Tuesday 31 July 2012

1/2 way there!

Ah Kingston, 1/2 way to montreal. woot! we stay at queens univerity in dorms that have air conditioning, showers, comfy beds and flush toilets. it's pretty swanky.
The ride so far has been incredible. I told myself this year i would ride slow, not race through things and so far the ride has given me lots of oppertunity to do that.
recap (of what i can remember....)

day 1 (112km): riding out of queens park in toronto is always emotional and amazing. people standing on the street clapping and waving, wishing us well. AND the ride down younge street is beautifully downhill all the way, unlike most of the rest of the day. So riding out of toronto was great i was busting it a little, sometimes getting frustreated stuck behind someone going a little slower than my training rythm, but i got better at being ok going slow. i remembered from last year that the first day was pretty hilly. but shit. after lunch there are some awesome hills. and by after lunch the adreneline of the morning has worn off and lunch is kinda sitting like a rock in your belly. going up the hills then is challenging. but i still end up loving the hills!

day 2 (126km): our team was sweeps for the morning. so what this mean is that we have to be at the very end making sure that no one is left behind. basicly riding slower than the slowest rider. and it's a touhgj ride. 58km to lunch and hilly no as bad as the first day but still some good hills. so yes slower than the slowest rider. some of my team mates found it very challenging. i kinda enjoyed it. 9km/h was mentioned as the speed we were going on flats. if you're not a cyclist, this is quite slow. most people can jog at that rate. the medium riders on the rally are usually going 20-27kph. but we did alright. the one rider we were following eneded up breaking a spoke and the freind who was riding with them decidied they should both get rides to lunch (where the mechanics were) yay! now we can go fast untill be find the next slowest riders. all was going great unitll i hear a "sssssssssssssst" at first i was coulnt' figure out what the noise was and a flat tire didn't occur to me as i had recently purchased puncture resistant tires. but yes i had a flat front tire. so i pulled off, my tube stem (where you [put the air in) was basically hanging off) so i  changed it and got on the road again. not made it past the next two breaks and we're about 2km out from lunch and 1/2 way to camp (and at this point it's also 2:30 in the afternoon, the team members that didn't sweep  arrived at camp another 58km away at 3:30) so we're way behind and so busting it. then i hear another psssssssssst. yep another flat this time the back tire. puncure from the rim side. arg. and i'm out of tubes. so i find the hole patch it up, start inflating the tire and psssssssst oh great! another hole. and just as i get my tire off again to find the 2nd hole a van pulls up. they're going to take me to lunch the dears they are. so after lunch we didn't have to sweep but i had a tire to fix and my frint tire to inflate all the way, and ym darn back tire woudnt seat properly. so i was the last one to leave lunch before the afternoon sweeps.  but decided to bust and and ended up getting into camp around 5:30. 58km in about 2.5 hours. not to shabby. and we get to ride the ferry. that's always fun. the cold lake felt great that night i tell you 8+ hours on a bike. whoooo.

day 3: red ress day! so today the whole camp in encouraged to dress in red and for most that means wearing red dresses. it's our "short day" only 50km. so we dress up and scare the locals. imaging 250+ men in dresses biking thorugh your small town. we turn some heads, mostly becasue we look fabulous! over the top is encouraged, some folks even do it in heels. it's a great time. and i decided to try going slow again today. i decided i could only pass 10 people. so once i had done that i just hung behind a group and sang, enojyed the scenery (which was beautiful) and spun. what a great ride! and when we got to kingston one of the newest sponsors of the rally is a brewerey and they gave us beer with lunch. so we have the afternoon off. i'm showered and changed. and feeling great. so i might just go for a nap.

but remember what i was saying about all the little bits adding up to something amazing? two things, first, the ride is broken up into small chunks with breaks thoughout the day. so the most you ever have to ride is just over 20km. so it's great. small bits, bike for an hour get fed, bike for another hour, eat some more keep doing this and eventually you're at camp. it's awesome. and second. so far the rally has raised over 1100000 dollars. i don't have my glasses on but thats 1 million 1 hundred dollars. you see all the twonies and loonies and change that we all get when we are fundraising get all put together to riase an amazing amount of money.  I feel so blessed to be a part of this ride, it really is a life changing experience. if anyone is interested registration for next year is already open *hint hint*

alright. must go apply arnica oil. and stretch some more.
warm fuzzies to you all
jaye

Saturday 28 July 2012

Here we go!

Alright! Less than 17 hours before i'll hope on my little bike and pedla like crazy all the way to montreal. After packing all my gear into the support trucks, i'm taking some time at a friends place to relax and reflect. I'm not really in a reflective mood, I'm actually kinda sleepy and think i should go find more food but if i was not sleepy and had more food i think i would be reflective. Actually i fell like i have nervous belly, you know anticipation, fear, excitement, and fear all wrapped up in one adn manifesting in a wierd flip flop motion in yer insides. questions popping in and out of my head, will i sleep through my alarm tomorrow morning? will i pop a tire? get hit by a car? will people like me? Will I be able to do it? I joined this ride to challenge myself, to grow, to take chances, my discomfort and questions right now tell me i'm doing just that. I'm throwing myself into something that feels totally new (even though i did it last year). I'm not good with new, i like predictable, i like order, i like to stay at home and read and play with my cats or mess around in the garden. Jumping into a huge group (like say 400) of new people and trying to get over that "i need to fit in" feeling is a good challenge for me. I know it's hard to belive but i really am incredibally shy, and my discomfort with new stems out of that. But this is why i ride. to show myself that sometimes jumping in without testing the water can be an amazing expereicne. and every time i jump without testing my fear of jumping gets a little bit smaller. i find a little bit more comfort in the unknowns. So i guess i am getting reflective, a few years ago a friend of mine was killed while riding his bicycle, I got thinking of him today, how amazingly brilliant (and i mean shiny) he was. he was such an incredible loving light, how genuine and open he was. life is so complex and so unpredicatble, and that is what makes it beautiful. You really never know where life will take you, it's not gunna be rainbow and glitter unicorns all the time, sometimes it'll be downright shitty.  but i think it's ot really "what" you live though but 'how" you live through where life takes you. And i think it takes stepping outside where you are comfortable. step outside of what you think you are and have a look back at yourself. it's pretty awesome, and terrifying. But this is why i ride, this is me getting further away from what i think i am and getting closer to who i really am.

