First training ride (first schedule conflict)

Scheduling conflicts are inevitable when you have a lot of events to plan in a confined period of time. I committed to run in Harry’s Spring Run-Off (another charity close to my heart) long before the Bike Rally training rides were published. Who knew the first training ride, Finch-McCowan, would be as early as April 5th? I’m sure with all the events I would like to attend this summer, this won’t be the last conflict. Looking forward to re-connecting with my Bike Rally friends next week.

As for the unfinished business with that hill on Cummer Ave, I’ll have to deal with it another time…

office ride

July 20, 2007
Today I rode my bike to the office. This was something I wanted to try for quite some time and I was curious to see if I can match or even go faster then the usual commute via TTC, which in average is around a hour and 30 minutes.

I planned my route the night before and decided to take the shortest route, up on Don Mills and Victoria Park via McNicoll Ave. – 26km. In spite of the fact I was riding against a strong NNW wind I managed to get to the office in one hour and 32 minutes, good enough for me to prove that biking to the office is a good alternative option. I will definitively repeat this every time I’ll have a chance.

Coming back home was way much easier. I tried an alternative route biking down on Pharmacy and jumping on O’Connor via Eglinton. The shortest way is not always the best (or fastest), the traffic, the number of stops and the quality of the roads are playing a big role when you commute on the bike.

Both routes seemed reasonably OK, I will experiment more in the future and see if I can come up with a route that will keep me mostly on the bike trails available along the way.

Total distance: 56km

118.5k Kennedy to Uxbridge

July 14, 2007

One of the rides many of us won’t forget that easy. The pouring rain and strong winds during the second part of the ride added another level of challenge to an already demanding ride. A ride that brought back memories to seasoned riders (apparently a hard rain in Day4 two years ago) and an eye opener for new riders. It is one thing to get home when you are able to jump in the shower after a ride like this but quite another entirely when you get in to camp and you have to set-up the tent soaking wet and cold and no hot shower.

For me, this was a ride of many firsts:
- riding in the rain for several hours
- having my first flat (it had to be during a pouring rain)
- riding more 130km in one ride
- speeding on a bike, 68.9km/h!
- riding with a GPS enabled cyclocomputer
- taking pictures with an older camera (which I find way easier to handle while I am riding)

A special thank you to the Rustlers, Lynn, Klaus, Wendy and Stephanie for helping with the ride. Also, thank you to Lucinda, Leslie, Heather and Jay for taking the time (staying longer during the break) and
running the drafting lesson. I am sure they could have rode home sooner to avoid the rain.

For obvious reasons I have no pictures taken during the rainy part of the day. I wish I would though, one with me fixing the flat in the rain would have been priceless. Instead, the picture of the day goes to Heather (Team Leader Coach) and Walter (Co-chair)

Total distance: 132.6km

for the record (summary of previous rides)

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102km – Kipling Subway to Terra Cotta
July 07, 2007

Same ride like the one in July 1st but this time I rode out and back home, a new personal best – 130km.

After last week I thought, wouldn’t it be great to record this from the riders point of view. With that in mind I added a camera mount to my bike. I managed to record a number of short videos during the ride and the results turned out better than I expected. Once I work out a few technical details I believe I will be able to make a good use of it during the rally.

Total distance: 130km
 

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102km – Kipling Subway to Terra Cotta
July 1st, 2007

It’s Canada Day!

Finished with my assignment in Kansas City at last, and having learned my lessons, I was determined to make this one of my most successful rides. I slept, I was nutritionally prepared and I paced myself. The strong wind presented a new challenge and I learned, first hand, the value of drafting. Success was mine, this was one of my best rides thus far.

Total distance: 103km
I rode 1km around the block to beet the previous 102km
 

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72Km – Finch Subway to Aurora
June 02, 2007

Back from Kansas City and eager to match my previous 100km ride, I failed.
Not enough sleep, nutritionally challenged and pushing way to hard. I hit the wall mid-ride. Another lesson learned.
Had someone offered me and my bike a ride home I would have accepted. That didn’t happened so, it was a slow and painful ride back to the Finch subway.

Total distance: 82km
 

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49km – Kennedy to Rouge Valley
May 12, 2007

Who new, it was meant to be a regular ride but with the last minute change of plans (thank you Lesley) I broke the 100k!

Total distance: 102km
 
 
 

on a rainy day

Today’s forecast predicted showers and thunderstorms with winds 40km/h gusting up to 60km/h. Not a very good day for training but a good opportunity to relax, sit down and work on my blog. It was long overdue. My last work assignment was 5 weeks long 4 of which were spent in Kansas City, leaving little or no time for personal life, never mind blogging.

First and foremost, since my last post more friends pledged to support the cause, a big heartfelt thank you to all of them. In addition, I completed my first 100km ride (and two more 100+km rides since then) and attended few socials including the Big Meeting.

I spent the morning post-processing the photos from the last rides, you can check them by clicking here or on the photo link on the side bar. I am working on the blog updates and I am also trying to figure out how to upload the little movies I made in the last ride.

Enjoy, stay tunned and check for the updates.

catching up

The work in the office is keeping me quite busy and as a result I let my blog lie fallow for a while. It was a busy week for events as well so here is a “Readers Digest” review of everything since my last post.

