Week 21 & 22

Sharing the Road

These past 2 weeks of training have been very light as I tried to recover from a sore left knee and just general fatigue and tiredness. Rather than just recounting my sessions that I did do , the past weekend gone by ,  usually filled with activity and following friends and triathletes online at the Ironman World championships took a very steep dive emotionally with the news of another death of a cyclist , a triathlete and someone I knew in the triathlon community.

I did not know Brynt personally but I knew Katey his girlfriend and had seen him on many occasions at triathlons , at the cafe and with Katey riding in the hills on my rides earlier in the year before Ironman Melbourne and right at the beginning when Exceed (even before Exceed was a Tri Club) we would meet up at Tiger Lils Cafe and Katey and Brynt would be having breakfast there . It hits home how vulnerable we are on the road. I use the same route , less so now , when heading to the hills and so do all my friends and club mates ,  and I am sure many other cyclist ride the same roads on their way to Kalamunda and the Hills . I felt tired on Saturday and opted to not ride and take my dog to the beach. On Sunday I did the ATTA time trial as 2000 triathletes were racing in Kona and as I checked my Facebook page , news of Brynt's death was being posted.  

The rest of the Sunday just felt numb . I didn't really feel like following the World Championships and everything else felt less important . Whilst I can't pretend to express or know the pain his family and loved ones are going through , it was closer to home than the stories I read of cyclist or motorist killed each week on our road. I blogged about the senseless deaths of cyclist last year ( Cycling: the beauty and the tragedy 17 May 2013) and the need for at least some laws to ensure motorist give cyclist the space to avoid tragedy .We always come off second best . Any law won't prevent all deaths and particularly the stupidity of people driving and breaking the current laws be it texting ,using their mobile phones or drink driving . But I believe in more protection because lives are being lost through senseless and dangerous driving . Education is certainly a factor and the aggression of some motorist vs cyclist needs to be stopped by both sides . I have seen motorist and cyclist acting badly . I am a car user and I am conscious of cyclist because I have and I am in their shoes. I wish as the blogger Kristy Muir in her piece Clip into Our Shoes ( http://theperformanceproject.com.au/clip-into-our-shoes/ ) expressed it , we only want to share the road and we all want to get home safely .

 In other parts of the world it isn't a tough ask. This past week here in Perth , One family , a Partner , a Community can't say that for one of its own .