so thank you all for your incredible support. thank you for reading my (infrequient and badly spelled and grammered) rants and wanderings. thank you for giving me your change and helping me raise almost $4400 for an incredible organization. I'll be donating around 425 to the local AIDS committee in your honour. and to those who didn't have the change to spare, thank you for your warm thoughts and words of encouragement, they are every bit as important to me.

ok i'm signing off, i'll hope to post an update once we get to kingston, and i have acess to internet again.
many blessings.

Friday 6 July 2012

Riding a bike is about embrasing fear and discomfort

So i went on a great training ride the other morning (before it got stinkin hot thankfully). It has been a little bit since i've been on  a really decent ride. and i was biking around the city (around and around). i got to thinking. i was thinking about how cycling is like life. now i have been known to get all philosophical and stuff as i ride then write about it on this blog, so if you're so over reading about all that stuff i suggest you stop reading now. so yes cycling is like life. you see when you're on your bike you feel things, well at least i personally feel things. i feel more in touch with what i'm feeling and i think that comes from being hyper aware as to not get hit by cars or fall off the road or whatever, but yes i feel alot on a bike. and i think alot on my bike too. i get into a relaxed thinking state. so the other day i thought i would do a little experiment. i've recently come across a great saying that i've been trying to incorporate into my life more "when i focus on a problem, the problem increses. when i focus on finding a solution, the solution increases." great huh. i really like. so hills. i'm a wacko and really love hills.  love going up them. i see a huge hill coming up and i start to smile. it's odd i know. but that's what happens. and i usually have no problem going up the hills. so the experiment. when i saw a hill in the distance, i made myself worry, i made myself question, i made the hill seem so incredibly huge and insurmountable in my head. i don't have to tell you how it turned out. it was hard. it was agonizing to go up. so at next equally big hill i let myself get the usual excited that i get when i see a hill. easy as pie going up. coincidence? i think not. embrace the hills. embrace. the. hills.

on a semi related note, i thought about embracing the weee. i know this sounds strange but it's good. promise. so going down hills (there are alot of hills on my training routes). you can go really slow and brake the whole way, or you can go really fast. really fast can be terrifying or it can be really fun. if you are heading down a hill at 45kph+ and all you are thinking about is what a horrible mess you would make if you crashed going this fast, then you are not embracing the weee (and chances are you are also really tense making a wipeout way more likely). So relax embrace the weee, i find it helpful to actually say "weee" as you are going down the hill. kindof like on a roller coaster but without the awkward safety restraints cutting of circulation or thoughts of who sat in that seat before you did and what they did while they were there.

cycling is not really comfortable. it can be downright uncomforatble, (just look at the seat). but so is life. it has moments of compleate bliss, and then moments where you think you might just die. and if you get through those moments where you think you might die, you've grown a little.  and growing is good. and some of our best growing comes from places where we feel discomfort.  i've done alot of growing on my bike (and not just my leg muscles, although they are quite impressive). in my time on my bike i get challenged i get uncomfortable, i learn about myself and where i think my limits are. a few years ago i hadn't even been near a bike in 8 years or so. who woulda thunk i'd be totally fine biking 100+km/day. and then there's the new people and new experiences factor. so i'm a shy wee person. i like to be at home with my cats, usually laying on the floor with them in the sun, i'm fine being alone, lots of "new" stresses me out a little (ok a lot). but it's good. the more i expose myself to the "new" the more social i realise i really am. i can carry on inteligent conversation in a group of people. amazing!

alright that's enough rambling about life and cycling.
wear your helmets! brains are cool!




Saturday 16 June 2012

Minimum Surpassed!

This is amazing news! So i have fundraised over $2200 so far (and still have over a month of fundraising to go!) So what this means is for every $100 over that minimum i will take 20 bucks out of my pocket (where there are endless numbers of 20 dollar bills...) and donate it to the AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellington County. To see the amazing things they do in my home community click here.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. and wear your helmets!



Going nowhere fast: Why i love fundraising on my trainer

Yep, I hear that line alot. It gets old pretty quick, like after once. But i'll hear that line over and over again and keep smiling because i love fundraising on my bike trainer. If you don't know what that is, i basically set up my bike on a stand that puts the back wheel off the ground so i can pedal and "go nowhere fast", i put a little sign on my bike that says "please donate," attach a little bucket to the front of my handlebars, hop on my bike and pedal away.  I've done alot of my fundraising this year like this, and raised over 1000 dollars. I really love it and this is blog about why.

