I do. I know it sounds crazy but i love rainy days, i love the intensity of the mood and the colours when it's raining, i love the sound of rain, i love standin at my window watching the wind whip the trees around and watching for lightning, but it's been to crazy out to bike this last week. I'm not a fan of being on my bike during thunderstorms and crazy wind gusts. and honestly i'm not a huge fan of the indoor biking. but this afternoon i might have to drag my bike inside set up a movie to distract me and bike for a few hours. my body brain says "get out and ride", my brain says "hold on bucko, that's a lightning rod you're putting between your legs". alternately i could do a jillian workout, that'd be good too. all desk work and little exercise makes jaye feel a whole lotta crazy.
the rain has put me behind on my training schedule too. this week is supposed to be 60km. and due to rain i didn't get a full 55km in last week. arg. well. i guess the good news is my body has been dealing well with the distances i've thrown at it so far so hopefully everything will be fine. i'll just step up my game a little.
last week i went into toronto for 2 events put on for riders. one was a club night at MEC, 10% off the entire store. so i got myself a new helmet (my old one has a big crack in the plastic casing, which apparently makes it unsafe to wear, who knew), a bell (ding ding!), another pair of bike shorts (so i don't have to wear the same pair all week) and a bike pump that attaches to my bike. i now have all the things i need to go on long trips and not worry about being stranded with a broken bike/tire. the other was a spring fling where we got to try on jerseys. apparently i'm too tiny for any of the men's sizes. so a women's small it is.
this weekend i'm heading back to toronto (i feel like i've been to toronto in the last month more times than i've been in the past year) for an all day workshop expo, i'll be attending workshops on fundraising, bike maintenance, nutrition, etc. i'm especially excited for the one on nutrition. pasta is my new best friend.
Thursday 28 April 2011
Sunday 17 April 2011
Over $1000 raised!!!
indoor cycling 101
so it's a crumby weekend to be biking outside. rain and wind and snow! so i picked up a bike trainer thats been sitting in the basement of the farm house for ages and brought it home. carries my bike inside and hooked it up. first thing biking inside is way more boring than outside, no matter how interesting the cbc radio is. second you sweat a hell of alot more, third the bike vibrates. but i biked for an hour yesterday. i'm sure my downstairs neighbour was getting ready to throw my bike, trainer and all, out the window. oh well. it won't happen that often. but yes cycling indoors not as much fun.
Yesterday Christine got Jillian Micheals new DVD ripped in 30. so we did that together this morning. just when i think i'm in pretty good shape i do a workout video with jillian and i get my ass kicked, and this was jsut level one. there are 3 more levels. doing the workout also made me realise i need to eat more. i'm no good at nutrition i eat well but think i should be eating more. i am hungry, like really hungry, every 2 hours, no matter how much i eat. and that was before i started doing all this training. now i am woken up in the morning by the sound of my stomach grumbling. i have started eating 6 meals a day. i'm considering getting a sports nuttritionist to set my up with some meal plans, so i can do it right. it's good i'm only working part time because i think i'm going to have to spend a lot more of my day eating.
Yesterday Christine got Jillian Micheals new DVD ripped in 30. so we did that together this morning. just when i think i'm in pretty good shape i do a workout video with jillian and i get my ass kicked, and this was jsut level one. there are 3 more levels. doing the workout also made me realise i need to eat more. i'm no good at nutrition i eat well but think i should be eating more. i am hungry, like really hungry, every 2 hours, no matter how much i eat. and that was before i started doing all this training. now i am woken up in the morning by the sound of my stomach grumbling. i have started eating 6 meals a day. i'm considering getting a sports nuttritionist to set my up with some meal plans, so i can do it right. it's good i'm only working part time because i think i'm going to have to spend a lot more of my day eating.
but 2 days in a row?
so saturday i rode 50 km. sunday was still beautiful and i wanted to get out on my new bike more so decided to do antoher ride. this time only 43km. i went later on in the afternoon. and if you can think back to last weekend it was windy. holy cow was it windy. blowing right from the east. biking down willow was biking right into a headwind. it was brutal. i had to pedal going down hills to keep moving. on more than one occasion i was brought to a full hault by a gust of wind. i made it out to 32 and turned the corner, now the wind was blowing side on, and hard. i had to tilt my bike about 25 degrees into the wind to keep from beeing blown over. that was a full body workout for sure. i see the wisdom of racing position. less wind resistance = good thing. but i did it. i was wind blown and tired but i did it. i hope july isn't windy...
but i think i need to readjust my saddle. new bike. new seat, kinda not right. i think my butt is too small for it, but it might jsut need shifted further to the back. i'll see what the folks at bits and bikes say.
