy, and for some reason I really get frustrated that I can not keep up to them.  I know many of them have been biking for a lot longer then my 10 weeks, but a few of them looked to be bigger guys so to my perceptions I should have been able to bike like they do.

That they could easily peddle by me was very annoying and increased my resolve to become a stronger biker.  I've been reading up on ways to improve my cycling and get the higher speeds and endurance.  I did purchase some biking shoes that do seem to help, although my upper back leg muscles (biceps femoris) are not used to being used so it will be a while before I get any real benefits from the shoes.

Weekly Update

Well this is actually a bi-weekly update as this week has gone so quickly.  Last week I heavily abused my body as I was aching most of the week.  I started the week by doing the stairs at work Monday and Tuesday, now I don't work on the 3rd floor, I work on the 34th floor.  So I did 20 flights down and up each day, this week I was going to do the same, but got distracted with work and other stuff.  Probably not a horrible plan as my legs need some rest time from that abuse. 

The other major change to my regime is that last week and this week I have been biking from COP to downtown. Thus doing 120 km in a full week.  I also was out in Kananaskis on Friday so I did the 2km hill here, which really burned, but was a great feat to complete.

On Saturday I finally met up with the Cochrane running club, about 20 people where out for the run which was done in groups depending on the distances being run.  I did 6km and felt great after wards.  I then took my road bike out for a cruise. I biked from Cochrane to Cochrane corner (hwy 1) and back, this was a mental mile stone as I have never done it before and learnt I can easily do a 24 km bike ride as well.  To finish off the day I took my dog for a hike at Heart Creek, a beautiful trail, that my dog greatly enjoyed as well.  There was a couple treacherous parts covered in sheer ice on a hill side, but otherwise the trail was in great shape. 

On Sunday I did the Cochrane to Cochrane Corner again, and debated going further, but didn't want to kill my body.  I did have a nasty cross wind on Sunday, and a heavy head wind on Saturday.  Which was good practice as I am sure I'll have to deal with many windy days when biking in my trek.

So I hate bikes passing me, I know I may not be the fastest out there, but some days I sure feel like the slowest!  I've started researching training methods for biking as well, and building a training plan of sorts to get in better condition for those loooooong days on the road. And perhaps keep a few more cyclists behind me.

One other preparation I've started is to try and determine what route is the best to take to Vancouver.  I've mapped out a handful of them on a cool website that works with google maps, unfortunately its mangled all the maps I've made, so I have to remake them on a different site and then I'll share them and start discussing the pro's n cons of each route.

Baby Steps

So last Friday I did indeed take the dog out for a walk at Heart Creek, where I was able to let my creativity flow and took 150 pictures.  I posted a 20 pictures to my picasa site from the hike.  I attempted a ride on Saturday from Seven Persons a small town, not more then a blip on the map, but has FANTASTIC smoked meat, the best beef jerky or sassages ANYWHERE. But I digress, it was very windy and at -10 C with a 40 kmh wind made for a very unpleasant ride, so alas after a few km I turned around and admitted defeat.

I finally put on a new Odometer on my bike on the weekend so am able to track my distances; Monday and Tuesday I did the long ride from C.O.P. to downtown and back, discovering its 30km, so a major increase over my shorter ride of 8.4km.  Wednesday / Thurs I decided to do the shorter ride giving my legs a chance to recover and allow me to do some running.  My goal for Friday is to do the long ride again. I have found that I am not as dead tired on this ride as I was last week, so that's encouraging.

I did also do a short run Tues and Wed evening.  I really haven't had the energy and I find my body giving up really easily.  Tonight I am going to meet up with the Red Rock Running Club in Cochrane, and try out their runs.  I'm not used to running wit others so this will be a really new experience.  My other concerns are that my running has been languishing and right now I am down to just runnign 3-5km not the 8km I had been up to in October, and theirs are probably a lot longer then mine as well as probably a lot faster then me as well.  I am praying that it all works out as I know I need the running to improve my cardio.

And thank you all who have donated to

New Adventures

Tuesday - I've extended my bike ride to 12.5 km one way, and doing the last hill up to Canada Olympic Place (C.O.P.) I knew I was running out of steam.  Looks to be a lot of snow predicted tonight, so I may shorted my ride to my shorter 8.4 km one.

So this week I was sick Monday but got in a late evening run, I did do 5km but not without a lot of rests.  Tuesday I challenged myself and biked from COP to downtown (25 lm) and back.  Which really took a lot out of me, I was sooo drained Tuesday night.  So Wednesday I decided to take it easy and do the short ride from Shouldice (16 km).  Thursday I did the Shouldice ride, and made awesome time getting downtown, so good I decided I should do a run at lunch.  

