Gear Tweaks... Gear Headaches...

Back when I signed up for C2C I kind of vaguely knew that I'd need to spend some money on gear, but I really had not shopped around to find out what good bike gear costs, and how much I might need. So I did get a bit of sticker shock back then once I started looking around.

Since then I've tried to be cautious on expenditures. Each time I've wanted to be sure that I needed what I was getting, rather than just "wanting the new bling-bling!" So, for instance, I've been making do with just one pair of cycling shorts. As such, I could train, but I had to do wash every time I came home. But it did save me some money for a while, and I did get some experience in those shorts, so that now I better know what I need. So now that I've got a bunch of riding under my belt, so to speak, I know that I need riding shorts in order to make 100km days, and more than that, I need good riding shorts with good padding in them.

So, end of the introduction.

Monday I had an errand to run near Toronto, so I asked around and Pieter and Gayle also had the time and inclination, so they joined me on a road trip to MEC! (To my American Friends: MEC is Mountain Equipment Co-Op, which is an awesome outdoor equipment store. Good Gear, Good Help, Good Prices.)

Along the way we stopped at the (Canadian) CRC headquarters in Burlington to pick up a couple boxes of the C2C Devotional. While there we got to meet and chat with Al Karsten and Terry Veldboom, who are also C2C riders. Now, none of us were on bikes, so it wasn't a perfect meeting, but it still was nice to chat with them for a few minutes.

I picked up some shoes and Wellgo clipless pedals. I've been making do with my toe-strap pedals up until now. I'm used to them, and they do work better than plain pedals. And like I said above, I wanted to be cautious about expenditures on gear. However, I'd become more and more convinced of the usefulness of clipless pedals. In particular, while other riders were complaining about their backside after a long ride, I usually had throbbing upper thighs, which a few people told me were due to how my muscles were being used on those old pedals.

So yesterday, I set about changing my pedals. Or at least I tried to. The old pedals wouldn't budge off of the crank arms for all the beef in China. And yes, I do know that the threads on the one side are opposite to normal. I tried and tried. All I did was start to round over the nuts. So I called up John Vandersteen, 2005 C2C veteran, all around bike gear head, and very helpful gentleman to boot. He also made sure that I was turning the nut the right direction... but agreed to swing by today.

John couldn't get them off either. We tried penetrating oil. We tried a propane torch to heat up the metal. We tried wacking with a hammer. And finally resorted to pulling out the drill and trying to drill out the rust-seized old bolt.

No go.

So off I went to my local bike shop, tail between my legs. And there my grinning bike tech Brian had them out in less than 5 minutes. See, Brian had two things that I didn't. First, a metalworking vise on a solid bench. Second, a pipe wrench. (He couldn't get it off with a standard pedal wrench either.)

Okay folks, here in London I highly recommend Brian, owner of Cyclepath on Richmond steet as a stellar person/store to do business with.

Hmm, this is getting long. No matter.

So I got things back home and put the bike back together -- the chain needed cleaning anyway -- and at last I could install my new pedals (Wellgo WPD-823 by the way)

This is the point where you start falling. At least, that's what I've been warned to expect. Only, I didn't. Getting OUT of the pedals is not any problem at all for me. Getting IN, though, is still a struggle. I think that is just going to take some time to instinctively know where to position the shoe to get the front of the clip in before stepping down. But not to worry, I'm sure that I will fall sooner or later...

and that's enough for now.
blessings all.

More on that Century + distance to date

Here's another photo from that century ride on Monday.



L-R we have Gayle (c2c), Peter (Sag driver GR-NJ), Rita (Denver-NJ), John (GR-NJ), John (c2c), Pieter (GR-NJ), Art (GR-NJ), Ralph (c2c), Cynthia (c2c), Mike (GR-NJ), Peter (c2c).

But we need a bit more explanation of that pose. Our church parking lot has just a bit of trouble with drainage after a heavy rain, so we sometimes end up with a "lake" in the parking lot. Now, since we were a bunch of C2C riders heading out that morning, we all thought that we should "dip our tires in the lake" before setting out. Considering that half of us aren't going to be at the initial tire dipping in Seattle, this seemed like a good idea.

