Another 100k and past the halfway mark

Wow! I'm really behind on my blogging. Here it is Wednesday and this is the first real chance I've had to write about my latest ride, which was on Monday. After my ill-fated attempt at a group ride last weekend, I decided to try my luck again this week by once again joining in with the Toronto Bicycle Network weekly ride from Finch station.

The group slowly gathers at Finch station.

My first thought was to join in on Sunday, but as some of you may have read in my Twitter tweets, Sunday's weather just didn't add up to an enjoyable ride, at least not for me. Although it was sunny, it was cold (only 7*C) and very windy (35kmh with gusts up to 50). For the most part I can deal with the cold. After all, my first ride this year was in -6*C weather. The wind on the other hand I can't deal with so I chickened out in hopes of more favourable conditions on Monday.

Now on Mondays, I'm usually at work, but being in Canada we of course had our first long weekend of the summer, otherwise known as Victoria Day which has something to do with the former Queen Victoria I think. For a lot of Canadians (especially Newfoundlanders) it's better known as the May 2-4 weekend, not just because it's usually on or near May 24th but also because it's the first camping weekend of the summer and 99% of the time, the weather is too miserable to do anything but sit in your tent, trailer or cabin and drink a 2-4 of beer. Anyway, that's all a bit off topic.

Monday was much nicer with slightly warmer temperatures and a lot less wind, so off I went to the parking lot where a lot of the TBN rides start from. A pretty large group of riders quickly assembled, but split off into 2 groups with 2 different route options. Hoping to crack 100k again, I opted for the longer route and our group hit the road. I have to admit though that I'm really a bit uneasy about riding in a group, probably because I'm just not used to it. Avoiding the unexpected twists, turns and slowdowns of other riders as well as the ever present and unseen hazards in the road ahead is a bit unnerving. One thing I did make sure to do this week was to avoid my pothole. We were taking the same route and I knew almost exactly where it was and when to expect it. Sure enough, I spotted it, gave it an obligatory sneer, and breezed right by.

The core group cruising north on McCowan Rd.

For some reason in these group rides, there's always a couple of guys who think they're in a race and feel compelled to shoot off the front. Once those guys got flushed out, we settled into a pretty steady group of 7-8 riders heading for the wide open side roads north of Toronto. After an uneventful first 40k on familiar roads, a left hand turn took us to a middle section that I had not been on before. The section started out with some gently rolling hills which gradually seemed to grow exponentially larger and more frequent. On no less than 5 occasions, my relief at cresting a hill was immediately displaced by the horror of seeing another steeper, longer hill ahead. After 3-4 of those, my legs started to wobble a bit and I have to admit I dropped into the granny gears for just a bit. Even crossed my mind to stop, but I sucked it up and forced my way to the top. How these pro guys, juiced or not, do 250k over HC mountains I'll never understand.

The hills split our group a bit, but on the turn back south on more gently rolling terrain, most of it came back together for the run into the scheduled lunch stop at the 80k mark. Unfortunately for me, it seems like the worst thing I can do is stop. I always find that when I climb back on, my legs are as useless as a couple of broken rubber bands. I wanted to stay with the group however, so I joined in on the 1/2 hour pit stop for cup a coffee and a pecan butter tart.

After that, the first 5 k of the remaining 20 were a struggle to regain my legs, but they came back OK and myself and one other rider (the rest had split off by then) finished out the last 10k or so back to the start point. With the parking lot in sight, I was at 96k so I decided to carry on a bit longer for the extra 4. I pulled back into the lot with exactly 100k showing on my computer in a total of 3h54 of riding time. All in all, it was a great ride and I was very pleased to have gotten to 100k again without so much as a single muscle cramp (thanks possibly to my new regimen of electrolyte drinks).

I'm also happy to report that I weighed in this morning at just under 175lbs, down from the 182 and change I was just about a month ago. This week's ride also pushed me past the halfway point of my 1200km goal for the year. 608 down, 592 to go...at least until I reset my goal.