So this morning i set up at 7am at the Guelph farmers Market, a place i visit each week. I'm an early market goer because the crowds overwhelm me, most days. So i go early, get my veggies and go home to my cats. Not that i don't love the market. I do, very much in fact. I just get people overload very quickly there. I do enjoy seeing people i know, and saying hi to the vendors, but i am quite shy by nature, and so home to my cats i go. But here i am once again set up on my trainer, having all kinds of strangers/partial strangers and freinds come up and talk to me. for hours I allow that little bit of extrovert in me shine. I talk to strangers. It feels good. I find it incredibally inpriring when i'm there cycling away looking at the birds flying overhead (chimney swifts this morning), and someone walks by, i say "good morning" they slow down, i tell them what i'm doing and who the money goes towards, and they pull out their wallet and drop in a few coins. They have no idea who i am. they probably don't know anyone with HIV/AIDS but they still open thier wallets and wish me a good ride. I had a few very moving moments this morning. A woman walked by me on her way into the market. I said "good morning," she ignored me. Fine. She came back out and we made eye contact. She walked over and dropped a twoonie in my bucket. I said thank you and she walked off. A few hours later, she comes by again and pulls out a twenty and puts it in my bucket and says "Thank you for doing this." Good lord i teared up. that's what gets me. these small interactions with strangers that mean so much. Or when i told a woman and hers kids what i was riding for she came by later got her kids to put a few coins in my bucket and thanked me for getting a disscussion going with her kids about what AIDS was. Amazing. Me riding my bike in a public place is getting people talking with thier kids about AIDS.

I also really love doing the trainer fundraising as it really reminds me how small actions can really add up to something amazing. a few quarters and loonies for you, added to everyone elses quarters and loonies can make a huge difference. Like how me spining my little legs along with all the other riders spinning thier little legs on our way to montreal can help raise over a million dollars  (random tidbit: over %40 of PWAs operating budget comes from this rally) for such an amazing organization and how all the seemingly small things, like a fresh cooked meal, or a much needed medication, that PWA does makes such a huge difference in the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS.

So thank you all, thank you for all the little things you do in your life. they do add up and can make a huge impact.

Thursday 31 May 2012

Tri-Pride event coming up!

So tonight i'm getting all my stuff in order for Tri-Pride this weekend. Shining up my bicycle, making sure my trainer still functions (i did after all find abaondoned in the basement of the farmhouse, and that is THE creepiest basement i have ever ventured into, but i digress..) getting all my posters and jars and all ready to set up at tripride and cycle my little buns off hoping to get people to drop a little spare change in my jar.

How did i get so lucky as to get a table at Tri-Pride you ask. Well it actually started at Guelph Pride Dance, one of the organizers of tri-pride came over to me and we gots ta chatting and he wanted to help me raise some more money. so this lovely man has been getting me contacts at tri-pride and put my name in for a complementary community table. SOLA (the southern ontario leather assosiation) bought a few community tables that they then donated to causes/groups who might not otherwise be able to afford to table there. So this lovely man at tri-pride got me a free table to fundraise from.

You see this is another reason i do this ride. it contstantly reminds me of the amazingly good nature of people. people I don't even know wish me good luck and empty their pockets into my donation bucket. people i barely know go out of their way to help me raise doantions. makes me think back to the ride last year, where along the route, there would be people, just random people on the street, stopped to watch all the bikes go by, and they clap, they clap and cheer for all of us riding our way to montreal. they have no idea who we are or what we're doing, but still they clap, they smile as we ride by, they feel the strength and the love that is embodied in this ride. this is why i ride.  your support, and the support of people i don't even know keeps my legs spinning, long after i've compleatly lost feeling in them.

so if you're out and about kitchener city hall on saturday. have look for me on my trainer. come say hi and bring me water and carbs. also as a side note the rainbow chorus will be singing on the mainstage! come sing along!

lots of love to you all.
jaye

Monday 21 May 2012

oh May. where did you go?

so may kicked my butt. i havn't been on a training ride since my last post. i feel crummy about it. i really like my bike. and need to mke time to do those longer rides. i'm up over 50 kms now and it takes a chunk of time to complete that. and even more time to eat enough so i don't pass out while riding.  but i have been doing what i like to call sprint training. on my way to or from (or both) from work. i basicly bike as hard and as fast as i can for the majority of the ride. this isn't really a poor excuse for not doing  long distance. apartently some of the best long distance runners in the world train by doing sprints as the main part of their training program. so maybe it'll work for me? who knows. seems to be doing alright so far. i need to tackle the 50km boundery this week. should be alright just finding the time, and energy (farming=lots of energy) to do it... arg.

may did have some amazing moments. i set up on my bike trainer at the opening dance to Guelph Pride. The amamzing folks there to dance and have a good time dropped a cool $249.50 into my donation bucket. Amazing. totally amazing. rode for about 4 hours straight (ha! straight at a gay dance ha!) it was great. awesome people.

well i gunna sign off and go dream about riding my bike. i'll be over 50 soon. promise.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

BAM 45km!

