Getting Accepted...

Today I started my taper with a 2.5 hour moderate bike ride. Like I said before, the Mark Allen Online taper program is not a "walk through the park type of taper". I think in Mark Allen's world, the word "taper" means "you only have two more weeks till race day".

In the past week, Alyssa and I both got good news. Alyssa got conditional acceptance to Ryerson University for the Psychology degree program and I got my acceptance letter to run in this years New York City Marathon. I qualified with a 1:27:51 at the Mississauga Half Marathon last year.

Alyssa has applied at a few Universities and is still waiting to hear back from the others. She's not sure if she wants to get into Interior Design or Psychology. I think she's leaning towards Psychology, but she's uncertain, although she's always wanted to be a doctor. I told her "to pick one, try it, and if you don't like it, you can always try something different, so long as it's not in the printing industry".

It's so tough to make a career decision at that age, or any age for that matter. When I was her age, I didn't make a career decision. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just found a job and through chance it eventually turned into a career. How many people at a young age know what career path they want to take?

I'm purposely not giving her any advice on what path to take. I think it's a personal choice. I don't ever want her feeling she was "pressured" or "swayed" into making her decision, I think it needs to be all hers.

With that said, if she tries something and doesn't like it, I'd support her to try something different. There's no value in forcing yourself to learn something you don't feel passionate about and then making it a career.

For me, it's a good thing I'm doing a lot of my big destination races this year. Starting next year, I figure it will cost me about $15,000 per year for Alyssa's schooling. If she chooses Psychology and wants to become a PhD, that's a LOT of years of schooling. I may have to supplement my income by selling Amway or getting a paper route.

Tonight, before my bike session, I went to the tanning salon. If I didn't need to tan for China, I'd never go to one. It's an awkward and unnatural thing to do.

It starts with an overly suntanned young receptionist, typically talking to her friend about boys when you enter, you have to wait for her to stop talking and notice you, she then sets you up with time, you then go into your assigned room, take off all your clothes, rub suntan lotion on EVERY part of your body and then lie down on the bed and close the lid.

As I'm lying in my "pod" with the heat lamps on and wearing my little space aged eye goggles with the same UV protection as a welders mask, I'm always concerned that something will go wrong, like me falling asleep with the light still on because the receptionist made a mistake while talking to her friend and me getting burnt to a crisp. That fear alone, keeps me alert and awake.

After the tan, I did my ride. To help the ride go by quicker, I found a telephone head set and used it. I spoke to John Barclay and then my brother. Something about talking to other people makes time go by faster. It worked great. The last half hour just flew by as Bob and I talked. I love multi-tasking, it feels like your adding more than 24 hours to the day.

Mod Bike Ride - 2:30:14 / 75.49 km / 30.15 kph