150km challange

so it's friday night. i need to go to bed, but wanted to post about my big challenge. tomorrow i'm biking up to my parents place in oro. it's around 150km. which is a fair bit more than i'm used to but we'll see. i've got everything (meaning food and a few clean clothes) packed and my map all marked up. and my parents on call to come rescue me if i get stuck. my goal is to make it to barrie (120km) and then decide from there if my butt can take another 30.  then i'll hang out at my parents for a day then bike back on monday. woot! here's to taking chances and getting messy!

100km! all in one day!

so i met the mark. i cycled 100km in one day. and actually it wasn't that bad. i did it in 3 chunks. a selected two routes. one route that was "flat", (yes those scare quotes are neccissary) and one that was "hilly" (also neccissary scare quotes. i went on wednesday. it was nice out. not to much of a breeze, not too hot. i started at 10am. bikes the first 34km "flat" loop. a fancy new one that i made up to avoid biking down victoria, as victoria in sections is incredibally dangerous for cyclists. like really bad. so i have a new route that takes me out to arkell and back instead. and uses the nice bike lanes on clair and gordon. so first 34km. which i guessed was "flat" didn't end up being so "flat" just didn't have the extreme hills of whitelaw rd. so it went well. i came home. ate some oatmeal, cleaned the bathroom, then went out again. next trip 32km "hilly" which wasn't bad at all except whitelaw which is very hilly, but pretty. it goes past the bird sactuary in the south of guelph. i heard a common yellowthroat. i know pretty common bird,  but i really love thier 'whichity-whitchity-which' song. it was a nice ride. i keep thinking to myself "this is not a race, this is not a race" and it's not. i'll make it there. i don't need to go 30km/hour or even 20km/hour. i just need to keep biking. that's it.
i should also mention i got a bike fitting on tuesday night, that changed the position of my handlebars. now it's super comfy and i got these fancy ergonomic side grip things for my handlebars. also very nice and saves my wrists big time. i also got some pointers from the lovely folks at bits and bikes an long haul biking technique. very helpful. turns out i been paddling wrong...ops. well i got time to fix it now. so yes "hilly" ride went great. came home ate some more carbs, vaccumed and scared the cats at the same time, checked my email then went out again. for the lsat "flat" 34km. it was getting hot by this time in the afternoon. but my legs hung in there. and my butt was only kinda sore. mostly in these 2 spots that rub when my legs are moving past my seat. i hear you're supposed to put cream on to help with this kind of thing. another good thing about this ride is that i figured out a handy way for my camelback (fancy waterbottle thing) to stay on my bike and have the hose accessable. it's been bugging me for a bit so it was nice to figure it out.  so there. 100km. who woulda thought.  like any big task broken into small chunks and with bouts of cleaning/organising in between it all becomes quite managable.

Fundraising at With the Grain

On saturday June 25th With the Grain Bakery and Cafe will be generously donating thier in house coffee sales to support my fundraising efforts. I'll be set up outside on my trainer biking away and collecting cash donations, and answering questions. So if you're looking for a great place for a great saturday morning, or afternoon (organic, fairly traded, loally roasted) coffee  stop by, say hi, and feel good about your coffee drinking habit.

Market Madness!

Yesterday morning, Christine and I woke up at 5:30am gathered all our posters, flyers, fancy dontation buckets, and my bike trainer loaded it onto my bike trailer (found on the side of the road last year by a good freind, in the process of being fixed up by me) and went to market. the weather forcast had made a drastic change form the night before (surprise surpise) so rain was not expected but all our stuff was already waterproofed because our booth was outside. Our booth was right between the lovely folks at Drumlin Organic Farm, and The Dairy Boards promotional booth (complete with fake milkable cow for the kids!). It was a little out of the way but still had lots of traffic by it. So there we set me up on the bike trainer, christine as my lovely assistant. and there i biked. and biked. and biked. i started biking at 7 and kept going untill market was over, stopping only for the odd pee break and leg stretch/bum rest. people came up and asked questions, commented on how i was going "nowhere fast" (oh haha hadn't heard that one before!),  many a bewhildered child stopped to try and figure out why  wasn't moving, and people reached into thier pockets and droped some coins in our buckets. freinds came up to talk, strangers wished my luck on my ride and told me i was doing a great thing. it was amazing and inspiring. the ability of people to open thier hearts and open thier wallets to a cause inspires me to keep fundraising and keep biking.  By the end of the day, my bum was sore and i was tired but still smiling. And over the course of that 5 hours i raised just over $280. Amazing!

