A little road trip

This was part of the view. I last saw this on a bicycle almost exactly 7 years ago. I wouldn't dream of tackling this on a bike now.

And these.
No, I don't know what either of these flowers are.

I don't know the names of either of these mountains, but suspect some of my readers do.

We had a lovely day browsing in Black Diamond at one of our favourite stores. Then down to Longview to discover 2 new photo galleries. Nice ones! Lunch. Very yummy lunch, and since it's less than an hour's drive we might go back for supper. There are places in Calgary that are about an hour's drive if the traffic is less than perfect.

Linda had never been west of Longview or over Highwood. We took it easy stopping several times to stroll around and take photos. One of my buddies had suggested Ptarmigan Cirque as a hike, and it turns out to be almost exactly 150 K from home. We hadn't planned on actually doing the hike, but it was nice to stretch our legs and stroll on the boardwalk.

I haven't spent much time in K country and was amazed how much stuff there is. More visits are being flanged up while the weather is nice. Up at a civilized hour, coffee, breakfast, deal with any garden issues, head out, have a nice afternoon, maybe dinner on the way back. Should be fun.

Along the way we scoped out the ring road highway construction. Sigh. The start to The Road to Nepal is a construction zone now. I don't think I'll try taking my bike the usual route anymore. There is a heavy haul road crossing where they've put steel plates on the road. Two places actually. You can tell where the first place was because the pavement is beat to crap there. That whole chunk of road has all kinds of clay and other crap on it. Plus there are regular road gravel trucks all over the place. Even The Road itself isn't going to be as much fun. There is a new farmer's market/event destination going in at the bottom of the long uphill. That's going to add a ton of traffic to dodge. The event part of it is open, but not the rest. It's for kids, and there's an admission fee.

March image of the month

And here we go! Last month it was tough to decide on the runner up photos and the winner was easy. This month the competition for winner was brutal. I was even contemplating declaring a tie, but no. I decided my rule for image of the month is there can be only one. Plus a couple of runner up photos if it seems appropriate.

Even that is giving me a tough time. Now I've sorted out the winner, but that leaves the other choice as first runner up, and 3 others to choose between.

Here we go!

The LRT was shot on equinox day. It should be no surprise the light was amazing, even though for some shots I couldn't see any of the info the camera normally shows me. This was one of several shots almost completely blinded by the sun. I just kept shooting as the LRT rumbled past, and it took several LRT's to get it right. I'm printing this one for myself, though I haven't decided where exactly to put it yet. I thought the high resolution JPEG showed more details but the TIFF blew me away.

Yes, the morning sun did brighten up the trees somewhat, but I've taken a bit of creative license in tweaking the scene to match my visualization of what it *should* look like. I sent it to a trusted buddy to ask if it was too much, and the response was "I want a print." It looks even nicer as a ginormous TIFF file.

And, the envelope please!

This is the first abstract I really like. No, I'm not going to tell you what you would have seen if you were standing there with me. I'm getting this one printed as well. It will be 10 x 16 on paper, though I was torn about going to canvas. Then again, another buddy wants to see it in print, and might pony up. Then I'll get one done on canvas, maybe 30 x 48.

And there, the excitement is over for another month. What's that you say? You're curious about the other two contenders? You'll have to look here and here, and decide yourself which is IOTM quality.

I'm currently reading Macro Photography for Gardeners and Nature Lovers, by Alan L. Detrick. I am so excited and can't wait till the flowers start coming out of the ground. The book has given me several ideas for things to try, a bunch of technique tips, and some insight on what is possible. I want to go shoot RIGHT NOW, but wait, it's snowing and raining. I guess I'll have to wait a few minutes.

So RtN says to me HTFU

The Calgary cyclists of you already know exactly what happened today, and where.

For the others of you, contemplate this elevation chart.

The gray line is elevation, the orange line is speed. It was an out and back so the first half is a mirror image of the second half. Here's the route. It goes straight south of 22x on 37 St, only the name is changed. It stops at highway 549, the road that connects Millarville to Okotoks.

Cyclists here call it the Road to Nepal. Good pavement, not many cars, and all hills all the time. The level spots are measured in a small number of feet. Train on this and no course that's not actually in the mountains will phase you.

My riding buddy today was Leana, looking strong in her matching outfit. Our bikes are ready to go!

For all the weather predicted 27 C, it was actually pretty cool, maybe about 7 C when we started. There's a reason we both wore arm warmers till part way back. Good thing it wasn't 27, that and a still day runs my core temperature way up as I slowly churn my way up the hills. Leana is training for Ironman Boulder in a few weeks so the plan was to let her do her thing and I'd try to keep up.

Yeah. She pulled away on the uphills enough that I couldn't catch her on the downhills. This is where you learn how well your time on the spin trainer over the winter worked out. The road will tell you. It told me:
HTFU (the first word is harden.)
You are a weenie.
You haven't been training.
I'm being kind to you on your first ride here because there is no wind. You're welcome.
All the weight on your tires is hurting me, lose more weight.
No, the hills aren't steeper, or longer.
You are getting older and slower, while I am the same.

We stopped at the far end for a snack and headed back. Total ride was 51.84 in 2:23. This actually isn't far off early season rides for me, or when it's windy. My best time for this ride is 2 hours even. Everything felt pretty good for this ride.

Leana was fresh as a daisy when we got back, and I joined her for a 30 minute run, 4.11 K with a short walk break in there. My heart rate was steadily climbing. I think she could have run it somewhat faster.  Not me. This ride and run tells me I'm in no shape to be thinking of a half iron this year.

It's always nice doing a bike ride with buddies. This is the first time I've ridden with Leana, other than being in the same race together. I think I pushed a little harder than I might have otherwise, and I certainly would not have run afterward. We did get to chat along the way a bit. This was her first time, and I think she wants to do it again. Another convert!

We had a lovely snack in the back patio, and talked of many things.

Then a bit of yard work for me. Raking the tiny bit of back yard we have knackered me. It's still not 27 C and just as well. We have some flowers blooming! Such a pretty yellow.

The front yard is looking cleaner, lots of green things in the boxes.

I'm not sure what these are.

Some lilies pocking their heads out in the back garden. If I remember them from last year, they were huge.

I think this is a pansy.

BBQ chicken on a bun tonight. Soon. Just saying.

Bike fit test on Road to Nepal

Go big or go home.

That's advice for playing Euchre but it works for other things too. I'd had a brief ride around my neighbourhood after my bike fit, and it felt pretty good. The weather is perfect today for a bike ride, and I'd been wondering where to go, how far, how hard, to find out how my bike fit changed things.

Before (A summary of complaints)
After a few hours my feet would feel hot and sensitive. Usually about 4 hours and they'd feel like they were on fire.
Consistent knee and inner thigh muscle niggles and soreness.
Tired calves by the end of a ride.
Low back ache and pain along with numb butt.
Dead spots in spin.
Generally I was a weak and feeble reed going up hills.

After (A happy burble)
The ride today was 2.5 hours down to the end of Road to Nepal and back. Ismoothrun thinks it's 51 K, my bike thinks it's 51.5. If you don't know this ride, it's all hills, all the time. I figured the easy ride felt good, so I might as well try a hard one.

My feet felt great! It's like I have new shoes. All it took was some inserts. The right inserts. No niggles to speak of. My calves were not tired at all. I feel stronger and more stable on the bike. It's easier to spin smoothly and I can put more effort into it going up hills. For the first few hills I was several gears harder and going correspondingly faster. I could feel all of my thigh muscles working, not just one isolated muscle across the top. Even at harder and slower rpm where my stroke typically degenerates to a plunger pump style, I was able to keep my feet going around. Not fast, but around. That's a step forward.

