I’m attending a talk at Darlington library tomorrow night by Alastair Humphreys – adventurer, author, speaker. Alastair has done lots of cool stuff, like riding round the world by bike and completing the Marathon Des Sables and is soon to attempt to make the first unsupported journey to the South Pole and back (with Ben Saunders). His talks have recieved some excellent feedback and I’m really looking forward to going.

Via Alastair’s blog, I rediscovered Dean Karnazes. He runs very long distances and completes challenges like running 50 marothons in fifty states in fiftey days, then running home. Dean’s blog and this interview are full of fantastic snippets of wisdom and inspriation.

People like Alastair, Ben and Dean make me want to move my bike riding up a notch. I’m even contemplating running!

I’m going to have to add Ben Saunders‘ site to my feed reader. I had it bookmarked on my old laptop and it was one of the sites I checked weekly.

There are so many things just from the last few posts that I wanted to link to, or requote here.

“We are richer now, but more overworked, more deeply in thrall to the addictions of getting and spending. We have more possessions, and they tyrannise us. Each new mod con must be shopped for, maintained, insured, upgraded; each new thing must be stored, kept track of, kept secure, tidied; and the whole package is paid for in overwork, time-poverty, round-the-clock availability and round-the-clock insecurity.

We have more, and we have less. In such a world, freedom is both more precious and more elusive than ever. And one of the few surefire ways of liberating ourselves from the tyranny of the consumer society is to put ourselves beyond its reach.”

[quoted in Ben Saunders: Thought for the year]

[Ben Saunders: And my feet hurt]

There’s a scary difference between the Arctic sea ice cover on my second birthday and my thirtieth birthday.

[via Kottke, via Ben Saunders]

there is something special about the ebb and flow of life that I’m happy to be a part of. Injury stokes the fires of passion. Challenge brings new understanding. Failure leads to future strength and resolve. All of these phrases describe how life itself is rarely centered. You rarely experience the “perfect moment” when everything comes together. Instead it’s a series of events that often swing wildly from one extreme to another. Or sometimes all you get is a gradual change until one morning you have to put your jacket on for that brisk fall commute. Center is not a destination. It’s something to wave to as it passes it by a few times a year and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

– Slip Angle – Finding Center

Riding a bike almost every day is a great way to notice the natural ebb and flow of the seasons. Having kids seems to have made life’s swings seem even more extreme :)