back in the saddle!

so i've been sick. for 4 days. and not a good sick either. the sick that makes you not want to eat anything, casue everything turns your stomache.  after breakfast last monday i felt a little wierd. but kept on with my day thinking i had something wierd and that it would work it's way out, and it did untill the next morning. i ate 1/2 my breakfast then crashed on the couch, and there i remained for the next 4 days. surviving on sports drink and the odd cracker and honey. what a kick to the training. doing all the biking requires lots of eating, around 2300 calories a day, for someone of my size and activity level. and when for 4 days i have less than 200 a day. not so good. my brain function was way down, balance and coordination where almost non-exisitant. aweful. but then friday afternoon it was like someone flipped a switch. i felt like eating. christine wnet and got me some squishy bread for toast (bless her) and i made some toast and didn't feel gross looking at it. i ate it then made another one. i havn't stopped eating since. so today i takle 90km. i'll be doing about 25 just in errands i need to run but will do another 65 for fun.  i've broken it into 2 loops a hilly and a (hopefully) flat route. so off we go!

bike safe everyone. wear your f'n helmut.

Hills and saving turtles

So i wanted to go for a 85km ride on monday, but i picked out a new 43km route that avoids the narrow scarey carness of victoria rd. i really should have checked the elevation profile cause goah damn that was one hilly ride, and i was suppsed to do it twice, after having already rode 120km in the past 2 days. so i only did it once. i was tired. it was hot and my legs were tired. but on my route i saved 2 turtles from getting smucked. one adult painted turtle who seemed quite upset when i moved it from the centre of the road. it calmed down when i put it in the reeds next to the pond nearby. the other turtle i saved was a baby sanpping turtle. i swear it was only a little bit bigger than a toonie, and super cute. it all tucked into its shell when i picked it up. it  looked cuddley, or at least as cuddley as something with rough skin and a hard shell can look. it was a good ride. and a beautiful night.

physics anyone?

I forgot to mention in my last post that while i was racing the rain all perpendicular wise i got hit in the eye with a blackfly. this is uncomfortable in the best situations but when i am heading down a hill at about 30km/h and a blackfly is flying at me at an average of 7.24km/h (i looked that up it's true) what is the force of impact on my eyeball? anyone? anyone?

i know i knew how to do this in highschool. but i think part of the answer is that becuase we were traveling in opposite directions i add the two speeds together to get an impact speed of 37.24km/hour.

and force is mass x acelleration and the mass of a blackfly is really small and this is where i get lost.....but hot damn it felt like i had been hit in the eye with a nail. which is not a pleasant feeling when traveling at high speeds on a bike. luckily i was able to quickly pull off to the side of the road and fish the poor little guy out. i don't think he survived the impact.

Downpours and Metaphors

So the sun finally allowed me to do some outside bikeing this weekend. yesterday my ride was cut short (aka i didn't leave enough time to finish it). because i had a concert to sing and and had eaten the wrong thing at my break and was feeling overall crappy.

but today. wow today. 75km. yeps. 75.

it's amazing the peace that i can find listening to that stubborn squeek of my one cycling shoe, avoiding stupid drivers, and watching the scenery fly. i think because so much information is going in my brain, it has a chance to calm itself and focus on only a few things. if that doesn't make sense i'll loan you my head for a day. then you'll understand.

i divided the ride into 2 equal parts so i would have a change to eat and refill my water (with powder body fuel type stuff). the first half was great. i paced two riders on fancy bikes going up gordon hill. the sun was out, no wind, no too many crazy drivers on the road, it felt great. metaphor number one came around kortright and ironwood, i saw a cute little red squirrel run out into the street, trying to get across. it made it across 3 lanes then freaked out and turned back only to get compleatly smucked by a car (poor little guy). the lesson, if you're heading in one way and things are going alright keep going, if you second guess yourself, you'll definatly learn your lesson.  so yes i know not exactly a metaphor but i'm no english major (if that already wasn't obvious).  but i made it thought the first half came home had an amazing bowl of pasta, peanut butter and bbq sauce (which i have decided is now my new favourite pre and mid workout meal)  and set back out on my bike.

now mind you i did check the weather. i looked at the radar and saw that big line of red coming directly towards us. i thought i had enough time to make it home before it hit. second metaphor (which again may not even be a metaphor) you can not outrun a storm by running perpendicular to it. which is what i was trying to do. so yes i got soaked. i was at the boathouse (about 5 mins from home) when the sky opened up. i got soaked.  metaphor number three. sometimes gettting stuck in a storm is inevitable, it's best to breathe, and keep on moving, cause the storm will pass.

and look pictures!

