Get Smart. Get Active. Tour 2008

My first presentation in school! Thank you so much to everyone at Sir James Douglas Elementary, especially Lenora Jackson and Patrick for my wonderful introduction, and Adam for keeping everyone updated with my progress!

I was very excited to see all the students out and cheering me on. It was wonderful to see a school so dedicated to activity. All the students were happy and excited for games and activities, and their energy and enthusiasm was contagious.

After the presentation we had to head off and do some last minute errands to get the RV stocked up and ready to go. I must say that I feel a little guilty about the RV, lets just say I am not exactly roughing it. I should be quite comfortable when I am not riding.

All in all today was a great day and I am now safely in Whistler. I am spending the night at my Dad’s house, getting feed and rested for the first day in the mountains tomorrow. I will be ridding the Duffy Lake road in the morning, one of the steepest, windiest roads in Canada. Oh and by the way, it has been snowing, soooo… we’ll have to see how that goes!

All the best to all of you following my trip, you are the reason I am doing this!

Activity tip of the day: On those days you can’t work up the energy to get to the gym or go for a run, concentrate on your diet. A good diet is a major step in a health lifestyle!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan

Hello All,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the first days of spring!

With just over a week to go until the tour starts I am happy to report that everything is coming together wonderfully! First off the plans for my big send off event at Cadboro Bay beach are coming along great. Silken Laumann has agreed to come out and show her support with a short speech and my introduction. On top of that there are going to be two schools coming out, plus a number of classes from UVic. The event begins at 9:00 AM rain or shine so come out and see me off!

The next thing of great importance is that my donations page is up and running on the CAHPERD web page! This page will allow you to donate securely online and receive a charitable tax donation receipt. To donate you can go to the CAHPERD web site at www.cahperd.ca and follow the links or you can go directly to
https://www.excelway.ca/secure/donations/eng/donation_form.cfm. Only the english site is up so far but the french site will be up by tuesday.

My training continues but now with only a week left it is purely maintaining what I have built up so far. With that in mind I am cutting my hours back a bit and doing a bit of a taper before the big event. Also I am trying to find some time to relax and spend time with my friends before heading out on my big tour! Basically the name of the game is to rest and recover both physically and mentally while organizing the final few details before I tackle what will defiantly be the hardest thing I have ever done.

So with that in mind, take some time and relax during these stressful times. For so many of us heading into exams during the next couple of weeks and with tax season coming up, we are all undoubtably feeling the sting. So take a break, vary it up a bit! I’m taking the day off the bike and playing squash for a bit of variety.

What ever you need to do, I hope you are enjoying it!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan

Admin:

I have made Tyler’s link active and have added the donation link to the side bar on the blog and the rest of the site. Also, visit our page on CAHPERD’s website at:
http://www.cahperd.ca/eng/story_detail.cfm?id=434.

Added contact links for Angela - Media and Stephanie - Presentations if you want to get in touch with either.

Cheers, Scott

Hello All!

Does anybody every press buttons on your computer by accident and really cool things happen, and then you wish you knew how you did it? Because that has been happening to me a lot lately and it’s starting to bug me.

Anyway back to the tour. The days are ticking away slowly but surely and the tour is starting to come together. I can’t belive how far I have come in such a short time and how much I have learned. First and foremost is I did not give myself enough time! For anyone out there planning to do something like this, do yourself and favor and take a full year; from the time you have your plan on paper and you approach your first sponsor you really do need a year (at least!).

So, as you may have guessed by now, I am more stressed than I ever every been! The last week has been the hardest, and I have decided to cancel to the tour, and then decided to go through with it about a hundred times. In the end though I am filled with a new resolve and I am determined to carry through with it. I mean really, when it comes down to it I can’t really give myself the choice. I have put far to much work into this to back out now, I don’t think I could handle it.

With my new found resolve comes a renewed excitement. Where a week ago a had to force myself on to my bike, now I am cursing that I am so busy and I can’t ride longer. Also, some aspects of the tour are coming along really well. With the support of Uvic, plans are in the works for a big send off on the 31st with guest speakers and everything! Also, I have a new bike coming in from the wonderful people at Opus and Secret Cycles in Coquitlam BC. I am still looking for drivers to fill out the trip but it is no longer a life or death issue, but if anyone is looking for a cool vacation then let me know! Plus my t-shirts arrived today and I must say they look amazing (for the low low price of $15 you to can look super cool!), so hopefully they will bring in some much needed funding.

As you may have guessed from my earlier comment, being so busy with planning the trip has been cutting into my training time a little. I am still feeling confident about the ride, but I am defiantly not harboring any delusions about coasting through.

So I will continue to fight through and if the universes sees fit I will be starting my journey in just over 15 days!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan 

Ok here’s the deal, we all just stop keeping track of the days for the next month or so and I get an extra month to train and prepare! No, won’t work, ok I guess I’ll just harden up and accept that it is actually happening!