My seat dropped a whole inch, which is huge in the bike fit world. None the less, it was the right thing to do. Perhaps it could be fine tuned up or down a mm or 2, but I'm not going to sweat that just now. I'm pretty sure there are thigh muscles working which typically have not been, and it's no surprised they got tired. Generally coming back is quicker, but I could feel that I was more tired going up the hills, and slower. What was a nice surprise is that they recovered at least a bit on the downhills and easy spin.

Towards the end of the ride I could start to feel my back, but this was different. The tiredness was spread out from mid-back to hips, and evenly from side to side. Again, I think this was muscles getting used to a new way of working together.

I wasn't pushing hard, I just wanted to do the out and back and see how I felt. There were a few other people on the road, and I think one called to me by name, but by the time I tuned in they were gone. The fastest I've ever done this ride is just a hair under 2 hours, but a more typical time is about 2 hrs and 15 or 20 minutes, so I'm not far off. I'm hoping a few more rides will help my muscles get with the new program, and I'll be doing better than ever.

If you've been reading a while, you know I generally don't do advertising here. But I'm impressed and happy enough to say that if you're not as comfortable on the bike as you'd like to be, you may need your fit checked. I can recommend Gary Alexander, and you can find his web page here.

I stretched and ate when I got home, and settled into my current office to write.

A little later I added a big glass of juice. The wine is later, with BBQ bison burgers, salad, and a yummy dessert. My legs and lungs are feeling like they've had a good strong workout, but not overdoing it. This is perfect.

RtN, almost all of it

Friday the pool was a gong show. Only four 25 m lanes open, and all of them were full. I was watching Katie cope with a guy that hates to let her pass. I think he takes it personal, but Katie can pass many of the swimmers at Talisman. Personally, I think he's being dumb. A better strategy is to let her pass, then try to hang in her draft as long as you can. Great training.

Michelle and I had the dive tank to ourselves and we did stroke improvement. I think I've figured out a better head position, and was tuning some catch and pull stuff. Michelle has made such great improvements that it's time to take more video so she can see for herself. Even when the pool emptied out we stayed, and had lots of fun. The dive tank is nice for this, because it's a bit warmer, and better lit. It's this big blue space that you float in.

Here's the chalkboard this morning.

Katie and I have been trying to arrange a ride Road to Nepal and coffee date for a while, and today was it. For those new to the blog, Katie coached me to Ironman and is a physical dynamo. I can almost keep up to her in the pool, for a little while, but on the bike the only way I can keep up is if it's downhill. Let's not even talk about the run.

It started off cool, with my low back feeling a bit dubious about the whole darned thing. My right quad and knee were a bit unhappy on the hills, and I didn't feel strong at all. Katie was way ahead, and I turned around when we met up again, maybe 5 K before the end of the road. There was no actual pain, but enough of an ache I didn't want to go up any more hills than I had to. Have I mentioned that Road to Nepal is all hills, all the time?

By then it was getting nice out, and there were dozens of cyclists going the other way as I headed back. Coming back is easier, and my knee felt happier. Still, by my standards on this road, it was very slow.  42 K, 2:18. A more normal ride for me is the full 52 K in about that time, and my record is a fraction under 2 hours. Contrast that to my ride last week, almost 45 K in 2:08, or a 50 K ride in 2:28. Average speed was 18.2 Kph, and the max was 75Kph though I'm not sure I believe that. I didn't see anything more than about 65 Kph and the bike computer says 70 Kph. They agree on the average though, and I suppose I should say the minimum speed going up a couple of the hills was (hangs head) 6.1 Kph.

I'm glad we went. I probably wouldn't have gone if we hadn't had a date to do it, but I'm feeling pretty good after. I've got a bike fit scheduled for next week, and I'm hoping that it will change my position and I'll be happier and more comfortable on the bike.

Once Katie got back we hung out in the back, drank coffee, nibbled goodies, and chatted. So wonderful! She was telling me how she couldn't keep up to these two girls she was swimming with after her race in St. George last week. Then she finds out that it was Meredith Kessler and Rachel Joyce. No wonder!

Linda has a ton of stuff on the go with the garden. Lilies have arrived. The trees are in bloom. Lots of stuff to do. Must go...

Road to Nepal, you flirt you

I am playing hooky from work right this minute. Yay me! Though since I'm the one that sets my hours, I suppose that's not as cheaty as it sounds.

It started with a swim this morning. The training pool was closed, and only four lanes were open in the other pool. We watched my buddy Katie navigating the complete GONG SHOW going on in the four open lanes. I couldn't believe it. Two guys standing there, watching the chaos, decided to add to it. One fell off the ladder going in, and nearly landed on someone. The other jumped in and headed up the middle where the lane rope would be, dodging people left and right. What an idiot. I was wishing for a long shepherd's crook to haul them out by the neck.

We slipped off to the dive tank and practiced technique till the swim club cleared out of the other lane. I love swimming in the dive tank. It's so big, and well lit, and is such a fun place to play. No wonder the snychro swim girls always have a big smile.

Then we were into the other pool. Michelle is really looking like a swimmer now! I churned along, mostly doing technique work, but busted out some good stuff. First was 2 hard 100's, 87 seconds and 91 seconds with a 30 second recovery. Then a bit later after some drill, 5x100m on 2 minutes, at 99, 100, 100, 99, 100. I'm really pleased with that, though I was getting close to the retaste zone on that last one. By my normal interval rules I should have tried for number 6, but I knew better.

I was having fun focussing on my technique while chatting with my inner shark. He showed up in the dive tank, and followed us to the other pool, though he wasn't so thrilled with the cloudiness of it. My swim was feeling quite strong, and he was encouraging various elements of my stroke. Today was mainly recovery and catch, working on my roll and breathing out the whole stroke. I'm still not sure why that's supposed to be faster, or if it's making a difference for me. It turns out my inner shark has been off hob-nobbing with my book characters. Who knows what they are getting up to? When I asked, all he gave me were hints that could be called lurid and cryptic.

The novel has been on a bit of a pause lately, as other workout stuff has picked up. And taxes. It took a bit of doing to get it all together, and I missed the one slip that details how much I paid last year as installments. Oops! This weekend I must, I simply must get my desk tidied up and get started on organizing business taxes. What fun.

It's such a beautiful summer day out there, mid to high teens, sunny and lovely. I haven't taken Estela down Road to Nepal in several years now, and I could hear the road calling to us in four part harmony. For those who haven't done it, it's a fabulous training ride. All hills, all the time, nice pavement, not too much traffic, and a parking lot at the top. Once down and back (37 tough K) is a good workout, especially if you push on the hills. Two is a super workout. I've never done it twice in a row.

I listened, and bailed out of work at lunchtime, using up some extra hours from last month, so I'm not behind on billable hours. It didn't take long to get ready. Wow. Even more wind once I got out of the neighbourhood. It was straight from the south and strong. It normally takes me about 20 minutes to do the 7.5 K down to 22X. Today was 30 minutes even. That is the slowest time ever, I think.

Then down the first hill, slowly. Up the other side was brutal. I was going less than 7 kph for much of it. That hill is normally 10 kph or so. Remember what I was saying last week about being a week and feeble reed? On the way back there were several times I was going 50 kph, in a dead calm. Let's not talk much about the little gusts from side to side.