A boi and his bike (and his giant beard)

My calf muscles!

Fundraising fundraising!

So this wet weather is getting me down. the sun was starting to peak out today so I turned my errand run ride into a easy 20km. wow it felt good to get outside again. Jillian micheals workout dvds are awesome but not the same fun as biking around alot. and my new saddle is a-may-zing to say the least.

but this post is about fundraising. getting you to donate your hard earned money to this amazing cause. Well the pot just got sweeter my freinds. For every 100 dollars raised over the 2200 minimum amount i will donate 20 of my own hard earned dollars to the AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellinton County. You heard me for every 100 over I donate 20. so if I raise a total of 3500 the ACG gets (hold on a sec i need to go grab my calculator) 260 dollars. amazing! check out all the amazing things that ACG does here.

So reach in your pocket, or backpack, or purse, or manpurse, or whatever you carry your money around in look at what you got. think of your situation, think of what you have, then give what you can. Buy a coffee at work everyday say at 2 bucks a cup. skip your coffee for a week (or make it at home) voila 10 bucks you can donate. easy peasy.

fundraising deadline is june 30th. sponsor me now by clicking the link on the right hand side of the page that says "click to donate".

if you have already sponsored me. I cannot thank you enough.
much love everyone

Say Yes to the Dress

We couldn't just ride our bikes to Montreal. There must be dressing up included. There must be. One of the days, the shortest ride day (around 50km), is Red Dress Day. Many of the riders don red dresses and costumes for the ride into Kingston.

I've haven't really been looking for a dress yet but yesterday when Christine and I were at VV i had a look. there were many fabulous options. but the most amazing dress was there and thank the lord it fit perfectly. i had it draped over me admiring it and this woman walked by me looked me up and down and said "very nice." in a semi sarcastic way. I smiled at her and said thanks. not the response she was looking for i think.  so the great unveiling. drum roll!

The front. SOOO Cute (cat not included as part of dress)



The back...and my enormous pipes

 



















I can honestly say i have never been so excited about a dress before. i love that it has pokadots and looks like an apron. And has lace. it's really fricken cute. like really. y'all should be jealous

65km! or Going Commando

So I suck at blogging. Maybe from now on expect blogs to come in large batches potentially days after the events in the blog actually happen. Good? good. now on with the blogging.

So i biked 65km. all in one go. holy crapoli. it was a while ago it feels like and it also feels like a while since i've been out to bike. although i am on my bike every day pretty much doing errands going to the farm. randomly biking around. but i havn't been out for a good ride in over a week. partly due to weather partly due to my bike being in the shop.

I'm getting a better bike seat put on and a tune up. The bike seat i got with the bike is nice and soft, which sounds nice but trust me it's not. when you're bike seat is too soft, after a certain distance of you butt sinking into the seat, circulation to your butt cheek and leg gets cut off not so good when you're relying on your legs to move you. so i'm getting a firmer seat put on.

while my bike is in the shop i've been riding around my old beater, tank. man i love that bike. it's heavy as all hell and has more rust than paint but it fits so nice. but the one thing i did notice riding it...is the seat. my new bike has one of those fancy seats with the hole cut out for your bits (you know the ones i'm talking about). tank's seat does not.  how i miss that little cut out bit. oh my do i miss it.

on similar bits related notes, i finally did what i was told and didn't wear underwear under my bike shorts. i was hesitant to do this at first, the shorts have this nice cushy (read absorbant), padding around your bum and bits. i felt weird not having undies on. but i was told commando is the way to go. it cuts down on chafing nad improves general comfort, ya see your undies absorb all that sweaty goodness and because they are cotton, they hold on to it rather than wicking it away from your skin. to mich information i know. but this is important. so yes for my 65km i went commando. what a dream! wooeee i shoulda done that sooner. feels so good you would not imagine. i suggest that everyone go commando for a day. 

but yes 65km done! next 75km. here i come. once the rain stops....

