There's getting away from it all, and then...

Once again, I attempted a ride myself into shape road cycling bootcamp, this time it was only two days and I had my guy with me. The much anticipated trip turned sour for me about 55 km into our ride when I bonked hard. 

This wasn't supposed to happen. I had been teaching spin all winter, training karate, teaching the new Advanced Circuit Training while my guy was resting on his laurels. I was supposed to rip his legs off and return home triumphantly. Instead I was stopped at the top of the final climb (at least I made it up) feeling nauseous and dizzy and threatening bodily harm if my guy tried to continue with his "work through it" lecture.

Was it under training? Over training? the 40+ Celsius heat? Dehydration? Or am I getting soft, weak and lazy? I really don't have an answer to that (though several signs do point to dehydration). I do know that my last two bike rides have sucked (don't get me wrong, I had a great time, I just didn't perform the way I expected to). Now I'm back home, once again analyzing the situation (read over analyzing) and trying to fill in the gaps. The gaps in my nutrition, the gaps in my training, the gaps in my mental fortitude and trying to repair the breach to get me back where I used to be.

While I'm home putting it all back together, my guy is taking it all apart; reading real estate pages for some truly rural areas and dreaming of a house in the country in his near future. I'm torn. Yes, riding for several hours (and many km's) without a single driver-cyclist altercation was mind blowing. We saw enough examples of effective road cohabitation to determine it was not a fluke. Drivers passed when it was safe, giving cyclists a wide berth and they patiently waited behind when they couldn't. Without the slogans, signs or campaigns these two groups just got along, like any other option had not occurred to them. We didn't encounter a single car horn, hollering, item thrown out the window at us or any other attempt at harassment. It was cycling shangri la, add to that the fact that most hills peak at a 14% gradient and I start dreaming of that country house too.

Then I remember the 1 hr drive to get a real cappuccino, the single decent bike store (and it really is good) that only carries one clothing line, and the Italian restaurant being the closest thing the community has to "ethnic food" and I realize it's a nice place to visit but..... but in my own area I see construction signs for the 407 toll highways expansion that will run right through the supposed green belt and cut of all my safe cycling routes and the balance shifts back to the West.

Maybe,giving up my favourite Indian restaurant is worth not getting killed while out for a bike ride

The Bicycle Cure

Once again I'll be tugging on the lycra and velocroing up the cycling shoes (and of course I always wear my helmet!) for an excellent cause. I have participated in MS Bike Tours on several occasions and have always had a great time supporting this important charity. Like last year, this August I'll be riding the Acton-Waterloo tour, including the "metric century" loop, for a total of 200 rolling, escarpment km's over 2 days. I have the bike, I'm working on the km's, now I need sponsorship from generous friends, family members and other philanthropic types who have been touched by MS.

http://mssoc.convio.net/site/TR/BikeTour/OntarioDivision?px=1353851&pg=personal&fr_id=1208

When Bias Stares You in the Face...From the Mirror

I am recently returned from an international martial arts symposium and world championships where I had the great pleasure, fear and stress of introducing several of my students to the world stage. For the most part, my fears where completely unfounded. My students demonstrated the hard work, determination and adherence to etiquette that I have always known them to possess. In tournament they did fabulously. Six junior (age, not rank) students chose to compete and 3 of those won medals, including a gold! For several days I enjoyed the high of having produced such an accomplished team of young martial artists. I am finished celebrating now, the accolades have stopped coming and it's time to answer some hard questions.

Question 1. Why were all the medalist girls?

As you can imagine, karate is still a fairly male dominated activity and though I am a female Sensei, the majority of my students are female. In kata competition there is no gender bias, males and females compete against the each other as equals. Do I teach my male and female students differently? Am I more encouraging to the girls? Or is it simply a matter of the girls being more able to identify with me and my teaching style because of a couple of common chromosomes?

Question 2. Have I become like the Grown Ups?

One of my favourite books of all time is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It contains some harsh criticisms of the absurd priorities and closed mindedness of "grown ups". I pride myself on not being a grown up, yet a spent weeks trying, as indirectly as possible to dissuade one of my students from competing. I thought the pressure would be too great for her, that fear would crack her and that she would perform poorly and then be miserable about it. She won a bronze medal (her classmate won the gold in the same category). Now I am back to wondering what it is I know. Another thing I pride myself on is believing in the potential of my students when others tell me I should lower my expectations because they are "just kids". But I let my student down because I did not believe in her and she deserved to be believed in, they all do.

Summer is upon us, I grade my last group of students tomorrow and then we go on hiatus until September. I will spend the next few months rethinking my position as a Sensei, the role I play in the lives of my students and how I may be affecting their outcomes through my bias.