After taking stock at the top of the hill, and watching my bike computer tick over 40 minutes, I decided it would be smart to head back. I think if it hadn't been windy I'd have gone further. Maybe. 40 minutes out, 20 minutes back. Yes, twice as fast. That's what a bit of wind will do. After all the slow bits, I prefer to remember the max speed, 75 Kph, per the bike computer. 1 hour, 20 Km total.

Here's the graph of the ride.

And garden things are blooming! I don't know what these two little blue things are, but they're growing already. We're going to try to get out into the lawn and garden to start cleaning up after winter, even though we've got another month where it could quite possibly snow.

That road is gravel more's the pity

When you drive north on 22 towards Black Diamond, away in the distance you can see a small chunk of road exactly in line with 22. Even from way out you can tell it doesn't directly connect. There's a river in the way, and there aren't many bridges between 22 and Okotoks, though there are a couple of fords. No ferries though.

I've always wanted to ride on that road and see if the hill is as big as it looks, and I finally figured out how to get on it. Here's the route I was planning to ride this morning.

Unfortunately, that road is gravel. I'm not going to ride Estela on gravel roads, especially not when hills are involved.

I found this out after heading down Road to Nepal on a brilliant warm sunny morning. I got to the bottom in about 1:05 without really working it. I briefly thought of turning around and heading back to see if I could break 2 hours, but I had made other plans.

No surprise, 549 is as rough as ever. After I found out the road I wanted was gravel I headed along, trying not to get run over by the shoppers eager to get to the Millarville Farmer's Market. Some of those people are in a hurry. Here's the revised route. Plus 15 K to get from 22X to our house.

I checked out the north end of the mysterious road, just in case. Not. But what a view! I'll have to drive it to see just how steep the hill(s) is/are, and if it would be worth pressuring the local MD to pave it.

I was also tempted to ride down past the Leighton Centre, to build the distance and add more hills, but I got all distracted by this view. I can see why people pay big bucks for land out there.

In any case, the point of the ride was to get a good hilly workout, but not to totally trash my legs. I wanted to run after, with the goal to be tired at the start. I wanted to make my legs struggle a bit at first to settle in, run for a while, and call it before they gave up. This is a first brick in quite a while, after all, and I've regularly given people crap for overdoing their first workouts when they get back at it.

It worked out great. I had a super ride, saw a ton of people on their bikes, and some of them even waved and said hi. The run was a bit wonky to start. That lasted about 15 minutes then I settled in for an easy run, with one short walk break when I was suddenly feeling really really hot. I'm not sure why.

Once home I stretched, showered, read the papers, played with the cats, and snacked on some dates. Do you like dates? I think these are the best I've ever tasted. Look at the size of them!

Plus for a little while I was snoozing to the sounds of stereo purrs. Then it turned into a bit of a lick-fest that woke me up.

I am trying to choose between the next season to True Blood to find out what happens to Sookie in fairyland, or bottling more wine. I somehow think Sookie is going to win.

Hello Nepal my old friend

In the pool again this morning, with lots more people. I still didn't have to share a lane, but it was getting close. Easy swim, 45 minutes.

What had me excited for today was weather nice enough for me to ride outside! As is well known, I'm a bit of a bike weenie. Once it gets much below 10 C ( 50 F) I start getting reluctant to go. Yes, I've layered up and gone out when it's colder than that, but it's not much fun. Being on a bike is about shorts and a bike shirt. There's a guy that lives in the cul-de-sac behind us, and he rides in all weather down to about -35 C. I saw him out on the path one day when I was doubting the sanity of running, what with the icy footing and -WTF wind chill temperatures. There is no way I'd be riding, but he thought nothing of it.

Today was the day. There is snow in the forecast for tomorrow. It won't stick, of course, and they're only talking about 5 cm (2 inches) after a bunch of rain. So nothing hardly worth talking about. I called around to price out a new wheel to save the bother of changing the tire each time I have to swap between and inside and outside ride. Holy expensive Batman! Using a generous calculation of it taking 15 minutes longer to change a tire, and a generous application of my billable rate, times the number of times a year it might need doing, and that is a very long payback period.

So I didn't. I changed the tire. There was a minor scrape and a bit of blood, but nothing serious. Things went smoothly to get all the trainer gear off the bike and prep for an outside ride. Estela was happy. I chanced to hear one of my favourite songs when I was doing this, and of course I started to filk it.

Hello Nepal my old friend
I've come to ride on you again
because my fitness needs testing
to find the flab grown while I was resting
It wants to take over in my gut
And stay there
in a shell of softness

 The road itself is good, but lots of gravel and crap on the side. The other thing today was the wind. This is up there with some of my windiest rides. It was coming out of the south, and that made for a very long ride to the bottom of the road. 1:21. Cross wind was a bit tricky. Turned around and figured the wind was about 30 Kph with stronger gusts every now and then. It didn't quite blow me up the hills but it sure helped push me along. I made it home in less than an hour for a total trip time of 2:18.

I wasn't sure what to expect, and once I realized what the wind was doing I decided to not worry about time, just see how I felt on various parts of the road. There is no riding this road "easy". For those new to my blog there is a reason the local bike community called this "The Road to Nepal." Hills. There are lots of places that have bigger hills. Steeper hills. Longer hills. But this road is all hills, all the time. Here's an elevation profile in a previous blog. The distance of road that could be considered flat is to be measured in a fairly small number of meters. The road itself is only 37 Km out and back, and the start is 7.5 K from my house. Many people like to ride it one way, and take in some of the other roads around, which being in the foothills, have hills too. Just not as many. Riding out and back from 22X (where they've improved the parking lot from a bog to graded, graveled area) is considered a pretty good workout.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased for a first outdoor ride of the year. The wind took about 20 Kph off my downhills, and slowed the uphills even more. Coming back was nice, I hit 89 Kph on one hill without really trying. The fastest I've ever done this is 1:58 trying to keep up to Katie. (As if.) I'm not sure what the slowest time is. I don't like to think about it. My legs felt pretty strong, but there was a little twitch in my spin I've not noticed before.

I said hello to the herd of bison. They were milling around, pretending not to be enjoying the nice weather. No baby calfs so far this year, so no mama's giving me the stink eye as I rode past. I saw two other bikers on the road, both dressed much more warmly than me. I hope they didn't cook on the way back. There were a few times it was nice and warm. I'm looking to lots more rides that way, and out 22X. Anybody wants to go for a ride in this area, let me know and I'll come with, if I can. We've often had people park here and head out, which gives them a place to water up, and a fridge to store a post ride snack.

RtN first visit in a while

RtN, for my new readers, stands for Road to Nepal. This is the hilliest ride that is really close to Calgary on nice pavement. There are hillier rides further away, and some hilly rides on not so nice pavement. Road to Nepal, otherwise known as highway 773, has almost no flat sections, maybe 100 m at most. The rest is up or down, sometimes quite dramatically. How dramatic? 84.1 Kph (52 mph) worth of peak speed dramatic today, not even trying. The pavement is new a couple years ago. There is very little vehicle traffic, today, for example, I saw about 2 dozen cars and trucks. The start of this bit of bike heaven is mere 7.5 K from my house. A crappy, nervous making 7.5 K, admitted.

Today was a good day. I started off wondering what I should do, if do anything at all. In the end I decided that a bike ride would be good. As Linda pointed out, if I do it today and there's a problem, she's here to pick me up. That won't be true after tomorrow. My legs have been feeling pretty good, but you know when you've been having nagging injuries, or a slow recovery, there's that little bit of hesitancy? That's me. I went through a long patch where biking wasn't much fun, and seemed to be really hard on my knee.