Normally I like rain

I do. I know it sounds crazy but i love rainy days, i love the intensity of the mood and the colours when it's raining, i love the sound of rain, i love standin at my window watching the wind whip the trees around and watching for lightning, but it's been to crazy out to bike this last week. I'm not a fan of being on my bike during thunderstorms and crazy wind gusts. and honestly i'm not a huge fan of the indoor biking. but this afternoon i might have to drag my bike inside set up a movie to distract me and bike for a few hours. my body brain says "get out and ride", my brain says "hold on bucko, that's a lightning rod you're putting between your legs".  alternately i could do a jillian workout, that'd be good too.  all desk work and little exercise makes jaye feel a whole lotta crazy.

the rain has put me behind on my training schedule too. this week is supposed to be 60km. and due to rain i didn't get a full 55km in last week. arg. well. i guess the good news is my body has been dealing well with the distances i've thrown at it so far so hopefully everything will be fine. i'll just step up my game a little.

last week i went into toronto for 2 events put on for riders. one was a club night at MEC, 10% off the entire store. so i got myself a new helmet (my old one has a big crack in the plastic casing, which apparently makes it unsafe to wear, who knew), a bell (ding ding!), another pair of bike shorts (so i don't have to wear the same pair all week) and a bike pump that attaches to my bike. i now have all the things i need to go on long trips and not worry about being stranded with a broken bike/tire.  the other was a spring fling where we got to try on jerseys. apparently i'm too tiny for any of the men's sizes. so a women's small it is.

this weekend i'm heading back to toronto (i feel like i've been to toronto in the last month more times than i've been in the past year) for an all day workshop expo, i'll be attending workshops on fundraising, bike maintenance, nutrition, etc.  i'm especially excited for the one on nutrition. pasta is my new best friend.

Over $1000 raised!!!

Thank you all so much for supporting me in this ride. I've raised $1085 that is 49% of the way to my goal of $2200. Your support inspires me so much. You are supporting such an amazing organiztion. 

indoor cycling 101

so it's a crumby weekend to be biking outside. rain and wind and snow! so i picked up a bike trainer thats been sitting in the basement of the farm house for ages and brought it home. carries my bike inside and hooked it up. first thing biking inside is way more boring than outside, no matter how interesting the cbc radio is. second you sweat a hell of alot more, third the bike vibrates. but i biked for an hour yesterday. i'm sure my downstairs neighbour was getting ready to throw my bike, trainer and all, out the window. oh well. it won't happen that often. but yes cycling indoors not as much fun.

Yesterday Christine got Jillian Micheals new DVD ripped in 30. so we did that together this morning. just when i think i'm in pretty good shape i do a workout video with jillian and i get my ass kicked, and this was jsut level one. there are 3 more levels. doing the workout also made me realise i need to eat more. i'm no good at nutrition i eat well but think i should be eating more. i am hungry, like really hungry, every 2 hours, no matter how much i eat. and that was before i started doing all this training. now i am woken up in the morning by the sound of my stomach grumbling. i have started eating 6 meals a day.  i'm considering getting a sports nuttritionist to set my up with some meal plans, so i can do it right. it's good i'm only working part time because i think i'm going to have to spend a lot more of my day eating.

but 2 days in a row?

so saturday i rode 50 km. sunday was still beautiful and i wanted to get out on my new bike more so decided to do antoher ride. this time only 43km. i went later on in the afternoon. and if you can think back to last weekend it was windy. holy cow was it windy. blowing right from the east. biking down willow was biking right into a headwind. it was brutal. i had to pedal going down hills to keep moving. on more than one occasion i was brought to a full hault by a gust of wind. i made it out to 32 and turned the corner, now the wind was blowing side on, and hard. i had to tilt my bike about 25 degrees into the wind to keep from beeing blown over. that was a full body workout for sure. i see the wisdom of racing position. less wind resistance = good thing. but i did it. i was wind blown and tired but i did it. i hope july isn't windy...

but i think i need to readjust my saddle. new bike. new seat, kinda not right. i think my butt is too small for it, but it might jsut need shifted further to the back. i'll see what the folks at bits and bikes say.

i'm also realising how wonderully meditiative biking is. i'm the kinda person where i always have multiple things going on in my head at once. slowing things down and clearing my head is really difficult for me to do. but when i bike things go quiet. maybe because i'm spending alot of brain trying to to get hit by cars and avoiding the many many bike eating potholes i don't have the space to think about other things. but the constant motion of my legs and the world passing by is calming.

one wildlife spotting. a white throated sparrow.  and lots of beer bottles and cans. i think my next ride i'm gunna take my paniers and plastic bags and make myself some money! (to donate to the ride of course)

peace and bicycle grease.

50km Conquered

So aparently i'm just as bad at keeping up with a blog as i am with keeping a diary. I'm writing about last week this weekend...