i'm also realising how wonderully meditiative biking is. i'm the kinda person where i always have multiple things going on in my head at once. slowing things down and clearing my head is really difficult for me to do. but when i bike things go quiet. maybe because i'm spending alot of brain trying to to get hit by cars and avoiding the many many bike eating potholes i don't have the space to think about other things. but the constant motion of my legs and the world passing by is calming.
one wildlife spotting. a white throated sparrow. and lots of beer bottles and cans. i think my next ride i'm gunna take my paniers and plastic bags and make myself some money! (to donate to the ride of course)
peace and bicycle grease.
but i think i need to readjust my saddle. new bike. new seat, kinda not right. i think my butt is too small for it, but it might jsut need shifted further to the back. i'll see what the folks at bits and bikes say.
i'm also realising how wonderully meditiative biking is. i'm the kinda person where i always have multiple things going on in my head at once. slowing things down and clearing my head is really difficult for me to do. but when i bike things go quiet. maybe because i'm spending alot of brain trying to to get hit by cars and avoiding the many many bike eating potholes i don't have the space to think about other things. but the constant motion of my legs and the world passing by is calming.
one wildlife spotting. a white throated sparrow. and lots of beer bottles and cans. i think my next ride i'm gunna take my paniers and plastic bags and make myself some money! (to donate to the ride of course)
peace and bicycle grease.
50km Conquered
So aparently i'm just as bad at keeping up with a blog as i am with keeping a diary. I'm writing about last week this weekend...
Good news my bike came in! I got home from work and had a gut feeling. then there was a message on the phone. needless to say i went and got it right away. what a nice bike. i'll post pictures shortly. i got clipless pedal and shoes (the name is wierd, they are actually the ones where you are attached to the pedal). it's black and sparkely and has nice hybrid tires. i was super excited to ride it
so why not take it for 50km, i had a new bike, i could do anything. so after a few turns of the parking lot making sure i could get in and out of the show clips without falling over too much off i go. it began with my usual route up alma to willow out to the boonies and such, it was a beautiful day, riding was great and smooth, clipless pedals are f'n amazing. i seriously don't want to go anywhere without them now. i'm in love i think. i had mapped out my route before hand you can see it here. if you have a look at the elevation map around km 30 there is a climb that is mapped that goes from abour 325m to 377m in about 100m. silly me i thought this was a mistake. surely no one would build a road that steep. but lo and behold turning off the 34 onto watson road i was hit with a wall. i swore out load. when i do the trip again i'll bring a camera. it's stupid really, and after already having biked for over and hour...woah. but i made it up. i met another cyclist about halfway up who was going down the hill. he just smiles knowlingly at me. he was going the "right" direction. but after that all was good. there was a nice downhill where i could stretch my legs. and the ride was over before i thought it would be. voila 50km no so bad.
Good news my bike came in! I got home from work and had a gut feeling. then there was a message on the phone. needless to say i went and got it right away. what a nice bike. i'll post pictures shortly. i got clipless pedal and shoes (the name is wierd, they are actually the ones where you are attached to the pedal). it's black and sparkely and has nice hybrid tires. i was super excited to ride it
so why not take it for 50km, i had a new bike, i could do anything. so after a few turns of the parking lot making sure i could get in and out of the show clips without falling over too much off i go. it began with my usual route up alma to willow out to the boonies and such, it was a beautiful day, riding was great and smooth, clipless pedals are f'n amazing. i seriously don't want to go anywhere without them now. i'm in love i think. i had mapped out my route before hand you can see it here. if you have a look at the elevation map around km 30 there is a climb that is mapped that goes from abour 325m to 377m in about 100m. silly me i thought this was a mistake. surely no one would build a road that steep. but lo and behold turning off the 34 onto watson road i was hit with a wall. i swore out load. when i do the trip again i'll bring a camera. it's stupid really, and after already having biked for over and hour...woah. but i made it up. i met another cyclist about halfway up who was going down the hill. he just smiles knowlingly at me. he was going the "right" direction. but after that all was good. there was a nice downhill where i could stretch my legs. and the ride was over before i thought it would be. voila 50km no so bad.
Tuesday 5 April 2011
More planning required
So I am an organized person. At least i like to think so, and because of this i tend to over plan things. focus alot on little details and sometimes end up missing out on big details. At my last training ride (45km) i didn't plan where to pee. i'm amazed at how many times i had to pee during this training ride. alot like 3 times in 2 hours. 1 stop was well planned, the second stop was lucky (thank you oots volunteers for being at your shift!) and the third was a mad scramble.
