It's not about the Bike

That's the title of a Lance Armstrong book. talking about hi fight with cancer, putting things in perspective. Meaning that cycling isn't the be all and end all of life. I just had the biggest bike volume month ever. Last year was my biggest ever, at just under 29 hours, this month I did 37.5 hours. That includes a 5 day stretch that we were in Gold Coast and I COULDN'T bike. 37.5 hours and almost 1300km in September, plus all my running and swimming. 37.5 hours in the dungeon, just me, my thoughts, some youtube videos, some good tunes and a few podcasts of interviews with ironman athletes. A 3:00 ride, a 3:15 ride and a 4:00 ride were amongst those, all with at least a mile of running afterwards, just to see how the legs will feel. I find for triathlon, the more I bike, the better I run in the race. Basically, if my legs are less tired after cycling I can run better. Makes sense no? Since mid May I've put in a total of 126.5 hours of cycling, 4038km. ALL on the trainer. Not a single km of that was on the road. WOW! I WILL do some riding on the road before my race, just to get the feel of the bike a bit better. I do ride a mountain bike to and from school at least once a day, that's about 5k per day every day of just commuting, but I don't count that as training. So at least I have that feel for the road still. I rode the bike a bit outside today and it felt awesome, but I DO want to get in a ride or two of at least an hour or two to really tune into how I will feel in the race. I have so many memories of training on the bike. My bedroom in Stittsville, basement in Stittsville, pretty sure even the family room in Stittsville once or twice, the workout room at Daly, Living room in Huntsville, Shillolos' basement in Katrine, now here. Incredible! I love it! I just can't believe all these adventures I've been on over the past three years with this training. So many memories of running, cycling and swimming in different places, not to mention the races and adventures. I've ran all over Ottawa and area, Huntsville, Katrine, Penticton, Peterborough, Florida, Bali, Sydney to Wollongong, Blue Mountains, Gold Coast, Canberra etc etc... I've ran on countless treadmills. Each experience means something different. I have memories from Stittsville treadmill, YMCA treadmill, UO Sports Complex treadmills, Shillolos' treadmill, Deerhurst treadmill, UOW treadmill... frig, I'm like a Gerbil!

I'm babbling now, and it's not even relevant to this Aussie adventure... I just enjoy reflecting on this stuff that has consumed my life over the past 3.5 years, because looking at where I've been and what I've accomplished helps with dreaming about where I might go from here. Speaking of which, I MAY skype with Ray tomorrow or Friday, we'll see though. :)

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting Jared at 6:50AM at the lights at Bourke and Flinders. We'll ride over to the gym together and he'll hit weights while I swim for an hour, in my wetsuit! My brand new wetsuit that I WON almost exactly a year ago! It'll be good to practice swimming in the wetsuit, as I will be racing in it in a couple of weeks!

Tomorrow is October. HOLY CRAP! A little over 7 weeks and I'll be a bonifide teacher!