Rolled out of the house Saturday morning with the Anthem on the roof of the new hot rod. A quick drop off at the window tint place and I was off in search of some trails in the Barrie area. I'd heard stories about the Ardagh Bluff trails but had never had the chance to play there. Today would change that. It was a free for all ride today, Heather just hinting to put some hammer time intensity in to the short ride. Short is an hour and a half now.
To say I was mildly impressed would be an understatement. It was fun ripping around in the bluffs, a little caution was used on the downhill sections since I had zero idea of what could be around the next corner. Being on the side of the ravine it wasn't hard to get the heart rate up in that vomit area. Not a bad little play ground right in the middle of a city. Finished up the ride with some road sections including a certain hill that is deceivingly longer and steeper than you think. I drive Mapleton all the time. Nice climb. The down hill part was worth going up it.
Rolled back to the tint place to see the Hot Rod looking even more like a me type vehicle. I don't think I've owned a vehicle longer than a couple weeks before sending it out for tint. Gives it a just a little more aggressive styling, maybe everyone will stop asking if I borrowed Mom's car. One more check mark on the list dealt with as I rolled back home.
The productiveness of an OCD workaholic sometimes even shocks the workaholic. Put the head down and worked solidly at the upper deck with plans already formed to enjoy a fire while realizing on it in the evening. Had no other option but to finish it. Of course that lead to beer consumption and a generally rough next morning. Yet again happy with the results.
Dragging my butt out of bed to be on the bike early was hard than expected, 8 am though the wheels were turning. I've been wanting to do the loop around Lake Couchaching again and the time needed and the time available seemed to match up. The legs were far from happy this morning but the planned pace was pretty low. Traffic was non existent for the first hour but as I rolled through Orillia the waterfront trail was crazy with people showing up for the Mariposa Folk Festival. Played chicken with a group that had any clue of bike path etiquette. They swerved.
My last ride up Rama Road I came across some major road construction but nothing that was not of major concern. I'd figured that all of that work would have been cleaned up by now and there would be wonderful fresh pavement laid, I assumed to much. From a distance the road didn't look to bad. It looked like a hardpacked limestone, what I didn't realize was that it had just been freshly soaked down to control the dust. With the lack of traffic I didn't have that opportunity to see a dirty car coming the other direction. Ok no worries, it will be a short section. I repeated that over and over again as I started to maneuver around huge sections of potholes. I also noticed that my very pretty all black carbon bike was starting to change shades of grey and eventually half white. The shallow side of a at the time roadie is that everything must look right. No dirty bike, the matching race kit, gotta look fast to be fast. I was actually a little embarrassed to be on my bike since it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years.
After a good couple km's the asphalt returned and the vibrations that even carbon can't absorbed disappeared. Rolled through Washago at the mid way point of the ride feeling pretty good. After a 2 minute break at one set of the locks on the trent-severn it was on to the boring flat farmland roads. Traffic was light which means non existent in farmland terms. What was enjoyable was the tail wind, as I headed the long way towards home. Over the next two hours I basically talked to , sang to, and started blankly to myself. I opt for those secluded roads so I can do it and not as many people find out that I'm crazy.
After a chase, rundown with a tractor along Big Chute road I coasted into my driveway just over 4 hours after starting. I again reminded myself on how much I love my house by why yet again I live on the middle of a hill and seem to almost always finish up my ride having to climb it. Spent the next hour with some serious stretching, this is a huge focus for me again, I need to get the body feeling good. This was followed with some great chill time on the deck. All major household reno's will now be on hold till near the end of the race season. What this means is that I will actually start recovering properly, resting more, not beating the shit out of my body after I beat the shit out of my body. Hmmm what could this mean, I've been doing really well this year with things out of whack, could I step it up a bit more if I'm not aching and sore???Only time will tell!
How I finished up my weekend. Countdown is on yet again. Congrats to everyone out west and at Buckwallow. Looks like both were tough races.
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