On Goals - an update

Previously I wrote out, with tongue planted very firmly in cheek, some goals, here is my current status.

1. Do at least one, preferably all three OCA ITTs, try to average no less than 40km/h for distances of 15km or less and no less than 37 km/h for longer ITTs. (A little ambitious, but it is always better to aim high and come up short than aim low.) - Well truth be told there are two OCA ITTs, but I am registered for the first one on Saturday July 11.

2. Toronto to Rochester without wanting to just roll over and die when I get there. - Failed, wanted to roll over and die when I got here, but yes I'm in Rochester NY right now, sans car, but avec my bicycle! (Actually... it turns out the rear brake was rubbing when I cleaned my bike, the morning after, I thought I was just bonking hard. When Jeff came out about 35km from his home - in his car - and offered me either a bottle of water or a ride over the last 35km, I took him up on the second offer, so I only covered the first 285km or 177miles, I failed to do a double century.)

2b. Rochester return to Niagara Falls if not all the way home, subject to weather. - The GO train does not run from the Falls on Mondays and there is not enough time to recover, Jeff will be driving me to the border and I will take the 7:20 train home from there. Truth is this ultra randonneuring is too painful for me.

3. Achieve demerit point velocities in a 60 (or higher) zone, in Ontario one must be driving at least 15km/h over the posted speed limit to get demerit points. (Note this goal cannot apply on downgrades greater than 3%. In other words, my goal is not achieved if I scream down a steep hill, I need to be on near flat, flat or up hills and doing the required 75km/h to reach this goal.) - Oh pulleeese, where did I come up with this?

4. Ride to Lake Simcoe a bunch of times, of course, hey it is my favourite ride. On McCowan between Doane Road and Ravenshoe road pull at no less than 40km/h the entire way. On the journey home, once south of Ravenshoe, on Warden, average no less than 33km/h to Stouffville Road. (If the lights are green, average at least 35km/h.) - Well does it still count if I was pulling North on Warden at around that speed? Anyway if I didn't quite achieve the specified speed, I came awfully close on June 27.

5. Ride the panacke of South Western Ontario to Rattle Snake Point, climb said hill with a 53/39 chain ring and 11/23 cassette. Have enough left in my legs to still be able to catch any break aways or race David Silcox to the next Taxi without going into cardiac arrest as soon as we reach the "finish". - Haven't done a club ride to Rattle Snake yet, this season, oh well!

6. Do. Not. Bonk. Ever. - See this one sort of... who are we kidding, this one is a complete contradiction of 2. and 2b. A person cannot do a double century without bonking, It. Is. Just. Not. Possible!

On A Challenge

A quick aside, yes work on my novel continues, but in the meantime here is a different, green, way to train.

Everyone has a monthly calandar, lets face it, real-estate agents give them away faster than some drivers flip birds, well here is a new application for that calandar that will help with training.

1. Every time you mount the saddle and cover distance, no matter if it is recreational, or to go grocery shopping, or get to work, on an $8,000 carbon fiber beauty or a $80 used Crappy Tire Special write the total number of kilometers covered in blue pen for that day on the calendar.



2. Every time you drive, or are driven, no matter if it is an electronic bicycle, motor cycle, automobile, SUV, 54 foot tractor trailer, etc, record the total distance in black.



3. Every time you walk somewhere, besides around the office or to the Tim Horton’s across the street, but actually cover significant distance you are free to record that with a green pen (This one is optional, but some days we have to buy groceries and this will reward people who do not drive even when it’s raining).

Sum up the green and the blue numbers and divide by the sum of the black.

The goal, have the largest number possible, in other words, do the most cycling and walking and the least consumption of non-muscular energy sources.

Now I know some of you are thinking, well Gee Wiz, I drive a Prius – as Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear would point out, the environmental impact of making the batteries and complex systems in a Prius make a Prius about as bad as a Hummer over the lifetime of the vehicle. What about EVs or E-Bikes? Well the electricity has to come from somewhere doesn’t it?

Anyway the point of this challenge is two-fold; one burn less of the gunk that is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico at something like 35 to 60 thousand barrels a day. And two, exercise more.

Good luck and feel free to give your score, for the week or month, in the comment section below.

On Lamentations for a Lost Ride

During a recent ride to Lake Simcoe, 183.9km, it rained. By the time I got home my ride was so thick with mud she was more brown than red or black. As I have done many times before I set to work cleaning her up, I washed the chain, removed the crankset, bottom bracket and wheels and began the work of hosing her down and making her shine.

