Cycling

BMO, bikes butts and bits

Diabetes, Races, Running

Here we go again! It has been just shy of 1 year and 7 months since I last set out to run a race, and while I’m not doing a marathon, half marathon, or even 10 km for that matter, this Sunday, when I snap my Garmin around my wrist and lace my sneakers up for the Vancouver BMO 8 km run, I will be racing – against the other runners on the road, against myself, against Garmin, and most importantly against those frustratingly pokey demons in my head! Given that it’s been so long since I a) have run a race, and b) have raced a distance this short, I’m not sure I prepared as well as I should have… I’m not sure if it was wise I ran speed repeats last Monday; one of the windiest days I’ve ever endured on a run. And even if it was okay, […]

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Tire repair… or not

Diabetes, Running, Training, Uncategorized

So apparently a bike tire isn’t the same as a bike wheel – who knew? Big Ring. For years that dear, semi-patient husband of mine has been correcting me every time I talk about the bike tire when I should be referring to the bike wheel and vice versa. What do you mean it’s not a tire, I’d say, it looks like a tire, how could it not be a tire? But he kept saying wheel, wheel, wheel. And I kept getting more, more, more confused. He tried explaining it. He tried visuals. He tried analogies. He tried separating the parts into a pie chart of tire, wheel, tube and some other rubbery thingy. None of it stuck. And so, I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when I told him one of my favourite running chicks was hosting a tire repair session at her house, he practically bounced

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Saying goodbye

Training, Uncategorized

It felt as though I had been out of love with my Kona Zing for years, almost since I got him it seemed. Every time we hit the pavement, I had nothing but complaints. He’s too slow. He’s too heavy. He squeaks,. Seriously, why the heck is he so far behind? But that evening when Big Ring walked up the stairs, his eyes all alight with excitement, a strange sadness filled my heart. My bike had been sold. And suddenly, it was no longer the glass half empty bike, but rather, the glass full. As I slid my hand over his top tube for a final moment, my heart lurched. I remembered when I first rode him around the neighbourhood, up and down the same street repeatedly so Big Ring could capture our first moments together. And that blistering hot afternoon, riding under the canopy of trees, when I finally

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Trainer trials and tribulations

Diabetes, Training, Uncategorized

Good golly I can’t believe I used to do this for up to an hour, even an hour and a half, at a time! Little Ring: “Tall person with boobies, why are you riding your contraption inside???“ After more than 9 months off the bike, Big Ring pulled Zing out of storage, dusted off the cobwebs, polished her up a bit, and pumped up her tires in preparation for our long-awaited reunion. I’d love to say it was a good one, but as has always been the case, when Zing’s shackled to the bike trainer, it’s more a chore than anything. The bike trainer is nothing like those spring/summer/warm fall days spent in the elements, pedalling hard up the Camosunburg (which isn’t so burg anymore since its repaving this summer), feeling the warm wind whip at my face as I zoom down to Spanish Banks, taking in the scenic views

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Let the cycling season begin

Diabetes, Pregnancy in Diabetes, Races

You know it’s cycling season in the Princess/Big Ring household when Princess wakes up at 3:40 a.m. only to discover she’s alone in the bed, and that Big Ring has been up for hours already in preparation for the early morning viewing of Paris-Roubaix. Apparently his brain had gone into overdrive shortly after we turned the lights off for the night Saturday, and instead of trying to shut his thoughts out, he decided to embrace them. Starting at 1:30 a.m. Big Ring went whole hog on a video project he’d been story boarding in his head for hours. It’s not surprising really given that we were blessed with two days of sunshine this long weekend (mixed with some torrential downpour/sleet/hail) that had Big Ring in his glory atop his mistress Mademoiselle Lapierre. I kid you not, the second that sun comes out, I am lost to him. There’s hours of

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