Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Practice retirement finished.

C • You sure made the most of it! 2

Late start today. A migraine showed about midnight and instead of actively trying to contain it, I just went to sleep. Fail. Now playing catch up. Likely to be a forced rest day.

Mrs. beach ride.

18C and fierce wind of 35km/hr with frequent gusts. She wanted to try the full beach ride even though I warned her of the headwind on the return. A flock of Pelicans did a much better job of using the tailwind than we did, racing by us like we were stopped when the speedometer said 25km/hr.

headwind to tailwind differential of 7km/hr towing her in my draft. She called it a day when we got back to the house and I carried on for the last 2 km into the wind so I could finish with a tailwind.

Aura mostly gone, just an exploding brain left.

Mrs. ride around the wetlands.

We covered the last bit she had missed before. It appears she can draft if I keep my heart rate below 120.

Ride your age bonus ride and earliest ever 1000km to start a year

March 1, on the way to the beach I gave Mrs. a chance to comment on riding my age. Target was 7. I thought 10 was easily in range, but might be hard to repeat at home. She said in didn't have to count them all, certainly thinking ahead to 4+ hr sessions on the fat bike in the snow. Official ruling pending.

18C and light wind with radar showing the storm out to sea. I took the northern beach route, which is the most satisfying. The sun came out over the clouds at 8km and I tried to resist the temptation to watch the interval times and push them. 3 km from the turn around, I caught the edge of the rain clouds but decided I would carry on with the route and be back in the sun in about 15 minutes.

It was actually 15km before I saw the sun again and even then it was quite spotty giving me a total of about 5 km of sun until I got back to the house. Being on the edge of the rain also brought out the worst of the wind. The sky cleared as I made the turn onto the beach road at Surfside and stayed clear. I shot past the house to finish the route that has given me just over 60km most of our time here.

At the south turn around I had a good chance to compare the headwind versus tailwind pace. I thought about pulling in at the house - 1.5 km short of 60 with the detours gone, but shot by to get a full tailwind interval, then turned back for a short cool down into the headwind. Differential was a whopping 5 km/hr, most of which I didn't benefit from having started with an inconsequential NW wind to start and finishing with a strong SSW.

Nutrition: 3/4 of a honey stinger chew pack, 2/3 tailwind, could have used a bit more but didn't want the gel I had late in the ride

Jellie fish rescue. The turbulent water had some of them heading to close to shore with the tide going out. I wasn't sure if they could survive the 90 minutes or so it would take for the tide to come back in and pick them up so fetched them out to water they should be able to orient themselves in. One of them was stuffed with little crabs, which was kind of cool.

Sunrise service tour. I thought it would be interesting to see how many sunrise services I could find along the beach. 100% chance of rain starting at 8:00am made me wonder how many people would show up.

Headed out with full lights to see if the nearest one really started at 6:30. It did, and lots of people were late trying to park 1/2km away. The signage for the next one was ambiguous in that it mentioned the pier, but also a marina 4km further south. Tons of people at the pier, but I headed to the marina anyway and it turns out that was overflow parking (and post service brunch). People were shuttled back to the pier in suburbans.

Rain started as I approached the marina so I overshot to put on my rain jacket away from traffic, and did a turn around to see what else I could find. Rain started to get heavy as I got back to the pier, but everyone was staying - most of them huddled under spots of cover. Back to the 6:30 start service, it had wrapped up and everyone was headed home.

By then it was late enough I had no chance of getting 15km north to the next likely spot before they would finish up. And I didn't feel the need to be riding when the rain got really heavy.

Impressive to see 500-600 people standing in the morning rain for a church service.

Waiting for the rain to pass

Between the rain.

I waited out the light rain early and went out when the radar showed a decent break before the next, and heavier round. The plan was to just do the length of the beach strip we are staying on - 11km with one stop light, and to date pretty light traffic. I planned to ride a max of two hours, or until the rain showed. I figured for this length of time I could just lay out a nice tempo, so a spun a slightly higher cadence than usual and tried to keep the heart in the low 150s. This should let me keep the intervals a bit under 12.

The wind seemed calm starting out, but picked up as the ride progressed to make for a 2km/hr headwind versus tailwind differential. Just enough to flavour the ride. Traffic was quite heavy, but the car drivers were quite willing to share the road. A couple of kids in the back of one of the golf carts I passed questioned their father's manhood for being passed by a bicycle.

At the lights mid way in the second pass south, there appeared to be a wall of rain ahead. I picked up the pace to see if I could make the turn around. About half way back I heard the first rumbles of thunder so called it a day.

Mrs. ride. Through the camping area again. It as much busier today with frequent swarms of kids on electric scooters, hover boards and bicycles. Everyone enjoying the sun before the promised thunder storms.

We then head south into a 30+ km/hr headwind to explore some more of the wetlands. Great day for a relaxed ride, which ended by trying a new sandwich place: Which Wich was quite excellent. After a long ride, might go back to try the Elvis.