So I was a bit worried about my knee today. I've had some good rides out 22X and 22, but RtN is sterner stuff. This is a tough workout. I know people, well, one person anyway, who drove 2 hours to ride this as a workout, since the plan called for hills, and there are no hills where she lives. Mountains yes, but no hills. So my thinking today was to tackle and see how things went.

They went well. I got down to 22X in 16 minutes and a little bit, which is a new record. I got down to the end of the road by 1:03 and a little bit, which is not a record, but I was surprised it was that quick. I'd been doing well on the hills, even accounting for a wind. That wind made the way back tough sledding. I'm guessing about 30 kph, steady from the NW. So that helped going south. Normally going north is faster, since there's more downhill, but not today. I pedaled a lot on the downhills. It took 1:20 to get back for a total ride of 2:23, over not quite 52K. Nowhere near my fastest, but I'm still pretty pleased, since I wasn't riding for a fast time. I was riding to try to spin up the hills and see what my knees thought of the whole darn thing.

And, I have to admit, to get a look at the views. Some of the views from the road are more than worth the price of admission. One of the views, only 11 K from my house, is a herd of bison. Yes, buffalo. They were complacent today, gently grazing in the sunshine on the way south, and napping on the way north. I took a good look on the way back home, since they were only a dozen yards or so from the road. These things are frigging enormous! Myself, I'd put in a sturdier fence. Last year there was a mama giving me the stink eye as I rode past, fearing I was going to molest her calf or something. I completely and totally believe she could walk through the fence and not notice, to get at me. And would, if she thought it necessary. I thought placatory thoughts toward her and pedaled just a bit faster.

Dinner tonight was BBQ beef tenderloin in a chocolate and merlot spice rub. It's even better than it sounds. Plus BBQ roasted spuds, and a super yummy salad, with a chocolate caramel tart with sea salt on top. And this. It's only been in the bottle 7 months or so, and OMG. If I'm sharing this, you know I love you.

It just so happened I was looking at our utilities bill the other day. The actual cost of water is $1.38 per 1000 litres. That's 13.8 cents per 100 l, or 1.38 cents for 10 litres, or .138 cents, CENTS!!! for one litre of water at the tap. And this is good water. Calgary consistently has some of the best tap water in Canada. But I'm boggled here, so let me say it again, just over one tenth of one cent per litre of water. Hold that in your mind a moment, as you consider how essential water is for life.

When I'm making wine, I buy bottled water from Co-op. It costs just under 2 dollars for 11 litres, or about 20 cents per litre. They make no bones about starting with Calgary tap water, and doing stuff to it, mainly to neutralize the chlorine and get rid of some of the dissolved solids. Considering that chlorine doesn't do yeast in wine any good, I don't mind paying a bit extra. On a per litre basis, it seems like a lot, but considering that make about 4 or 5 kits a year, and need about 7 or 8 litres per kit, we aren't talking a great deal of money when you total it up. As a markup, it's a bit steep, but at least they are doing something to it.

Now remember, just over one tenth of one cent per litre of water. Coke and several other companies use Calgary tap water as a source for their various water based products, like, astonishingly enough, Coke. They are a supplier of bottled water as well, but I don't remember what brand, and there is no indication  they do anything at all to it. I admit to not knowing the price off hand, but it's about $1.50 per litre range. Calculate that mark-up, friends and neighbours. And worse, if you buy water an event, it's even more. $4 a litre is not uncommon. And you're not even being kissed before you bend over.

What then pisses me off is people complaining about the price of gasoline. I happen to know exactly what form petroleum is in when it comes out of the ground. I know exactly what is done to it to get it from some remote wilderness to where you can pump it into the tank of your gas guzzler. This is an exceedingly complicated process, involving expensive equipment, highly trained people, and some of the most complex infrastructure ever invented and maintained by humans. Gas right now in Calgary is $1.16 a litre, and to be fair, it's more in other parts of Canada, probably up to about $1.50 a litre. And people complain, big time. It's even worse in America. Many people there think that more than a dollar a gallon, (an American gallon for crying out loud) is extortionate. Water. Gasoline. As my blog buddy GQH put it so succinctly and accurately when talking about libraries and another issue - Fuck You.

Basic economics says that if something gets more expensive we try to use less of it. Which, for water, there is a certain non-reducible minimum. Imagine how your life would change if water became more expensive, say, 10 times more expensive. Instead of a fraction of a cent per litre, imagine paying whole cents per litre, or even a dollar per litre at the tap. How might your daily life change?

I'm old enough to have bought gasoline for my car at about 35 cents a GALLON, a Canadian Gallon yet. (This was back before the sanity of the metric system came to town.) When I moved to Calgary in 1980, it was about 20 cents a litre and that was thought to be expensive. People are certainly trying to use less gasoline, but it's a bit like boiling a frog. The price goes up and down, gradually trending upward, and people keep on paying. We are accustomed to our lives after all, and public transit in Calgary sucks big time.

But what happens with it goes up, way up? Petroleum is a valuable product, too valuable to be burning in cars for transit one person at a time in a heavy metal vehicle. That will change very soon. Very soon it will come to a choice, do we use petroleum to continue to make fertilizer to grow the food we eat, or refine it so we can burn it? That's not a fun choice, but it's an easy one, at least for a rational person. Of whom there are an astonishing number of voters who are not. Some days I fear for my country. At that point, us triathletes will almost have the world by the ass. Commute 15 K to work? On the empty roads? No problem.  And if climate change continues the way it is going, winter might not even be much of a problem.

Do I want that world? Not especially, though I think it would be good for people to drive less. We really do need to be smarter about it, but raising taxes isn't particularly the way to do it. Especially since I don't especially trust our government with tax dollars. Basic economics is cruel, but inevitable. The trick is to see which way the wind is going to be blowing soon. Best to think ahead. Don't say nobody told you.

I had many titles for this blog during the ride

I often think about what I'm going to write in my blog when I'm doing the workout. I don't always remember everything, but I do try to get a good title. Here are some of the possibilities:

• Hello, did you notice I was gone? (This is what I always say to Amelia the cat when I get back. I haven't blogged for what seems like a week. So....)
• What, do we have cooties? (I waved at all the cyclists going the other way. Only one of about a dozen or so waved back. The rest just looked as if we had...)
• Actually got it for a few minutes. (Spinning that is. I noticed I was spinning up a hill but it was like my legs weren't doing the work. They were just going around. Something above my legs in my core was doing the work. Of course as soon as I noticed it stopped. But it came back several times.)
• Shhhh! Don't tell my coach! (I played hooky on Friday from workouts. I barely dragged my ass out of bed and to work. Going to the pool was out of the question. When I got home Linda had dinner on the table, but I know I wouldn't have run. Standing up and walking was a process requiring thought and care.)
• Testing, Testing, Check 1, Check 2. (Testing new bike gloves Linda found for me, and they're great. Testing Date Newtons on the ride, and they're great too. A nice break from Clifs, if probably not quite so well balanced and nutritious.)
• A RtN treat for you all. (See below.)

For whatever reason I haven't been waking up feeling rested till this morning. Friday was bad. Saturday was better, but I went back to bed during the first nice afternoon we've had since forever and napped for several hours.

