Being a cyclist, this is a sad thing to see. This bike is locked outside probably some of the most expensive condos in downtown Toronto, right in the harbour front. But gauging from the rust and two flats, this bike has not seen too many miles.km lately.
Category: Activities
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Nice Ride
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First FOG of the Season
I went out on the first FOG ride of the season this morning. Apparently, it was the first ride for almost everyone, as previous attemts had been hanpered by such trivial things as snow and freezing rain and generally nasty conditions. This morning was clear, light winds and a balmy 3°C.so the ride was a go for many people. Rene was not there and some new guy was leading the ride, so after the parking lot pre-ride instructions and a little discussion about the route, we’re off on the traditional course.
Things are pretty normal but I’m noticing that the traditional 2up riding pattern is taking for ever to form up, and there is a lot of inconsistency in the speed as well as a lot less ride etiquette that last season. Riders are falling back and cutting in mid-pack, riding 3 and 4 across etc. The ride is generally uneventful until we get to Lockport. Lockport is a traditional first stop, but for some reason the guys at the front of the line don’t stop and nobody says anything, so we push on to Selkirk. Just before Selkirk there is the traditional sprint for the town line, but it seems a little tame, and there is only one guy who breaks away with any major enthusiasm.
After the stop in Selkirk, a number of rides head back to Winnipeg, which is probably what I should have done, but the rest of the group agrees to push on the “The Big Bridge“. The approach to the Big Bridge, is another part of the course where there is traditionally a sprint to the top. Did I mention that this is my first ride of the year? This is where I knew I was in trouble. Last year, I could keep up with the first 4-6 riders in the pack, but this time I was having trouble staying with the group on the approach. As they started the climb, I just fell off the back, legs burning, just zapped as the entire group pulled away. At the re-group point on the other side of the bridge, there was a very short rolling pause, and them we rode on. This is were it starts to get ugly.
I’m struggling to keep up with the pack which has now switched up to the 35-40Kph mode. Eventually, I drop off the back and watch the pack pull away, eventually right out of site. Now I’ poking along at about 22Kph and feeling the pain. After a while I start having some unkind thoughts about the group. Weren’t they supposed to look out for riders who are struggling? weren’t hey supposed to ensure that nobody gets dropped and rides alone? By now I’m going so slow, I’m glad that nobody is slowing down for me, but hey then I spot one lone rider coming back to find me and make sure I’m OK. The group is all right after all.
I never do get to catch up the guy who came back for me as he turns around in front of me and I still can’t catch up to him. At this point I’m totally wasted. The two of us eventually re-join the group I’m guessing they had been waiting 3 or 5 minutes, perhaps more. As I rode in nobody said anything to me and I was trying very hard not the throw up. They were kind and waited one more minute before taking off again. I kept with the group for a while as we headed down Henderson Hwy, but shortly I was on my own again for the ride back to the truck. After stopping for some Goo and some fluids I felt better and was able to maintain a respectable speed for the rest of the ride.
A very tough ride for the first of the year. I’m hoping my cycle commute will get me back into shape, hopefully soon!
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Back on the Road
I just checked the FOG site and it seems like rides might have started in March! Hey, I’ve been a sleep at the switch. I think I’ll be out there tomorrow at 10am for my first road ride of the year. Forecast is for mainly sunny and +9, so that should be workable.
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Kiwi come home
In February of 2005 we launched Kiwi into the wild of the Geocaching world. Since that time he has traveled over 66,000 kms, crossed the Atlantic several times and achieved his goal of spending Christmas on a beach in New Zealand. He’s currently hanging out in Germany, doing who knows what! But now it’s time for him to come home. So, if you find yourself in Germany or know some friends over there, perhaps they can look him up and offer him a ride back to Winnipeg. He’s really small and doesn’t take up much space, doesn’t eat much and rarely speaks, so you’ll hardly know he’s there.
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Skiing adventrue
I was out cross country skiing today after church. It was a great afternoon, clear skies, light winds and warm, only -8 which is warm considering the cold week we had prior to today.
I headed out to Birdshill park where there are lots of groomed trails, most of which I’ve not skied yet, in fact I’ve only skied one other trail so far this year. With the nice weather, lots of other folks had the idea to go skiing and the paring lot was jammed. I squeezed in between a couple of cars on and angle and got my gear together and launched out on the trails.
Give my inexperience with the trails you’d think I’d take a trail map or at least pay a little attention to the map at the trail head, but oh no, I just headed out on the first trail that looked interesting. It was the Chickadee, and innocent sounding trail name. It seemed a little boring so I cut over to another trail called the Bluestem. It was a very nice trail, in and out of the woods, with lots of turns and a few gentle hills. In fact there were lots of turns and switchbacks. While I have a good sense of direction, after a while I really didn’t know where I was, which direction the parking lot was in, or how far away I was. After a while I was keeping an eye on the sun, watching it go down and wondering if I’d get out of here before nightfall.
I was really kind of stuck on this trail. Not knowing where I was, all I could do was to keep on going and follow the trail markers. After a while I started putting my initials in the snow back just in case I was looping around in an endless loop, or perhaps the rescue party could use them to recover me frozen body. Any way I just kept on going knowing that sooner or later I’d go by the parking lot as all these trails are loops, unless I made some sort of mistake.
Once I was pack at the parking lot I looked at the trail map and I’d managed to get onto the longest trail in the system, 14km, so it was a good workout for the afternoon.
