Stu's Training

Cycling

Total Distance: 1621.37 km

Total Time: 66hr 46m 19s

Avg. Speed: 24.28 km/h

Date	Distance km	Time hh:mm:ss	Avg. Speed km/h	Max. Speed km/h
Sat, July 15	129.85	5:25:32	23.93	65.4
	Stopping for lunch at Cooks Bay park on the shores of Lake Simcoe's Cook's Bay was the highlight of this training ride. A nice breeze was very welcome on this ride, as it was another hot day. I've often wondered if any of the gas station attendants are surprised as we all descend upon them to refill our water bottles and maybe grab a snack or two...
Sun, July 9	119.93	4:36:37	26.01	58.7
	For the second long ride this weekend, I was very pleased with the ride. We rode out to Campbelville, which proved to be a tough ride. The winds were strong enough as we headed out to cause some trouble, and the hills as we approached and climbed the Niagara escarpment did make for some challenging riding. By the time we got to the rest stop, I'd been riding an average of around 22km/h. Riding with Nathan and Manoj after the rest stop helped me push my limits a bit, moving my average speed up by around 4 km/h over the whole journey!
Sat, July 8	127.14	4:42:09	27.04	62.8
	Today was a great day for a ride. The bike rally route to Belfountain had some great views, especially through the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. There was one road closure which led to a slight detour, and the switchback hill climbing into Belfountain was VERY challenging, but satisfying once at the top. All in all, a great ride!
Sun, July 2	57.80	2:38:43	21.85	52.5
	I managed to sleep through the start of today's training ride, so I set out on my own shorter version, just to get a ride in. It was another windy day, and I was somewhat dehydrated, so I took a leisurely ride along York Mills out to Royal York and down through the Humber River trails. The ride back along the lakefront was nice, then back up the Don Trail to end it off.
Sat, July 1	103.44	4:20:44	23.80	59.6
	This Canada Day training ride took us from Kipling station to Terra Cotta, which made for a very scenic ride. The General store got plenty of business from us as they cooked up some great sausages to keep us going for the journey back to the city.
Fri, June 30	15.07	0:38:25	23.54	55.9
	I had the day off work today, and had my car in for maintenance (and a costly brake job). While the car was in, I took my bike down to Velotique to pick up some new toys :-)
Sat, June 17	103.43	4:33:58	22.65	49.1
	Kevin and I passed our official 100 km qualifying ride today with a ride in the East end - a "102 km" ride leaving from Kennedy station, meandering out through Whitby, up to Ashburn, Claremont, and other quaint little towns and hamlets. The ride started out with a flat tire of mine before we'd even departed Kennedy. At Ashburn, the general store was closed, thwarting attempts to rehydrate in the scorching weather. After that, Kevin got a flat tire, and we finally made it to Claremont to get some fluids. With the high temperatures, we took it easy, and took plenty of breaks. A tough ride, but our qualifying 100 km is done!
Sat, June 10	97.59	3:55:13	24.89	55.7
	It was very windy today as we set out on a 97 km route from Kipling Station to Inglewood. The wind was out of the North, and quite fast. The Weather Network reported the winds to be around 40 km/h, with gusts close to 60 km/h. On our trek up to the break at the Inglewood General Store, it was hard to maintain an average speed of 20 km/h. As we left the Genaral Store, I realized very quickly that I had a flat tire. A small shard of glass had punctured my back wheel - a great opportunity to practice changing a flat tire! On the way back south, the wind was our friend. Maintaining speeds over 40 km/h was a breeze ;-) Overall, a good ride, and just a short distance shy of our first approved 100km qualifying ride.
Sun, June 4	77.12	3:12:32	24.03	61.3
	Today was the Becel Heart & Stroke Ride for Heart, with approximately 13,000 riders departing the CNE to ride along the Gardiner Expressway and up the Don Valley Parkway. It's great to be able to ride on those highways, and it's certainly something else to ride with so many other riders! Kevin, Dave, Stephen and I did the 50km route. At the Bayview / Bloor ramp there was some poor signage which led to many riders missing a small side-route, myself included. The 50km ride was just 43.82km for me, which took just under 1 hour 35minutes, with an average speed of 28.1 km/h. The rest of the day was a nice leisurely ride down to "the Ride" and back.
Sat, June 3	105.49	4:03:33	25.99	51.9
	Definitely a rainy day today. I'm still being held slightly responsible for uttering the words "at least we can't get any wetter" before the rain became somewhat heavier. In any case, the ride to Musselman's lake was a good one, worth doing another less rainy day. Adding the ride to Kennedy station and back put this one up over the 100km mark - woot woot!
Mon, May 29	32.88	1:16:46	25.70	63.1
	Today's ride was on the first extreme heat advisory this year. I started out a bit later in the evening, so it wasn't as hot as earlier in the day, and it actually made for a nice ride. A quick jaunt out to Ontario place and back. I'm just glad I added the extra water bottle cage to Allen over the weekend!
Sat, May 27	72.57	2:46:18	26.18	94.3
	This training ride was by far the best we've had so far - a great day, and a great route from Finch station to Aurora. The route has some fantastic hills, where you can pick up great speed going down, and maintain that speed on the uphill. It was during one of those hills I got my maximum speed. At one point, I was checking my bike computer and saw I was doing just over 68 km/h. At that speed, I was really concerned about paying attention to the road, so I stopped checking the computer. I did speed up some, but I'm very hesitant to believe I got above 90 km/h. That's crazy fast. So, whether the computer is right or wrong, I do know we did have some stretches with good speed. Biking out of the city really makes you dislike the city traffic and traffic lights even more!
