No Room to Move

walk:3 km (Kings of Leon-Only By the Night)
cycle:6km
2 pcs. toast, banana, beef-cheese bun, diet 7up, crackers and cheese, steamed rice, baked fries, munchos, diet 7up

I worked from 1-5 and thought I would take the long way to work. I didn't even notice the purple sky to the north until I had riden a ways south and turned west. I quickly gave up the long way as it was going to end up being the wet way. As it was the wind was howling and it rained but not enough to soak me.

I went into the shop with a few small jobs and found just about every workbench gone. Those that remain were covered in bits and pieces form those missing. I said we should close the shop because I can't work around all the piles. That went over well.

Jill Gets the Call

walk:1.8km (Yes-Yessongs disc 2)
cycle:24km
2 pcs toast, coffee, triscuits w/cheese, gatorade, power bar, caesar, brisket burger and casear salad

I had a 6:30 - 9:30 stint on the clock at Neebing and work til 5:30. How to get there? Both cars were going to be on the other side of town and unavailable. No way to connect with the 3 buses it would take. Didn't know any of the refs doing the game other than to say hi. 15 km through town on a single speed in an hour is pushing it. So I threw the lights on Jill and she got out of the basement for the first time since June. It sure was nice to ride with gears. Don't get me wrong I love the single speed thing but I was able to get there in about less than 45 minutes, change and still have time for a drink and check emails.

I sent a bulk email to all teams in Lakehead Minor after the Sunday meeting. I got a call Tuesday telling me HNO was swamped with people looking for things on their website. If they had only read that everything they wanted was on the Lakehead Minor website they would have been fine.

Hope and Bike Lanes

Sal and I went to the Farmer's Market for breakfast and to pick up some fresh pasta for supper. The market was jammed with people today. It always gives me such a feeling of hope for Thunder Bay. People doing business with others from the community. Meeting folks you haven't seen in years. Strangers sharing the one of the few tables available to eat at.

The first negative in the CJ 'Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down' for the new bikes lanes appeared today, there will be more. Court Street to Fort William road is painted and the 'big' kickoff is next weekend. I still don't think it's going to be a big thing but I guess I'll show up to lend a hand. I rode down Walsh tonight where the lines are just laid out with small marks and it's going to be confusing to say the least. Where the hydro towers are located the lane tapers to non-existence. There are sections that move riders into the middle of the road to allow parking and there's no separation, can you say 'doored'? The painted section on Fort William Road that I saw was not wide enough for a set of wide handle bars, even the bike outline painted to indicate the lane was too wide for the lane. Don't get me wrong I think they are a good thing but the execution is lacking. Not sure what happened to the education part of the launch. The bikers that show up will have info available but I can't see the driver who wrote his comments to the paper or any others coming out to get educated at the Bay Street party. News feature on the lanes.

Week 3/6
scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, potatoes, 2 coffee, lemon loaf, past salad, crackers, fresh pasta and diet 7up

Sal's New Ride

For her upcoming birthday and Mother's Day I had picked out a bike for Sal. This morning we loaded Sherman onto the rack on the car and took the heavyweight in to trade or sell and she tried out a Felt Cafe 7. She was thinking about an Urbana but she took an immediate liking to this far lighter and easy riding comfort bike. Comes complete with mug holder, bell and kickstand. Now I just have to get her out there.

While she was at work I went to Mom and Dad's for supper with Jen Curtis and the Ginko. I've never seen him eat so much. 2 slices of bread and then pasta WITH (News Flash!!!) sauce, and then he asked for more...twice. We have to get that sauce recipe. He was smacking around the tennis balls with his bat and I pity the coach who has to toss t-balls to him in games, he better wear a cup.

Week 1/7
banana, 3 pb cookies, 4 coffee, dim sum, salad, 1 cooler, pasta and meatballs, 2 sl. bread, cheese cake

Feeling It

I haven't felt too good about myself for a while now. Not exercising anywhere near enough, eating too much, putting on weight, knowing it and not doing much about it. After dim sum with Jen and Curtis, some groceries and a Shoppers stop I went for a ride. It was about 11 degrees and gorgeous. The little kid 2 doors down was out without a shirt. I pumped up the Continentals, adjusted the front brake on Molly and put her outside. I changed and was on my way, looking for dry pavement. I headed west to Rosslyn then up 130 to Oliver, down Golf Links and home. Just under 40km. Rosslyn Road on an old steel frame is pure torture. Molly's gearing is low. Getting her moving is tough and climbing any sort of hill is a chore. But once you get her moving she flies. Quietly. And she seems to roll forever. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow but right now feels pretty good.

