Today I rode to Goodwood, the interested reader can see the high resolution route by clicking here or just look at the picture below.
As is pretty much the standard the fast guys did their thing and I did not even try to keep up. But for once the reason I did not try was not because I could not, rather I need to save my legs for tomorrow. I honestly believe that if I had really tried I could have kept up, perhaps not the whole way but a good portion of the distance I would have been right there in the QB Express.
The ride to Goodwood is generally a pretty pleasant road, Brock Road is almost a continuous run of up hills, but if whatever goes down must climb back up, whatever goes up does get to race back down. On Reesor I was clocking in a steady 35-45km/h from around 19'th Ave. to around Highway 7. I covered around 114km, in about four hours (this excludes time spent stopped for pastries at the bakery, or red lights) and according to my GPS I also burned off over 4400 calories.
Tomorrow: 180km!
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Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
On the August 30 Stead State Ride
I am going to bed soon, I have to get up early for the Sunday ride. But I would just like to post my most recent ride information for the curious out there.
An interesting aside, we were not far from Erin at the far reach of this ride. You know now that my bike is Erin, I am going to notice that name all the damned time. Erin Mills, town of Erin. The Cisco sales rep I used to deal with was Erin Gartner, all these Erins... weird!
Anyway I got home from the ride and well actually after the ride went directly to the office to fix something, then went home and went to the super market. Then I got my neighbour, who bought Amy, to bring her over and I cleaned the chain and told my neighbour we should go for a ride. If for no other reason then to learn how to shift gears properly on a road bike, that ride will have to be postponed until tomorrow though, it gets dark too early these days.
Remarkably there really is not all that much to record, unless of course, I talk about the ride, but at this point I do not feel up to that task.
An interesting aside, we were not far from Erin at the far reach of this ride. You know now that my bike is Erin, I am going to notice that name all the damned time. Erin Mills, town of Erin. The Cisco sales rep I used to deal with was Erin Gartner, all these Erins... weird!
Anyway I got home from the ride and well actually after the ride went directly to the office to fix something, then went home and went to the super market. Then I got my neighbour, who bought Amy, to bring her over and I cleaned the chain and told my neighbour we should go for a ride. If for no other reason then to learn how to shift gears properly on a road bike, that ride will have to be postponed until tomorrow though, it gets dark too early these days.
Remarkably there really is not all that much to record, unless of course, I talk about the ride, but at this point I do not feel up to that task.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
On A Fast Tuesday Ride
I booked today off as a vacation day. You wouldn't know it from the way my Blackberry has been ringing off the hook, all work related crap. I read a study, actually there are several, by forcing employees to have real down time, - i.e. disconnected, offline, away from the office, sleep in, don't worry about it, we've got you covered - down time. Well that sort of downtime causes:
- improved employee moral
- improved performance and productivity that far and away offsets the loss from a couple days away from work
Well fine, I hate my job, and frankly when my boss got pissed at me because on Thursday at 8:30 I was not able to shut down the servers, well let me elucidate, that was Thursday at 8:30 at night! I was on my bike at King and Parliament and he called me and got pissed because I needed twenty minutes to get home - well if anyone out there is hiring an IT guy, I am willing to be on call but it better be expected that off hours calls may not get the under 5 minute turn around that a call during the business day would entail. This 24x7x365 World we have created is a monster and I want out! Lets start the revolution, throw your Blackberry into Lake Ontario!
Anyway an angry rant from an office worker, hope you enjoyed it.
Okay so on to real things, i.e. things that I love with a passion, not hate with a passion (what can I say? everything for me is a passion). As I said yesterday I was going to do the Tuesday night ride, and I did. I could include the map, but the one Dan drew in advance is exactly the route we followed. Also I must have accidentally hit the stop button on my GPS on Russel Hill Road so I lost the last ten or so clicks, which were also probably the fastest part of the ride. But I can draw comfort from the fact that for once I was not waaaay behind the pack the entire ride. Well there was one spot I started to drop back, on Eglinton I just felt slow for some reason but I picked things back up by the time we got to Tomken.
It was a good ride, we never really stopped for any length, and managed to maintain a pretty decent speed. At one point I commented that Thi should spend some time pulling the pack, to which he responded by going full tilt like a bat out of hell, and I am pleased to report that while I had trouble I was able, with effort, to stay in his draft to the next red light. One day I might even be able to keep up with fast guys for more than just a couple blocks, if that ever happens maybe I should start racing.
I have some pictures, compliments of Dan Yang, all taken at the end of the ride.
I wore my North Shore Inline Marathon Jersey on this ride. I figured the red would stand out so drivers could see me. Not smart, next time I will wear either a white jersey or a BCC jersey. Actually at night the BCC jersies are pretty reflective, which is a good thing.
From left to right, Dan, Jeff, myself, Bill, Thai and Steve.
The guy waving was walking down the street, someone asked him not to get in the way of the previous picture, then feeling guilty they asked him to stand in this picture. Notice the blur between myself and Jeff? That is Dan running to get in the picture after setting up the camera.
I remember as I fidgeted with my water bottle I was thinking, this is going to look really silly, oh well I guess that water bottle I am holding is not really a big focus of attention here.
I have taken all kinds of Glutimine since that ride but legs still hurt. But that is alright, I feel great!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
On Office Perspectives
September 19 our branch office in Montreal will be shutdown, the building is doing electrical work. Normally the building would start at 2200 or later, possibly even the next morning, this time the building wants everyone out and all systems shutdown by 1900. Of course our users don’t want the day to end before 1600 and then we have to perform a backup – after all when you shut a system down how confident are you really that the system will come back up after? Normally backups take about 13 hours, a full shutdown, its an additional two hours or so. So we are looking at compressing 15 hours of work into a three hour window.
When I was an undergrad I met a U of T student in a purely social setting, when I told her I was in CS she asked if I was a developer, when I told her I was in IT she started making fun of me. Apparently IT guys simply reboot things when something stops working. I wish!
In other office news, I was about to go home yesterday. I was in full uniform, bike shorts (bib) with an old S-works Jersey. One of my co-workers who was waiting for the elevator said I looked like I belonged at the Olympics, (as if!). Then the co-op told me when she watched the Olympics she thought she saw me, apparently all the cyclists wore the same clothing I did. (For what it’s worth, my sun glasses, while Oakleys are in fact prescription, that I have had since 2003. As for the shorts, they were on sale at the bike show, but hey, when you’ve got it baby flaunt it!)
Tonight is another Tuesday night insanity ride. It’s a new route, looks exciting, actually lets be honest here, the new route looks like Michael’s gonna be dropped and lost! Alright seriously, we are going along Gerrard to Sumach then to Carlton all the way to St. George? I hope Dan does not mind this, but there is an ugly jog in Carlton at Parliament, having lived on Amelia Street (just a few doors from former mayor Barbra Hall as a matter of fact), just a couple blocks away, I think I may have a better idea, take Gerrard to Sherbourne, then take Sherbourne to Carlton. Or if we want a more X rated ride, take Gerrard to Church then Church to Carlton. I can pretty much promise there will be at least a few prostitutes out by the time we pass through.
Prostitution… there must be something we as a society can do to ensure that young women do not feel they have to resort to such a horrible thing to get by. I have no idea what, but surely among the teaming masses there must be a good idea out there?
Anyway check this space tomorrow (I am taking the day off work) I will have a full synopsis of the insanity ride. As well I will be giving Erin a full cleaning. Here is my secret, my chain has a master link, I open the chain up and use varsol, the chain shines like it is brand new after a quick varsol dunking. Oh and I got a new rim finally, Erin rides true again, it is an awesome feeling, like the first time I drove our car, when it was new, only its like a million times better. There are no dead Iraqis in my gas tank!
Monday, August 25, 2008
On a long journey
Okay before I forget, Monday, September 1, Labour day, I am going to do the oft promised ride from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe and back. It starts at 5:30am (0530) at the Tim Horton's at Leslie and Lakeshore (North West corner). Everyone is welcome to join in, but bring food, drink and a few lights because it is still dark at that hour. The route is online in high resolution here, or see below.
Now as for the ride to Harrison I did yesterday. First if anyone wants to see the high resolution version of the route, just click here.
Some things you might notice, I did not take the route I planned to take originally, in my Friday August 22 post Weekend Rides. After consulting with Aaron I decided to go across Lakeshore and then go almost straight up Cawthraw, then Central Parkway/Kennedy. It was a dead easy route to remember and actually pretty lightly on traffic, as one might expect at 6am on a Sunday. Now I should add that Toronto air, at least on Sunday was appalling, it was filthy with smog and lord knows what else I was shoveling into my lungs - yes I should go into a tirade against pollution but anyway, because of the air, I took things light until I was well into Mississauga.
