934K to go...

Well, I had been looking forward to this ride all week. I've been doing some indoor training on the stationary bike, punching in 70K while watching various shows on television, but riding indoors just isn't the same. The weather forecast all week long for today was for lots of sun and 22*C, so I couldn't wait to get out there.

Cycling along a wide open 19th Ave, north of Toronto. Hard to get a decent picture on a solo ride.

Unfortunately things weren't so promising when I woke up this morning. Myself and a colleague decided to go for a beer after work yesterday and that beer turned into 2 pints. When I got home, I discovered that my wife had invited our neighbours over for a drink on the deck, it being such a nice evening and all. Before I knew it, there was a full fledged neighbourhood party going. Not being a party pooper, I settled in and spent the next 5 hours enjoying more than a couple glasses of wine.

That led directly to this morning, when I awoke feeling a little less rarin' to go than I normally would. Then I looked outside and noticed that the weather forecast was a touch inaccurate. Rather than the bright sun I was promised, it was dull, gray and very overcast. It even looked as though it might start pouring rain any minute. So I delayed my start and took an hour or 2 to recover from my self-inflicted wounds.

Finally, feeling a bit better but still with no weather improvement in sight, I hit the road. The rain, with the exception of a scattered drop, held off and surprisingly enough, once I got going I felt pretty good. About 35km in, the sun broke out a bit and it became quite pleasant and I ended up doing 65.6km in 2h38m, which I thought was a pretty decent pace for a solo ride. Better still, I felt great at the end, although I will admit that my legs feel like lead at the moment. I was planning to join a group ride with TBN tomorrow morning, but I don't think I'll have the legs for that. We'll see.

Oh..and no, I didn't get to try out my new jacket. As expected, even though I'm sure it didn't hit 22* today, it certainly wasn't anywhere near cold enough to warrant wearing it.