The Final Frontier

I'm not sure why this years' Tour B.C. route is called 'The Final Frontier' but it sounds cool and as the profile shows it looks awesome. Amber and I always have a fantastic time every year on this tour and this route looks like it won't disappoint. It's a great lead up to IMC and you feel like a rock star on your bike after a week of focused riding in a fun group environment. Plus we both enjoy camping and it usually the only time we can spend a week together away from computers, TV, phone, e-mails, work, etc.

A full week starting in Kamloops making a 758km loop through Salmon Arm, Nakusp, Armstrong, Revelstoke, and back to Kamloops. It's a tough challanging route and some days you just don't feel like riding but you get up early, start riding and feel like you can get through 7 days of this. After riding you relax with other people in the tour, swap stories have fantastic home-made meals and a couple hard earned beers. That's my definition of a great summer.

Run Fat Boy Run

I'm on the road again, left Wednesday to do my monthly Grimshaw- Peace River- High Level trip and it's really flippin' cold here in High Level. Apparently it's 2' in GP and it's -20' here, that's quite a difference. I noticed it as I was driving along just past Manning and all of the sudden it felt like my car was blowing cold air! The temp definitely dropped all of the sudden and I was freezing for the next couple hours. I made it to High Level in good time and I managed to bang off an excellent treadmill run, 4 x 5 minutes at race pace (10 miles/hr) with a total of 8.66 miles in 60 minutes. I had to take a couple days off this week with two tough 2hr bikes but I can feel myself getting stronger on the bike, I just have to take more down time then I'm normally used to (getting older I guess). I suppose it happens to all of us but slowing down is tough for me to take, I don't want to admit my 38 yr old body can't do the same training my 21 yr old body used to do.

The important thing is that I'm still enjoying myself and to that I can definitely say YES. I may be a little slower but I'm thoroughly going to enjoy this year with Amber and Harley. Amber and I have some wonderful trips planned and in less than two months we'll laying on the beach in Puerto Rico, I'll be REALLY sick of winter by that time.

Secret to Success in Life

I'll tell you a secret, it's something a lot of people have heard but few people actually practice. It took me a long time to figure it out but I can happily say I try to do it everyday. Some days are more difficult than others and I need to remind myself that "it's just another day in paradise." Those are the favorite words of an incredible human being who understood that it doesn't matter what you do in life, if you love what you are doing and you are happy doing it you will always be successful, ALWAYS.

Dr. Bob Breedlove was an orthopedic surgeon who understood the secret to success in life is not based on your environment or circumstances, it's inside you. He was an incredible ultracyclist who participated in the "Race Across America" and completed it a record 5 times, tragically he was struck and killed by a car on his 6th attempt after riding 1100 miles. Witnesses say he slumped over his handlebars and veered into oncoming traffic, probably due to exhaustion. RAAM is the most grueling event on the planet as cyclists attempt to cross America in under 12 days with little to no sleep, day and night. The winner finishes in 8 or 9 days and looks like a shell of their former self. It is the most basic of human endurance events that forces you to keep going in the face of every conceivable challenge you can possibly think of. Bob Breedlove was an absolutely incredible human being, one of the most kind and caring souls in the race he was always willing to help someone in need, even if it meant putting his own ambitions 2nd. He always had a smile on his face and when other riders were tired, irritable, and breaking down he would flash a smile and say, "it's just another day in paradise." He understood that no matter how big the challange, in racing and in life, he was doing what he loved and facing it with a smile made it effortless.

I think we can all learn from Dr. Bob who taught us that it doesn't matter what you are doing, in work, training, or life in general, facing it with a smile and can-do attitude you will always be successful. Imagine how you feel after a race when you expect to have fun and do your best but you have a tough time. You'll still be happy and content because you are doing something you love and time and placing doesn't matter. The same applies if you wake up feeling like it's going to be a chore to get through the hours of training today, you probably won't be successful. However if you wake up saying, today is going to be a great day because I'm doing something I love then it will be a great day no matter what happens with the training.

Keep smiling everyone and face every challenge with a smile and you'll always be successful, Thanks for the reminder Dr. Bob, R.I.P.

Healthy...

It's good to feel heathly, I was looking at a blog post at this time last year and I was struggling with yet another flu. I've learned a lot over the last year, I've put myself on a pretty extensive vitamin regmine and I've learned that I can't just continually tax my body to the limit and expect it to recover fully. I've started training again and I can already feel myself getting stronger on the bike, yesterday I did a 90 minute ride and for once it didn't feel like I was suffering to finish the last half hour. I'm following a 1/2 IM training plan Amber came up with but I'm going to use it more as a guide and listen to my body to determine how hard and how long I should go. The nice thing about having a plan is that it forces you to plan 3 swims, 3 bikes, and 3 runs each week if I can stick to that then I know I'll get stronger in every discipline. I'm not saying there won't be weeks where I just can't fit the workouts in (or my body tells me to not do it that day) but having a plan gives me some focus in training and allows me to feel like I'm progressing towards a half IM on March 19th. Only 73 days to the first race, I can't wait!