I rode directly under the flight path of aircraft taking off from Pearson airport, at a rate of about one per minute. You know, as a large jet, i.e. a 777, 767 or A320 approaches the whine from the engines is very different head on than from the side? I only discovered that yesterday. from the side or behind a jet aircraft makes a whoshing sound, of... well a jet of hot gasses escaping a pressure chamber, but from in front they sound like huge piston engines. No that has nothing to do with the ride, but you try riding along Kennedy road at Courtney park and notice anything other than 200 ton objects flying a mile above you at 300km/h and making as much noise as my lifeguard whistle.
Sigrid, Aaron and I rode from Brampton to Erin ON, I had more than a few chances to reflect on the irony as we approached that town, from there Aaron wanted to take a slight detour so we could do what must have been a 10% drop with a 170 degree switch back. Aaron, thankfully, advised us to take it slow. I am sure if I had been going fast I would have crashed on the switch back, it was a tight one. A few rollers later, we did a U-turn and came back to Erin (no not the bike, the town, Erin - the bike - was never far from me the entire day).
I had to use the washroom, too much sweat in my sunglasses for one thing, and I had drained my water bottle. We stopped at a Coffee time, in the town of Erin. Where I made what I only recently realised was a foolish mistake, I filled my bottle with straight tap water, but more on that later.
We continued on, I believe in Grand Valley I made the second mistake of refilling my bottle with more tap water. Several times we passed over the Grand River, this is the river that passes through Kitchener/Waterloo and supplies the town with something like one seventh the town's drinking water. It was an odd realization, the first year's students at Waterlooooser would drink some of that water during frosh week which starts in just a few days. Actually there is nothing grand about the Grand River that far upriver, it was little more than a creek or stream.
When we got onto Highway 89 I suppose I should have thanked my lucky stars that Erin - the bike now, is a Roubaix and not pure carbon frame like the Tarmac (or even worse, a steel frame). Highway 89 had a crack in the road, perpendicular to traffic, literally every three meters. Imagine, every second or so, say thump, but say it loudly, that is what I sounded like. Somewhere on thump! 89 I thump! crossed the thump! one hundred thump! mile mark, thump! for only the thump! second time thump! in my life, thump!. As we approached Mount Forrest the road quality improved significantly and my rear end stopped hurting so much, except that we turned off of 89 almost as soon as the road became nice.
By the time we got to the the Canadian Inline Training Centre I was completely bonked. Actually I was bonked before we got to 89. Somewhere on 25 I bonked, I took in some Hammer Gel, recovered slightly then bonked again at around the Century mark and never really recovered. On Sigrid's advice I bought coke (she said either coke or Gatorade, something with calories) for a ride. Good advice, except the problem with coke, it is carbonated and my water bottle could not hold the coke down. My lower legs go sprayed, Erin got sprayed, my shoes got sprayed, everything below my knees was covered in sugary stickiness. Next time I do a long ride I will bring up bags of powder drink mix or I will buy Gatorade. I am not fan of that stuff, but bonking really sucks, especially when it is so easy to avoid.
I did a lap and a half on the banked track at the CITC, quite probably one of the only, if ever, times a bike has seen that 200m track. I only managed to crank out 37.5km/h, but I was tired and I am just not used to banked corners. Maybe if I had done a dozen or so laps I could have figured out how to ride a bike on skating track, but since I was tired I decided to call it a day with 300m.
Georg N. was kind enough to drive me to the Go train station, he had to look after things at home so he couldn't take me all the way. But on the way to Mississauga we stopped at a Tim Hortons, Georg wanted a coffee - I wanted to die, but I digress. Georg had to buy gas as well, so I told him to go fill up and I would get his coffee. I was, obviously, the only guy in the Tims wearing a bike jersey, bike shorts and shoes. Oh and I was walking with more than a modest amount of obvious pain. When Georg pointed out that I was clearly having problems moving, I responded that I wanted the people in the Tim's to show some respect since, after all I had just burned off 7500 calories. He replied they probably thought I was crazy, and if they knew what I had done, they would be sure I was crazy! (Later Georg admitted he was kind of jealous of me for doing that ride, which is fine, but it begs the question, Georg, if you are reading this, why don't you come out on Monday? If you don't have a road bike I can introduce you to some decent bikes stores, or there is always some places close to your home. CyclePath at Spears near 3'rd Line, or Gears on Lakeshore near Mississauga both look like good stores.)
Of course doing 180km the week before Duluth may not be the wisest thing any of us ever do, but hey for me the 180km is a much more exciting thing than Duluth. Its sort of sad how little interest I have in skating anymore.
When I got home my parents came over for dinner. They brought some takeout, we bought a cake on Saturday. While I was in the shower I was thinking about that cake and it occurred to me, the cake has about 2000 calories (an estimate) so if I ate the entire cake, I would still be down about 5500 calories!
Its a remarkably difficult thing to keep the weight on when you burn 7500 calories in a single day.
Now as for the ride to Harrison I did yesterday. First if anyone wants to see the high resolution version of the route, just click here.
Some things you might notice, I did not take the route I planned to take originally, in my Friday August 22 post Weekend Rides. After consulting with Aaron I decided to go across Lakeshore and then go almost straight up Cawthraw, then Central Parkway/Kennedy. It was a dead easy route to remember and actually pretty lightly on traffic, as one might expect at 6am on a Sunday. Now I should add that Toronto air, at least on Sunday was appalling, it was filthy with smog and lord knows what else I was shoveling into my lungs - yes I should go into a tirade against pollution but anyway, because of the air, I took things light until I was well into Mississauga.
I rode directly under the flight path of aircraft taking off from Pearson airport, at a rate of about one per minute. You know, as a large jet, i.e. a 777, 767 or A320 approaches the whine from the engines is very different head on than from the side? I only discovered that yesterday. from the side or behind a jet aircraft makes a whoshing sound, of... well a jet of hot gasses escaping a pressure chamber, but from in front they sound like huge piston engines. No that has nothing to do with the ride, but you try riding along Kennedy road at Courtney park and notice anything other than 200 ton objects flying a mile above you at 300km/h and making as much noise as my lifeguard whistle.
Sigrid, Aaron and I rode from Brampton to Erin ON, I had more than a few chances to reflect on the irony as we approached that town, from there Aaron wanted to take a slight detour so we could do what must have been a 10% drop with a 170 degree switch back. Aaron, thankfully, advised us to take it slow. I am sure if I had been going fast I would have crashed on the switch back, it was a tight one. A few rollers later, we did a U-turn and came back to Erin (no not the bike, the town, Erin - the bike - was never far from me the entire day).
I had to use the washroom, too much sweat in my sunglasses for one thing, and I had drained my water bottle. We stopped at a Coffee time, in the town of Erin. Where I made what I only recently realised was a foolish mistake, I filled my bottle with straight tap water, but more on that later.
We continued on, I believe in Grand Valley I made the second mistake of refilling my bottle with more tap water. Several times we passed over the Grand River, this is the river that passes through Kitchener/Waterloo and supplies the town with something like one seventh the town's drinking water. It was an odd realization, the first year's students at Waterlooooser would drink some of that water during frosh week which starts in just a few days. Actually there is nothing grand about the Grand River that far upriver, it was little more than a creek or stream.
When we got onto Highway 89 I suppose I should have thanked my lucky stars that Erin - the bike now, is a Roubaix and not pure carbon frame like the Tarmac (or even worse, a steel frame). Highway 89 had a crack in the road, perpendicular to traffic, literally every three meters. Imagine, every second or so, say thump, but say it loudly, that is what I sounded like. Somewhere on thump! 89 I thump! crossed the thump! one hundred thump! mile mark, thump! for only the thump! second time thump! in my life, thump!. As we approached Mount Forrest the road quality improved significantly and my rear end stopped hurting so much, except that we turned off of 89 almost as soon as the road became nice.
By the time we got to the the Canadian Inline Training Centre I was completely bonked. Actually I was bonked before we got to 89. Somewhere on 25 I bonked, I took in some Hammer Gel, recovered slightly then bonked again at around the Century mark and never really recovered. On Sigrid's advice I bought coke (she said either coke or Gatorade, something with calories) for a ride. Good advice, except the problem with coke, it is carbonated and my water bottle could not hold the coke down. My lower legs go sprayed, Erin got sprayed, my shoes got sprayed, everything below my knees was covered in sugary stickiness. Next time I do a long ride I will bring up bags of powder drink mix or I will buy Gatorade. I am not fan of that stuff, but bonking really sucks, especially when it is so easy to avoid.
I did a lap and a half on the banked track at the CITC, quite probably one of the only, if ever, times a bike has seen that 200m track. I only managed to crank out 37.5km/h, but I was tired and I am just not used to banked corners. Maybe if I had done a dozen or so laps I could have figured out how to ride a bike on skating track, but since I was tired I decided to call it a day with 300m.
