http://www.krabbe.ca/seatosea en-ca SeatoSea news from Krabbe.ca Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:20:13 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/rss/krabbe.jpg http://www.krabbe.ca/seatosea (c) 2008, Krabbe.ca. All rights reserved. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=288 I will no longer be updating my Sea to Sea blog as of the end of September 2008. If you've been a regular reader over the course of the past year I suppose I invite you to continue reading what I consider to be my "regular blog" on my "regular website" as I have returned to what we referred to all summer as "regular life". You can get to there by clicking on www.krabbe.ca http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=288 Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:13:07 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=285 I got the OK from the physiotherapist to get back on the bike after taking a solid 2 weeks off. I've done two sweet rides since getting the OK (and raced my first XC race of the season, which resulted in a sore body and did a bit of aching muscle recovery in there too). http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=285 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:18:03 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=284 I found a video on my SD card that I hadn't watched... ever. I filmed it on the morning of the day my "original" camera this summer broke. When I transferred that SD card over to my new camera it was formatted differently and was never retrieved and can't be viewed on the Canon, it can however be viewed on a computer so when fishing through that folder on the PC I remembered filming it. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=284 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:04:09 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=283 I gave a presentation at my sponsoring church, River Park CRC, in Calgary Alberta on Sunday morning. I think it went well, plenty of people thanked me for sharing so that's nice. It came in two parts, first me having a bit of time to talk and then during the offering I had a few ppt slides to show what day-to-day life was like while on the road. I thought I had covered the bases pretty well with the slides but when watching them during the service I realized it looked like I was generally riding with a group of about 10 people. Not quite the case, the average for the summer was probably closer to a group of 2.7 considering how often I rode alone of with just one other person. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=283 Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:50:01 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=282 The traffic to this website hasn't really slowed down much since the tour wrapped up more than a week ago. My guess is that lots of the cyclists on the trip got home and are suffering a bit of SeatoSea withdrawal and as a result are poking around online and reminiscing on the memories by reading one another's blogs. Well I'm in the same boat and have found myself poking around on Flicker and looking at some of the 5000 photos posted there once or twice already. At any rate I just wanted to give a quick update on my shoulder since returning to Canada. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=282 Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:31:04 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=281 The discussion about wrapping up the tour began in earnest on Monday of the final week. At that time it seemed so early to be thinking about finishing things off. I just was recovering ability to shift gears with the correct hand as I recovered somewhat from the bike crash earlier on. While it seemed early to start thinking like that it wasn't too early at all and now that I'm "off the tour" and won't wake up tomorrow to a full day of bike riding I'm so grateful that we began that discussion as early as we did. The end was a highlight rather than a downer. When we were camped at Samson State Park (Wednesday Evening) our small group discussed what we'd be taking from the tour. While we did a bit of discussion around the theme the question we were really answering wasn't "what have you learned" but rather "what did you learn that you're going to actually remember". The difference is huge. After spending 9 weeks on the road out of normal routines, normal activities, normal circles of friends, normal sleeping schedules and normal diets... I've learned an outrageous amount of stuff. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=281 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:53:02 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=280 The tour wrapped up with a bang on Saturday. I'm going to just give an overview of the riding day itself and will write a bit more as far as reflections on the tour as a whole are concerned at a later date... probably within the week. I've switched time zones so it's past midnight according to my internal clock and have to move my stacks of junk from Calgary to Edmonton tomorrow (Monday) so do hope to get to bed sometime soon. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=280 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:31:57 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=279 I stopped by the computer this morning to check if those 2 videos I began uploading to Youtube last night actually ended up online. I guess "eventually yes" is the answer so here they are: #1 is coming down a big hill out of Canaan PA. #2 is a time lapse of us unloading the gear truck upon arrival in Sussex NJ. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=279 Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:19:52 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=278 Friday of Week 9 is a day that people have been talking about now and again ever since leaving the Rockies at the end of Week 4. Today's ride included the greatest elevation gain of the whole tour in a single day (our detour up Mt Evans was significantly more but was optional). After my 3 hour nap the day before and quite a bit of sleep again at night when things at camp started to get moving around 5:30 am I just gave up trying to sleep, got up, packed up and was in line for breakfast at 6:05 am. I had quite a few comments to deal with from all of the early risers who I like to give a hard time to... and good for them, they were right, it was too early for me to be up. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=278 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:03:12 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=277 New York wrapped up this morning after about an hour of riding. The weather was cool and the sky was overcast but no rain was actually falling out of the sky although I was prepared with my windbreaker for it to start. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=277 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:46:08 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=276 We're back into real hills for the first time in many weeks. Upper New York state is living up to it's reputation as hilly and spectacular. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=276 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:45:33 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=275 I crawled out of my bed shortly after 7 am a whole half hour early for breakfast and was told that I was late for breakfast and they ha run out of oatmeal. A few of us who had slept in were a bit grumpy with this news and decided that we would need another breakfast on the road as a result. Now you might imagine that would make us get out of camp quickly but that wasn't the case because it was a bone chilling 10 degrees C with very high humidity. Anyhow, we took our sweet time getting out of camp and I left with Brad Geerlinks and John Vanderveen at about 8:30 hoping to catch Alex VanGeest and Kyle Meyerink shortly which we did indeed do. If you've been following my blog or others you'll know that this is pretty close to the same group I rode with when I crashed a week and a half ago. These are the cream of the crop when it comes to City Line Sprinting and with more than 30 towns to pass through (I am not joking about that number!) it should be an eventful day. I was not going to be racing but wanted to come along anyways to watch and cheer. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=275 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:16:20 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=274 The celebration in St. Catharine's was quite an event. From 2 pm until 4 pm we huddled under the pavilions at Queenston park and ate peaches as the rain poured out of the sky. At about 3:50 the rain let up to a drizzle and we made our way to the natural amphitheater and stage. By the time the service had begun the rain had stopped and by 4:05 the sun was shining. Brian Walsh spoke concerning the fruits of the spirit and many of us agreed that his message was one of the best this summer. His invitation to us was to bear fruit with our lives as is instructed in scripture: http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=274 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:36:50 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=273 Here's the newsletter from SeatoSea communications headquarters: http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=273 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:17:56 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=272 This past week I had more than two dozen people come up to me and tell me that they've been reading my blog. It's quite exciting to meet them and hear that even though it occasionally leads to a somewhat awkward conversation. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=272 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:03:43 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=271 I departed Redeemer with Josh Nyenhuis and Bob Terpstra this morning around 8 am. There were more church stops planned this day than any before and there were only 75 kms to cover before arriving at camp. I brought zero food along and left with not even a drop of water in my bottle. I just had a wallet with my ID (which would prove useful later on) a bit of cash (which would prove useful later on) and some vitamin I* (vitamin I is what we're calling Ibuprofen around here as so many people are taking it. I would also prove useful later on). http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=271 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:08:21 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=270 The ride out of London began with a rather painful crawl out of my tent. A little slip on the grass with my good hand and I jarred the bad shoulder before I had put the brace on the day... not all things go exactly according to plan. I had arranged to depart camp with Andrew Aukema of Chatham for the day and we set out together anticipating that we might latch on to another group at some point. It turned out that it was Nathan Beach and Hans Doef who we caught within an hour of camp. Andrew competed in Ironman Louisville last summer about this time and has really backed off training to recover for a few months and then just to take a break from competition. It's obvious though that he's got experience on the bike, he's road smart just like George Vanderkurr and can climb rollers better than most others. While his muscles began to argue with him later in the day he's tough as nails and when he suggested "hey guys I'm hurting" and we didn't slow down for him he just bit the bullet and kept flying along. What a guy. Anyhow, we got along great and I'll have to say our group of 4 was one of the best riding crews of the summer. Andrew was out of practise, Nathan was hurting from pushing really hard in the TT the day before and I was the cripple with a shoulder brace... and then Hans Doef, well he was just Hans Doef and fit right in. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=270 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:41:43 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=269 The time-trial was set to go this morning beginning at 9 am and was to occur starting at the 45 km mark of the ride today. That meant I needed to leave at 7 am for sure but that was absolutely no trouble as I was staying at Cynthia Aukema's house with all of the perpetual early risers. I was on the road at a record time of 20 minutes before 7 and doodled my way along to the start point of the time trial an hour before my scheduled start time of 9:17 am. (I would be the 18th rider to leave) http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=269 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:22:59 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=268 Wednesday's ride was short to accommodate an international border crossing that no-one really knew the timeline for. It's one of those things that can go very well or quite poorly and as a result it's been a topic of prayer for quite some time. Well it took more than 6 ferry loads to get everyone across the river but beyond that bottleneck the border crossing was quick and all of the cyclists had been pre-approved to cross and just needed to be cross referenced with a list as we poured over the border. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=268 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:58:30 MST http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=267 Tuesday went better than Monday even though I crawled out of my tent having significantly less sleep than I had hoped and was in quite a bit of pain. Breakfast was a parade of people asking how my shoulder was and all I wanted to do was curl up in a corner, eat food and try to get a bit more sleep. Frustrated by the outrageous number of conversations I had before 6:15 in the morning I just decided to take down my tent all by myself and get out on the road. I probably overdid it a bit trying to stuff my sleeping bag in the stuff sack and taking my tent down. I got my shoulder taped by a physiotherapist which hurt a ton and departed camp not really sure how long I'd last out there on the road. http://www.krabbe.ca/c2cblog.php?guid=267 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:17:32 MST