Just got home from a beautiful 45 km ride, now i'm sipping my yummy chocolate peanut butter protien drink. yum!
so yes beautiful day, great for a ride. i started out heading towards my friends place who lives out in the countryside west of guelph to drop something off fo them. gets good and hilly out those parts. i tried out a few new roads today. as a point dirt roads and paved roads look a whole latta the same in google maps. so ya. i hit a dirst road. but it actually wasn't that bad some of the roads in guelph have bigger bike eating pot holes. and plus dirt roads and bumpy roads are good for building up the butt callus. yes that's what i said. butt callus. there are points on your (and my) prosterior that are in regular contact with the seat. if you just start out biking. those points will be quite sore indeed. after a little while you develop "butt callus" your tooshie gets tougher and more able to handle the rigours of the road. butt callus, use it in a sentance today and get 5 points.

but back to the ride. so it took me 2.5 hours. no shabby. and thats with snack breaks and shaking fists at drivers breaks and pee breaks. oh pee breaks! i used my sneekee outside for the first time at the side of the road. how fricken awesome was it you ask? well it was pretty fricken awesome. important thing to take into account - which way is the wind blowing. yep i'll get better at that one.
and! i'm recovering from a cold so my nose was running like crazy, and i forgot my hankie at home. i can only sniff fos much before i start to go cross eyed (not good on a bike), so i did it. i did something that usually totally grosses me out. i shotguned. for those of you that live wonderfully sheltered lives shotguning involves covering one nostral (on your nose), and blowing like the dickens, shooting the snot out of your nasal cavities and onto the ground. charming isn't it. so i was desperate. so i did it and needless to say i need more practice and again the wind was my enemy. ew.

i took a new route from niska to laird, i cut though a subdivision. it was super nice riding. roads were quiet and really wide, no bike lanes but it didn't matter. man i wish all the roads were like that. then out to arkell i went and headed down watson to stone. now i didn't think it would be possible to have a section of road worse than victoria near york. but watson has taken the cake. yay for butt callus building. and again my beefs with random bike lanes that start and stop without reason and generally make no sense. on stone from watson to victoria there is an awesome bike lane. then as soon as you get into town (where there are more cars and the roads are narrower) the bike lane disapears. instead you get a nice soft dirt shoulder as wide as a lane of traffic. really how hard would it have been to continure that sucker into town. arg.

alright that's my rant for today. let's celebrate something. like fundraising awesomeness! you've all helped my raise $930.15, this is so incredable! and the peezees are going fast. act now for your first choice in colours. for more details click here for the facebook event.

have an amazing evening folks. wear your fricken helmet!

Sunday 15 April 2012

i love bears

it's true. i really love bears. last night i went to the tri-city bear meat at sizzle in cambridge, set up on my little bike trainer and donation box, hoping to get a few donations towards the rally. and boy are those folks awesome, all night long folks would stop by and chat to me and drop some change into my donation box. (sizzle is an awesome dance space btw) i started biking at 8pmish and kept peddling through to 130am (with a few pee breaks). what at awesome night, great crowd, sexy folks, great music, bears, did i mention i love bears. i must say the one liners you hear when ridieng a bike trainer for hours and hours at a gay bar are very different then the ones i get at the farmers market, a little more x rated and awesome. bit of a step up from the "well you're going nowhere fast" of the market. haha. not to mention i've never had my ass grabbed at the farmers market....

going to events like this are just one of the ways that being a part of the ride is helping me expand my comfort zones and learn more about myself. by nature i'm a shy wee person, i don't really like new situations, being by myself in new sitiatons, going places by myself where i won't know anyone. but every time i do it, everytime i do something i've nevere done before, go a pace new by myeslf,  i realise it usually will work out fine, and can acutlly be really fun. not the aniety inducing event that i make it out to bei in my brain. oh brain you do exagerate soemtimes. there there it's ok. i can be fun, outgoing and sociable, even it situations where my brain tells me i souldn't do it cause i'm a shy wee person. don't get me wrong my stomache was in knots on the drive over there, but ya everytime i go someplace new, i grow a little. expand my ideas of myself and what i can accomplish and retrain my brain to think i'm capable of more than i think i can do. hey i can ride a bike for 5.5 hours, not feel super aweful the next day my body amazes me sometimes. 

oh and all those amazing folks dropping their pocket change into my donation box donated 237.15. see when everyone gives a little it can turn into something amazing.

thank you all again for your support you keep my legs spinning and my wheels a'turning.

Thursday 12 April 2012

first training ride done!

so after work today i decided to go for a wee ride. i thought 40km would be a good starting point. and i had already mapped out a decent looking 38km ride last week.
i must say what a beautiful evening for a ride. i got started around 630pm and as i made my way out to the feilds and farmland that surround guelph the light was just incredible. all gold and warm feeling, which was good casue i was in my bike shorts. i did think to put on mitts though that was a smart move. so this was a new route. i thought i had it easy and could use all my routes from last year, but then i remembered that i moved. so the kms are off. arg. but that's ok new routes are fun. this one was quite hilly, for the first half. ah guelph -latin for giant f'n hills all over the place. many a time i remembered that "oh shit" feeling i get when i look up to see a nice long steady incline. but hills did end up being my forte in the actual rally last year. i have yet ot find a route with less than 3 intense hills. and silly me each time i hit them i try to do them faster. but the ride went well. i got home just as the sun was going down. very pretty.
one thing i ddin't have was my trusty waterbottle backpack thing. it was packed away and i have no idea where it is. i must find it. i really hope it's not in one of the "random" boxes of stuff that was packed at the end and is just a mishmash of lots of stuff. i'd really like to find it before saturday. casue this saturday as you can remember i'm heading to the Bear Meat at sizzle, with my bike and trainer to try to drum up some donations. i'm sure it'll be a great time. well shoot i'm knackered. hense why this blog is slightly train-of-thought-disjointed-like so i'm off to bed.

Monday 9 April 2012

Amazingness of amazingness

first off that last blog post, i forgot to make go live.... so it's a little late and out of order but there it is.