Georg N. was kind enough to drive me to the Go train station, he had to look after things at home so he couldn't take me all the way. But on the way to Mississauga we stopped at a Tim Hortons, Georg wanted a coffee - I wanted to die, but I digress. Georg had to buy gas as well, so I told him to go fill up and I would get his coffee. I was, obviously, the only guy in the Tims wearing a bike jersey, bike shorts and shoes. Oh and I was walking with more than a modest amount of obvious pain. When Georg pointed out that I was clearly having problems moving, I responded that I wanted the people in the Tim's to show some respect since, after all I had just burned off 7500 calories. He replied they probably thought I was crazy, and if they knew what I had done, they would be sure I was crazy! (Later Georg admitted he was kind of jealous of me for doing that ride, which is fine, but it begs the question, Georg, if you are reading this, why don't you come out on Monday? If you don't have a road bike I can introduce you to some decent bikes stores, or there is always some places close to your home. CyclePath at Spears near 3'rd Line, or Gears on Lakeshore near Mississauga both look like good stores.)
Of course doing 180km the week before Duluth may not be the wisest thing any of us ever do, but hey for me the 180km is a much more exciting thing than Duluth. Its sort of sad how little interest I have in skating anymore.
When I got home my parents came over for dinner. They brought some takeout, we bought a cake on Saturday. While I was in the shower I was thinking about that cake and it occurred to me, the cake has about 2000 calories (an estimate) so if I ate the entire cake, I would still be down about 5500 calories!
Its a remarkably difficult thing to keep the weight on when you burn 7500 calories in a single day.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
On 196.5km with GPS data to prove it!
I will give a more complete description of this ride later, but I had to get this out. Below is the route Sigrid, Aaron and I used to get to Harriston Ontario. In my case I covered a sum total of 196.5km and yes my knees hurt something awful. (Dan, when I got to the Canadian Inline Training Centre I did not wear banana boots, I did do a lap and a half around the banked track though, on my sweet little Roubaix!)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Weekend rides
Lesley and I have plans for Saturday so I won't be riding then. Sigrid from Racer Sportif has told me I should ride with her and my old coach from my skating days, Aaron A. to the last regular season Roller Sports Ontario (RSO) race in Harriston on Sunday, about 160km from home on Sunday. Here is my plan to get to Aaron's home, or see below:
I have no idea how we will get to Harriston but hey, at least we are out of the city by the time we get to Aaron's.
Of course since it is supposed to rain on Sunday it seems likely there won't be an RSO that day, which could leave me stuck in rural Ontario about 160km from home, in the rain with no way home but Erin, who's back rim still needs replacing. Sunday could be a very interesting day.
Speaking of interesting, I was riding in to work, stopped at the red on Coxwell at Lakeshore when someone in a full BCC kit rode by, crossing Lakeshore and going on the Martin Goodman south of Lakeshore. I made a quick left and crossed like a pedestrian - not something I am proud of, but safer than making a left at that intersection, and when the light changed I raced to catch up. It turned out I was working to catch Steve, the very guy who had taken that horrible crash on gravel at Webb Road near York/Durham Line Road. It was probably the best ride I've ever had in to the office, besides the fact that I had someone to talk to, and make me bust my balls spinning into work, it was good to see Steve back on the saddle again. It is always so much more pleasant to ride in groups than ride alone, and the BCC is a pretty good group to ride with.
I have no idea how we will get to Harriston but hey, at least we are out of the city by the time we get to Aaron's.
Of course since it is supposed to rain on Sunday it seems likely there won't be an RSO that day, which could leave me stuck in rural Ontario about 160km from home, in the rain with no way home but Erin, who's back rim still needs replacing. Sunday could be a very interesting day.
Speaking of interesting, I was riding in to work, stopped at the red on Coxwell at Lakeshore when someone in a full BCC kit rode by, crossing Lakeshore and going on the Martin Goodman south of Lakeshore. I made a quick left and crossed like a pedestrian - not something I am proud of, but safer than making a left at that intersection, and when the light changed I raced to catch up. It turned out I was working to catch Steve, the very guy who had taken that horrible crash on gravel at Webb Road near York/Durham Line Road. It was probably the best ride I've ever had in to the office, besides the fact that I had someone to talk to, and make me bust my balls spinning into work, it was good to see Steve back on the saddle again. It is always so much more pleasant to ride in groups than ride alone, and the BCC is a pretty good group to ride with.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
On How to argue with a conservative if you have to
There is an old saying, do not argue with an idiot, you will win! Speaking of idiotic conservatives, did you hear about the Republican Presumptive Presidential Nominee (and Senior Senator from Arizona) John McCain? He was asked a few weeks ago what income a person needed to be rich, he replied five million dollars a year. You know you are dealing with a fool when they give a hard number to a question that ambiguous, I would have responded, “if you have job security, your health, and a loving family you are as rich as you should ever really need to be… blah blah blah” (repeat lines from stump to do something to improve quality of life). Someone from the Obama camp responded to McCain by asking, ‘so a person who only makes three million a year is only middle class?’ Well today McCain was asked how many homes he owns, I swear you cannot make this stuff up, his response “I’ll have my staff get to you”. So far the count is an even ten. From The Huffington Post, specifically, McCain Doesn't Remember How Many Houses He Owns:
Just wait for McCain to defend himself by pointing out how crappy his transportation is, after all you know how bad private jets are on fuel economy?
Back to transportation. I was riding in to work today, and another SUV driving moron nearly killed me, what else is new? but it brings up the subject of driving in general. According to a study, the substance of which was reprinted in the Saturday August 16 Globe and Mail, a driver doing 30mph (50km/h) had to pay attention to an average of 1320 separate events every single minutes, that is 22 events per second. The human brain cannot cope with that sort of multitasking – no that wasn’t stated explicitly, I just know that from my experience. We all think we are good drivers because we do not get into accidents and we do not get busted by the cops but the fact is, we suck. Face it, if everyone else on the road is such an idiot what makes you so special? We don’t get busted because there aren’t enough cops to bust all the idiotic drivers out there, heck if the cops work an eight hour shift you’d need three times as many police as there are drivers just to stop all the lunacy. We don’t get into accidents because of pure dumb luck, or since I have a degree in math, statistical probabilities. By rights we should be smashing up the car every chance the key gets to meet the ignition.
Well I concede, behind the wheel of the car, I am bad driver, but at least I keep my eyes open for cyclists and pedestrians, on the other hand, I do so little driving these days anyway it hardly matters. A challenge, go an entire week without driving, or using fossil fuels. Electricity is allowed, use of public transit is also allowed even though that uses fossil fuels and if it is cold home heating is allowed if you keep your thermostat cooler in the winter than the summer. But walk or ride to the supermarket and ride or take the bus to work. I do it (walk to supermarket, ride to the office), besides feeling good you can save some money so that one day you too can afford ten homes!
John and Cindy McCain own a plethora of houses spread throughout the UnitedDamn I wish I knew McCain on a first name basis, I’d have no mortgage!
States, including: two beachfront condos in Coronado, California, condo in La
Jolla, California, a two-unit condominium complex in Phoenix, Arizona, three
ranch houses located outside of Sedona, Arizona, a high-rise condo in Arlington,
Virginia, a rental loft, and, according to GQ, a loft they bought for their
daughter, Meghan.
Just wait for McCain to defend himself by pointing out how crappy his transportation is, after all you know how bad private jets are on fuel economy?
Back to transportation. I was riding in to work today, and another SUV driving moron nearly killed me, what else is new? but it brings up the subject of driving in general. According to a study, the substance of which was reprinted in the Saturday August 16 Globe and Mail, a driver doing 30mph (50km/h) had to pay attention to an average of 1320 separate events every single minutes, that is 22 events per second. The human brain cannot cope with that sort of multitasking – no that wasn’t stated explicitly, I just know that from my experience. We all think we are good drivers because we do not get into accidents and we do not get busted by the cops but the fact is, we suck. Face it, if everyone else on the road is such an idiot what makes you so special? We don’t get busted because there aren’t enough cops to bust all the idiotic drivers out there, heck if the cops work an eight hour shift you’d need three times as many police as there are drivers just to stop all the lunacy. We don’t get into accidents because of pure dumb luck, or since I have a degree in math, statistical probabilities. By rights we should be smashing up the car every chance the key gets to meet the ignition.
Well I concede, behind the wheel of the car, I am bad driver, but at least I keep my eyes open for cyclists and pedestrians, on the other hand, I do so little driving these days anyway it hardly matters. A challenge, go an entire week without driving, or using fossil fuels. Electricity is allowed, use of public transit is also allowed even though that uses fossil fuels and if it is cold home heating is allowed if you keep your thermostat cooler in the winter than the summer. But walk or ride to the supermarket and ride or take the bus to work. I do it (walk to supermarket, ride to the office), besides feeling good you can save some money so that one day you too can afford ten homes!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
On Pictures from the 'Escape The Don' ride
Well I have to admit the speed at which the MapMyRide data loads is not exactly impressing me here. Guys you may be using Apache version 2.0.52 on Redhat Linux but your site is still too damned slow. What kind of database backend is that? MySQL? (Okay that was just mean, I'm sorry.) The secret is cluster and use a big pipe, and what is the PE router? I like the Cisco CRS-1 but I am told Juniper makes some nice routing technology too.