Motivation

While Sal covered for me at the rink, I snuck out to catch a one-time screening of "Race Across the Sky", the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. It was an awesome hour and a half. Lance was entered for the second time. The first time around he was just off the couch, in 2009 he was 3 weeks from finishing 3rd in the TdFrance and he destroyed the field and the course record. There were lots of stories of the 1400 riders who started but the concentration was on Armstrong and 6 time winner Dave Wiens. Never heard anything about Fat Cyclist Elden Nelson who has riden for many years but had a bad crash in '09. Hopefully this will provide some much needed motivation to get my butt off the couch.

Still Got It

I was beginning to question whether the cycling bug had left me. No outdoor rides since December 1st is the longest I've gone in I don't know how long, 2 years? I got out on Eyowen today just across a few roads , down back lanes and then the bike paths around the college and out to the corner of Arthur and the expressway, about 15km. And I felt great after getting used to the bumpy ride and slower than normal pace. Just what I needed to get back into the groove.

Honey, It's Mr. Ballard

A 15km ride on Ethel tonight got my total for 2009 to 6000km, nowhere near where I wanted to be. Lots of excuses but none that are really valid. I'm not going to set any wild goals for 2010, just keep riding and see where I end up.

At the next LMHL meeting I'm going to make a motion that referees pay per game is cut in half. Hell they get so much help from the parents and coaches I'm not sure why they get paid at all. I witnessed a Novice coach on Monday that was unbelievable. Referees call a game that turns into a circus a 'gong show'. This guy was a one man gong show, bellowing from the drop of the opening faceoff to the end, at the refs, his kids and nearly at the opposing fans. His team won 4-0 and I swear the kids on the other team were afraid to score. They probably had friends on his team and didn't want them to get yelled at. I wouldn't be comfortable with him coaching a  teenager nevermind a seven year old. At the end of the game I looked over at a grandfather I recognized and we both mouthed the word, "WOW". Yes the Leafs brass is watching your every move and the phone call is going to come, just make sure you are the loudest thing in the arena.

Brandyn was here last night and he read me a story before bed. He needs some help on new words and rushes through but he is reading extremely well.

Oh Ethel...

...how I haven't missed you. I'm determined to ride 20km every day in December and like someone hit the big switch in the sky, snow. I bolted a saddle to Ethel and hopped on for another 5 km to make my daily quota. Listening to an MP3 book that makes walking a breeze but just doesn't cut it when pedaling somehow. It's going to be a long winter.

Thunder Bay in Flight Simulator with the Tile Proxy utility running from Yahoo Maps

Late Nights

It was 2:15 am when I posted the pic below so I wasn't up to telling the story. After 3 hours of tweaking and testing I have the satellite mapping scenery linked into flite sim. The pic below is somewhere over the Grand Canyon and pretty spectacular, at least I think so. There are still some bugs to work out. The shot was taken at 23,000 feet which is about 20,000 feet higher than I normally cruise, but everything is smooth and the displayed framerate is high enough to feel like I'm moving. Next will be some low and slow tests to see how far I can take it. There are two more levels of graphic quality but I'm not sure the dell can handle much more. I have another gig of memory coming and that may make it as real as it's going to get until Microsoft gets on the ball and links their mapping and flight sim software together.

I attended the first meeting for the Active Transportation committee I'm sitting on. Our role will be education and marketing the new bike lanes, sharrows and active transportation in general. Yesterday was a meet and greet, some review of the structure of the 3 committees, the parent committee and who reports to who etc. The hour spent brainstorming was very productive and lots of ideas were tossed around. The first bike lanes and sharrows are due for spring of 2010 so that should be interesting. It was nice to meet some other bikers who are into it enough to get involved.

Day 4-09

Oatmeal, banana and apple cider. Cheese, triscuits, pickles and water. Granola bar. Chicken taco soup, rice, corn bread and water. Diet 7up and soda crackers. 16 km on Bridget.

Saw an interesting plan from the UK today. The government encourages employers to join a program that allows employees to buy a bike to ride to work worth up to 1000 pounds (about $1770 Canadian) with a voucher, then have deductions from their check BEFORE taxes to pay it off. It saves them up to 50%. It's called the Cyclescheme. Very modern thinking from an old country.

Bonked

   Bonked is the biker's technical term for what I did on Sunday, rhymes with and basically means zonked. I had only planned on about 40km or 2 hours. I had eaten a couple pieces of toast and coffee. I took one water bottle, a granola bar and some cough candies. I ran out of gas plain and simple. It was really weird to have my legs still spinning but not really feeling anything but a sore butt. Note to self: you can't starve yourself when riding for 3 1/2 hours.
   I did another couple of AA games tonight, I sure am disappointed in the level of play. I think some of our old Pee Wee A teams could have given the teams that I saw tonight a good game. And thanks to DW for filling the penalty box up for me. 3 on one side and another pair on the other. It's a good thing there's no hair left to pull out.

