Saturday Bike

Oh yes - Training season is here for sure. 120k bike ride. What a fabulous way to kill a Saturday!

In actual fact, I had a great, albeit exhausting time. Bernadette, David, Bryan and I met here at the house at 8:00 am and headed out on Karen Bonham's route out to Hockley Valley. I've always done my long rides east towards Peterborough, and most of the gang have been heading out to the valley for a while. I was excited to finally find out where this route was and to ride it.

There is no way in God's green earth that I can keep up with the gang I was with, but that was fine. We were all figuring out the route as we went, and seeing as I had the map, everyone waited for me at the different corners. I got to ride with everyone for a few minutes here and there, Bern in particular. It's great getting to know folks that I see all the time but rarely actually talk to about anything.

The route was amazing. Hilly, tough, but wonderful. We meandered out through Snowball, up to and through Kettleby and over to downtown Schomberg. (Who knew there was a downtown!) We turned west on the 5th line north of Schomberg and then apparently were pretty much on the route that Bern knew from the Sharon to Hockley route. It was great to be in totally unfamiliar territory.

The weather was overcast all the way out and just a touch cool. It warmed up the closer we got to Hockley Valley. We stopped in town for a bit of break at the corner store where apparently EVERY cyclist and motorcyclist stops, and then headed out towards Orangeville to get to the 60k turn around point.

The gang got to the point before me and waited. I went past because my GPS read that I needed another 300 meters. Heaven forbid I would be short on a 120k bike ride by a few feet!

When I turned around, I could see the gang. It may have been bad biking edict for me to have gone out. I'm not sure, but I think everyone was OK with it. I'd said a number of times for everyone to go on without me. I didn't want to be breaking out of my zones by much, and I didn't want them slowing for me either.

The guys overshot one of the turns. Bern was waiting at the corner. I was glad, because I would have missed it too. It was around then that I remembered that the GPS track was available in my GPS. The guys came back, we all left again for what seemed like a very mountainous ride out of the valley. The SW wind was getting stronger too, so having that in my face going up these huge hills slowed me down even more. I played with trying to keep in zone 3 on the hills, but that was imposable.

The gang were waiting near just past Corbin, about 30k from home. I gave them the map, showed them that I had the track and convinced them to not worry about me.

They were gone in a flash. I played with watching the GPS mileage and guesstimating how far in front of me they were, but it wasn't long before they disappeared, never to be seen again.

I didn't care. It was great heading out and chatting here and there. I was pretty comfortable with 'riding my own ride' for the remainder of the trip.

The last 15k or the ride was killer for me. From about Pottageville to the house just felt like it would never end. I wonder if I would have felt that way if I had taken another new route home, or was I feeling more tired because I knew what hills were ahead? I'm guessing the later is true.

I saw Bernadette and Bryan driving away from my house when I got back in Aurora. I assume they beat me back by 20 minutes or so.

I was exhausted. I was surprised I was as tired as I was. A quick shower and a 2 hour nap cured that though. Out for dinner for some salad. I haven't had anything green to eat since Lynne left for Florid with the girl on Tuesday. Nadia joined me so we could trade the days adventure stories. I can't stand eating alone, and there was no way I was going to buy green stuff myself.

One a 3 hour ride and a 30 minute run left for tomorrow and then I get Monday off! YEA!!!!!


Oh yea - 'Tale of the Tape' 120k - 4:43 25km/h out and 25.8 coming back. Average cadence 78 (bad) Average watts 150.