Good news my bike came in! I got home from work and had a gut feeling. then there was a message on the phone. needless to say i went and got it right away. what a nice bike. i'll post pictures shortly. i got clipless pedal and shoes (the name is  wierd, they are actually the ones where you are attached to the pedal). it's black and sparkely and has nice hybrid tires. i was super excited to ride it

so why not take it for 50km, i had a new bike, i could do anything. so after a few turns of the parking lot making sure i could get in and out of the show clips without falling over too much off i go.  it began with my usual route up alma to willow out to the boonies and such, it was a beautiful day, riding was great and smooth, clipless pedals are f'n amazing. i seriously don't want to go anywhere without them now. i'm in love i think. i had mapped out my route before hand you can see it here. if you have a look at the elevation map around km 30 there is a climb that is mapped that goes from abour 325m to 377m in about 100m. silly me i thought this was a mistake. surely no one would build a road that steep.  but lo and behold turning off the 34 onto watson road i was hit with a wall. i swore out load. when i do the trip again i'll bring a camera. it's stupid really, and after already having biked for over and hour...woah. but i made it up. i met another cyclist about halfway up who was going down the hill. he just smiles knowlingly at me. he was going the "right" direction. but after that all was good. there was a nice downhill where i could stretch my legs. and the ride was over before i thought it would be. voila 50km  no so bad.

More planning required

So I am an organized person. At least i like to think so, and because of this i tend to over plan things. focus alot on little details and sometimes end up missing out on big details. At my last training ride (45km) i didn't plan where to pee. i'm amazed at how many times i had to pee during this training ride. alot like 3 times in 2 hours. 1 stop was well planned, the second stop was lucky (thank you oots volunteers for being at your shift!) and the third was a mad scramble.

Back to the beginning, so i got a kidney stone. yuck. i highly recommend not getting one. not super fun. but after a few days of intense agony i feel fine now. so of course i went for a ride. 40km wasn't so bad so i upped it to 45km and with my awesome bike shorts it was great. it was a beautiful day. light wind, sunny skies warm enough that i had to stop and take off my touque. and lots of wildlife spotting, on my way out the west end of town i disturbed anumber of horned larks hanging out by the side of the road. i spotted a deer bounding into the woods, lots of chickadees and crows and the usual feathered buddies, at one point a turkey vulture swooped in and hovered maybe 20 ft above my head. maybe trying to decide if i was dead or not? i got a great look at it though. i'm a getting more practiced at birding and biking and haven't run into any parked cars or trees in a while. in the south end a red tailed hawk was perched on a tree beside the road.  on my way down victoria i saw a coyote dead in the ditch. i was very tempted to stop and take a closer look but i was getting near needing a pee break, to treked on.

but yes peeing. so i planned my first pee stop at the food basics in the south end. was a nice stoppping point about 45 mins into my ride. i could stop pee, eat my apple watch the people lined up at the starbucks drive trough... stop number two was at out on the shelf. which i was betting on being open on for the sunday shift.  stop number 3 was supposed to be the goodwill at the north of town, turns out they don't have a public washroom and the little old lady was very unhelpful in suggesting where the next nearest washroom was. so i detoured to value village, again with legs crossed. but the good news was i was hydrated. how did i know you ask? well my pee was clear. yours should be too. if it's not you're dehydrated. drink more. water that is.

so for next trip need to plan: more food, pee breaks, remember to wrte right and left on the correct hand.

fundraising is going i'm almost at $900! amazing you folks are amazing. thank you again for your support i have some fun ideas brewing on how to get to my goal.  hopefully they will be shared shortly.

good news my new bike should actually be on its way, i stopped in today and they said for sure a few days this time. with the weather warming up i'm gettting even more excited to get out to ride.

want to know how i know how far i've gone. well i start with a  map and a peice of string with the kms marked off on it then trace potential routes that way to get a rough estimate of distace then i come and plug the route into http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ which i find more user freindly than mapmyride or bikely, but the bummer is you can't alter your route once you've made it. i still like the map and peice of sting method the best.

happy riding. i hope you're dusting off your bike too (especially after that gas price hike woah), and thank you again for your support.

Catching up: #4 40km training ride

My new bike!

