Don'

After lots of debating and another cup of coffee I did what Chuck Norris would do and take the abuse that my body needed. Of course I took Chuck's bike and headed to the hill that would be my abuser for the day. Vasey line is a great road, great pavement, great rolling hills with one steady grind. All this fun stuff is about 25 minutes from home which gave me ample time to warm up the legs and see how the breakfast was digesting.

The legs were a little stiff starting out, couple days of inactivity seems to do that. Climb number one felt, umm painful. We are back to normal weather conditions so the return trip down the hill almost hurt as much as going up with the cold air blasting the fingers. Round 2 felt better but still hurt, It was a 3 minutes of abuse 3 minutes recovery. It's amazing the difference between the two. 3 minutes of climbing can seem very long when at intensity but 3 minutes of riding in circles goes by so quickly that you wonder if the clock is out of calibration.

Continuing to go up then returning to the start until I knew it was time to stop. how did I know, when I tasted breakfast again. It was just a hint of it but i knew that if I went again I was leaving food streaks on the side of the road. At the top of the hill I kept going straight towards Coldwater. A quick stop at a store to top up my bottles. I knew that there would be no stores open where I was going. Had a random woman make a comment to me as I was paying for my bottles. How far are you going she asked. Gave her the distance and she said she was a triathlete and from Florida. She admired the fact that I was out riding in the cold. I bit my tongue and didn't make any triathletes jokes. She was cute.I didn't tell her that I had toe and hand warmers under my layers of clothing. She thought I was tough. Chuck would be proud!!!

Back on the bike I headed out for my favourite loop. I haven't been around the Big Chute loop in a while and it's so scenic that it helped with the next part of my ride. Sometimes I'm really bad at over analyzing everything and staring at the numbers way to long. this included my heartrate monitor. The mantra for the rest of the ride, don't think just pedal. I did randomly look down but I kept myself distracted by the amazing views. Coming through to the locks as I suspected, the marina store was closed. I've been caught by this once a long a few years back and was not going to put myself through that again.

Heading towards South Bay road I started to wonder when the head wind was going to become my friend and become a tail wind. I'm doing a loop and it's been pretty steady in my face, some pay back would be nice. I knew there would be no roller coaster ride today on the South Bay road section, it was riding in defense mode with all the sand. My favourite corner was a death trap and I had absolutely no craving to see if I could drift/skid/power slide the TCR. I am not planning on using any type of crash warranty. I don't think the body could take it.

As I started to make my way to the home stretch I finally got a treat of a tail wind. It for some reason only lasted 30 seconds. I didn't change direction but just to be stubborn the wind seemed to. Spun out the last 15 minutes to home. Legs, body, mind, etc etc are all feeling really good. 3:45 on the bike. A great way to spend a Saturday and I think i may have some feisty legs for the Pancake ride. A couple sprint lines and king of the mountain points to be had. Could it all go wrong and see 5-6 riders crash it out. Hopefully not.