It's Gonna be a Kickass Summer

T'was the start of my 2017 trip from Ottawa to Quebec City

Not that I was in horrible shape in 2018 but I was working out less and less and gaining more an more. Christmas/New Years is always like piling on unless your're already in training mode.

So how did I get from 'need to workout a bit more' to 'need to get in a half marathon and 2000 km of cycling before early August'?

He're an example of a slippery fitness progression:

1. Gee I should get into better shape, but I dislike running in crappy winter weather and I'm not super keen on the cycling trainer
2. I'll join a Running Room clinic and "pay money for some running friends" as my daughter Claire likes to tease me about.. That was January
3. Sign up for the Ottawa Half Marathon in May, because, well, it's easier to motivate yourself when you have some kind of goal in mind
4. Be reminded of the Air Canada Vacations 401 Bike Challenge by a friend who I've sponsored to ride for several years now.  This was in March
5. Consider and waffle about whether I should register to do the ride - $400 registration fee, $2500 minimum fundraising requirement and training to ride 575 km from Toronto to Montreal over 3 days in late August
6. Commit!

I've never undertaken this kind of fundraising before.  For an introvert like myself, it seems a bit daunting, but I had encouragement from several friends who have undertaken much larger cycling based fundraising initiatives.  They assured me that I can get there via contacts, social media, friends and family, some door to door and basically asking every person I encounter.  Hopefully I can then avoid the 'raffle night', 'bake sale', 'comedy night', 'garage sale' and 'sitting in front of Loblaws begging strangers for donations' type of activities that I would loathe when the kids had to do it for school or sports.

Cycling is my favorite individual fitness activity.  But I usually run more because the one downside of cycling (other than %*# Ottawa winter) is that I find it very time consuming per unit of 'fitness'.  Even for a slow runner like myself, if I was training for a full marathon, it never takes more than 4 hours to do a long slow training run.  But prepping yourself to ride 260 km in a single day between 2 other days means ramping up to weekend rides between 160-220 km.  That takes all fricken day and then you're wiped and useless.

But my wife Desa said it was okay 😇.  For this year.  Only.

I'm very much looking forward to the satisfaction of completing this dual challenge.  It's gonna be kickass!

Take care,
Dan

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Help kids with cancer at both Toronto SickKids and Montreal Children's hospitals and support my fundraising goal. You can donate to my ride via Dan's donation page at the Air Canada Vacations 401 Bike Challenge website.  100% of your tax deductible donation goes to the hospitals

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