my mom’s biggest nightmare

I’ve been riding bikes at alarming speeds for years. Once, in a race, I rocketed down the Niagara escarpment to the tune of 95kilometres/hour. I won the race, but my Mom wasn’t all that pleased when she saw my speedometer. But with all that speed, all those kilometres I’ve ridden, I’ve never really crashed, never had a problem with an oncoming car. Nothing really exciting at all.

Which is why it makes sense that I would get hit by a car yesterday while riding 12k/hour on the sidewalk.

The story goes like this. James and I rode 50k yesterday. Coach Craig followed directly behind us in the car for every second of it, just to make sure we had no problems. And there were none. As we got close to James’ place, we had to ride up on a sidewalk so we could get on this little path that leads to his house. At this point, Coach had to drive around the block. In the 3 minutes we were left unattended, however, I managed to ride my bike close enough to a big green pick up that he just couldn’t avoid crashing into my rear tire. Thankfully he was going slow and just kind of nicked me.

He did excuse himself, after James almost attacked him with a bike wrench. The guy was somewhat apologetic. He said things like “there didn’t used to be a road here” and “I’ve had a long day at work buddy” and “he’s alright, isn’t he?!” so that was nice of him.

Too bad there was no damage to my bike. I was kind of hoping for a new derailer. Life’s hard sometimes.

Moral of the story: look both ways before you cross the street.

ps. I got hired by Halton Catholic. It’s just their supply teacher’s list but at least I’m going to get some kind of work in the fall. HURRAY!

from the inside out

I cleaned my car today, inside and out.

My car really needed it. It was filthy. For example, at some point in the last year I dropped a powerbar on the seat where it promptly melted into the carpet. So now I have a powerseat. It’s gross. But after an hour of ferocious vacuumming, I had the carpets and seats reasonably clean. Then I got it washed. The Deluxe. They sprayed me with these thick soapy lazers and I came out sparkling.

But as I drove away, the windows were still dirty. In fact, they looked dirtier than before. It seems that by cleaning the outside, the inside dirtiness became more visible.

Life Application. We spend a lot of time cleaning the outside of ourselves (so to speak). Things like nice clothes, and nice hair, and nice bodies. The problem with this outward focus is that even if you look really good on the outside, there might still be some nasty stuff on the inside. And for some of us, maybe, it’s when we clean the outside so rigorously that the inside junk shows up the most.

The point, I guess, is to worry about the inside first. I’m not saying not to worry about the outside–I spent 95kilometres on my bike yesterday worrying about it–but the inside stuff ought to come first.

I would like to thank my car, the Deluxe, and my dirty windows for making all of this possible for me.

Ps. If you read the blog for my training, I’ve been sick the last week and haven’t done anything special (this needs to be an easy week, anyways). But I hate being sick, especially when the weather is so nice. But I’m trying to be smart this year and not train when I feel bad.

school’s out for summer

I’ve been in school for the last 20 years: 9 years primary, 5 years secondary, 4 year undergrad, 1 year masters, and 1 year of teacher’s college.

Today, officially, marks the end of my formal education. I walked out of class today and realized I’m done school. Forever, and ever. Although I’ll spend the rest of my life in a classroom, this was the end of my own education. And it feels pretty good.

I’m psyched about the next 10 days. I’ve got the KidsFest Gala tonight, moving home tomorrow morning, Mike and Angela’s wedding tomorrow night, and then I get to train, train, train (starting with the PTC on Monday). I also just dropped 200bones on my bike: the big tune-up they call “the grand enchalata.” But she’s purring like a kitten and I can’t wait to make her fly. Life’s good when you’re on a fast bike.

I also wanted to congradulate my friends, Ryan and Lindsay, who got engaged this weekend. There’s something magical when two wonderful people meet, fall in love, and decide to take a shot at their happily-ever-after. All the best guys!

wind

Every April, the wind and I have an unhappy reunion.

For some reason—I think is has to do with heat and cold mixing as the warm weather approaches—it’s just really windy in April.

Wind makes things harder—or easier—depending on which way you’re going. Once I won a t-shirt that said, “May the wind always be at your back.” That sure would be nice, to always have the wind at your back. One time I ran 60 minutes with the wind at my back, got really tired, and had my Dad come pick me up. He said I was weak.

The funny thing about wind is that you don’t really notice it until it’s against you

Like on Saturday. It was pouring rain, and cold (just above zero). But I was determined to ride out to Rattlesnake. The first 45kilometres were pretty good, actually. I was cruising along—soaked, of course—but cruising. I got up rattlesnake—this steepest hill around—and suddenly I was riding straight into a vicious headwind. My jacket was flapping, my nose was running (like a jet stream), and it felt like the brakes were rubbing the tire (they weren’t). It made the second 50k much more difficult.

Funny thing is: the wind didn’t change. I just didn’t notice it until it was against me.

Life is like that, I think. Sometimes you’re cruising. Life is just going along. Hakuna Matata. No worries. Then you hit the wind. Maybe someone you love gets sick. You run out of money. A relationship falls apart. God seems distant. You don’t get a job you really wanted. And suddenly all the things that were driving your forward—your health, your family, your career, your faith—seem to be working against you.

That’s really hard, even harder than climbing rattlesnake.

I can’t pray for the wind to always be at my back. Wind builds character, and makes me realize how much I have going for me. If I become aware of the wind when it’s for me, I’ll be more prepared to deal with it when things change.

My brother told me yesterday that the great Kenyan distance runners pray for wind. Maybe they believe that wind is God’s way of testing them. If they persevere when it’s windy, it’s painless when it’s not.

May the wind challenge you today so you can feel its gentle nudge on the other side.

training update

I read all these triathlon blogs and people post their training on them. I want to be a hero like them, too. So here’s what I did the last five days. Note: it’s a lot of technical talk so fear not if you don’t understand it!

