Baby Steps

Yikes, the time flies by!

So far this week Michael has been by to set up my bike and I have tried to get my 'sea legs' when it comes to using bike clips. Are they called clips? You know, the funny fabulous funky cycling shoes that fit into the pedals that aren't really pedals...

Anyways, Michael used the analogy of ski bindings and it is an appropriate one. Skiing is another sport where I am always falling on my ass.

I am having all kinds of trouble remembering as I come up to a stop sign or an intersection to unhook a foot. This bike and/or the Ironman is going to kill me one way or another... Michael recommended lots of practising in a parking lot, but I already can see into my future and foretell lots of bumps and bruises. Michael says that this happens to everyone, but that may just be a salve for my ego... Reminds me rather distressingly of the handful of times I've dumped a motorcycle at a stop sign because of a brain cramp. But when practising it is certainly an interesting way to spike my heart rate. May find a new maximum heart rate this way! I feel like I am learning how to walk all over again... Baby steps, Vince. Baby steps!

We had the final dinner and social outing for the Marathon Clinic last night. Seymour, as always, did a bang up job. Few people handle logistics as well as Seymour. And, as per custom, he handed out some amazing awards to people who met their goal times and achieved personal bests. The food and the company last night were/was? excellent and it looked like more people showed up for the dinner than actually ran the marathon in the end. Lots of discussion about ways to limit the drop-out rate next clinic. I still feel pretty strongly that first-timers should be nudged into setting a goal of finishing the marathon injury-free and NOT pursuing a time goal. Hard medicine for some to swallow. Have to love how driven marathoners are as individuals.

This year is shaping up as my 'Year of the Marathon', as marathons in Tofino - the 'Edge to Edge', Smithers, the Queen Charlotte Islands - Skidegate 'Totem-to-Totem', the ultra in Squamish - Stormy 67K Trail Race, Medoc, Kelowna - the Okanagan Marathon and Sacramento are all swirling about. At least three more marathons are definite this year and the Stormy. It will be an interesting way to get my long runs in!!! After Boston, I am saving the next 'all-out' effort for late in the Fall, perhaps Kelowna or Sacremento. I'd like to take a real run at a new personal best...

I have been working in some really dusty conditions the past week, and that and allergy season, plus Cactus and Slim seem to be shedding, has left me wheezing like an old over-the-hill locomotive. Can't tell if it's an actual chest cold or my asthma acting up. And yes, Scooter, I am medicating on a regular basis. Enough whining...