856 km to go..

Yesterday was a fantastic day for a ride around the Toronto area. As promised the skies were blue in the morning, temperature in the mid-20's (Celsius) and very little wind to speak of. I couldn't miss the opportunity to go for a big ride and test my limits after last weeks 65k ride. After about a 10k warm-up, I was feeling pretty good and headed north for farm country and wide open roads.

Unknown riders I caught, clicked and passed while heading north on Warden Road.

The most eventful moment of my ride happened at about 25k in when I had to stop at a railway crossing for a passing freight train. It was a pretty short train, but it never-the-less gave me a moment to take a little rest and a much needed drink. By this time, the temperature had climbed to 26-27*C and I was just starting to get a pretty good sweat going. When the train passed, I continued north until I reached Bloomington Rd. and the 40k mark, meeting several other cyclists along the way. You can always count on running into cyclists on the roads north of the city.

When I made my turn for home however, I realized that I was now heading into the teeth of a stiffening breeze. Being from Newfoundland, I am used to riding in the wind, but it's never been my favourite thing to do. The last 35k or so of my ride were pretty tough, made no less tougher by the fact that in the last 2k there is what amounts to a 1km vertical wall of a hill. With my legs on empty, it was all I could do to reach the top. My legs were screaming for mercy at that point.

All in all, I managed 76.5k in 3h13, but that is pretty much the limit of my personal endurance, at least for a 27* solo ride. I dropped 7 lbs as well and to be honest, I'm still trying to recover. On the bright side, I took a big chunk out of my goal of 1200k and it's still only April.