Saturday:2.5hour bike with Ben. We rode loops of the Ex. It’s a 2k loop, so that’s a lot of loops. Then I swam 5400yards with Paul as 800swim on 12:00, 800pull on 12:00, 8X100 (des 1-4) on 1:45, then the same pattern for 400, 300, 200, 100. Paul was crushing me for most of it, but I got my 100s down to 1:06ish so that was sweet. After that I danced like a star at Ryan Krook’s wedding. Congrats Ryan and Nina!

Sunday: 16k tempo run. I felt like rubbish for the first 10k. Then I ran into Taylor Murphy, “just out for an easy run.” I ran with him and the pace just got faster, for me at least (3:48/km = 1:01 for 10miles = not bad at all).

Monday: 1:15 on the wind trainer while I watched Forest Gump.

Tuesday: Big brick workout. 1:45 on the bike, followed by a 10k run (37:30). That run stung. It was the first brick I’ve done this year where I rode outside. The wind trainer is so deceiving. Then I swam 4000yards with Paul and Suzanne at night and felt amazing. Main set was 3X(2X50 ez kick + 6X50 des 1-6 on :55 + 100 hard). I got the 50s down to 31ish, the 100s were 1:05. I think my swimming is finally getting somewhere.

Wednesday: Hard swim today. 2X (5X200 on 3:00, 1 min rest, 200 hard). I held 2:38ish for most of the 200s, and 2:35 for the hard one. But Paul led most of it, and I drafted like a sucker. I do love drafting. I ran 47minutes with Adrian Lambert right after. I love running with real runners, and it was so hot out today!

So that’s what I do. In between all this, I pretended to do assignments for OISE, got my car tire fixed, met my Mom for delicious dinner, read “Lance Armstrong’s War” (which is AMAZING), and had some sweet conversations with my friend Amy.

In my next post I’ll talk about the winds of April, and how they are making my life misrable.

why i triathlon

The sun is out, the snow is melting, and summer racing season is just around the corner. I know not everyone who reads my blog is a triathlon enthusiast, but I thought you might be interested in hearing some of my thoughts about triathlon, and why it matters so much to me.

In 2004, I had a tremendous triathlon season. I absolutely loved how each day would unfold: workout #1, eat, some school work, workout #2, eat, sleep like a champion, and repeat the next day. Because of very supportive family, and several years of training to this point, I got myself into really good shape, so much so that I won several races that summer (the only time I ever beat Sharratt! haha). Nearing the end of the summer, I was primed to win my age-group at Nationals.

I went to Nationals in BC, warmed up for the race, and then watched in horror as they decided to cancel the race because of lightening and flash flooding. Stinker.

The months that followed went like this: rigorous return to training, get into even better shape than the past summer, go to Venezuela for training camp, pick up mono, spend 2 months struggling to regain my form, lose training motivation, feel fatigued all the time, lose more training motivation, quit triathlon.

From that time until this fall (2.5years), I kept in decent shape, tried to pick up basketball, then volleyball, then just distance running. But I couldn’t focus, not like in 2004. I was busy doing Echoes, and going to LA, and getting slaughtered by the lovely folks in the English department at the University of Guelph. I don’t have regrets about this time—I even got a pretty decent jump shot—but it was just different, and something was missing.

So when I moved to Toronto this fall, I started thinking—about that summer where I didn’t get to race Nationals, and how fun it was to be in shape—and something told me that I wasn’t quite done with triathlon.

I suppose it’s a combination of a number of things that drives me. Unfinished business, for one. I really want to be a Canadian champion of something. Love for the sport, and the triathlon community you get to be a part of is also very enticing.

But there’s something else, too. One of my heroes once said, “To give anything less than the best, is to sacrifice the gift.” Although Steve Prefontaine wasn’t thinking about God when he said it, I can relate. God has gifted me in a unique way. He has given me all the tools necessary to compete and do very well in this sport. It’s a gift. And if I choose to give less than my best—to not train fully at this time in my life—I sacrifice it.

I don’t want to look at my life in 20 years and realize I had a gift, and chose to do something else.

This is not to say I’ll do triathlons for ever and ever, amen. But during this time, it’s time to see how far I can push myself with the gift God has given me.

So this summer I’ll take another shot at Nationals. I’ll race several times between now and the Big Show on August 16^th, but that is my focus: to win my age-group at Nationals, and qualify for the Canadian National team.

I believe if I devote myself wholly to this pursuit, please God with the way I train and compete, and be an encouragement to everyone out on the course, I’ll look back on the summer and feel pretty darn good about myself.

Even if I don’t been Sharratt again.

the worst way to die

What’s the worst way to die?

I’d imagine most people will choose between being burned alive or drowning. Rob Klein told me once that if you got stuck in an avalanche, your exhalations would freeze, thus forming an ice mask, thus causing a kind of suffocation-embalmment combination to occur. So that would suck.

But what if you died like this?

You’re looking for food one day when all of a sudden you find yourself unable to move. You look down and notice that you’ve stepped o a 10-foot long sheet of super, super glue (how did you not notice that in the first place?). The more you struggle, the most the glue sticks, until eventually you are lying on your stomach, completely stuck to the floor.

All of a sudden, though, a giant (yes, a giant) comes and tears you violently from sheet of glue. He sets you outside, hoping that you will go on your merry little way. But remnants of the glue cause you to just stick to the ground outside. You’re trapped, perhaps forever. The giant suddenly picks you up, and throws you off the roof.

The end.

To summarize: my roommate put out a mouse trap, I found the mouse, tried to free it, got it off the trap, put it outside, realized it was going to die if I just left it there, so I threw it off the roof.

Was that the right call?