Ring in Spring

What a great way to start the new season. Huge week for me personally and the Bike for Bricks team. We have now purchased the bikes that will carry us across this massive country. The purchase was prompted by this amazing weather and I have since made good use of the bike and put 88kms on it in the first 24hrs post-purchase, and wow, bicycling outside in the sunshine with a real breeze is ten times better than the air-conditioned atmosphere of the gym. The 88kms equates to just over 1% of the total trip; a daunting thought when I consider the pain between my legs and how I'll cope with that over a 50 day span on the road without rest or reprieve. However, there are high points. The Fuji Touring bike I have purchased and ridden is completely different than the mountain bikes that I'm familiar with but I'm slowly learning through practical application (riding!) and haven't opened the owner's manual yet!
I have been riding from my house to my parents house and back for a 44km ride, with a great break for lunch with my mom or dad before heading back to my house. It's been great and taking advantage of this uncanny weather has left me feeling satisfied everyday. Some more good news - on my first day on the unfamiliar bike the 44km ride took 108minutes. On the second day I managed to cut that time down to 104minutes! A little know-how can go along way apparently.
That's it for now. Many more thoughts on riding, bikes, fundraising, general progress and life to come!

3 Months from Today...

Hi everyone,

The date today is March 16...exactly three months from our departure date of June 16. Kind of a wake-up call, because there is still so much to do before then. The main items we have to prepare are:

• Administrative - an online donation system, a publicity campaign to drive donations, continue to find sponsors, and formalize time-off work!


• Practical - continue to build our mileage, finalize our route, acquire two more bicycles, buy any remaining equipment, and arrange transportation (from North Sydney to Port aux Basques, and from St. John's to Vancouver)

That being said, we are very excited about the trip, for obvious reasons!

This is also a good opportunity to outline the blog: we are going to be tagging our posts, so far with training, logistics, and Heartwood labels for related posts. (More labels will added as necessary.) We also have mobile blogging set up, so that we can contribute from the road in June/July.

We are also working on a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account, which we will roll out once we have the online donations in place.

Jordan

Training Kyle Style

Hello all.

My training has been taking place in Elora at Definition Fitness. The gym is located near where I work. I've been taking their group ride classes about three days a week. These classes are about 50 minutes in lenth and they're tough. I'm always covered in sweat. Usually I need to drink about 1.5 liters of water to get through a class. I do tend to sweat more than most people. On days I'm not doing those classes I'll bike on a stationary bike, go for a run or do weight exercises.

Once I get panniers for my bike, I want to start biking to work. For me it's about 20 km one way. With the weather we've been having I could be biking to work soon.  

Training Milestones

I have achieved two significant milestones in the past week. First, last week I passed 1,000kms for the year, which is approximately 10% of the Bike for Bricks pace per day. Daunting. My weekly average has climbed from 50km in January to almost 200km this week.

Second, today I rode for two complete hour sessions (indoors), with a short break in between. That was both my longest ride of the year as well as my closest simulation to date (we plan to cycle in hour blocks, with short breaks). The break gave me a chance to wring my shorts out and change shirts!

I can't wait to get on the roads...

Let's Get it Started

Hello New Readers, and future Faithful Readers

On June 16, 2012 I'll be bicycling across Canada with two great friends. Despite having talked about this in(sane)credible endeavor for a couple years this still feels like it's coming very quickly. Especially since all talks were hypothetical up until December 2011 this trip still feels like it's come out of nowhere. The time from commitment to departure was 6 months, which would normally be cause to celebrate organization, preparedness and forethought, however, with this 6 months still feels incredibly rushed.  The more I contemplate the trip and all the hardships and hurdles that are sure to come our way and (hopefully) overcome the more nervous I get. Though I'm still indescribably excited.
This forum will be a place were I publish information about training, preparation, and a variety of other thoughts usually pertaining to the upcoming trip...though knowing me many unrelated items shall riddle this space.

Expect more to come frequently!

Tyler Cadman

Progress

We met with Heartwood Place for the second time this week. It was a great meeting - largely a photo-op for some of our promotional purposes (pics available soon!). Mary and Susan are fantastic; each is obviously enthusiastic about the purpose of the organization, and excited about this opportunity as well.

The next steps are to finalize our sponsorship situation and build an online presence. In addition to this blog, we will have an page at the Heartwood website to take secure donations, as well as various social media profiles.

That's it for now. Check back soon!