Frogs

Just landed in Montreal. Made my way from Quebec City with just the radios, VFR and no GPS. Speaking of frogs I picked up a pair of lights on the weekend as riding in the dark has become the norm. They're called frogs and made by an Australian company, Knog. Yes Knog Frogs. Just a simple led in a rubbery body that can wrap around any part of the bike or helmet. Easily transferable from one bike to another, cheap and very bright. One red on the back and a white on the bars and I'm blinking along.

Not So Bad

The First Caribou Charity Ride went better than expected. 256 riders came out for either 50 or 100km on the country roads west of TBay. I finished the 100km (actually 105) in 4 hours and 45 minutes. I went out nice and slow letting just about everybody zip on by. I made an early stop at the first aid station for a bathroom break and then got back on the nearly deserted road. I didn't see anyone close until almost Hymers as I starting catching up in the hills. Next up was the 9 km to Nolalu that was a twisty hilly section that put up a pretty good fight. Got by a few more here. Sal and I had a plan where I would call her from Nolalu and then we would meet at the next corner where 590 and 595 meet. My cell had 'no service' so that plan went out the window, the same place my Rogers plan is going when my contract is up. I came upon another rider on the side of 590 and stopped to see if he was ok. He was patching a tube and had 2 others on the shoulder beside him. He had crashed earlier, his derailleur was acting up, someone had given him a tube with a hole in it and he had attempted 2 previous patches without success. I offered him my spare tube and luckily it was the right size. This left me with no way to fix a flat but I'm pretty confident in Jill's tires. I borrowed his TBay Tel cell phone and called Sal to let her know the change in plans. He finished the patch as I was pulling away and it seemed to be holding so he will return the tube to Petrie's as long as the patch held. There were a few steep little devils on the rolling road back down to Hymer's. One just before the stop sign had me down to about 9km per hour and my legs were cramping in all new locations. I really thought I had been hydrating enough but apparently not. Once back on 61 I stood to get up a bit of speed and both legs cramped so badly I almost lost it. Sat down and let things cool, shifted to a more friendly gear and kept a nice easy pace to the finish. I was banking on about 6 hours so I'm pretty happy with less than 5. Pretty sore too but it never hurts as much when you exceed your expectations.

Spinning

My head is still spinning from a week of weird. Being off work for 4 days last weekend seemed like forever. Then only being in every other day had me sort of off balance both at home and on the job. It will take some getting used to I guess. I've already secured some 'cash' work timekeeping hockey for the winter, which will help some.

I came to the conclusion tonight that no matter what happens in the Caribou ride on Sunday I'm going to be happy just to get out and try to climb all those hills. I've been stressing over it all week but not going or doing just the 50km would be failing. If I go out and don't finish it won't be failing, not trying would be failing. Sounds like I'm making compromises but that's not it at all. Neither of the Conquer Rides really felt 'epic', the actual effort wasn't as big as I had anticipated. They didn't feel real, like I left something on the table. This ride will definitely clear the table of all the ride I have in me. And if it clears the table and puts me on the floor, fine. I'm not going to worry about it any more.

Northwood registration is 100% full with a waiting list. We're in demand but I refuse to expand, keep it small and manageable. The debates over at Lakehead Minor have already heated up as the first draft with mixed AA age groups approaches. Coaches are already testing the new rules and it should be an interesting evening.

Oh Boy

Sal and I just came back from driving the 100+km route for next weekend's Caribou Charity Ride. It is going to be a long day in the saddle. The first 10km is flat along highways 61 and 130 but then things get increasingly hilly. And the hills just keep on coming. There was plenty of traffic on the narrow roads but that was mostly due to the Hymer's Fall Fair. We passed right through Hymer's on the way in and covered just about every route to the grounds so I don't expect the traffic to be any where near as heavy next weekend. Unfortunately I don't think the hills will flatten much at all. Same distance as the Conquer Cancer ride but I can see an extra 2 hours or so.

We decided to stop at Stanley to share one of the famous burgers. Another item off the bucket list as neither of us had been there before but neither of us could taste what all the hype was about.

Sunday we went out to mom and dad's for a relaxing afternoon and supper. After cutting 2 inches from Jill's handlebars I was a bit more comfortable during the 41km ride to the Sturgeon Bay Road but continue to get 'bees in the hands'. Not sure what else to try at this point.

Friday and a Tailwind

I came ever so close to driving to work this morning but at the last second decided I'd be mad at myself later. The head wind and cool temp made the short ride feel long. By lunch the rain had stopped so I lost the rain gear and took a medium route back. Got all my projects tied up so next week I can enjoy the time off. As I cruised down Carrick I could feel a tailwind pushing me and realized I was glad I was on a bike on a Friday before holidays with the wind at my back. Can it get much better?