Yesterday we had a nice breakfast in Inglewood, and strolled around a bit. We haven't done that for a long time. Got some nice chocolate. Bought some books I plan to read while lying around in Penticton. Got a few other goodies. Even a few hours of gentle strolling had my legs tired out.

Sunday. Put the road tire back on and generally prepped for a 4 hour ride. 22X west, 22 south, 549 west, 762 north. Turns out 50K from the house is almost exactly the top of the big hill. Turned around at 2 hours and rode home. Those first two hours were steady and smooth. I felt comfortable and happy on the bike and it was a beautiful morning perfect for riding.

The next two hours were kind of fun. Coming back to Millarville was mostly with the wind and quite fast. Going north on 22 was ok, but toward the end I saw a cyclist way up there. I was supposed to ride a bit stronger each hour and was beginning to flag a bit, so I used this as incentive to pick up the pace. Caught her at the top of Rothney Observatory hill. But there were a couple more! I gave chase. Caught two of them fairly quickly, and there was one more out ahead. It took a bit of doing but caught him near the school. Yay me!

Back home just under 3:45 and just a hair over 100 K. Short transition, and just under 25 minute run. Legs felt stiff and clumsy throughout. Lots of nigglies. Afterwards, my knees are feeling creaky.

Doing a bit of random surfing last night I found one of those Real Rides videos done on the Road to Nepal. You can watch it here. It's only the first bit on the baby, warm up hills. It ends just as you're turning the first corner. The first minute is flags flapping in the wind. But they have an elevation profile!

Riding with Katie on RtN

That would be my buddie Katie. Not Kate my lawyer. Not Katie from Boulder. Not Kate from work, or Kat from an ex-work, or Kate from a different ex-work. Or Kate the massage therapist. Not Cath from Fernie.

Now that we've got that sorted out, we can tackle the next misconception. "with". We were together for a bit, then we started the long hill. I was rapidly left behind.

Still, I'm very pleased, riding hard trying to fall less behind. Pushing hard on the hills, trying to spin. Trying not to think about the long run last night. Trying to keep up meant getting to 22X in well under 17 minutes, which I think is a record for me. Normally I take it a bit easier, getting the legs warmed up. Zoomed down to the bottom of the Road in 57:xx minutes, which might be a record as well. It was hot. We were riding late morning. Going south it was pretty still, so there was a slight wind, I guess.

For once I had to come to a nearly complete stop at the 4 way stop. Pickup truck driver came to a complete and total stop. Then he made sure he had all his luggage from the under the seat in front of him and the overhead compartment. Then he folded his seatbelt neatly and who knows what else. Then he slooowwwwlllllyyyyyy turned the corner. Bastard geezer. If I'd know he was gonna do that I'd have gone around on the outside.

Going north again was a bit windier. Still hot. I'm working hard here, maybe not quite as hard as before, since I was beginning to feel it a bit. By the time I got to the right turn, Katie was already on her way back. I'd hoped to keep her in sight, but I'd have needed a telescope. She went back down to 549 again, while I pushed hard towards home. A new record was within reach. I got lucky at 22X, and again at the 37st lights.

Had to laugh as I was turning left at the lights. There was a guy wearing a bike jersey with a bike in the back of his car at the head of the line. I was up and accelerating hard. He kept looking at me, then looking at his speedometer. I think he was deliberately accelerating slowly enough that he could see where I got to. About 45 Kph was enough. Down the hill, across the bridge, up the hill into the neighbourhood, almost speeding through the school zone, and

1:58:12!! Pedaled another few minutes of easy spin to cool down. Last year I did it in 1:59:32 and it damn near killed me. Today was a strong training ride, and my legs still feel good.

Then into the (dun, dun, DAHHHH) core. I worked through it all, and only at the end of the list did I fully realized what the 4X at the top meant. That was a struggle. Failed on side planks pretty quick; my shoulders were not liking them at all. Then the front plank failed. But not the pushups; I got through all of those. The rows, and single leg squats (not too deep) and butt lift were all good. More stretching.

Then we had coffee and a very nice chat!

The weirdest head space ever for a ride. So far...

This was the first 4K swim since some time in 2006 when stuff happened that had me extremely upset. I attacked the swim that day and by the time I stopped thinking about it I was past 3 K and hadn't even noticed. So I went to 4 just to round it off to an even number. That was all in one go, no stops. My shoulders hurt the next day since that was about double my usual swim then.

Today was a warmup, then 6x500 of various stuff, and a cool down. It was fun, once I was past the shower. I would swear in court there is a decaying mammal down one of the drains it smells that disgusting. I've got to remember to put the nose clips on BEFORE showering. The new googles are perfect; it's so nice to be able to see again. One of the sets was a straight 500 m freestyle at 80% effort - 9:10. That's about right.

A couple of the swimmers in the lanes beside me were trying to keep up periodically, producing lots of splashing, bubbles, and waves, but not much speed. I was a bit nervous when a girl in a mostly blue bikini joined my lane and asked to split it with me rather than going in circles. That's good. I was a bit surprised at how fast she swam, since normally the serious swimmers wear a one piece. It was fun to go whooshing past people. I was in the water about an hour and 20 minutes, maybe a bit more.

Yesterdays ride was postponed till today, which is as nice as could be asked for. I was out and gone as soon as I could after getting home from work. Bear with me here. I've been getting prepped for the big ride on Sunday, so my head is partly in that space. I'm also a bit taken with my right knee lately. It's been a bit creaky and sore and sometimes tempermental about what it likes or not.

So I started off on the ride feeling pretty good. I got down to 22X in 20 minutes which is about normal. Knee is feeling a bit, something. I don't know how to describe it. Not painful, not sore, not tired. But not strong and smooth either. It's almost like the joint felt a bit rusty and didn't want to move or work very hard.

Like I said, I was a bit in the headspace for a long and steady ride, which isn't going to work on RtN. Too many hills. By the top of the first one I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make 3 hours. So I chugged along, trying to be smooth. It's hard to be smooth going up a steep hill pedaling slowly in your easiest gear. Lots of places I was 5 Kph slower than my last ride. I was beginning to get down on myself about it, feeling bad about the ride, and how slow I was, and how that could be after all my training. Which makes things even slower.

The positive about the ride is that I got to the bottom of the road in 1:11, and at first I felt bad about that. That's slow, even though I had a bit of a wind helping me, and I knew it would be slower going the other way. That first hill was a slog. I was in the easiest gear right from the start. Head down. Hands on the drops. Going about 7Kph. Trying not to stress the knee. Trying to spin. Then I got to thinking about what I was thinking about. I gave my rump a good kick, which is hard when you're riding.

I ate a bit more, and had a good slug of energy drink. Then I starting thinking about the positives of the ride. It was a perfect afternoon for a ride. I was spinning fairly well, and my knee was still coping. Oddly enough, as I pushed a bit harder, it felt better. That time was with me not breaking a sweat and barely getting my heart rate into triple digits. Going only a little bit faster used to be practically race pace. I was doing this ride on tired legs, since right now I'm more active than at any other time in my life, including being a teenager.

I thought about that number. You know, the one I mention every now and then. It was 221. That's the lowest it's been since some time in the very early 80's, when I had a physically demanding job and I had to eat my own cooking, such as it was.

Of course, it's not as easy as writing about it makes it look. My head was going around and around. I was an emotional rollercoaster to match the hills. I realized I wasn't really committed to this ride, I was just out putting in time. It's probably still good for me in the long run, but I'm tired enough that it's hard to be objective. I think I'm officially at the Irontard stage. Missy has the best explanation.

