The Perceived Power of Places

The photo above is of my family on a beach near a house that my wife and I lived in before we were married and for a while briefly after.  I spent hours on this beach walking my dog, running, just, sitting. Hours. It has always held a special place in my geographic heart. It was a very different time. We had no children yet, radically different jobs.

Recently when we visited and I took this picture I was struck with how powerful my attachment to the place was and how the photo itself seemed to say so much. Pretty much everything that has happened since living there could be considered encapsulated in it.

I then started thinking about why it is that places manifest such feelings and emotions in our memories and brains. They are after all just places. In this case water, rocks, sand. Impermanent. To another person, it would just be a beach, and not necessarily a very inviting one, yet whenever I’m in town, I make an effort to go back and visit, and just sit and absorb some sort of power I feel from the place.

I don’t think it’s the place that is generating the power though, it’s merely a milestone or a reminder of a place in time. I have friends, a couple, that I often debate music with. We talk about songs that used to hold such power over us and yet when we hear them now, they just don’t seem really, well, all that good.  We laugh and wonder, was our taste in music really that bad? The songs still touch a certain nerve in our memories and we can’t easily dismiss them.

“Place and time,” they like to say to me, “place and time.” Meaning that the song isn’t necessarily what is so great, but the memories that it evoke are. The song was great at the time, and hearing it again resurrects that, often quite vividly.

When I visit this beach, or indeed, the small town nearby, or the subdivision we lived in I certainly feel that, but I’m realizing that the place is in most ways immaterial, and what holds the power is the feelings and memories that it conjures.

The Red Island Ripper

In just over a week I will try, along with some other crazy mofos, to ride my bike across Prince Edward Island, along the Confederation Trail. 297kms. In one day. It will be both the farthest I’ve ever ridden in one ride and the longest I’ve ever been on a bike. The trail itself is not that long and doesn’t run the full island, so we’ve tacked on 2 road sections at the beginning and end to make it a true ‘tip-to-tip’ ride. If you’re so inclined, you can view the route here.

I’m not sure I can do it, but that’s probably not the point.

A year or so ago, my buddy Andrew Titus had this crazy idea, that somehow became a plan. Initially the idea was to do a big bike ride the day before the Brookvale Ultra, and then do the run the next day. Sort of a crazy man’s duathlon type thing. I’m not the ultra runner he is so I would have done, like the 10k. Somewhere along the line when looking for the ride portion, it occurred to someone to just ride across the whole island.

Over the span of the year there have been many people who signed on for the endeavor but for various reasons (injury, time commitment, schedule) have opted out. Indeed, even Fearless Leader Andrew, who was initially going to do the ride and run can no longer do the run portion due to injury/timing. So it’s become mostly about the ride. As it stands we’ve got +/- 5 riders slated to go, with a few still to confirm for sure. What started out as a ride/run has become mostly just a ride. I think there’s currently 1 rider who anticipates also doing the run the following day. We’ll see what happens next year if it becomes an annual thing.

To say I have ‘trained’ for this would be a lie.  I have ridden my bike when and as far as I can. The general consensus I’ve always heard from more experienced riders than I is that anyone can pretty much do 2x what their longest ride has been. I’ve done 160k.

More importantly I have tried to get my head straight approaching the whole thing which I think is probably more important when you’re looking at spending 12-14 hours on the bike. I think a huge chunk of the work will be mental.

It’s not that long really. Tour riders do 300k in a day. And do it in 4 hours. They average 50k an hour though. We’re looking to average 20k. Not that long. Ha.

From the recon we have, the trail is predominately the hard, packed red clay PEI is known for (hence the ‘Red Island’ moniker) and crusher dust trail, relatively flat and rolling. I’m thinking that my Giant Defy Advanced will be the perfect bike for the ride with the inclusion of some puncture-resistant 28mm file-tread tires on it. (Bontrager AW3s). I’ve spent the past few months riding it and trying to focus on and really dial in the fit for a long day in the saddle.

We’ve got a good buddy, Matt Tibbits, a distance runner himself and crew veteran to several other local ultra runners, who’s volunteered to step up and drive our SAG Wagon and meet us with food, water and kicks in the ass at various pre-planned points along the route.

I don’t know what I will get out of it. What I hope to get out of it. I hope it’s a beginning. A beginning of something that remains yet unclear. I’ve spent the last 2 years trying to change the way I approached life and the living of it. Last year I tried the Elgin 120 MTB race, and failed. It was still a massive learning experience, and positive overall. Though initially hesitant I finally decided to try this. See what happens. I’ve resolved to start doing things with unsure outcomes – something that was previously foreign to me. For many years I thought to be extreme meant I had to do so in far less healthy and beneficial ways.

The experience is much clearer now. That word extreme has an entirely new meaning.

My wife, though tacitly supportive, doesn’t get it I don’t think – and I don’t blame her. Pursuits of this kind are a relatively new interest for me. I think she sees it as selfish, and in some respects, she’s right. I try to walk the line between being a good, present Dad but also trying to be an example of how to live your life – to pursue the things that are important to you and make you happy, because ultimately that makes you a better person for those close to you. It’s still hard. It’s cliché, but it is a balance thing as a million internet posts attribute – and I know sometimes I don’t always get it right.

