The bike ride to school this morning was a tad chillier than I’ve ever experience before. In fact I think it might have been colder than any other bike ride I’ve ever done by something like 12^o Celsius! The radio this morning was reporting a wind chill of 47^o below zero (minus thirty four or something without the wind). For all you Americans reading this, that’s 53^o below zero! Chances are there will be many days next summer riding at more than 150^o Fahrenheit warmer than that!

I’ll admit it’s not so much training as it is survival when you’re riding a bike around the city when it’s that cold… but, I made a commitment to myself to ride that bike to school every day of university this year and I don’t intend on quitting that plan just yet.

About a week ago I mentioned a request for prayer regarding a permit for the Sea to Sea Bike Tour. The permit was granted this past week!

There are a collection of Sea to Sea cyclists maintaining BLOGS in addition to myself and Sunday afternoons always seem to be the time where I can survey the week’s posts by fellow riders. I ran across one today by Ryan Bruxvoort from Chicago. The Entry: Love God with your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Bike commented on the uneasiness that has been sensed by many if not all the riders regarding the expense of putting on a big bike trip and buying cycling gear etc with our money when that money could in theory be used for something else. Click on that above link to read his comments.

It got me to reflecting on the same situation… but instead of having my bike as the second most expensive possession (following a car) I’ve got two bikes as most expensive possessions #1 and #2. So am I twice as in trouble?

No, I don’t believe so, the fact that there is some uneasiness surrounding the idea is comforting. It means that there is a desire to align the life I live with my ideology. Last summer when my quiver of bikes was widened by one (ask me the story about that) I was considering what it meant for myself to put such a large fraction of my time and money into the sport. Where on the totem pole of values was cycling coming? I as aware of the fact but not drawing a ton of conclusions. Within a week a co-op student from out of town commented on how much he hated doing groceries on foot and the sore arms that result from carrying bags of groceries home from the store. I had a bike to lend out, and I caught the opportunity. If those thoughts hadn’t been milling around in my head it probably would have passed me by. My reaction could easily have been one of solidarity, complaining about the times I occasionally did groceries on foot and the dead-arms that always resulted from trying to buy way more food than I could carry. When you’ve got your mind in the right headspace there are opportunities that present themselves. It’s impossible to capitalize on them if you’re going about life with closed fists and your head down.

I’d like to ask you to hold the following logistics-related item in prayer before God in the coming days.

A permit is required for the Sea to Sea Bike Tour to book space at Liberty State Park in order to end the tour there on the water’s edge. Normally, New Jersey government officials do not issue permits there on a holiday weekend and so far we have been denied. Please pray that God will make a way where there seems to be no way, and that he will bless Ed’s and John’s efforts to either get the necessary permit, or find another suitable location. Humanly-speaking, our strong desire is to end at Liberty State Park. God’s will be done!

A friend from triathlon club was doing a purge of his pantry from bike gear he decided he no longer needed to hold on to. I would agree that his house was overflowing with bike stuff and because I can still turn around in my room and don’t yet have enough biking clothes to do the entire 64 days next summer without doing laundry, I aquired a bunch of new-used stuff. A stack of jerseys, cyclocross tyres, race tyres, some cold-weather tights, and some new wheels!

They’re Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels, aluminum alloy, medium profile with blade spokes. I intend on equipping the rear with a carbon fibre disk shell (wheelbuilder.com) and using them for racing and the occasional simulation training ride. I guess this summer isn’t going to give them a ton of use but I’ll be sure to break them out for “Tuffest Three” in October as I need to help our team defend the title.

It’s exciting when I’ve got the opportunity to talk about why I’m riding next summer with people who are far more serious cyclists than myself. There’s something about biking across an entire continent that captures the imagination of everyone. It’s atypical when the “imagination” turns to how cool it would be to put in 9 weeks of high volume bike training back to back, but in some sense it’s the same thing. It’s doing something big enough to cause some apprehension, doing it with a purpose, and being super excited about the opportunity. That’s what makes this whole bike ride into such a good place to begin a conversation. Where God allows that conversation to go is the exciting part.

Took my skis out for a trip around the river valley today, about 13 kms but the pace was lousy, nearly 2 hours. I’m really reliant on a good trackset to keep much rhythm, basically I’m going to need some serious practice in the next month before the Birkebeiner shows up. I was hoping to try and get done in a 10 km/hour pace which is about as fast as I can ski in a good track right now. I don’t want to expect to ski as fast as I’m used to doing the birkie, I need to be confident going faster so that I’m not rolling any dice when I get out there and try to get it done in 5.5 hours.

My article for the Banner arrived in Church mailboxes across North America this week. Catching me a bit off guard, I was under the impression that this was coming on Feb 1. I had a bit of a fundraising blitz ready to go at the end of January and point people to read the banner the next week, a bit of a double whammy and get things into peoples heads two weeks in a row.

Obviously that plan was not to be when I wasn’t even in the country when the Banner arrived. Maybe I just need to be reminded that my skills aren’t going to raise $10000, I can’t do it alone with my best plans, best writing and best effort.

The article is fantastic and is 4 pages long in the banner, starting on this page and my article is on this page along with a sweet photo taken by Reuben Krabbe.

When in Central America, tap water is off limits and buying it from the store is no fun when beer is approximately the same price. So I made sure I capitalized on the opportunity to try as many different kinds over the vacation as I could.

1. Cerveza Dos Equis
2. Cerveza Superior
3. Cerveza el Sol
4. Belikan
5. Belikan Premium
6. Belican Stout
7. Tecate
8. Red Stripe Dragon Beer
9. Monte Carlo
10. Gallo
11. Dorada Draft
12. Brahma
13. Lighthouse Lager
14. León
15. Negra Modelo

These additions to my “100 beers” list puts me at a total of: 77

Krabbe.ca lapsed for about a week because I was out of the country when it needed to be renewed and I only was emailed a warning about it 3 days before expiry. Not soon enough to catch me before jet setting out of Canada and away from the internet for a few weeks. Oh well, it’s back up and running now but it does lead me to wonder…

Do the domain name sellers want your domains to expire so that they can re-buy them up and sell them back to you at a higher price because they know that this specific domain is a valued one? I think that’s got to be the only answer. Any company without ulterior motives would give you probably a months notice for something of this nature. Oh well, krabbe.ca is booked up for 6 years now.