CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

This post is to recognize someone who has motivated me to train harder and has recently finished an IRONMAN. Jono from Marshmallow to Ironman, CONGRATULATIONS ON BECOMING IRONMAN!! Jono updates his blog regularly and his story is quite a motivating one. He shows you exactly what it takes to becoming an Ironman. The thing I like about Jono is that he tells you what works and what doesn't work so it's like trial and error without the trial! I will complete at least one Ironman in my life (probably many more) but that won't be for a few years since i'm only 17 and can't put in the necessary hours to be able to complete such a milestone and try to balance full time school with a part time job. So one more time, congratulations Jono on finishing your first Ironman. Keep writting, keep training.

Dylan Street

Ride For Karen

Just over a month ago, on August 16, I rode to Niagra Falls and back! This was the 5th year in a row that this ride has happened (my first year). This Niagra Falls ride is part of the Ride For Karen (which i'll talk about later) and it started as a bet to see if the Chain Reaction store and the Trek store could gather a select few people to see if this could be pulled off and if so Gino, who works at Ristorante Pinocchio would donate a vary generous amount to Ride for Karen. This year 13 people including Kris and Kurt Tobias, the founders of Ride For Karen took part in the 290km ride. It just happens to be that the ride landed on one of the hottest days of the month, at 28 degrees Celsius. Together we drank over 25 GALLONS of water! Personally I didn't find the heat too bad other than my feet swelled up a bit and started to hurt, but hey, you can expect to be completely comfortable when you're biking for 12 hours straight. All together it was an amazing day, everyone finished, and lots of money was raised towards an amazing cause!

The actual Ride for Karen event was last weekend on September 13th. This was the ninth year it has taken place and it has grown so much. Since it started 9 years ago over 1 MILLION dollars has been raised towards sending kids with cancer to camp. I took part in the century ride (160km) but there is also shorter distances so that people of all ages, and skill, can be apart of this amazing day. Everything from registration, to fund raising, to the lunch stop was organized so perfectly thanks to over 50 volunteers that made this ride possible. It seriously is just an all around great day and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to raise some money for a great cause and participate in a very fun ride. I hope to do this ride for many, many years to come and so should you!!!

If you're interested check out my Ride For Karen profile and even though the event has already past if you're feeling generous donate to help me reach my fund raising goal. THANKS!

Train hard, fight easy.

Dylan Street

Weekend Update

This weekend was an EXCELLENT weekend for riding. I got out Saturday morning and did about 60km at a fast pace with just me and my friend, Ian Campbell. On the way back we where heading east on lakeshore going about 45km/h (passing cars) a car in the right lane didnt see us and turned to pull into a parking spot and hit my foot and leg and I somehow managed to stay up but it was a close one. I was ok and the guys car had more damage to it than I did. I showed him to check his mirrors.

This morning I did the doughnut ride with Ian and again it was really nice out. It was pretty windy, but that's how I like it. Ressistance. Everything started out fine until about 20km in I was shifting down and my chain popped off so I had to pull off to the side and quickly put it back on. My chain fell off right before Keele where they pick up the pace so I couldn't catch up to the main pack, but I road with a smaller group of about 5-6 people to the bakery where we rejoined the group. The second half of the ride, after the bakery was probably the most fun i've ever had on a road bike. I was in a very fast group of about 30 riders and we went FAST. We held 65km/h for a good 20 minutes on Leslie. Speeding down an empty road with the sun shinning bright is amazing.

96km Ride

Today me and my friend, Ian Campbell, decided to go for a long ride since we both haven't really had a good solid ride in a while and the weather was perfect for a long ride so we thought, why not. We headed north of Toronto instead of the usual east or west because we wanted a change. The first and last 20k where extremely slow because of heavy traffic and there was a lot of stop lights that was vary frustrating when you just want to go fast. Once we got past the 401 and 407 the roads got better and there was fewer stop lights. It was pretty much the same coming back and near the end I started to get really tired and my legs couldn't go for much longer but I managed to make it home. Overall, the ride was pretty good and it felt better than I had imagined. I'm looking forward to doing it again in about a week or so, so I can see improvement. Anyways, I'm extremely tired because 20 minutes after I got back from biking my friend called me and asked if I wanted to go skim boarding so now I'm just exhausted and I'm going to hit the sack. Talk to you in a bit.

