Some of my favorite rides **
Wednesday night out at the races route -
South Dyke Ride
Commuter Routes
The longer way home from UBC – via speedtheory
Bike commute to/from UBC – starting at Zaber
Mountain Bike Routes
**note If you see a “this workout is not available for viewing error”, find the – amp; – in the URL and delete those four characters – then the links should work. Stupid WSIWG editor is screwing up my links
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.