Its official boys and girls, Michael has spent too much time in the data centre!
For those of you who basically understood none of the above, don't worry about it, I was just being a total computer nerd, but hey when outside of my day job can I show off my fancy computer networking know-how?
Anyway as promised here are the images. Both were taken by Dan prior to the start of last night's hammer and drop feast.
I think I was explaining something when this was taken. 
And I am sure Thi was telling me how I would be so fast tonight, minutes before I end up breathing the dust his back wheel kicked up.
Its official boys and girls, Michael has spent too much time in the data centre!
For those of you who basically understood none of the above, don't worry about it, I was just being a total computer nerd, but hey when outside of my day job can I show off my fancy computer networking know-how?
Anyway as promised here are the images. Both were taken by Dan prior to the start of last night's hammer and drop feast.
I think I was explaining something when this was taken. 
And I am sure Thi was telling me how I would be so fast tonight, minutes before I end up breathing the dust his back wheel kicked up.
On 'An Escape The Don Ride'
I am too tired and it is too late for the details, but here is the route.
One thing I will say, on Lawrence just east of Mt. Pleasant I saw a bunch of blinking red lights, I was a little way behind the pack so I figured they must have waited for me. Then instead of turning south on Mt. Pleasant as planed the lights went on straight to Yonge. When I caught up I realised it was one guy with a bunch of lights, leaving me even further behind, oops!
One thing I will say, on Lawrence just east of Mt. Pleasant I saw a bunch of blinking red lights, I was a little way behind the pack so I figured they must have waited for me. Then instead of turning south on Mt. Pleasant as planed the lights went on straight to Yonge. When I caught up I realised it was one guy with a bunch of lights, leaving me even further behind, oops!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
On Pictures from the August 17 ride
Well MapMyRide.com is either painfully slow or just not working. I left my browser pointed at my previous post for over an hour and the route still does not show up. So the sound you hear is the sound of me giving up - I am a quitter, that and Bikely works too, with less overhead.
Anyway I just got around to downloading the pictures from the last ride, courtesy of James.
Top reason why a tripod is a good thing? Because when the image is this small the only reason I even know I am in here is because I was there when they took the picture. This should have been a time lapsed image. Anyway if you want to look hard, I am in the centre, wearing a BCC jersey.
Hard to miss me in this image!
Still can't find me? Better get your eyes checked! Now who is that handsome guy who needs to shave?
Anyway I just got around to downloading the pictures from the last ride, courtesy of James.
Top reason why a tripod is a good thing? Because when the image is this small the only reason I even know I am in here is because I was there when they took the picture. This should have been a time lapsed image. Anyway if you want to look hard, I am in the centre, wearing a BCC jersey.
Hard to miss me in this image!
Still can't find me? Better get your eyes checked! Now who is that handsome guy who needs to shave?
Monday, August 18, 2008
On MapMyRide.com
My manager at the office made, rightfully so, merciless fun of me when I signed an email with all the stupid letters after my name. Sometimes you just need too think a problem through to fix it. In the case of Mapmyride.com, I just needed to recreate my profile and the problem is resolved, never needed to reinstall all my Garmin software, or packet sniff the exchange between the my PC and the MapMyRide web servers.
On Reflections And The Rides Of The Past Weekend.
I have not yet transferred my GPS data to any web site, so I'll just post through Bikely which is actually a really nice light tool. (If I could figure out how to export my data to GPX file, then Bikely is probably all I'd ever use.)
Here is my Saturday morning ride.
Now Bikely does not approve of illegal left turns or use of bike trails, probably uses Google's mapping engine for cars so this is not the exact route I took, but it is close. As for Sunday, well it was a little further.
After the ride I went to my parents to look after their dogs. One odd thing, many people said the ride was the same speed as normal (during the ride), but it sure felt like a hammer feast. Of course now when I review the BCC blog more than one comment suggests that actually things did feel pretty fast this time. About 10km into the ride, while still on Kingston Road, Q.B., Thi and someone else (could not tell who) did a brake away, as Q.B. was planning on doing a 140km fast. What struck me though, was when they did the brake away the pack was doing 39.4km/h and had been sustaining that on level ground for about 5 minutes. Okay, we are not Tour De France cyclists, but on the other hand, 40km/h isn't fast enough? (!) Well no one ever said Q.B. or Thi were slow.
I had to make an emergency adjustment to my front derailuer as a result I cut my ride short, but still 100km on a Sunday morning is nothing to frown about, especially since I got home too early to go to the store (Cycle Solutions) and get a proper mechanic to look at my bike - the store had not yet opened.
In other news I am really gratified by the response so far to my little plan to ride around Lake Simcoe, but I think I better spell things out in better detail so people know what they are getting themselves into, this is no trivial ride through the park. First some time later this year or perhaps early in 2009 I am going to drive the route around Simcoe. I am not bothering with the journey to Simcoe because I have already seen that ground a couple times, it is fine. As for the 110km I will be studying, I want to make sure the roads have a reasonable traffic volume, too much and we have to consider alternatives. I also want to make sure the roads are in good shape, a good, well maintained, road is important. If anyone wants to help out in this regard it would be welcome, 110km of driving back country roads is going to be rather tedious and I'm not sure Lesley would be keen on the whole thing.
Starting in March I will begin to train, at first 80~100km, after a few rides of that distance I will scale it (hopefully in April) up to 120~160km rides, then in May 180~220km, June: 240~280km. Ideally by mid July I will be ready for the big one. I have to sort out the details of the training plan but I may try to integrate it into the BCC rides, hopefully drum up more interest this way. My goal for the 300km is maintain a steady 28~32km/h speed, stopping once in Barrie and once in Simcoe on the way home. I did reverse the direction around the lake, I figure it's better to ride through Barrie early in the morning at the start than later in the day when traffic is likely to be worse. I may also revise the route North, and dodge Barrie completely, more thought is clearly required. All riders are expected to have:
Here is my Saturday morning ride.
Now Bikely does not approve of illegal left turns or use of bike trails, probably uses Google's mapping engine for cars so this is not the exact route I took, but it is close. As for Sunday, well it was a little further.
After the ride I went to my parents to look after their dogs. One odd thing, many people said the ride was the same speed as normal (during the ride), but it sure felt like a hammer feast. Of course now when I review the BCC blog more than one comment suggests that actually things did feel pretty fast this time. About 10km into the ride, while still on Kingston Road, Q.B., Thi and someone else (could not tell who) did a brake away, as Q.B. was planning on doing a 140km fast. What struck me though, was when they did the brake away the pack was doing 39.4km/h and had been sustaining that on level ground for about 5 minutes. Okay, we are not Tour De France cyclists, but on the other hand, 40km/h isn't fast enough? (!) Well no one ever said Q.B. or Thi were slow.
I had to make an emergency adjustment to my front derailuer as a result I cut my ride short, but still 100km on a Sunday morning is nothing to frown about, especially since I got home too early to go to the store (Cycle Solutions) and get a proper mechanic to look at my bike - the store had not yet opened.
In other news I am really gratified by the response so far to my little plan to ride around Lake Simcoe, but I think I better spell things out in better detail so people know what they are getting themselves into, this is no trivial ride through the park. First some time later this year or perhaps early in 2009 I am going to drive the route around Simcoe. I am not bothering with the journey to Simcoe because I have already seen that ground a couple times, it is fine. As for the 110km I will be studying, I want to make sure the roads have a reasonable traffic volume, too much and we have to consider alternatives. I also want to make sure the roads are in good shape, a good, well maintained, road is important. If anyone wants to help out in this regard it would be welcome, 110km of driving back country roads is going to be rather tedious and I'm not sure Lesley would be keen on the whole thing.
Starting in March I will begin to train, at first 80~100km, after a few rides of that distance I will scale it (hopefully in April) up to 120~160km rides, then in May 180~220km, June: 240~280km. Ideally by mid July I will be ready for the big one. I have to sort out the details of the training plan but I may try to integrate it into the BCC rides, hopefully drum up more interest this way. My goal for the 300km is maintain a steady 28~32km/h speed, stopping once in Barrie and once in Simcoe on the way home. I did reverse the direction around the lake, I figure it's better to ride through Barrie early in the morning at the start than later in the day when traffic is likely to be worse. I may also revise the route North, and dodge Barrie completely, more thought is clearly required. All riders are expected to have:
- at least one spare tube and two CO2 cartridges (or hand pump and willingness to pump to 120 PSI)
- a patch kit or second inner tube
- powdered drink mix, i.e. Endurox or Eload
- two full water bottles, (or more if required, there will be stops every roughly 100km to refill)
Other items that can be shared, but an effort should be made to distribute the weight for these items (actually I already have all of these, but if someone is willing to take one of each for the duration, that way the weight stays moderate):
- a multitool
- a pair of tire leavers (or a speed leaver)
- a first aid kit (its a mini one, weighs about 100g)
- a spoke wrench for Mavic wheels (something tells me I won't be the only person there on Ksyriums.)