Sunday, April 29 – Team Two’s First Social.
Stephanie and Geoffrey, our team leaders, hosted our first social. As it turns out, Team Two is comprised of former riders and former crew members turned riders as well as a few newbies. Thank you to our hosts for a great day, a good time was had by all and now we are officially known as Team Tailwinds.

Monday, April 30 – Bike Fit Clinic.
More on this in a separate post.

Tuesday, May 1 – Fundraising 101 seminar. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it due to a unexpected meeting in the office that lasted way past 6pm.

Wednesday, May 2 – Training – Loops
The sunny day was just calling for a ride. So Lucinda’s email calling us out for a ride around Commissioners and Cherry St. was a welcomed one. I ended up riding 57km and experienced my third “zero speed fall” in six years going clipless.

Thursday, May 3 – Hill training at Sunnybrook Stables.
Another late meeting and I was 30 minutes late. A short but intense workout led by Lucinda in which I climbed the hill several times. My legs got a real workout.

Friday, May 4 – Got my new bike!
WooHoo! More about this later.

Saturday, May 5 – Training ride 4 – Kipling to Meadowvale.
The ride overlapped with my last indoor volleyball Beach Blitz Tournament of the season. Tough call, on one hand I was itching to get my new bike out for a ride but on the other hand I really enjoy these tournaments and I haven’t missed a Blitz in long time. I managed to kill two birds with one stone, I took my bike with me and rode home form the tournament. What a ride!

42km Kennedy Zoo Loop

Cycling, as any cyclist will tell you, is rewarding and enjoyable provided you are prepared for the ride. My experience with other sports like rowing, running even snowboarding is that you can under-dress for the weather because if you over dress you can soon get overheated. Not so with cycling as I found out yesterday. Believing I would warm up during the ride, I decided no to bring my windbreaker jacket. As a result, the 75km I completed yesterday was rewarding but far from comfortable. Lesson learned, I won’t make that mistake again.

Although the morning was overcast and cool, there was one bright ray of sunshine in the form of Todd Davies. Todd is one of our Roadies who has been giving up his Saturday mornings to accompany us on our training rides. He provides us with water and encouragement along the way. A clear reminder of the important role all of our supporting crews will play in our journey to Montreal.

39km Kipling – Port Credit

For various reasons the second training ride seemed harder than the first. It was likely due to a combination of lack of training, the fact we rode at a higher pace and I was fighting off a nasty cold. The bottom line, it seemed more difficult than last week, but none the less, I enjoyed the ride. The weather was perfect, I completed 39km without a break and a total of 68km by the time I got home.

I started out with about 8 riders and we stayed together for a good portion of the route. Once we passed Port Credit I began to struggle. It was a gradual up hill grade and we slowly separated from each other. Heather and Lucinda realized I had been left behind and waited for me and we finished the ride together.

A few other riders joined us for the last leg of the route. We arrived to find the parking lot empty. Looks like we may have been the first to complete our second training ride.

34km – Finch Subway Loop

Tomorrow is the second training for the Bike Rally and the impressions from the first ride are still vivid in my mind.

For someone, like myself, riding for the first time in an organized training there was a lot to observe. New faces, bikes, equipment, road safety information, signaling and so on… Out of the 65 riders that showed up last Saturday I couldn’t recognize anyone else except Lucinda and Lesley. I was introduced to a few riders, we talked a little but mostly I stood and observed the preparation for the ride. It was fascinating to realize that I was just going to start the training together with a group of people I never met before and I was anxious to see how all this was going to unfold.

The ride was great, I didn’t find it difficult at all. A steady pace set by Lesley and Lucinda interrupted only by short stops at the intersections. I am used with this kind of workout and the experience I got in the last years as a rower proved to be very useful. We started in a group of five and then we caught up with another group. The first part of the route had a lot of intersections and stops and we shuffled position riding in various combinations. Once we hit the longer sections of the route we start spreading apart and I ended up riding in a group of three. In cycling as well as in rowing it is important to find a good pace and my plan was to stick with Lesley and Lucinda, trust their experience and let them set the pace of the ride. I am glad I did that, the girls did a very good job and my plan worked well.

The only little glitch was the big hill toward the end of the route. I definitively underestimated the incline. 2/3 of the climb I run out of energy, it was to late to recover and almost impossible to change gears at that point. Full stop, I had to walk the last third of the hill. Thursday May 3rd I am booked for the hill training session at Sunnybrook Stables and I am sure next time I’ll have to climb a hill like that I’ll do a better job.

I felt good after my first ride and I decided to ride back home together with Lesley, Lucinda and Bruce. That was fun, mostly downhill with a few really fast sections (54km/h max according with my bike computer), a nice way to conclude the first training. I counted a total of 50km, not bad for my first ride.

Overall, a very good day. I didn’t really have the chance to socialize with the rest of the riders but I am glad that the “ice breaking” session is now behind me. For the next three months we’ll be training together and I have no doubt, new friendships are going to evolve out of this.

The forecast for tomorrow looks great, sunny, high 22C! looking forward to the second ride of the season.