Alive With Sport

I’m 7/7 in the Feb bike challenge! It’s Monday and I have to admit, my legs are tired. Riding 1hr on your bike isn’t actually that much, but I’m feeling it. With such a busy weekend**, scheduling workouts was a challenge (Sunday included a 6am trainer ride and a 9pm speed endurance run – accompanied by Torbin on the bike with lights). Today, I opted out of bike commuting to give my legs a couple more hours of rest. The downside is that I may be on the trainer until the wee hours this evening.

**I took the Triathlon Community Coaching course this weekend. I made some great new contacts/friends and took away some great practical tips about safety. On that note, I’m going to go buy myself a RoadID right now. If you don’t already have one, do the same!

Here’s what my Feb totals look like so far.

Bike for 182.1 km in 08:43
Run for 25.1 km in 02:22
Total Duration: 11:05

Here’s the results for my first couple days in the February bike challenge

Day 1 – 1:02:19, 22km – nice ride, mild weather
Day 2 – 1:20:51, 27km – soggy bike in the am, nice in evening, also had a quality run session
Day 3 – 1:01:18, 17km – all over downtown

Wednesday night I was super tired, so went to bed early. Man it’s awesome when you actually get enough sleep. I so rarely feel well-rested. Tonight, is a bike commute home through the city. I’m going to meet up with a few of the other bike challenge ninnys for company.

I have accepted a challenge, worse I even up’d the ante – and bet on it. The challenge is to ride your bike every day in February for at least 1hr. No make up rides the next day & no whining (ok, I admit – I added the no whining part for myself). My friend Murray has 5 other silly ninny’s who’ve agreed to accept his challenge via facebook. I was thinking to myself about all the excuses for days that I’m going to be way too busy to ride, how my coach is not going to like this plan, and I how I didn’t actually officially accept the challenge… Murray just kinda assumed that I was in. [Whine, whine, whine.] I don’t even know all the other guys. [Not fair, poor me] I’ve got to say, “I hate it when I whine”. Even if it is only internally. So, in a rash moment of “What the hell?!” I went and bet everyone that I could do it and they couldn’t. $20 to the charity of their choice, if they finish and I don’t!

Shoot.

On my bike commute in this morning, I was thinking to myself that this wouldn’t even be a challenge (and people wouldn’t think we’re crazy) if we all lived in Amsterdam – where bike culture is part of everyone’s life.

I need to reset my counters, I got me some new runners. I always forget when I’ve bought a pair of new runners. Thus, I also always forget how long I’ve had my current pair of runners. Last weekend, my arches started hurting so I’m sure I put way too many miles on that last pair. This weekend I’ve got a 1 hour 40min long run on the books, and I’m starting to think about race plans for the Langley half marathon. Calm, confident but aggressive – that’s what I need to be. Just like this guy.
photo by Torbin, Serengeti safari, Tanzania 2009

Looks like I’m starting the year off right with a 36:23 personal best at the Steveston Ice Breaker 8km race! I went out way too hard but still hung on for about a 30sec best time. It hurt like a son-of-a-gun. With about 2km to go, I couldn’t help thinking I hope the half marathon doesn’t feel like this. However, It is nice to see that I’ve cracked the 37min-ish barrier that this race seemed to hold for me over the past 3yrs. We’re still a little travel weary from our trip to Mexico, and Torbin seems to have brought back a tropical bug with him, so all-in-all, I’m pretty happy with the effort. Next up, the Langley half marathon.

No New Year’s resolutions for me… I’m not into that this year. I have however decided that I’m going to make 2010 the year of the Bicycle. Lots of riding – that’s my plan.

On that note, we started the year off right with this ride.

Getting outdoors on Christmas Day has always been a tradition for me and my family. What’s your tradition?

This year we did a short hike up to Dog Mountain up at Seymour. There wasn’t much snow but the trail was still fine. At the top, we got a really cool view of the city covered in fog.

In a holiday season filled with eating, driving and visiting, I always appreciate the opportunity to get outdoors. Here’s some pics from our christmas day tradition.

My new iPhone (or my personal protocol droid, as Torbin has taken to calling it) is quite amazing. I went for a dog walk today and the iPhone tracked our route, distance, and pictures.

My brother is the adrenaline junky – not me.

I’m not sure what’s with all this media attention that I’ve been receiving lately. I think it might have something to do with my ability to say, “Sure, I’d be happy to help!” I’m exhausted from 3 days of talking and filming. I will be glad to get back to some training.

Being a scientist in Nigeria means being very resourceful in finding solutions to barriers… the power goes out 2-4x per day or some days does not come on at all. Scientists here are very practiced at being practical & creative at the same time, a recipe for good science. Only one day did I start to think that the barriers were too big… but then the attitude of the students brought me back around. They work very very hard and are very excited about what they are learning. There are ~20 graduate students, medical doctors, and technicians taking our course. The people that I have met here in Nigeria is what I have enjoyed most. They are full of hope that their country will become one of the top 20 countries in the world. (The goverment has a plan called the 20:20 vision – that hopes to use education, science and technology to raise the profile of Nigeria by 2020). It has been interesting to talk to these young graduate students, to get their own views on the corrupt government and the political problems in the North, and the wars in the Delta (the oil rich region of the country). It is a country with many problems. For example, Nigeria’s children account for 18% of the global under-5 mortality rate. The UN has identified Nigeria as one African country that, if it were to improve and aim to meet the Millienium Development Goals, could make the most impact.

-update written during my recent visit to Nigeria