Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Bare minimum today in hopes of missing the rain on my bike ride.

Ride your age session 5 part a

16C with light 15km/hr winds to start. I headed out at dawn because radar showed a pretty big storm at what I guessed to be 3-4 hours away. I headed north up my favourite beach route feeling strong with a little help from the wind. I opted to take advantage of it and pushed a pace that might have let me stay ahead of Flight next week with a 12-13 minute head start. Second interval had no lights or traffic involvement and came in at 8:29, which is among my quickest without any descending.

Just before 20km my battery warned of being low so I noted a land mark for 20km planning to shut the Garmin off when I got back there. I also noted a 25km marker in case the battery didn't last as long as I hoped - its good for about an hour after the first warning.

I looped around the giant beach golf course homes for a bit, trading off head wind and tailwind before making the final turn back hoping to hit my 20km marker at 41+ km to be able to claim riding my age. I ended up getting there spot on 41km. I'll load the Garmin in a bit to see exactly where I stopped relative to my marker.

Ride your age session 5 part b

After a 3 minute stop to let Mrs. know where I was, guzzle my drink and eat a couple of chews, I set off without the heart monitor for 20km back mostly into the wind. About a third of the way back, the wind had picked up to about 30km/hr with some fierce chanelling around the bigger hotels. One of those channeled gusts tried very hard to shove my bike off the road. A few minutes later the rain started and was light, but fairly steady for the second half of my return.

A took a short detour to pick up bagels (I'm not adding that to my distance count). When I stoppped I notice one clear was quite loose so I snugged that up before getting breakfast to go.

The rain stopped while I was in the shop.

Ride your age session 5 part c

Just a cool down over run on the end of the Garmin battery. It was too nice to stop. I probably could have done my dad's age today, which is fitting because it is his birthday.

A bit of a tourist ride today to find the music stores. Offering are pretty thin around here, but there is one left to visit. I think it is geared primarily to keyboards and school band instruments but we'll see.

The Tour put me in much more traffic than I like, but only two drivers were noteably disrespectful. It is definitely much more civilized getting out a couple of hours earlier.

Mrs. is offering Cold Stone for lunch, so I had best put real clothes on.

Yesterday's rest day ended up having a couple of hours of walking around so I decided to take another shot at an easy day.

I headed south on the beach to see how far I could go. About half way through Garden City I ran into dune reconstruction that extended for about 3km. The new dunes will be quite wide. The sand was quite soft so it was a bit of work in spots - this is where my heart rate went up for a short bit. I took a few photos which I'll add later - and, of course, forgot to turn the timer back on for a bit. About a kilometre in the soft sand and maybe close to five minutes.

It was interesting to see the contrast in damage from last fall's hurricane. Garden City which hadn't enforced dune preservation as strongly as Surfside Beach has far more homes that still have extensive damage. They also have many public access locations where the boardwalk is smashed to bits. The new dunes should make a big difference in future years.

Coming off the beach I explored a bit to see if there were any new shops of interest. I found one coffee shop that Flight and I may have to try out. I bailed on that part of the ride at 3Ave S figuring that 90 minutes on a 'rest' day was probably enough.

C • You're a lousy "rester" 2

Photos from today's ride.

This is the north end of construction. That big black ball behind the bull dozer is gushing water. Really fowl looking water.


This smelly pump is a relatively new addition. It is unclear if it is permanent. It seems to be trying to help the tide maintain a balance in the inlet. There is a very large hose across the road. This is one of the narrowest points in the peninsula.


This is from the top of the new man made dunes. The top is quite wide. The break in the rock is where the ocean flows in and out of the inlet. When I looked at tide charts last night I wondered how high tide (and low tide) could be almost an hour later in the inlet than on the beach 50-200 m away. It made a lot more sense seeing this.


Low tide from the bridge over the inlet. The ugly blue box in the lower right is my reference point to compare high tide.

C • Gusher 2

Sunrise beach ride with Mrs. We had to keep it short because the city was threatening to cut the water between 9am and 3pm.
South along the beach to the pier, then inland to the wetlands. Mrs had to walk her bike through the soft sand above the tide line, but the fattie gobbled it up. Mrs bike was fine on the packed wet sand, and she thought she was going full speed until she hit the pavement.

Ride your age session 4

AND completed the Bash Challenge
Granted I took a liberal interpretation in that even though consecutive days was probably implied it wasn't specifically stated.

7C and still air to start the northern ride. From 10-14km I played leapfrog with a hospitality staff bus. If one person got off I sucked deisel fumes. If two got off, I passed it. If more got off, I broke free for a while. At 15 km I light north breeze started, but just enough that I was riding in Flight's wind resistance instead of my own.

I roamed around the wealthy neighbourhood at the north end for a half hour before heading back. The plan was to get the extra distance in while sheltered by old growth trees and then milk a Tailwind all the way home. At 36km I paused to: message Mrs that I wasn't in a ditch; remove some clothes; eat my snack and guzzle my drink. I also tightened my heart monitor strap. I had noticed it drop out a couple of times, so my average rate might be slightly off. Jacket pockets all stuffed I started back.

The 8 minute pause and the help of the wind let me catch a couple of riders early in the return. They escaped riding through a closed road while I took the detour, but I was able to whiz by a couple of blocks later. They looked about my age on decent bikes with road rubber.

About 5km into the return the wind shifted to a predominantly cross breeze, but not a problem because it nudged me towards the shoulder rather than towards traffic. Two different drivers along hotel city thought they should right right beside me for a few blocks. In both cases I had to grab a gear and surge to get away from then. It seemed quite odd.

I maintained a nice pace all the way back with the wind giving me a little nudge and hit my age right at the bagel shop. Paused to pick them up and then navigated across the highway to finish up spot on the 63km I needed to complete my first 250km of the month.

I should note that the 1cm tear in my foot and the rashly abrasion where my compression gets glued to my left leg proved to be a non issue. This was my strongest feeling ride so far, but I'll still probably take a rest day tomorrow.

Nutrition: 1/2 Awake - goodness these are good. If they didn't have so much caffeine I'd probably get a decent supply of them
- Huma chia gel - a bit of an odd consistency but quite good and far more liquid than traditional gels
- 2/3 eload

C • Impressive! 6