- a CO2 pump
In totally unrelated news, there was an article about John Edwards emailed to me today. Remember John Edwards, he was Kerry's running mate in the 2004 Presidential elections? He recently admitted to having a... oh I cannot write this it is so horrible... are you ready? Are you sure? Alright, he slept around with someone other than his dearest cancer ridden Elizabeth Edwards - sort of like oh, John McCain and Lance Armstrong. Well anyway it seems his career in politics is over because he had an affair and everyone is awfully busy denouncing him. Well in the spirit of being a good contrarian I wrote the following (corrected grammar and spelling for my Blog, but this is what I wrote):
- Would someone, please, for the love of my mental health, explain to me why a former presidential candidate, or even the sitting president's extra martial affairs have any bearing whatsoever on the governance of a nation. FDR was wheel chair bound and managed to win World War II (well alright he passed away a month before VE day but close enough) yet he had an affair. Kennedy prevented the Cuban Missile Crisis from ending the World, while thanks to Addison's disease was nearly wheel chair bound himself, he had multiple affairs. Johnson had the great society, NASA - every Re publican's closet wet dream, the War in Vietnam - and he had an affair.
The current President has done the following: - largest national debt in the history of the World
- diminished America's standing after 9/11
- fought a Vietnam style war in Iraq
- turned a nation building exercise in Afghanistan into another Vietnam
- destroyed the US economy thanks to banking laws written by the banking lobby and signed off by the Republican congress and president years ago, i.e. 2001,2002.
- done nothing to end the dependence on oil from the very countries most responsible for the attacks of 9/11.
But hey, GWB never had an affair!
Friday, August 15, 2008
On My Latest Goals
I have not yet done the Lake Ontario to Simcoe and back, but I have already started to dream up an even more ambitious goal. Anyway, here is my one goal for 2008 (actually my original goal was Hamilton and back, turned out that was too easy, so this is my revised goal).
Now this is my target for 2009, it will be hard, it will require not just physical strength but also a mental stamina I am not entirely sure I have, but if I can do this in one day, well maybe I really should think about the Race Across America.
Any pure bred skaters still reading my blog, you may now turn green with envy. To everyone else, who is with me? Its 297km of rolling green fields and big blue lake Simcoe! Best of all, its bragging rights. If you ever meet someone who asks you what the farthest you've ever ridden - a question I get asked, you won't say an arbitrary number of miles or kilometers, instead you can say, from Lake Ontario to Simoce around the lake and home. And when they ask how far it is, you get to say, oh, just shy of 300km. And if their jaw still hasn't smacked the floor, you can point out its like riding from Toronto to Rochester, without the silly wait at the border crossing.
Now who is with me?
Now this is my target for 2009, it will be hard, it will require not just physical strength but also a mental stamina I am not entirely sure I have, but if I can do this in one day, well maybe I really should think about the Race Across America.
Any pure bred skaters still reading my blog, you may now turn green with envy. To everyone else, who is with me? Its 297km of rolling green fields and big blue lake Simcoe! Best of all, its bragging rights. If you ever meet someone who asks you what the farthest you've ever ridden - a question I get asked, you won't say an arbitrary number of miles or kilometers, instead you can say, from Lake Ontario to Simoce around the lake and home. And when they ask how far it is, you get to say, oh, just shy of 300km. And if their jaw still hasn't smacked the floor, you can point out its like riding from Toronto to Rochester, without the silly wait at the border crossing.
Now who is with me?
Thursday, August 14, 2008
On A bumpy ride
Tuesday night I did the 'Escape the Don' ride with the Beaches Cycle Club. There was only one image, taken after the ride ended. Dan disabled the flash so the red light from the traffic lights creates an ambiance that I personally am not entirely fond of, but at least there is a nice wide depth of field, something you don't get when the shutter speed is too high. (Even in digital cameras lessons from my 35mm still apply.)
The ride was fast, we took the standard route to the coffee shop, but instead of going south through York University, Dan decided to go straight along Steeles all the way to Yonge and then south on Yonge Street. I made a very important discovery, I need more, better, lights. On the way out, on Queens Quay there was a metal grate in the road. My front wheel got into a rut and steered hard right, I thought I was going to crash for sure, the guys who were behind me said I still looked stable, but I sure did not feel that way. Had I been able to see the grate from just a little further away I am sure I would have had no trouble avoiding it. Then coming south on Yonge just below the 401 I was doing about 52km/h when I hit a small lump in the road, not even a bump really, but at 52km/h you don't need much to get air time, granted only a few centimeters and only for perhaps a tenth of a second, but again, it is the fear thing. After that bump I rode the brakes all the way to the bottom of the hill (Hogs Hollow). Of course the leaders of the pack must have waited some time for me at the top of the hill at Yonge Blvd, but a crash at 50km/h would have been very ugly at best. There is a moral here, if you ride at night, lights are not just so cars can see you, they are also good if you can use them to see the road. Anyway here is the route.
In other news I spent much of the evening, well working actually, had to update a web server, but also cleaning Erin. I noticed the front wheel is not completely true, but it is a lot better than her back wheel. I took the cassette off to clean that as well, when I replaced the cassette I forgot to put the little plastic ring that goes on the hub between the cassette and the wheel itself. Its amazing how much rattle the little piece of plastic prevents. When you think about it, it seems that so much about bikes hangs together with little more than a thread and a prayer.
The ride was fast, we took the standard route to the coffee shop, but instead of going south through York University, Dan decided to go straight along Steeles all the way to Yonge and then south on Yonge Street. I made a very important discovery, I need more, better, lights. On the way out, on Queens Quay there was a metal grate in the road. My front wheel got into a rut and steered hard right, I thought I was going to crash for sure, the guys who were behind me said I still looked stable, but I sure did not feel that way. Had I been able to see the grate from just a little further away I am sure I would have had no trouble avoiding it. Then coming south on Yonge just below the 401 I was doing about 52km/h when I hit a small lump in the road, not even a bump really, but at 52km/h you don't need much to get air time, granted only a few centimeters and only for perhaps a tenth of a second, but again, it is the fear thing. After that bump I rode the brakes all the way to the bottom of the hill (Hogs Hollow). Of course the leaders of the pack must have waited some time for me at the top of the hill at Yonge Blvd, but a crash at 50km/h would have been very ugly at best. There is a moral here, if you ride at night, lights are not just so cars can see you, they are also good if you can use them to see the road. Anyway here is the route.
In other news I spent much of the evening, well working actually, had to update a web server, but also cleaning Erin. I noticed the front wheel is not completely true, but it is a lot better than her back wheel. I took the cassette off to clean that as well, when I replaced the cassette I forgot to put the little plastic ring that goes on the hub between the cassette and the wheel itself. Its amazing how much rattle the little piece of plastic prevents. When you think about it, it seems that so much about bikes hangs together with little more than a thread and a prayer.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
On Anticipation
First I have added more bike makers to the list. However in order to do that I had to remove the old survey, add a new survey and put in all the original answers, since there already seven votes I had to allow myself to vote multiple times (I am not walking around the office voting from different machines just to get the numbers back to where they were, and I don’t have seven PCs at home.) So this works on the honour system, please only vote once, and don’t ask me to add another bike maker, because it is quite the pain to add to a poll once people have voted. (On an related note, I would like to add, in the interests of objectivity and all that, I have not voted and will not vote, also, although at this point only ‘two people’ have voted, me from my laptop and desktop – two votes for Cervelo – I have simply taken the votes from the old poll and transferred them to the new poll, I have not changed anyone’s pre-existing vote.)
Tonight I am going to do the Escape the Don ride. There is a certain degree of nervousness, as I know I am about to get my rear end seriously handed to me and the thought of chasing after a bunch of tiny red blinking lights on dark city roads, in some of the less desirable areas of town –to put things lightly-, is rather depressing. But I know that every time I do these psycho rides I get stronger, I get better and one day I will not be the guy frantically trying to keep up with the pack, instead I’ll be the guy pulling most of the time while the pack frantically tries to keep up with me.
On a totally unrelated note, I have been thinking a lot lately about why I blog. I suppose part of it is my dream of becoming a great novelist and living off fat royalty cheques for the rest of my days, won’t happen if my writing is not great and the writing won’t be great if I don’t practice. I suppose that dream is an awful lot like my dream of winning the lottery, statistically possible, but practically impossible. But as I think about it, I recall some years ago an Iranian woman, not very old, perhaps in her 20s being interviewed on the radio, it was the first time I had heard the term ‘blog’ actually, so it must have been 2002, or 2003. This woman noted the fact that it would be people like her who would finally bring the Ayatollahs down. I wonder, could blogging ever be more than just naval gazing? Could my writings, well alright, not my writings, but could someone’s words written in a journal spell the end of some horrible regime? It occurs to me it already has happened, Trent Lott lost his position as Senate Majority leader when bloggers forced Lott’s remarks at Storm Thurmond’s birthday into the news. But could a blog ever do in a repressive regime like Iran or North Korea? Or China?
