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!
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