Sihing Lilienskold and Sifu Finnamore made history this weekend. While the whole world watched Lance Armstrong and Team RadioShack complete the Tour de France, capturing first place in the team classifaication, the duo from Silent River Kung Fu successfully completed their first ever bike event - the 100km Tour d'Alberta. Although it may seem strange to compare Team Radio Shack to the two novice bike riders half a world away, there is a link. We caught up with pair soon after the event, as they slurped on some delicious strawberry popsicles.
Q. 100km!!!- you gals certainly bit of a big one by choosing to go this distance for your first ever event. How did you prepare?
Sihing Lilienskold: We've been training since March. Claire and I joined spin classes in March. When the weather got good enough -I think that was sometime in July this year - we started riding outside - 35km, and 60km at a time. We rode together only one time during our training because our work and personal schedules seldom jive. I'm a real estate agent and so I have to get the rides in between clients. Claire has a job with a regular schedule, so she took to riding to and from work.
Q. What motivated you to start this kind of training?
Sifu Finnamore. Alot of things, really. First and foremost for me was a promise I made to myself through the UBBT7. I have always loved bike riding, but hadn't done much of it during the years I was raising my kids. I wanted to get back into it, but several years went by, and my bike riding activity remained rather spotty. Totally unsatisfactory. You know how it is - we often make promises to ourselves, (getting into shape, eliminating a bad habit, changing our lifestyle, pursuing a passion, taking control of our lives) and then spend a lifetime breaking them. I signed up for the UBBT7 so that I could do a better job of following through on my promises. So one of my personal requirements was to do a set minumum number of hours bike riding, and to actually take the first step towards entering the biking community and participating in an event such as a ride, or charity ride.
Q. So the Tour d'Alberta was your goal?
Sihing Lilienskold: Well, actually no. Our goal this year is the LiveStrong ride for Cancer, which is being held in Austin, Texas in October. We're doing the 45 mile ride, which is about 72km. It sounds easier than the 100km we just finished, but the elevations (climbs) are much bigger.
Q. Why Livestrong? Why Texas?
Sifu Finnamore: A bunch of reasons. First, LiveStrong is Lance Armstrong's foundation, and if you've read his book "It's Not About the Bike", you know he is a cancer survivor and an inspiration to millions of people struggling with cancer, or struggling to believe in accomplishing the impossible. His mother is an inspiration too - read her book "No Mountain High Enough". So when I came accross this LiveStrong event it made total sense to participate.
Sihing Lilienskold: And we've never been to Texas before - we both want to travel and we've both got a list of places to visit and things to do before we get too old. There were other Livestrong events, in Philadelphia, Seattle, San Jose, Jasper/Banff, etc, but the dates didn't work, or the destination wasn't on our lists. And I think Claire secretly hopes to bump into Lance on the Austin event, because that's his hometown.
Q. So you gals have to raise some money?
Sifu Finnamore: Yes. There's a minimum fundraising goal of $250US each. But we plan to raise more if possible.
Sihing Lilienskold: It's interesting when you think about it. Opportunities to do positive things get you thinking about how it relates to our own lives. My mother died of cancer when I was nineteen. Claire's had a brush with cancer, and her brother is a cancer survivor. We've both lost close freinds and family, business associates to the disease. There's a whole community of cancer patients and survivors all around us - we are really a part of it; the LiveStrong foundation provides funding to both the community, and the research. Cycling and adventure aside, supporting the LiveStrong campaign is a great way to spend your holiday time.
Q. So where do we go to donate?
Sihing Lilienskold:
Go to the Livestrong Webpage: www.LIVESTRONG.org
Click on "Donate".
Choose 'Support Event Participants'
Select an Event - "Livestrong Chalenge: Austin"
Enter one or both of our names: Claire Finnamore or Julie Lilienskold
Donate!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Year of theTiger
Lately, I've been having alot of flashbacks to the beginning of the the Silent River Kung Fu Chinese New Year Banquet. Sifu Freitag, in a seemingly ominous tone, foretold what we could expect to come in the Year of the Tiger. I don't remember the exact words, but the message I got was that we could expect lots of struggle, dissappointment, failure, turbulence. So far, the prediction has been accurate. I hang on to the positive part of the prediction that we will come out stronger, and our accomplishments have the potential to be quite significant. Or something like that.