So awesome news! Peezee the makers of the Sneekee stand to pee device, are super amazing and are going to let me sell their product as a fundraiser. so this is amazing for a number of reasons
1- the product is awesome
2- peeing standing up is awesome
3- you could get one, AND donate to an awesome cause all at the same time

so what is a skeekee and why is it awesome.
what it is: it's a stand to pee device. check out thier fb page, to see what it looks like.  it's device that makes it super easy for anyone to stand to pee without even taking off your pants!  i found it really easy to get the hang of.

why it's awesome:
-no more need to squat in the bug infested woods, just unzip. no pesky skeeters biting your special places
-dirty roadtrip washroom? not a problem. no more hovering over the yucky seat.
-so easy to use
-they fold flat! easy to slip into a pocket or purse (or man purse)
- they come in colours other than purple! (thought you can get purple if you like)
-you can write your name in the snow!(if we ever get snow again...)

who it's aweome for:
-outdoorsy folks (bikers, hikers, campers etc)
-people who travel
-people who really don't like public washrooms
-people who have always wanted to use a urinal
-folk festival hopppers
-farmers
-you!
-etc

i know you're thinking "how do i get one of these amazing devices?" well that is easy too! simply go to my sponsorship page and donate 15 bucks (per peezee) to the cause. then send me an email at crawford.jaye at gmail dot com. with your mailing address and  peezee in the subject line and i'll pop one in the mail (or drop it by your house if you live in guelph).

they come in a selection of colours and i should have the order to me this week and will let you know the selection of colours as soon as i have them.

awesome! oh and did i mention it is really fun to pee standing up. like really.

bike safe y'all and wear your helmet. (and pee standing up!)
jaye

more pee!

Hello again. so if you read along with my training last year, you will remember that peeing was a issue on my training rides. not like an issue in that i wet myself, but that i needed to stop and pee alot. and there are not many places in guelph and surrounding area where one can discretely water a tree, if you catch my drift.
and i found the same along the ride itself. i need to pee often. gas stations and other pee freindly places do not happen often. and if you're just catching on, i can't stand to pee. i remember on the ride biking by all these lucky folks who just tucked into a fence row along the road and way we go! all the while i'm wondering where the next mcdonalds is. not fun. so this year i have a plan. some genius folks have devised ways for those of us who find standing to pee challanging, to pee standing up with ease!they're called STPs or stand to pee. unfortunatly these same awesome folks have decided that the only accepetable colours for STPs are purple (lavender), pink (rose), bright blue, orange, basicly any colour that is not easy to keep a secret. and some of these things are huge. the folks at diva cup just came out with one
so i just ordered me one of these  puppies (no it's not actually a puppy), it's a sne-kee.  looks awesome. comes in some descrete colours, folds flat, is nice and small and hopfully easy to use

Sunday 1 April 2012

STP update and Upcoming events!

So I got home the other day to find a letter for me in the mail. It was my Sneekee, stand to pee device. I promptly opened it and used it. (Testing in the shower first as recommended). My god I can't say how awesome this device is. So freaken easy to use, and almost stupidly fun. Who knew standing to pee could be so much entertaining.  Now i've been peeing in the shower for years trying to master the peestanding up techniqes on my own but never having the confidence to try it with any clothes on. And with this, I can already use it without even undoing my belt. Awesome. No more cold toilet seats for me. We'll see how it goes when it's stops being so cold and I can get out for a good ride in my skin tight bike shorts. I think it'll be fine.  But ya i havn't sat down to pee at home since i got it. gunna try it at the farm tomorrow, with all my longjohns and all. Wish me luck! Now on my to do list. Put the toilet seat down. Awesome. AND because i love this product so much, and think you will too.  I'm in the works with the buisness owners to sell some as part of my fundraising goals. Keep watching for more details!

In other news! I'm going to be setting up shop (aka me on my bike trainer) at this months Bear Meat at Club Sizzle in Cambridge (135 George St. North), to collect donations. Event is April 14th, doors at 8, NO cover, lots of prizes, me in spandex, lots of fur. All bears and bear admireers and wannabes welcome.  See you there!

Also come visit me (again on my trainer in spandex) at the Annual Guelph Pride Dance, May 5th at the Oakwood Ballroom at Holiday Inn in Guelph. Doors at 9pm, Tickets 10$ in advance available at Out on the Shelf. I might also be setting up for a while on May 7th at the Out on the Shelf Open house. 4pm-9pm. 

Thank you to all these buisnesses and organiztions for letting me take up some of thier valuable floorspace to fundraise for such an awesome casue.

Saturday 24 March 2012

another blog about peeing

hello again! so if you were reading along last year as i was training you'll know that i has some issues around peeing. the issue not being that i wet myself (although i came close), or that i didn't pee, but that i had to pee alot. like every 1/2 hour. and as lovely as guelph is there are not so many areas that one can sneak discretely off to water a tree, if you catch my drift. lots of open feilds, and well in town, not really an option. i found this on the rally last year too. i'd bike by the lucky individuals who are pulled off to the side of the road, neatly tucked into the fenceline, peeing to thier hearts delight. while i, with floating back teeth, pray for a mcdonalds to come up soon. if you havn't figured it out i'm not one of those who can pee while standing.
so this year i thought i'd see how i could fix or improve my "situation". luckily some genius folks have come up with these amazing little devices. STPs they're called. or stand to pee. unfortunatly these same awesome folks have decided that the only incedibally descrete colours they should be available purple, hot pink, bright blue, green (why i don't know), orange etc. and they're not exactly small either. the makers of diva cup just came out with one called the "pstyle" (awesome name). you can buy a pouch that clips on your belt to store it in. things gatta be 8 inches long. oh but i do recommend the video. the girl is really cute  the "go girl" available in (pink or camo!?) fits into a film canister. not bad. another is a "shewee" (where do they come up with the names) which comes in colours like "desert sand" and "nato green". and of all the companies i mentioned only the pstyle actually mentions trans folks on thier site.  so i just ordered one of these  puppies (not it's not actually a puppy) it's called a sne-kee. again not a fan of the name but better than shewee for sure. made in canada, folds flat and small, more descrete colours. and relativly inexpensive. hey if it means i can pee when i need to rather than where it's possible that's worth it. so should arrive in the mail in a few days and we'll see how it goes from there. ok now i really think i've reached the to much information point yes? yes.