We live in interesting times, challenging certainly, but also interesting. Outcomes are far from certain.
Tonight I am going to do the Escape the Don ride. There is a certain degree of nervousness, as I know I am about to get my rear end seriously handed to me and the thought of chasing after a bunch of tiny red blinking lights on dark city roads, in some of the less desirable areas of town –to put things lightly-, is rather depressing. But I know that every time I do these psycho rides I get stronger, I get better and one day I will not be the guy frantically trying to keep up with the pack, instead I’ll be the guy pulling most of the time while the pack frantically tries to keep up with me.
On a totally unrelated note, I have been thinking a lot lately about why I blog. I suppose part of it is my dream of becoming a great novelist and living off fat royalty cheques for the rest of my days, won’t happen if my writing is not great and the writing won’t be great if I don’t practice. I suppose that dream is an awful lot like my dream of winning the lottery, statistically possible, but practically impossible. But as I think about it, I recall some years ago an Iranian woman, not very old, perhaps in her 20s being interviewed on the radio, it was the first time I had heard the term ‘blog’ actually, so it must have been 2002, or 2003. This woman noted the fact that it would be people like her who would finally bring the Ayatollahs down. I wonder, could blogging ever be more than just naval gazing? Could my writings, well alright, not my writings, but could someone’s words written in a journal spell the end of some horrible regime? It occurs to me it already has happened, Trent Lott lost his position as Senate Majority leader when bloggers forced Lott’s remarks at Storm Thurmond’s birthday into the news. But could a blog ever do in a repressive regime like Iran or North Korea? Or China?
We live in interesting times, challenging certainly, but also interesting. Outcomes are far from certain.
Monday, August 11, 2008
On half weekends
This weekend was pretty lousy for me sorry to say. First it rained a lot, second Sunday was a write off of a day. But let me explain things in order.
Saturday my neighbour, Frank, and I went for a ride. I got Frank into road biking – only took one quick note on the back of an envelope about two months ago, an invitation to borrow my old Coppi and go for a ride with me and $2000 and a dandy little Giant something or other later, Frank is in the BCC and doing 100km! Anyway I had hopped to do the full 180km from Lake Ontario to Simcoe and back, but Frank did not feel up to the task and had to be home by 11am. So at about 5:30 we set out with less ambitious goals. My hope was Ravenshoe road, but Frank was slow off the start, in the first hour we had hardly made it to Steeles, I had to further curtail my goals and aim for a modest Vivian road and back run. Somewhere just north of Steeles a guy on a road bike caught up and I started talking, it turned out, I was riding along side Peter Oyler as he trained for his next Race Across America. Peter was kind enough to slow down for a while and talk, mostly give his advice on how to ride effectively. Peter’s goal for that day was over 200km, so I was rather surprised at how long he stayed and talked.
I suppose if I were in a financial position where I could afford to take a year off and train the RAAM (Race Across America) is something I would love to do. For those of you who do not want to read up on the RAAM, the rules are stupid easy, you mount your saddle in Ocean Side CA and ride, usually for about 10 to 15 days, with less than 24 hours of total time off the saddle, the ride ends in Atlantic City NJ, about 3000 miles from the starting line. N.B. Time off the saddle is optional, almost discouraged, as the first person across the finish line wins.
Perhaps it was Peter’s coaching, or maybe it was his inspiring, or maybe Frank just needed a long time to warm up, but when we turned around from Vivian Frank did much better, whereas on the trip North we average about 22km/h the trip south we were doing something around 30km/h. I think Frank just wanted to catch up with some of the other riders who were out, (and passing us) by the time we turned for home. I stopped the clock at 100.6km, just outside Cycle Solutions, where Frank bought a pair of riding gloves and Maki told me that the only way to get my rear wheel right back to true was to replace the rim. I need a second job, does anyone need a part time Unix/Network analyst? Anyway here is the route, it is a nice one if you want to put in a quick 100km in the country.
When I we got home Frank had to go look after personal matters but another neighbour of mine, Jeff, was out reading the paper, so I loaned Jeff Amy and got him riding with me to Queens Quay and Jarvis and back. Truth is I am trying to get Jeff to buy Amy, but it was interesting, to notice the most common mistake that I know I too was guilty of not so long ago. Too many novice cyclists grind, I guess the thought process is, “oh god, the pack, (or the other guy) is going so fast, I better crank this thing to a stupid high gear and catch up”. Except as anyone with experience knows, grinding is a good way to turn the legs into flaming jello. Jeff complained to me that the gears did not go high enough, I pointed out that in fact I am spinning way faster than he is, I am also going faster. At least that ride gave me one more chance to get outside. Shortly after we got home it started raining and kept on raining off and on through until Monday morning.
Sunday I had promised, and delivered on that promise, to go with my parents, and Lesley to see a play in Stratford. Yes the play was nice, but I just cannot rectify four hours of driving for a two hour play, plus two hours for lunch and wandering around Stratford. Wouldn’t it make more sense, and save a lot of gas and money, to maybe see a play on Yonge street? Or just go for a nice dinner somewhere? Ultimately all of that driving around plus the play and the time wandering around Stratford (a town that does have a pretty decent looking bike shop, but is closed at noon on a Sunday!) basically blew Sunday away for me. I had to race when I got home to get all of my Sunday chores done in preparation for the week to come. Lesley and I said good-bye to the cats at 10am and got home at almost 8pm, so if there is a moral to this story it is if you want culture stay home, unless of course you live in Waterloo, in which case, you are probably beyond redemption.
Saturday my neighbour, Frank, and I went for a ride. I got Frank into road biking – only took one quick note on the back of an envelope about two months ago, an invitation to borrow my old Coppi and go for a ride with me and $2000 and a dandy little Giant something or other later, Frank is in the BCC and doing 100km! Anyway I had hopped to do the full 180km from Lake Ontario to Simcoe and back, but Frank did not feel up to the task and had to be home by 11am. So at about 5:30 we set out with less ambitious goals. My hope was Ravenshoe road, but Frank was slow off the start, in the first hour we had hardly made it to Steeles, I had to further curtail my goals and aim for a modest Vivian road and back run. Somewhere just north of Steeles a guy on a road bike caught up and I started talking, it turned out, I was riding along side Peter Oyler as he trained for his next Race Across America. Peter was kind enough to slow down for a while and talk, mostly give his advice on how to ride effectively. Peter’s goal for that day was over 200km, so I was rather surprised at how long he stayed and talked.
I suppose if I were in a financial position where I could afford to take a year off and train the RAAM (Race Across America) is something I would love to do. For those of you who do not want to read up on the RAAM, the rules are stupid easy, you mount your saddle in Ocean Side CA and ride, usually for about 10 to 15 days, with less than 24 hours of total time off the saddle, the ride ends in Atlantic City NJ, about 3000 miles from the starting line. N.B. Time off the saddle is optional, almost discouraged, as the first person across the finish line wins.
Perhaps it was Peter’s coaching, or maybe it was his inspiring, or maybe Frank just needed a long time to warm up, but when we turned around from Vivian Frank did much better, whereas on the trip North we average about 22km/h the trip south we were doing something around 30km/h. I think Frank just wanted to catch up with some of the other riders who were out, (and passing us) by the time we turned for home. I stopped the clock at 100.6km, just outside Cycle Solutions, where Frank bought a pair of riding gloves and Maki told me that the only way to get my rear wheel right back to true was to replace the rim. I need a second job, does anyone need a part time Unix/Network analyst? Anyway here is the route, it is a nice one if you want to put in a quick 100km in the country.
When I we got home Frank had to go look after personal matters but another neighbour of mine, Jeff, was out reading the paper, so I loaned Jeff Amy and got him riding with me to Queens Quay and Jarvis and back. Truth is I am trying to get Jeff to buy Amy, but it was interesting, to notice the most common mistake that I know I too was guilty of not so long ago. Too many novice cyclists grind, I guess the thought process is, “oh god, the pack, (or the other guy) is going so fast, I better crank this thing to a stupid high gear and catch up”. Except as anyone with experience knows, grinding is a good way to turn the legs into flaming jello. Jeff complained to me that the gears did not go high enough, I pointed out that in fact I am spinning way faster than he is, I am also going faster. At least that ride gave me one more chance to get outside. Shortly after we got home it started raining and kept on raining off and on through until Monday morning.
Sunday I had promised, and delivered on that promise, to go with my parents, and Lesley to see a play in Stratford. Yes the play was nice, but I just cannot rectify four hours of driving for a two hour play, plus two hours for lunch and wandering around Stratford. Wouldn’t it make more sense, and save a lot of gas and money, to maybe see a play on Yonge street? Or just go for a nice dinner somewhere? Ultimately all of that driving around plus the play and the time wandering around Stratford (a town that does have a pretty decent looking bike shop, but is closed at noon on a Sunday!) basically blew Sunday away for me. I had to race when I got home to get all of my Sunday chores done in preparation for the week to come. Lesley and I said good-bye to the cats at 10am and got home at almost 8pm, so if there is a moral to this story it is if you want culture stay home, unless of course you live in Waterloo, in which case, you are probably beyond redemption.