I am defiantly feeling the pressure. March just came so much faster than I though it would, and there is so much work to be done. Thankfully I do have an RV now. Fraserway RVs is providing me with a very nice RV at a discounted cost. Unfortunately they were not willing to outright sponsor the trip, but they did lower their price by a good amount. Thank you to all the people at Fraserway for you help with making my dream a reality.

With the van a reality, finding drivers has become the number one priority. Ideally I would love to set up a piggyback system for people across the country, and supply funding for people to come out and be part of the trip. Unfortunately, the lack of financial sponsorship and people able to offer their time is making this a very difficult challenge. Understandably it is a big commitment to ask from people, but I continue despite that, so I ask again if you want to take a week or two and have a bit of a vacation, or if you know someone that might be interested, then please let me know.

Other than that I am feeling great about the tour. Thanks to the continued hard work of CAHPERD the speaking tour in moving ahead at breakneck speed. Also, of great excitement are the plans to have a sending off event the morning of the 31st at Cadboro Bay, hosted by the Uvic School of Exercise Science, Physical, and Health Education.

Physically I am dealing with a bit of a nagging injury right now that has me a little worried. My Achilles tendon has been hurting me quite a bit the last week or so, and it has been affecting my ability to ride. I am working with my athletic therapist, Sandy, and it has been getting better, but I am worried that it will not be heeled by the start of the tour.

On the whole I am filled with feeling of doubt approaching the start of the tour. If the lack of support I am getting now indicative of the support I can expect for the entire trip, what does it say about the state of our communities when the local news show spare ten minutes of showing the same live view of the inner harbor to do a short story about the tour.

I will continue to push forward, and I am very excited to get out on the road and see what will happen.

I hope you are all healthy and happy, and enjoying the same great weather that we are here in Victoria.

Sincerely,

Tyler

Hello Everyone!

I am writing to you on my way back to Victoria after a wonderful weekend resting and canvasing in Vancouver and Whistler!I was feeling very burnt out with everything at the end of last week and I decided that I needed to get away and take some personal time. Luckily, this corresponded quite well with a couple of opportunities for sponsorship that I needed to follow up in Vancouver, so after my ride on Thursday I put the bike away for a couple of days and headed for the big city.

I spent all day Friday meeting with possible sponsors and catching up with friends that I haven’t seen in a while (it’s hard to be social when your on a bike half your life). My meetings went quite well and I am allowing myself a slightly renewed sense of hope. Unfortunately, sponsorships and donations still have not been going well. The secure online donations page that I keep promising is still in the works and corporations are not being all that forthcoming.

On the bright side though, my speaking tour continues to move forward. Thanks to the wonderful partnership and the hard work from the people at CAHPERD I am well on my way to getting the audience I am hoping for! So much so I am starting to wonder when I am going to have time to ride/sleep/eat, ya know all those wonderful things, kidding, but it will be whirlwind of a tour.

Anyway, back to my wonderful rejuvenating weekend. My timing could not have been better this weekend was the first world cup in Whistler to get ready for the Olympics, and for those of you that do not know, I love ski racing. I spent all day Saturday relaxing on the slopes of Whistler, watching the mens race and doing a couple of runs for myself. It felt great to get back on the hill, I really needed to get some variety in my life and have a little bit of a break from the bike.

I’m back in Victoria now, rested, relaxed, and ready to get back to training full time. I’m really hoping to make the most out of the month I have left, and make sure I am ready for the trip. Everything is falling into place slowly but shurly, so I need to make sure I am ready to go.

 Best wishes to everyone,

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan

Well the title says it all!

 If any one has a couple of cups of motivation for me that would be great.

In the last couple of days I have gained a whole new appreciation for why people don’t exercise! I can honestly say there was nothing I wanted to do less that get on my bike over the weekend, but I did it, and man were they the longest rides of my life. In the end I am pretty happy with it though, I completed every planned ride, for a total of 315 km in three days and  despite the pain during I am feeling non the worst for wear!

It just goes to show that with a little will power (and the threat of bodily harm from a well meaning roommate) you can bring yourself to do just about anything.

As the tour date draws closer and closer I must say that I am not as prepared as I had hoped I might be! I am still boggled by the mountain of work that goes into organizing a tour like this, and I ind myself laughing at the sweet, well-meaning, and yet sorrily naive young man that started out on this journey. I really wonder if I would do it again knowing what I know now, I can tell you one thing, I would do it very differently. My one ray of sunshine is that I am by no means that first person to stumble through any event like this! I keep telling myself that Brad, Val, Erik,and Chris of the Extreme Kindness Tour (check them out at www.extremekindness.com, you will be inspired  I guarantee it!) didn’t have their van until the day before they left, so I think I might be doing alright with a little over a month left.

 Ah well, I continue to truck through and I am learning more and more every day, so I can’t complain now can I. I hope all of you on spring break are enjoying yourselves (remember, it is a time to get caught up on work, so at least open a book and put it on your desk, that way it looks like your studying!), and to all the rest, find some time to relax everyday; to much stress never helped anyone!

