Introduction

To introduce myself, I love to run and I love to ride my bicycle.  My love affair with my bicycle started before I can even remember - I grew up with it.  More recently (within the past six months), I have also started running.

Historically then, I'm a bicycle advocate. I try to avoid the term 'cyclist' because, for some, that relates more to the competitive sport of cycling.  I do not compete nor do I even own a road bike.  But I love my riding my bicycle.  I ride whenever I can - both for exercise and for transportation.  I support bike lanes and safe bicycling infrastructure.  My wife and I share a single vehicle, which we use to commute, run errands, and road trip to visit family in the Okanagan.  But I try to leave the car in the driveway as often as possible.

I would love to be able to commute by bike everyday; however, my 20km commute (each way) is a bit too much to accomplish on a daily basis.  Before kids, I tried for a three times per week.  Since kids, I try for the rare occasion that my wife is able to do both drop-off and pick-up from day care.

For a couple of years, I tried to get my exercise going for bike rides in the evenings.  I would aim for anywhere from 20km to 40km depending on my schedule and time available.  However, after returning to school this past year and my now-a-little-bit-older-son able to stay up a bit later, my evenings are a bit short of time for the rides I used to do.

Which brought me this past fall to try running.  For years, ever since high school basically, I have avoided running.  I remember the feeling in high school gym class after doing what we called a "block run" (basically, a 1.5km run around the block), gasping for air and struggling to get the thick phlegm off of the back of my throat.  However, my necessity to find some way to stay in shape (or get in shape for that matter) and not having the time for my usual bike rides, I thought I'd give running a try.

So in September 2013 I started bringing some dry fit shorts and t-shirt to work along with an old pair of cross-trainers I had with me to work.  During my lunch breaks, three times a week, I set out on a run along the Fraser River through the Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park.

Thus, from my bicycle roots, which are still alive and strong, began my addiction to running...