Cycle the Sunshine Coast, BC

Okay I get it.  Being over 40 means that any exercise is not easy.  Let start with when it was easy.  When I was in grade 8 I ran a low 5 min mile. Running was easy.  When I was grade 11, I played for the Under 17 Vancouver Rugby team.  Rugby was easy.  I proved that in high school not many people where faster than me.  In my 20's, I think like many men that follow a career path, family, house and such; fitness took a back seat and the bricks of butter piled on me like someone stuffing them in a backpack while I was wearing it. Enter the 1/4 life crisis - I picked up mountain bike racing - I was 28 and in the Senior Sport class - It took me forever to eek out 10 points to advance from beginner because the young guys would show up and blow by me like I was standing still.  These guys made it look easy - and what I figured - they had no career yet, or a job at least so they could ride all day long and perfect their fitness to top me.  Thats w...

Woke up at some un-godly hour to complete a ride into Vancouver.  I usually complete a nice loop from Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal along Marine Drive to UBC.  I added a nice little loop to Iona Beach which considering my motivation level lately, made all the difference for me to enjoy the trip.  100km in the bag. On the way back on the ferry, I bump into a rider that I passed along the way a couple of times enroute along Marine Drive (I stopped for coffee) and she was on a older mountain bike with normal clothes on.  I probably looked so foreign to her with all my biking specific clothes (called a kit in our circles).  She complained that her seat made her butt sore, but she was really looking forward to seeing Gibsons (somehow the pain would be worth it when she got to her designation).  She said that she's  never been to the coast and decided to take her bike from the west end to the ferry and to Gibsons- good for her! She wasn't too ke...

Okay, a couple of weeks ago I hit a nice peak and I wanted to ride all the time.  I put 900km in the month of July and my avg km/hour basically bumped up a couple of k's.  So, today I forced myself to wake up early, decided to drive to Sechelt and join a group ride to get me motivated.  So I waited at the meeting spot and no one showed (or bothered).  I started with the motivational talk with myself - do a long ride and you'll be better for it. Trust me you'll be glad you did...F-it was my body's response.  So, do a short ride. At least you can justify driving for 1/2 hour to get here.  F-it was the response again.    Why don't you turn around, go to a lung association fundraiser breakfast and talk about cycling.  Ah! that is an awesome idea! - So I turned around and got a 8min ride in. So this is the lows of cycling - two to three weeks ago I had awesome energy and power.  This week - well I need someone like Tony Robbins to keep my i...