Are you practicing your trail riding skills and getting ready for MDH 2009?
Category: Cycling
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Gary at the Finish Line
OK, that’s not me, but another “Gary” from the FOG club, with a very nice bike.
Unfortunately, there was nobody taking photo’s as I crossed the finishing line at my first ever Time Trials race at Birds Hill Park today. The race was a lot of fun and it will be interesting to see my time when it gets posted. (Photos)
This weekend was really quite a high mileage weekend with 94km yesterday on the FOG ride and a warm-up lap and two race laps for 33.9km, a total of 117.9km. Still feeling good, but we’ll see how that plays out tomorrow morning.
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Humbled
The first FOG ride of the year was great. It was cool at about 1°C and a fair breeze, but still a great ride, well for most of the way. About 21 of us set off at 10am and several turned back at Lockport while the rest of us headed over to Birds Hill Park for a couple of laps. After 1 1/2 laps, I decided that I needed to head back and 5 of us started the return on Hwy 59 while the rest of the keeners headed of for another lap at 35-38kph.
Thinks were good until I got out onto Hwy 59 and we were cruising at about 37-38 with a tail wind. Aerobically I seemed fine, the legs were burning a bit but there was this feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that said “slow up or throw up”. I opted for the “slow up”, and drifted back from the group and limped into the parking lot, well off the group pace for a 74km ride. A little zapped, but feeing good.
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First Cycle Commute of the year
Friday was my first cycle commute of 2009 and it was good to get back on the road with the mountain bike as opposed to idling in traffic with the truck. The first think I noticed is that I seem to have neglected the bike a bit from some previous winter ride and the drive train had a little rust on it and was a little noisy, but shifting was still fairly good. I’ll need to attend to that this weekend.
I followed my usual route downtown taking the bike paths to the Niakwa park area, detouring over the Fermor bridge as the Seine flooding had the bike path bridge well under water. Only the tops of the hand rails are visible. After that it was down DesMurons, over to St. Marys and into the heart of the city. Traffic was typical, and drivers were good to me.
At work when I entered the locker room I was greeted with a bit of a mess. Some co-worker treating the area like his personal space and there is a pile of towels and “other stuff” in the corner, and more personal items left in the common shower area. Time for a friendly reminder that this is a shared space.
Today should be my first ride with FOG this year, unless it starts pouring before the 10am start. I’ll ride in the rain is it happens after we start but I’m not so big on setting out in a downpour. Gary S. is running a great blog for the club and it looks like he’ll be keeping us all in line this year. Unlike last year, I’ve been training since January and have been out on the road several times already this year, so I’m hoping not to suck too much on the first group ride. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to seeing the group agian.
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First outdoor road ride of 2009
My indoor training group suddenly changed the riding time to 9am-12noon from 9am-4pm which makes it generally impossible for me to participate since the earliest I could get there would be between 11 and 11:30 leaving virtually no time for any kind of serious riding. So I’ve decided to hit the roads a little earlier that planned.
Today it’s +8, but with a bit of a wicked south wind. As you can see there is still snow on the edges of the road, but the road around Birds Hill Park is clear and dry. The main road is free of gravel, and a good portion of the paved shoulder is clean as well. Riding the white line was good all the way around, so I put in my 2 hours and made 4 laps. Did I mention the wind? I’m expecting lap times to improve and it’s good to be outside again. In my opinion, indoor riding on a trainer is a necessary evil, and it’s certainly only tolerable if you’re doing it with a bunch of other people. Give me an outdoor ride any day, any weather, it’s better.
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Icebike? – Just a warm up for this!
I had a great time at the Winnipeg Icebike race yesterday. Friends and family were out to watch and cheer me on which was much appreciated. The course was fast with fewer obsticals that some years, except for the crazy section on the freshly Zamboni’d skating path, which I don’t think anyone was able to ride. I’m hoping that my time and ranking was better than last year at 27th and 54:02, but there were a lot more competitors out this year.
Update:
Just checked the results, Rider: 618 Garry Stewart Time: 49:14 Place: 43So, faster this year, but 43rd in a field of 57 vs. 27th in a field of 45.
Maybe next year I should try this one….
Arrowhead Winter Ultramarathon
The Arrowhead Winter Ultra is a non-profit human powered ultramarathon on bike, foot or skis, covering 135 miles across the Arrowhead Region of Northern Minnesota from International Falls near the Canadian border to Tower, MN. The course follows a scenic, hilly, State multi-purpose trail under extreme winter conditions the first Monday of February.
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Icebike XI pre-ride
Well, Icebike 11 is tomorrow at The Forks, so I took the mountain bike out for a pre-ride of the course. This year it seems as if the day might be unusually warm! Right now it’s 0° and trying to rain!
On the ride from the house down to The Forks, the roads were very wet and it was sleeting and/or freezing rain for a while. By the time I arrived at the course, it was if I’d ridden into work in the rain, I was soaked. This years course is similar to last years and there doesn’t appear to be any really crazy parts, just the steep hill after riding up the skating path. Of course that’s followed by dropping down a very steep staircase to go under the Norwood bridge. I’ve never ridden those stairs even in the summer when it’s clear and dry.
On the St. Boniface hospital side there will be one challenging section which I rode just after the course crew had touched it up with some shoveling. No pressure, just 8 guys watching to see if you’ll crash and kill yourself. No such luck, as I was being slow and careful. Tomorrow will be a different story as I’ll need to go a lot faster through this section. The rest, while being off camber, is quite clear of snow and should be fast. But, if the temperatures stay warm, it could turn into a mud bath, as there is lots of dirt exposed.
As always, it should be exciting and the weather will be a big factor. If there is freezing rain and more snow overnight and a temperature drop, it will be quite challenging.
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Biking on November 4th
Yep, that’s me with the bike, and it’s dark out at 5:30pm, but it;s a balmy +16°. I’ve just cycle commuted home from work and it could be one of the last rides for a while.
It’s forecaster to rain tomorrow, and I’m not quite hard core enough to start out my day in the rain. After that they are calling for snow, and I’m definitely not riding in that! Well, at least not until it’s cold enough that the “slush season” is over, and then we’ll see.
p.s. – notice the shorts!
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One is the loneliness number
On Friday as I was walking back to the office to change for the ride home a co-worker informs me that the bike cage has been broken into and his bike has been stolen! A few more steps and I see that my bike is still there, the only bike way in the back of the cage, right where I left it and still locked.
Some people have no respect for property and are obviously quite brazen. The robbery was in the middle of the afternoon, in a busy area, under a security camera, and locked in a full cage. Today I lear that the stolen bike was not locked to the rack inside the cage. The guy thought that being in a locked cage would be enough. The rest of us are just a little more paranoid an apparently justifiably so. We lock up inside the cage as well.
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The need for speed
And he’s a Canadian as well!
World’s Fastest Cyclist Hits 82.3 MPH | Autopia from Wired.com
Sam Whittingham is the fastest cyclist on the planet, having pedaled his sleek recumbent bicycle to a stunning 82.3 mph to claim the world record for a human-powered vehicle.
The bike-builder from British Columbia bested his previous record of 81.02 mph during a picture-perfect run through the desert during the World Human Powered Speed Challenge outside Battle Mountain, Nevada.