Friday, August 8, 2008
On Bad Drivers and Weekend Plans
In the NBC TV drama The West Wing the actor Martin Sheen plays the President of the United States, Jed Bartlet. In the first season ‘President’ Bartlet gives a speech where he quotes then real live Vice President Al Gore, When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler. Except in the West Wing Sheen does not say holler he said ‘bang your fist on the table’ which frankly sounds a lot better to me.
Well something happened to me yesterday, I have the law on my side, I have the facts on my side, so the Beck Taxi drive hollered – a lot of four letter words at me.
I was riding on the bike trail that runs on the north side of Lakeshore Blvd, at Carlaw and Lakeshore there are clearly marked traffic lights for bikes on the bike trail and there is a clearly marked ‘no right on red’ for cars turning onto Lakeshore from Carlaw. I had a green, the Taxi on Carlaw had a red, he started turning anyway. When I yelled at him he had the audacity, and stupidity, to yell back. I pointed out that “right now [he] is breaking the law”, remarkably he shut up at that point. I suspect he finally clued in that I was actually in the right, I was crossing on a green and he was turning illegally. I have to ask the question though, are cab drivers physically incapable of obeying traffic laws unless they are yelled at? Second thought, I want to revise and amend my question, remove the word ‘cab’ from that question.
Although, speaking of being right, the guy who fixed my bike is Maki, Andrew Maki, not Mackey. To be fair, I only heard his name, never saw it spelled out. But Erin is fixed, remarkably nothing had to be replaced, besides the bar tape, total repairs cost under $100. Mind you the back wheel is not perfectly true even now, but it is close enough. Maybe one of these years I’ll get myself a truing stand, although I am such a klutz I’m likely to make a perfectly reasonable wheel a distorted disaster. I wonder, how much a replacement rim would cost, something to think about in several months if they are not too expensive, having distortions in the rim really hurts when I have to hit the brakes.
In other news, this weekend I will be missing the Tour De Creemore, sorry guys, I made a prior commitment. But I will try to make it out for next year. Saturday I am getting my neighbour Frank to come out for a ride with me. He thinks we are just going for a nice gentle 120km (yes I should insert an insane and evil laugh here) in truth my goal is a nice 161km, so probably up to near Lake Simcoe and home. Alright maybe not an evil laugh, but we should push for more than just 75 miles.
Well something happened to me yesterday, I have the law on my side, I have the facts on my side, so the Beck Taxi drive hollered – a lot of four letter words at me.
I was riding on the bike trail that runs on the north side of Lakeshore Blvd, at Carlaw and Lakeshore there are clearly marked traffic lights for bikes on the bike trail and there is a clearly marked ‘no right on red’ for cars turning onto Lakeshore from Carlaw. I had a green, the Taxi on Carlaw had a red, he started turning anyway. When I yelled at him he had the audacity, and stupidity, to yell back. I pointed out that “right now [he] is breaking the law”, remarkably he shut up at that point. I suspect he finally clued in that I was actually in the right, I was crossing on a green and he was turning illegally. I have to ask the question though, are cab drivers physically incapable of obeying traffic laws unless they are yelled at? Second thought, I want to revise and amend my question, remove the word ‘cab’ from that question.
Although, speaking of being right, the guy who fixed my bike is Maki, Andrew Maki, not Mackey. To be fair, I only heard his name, never saw it spelled out. But Erin is fixed, remarkably nothing had to be replaced, besides the bar tape, total repairs cost under $100. Mind you the back wheel is not perfectly true even now, but it is close enough. Maybe one of these years I’ll get myself a truing stand, although I am such a klutz I’m likely to make a perfectly reasonable wheel a distorted disaster. I wonder, how much a replacement rim would cost, something to think about in several months if they are not too expensive, having distortions in the rim really hurts when I have to hit the brakes.
In other news, this weekend I will be missing the Tour De Creemore, sorry guys, I made a prior commitment. But I will try to make it out for next year. Saturday I am getting my neighbour Frank to come out for a ride with me. He thinks we are just going for a nice gentle 120km (yes I should insert an insane and evil laugh here) in truth my goal is a nice 161km, so probably up to near Lake Simcoe and home. Alright maybe not an evil laugh, but we should push for more than just 75 miles.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
On Skating and the Olympics
I have a theory, not to many skaters are reading my blog anymore, no one has picked a favourite skate boot, I already have five votes for bike, but nothing for skate. (No I did not vote, in either poll.) Still it is ironic, on March 7, that is only 5 months ago, if I were asked what I do with my spare time the answer would have to be skating, the next day I bought Amy and by the time I got home from my first ride to Burlington a few months later skating seemed to loose all its appeal.
My calf’s still hurt from my skate two days ago, I’ll live, but this race in Duluth is not going to be pretty. Meanwhile I will not be able to do the Escape the Don ride tonight, everything hurts too much. Oh well, at least there is next week. I guess it does not really matter, when I took Erin into the shop yesterday, a lot of begging and pleading resulted in Mackey (the mechanic) telling me he might be able to look at her today. But the look he gave when he saw how out of true the back wheel on Erin is, maybe I should just buy a couple new spokes and a new rim? I wonder how much that would cost. Alright that does it, I am buying a lottery ticket. I need the money.
On an unrelated note, I wrote once, that athletes ought to consider boycotting the Olympic games. I wrote that in sympathy for the Tibetans. My writing pissed off Jacky Shu, not that pissing someone off ever upset me, but one really good argument I forgot to provide, the air quality in North East China is appalling. If I were an endurance runner or cyclist I would be trying to break my leg right now just to get out of competing. Between the dioxins and suspended particulates, the air in Beijing is a toxicologists dream (or nightmare I suppose).
The government has closed factories and reduced the number of cars on the road and their harshest measures have simply arrested the growth of the poisons not actually reduced it. Meanwhile in three weeks the Olympics will be over and the PRC will go back to poisoning everybody’s air business as usual. (Its not as if a dioxin cares that it just crossed the border and is now blowing into International waters.)
So what is to be done? Boycott Chinese made products? Demand better environment protection in future trade treaties? Put the environment before human rights when lecturing Beijing (not that the Politburo cares). One hundred years ago the same sort of nonsense occurred in the United States, slowly the progressive movement cleaned up the mess. To be sure the corruption and lack of environmental awareness, as embodied by the Bush administration has made a modest resurgence, but it will be beaten back down as is the nature of democratic societies. But China is not democratic, a progressive movement cannot arise organically in a non democratic society, can it?
My calf’s still hurt from my skate two days ago, I’ll live, but this race in Duluth is not going to be pretty. Meanwhile I will not be able to do the Escape the Don ride tonight, everything hurts too much. Oh well, at least there is next week. I guess it does not really matter, when I took Erin into the shop yesterday, a lot of begging and pleading resulted in Mackey (the mechanic) telling me he might be able to look at her today. But the look he gave when he saw how out of true the back wheel on Erin is, maybe I should just buy a couple new spokes and a new rim? I wonder how much that would cost. Alright that does it, I am buying a lottery ticket. I need the money.
On an unrelated note, I wrote once, that athletes ought to consider boycotting the Olympic games. I wrote that in sympathy for the Tibetans. My writing pissed off Jacky Shu, not that pissing someone off ever upset me, but one really good argument I forgot to provide, the air quality in North East China is appalling. If I were an endurance runner or cyclist I would be trying to break my leg right now just to get out of competing. Between the dioxins and suspended particulates, the air in Beijing is a toxicologists dream (or nightmare I suppose).
The government has closed factories and reduced the number of cars on the road and their harshest measures have simply arrested the growth of the poisons not actually reduced it. Meanwhile in three weeks the Olympics will be over and the PRC will go back to poisoning everybody’s air business as usual. (Its not as if a dioxin cares that it just crossed the border and is now blowing into International waters.)
So what is to be done? Boycott Chinese made products? Demand better environment protection in future trade treaties? Put the environment before human rights when lecturing Beijing (not that the Politburo cares). One hundred years ago the same sort of nonsense occurred in the United States, slowly the progressive movement cleaned up the mess. To be sure the corruption and lack of environmental awareness, as embodied by the Bush administration has made a modest resurgence, but it will be beaten back down as is the nature of democratic societies. But China is not democratic, a progressive movement cannot arise organically in a non democratic society, can it?
Monday, August 4, 2008
On Skating
Imagine if you will a blind person, slowly over a period of about a week in April of 2008 he (our blind person is a guy) gains his sense of sight. Then suddenly he looses it again on Sunday August 3 and has to go around with a cane. Not being blind I am not sure if my situation is quite that bad, but it sure felt pretty damned lousy.