in other news i just got my bike back from it's spring tune up. and after going for a hike tomorrow might go for a wee spin. see how 40km feels.

and thank you all for your donations. you are my heros.
happy biking! wear your helmet!

Saturday 17 March 2012

Helmets, and why they are amazing

So spring has sprung, and people are thinking "hey i could get out my bike!" which is awesome. i just wish at the same time they were thinking "hey now where is my helmet?" On my bike up to work the other day i passed a number of cyclists, only one other person was wearing a helmet. why?
while it's not manditory to wear a bike helmet if you're an adult in canada, and some "interesting" debate around if it were made manditory is out there. for example such gems as "making helmets manditory will decrease bike ridership and overall decrease the health benefits of biking blah de blah"   *cough* bullsh!t. if someone gets hit by a car and gets a brain injury how is that a health benefit? or "if cyclists start wearing helmets they'll be less cautious on the road and get into MORE accidents" seriously! seriously?  or even this "i could get hit by a car while walking, should i be wearing a helmet then too? how about we wear helmets all the time!"  or this, " it's a violation of my freedoms to make me wear a bike helmet" oh i wish i was making this up.
so why arn't people wearing helmets? they don't cost alot, 20 bucks gets you an incredibally functional (and somewaht stylish) helmet, and that's way less than it would cost to mamage a brain injury. or is people don't want to take the time (5 seconds) to put a hemet on before they get on thier bike, "i'm sooooo buzy!".  or maybe vanity? "it'll mess up my hair", " i'll look like a dweeb", "i love how the wind feels blowing through my louschous locks of golden hair". this is crap y'all. most stats i could find stated that over 90% of the cyclists killed in collisions with cars were not wearing helmets. ya gatta face it folks. in the bicycle versus car game on the road, the bicycle rarely wins.
 ya see your head carries around this really amazing thing in your body, your brain. the brain does all sorts of cool things for us but is generally a pretty fragile thing  (from someone who has had a number of concussions). i'd say if you have the chance to protect it, even in a small way, by wearing a helmet, please do.  brains are way cooler than haircuts. and brain injuries are not a whole lot of fun. so please protect your melon.    

Wednesday 29 February 2012

racecar spelled backwards

So i race cars, not in a car, but on my bike. on tank this time of year to be specific. which is a challenge seeing as tanks real name is slow-moving-heavy-and slightly dangerous to ride-rust-bucket.. so what is racing cars? and why do i find it enjoyable.? let me explain. first the rules: the first rule of racing cars when riding a rust bucket or any other two wheeled human powered machine is to accept failure. you won't beat them, ever, you'll get close though, so yep accept that, it's all very zen. rule number two, just beacause you're going fast doesn't make you invincible, be aware of what's going on around you and watch out for cars and other hard sided fast moving objects. rule three, you must obey the traffic rules, stopping at stop signs and stuff. rule four, for christ sakes wear your ficken helmut, come on hipsters all the cool kids are doing it. how to race cars 101: when at a stop light or stop sign take note of the cars around you, then when the light changes try to catch them at the next stoplight. that's it super fun super simple. i've gone from work to downtown catching the same cars at each stoplight on a good day (ie they hit all reds). it feels awesome. this game is especially fun when racing some ass who has cut you off  (likely they were also talking on thier cell at the time) or leaned on thier horn as they passed you. they think they're in a car and can get away all annonymous-like. it's super fun when you pull up beside them at the next light and wave.

on an amazing fundraising note. total so far is 373! woot. thanks so much. my little website says that's 6% or my goal. almost there! if you'd like to sponsor please visit my sponsorship page

ride safe y'all

Friday 10 February 2012

the FUNdraising begins!

Hello Friends,

Once again I’m climbing on my little two wheeled, human powered machine and making my way from Toronto to Montreal, over 600km, to raise funds for Toronto People With AIDS Foundation (PWA). This time with a bigger goal and a smaller beard.

Your donation helps PWA to fund services for thousands of men, transmen, transwomen, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, and it gives me hope and inspires me to keep biking up all those hills and through all the different kinds of weather. Your spirit of giving is the wind at my back.

And this year I have big dreams. Last year You helped me raise 3600 dollars. This year I’m shooting for 6000, yep that’s a big number but I know we can do it. I’m running on the premise that every little bit counts.

Some ideas on how to find little bits
-Get a jar (a pretty one) and at the end of each week empty your small change from your pockets and wallet into that jar. When it starts to get heavy count it and then send the heavy thing to me. Even if it’s all pennies. That’s awesome.
-During lent (if you do lent) if you gave up something that costs money (buying coffee for instance), take the money you would have spent and send donate it to me. Easy!
-Raid your couch cushions, you never know what you might find!
-You know that giant stack of beer bottles sitting in your (or your neighbours!) garage. Gold mine!

