Welcome to the RAPTURE. 6pm today, that’s all she wrote folks, the end of everything. Well, that is if the Dude with calculator got the date right this time. I would be more inclined to believe him time, but cry wolf and see what happens. If this is the last day, it is a lovely one (and so was yesterday) in Muskoka @ Hammer’s Club North.
Yesterday, full of ‘piss and vinegar’ @Keilshammer (Yup, even got Steve-O on Twitter yesterday) we loaded the bikes up and headed to Bala. Our plan was to park there and ride Highway 38 to from there to the 400 and back. If we got really motivated we would continue past the 400 and see how far we got. This route was chosen because of the absence of blind corners and the stream of cars every 4-6 minutes (to help keep the Black Bears from thinking the cyclists were mobile diners).
Little did we know…
The road was uphill all the way to the 400. Now I don’t mean it was a nice gentle climb, I mean it was like climbing a friggin mountain. Uphill going, more uphill coming back, how is that possible? I thought I was going to die. I didn’t stop though and I managed to keep up with Steve until the first stupid hill about 10 KM into the ride, but after that it was a struggle to keep going. By the time we got to the 400, there was no way in hell that I was going any farther. In fact, there was a time there that I thought the ride back was going to be easier because of all the climbing we had already done.
WRONG!
The return journey was worse. Every time I came around a bend or turn there was another massive hill that stood between me and not biking anymore. I kept the legs pumping and low gear, but even then it was tough sledding. Some comments you would have heard had you been around, “Come on”, “You have to be f*cking kidding me”, “Really?” and “How can there be another hill?” It was unpleasant, but I managed to do it.
Stats for the ride which took 1 hour and 34 minutes and covered 35.64KM included a maximum speed of 54KPH and a max BPM of 169. The watch said my average bpm was 89, but I don’t think it was recording properly, as my heart was pumping like ad the whole ride. I was excited to see that my Garmin 305 calculated the calories burned as 2489! My cadence was down from the goal of 90 and was hovering in the neighborhood of 76-84 with all the climbing.
Don’t think we’re getting out for a ride today, but I’m contemplating the treadmill…
Happy long weekend or Saturday until 6pm if the globe stops spinning…
Beez
