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Toronto Cycling Map at iBikeTO.ca

I can’t quite recall where I read it (probably Joe Friel’s excellent Cyclist’s Training Bible) but apparently during your first year of cycling training, you need to log about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of foundation before getting serious about skill-targeted training regimes.

That’s a lot of miles, and although I have some favourite routes in the city, it’s still nice to mix it up occasionally and discover new trails.

Toronto Cycling Maps

There are great maps of Toronto cycling routes, in pdf form (here on toronto.ca) and as a Google Maps mashup (here on iBikeTO.ca).

Accessing New Routes

At Tommy Thompson Park, in pursuit of Toronto Cycling Routes

New opportunities for discovering routes are appearing all the time.

TCAT pointed me to the Bikes+Transit site, which invites Toronto cyclists to avail of new GO Bus racks for transporting cycles.  In addition to making Toronto a more cycling-commuter friendly city, the bus additions now also allow cyclists to access other routes across (and out of) the city.

You’re even supposed to use Flickr and Twitter to record your explorations. I love Flickr, so I’ll aspire to join in the photo taking. I don’t usually bring my SLR on cycling trips, but that hasn’t stopped me from taking sketchy photos and videos with my phone in the past.

Niagara trails are also more accessible now (see here). You can also take the Greyhound bus between Toronto, St Catherines, and Niagara Falls.

Is there an App for that?

Being a Blackberry user (actually a Blackberry lover), the one thing I can’t find is an app the would turn my blackberry into a GPS-enabled cycling map, for the times when I occasionally lose my way on a new route. (Apparently the iPhone has a bunch of cycling apps available!)

If anyone knows of such a Blackberry app, I’d be very much obliged. Even a generic app that would allow me to overlay a Google Maps mashup like the Toronto cycling one would be great.

Learning the Lingo

Bonus cycling link: Dictionary of Roadie Slang (the Profanisaurus of cycling, useful for a Cat. 7 like me)

Here are 3 things I’ve done recently in anticipation of MIX09:

Bill Buxton's Sketching User Experiences

1. Read keynote speaker Bill Buxton‘s “Sketching User Experiences.” This book oozes passion, smarts, and a loving perspective on design. It had an immediate and lasting influence on me: by the time I’d finished it, I’d bought a sketchbook (still in use daily), pinned a corkboard up in my office (now covered with shoddy sketches), and done most of Bill’s proposed exercises (even practiced my “video sketching” skills).

2. Watched Helvetica, in anticipation of the Objectified screening. It took me so long to get around to this documentary!  I can’t believe how compelling the story of a font can be. I’m suddenly font-obsessed, wanting to rip and replace everything. On a related note, check out some of Robby Ingebretsen’s excellent typography adventures.

Helvetica the Movie

It's going to be epic...

3. Finally signed up for Twitter. But what’s the big deal? (Update: And how are you all finding me so quickly?) Definitely useful for MIX and MIX-esque events. And maybe it takes the place of the brief “Robert is…” notes chez Facebook.  But if I let it infiltrate the rest of my life, I fear it will encourage a higher volume of low-impact interactions. Am I mistaking byte count for impact?

Bring on the MIX! And since we still have a weekend to go, I’d love to hear your thoughts on other worthwhile things to do before the 17th to get the most out of MIX09.

This is relevant to my blog because (a) it moved me, and (b) it’s about passionate people engaging other earthlings about incredible technology.

The Mars Phoenix has been “twittering” for months.  Or more correctly, its team has been twittering in the “voice” of the Phoenix for months.  So I’ve followed the lander as it updates us back on Earth about how it’s hangin’ on the surface of another planet.

The lander is about to go into “Lazarus mode,” and unlikely to wake up again during the next Martian summer.  And so Mars Phoenix twittered:

“Many questions about next Martian summer and will I wake up? It is beyond expectations. But if it happens you’ll be among the 1st to know”

and then, stepping out of character,

“In case we don’t get this chance again, thank you all so much for the questions, comments & good wishes over the mission. It’s been awesome.”

I was almost choked up by what might be the Phoenix’s final posts.  Does that sentence read as a confession?  We all knew it was going to pass away shut down eventually.

Today, there are over 37,000 followers of the Phoenix twitter feed, and at least one guy in Toronto who’s moved to hear the Phoenix is going to sleep, perchance to dream, and possibly for good.

Thanks to the Phoenix team’s Twitter personality, I’ve been engaged more frequently and deeply than I ever expected. And I don’t even Twitter.