Well I really didn't want to do the run, I had myself almost talked out of it a few times.  But I finally decided I'd go and try it and if I was that tired and drained then I'd quit. The run started okay, I knew immediately that I'd need to take more breaks but thats okay.  What bothered me was that I didn't have any tunes to distract me and that my legs felt like lead weights for most of the run.  I did my shorter downtown run (from 10th to Princess Island Park) which is about 3.5 km.  My ride back wasn't so bad but nothing like my morning run.  

It makes you wonder what keeps a person going, that drive to get up and go for a run when your tired, when its so tempting to just sit and relax and chat with friends.  Days like today really amaze me that I actually accomplished so much, when I wanted to do so little.

Tomorrow (Friday) we have off at work, so I was thinking I'd mix things up and take my dog for a hike in the mountains.  Something I've not done in the winter but I know he'd love it.  There is a great little hike called Heart Creeek close to Canmore, so I think I'll go do that and perhaps wander around Canmore afterwards. 

Who knows what other adventures I'll take on this weekend.  Perhaps a really long bike ride, or a dip in the pool or....  

Going for your gold

Well after a week of not doing a lot of exercise I finally got off my butt on Sunday and went for a really short jog!  Hurray for baby steps, this is where its been all heart.  Its hard to stay motivated when you naturally an inactive person and you've been slacking all week, okay for most of my life, so for me to kick it back into gear really takes a lot of effort on my part.  Its also hard mentally when you go for a jog and you feel like you have gone back to the beginning.  My runs are shorter and I need a lot more breaks then I did a couple months ago. 

I am a big fan of the Olympics and am an ardent Canadian so while I am watching the Olympics I think about their goals and their dedication to those goals. They too have distractions of life, those days you feel blah, or feeling under the weather.  There are those weeks where its bitterly cold or you just can't get in the training time you need.  I am so not in their league, but when you watch them on the slopes you can feel a piece of the blood - sweat - n - tears that it took for them to get there. 

To know that they spend their life in many cases working to this one goal; that one moment, in many cases only 30 seconds of actual time to show the world that they are the best.  Its fantastic to watch them when they take the gold, and its heart breaking to see them when they make a mistake, quite often a minor one, but when you are competing against other elite athelites that is all it takes to end their run.  

In a few months I too have the goal of biking 200km in one weekend, to bring awareness to prostate cancer and the battles that those who have cancer must fight.  They don't have the luxury if failure, to them failure means death. There is no second chances.  Please help me bring awareness to the affects of Prostate Cancer and support me in my goals of biking to Vancouver and my Ride to Concquor Cancer.

Click here to dontate or learn more about my Ride to Conquer Cancer.

So this has been a very challenging week, it looked so promising last Friday, but Monday came and its gone downhill since then.  Its one of these weeks where you need to maintain a strong mental attitude.  I have heard when doing marathons that the first half is all legs and the second half is all heart.  Well this week is a heart week.

Monday as I was about to leave the house, my dog fell off the bed while jumping on the bed (I was in the wrong spot). Sadly is wasn't a great fall and his hind leg got caugh on the bedpost while his body was on the gound.  He was upset and thinking of calming him down before I took on the task of helping him with his foot, I reached to his head and he used my thumb as a chew toy.  Its very important to note that a Labrador can anialate a tennis ball in 10 minutes, my thumb being not as tough as a tennis ball was fairing a lot worse.  I used my other hand and in his mouth and was able to retrieve my other hand.  Alas both hangs got mangled.  On a good note, while I was dealing with my hands he managed to get himself unhooked and happily wandered the house while I dealt with my injuries.

So I didn't need any stiitches but I did need antibiotics and have a couple of minor infections on the wounds.  They are now healing although the thhumb will take a while to really heal as I think the tendons got some abuse.  So needless to say I have no done any majoy physical exersice this week, in fact I've been sleeping about 12 hours a day or more when I can.  I am blaming the need for all all the eexcess sleep on my injuries.

So today I'm going to try for eithhr a run or a bike ride, and see how that goes.  Last weekend I did have a success as I challenged one of the hills in Cochrane and made it to the top using my new bike.  Now the bike does need some tuning, but I did get there!

Another major even happened last Friday.  I joined the "Ride to Conquer Cancer", this is a 200km ride over 2 days in June to raise money for fighting cancer. Even though it sounds like a generic cause, you can specify which cancr I want the money I raise to be donated to.  I have requested all money I raise to go to Prostate Cancer... please check out my page below and donate generously.  As well please ask your friends and family to help support this cause as I can not do it withhout you. 

Here are the links to my Ride to Concquor Cancer

Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://www.conquercancer.ca/site/TR/Events/Alberta2010?px=2361639&pg=personal&fr_id=1332&fl=en_US&et=wBULbrMrNGp6oPCR6cBpGA..&s_tafId=158461
Click here to view the team page for Crazy Cranks
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://www.conquercancer.ca/site/TR/Events/Alberta2010?team_id=29240&pg=team&fr_id=1332&fl=en_US&et=rRKq8Ayz1uq-eaxQN3qNFA..&s_tafId=158461