Another Dog Conquered

Saturday was my third Conquer the Dog. Our team came 2nd in the relay for 3 with kayak, though I don't think there were many teams in that bracket. We were third last year and every team member knocked off some time and we picked up one spot. I managed to trim 40 seconds from my time so I was ok with that (18km in 38:13). Should have had more water as I started leg cramps on the way in. Couldn't pedal hard so I pedaled higher cadence, drank and kept the cramps just on the edge and then was able to sprint the last half km and pass one more rider. Nobody got past me so I at least held our spot in the intense competition.

Make the Most Of It

The long weekend weather wasn't exactly summer-like but at least the weatherman was off and it didn't rain every day. Sal and I did dimsum on Saturday and I cleaned a room in the basement when she went to work. I can just about locate all of my tools again.

Sunday I headed out to Sleeping Giant Provincial for a hike with brother Brian and some of his family. I had to be at the trailhead at 8:30 so I was up at 5:45, read a bi5 and then loaded Bridget onto the Dakota, gassed up and headed into the early morning sun on 11/17. I arrived just as Brian and the gang did so timing was perfect. We unloaded the bikes and decided to bike to Sawyer Bay and then climb the head of the Sleeping Giant. The trail was in decent shape but there was a ton of climbing and descending. The roughest part of the trail seemed to be when we were going up or down. Small boulders littered the way and even the decscents were done at about 10kmph as the rock was just too loose to let go of the brakes for any fast fun. The climbs were another matter altogether. I stopped to wait for a minute at the top of one hill and thought I could hear a partridge thumping in the bush. I realized the thumping was far too regular and that it was my pulse making all the racket in the stillness of the great Canadian outback. Keeping my butt in the saddle and leaning forward to hold down the front wheel was the only way that worked for me. I walked more than a few of the longer hills. My pedals and shoes would really have helped towards the top as the added set of leg muscles can really save you when you can't push anymore. It took us nearly 90 minutes to cover the 6.5km to Sawyer Bay.

We had a drink and locked up the bikes, shouldered our packs and headed off along the bay for about 1/2km then headed towards the back of the head. It looked impossibly high as we caught glimpses through the thick trees. Our sherpa guide Brian had made the climb once before and confirmed that it was a pretty steep trail. Soon the slope began to tilt and we were stepping from rock to rock and root to root, grabbing at small trees for support. The trail was trickier than usual as the heavy rain from last week left it wet in the shadows. Brian, Jennifer Kimberly and I reached the top at about 11am and were in for a treat. We looked back over to the east and could make out Silver Islet, Lake Marie Louise, several smaller lakes and with binoculars even picked out the Sea Lion. On the west side was Thunder Bay, Pie Island and I swear I could see as far as Pigeon River to the south. We arrived sweaty and warm but the westerly wind cooled us quickly and we scrambled for jackets. After numerous pictures and lunch we headed back down the goat path. We all found the descent tougher on the legs but easier overall. We had to be extremely careful not to fall. Kimberly had Chris' pup Shadow who tended to pull on the way up but even the pup was carefull on the way down.

Back at Sawyer Bay we had a few snacks and drinks before grabbing the bikes and heading to the steepest climbs we would face on two wheels. Everyone managed to get back safely and then we headed to the campground to sit around for a bit. Brian and I did another short level bike ride around the campgrounds. Alot of things have changed at the park that used to be Sibley Provincial when we went as kids, but much is still the same. The deer have replaced the moose, everything is more expensive but seems better cared for.

We had supper and then sat by a fire for a bit before it was time to head for town. It was a great day, a worthwhile climb and fun spending time with Brian in 'his' world. He literally could be a guide on the trails and even without the trails.

When I got home Sal hadn't eaten so we drove over to Festa Italiano and wandered around a bit, had some pasta and took a few canolies to go.

On Monday Sal, Jen, the Ginko and I went to pick strawberries at Belluz's Farm on Candy Mountain Road. We came back to town, dropped off Jen, then the Dakota and walked over to the cineplex to catch the latest Ice Age movie. I admit to dozing a bit during the movie but hey, it was a long weekend.

Right as Rain

On the way back to work at lunch it had begun to rain. Do you want me to drive you back she said, no thanks. Do you want your rain gear, no I'll be ok. Do you at least want your light rain jacket, nope it'll be fine. As I sat waiting for a change of the lights at the Harbour Expressway during the noon monsoon I knew I had been right, wouldn't have mattered if I had worn the rain gear, I'd still be soaked to the skin.

Hi, when you go out could you drop me off a t-shirt, I said.