Yep 40km sounds like alot eh. it's really not that bad. i basically bike around the perimeter of guelph. with my trusty bike shorts (you know you're not supposed to wear underwear under them!), my camelback water hydration system (that froze at one point) snacks in bag, map (yes), off i went. things were all going great untill i really had to pee. like bad. i was in the south end where there is nothing but houses. not even convienience stores. and i didn't think anyone would take lightly to me squatting beside thier burning bush in thier front garden. so i kept biking. i hit victoria rd. finally maybe some bush i can run off into. nope how about wide open farmer fieilds. i must note that it is difficult to bike and cross your legs at the same time. i finally found releif (thank god) at the tim hortons by lens mill. holy moly. i want to get one of those "go girl" things so i can pee standin up. i think it might be a good investment. but all in all 40km not so bad. took be about 2 hours 15 mins, including pee break. i do look f.orard to my new bike coming in. i'm getting a devinci stockholm. even got fancy dancy clipless shoes. it should come in anyday now. any day now. i hear when you switch from a mountain to a hybrid you feel like you're flying. i look forward to that. But right now i'm at home  on the couch with a kidney stone. so no biking for me. hopefully this will pass quickly and i can get back at 'er.

Catching up: number trois

So i traveled (by bus) to The big city (toronto) to go to a newbie information session. while in toronto i purchased some very nice bike shorts from mec. they kinda make me feel like i'm wearing i diaper, but hey if it means my ass won't hurt great. The information session was held at the office of the People with AIDS foundation. What a busy place. holy. They began the session by having a person who PWA supports come in and tell thier story. PWA Toronto helps so many people in so many ways. Support groups, one on one therapy, warm smiles, helping people find the medication they need, helping greiving families, providing food to those in need, as well as providing public education and aweareness campaigns. I learned alot that night. All about the ride and how it all works. The ride is largely volunteer run (only 1 or 2 staff). All of these volunteers are amazing passionate people who care so so much about this foundation. The time and energy (on top of training themselves) they dedicate to the ride is inspiring. PWA is so important to the lives of so many people. please consider sponsoring me. every little bit helps a lot.

catching up: training ride number 2

So after 17km in the slushrain i thought how bad could 30km in nice weather be. so off we go doing a similar but slightly differnt route, this time with ample water and maps and good directions (and left and right written on the correct hand...very helpful, believe me). up to willow to whitelaw down to downy over to gordon to speedvale to home. this ride i did really see the need for bike shorts. wow. i needed to get some bike shorts. besides the bum painfulness, 30km no problemo. even on tank.

Catching up: training ride numero uno

Tank

I've already started training. Not as much as i'd like but i'm still figuring out where my starting point is. And my new bike hasn't come in yet so it's me and tank, becoming even closer freinds. Tank by the way is my silver with black splatter paint raghleih tomohawk mountain bike. We've been though all kinds of weather, many part replacements and lots of heavy loads. Tank fits me well and i'm kinda sad tank won't (really really won't) make the ride to montreal.

  So a quick recap of my first training ride.



Ride #1. so remember back one saturday that guelph got all that slushy rain stuff. ya yucky. somehow i decided it was a decent day for a ride. just a quick 10km ending me up downtown where i could so my gorceries then come home. the plan bike out 124 to fife, turn on whitelaw to paisley then take paisley downtown. as i said before this was the plan. what happened. i got to fife and whitelaw and and turned the wrong way. beautiful countryside out that way. oh and did i mention i neglected to bring a map with me. lots of learning to be done. I was starting to think "hmmm this seems like a long way" when i hit niska, then downey rd. yep. turned left when i should have gone right. ended up doing about 17km. my butt started to hurt around 15. and all this in the slushrain. good thing i had my supercool goggles on.

Sooper cool.

In the begining there was a bicycle...

So this is my blog welcome. As you will quickly notice i'm not a very good writer and an even worse speller, but here i am bloggin just the same.  As you may (or may not) know this summer i'm challenging myself to do things that are way bigger than me, to take chances, to grow in ways i didn't think i needed growing in, to learn, to love, to explore (to become excessivly and sickeningly poetically romantic...). So one of things i'm doing to challence myself is i'm going for a bike ride. A very long bike ride. On July 24th, myself along with around 400 others will be departing Toronto and over the following 6 days will ride our bikes all the way to Montreal, over 650 km in total. Why would we be crazy enough to such a thing you ask? well i'll tell you, it's a fundraiser for the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation (PWA). This foundation provides essential services and support, to thousands of men, transmen, transwomen, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS and their families.They support our neighbours, our friends, and people in our community. Community is incredibly important to me and this ride is a community of people coming together to inspire, support, and take care of one another. 
This blog will a map of my journey please follow along as i begin my training. and i hope you'll consider sponsoring me.You can do so by visiting my sponsor page by clicking HERE

Thank you for following me on my journey and thank you for your support.