The whole ride ended up being 2.5 hrs. For a while I was entertaining the idea of doing the planned 70 minute run after the ride. Then I de-entertained it. My goals are to get to the start line healthy and ready for a big day. Yes I need to train hard, but most of all I need to train smart. This is a 50+ year old bod after all. It's done really well considering how fat and out of shape I was, but I'd feel really stupid if I pushed myself too hard trying to gain a little bit more fitness and injured myself now. It's going to be a fine balancing act to push myself harder and further than I've ever gone during this last bit of build, and yet know when to back off.

A buggy, sweaty, RtN

The plan called for hills. That means Road to Nepal.

Ran into some buddies at the Stampede breakfast this morning, which nicely made up for the cardboard pancakes. I got there too early, and ended up with the premades, not fresh off the griddle. One of said buddies is trying to talk me into going to Central and South America in December to do some Habitat for Humanity work. Once I found out the job of sitting in the shade with a fruity drink and waving my hands genially while shouting encouragement was taken, I wasn't so eager.

Skipped out of work early to get outside. Wow, it was so nice out! Almost hot by Calgary standards. It was only when I looked at my watch at the bottom of the road and saw 1:03 that I realized just what a good ride I was having. I've done it a bit faster - on a day when the wind was strong out of the north. Going back was much slower that day. Today there wasn't much wind at all. What I really enjoyed was feeling strong going up hills. I'm often in the easiest gear and working hard on some of the hills. Today I was a couple gears up, spinning much better, and going much faster.

Coming back is generally a bit quicker. I lost focus for part of one hill, reverting back to my old form, but then I realized what was happening, and picked it up again. I really worked on being strong over the top and getting back up to speed. The number of times I've ridden this you'd think I'd know to the metre where the top of each hill is, but I don't.

I thought about nutrition and decided to take two bottles of Nuun and a Clif's bar, with a back up gel. That was perfect. I'm really liking the Nuun. I think this is one of the reasons I'm feeling stronger. My body seems to be absorbing the hydration much better now. No water baby (as the famous Missy puts it) or slosh happening. I started today's ride just wanting to be strong going up, but it turned into a really good ride overall. I'm getting more used to the heat.

My watch said 2:01:30 as I passed the house. I admit to pushing a bit harder from 22X to home because I realized I was close to the 2 hour mark. To beat 2 hours a year ago I had to push really really hard the whole way. Today was merely (merely!) a good solid training day, with my average heart rate being 127 over the 2 hours. Rode another 15 minutes doing easy spin for 2.25 hours altogether. If I'd stopped for more nutrition, I could have gone longer, though maybe not down and back as fast. Stretched a little bit, but marched into the shower pretty briskly. There were a ton of bugs out and I think they all stuck to me. The combination of sweat and sunscreen seems to be a pretty good glue.

The nice biking day we've all been wanting

First thing today was an acupuncture/shiatsu appointment. It's a bit hard to relax when you've just got out of bed and want to be up and moving. Still, it was really good. My shoulders feel much better.

Then right onto the bike. Well, there was a half hour drive home in horrible traffic. Seriously, what are all these people doing, pretending they know how to drive? 12th Ave downtown has many blocks of construction blocking southbound routes. For a while I was thinking I was going to have to bunk down with somebody living north of downtown.

The plan said hills, so I did Road to Nepal. Very nice day for it. At last, and I'll say no more about it. As I was passing two people on that long first grade, I was passed myself. Chicked. I passed her again on the downhill, then she was gone. Hope she enjoyed her ride to Black Diamond. I got down to the end of the road in good time, 1:01 and was thinking I might have a chance to go sub 2 hrs again, but there was a slight wind helping me south and in my face on the way back. Still, it wasn't much of a wind. The main reason the ride took 2:08 was that I'm still not feeling strong. My breathing was pretty good, but the cold isn't entirely gone so I didn't want to push too hard.

After some BBQ salmon I went down and did my core like a good athlete. Still a little full from supper so I took my time getting into it. Stretching. Feet in the air. Looking at the plan firmly. Thinking it through. Procrastinating, some would say.

Then finally, for a half hour, getting into it. Grrrr.  Energy drink all made for tomorrow's ride. Not sure if I'm going to Turner Valley or out to the mountains.

RtN The slowest ever.

I don't know where to start. Today was the first day this year going down the Road to Nepal and back. It was windy and cold. I wore tights over my shorts, long sleeve tech shirt with arm warmers under it, and a vest over it. Full finger gloves. I was hot for a while in the sun and out of the wind, but most of the ride was cold. I think it was 12 C (54 F) when I started, and about 8 C (46 F) when I finished. And windy, lets not forget the wind. On the way back I saw a guy heading out wearing shorts and a short sleeved top. He's either an idiot or part polar bear.

Tried to keep the cadence up during the ride down to 22X and get warm. I knew I was in for a tough ride when the wind was pushing me around on the first hill south of 22X. Normally I hit 65 or 70 Kph there, and barely made 40 today. Going up the first hill told me the ride was going to be even tougher. For a while I was wondering if I'd bitten off more than I could chew. My left calf was cramping on the way up the hill, but I made it to the top and managed to stretch it out and it was ok after.

I had lots of time to think during the ride. I thought of bailing a bunch of times. There was no speed or strength in my legs at all. Most of the ride was in the small chainring. Lots of the downhills I didn't even bother shifting into the big ring, since I'd be out of it again so soon. It's very disheartening to have to pedal downhill to maintain speed. I coasted a bunch. It felt like I was pulling a parachute the entire ride. I'm not even sure which way the wind was actually blowing, all I know is that it was in my face the entire ride.

How slow was it? 2:45. For 51 K (31.7 miles). Geez. I can barely bring myself to write that down. That's slower than the very first time I ever did it, wondering if I was going to live through the experience. It's a good thing I didn't have any firm time goals for this ride. I sort of thought maybe 2:15 to 2:20 but knew RtN has a way of brutalizing time goals.

I'm pleased it's done. It can only get better, right? Physically it wasn't so tough, but mentally it was probably the second toughest ride I've ever done. I didn't even consider pushing harder to avoid having it be the slowest ride. I just wanted to get it over with. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of asking Linda to come and get me, and have her driving down wondering what I'd done to myself. Oh, and having to explain here that I bailed on yet another bike ride.

Julie, did you see the buffalo calves during any of your rides? They were in the paddock right by the road, and they're soooo cute! Mama isn't cute though, and gave me the eye. I was maybe 50 feet from them, and I'm not kidding when I say I felt the menace.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to sleep in a bit tomorrow, and move the swim to Sat. I didn't even consider even trying the core tonight. Usually, even if I suspect it might not be good I have a fair go anyway and see how it turns out. Tonight my body said no way. I admit the possibility I could get a great night's sleep and be ready and raring for the pool in the morning, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The windiest ride to date

It was so windy out there today that I debated if it was safe or not. Eventually I decided to go since it wasn't actually cold out, and if I had to I could always turn around. It was one of the scariest experiences to date on my bike.

How windy was it? I've never been pushed around like that on the bike before. I've never felt the wind turn the front wheel to go down wind. I've never ridden in a cross wind that had me leaning over like I was going around a corner. From how it felt on the way back, I'm guessing it was at least 30 to 40 Kph, with some much stronger gusts.