See there are all kinds of ways to find little bits of cash that can make a huge difference for a person living with HIV/AIDS. Let’s make all those little bits add up to something amazing.

And once again, for every 100 dollars over the $2200 minimum raised I’ll be donating 20 dollars of my own to The Guelph and Wellington AIDS Committee. Last year you helped me donate 280 dollars to this amazing local organisation. If I reach my goal of $6000 in donations, that's 760 buckeroos to a wonderful local organization

Thank you so much for your continued support
Sincerely
jaye

Quick Reminder! All donations over $20 will receive a charitable tax receipt.


Please click the link on the side of the page that says "click here to donate" to be taken to my online sponsorship page. or next time you see me give me your pocket change. whatever works best for you.

Also i am looking for locations to set up my bike on my trainer and ride for a few hours to collect donations if you have ideas or a spot i can use please let me know. look for me outside the farmers market in the next coming weeks!

day 4 and 5 blur, and day 6

So  i don't remember alot about day 4 and 5. they were mostly a blur of biking eating biking and eating.it was really pretty. i remember that and at the end of day 5 there was a candlelit ceremony that was quite moving.
day 6 we crossed the border to quebec.
My and some of my team doing the celebratory photo at the border
then we started on our way towards montreal. it was a nice ride. in kingston they said "it's all downhill from here" they lied. but the last day was super nice and flat. then getting into montreal was a trip! we all met at a certain spot so we could bike into montreal en masse. we totally took over the waterfront bike lanes. and for some reason the police escort didn't happen like it did in toronto and we got stuck at stopsign and stoplight after stoplight. we basicly walked into downtown montreal. kinda anticlimactic. but we kept our spirits up by doing the wave and singing. then we arrive at our final destination. and lucky for me my love is just stepping out of the bus terminal as i pull up. i start to cry the moment i see her. ah love. so we get some free beer compliments of montreal pride and do lots of hugging and congratulating. then christine and i treck off to find our hotel. you see i won a free stay at the W hotel. which is a way swankier hotel than i would ever be able to afford. you walk into the place and you think you're in a fancy dance club. dimmed lights dance music the whole bit. our room is awesome. king sized bed and a shower that you can see into from the bed! woo! we go out for dinner and drinks with my teammates then head back for the night. we were heading to biodome the next day and i was exausted. and my parents were going to arrive the next day to start our vacation out east. 

Over all it was an amazing and inspring ride. I was able to push myself physically harder than i have in a long time, was able to expand my comfort zone immesely, i got a really awesome bike short tan, i met amazing people, and to top it all off you helped my raise 3600 for an amazing cause, and 280 for a local amazing cause.
Me, My love, and my giant beard at the finish line
So that's it for last year. i'll try to get those videos up. but getting pictures on here is a huge accomplishment for me, so it might take a bit.

Now onto this year. Big Dreams, Big Goals, Smaller Beard! click the sponsor me link on the side bar to go to my sponsorship page.

and this year i'll try to be more on top of this blogging thing

Day 3 red dress day!

SOOO sexy!
so this is short day. we ride into kingston where there is a read bed awaiting us. and becasue it's a "short day" we do it in dresses! My dress was a hit. And not so bad to bike in afterall. you see i didn't really get a chance to try it out before the ride. i thought biking through guelph in this outfit might not be the best idea. So off we go. Today i rode with my team, in a group. it was alot alot of fun. we got going really fast. it was kinda scarey. only a few close misses (one my fault ops). and then as we were pulling into kingston an idiot in an suv decided i wasn't going that fast and that making a right turn just after they had passed me was an awesome idea. lukily i'm good on my bike and have come to expect drivers of large vehicles to not know how to be nice to bikes and was able to avoid being run over. i yelled and swore at the driver. i bet they've never been swore at by a bearded man in a dress before. it was a great day. and then in kingston we went out for dinner and to a drag show. not jsut any drag show, the most amazing drag show i have ever been to. miss conception and heroine marks. amazing. blew my mind. totally redefined what drag queens can do. it was awesome. and miss conception was a rider in the rally so did a show then had to get up and ride over 100k the next day. amazing.

The ride day 2

so day 2!
Not a good sky colour for biking
we awoke in the middle of the night to a thunderstorm. Thankfully i have a good tent (unlike some of my more unfortunate fellow riders) and getting wet was not an issue, but the lovely tree i had parked my tent under (so i wouldn't get cooked out of my tent by the morning sun) was the one and only topic of my thoughts as the storm raged on. We had to delay our start be a few hours because there was so much lightning. Bikes and lightning are not a good combo. So they have a look at weather maps, the weather has passed we're good to go. We take off and after rideing for a while, me and one other rider are riding along some sort of escarpment, you can see a long way and all you can see is big dark clouds. i mention casually that i think it might be coming our way. so silly us we try to out bike it. that never really works i figure. we got drentched. but it was awesome. tear jerker number 1 came in the middle of the downpour (no lightning) we;re biking out in the middle of no where and parked on the side of the road is a van, outside the van under umbrellas and in raincoats are the members of a local PFLAG rining bells and cheering for every rider. needless to say i started to cry. it was awesome. by lunch the rain had stopped but we were all soaking. i had mostly dried off by the time we pulled into camp but my shoes, oh they were wet. it wasn't so bad, the old newspapers in the shoe trick worked wonders. again the campsite was awesome and the food amazing. i swear that food crew deserves a medal. one thing i do need to remember for this year is earplugs. i have no idea how people have the energy to party after cycling for 110 km.