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Now about distance to date. Back in October, I received a Bike Computer for my birthday, which I promptly installed on my bike and started to use as part of my training. Now, I don't remember when, but within a few weeks I had reason to fully reset the gizmo (I forget why), and I really didn't do that much training in the fall anyway (a few 40km rides at most). So most of the distance that I've covered so far as been this spring.

I just had a peek at my Odometer on the bike computer and it reads 1170km (727 miles, for my less metrically inclined readers).

Now, I haven't really been tracking my rides in my organizer or any sort of a chart, so I really don't know how all those km have been gained. However, I'm willing to bet that half of that was in the past 4 weeks, which is when I started to put in some more longer distance rides.

The whole trip, for me, in August, will be about 1200km, so I've almost covered that in my training. It will be interesting to see how much distance I cover between now and August 17. I gather that there are some guidelines out there from the C2C organizers as to how much distance you "should" cover in your training, but I haven't looked it up. Did they do that for us partial distance riders as well? Hmm.

Busy weekend ahead here, so I don't think I'll do a big ride this weekend. I'm thinking about a 2hr loop tomorrow morning, if I can make myself get up and out there by 7am.

blessings all!

ps: Going to MEC in Toronto on Monday, got a big shopping list, please pray for my wallet... ;-) Seriously, I think perhaps that shoes and clipless pedals are going to come home with me. Time to move up from these cage/clip pedals.

Joining the club

Yesterday was a big deal. Here in London we arranged for a group ride on the holiday monday. Eleven brave people showed up under a gray sky, with forecasts of 20kph winds with gusts well over 30. Not to mention the 20% chance of rain -- make that 100% as we'd already been sprinkled upon. Oh yeah, and it was 7am.

All in all, not really a fair weather day.


(L-R: John, John, Cynthia (in the van) Ralph, Mike, Pete)


(L-R: Rita, Pete)

But off we went, heading north out of the city. 28km later we were all enjoying a break at the Tim Hortons in Lucan, trying to warm up our toes -- we'd been sprinkled upon for 1/3-1/2 of the ride so far, and most of us had very cold toes.

This was when the trap was sprung. I'd been anticipating an 80km or so day. And with the weather as it was, I was beginning to think that 60-70 would be good enough.

But suddenly I find myself among a group of people who are deciding that they want to make a century. (one-zero-zero kilometers!? In this wind!?) And off we went further north to Exeter and another Tim Hortons. It was a conspiracy, I'm convinced. I blame P and J. (given that there were three Peters/Pieters and two Johns on the ride, that's nice and vague. But they know who they are!)

By this point it became clear that we were not going to be done by noon, as I had expected -- in truth, as we had "promised" everyone when we advertised this ride on the sea-to-sea forum. But around 11am there we were, at the 51.5km mark! I took a moment to call my wife to apologize in advance for the fact that I would NOT make it home by noon.

As a side note, both of these stops in Tims were interesting for the mini-publicity. There was a reasonably large crowd in both places. And before we left, a good number of them knew that we were training for a cross-continent ride. It was fun to spread the news, and get some kind words of encouragement.

The ride home was supposed to be a cakewalk, as the weather forecast had the wind switching from NW to N. But it didn't, really. The wind was definitely strong, and it was far better than when we'd gone north, but I found that it was still mostly a cross wind, gusty, coming over my right shoulder and sometimes just directly from the West, as I pedaled homeward.

And so I joined the century club -- 100km. I made it home a touch before 2, so overall that was 7 hours from start to finish. But I don't recall when we exactly left. My computer reported an average of 20kph by the end, so that would be roughly 5hrs of actual pedalling.

All in all, it was a lousy day for biking -- cold, rainy, windy, gusty, did I mention cold? (I had 4 layers up top, plus gloves, and never felt like removing them.) But John Vandersteen, a veteran of the 2005 ride, passed along this interesting observation: If we made it today, we'll manage the C2C. The weather today was the worst we'd likely see on the tour, so if we made it today, we'll make it then.

And THAT is some nice encouragement after all!

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Here's the route map on mapmyride.com, if you're curious. Not my favourite so far - not because of the weather. I just prefer quieter country roads so that you have the option to cycle side by side and have more of a community feel. These roads, on the whole, were just too busy to do that.

putting in the klicks...

Well, I've still got 15 weeks to go, but I still need to work on my fitness and distance. I'm trying to make sure I put in at least two long (ish) rides a week, and one of them in a group.

