In the early morning, I was out on the quiet open roads by the airport looking up at the scenery. It was a gorgeous morning — sunny and bright. As I looked at the mountain peaks, I thought to myself, “I’m going up there today.”

My route was a highlight reel of all the best cycling routes in Vancouver — from my house in Steveston, out around the point at UBC, through Stanley Park, Marine Drive to Horseshoe Bay, up to the first lookout at Cypress. From the lookout, we enjoyed the view of the city, UBC, and the airport. We could see a long way out. We could even see as far out as the Steveston jetty. “Man, oh, man…I’ve got a long way home. I think I need to sit down. Did I mention this cookie tastes terrific?”

As I hit downtown Vancouver, I started to get serious about getting home. In fact, I made it from the bottom of Cypress to Arthur Liang bridge in 1hr. Coming across the city, I realized that my ride was going to long (over the prescribed 4h20) and my crazy brain started calculating percentages. I was ready to justify the long ride to some imaginary workout overseer. Really, I’m less than 10% over. What am I supposed to do stop before I get home?! On a day like this, how could I not go up Cypress. Everyone else did it, too! Benny made me do it. By the time I hit home, my ride was 4h45.

As I hit home, I a very quick turn around into my brick run. I was so fast that I didn’t even see Torbin – just heard him yell, “That was a quick transition!” It was busy day on the dyke – all kinds of people to look at/pass/stare back at. After my epic ride, I was amazed at how great I felt. I even started thinking about the IronMan marathon. “I’m going to be able to do this marathon. I could run like this for a long time.” At the time I was running 5:15/km pace. I had a bit of trouble keeping my heart rate under my target (<155), but otherwise it was a good run. Last year, I remember these bricks being a lot harder, both mentally and physically.

bike
113km, 4h45
more stats to come
run
35 min