it's september, so this must be about a charity eh?

so, what's happened in the last two weeks since i posted last? not much if you're referring to my job. i'm doing pretty much the same nothing now that i was two weeks ago except that today i had spaghetti for lunch.

also? i'm taking part in the Terry Fox run for cancer research again. i will be running 10 km at the Port Credit run location this upcoming Sunday September 14th. my fundraising goal is $500 this time around. when Terry Fox originally did his Marathon of Hope, all he asked for was $1 from every Canadian. i don't think i'm going to get every to canadian with this post, but feel free to pass the link around for everyone you know to donate. and i'm not limiting myself to just canadians either - i'm more than happy to take donations from anywhere and everywhere.

not only is it for a good cause, but know that the Terry Fox Foundation makes sure that almost 90% of every dollar goes directly into cancer research. overhead and administration is always kept as low as possible, and nobody is turned away from the Terry Fox Run because they didn't raise enough money. every dollar counts.

so sponsor me on my 10 km adventure. if you're so inclined, you can come down to the Port Credit location and run with me - i'm not very fast so you shouldn't have any issue keeping up with me. it's fun, and it's for a good cause.

the grand challenge

this summer i feel like i haven't been spending enough time riding my bike - so i'm challenging the cyclists out there who actually read this.

 

i haven't decided if there will be a prize associated with it.  if there is a prize, it will be something simple and likely be based largely on bragging rights.  i'm officially declaring July 20-26 to be Blogger Bike Week (and yes, i intentionally picked something that would have the abbreviation of BBW).  the only thing you'll need to take part is you, your bike and your bike computer thingy (you know, the one that tells you how far you've gone and how fast you're going).

 

prize categories include:

• most kilometers travelled (or for any american, miles converted into km's) for the duration of the week
• highest max speed
• highest average speed
• longest individual trip

anyone who wants to take part, send me an email to welfarebum @ gmail.com with Blogger Bike Week in the subject.  feel free to spread the word around to anyone you may think who wants to take part.  this is a largely "for fun" thing.  send pics, details about you and your ride, etc.  everyone who joins up will be featured here in a sort of mini-bio.  maybe i'll involve some sort of charity component too - or that can be part of the prizes or something.  if there's enough interest, i'll create a web page where you can log in and keep track of your daily stats.

 

who's in?

hey, the Ride for Heart was like a week ago eh?

so yeah, ride for heart.  sorry, i've been pretty busy and since the new job is pretty restricted as far as internet access goes i haven't had time to post aboot this.

 

to start things off, i am seriously out of shape.  the furthest ride i've done so far this year is about 20 km, so needless to say this was gonna be something.

 

sunday june 1st was the ride for heart, and as everyone knows, i signed up for the 75 km (about 46 miles) ride.  i started near the front of the pack, which i'm sure was irritating to the hardcore bike dorks, at 6:45am.  it was a windy 13 degrees (55 degrees for americans).

 

as i headed out, i thought to myself "hey, i'm keeping up a decent pace - i'm about 10 km/h ahead of my regular speed".

 

that was for the first 5 km.

 

as the back headed off the gardiner expressway on the way up the don valley parkway, the wind got started up again, and we all proceeded to ride the uphill route from the lakeshore to york mills into the wind.

 

coming back down the DVP was nice, as i managed to register a new high speed of 55.6 km/h on my bike computer thingy.  of course, it was a steep downhill and i was pedaling as hard as i could, but hey, still neat-o in my opinion.  the slowest speed i registered?  8.8 km/h coming back up the bayview/bloor on-ramp.

 

after i passed the 65 km point my arse was seriously hurting and my legs were seriously tired.  then the winds started back up.  from the moment i got back on the gardiner expressway all the way to the finish line the winds were nasty, making the last 10 or so km very tiring.

 

when i crossed the finish line, i checked out my bike computer thingy for some stats:

 

total distance:  81 km

max speed:  55.6 km/h

avg speed:  19.8 km/h

total time:  4:05:36

calories burned: 2599

 

last time i checked, 81 was quite a bit more than 75.  at least by my terms.  and really, i should have just done the 50.  but i did finish and was happy that i managed to keep my average speed near 20 km/h.  i'm pretty sure that the big downhill helped with that though.

 

walking around the exhibition grounds, i could feel my muscles start to tighten and get sore.  i must have smelled great.

 

i did a quick once-around the grounds on the search for Martini, but gave up when i realized that i was hunting through thousands of people and my legs hurt from being out of practise.  next year dude, we'll co-ordinate better and have a beer afterwards.

so, what's this new job like eh?

i don't think my system has fully adjusted to the fact that i only have one job now, i still find myself planning things out around my "spare time" so that i get everything done when i'm not working.

the good news aboot the new job: first, it's only one job. second, it's close enough to home to ride my bike to work (although it is only a 15 minute bike ride).

crappy news aboot the new job: no messenger at work - msn and googletalk are now off the list. also, internet use is highly discouraged. AND, they expect me to be there for the entirety of the business day regardless of how busy i am. for some reason, they have this "we pay you to be here, so be here" philosophy. who does that? that's so 2004.

coming up on sunday is the Ride for Heart. i've noticed that with the exception of Hänni my internet sponsorship has been way low. get sponsoring eh! i promise i'll post pictures of my seriously out of shape arse sweating out 75 km on my bike. it'll be awrsome. normally i would have been able to train a bit more, but with the two job thing and now the new job thing, i haven't had the time for any distance training. so far the furthest i've gone in a single shot this season is about 20 km. sunday's ride will be that nearly 4 times over.

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what?!? you haven't sponsored me for the ride for heart yet? well then click below and make sure you do that already...


