Direction is key

The Sunday morning after and what a Sunday it turned out to be. Since I failed to rig Andrew Watson election I made sure I would have a little company for today's ride. A phone call was made and a message was left. HMMM, well lets see if the Genius had a better play list for today. Could be riding solo.

Used the 5 hour mix from Infinit, filled a baggy with some extra, plan was for 4 plus hours today, means refueling.

Looked back in the living room.

What is that saying"let sleeping dogs lie" Well the Molly Monster was not ready to move to quickly this morning. Lucky puppy.

Weather was a little hard to dress for. The freezing mark and sun but crazy wind. My route had me heading south west through the hills. ;This worked well since I had the wind to my back most of the time. Of course I knew I would pay for it later. My legs were a little blah for the first 30 minutes. Right around the time I took this shot.


The picture doesn't give justice to the view. With the wind to my back it made it much easier for me to stay in my riding plan. Big hills are much easier with a push. Finally hit Hwy 93 at Hillsdale. This is where I realized that the wind is stronger than I thought.

When I am running mid 40 km/h's in my low zone 2, it is a sweet feeling. As I enjoyed the bigger push I saw what I was hoping to see. A Giant road bike out in front of a house. Andrew was up and ready to roll.

I was an hour and a half in so topped up the bottles. We continued south on 93 to the outskirts of Barrie before turning left on Ridge Road. Ridge Road is a favorite of roadies because of the great pavement, rolling hills and low amount of traffic. I was very surprised that we didn't see anyone out there.

Andrew's ride was to be a lower intensity than mine so we tried to balance it out as best we could. He is ramping up for some major 100 milers in the states. Kinda wish I had those on my race schedule, maybe next season.

Just outside Orillia Andrew and I both had this real temptation to stop. We went past Shaw's Catering. Oh did I mention that Tom makes Maple Syrup. MMMMM pancakes. if there wasn't such a lineup I think we may have stopped.

Headed north from Orillia. Did I mention that we still continued to get happy waves during the ride. All except on idiot on our short stint on Hwy 12. Had to honk and be an moron. There is always one.

Finally made our way through Marchmount where I took this.

Last week the small lake was still frozen, spring is coming. Turned on Town Line and started heading for home. Andrew turned off at Foxmead and headed for home. I was still an hour from home. I picked up the pace for the next 45 minutes running upper zone 2. This is when I started to think about food.

Having the nice push on the way out meant a steady amount of resistance on the way home. The last section of Quarry Road was south bound which gave me some time to cool down.

One last little climb over the bay. Won't be long now till I can pull out the canoe. Finished up with 4:45 of seat time and a 130 km of not trainer enjoyment. I felt really good through the whole ride. Of course the nap in the sun room was expected. With the wind, hills and direction I took I pretty much had steady resistance for the whole ride. Perfect.

Rest day tomorrow. I've noticed that I never post on Monday's. I try to think of something.

Later