Okay confession time, I really have got to change the name of this blog. The fact is, I cannot stand skating anymore. My knees are just killing - and all I did was a lousy 37km. I've done 160km rides and felt better after. Here's the ludicrous part, when I went for that skate I was pushing really hard at one point on Commissioner's street, and I look down at my GPS, all I've got on it was a lousy 23km/h. For that kind of cardio on Amy I'd expect to see at least 35km/h and on Erin, well frankly, 40km/h.
Given my current cardio health I think I will be fine in Duluth, I will not make a fool of myself or anything, but I also know I am not going to be finishing on any podium (except that since they have ten podium places for every age I actually might make the podium... but I won't be in the top three.)
Lately I've been thinking, if I ever get good enough I might join the Dark Horse Flyer's (the racing club associated with the Beaches Cycle Club) and do some bike races. But its a safe bet for me to say my skating days are pretty much over, baring another bike mishap.
On a related aside, to everyone at BCC, thanks for your enquires on my post crash status, it was really very decent of you all. I am impressed by the decency of everyone at the club, you guys are an awesome bunch.
Okay confession time, I really have got to change the name of this blog. The fact is, I cannot stand skating anymore. My knees are just killing - and all I did was a lousy 37km. I've done 160km rides and felt better after. Here's the ludicrous part, when I went for that skate I was pushing really hard at one point on Commissioner's street, and I look down at my GPS, all I've got on it was a lousy 23km/h. For that kind of cardio on Amy I'd expect to see at least 35km/h and on Erin, well frankly, 40km/h.
Given my current cardio health I think I will be fine in Duluth, I will not make a fool of myself or anything, but I also know I am not going to be finishing on any podium (except that since they have ten podium places for every age I actually might make the podium... but I won't be in the top three.)
Lately I've been thinking, if I ever get good enough I might join the Dark Horse Flyer's (the racing club associated with the Beaches Cycle Club) and do some bike races. But its a safe bet for me to say my skating days are pretty much over, baring another bike mishap.
On a related aside, to everyone at BCC, thanks for your enquires on my post crash status, it was really very decent of you all. I am impressed by the decency of everyone at the club, you guys are an awesome bunch.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
On Crashing
This is a long weekend. I seem to be cursed on long weekends. It was the Victoria Day long weekend of 2000 that Cole Airlines enjoyed its one brief moment of air worthy status prior to a rough landing on the Martin Goodman Trail.
I crashed again today. Unlike crashes earlier in the year when it was a matter of not freeing my shoes from the pedals as the bike came to a stop, this crash was a result of events outside of my control. (I believe I have mastered the clip-in clip-out pedal system, not that a rapid clip-out would have helped today.)
I was riding with the BCC, out in Oshawa on Thickson North of Winchester, about 48km from the starting point. Just prior to that we had stopped for the ritual mid ride (well it was a 140km ride, so not so mid ride) coffee break. Just as we were getting ready to leave someone decided they needed to go to the washroom. I was getting cold so I declared that I would start and go slow. Dan announced that anyone who wanted to go now and slow should follow me.
After pulling the pack for about 3 or 4 minutes I decided to be a proactive leader, I told the guy behind me to maintain 26km/h for until a traffic light about 2km away then pick it up to 28km/h. I drifted towards the back of the pack to make sure everyone was in and doing alright. As I tried to drift back I found the pack moving too slowly so I raced back to the front and asked the lead guy to pick up the pace a bit. I should have stayed in front and pulled.
After telling the lead guy to pick it up, I drifted back, but the traffic was getting bad, Thickson is a two lane road with a gravel shoulder, I ended up planting myself in the middle of the pack as it was just too dangerous for me to continue on doubled up with the rest of the pace line. The pack started to go frustratingly slowly, then the guy in the front dropped back, and I felt relieved as things started to pick back up.
As we crossed Winchester a red sedan passed, very slowly, perhaps 35km/h to our 28km/h. Then suddenly the guy not 30cm right in front of me slammed on his brakes. I did the same but it was no good, before I knew up from down I was skidding along the road and then someone else literally rolled right over my back wheel.
For myself the damage is modest, a very minor cut on the knee. But for my bike (who's name, I finally settled on, from now on my bike is called Erin) the situation is very much more ugly. The back wheel is way out of true and needs the work of an experienced mechanic to fix. The hanger for the rear derailleur is bent and needs to be replaced, I am not confident that the rear derailleur is in good shape either - it will probably need to be replaced. The right pedal seems to be deformed, it does not look out of shape but I cannot unclip any more without a major struggle. The bar tape I could keep, but it is so badly scuffed on one side I might as well replace it too.
I was able to ride to the Go Train station in Oshawa, about 10km away, but I could feel my rear brake bouncing against the wheel every time I tried to engage the brakes. (Dan had to loosen the brake so that I could ride Erin in the first place, otherwise every time the untrue section of wheel hit the brake Erin would seize up.) I am sure that ride to the Go train did nothing good for the back wheel.
There is nothing dignified in taking a bike on the Go train, Erin is supposed to be ridden, not do the riding, worst of all, because it is a long weekend all the stores are closed today and tomorrow so I cannot take my broken parts in until Tuesday afternoon. I missed the Simcoe ride, I will miss the Tuesday Escape the Don ride. About the only good that will come of this whole experience is I will have to practice skating tomorrow, but lets be honest, skate or ride? Well I suppose if someone bashed me over the head - with a big rubber mallet - hard enough I might go for the skating, but I doubt it.
I should start a charity, the pay for Erin's repairs fund. I suppose I could ride Amy, but I want to sell her in her pristine state, I am afraid if I ride her I could damage her too. If anyone wants to contribute to the pay for Erin's repairs, just read up on some of the ads here on this blog, or do a Google search from the link up top. Thanks guys. - I know I have no shame, but it is for a good cause.
I crashed again today. Unlike crashes earlier in the year when it was a matter of not freeing my shoes from the pedals as the bike came to a stop, this crash was a result of events outside of my control. (I believe I have mastered the clip-in clip-out pedal system, not that a rapid clip-out would have helped today.)
I was riding with the BCC, out in Oshawa on Thickson North of Winchester, about 48km from the starting point. Just prior to that we had stopped for the ritual mid ride (well it was a 140km ride, so not so mid ride) coffee break. Just as we were getting ready to leave someone decided they needed to go to the washroom. I was getting cold so I declared that I would start and go slow. Dan announced that anyone who wanted to go now and slow should follow me.
After pulling the pack for about 3 or 4 minutes I decided to be a proactive leader, I told the guy behind me to maintain 26km/h for until a traffic light about 2km away then pick it up to 28km/h. I drifted towards the back of the pack to make sure everyone was in and doing alright. As I tried to drift back I found the pack moving too slowly so I raced back to the front and asked the lead guy to pick up the pace a bit. I should have stayed in front and pulled.
After telling the lead guy to pick it up, I drifted back, but the traffic was getting bad, Thickson is a two lane road with a gravel shoulder, I ended up planting myself in the middle of the pack as it was just too dangerous for me to continue on doubled up with the rest of the pace line. The pack started to go frustratingly slowly, then the guy in the front dropped back, and I felt relieved as things started to pick back up.
As we crossed Winchester a red sedan passed, very slowly, perhaps 35km/h to our 28km/h. Then suddenly the guy not 30cm right in front of me slammed on his brakes. I did the same but it was no good, before I knew up from down I was skidding along the road and then someone else literally rolled right over my back wheel.
For myself the damage is modest, a very minor cut on the knee. But for my bike (who's name, I finally settled on, from now on my bike is called Erin) the situation is very much more ugly. The back wheel is way out of true and needs the work of an experienced mechanic to fix. The hanger for the rear derailleur is bent and needs to be replaced, I am not confident that the rear derailleur is in good shape either - it will probably need to be replaced. The right pedal seems to be deformed, it does not look out of shape but I cannot unclip any more without a major struggle. The bar tape I could keep, but it is so badly scuffed on one side I might as well replace it too.
I was able to ride to the Go Train station in Oshawa, about 10km away, but I could feel my rear brake bouncing against the wheel every time I tried to engage the brakes. (Dan had to loosen the brake so that I could ride Erin in the first place, otherwise every time the untrue section of wheel hit the brake Erin would seize up.) I am sure that ride to the Go train did nothing good for the back wheel.
There is nothing dignified in taking a bike on the Go train, Erin is supposed to be ridden, not do the riding, worst of all, because it is a long weekend all the stores are closed today and tomorrow so I cannot take my broken parts in until Tuesday afternoon. I missed the Simcoe ride, I will miss the Tuesday Escape the Don ride. About the only good that will come of this whole experience is I will have to practice skating tomorrow, but lets be honest, skate or ride? Well I suppose if someone bashed me over the head - with a big rubber mallet - hard enough I might go for the skating, but I doubt it.
I should start a charity, the pay for Erin's repairs fund. I suppose I could ride Amy, but I want to sell her in her pristine state, I am afraid if I ride her I could damage her too. If anyone wants to contribute to the pay for Erin's repairs, just read up on some of the ads here on this blog, or do a Google search from the link up top. Thanks guys. - I know I have no shame, but it is for a good cause.
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