The Ride! (flashback to end of july 2011) day 1

Oh my how to sum this up and make it short enough that you all will still want to read it.

OK day 1:
Ready to go! Nervous as hell!
I had slept over at a freinds house and then biked from there to our meeting point at queen's park. Yep i biked in toronto. you people who live and bike there i salute you. that is some crazy traffic. please wear a helmet. please! So queens park. 350 riders plus crew gather, listen to speaches, get a large group photo taken, then all at once take off down the streets of toronto, with police escort thankfully. what an awesome sight. i didn't really know anyone at this point, and my legs were shaking from nerves but all i had to do was keep my legs moving. that's simple enough. and before i know it it's time for snacks! let me tell you, you will never go hungry on this ride. the snacks and food is awesome, and on top of that you don't have to make any of it. i ate like a king. and realisd how many calories my body should be getting on a daily basis. wow. our first campsite was on lake ontario, in a farmers feild. when i arrived my team leaders had grabbed my bins and the bins of my teammates so we could set up our tents together. this made my little nervous heart celebrate. no awkward walking around "can i set up my tent here?" it was awesome. then we got to eat more! then go to bed. i made a video that night be for some reason it didn't work. it's alright. i got all mushy anyway. but i did make other videos i will publish once i figure out how to make them smaller. A few things that did become apparent at the end of the day, 1- I'm good at hills, i spent my day passing people going up hill, who knew! 2- i didn't put on enough sunscreen.  

That is a crispy looking face.

Final Results (back in time #2)

So last years fundraising results! You amazing people helped me raise 3601 dollars. yep that's a chunk of change! And true to my word. I've donated $280 (20 bucks for every 100 over the 2200 minimum) to the local AIDS comittee of guelph and wellington. Amazing you are all amazing thank you so much.

To Barrie and beyond!

So I left you all the night before i was to embark on my bike journey from guelph to my parents place (north of barrie). To prep for this i had google mapped a route, written it all out, brought a map that i thought was suffiicient (note that i thought it was sufficient...), i ordered a large cheeze pizza to take with me for snacks. packed some extra drink crystals, filled my h20 bottle, filled my paniers with cliff bars, and went to bed.
woke up the next morning early. i wanted to be on my bike around 7 (i think). christine took some photos for me:


Handlebar set up, with ever important left and right on hands.

all ready to go


And then i was off. Things started out smashingly. the weather was lovely, light wind. i felt great. the cold pizza was awesome. Then i hit an odd turn just around rockwood area. thinking i knew what i was doing i biked merrily on. and on and on. then i hit hwy 124. i wasn't supposed to be anywhere near hwy 124. this was a problem. thankfully i hit it right where a gas station was, i went in and got myself a better map (with backroads!) found where i was, where i was suppposed to be, took in the realisation that i had biked about 20 km off track, sighed, and got back on my bike. On the right track again i hot some pretty awesome hills. if you have never been to chetlanham badlands by bike i recommend it. it's quite the trip.

The roads are as hilly as the badlands.

the next stretch was quite nice along the trans canada trail from Inglewood to Tottenham. Nice packed stone. flat flat flat! i had a lovely lunch with christine's mom in the tdot. (tottenham that is), then carried on. where i met with the worst road to bike on i could have coem across. it was so nice and flat, but so gravely and rocky it made it feel like my nice padded bike shorts weren't even there.  

Doesn't look that bad from here.
      
But persist i did over 10km of the stuff. Aweful. But at the end of the road, i stopped to take a bike and had a lovely converstation with a fellow biker that had jsut came up the same aweful road. He was very excited about his new spedometer thing on his bike and was going down hills as fast he could trying to beat his speeds. i'm glad he was wearing a helmet.


End point for the day

Wind catcher in barrie

I pulled into barrie late in the afternoon and called my sister to come get me. i told her i'd bike towards her and whereever we meet we meet. I made it to shanty bay. biking a total of 150ish km (including the unintentional detour) in one day. and i didn't feel that bad at all.

Then i stayed two nights at my parents place (one to see my sisters dance recital andone for birthday cake!) then i packed my stuff up again, ready to make the return trip. my dad drove me to the south end of barrie to start my trip off. I took a slightly differnt route going home that would avoid the above road from hell. this  new road, although paved had its nice share of hills. i credit this ride as to why the hills on the bike rally didn't really seem all that bad. The closer i got to home, the harder it became to peddal. i took more and longer breaks. i was ready to get off my bike, then i arrived in rockwood. i wasn't supposed to be in rockwood...that same turn that messed me up on my way to barrie messed me up on my way home. but rockwood was a nice detour. I'll end this now as it is getting long but lo and behold, i made it to guelph over 250km return trip. A great way to see if my body could take the pounding of the 600 km i was about to do.  
Home sweet home (and a giant beard!)

After a long silence the blog awakes!

So remember way back when, i said i was really bad at blogging. yep. i'm really bad at blogging. fell right off the blogging wagon and didn't post a darn thing. Left all you wondering if i ever made it back from the round trip bike to barrie. (i did by the way, hence being able to type this). So here's the deal. I'm gunna doa few posts of recaps of what i should have posted last year. And most importantly get y'all excited about the ride for this year (more details to come!). So without further a-doo, let's go back in time *wooo dooo wooo dooo* <- that's the time machine cound by the way.