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.