Life Update: June 29, 2009

I haven't posted on the blog in a while... I guess I kinda got lazy/busy with other things/ didn't see a point in posting anything because no one reads it anyways. So now I'm going to start posting things just to reflect and put down memories.

Let's start things off with school. Grade 11 is done. Sort of. I failed math and accounting, that's too bad. I'll be making up for math in summer school at Forest Hill which blows because it's a mission to get there everyday but I gotta do what i gotta do.

Anyways, lets not worry about school right now. IT'S SUMMER! I just got back from a weekend at my uncles cottage up in Mactier. My family and I went up on friday and got back last night. We spend the weekend boating, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, making bonfires, and just hanging out together. I wish I could spend more time up north because it's so relaxing and there is always things to do.

I'm heading out to the doctors in a few minues because my tonsils have been swollen for almost 2 weeks and my throat hurts ALOT. So hopefully i'll get some medication or something.

Anyways, i'm going to try and update this blog more often.

Talk to you later,

Dylan Street

I'm baack

So I am finally back after breaking my wrist just over a month ago. The cast has been off for 5 days now and I have started to train again. Yesterday morning was my first spinning class back, and it felt terrible. My legs are weak and my cardio isn't what it used to be. I have gone for a few runs and they feel bad too. I'll give myself another week or so and I should be back up to standard.

A slight set back

I was snowboarding up at Mount Sainte Louise last Thursday and I fell and broke my wrist. I have a cast on my right arm going all the way up to my shoulder. I won't be able to train for the next 4-6 weeks because of it so I wont be updating my blog very much if at all. Just giving you guys a heads up.

Dylan

Improvement

So this morning was the second thresh hold test at spinning. The first time I got 218 and this time I was aiming for something like 235-240. I surprised myself with what I think is really good, 255! I improved from 218 to 255! I'm quite happy with myself considering I didn't get much exercise in this week. I am really looking forward to getting outside and riding with some friends. GO AWAY SNOW! But seriously I need to set goals so I have something to work towards. That will be the next topic. Talk to you later.

Spinning

Spinning is biking indoor on a stationary bike for those of you that don't already know. I currently spin once a week at Chain Reaction (my local bike shop) to get into shape and build muscle for cycling season. I have been spinning for almost 6 weeks now and I am going to go two times a week now because I don't feel like I improve enough between rides when I only go once a week.

The first time you go spinning they do a thresh hold test to see where you are at and to base your other workouts on this number. What you do to find out your thresh hold is go all out for 8 minutes and record your average watt output when you are done, then you rest for 5-8 minutes and go all out for another 8 minutes and write down your average watts again. When you have your 2 scores take the average of that and that number is your thresh hold. For example when I took my thresh hold test for the first time I got 217, and 219 so I added them together and divided by 2 to get my thresh hold, 218.

My next test is in two weeks and I think it will be much improved from the first time. I'll update you after I take it. For now, train hard, fight easy.

Who is Dylan Street?

I am a person that is into biking, running or any kind of exercise. I live in Toronto, Canada. I like to hang out with friends, watch movies and I don't mind sitting down with a good book once and while.

How I became Interested in Cycling

I have been a athlete my whole life and have played tonnes of sports. I have always biked with friends and with my family but never really thought about pursuing it as my "main sport".

My dad took up cycling a few years back and he rides with a local bike shop a few times and week during the summer and does spinning classes in the winter to keep in shape. It was last summer that I really thought about taking up the sport. I would take out my dads bike on occasion and ride around the neighbour hood or with my friend who also cycles. Now that there is snow on the ground and I can't ride outside I have signed up for spinning classes once a week to see if I like it before I buy a bike.

Ian Campbell is a close friend of mine who has been road riding competitively for a few years now and he is also a motivation for me to start riding.