On Slow Recovery

Over the weekend that just ended I rode 91km on Saturday and burned about 3950 calories in just under three and a half hours (yes a somewhat pathetic average of just over 26 km/h) and on Sunday I burned just over 4100 calories on a 105km just over three and a half hour ride (about 27km/h average.)

From this we can conclude a couple things. One is I have a lot of improvement to make, but the other conclusion I draw is that I am getting my strength back. The problem I had is over the winter I had all the grief of moving and staging of the home meant I could never use the trainer. (I shoveled lots of snow, but that does not do much for the ride.)

The summary of this past winter is as follows, since January 1 anyway, I rode once in early January and then nothing until March 13 (100km), including that March 13 ride I have done 383km in just over 168 hours. Not nearly what I would do in the summer, but it is starting up again. (Also since my current chain had - as of March 12 - 3589km and the tyres were at 1695km, I need to start really thinking about a new chain and tyres.)

Anyway enough of the mechanical and statistical details. The rides, well, Saturday Evan, Ian and I rode the Mississauga Loop, I need to figure out a better return path from Evans and Royal York to Christie at Dupont (have to do the hill on Christie, have to climb that hill!) We had what I am sure all would agree was a good ride, save the wind out of the North that nearly blew us over. On the other hand that north wind carried us down Tomken at a psycho speed. I was chasing Ian at one point on a flat and I was clocking in 50km/h. Ian and Evan are clearly in better shape right now than I am. I need to build my strength back.

I also had a sort of mini-bonk, I was getting dropped and just could not keep up, I realised my body was in glyco-synthesis mode and I could not figure out why, until it dawned on me, I am not drinking water (supplemented) - too cold, and not eating. I guzzled back half my bottle and got back into form pretty quick.

We were climbing a hill and I sort of growled as I neared the top, it's a psychological thing to growl at the hills. Well at the next red light another cyclist, on a commuter comes up beside me, kind of surprised me, she was running in stealth mode and reprimanded me for growling in hear ear - I was about one and a half meters away from her when I passed. But she was being all righteous, probably because she was on a bicycle... (yes I was too, but that's hardly relevant for the righteous set!) So I apologized, the light changed and I took off with the wind overpowering her rant on the importance of eating granola whilst wearing Birkenstocks. I think the problem the righteous cyclist has is that they think that the act of riding the bike is a sort of punishment that merits righteousness, that someone would ride for pleasure means that the someone is not worthy.

Sunday we rode up to Stouffville, well actually Musselman Lake. It was wonderful. At the start of the ride there was (in no particular order) Pat, Brook, Peter, Thi, Ian, Paul M - who clobbered me the previous Sunday - and myself. Pat and Brook took a slower pace once we got out of the city and we caught up with them in Stouffville where they had short looped. Peter kept with us to Stouffville where he broke off to get home earlier. Ian Paul and Thi then proceeded to clobber Michael several times on the way around the lake as I still need to get a lot stronger. But they were nice enough to wait for me. The ride south was brutal with a near steady head wind of about 10~15km/h. Still it was a lovely route, we used 14'th Ave and Middlefield to get back into the city. Ian and I agreed that this was the best way to re-enter from the North East.

Ian and I were talking about recovery, we both knew we would need a day or two (or about a dozen for me!) off to recover. Ian was a little bothered because the weather for Monday was supposed to be nice, turns out, it's raining.

It was a good weekend and I hope to have many more this spring, summer and fall just like the one I had. Thanks guys!