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Icebike X – 27 of 39 or 45
Sunday, after church, Shirley and I headed down to the Forks and picked up my race number and got ready for the start. This year was only 12km vs. the usual 20km, so it was a much faster race. My fingers froze for the first lap and a half and then warmed up and everything was good. The bike performed well with no mechanical problems, not even after pounding down the staircases at the Provencher Bridge. I never did ride down the stairs at the Norwood Bridge, they were just a little too steep for my liking. Unlike many years, I managed not to crash once on the ride, perhaps I was being too cautious, but the course was fairly easy with only one steep downhill, and a short river bank stretch in loose snow.
I pulled ahead of another rider just before the finish line and finished with a time of 54:02. That put me in 27th place of 45, if you count the 6 guys who didn’t finish. It was a good race, lots of fun.
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Ice Bike X is tomorrow!
Yikes! It’s tomorrow! Ice Bike 2008
Actually, I though I might have missed it already, but when I checked this morning, there it was, and I still had time to register. Well, motivation is a little low as it’s -25, but very sunny, so I went over to Woodcock and signed up. Apparently, I was too late to get the collector item T-Shirt, but hey, that’s the price of procrastination. After signing up, I figured I better be a little riding to get ready, after all the last time was on a bike was November 2007.
After rounding up all the cold weather gear I headed out the The Forks to check out this years course. The Abominable is much shorter this year at 3 laps and 12km vs. the previous years distance of 20km. Most of the course was ready and marked so I took a test lap. It will be a very fast race this year as there are only two difficult sections. One is a steep downhill with a U-Turn at the bottom and a scramble up the hill again. The other stretch is along the river bank that parallels Tache Ave, where you’re riding across the sloping river bank in some loose snow. The rest of the course is hard packed and clear. Oh yeah, there are a could of stair cases to ride down, one is very steep and I’ve never ridden it down yet. After a lap, I took a slow cruise back to the house. Too late to do any training now, so it’s just gut it out on race day.
Should be a good ride tomorrow and a little warmer at -13.
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Leaving the Lake
The weather was good today, sunny, warm for the time of year and light breezes. I slept until the sun poked through the clouds and into my room. It seemed like I’d slept in quite late, but it was only 9am. After a few cups of blender grind coffee and some scrambled eggs and toast I was off to take in the last kayak paddle of the ’07 season.
Getting the 17′ Necky out of the cottage and down the stairs single handed was a littel challenging, but not too bad. Locating the paddles that were tucked away in the back corner of the shed behind the sailboat centerboard took longer. After a little boat prep, I’m off for a tour of the bay. What a difference this time of year, very quiet, very few people around, virtually no boats and virtually no wildlife. As I enter the shallow bay just north of our cottage I’m struck with the lack of wildlife. Normally, the bay/swamp is teaming with life but today it’s very quiet. No birds, no ducks, no eagles, no beavers, no otters; very quiet and very still, you feel quite alone.
As I paddle around the bay, most folks have packed up for the season and have put away docks and boats. One cottage has some interesting activity at the dock. A barge, with a bobcat is working. Using some chains hooked to the bucket of the bobcat and around some dock segments, they are lifting the dock out of the water for the winter. Up at the top of our point a crew is busy putting in a new dock with a big deck, which looks very nice.
I took a walk out to the point along the trail and sat in the chair for a few minutes, just enjoying the view and remembering the summer. After that it seemed to be time to pack up and go as the sun is starting to dip, seemingly prematurely at 4:30 in the afternoon and you can feel the chill building as the sun’s warm rays begin to fade away. Washing the dishes from the weekend and re-setting the fireplace seems to take a long time, or is it that I’m making it take a long time, drawing out the last few moments of enjoyment and soaking up that last little but if lake life before heading back to the city. The sun is setting over the lake as I arrive in Kenora. The lake has it’s hold on me as I stop in at HoJo’s for a chai latte and a little internet fix before the drive.
It’s getting dark and the road home is calling. Time to go.
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And then there were five
Just five riders turned out for the FOG ride yesterday, and after Lockport there were just four of us. It was warmer this week than last, but still fairly cool at about +3 and a light wind. One of the riders drove in from Brandon to join the ride, quite dedicated for a cool late season ride. He was quite a strong rider and on the final leg up Henderson highway into the wind he pace that I certainly had to work hard to keep up to and I think the other two guys were being pushed as well.
That’s the great thing about group rides, lots of times you get pushed to go harder that you would on your own.
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Last Ride?
Today, may have been the last ride with FOG (they really need to jazz up the website). It was -4 at the start and about 14 guys started the ride. By Lockport, a mere 45 minutes into the ride we lost a few and 10 carried on over the Lockport bridge to Birdshill park. This was a change in the typical route and despite an extra lap around the park we were back at the parking lot in under 3 hours and only 74km compared to the typical 95-100km.
The cold has really taken it’s toll on the group size. Last week, the drop out rate was even higher and only 3 of us when the full distance. While there is no snow yet and the roads are fine, I think I’ll be at the lake next weekend, and riding two weeks from now many be questionable, so this might be it for the season.
With the cooler morning temperatures combined with the dark at 7am I’ve really lost the drive to cycle to work so I’m going to need to either toughen up or find a replacement activity for the winter to replace the cycling. Perhaps some evening cross country skiing? A great reason to buy some new gear as the current stuff is ancient.
Oh yeah, I need to blog more. It’s been quite a dry spell.
