Training Log Archive: iansmith

C • Canaries 4

The forecast update today was more favorable, with intermittent drizzling late into the evening, and my body felt good, so I decided to attempt to bike back to Toronto from Geneva Park. Because I knew the route and would be biking alone, I figured this would be a good test of my biking fitness, stamina, and fortitude.

After breakfast at 8:30, there were two exit talks by graduating students. I packed up my luggage, handed it off to Petr, and set out at 11 AM. I was better prepared to negotiate Highway 11, and I rode on Old Barrie Road for longer. I made it to Barrie by 1:30 and stopped just south of it for lunch at Subway. After lunch, I rode south on County Road 54. The scenery was pastoral, with rolling hills, farms, and fields. The skies were overcast with an erratic mist, and the temperature was pleasant at 16-18 C. I was feeling ok, though the hills were starting to take their toll.

But then, disaster: 80 km into the 160 km journey, I heard a pop from my bike. The rear derailleur abruptly shifted into its highest gear, and the downshift lever was entirely unresponsive. My front derailleur was still working, but this left me with 2 gears - very high and highest, instead of 20 for negotiating the hills. I rode on for a bit, partly because forward was the only option. I stopped and tried to manually shift the derailleur, but it seemed frozen, and my mastery of the mechanism was poor. I was particularly concerned that I might break my chain with the extreme angle of the lowest front gear coupled to the highest rear gear, and rain was threatening. After some consideration, when I came to an intersection, I decided to abort to my contingency plan: a series of GO bus stations on Yonge street, which was 3 km to the east. The bus, which ran every hour, arrived about ten minutes after I got to the stop, and I rode it back to Yorkdale station in Toronto. I then biked the 6km gingerly to my bike store, where analysis revealed that my derailleur cable had snapped.

I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to complete the journey; I'm optimistic that I could have biked the 160 km in 6.5-7 hours of biking. I haven't ridden this far on my bike before, and I was quite pleased with how the bike handled (apart from the cable mishap) and how my body was able to endure. I need to improve my speed - surely 30 km/h is sustainable with the equipment and fitness I have available to me.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=7304393

C • cable 5

Swimming on the dock after frisbee.

Today, I biked 160 km from home in Toronto to my department's retreat at Geneva Park near Orillia, on Lake Simcoe. I have a GPS track, but I didn't bring my ANT stick, so it will have to wait. My journey had three stages: a solo trip to Newmarket, a group ride just past Barrie, and a final solo leg to Geneva Park; each leg was about 50 km.

The other nine cyclists in the group were meeting in Newmarket, about 50 km north of my home; most traveled up on Saturday night. I decided that if I was going to journey by bike, I would not be halfhearted; while my cycling is largely confined to < 20 km/day of commuting, I had confidence in my abilities. I packed 2L of 30% gatorade in a camelbak, a 1L of 30% gatorade bottle on my bike, 2 extra tubes, my hand pump, a CO2 inflator with one charge, 6 granola bars, and my wallet and phone. My clothing consisted of bike shorts, 3/4 tights, a wicking undershirt, my typical bright yellow long sleeve, a windbreaker, gloves, and a balaclava.

I woke up at about 4:30 AM, ate breakfast, checked my inventory, said goodbye to Katie, and was on the road by 5:10. The first leg, from Toronto to Newmarket, was uneventful. At 5 AM, there were few cars on the road, and I rode for the most part without interacting with cars. I had to stop to check my route a few times, and this would have been mitigated by just sticking to Bathurst and eventually Yonge for the entire route rather than the convoluted trip up Dufferin that google proposed. I arrived at about 7:05, about ten minutes before our proposed rendezvous; I tried to push a bit because I didn't want to be late, though I was disappointed that my speed did not exceed 30 kph.

The next leg consisted of riding in a convoy with the other nine riders with varying levels of experience and speedyness of bike. Our plan was a very casual ride; the first session of the retreat started at 2:30p, leaving us 7 hours to travel about 100 km. I was a little surprised how much slower biking as a group is; while necessarily we were bounded by the speed of the slowest rider, there was more frequent stopping and logistics. The hills on Route 4 were not trivial; I mostly rode in the back to make sure that no one got left behind or blew a tire without someone who could let the front know. We reached Barrie at about 11:05 AM, debated lunch options, and settled on a pizza place called PIE that opened at 11:30. I had eaten there before; we ordered and ate as quickly as a sit-down place allows, and we were back on the road by about 12:15p.

We departed Barrie and rode on the gravel Barrie North Shore trail with intermittent pavement. After about 6 km, there was a fork - the group wanted to continue ride on the gravel trail for another 30 km to Orillia, but I had misgivings - both because I wasn't sure my narrow tires could handle so much gravel and because gravel is slow. So, I set off by myself on paved roads. The route had some substantial hills, but I had all the advantages of riding solo - I was limited only by my own speed, and the logistics were simpler - I stopped only when I needed to, without need to regroup. I felt strong on this third leg, and rode the 51 km through Orillia to Geneva Park with gusto. There were some tricky route finding parts near the end, as I had to find ways to avoid the planned Route 11 - which turned out to be a highway. I arrived at Geneva Park at about 3p.

Squash with Mickael. I lost three games 11-4, 13-11, 11-4, and on our fourth game, my return hit Mickael in the eye. I felt terrible, of course, and we stopped after the match. He has previously chosen not to wear safety glasses, and we have discussed this. He was fine beyond a bruise, but I think he will wear safety glasses in the future.