Normally it takes me 20 to 23 minutes to get to highway 22X at the start of my ride. I take it easy and treat it like a warm up. Today it took 28 minutes. It has never ever taken that long, and I was working fairly hard. I continued on down the Road to Nepal, and scared the crap out of myself. Down the first hill is usually 65 Kph, and often faster. I could barely get past 40 Kph. Even so, I got blown into the middle of the road once. Good thing there was no traffic.

I turned around at the hour mark, about half way up the long hill. I explored a bit of an acreage with some swanky semi-country homes, then headed back. Back was quicker. It only took 40 minutes to get back, but it wasn't much less scary, since the wind was still shifting around. Overall my heart rate was quite low throughout the ride, even though I was breathing fairly hard, and working much harder than normal.

The treat on the way home was seeing 3 real live buffalo in a field just beside the road. With a fence I wouldn't use for sheep. The male was HUGE! You just don't get the full sense of their size and implacable nature from pictures. It looked like it could walk through the fence and not even notice.

Took a 4 minute transition, then briskly walked 6 minutes, then ran easy for 15 minutes, then walked another 5. Then spent between 30 and 45 minutes on core. Call it 30. The last set of planks was getting pretty sloppy.

Outdoor riding weather is coming to it's close pretty quick. There is snow in the forecast for Sunday, and the rest of the week is getting down to more seasonal temperatures.

Delayed core

What with one thing and another I wanted to get started a bit early today; as soon as I could. But then, what with some email, and a phone call it ended up being a little bit later, and you know, everything turned out perfect. It was just a little cool for a ride when I was going to start, 11. An hour later it was 15, which is nearly perfect. Even so, riding down some of the hills I could feel an abrupt temperature change at the bottom of some of the hills.

Today's mission was much the same as others recently, ride about 2.5 hours with cadence up, and heart rate about 125. I decided to go down Road to Nepal again. This time was 2:25 for the 51 hilly K. That's 83 rpm, 21.1 Kph average, with the heart rate showing 126 bpm. However I think that last is a smidge high. The monitor was showing 240 bpm for about the first 7 minutes of a ride. It's a little tricky trying to adjust the band while riding. Throughout the ride my heart rate was always a bit higher than expected. I put this down to a crappy night's sleep.

I'm pretty pleased about the ride, though the way back was a bit slower than expected. My legs were feeling a little heavy and gave me a few twinges. I'd been aiming for 2:20. Last ride I caught the light at 37th street and rounded the corner at better than 50 Kph. Today I just missed the lights, and had to get on the brakes about as hard as I ever have to not get into the intersection. Lots of people here take the amber light as a sign to step on it, but not me. Especially not on a bike on that road.

After a good meal and puttering about the house for an hour or so I started my core workout, and started feeling really strange. I was feeling light headed, like I'd been hyper ventilating, and I was getting these weird pinprick sensations all over my legs. So I put it off for a while and laid down for some quiet time. Then I was out and about running errands, picked Linda up at work, ran more errands, ate supper, waited a bit, and tried the core again, and all was fine. 45 minutes there.

All is good. Well, except for the photo on Jenna's blog. That was bad. Shocking. Then Julie's blog talked about something that totally creeped me out. I just can't imagine it happening to me. At least it had better not. I think it's a sign of how big the Julie "nice aura" is that this happened to her.

Road to Nepal vs my heart rate monitor

Today is another perfect day for being outside. I got a bit of a later start than initially planned, but there are some phone calls it's a good idea to take.

My plan said hilly route, keeping HR in the sweet spot. The hilliest route I know around here is my old fave, Road to Nepal. I was a bit worried about how slow I'd be going up, hoping the ants wouldn't see me as prey moving slowly enough to make it worth trying to drag me off to the anthill so they eat like kings all winter.

Every time I looked at my watch my heart rate was 5-10 bpm lower than I thought it would be, based on perceived effort, breathing, ect. Even going up hill. Normally I'm pretty tuned in and am usually +- 3 or 4 bpm. Nice, but I was being calm, trying to spin easy. As the saying goes, grind till the grinding gets good. At one spot I'm half way up the hill and realized my heart rate was below target. BELOW TARGET!!! Now it didn't take much additional effort to get it back up again. I got down to the end in 1:19. On the way back I had a bit of a tail wind, but still ended up having to pick up the pace to keep the heart rate up. This was a novel experience. I was back to the house in 2:28.

20.6 Kph average speed, and 120 bpm average heart rate. I'm not quite sure I believe that last number since I was getting some wonky numbers at the start of the ride. But my HR was always lower than expected. My cadence was low too, 67 rpm average. Later this week is a flat ride, and I'll try to bring that number up a bit then. Anybody want to play hooky and join me for a couple hours on Thursday?

To put that in perspective, I've done that ride in a hair under two hours, while turning my legs into noodles good for nothing for a couple of days. Today I missed both lights, and had to wait for traffic both times crossing 22X, AND took it so much easier that I could have loaded up on water and nutrition and done the ride again. It was only a year ago that I couldn't have done that ride in 2:28 at all. Even now, pushing hard, I'd still be pleased with being just sub 2 hrs. That's a fairly small difference in speed for a major major difference in effort. So I'm happy.

I finally ate the last Gu that I've been carrying around on rides for a while now. Expresso Love flavour, but it wasn't in my mouth long enough to taste. Didn't take anything else, just 2 waters.

Once home again I had a snack then started my first core workout per my schedule. I didn't throw up, but my face was as red as my fit ball, and I was breathing harder than I ever did during the ride. I was beginning to regret the snack, but I had to eat something. There was stuff. Planks. Pushups. Wall sits. Rowing. Chinup hip flexors. Crunches. Times 3. My mantra through it all was, it's good for me. 1:10 core work, some of which includes me lying in a heap breathing hard.

While butter tarts can be frozen, they are best fresh, preferably still warm from the oven, or just barely cool. I'm sorry guys, I don't think you'd get the same experience even if I packed them carefully. I'm sure somebody in the postal or security services would figure out what they were, and eat them. Tell you what. Come visit. For a race, or vacation. Lots of stuff to do here. I'll make sure you get to a place with good butter tarts, and you get crash space here. Can't say fairer than that.

Road to Nepal <2 hrs!

I LOVE the Road to Nepal! It's such a sweet ride. Great views, great hills, perfect pavement, very little traffic, and the wind usually cooperates to make the ride harder as a training aid. What more could you want? According this bike computer it's exactly 51 K from my driveway to 549 and back. I think of it as my calibration track.

It's all hills, all the time. The flat level spots can be measured in a small number of meters. I can't go any faster downhill, since I spin out of my gears about 65 Kph. The only way to be faster is to go up the hills faster. We all know what that means.

The first time I rode it, March 23, 2008, it damn near killed me and took 2:40. That link includes a map so you know where I'm talking about. Somewhere along the way I formed the goal of getting down and back in less than 2 hours, requiring an average speed of a hair over 25 Kph. On a very hilly course.

Even before I got on the bike, just puttering around with breakfast, I knew I was going to have a good ride today. When I started I felt strong and smooth. I decided to push hard to see if I could get under my goal, and at the same time nibble Clif's bars to see what solids to to me when I'm working hard, on a hot day. (For Calgary, peeps.) Took two bars, and ate 1.3 of them.

I caught the lights out of the neighbourhood for the left turn, and passed a pickup pulling a trailer. That was a weird feeling. There was some wind, but not as bad as it's been lately. Normally I take it easy down 37 but pushed a bit harder today. Made it to 22X in just over 17 minutes. Good traffic, crossed over the highway and got tore in.