Monday I took a long ride with fellow riders Ralph and Pieter. We were going to head North, but the wind was from the Southwest, so we changed to a southwest route. We headed about 40 klicks SW towards Glencoe (got about halfway there) and then came back pretty much the same way.

Well, I've gotten so that a 35km ride is no big deal, but an 80km ride still is some effort! I find that my upper front thighs are where I ache the most afterwards.

Wednesday I did one of those "short" 35km rides solo, and Saturday morning I managed the time for another group ride. Again, just Pieter and Ralph this time. This time we elected to head East and then North. The wind was supposed to be from the North, but at first it was East-ish, so this was a good choice. We headed from church south first, and took the river trail system, which neatly avoids all the downtown issues. The trail pavement is a bit rough in spots, but it beats dealing with stoplights and traffic. East of the city we took Gore rd, which is moderately quiet, and then looped north in Thamesford where Ralph told us all about the history of the Cold Springs farm (he worked there 40 years) and we had a nice break at the Tim Hortons.

Then it was north and into the wind, a hard slog for about 9km directly north to Kintore. Very scenic area along the river just north of Thamesford, I must say. From Kintore it was west, with relief from that headwind, towards Thorndale. Another short break at a micro-park in Thorndale where a confused young squirrel tried to get into my Pannier, and then climbed both my leg and Pieter's leg - more than once! I suspect it lost it's mom and didn't know what to do. Still, it's non-fear of humans was surprising.

The last 20 klicks is always hard. Ralph left us at Clarke Rd to head home, while Pieter and I jumped one block north to 8 mile road to get away from the traffic.

All in all, another 80km under my belt, though Pieter probably made it closer to 100km, with his further ride in and out from his place in the country.

Oh yeah, and I started playing around with mapmyride.com and so I drew in a few routes. Here is this one, sort of: (I didn't follow it all the way back to the church, none of us did, but I drew the route that way to make it a full loop.)


Ouch, my thighs. Took an Epsom salt bath, but they're still sore. Bless my wife who made us bacon and eggs for lunch right after I got home!

ttfn,

the hill

Hey folks,

Did a quick 25km loop this morning, visited this nasty hill for the 2nd time. This time I remembered to bring a camera with me.

Oxford St west past London city limits. (actually I'm looking back east) A bit of an overcast morning, rain is likely on the way.



I think I'm under the limit...



Stopped about 1/8-1/4 of the way up the hill and looked back...

and forward...

First, I don't recommend stopping partway on a hill. Makes it hard to get going again.

Second, I need to work on my camera skills as these photos don't really convey just how steep this hill is on the bike. How do you estimate hill steepness anyway? I think it was like a 4:12 roof pitch at least.

Happy Friday!

"You don't spit, into the wind..."

Tuesday was a crazy windy day here in London. There was a strong wind coming from the north.

I went out in the morning, but my heart wasn't it in, and I "only" did a short 20km loop.

But late in the afternoon, fellow rider Pieter called on the spur of the moment and asked if I'd like to bike home with him. He lives 15km directly north of me. So we slogged north into this nasty headwind. I took 55 minutes to cover those 15km. Ow. Ow. Ow. At times it felt like a walking pace as the wind buffeted us down to 12 km per hour. Trucks driving south were particularly unwelcome, as the wind of their passing just made it worse.

When we reached Pieter's house, we had some tea and cookies and relaxed for a half hour. Then came the fun as I hopped on my bike to head back home alone. Pieter was sure I'd make stellar time, and wanted me to call him as soon as I got home. So my ride alone wasn't quite alone; it felt like Pieter was on my shoulder the whole way pushing me. (I may be reasonably healthy, but I have NEVER been an athlete.) Ever time I thought of just relaxing and coasting home, I could "hear" Pieter encouraging me.

And it was a lot of fun. The wind at my back was exhilarating. I was averaging 29.8 kph up until I hit the edge of the city. Then the rush hour traffic and stop lights knocked my average down to 27.5 kph overall. The trip that took us 55 minutes going north, was completed in 17 and a half minutes going south. My thighs were burning, but it was a fun accomplishment.

[EDITED MUCH LATER: And much later of course I realized that this didn't make any sense whatsoever. I must have read my computer wrong and didn't do the math properly, since even at 30km/h it would work out to about 30 minutes, not 17. Mea Culpa]