Take the UBBT7, for example. I remember being in a a place last December, where the goals I set out seemed very acheivable, and very much a part of my lifestyle, discipline, goals and abilities. That rapidly changed. Now, here I am in month 7, and some of the goals that I had assumed would be easy to accomplish given my daily routines, are suffering immensely. On the other hand, the goals that I had considered 'a bit of a risk', are now soaring to the forefront, taking on a momentum of their own. Very exciting.
I feel guilty that it's the non-kung-fu elements of UBBT7 that are successful at the moment. Every day that I cycle the 30km to work, and then do the return trip at the end of the day, I say to myself, "When I get home, I will do the pushups, I will do the situups, I will do the kicks and the horsestance, and the tai chi sword'. So far it hasn't happened. Today, I cycled home through torrential rain, wind and giant mud puddles. Took an extra half hour to get home, fighting that wind. I was so wet when I got home, that my pants were falling down from the weight of the water they had absorbed. I took a shower, then lay down.
Then I wrote this blog. Then I'll go to bed.
Take the UBBT7, for example. I remember being in a a place last December, where the goals I set out seemed very acheivable, and very much a part of my lifestyle, discipline, goals and abilities. That rapidly changed. Now, here I am in month 7, and some of the goals that I had assumed would be easy to accomplish given my daily routines, are suffering immensely. On the other hand, the goals that I had considered 'a bit of a risk', are now soaring to the forefront, taking on a momentum of their own. Very exciting.
I feel guilty that it's the non-kung-fu elements of UBBT7 that are successful at the moment. Every day that I cycle the 30km to work, and then do the return trip at the end of the day, I say to myself, "When I get home, I will do the pushups, I will do the situups, I will do the kicks and the horsestance, and the tai chi sword'. So far it hasn't happened. Today, I cycled home through torrential rain, wind and giant mud puddles. Took an extra half hour to get home, fighting that wind. I was so wet when I got home, that my pants were falling down from the weight of the water they had absorbed. I took a shower, then lay down.
Then I wrote this blog. Then I'll go to bed.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Zen and the Art of Bicycle Repair
I've often fancied the idea of becoming a bicycle mechanic. My father is my role model. When we were young, he'd take us kids to the local RCMP bike auction, and buy one or two bikes that were in a sad state of disrepair. He'd take them home, combine all the good parts, and we'd have one nice bike. I loved going to those auctions, and will never forget the one time my dad bid 50 cents on a bike. It was the third bike he had bid on that that day, the first two had seen no counter-bids, so he got them both for fifty cents each. A few heads in the crowd started to turn around to see who this guy was. And so when my dad bid on the third bike, some smart alec counter-bid with one dollar. My dad let the bike go - so this guy got a bike he had no idea what to do with as it needed alot of work and was probably only useful for the one or two parts my dad needed to combine with the parts on the other two bikes.
The best bike my dad built for me was mostly orange, and pretty much a ten-speed. I biked everywhere - to work during university years, to Horseshoe Bay and back with my brother, on camping trips with my college friends on the Salt Spring Islands, to the library, or just to get away from it all. I used it right up until I left home. And the bike meant so much to me - I called it the 'Road Runner'. I wish I still had it. Lance Armstrong said - "A bicycle is the long-sought means of transportation for all of us who have runaway hearts'.
A couple of months ago, I started taking courses on bicylce maintenance and repair. The beginner course was basic - change the tires, adjust the brakes and gears, true the wheels etc. I worked on my own bike in the class and then went home to practice my new skills on Jill and Janet's bike. The gear adjustement did not go well, as, unknown to myself, the derailleur apparatus was bent. After a little while, I found that I had broken the cable. Next week, I sheepishly brought Janet's bike in to my teacher. "Great course Scott! I worked on Janet's bike: do you think you could possibly fix it now??" Instead, he signed me up for the next Intermediate course, and I learned how to fix the derailleur, and whole pile of other stuff. So next, I'll work on Jill's bike.