Wed, May 24	26.37	0:56:48	27.86	61.6
	Today's ride was a bit of a hodge-podge of a route, down the Don Trail to Queen, then East to Broadview and along Lakeshore, down through the various roads around the docks, before heading back up Parliament, over to Mount Pleasant, then wandering back home. I practiced clipping out and pedalling with one foot for a while. I'd still like to have managed a longer ride, but as usual the evening was running short :-(
Sat, May 20	60.73	2:24:09	25.28	50.9
	We rode from Kipling Station to Oakville, which was intended to be about a 58km route, but of course I managed to steer us off course on the return back to Kipling Station. We did get heckled by a crazy truck driver as the group pulled over at Starbucks in Oakville, but other than that, it was a great ride.
Sun, May 14	48.97	2:00:34	24.37	52.4
	Today's ride was supposed to be a 63 km route leaving from Kennedy. The winds were pretty extreme, so the leaders decided to trim the route to ~50km, so that those who needed their qualification ride could still get in the 50k without the extra burden of the extreme winds. The route was cut short by heading North on Port Union and over to Alton Road, eliminating the eastmost end of the route. Overall, the wind was annoying, but the route was pretty good.
Sat, May 13	51.04	2:01:00	25.31	53.5
	Thank goodness the weather held out for us today, otherwise, the 50km route to Lake Wilcox would not have been as nice as it was. It was a good ride, nice and scenic, and even the headwind as we headed south on Dufferin wasn't too bad.
Tue, May 9	35.00	1:24:22	24.89	52.6
	I liked yesterday's ride quite a bit, so I went back along Eglinton and down Brimley to Kingston Rd, then veered back west and headed down to the Beaches, coming back up the lower Don trail. I had a bit of a creature feature on the ride though, swallowing a few bugs, and hitting a bird as it tried to fly away from me - don't worry though, the bird managed to fly away without even hitting the ground. I'm sure it was fine.
Mon, May 8	30.51	1:08:35	26.69	59.3
	A nice ride out to the Scarborough Bluffs, which is always picturesque. It's a bit of a hill to climb on the way back up, so it was a great opportunity to practice some of the climbing techniques we covered on Saturday.
Sat, May 6	40.24	1:49:06	22.13	53.0
	Today's ride included a trip down to the 519 for our seminar expo, then a ride up to Sunnybrook Park for our hill training clinic. Yay for biking up and down hills!
Mon, May 1	35.17	1:18:57	26.71	56.0
	Yeah, Allen's a good boy. A quick apres-work ride, while there was still enough light, down to Tommy Thompson park and back...
Sun, April 30	44.06	1:52:02	23.60	57.7
	Today's ride threw several obstacles in my way. The lower Don Trail is closed south of Queen St, which forced a bit of a route detour. The Gardiner Expressway was closed all weekend, so traffic on Queen's Quay was backed up like crazy. The Martin Goodman trail is still closed, so when I got out past Ontario place to the closure, I headed back east past Tommy Thompson park and into the Beaches, fighting strong headwinds all the way. The weather though - amazing, what a great day for a ride!
Sat, April 29	45.97	1:59:43	23.04	45.8
	This was my first real ride on Allen, my first real ride on a roadbike for that matter, and I could hardly have been happier! What a difference a road bike makes, and what a difference it makes when you've spent around 5 hours with the sales person at the bike shop to make sure everything is just right in terms of fit and position. I'm hoping to see a bit of an improvement in my stats now :-)
Sat, April 22	5.91	0:18:22	19.31	39.6
	Today's training ride didn't go quite so well, with a soggy cold start, and a flat tire on Kevin's bike, I turned around very early in the ride to head back for the car. I did use the opportunity to spend some time back @ Cycle Solutions. I have a follow-up with them on Monday, and I have a feeling I'll be blogging about a new purchase then :-)
Tue, April 18	30.67	1:16:15	24.13	60.9
	The sun, or lack thereof, was my enemy today. I got home from work with enough time to get out for a quick ride, which left me quite excited. I think it's time I got a lighting system of some sort on my bike so I can extend my rides a little further into the twilight hours. I did see tonnes of rabbits on today's ride though, must have seen 10-15 of them on my ride through the Don Valley and out to The Beach.
Sat, April 15	39.57	1:44:01	22.83	44.0
	The second official training ride went WAY better than the first. Or, at least, it was WAY warmer! It's a nice route, relatively flat, a few long gentle grades either up or down, with a little extra uphill heading up Mississauga road away from the lake.
Sat, April 8	36.47	1:47:33	20.35	40.9
	Our first "official" organized bike rally training ride. I do have a separate post for it, but the short version is that it was cold.
Sun, April 2	36.68	1:59:59	18.34	37.7
	This ride started at Radio City, after numerous trips up and down to get Dave's bike ready to go. Kevin had to wait for quite a while before Dave and I emerged. We headed out along to Ontario Place, then back east to Tommy Thompson Park, and back up to Radio City again. It was a nice day, but I wasn't really prepared for the wind. In my shorts, the chilly air off the lake somehow didn't feel so comforting.
Sat, January 28	11.73	0:34:23	20.47	54.6
	An unusually nice day at the end of January, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to get Mason out of the house. Of course, the ride got interrupted early on by an urgent phone call. I should learn not to take my cell phone with me on a ride.