Estela was a champ as always. I GRRRRRRed up the hills. I sang parts of "Whatever Lola wants" to myself. I kept checking what gear I was in and if I could push a bigger one, or spin it up faster. I tried to save standing up till I was near the top of the hill so I could power over and onto the downhill. Even knowing where the top is, and some are very deceptive, I'm still needing to work on this. But I'm standing longer, long past the time I'd normally sit down again.

The Garmin's have a feature that compares your pace to a planned pace, or previous efforts on that course, and uses a little guy to show you how your doing. Feel free to correct me if I've got that wrong; I've never seen it. But I was mentally comparing myself to previous versions of myself riding this course. Thinking of them gradually losing ground behind me.

I got down to 549 in just over 1:04. I still didn't know if this was good enough to get back under my goal, even though coming back is faster. There's still some good hills. I put my head down, said Grrrrr and powered up the hills. I was an animal, trying to ride smooth and strong. I wanted to be up at the top of zone 3, breathing hard all the time.

On the way back, just south of 22X a pair of riders was heading south. I waved, said "great day for a ride!". She waved, and he recognized me to call out my name! I was astonished! That's the first time that's ever happened to me. I was frantically going through all the people it could be. Eventually, I landed on my neighbour Jim and his wife Susan, and sent them an email asking if in fact it was them.

I knew I was within range of my target when I got to 22X. I had no problem getting across, and I went very strong up 37 St, though I didn't catch the light where I have to turn left to head north. I had to stop for some cars. The little hill back into the neighbourhood usually slows me down, but I leaped on it like a big cat on it's prey, and I powered up it faster than ever before. I knew I was close, and didn't want to miss it by a a few seconds. I put my head down and pushed for the finish line over the last K or so.

1:59:32!!! Yeehaw!
25.6 Kph.

I went past the house, and cooled down with a short easy spin, so I can't totally trust the bike computer numbers. Stretched. My legs feel great! I feel great! hmmmm, now for my next goal....

Potential tragedy narrowly averted

And here I thought seeing a flat tire late Friday night was a bad thing.

I was busy doing something else last night, though now I can't remember what, when I noticed that Estela's back tire was flat. No biggie. I replaced the tube, finding a tiny little piece of wire about the thickness of a hair and about 5 mm long in the tire. Then I put everything back together, and reloaded the little saddle bag. Only then did I notice something odd about the back tire. It wasn't black. There were small gray diagonal stripes on it. I looked closer, and indeed, there were lots of gray stripes and even a couple small holes. All around the business end of the tire. I had worn away all the rubber. I would have taken my bike on a 100+K ride out into the hilly boonies on a tire that had very little rubber left. I don't like to think about how that could turn out.

My original plan was to head out early this morning to try to beat the weather. It turns out that MEC is the bike store that opens first on Saturdays. I went and bought a new tire, and a new tube, and some Clif's Shots. I figure it does no harm to have 2 spare tubes on the bike, and another in the house. There will come a day when I need all of them. The morning looked kind of cloudy, but when I was home and done tire changing stuff, it looked quite nice out. Still, the forecast called for thunderstorms late afternoon, and at this time of year that's a safe bet.

You can see a map of my route from a year ago here, and some info about that ride. I'd been wondering what to ride when I found that blog post, and decided to redo the ride. Hoping for some improvement over the year.

Out 22X was nice, with wind out of the south. There were clouds building ahead of me so I wondered if that was the day's thunderstorm. I could see away to the south it was still sunny, so I expected I might get rained on a bit, then break into the sun again once I got going south. I made pretty good time out to 762 with only the lightest sprinkles of rain, not even enough to get the road wet. I wasn't feeling strong or comfortable on the bike like I was the other day. I kept shifting around. My hands were going numb quicker than usual. My left ham was very slow to get with the program. Rode fairly easy till everything was tuned in.

Going south is a nice ride, not too much traffic, nice views, lots of hills. Into the wind. Firmly, directly. I barely made it to 50 K at the end of 2 hours. Across to Millarville is mostly downhill, and went fast. Last year I went into Millarville and stopped at the general store. This year I kept riding. I think that's the difference between the milage numbers. I hit 3 hours and 75 K just as I turned right to head east again on 549, going past the Millarville Racetrack. Into the wind stronger than ever. On really rough pavement. I'm so glad I've got a carbon fiber bike when I ride that road. Sometime when riding with someone my size who has an aluminum bike, I'll have to offer to swap bikes, just for a bit, to see how it feels.

This was beginning to hurt. I was getting sick of hearing the wind in my ears. There's a spot where the road goes up and around a big hill. Even more directly into the wind. I tried to stop thinking about it. I just put my head down and pedaled.

Just before turning north on 733 there is a tough hill. From a distance it looks like a wall. Up close it's still pretty wall-like. Getting up that was brutal. I was getting tired and there's still the Road to Nepal between me and home. At least this is the 'easy' way. Turning onto the new pavement is such a relief. Especially since I was mostly going with the wind. I sat up, relaxed a bit, nibbled, drank, and took stock of how I felt so I could figure how hard to push. Ah, not very.

I made good time to the top of the road, passing the 4 hour mark at just under 100 K. Or if you prefer to think about it this way, passed the 100K mark about 4:02. By now I was done the Clifs bars, and took in a gel just as I got to 22X. My neck, shoulders, and the top of my back were killing me. I was trying to stretch it out a bit by looking down at my cassette, and still riding safely.

By the time I got into my neighbourhood, my toes where on fire. They were sick of being in the shoes. I'd been spinning it out, trying to flush out my legs, but it wasn't going so well. The last few hundred meters to the house are a slight downhill. I took my feet out of my shoes and oh the bliss! I hit the button on my watch at 4:33. It took a few seconds to stand up straight.

Quick transition, then out for a short run. It looked pretty horrible for the first bit, but I was into a nice stride about 3/4 of a K into it, and the the second K was actually fairly quick, about a 6:30 K if I did the watch arithmetic right. My feet and legs felt pretty good, and my lungs were on top of things. I could have gone further than a couple K, but I didn't particularly want to. I have a strong suspicion the wheels would have fallen off the wagon about the 5 K mark, but who knows? Maybe not. Or maybe yes, considering I had no further nutrition since I was only planning to do the 2K

It was so nice to lie down on my yoga mat in my nice cool basement. I put my feet in the air for a while, and did some stretches. That felt so nice. No ice bath, but I ran pretty cold water over my legs for a while. What hurts now the most, after the fact is still my neck and shoulders. Just for the record, we had rain, thunder, and lightning less than an hour after I got home.

111.8 K ride distance
4:33:00 Watch time
4:31:35 bike time (I stopped once to pee, and that's the only time my feet touched the ground.)
24.7 Kph average speed
85.7 Kph max speed
69 RPM average cadence, which is lower than I like.
3:22 T2
13:53 run ~2 K.

4:50:21 Total workout time.

Weekly Summary
Swim .75 hrs
Bike 9.5 hrs
Run 2.25 hrs
Total 12.5 hrs

The astute or obsessive of you will note the swim number is really low. I decided to give my arm a bit more of a rest, while working on massage and mobility. My left shoulder is a bit creaky too, and I figured a rest would be good for it. Back into the pool on Monday.

For all my buddies in GWN tomorrow, HAVE A GREAT DAY! I'll be thinking of you all. I'll be sure to have my feet up sipping some fresh coffee during the swim start. For the cheering section, scream your lungs out, shake that bootie, and have fun. Can't wait for pics.

Lastly, for my American blogger buddies, Happy Fireworks and beer Day!