When I wash my bike I always start in back and work my way forward, there is no particular reason, it's just where I start from habit. So my ride was almost clean when I discovered the crack, running about an inch along the inside of the head tube and then about an inch along the top of the down tube. Its a small crack, I cannot even see it unless my frame is out in the light of day, but the crack is there and when I rock the fork I can actually see the crack grow.

It would seem therefore that my ride's days in the sun are over. A short summary of some of the rides I did with that bike seems fitting here:

1. Harriston Ontario (Bonked at 150km) Covered 196km, summer 2008.


2. Lake Simoce and Back via Stouffville (Bonked at about 180km) Covered 200km, summer 2008.


3. Rochester NY (almost, sun went down and had to get bailed out 50km from destination) Covered 250km, spring 2009.


4. Return from Rochester NY (almost, sun light again, bailed out in Hamilton) Covered 230km, spring 2009.


5. Rochester NY (nearly fell asleep on the bars at 220km) Covered 320km, summer 2009


6. Lake Simoce from Lake Ontario (twice in 2009)


7. Raced cars to work - often beat them to the next light, surprisingly often.


8. A bunch of Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday night rides, got dropped a bunch of times, sometimes intentionally fell off the back and enjoyed the ride.


9. Lake Simcoe from Lake Ontario June 13, 2010 - broke a frame

On Writing and Other Things

Sorry, I have not posted much lately. I have been working on my novel. But for anyone keeping score, Saturday was a rest day for me after biking to work every day last week (25km up hill to work) and 35km home (I take a longer route home to avoid the heavy afternoon traffic.)

Sunday I rode with the club out to Goodwood (120km) it was a proper hammerfest. Sunday was a nice short trip up to Lake Simcoe, 180km, 6 hours. According to the GPS, I burned off 13,000 calories in two rides. Anyway back to the novel.

On Hill Climbs

Someone tried to catalog all the tough hill climbs in the Toronto area. Obviously there really is not all that much to the list, but even Toronto has some hills.

Anyway I just thought it might be a useful thing. Sorry I have not posted much lately, been horribly busy with work, and writing the book I mentioned earlier, done about one and a third chapters so far.

On Terror in New York

New York is an awesome city.

My OAC (Grade 13, or Ontario Academic Credit) Algebra and Geometry Teacher, Mr. Pupko, a very respectable guy who never used the word "awesome" until the day he made his remark about New York City. Al-Geo was a tough course, and I took the semestered version, even harder, Mr. Pupko who has a Masters in Math and is from New York was a hell of a tough teacher, that Grade 13 course was harder than anything I took in first year at Waterloo Math. By the time Mr. Pupko made his analysis of his home town the dozen or so of us who had not dropped out were standing around his desk going over our final grades. To be honest, that class had a more graduate school feel about it than my M. Eng. classes ever did.

I digress, I just wanted to say New York City is the greatest achievement of the human condition, a remarkable feat of opinion and steel with plenty of good art work in between.

By now we all know about the aborted terror attacks of Saturday May 1. A would be terrorist loaded an old SUV (another reason to hate SUVs) with explosives and fertilizer, parked the vehicle in Times Square and tried to flee the country.

The Globe and Mail ran a column about the owner of the vehicle being busted as he tried to flee. I wrote the following comment, which I think is worth preserving. I have modified it slightly to improve readability.

...although [Attorney General] Holder said U.S. authorities “will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice,” suggesting additional suspects are being sought.

These nut cases are criminals, pure and simple. Find them, arrest them, give them the rights afforded any accused and if convicted punish them as dictated by law. Something the Obama Administration, by the above quote, clearly understands and the former [Bush] Administration had a serious issue with.

We, Canadians, and Americans, are people who live in nations of laws and we should never forget that even when the most horrible criminal acts are committed. For when we disregard our own laws we sink to the same level as these criminals. Besides, by granting the criminals some special exemption from our criminal code, we give them a power over media and the weak minded that they should never ever have.

On Guilt

My new job is so far from home that I had to buy one of those horrible machines that converts stuff that ought to stay buried in the ground into green house gasses just to get to work. (Yes I have officially joined, albeit ten years late, the rat race.)

Well today I ought to feel especially guilty, the US Coast Guard now believes that horrid oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is five times worse than expected (some two hundred thousand gallons of oil are spewing from the seabed into the water). I guess I do feel guilty, a little anyway. But I can draw comfort from one thing, a ratio, 40%, two days out of every five days in a working week I will be cycling to work, starting, well, this morning! In 57 minutes on a sweet little Specialized Roubaix I call Erin, I covered as much ground (home to work) as I typically cover in a loud little diesel Jetta, in 50 minutes. Sure it takes a whole 14% longer to ride than to drive, but I feel great, I burned calories, instead of diesel fuel, and I can go for two bike rides in one day, what could be better? Right, three rides in a day!