Back to the beginning, so i got a kidney stone. yuck. i highly recommend not getting one. not super fun. but after a few days of intense agony i feel fine now. so of course i went for a ride. 40km wasn't so bad so i upped it to 45km and with my awesome bike shorts it was great. it was a beautiful day. light wind, sunny skies warm enough that i had to stop and take off my touque. and lots of wildlife spotting, on my way out the west end of town i disturbed anumber of horned larks hanging out by the side of the road. i spotted a deer bounding into the woods, lots of chickadees and crows and the usual feathered buddies, at one point a turkey vulture swooped in and hovered maybe 20 ft above my head. maybe trying to decide if i was dead or not? i got a great look at it though. i'm a getting more practiced at birding and biking and haven't run into any parked cars or trees in a while. in the south end a red tailed hawk was perched on a tree beside the road. on my way down victoria i saw a coyote dead in the ditch. i was very tempted to stop and take a closer look but i was getting near needing a pee break, to treked on.
but yes peeing. so i planned my first pee stop at the food basics in the south end. was a nice stoppping point about 45 mins into my ride. i could stop pee, eat my apple watch the people lined up at the starbucks drive trough... stop number two was at out on the shelf. which i was betting on being open on for the sunday shift. stop number 3 was supposed to be the goodwill at the north of town, turns out they don't have a public washroom and the little old lady was very unhelpful in suggesting where the next nearest washroom was. so i detoured to value village, again with legs crossed. but the good news was i was hydrated. how did i know you ask? well my pee was clear. yours should be too. if it's not you're dehydrated. drink more. water that is.
so for next trip need to plan: more food, pee breaks, remember to wrte right and left on the correct hand.
fundraising is going i'm almost at $900! amazing you folks are amazing. thank you again for your support i have some fun ideas brewing on how to get to my goal. hopefully they will be shared shortly.
good news my new bike should actually be on its way, i stopped in today and they said for sure a few days this time. with the weather warming up i'm gettting even more excited to get out to ride.
want to know how i know how far i've gone. well i start with a map and a peice of string with the kms marked off on it then trace potential routes that way to get a rough estimate of distace then i come and plug the route into http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ which i find more user freindly than mapmyride or bikely, but the bummer is you can't alter your route once you've made it. i still like the map and peice of sting method the best.
happy riding. i hope you're dusting off your bike too (especially after that gas price hike woah), and thank you again for your support.
Back to the beginning, so i got a kidney stone. yuck. i highly recommend not getting one. not super fun. but after a few days of intense agony i feel fine now. so of course i went for a ride. 40km wasn't so bad so i upped it to 45km and with my awesome bike shorts it was great. it was a beautiful day. light wind, sunny skies warm enough that i had to stop and take off my touque. and lots of wildlife spotting, on my way out the west end of town i disturbed anumber of horned larks hanging out by the side of the road. i spotted a deer bounding into the woods, lots of chickadees and crows and the usual feathered buddies, at one point a turkey vulture swooped in and hovered maybe 20 ft above my head. maybe trying to decide if i was dead or not? i got a great look at it though. i'm a getting more practiced at birding and biking and haven't run into any parked cars or trees in a while. in the south end a red tailed hawk was perched on a tree beside the road. on my way down victoria i saw a coyote dead in the ditch. i was very tempted to stop and take a closer look but i was getting near needing a pee break, to treked on.
but yes peeing. so i planned my first pee stop at the food basics in the south end. was a nice stoppping point about 45 mins into my ride. i could stop pee, eat my apple watch the people lined up at the starbucks drive trough... stop number two was at out on the shelf. which i was betting on being open on for the sunday shift. stop number 3 was supposed to be the goodwill at the north of town, turns out they don't have a public washroom and the little old lady was very unhelpful in suggesting where the next nearest washroom was. so i detoured to value village, again with legs crossed. but the good news was i was hydrated. how did i know you ask? well my pee was clear. yours should be too. if it's not you're dehydrated. drink more. water that is.
so for next trip need to plan: more food, pee breaks, remember to wrte right and left on the correct hand.
fundraising is going i'm almost at $900! amazing you folks are amazing. thank you again for your support i have some fun ideas brewing on how to get to my goal. hopefully they will be shared shortly.
good news my new bike should actually be on its way, i stopped in today and they said for sure a few days this time. with the weather warming up i'm gettting even more excited to get out to ride.
want to know how i know how far i've gone. well i start with a map and a peice of string with the kms marked off on it then trace potential routes that way to get a rough estimate of distace then i come and plug the route into http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ which i find more user freindly than mapmyride or bikely, but the bummer is you can't alter your route once you've made it. i still like the map and peice of sting method the best.
happy riding. i hope you're dusting off your bike too (especially after that gas price hike woah), and thank you again for your support.
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