The interesting thing about Scott - besides the fact that he is a master of his Art - is his training, or more precisely, his lack of formal training. I had wandered into his shop a few months previous as it was accross the road from where Janet was taking volleyball training. I had an hour to kill. At first I observed Scott at work in the bike shop - an unasuming guy a little younger than me and in charge of about five fellows who looked to be what you would call 'pedal-heads', in their mid twenties or so. As I watched him quietly and patiently imparting knowledge and advice to his charges as they worked on the bikes, I got to envying his station in life. And I decided then and there that he needed to be my mentor. So I approached him and inquired. I quess you could say we make a rather odd looking teacher/mentor and student pair. Scott is not very well educated in that he has no certifcates or diploma's - not even for high school. "How do get to be a bike mechanic?", was my first question to him. "Do you have to go to those schools in Oregan or Colorado?". "I suppose they might be useful", he responded. "But how did you get to where you are today?" I asked. "It's just what I've done all my life", he said. And then he offered to enroll me in some of his courses. Scott is a short, somewhat dumpy fellow, with an unruley mass of sandy-blonde curles spilling over the top of his head. His hands are chewed up and red. His knowledge is profound, yet he imparts it to his students in words not exceding two syllables. His newest student- myself- is an over-educated, cerebral, chatty, gray-haired lady, taller and more athletic, and very naive when it comes to the workings of the bicycle.
Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
The best bike my dad built for me was mostly orange, and pretty much a ten-speed. I biked everywhere - to work during university years, to Horseshoe Bay and back with my brother, on camping trips with my college friends on the Salt Spring Islands, to the library, or just to get away from it all. I used it right up until I left home. And the bike meant so much to me - I called it the 'Road Runner'. I wish I still had it. Lance Armstrong said - "A bicycle is the long-sought means of transportation for all of us who have runaway hearts'.
A couple of months ago, I started taking courses on bicylce maintenance and repair. The beginner course was basic - change the tires, adjust the brakes and gears, true the wheels etc. I worked on my own bike in the class and then went home to practice my new skills on Jill and Janet's bike. The gear adjustement did not go well, as, unknown to myself, the derailleur apparatus was bent. After a little while, I found that I had broken the cable. Next week, I sheepishly brought Janet's bike in to my teacher. "Great course Scott! I worked on Janet's bike: do you think you could possibly fix it now??" Instead, he signed me up for the next Intermediate course, and I learned how to fix the derailleur, and whole pile of other stuff. So next, I'll work on Jill's bike.
The interesting thing about Scott - besides the fact that he is a master of his Art - is his training, or more precisely, his lack of formal training. I had wandered into his shop a few months previous as it was accross the road from where Janet was taking volleyball training. I had an hour to kill. At first I observed Scott at work in the bike shop - an unasuming guy a little younger than me and in charge of about five fellows who looked to be what you would call 'pedal-heads', in their mid twenties or so. As I watched him quietly and patiently imparting knowledge and advice to his charges as they worked on the bikes, I got to envying his station in life. And I decided then and there that he needed to be my mentor. So I approached him and inquired. I quess you could say we make a rather odd looking teacher/mentor and student pair. Scott is not very well educated in that he has no certifcates or diploma's - not even for high school. "How do get to be a bike mechanic?", was my first question to him. "Do you have to go to those schools in Oregan or Colorado?". "I suppose they might be useful", he responded. "But how did you get to where you are today?" I asked. "It's just what I've done all my life", he said. And then he offered to enroll me in some of his courses. Scott is a short, somewhat dumpy fellow, with an unruley mass of sandy-blonde curles spilling over the top of his head. His hands are chewed up and red. His knowledge is profound, yet he imparts it to his students in words not exceding two syllables. His newest student- myself- is an over-educated, cerebral, chatty, gray-haired lady, taller and more athletic, and very naive when it comes to the workings of the bicycle.
Claire Finnamore
Student Member, Silent River Kung Fu
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