Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Skipped the stretches this morning to get out for a road ride on the trike. I wanted some longer climbs and to see how traffic reacted to my presence with my Banff-Jasper setup. But I also wanted to avoid the bulk of the Sunday drivers.

East on Mulock to Warden and then up to Ravenshoe. This is a really nice quite route. There can be heavy traffic on some of the cross roads, but Warden is fairly quiet and has great big old trees along the road most of the way. The sun started to make it over some of the trees near the end of my return.

I tried riding a bit more into the lane than normal hoping to increase recognition of my presence and shifted to the right edge to let cars by as they got close. This seemed to work pretty well in light traffic. Coming back on Mulock I hugged the right of the lane because everybody seemed to be in quite a hurry.

Elevation ended up being quiet anti climatic - the tallest climb was 24m, though it was 9-10%. I stayed on the big chain ring most of the way - I just went to a smaller ring starting a climb from a stop, which happened a few times. The plan was to keep the heart under 160 on the climbs. It made for a very low average, which bodes well for the mountains, especially with lots of gears left.

I saw the first other rider after 30km. One group that probably started half an hour after me was stretched out for a couple of km over the rollers. One group of 3 cheery ladies was having a jolly time running a quicker pace than anyone else I saw. I expect they would pass 4-5 km worth of riders in the 15 km up to Ravenshoe.

Oddity of the day: someone appeared to have thrown carrots on the side of the road every 300m or so for 2-3 km. it was almost as if they wanted to draw out little animals. Whatever the cause, most of the road kill I saw was along this stretch. It takes a lot more planning to get around it on the trike.

C • Carrots 2

C • Great ride! 3

It seemed silly to go for a bike ride in 4C when it will be so nice a bit later, so I prepped the cross bike for a trip west: road tires, Speedplay pedals (compatible with the Greenspeed).
Then started organizing a light system for 15 hours worth of light.

C • Lights 3

Short ride to make sure that the new lamps will stay put over bumps. Took rougher road than I usually do on this bike, just to make sure everything was secure.

The path is very busy this time of day and not really suitable for biking.

Well I tempted fate a bit too long with the slow leak in the rear. Pumped up to 6.5 just before heading out. Spit out a stone around a hard right and felt the rear end try to wash out on a sewer grate. Saved it, but was down to maybe 2 bar so I looped home at a recreational pace.

Mrs. drunken walk. The mission was a new time marker - 45 minutes, taking a wandering route that would let her bail if needed. Stopped for a malt beverage after meeting the mark and then walked her home on a more direct route (including a cup cake shop) that only took 19 minutes.

Day 2 free weights and pushups

Crit style ride after work - wearing Bici, even though Flight's race was long finished. There were big thunderstorms coming so I headed out planning to finish the lap at one hour or rain, whichever came first. Solo crit is kind of boring so I took extensions when the lights were in my favour. Of course the rain started on the outbound portion of an extension. It got dark enough I couldn't read my Garmin and the first drops made dime sized splatters on my compression. High tailed it home before the rain could rinse off the sweat of riding in 34C.

Nice ride though, made better by getting back to see Flight's results.