Visit my sponsorship page to see my progress!!

four shalt thou NOT count

four days. that's it.

i've been training my replacement at job number one for the last while, and although i'm not quite convinced he's 100% ready, he'll have to do. i am far too excited about the fact that my trip to work will no longer be ridiculous like it was this morning.

it took me more than 90 minutes to get gas and drive the 45 km from door to frickin door. I've also estimated that based on the current price of gas that it's going to cost me between $44 and $50 this week to get to and from job number one. when taking multiple transit systems becomes more cost effective than driving to work, you know you've got a problem.

but that problem will be short lived. only a couple more days to go. i'm looking forward to being able to ride my bike to work on a regular basis. i've literally put less than 100 km on my bike since the start of the warm weather because of the commute and 2 job thing and am going to need to get some major riding in to be able to finish the 75 km in the Ride for Heart on June 1st (Martini - you should totally switch and do the 75 km instead of the 50 - all the cool kids are doing it. and by all i mean me).

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what?!? you haven't sponsored me for the ride for heart yet? well then click below and make sure you do that already...

Visit my sponsorship page to see my progress!!

Generally you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance

the secret happenings i mentioned before are all going as planned. wish me luck.

i also mentioned before that i was becoming a big fan of the Epiphone Prophecy line of guitars, but i'm starting to think now that i'm liking the Ibanez Jet King a little bit more. it kind of has that pawn-shop guitar look to it, but still has a good sound. it's also less expensive than the epiphone, but still made largely from the same materials. oh decisions decisions. i suppose i don't have to jump on that too quickly. i still have my 2 other guitars to choose from so i don't really need to fuss too much about it.

oh yeah, and don't forget to sponsor me for the Ride for Heart by clicking below if you already haven't. charity is totally awesome, and you'll be awesomer for sponsoring me eh.

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what?!? you haven't sponsored me for the ride for heart yet? well then click below and make sure you do that already...


Visit my sponsorship page to see my progress!!

technically i suppose it's thirty weeks now

but even if it's 30 weeks, i've still only posted 29 times


sometimes when i overhear my boss at job number 1 talking on the phone, it makes me want to hit him in the head with it. he's a completely non-technical person trying to explain a technical thing that he has no real understanding of.

grammar is something i apparently have no understanding of.

i think i REALLY want this - the Epiphone SG Prophecy EX. yeah, i know, it's not a Gibson technically, but it might just as well be. especially since Gibson doesn't offer the SG in that style, and even if they did it would cost like $3500, and i'm not a good enough guitar player to spend that kind of money on a musical instrument.

i also really like this bike - the Devinci Tosca SL 2, but i've promised myself that i'm not going to let myself buy a bike unless i put at least another 2000 km on mine. in theory, that shouldn't be too difficult - i'd like to be at a pace where i'm putting between 150-250 km a week on my bike this summer because it's my goal to lose the office belly that seems to have accompanied this especially cold winter. that and it's just real fun and all.

also, if I raise just $25 more in sponsorship money for the Ride for Heart, i'll be eligible for a draw for a sony home theater system. that would certainly be nice because the home theater system i have right now doesn't work sometimes. it takes about 20-30 clicks of the button to get the power to go on, and when it does go on the DVD player slows down sometimes so everyone starts talking funny. and not haha funny, but funny like the opposite of the chipmunks.

another effort for me to raise money for this - from now until the ride, if you buy a t-shirt hell shirt through my link here, i'll take my referral money and put it into sponsorship dollars.

i know, some of it is a little too offensive to be caught wearing, but there are some decent ones too:

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what?!? you haven't sponsored me for the ride for heart yet? well then click below and make sure you do that already...

Visit my sponsorship page to see my progress!!

from one charity to another

after some evaluation, i've decided that it's pretty unlikely that i'm going to be able to reach the $2500 goal for the ride to conquer cancer that I was thinking aboot earlier, so i've decided to focus my efforts on the Becel Ride for Heart.

On June 1st I'm going to be taking part in the Becel Ride for Heart. Is there a certain amount of irony in a charity for the Heart and Stroke Foundation being sponsored by a margarine producing company? I think so.

Anyhoo, I'll be doing the 75 km ride which goes from the Exhibition grounds up to York Mills road on the DVP and back. For anyone considering taking part, there are 3 different rides - a 25 km, a 50 km and a 75 km ride, all along the Gardiner Expressway and the DVP.

For anyone who doesn't want to or can't take part, feel free to sponsor me and pass around my sponsorship link to anyone you know:

https://secure.heartandstroke.ca/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=265808&lis=1&supId=208742731

I'll be the guy on the orange bike somewhere near the back of the group, trying hard to keep up.

an opportunity to be a conqueror

i'm considering taking part in the Ride to Conquer Cancer. it's a 200 km bike ride split across two days from downtown Toronto to Niagara Falls. the sponsorship requirements are a little high - you need to raise $2500 to take part - but i think i have enough time to do it if i hit up people at both jobs.

my question to the bicycle riding internet: is there anyone out there who would be willing to join me if i were to create a team? i don't plan on riding overly fast. in fact, i'm just out of shape enough that i will probably be towards the end of the pack. what i'm looking for essentially is to get a couple of days on my bike and to raise money for a good cause.

if you or somone you know is interested in raising a ton of money and riding your (or their) bike for two days, let me know either via comment or email me at untastic@gmail.com.

the basics of the ride: 100 km each day, the first night will be spent camping in Hamilton. there are pit stops every 25-30 kms with snacks and drinks. when you reach Niagara Falls, if you don't have someone to pick you up, you have the option of taking the train back - more info here. there's an option for the faster riders (which i am not) to do an extra 50 km after the first day's riding with Canadian professional cyclist Steve Bauer.

so like i said, let me know if you want to join a team with me. should be loads of fun eh.