Sincerely,

 Tyler 

Hello All,

 I hope you have been enjoying the weather as much as I have!

With yesterday being the first day in months I have ridden outside with out my winter gloves on, I could not be happier, and as always the road biking community in Victoria did not disappoint! I had a ton of company on my ride today, whether it was a friendy wave or a drafting partner for a couple of Km, I always can count on someone being around.

 As for the rest of you, I can’t say I’ve been seeing the same thing. I rode right through lunch time on one of the nicest, scratch that the nicest day of the year and I am sad to report the the parks and the water front were empty! So, today’s health tip is pretty easy, and I challenge everyone to take part. If you see sun, get outside, even if its just grabbing a bag lunch and taking a ten minute walk around downtown, getting out and enjoying the sun is a great way to feel better and rejuvenating those weary winter eyes!

 If you have the time, find a couple of friends or co-workers and start a game of soccer or Frisbee (Ok hard cores, I know its called disk). Even if you can’t find enough people for a game right away, go out and start a game of pass and invite people to join in. Don’t know how to play? Don’t worry about it! We’re talking a park pick-up game here not the world cup, and pretty much anyone you meet will be willing to teach you the basics, all you need to do is ask!

 If you can’t find game, come and look for my friends and I. We’re usually out in one of the parks around the Mayfair area and we’re always looking for new players. How will you know us? We’re the once who look like fools, but are always laughing!

 As far as the tour planning is going, I have good news and bad news (as usual!). I am pleased to report that the speaking tour is looking great, thanks to the endless stream of emails from Stefanie we are starting to put together a tour that out shines even my highest hopes! Thank you to all the people who have been helping put that together, I couldn’t do it without you!

 The bad news is that we are still dangerously short on drivers! If anyone would like to come along for part of the tour, we would love to have you. It should be a lot of fun, we should have some pretty interesting stories by the end of it, and hey! you don;t have to do the riding and you’ll get a free t-shirt out of it!!

 Well, that’s about all I’ve got for today! I hope you are all enjoying these little updates. I know I enjoy writing them!

 Take care,

 Tyler 

Hello all!

Well, I am happy to report that the weather here in Victoria is getting nice again (not that we can ever complain that much), so I have been venturing back outside for my training, and I’d just like to say that I could not be happier! I  think all those hours on the indoor trainer were beginning to rot my brain (I did catch up on a lot of movies though). I continue to feel very positive about my training and my fitness for the tour, my days off don’t feel so far apart any more and my body feels better and better after long hours in the saddle!

I am happy to say that I have been seeing things that make me very positive about the health of my town. The minute the weather turned nice again the road bikers were out in force and I had lots of company on my rides. There was a particular group of riders that I had the pleasure of joining for an hour or so. As I rode up to the group, I had no idea that I was about to be put to shame by team of ladies the youngest of who was a very impressive fifty-five years old! I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate these wonderful ladies on their wonderful spirt and life-long commitment to staying active!

 Just remember if you don’t use it you lose it! So, take a page from my friends the road warriors and keep active all the way through your life, a little bit of work today will help you stay happy and healthy throughout your life!

Keep an ear out for my first radio interview airing next thursday 0n CFUV 101.9 fm, hopefully the first of many more to come!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan 

Febuary 4-7^th

Hello and Welcome to the Get Smart Get Active Blog. Here is where you will find information of how the tour is going strait from the source. I will be updating as often as I can with my feelings, impressions and emotions about the ride and about the people I am meeting along the way. I will also be trying to post information and hints about how you can become more active and healthier in your lives.

Well, my first blog entry falls on quite the eventful week. Everything seems like it may finally be falling into place! My training is going great and I am really beginning to feel like I am ready to accept the true immensity of the ride I am facing. However, this week I am battling against weather that would make a duck cry. It just goes to show that you should always check the forecast when you are heading outside for a couple of hours! For as I left my house and the early morning sun was burning through the clouds, it looked like it was going got be a great day for a ride, but alas, this was not to be true. Three hours later as I limped in to my driveway soaked to the bone, having experienced everything from driving rain and hail driving holes through my forehead, to blasting wind slowing me to a crawl, I was really wishing I had remembered my rain jacket. So, for the rest of the week I have been sequestered in my basement watching endless hours of Hollywood classics, while spinning away on my stationary bike.

My sponsorships have still been hard in coming. It is a hard waiting game, sending out emails and letters to everyone you can think of and waiting for a reply, wondering if they even got your letter. When the responses do come they have, unfortunately, been weighing the scales overwhelmingly to the “no” side, but I am keeping my head high and forging through.

On the positive side of things, I continue to get enthusiastic feedback fro the physical education community, and the speaking tour is driving ahead a full speed! So far I have heard from almost every major stop on the tour and unexpectedly the tour seems to coincide well with a number of initiatives already on the go. I can’t wait to get our there and start spreading the word!

That’s it for now. I hope you are all happy and healthy and finding time in your lives to get active. Remember one hour a day, keeps the doctor away!

Sincerely,

Tyler Duncan