I don’t think my kids get it – but I haven’t really talked to them about it yet either. ‘Dad’s going to ride his bike.’ They can’t come this time. That bums them out. I hope that when I come back I’ll have better insight and a story to tell them that may make more sense, even if it’s not until they’re older and facing their own challenges.

I hope to share some of the prep and buildup to the ride, as well as the ride itself via instagram and Facebook so if you’re interested, follow along. #RIRPR2017

Andrew recently sent me a relevant quote from a book he’s reading, Simon Donato’s The Boundless Life: 13 Lessons Learned the Hard Way:

…sometimes what lifts us up and allows us to be our best is not going it alone for glory, but sharing the experience with people who matter to you.”

Let’s see who comes out the other side.

How to Bike Dad 101

After posting a photo on Instagram from after a ride this morning I had a buddy PM me:

“Dude. Explain to me how you are able to ride every damned day and post this spectacular shit to Facebook all the time with a mitt full of kids and a full time job??? Send me the secret immediately.”

I shot him a couple of replies and it occurred to me that they might make a decent blog post. Although I told him that really, looks can be deceiving and posting a picture every day does not necessarily mean a ride every day. That’s the magik of the Internet. However I did have a few tips I’ve garnered in my short time as a Bike Dad to offer up.

  1. My oldest kid has soccer practice 3x a week, roughly 1.5 hrs each time. Someone’s gotta drive her. Town is just far away enough it doesn’t make sense to drive back, so I bring the bike and that’s 3 rides a week right there. If I help out or make dinner beforehand and try and get all the ducks in a row as much as possible, the Wife’s happy to stay home and not drive.
  2. I lead a ride Saturday mornings and have purposely scheduled it stupid early – partly to avoid heat and traffic – but also because most of the Herd is still sleeping when I roll out. By the time I get back around 11, they’ve all only been up an hour or two and for the most part are still shuffling round in their jammies. If you’re willing to get up early, you can get tons of riding in and be back in a stellar mood and I don’t know about you, but once I’ve got a ride in, I’m so much happier to help out around the house and deal with the Daily Drama.
  3. Emma, the second oldest, is an eager rider, has an MTB and just got a road bike. Getting out with the kids isn’t as satisfying from a training aspect but more so in a thousand other ways. I used to get hung up on riding with my kids like ‘ugh, I’m not really getting a workout’ – I’m over that now – just happy to get out, and the positive family mojo is priceless.
  4. Commute, commute, commute, whenever possible. Don’t get hung up on going every day. If you have a family, chances are it’s not gonna happen every day. Get it when you can though, and it will make a huge difference. Remember what I said about getting up early? If you can get up even earlier, you can tack some distance onto your commute for a longer ride. A straight line from point A to point B is for suckers.
  5. I guess when all else fails, drag the kids with you. A hassle sometimes but better than no ride at all. When mine were little, we had a Chariot trailer/stroller for years. Huge. Well worth the investment and easily resellable. Conversely, pretty easy to find used  as people are always outgrowing ’em. In my opinion the Chariots are great because they work for walking and jogging too.

Those were the gist of what I sent him. Since then while pondering it I’ve thought of a few more.

  • For two years now I’ve been an instructor with Sprockids Fredericton teaching 7-12 year olds how to shred in the woods. I signed my two youngest up the first year and again this year. One thing I did learn is that I’d rather not have them in my own group – that’s hard – and I didn’t the second year, but other than that, all good mojo and ride time. They get out, I get out and we share that together. They’re much more excited and eager to go on rides outside of Sprockids because of the confidence they’ve gained. And we all know how kids love to show off stuff they’ve learned.
  • I’ve stopped worrying about what kind(s) of rides I get in. Any ride is a good ride. Ride to lunch? Good. 3 hr. MTB epic? Good. 1 hour teaching kids to not go over the bars on downhills, good. Don’t worry about getting that 75k training road ride in, chances are if you’re doing things right, your window will come.

What the hell does that mean, “my window will come?” Well, I don’t know about you, but for me, when I ride bikes on a regular basis, I’m generally a better guy to be around. I’m happier. I contribute more at home. Am more willing to help out, take on more work, and less selfish. I’m generally a better partner to my Wife. In addition, any time you can get at least some of the kids out of the house, wear them out, and make it easier on your partner, that’s brownie points in the bank, man. It might not seem like it at the time, but wait. Times come now where my Wife will actually tell me to go on a bike ride. And when I do plan big rides, I do so with her involvement, making sure that all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed so I can get out with a (relatively free) conscience. She knows. The positive mojo is  a perpetual machine, it just keeps giving back.

At some point I made the decision to switch from being someone who rides bikes to making a conscious effort to make riding bikes what I do. Thinking from a place of trying to make riding bikes an integral part of who I am has led to new ideas on how to fit rides into busy schedules and everyday life.

Honestly, the hardest part about riding bikes so much is finding the time to properly maintain 10+ of them. I need my own service course.