On More Pain

Remember the Cervelo ad from the 2009 Tour where one of the Cervelo Test Team time trialists was going on and on about how, "when you like zee pain, zen you know you are good"? I'm not so sure I'm there yet. Well actually last night, right after I rode, I liked the pain. This morning, no not so much.

So here is my past seven days of riding:

• Saturday/Sunday (July 17/18): Stuck driving back and forth to London Ontario, 950km and not one of them on the saddle - sucks.
• Monday July 19: Rode to work and home again, 75km, a few thousand calories, back on the bike. Rode too hard to every red - so excited to be back on the saddle - wanted to puke my lungs out every time I stopped.
• Tuesday July 20: (by the way, Happy Anniversary Neil Armstrong - an Armstrong who was dignified by his silence - Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins). Thought it was going to rain, drove to work, then to the Data Centre, squeezed in a quick 85km race the cars ride in Mississauga, should do that again soon, what a ride!
• Wednesday July 21: Slept, hey come on, I did stay up until 4am from Tuesday night on account of the Data Centre - hey is anyone hiring a senior network analyst? (I want a job that doesn't kill me, I think I am averaging 60 hour work weeks.)
• Thursday July 22: Rode to work, then to the Dentist, then to the Thursday night ride. Total distance, thereabouts 115km, total calories, in the neighbourhood of 5000, top speed on a busy four lane road, over 55km/h - scary when the truck pulled out in front of me and I almost crashed into him - what is with pickup truck drivers?

Now as for the Thursday night ride, well I climbed the Scarbrough Bluffs at Brimley, three repeats, yes I suck, but in my defence I still have not fully recovered from my all nighter on Wednesday/Thursday July 14/15, forget about London and then the Tuesday/Wednesday just past. Okay enough excuses, for anyone not fully up to speed on Brimley, this is no Tourmalet - actually I feel like a bit a fool talking about Brimley the day after Schleck and Contador dueled it out on that Hors Categorie climb. But anyway here is Brimley details, it is a 72m climb, starting at 85m above sea level, the climb takes 970m, below is the hill in profile.

After climbing Brimley a few times we toured around Scarborough for a little while, I was out of water and started to get really bad, but managed to hang in until the bitter... thirsty? end.

I think though that while an occasional hill is good, I prefer a better mix, one or two good long steep hills and some flats, and maybe some rollers. With the high temperatures and humidity, the wind from going fast really helps to cool things down.